The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 30, 1918, Page 7

’ passage of North Dakota’s new constitution. .. the amendments, R e e the polls, thus counting against the amendments all who failed or . refused tovoteon them. = . oo oo o iha ; reus The: North Dakota supreme court decided Whfl,t*-vthléfll;!‘?“?' . coddles and sissy boobs! We know we can win a war; so- why not - take on a few more? Make the world an armed camp and stir up - the nations against each other. - world safe for democracy DURING THE WAR was all right, to All this talk about making the satisfy our liberals and radicals at home, and to deceive the Ger- man people into abolishing kaiserism, but as to carrying it out— well, certainly nobody can seriously argue for such an absurd thing! : _ A VICTORY OF THE PEOPLE HE passage of the North Dakota constitutional amendments isa fqr-reaclnpg victory for liberal ideas and better govern- ment in America. The 10 amendments which the people of the state have adopted by majorities ranging from 15,000 to 30,000 will permit the North Dakota legislature to carry out the farmers’ program in full as rapidly as good business practice and protection - of all interests in the state will permit. The farmers’ legislature - will naturally proceed with caution, and it is nonsense to say that the state will plunge “hell-bent” into wild schemes and business enterprises regardless of cost or advice dictated by men of busi- ness judgment. e The legislature is now empowered to issue bonds guaranteed by the state for the erection of terminal elevators and warehouses and other facilities calculated to give North Dakota a public mar- ket for farm products controlled by the people. The state also can now establish a state rural credit bank and state hail insurance. However, the North Dakota Leaguers have given. every protection to the people of the state, for the constitutional amendments pro- vide the most liberal initiative and referendum laws in existence. A mere handful of legal voters can hold up until the people can vote on it every act of the farmers’ legislature carrying out the League program. As the League opposition is well organized and well financed, even if numerically in the minority in North Dakota, there is no doubt whatever that every act of the farmers’ legisla- ture carrying out the program will be referred to a vote of the people under petitions signed by League opponents. . Under democratic conditions such as these North Dakota can not carry out any program of state-owned and operated marketing . facilities and utilities: without each step being approved by a ma- jority vote of the people, under the most generous referendum HE'S AN _( ANARCHIST TAKE A LOOR laws in existence anywhere. ' Yet, this orderly and democratic pro- cedure has been branded as “anarchy,” “bolshevism” and whatnot /by edifors throughout the country who have commented .on the 7 If the League farmers of North Dakota had seized guns, mur- dered everybody in the state not a farmer and not in favor of their program, had declared the constitution and laws abolished and then proceeded to bankrupt the public treasury by going into every imaginable kind of wild-eyed experiment, they could not have been more bitterly attacked by the conservative and special interest press. Yet they have proceeded in the way of law and order as pro- -vided under our democratic political institutions, and they have even provided a generous referendum for their enemies which will compel a separate vote by the people on every single bond issue or public project attempted by the farmers’ legislature! o THE PASSAGE OF THE AMENDMENTS _ g T HAS beén said many times that the attacks on the Nonpar- I hatred that in reality the League’s enemies are its best friends ~_they discredit the anti-League cause themselves, without mak- ing it necessary for the League to do so. This has never been truer - than in the case of the decision of the North Dakota state can- vassing board, declaring the amendments to the constitution pro- posed by the League passed. : : : Due to false information sent out of North Dakota by corre- spondents or press associations, or to intentionally corrupt practice - on the part of reporters and editors, it has been declared through- g&t-thepcountry that, in declaring the amendments passed, the can- vassing board, composed of state officers elected by the League, défied the laws and constitution. It has been variously asserted that the canvassing board is guilty of anarchy, treason and “bol- . shevism” because it did not declare the amendments lost. The facts of the case are that the 10 amendments received " from 15,000 to 80,000 moré votes than were cast against them. ! The North Dakota constitution provides, as is the case in several that amendments of this kind to carry must receive ‘g " majority of the legal votes cast at the election.’’. :In some states his phrase has been held to mean a majority of the votes cast on i in others a majority of all.those who went to sant in a decision’ in 1908, written by Judge Spaldin J the voteg league are so ignorant and inspired with such fear and ‘profiteers. over. The cost of war has still to be paid. The expenses of de- 2 B \ ures is required, on the theory that no vote could be “a legal vote cast at the election,” so far as the measures on the ballot were con- cerned, unless it was cast on the measures—for or against them. The constitution is always what the court says it is, not what anti- League editors or even the North Dakota canvassing board might hold it to be. The canvassing board was compelled to follow the™ : N.D. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. S SRAASAp Q \ /} ‘,fi: .“ . . QARG SV — constitution as interpreted by the final and supreme authority on- its meaning—the supreme court—and hence declared the amend- ments passed, although five of the ten, which had majorities around 15,000, would not have passed had those who went to the polls but {fiiled to vote on the amendments been counted as voting against em. . ; If the canvassing board had failed to count the ballots as re- quired by the constitution, under the interpretation of the supreme court, it would have been guilty of anarchy, as charged. But it did count the ballots as required by the law and constitution. It is interesting to note that the supreme court decision mentioned was handed down long before the League was even thought of and was written by a judge who since became a warm League opponent. In fact, Judge Spalding was defeated for re-election two years ago by the League farmers. WEALTH CONSCRIPTION STILL AN ISSUE HE ending of the war has in no way eliminated the issue of I wealth conscription to pay the cost of the war. It must be remembered that we have paid only a very small part of our tremendous, almost unbelievable war costs. The issuing of v i l" 5 bonds did not pay the war cost.. It merely put it off. We still have ° : 26 billions or more of war-bond indebtedness to pay in the years to come. How shall we pay it? How shall we pay the interest on it, in itself a tremendous sum annually ? ... The Leader believes that it should be paid by conscription of wealth, first through continued high excess profits taxes, second by taxes on idle land, and third a graduated income tax, falling - lightly on incomes of from $2,000 to $5,000 and with increasing heaviness on incomes from that up. We ought to take practically all in excess of $100,000 a year on big incomes. Our income tax should at least be as drastic as Great Britain’s. years will be one of big excess profits—profits above 10 and 12 per cent. Why not take 80 per cent of excess profits? Idle land— land held for speculation and unearned increment—alone could bear the whole burden without in the slightest affecting any productive industry or discouraging or limiting the production of food or any- thing else useful. : : Already, however, our financial overlords and the politicians subservient to them are getting ready to put the taxes on consum- ers of food, clothing and other necessities and on imports, which is the same thing. They are looking forward to amassing new, untold wealth during the reconstruction and getting out from un- der their just burden of taxation to pay war-debt principal and - interest. No sooner had the armistice been signed than they began to clamor for a revision of the tax bill before congress, which, in the form it then existed, placed the heaviest burden yet on excess profits and excessive incomes. In this plan they secured the aid of Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo, who recommended that the proposed tax bill be cut in two, now that peace had come. In other words, let our profiteers keep the wealth they made out of war during the last year, thus repudiating the government’s implied A2 SFORGET 1TV © §WE mMusT (o"UTHE WAR'S ovER CONSCRIPT r Q WEALTH - h A i ; promise that, so far as possible, this blood money would go to pay the costs of war. 2 S : ¢ 2l : At the same time that Mr. McAdoo was echoing the demand of the profiteers that the tax bill be cut, the papers were preparing H The next few the public for another issue of Liberty bonds, the only question to - be discussed, according to them, being-whether they should be sold to the general public, as during the war, or- whether we should-let our big banking institutions underwrite them. S The scheme to cut the tax bill is purely and simply one of the e government needs the money even if the war is mobilization will be tremendous. The government admits the need- of money by the suggestion of a fifth Liberty loan.. By no means ' is the issue of conscription of we‘alth ‘a dead one. The Leader will