Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1932-04-14

ter follows.
My attention has been called to
newspaper article bearing your sig
nature, in the Dawson Sentinel" for
merly owned by you, i'm which you
make the utterly false assertions that:
"A newspaperman who had
never sold piece of land in his
life, is in charge of the sales de-
partment of the Rural Credit Blu
reau." And,
"A man who is by occupation
an aviator, who has never run a
farm, and part of whose ac-
tivity is to carry Mr.. Gaaren-
stroom back and forth between
St. Paul and his Fairmont home
in an airplane," is supervising
farm operations of the Bureau.
l knew that / had aroused your
animosty when, as Martin county at
torney, commenced the prosecution
i'm the sO-called Cochran gold note
case i'm 1926. You were then COVER
nor of Minnesota, and after your re-
fuSal to remove the then commits
sioner of securities, Andrew E. Mel
son, who had been appointed by you,
| commenced prosecution and investi-
CATION which disclosed that Minnesota
citizens of German and Scandinavian
extraction had been Swindled out of
S2,50O,000 through a worthless gold
note scheme. The federal govern
ment stepped into the case, prosecuted
your Securities Commissioner Nelson,
Charles A. Cochran, who supported
you in 1924 in his foreign language
newspapers, your political affiliate and
chum, Magnus Martinson, and several
others, on charges of conspiracy to
use the mails to defraud. Mr. Nelson,
whom you permitted to serve out his
term, was among those convicted and
was sentenced to Leavenworth prison
for twenty years for defrauding citi-
zens of Minnesota upon whom he
preyed while he was presumably pro-
tecting them, as securities commits
sioner.
My part in this expose, however,
should not cause you to manufacture
false stories about me or the conduct
of the Rural Credit Bureau as a
means of expressing your luminosity
or resentment.
Nor does it seem becoming of a for
mer chief executive of the state to
falsely accuse a World War veteran
employed by the Bureau and whose
only offense in your eyes appears to
be that during the war he pilOted an
airplane in the service of his country
and yours.
Formerly Lawmakers Employed.
This man. ID. Robert Johnson of
Montrose, Minnesota, replaced the
sister and brother-in-law of one of
your appointees in the Rural Credit
Bureau, and this may have further
aroused your antagOnism. Mr.. john
son, l might interpolate, is one of
more than a dozen srvice men who
are now employed by the Bureau,
whereas only one former soldier was
there employed when l became a
member of the board. | did, howver,
find a large number of former and
incumbent state senators and other
Republican state officials on the Blu
reau pay roll when | took office in
February 1881, which would indicate
that during the former adminiStra-
ton, service to the Republican party
counted for more than service to ones
country.
You seem to be also somewhat con-
g f,,n1 lie
of the Bureau, as your own appointee,
Attorney General Henry N. Benson in
January, 1892, ruled that the method
of the former board in handling GER
tain funds of the Rural Credits fund
was illegal.
Now, as to the integrity of your as
sertions in your newspaper article,
that a part of this Bureau employees
activity has been to carry me back
and forth between st. Paul and my
Fairmont home" let me inform you
that / have never been in an airplane
but once i'm my life, and that was in
1926, a sort sightseeing trip over the
cities of st. Paul and Minneapolis.
Mr.. Johnson, since 1919, when he
was discharged from the service, has
been engaged as cashier of two diff
ferent country banks in Minnesota,
has been office manager and account
ant for two investment banking or
ganizations, and during all OF this
time was closely in touch with the
agricultural situation and was re-
uuired to do much of substantially the
same type of work that he is required
to do now, and is doing efficiently. He
is doing this work at less expense to