The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, January 21, 1918, Page 11

* _his proclamation calling A A e A 3 et e b et et Special Session Called in North Dakota Governor Frazier Asks County Seed and Feed Bonding Law Be Amended to Help Farmers Raise Big War Crop lature has been called to meet January 23 at Bismarck to give relief to farmers who are already hard pressed for feed, and who can not put in a full grain crop this spring without financial help. .All means to finance the farmers for the bumper crop desired next season have fail- ~ed and they can not finance themselves after two seasons of disaster, rust in 1916, and drouth in 1917. The bankers who were called upon several months ago to help state officials devise means of relief, declared the banks could not furnish the money. The bill introduced several weeks ago into congress by Congressman John Baer of Fargo asking $50,000,- 000 to finance farmers of the Northwest and South for the 1917 season is making but slow headway in congress. The county bonding law of North Dakota, enacted several years ago has been proven inade- quate in the few occasions when it was called upon to finance farmers. It only allows farmers 150 bushels of seed grain and enough feed to put this in. As the average acreage of North Dakota farms is above 300 acres, the amounts allowed by this bill are_wholly inadequate, and its slow working ma- chinery can not be put in motion in time to meet the crisis at hand. WOULD MAKE BOND LAW WORKABLE For these reasons Gov- ernor Frazier has called the special session, a thing almost unprecedent- ed in North Dakota. He declared he hoped the i legislature could finish its work in three or four days and adjourn, and in !‘ SPECIAL session of the North Dakota legis- the special session, the only measure suggested is ‘amendment of the county seed bonding law to make it workable for “the present emergency. His proclamation reads as follows: “In view of the extra- ordinary conditions exist- ing: That our Nation needs all the food prod- “ucts, especially grains, that can possibly be pro- duced; and that owing to the poor crops of the past two years, assistance is necessary in about half of the counties of our state to supply seed grains and feed; and that all means thus far devised to make provi- sion for sufficient seed and feed have seemingly failed; and that the present laws of our state are inadequate to meet the situation; it is deemed necessary that a special session of the legislature be called to revise the County Seed Bonding law in order that the necessary seed and feed can be supplied to assure a good crop acreage being planted next spring, and to provide for any other war measures that may be deemed advisable; “THEREFORE I, Lynn J. Frazier, Governor of North Dakota, do hereby call the Fifteenth -Legis- lative Assembly to meet in special session at the Capitol at Bismarck on Wednesday, January 23rd, 1918, at 9 o’clock a. m.. “Given under my hand and the Great Seal of the ‘state of North Dakota at Bismarck, this 8th day of January, 1918. - ; “LYNN J. FRAZIER, By the Governor: “Governor.” THOMAS HALL, Secretary of State. OLD GANG LAYS GROUND FOR TROUBLE But in spite of the single purpose for which it . has “been called, and the well known need for quick action if North Dakota_is to meet the demands - of 1918 for its share of world food supplies, the ‘-opposition political papers of North Dakota have. - 'get a mass of entanglements intended to hamper ‘the session, discredit Governor 'Frazier and the administration, and involve ‘it in'controversies: - Chief leaders in this campaign for confusion and = . delay are. the . ‘Fargo Forum, Grand Forks Herald" ¢ m “Tribun ¢ - throwing onto the bond market, if it can be said ever since the possibility of a special session loomed in view—these three newspapers and their smaller followers in the state, have been declaring there is no need for a special session; have threatened that . if it is called the legislature will undoubtedly make wholesale . “investigations of several departments” of the state government; that the cost of a special session is tremendous; that it will undoubtedly re- sult in the lining up of political factions; and to make sure that their predictions do not fail, they have all suggested particular subjects for legislation in addition to those mentioned-by Governor Frazier. They suggest action on the federal constitutional amendment just passed by congress for nationwide prohibition; additional financial legislation for the . state; and assert there is imperative need that the local organizations formed in a number of towns under the name of “home guards” be given official standing as state military forces. Although there was no harvest trouble in North Dakota last year through labor disorders, these papers are now pre- dicting that there will be outrages of all sorts this season, and the state MUST HAVE a military force. MILK PRODUCERS THAT PAY DIVIDENDS This is the kind of cattle that farmers are proud to show. The plctui‘e was taken at one of the numerous county fairs in the Northwest, where purebred milch cows are growing popular. The campaign to load down the special session with a mass of this sort of stuff has been well ad- _vanced. Scarcely an issue of the enemy papers in the state for the past week or two weeks but has carried editorial or news articles dealing with these things. FRAZIER ASKS ACTION ON ONE NEED .ONLY - And while they make these public suggestions, to the old gang politicians who spent all of last ses- sion trying to discredit Governor Frazier and the farmer officials, these newspapers continue to de- clare they hope the session will end in three or four days. .. If the session {is.confined fo the single purpose Governor Frazier has called attention to, it can end within three or four days at a cost estimated to be approximately $10,000 or $12,000. can-provide relief worth millions, by making much needed feed available at once. Many farmers have been forced to turn their work' horses out on the range because they had no feed for them. Before they can be made ready for spring work they will have to be fed for several weeks. In recognition of the impending mneed for help some counties have already gone ahead under the old law to issue bonds for seed and feed to be dis- tributed to: farmers, fearing that nothing better could be expected. Early last summer many fields were plowed under: because the crop was a failure before ‘harvest, and in ,.some sections the question .of suspending the herd laws in order to let cattle and horses graze along the roadways for such fodder as could be had, was seriously discussed. But these have all been township or county . ef- forts to. meet a situation- that is: statewide. = The In that time it ~ there is a bond market, of 15 to 30 different county issues of bonds, each subject to different local con- ditions, might cause confusion. HOW FOOLISH, MR. LORING! Des Lacs, N, D. Editor Nonpartisan Leader: I see that on December 7 at Minneapolis at the grain grade meeting, a statement made by A. C. Loring of the Pillsbury Flour Mill company. He said he has asked the state food administration and also Mr. Hoover how the price of feed can be low- ered by the millers, and they could make no sugges- tion. He said he would like to put feed prices down $10 a ton. He said, “but if we did, the feed stores would put it up again, and that would be the worst kind of profiteering.” This statement of Mr. Loring sounds just as fool- ish as some of the charges Big Biz has made against the Nonpartisan league. It is plain to see they had no trouble to find a way to advance the price of millfeed. If the food administrator can not find a way for them to reduce the price of millfeed it will be only a few years till state owned flour mills show them how to reduce it. If this statement of Mr. Loring is true, the mills at the present time are making $10 a ton profit on millfeed. A few years ago, be- tween 1893 and 1896, I sold wheat at 50 cents a bushel, bran was selling at $4 a ton, middlings at $5, while at the present time wheat is four times as high as it was then and millfeed is eight times as high. If millfeed was held down according to the price of wheat, we farm- ers could afford to buy it and feed hogs, raise pigs and help supply pork for this country, but such outrageous prices would break any farmer. Hog feed has advanced eight times in price, and hogs only advanéed four times their former price. WESLEY WHITE. LEAGUE’'S PLACE ASSURED Judging from the editorial comment of all the eastern newspapers at all regarded as progresgive in their policy President Townley and Congress- man Baer made a tremendous impression at Cooper Union. It seems certain that nothing now can prevent the League from becoming a national or- ganization that touches-every nick and corner of the United States.—PUBLIC OPINION, Bismarck, N. D. _— THEY ARE ENEMIES - There are very few people in the state but who remember how the old gang politicians and their mouth pieces, the gang newspapers, went after the Farmers Equity when it first started and raked the late Geo. S. Loftus over the coals. Now that the Equity is on safe ground and Lof- tus has gone, these same politicians and newspaper men are doing their worst to try and break up the Nonpartisan league, another farmers’ move- ment and they are saying the same mean things about the League and President Townley as they did about the Equity and Geo. S. Loftus. Does it look as if the old gang press is working for the farmers of big interests? If some of the people who are bucking the League would come out and say, we are against the farmers organizing to bet- ter their own conditions, they would be showing their true colors. Some newspaper men have been able to spread the salve so smooth that they have made the farmers believe that they were for the farmers but not for the League. When in fact they are not working for the farmers, nor the “League, but for big buslness.—-FARMERS' PRESB, Amidon. N. D. : ; : i