The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 8, 1917, Page 11

Senate Frames Up a Big Fake Is Going to Pretend to Carry Out League Program, in an Effort to May Be Nipped by House = - ISBARCK, TFeb. 3.—Hold-over and B anti-League senators, who helped kill the farmers’ program both in " the present session and in the legisla- ture of 1915, are preparing to pull off a big piece of trickery that will prob- ably be nailed in the house of repre- sentatives by the ILeague majority there. Anti-Leagud senators, having de- feated- House Bill. 44, the bill to carry out the Nonpartisan League program, expect to vote for vari- ous fake amendments to the consti- tution that will be heralded abroad by the gagg press as “carrying out the League program which the people- voted for.” These senators are on record against the farmers’ own plan for a new constitution, as represented by House Bill 44, drawn by League 'senators and representatives. They hope to off- set their record on this bill by vot- ing for amehdments to the consti- tution, to be submiited to the legis- lature in 1919 and to be voted on by the people in 1920, pretending to permit the carrying out of tne League ,program, but in reality full of jokers and meant only to give anti-farmer senators some- thing to talk about. Under these fake constitutional emendments, no legislative act could be passed to carry out ‘the League program till 1921, when the legislature meets that year. Most of them make no provision for financing the state- owned institutions they pretend to au- thorizeé and hence are so much-useless junk; S0 far as helping the farmers any is concerned. The present consti- tution is a bar to the issuance of proper bond issues to erect state- owned plants and these amendments make no attempt to correct that. Un- “senator, . Deceive the People—Plan der them the state would be in a posi- tion. of being ‘“authorized” to build state-owned plants, but with no money or financial plan that could permit it. The state is- now authorized by two votes of the 'people to build terminal elevators, but can not do so because the constitution prohibits the issuing of the necessary bond issues. SANDSTROM'S “FAKE” FOR STATE-OWNED MILLS An amendment to the' constitution empowering the state of North Dakota to erect, lease, purchase, and operate flour mills, is one of the League planks. It is put into a bill by an anti-League after he voted to kill House Bill 44. This is Senate Bill 117, intro- duced by Senator Sandstrom. The amendment would be submitted to the next legislature, in 1919, and if approv- ed by it, then to be submitted to the people at the Tegular electigpn in 1920, and if then approved, the legislature of 1921 is empowered to proceed to enact laws for the construction of such mills. It would thus be four years before any law to put this plank of the League program into effect could be passed. Also the bill carries no provision for bonds that would permit the erection of a state flour mill, and. is purely a joke measure to enable senators who vote for it to claim they are for the League program, although they de- feated House Bill 44. It was because of the long delay that must ensue even at the quickest pace, that the League representatives de- manded immediate constitutional au- thority for such enterprises, for even if obtained riow, it would be a year or two before a plant could begin to operate, and the wheat of two crops would go to the grain trust at a loss of approximately $100,000,000 to the farm- ers. Another concurrent resolution for ah amendment te the constitution is contained in Senate Bill 118, which proposes on similar lines a state pack- ing and. cold storage warehouse for .. North Dakota. The “honor” of intro- ducing this bill was given by the anti- League senators to Senator Albert Stenmo of Grand Forks, who has work- ed against the League from the day he took his oath of office, although he was nominated and elected by the League's vetes, and as a League sena- tor. He voted against House Bill 44. Under this proposed amendment, however, the state could erect but ONE such ‘plant. The language of the bill reads: ‘“Amendment to the constitu- tion. The legislative assembly is here- by authorized and empowered to pro-~ vide by law for the erection and opera- tion of A PACKING PLANT AND COLD STORAGE WAREHOUSE in the State of North Dakota.” Thus the people would be limited to only one such plant and if at some future time they desired’ to put another one into operation, there would be the same six-year process before they could ac- complish it. The plin proposed by the League in House Bill 44- would allow the people to begin erection of such a plant whenever they-voted' to do so at a referendum or initiative election, or the legislature could pass the act.. In voting for this fake measure, senators hope to make a record that will enable them to say they were for the League program even if they did vote against: R GRONVOLD ALSO INTRODUCES ONE Another bill that would provide for ‘“stealing the thunder” of the Non- partisan League is Senate Bill 84, in- troduced by Gronvold, for the erection of a state-controlled terminal elevator at Fargo.'_ The title reads reassuringly, like a genuine carrying out of the long- -ivaluation, expressed wishes of the people, but Senator Gronvold, who introduced this measure on January 24, voted 10 times on January 29 against House Bill 44 and he voted to repeal the terminal elevator tax in 1915. House Bill 44 Jould have made possible the realiza- tion of the League program. The Gron- vold fake was introduced at the time House Bill 44 was being discussed in the house, and the petitions demanding its passage were beginning to pile up. It provides an appropriation of $300,- 000, to include all that may now be in the terminal elevator fund, for the erection and management of such an elevator. The funds to do this are to be raised by DIRECT TAXATION, a method-which would have been avoid- ed in House Bill 44, which would per- mit the issuance of bonds against the plant, secured by first mortgages on the plant, without taxing the people. The state board of equalization at its next meeting is directed by the Gron- vold bill to levy an assessment to com- plete ‘the terminal elevator fund (not to ‘exceed $300,000), or if that is im- practicable, then to raisz the assessed 1 which of course is taking the money for construction out of the pockets of the taxvayers at once. The bill provides that ‘“as soon as there is sufficient money available in the state treasury to carry out the pro- visions of this act,” <the site shall be selected, and the work be begun. But nothing else in the act provides that this fund shall be raised in one, two or more years, which is left to the board of equalization. Further, therée is no continuing levy and the act particular- ly provides that no money shall be used for this enterprise, except the $300,000 which it proposes to appro- priate, including the salary of the man- ager, and all operating expenses. Whep the $300,000 would be used up the en- terprise would step. AreBeaversaNuisance? FarmersSay So HAT do you know about ‘}‘/ beavers? - Are you a friend of R beavers, or do. you live in a part.of the Northwest where it s claimed their depredations have de- stroyed all the romance connected with their tribe, and where they charge that the settlers’ groves are invagled and denuded in a night? Out on the Slope in North Dakota, for instance, the farmers love their trees, and many of them have no love for these indus- trious tree-eaters. Several membefs <5Hm that section of the state are in 4Chy North Dakota legislature with in- junctions from their Tonstituents to repeal the law against trapping beaver and thus permit their early eragdica- tion. Probably few people outside of this part of the country have realized the fact that these animals are to many people an actual nuisance. Representative A. A. Liederback of Dunn county is preparing a bill to al- fow trapping of them at once. The law now prevents their trapping till 1920. Other members are preparing to give him support. Pictures are being gathered and data.from farmers who live along the beaver creeks, to show “that they are a menace to the develop- ment of that country. : 2 Mr. Liederback says he had d neigh- bor who had built a cdbin on a little stream in Dunn county, w\here there were 13 large cottonwood trees, the growth of perhaps more than 30 years. He prized these treés very highly, be- cause they were the largest ones in his whole section of country and weré a landmark. Last summer Liederback says, had to leave his home- stead for a while to earn a little ready money, and when he came back from a few weeks in the harvest field, he found that 12 of the 13 trees had been cut down and chewed up into logs for a beaver dam a considerable distance downstream. BEAVERS WORK ° LIKE BUSY BEES As the bea.vez;s have cut off the tim- ber at the mouths of the creeks they inhabited when the law extended pfo- ‘ tection to them, they have moved up the creeks, say the members from the ’ Slope, and are now destroying all the trees and shrubbery ' along these streams. They carry timber for as far as 30 or 40 rods, making a cleanup of everything they chop down, leaving this man, ° Above are two pictures of tree groves on the Slope in North Dakota in which beavers have played havoc. The fallen trees shown were cut down by the little animals. ELEVEN Effort is Being Made to Repeal Laws Protecting Them nothing Hut the conical stump with the deep grooves of their powerful teeth in it, as a memento of the once beloyed and valuable tree. When there are no longer any such shrubs to be hagd, it is said, the beavers invade the fields of shocked grain (for they are most active in the autumn) and will carry away the bundles of grain to their dams to be used as food and dam-material. Representative F. W. Mees of Morton county says that along the tributaries of the Heart river where he is ac- quainted the beavers have destroyed during the last three or four years sev- eral groves that used to be picnic sites for the farmers on summer outings. Trees are a scarcity in this section of the country and the settlers prize a tree far more highly than they do the beaver. ‘“What good are these beavers?” asks Mr. Mees. “No good.. The only thing they do is to destroy the timber we have. And if you say they are valna- ble for their fur, still they are not valuable for fur until they are killed. They are no good swimming around in the creeks and cutting down the tim- ber.” ARE INCREASING UNDER PROTECTION On a section of the Heart river thiee miles long it is "estimated by old timers that there are 50 beavers. They have increased very rapidly during the last four or five years, and while they have been protected by law, it is hinted that Indians and some skillful trappess have not ceased to take beaver pelts in the Slope country, year after * year, without any appreciable decrease in . the supply. Mr. Liederback says that besides damming up the small creeks where they have become numerous they have tried at some places to dam the Little Missouri river, so ardent ané in- dustrious are they in their architectur- al designs. It was a theory of the cattle days of the Slope that the beavers were an aid to the cattle men, because they dammed up the little streams in a comparatively arid country and made water holes cer- tain at frequent intervals. Those were days of wholesale cattle raising and ‘the loss of an animal now and then was not considered. But now when (Continued on page 21) e