The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 3, 1919, Page 5

FARMERS’ LEGISLATIVE CAUCUS, BISMARCK, N. D. This is a flashlight photograph of the League caucus, held every night during the legislative session in Patterson hall, Bismarck. The League members of the legislature, visiting farmers and their wives meet together for several hours each night, discussing and becommg better acquainted with the bills that are to . be taken up before the legislature the next day It is not a secret caucus, as any farmer, upon being identified, is admitted. But the Leaguers do not invite their enemies to their own meetings, which is a cause of much dissatisfaction to the reporters for anti-League papers in Bismarck. Every representative of any eastern newspaper, sent here to investigate the League, has been admitted to the caucus sessions and these visitors know that the caucus is no secret affair. North Dakota Celebrates Lincoln Day After Patriotic Rally Leglslature Passes Bills Ushermg in Industrial Freedom— Farm Women Launch Organization to Aid in BY E. B. FUSSELL N MOST states February 12 was celebrated as Lincoln’s birth- day, and respect was paid in time-honored ways to the mem- ory of the martyred friend of the common people. But at Bismarck, the capital of North Dakota, there was a two-days’ celebration. The first day was February 12. The legislature held a brief. afternoon session, with patriotic music and orations, at which the farmer members were conspicuous by their presence and the anti- farmer members by their absence. For some reason or other, the anti-League men in the legis- lature could not get up any particular enthusiasm over the Lincoln Day services, though a number attended, perfunctorily, for a little while. - But the services at the capitol did not con- stitute the only observance of Lincoln Day by . the Leaguers. They were busy all that day. Farmers were in Bismarck from all over- the state. Nonpartisan women, principally the wives and sisters of League farmers, met all day long, launching an organization of farm women, which will be spread throughout North Dakota and to all other League states where women have the ballot,-to act as an auxiliary of the Nonpaytisan league. In North Dakota women have been granted the vote, a right they sought from the old gang in vain for many years. They are rallying now to the'support of the men who have granted them their political freedom. BIG LINCOLN RALLY IN EVENING CAUCUS In the evening the League men and women met together, with the program in charge of the women, and the big League caucus hall was packed to suf-- focation. Governor Lynn J. Frazier, President A. C. Townley of the League and other prominent League workers, men and women, recalled the memory of Abraham Lincoln, the service that he rendered man- * kind by freeing millions of slaves, and his'sympathy for the masses of mankind. Every speaker was given fervent applause. This was all on the first {day. The second day of the Lincoln celebration was . February 18 and the celebration was held at the capitol.. On that day there were passed, in senate and house, the first big measures of the League pro- gram to free white men from industrial slavery, as Lincoln freed the black men from political slavery. The bills passed in the house were the industrial / - -tc put the laws into immediate operation. commission bill, establishing a state industrial com- mission to handle all forms of business, terminal . elevators, flour mills, packing houses and the like, in which the state may engage, and the bank bill, creating the Bank of North Dakota, that will finance the various state institutions and lend farmers money, at the easiest possible rates, on real estate mortgages and terminal elevator receipts. The bill passed by the senate was the real estate bonding bill, authorizing the state to issue, as needed, $10,- 000,000 in bonds against real estate mortgages de- posited with the state bank. “The bonds are not a chfrge against the state, but against the land that is pledged by farmers, the object being to secure lower interest rates, through the bonds covering a large number of mortgages, than could possibly be secured by an individual farmer on a single mort- gage. A two-to-one vote was necessary in both houses 1 There was no -contest worthy of the name in the senate, but in the lower house it was known that the vote - would be close. K The League farmers needed 74 votes to pass their bills. There were 75 League membeérs present, pledged to the program, and three other League men were sick in the hospital. To be on the safe side the League men sent for one of the three in the hospital, Representative Donner, and he was brought to the house chamber. That gave 76 votes, two more than enough, if all the Leaguers stood by their pledges. But ‘the anti-Leaguers in the - house seemed strangely confident. They began a series of at- tacks on the League bills, bringing in amendment after amendment, seeking to destroy the effective- ness of the bills and to delay proceedings. The League farmers stuck by their measures. They had considered their bills, night after night, in the League caucus; they knew what their bills pro- vided for and why these provisions were neces- sary. They were secure in the knowledge that they were working for a system of state industry that would go far to free the farmers of North Dakota from the chains of big business. They felt that, they, in their own way, were fizhting as good a fight for the common people as Abraham Lincoln had fought in his lifetime. Meanwhile a group of men in the lobbies were active. While the anti-League leaders in the house were seeking to delay proceedings as much as pos- sible, a few quietly dressed, quiet talking men were buttonholing League members whom they had fig-’ ured as good. “prospects.” The member was first pledged to absolute secrecy, when this pledge was given the “proposition” was made to him. yV_hat these propositions were may be told .in PAGE FIVE - League Movement detail later. The farmers’ enemies, confident that they could get enough farmers to repudiate theime~ platform pledges, boasted of victory. The farmer leaders, believing in the sincerity and honesty of their fellow members, said nothing. At last the bills came up to a final vote. There was almost no speaking. The leaders of the farmers knew that every farmer member un- derstood the bills thoroughly. The farmers’ ene- mies seemed content to employ other means than oratory to change votes. But” “Dell” Patterson of Donnybrook, floor leader of the farmers, in a sig- nificant little talk explaining his own vote, gave the attitude of the League men toward the work they were doing. He said: "FARMER ENEMIES FAI\L IN GREAT EFFORT “It was only yesterday that the people of Bis- marck gathered here in this building to pay respect to one of the greatest men that the world ever knew. He gave all of his ability, in fact, he gave his life, that the flag which we have might be a flag of liberty and democracy. I want to state to this house, Mr. Speaker, that my forefathers helped to make this grand old flag of ours and my people participated in every battle that has been fought- to protect it. I consider it the least thing I could do to vote for this bill and by doing that to help our people, not by the point of the bayonet, but by casting our ballot, to make that grand old flag a flag standing for democracy in fact as well -as in name.” The roll was called, and as the call was made, the reason for the apparent confidence of the farmers’ enemies was made plain. Two men elected with League indorsements, pledged to support the farmers’ program, left their com- rades and voted with the anti-Leaguers. These men.were Representatives T. T. Donner of Dan- _ zig,. who had been brought from his hospital, and Henry Nathan of Lehr, both from the thirty-sixth legislative district. This reduced the League vote from 76 to 74. A third man, whom the League enemies expected to vote with them, a man who could have made himself financially independent for life by so doing, would have reduced the League vote to 73, and the emergency clauses, needed to put the bills into ef- fective operation, could not have been passed. But the third man did not change his vote. He stuck by his pledge to the League farmers.— The bills were saved and the League enemies were left with all their work in vain. Crowded galleries, filled with League farm- (Continued on page 14) S | | |