Forgery De Luxe

There is no greater state than Kansas. No mountains distort its surface. Its winding rivers are as precisely parallel as its level roads. The grain in its flat fields waves as if marcelled. Its citizens lead lives of regularity. Last week Kansans had as great a shock as if the Rocky Mountains had suddenly risen from their harvest fields.

The first shock was felt in Topeka, the State Capital. A national bank examiner questioned the bona fides of some municipal bonds held by the National Bank of Topeka. The U. S. District Attorney got busy, requested permission of State Treasurer Tom Boyd to check them against bonds in the State vaults. The Treasurer refused. The District Attorney went to Governor Alfred M. Landon, got access to the vaults. In 40 minutes Federal investigators found $329,000 of forged bonds held as security for deposits of State funds in Kansas banks--found them lying in the vault not more than a yard from the bona fide original bonds of which they were copies, owned by the State School Fund Commission. Governor Landon then took the extraordinary step of personally ordering an arrest.

Fifty miles southwest of Topeka lies Emporia. In Emporia, besides Editor William Allen White of the Gazette, who made it famed, lives Warren Wesley Finney, head and owner of Emporia's Fidelity State & Savings Bank, owner of Farmers State Bank of Neosho Falls, owner, through his wife, of Eureka Bank of Eureka. He has been one of Emporia's leading citizens, a citizen who ranked in respect with Emporia's Sage White. Last week, in fact, Daughter Mary Jane Finney was touring Russia with the Whites.

Mr. Finney also has a son. His name is Ronald Tucker Finney, graduated from Cornell in 1921, trained for several years as cashier of his father's bank in Neosho Falls. Two years ago Ronald Finney, 6 ft. tall, plump, glib, goodnatured and a lavish spender by Kansas standards, set up in business for himself. He dealt in bonds. He speculated in commodities. He hired an elaborate suite, partly for use as an office, in Topeka's Jayhawk Hotel. He ran up heavy toll bills telephoning to his brokers.

He liked to fish, to ride his two Arabian thoroughbreds. Ungovernably hospitable, he loved to have his friends play on his night-lighted tennis court, to take them riding in his Bellanca monoplane (formerly belonging to Actress Ann Harding), to take them to Eureka to see his 101 Ranch show (bought from Zack Miller a few months ago), to find them jobs when they were out of work. All Emporia's colored people swore by him for his generosity. He drove a flock of cars headed by a Fierce-Arrow. When his little girl had pneumonia, he sent for an oxygen tent. It was never used but he bought it, presented it to the Emporia hospital.

One misadventure he had. He bought the bonds of Hinsdale County, Colo., and tried to get people to go there as a resort. To that end he built a group of luxurious cabins in an old mining settlement, invited people from far & wide to come as his guests. Then he was charged with conspiring with officials of the County to buy up its bonds at 30-c- on the dollar and get them refunded dollar for dollar. He was to have gone on trial on that charge Aug. 11. He did not, because Governor Landon ordered his arrest.

Ronald Finney went to Topeka to give himself up. His father went with him, refusing to believe that he was guilty. Said the elder Finney: "His transactions from the first of the year showed a profit in excess of $200,000, according to information given me by his auditors. His losses on the wheat market last month were not in excess of $65,000. "We have purchased 30,000 head of cattle in Texas together. Delivery is to begin next week and Ronald is to be at the loading points to check in the cattle. We have a profit of $6 or $7 a head on those cattle. We have sold them to feeders in the corn belt." Ronald was released on $25,000 bond, but the State bank commissioner ordered the three Finney banks closed. Stanch old Warren Finney promptly marched to the State House, saw Governor Landon, declared: "I am not going to let that [Emporia] bank be closed. I have run it for 20 years. The depositors are all my friends. I have the cash and the property to guarantee every one of them in full and am willing to do it."

That night the bank commissioner went back with him to Emporia, had an old- fashioned chicken dinner at the Finney home, one of the most pretentious in Emporia. They went together to the bank. All night long the lights burned in the Fidelity State & Savings while they checked over securities. As doubt was cast on more and more bonds, hope faded. The bank did not open in the morning, but Warren Finney said, "All I've got will be used to take care of the home folk first."

Meantime in Topeka worse and worse transpired. Ronald Finney in his capacity as bond broker had had bonds printed for municipalities and school districts. He was accused of having had double sets of false bonds printed, with signatures forged supposedly by one of his employes, Leland Caldwell. As agent for his father's banks he deposited one set of forged bonds with the State Treasurer, gave a second set of forged bonds to banks and brokers as collateral for loans and advances. None of the forged bonds apparently was sold to the public, for then coupons would have come back in triplicate, at once have aroused suspicion. Last week the known amount of forged bonds swelled daily, mounted to $835,000, threatened to reach beyond a million.

Governor Landon, distrustful of his own State officers and political associates, put militia in charge of the State Treasury. Treasurer Boyd admitted having let Ronald Finney take away $150,000 of bonds deposited with the State. After a hearing that disclosed how Ronald Finney had entertained State employes, male and female, Alf Landon left with the remark, "I'm heartbroken."

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