The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, January 20, 1916, Page 6

SIX : THE NONPARTISAN‘. LEADER THE NONPARTISAN LEADER PUBLISHED WEEHKLY Official Pappr of the Farmers Nonpartisan Political League of N. Dak. Entered as second-class matter September 3, 1915, at the post office at Fargo, North Dakota, under the Aect of March 3, 1879. D. C. Coates, SR - - - - - = Managing Editor Advertising rates on application. ’ @ Subscriptions, one year, in advance, $1.60. : 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 Farmers. Quack, fraudulent and irresponsible firms are not knowingly ad- vertised, and we will take it as a favor if any readers will advise us promptly ghould they have occasion to doubt or question the rellability 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- swake and up-to-date farmers. WE ARE NOT MAD AT ANYBODY HE members of the Nonpartisan League are not angry at anybody. They are not venting personal spleen on any individual, and don’t intend to: The members of the' League had one immediate object in view when they started this organization. That ob- ject was to make a house-cleaning affair at Bismarck and inci- dentally bring some of our lawmakers to their senses. They determined to make their voices heard in the legislative halls and heard effectively. _ It was the original and is the present intention of the League to see to it that at least an overwhelming majority of the next legislature is pledged to give the farmers of this state the laws they want. The League will not swerve from this purpose. In the matter of county and township elections the League will take no definite action. Most of such offices are of an ad- ministrative character and the officials are near neighbors and well known to the men who elect them. The League will clean house at Bismarck—clean county politics will follow automatic- ally. The League courts the support of every person, whether in office or out, whether seeking office or not, who desire to see and are willing to work for more full and complete justice for the greatest industry of this state—that of farming. Not only so, but the League is willing to join hands with all such men and cooperate with them to that end. With malice toward none and charity for all,-the League seels to gather together all the forces that stand for progress, justice and a square deal for the people of this state. HOW RAILROADS SERVE THE PEOPLE AST week the Leader published a news item about a. farmer out in Hettinger county who was obliged to haul his wheat 60 miles in order to market it. This is not because there are no railroads in that county. There are plenty of ralroads—if they were built to serve the people. Through the country embracing Morton, Hettinger and ‘Adams counties there are three railroads—the N. P. and the main line and a branch of the Milwaukee. But instead of the Milwaukee branch splitting the difference between its main line and the N. P., and thus giving the people in that wide-strip of country railroad service, it jogs up into- Morton county at Shields and approaches within six miles of the N. P. at Freda. From there it parallels the N. P. all the way to Mott at times not more than half a mile from it. Thus farmers living half way between these lines are served ne better by three lines than they would be by two. This is because railroads are not built, primarily, -to serve the people, but to compete with each other for business. And the compe- tition is not one in rates but one for business. Take down the map of North Dakota and you will see that this same kind of railroad building has been repeated in a dozen places. It is interesting to note in this connection that government postal rural routes are not located in such a unsystematic way. PURE CHUCKLEHEADNESS u T is estimated that there are at least 700,000,000,000 tons 243 of lignite coal in North Dakota.- This would supply ' the population of the United States, ten tons a year for every person, for 700 years. Processes have been perfected whereby the gas and other by-products can be extracted from this coal as it comes from the mines, at the same time compressmg the body mto bri- quettes. ed on high coal rates and high freight rates from the eastern coal fields. We have nearly as much coal as the rest of the United States and yet we let it lie.in the ground while we pay fabulous prices to the coal trust and extortionate rates to the railraod trust. It is true that this lignite coal is not the best. But Profes- sor J. E. Babcook, dean of the college of mines, University of North Dakota, announces that ‘“one ton of dry lignite will pro- duce about two-thirds of a ton of briquettes, in addition to * about 10,000 cubic feet of gas, besides other valuable by-pro- ducts, such as tars, ammonia, sulphate, etc.” Suppose this industry was wisely developed? - Suppose at the places where lignite is most easily accessible large factories were established—flour mills, packing plants, farm implement factories, ete., and gas used to operate such factories, also to generate electric current for surrounding territory and a.decent rate fixed for shipping the briquettes? Not only would the fuel problem of North Dakota be solved: for all time but many other problems as well. But the pure chuckleheadness of public officials, both state and federal, has prevented any such action. TO FIGHT NEW TAX SCHEDULE HE LEADER last week printed an expose of the attempt, . through a new personal property tax schedule adopted @ZS] by the state board of equalization, to place a huge . added burden of taxes on farmers and householders, at the same time lessening the taxes on almost every other klnd of taxpayer. Unsolicited by the Leader, Chairman Packard of the state tax commission has written a letter, praising the analysis given by this paper of the new schedule and offering the support of the tax commission and the services of a lawyer free of charge to enjoin use of the new schedule and attempt to knock it out in the courts. . : : This letter and its offer to the taxpayers of North Dakota are printed elsewhere in this issue. It is practically-certain that some live state’s attorney in some county of the state will initiate this suit on request of a taxpayer. The tax commission can not, itself, start an action of this kind under the law, but it can donate the services of a lawyer and the machinery of the commission to prosecute the i suit after it is once instituted. If any Leader reader knows a state’s attorney who will consent to act in the passive capacity of starting this suit he should let the Leader or Mr. Packard of the state tax commission at Bismarck know.” The tax com- mission will do_the rest. Mr. Packard holds out practical assurance that the new. schedule is illegal and can be knocked out, thus saving, as he says, hundreds of thousands of dollars to farmers and house- holders, who would be grossly overtaxed if the new plan is al- lowed to go through unprotested in the courts. To be instrumental in performing a service of this kind for the great bulk of the people of North Dakota ought to be enough inducement for any state’s attorney or taxpayer to take such interest in knockmg out the law as Commissioner Packard suggests. LET THE EXCHANGE ANSWER HE Kathryn Recorder speaks as follows: “The Nonpartisan Leader, quoting J. M. Anderson, president of the Equity Cooperative Exchange, says that the net profits of the exchange from August 1 to November 30 was $42,823. If the exchange is a cooperative concern the question arises, who has paid this profit?” . The Nonpartisan Leader quoted the statement of President Anderson in a St. Paul news story and was not undertaking to proclaim the virtues of the exchange. But if the Recorder really wants information we take pleasure, as a matter of fairness, to quote from the bylaws of the Equity Cooperative Exchange. A summary of section 29 indicates the following: At the end of each year, all net profits, after operating and managing costs have been paid and all other obligations due liquidated, shall be applied as follows: . Payment of interest on. capital stock at 8 per cent. No stockholder shall have more than 20 shares of stock, the “price of which is $50 per share and each stockholder shall have but _ one vote in stockholders’ meetings. A per centage determined by dividing 75 per cent of the original value of the property by the number of years that con- . stitute the average Iength of life of such property, is set aslde : as a depreciating fund. Not. to exceed 20 per cent of the net profits 1s set asxde as ‘: an emergency; fund. Five per cent 'is set asxde as an educatlonal fund and the - ,remammg xs~pa1d back to patrons as a dwldend : W