The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 21, 1916, Page 12

¥ TR b HERE were 67 members in the v last' Minnesota senate. Twenty- . elght of them were lawyers and A nine of them farmers. house at the same session there were h180 members. Thirty«four of them were-. lawyers and 29 were farmers. The: farmers’ represen’catlon in the senate was only 13 per cent, in the house only - '22 per cent of the entire memberslup.' i -Yet over half Minnesota’s population is .strictly rural—on the farms. Minnesota farmers are beginning to see in these figures the reason why they hdve “not got what they wanted from past * legislatures. . ‘The leglslature ‘has’ utterly failed to curb’ the’ grain combine. Farmers’ protests ‘and petitions have mmeant littlee Now = the. farmers have begun to realize that they have got to make their protests teffective. They must control the legis- lature, and they can do it. “Some profess to believe that .the farmers can never control politics in -Minnesota,” said Henry O. Bjorge the [(other day. Mr. Bjorge is a farmer of Becker county, farming a large place of the legislature five times. -} FARMERS HAVE THE POWER - TO CONTROL LEGISLATURE . “As a matter of.fact,” he says, “agri- Minnesota. Perhaps farmers are not in as great a proportion to the total popu- lation as in North Dakota, where they but when they are organized and stlek i farmers in both the house and the senite There is no doubt of it. et ——a i s great cities—Minneapolis, St..P: enato : ] .. Lumber. company, i - i %.7 . six . lumber - yards : in -North & . Dakota and three in Montana, is seekmg - reelection to the state . senate ' on " the £ l Republican ticket from Ward county. = He lives at Minot and has served several N ' sessions® in the senate. On account of : his record, however, he has scant chance ‘| of being elected again this year, especi-', ° in . ally as the farmers’ organization l Ward county is backing Thorwald Mos- ¢ tad, the Democratic candidate, who is " progressive and favorable to fa.rmers i legislation. pohtxcal gang in the state for® years. : wealthy man. ; BOND HAS BAD RECORD IN STATE LEGISLATION with the majority on that committee . signed a report recommending that the bill to lower the interest limit from 12 to 10 per cent be indefinitely postponed. = A ~‘on- the -minority. report Bond against adopting. it, casting his vote for . 12 per cent and against 10 per cent as : the legal-rate. The failure of the 1913 legislature to lower the rate caused a united” complaint from the " farmers, 50 that the1916:session was: forced to pass . the bill. senator opposed’the bill. - In the 19183 session Bond went down “the line for as reactionary and restric- tive an initiative and referendum bill as - any state every adopted. It was known . as the Overson bill. - The:-people had de- manded the initiative’ ‘and = referendum ’ _.at lasthadto heed the demand but In the and petitions mear Lake Park. He has been a member . culture is the controlling jndustry. in- i have taken over the state govemment, 2 ! Yogether they can put a majority .of . { “The fact that Minnesota has-three _ . | Duhith—does not alter the ‘fact.”: If no !'farmers or men favorable to the. farmers : :! @re -elected from the districts in which - these big cities -are located;’ ‘and, 1f “the ! who‘le - mining districts’ of the north- ; ALTER R. BOND of the Bond which owns '. Bond has been identified thh the old,_ 5 " He has fought farmers’ legslation’ and - . progressive legislation _of all kinds/ as’ -, much as he dared. Besides ‘this he has : mot been averse to padding his mileage: . mccount and getting .a little extra cash . from the state as expenses to and from,; > « the legislative sesswns, although he 1s a2 Bond was a member of _the state afz “if fmrs committee in the 1913 session and . ‘minority of the committee recommended - . ‘that the bill bé passed and on a rollcall VM %% This time -Bond .voted for. it, 13 getting on the bandwagon, and only one ‘| 13 for years and the legislature, of course, . Failure to Curb éraatem‘ part’ of the state fail to line up with the farmers, farmers can still put a majority: in both: the -houses of the legislature. Gt “The rural p_opnlatxon of Minnnesota predommates in". numbers, Just as it does in North Dakota, but .the cities have ruied the state. The steel trust and other big special interests of the state control the politicians. - The. cities are represented . by politicians and the poli- ticians slip over enough legislators from the rural:districts to control the state. - All this can be changed by organization. If" the farmers organize and vote together, instead of splitting their votes, they can overcome. the city and mining district vote .and' have a clear ma onty' in the legislature.” This is not taking into consideration the fact that a- strong farmers’ orgamzatlon ‘will get a lot-of support even in the big cities, through an agreement, with, the:labor unions. . That farnfers ‘éan control “The :fact that .the farmers have 8o :'small a representatlon in the legisla: ‘ture “in proportlon to " their votmg -state. the people of the LN oo 'Thorwald “Mostad; Dér;ocratlc candi- date for the: state senate in the ’l‘wenty- 3 o e 9 5 M ! . in_the last legIslature .would help, but even thhout 1t the i . druggxsts, real esfiate men, contractors, anesota farmers have 1t in thelr power to control the state legislature in the interest of all In the past they have been : #to let other classes—principally lawyers— ‘do the ruling and make the laws. - ; ‘Chamber of ‘Commeree has always got just about ‘-what'it’ Wanted and let the farmers Whlstle for the . legislature. _ure, Party lines, based on national ques- tions, have nothing “to do with county." .. there was a strong senhment m the state mmd helped:togmtwovee the Sithises wsilns Overson lmtlatlve and _vator; he. stretched ‘his mileage Roll of Leglslature lees a Clue to Gram' Combine strength and the taxes they pay is due s to lack ‘of organization.. Farmers have voted against . each other, instead of . ", together for men of ‘their. own ' picking: ‘“Then ‘on account’of the fact that the farmers are not strong in. the legisla- ture, they have often had to trade votes, so_that even the strength they have had has been split up. As representatives of certain:districts they have had to get appropriations for their districts;, and to get them have had to trade-their votes and go against many things the farmers ought to sta_nd united for: With a united majority in the legislature, brought about through ~organization of . ‘the voters, farmers’ representatives in the legisla- ture will not have to trade votes. They can stand together and get what they want. . — Every - ‘business interest in anesota except farming, redominating indus- try, was amply’ represented numerically Besndes the 28 in ‘thé ° senate there” were 10 lawyers - -~ bankers, btokers and merchants two mil- lers and numerous physwlans, ‘traveling salesmen, " pubhshers, i hotel : keepers, No wonder the Ward County Republlcan Candldate - Deserves - No Progressive Vote vBond Jomed with" those Who wanted to give the people as poor an_ excuse ‘as 3 possible: for. ‘real rfiltlatxve and ' refer-, _ endum " Blakemore ‘bill,’ legxslatlon,' He opposed the Which' ‘provided for a liberal initiative and referendum, and was “successful ‘with the majority in putting . over the Overson { St Blakemore measure; ill and klllmg the . Bond also opposed the recall of public He voted.against even letting i the people vote on the question of whether or: not _they wanted the recall as a part - of the const]tutxon and he voted against a bxll to give the recall to cities under m form of government. This »actxondry associates in B o AGAIN IS NUMBERED AMONG REACI‘IONARIES The 1913 senate took a vote on the proposition of- making all county offices nonpartisan,’ like ~judiciary and school elections in this state and like the state of anesota has made the élections of senators and =~ representatives 'in the It Was a progressive meas-- politics, except to confuse voters, and referendum he ¢ Ward county return this man to the state senate - Say “Ne” by working and voting :for Tho -Mostad, the Democratlc candldate who has been g : % awyers Ru e . sented in numbers out of ‘all proportion . population "of: 2,075,708, \af . whi _“tion, _‘business and interest except ...They represent the wealth, largest class in’ tlf legu on was too progressive for. - packers, insurance men, Bottlerg-—evepy business except farming was repre- to its proportional strength and interest 4 in the state. . & FARMERS ARE MORE S L THAN HALF POPULATION ? *“The 1910 census gave anesota a tal 850,294 was classed by the\government i ) as urban, or city, population. e ‘rest, 0 1,225,414 was classed as- rural opula- 1 If the majority was to rule, s | ‘fore, Minnesota would be governed by a farmer legislature and.governor. The farmers have had, however, only a small R | nunonty in the legislature. In the house, besides the 34 lawyers, there were eight bankers, 14 merchants, six editors and publishers; 10 real estate men, insurance men and brokers ‘and numerous advertising men, ‘office. holders * in city, state and national government, engineers, ministers, undertakers, mil- lers, manufacturers, hotel men, teachers, contractors, salesmen. Lawyers held -the ‘balance of power in both houses. The 34 lawyers in -the +house and the 28 in the senate were the Jargest single class’in the legislature. Farmers are beginning to. ask why law- ' yers should make their laws for.them. 3 . 'Why ,should lawyers dommate the legis- lature when they comprise only 'a_very small fraction of - the popnlatxou, “when farmers, who constitute the majority, have only a small representatxon" Lawyers are generally emplo ed by -and make their living through every lnnd of interests ‘and other age'pcxes opposed to the consumers, as a. genera thing. They -are by nature “and employment unable to look at things from the farm- ers’- and producers’ - standpomtfi “Yet Minnesota has given them the . balance of :power .in law making— ey’ are the measure ldost in the senate and: of ‘course -Bond was found voting 'against the pro- . - gressives and with the reactionaries who - favored the present system, “because the present system is best for the pohtunans. : Bond also voted against. making the DS election of county and state superin- S " tendents of schools nonpartisan, hut: this * imeasure passed. and is: now a. part of the state law. . In the 19183 session Bond opposed a bill providing for pubhc markets in. all county seat towns in the state, provid- " ing the pegple of .the varidus counties voted to ‘establish such' markets:. The ys bill was a farmers! measure to bring Hy producer.and consumer together for the’ e - benefit of both and Bond voted agamst : « ¥ 5% it. The bill did hot create such markets ¢ AR “but left it to the people of the counties e to ' vote whether or ‘not they wanted them. Bond opposed lettmg the people decide the matter for themselves.’ THE MILEAGE GRAB; = : ; HE KNEW IT WELL: .. = = s Legislators have hot hesxtated" the . ‘ : past to gtab a little extra the, state. :