The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 15, 1917, Page 3

R ——ee Nonpartissan Teader A magazine that dares to print the truth Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League VOL. 4, NO. 11 FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA, THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 1917 WHOLE NUMBER 178 MURDER AT MIDNIGHT OH, NO! You woON'T ] BLAME. OUR MEN-— I AM A WITNESS TO THIS AFFAIR! & 2 MURDER ONTO THE ] RUBE LEGlSLATOR' : Twelve o’¢lock on the last day of the legislative session. The Old Gang on Guard and How Frazier Has Disappointed Them (EDITORIAL) T’S too bad about Governor Frazier having vetoed Senate Bill 84, I the ‘‘terminal elevator’’ bill, passed by the North Dakota legisla- ture in the final hours of the Fifteenth assembly. It must have been a good bill. We know that because the Grand Forks Herald says 80. So does the Mandan Pioneer. So does the press agency which Big Business has established at Bismarck for the purpose of sending out news of ‘‘the right kind’’ regarding what happens at the state capitol. A® of these friends of the people were shocked and grieved at the governor’s veto of the bill. So were the Old Guard senators who had fought so loyally, so earnestly and so faithfully to get this bill through, who had wept tears of joy and hugged each other when the house conferees agreed to the passage of the bill. ‘We haven’t yet heard from a single enemy of the farmers’ cause in North Dakota who had anything to say against the bill. Not a single Old Gangster is willinig to speak a word of praise in favor of the governor’s action in vetoing it. This is a sorrowful state of affairs, isn’t it? Haven'’t we any friends left among the Old Gang? . ) % % » NO FRIENDS BUT FARMERS Of course, on the other hand, Governor Frazier has been receiv- ing a lot of letters and telegrams from farmers who praise him for his action in vetoing the bill. They point out that they have always been suspicious of anything framed up by the old political gang as ‘‘farmer legislation.”” They confess that they were uneasy at the indication that the Old Gang had ‘‘slipped one over”’ on the Lieaguers in the house. They want the League program enacted—not according to the speci- fications laid down by the men who told them. to ‘‘go home and slop the pigs’’—but along lines which have some prospect of success. But then farmers, as all Old Gangsters know, are ignorant about such matters and don’t know what is best for them. But we’ll have to admit, too, that President Liadd of the North Dakota Agricultural college, who discovered the facts about how the farmers were being cheated on ‘‘Feed D’’ wheat, breathed a great sigh of relief when he heard that'Governog' Frazier had vetoed the bill. President Ladd immediately after the legislature adjourned had let it e e become known that he wasn’t at all pleased with Senate Bill 84. He said he wanted the state to succeed with the terminal elevator project and he thought a $300,000 elevator, all alone, without a flouring mill to go with it, would be a serious mistake. After the governor’s veto, President Ladd expressed himself as follows: ‘I doubt the wisdom of this measure that would estab- lish such a terminal elevator. 'With the $300,000 appropriated not much could be accomplished. The capacity of the elevator would be too small and it would have but very little effect upon the market situation. No provision was made for a flour mill to be operated with the terminal elévator and therefore there would be no chance to experiment to show what could be done with state-owned industries along this line,. * * # I question whether the plan proposed is carrying out the wishes of the people.”’ e & & THE QUEERNESS OF DR. LADD Now what do you mean by that, Dr. Ladd? Do you mean to insinuate that the ‘‘wishes of the people’’ of North Dakota have any- thing to do with the matter? Would you have the nerve, if you were governor, to veto a bill accepted by the Old Guard, accepted by the Grand Forks Herald and all its little satellites and hired claquers, ac- cepted by the Chamber of Commerce and the railroads, framed in the ante-chambers of Big Business? - ‘““Yep,”” says Dr. Ladd, I would.”’ Queer character, this Dr. Ladd, isn’t he? " Queer like Lynn Frazier and the rest of that bunch of men who were loyal through thick and thin to the farmers who sent them to Bismarek. ® # o THE GOVERNOR SAW THROUGH IT Getting down to serious business, everybody now realizes that . ‘‘84”’ was a frame-up and just what sort of a frame-up it was. It isn’t fair to charge the faithful Leaguers in the house with having been asleep at the switch. They knew that the intent and substance of the bill was bad. They did not intend that the state should rush ahead