The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 22, 1916, Page 3

v oS i | r ¥ - be considered. - It is thecrisis for ~ have formed a political organiza- _“gity. - The laws of the state have - mitted 'huge monopolies in other £ Btates “to -control the markets of _thls state, to exploxt the farmer _be ruined. 'The ‘all “their. profits in - exorbitant i markehng charges, mterest and j : other states e age. of pohheal eorruptm and mcompetence, has ruled the state for - i " Official Paper of the Farmers Nonpartisan Political League of North Dakota, VOL. 2, NO: 25 FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA, THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 1916 er WHOLE NO.. 40 North Dakota Merchants and Bankers ~ Are Facing a Crisis notorious and still anonymous circular entitled “North Dakota” " Is Facing a Crisis.” * It said then there was one true statement in that circular, and that was the statement here quoted, the title of the circular. It remains frue that “North Dakota Is Facing a Crisis.” 3 WEEK -ago the Leader had some comment to‘make on that now Its people must determine whether they will continue to be ruled by cor- ' ruption in the interests of rich men who are not'citizens of the state or will assert their own right to develop their state along lines which will enrich and-make happy its own citizens. The politicians and the powers that prey are facing a crisis. They seeé themselves about to be cut off from profitable connection = with the state to which they have clung o as leeches, sucking its life blood. But:there is another crisis to the business men of the state. It is the crisis, also, for the bankers of the state. - S T WHA'R HAS INJURED STATE The farmers of North Dakota tion. They have formed it because it was an absolute neces- not given them the aid to which they were entitled in'regulating ° ‘the. conditions under which their chiéf products should be marketed. The laws of the ‘state have per- ° and to rob him of a large part of the profit of his toil. The waste from the = farmer’s standpoint - throughi this system of exploita- tion has grown to the proportions - of being a notorious abuse, one that demands a remedy if the honest producers of the state are not to whole state, through this and other abuses, 'has been changing rapidly from a state ‘of independent farm owners to a state of landlords and strugghng : povenshed tenants giving up ° rents. - Through “these abuses the state has failed to develop diversi- fied farming. -It has failed to develop the industries most logxcally and necessarily eonnected with grain production. ' The milling industry it should have developed has gone to great centers hundreds of miles away in defiance of eeonomlc 1aws and in defiance ‘of the welfare of this and . x THE REMEDY-—ORGANIZATION Thoughtful men among the farmers:long have beheved that these eondltlons could be remedied if the loya] citizens of North Dakota would % stand together, if ‘they. would study marketmg conditions and seek a’ _way by the use of the state’s authority to insure a fair and open market, -~ and above all if they would absolutely eject from power all men subserv- ; xent to the great mfllmg and ma.rketmg combine which, taking: advant-- It was upon th.ts bams and this plan that the Farmers Nonpartlsan g : League was' orgamzed It suufght and still seeks nothing but:prosperity " for all the people of North Dakota, - It seeks. prespenty for the mer-. : ehant ‘and the banker as well as‘-for the farmer. - : the honest merchant both will prosper if usury and extortion are curbed. It recognizes a legitie mate field for banking aside from the exaction of ruinous interest rates from the farmer. It does not believe that the prosperity of the mer« chant-hinges on excessive profits in which the merchant himself shares little and on subserviency to the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce. It does ‘not believe that the welfare of merchants and bankers depends “upon their aiding alien corporations in.grinding down the farmer and keeping him struggling in poverty. = It believes that a state where every, industrious farmer is thrifty and prosperous and has a large cash income to bank and to spend will be a better state for farmer, banker and - merchant—all three—than one where the farmers are living a hand-to-mouth existence, where they must be “carried” from season to season by banker and merchant and the merchant and banker in turn must be “carried™ by financiers in other states who are interested in perpetuating that condition.” This is a business profitable chiefly for those “higher up.” They don’t live i North Dakota. 3 3 * % *» % THE LEAGUE ATTACKED The farmers went about the tion decently and openly. The organizers of the Nonpartisan League told the truth frankly. The farmers “of North Dakota were asked to band themselves to- gether, not to injure any legiti~ outside power which was impover-~ ishing the farmers and retarding the -development of the whole state. The form of organization was one with which the farmers them- selves were satisfied.” It was - effective for -the - purposes’ for “which - the farmers ' sought to “unite. - It has put them into posi- achieve their objects. . Yet from ‘the time the farm- i ers promise of success it has met with the fiercest sort of attack, an’ - attack which soon degenerated into the vilest personal abuse of the officers and organizers of the movement, an attack in which money was spent freely with the avowed object of breaking up and dxsruptmg the organization. * The enemies of the League have not scr upled to make use of every" °_sort of falsehood that came to their hands, no matter how self-contra—f , : d1ctory these falsehoods might be when compared. B * % % WHERE IT COMES FROM Thls attack was led by two newspapers long noted for then' hostfl- -ity to every popular movement in the state, both of them allied with and one actually owned by men who have been political dictators of the state through its periods of greatest corruption. They were soon Jomed by another newspaper which had been in financial straits and shortly after its attacks upon the League began to boast of the strength of 1ts financlal standmg‘ : Under the clrcumstances there was httle reason to doubt w iere work of forming. their organizas: mate industry in North Dakota, but to throw -off the yoke of an " tion where it now rests solely with them whether or not they shall_ ; organization -. first showed