The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 24, 1917, Page 5

lature had voted on the amendment, it had to come up again in 1911. It wasn't particularly hard to get these amendments through the legisla- ture. - There was some opposition, but not much, Most of the politicians said to each other: “If it will amuse-the farmers, let 'em have it. They won't gét away with it. ' They can't. They tried it in the ‘Pop’ days and couldn't get it.” : " The amendment to allow the Sstate to build a terminal’ elevator in Minne-- 8ota or Wisconsin came up at the elec- tion of 1912 and was carried with a tremendous majority. Meanwhile the farmers had another‘ idea. They didn't see why the ele- vator shouldn’t be built inside the state of North Dakota. The possibili- ties of raising something besides wheat were beginning to appeal to the farmers. Those who kept accounts saw that wheat raising wasn’t profit- able. Stock raising should go along with it. But shipping the grain down to elevators in Minnesota and Wiscon- sin and then shipping feed back into North Dakota was too expensive. The freight piled up, so did “handling” charges. So a new amendment was framed, one that would allow the ele- vator to be built in' North Dakota. It was thought that this would encourage private capital to put in flour mills in connection with the public owned ele- vator, so that stock raisers could get mill feeds manufactured in North Da- kota instead of from Minnesota or ‘Wisconsin, % LOFTUS APPEARS AS FARMER LEADER This new amendment got by the 1911 and 1913 legislatures without much trouble. The politicians in the legis- lature still thought it was a good deal of a joke. Some of them saw, prob- ably, that an elevator without & public owned flour - mill in connection wouldn’'t be much good. Besides, freight rates were so arranged that a mill in North Dakota couldn’t operate as profitably as a mill in Minnesota, and the legislature would still have to appropriate money for an elevator, so there was a final chance to block the game. But the constitutional amend- ment for the North Dakota terminal elevator came up in 1914 and it, like the other one, was adopted by a tre- mendous vote, The people had spoken twice in favor of handling their own wheat. The state board of control was authorized to investigate the situation, determine the best place for locating an elevator and make plans for build- ing it. ‘Meanwhile ‘the farmers had been busy along another line. It would take time to get the state owned elevator underway, so Equity farmers organized the = Equity Co-operative exchange, opened offices in St. Paul and began handling grain for farmers on the c¢o- operative plan.. First they turned the business over to a private firm, which split commissions with the farmers. Then they got a little stronger and hired a manager of their own. This man was George S. Loftus. LOFTUS IN DEBATE TOLD THE FAQTS Loftus had been in the railroad of- fices in the Twin - Citles. He had grown sick of the unfair practices he had seen there, the rebating to favored patrons, the wunfair discriminations against the little fellows, and he had quit and gone into the grain business the League is organized or organizing. for himself. But Loftus found- the same discriminations against ‘the little fellow, the same blacklisting and un- fairness, practiced by the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce. When he en- listed in the farmers' cause he brought with him a full knowledge, gained on the inside, of the robbery that was be- ing practiced against the farmers. And he told what he knew. All up and down the state of North Dakota he.went, urging the farmers to stand togethér for their common good. Lof- tus would speak all afternoon some- times. Sometimes he would break off for an hour or two to rest his voice and then start in again and speak the rest of the night. Loftus became one of the big issues of the state. He was This is the story of the fight of the North Dakota farmers. It is the first story in a new and faci- nating series that will tell about the 80-year struggle of farmers for justice in thirteen states where Read the announcement on the preceding page, and then you will want to read this story and the others to come. lose his job if the state took over the exchange elevator, who advised against it, though this man was repudiated by the exchange itself. ; THE 1915 LEGISLATURE BALKED THE FARMERS The farmers went down to the 1915 session of the legislature expecting something to be done at last. Why .shouldn't they expect it? They had “asked the 1909 and 1911 and 1913 legis- latures to take the preliminary steps, and they had taken them. Twice, in 1912 and 1914, the voters of the state, in unmistakable tones, had spoken in favor of the plan, True, the farmers hadn’t paid much attention to electing the men who were members of the A the farmers wouldn’t put up the money for a campaign fund for their own candidates. Two of the prominent farmers were inclined to look with a little favor on this man Townley's plan. They were F. B. Wood and his son, Howard R. ‘Wood, who had a farm near Deering. They weren't fully convinced that it would work, but they would like to see it tried. So after the session of the legislature Townley and the Woods started out near Deering. Townley explained the plan to the first farmer he met and asked him if he would give his money to help provide a campaign fund for farmers’ candidates without regard to their party affiliations. He would and This is the way the snow piles up in North Dakota during the winter. Edgeley, N. D. lied about and vilified, ' His meetings were broken up. At New Rockford on - one occasion the merchants hired every: hall in town in advance of a Loftus meeting and locked them up. In Fargo the city police were used to chase the Equity farmers out of the city auditorium built by public sub- scription. The most despicable lies were circulated about Loftus. Citizens supposed to be reputable were willing to state that they had seen, with their own jeyes, certificates of deposit for $10,000, $18,000 and other sums in a Minneapolis bank to the credit of Mrs. Loftus. "This money Loftus was sup- posed’ to*have “stolen” from the farm- ers. o i But Loftus came back at his traduc- ers. Enemies of the farmers were met in public debate and there was no question in the minds of the farmers whether Loftus or his enemies won out. The Equity Co-operative ex- change went ahead with a big jump and was able to build its own elevator in St. Paul. Meanwhile the bcard of control had been “investigating” the terminal ele- vator situation. They went to the late James.J. Hill and officials of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce and asked them what they thought about ‘a state owned elevator. Natur- ally these men weren’t very enthusias- tic about it. They also found one em- ploye of the Co-operative €xchange, a man who evidently fear:d -he might One of the chances the North Dakota farmer has to take. This elevator at Turner, N. D.,, was struck by lightning. The labor of 18 men finally put out the fire. legislature, but they were supposed to be the representatives of the people. The progressive movement in politics had in the meantime made much progress in North Dakota; it had re- sulted in sending the old McKenzie- LaMoure political gang, to a consider- able extent, to the political boneyard. A new set of politicians had taken their places and it didn’t seem to the farmers that they could help but be better than the other set of politicians. But at the 1915 session of the legis- lature the board of control presented a report recommending that the plan of building a state owned terminal ele- vator be abandoned. And the 1915 legislature, instead of abiding by the will of the whole people, as expressed at the 1912 and 1914 elections, abided by the will of the board of control, James J. Hill and the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, They turned down flatly the plan for a state owned elevator. It stunned the farmers who had come to Bismarck. They didn’t know what to do. But one man had a ‘plan. He said: " “Our mistake has been in asking men elected by the other bunch to do things for us. The way to do it is to elect our own men.” This man was A. C. Townley, who had been a flax farmer near Beach on a big scale. Townley knew the power of the. “other bunch.” He knew the chances that every farmer has to take, with weather conditions and other- wise. He had been ruined at flax farming, first by being hit with an early snowstorm and then by seeing the price of flax, which had been up around $2, peaten down by the grain gamblers, step by step, to 93 cents, at which ' figufe the remaining flax couldn’t be harvested and sold. He had gone “broke” and had lost the savings of previous fairly prosperous years. PLAN OF TOWNLEY FAVORED BY FARMERS Townley: said: “The way to do this is to organize politically. Gather enough of a cam- paign fund so that we can elect our own men, in spite of the campaign funds behind the old gang candidates. The only trouble with this legislature is that the other bunch elected them. They are serving their masters. If we elect our own men they will serve us.” It sounded reasonable, but it was a thing that ‘had never been done be- fore. The farmers at Bismarck, some of the leading Equity men, were afraid PAGE'FIVE ' » The locomotive and snow plow are “stuck” near did. The second farmer did the same, and so did the third and fourth. This went on day after day. Finally the farmers had 'collected money enough to make a payment on a cheap automobile. This made organization easier. Other farmers were now found willing to sign notes for more automo- biles and other organizers were put into the field. LOFTUS DIED POOR AFTER HIS FIGHT Twenty thousand North Dakota farmers had signed up as members of the Nonpartisan league before any of the old gang had heard about the plan. They didn’t have a chance to knock it and tell the farmers how they were being flim-flammed, because they didn’t know about it. And by this time the farmers had enough money to start a paper of their own, the Nonpartisan Leader, to carry the truth to the farmers and combat the lies of the kept press, which started its attack as soon as the politicians realized that something was growing up that threatened their jobs. Their attacks were bitter and un- true. The farmers were told that the organizers of the League were Social- ists, ‘atheists, free lovers, etc., etc., but the favorite cry of all was that they were grafters. i Just about this time George S. Lof-: tus died. ' Remember the stories about the $10,000 and $18,000 certificates of’ .- deposit, representing money that he had “stolen” from the farmers? Well, George S. Loftus died broke, died from: a cancer. If it had been attended to earlier, if he had had money for proper medical attention and had been able to leave the farmers fight long enough, Loftus probably would have been alive today. But he .died, and to show their gratitude, and because he died desti- tute, the farmers of North Dakota sub- scribed thousands of dollars to pay his last expenses and to care for his wife. - FARMERS FIND FRIENDS AT AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE Meanwhile the League found new friends. ' At Fargo was the North Da- kota Agricultural college, with John''’ H. Worst as its president and 'E. F. Ladd, H. L. Bolley and other friends of the farmers on its faculty. These men had always been working for the farmers, but because the farmers were not organized, because they had no publicity channels. of their own, they had been unable to carry their work (Continued on page 19) e T e A TS R R SR A T S8 = o