The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 1, 1917, Page 5

| HOUSE PASSES BILL “44” | Fighting Shoulder to Shoulder in the Face of Slander and Ridicule : From a Reactionary Minority, the Farmers Put Through the \ i Most Important Bill Ever Before the Legislature The most important piece of legislation ever before a North Dakota legislature passed the 50 house of representatives, at Bismarck, January 26 and is now up to the senate. It is House Bill 44, a ’ bill to submit to the people at an election next June a new constitution carrying out the program of the Nonpartisan League and giving North Dakota the best basic law any state ever had. The vote was: for the bill, 81; against it, 28; not voting, 4. The rollcall will be found on page 7 of this issue. The house minority, led entirely by lawyers, resorted to slander of the farmers’ movement and false attacks-on the bill. Shoulder to shoulder the farmers stood and won the greatests victory the cause of the people ever had in a North Dakota house of =2presentatives. Some of the brief speeches ( ; _ of League members of the house, in answer to mean attacks of the lawyer members, were truly in- -spired. They will make inspiring pages in North Dakota history for posterity to read. Not the bril- « liant, grandstand oratory of the trained lawyers of the opposition, but the homely, heartful utter- ——————— ences of the farmers members who voted for this bill will be remembered and make J anuary 26, 1917, a big day for the common people of the state. The opposing members tried to have the house employ stenographers at the state’s expense to take down their speeches. Failing in this, they themselves employed stenographers and moved af- terwards that the house accept a report so made and pay for publishing it. This, too, failed. Some of this magnificent oratory of the opposition was written beforehand and given out to the papers, which printed columns of it to the exclusion of the speeches of the farmer members. The Leader’s detailed report of the passage of the bill follows: By Ralph L. Harmon, staff correspond- ent of the Leader ISMARCK,.. Jan. 29.—Invective, cajolery, and constitutional ar- Suments from opponents . of House Bill 44 failed to make a dent in the solid phalanx of the Nonpartisan “League during five days of fierce bat- tling over the new proposed constitu- tion, and it came from under the roll- call with 81 ayes, 28 nays, and only 4 absent and not voting. It passed the house late on Friday afternoon at the end of #éwo of the most strenuous days that have ever marked a session in Bismarck, according to veterans of many sessions. Most of the time was occupied by opponents of the bill, but an the final afternoon the League mem- bers who had for the most part sat silently listening to arguments of lawyers came back at them. It was a case of the farmers against the lawyers, for no one spoke against the measure except lawyers. Time after time as League members drove home their arguments for the bill, the galleries and the floor of the house were swept by applause. One of the biggest demonstrations occurred when Maddock of Mountrail arose to refute charges of Divet of Richland that Governor Frazier had double crossed - the people of North Dakota, pretending, as Mr. Divet asserted, throughout his campaign to be a con- servative and turning radical the moment he got into power. ATTACK ON FRAZIER GETS HOT REPLY “And I am going to ask a question,” said Mr. Divet, “that I expect to hear asked throughout this state, through- out all the unkept press of this state that still remains, throughout the halls and corridors of this capitol, and even down into the executive offices. And I expect an answer shall echo back from those offices. Is Lynn J. Frazier guilty " of dishonesty and fraud, is he drunk with the power that has come into his hand, and trying to aggrandize himself —or has he bowed his shoulders to the lash of the master?” Then, raising his voice to a shout, Mr. Divet concluded: “Lynn J. Frazier, I defy you to give % an answer that will square with a de- cent regard for common honesty.” “Answering the aspersions cast upon Governor Frazier,” said Mr. Maddock, *“the statement that Candidate Frazier made promises that Governor Frazier has broken, because of the ‘lash of the boss,’ I wish to say that I think Gov- - ernor Frazier has responded to the will of the boss, and I want him to con- tine to so respond. I believe he will. I wish to say that the people of North Dakota are boss and that Lynn J. Frazier will continue to heed their will.” The ‘entire house went frantic with applause. ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDS BILL LEGAL As Mr. Maddock took his seat, a messenger appeared accompanied by the governor's private secretary a.ng announced a message from the gover- nor. It was a writen opinion from At- The executive mansion at Bismarck, now occupied by Lynn J. Frazier, farmer governor of North - Dakota, and his family. torney General Langer to Governor - Frazier as to the legality of House Bill 44 and all it proposed to do, in which the attorney generdl answered all the legal arguments that the opposing law- yer-members had set forth, and declar- ed that there is nothing in the North Dakota constitution prohibiting the framing of a new constitution in the manner the bill proposed. The opinion had been under preparation several days. 3 It was the closing and stunning blow, and shortly afterward began the call- ing of the roll. Few had known of the opinion of the attorney general, who had briefed the question completely, covering the cases which were cited by anti-League members from the law re- ports on the floor, and answering these arguments from decisions and legal writers. TENNESON FORCED TO RETRACT CHARGE The fight began Monday, January 22, in committes of the whole and grew more bitter from day to day, many charges being hurled against the farm- ers of bill 44 by its enemies. They charged the authors with secretly try- long to give away the coal lands of the state; with abolishing all restrictions on railroads; with trying to turn all the financial resources of the state over to “someone;” with raiding the school - fund; plunging the state into debt; crippling the militia; depriving the su- preme .court of its potver to declare laws unconstitutional; with prejudice, insincerety and even treason. Mr. Tenneson of Cass county accus- ed the League of having intentionally ommitted the sections of the old con- stitution which protected the lignite coal lands from.sale by the state; but he was called down by Bowman of La Moure county, who referred him to the same identical sections in House Bill 44, except that they were numbered differently. Mr. Tenneson acknowledg- ed his mistake. From the hour the bill came up for consideration Monday it was evident that its progress was going to be im- peded as much as possible by its op- ponents. While acknowledging they were so over-whelmingly outnumbered as to have no chance of defeating the bill; and while many times admitting during the debate that they did not ex- pect to change any votes, they persist- ed in dilatory tactics, repeating with slight changes trivial motions that they _knew would be voted down, demanding rollcalls on trifling matters where they could do so under the rules, and offer- ing amendments which they knew would entirely vitiate the entire mea- sure and would be voted down. The purpose of these tactics be- came plain, when the minority at- tempted to secure two stenograph- ers at the expense of the house to take down their remarks. They contended that they ought to be allowed to go on record, so they could explain their position after . the session, but the League refused by an almost solid vote 'to go to this expense and formality. The same purpose was achieved, how- ever, by the hiring of private stenographers . by the minority, two of whom remained on duty throughout the remainder of the consideration of House Bill 44. They took nearly all of the speeches, and at the close of the rolicall Friday, Hendrickson of Burke moved that the house vote to approve these notes as the offi- cial record, which would make them available for circulation in the name of the state, but this attempt was choked by a motion to adjourn, which carried. ? The speakers against the measure were A. G. Divet of Richland county; ‘B. G. Tenneson of Cass; Henry Moen FIVE - of Adams county; H.-A. Mackoff of Stark; H. J. Blanchard of Stark and J. F. T. O’Connor of Grand Forks—all attorneys at law. No one else spoke against the measure, except those who explained their votes during rolicall. MEES ANSWERS O’CONNOR’S ORATORY Mr. O’Connor opened the debate when all preliminaries had been clear- ed, and the perfected and engrossed bill came beforc the house ‘for third reading and final passage late Thurs- _day afternoon. He spoke over an hour and one-half, basing his objections upon technicalities of 1law, what he termed the small vote for Governor Frazier, the history of all such move- ments as that of the Nonpartisan League and many other things. He recited the beginning of the farmer movements at the time of the civil war and came down to the dissolution of the Populist party, contending that such movements will always fail. Mr. O'Connor declared that while Governor Frazier had received 87,600 votes “this is but 14 per cent of the _population of North Dakota,” and he urged that it would be folly for this legislature to submit a constitution to the people that had been demanded by only that many people. This proved an unfortunate venture for F. W. Mees of Morton (League) the next day hung a speech upon this peg which gripped his hearers and called forth a demon- stration. “When the gentleman from Grand Forks figured that the 87,000 people who voted for Governor Frazier are only 14 per cent of the population, he ought to also have stated that they were 79 per cent of all the woters,” sald Mr. Mees, in the course of his re- marks. ‘“And although he gave us the history of all the farmers’ movements from the beginning of the ‘Farmers’ Alliance,’ he ought to take into con= B T ——