The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, January 27, 1919, Page 4

i E N BY E. B. FUSSELL 2 ICTURE, if you can, a group of #| the leading bankers of the United States meeting in secret session in the private rooms of J.- Pierpont Morgan, in New York. Picture this little bunch of self-satisfied, purse-proud men, controlling the Rockefeller ? 3 millions, the Schwab millions, ¢ the mining trust and flour trust and cotton trust millions, plotting on a program that may close : out and ruin a million grain growers in the North- i west, a million cotton growers in the South and .i cause-a panic in Wall street that will spread i through the civilized world. SR Picture the door of their meeting room opened and a big fur-coated, :fur- capped North Dakota farmer : walking in. Imagine the gasp that would | go up from the bankers. . “Who are you, and what are" you doing here?” they would . demand. 3 And the farmer would say: ¢ “I am a stockholder in a i bank that is one of the largest . and absolutely the strongest in the Northwest. It has a capi- i tal of $2,000,000, deposits cof ; $40,000,000 every cent guaran- teed, principal and-interest, by a sovereign state. that has property worth two billion dollars. I have a right to meet i you and find out what you are doing and I demand it.” ' And the bankers would gasp again and ask: “What is this bank?” And the farmer would reply: | “The Bank of North Da- ¢ kota.” ) Judging from the howl that { has gone up from the banks { of the Northwest and the pa- | pers that they control, they must be picturing some scene just such as this. . . The farmers of North--Da- kota propose to create their . own bank. Their caucus, at- { tended by two-thirds of the .. members of both houses of the : North Dakota legislature, has i voted unanimously for the in- % troduction of the bill. The £ bill has been introduced by § the state affairs committee of the house, a com- i mittee that is composed entirely of League farm- { ers, and it is now up before the legislature for dis- % cussion, with every probability of its passage. It " may have been passed by the time this article } appears in print. “LARGE DEPOSITS | ASSURED £ The bank bill, which is house bill No. ‘18, pro- % vides that thé bank shall be established .and be j{?under control of the industrial commission, com- ¥ posed of Governor Lynn J. Frazier, Attorney Gen- i eral William Langer and Commissioner of Agri- “ culture John N. Hagan. Lt " Its capital of $2,000,000 will be supplied by the i state of North Dakota, through the issuance of % bonds. i Its éeposits will be made up of the following * three classes: 21, Al public funds, whether belonging to the | state, counties, cities, school districts or townships. : By the terms. of the bill all these funds must be ! deposited with the state bank. The total of these . public funds amounts to anywhere from $5,000,000 ito $35,000,000. i 2. Reserve funds deposited by banks. At pres- ‘ent North Dakota state banks carry reserves aver- gaging about $30,000,000, with the big banks of St. i Paul and Minneapolis. It is left optional with the state banks where they will deposit their funds, but the Bank of North Dakota will be such an im- portant institution, with so much greater banking facilities than can be offered by any other. bank, R T E R R Y O D AT O H. R. Wood, the lieutenant governor elected by the North Dakota League farmers last November. f s ago: Mr. Wood was elected to the — must, -of course, be repaid, legislature and was chosen speaker of the house. presiding officer of the state senate. that it seems certain that' eventually most, if not all, of this $30,000,000 reserve will be kept within the state of North Dakota, for the benefit of the state and people of North Dakota, as it should be. 3. Private deposits by individuals or corpora- tions, in any amount. e y Here is one of the best features of the bill: Every cent of deposits will be guaranteed, both as to principal and interest, by the state of North Dakota. In other words, the Bank of North Dakota will be big enough to handle any deposit that may be made by the biggest bank, but it will not be too big to take a $1 deposit from Farmer John Jones or Ole Erickson. deposited by other banks and the $1 of John Jones and Ole Erickson will be protected, both alike, by the entire resources of the state of North Dakota, which are worth, at a conservative estimate, $42,000,000,000. That is how the Bank of North Dakota will get its funds. Now what does it pro- pose to do with the money? It can loan it to any of the state industries that are cre- ated by other acts pending be- fore the legislature—the state- owned terminal elevators, the state flour mills, the state lig- nite coal mines and briquet- ting plants. These state-owned industries, planned to pay their own way, and with the credit “of the state behind each, are the best security in the world. PROTECTION FOR STATE INDUSTRIES This plan, furthermore, will prevent any combination of banks and bankers from beat- ing the farmers’ program for state-owned industries by re- fusing” to buy North Dakota bonds. If the private bankers enter such a combination, the state of North Dakota will be able to finance its own indus- tries. All loans of this kind - Two years principal and interest, to the bank. - The state can loan its funds to any of the state banks that deposit with it, and can re- discount commercial paper that they take, just as the federal reserve banks do. = But here is the most important thing of all— the Bank of North Dakota cap, and will, loan its Now he is By the passage of a concurrent resolution in- dorsing President Wilson’s “14 points” and his proposal for the League of Nations, North Da- kota has become the first state in the Union to take official action backing the president in his struggle for permanent world-wide peace. Both houses of theegislature have also passed Senator Bowman’s concurrent resolution, urg- ing congress to ratify immediately the Susan B. Anthony woman suffrage amendment. The concurrent resolution indorsing President Wilson’s stand for permanent. peace was re- ceived with cheers when it was first laid before the farmers’ caucus. They approved it imme- diately by unanimous vote and it was the next day introduced in the legislature, where its' pas- sage by both houses followed speedily. To let President Wilson know that the'farm- ers were behind him, the text of the resolution was cabled to him in France. The resolution declares: . Be it resolved by the legislative assembly. of the state of North Dakota, assembled in its sixteenth regular biennial session: / 'PAGE ‘FOUR TS And the millions that will be - Important Resolutions by Farmer Legislature N. D. State Bank Plan Well Under Way Nonpartisan League Caucus Approves Comprehensive Measure to F ree the State ' From Financial Pirates—Farmer Majority Makes Passage Certain L~ money to farmers, on first mortgages, up to 50 per cent of the value of their property, and on terminal warehouse receipts, up to 90 per cent of the value of the farm'products covered.by the receipts. The first mortgage loans are intended for long- term loans. They will be made on this basis: The Bank of North Dakota will charge as interest the amount that it pays for interest, plus an amount less than 1 per cent additional to cover the cost of handling the money. In other words, the bank will make farm loans at cost, carrying out the League program. LOANS ON WAREHOUSE RECEIPTS The loans will be repaid on the amortization plan, that is, the farmer will repay each year, for 10 or 20 years, both his interest and a portion of the principal. As the principal is paid off the in- terest gradually will become less. At the end of the 10 or 20 years the farmer will have paid off not only the interest but also the principal. The bill makes provision that in case of crop failure, involving the loss of half or more of the - crop, the Bank of North Dakota can relieve the farmer from his payment for that year. In other words, instead of coming down upon the farmer and taking all his property away, because- he has suffered an unavoidable loss, the state will extend - for one year his time for repayment, and give him an opportunity to get on his feet again. - . The advantage to farmers of the short-time loans on warehouse receipts can hardly be exag- gerated. Instead of being forced to sell his grain as soon as it is harvested, he will be able to put ‘it in a state elevator, take his receipt.to the Bank of North Dakota and draw 90 per cent of the mar- ket price. Then he can wait for the increase in market price that is bound to come when the - Chamber of Commerce gamblers think they have gotten about all they can from the farmers at low prices. ¥ “Radical,” “socialistic,” “impossible,” are some of the things that private bankers and their news- paper organs are shrieking about the bill for a Bank of North Dakota. Radical? Well, perhaps, if it is “radical” for the people to use the money that they themselves have created. > Socialistic? Well, perhaps, to the same extent that the United States postoffice, the federal re- serve banks and the federal land banks are so- cialistic. _, ey Impossible? Sweden has had a similar govern- ment bank in operation 250 years and during the great war Swedish money held its value better than the money of any other country. _ And North Dakota farmers intend to show that istfiis not only possible but practical in the United tes. a 1. That we declare our unfaltering support of the fourteen 'points of President Wilson, as reasonably in- terpreted by the labor and democratic forces of the world, and as involving a League of Nations, which shall be governed by the consent of all countries, not by the conquest of any; which shall be governed by the elected representatives of all the peoples, not by the appointed spokesmen of the greai private interests; which shall provide and protect equal opportunities and equal rights for the citizens of all nations in their international re- lations with -each other; which shall especially protect the small nations and be the guardian of backward peo- ples_and shall restrain those of any one country who at- tempt to exploit the peoples or the resources of any other country; which shall have a sufficient military and naval force to police the seas and to protect international boundary lines and power to direct the disarmament of all nations and the demobilization of all armies not -deemed necessary for the maintenance of domestic order. 2. That a copy of these resolutions be cabled to Presi- dent Wilson and be transmitted to the presentatives of the .labor and democratic organizations Y countries. 8. That in the adqption and trangmission - of these resolutions we solemnly pledge our subport to P.esident Wilson and our co-operation with the labor and demo- cratic organizations of all countries, assuring them that the farmers of America, together with all organizations of labor, join with our president in declaring that “we are fighting, not for anything for ourselves,” for the - peace of the world under s*swvar democracy. ° By a peculiar coincidence, the Nonpartisan league caucus adopted the resolution on January 8, exactly one year after President Wilson had first announced his “fourteen points” as a basis for permanent peace. :