The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 11, 1915, Page 8

Ao e : partisan League. The League will do battle with the interests PAGE EIGHT ' : THE NONPARTISAN LEADER SR S o ot b G R R R R e e e SR : seek to force down freight rates, terminal charges, insurance THE NONPARTISAN LEADER rates and increase the price of wheat simply by virtue of its PUBLISHED WEEKLY strength as an organization. Official Organ of the Nonpartisan League of North Dakota. The thing most needed by the farmers is co-operation be- H. B Behrens - coui s s siinisnsvst sisiojoie somials s olnias g vio.o Editor and Manager |tween the farmers and ‘the State. At present even, the farm- Entered as second-class matter September 3, 1915, at the post office at |ers are willing for this but the State is not. The State will Fargo, North Dakota, under the Act of March 3, 1879. not lend the aid that it should to the end that farmers may have Advertising rates on application. g P e better marketing facilities, a .better grading system, cheaper Subscriptions, one year, in advance, $1.60. : hail insurance and lower handling charges. Communications intended for the paper should be addressed to the Non- The State will not do this because the men who run the partisan Leader, Box 919, Fargo, N. Dak,, and not to any individual. State don’t want it done. It would interfere » with their graft. The Leader solicits advertisements of meritorious articles needed by What the League seeks to accomplish is the control of the Earmers. Quack, fraudulent and irresponsible firms are not knowingly ad- | State by the farmers who will then bring the State to co-oper-. wertised, and we will take it as a favor if any readers will advise us promptly | te with the farmers to the end that justice may be meted. out Bhould they have occasion to doubt or question the reliability of any firm to those who justly deserve it. 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- mwake and up-to-date farmers. THE GREAT STORY OF WHEAT. PATRIOTISM OR PROFITS a wonderful story we have arranged with the publish- ers to reprint in THE LEADER. The name of the story is “The Octopus” and it was written by Frank Norris. Beyond doubt it is the greatest novel ever . |written by an American. It is a story of wheat and wheat growing, of the struggles of wheat growers in another State to free themselves from op- pressive conditions, of a Farmers’ League in"that State and what came of it. WE said something in these columns a few weeks ago about N order to carry out the new program of “preparedness” it will l be necessary to issue a lot of government bonds. In the past U. S. government bonds have sold at 2 per cent and 3 per cent. Some few have sold at 4 per cent. : At present Anglo-French bonds have sold at 5% per cent and the prospects are that Italy, Russia and even Germany may offer us bonds at 5% and maybe 6 per cent. Under such circumstances we wonder if U.S. 2s and 3s won’t be somewhat of a drug on the market. Or will patriotism cause us to buy U.S. bonds at 3 when we could buy Russian bonds at 5 or 6? but it is not really fiction. Everything told in “The Octopus” really happened. Not long after the story appeared, Charles Edward Russell visited the scene and verified the incidents from records and testimony. When we have prmted “The Octopus” to the end we shall follow it with Mr: Russell’s verification of the story, giving the real names of Norris's characters, where they lived and ‘what they did. This will be found to be of the most extraordinary signifi- HOW ABOUT THE CONTEST? 0YS and girls, do you realize that there are only five weeks B more for you to get “in on” a chance for a good Christ- mas prize? Turn and read about it on page ten. There are several answers already in now, but there are chances for more. The answers so far sent in do not agree|cance to all our readers. Nothing that has been printed or which goes to show that somebody is wrong. Then again there|could be printed could appeal more strongly to every person in- is a difference as to neatness, attractiveness, correctness of writ- |terested in the present situation of the wheat growers of North ing and spelling, as well as general appearance of manuscripts.|Dakota. ; Parents should call the attention of their boys and girls| ' Remember “The Octopus”, the Story of Wheat. We shall to this contest at once. begin publishing it in about a month. WOMEN ADVANCE AND BOOZE RETREATS. SOME SOUTHERN PROGRESS. N Tuesday’s election, woman suffrage, while defeated:in New l York, Pennsylvania and Massachusets, yet made large gains. It is manifest now, and conceded by even the strongest “antis”that eventually the women will win. B There was a time when all men were not permitted to vote. But they went out and fought for the ballot: The women are puttmg up a heroic fight, and of course they will win some day. . Likewise were the drys defeated in Ohio state where State prohibition was an issue. But while the drys lost two years ago by 85,000 majority they more than cut the majority in two this time. Another drive like that and booze will go down for the count in Ohio. 7 ¥ ¥ E progressive folk up here in the great Northwest are w inclined to look upon the Southern States as very back- ward and reactionary. A little closer look may take a little of the conceit out of us. ~ For years the farmers of Louisiana had been heavily taxed and overburdened by owners of private warehouses and elevators. A like condition has existed in North Dakota for a long time. Five years ago the farmers of Louisiana decided to end this gouge, and so voted bonds to build a state warehouse. Under terminals of New York Philadelphia, leerpool Hamburg, Bre- merhaven and Have : Then they got busy As a result Loulslana today has the largest farmers’ warehouse in the world. It will store more than 2,000,000 bales of cotton and is adapted to the storage of wheat, sugar, rice, toBacco, coffee and corn. : It has 23 acres under roof and with trackage and all oc- cupies 150 acres. It has 22 miles of trackage and capacity for 2,000 cars. It cost $3,500,000 and will save in the cost of hand- ling and shipping 40 per cent. Compare this little bit of history with ‘the shameful con- duct of the State Board of Control which was sent off on a similar mission by our own State. According to its own admis- sion it hob-nobbed around with such as James'J. Hill, E. P. Wells, of the Russell-Miller Milling company, J. E. Barnes, a big ex- port_er, Dr. Robert Magil, Chief Grain- Commissioner of Canada, P ELIHU ROOT AND THE PEOPLE. LIHU Root dominated the New York State constitutional E convention which put in several months trying to patch up the fundamental law of the Knickerbocker state. Elihu being the root of reactionaryism, it was perfectly nat- ural that the document when finished was reactionary. But in order to bind these shackles upon the state it must be adopted by the people. .. That was one of the big questions to be decided at last Tuesday’s election. And it was most emphatically decided—in the negative. : And so, now Root is in the dumps and has a grouch. To be turned down by the people puts a damper on his pr%ldentlal -possibilities. Thus, inch by inch the people move forward and leave the done.” rehcs behind. ‘be gouged out of their hard earnings. All because they de- pended upon men who profit by the gouge-game to do something to stop the gouging. 2 It is not a guestion of, “can it be done"” The question is, “Wlll it be done?” If it is left to the men who are “in on the game” or are friends of those who are in on the game, the answer is, “no.”- HOW THE LEAGUE WILL DO ITS WORK. that power lies in their control of politics. With the Legis- . lature, the administrative and executive officials back of them it is easy for them to dominate. : It is this realization which brought into existence the Non- INDUSTRIAL corporations have great power. The secret of v thing—a thing that will save them 40 per cent an handling and right at their source of power—on the political field. The League is not an industrial orgamzatlon and will not then the answer. is, “yes.”, G This is a story of fascinating, vivid, most dramatic interest, the law’s provision a warehouse commission visited the larger’ and fhen reported to the last Legislature that it “could not be Meanwhile, the farmers of North Dakota must continue to But if the farmers of this State happen to wanf such a - |shipping grain, and if they will take the hunch a.nd get together, :