"On or before the 14th day of January, 1920, Mr. Jones joined Mr. Farley and Mr. Bryan and has acted as Notary Public, protesting checks presented by the aforesaid agents of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, notwithstanding such checks were endorsed on the face 'not payable through the Federal Reserve Bank, their branches or agents, nor Express Company nor Postoffice' and are continuing to protest such checks when we refuse payment of them in their hands and in one case have presented a check a second time and protested it each time. "Every agent of the Federal Reserve Bank that has been here has advised us in substance that they were spending the Government's money like drunken sailors and will not stop at any expense to force us to join the system. "One of my competitors told me that Mr. Davis told him in substance that the Federal Reserve Board had a steam roller on the way from Washington to crush me personally and ruin my bank if I persisted in refusal to comply with their demands. I subsequently called Mr. Davis' attention to this report and he personally acknowledged to me that he had made such a statement in substance. (Signed) "Wood Cones. "Sworn to and subscribed before me this 10th day of February, 1920. (Signed) "Douglas Cones. "Notary Public in and for Pierce County, Nebraska. "My commission expires September 25, 1925." The Cones State Bank couldn't be bulldozed, banditized by gun play nor coerced into the Federal Reserve slaughter pen. When the Federal Reserve System grabbed Wood Cones it grabbed a hot wire which it finally dropped, nursing its badly burnt paws! Now take a look at the Brookings State Bank of Brookings, Oregon. It wouldn't wear the Federal Reserve yoke of bondage and made the customary collection charge of one tenth of one per cent for remitting check collections. It couldn't be bluffed, bulldozed, sandbagged nor coerced and the Federal Reserve System had its usual fit. On October 8, 1920, it stationed an emissary from the Portland branch of its San Francisco Shylockery at Brookings, Oregon, for the sole purpose of collecting in cash over the counter all checks coming from all over the U.S.A., drawn on the Brookings State Bank--with the avowed object of whipping it into abject surrender. Nothing doing! Daily the Federal Reserve sub-bandit presented himself at the counter with his wad of checks and daily the Brookings State Bank smilingly handed over the cash! The Federal Reserve emissary--pursuant to orders--stuck at Brookings, Oregon, from October 8, 1920, until October 1, 1921, vainly endeavoring to wear down the Brookings State Bank. Positively nothing doing. The Federal Reserve octopus had struck at one bank where its slimy tentacle slipped.