The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, January 28, 1921, Page 1

CK TRIBUNEE= \ The Weather FAIR THE BIS BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 1921. PRICE FIVE CENTS LEAGUE MILL MANAGER RESIGNS SALES LARGE “TOLEMKEGLAIM - PROPOSED BY a OTE BES SOE AT DRAKE MILL OP MONEY LACK BELGIUM COM. | TID AT WRAL port Show Financial State. ly Indemnity Now but “Am Not a Flour Man,” He Says. Prefers Grain ment of Plant Total Later Business—Explains Why Experiment in Milling Was Not a Success. Declares Flour Had to Be Shipped on Consignment. No Place to Store It at Point of Manufacture. J. If. MeGovern, manager of the state mill and elevator vciation, today verified the reports that he had resigned. He THIRTY-NINTH YEAR ' House Appropriations ,Commit- tee Resents Language Used By Attorney-General | | | i | ! | { i | { /PLENTY MONEY, THEY SAY OPERATED ON MARKET) MAY APPROVE SOON | Alleged Funds of Nearly $50,000 Available—Nonpartisans Want It in Journal Value. of Plant as Carried on Books Is Given at $29,000 The Drake mill has made a large, ‘Supreme Council May. Gef Pro- posal Late This After- noon | i | | B | | asi LEMKE TO APPBAR. | Parig, Jan, 28/-Progress towards) NEW FRENCH PREMIER—For-| part of its sales on a consignment! basis, it is shown in the detailed par-| tial report of Bishop,Brissman andj ! ‘Nonpartisan members of the house appropriations committee, in meeting: last night, objected to the communication of majority the solution of tae reparations ques- tion was reported; today by the expert committee appoirted yesterday by the supreme council,when the committee | ; mer Premium Briand of France has | * succeeded in forming a new cabinet, | following the failure of Raoul Peret, first offered the premiership by Pres- ident Millerand. jmill man. jlieved of any connection with the state mill at Drake. uvived in Bismarck last night’ a nd will remain for several days. “T never did like milling,” said Mr. McGovern. “I am not a I'm a grain man. I have long wanted to be re- members on the subject of the ap- propriation asked for William Lemke. attorney general, and re- quested that Lemke be permitted to appear before the committee to- Might and explain the matter ful- ly. adjourned at noon today. Proposal Made, The day's discussion was the pro- | posal of the Belgian delegation that; Germany should be compelled to pay a ‘certain sum each year but that no set number of years for which she should company on the mill. ! In the receipts is listed “receipts | from sales and consignments”: $331.- | 592.31. All other receipts through ac | tual operations amount to only about: $10,000. No statement is made to| Tendered Resignation | “I tendered my resignation as manager of the mill and PUT UP MONEY |elevator association on November but I have néver been actually {in charge of the Drake mill since W. A. Anderson came to Bis- | Y 7 . eos ;marck as the secretary of the State Industrial commission. | | show that the mill has maintained make the payment should be stipulat-/ eee ‘5 A . a a sales organization of any. size. | | The house was expected to have be-/ed. It would make 6,000,000 marks “As far as administrative direction has been concerned, it ‘The policy of selling flour on con: | fore it today a statement of the ma: | the limit and 3,000,000 the minimum.| has all been handled by the Industrial commission direet. Mr. signment was first brought up while |jority of the appropriations commit-| This was in the nature of a com-' Anderson was b a miller : sacs i the examination was in progress | | tee answering William Lemke, Attor- | promise between the French support-! | i lerstand i vot iY putter andl an attorney. He has had, I whey the auditors asked court aid to! ney General, wno yesterday sent a/ers who wanted to set payment but | junderstaud, long experience as a miller, | communication to the house declaring ASKS DIVORCE AT 83. i that it would have to bear’ the burden Relief from matrimonial vows has’ of any défeats in tax, railroad, and een asked by Jesse James, 83, a! drainage cases for which he had ask- veteran of the Civil war and now a/ed money to represent ‘the state, and resident of the Soldiers’ ‘Home at Nor-' which had not been granted. oton, Coun. ‘In reply to his suit, Mrs.|_ The answer -presented by Chairman ‘I understand that is why the Industrial commission brought |ingisted on having the amount set) fi him here as secretary.” |by the reparations committee in ac-| cordance with Germany’s ability to) | pay and those who insisted that the) amount be fixed and that the yearly| | Payments also be scheduled. The lat-| determine how much flour had been | sold to Consumers stores on this, basis, which, they claimed subjected | b the mill to heavy loss in case of; drops in the price of wheat, which} were recorded. | Twitchell Tells of Collecting Money Before Trip to St. Paul : Talks Freely Mr. McGovern talked freely about the operation of the |Drake mill. He said that all that he wanted was the plain Another interesting features of the| report on the. mill is that the Drake! mill maintained grain exchange rela- | tions and “hedged” in wheat. Financial Statement. The financial statement follows: RECEIPTS. Fi Loans of Bank of N. D..-$211,795.40 Notes payable local banks 20,000.00 Office miscellaneous 1,015.66 Receipts for sales and con. signments, . (less $5. §3 bad checks ... « 325,635.78 Cash sales mill products.. 65,589.57 | Hedging gains ........... 6,907.98 Refund Equity Co-op. Ex. 4,200.00! Refund freight ........-++ 4.71 Refund wheat purchased... 30.79! Interest . 87. Coal 80.58 | Twine ‘ PTO AS OR Ee $635,686.61! DISBURSEMENTS. | Bank of N..D... + $94,000.00 , Notes payable . 20,000.00; Wheat purchased » 407,532.59: Unloading wheat. . 3.71 | Sampling charges 29.50} Bags ...eseeeep ee 26,719.81 | Payroll manager . 2,506.22 | Cashier 1,434.92: Labo: 15,779.68 | Posse Meat and light . James says he drank heavily and adds:. “I left him when he moved next door to a saloon, to be conven- jent to his supply.” WOU LD CLASSIFY LAND FOR HELP IN-TAX LEVIES Senator Mees of Morton County ~ Gives Bill to Senate on These Lines OTHER BILLS ARE IN Senator Liederbach Would Greatly Extend Powers of Board of Auditors A bill introduced in the senate yes- Watt, of the committee, just before adjournment, quoted words from the Attorney General's letter assailing the house majority and which the committee’ said were not justified and were resented. There is plenty of money available to Mr. Lemke, it was claimed. Amount left him The committee’s statement says of $7,805.65, “being approximately one-half of the Attorney General’s fund appropriated for the year end- ing July 1, 1921.” Mr. Lemke in his communication said this was reduc- jed several thousand dollars by bills which came in since he took office. | The-communication’ further stated: George, premier of England. Elaborate Pian. The Belgium plan was elaborate be- ; fore the committee today and will be presented to the British premier ag |soon as the committee has finished | its first session. | The official belief is that if it meets | with the approval of Lioyd-George is {that the committee will put on the supreme council. ; The divergence | members of the allied supr cil regarding German reparation caused an interruption. of the confer-)| | ence today and in some quarters {t is ; regarded as In day ger + -The-supreme Timeit today reach ter expressed the stand of Liloyd-} | ‘SOME LIVELY TILTS EMPLOYERS ASK | Bill Appropriating $12,000 for | Bishop, Brissman Company | Is Advanced that Mr. Lemke admits the outgoing | finishing touches this afternoon and/ Attorney General left him the sum | have it ready for presentation to the, of views of +the! $2,740.73 before he left Bismarck .for | T0 CARRY RISKS eme coun-/St. Paul, Minn., to get the audit re- | Speaker L. L. Twitchell, of the ‘house of representatives, collected ort of Bishop, Brissman and com- pany. The speaker divulged this fact dur- of breaking up./ing debate on the floor of the house | |:yesterday -atternoon, when -the~heuse “Mr. Lemke, in his communication, | the most critical state in jts delibera-| was considering the report of the ap- signally failed to mention the appro- lations. The crisis canfe over the | propriations committee recommend- priation of $15,000 made by Chapter | question of fixing the total amount of! ing an appropriation of $12,000 to pay 8 of the Special Session of the 16th | Legislative Assembly. He algo fail- |ed to make mention of the $10,000 ap- propriated by Chapter 20 of the same | session. e |remaining in the hands of the state | treasurer in said funds discloses the jfact that there is now available in |said funds, in the treasury of the {state of North Dakota the sum of $9,051.05. He failed further jn his communication to state, that he would 6,751.87 | terday . afternoon by Senator Fred) be entitled on proper representation | Mees of Morton county calls for aj to the state emergency commission to Sundries, etc. ........60 0s $635,686.64 | permanent classification of all lands| receive 10 percent of the appropria- Wheat: Purchased. i Wheat was purchased in carload; lots at Ryder, Drake, Walhalla, Dun- | seith, Sanborn. MéKinook, Max. Plaza, |! Powers Lakes Crosby, Tuttle, Arvilla,| Voltaire, Kongsberg, Tioga, Burling- ton. Much of it was purchased from the Equity Co-operative Exchange at) Ryder and Drake. Y On the flour. sold on consignments. | at market prices on dates of consign- ments at the Drake mill, the Con-; sumers stores, 33 in number, received $129,004.52 worth of flour, and other consignments. totaled . $170,807.42. Re- mittances from the Consumers stores totaled $95,803.22. G. N. Livdahl of Bismarck, took ar. inventory of the Drake mill as of Dec. 15, 1920, which showed $4,036.05 worth of wheat on hand, $0,757.88 worth of flour, feed worth $4,537.10, coal listed at.$356.20, oils at $172.85, supplies at, $454.11, office supplies at $705.75, tools and equipment at $230, empty sacks at $4,086.58. Mr. Livdahl stated that he made no attempt to value the property, but added that the mill was listed on the books at $20,956.91. He stated there appeared to be no account on the books of the office for furniture, fix- tures, tools and loose equipment. URGE DR. FREY TO MAKE TALK IN AUDITORIUM Addresses 180 People at Ger- man Baptist Church on Russian Experiences Dr. John Alexander Frey, of Riga, Russia, probably will be invited to re- . turn to Bismarck and address a mass meeting in the Auditorium on condi- tions in Europe. > Dr. Frey. made his second address in the city at the German Baptist church lastnight. There were 180 people present. He talked in German and explained many situations of interest to local people who came from Eu- rope, have relatives of deep interest there. x The clear exposition of the situation in. Europe, as given by Dr. Frey has aroused: deep interest in the city. The interest if so great that many people who heard him want him to speak in Bismarck at the Auditorium at a later date under the auspices of the Com- mercial club. ‘have favored such a measure. | in the state for purposes of taxation, “Under the present system of as- sessment,” said the senator frorh Mor- ton, “there are a great many flaws, A great majority of the asgessors are often duly qualified to..serve, even though they appraise lands to the!and Chapter 20 appropriated $10,000 | pest of their ability. If this bill is | passed and ‘becomes law as I sincerely | hope it does, all lands will have been classified by experts. Then when one knows the levy of the year he can | easily figure out his own taxes.” The measure provides a schedule} apply on expenses of litigation be- | of classification which would’ be, uni- form throughout the state and “after taking into consideration all true ele-| sum of $15,520.67. It also said there | ments of value the land described shall be grouped and classified in units of forty acres, each ,under the classi- fication tables” set forth. A-1 includes land valued from $196 to tion made for his office for the bien- nial, in this case the sum of $3,368.- 55." | Chapter 8 provided for an appropria- | tion of $15,000 for emergency ex- | pense in the executive department ‘for special Assistant Attorney Gen- jeral hire. | R. R. Commission fand | The appropriations committee also {declared there is available in the |hands of the railroad commission to ltween the state of North Dakota and ‘all public utilities companies, the |is a balance in the contingent fund jof the state tax commissioner of $8,- | 845.92 which could be used in fight- ling tax cases, The statement said the senate had A reference to the balance | | the reparation to be demanded of Ger- ‘many. The session of the council was ito have been begun at 4 o'clock this | afternoon was abandoned. The optimistic: feeling which was | present when the members of the ex- | perts committee expressed pleasure | with their progress was dissipated | when Lloyd-George found the project | entirely unsatisfactory to him. | (M. Briand and ‘Lioyd-George will try | in private conference to come to some | agreement on the question. JOINT MEETING OF COMMITTEES ONSTATE MONEY ' Hearings on Appropriations for | Two Years Will Be Held appropriations committee | with the budget board for the thresh- ing out of the financial problems of ‘the state maintenance, operation, and institutions, will begin ‘tonight. $200 per acre dropping $10 per acre to! passed the Lemke bill, cut the amount | Chairman W. J. Church of the sen- A-10 class, the land from $100 to $110 per acre. B-1 to !B-10 includes in the separate listing lands worth from $50 to $100 an acre; the C class from $25 to $50 an acre and the D class from $1.00 to $22.50 an acre. Farm lands which may exceed in future periods! tained an appropriation of a deficit ; a value of $200 per acre would be placed in a Class AA. County commissioners of the state work of classication would be done by experts under the supervision of the state board of equalization. A (Continued on Page Seven) PASS KAISER’S BIRTHDAY NOW Berlin, Jan. 28—The sixty-second birthday of former Emperor William almost*passed unnoticed today. Con- servative papers barely mentioned it and the liberal papers said nothing about it. ARMY CUT TO 150,000: MEN = * Washington, Jan. 28.—At the sug- gestion of President Harding, Rep. Antony of Kansas, announced today, a bill had been prepared and was about ready for introduction which would place the standing army at only 150,000 men. POLICE ESCORT LEWIS TO ROOM Kansas City, Jan. 28—A swarm of police escorted ‘Lewis, the world’s heavyweight champion wrestler, to his dressing room last night when an an- gered crowd left its seats and dashed to the mats after Lewis had applied he headlock to+Sulzo in winning the second bout of their match, The’ ‘from $12,000 to $10,000 and passed | the bill without the emergency. | The senate bill, it was stated; takes | precedence over the house bill. | Printed in Journal | Senate bill 25, the budget bill, con- ;in the Attorney General's department, it stated, and there is an emergency | clause on the bill. ; In conclusion the committee state- | ment said: that the law provided that ithe Attorney General should look af- lter the legal matters of the state and declared that “there is | whatever of the state being the loser in any action on account of lack of funds in the Attorney General's de- partment.” Immediately after it was read Rep- resentative Maddock, Nonpartisan, of Benson, moved it be printed in the journal. It was so ordered. The members of the appropriation committee which signed the statement were: Peters, Jacob Bollinger, J. D. Root, Adolph Mikkelson, M. W. Kelly, Paul Johnson, Joseph McGauvren, ®arl B. Olsen of Billings. No motion to expunge Mr. Lemke’s statement from the permanent jour- nal was.made, as had been expected. OPPOSE DUTY ON LUMBER St. Paul, Minn, Jan. 28,—Resolu- tions requesting the Minnesota men:- {bers of Congress to do all in their power to prevent the imposing of a duty on lumber and lumber products imported to the United Stdtes, were offered to the legislative today by the Minnesota Farm Bureau Federatior. (President ‘. E. Potter said that the imposing of duty now on Canadian lumber would work a hardship on American farmers. William Watt, N. G. Olsgard,.| ; Claude Lackey, John Freeman, D. L. {ate committee announced yesterday j afternoon that these meetings will he !held every night until the budget * | schedule is finally approved and ready for report to the legislature. “We wish that every person or of- ficial who has anything to present to j this legislature concerning appropri- | ations, would appear before the joint | committee,” he said, H Recommendations of the especially jappointed budget board which are | contained in senate bil! No. 25 call for no danger | $8-506,794.85 as ‘necessary for opera-! |tion of the state during the next bi- Jennial period. This is over a million dollars more than for the last two years. Members of the committee de- clared they intended to slash the above sum, if possible, below the 1919 budget. CONFESSES TO MONEY THEFT Marion, Ohio, Jan, 28.—Harry May- nard, county treasurer, who reported yesterday that he had been held up by. bandits in his office and robbed of $14,300.03 was placed under arrest to- day and, according, to the police, con- fessed that he had stolen the money himself. WANTS DAMAGES ON ‘VICTORIA New York, Jan. 28,—Alleging that the Victoria yacht on which Pres- ident Harding is making his southern cruise, was defective although repre- sented as seaworthy, Senator Freylin- huysen of New Jersey, today started suit to recover $5,000 from the original owners. A former captain of the yacht said that it was damaged in a collision af- ter it was purchased. | the expenses of the audit as a com- imittee of the whole. The house, by |a vote of 57 to 52, accepted the report. The debate was vehement, as is |the way with debates in the house. There were charges by Independents of attempts to block the audit report and denials by Nonpartisans. plaining said: “When I left here for St. Paul to set this audit report of Bishop, Briss- | |man and company, I had to collect | $2,740.73 from various persons to turn i jover to the company before I could ; ;get the report. The situation arose | |from the’ fact that no state officials | | Myself.” He added that he paid his ;own railroad fare and expenses and 'didn’t expect to be reimbursed. | The audit’ company had been paid about $9,000, it was stated, by the old |board of auditors, and the amount | |Mr, Twitchell took was to pay for th | finishing work. Mr. Twitchell sai that the public subscriptions taken | iby the old board of auditors were placed with Bishop, Brissman and company as a guarantee and that, when the legislature appropriated | money to pay for the audit the money would be returned to the individuals. The house appropriations commit- tee had amended the bill by striking out a provision that the money should be disbursed by the Secretary of State and made it read “by proper | “cher,” which would give the duty of payment to the state auditing board, of which the Governor is a member. Move to kill Representative Maddock, of Benson, moved for an amendment striking out the words Bishop, Brissman and company, saying that the name of the company had no place in the bill. In- dependents objected to this, During the debate various Nonpar- tisans expressed their views, and Representative Hempel said the audit was not a legal audit because the in- itiated law provided that the audit should be made without previous no- tice, and that previous notice was given through the public press. Representative Walter Maddock said the Nonpartisans were not ob- Continued on page 3) TO ASSIST IN RELIEF WORK The Bismarck office of the American ‘Express company have on hand a sup- ply of “Invisible Guest” certificates which are for sale at $1 and up, the proceeds to go to the $33,000,000 fund being raised by the European Relief Council of which Herbert Hoover is the chairman. | OPTIONAL PLAN | |Bills Are Introduced in House | Carrying Their Ideas on | ~ Compensation | House bills 68 and 69, introduced by Nels Olsgard of Kindred this after- ; Noon, would revolutionize the work- , men’s compensation insurance pro- gram ‘by removing the requirement | compelling all employers to carry ' their compensation insurance in the Ex- \ North Dakota State Workmen’s Com- the situation the speaker | pensation Bureau, but would not re-| move the compulsory feature requir- ing employers to carry workmen's compensation. . ‘Olsgard introduced the bill by re- quest. It is understood that it is sponsored by the employers of the; | state, The present law would be la ' in Bismarck would give money to | mended to provide: |pay for the audit. I put it up as a |Suarantee that the bill of the com- |pany against the state would be paid, | and I have ‘a receipt for the full} jamount. I understand they have put | jin youctiers to the state for thele | bill.” Hl Maddock’s question | Just before the vote, Representa- | @ Maddock, Benson, arose and said: If anyone in this house is financially | | interested in this he ought to say so.” | Mr. Twitchell: \First—That employers could place! ‘the workmen’s compensation in a pri- vate compensation insurance com- pany, Second—That the employer could carry the insurance himself by sat- isfying the state compensation bureau that he is financially able and willing, to do go. Third—That no changes in rates of ; compensation or in classification from the present law be made. Fourth—That an appropriation of purposes. WHEAT PRICES HOLD OWN ON CHL. EXCHANGE by Sharp Advance Chicago, Jan. 28.--Wheat prices to, day. were controlled largely by inter- pretations given to the report of the United States Department of Agricul- ture regarding supplies on hand. At first various phases of the report were given the most attention but the later fuller aspects! were the ruling factor on the market. Opening quotations were from un- changed to one and three-quarter ents lower, with March wheat selling at $1.63 4o $1.64. This was followed by a sharp ad- vance and then something of a re- action. ROLLER-TOWELL GETS GOOD-BYE FROM THE HOUSE If you're a friend of the roller towel shed a tear. The house of representatives has passed Rep. ‘Burkhardt’s _ bill amending the state hotel inspec- tion law to prohibit use of the roll- er towel in hotels. The other changes made by the bill provided the daily hotel tariff should be displayed in rooms and that hotels found guilty of violat- ing the law might be closed by court order. The bill goes to the senate. | Statement of fact but that he disliked the unfair ‘had been directed both at him a riticism which ud the Drake mill. : |W. A. Anderson, former secretary of the Industrial Commission, and now | assistant attorney-general, when in- formed of Mr. McGovern’s attitude, declined to comment. | “If Mr. McGovern wants to make {a statement over his own name ‘I will answer it,” he said. , Mr. Anderson denied that he was | actual manager of the mill, as charg- * ed by McGovern. Members of the Industrial Com- | mission were in conference in their | respective offices and could not be | reached. i> ‘Mill Too Small. | “The Drake mill is not,large enough to prove’a profitable mill, All milling experience has shown the necessity | of large mills if they are to be a bus- iness success. | _,“The Drake mill has been operated ; at a profit, not considering the loss | due to lack of hedging. The report ‘of the Industrial Commission wi'l ; Show a profit of from $250 to $300 a | month. But to make this profit it has |fbeen necessary to work three shifts | of eight hours each and any shutting down would have wiped out theso profits, | “I do not think ft right that the | loss due tg the slump in wheat pri | should be. charged against the m | Many of the mills have suffered he ily because of the dtop. The loss was caused principally by lack of | proper hedging.” Blames Anderson. 'Mr, McGovern explained that Mr. ,'Anderson and not himself was re- sponsible for the policy followed in operating the mill and that any im- proper management should be charged to him, “Since Mr. Anderson came my only ! connection with the mill has been to ; seek millers or engineers when they | Were needed for the operation of the | plant.” Mr. (McGovern again denied that “I presume — the | $50,000 be made for the compensation, there has been any attempt to block Meetings of the house und senate|Sentleman is referring to me, and I | bureau to be paid back to the general the audit. together Will tell him that I was just smart | fund from earnings, said $50,000 to be: enough not to put any money in this | used for administration and operating Denies Concealing Records. “I was at the time up at Rugby with Mr. Sheet8, assistant attorney general, on some cases. Mrs. Fisher, however, and the others in charge say that there were many records on han‘l which the auditors never consulte | and that at no time was there any al- tempt to keep them from getting all of the information they wanted.. “I understand one of the account- ants came to my office at Fargo when I was gone and asked for letters re- garding the transactions with the Consumers United Stores ‘company. 1 wag away and my secretary refused Drop in Grain Prices Followed | to open up the letter files without my consent. She ‘told him I would be back the next day. “I never wrote over two letters to the Consumers stores. I would go right to its offices at Fargo when [ wanted to transact ariy business. No Mystery, “There is no mystery about this Con- | sumers United Stores company trans- action, We made the same deal witir the Equity Co-operative Exchange cf St. Paul, serving fifty elevators in the state, ma farmers’ elevators, cc- operative stores and other merchants. “The only way that we could keep the ‘Drake mill busy wag to sell on such consignment. Many of the other mulls shut down. The vig mills all did. “If we had kept the flour at Drake we would have had to build a ware- house. We shipped the flour to these companies on the agreement that it should be kept dry and insured in the name of the state and that cach week (Continued on Page Seven) WILL SUBMIT TREATY FUND Washington, Jan. 28.—Secretary of State Colby today assured Se ‘Phelan of California, that the state department would not give i - proval to the proposed treaty bet the United States and Japan “ntil an opportunity has been afforded n= bers of the senate to place their ob- jections through the state department.