The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, January 18, 1917, Page 14

A Farmer’s Crown of Thorns True Story Number Four buy from a North Dakota banker a half section of land in Towner Co., the purchase price agreed upon being $9,800. A few days later I entered into a contract to buy from the same bank- er another quarter section, this latter being state school land for which I was to get a deed from the state as soon as I had paid the banker $3500. With my two able-bodied sons and some hired help I farmed this land five vears, annually turning over all the crops to the banker to apply on the purchase price and making a liv- ing for my family with the help of my Loys by drilling wells. After the death of my wife in 1913, I was broken in health--I am now practically an in- valid—and the boys later refused to see all their work going to the banker without the debt on the place seeming t get much smaller. I attempted to settle with the banker for my equity in the place. He had refused satisfactory accounting to me curing all the years he was getting the crops, but I had trusted him. He offer- ed me $200 and a ticket to my brother's place in Tennessee for my equity. I refused and to date have got nothing out of the place. I am virtually living on charity at the home of a friend, un- able, on account of my health, to earn a living. i ]'N September, 1909, I contracted to BY MUCH HARD WORK GETS FARM IN SHAPE You have asked for stories of actual experiences of farmers. I thought you might want to learn the details of the experience I have outlined above. I will tell the plain facts. When I agregd to buy the land my two sons were 17 and 23 years old. The land was just about as much as we could work without hiring help. On the school land quarter about 35 acres were broken and we broke it all in 1910. We bought nine horses, some oats, hay and seed wheat at the same time from the banker. On the half section was about 230 acres under plow but it was full of wild oats. Therefore we plowed the land about three or four inches deeper than it was plowed be- fore and this buried the wild oats. We plowed all the land in the fall of 1909 and ‘this deeper plowing made it like new land. . In 1909 we had a good crop in spite ‘of a very dry season and the fact that most of the crops in this section were a failure. We kept out of the crop merely seed for the next year and feed for the horses and delivered all the rest to the banker. He credited us on our notes for about $1200. We had fairly good crops in 1911, 1912, 1913 and 1414, and they were always delivered to the banker, but we could not get an accounting from him. When I demand- €d on one occasion -that we be told how we were coming along on the debt he tcld me to go to the devil. In May, 1913, my wife suddenly died. My two sons would not stay on the place any longer. We never took any- tking out of the crops for our own use because I was anxious to have the debt paid to the banker as soon as possible. The boys said they were not-going to work any longer for the banker for nothing. That is what they said we + were doing. For the living of the fam- ily during the time I was turning the crops over my boys and I drilled wells. We had a well drilling outfit. The boys said they had to make a living with the well machine anyway, and what attraction had the farm for them? HEALTH BREAKS DOWN UNDER HARD LABOR After the death of my wife the hard work of drilling wells began to show on me and I broke down in health and soon was not able to get around and had to stay in bed. Nobody was on the place to look after me and I was ready to die. I offered the farm and everything to the banker if he would give me whatever he thought was right. He told me then that I had so much equity in it that he could not pay me out at that time, but that the .place could be sold and he would then help me all he could. He said he knew a man he could hire with his wife for $50 2 month to run the farm. He¢ said I could have my meals with this family by paying a reasonable amount, and I would have no trouble with hired housekeepers, and less than housekéeper’s wages would pay my board So the banker hired a man on these terms to run the place. I had with the help of two hired men plowed all the land in the fall of 1914, but right after the plowing was unable to do any more. The banker at . seeding about April 6. this time was pleased when I saxd I would go to my son-in-law for the win- ter. I hoped to have more comfort there and improve my health. The banker said he owned some horses he had no stable room for and was going to send them over to my place and he would pay the man’s' wages to take care of both his and my horses dutring the winter. I spent the winter of 1914-15 with my son-in-law and in the spring of 1915 I went back to the farm and with the help of the hired man -the banker hade put on the place and another started By running two grain -drills and a, four-horse harrow the seeding was finished about the first of May. By this time my health broke down again and I was shortly after- wards again confined to my bed. SONS FIND FATHER UNCONSCIOUS IN BED ..My two sons came back to see me - about June 1 and found me upstairs in bed unconscious. They did what they cculd for me and took me away to the home of one of them who had married, and was living at one of the nearby big towns. My health improved some before harvest time. I went back to Brings Messdge to Senator League Member Travels to Bismarck to Notify Hold-Over How People Feel on Constitution Mercer county, is the first man ® to arrive, at Bismarck during this session of the legislature from home with an up-to-the-minute mes- sage from constituents to members of the legislature, who it is claimed by J B. HAGELBARGER of Beulah, J. B. Hagelbarger of Beulah, who brought a‘message from home to Sena- tor John Young of Mannhaven. He wore his_big “We'll Stick” League but- ton, which can be seen in the picture. Go To I, (Editorial in the Devils Lake (N. D.) .Journal.) s The legislature which has met in North Dakota is charged with more re- sponsibility than any legislature since statehood. The overwhelming major- ity by which Governor Frazier was elected, the overwhelming majority by which the Nonpartisans control the lower house, the fact that of the 26 senators elected, 18 were elected as Nonpartisans, should be notice to wise men that a majority of the people of this state want the thipgs for which the Nonpartisan League stands. While one-half the membership of the senate are ‘“hold-overs,” it is not likely that any considerable number of the hold- overs would be so idiotic as to defy the wishes of the people of this state 80 unmistakably registered at the polls. And why should not the plans of the league be carried out? They represent the farmers of this state. And who are the farmers of the state? Why, they are ALL that there is to the state. There is not a man, woman or child in this state whose prosperity is not. de- pendent directly or indirectly upon the farmer. It i{s the farmer upon whom the whole business, commercial, pro- fessional, educaticnal and social fabric rests. As the farmer prospers, so all prosper. e The object of the league is to better the condition of the farmers to get what has long been denied them—the same chance-in the world that other the opposition, aré ready to block the League program. He reached Bis- marck Wednesday with a long list of freshly signed names requesting Sena- tor John Young of Mercer, Oliver, and Dunn counties, hold-over, to vote for the Nonpartisan League constitutional plan. : ‘When word reached him that the senator of his owh district was be- lieved to be debating whether or not to oppose the farmers’ plans, Mr. Hagel- barger took a long sheet of paper and started on a house to house journey in Beulah. He was surprised to find that business men whom he did not previ- ously believe to be in strong sympathy with the League program, were ready to demand that their senator act in ac- cord with the wishes of that county, and 80,000 voters of North Dakota. Senator Young was likewise surprised at some of the names he found on the list. Mr. Habelbarger remained over one evening and attended a League caucus in the Northwest hotel, and before leaving for home he announced that he will procure another list of names and be back again next week. These will be secured among farmers who are to meet at Beulah for a two or three- day session wich Agricultural college extension workers. That he will have no difficulty in getting most of them to put their names to a document ask- ing that their senator assist and not block the League plans, he has no doubt. “If ¢he League program that we all voted for is a good thing, we want it right now,” he said, addressing the caucus. “And if it isn't a good thing, why we want to find it out right now. If the members are for a change in the: constitution there is no need to wait for two years or three years. And if we are to have a new constitution, where could we fingd men ‘we would rather trust than the ones we elected this fall?” Mr. Hagelbarger is past 70 years of age. Farmers! industries, far less important, have. Heretofore- they have been meek and humble supplicants for legislation which would give them a square deal Year after year they have been bun- coed by the paid lobbyists of the cor- porations; they have been kicked from pillar to post, coddled and ridiculed as fancy suited, and always made the “goat.” That they have rebelled is the most encouraging sign since North Da,kgxa. became a state. They are no longer ' begging for what is justly due them— they are going right after it, to get it. Not “by your leave, please, mister,” but in spite of every pot-house politi- . cian, and corporation hireling, of what- ever breed or parentage. If the Nonpartisans would -succeed they will beware of those who advise them to ‘“do nothing radical,” to “be careful to do mnothing to destroy the confidence of the people,” to be “rea- sonable,” ete., etc. At the last election the people by their votes delegated upon certain people the work of removing the poli- tical canker which has. been ' under- mining the welfare of the people of this state for years. In the perform- ance of the operation some mighty loud and piteous yells will go up, but North Dakota will never be the state that it should be, until the man upon whom the burden of carrying the load has been placed, has.the same chance that “othér men have. Go to it, farmer, and keep going. FOURTEEN ' e attend to fhe haying and harvesting. ‘When I told the banker my intention he said'I looked too sick for the work and would be laid up again if I did any work. He said he would hire a good man to do the work and look after my interests. He said for me to stay in town and he would pay my éxpenses, I was under the impression that my affairs were in good hands and I went back to town, but it was not long be- fore I got worse and was advised by doctors to go to a warmer climate, where they said T might get well. I went to the banker and told him what my -doctors said and that I would sur- render all my interest in the farm for a small sum, as I intended to go to Tennessee, where I had a brother. This brother, I told him, was not able to keep me. I must have some money for my support, I said. The banker offered me $200 and my ticket to Ten~ nessee, if I would take the next train and give up my interest in the farm. I could not accept that after five years® crops we had paid him and the banker said I would “have to whistle for a while.” . I went back to town:and consulted a lawyer. I told him I had no money, but he agreed to take my case for half what he could get out of the banker for my interest in the farm. The law- ver went with me to the farm and to the banker for a settlement.. I was or- dered out of the bank. The lawyer said I had a good case after he investie gated it and said he would start an ac- tion. He said, however, that he feared I might try a settlement while the case was pending and to stop me doing that suggested that I deed all my interests in the farm over to him, and that he would sue and I would simply be a wit~ " ness in the case for him. I signed & quit-claim deed to the lawyer. HAD CRIMINAL CASE e AGAINST THE BANKER . . The lawyer found he had a criminal case against the banker also. The banker Had made out a mortgage on some horses and signed my name to it, the lawyer found. When that mortgage was signed I was in town and had not signed it at gll. These horses had not been bought of the banker by me. I had agreed to buy them four years be- fore from my son-in-law and they really belonged to my son-in-law. I was sure my case was in good hands and I-took a job running a binder on a farm near town. When the harvest was finished I was s0 ex- hausted and sick they took me to the hospital. My lawyer visited me at the hospital and assured me that he would soon force -the banker to a settlement. I was in the hospital six or seven weeks when a friend, a farmer, came and got me. When I was able I went to the lavyer again and then he told me he could not do anything as he had no money to start a case. It looked to me then as though the lawyer and banker had been working together and I demanded my contracts and papers back from the lawyer. He said he would not give them up with- out-a $50 fee. He had not done any- ~ thing for me and had nothing coming, any anyway I didn’t have any money. I took the mater up with the state’s attorney and later with the governor of the state. I got my papers back and was advised by the governor to com- plain about the lawyer to the State Bar association. I was at my wit’s end. In the spring of 1916 I consulted another lawyer and after some investigation pe took up my case and I now expect to get the banker into court. I am living with my son-in-law. My health is poor and I can not do any work. My son-in- law’s family is big and I am a burden on him. As I write this I am feeling a little better, but may not get to court when my case is called. I have no money to continue treatments from doctors. I am 65 years old and hope to be able to earn my own living yet. A LITTLE HISTORY <The farmers of our state have now taken control of the state and their labors will be watched from every angle and criticized by a few at every move. The farmers two years ago were told by the old politicians to “go home and slop the hogs.”” The farme ers thought this over and called come munity meetings in their various loe calities and decided to organfze—work together and help slop each others hogs. Then they decided other mat- ters and today the farmers have cone trol of the state machine and the old line politician now wonders Siow it all came a.bout.—-«NAPOLEofl, (N. DY HOMESTEAD, i ! b P AR