The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, October 18, 1917, Page 9

et SR TS LRErioy P SRS e Joo S DL S M PATRIOTIC IM GIVING TO HELP UNCLE SAM NN \\\\\ WA N NN N\ \ \\\ N N\ N\ N NY \ \‘\‘-\\\ \\ NN \! SEE WHAT N Ry F T HAD ANOTHER HED MARCH BESI\DE HIS. BROTHERS ——— Ea —Drawn especially for the Leader by Frank Chaney Jn A State Under Farmer Rule How the North Dakota Officials Elected by the Nonpartisan League ing Justice for the People in Railway Rates and Conditions---The People in the Saddle This is the fourth of a series of erucles telling what the farmers’ administration of North Dakota, elected through the Nonpartisan league, is doing. The farmers have been at the helm of the ship of state less than ten months—a short time to restore to the people a gov- ernment that the politicians had been many decades taking away. But the gang press is asking, “What have they done?” They haven’t had time to do much, but they have made a start, and THEY ARE WILLING TO BE JUDGED ON WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOM- PLISHED TO DATE. So this series is the answer to the gang press. The first article told how the farmers fixed the taxes, the second what the farmers’ adminis- tration is doing for the farmers in the dairy industry; the third how the farmers have made the state land department serve the people, and this article tells something of what the farmer reilroad commis- sion is doing. Read this article and the others and see whether the question, “What have you done?” is answered fairly and squarely or not. BY RALPH L. HARMON XPLOITATION of North Da- kota people to the extent of several million dollars has been warded off during the past 10 months because the people have put in office a railroad eommission bent on serving them. The saving effected does not, of course, all eome within the 10 months just past, dbut if the fights made by the railroad commission elected under the leader- ship of the Nonpartisan league, had pot been made, freight rates would have been raised right and left that would have drained millions out of this state, which now will be conserved. Whe farmers’ railroad commission has done much towards conserving North PDakota’s resources by keeping the farmers and business men in much bet- ter condition to stand the strain of war, than if the railroad gouges had been " put across. So far these gouges have been pre- wvented by aggressive work in behalf of the people. If the attempts are started again, there will be on the job a rail- road commission, attorney general, and & governor who will make the same fight over again. FARMERS’ COMMISSION = RIGHT ON THE JOB One of the most important services ever rendered to the people of North Dakota by their railroad commission eccurred last May when Chairman Sam ' Are Gett . Great Northern in North Dakota than . it is for its whole line. The people of Aandahl, accompanied by Rate Expert Little, went to Washington and pro- tested before the Interstate Commerce commission against the general 15 per cent increase which all western roads were trying to put over. Attorney Gen- eral Langer and State Senator Pendray also participated and helped make the fight effective. They argued that the North Dakota farmers were not in a position to bear the increase, and that most of this in- crease would really fall ‘on the farmers. They insisted that if . the railroads needed more money at this time they were in much better position to borrow it, and could get much better rates of interest, than could the farmers. Mr. Aandahl presented, through Mr. Little, statistics to show that the operating expense of railroads in North Dakota in proportion to their total revenue is much smaler than it is for their entire lines, and that if any freight rates were to be changed at all, there ought to be 2 reduction in North Dakota. For instance, they showed that the cost of operating the Great Northern railway in North Dakota is only 46.756 per cent of its total revenue in this state, while for its whole line its oper- ating expense amounts to 54 per cent of its total revenue. In other words, it is 8 per cent cheaper to operate the CJHCALDERHEAD AY !Nlu“ 3 \ SJ. AANDAHL ~ . ice. Mr. Little is a rate expert of this state are, therefore, entitled to freight rates 8 per cent less than, the average rates, and yet North Dakota rates are higher, on the same classes of goods for the same hauls, than they. are in the adjoining states. The rail- roads wanted to raise them again, but -the protest of the North Dakota rail- road commission was effective -in showing the facts in such a light that the Interstate Commerce commis- sion refused to grant the increase. FARMERS’ MEN SHOW UP THE RAILROADS What was shown to be true of the Great Northern was the same for all the others. The total operating ex- pense of the Northern Pacific amounts to 53 per cent of its total revenue, but in North Dakota, owing to the level country and absence of rivers requiring” expensive trestles, its operat- (&% Mr. Aandahl Is chairman of the North Dakota railroad commission and has been active in this genuine people’'s body. Mr. Calderhead is secretary and has had years of ex- perience in railroad and public serv- high order, and his knowledge of rate making has been of great bene- fit in the fights the commission has made before the interstate com- merce commission. PAGE NINB ing expense is only 46.37 pet cent. For the Soo it is 49.69 in North Dakota, and 54.6 for the whole line. For the Mil- waukee it is 58.31 in North Dakota and 65.33 for the whole line. On all roads, operation in North Dakota is less cost- ly than for the whole road. The commission also showed that 64 per cent of the total grain tonnag: of the Great Northern railway originates in North Dakota and North Dakota farmers pay the high rates for hauling this, while the grain tonnage originat- ing in other states gets by with the much lower rates that were put in force in those states by act of the leg- islature. (The attempt of the Non- partisan majority in the last North Dakota legislature to enact a law simi- lar to these laws in other states, was defeated by a small vote in the senate, when old gang senators combined to kill House Bill 298, and thus did the railroads a special favor at the expense of the people). The commission show- ed that while the Great Northern gets 54 per cent of its grain tonnage in North Dakota, only 23 per cent of its mileage is there, making its grain carrying business a bonanza in that state. For the Northern Pacific the per cent of mileage is the same, and it raises 58 per cent of its grain tonnage in North Dakota. Using these figures the commission (Continued on page 18) et Ny o