In January, 1911, there was held in the Twin Cities a gathering of the interlocking directorate, called by A. R. Rogers, lumber magnate, Howe, the elevator man, and a group of the big bankers; afterwards they got in the late “Jesse James” Hill, the railroad king of the Northwest. These gentlemen worked out a scheme, and wrote their checks for five thousand each. One of them threw in a remark: “It would be worth twenty-five thousand a year of any man’s money to get Bolley out of the state, or to keep his damned mouth shut.” They were going to “educate” the farmers of North Dakota, and they called their movement the “Hundred Dollar An Acre Club,” subsequently changing it to the “Better Farming Association.” They appointed an executive committee consisting of Rogers, the lumberman, Howe, the elevator man, one farmer, and eighteen North Dakota bankers, with the president of the First National Bank of Fargo at their head! These bankers were borrowing money in Wall Street at six per cent and lending it to the farmers of their state at ten per cent, which represented a profit of twelve million dollars a year to them. As manager of their program of “education” they selected one Thomas Cooper, at a larger salary than any “educator” in North Dakota had ever been paid before. Forty-five thousand dollars a year was pledged, and Mr. Cooper set to work to “educate” the farmers as to the wickedness of Ladd, Bolley, and others. After three years the balance-sheet of the organization showed liabilities of forty thousand dollars, and assets of one brilliant idea. The bankers of the organization went to that other group of bankers who comprised the trustees of the North Dakota Agricultural College, and proposed that the college should take over Mr. Cooper and his salary and his deficit, and should give him entire control of the experiment station and extension division, and joint authority over the instruction division, with eighteen North Dakota bankers as an advisory board! This little job was put through in 1913, and the exact facts were hidden from the people of North Dakota, and two years later the Nonpartisan League newspapers had to steal the documents in the case in order to make them known!