The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 10, 1919, Page 5

League State Has Real Soldier Plan Men Returmng From Service in F 1ght1ng Forces to Get $25 for Each Month of Serv1ce——Horne Bullders Act Will Provide Farms BY SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT HILE lawmakers of congress and of 47 states in the Union have been talking of their grati- tude to the soldiers and of the debt that their country owes them, it has remained with North Dakota to take definite action along substantial lines. Other states have taken some form of action. Idaho, for instance, has passed a resolution asking ‘the war department for some . captured German cannon, to be recast into medals for the soldiers. Colorado legislators have pre- sented a bill to give soldiers pick-and-shovel jobs on the state roads at $1 a day, provided they would sign for a definite period of enlistment. In striking contrast with this sort of action North Dakota has provided for a payment of $25 a month for every North Dakota boy in the army and navy of the United States or of the allies, for each month . spent in such service during the great war. This money is to be used either as a first payment on a city or farm home for the soldier or for his him, each with $400, can get $2,000 homes at . once, if they wanmt them, and pay the balance of the purchase price, $1,600, in monthly pay- ments extending over a period of 10, 15 or 20 years. Their payments, on the 20-year plan, . will actually be cheaper than rent. And at the end of the period the homes will belong to them absolutely. Now, a $2,000 city home, with prices what they are at present does not amount to so much. A good lot, in most of the cities ofNorth Dakota, R The treatment being accorded our re- turned soldiers throughout the nation shows up the thin veneer of old-gang patriotism. After the speech-making and bouquets, the men are left to shift for themselves in an oversupplied la- bor market, In fact, there is a delib- erate plan in many quarters to use the needy soldiers to-beat down the wage " scale. The federal government made no adequate plans and the states have been trying to put the whole respon-, sibility on the federal government. But North Dakota is an exception in this as in nearly all other matters where there is a clash between private and public interests. It has worked out an adequate plan for -aiding the soldiers and it is the only state so far to do so. The patriotism of the North ably some acreage, and divide it up into lots that will cost, perhaps, $150 or $200 apiece, in place of the $1,000 that a city lot in a section already platted would ¢ost. As 10 or 20 or 30 new up-to-date houses are built on this new tract, each house will add -to the value of every other lot in the tract, so that by the time the houses are ‘all built, every _home owner may actually have a lot that is worth $1,000, exclusive of the house, though the lot may have cost the state, unimproved, only $150 .or $200. And instead-of having only $1,000 left to use for building, each home owner will have $1,800 or $1,850. Even this might not go far if each home builder had to go out into the market for himself. But here again the home builders will get the benefit of combined action. The state, instead of buying enough lumber for one house, will buy, in one bill, enough lumber, plumbing supplies, hardware, etc., for 10 or 20 or 30 houses. It will get the advantage of wholesale rates on supplies and carload rates on freight, and it will hand this advantage on to the home builders. So that in the end it is altogether likely that the re- turned soldier and his friends, after making their preliminary payments of $400, will get homes that cost the state $2,000 and are actually worth, on the open market, $3,000 to $4,000. And the home buyers will pay for these houses just as if they were paying rent, will occupy them right along, and at the end of the payment period will own them absolutely. READY-MADE FARMS ON EASY TERMS a challenge to every other state in the Union. Every state has its returned soldiers problem. Some of the states are trying to dodge the is- sue altogether. Some of the states are trying to meet it by offering dollar-a-day pick-and- shovel jobs to the returned fighters. But the soldiers do not want pick-and-shovel jobs. They gave up better jobs when they went to war; they feel they have a right to expect fairer treatment on their return. It is up to the other states to follow North Da- kota’s lead or develop, if they can, a better plan. h i # § o 8 # 4 * d education, so that he may be able to fill a better D akota fag merl% ils not a . thin Not all of the returned soldiers will go into the |} ] job. Adjutant General Angus Fraser is charged veneer to sellisn purposes. cities. Many, it is hoped, will choose to go back % Tl with the administration of the act. : to the farms. If the returned North Dakota sol- ; What this act will mean to the returned soldiers dier desires to put his state bounty into the pur- of North Dakota, taken in connection with the home would cost close to $1,000, leaving only another chase of a farm home, the procedure will be just builders act, can be illustrated by the case of any $1,000 for building. the same. The state of North Dakota will buy % individual soldier. - But the state of North Dakota, in provxdmg him a farm that will cost as much as $10,000, as o Take Ben Mooney, for instance. Mooney is a homes under the home builders plan, does not in- soon as the soldier has paid down 20 per cent of & North Dakota homesteader. When the call to duty tend to pay high speculative prices for city lots. the purchase price, and the state bounty of $25 for 4 came -for him two years ago he disposed of his It does not intend to give the speculator, who has each month that the soldier spent in service will i property in Grant county. After a short time in been holding a city lot idle while others have been go far toward meeting this first payment. It will camp he went overseas. He was in the battle of building around him and adding to the value of his be a “ready-made” farm that will be given to the Cantigny, one of the fiercest of the war, and there property, all the advantage. Instead, when 10 or soldier, with a house, barn and everything neces- he lost his left arm. He ¢ - sary for starting to raise . was invalided home and g crops immediately. The given an honorable dis- state of North Dakota ] Dl e | . SOLDIER EMPLOYES OF N. D. CAPITOL I gl Shobiehepr ol C ¢ time he will get a me- ) ~ : the real estate shark [} I chanical arm from the game, putting the settler ¢ £ government. He also will on a stretch of bare prai- ’ il get some government rie, calling it a “farm” 3% i compensation for his in- and then to come and jury, but not enough to take it away from the [ let him live the rest of purchaser the next year % d his life at ease. Besides, because he isn’t able to & % Mooney is not the kind keep up payments. Pay- 2 o of a man who would want ments to the state will i to pose as a.professional be made on easy terms, ! R hero. He wants to work and provision is made for ' and make a good living postponing any payment for himself. when the settler meets - with a crop failure, due ] & & SECURING . to adverse weather con- | | A HOME ditions, hail or any other | Ao i Mooney was. 186 natural causes. 4 N S - months in service. Returned soldiers may . 5 Under house bill No. also use the North Da- = . ! ~ 128, the North Dako- kota state bounty for con- | ta soldiers relief act, tinuing their education, | he will receive a so that they will be able @ B | credit of $400 from to get and fill better.jobs | N G the state, either to- and be more useful citi- | ¥ ward a home or an zens. 3 b s education. ¢ A flat half-mill levy on | b | Suppose Mooney every dollar of assessed | 3. wants a city home. 5 valuation in the state of [ ¥ Under the home A group of honorably discharged soldiers of -the European and Civil wars, employed at the North North Dakota is provided ¢ builders act any 10 Dakota state capitol. Standing, left to right, are Hugo Carlson, who took part in the St. Mihiel to raise funds for the h ; men, by clubbing to- drive; Ralph Madland, Robert McGarry, Ben Mooney, who lost an arm at Cantigny; Adjutant Gen~ Dpayment of these boun- = gether as members eral Angus Fraser, John Bower, A. L. Young, I. L. Dougherty, G. G. Geiger and Guy Grove. Seated, ties. This levy will be bt 5 ; of a home Buyers’ left to right, are Colonel Kee, Archie Olson, Lieutenant Sidney Mason, who won a French war cross continued until all sol- 5. league, each putting with the Canadian forces, and Colonel H. A. Ball. Colonel Ball has the distinction of being one of the diers’ claims have been 1 up 20 per cent of the few surviving Civil war veterans who shook hands with Abraham Lincoln. The Minnesota prac- filled. A\ fv,‘ value of the home tice of preferring those with political pull to soldiers was not followed in Nerth Dakota. The action of North k. | they want, can be 5 : Dakota is going to r S put into possession of thglr homes as soon as 20 or 30 home buyers get together i_n any one city do more than take care of North Dakota sol- “ they can be bought or built by the state. or town, it is intended that steps be taken to pur- diers. The North Dakota soldiers relief bill is i e In other words, Mooney and nine others like chase a tract of land at the edge of the city, prob-