Returning to the Legislative Vision
In 1960, the election of Democrat William Guy signaled the end of the Republican Party's long control of state government. He was the first Democrat elected governor since 1944.
After taking office, Governor Guy found the staff of the Bank disinclined to innovation. Prevailing thought among Republican leadership had been that the bank's socialistic origins should be left behind and that its proper role was as a manager of state investment not an innovator of economic development. That was about to change.
T.W. Sette had been with the bank since the 1930s and was a respected but very conservative bank president. Guy knew that if the Bank was to change direction, new management was needed. Guy lacked the support of the two Republican members of the Industrial Commission to replace Sette with a more progressive president. Within a year of taking office, Guy called for an examination of the bank to determine whether the bank was serving the purpose for which it was established as spelled out in House Bill 18 passed by the 1919 Legislature. Guy said very publicly that he did not expect to find any dishonesty but to ensure that the bank was managed in a way that would, if fact, "encourage and promote agriculture, commerce and industry."
Sette resigned. Guy, unable to convince the other commission members to install a progressive president, comprised on naming Bank credit manager George Thompson as acting manager.
For his first two terms, Guy kept up his campaign for changes in Bank management. Slowly, the bank began to make changes in its practices even though management remained the same. The bank began to reduce the amount of capital it had invested in low risk, low return securities, freeing up more money to finance farms, small businesses and to work with economic development corporations, a goal of the Democratic-NPL party.
Photographs from the collection of State Historical Society of North Dakota