The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 3, 1917, Page 7

- | 7 % | | ! { { IS 15 L4t f i « b T e S ———— until 1907, when the legislature began to play Santa Claus and an engineer- ing building, a veterinary building and Ceres hall, the girls’ dormitory, came in rapid succession. 4 In all, according to the recent educa- tional survey, the college has build- ings worth $554,800, this including the library - building given by Andrew Carnegie, and the armory, which was built with money saved here and there from other appropriations and from farm earnings. The acquisition of the library came as the result of three years of patient and diplomatic work on the part of former President John ‘Worst; it was the first time Carnegie ever gave a building to a public insti- tution. Besides its buildings the col- lege now has equipment, machinery, furniture and books valued at $315,730 and the 960 acres of land which it uses probably is worth at least $200,000 in its present improved condition. THEY WORK FOR RESULTS NOT FOR LOOKS ALONE But it isn’t an expensive institution, and it is a long way from being an ex- travagant one. There is only one building on the campus that is rated as Class A construction, though nearly all are reasonably fireproof. It is just such a college as a farmer’s good busi- ness sense might have decided upon. The people you see around the campus are like the buildings, planned for results more than looks. You don’t hear any charges of the college hiring promising professionals to build up their baseball and football teams; nor does the college give any degree for new ways of dancing the tango. You don’t see many rah-rah boys in exag- . gerated clothes .driving high-powered racing cars. They are nearly all farm- ers or farmers’ sons. This is proved by the way the attendance at the col- lege rises and falls with the price of wheat.. This year, as the result of last year's crop, the student attendance is .off more than 200 as compared with the previous year. No wonder Presi- dent. Ladd is interested in seeing that the farmer gets a fair price for *Feed D", WHAT ‘KIND OF “RADICAL” IS PRESIDENT LADD? Now just a few words about this man Ladd. The millers and chamber of commerce say he is “radical” and they say it in a tone that would make a man who didn’'t know think that Ladd trained with the anarchists and Spoke every night at an.I. W. W. meet- ing. But I have seen Ladd and I don’t think he is ‘“radical”, at least, not in the way that the chamber of commerce would have you think. He is just a man whod has not let the fact that he is “educated” and able to move in any circle interfere with his vision. He has kept his eyes open and seen things and he has not been afraid to tell about what he has seen. When_ Dr. Ladd first came to the “college 27 years ago, besides being head of the chemistry department and chemist of the experiment station, he taught geology and English. As the ‘student body grew and the faculty was increased he gradually dropped these latter subjects but he continued teach- ing chemistry until a year ago, when he was made president, and while president he still has charge of the chemistry department. service conditions. Millers claim they paid all that Feed D wheat was worth. But none of them have ever brought forward anything to disprove Dr. Ladd’s findings that wheat graded as “rejected” gives practically as much and as good flour as No. 1 Northern. SR am—— e Besides his work with the college classes President Ladd is a bit of a Policeman. Whenever there is a new law passed requiring inspection worlk, the legislature puts it on his shoulders, and he has a force of inspectors scun- rying about the state constantly, en- forcing these measures, most of which are to the direct benefit of the farmer. There is the fertilizer law, the mixed feed stuffs law,.the paris green law, the pure food and drugs laws, the false ad- vertising law, the cold storage law, the sanitary inspection law and the paint law. After July 1 he will have charge of the hotel inspection law, and will be responsible for seeing that bed sheets are long enough to tuck in at the bottom and fold over on top and that no bed bugs are about, also he will enforce the oil inspection law. DIDN'T WANT TO TELL WHAT WAS IN THE PAINTS This law enforcement work is no snap. In 1905, after the legislature had passed the paint inspection law, the paint trust went before the federal courts and asked an injunction to pre- vent its enforcement. Ladd had an idea that there were some very good reasons, from the paint trust's stand- point, why they didn’t want the law enforced. So while the case being heard in the courts the college started the most thorough investigation of paints that has ever been made. Ac- tual test conditions were sought and every kind of a board that would be likely to be used for practical pur- poses was coated with every kind of paint that was on the market. Also Some careful tests were made in the laboratories. — The law requires the formula of paints to be stated upon the label, which sounds reasonable enough. Paint is supposed to be made of linseed oil, white lead and if a colored paint, some pigment or coloring matter. The pro- testing manufacturers.said requiring a statement of the formula would be giving away their trade secrets. When Ladd started his chemical analyses he found out, easily enough, why the manufacturers objected to stating their formulae. He found paint that was 23 per cent water, paint with fish oil, petroleum oil or soya bean oil in place 7 . President E. F. Ladd of North Dakota Agricultural College. disclosed many things of value to all users of paints. The paint investiga- tion he made was the most thorough going ever attempted. The bulletin issued by the college on this subject was one of the most popular ever put out. Although, the investigation was completed some years ago, requests for the bulletin are still coming in daily from everywhere. When the writer was -A dozen years ago the Paint Trust raised as big a howl over the pure paint law as the Grain Trust is raising now over state-owned " elevators. Dr. Ladd’s paint testing experi- ments showed why. of linseed, paint with clay instead of white lead, paint that resembled real paint only in beingz colored, and that color didn’t last very long in some cases, as Ladd found with his open air experiments with the painted boards. The paint trust had its dander up by this time, but so did Dr. Ladd. The fight over the paint law was carried up clear through the supreme court of the United States. The state won-and faymers of North Dakota are getting a better brand of paint today than they did before. Also, Ladd’s investigations in President Ladd's office the other day he had just received a request from India for one of them. EXPERIMENTS IN WHEAT HAVE MADE HISTORY Probably the most valuable work Dr. Ladd has done for the farmers has been possible since the 1905 legisla- ture authorized the establishment of the experimental flour mill at the col- lege. The mill. was installed during 1906 and did its first real work in 1907. aint testing experiments of Dr. Ladd at Agricultural college.Samples of every brand of paint were tested under actual 22 = SEVEN Dr. Ladd started a thorough investiga- tion of the milling and baking qualities of durum wheat. It was being dis- criminated against at the time. Dr. Ladd was able to show there was no basis for this discrimination, that for most purposes durum was practically as good as the best and that for maca- roni, spaghetti, noodles, and so'forth, it was the best. The prices of durums came up as a consequence. Next he tackled velvet chaff. Hisg investigations along this line showed that the discrimination then practiced against velvet chaff was practiced at the points of purchase only. That is, the buyers told the farmers that velvet chaff was not up to standard, and paid lower prices for it, but they told the miller it was high grade wheat, and collected full price. The Wisconsin grain inspection department took a lively interest in this investigation. Itg members came to Fargo and partici- pated with the college men. They were thoroughly convinced, and in the grad- ing rules they adopted thereafter there was no discrimination against velvet chaft. Next Dr. Ladd took up the problems of bin burning and frosting. He dis- covered that the milling qualities of ‘wheat were not affected in the least -by slight burning or frosting, in spite of the fact that the buyers were in the habit of marking down for them. THE FAMOUS BULLETIN ON THE GRADING OF WHEAT In 1914 Dr. Ladd undertook the most important experiments of all. These were milling and baking tests of the so-called low grades of wheats. As a result of these tests, in January, 1915, Dr. Ladd put out his famous Special Bulletin No. 14. It was entitled: “Is the Present System of Grading Wheat Equitable?” Dr. Ladd's experiments gave the answer to this guestien. The answer was an emphatic, flatfooted “No”. This was before the chamber of com- merce had hit upon the idea of' es- tablishing feed grades. Dr. Ladd made milling tests of No. 1 Northern, No. 2, No. 3, No. 4 and low grade “rejected” wheat ‘averaging about 42 pounds to the bushel, wheat that last Year wquld fiave been put in the feed grades. The . experiments showed conclusively that while there was a larger loss in clean- ing the light weight wheat, there was actually less loss in milling than with the heavier wheat, so that the light wheats produced almost as much flour (Continued on page 14) = S S G k> S B e,