The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 22, 1917, Page 4

| ! | | in all particulars. Here is a mighty bulwark for BIG BUSINESS. So it was intended and so it has proved. The Old Guard in the senate of the Fifteenth North Dakota as- sembly stood behind this bulwark and defended it from the assaults of the people. It was threatened by those Who believe in the rule of the people. . Two years and a half ago the people of North Dakota voted into effect a constitutional amendment permitting them to amend their con- stitution by THEIR OWN PETITION. Big Business .saw danger in that amendment. It resolved that it should not become effective. It has not become effective. THE GUARDIANS OF SPECIAL PRIVILEGE STOOD IN THE WAY. * % ® THE OLD GANG ON GUARD ILLS were introduced in the Fifteenth assembly to cure the de- B feet which the state supreme court eclaimed to have found in this amendment. These bills were backed by all friends of progress and good government. The Old Guard in the senate killed them because THE PEOPLE MUST NOT RULE. The people, said the Old Gang and their bosses, MUST NOT BE GIVEN AN OPPORTUNITY TO SAY WHAT CHANGES SHOULD BE MADE IN THEIR CONSTITUTION. There was no defense of this action when it was taken on the floor of the senate. It can not be defended. How can it be explained? How can you explain the action of a senator, supposed to represent the people of his distriet, who tells them by his vote that they have no right to say how they shall be governed, no right to say what the state - shall do and what it shall not do, no right to say what powers the peo- ple shall have and what powers shall be reserved to the senators? Reserved to the senators! Did you have a foolish idea that under our form of government the people were to rule? Did you be- lieve that flimsy statement in the constitution, which reads: ¢‘All political power is inherent in the people?”’ Nonsense! All political power is NOT inherent in the people. It is inherent in the senators. THEY turn over to the people what pow- ers or perquisites TILEY see fit. If'the people in their vain ignorance pass a constitutional amendment reading: ‘“We hereby reserve to our- selves the right to amend the constitution by initiative,’’ the Old Gang just simply laughs at it. ““Let the people just try it once. Let them see if they can override US.”’ g Poor, deluded, stupid people! They DID try it. And the old supreme_court, in an owlishly solemn decision, a clumsy, labored, intri- cate, hairsplitting decision, just simply ruled that THE AMENDMENT DIDN’T MEAN WHAT IT SAID. Then the Old Gang laughed. It was a funny thing, when you come to think of it, wasn’t it? Think of a lot of poor boobs carefully framing an amendment to the constitution, passing around petitions, signing them up, turning them in to the secretary of state and then expecting them to be seriously considered. ‘Who told them they could do this? Did they get permission from any of the Big Bosses behind the scenes? Did the Northern Pacific attorney give them permission? Did the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce approve this? No? Very well, then. Throw them out. Heave them onto the ash pile. Burn them up in the furnace. Oh, of course, if you want to be particular, turn them over to the supreme court. They’ll take care of them. % % * THANKS TO THE OLD GANG E HAVE to thank the Old Gang for something more than a ‘; ‘/ mere statement of the issue, making the question clear. They are actually doing some active, constructive work on behalf of the people. They don’t know that it is really on behalf of the people, but none the less it is. The Old Guard and the publicity agents of Big Business are en- gaged in circulating throughout North Dakota a pamphlet entitled ‘A Socialist Constitution for North Dakota.’”’ This pamphlet contains sufficient extracts from House Bill 44 to make the substance of the bill fairly plain, and the League, along with the Old Gang, is interested in seeing copies of it attain wide circulation. It should be remembered that the Old Gang in the senate re- fufsed to amend House Bill 44 or to have anything to do with it. They simply ORDERED that the people of North Dakota should not vote on it. The pamphlet is being circulated among others by N. C. Young of Fargo, long known in North Dakota as an active political wire- puller, and an attorney for the Northern Pacific railroad. This rail- road attorney is anxious, like the Old Gang in the senate, to ‘‘protect’’ - North Dakota FROM THE PEOPLE OF NORTH DAKOTA. Judge Young approves this pamphlet and he is ‘‘agin’’ House Bill 44, even though the poor thing is dead—although as the poet Te- marked ‘‘Its soul goes marching on.”’ * ® % THE CONSTITUTION’S FALSE TEETH ; NE of the reasons why the henorable judge is ‘‘agin’’ ‘‘44”’ is O that it omits the ‘‘knocks on the railroads’’ contained in the old constitution. You don’t understand that, do you? Let us explain. The sections Judge Young refers to might well be called ‘‘the false teeth of the constitution.”” They are sections which seem to adopt a very severe and unyielding attitude toward the railroads. Actually they mean nothing whatever. Their existence in the constitution does not in any degree or partlcular affect the state’s relations w h tho railroads or its power to control them. ’.l‘hey were put there for show, after having been guaranteed harmless by excellent railroad attorneys, like Judge Young. They are like the fake “program’’ bills passed by, the Old Guard in the senate. They mean nothing and offer a good excuse for doing nothing, ~ ~ But the Old Gang isn’t saying much about railroad legmlatxon any more—not since its members, under t.he tutelage of a railroad lobby. which came up from St. Paul for that purpose, successfully fought-and prevented the enactment of laws proposed by League men which would have reduced railroad freight rates in North Dakota to equahty with those of other states similarly situated. t ® ® » NOTICE THIS POINT ESPECIALLY HE thing to which we especially want to call your attention in I this Old Gang ‘pamphlet is the thing on which the Old Gang themselves lay stress. It is the parag'raph in ‘44" which says: q ‘“The right of the state or any pohtxcal subdivision thereof to _engage in any occupation or business for public purposes shall mat be denied or prohibited.”’ That is where the howl eomes in, That is what the Old Gang is fighting. Exactly what does this provide? Simply it PERMITS the state, counties or cities to engage in PUBLIC ENTERPRISES which will be of benefit to the WHOLE COMMUNITY. It permits them to do this WHEN THE PEOPLE SEE FIT, withgut asking permission from the 0ld Gang, the railroad political boss, special privilege or Big Business. And then they object to that other paragraph which would give the state and cities the MEANS to do what this paragraph gives them the POWER to do IF THEIR VOTERS WANT IT DONE. The latter section is the section referred to by the lusty- lunged friends of privilege as ‘‘the sky’s the limit’’ section. It would give the state, cities and counties the power to raise money above the debt limit when secured by first mortgage on property owned. All these sections seek to accomplish is to give the people in their capacity as a state, a municipal or a county corporation the power to do what the law gives to every individual and private corporation the power to do. Is “‘the sky the limit’’ when you want to borrow on your Iand‘i Does there need to be any provision in the constitution to LIMIT THE AMOUNT you can borrow? - ) You’d consider that nonsense, wouldn’t \you? The banker will see to it that you don’t borrow too much; and you will see to it your- self. A debt limit does not stop extravagance and the absence of it will not promote economy. The power to raise money in this “‘sky’s the limit’’ section would be strictly limited by the security the state or city had to offer. The Old Gang in the senate had the opportunity to amend both these sections or to let them go to the peeple as they were written. They did neither. They refused the people the right to pass on them. a'n = WHAT THEY FIGHT—THE LEAGUE PROGRAM HESE two particular sections upon which the Old Gang has I chosen to make its fight are the SECTIONS WHICH PERMIT ENACTMENT OF THE LEAGUE PROGRAM. They are the sections which, if adopted by the people, would permit municipal ownership of public utilities and state ownership of market- ing facilities. The men who wrote these two sections and voted for them in the legislature favor PERMITTING THE CITIES TO GO JUST AS FAR AS THEIR VOTERS MAY ELECT IN THE WAY OF MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP, and they favor THE ENACTMENT OF THE LEAGUE PROGRAM. The men who voted against House Bill 44 and are now engaged in fighting the League by means of the anonymous pamphlet and by other means are AGAINST MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP and AGAINST THE LEAGUE PROGRAM. First to last, that’s exactly all there i in this fight over the re- mains of poor old ‘‘Forty-four.”” The men who framed and voted for “‘Forty-four’’ made good their promise to the voters who elected ‘them. 'The men who voted against ‘‘Forty-four’’— — ‘Well, they made good with somebody, probably. A LETTER OF THANKS Geneseo, N. D., March 5, 1917, To Whom it may Concern: In behalf of seven-year-old Philo- ‘mena Musil who lost both her hands in the blizzard January 1917 and in behalf of her parents, I hereby extend many thanks to the members of the Fifteenth legislative assembly and the state officers’ at Bismarck for their financial support to the relief fund in favor of the child which netted the sum of $300. The same will be placed zation i? backing up Mr. Hagan to as a trust fund for the girl’s futurs the limit. benefit. ‘Wishing you continued success, Contributions will be received by I am, Yours truly, your friend in need. AMER. SOCIETY OF EQUITY FRANK RIBA, Trustee. J. WELLER LONG, Nati tary- Member 15th Legislative "Assembly. & ona.l Sears gaeasurer; NATIONAL UNION AMERICAN SOCIETY OF EQUITY An Organization that Teaches Co- operation Among Farmers ‘Wausau, Wis., March 12, 1917, Editor Nonpartisan Leader: I wish to express my apprecia- tion in a public way of the letter written to Mr. Houston, Washing- ton, D. C,, by John N. Hagan, com- missioner of agriculture of North Dakota. I am" writing Secretary Houston that this national organi- - FOUR R RO A A R -