The Great Kansas Bond Scandal

Bader, Robert Smith

ISBN 10: 0700602488 / ISBN 13: 9780700602483

Published by University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, Kansas, U.S.A., 1984

About this Item

very good trade paperback, 1984. Seller Inventory # 120427-ER663

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Great Kansas Bond Scandal

Publisher: University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, Kansas, U.S.A.

Publication Date: 1984

Binding: Trade Paperback

Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis:

This book tells the story of the greatest public scandal in the history of the state of Kansas. At the nadir of the Great Depression, in the summer of 1933, a million and a quarter in forged bonds and warrants were discovered in the state treasury and in bond brokerage houses. Before the affair was over, martial law was declared in the statehouse; four criminal convictions were effected--including the three longest sentences in the state's penal history; two state officers were impeached; six federal indictments were handed down, including one against the president of one of the Midwest's leading banks; a record number of civil suits jammed the courts; three banks closed permanently; a major Chicago brokerage firm went bankrupt; and one of the principals in the incident committed suicide. Political alliances had re-formed and regrouped, particularly in the progressive faction of the Republican Party. The honor, pride, and image of the state had been seriously, though not permanently, damaged. The scandal was all the greater because the perpetrators, a freewheeling, charismatic con man named Ronald Finney and his father, W. W. Finney, were intimately involved with two of the state's best-known public figures, William Allen White and Alf Landon. Portions of the book focus on the actions and reactions of White and Landon as they struggled to separate their personal friendships from their public positions. Robert Smith Bader examines the multi-faceted affair in fascinating detail, including the vigorous prosecution of the bond-scandal defendant, and, later, the dramatic behind-the-scenes attempts by the friends of Ronald Finney to obtain his release from the state penitentiary--efforts of a decidedly political nature. This is more than an interesting tale of graft and skullduggery. In setting forth the financial, political, psychological, and personal costs of the episode, the author reveals much about the cultural history of America's puritanical heartland during the joyless years of the Depression.

Review:

"This book is as fascinating as a novel."--Topeka Capital-Journal

"Not quite fifty years ago, the sky fell on Kansas. The revelation of the $1.25 million bond scandal in the summer of 1933 shook Kansans' smug faith in the political purity of their state. Bader has an unerring instinct for choosing the pertinent incident and a fine touch in revealing character."--Emporia Gazette

"In this extremely well-written volume Bader has laid bare one of the most interesting, if not the most bizarre, series of events in twentieth-century Kansas."--Great Plains Newsletter

"Bader brings this vignette of history to life with verve and panache."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Exceptional."--Journal of American History