THE REVOLT OF A STATE,-NORTH DAKOTA
Anderson, Douglas
The Revolt of a State,—North Dakota Nonpartisan in West Has Caused Consternation Among the Old Time Politicians; Propaganda is Rapidly Spreading to Other States of the Middle West By DOUGLAS...
...With 18 holdover senators, the League will have to elect but 7 of the 24 senators whose terms expire, to control the upper house...
...How soon will they be rubbing their eyes...
...It started, as most political movements start, because of the refusal of the politicians in control to give the people what they wanted...
...The will of the people will eventually become the law of the land in North Dakota...
...The League, ifke every other political, or economic organization has a selfish purpose, a purpose to secure to the farmers of the land thru state ownership of the machinery of distribution a fair share of the price which the ultimate consumer pays for their product They are actuated by motives a"t least as high as those which guided the newspapers of the land, when thru their National Editorial associ-atlon they demanded at their last national convention that the Federal Government take over and operate the paper mills of the country...
...Political power is held to be the mainstay of economic power, and that political power placed in the hands of the farmer should be used to make a monopoly of the market impossible by making the state the owner of the whole system of distributior The League's Program THE League's program embraces generally two great ecconomic reforms, namely: Public ownership of the agencies of distribution of the farmors' products as well as natural monopolies...
...What are the people on the farms of America thinking about...
...At the end of the first year it had organized the farmers of the state where it was born, so thoroly that it went into the primaries, nominated its candidate for Governor on the Republican ticket by a decisive vote, secured the nomination of its candidates for legislative office in a large majority of the districts, and placed the three candidates it endorsed for members of the state supreme court on the ballot at the November election...
...He of all members of Congress is "fresh from the people...
...The history of tho National Nonpartisan League, until very recently, is a record of a struggle over purely domestic, political and economic issues...
...Most of the people of that state are FARMERS...
...But Baer's election to Congress from this far off state is different...
...Transportation to the grain buying and flour manufacturing centers also exacts its charge...
...Youth's Companion...
...Numerical Geography "Mention twelve animals of the polar regions," said the professor...
...Its chief distinguishing characteristic is a form of organization that unites and holds together politically the great mass of producers, whose economic Interests are tho same...
...Then an election was held...
...National headquarters have been opened at St...
...They have been elected with greater or less frequency in the past...
...The Fargo Forum, one of the leading papers of the state opposed to the League describes tho outcome thus: ' "This was more than a landslide...
...Mary: "That's all right, dear...
...The complete failure of every agency of regulation established by national, state or local governments to materially reduce tho toll exacted by the "I'anclits of Commerce" has convinced the League that attempts to bridle and halter tho bandits are wholly futile...
...It was called the Nonpartisan League because it proposed to be strictly nonpartisan, supporting candidates for office that stood for the things they stood for, no matter what ticket they were on...
...Tho election of a farmer's candidate for Congress is not anything new in American politics...
...It was a tidal wave...
...But another election was held on July 10th last...
...While organized primarily as an agrarian, or farmer's movement, the program of the League is one that readily commends itself to the great mass of the consuming public...
...The League wants tho state to loan money to the farmer at cost...
...Was a Landslids THE League candidate for Governor, running on the Republican ticket received 87.000 out of a total of 107,-000 votes cast, and Wilson carried the state...
...Control on the government is constantly used to fortify and add to the control already exercised...
...After the Engagement Ernest: "Now, Mary, it is only fair for me to tell you that I'm a somnam-bulist...
...Thus the League In the grain growing states stands for state ownership of all the agencies of distribution and manufacture, from the country town elevator, if necessary, to tho manufacture of wheat into flour...
...is a question that those in control of our national affairs ought to be anxious to learn the answer to...
...NATIONAL OWNERSHIP OF THE ENTIRE MACHINERY OF PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION...
...That the strength of the League is not waning is amply attested by the recent election of its candidate to Congress in North Dakota by a vote that totalled more than that of his six opponents combined, and by a greater vote than was received by the League's candidate for Governor at the primaries a year ago...
...And it washed away every vestige of opposition, so far as the state ticket was concerned —as slick and clean a job as was ever accomplished by any literal tidal wave that ever did business...
...The farmers signified their entrance into the national political arena by running John M. Baer as an independent against six old party candidates...
...If any other business is found to be skimming the cream off the farmer's milk, the League is for using the credit of the state to take control of that...
...This body was controlled against them by the votes of the 24 holdover senators...
...The League has recognized the fo-thity of attempting either to break up or regulate natural monopolies, and so wants the state to own them...
...Price Control...
...Organized originally as a purely North Dakota movement, the .success of the League program soon caused it to extend into other slates...
...Propaganda is Rapidly Spreading to Other States of the Middle West By DOUGLAS ANDERSON Cartoons are by Congressman Baer, Through Courtesy of Nonpartisan Leader...
...ft is all stated In the short crisp phrase: "Public ownership is the only tool that will draw the fang...
...The Sketch...
...The League program was defeated in the state senate much to the delight of the old guard, but their joy promises to 'be short lived...
...JUST a little over a year ago the politicians of North Dakota were amused at the antics of a bunch of farmers, who were attempting to organize a new political movement, which took no account of the political and financial overlords of the state...
...Taxation The League proposes as its chief taxation reform the exemption of improvements on farm property from taxation...
...The League proposes to put its whole program, or the most important parts of it which require amendment to the state constitution on the ballot thru the referendum at the general election in 1918...
...The Nonpartisan League movement Is a strictly class conscious one—It fa conscious of the fact that the farm ers as a class have been the victims of a system of economic and pollti-cal control in which they as an organized body have had no part, They are following the advice ot their President: "ORGANIZE...
...This will place the tax burden upon the land and force the speculators, who withhold immense tracts of land out of use, to put their tracts upon the market...
...The North Dakota election and its significance were swallowed up in the swirl of events following the closest Presidential election in the country's history...
...Let the tiller and the toiler-—the real producers,—combine" describes the its urban prototype...
...Baer answers with a demand for CONSCRIPTION OF WEALTH...
...More often than not farmer's candidates furnish amusement in national financial and political circles, just as the early efforts of the League furnished North Dakota politicians with a subject for jest and ridicule...
...Until the stata op-eratcs terminal elevators, and flour mills, the League is for a state controlled system of grading...
...Reformation of the taxation system, whereby improvements on farm property will be ex- cmptcd from taxation...
...And that is what is bothering the politicians...
...to their ability to control the market...
...ORGANIZE...
...Baer has become a national figure in a day...
...What happened at the primary was a mere circumstance to what happened at the'November election...
...Labor organizations in the cities where the League is organized work in harmonious cooperation with it...
...Americans according to the League are the great body of the producers, the tillers of the soil, and the workers in both factory and field, and not the relatively few parasites, who use their control of elevators, warehouses, grain and produce exchanges, mills, factories, and transportation systems and other agencies of production and distribution to levy a toll upon the great body of the consuming and producing classes...
...The farmers of North Dakota simply got together, stuck together, and wiped the whole political machinery off the map...
...It promises to become the dominant political factor in many states at the comirg election, and with the West now tho maker of Presidents, it bids fair to hold the balance of power in the next presidential election...
...Tho railroads work hand In hand with the grain compine...
...and the despairing student wrote: "Six seals and six polar bears...
...I'll go to your chapel with you one Sunday, and you can come to my church the next...
...The politicians have been rubbing their eyes ever since, and are still trying to figure out how it happened...
...It created but a mild interest east of the Mississippi...
...Stato ownership of grain elevators Is but a beginning in the elimination of tho private agencies which take their toll along the highway which the farmer's product traveld to mar-kct...
...The League says nothing in its program about "regulation" of railroads...
...Paul Minn., with C. A. Townley, the founder of the movement in charge as President of what is now the National Nonpartisan league...
...That was when the Nonpartisan League was born...
...With a practical certainty that they will again elect a majority in the lower house, and their candidate for Governor, the next legislative session will see the complete enactment of their program Into law...
...Out of this situation there was developed the beginning of an agrarian political movement that promises to make a far more permanent contribution to' American political history than any that has gone before...
...There is nothing essentially now about the political philosophy of the League...
...Is Pro-American THE Nonpartisan League Is in-tensely Pro-American, It be-lieves in the doctrine of "America for Americans...
...It proposes by taxation to break up and make impossible a monopoly la land...
...Hero again regulation has availed but little in keeping the charge within reason...
...They realize that those who control the machinery of distribution and production invariably control the state...
...The situation with which the farmers were confronted in their marketing of grain is representive of the conditions found in practically every important agriculture1 product...
...A special election was held to fill au'a-cancy caused by the death of H. T. Helgeson, who represented the eastern North Dakota District in Congress...
...Interest rates in North Dakota are high...
...Immediately upon being sworn into office, he gave out a statement setting forth the things he stands for...
...The word Public Ownership has no terrors for the League...
...Nobody seems to care what party he belongs to, or to know that he wasn't elected on any party ticket at all...
...In the national field the League ttands for conscription ot wealth by heavy income and inheritance taxes to carry on the wax...
...Baer was elected with a vote greater than that of all his opponents combined...
...The farmers of North Dakota were held up by stock hail insurance companies for insurance on their grain crop...
...Henceforth there is to be a new political deal and the farmers are shuffling the pack...
...With these two tilings accomplished there wil1 be little excuse for any further exist-ence of commission men, and of the grain exchanges...
...It is today actively engaged in organizing in nine mid-western states,—North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Montana, South Dakota, Idaho, Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska...
...It stands flatly for Public Ownership of Public Utilities...
...A constitutional amendment, calling for the establishment of a STATE OWNED TERMINAL ELEVATOR to handle the farmers' grain, had been adopted by an overwhelming vote at a referendum...
...It elected St of the 113 members of the lower nouse of the legislature, 18 of the 25 members of the upper house, who were to be elected, and landed all three of its candidates on the Supreme court, giving the League control of every department of the state government, except the state senate...
...The NATIONAL NONPARTISAN LEAGUE is now viewed with concern by the politicians and financial overlords of Washington and New York...
...The League is for stato hail insurance...
...Nor does the League have any confidence in the ultimate ability of a few producers to band together in co-operative organizations and successfully compete against the powcrful organizations of private capital which have at their back the resources of a network of interests, all of which owe their enormous profit...
...Political co-operation is emphasized as tho primary requisite to secure permanent relief from a system which has been built up by political coop-eration on the part of all the agencies which prey upon the farmer...
...ORGAN-IZE...
...The only point of difference between it and its enemies 13 on the question of who are the American people...
...A SPECIFIC DECLARATION BY THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT OF ITS TERMS OF PEACE...
...It has just passed its...
...The Commission men terminal elevator operators, and flo mill owners, intertwined with the banking interests, and all bounr together in a chamber of" comnie have been so systematically metting the farmer in spite of all effort' at rega-lation that tho Nonpartisan Jeague stands squarely for state ownership of terminal elevators, and for state owned flour mills...
...Grading was entirely in the hands of the elevator men and tho mill owners...
...The word meteoric hardly describes the career of this newest of American-political movements...
...Well take it in turns...
...That is why Washington and New York are intensely interested in North Dakota just now—North Dakota, the birthplace of the newest, and in many respects the most promising political movement in American political history...
...Land monop-oly is Just as unwelcome to the League as any other monopoly...
...In the recent Congressional election, Bacr, the League candidate, with tho support of organized labor, carried Fargo, the largest city in the state, and was a close second in Grand Forks, both cities being the strongholds of the old guard, which so long has controlled the business and the politics of that state...
...The League stands for the same program applied to all the products of the farmer, wherever tho machinery of distribution has become the subject of monopoly control...
...The league proposed thru organization to seize control of the government, and then use the powers of government to transfer this groat economic power from the hands of the few to the hands of the great mass of producers and consumers...
...One of tho chief ageneled for the ting the price which the farmer receives was found to bo the system of grading grain...
...That was in the winter of 1915...
...The farmers thru their organization, the National Nonpartisan League, are now running the state of North Dakota...
...As a means for obtaining its ends, tho League supports all incidental political reforms that will make the enactment of their aims into law easier of attainment...
...second birthday...
...The grain combine, aided and abetted by the railroads, banks, and allied businesses controlled the politics of the state, and the politicians toyed with the proposition, and finally sidetracked it, by refusing to make an appropriation...
...When grain reaches tho big grain markets and the milling centers a trinity of interests step forth to levy a tribute on the farmers Product...
Vol. 9 • August 1917 • No. 8
