CORRUPTION: Cash Collecting Governor

Cash Collecting Governor

Big moon-faced William Langer of North Dakota has the distinction of being the only Republican Governor in any of the 42 states carried by Roosevelt in 1932. Last week Governor Langer attained a second distinction when he became the first man convicted of fraud under a new Federal law. For the past 18 months, Governor Langer has made things hum in North Dakota. He made a big to-do by calling out the militia to enforce his wheat embargo, his mortgage moratorium. When taunted by his enemies for a 5% levy on the wages of all State job holders, Governor Langer candidly replied that the contributions were necessary to the life of the G. O. P. In addition to being Governor, William Langer was also State relief administrator. When Federal Relief Administrator Hop kins learned that CWA workers were expected to subscribe to Governor Langer's political organ, the weekly Leader, he re moved the Governor from the local relief administration. Soon after, charges were filed that the Governor, as a Federal employe, had solicited party funds from other Federal employes. That, according to the law, was a conspiracy to defraud the U. S. Government. It took three weeks at Bismarck to try the case against Governor Langer. While he sat in a courtroom well-guarded against rioting, his wife Lydia Cady Langer, D. A. R. leader and daughter of the designer of Manhattan's Metropolitan Opera House, Museum of Natural History and 15 Yale buildings, took to the hustings for the first time in her life. Urging the Governor's renomination to succeed him self, her plea was "Persecution!" Last week's verdict followed nearly 60 hours of deliberation by a jury of six businessmen, six farmers. Found guilty with Governor Langer were four political associates, including the State highway commissioner. Maximum sentence: two years in prison, $10,000 fine. While the Governor planned his appeal, Lieutenant Governor Ole H. Olson claimed the Governorship on the grounds that the fraud conviction made Governor Langer automatically ineligible for office.