Subscribers enjoy higher page view limit, downloads, and exclusive features.
o R oies e e ol S S e e, e beef trust, with - its Fate of Farmers' School Is Up To Five | Men There is one educational institu- tion in North Dakota dedicated prin- cipally to the farmer and his inter- ests. It is the one educational insti- tution of the state dedicated to the higher education, that pertains to agriculture ‘and agriculture is the chief industry of the state. The passage of an act by the legis- lature of 1915 and subsequent devel- opments have placed the fate of this institution, the State Agricultural college, in the hands of five business and professional men, only one of whom by any stretch of the imagina- tion can call himself a farmer. The importance, future success and efficiency of the agricultural college are at stake. - The farmers of North Dakota, who pay 79 per cent of the taxes and cast over 80 per cent of the votes in the state, are going to watch with closest scrutiny the acts of these five business and professional men, Hand Not Shown No intimation has been given of what the policy of these five men will betoward the farmers’ institu- tion, and no prediction can be made. It is within the power of these five, however, to reduce the State Agri- ‘cultural college to an institution of relatively small importance and rank —to make a mere trade school of it, for instance, and to develop the other educational institutions of the state, in which the farmer has much less interest and which are not near as important to him, into predominating positions in the educational .fieldfl On the other hand these five busi- ness and professional men can adopt, a policy that will continue the pres- ent splendid development of the ag- ricultural college and make it, as it should be in a state where agriculture predominates and where nearly 80 per cent of the taxes are paid, by farmers, the leading educational in- stitution of the Northwest—a great e N TSI T™ Ao U S AR et THE NONPAR_'i'ISAN LEADER Destiny of Agricultural College at Stake Under Act of Last Legislature---Business and Professional Men Will Decide---Farmers To Watch Acts Which Will Make or Break Great Institution. bulwark and asset of a great com- monwealth of farmers. Regents Created The legislature of 1915 abolished all the local boards of trustees which had charge of the eight principal educational institutions of the state and did away with the board of con- trol for the normal school:. In the place of these boards a state board of regents was created “to-assume all rowers and duties” formerly intrust- ed to the several local boards of the eight state institutions affected. Five regents, therefore, now have complete control of the State university and - School of Mines at Grand Forks, the State Agricultural college at Fargo, the School of Science at Wahpeton, the State Normal schools at Valley City, Mayville and Minot, the State Industrial school at Ellendale and the School of Forestry at Bottineau. The chief immediate duty of the new state board of regents under the act is “to coordinate and correlate” the work and courses of the various, schools, “so as to prevent wasteful duplication and to develop coopera- tion among such institutins.” These are the men, the new state boad of regents, to whom this vital task has been assigned under the apr pointment of the governor, confirmed by the state senate: L. F. Crawford, banker and land- owner, Sentinel Butte. Emil Scow, lawyer, Bowman. J. A. Power, farmer and banker, Power. Frank White, former governor, now insurance man, Valley City. Dr. Taylor, practicing physician, Grand Forks. To carry out its work of “correla- tion and coordination” the regents are required by the law to cause a survey of the state educational in- situations to be made by “competent experts from without the state.” The regents have named the TUnited States commissioner of education to direct the survey and his field men will do it during January. The sur- vey is intended to show ‘“wherein the efficiency of the state educational institutions can be best served and economy in conducting the same best practiced.” Courses Interlock On the facts gathered and recom- mendations made in the report of this survey the regents will act. The agricultural college is much more than a trade or agricultural school at the present time and must continue to be what it is if it is to continue to benefit under the United States act giving aid to state schools of this kind. Its courses are closely interwoven, and its work a unit. It has a school of veterinary medicine and surgery, a course related to that of agriculture. The school has a pure seed, drug and food department doing work for the farmers of the state, and this department, with the school of veterinary medicine and surgery, is- dependent upon and closely inter- woven with the school of pharmacy, on whose laboratory both the veter- inary and food departments depend. A course in chemical engineering is taught, dependent, like the others named, on +the laboratory of the school of pharmacy. Architectural engineering, civil and mechanical en- gineering also are taught. THREE These interlocking courses have given the farmers of the state a real college, bound to grow and de- velop under a favorable policy into an even greater asset to farmers and their sons, who constitute the great bulk of the voters of North Dakota, and "to agriculture, the chief and only industry of the state. Farmer Not Heard. But much can be done under the guise of “coordinating and correlat- ing,” provided, for by the last legis- lature and to be carried out by a board on which the farmer has lit- tle or no voice, although it is his college that is concerned. Will any courses be taken away from the agricultural college and given to other schools of the state in the interest of “preventing waste- ful duplication?” Will anything be done to make the agricultural college anything less than what the farmers of this state insist that it shall be, a great, pre- dominating educational institution of the first rank? There is no evidence as yet that anything of this kind is contemplat- ed, but the acts of the five business and professional men who hold the destiny of the farmers’ college in their hands will be watched with the closest scrutiny. Commission Complete Last week United States Commis- sioner of Education Claxton an- nounced the third member of the commission which, under his direc- tion, will conduct the survey of the educational institutions of the state, as provided for by the legislature. Dr. L. D. Coffman, dean of the col- lege of education, University of Min- nesota, is the last member named and will make the survey with Dr. W. T. Bawden of the United States department of education and Dr. E. . B. Craighead of Montana. - Nonpaitisan Political League’s Official Program It will be recognized that what has been, said with reference to vari- ous municipal utilities and also pub- lic terminal facilities, will apply with equal force to the ether utili- ties mentioned in the first plank of the League’s program—namely, flour mills, stock yards, packing houses and cold storage plants. There is no rule in logic whereby one can dif- ferentiate between them. If one doubts the importance of public. ownership of such institutions, let him contemplate the vast for- tunes that have been made by the private ownership of them. A visit te the Chicago stock yards, the Kan- sas City, Omaha, Ft. Worth, St. Louis, or South St. Paul stock yards will convince one of the vital publi¢ necessity of such institutions. Packing and Storage Plants If one doubts the economic value of such institutions to the public let him contempjate the many charges that are levied against a car of stock that is handled by them. If one doubts that the packing house is a ‘valuable utility, let him conjure the figures that represent the fortunes of the members of the far-reaching power through- its interlocking sys- tem of packing houses and cold stor- age plants and the certainty with which they centrol prices—both to the producer and to. the consumer— by virtue of such economic power. This closely related group of insti- tutions alone have built up a money- ed aristocracy in this country which ricals in power social and economic influence’ the crown-headed aristoc- racy of any European country. The: - wealth * accumulated by this small group of men represents the losses sustained ' by th f; ) Flour Mills, Packing and Cold Storage Plants Article No. 3 By OTTO T. MONROE hand, in this country. If one doubts that the milling in- dustry is a vital and important one, let him contemplate the collossal for- tunes accumulated by the milling in- terests of the country. Let him fur- ther contemplate the great power it wields in the control and determina- tion of price—both of the raw ma- terials and the finished, products. Our government, which shies at paternalism when mentioned in con- nection with the real producers, has lavished its paternalistic blessing up- on private industry. It has subsi- dized railroads, made liberal grants to miining and timber companies and legislated in the interest of many private enterprises, but has never lifted its little finger to help lighten the burden that crushes down on the shoulders of the farming industry— ‘the mest important industry in the nation. Only let it be suggested that such help should be extended and the air is' rent with the violent screams of “paternalism” by the wliudkod press of the country. £ Permitting, and even assisting, pri- vate capital in ravishing the heritage of man in devastating the forests, monopolizing mineral - deposits, cor- nering manufacturing ‘possibilities, is considered, - a very laudabe work, while striking even one little blow to break the economic: chains from the wrists of the 6,500,000 farmers, their wives and, children ‘is. consid-- ered wickedly paternalistic. To _those who fear 'this country do such industries, it would enlighten them to study the little country of New Zealand. The Example of New Zealand Hugh M. Lusk, for ten years a mem- ber of the New Zealand parliament, tells us of the great social and econ- omic advantage that public owner- ship has been to that little country in his book, “Social Welfare in New Zealand.” Twenty years ago New Zealand had about 1,800 miles of railroad. At that time it took over the privately owned, lines (two short lines) and continued construction work and today operates nearly 38,- 000 miles of lines. Twenty years ago the New Zealand trains ran all to- gether—both passenger and freight— nearly 3,000,000 miles and carried 5,- 500,000 passengers, 6,000,000 tons of produce, as well as 1,300,000 head of live stock. At the end of that twen- ty years the trains (in one year), ran more than, 8,000,000 miles and carried 12,300,000 -passengers, nearly 5,000,000 tons of freight and nearly 8;000,000 head of -live stock. i And as Mr. Lusk says, “ley trav- eled and their goods traveled over the publicly owned railroads at rates’ lower—in most cases very wmuch lower—than those which the railroad authorities of America or of England are ready to denounce as ruinous.” These lines were constructed at a cost of $52,850 a mile and practically every rail, car and engine was ship- ped from the opposite side of the earth. Some of our 'A!'nencan railroads are capitnhzed ‘at over $60,000 per those through the Concluding the subject of railroads Mr. Lusk says: State Versus Private Capital “New Zealand’s experience has proved that railroads can be built, equipped and operated as honestly by an honest government as they can by a company of capitalists. It has shown, besides, that they can be con- structed under conditions that would appeal to no railroad promoter, but which may very greatly improve the conditions of the people and so great- ly increase the wealth of the nation. It has shown, finally, that it can be no advantage to a people to make profits at its own expense, and as a' nation can always borrow money at a rate much lower than a private com- pany, the service rendered by real railroads of the people to the people can always be provided at -a lower rate than private capital could offer.® What applies to the railroads of New Zealand will also apply to pub- lic utilities on a smaller scale—in- deed, it has been so applied in New Zealand with great success—as we shall learn in a subsequent article. Nothing New and Untried From these observations it will be seen that the demands of the Non« partisan, Political League’s program is not a new and untried visionary scheme. It is well established, net’ only in New Zealand but in other countries and has proved all that was’ ever or is claimed for it. It is one of the new phases in the great scheme of social progress, which seeks the better welfare of the whole people. No country or people can reject it without being guilty of an’ unpardonable degree of standpatism. Those who seek to give to all pro- ducers of wealth a fair and just share of wealth cannot balk at any step which means the better well-being rof the great masses.