The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 10, 1917, Page 15

— Chaseley, N. D., 2-4-17. Editor Nonpartisan Leader: ‘What great deeds were performed in the legislature - during the last ses- sion? Was any part of the original program carried out? They must have done one thing, which, I'm sure most of us didn’t expect, when they helped to make the state bone dry. When did the liquor question become a plank in the League’s platform? I understood that this question was to remain a private affair as far as the League was concerned. We voted for the candi- dates .indorsed by the Leader, but had no idea that we voted in a bunch of temperance cranks. There surely must have been more important matters to work on than this liquor question. NELSE BERWICK. < THE ANSWER You were quite right in your under- standing that the liquor question “was to remain a private affair as far as the League was concerned.” It has re- mained just that. The Leader has taken no stand on the matter and neither have the League officers. If you will inquire of some of the League representatives or senators you will find that the question was on the same basis at Bismarck. It is our information that the ‘“bone dry” bill was mentioned in the League caucus and that it was agreed there that the question should be left entirely to the private consciences and opinions of the individual members—and that is just what was done. - The caucus did not attempt to say how any man should wvote on this question, neither did any of the*League leaders. No man, of course, could be compelled to vote on this or any other question except as his own best judgment dictated; but there was this difference on the liquor issue: That no attempt was made to form a united judgment on the matter. From letters and other expressions that we receive we learn that the League members throughout the state are well satisfied with the records - made by the farmers’ members of the The “Bone-Dry” Bill A Letter From a Correspondent on the Lig- uor Question and the Answer. legislature whom the League indorsed. These men with only a very few excep-: tions stuck loyally to their principles and made a very earnest effort to put through legislation of benefit to all the people of the state, especially to pass laws carrying out the League program. In spite of the obstructive tactics of the opposition they have to their credit a number of first-class acts, such as increasing the allowance of the rural schools of state money, taking the oil inspection out of politics, pass- ing a law to reduce railroad freight rates, passing a grain grading and warehouse inspection act, an act for the registration of land Jtitles, and a law for the guaranty of bank deposits, to reimburse depositors for loss in bank failures. There never was a group of men in the legislature who worked so faith- fully throughout for the interests of the people of the whole state. They deserve praise and not criti- cism for their acts and they deserve to be sent back to the next session with a farmer senate to use the experience and knowledge of the state’s needs they acquired at this session in putting into effect the League program and of sweeping the last of petty politics out of state affairs. Big money is being spent in this state now to break up the farmers’ League and to split up the farmer vote so that a ‘€orrupt political gang can go on ruling the state and preventing any legislation which will stop the market graft. If we get into rows about the liquor question—which, by the way, has been made a dead issue by the new United States “bone-dry” law passed by the federal congress—we will only play into the hands of the gang that has always run North Dakota in the interest of the lawyers, the bankers and big and little business, but never in the interest of the farmer. We are sure that you are a big enough man to forget any difference of opinion over the liquor matter and to stay with the fight for bigger things. ‘We need your help now just as much as ever. ~ EDITOR, -~ Personal Property Taxes Berlin, N. D. Editor Nonpartisan Leader: ‘What is your argument in favor of exempting all personal property from taxation? According to the pamphlet that is sent out entitled “A Socialist Constitution,” there is a section that provides that the legislature may exempt any and all personal property from taxation. Would like for you to answer through the Leader as soon as pos- sible. Z. M’CALLEY. | TR T THE QUESTIO_N ANSWERED The general property tax system, guch as still obtains in North Dakota and a few other states, is almost uni- versally condemned by students of economics, and during the last quarter of a century has been abandoned by nearly all progressive states. The general property tax places the game tax upon land, which can not be concealed, and all classes of personal property, the most valuable of which can be and are concealed from the as- . gessor. . The result has been that while . all land is listed on the tax rolls, much . of the personal property escapes. The _‘owner of personal property who is honest, and makes a return.on all his . possessions, is penalized for the bene- fit of the man who conceals his. per- sonal property,. . .. The new constitution proposed ;in House Bill 44 offered two plans for .. meeting this difficulty. = It provides in Section 166: “Laws SHALL be passed by the legislative assembly classifying all property for the purposes of taxa- tion and exemption therefrom.” It went on, providing in Section 169: «Dhe legislative assémbly MAY by law exempt any or all classes of personal property from taxation.” The propos- ed constitution added that improve- ments on land should be considered personal property. In other words, it is made obligatory 3 “upon the legislature to classify prop- erty for the purposes of taxation. The property once classified, the legislature is given power to adopt either one of two courses. It might provide, for in- stance, a somewhat lesser rate of tax- ation for personal property. This might induce owners of property now generally concealed, such as _bank de- posits, railway stocks, jewelry, etc., to make honest returns. It also would encourage building and improvements upon lands ‘instead of discouraging such improvements. 3 If the legislature should not feel that this method would meet the difficulty, it is empowered to go still further and exempt all personal property from taxation. The argument in favor of this is that it would put the farmer in the country and the rich man in the city on the same basis. The livestock, farm implements and furniture of the farmer now appear on the tax rolls. They are of a nature that does not allow conecalment, even if the farmer wanted to conceal them. But ‘the bonds, stocks and jewelry of the rich man notoriously escape taxation, be- cause when the assessor comes around they generally are stowed safely away in a safe deposit vault. However, the proposed constitution does not make the exemption of per- sonal property obligatory. It merely allows the legislature a free hand to adopt this taxation method if it sees fit. Any action the legislature might take would be subject to the veto pow- er of the people, exercised through the referendum. But under- the present constitution neither the legislature nor the people have any power to change the admittedly archaic taxation sys- tem of the state—THE EDITOR. ; " ASK THEM HOW Practically every opponent of. the Nonpartisan League admits that there is “something rotten in Denmark” and that something should be done, but “that is not the way to go about it.” Ask this same individual how he would go-about it and he will perhaps answer in the immortal words of Tom Parker Junkin of the Grand Forks Herald: “God only knows.” As a matter of fact, with most of these people it is not so much a question of finding a remedy as getting forever rid of the league.— BOTTINEAU (N. D.) COURANT. For Quick Results Use “Classified” Ads. ADVERTISEMENTS PATRIOTISM DEMANDS That All Butter-Fat Waste Be Stopped President Wilson’s powerful appeal for the conservation of the nation’s resources is still ringing in our ears. ‘“The supreme need,”’ he says, ‘“of our own nation, and of the nations with which we are co-operating, is an abundance of supplies, and especially of food stuffs;” and again, “Upon the farm- ers of this country, therefore, in large mea- sure rests the fate of the war and the fate of the nation.” : Wasteful methods must be abolished. Every device that makes for the saving of time and labor on the farm must be utilized. Every plan that makes for the conservation of our food products must have the farmer’s hearty co-operation. And nowhere is there greater opportun- ity than in the production of dairy products, particularly butter-fat. “Fats, fats, fats, more fats,”’ that is the demand of the warring nations in Europe. The men who toil and the men in the trenches must have fats. They are the fuel that the human machine must have. And no fat is so palatable or so easily assimilated as butter. ‘When it was simply a question of the farmer’s own loss of profit, the tremendous waste of butter-fat on American farms was bad enough, but under present conditions such waste is nothing short of eriminal. And it is wholly unnecessary. - It is conservatively estimated that about a million cow owners in the United States are still skimming milk by some wasteful ‘‘gravity’’ method. At an average of four cows to the farm, and an average waste of thirty-five to fifty pounds of butter-fat per cow, all of which could be saved by the use of a De Laval Cream Sepa- rator, this alone represents an annual waste of at least 140,- 000,000 pounds of butter-fat. Then there are, perhaps, a million inferior or half-worn- out separators in use whose owners could save fifteen to twenty pounds of butter-fat per cow per year by replacing such ma- chines with new De Lavals; and this represents another waste of at least 60,000,000 pounds of butter-fat annually. Also there is the loss of time and labor that-a De Laval would save and which could be better devoted to other produc- tive work on the farm. This waste is hard to compute, but it is almost as important as the loss of butter-fat. These are startling statements, but any dairy or creamery " authority will agree that these estimates of waste are really very conservative. Shall this tremendous waste .continue? Will the loyal American farmer permit such waste when he appreciates the duty that is laid upon him to conserve the one article of food that above all others is necessary to the life and health and energy of the men who serve the nation in the field, the factory, the mine—and soon in the trenches? ‘We have always bad an abiding faith in the American farmer, and we believe that if he is made to appreciate the full purport of the President’s appeal to him; the appeal will not be in vain; and when he further appreciates what the De Laval can do to save the butter-fat which is now being wasted, and - that his patriotic duty demands that such’waste be stopped— NOW—our plants will not be big erough to take care of one- - half the demand for De Laval Cream Separators. The De Laval Separator Company 165 Broadway, New York 29 E. Madison St., Chicago Mention Leader when writing advertisers k tas