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Allowed Credit. Outside banks refinanced the Williams County Bank in 1920. They allowed credit of approximately a quarter of a million dollars and advanced $32,000 cash to take up bad paper, according to Mr. Sullivan. The outside banks who had done this desired to know that the bank would be under what they considered safe management. The voting trust agreement was made under which their representatives could vote the stock and protect themselves. "The result of the trust agreement was that Twin City banks advanced credit approximating a quarter of a million dollars," said Mr. Sullivan. "If conditions in the Williston territory had subsequently been anything other than absolutely disastrous the Williston bank today would have been one of the big banks of the state." The voting trust agreement did not require that the outside bankers be permitted to run the bank, Mr. Sullivan said, "but was simply for the purpose of assuring the banks who were advancing the money that the management of the bank would be in the hands of people capable of giving it expert attention." No Changes. No changes were forced in the bank personnel, it was pointed out. "Reports show that up to the end of this trust agreement, which terminates on January 11, 1923, many months before the bank closed, that the bank was in excellent condition in so far as bad paper was concerned," Mr. Sullivan continued. "As a matter of fact when the trust arrangement was entered into, it permitted the taking out of all paper known to be bad at the time, which amounted in the neighborhood of $32,000." When it was necessary to refinance the Williston bank, it is pointed out here at the banking department, not only the bank directors but citizens of Williston were called in to pass on the security in the banks' hands, since these local people knew the value of the security better than outsiders. The paper they decided was "bad paper" was ordered out of the bank. Several banking department officials assert that if the Williston district had had a crop in 1923 like the district enjoyed in 1922, the bank never would have closed. The Williston area, they say, was one of the hardest hit in the state, and there was more emigration from that district than in most others. It was pointed out that lands in the Williston district sank in value so that their selling value lacked $4 to $6 an acre of equalling the amount of first mortgages, and since first mortgages usually are made on a 40 to 50 per cent valuation, the shrinkage in land values, for banking purposes, was more than half. As an example, one official pointed out that $2,000 loan might have been made on a farm considered worth $4,000. The farm later would sell for not more than $1,500, or less than the mortgage. The same was true of cattle, there being much cattle in that territory after the slump of 1920. Most of this slump in values took place after the voting trust agreement was made and the bank refinanced. The Twin City banks and others expected conditions to right themselves, but they got worse instead of better, it is pointed out. The Williston bank was finally forced to close June 12, 1923. Gilbert Semingson, who figured in the voting trust agreement, was deputy state examiner in December, 1920, and he represented the Bank of North Dakota, which was heavily involved with the Williston bank. F. W. Cathro was director-general of the Bank of North Dakota at the time.