The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 17, 1916, Page 6

PUBLISHED WEEKLY Official Paper 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 Act of March 8, 1879. D. C. Coates, e - - - - - - Managing Editor 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 Earmers. 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 phould 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. HOW THE PEOPLE’S SERVANTS SERVE THE—INTERESTS NE of the most flagrant cases of public trust betrayal and official treason is that disclosed in more detail on another page of this issue of the Leader, concern- ing the state board of control and the terminal eleva- tor legislation. z : Rarely have public officials had the unblushing hardihood to fly squarely in the face of the positive, specific and definite instructions of their superiors, especially when such instruc- tions were backed up by the overwhelming voice of the people. But that is exactly what the state board of control did and the legislature showed the constitution of a jellyfish and the backbone of a fishworm by suffering this public. insult to be thrown in its face and then permitting the perpetrators to escape without even a mild slap on the wrist. : All the necessary preliminary steps had been taken and the time for specific action had arrived. The state board of control, consisting of R. S. Lewis, F. O. Brewster and J. W."~ Jackson, were selected to carry out certain detailed, specific and definite instructions. Instead they chased around, spending the people’s money with a lavish hand, and then tried to economize by refusing to pay $100 for photographic plans. Moreover in their chasing they sought the advice of those who would naturally object to the scheme and then delivered to the legislature 16 pages of piffle trying to bolster up those objections. For caloused treachery and brazen disobedience the case, in all probability, hasn’t a parallel in the history of North Dakota politics, or that of any other state. And who is responsible for the appointment of the state board of control and its conduct? No less a personage than Governor Hanna. And many of the big papers of the state, which boast of their friendship for the farmer, have not said a word of the matter. : But let us give thanks that another day is dawning—a day long to remembered, too, by some public officials and their friends. BETTER KILL THE MOSS-HOLLIS BILL ONGRESS realizes that after twenty years of pottering around that the time has come when some kind of rural credit legislation must be put across. There are some dozen or so of such bills now before congress. They are a mote- _ly conglomeration of fair to middlin’, good, bad, indifferent and rotten. : The prospects are fair that some measure will be passed and placed on the statute books. It is also pretty well settled which bill will pass. This is the Moss-Hollis bill. In reality this is nothing more than a big bankers’ bill. It is ‘the bill that was recommended by the joint commission ap- pointed to frame up a rural credit bill. That fact, in connec- tion with the additional fact that it has the endorsement. of the administration and the further fact that it is meeting with no opposition from the banking interest, and the still additional fact that it is pretty tolerably sure to pass, should brand the bill as most undesirable by farmers. The bill provides for a scheme similar in- construction .to that of the infamous federal reserve bank law, the utter fail- ure of which our readers well know. The readers of the Leader can do much toward killing this bill by flooding your representatives in congress with letters " of loud protest against this measure. If this bill passes it will be years before congress can -be aroused to take more than ‘passing interest in rural credit legislation for the next @zen years. Better kill this bill at once, by your protest. ' BIX . - THE NONPARTISAN LEADER ‘THE NONPARTISAN LEADER DOES ORGANIZATION PAY? T HE county commissioners of Cavalier county, during Jan- uary, advertised- for bids from banks on time deposits of county money. There were twenty-four bids sent in. Probably every bank in the county submitted a bid. Every one of the bids submitted was the same. Every bid- der offered to pay 5% per cent for deposit money. In the whole twenty-four bids there was not a single exception or the slight- est variation from this rule. There was, therefore, no compe- tition in these bids. f This was no accident or coincidence. It was the result of organization and cooperation. If those bankers had not had an organization and an understanding and had not cooperated in this matter, as they do in all other matters, there would have been competitive bidding, with the results that the rate of in- terest would have been hammered down too low to be profitable. The results were, however, that each of the twenty-four banks will get $2000 of the county’s money at a profitable rate of interest. : : These bankers have learned by experience that it pays to organize and cooperate. Probably it is because they know the power of organization that some bankers of this state oppese the farmens’ organization. g Go to the banker, Mr. Farmer, and you will learn a lesson on the value of organization. ABOUT THE SINGLE TAX QUESTION INGLE tax, in the sense it is used in the League pro- gram, simply means that farm improvements shall be exempt from taxation. It simply means that unim- proved lands—lands held for speculative purposes— shall be taxed the same as improved lands—lands used as farms. It means that every time a farmer builds a rod of fence, constructs a pig pen or a hen house, paints his house or barn, ‘breaks an acre of new land or buys a new cream separator, that the state will not penalize him for it. It simply means that the state will encourage and not discourage improvements by ceas- ing to fine 2 man for making improvements. It is admitted by leading economists of the world that such a tax would be just and equitable, but as scheming poli- ticians make the laws and make them in the interest of the most favored people, no such laws have ever been enacted. Improved farm land is used to create wealth, to make a liv- ing, and not for speculative purposes, and thrift and industry in making improvements should not be discouraged by taxation. The burden of the tiller of the soil is hard enough without making it more so by heavy taxation. LEADER NEUTRAL ON CAPITAL REMOVAL that is has not taken any part nor will it take any part in the controversy over the removal of the state capital from Bismarck. It has ‘determined to be absolutely neutral on this question—it is not a part of the League program —and therefore we will not discuss the question editorially ‘or take sides one way or the other. Whatever has appeared in our columns -on this subject is as paid advertising from the Capital Removal Aassocia- tion of New Rockford, to which city the attempt is being made to remove the state capital. Of course, the Leader is in favor of the principle of the initiative and referendum—that is, allowing the people to vote ony any question of public importance—but whatever the farmers of the state do in this matter they will do as citizens and on their own motion, and not be urged to acs one way or the other by the Leader. WHO’S A BELLYACHING FISH? Buffalo. In Buffalo there is a little paper named The Buffalo Express. The Buffalo Express is edited by one J. U. Pavlik. to say: ‘A big majority of the American people, when thi wrong, they sit down and belly-ache, inl;:egd "of tryinghlazgsovgg again. They will bite like fish, at every new get-rich-quick game, It isnt the banks, elevators and; railroads that really rob you, it is this fish act. Hard, well planned work will get you, further up the ladder of success than $6 Shenanigans. The Leader has on flle some letters from citizens who 1ive>~ e - around Buffalo. From these letters we learn that Editor J. U. o Pavlik at one time tried to teach school in district 104. Ac. cording to these letters he taught 5 months and 19 da h > ‘ 3 ys. of the term of 1910-1911. Our information has it that he was then N answer to many inquiries, let the Leader again say - UT in the west end of Cass County is a little town named - In a recent' issue of the Express, Editor Pavlik has this discharged and a lady employed to finish the term. Our infor- ~ mation further has it that Teacher Pavlik, in his sehoollrtlig; dozen pupils, was too free with the lash to suit civilized Am- i o I e TP, ho