The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 28, 1916, Page 4

75 21 I G " we can't - skeptical. What the Great Army of Leader Readers Are Thinking; ‘What the Newspapers of the Great Northwest Are Saying WHY? When the retiring supreme judiciary put up such fight to stay on the bench one month longer, the question arises, #why?” Why such a struggle to inter- pret laws a few “weeks longer— —what’s on deck—unfinished business ?—KEN- SAL PROGRESS. A WORKER FOR THE CUASE Grafton, N. D. Editor Nonpartisan Leader: I have been getting a few subscribers to the daily Leader that you have just started (subscriptions for nine persons inclosed with cash) I am a little late, but as the old saying goes it’s better late than never. You agree with me in thlS T hope. 1 have been thinking of writing to you for some time, but I am not a writer and do not care to become notorious. . I have been in the potato business for the last four years on a small scale. We have, or rather there is, a potato cellar in Grafton and I hauled a few loads there the first year, but found I had to take about a quarter of it home again. T ptarted to ship my potatoes. I had a talk with the superintendent of the Great Western Elevator company and he said he would handle my potatoes for 1 cent” a bushel commission, and I was well pleased until this year. This year they charged me 5 cents a bushel— and after I had asked their agent if he thought there would be any change. And Bt that I did not get any more than I uld have sold them for right here on '8e track. This is my last fall to ship potatoes to Minnedpolis. I wish you good luck—and keep on the way. you have started. TOM MOHAGEN. WHY HE'S NONPARTISAN S Grafton, N. D detor Nonparhm B, dea of a state terminal elevabor,’and the legislature allowed the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce and the big flour- ing mills to'lobby against it, it was so® rank that there must have been grease ' gsed somewhere to kill the bill; just so with the state hail insurance; it was knocked out by the hail insurance men. The only thing the legislature did for the ‘farmer was to tax his fences, shade trees, chick- ens, wells, dogs; in fact § everything but the tomcat. I guess Tom was in the cities helping the smart Y business men, trying to -—a kill the goose that lays ‘the golden egg. They - pre- tend to think a good deal more of the goose since the election, but you know see inside of them. I'm I have known Governor Frazier from childhood. He is a man the politicians or big business can not sway, bribe or bulldoze. He takes his office with a free hand; no political debts to pay, and he can cut out the ones made for that:pur- pose heretofore, and who did nothing much but draw their pay. Lynn Frazier will be governor, and don’t you forget it. I am glad to see he has cut out the inaugural ball. He doesn’t need Prince Alberts, swallow-tail coats and silk hose on dress parade: When the teeth are pulled from some of the promoters, they won't be so fresh buckm'g the farmers. The League Exchange is a good thing. We will get actual settlers and save the state (60,000 which the last legislature aid, to help the land sharks swindle- the armer. I would like to see North Dakota adopt the Wisconsin law regarding salary of county officers; pay the county officers a stated salary for doing the work, and they pay their own help. 'We would get more competent men, and they would have to: do some work to make anything, and elect them for four years. K : Yours w1thout a' struggle H. A. BALL. HIS IS your magazine. It is interested jn what fon are thinking. It wants to publish your ideas. There is not space for all letters received, but the best of what you write us will be printed. write on only one side of the paper, signing name and address plainly. Leader is getting big and useful ideas from readers right along. Be brief and The What an inspiration the thousands upon thousands of letters were that we got during the recent political campaign in North Dakota! don’t deprive the thousands of readers of the Leader of your ideas. Don’t stop writing us letters; Let us hear from North and South Dakota, Minnesota and Montana, or anywhere else the Leader circulates. s Look to North Dakota (Editorial in the Wisconsin State Journal) North Dakota comes forward. The recent election has put her on the map as one of our most forward if not the most forward state.. With the farmers from North Dakota who visited Madison two days ago was their governor-elect, Lynn J. Frazier. He was quite at home with his North Dakota comrades for he too is a farmer, not a farmer by recreation but by’ profession—a real farmer. He was elected on the Republican ticket in a state that cast its vote for Wilson. He is a quiet, unpretentious sort of a fellow; he made no speech here that con- tained quotable parts; he’s not the speech-makmg kind. His strength came out in his private conversation rather - than his public addresses. Referring to the new spirit of North Dakota, he said: “The farmers of our state. don’t believe in fightin_g for ‘years to secure legisla- tion in their own interests only to have it thrown out as unconstitutional by the supreme court; so they just went out and elected a ma;or;ty of the supreme cou: That’s the spirit- of the new -North Da- kota.- They decided that the will of the people. should be the law of the land. - The lesson. from North Dakota’is one to ‘ fill the ophnnst with - delight .and to : . the ordinary in' the extreme. His majority any candidate for the ‘office of governor or any other office in the histéry of the Flickertail state—a little over 60,000 to be exact—but he outdistanced his Demo- crat rival by the neat ratio of four to one in the total of 100,000 cast, and ‘Wilson carried the state. TIRED OF EXPLOITATION- “And what is it all about?” was one of the questions Governor Frazier was quick to reply to. After listening to speeches during the evening giving the tremendous wealth of the Dakota party, individually and collectively, it appeared that there was no cause for discontent, because as a rule wealthy folks do not go out and _ stand a state en‘end ‘politically-behind a not only was the largest ever received by ‘program, whose closest counterpart is found in the platform of the Socialist party. : “The people of North Dakota,—that is the farmers, for they are the people in our state,” said Governor Frazier, “have simply grown tired of having the proposed to put through elevators, flour mills, and all the other agencies of distribution which have become nothing more than instrumen- talities for the levying of a toll against society for the benefit of a few people at the expense of both the farmer, who performs most of the work, and the con- sumer.” And there you have the heart of the program of the new Granger movement, a movement which is miles ahead of any- thing that has preceded it. One added feature of interest to Wisconsin is the proposal for state hail insurance, & busi- ness of considerable magnitude in wheat growing states. “And eventually we “Make Good” Editor Nonpartisan Leader: your pre-election promises?” . - We believe you will.. - becoming educated to that pomt Says Oklahoma Coalgate, Oklahoma, We :have been watching with interest the farmers’ movement in your state for the past year, which reached its climax on November 7, 1916, at the polls and secured a complete victory for the movement. 1 would like to say to your elected state officers that the eyes of the world are on your state and we are anxious to see what course you will pursue. The Guestion is often asked, “Will you stand by your- program and .enact into laws You certamly have before you a golden opportuni to blaze: the road for the wealth producers of the Un?ted Séotes—evl;n for tltli ; civilized world. Think of the opportunity you have of laying the foundation by which 90 per cent of the crime could be abolished, by abolishing the' poverty _ of the masses. You can create conditions so that the people will not' find it - difficult to be fed, clothed and housed, as nature intended. % Boys, stand by your guns. ‘Do not lull yourselves in the belief that your enemies are whipped and will lay down at this stage of the game. come back at you from every point of the compass thh renewed energy, prevent you from enacting into law your program. If the producers of the world knew by what method and how much they are. _robbed of their labor, they would soon put a stop to the robbery. It appears to one down here in southern Oklahoma that the farmers in North Dakota are They w:ll _J. W. HUBBARD. expect to have state fire insurance. The field is pretty well taken care of by local mutuals, but they can all be combined into one, if the state itself goes into business.” NORTH DAKOTA PROGRESSIVE North Dakota is progressive, with the clutch thrown.wide open. The Wiscon- sin brand, even in its palmiest day, was miles behind the present movement that has simply swallowed up this northern state, and returned the whole convoy of old line politicians to the scrap heap. . The only survivor of the old order is wheréby the state is to own termmal / Senator Porter J. McCumber. And this disciple of Aldrich retained his senatorial toga only by renouncing his old faith and political friends and being completely baptised in the new order, which if he dares to live up to his platform declar- ations, will make him as thorough a radical as Bob LaFollette. And if he doesn’t live up to them his- last name will be “woe.” With that 60,000 majority given to Frazier, staring him in the face, he is expected to track right in the years to come in ¢he U. S. senate. This new political movement originated through the Nonpartisan League, an organization of farmers who, tired of having their interests treated with con- tempt by the school of politicians which held the state in its grip, went into the primaries of both political parties, nom- inated the Republican candidate for gov- ernor, elected him by an unheard of plurality, gave him an overwhelming majority in the lower house and a good, working majority-in the senate. And, most important of all, three of the five members of the state supreme court were elected, and these too are men of the same type as Governor Frazier. \ Once North Dakota looked to Wiscon< gin for inspiration, for leadership,—to learn how. Now the tables are turned. et the farmers of Wisconsin look to No Dakota. past. . I fully realize the fight has jusl: started and we must spur the good move. along for better government. Your state, North Dakota, proved the farmers can stick, and stick we can. Must congrat~ ulate all of you that are the originators of this great move for better government, and your paper, the Leader, for exposing Blg Business and the present government in such a frank and fearless manner. ; H. P. OFSTOS. WILL BE A CLEAN SHEET McLeod, N. D. Edltor/Nonpartlsan Leader: I have been thinking of writing a few - lines to the Leader for some time past, 5\ . farmers’ but it never happened till tonight. Here’s hoping that new daily will champion the cause. So you will find inclosed my check for $3 to pay for six months subscription for our own daily, whatever you may call it—Leader or Courier-News. I do not like the name Courier-News, but that will not matter as I know we will have a clean sheet when the Leader staff gets hold. of it. It seems ‘too bad that all the League candidates in the 37th district. were defeated, but considering the . fight we ha.dtomakeweranfalrlygood. In the first. “place: we were Democrats in a ‘. Republican stronghold, and in the second place the district is only about half organ- ized. But still we got many votes of farmers ‘who are not:League members. -Our opponents got all of their majority - in two:towns that are not. organized. I ea.mestly hope that our senator and representatives will support the farmers’ cause when assembled in the legislative - halls this winter, and not forget that the -farmers and town people have interests in common in the welfare of' North Dako*a. - - PETER FRISK, tte Farmer and stock raxser. g