By March 1919, Dr. Charles E. Stangeland, a former diplomat, was recruited by the Nonpartisan League (NPL) and arrived in North Dakota. It was rumored he would either be involved with the newly created Bank of North Dakota or become a professor at the University of North Dakota.
Stangeland was a complex individual. He was progressive and liberal and found himself in trouble with the authorities on more than one occasion. Pro-NPL papers called him a scholar and diplomat. Anti-NPL papers referred to him as a criminal and radical. In a future report on the State Library Commission (SLC), he described himself as "...not a librarian but an educator and economist."
In early September 1919, Stangeland was employed as a consultant by the newly formed Board of Administration. George A. Totten, chair of the board, directed him to review the SLC and provide a report of his findings. His report was completed by the end of the month, but it would not be published until November when it was included with the board's first annual report.
Although Stangeland had completed his survey of the SLC, he remained on the payroll of the Board of Administration.
After Minnie Clarke Budlong left the SLC, other staff members also resigned. By October 1919, there were rumors that Stangeland was running the SLC. Later, he would testify that he had never been a SLC employee and was not in charge of it. But, he also admitted that "there was an intervening time of uncertainty of the previous incumbent in the position in the library" and the arrival of the new librarian, and he "had supervision temporarily for the board of the library."
Before November 1919, the Board of Administration notified Stangeland that it was going to hire a new librarian. Stangeland corresponded with her (Anne E. Peterson) and shared the findings from his review of the SLC. She wrote back with suggested books to add to the SLC ahead of her arrival. She sent lists of books to Stangeland, who then ordered them.
By the fall of 1919, William Langer (Attorney General), Thomas Hall (Secretary of State), and Carl R. Kositzky (State Auditor). had had enough of the Nonpartisan League (NPL) and openly defected. The trio had been openly critical of the NPL and its leaders for months. It was essentially open warfare between the three and the NPL. The trio used the power of their offices to undermine the NPL whenever possible.
On November 1, 1919, Totten, as chair of the board, submitted the entity's first annual report to Governor Lynn J. Frazier. Included in the report was the bold recommendation to abolish the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction or make it a position the board could appoint instead of an elected one. As part of the ongoing feud between Minnie J. Nielson (Superintendent of Public Instruction) and the Board of Administration, she was not given a chance to see this report before it was published.
This portion of the report, however, would not be its most controversial aspect. That distinction would go to the survey on the SLC by Stangeland.
In his report, Stangeland provided several criticisms and recommendations for the SLC. He said the SLC needed to expand and diversify its collections. He provided a list of recommended items for the SLC to obtain and add to its collections, many of which would hardly make anyone bat an eye, such as:
However, Stangeland also recommended items from "various nonconformist groups," such as:
It was this recommendation that would help catch the eye of the Independent Voters Association (IVA).
Shortly after the publication of the report, the new librarian arrived. Peterson, a librarian at the New York Public Library, was hired by the Board of Administration to serve as Deputy Librarian (acting State Librarian) of the SLC. She arrived in Bismarck and assumed her duties in mid-November 1919. She had planned to come to the state in October but had been delayed.
On November 25, 1919, the state legislature convened again for a special session, roughly eight months after the regular session ended. In Governor Frazier's proclamation for the extraordinary session, he outlined three areas to focus on: women's suffrage, drought relief for farmers, and "further legislature as is deemed necessary to facilitate the carrying out of the State's industrial program."
With the defections of Langer, Hall, and Kositzky, and with the recent scandal of the NPL-owned Scandinavian American Bank in Fargo (instigated by Langer and Hall, as majority members of the State Banking Board), the NPL was on the defensive coming into the 1919 special legislative session. Although the NPL still maintained its majority of the legislature, the IVA was on the attack.
Around this time, at least one invoice for books to be ordered for the SLC (via the Board of Administration) crossed the desk of Kositzky (State Auditor). Kositzky was seemingly alarmed by the titles in the invoice. He made copies of the invoice and distributed them to legislators. Several of the books, deemed by some to be controversial, appeared to relate to socialism and/or anarchism.
With the backdrop of the Red Scare and growing accusations of socialism being thrown at the NPL, the actions of Kositzky (and others) would create a firestorm and set the stage for a scandal.
Portrait of Charles E. Stangeland, circa 1915
Front cover of Stangeland's report on the State Library, which was included in the first annual report of the Board of Administration (November 1919).
An anti-NPL cartoon depicting a man presenting images of William Langer, Carl R. Kositzky, and Thomas Hall to a crowd. The man says the trio are servants of the people and because of this A. C. Townley, leader of the NPL, wants to impeach them.
IVA tank running over "boss rule." The cartoon was featured in the IVA's 1919 booklet Townleyism's Future in North Dakota.
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