The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 11, 1918, Page 13

A ”*0.' _ resolution the legislature passed a concurrent ratifying the prohibition amendment to the constitution of the United States. North Dakota is the fourth state of the mation to take such action. The amendment must be rati- tied by 36 states to become effective. The legislature also passed a con- current resolution declaring in favor of the amendment to the constitution of the United States for woman suf- frage. This resolution passed the house by- unanimous vote. There were six votes against it in the senate. By concurrent resolution iniroduced by Representative C. P. Peterson of Towner county, one of the strong League farmers, the undivided loyalty and allegiance of the people and state of North Dakota are pledged to the government to carry out the war aims and principles promulgated by Presi- dent Woodrow Wilson in his address of January 8. This resolution was adopted by unanimous vote in both houses. A concurrent resolution also was passed asking congress to take steps, as a war measure, to use the lignite coal resources of North Dakota as fuel for the manufacturers of war mu- nitions and also for the manufacture of farm machinery, which, as the reso- Iution pointed out, farmers must have at reasonable prices to carry out their program of aid to the government. DELAY IN SESSION IS CAUSED BY SENATE The session’s biggest fight came on its most important bill, carrying the amendments to the county seed and " feed bonding act. This measure was introduced~as House Bill No. 1, and the honor of introducing it was given to Representative Walter J. Maddock: of Montraill, one of the counties hard- est hit by the drouth. It was promptly passed by the house, and sent to the senate. The senate did not approve of the bill at all, and gave proof of its atti- tude by sending it back to the house amended like this: “Strike out everything after the words, ‘A Bill'.” Then ensued a stubborn and long drawn out con- test, with the senate, secure in its anti-farmer ma- jority of four, acting the role of dog-in-the-manger. Conference committee after conference commit- tee was appointed, to-remain in consultation over the measure, and then return with the report, “Un- able to agree.” Representative A. M. Hagan, known in the regu- lar session as “the father of 44”’—the bill proposing a new state constitution—was a member of some of these committees, composed of three members from each house. For a long time the vote in the committee stood 5 to 1 in favor of recommending its passage. Senator Jacobson, of Adams, Hettinger and Sioux counties, furnished the one dissenting vote. Finally a working basis was reached when the house members proposed the senate amendments to. the bill be used as a start in drafting a new measure. This resulted in a recommendation that the bill pass. But the senate chose to disregard the repart of its own committee, and by a tie vote refused to ac- cept the report. Senator Jacobson voted to accept it, as the committee of which he was a member had recommended. It became plain that the senate would never ac- cept one of the bill’'s provisions, which implied that the state would guarantee the payment of the bonds of any county which should fail in payment. This provision was inserted by the committee as evidence of the state’s good faith in authorizing the counties to issue bonds for the purchase of seed ana feed in a time of great emergency. It said that the nexi legislature should enact legislation ° providing for the payment of any bonds which the counties should fail to pay. Authorities on consti- . tutional law pointed out that such a provision could not be truly valid, for the reason that ene legisla- ture can not determine what a subsequent legisla~ ture shall do. ! But the senate would have none of it, constitu- tional or not. It implied that the state would back the county bonds, and that was enough to condemn it with the senate majority, which was against es- tablishing a precedent of the sort. They said that if the ntat.e should back these ‘bonds it might be L] —Drawn expressly for the Leader by B. O. Foss A few small-town mayors in Minnesota, with the help of some business men hostile to the organized farmers, have attempted to stop organization meetings of the League. The cartoonist shows these mayors getting their reward. The Kaiser hands them his crown of autocracy, admitting he has heen out-classed, and that, in suppressing democracy, the small-town mayors have him beaten. expected to make good the bonds of cities or school _districts.- “NO STATE GUARANTEE” IS ' SENATE PROGRAM The senate would not stand for “state guarantee” in any form, or a shadow of “state guarantee.” So the house, to bring the session to an end, agreed to cut out the “state guarantee” clause, and thus amended, the bill passed both houses. There was also a fight on the bill amending the state grain grading law. The railroad commission, which had the administration of the law, was jealous of any attempt to remove any of its power, and the purpose of the amendments was to give the state grain inspector greater authority in carrying out the law’s provisions. As finally passed the bill gives the state grain inspector, who happens to be Dr. E. F. Ladd—who serves as such without, salary— increased powers. The senate opposition again prevented the house majority from getting what it believed would be to the best interests of the farmers. “We didn’t get what we wanted,” said Represent- ative L. L. Stair, of Bettineau county, after the bill had passed, “but we did get part of it, and the law is better than it was before.” Rather a clever piece of camouflage was resorted to by the senate major- ity, when toward the close of the ses- . sion, it had its committee on military affairs introduce Senate Bill No. 21, the sabotage bill. It was an open secret that old gang members of the senate hoped and ex- pected that the house majority would reject or ignore this bill, and thus es- tablish a show of sympathy between the Nonpartisan league and the I. W. W., of whose faith sabotage is a prin- ciple. Sabotage is a broad term meaning in general the hindering of industry or the destruction of the products of industry. The bill related particular- ly to anyone who should destroy food produets. FARMERS ARE AGAINST FOOD DESTRUCTION AND HOARDING But the old gangsters of the genate were treated to a little surprise party when the house passed the bill unani- mously. House members were agreed that the destruction of food products should be considered as a serious crime. Some of them said that their only regret was that the bill did not include the crime of food hoarding, so that anyone who holds food for a higher price until it spoils eould be punished the same as the person who sets fire to a wheat stack, an elevator or a warehouse, or who poisons cattle or in some other way deprives human be- ings of the means of life. The profiteer did not get off scot- free. The legislature adopted a reso- lution introduced by Representative Anthony Walton of Ward county, ask- ing that the food administration at once fix prices on seed corn, barley, oats, spring rye and forage seeds, “which it is painfully evident are now being hoarded.” “Failure to regulate the prices quick- ly,” says the resolution, “will result in exorbitant prices that will cause a great decrease in the acreage seeded the coming spring in the Northwest, with the result that because of a consequent feed shortage farmers will not be able to raise and. fat- ten hogs and other stock, thus increasing the acute- ness of the meat shortage and retarding the develop- ment of diversified farming.” The resolution also asks that the department of agriculture and the food administration “use their utmost influence on congress” to regulate prices on farm machinery, and to see .that parts sold as repairs are not sold at more than their proportion- ate cost as parts of new set-up machinery. Copies of the resolution are to be sent to the United States department of agriculture, the United States food administrator and President Wilson. Characteristic tactics of the Big Business “kept press” developed when Representative Peterson of Towner county introduced a resolution censuring speakers who had gone out over the state, under the guise of making appeals for the Red Cross and the Y. M. C. A, and had talked politics. The reso- lution, which was not passed, was distorted by a Bis- marck gang newspaper, which printed it with the claim that it was an attack on the Red Cross and the Y. M. C. A. Mr. Peterson in a scorching speech told exactly what he thought of sueh newspaper “work,” and reaffirmed his contempt for those who used patriotism as a cloak for political spite. “LET’S GO OVER THE TOP,”’ SAYS JOHN N. HAGAN ~ ‘“Good! The legislature did its work well and while there never was any question of the wisdom of calling the special session, the results will be so excellent that crities of the governor’s action will come to wonder how they ever could have been so mistaken. ; ‘‘The amendment of the county seed and feed bonding law is about all we can do under present conditions. The North Dakota leglslature has gone as far as it ecan to make it possxble for North Dakota to do her bit in the world-crisis. ‘It is'up to North Dakota to go over the top this fall with a crop that will astonish the nation and the world. Already our normal wheat yield is ahout one-seventh of the nation’s, and we want to exceed our quota, just das we exceeded our quota in buying Liberty bonds and in subseribing for the Red Cross. : ‘‘Most -of the counties of the state, in my belief, will be able to provxde seed for the sowing of every available acre.”—JOHN N. HAGAN, State Commissioner of Agncnlture and Labor. .qus','Tmnrm -