The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 4, 1915, Page 8

PAGE EIGHT "THE NONPARTISAN LEADER PUBLISHED WEEKLY Official Organ of the Nonpartisan League of North Dakota. S BRI VS R S e A S R ..Editor and Manager & Entered as second-class matter Szptember 8, 1915, at the post office at Fargo, North Dakota, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Advertising rates on application. Subscriptions, one year, in advance, $1.50. Communications intended for the paper should be addressed to the Non- partisan Leader, Box 919, Fargo, N. Dak., and not to any individual. The Leader solicits advertisements of meritorious articles needed by Rarmers. Quack, fraudulent and irresponsible firms are not knowingly ad- wertised, and we will take it as a favor if any readers will advise us promptly should they have occasion to doubt or question the reliability of any firm which patronizes our advertising columns. Discriminating advertisers recognize The Nonpartisan Leader as the best medium in the state of North Dakota through which to reach the wide- awake and up-to-date farmers. FARMERS AND AUTOMOBILES W. HILL recently remarked that, “Farmers do too much L motoring and too little work.” : ® Come to think about it several formers do have Fords, and some automobiles. It is our judgment that there are no men in the country who are more deserving and more entitled to such modern conveniences than the farmers. The farmer and his family are entitled to the little pleasure that comes with a spin into the village to visit with friends or see the movies. His social life is very much limited at best. He sees little enough of the world at most. He works long enough hours at the least. We hope to see the day when every farmer will own an auto- mobile. On the average the farmer does too much work and not enough motoring. “Hon. E. J. Weiser, president of the First National bank; Hon. N. A. Lewis, president of the Merchanfs’ National bank; Hon. Martin Hector, president of the Fargo National bank; Hon. H.-J. Hagen, president of the Scandinavian-American bank; Hon. F. F. Grant, president of the Northern Savings bank; Hon. Max Stern, president of the Dakota Trust Company; Hon. Geo. H. Hollister, president of the Northern Trust Company; Hon. A. L. Loomis, president of the Northwestern Mutaul Savings & Loan CO-” 3 This list was copied from a local daily paper and reads like the roster of a bankers’ convention, compiled by a Japanese re- porter. F in the United States cost us $450,043,250.04, fo operate, pay their losses, dividends, surplus, ete. . For the year ending June 14, 1912, 17,823 state and private banks had made reports. Approximately 4,000 had not reported. The 7,372 national banks and the 17,823 state and private banks, making a total of 25,195 banks, in the year 1912 held individual deposits amounting to $17,024,067,606. If we include 4,000 banks not reporting on the same basis, it is a safe estimate that the total cost to operate, pay losses, dividends, surplus, ete., was in excess of $1,300,000,000, or approximately $i4 for every man, THE HONORABLE COMMITTEE HE following were the members of the reception committee for the McAdoo entertainment in Fargo, Friday, October 29: WHAT IT COSTS US TO RUN THE BANKS OR the year ending June 14, 1912, the 7,372 national banks woman and child .in the United States. . This‘is over a quarter of a to run the government. . » ~ We do not question the necessity of banks, but we do ques- tion the necessity of such lavish extravagance. It is a luxury we do not need. e ] : ; some alleged conferences of the Nonpartisan League. . Last week: another one of those fake,- cock-sure-enough-in-side million dollars mqi:e-than it costs THE PRESS AGENTS ARE VERY BUSY. - b2 political stories was sent out from Bismarck. " > As a piece of 7una,dulterated gall'this latter pipe-dream simply extracts the dilapidated linen from off the shrubbery. For a reck- less handling of the truth its author would make the noted'Annan-A ias look like an amateur. g ~ The Leader desires to once again brand these stories as posi- tively and unqualifiedly false and untrue. They are the dreams of & WEEK ago we had occasion 'i‘:o‘ é_aTl the atfention of our | readers to a press story which appeared in a northwest i Dakota'daily paper purporting to sét forth the results of THE NONPARTISAN LEADER the professional press agent. They are set afloat for the_purpqse’ of shifting the winds to favorably strike certain political sails. If the Leader indulged in undignified language we would labet them with the famous “short and ugly word.” The men who invent these stories are good men—good to them- selves and their masters. . But the farmers cannot depend on them or anything they say. ~ A fancy. Stiam, he affirms, has had a hard struggle in the past but will have a harder struggle in the future. ; Practical application and use of electricity has not kept pace. with our knowledge of it. If no more electrical discoveries were made for ten years, he states, all the electrical engineers in the country could be kept busy putting into practice that which we already know. “Steam built up our great cities with their congestion and slums. Electricity will break them down and scatter the popula- tion evenly over the continent, because electricity can be trans- mitted anywhere by simple transmission wires. Steism must be used where generated, and where there is a large labor supply.” With full electrical development factories need not be located on the most expensive lands in the crowded cities, for by rapid transportation labor can be moved quickly and cheaply back and forth morning and evening. : ; o Not only so but when electrical devices become of more common use they will be cheaper. : ‘Dr.Steinmetz holds that the great water powers should be held by the people and not be monopolized By corporations. This he states would enable a more economical distribution of electrical power. EXIT STEAM; ENTER ELECTRICITY. CCORDING to Dr. Charles P. Steinmetz, chief electrical en- - gineer of the General Electric Company and pyol?ab.ly t}le world’s greatest electrical wizard, electricity is in its in- THERE IS HOPE FOR THE COUNTRY tical reforms, come the hope that something very fun- damental will be accomplished in the not distant future, There is an increasing consciousness upon the part of lead- ing thinkers that some, what has heretofore seemed rather radi- cal steps, shall be taken. : : Not only have we had a makeshift of a Rural Credits Act adopted but we have what we believe to become consciencious efforts to bring that Act to produce practical results. Even a makeshift of a law is better than no law. It proves that we are yet able to go forward a little. As long as we can move a little there is hope . As long as a few men will put forth honest efforts to get forward there is hope. { One of the most noteworthy straws that indicates the direc tion, of the winds of reform is the adoption of the committee report on Government Money and Credits by the National Con- ference of Producers and Consumers, held in Chicago last week. The resolution appears on another page in this issue of the Leader. : This, we consider, one of the most sanely constructive and far-reaching recommendations made in many years._ Nothing can be more fundamentally constructive than that the government issue money instead of delegating that power to private banks. ) Nothing could be more far-reaching than that the govern- ment do a general banking business through the post office de- partment and loan money to states, counties, townships and cities at a nominal interest rate. T gressive constitutions of any states in the Union. These constitutions are actually trying to keep up with the times. The particular constitutional provisions which we have in mind ‘at this time is that which provides that the State may engage in any business that an individual, a partnership or a corporation may engage in. R e From our present information ‘the provision reads as follows? - “That any political division of the State of Oklahoma, bhe it towmship,‘co_unty or State, may conduct any. business ‘that any in- dividual, partnership or corporation may deal in legally, and that - the public credit of said political division, be it township, county or State, may be used for the purpose of financing said business.” to be determined by a majority vote WITH the grdwing demand for sane, constructive and praec- PROGRESSIVE CONSTITUTIONS. HE States of ©)klahoma and New Mexico have the most pro- Such action is, of course, of the people. iy " Under the present constitution of North Dakota, if strictly con- strued, as it would be, the State could not engage in any business that in any way competed with private individuals, partnerships It is important then, that our State constitution be amended,