The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 3, 1919, Page 4

State Industnal Commission Formed League Caucus in North Dakota Decides on Body of Three Men to Handle Publicly Owned Enterprlses—Adequate Powers Granted BY E. B. FUSSELL NSTEAD of big business run- ning North Dakota, North Da- kota is getting ready to run big business. The Nonpar- tisan league program, sub- mitted to the farmers in 1915, promised them state-owned elevators and flour mills, rural credit banks operated at cost, state hail insurance and other important reforms. After a four-year fight both branches of the leg- islature and the state government are in the peo- ple’s hands. The legislature is working upon bills that will carry out every promise that the. League made. . The first bill of the League series, the parent bill of the group, is the industrial commission bill. This bill creates “The Industrial Commission of North Dakota,” composed of Governor Lynn- J. Frazier, Attorney General William Langer and Commissioner of A Agriculture John N. Hagan. Frazier and Hagan are both on-the-soil farmers. Attorney General Langer has' for years been a consistent fighter for the farmers, and all three have been triumphantly re-elected after finishing their first term of service to the state. The industrial commission is to hold and operate all public utilities now existing in North Dakota or which may hereafter be cre- ated by law. .This will include elevators, ware- houses, flour mills, the Bank of North Dakota, the Home Building association, coal mines and briquetting plants, all of which will be pro- vided for in separate bills by the present leg- . islature, and any other utilities which any future legislature may decide-upon. The industrial commission has authority to em- ' ploy managers and other employes for all enter- prises. It will determine the location of all public utilities and may get sites by purchase or by exer- cising the state’s right of eminent domain and con- demning the property. The industrial commission is authorized to nego- tiate the sale of bonds, to fix rates and charges and make regulations for the use of all utilities, and _to_pursue investigations, having power to subpbena witnesses and compel testimony. It must furnish an annual report on the oper- ations of ‘each industry. For the first two years it is given $200,000 to operate upon. The “parent” bill was the first one of the public ownership group introduced in the legislature. It is officially known as house bill No. 17. It was ap- proved unanimously by the caucus, composed of all .League members of the senate and house, and was introduced by the state affairs committee of the house. This committee is composed entirely of League farmers. Following house. bill 17, separate bills were in- treduced, each covering some one utility, all of which w1ll be under the industrial commission. House bill 18, for instance, provides for the Bank of North Dakota, and other bills provide for other reforms. The one in which farmers will be interested most ~ Members of the industrial commission of North Dakota, which will manage the system of elevators, warehouses and flour mills, the Bank of North Dakota, the Home Building association, state coal mines and briquetting plants, and any other industries in which the state may engage. In the center is Gov- ernor Lynn J. Frazier, on the right is Attorney General William Langer, and on the left is Commis- sioner of Agriculture and Labor John N. Hagan. Governor Frazier and Commissioner Hagan are on-the-soil farmers, and Attorney General Langer has long been fighting the farmers’ battles. of all, because it covers a subject that has been'a live issue in North Dakota for 10 years, is the terminal elevator bill. It provides that the industrial commission be authorized to establish an elevator, ware- house and flour mill system, to be known as the North Dakota Mill and Elevator associa- tion, and to have a capital of $5,000,000. The money previously raised by taxation for a ter- minal elevator is appropriated out of the state treasury, and the remainder of the capital is to be raised by the sale of state bonds. The measure declares that the state fidopts the policy of going into the business of mar- keting and manufacturing farm products. The mill and elevator association may acquire property by lease, purchase or condemnation and may construct elevators, warehouses and flour mills and “all other things necessary, incidental or con- venient in the manufacturing and marketing of all kinds of raw and finished farm products within or without the state, and may dispose of the same; and may buy, manufacture, store, sell, exchange or otherwise acquire or dispose of all kinds of manufactured and raw farm and food products and by-products, and may for such purposes establish and operate exchanges, bureaus, agencies and mar- " kets within or without the state, including foreign countries, on such terms and conditions and under such rules and regulations as may from time to time be prescribed by the industrial commission.” Farmers of North Dakota do not need to be told of the advantages that will be afforded them by a state-owned terminal elevator. Twenty-six years ago they had a bill passed creating such an ele- vator and appropriating $100,000, but the supreme court declared the law unconstitutional. They later adopted two constitutional amendments to make a terminal elevator.possible, voting on them at three successive elections, only to see the legis- lature of 1915 refuse to build it and tell the farm- ers to “go home and slop their hogs.” They or- ganized the Nonpartisan league, won partial vic- tory in 1916 and complete victory in 1918, making the terminal elevator and flour mill system pos- sible. These are a few of the things that the new sys- tem will do for North Dakota: Make possible an open market for grain. * Allow the farmer to hold his grain for a rise in the market, meanwhile securing money on his warehouse receipt. Prevent the chamber of commerce from taking Feed D wheat at half pnce and making from it flour which sells for full price. Make possible cleaning at cost and honest weigh- ing and grading. Build up the livestock industry of the state, by giving the farmer feed that does not have to bear the cost of a round trip from North Dakota to Min: neapolis and back. All this in addition to the savings that will be made by operation for semce, instead of for profit, and in addition to giving a state that has been practlcally without local industries a business that will give employment to hundreds of families. State Hail Insurance Plan Decided - Rates of Fiftcen Cents on Crop Land and Ten Cents on Unused Tillable ;1TATE hail insurance was one of the planks of the National Nonpartisan leagne when it was organized in 1915. Today, in control of the North Dakota legislature in “both branches, League members are consider- mg and will pasg a bill apply- ing the compulsory land tax feature for the first time in the United States. Hail losses in' North Dakota are unusually severe. Private companies charged, last year, all the way from 70 cents to $1.20 per acre for hand- ling the business. " That would not be so bad if they always paid “But North Dakota farmers, _year after - losses. year, after paying their premiums, have been met after hailstorms with the statement that the com- panies in .which they insured had gone “brdke.” Sometimes they paid a portion of their losses; sometimes the private companies had been so badly hit or so badly looted that they could pay scarcely anything. Many a farmer has been offered Hob- son’s choice, either to get back his premium, after suffering ‘a total loss, or to get back nothing at all The bill now being considered by the North Dakota legislature is intended. to end this proposition. It places a flat tax of 15 cents an acre on all tilled land, and a tax of 10 cents an’ acre on land that could be cultivated but is held idle. An actual farmer is allowed to hold up to 640 acres of land idle and have it classed PAGE FOUR | e O e L el TN S VTN Land to Cover Costs—Slackel: Acres Thus Must Bear Part as pasture land. On the other hand, the specu- lator who is merely holdmg his lands idle while his more progressive and active neigh- bors are using their lands and adding to the value of the state, will have to pay the full rate. The bill prov:des for a payment of $7 an acre in losses. It is probable that in actual oper- ation the payment of losses can be made greater or the premium rate made less. There are approximately 17 ,000,000 acres of tilled land in North Dakota, 20 000 ,000 acres of tillable land held idle, and 3,000, 000 acres of pas- ture land. On the rates proposed in the farmers’ hail insurance bill the tax of 15 cents and 10 cents would raise approximately $5,000,000, - The greatest hail losses ever pald in North Da-