The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 3, 1919, Page 9

John Hagan—A Farmer in State Office North Dakota Commissioner of Agriculture and Labor Fills Many Offices—Aided ~Grain Grade Fight and Helped Make Dairying Real Industry in State BY E. B, FUSSELL T BISMA,RCK the other day I had dinner with the commis- sioner of'agriculture and labor, a member of the industrial com- mission, the chairman of the _ workmen’s compensation bu- reau, a member of the highway commission, a member of the board of administration, a mem- ber of the printing commission, the federal director of labor for North Dakota, a member of the stallion registration board, the disbursing officer of the state fair and a member of the state historical com- mission. It sounds like a regular banquet, with a whole iroomful of notables, doesn’t it? facts are that there was just one man with me, John N. Hagan, who fills all the offices mentioned and maybeione or two others that I have forgotten. Who is-this man. Hagan, and why does he fill so many offices ? He is a farmer who came from Indiana,'home- steaded near Deering, worked hard and saved money, bought more land with it and farmed it, un- til today he owns a splendid 960-acre place. He was one of the first men to join the Nonpartisan league when A. C. Townley started out from the home of F. B. Wood, also of Deéring, one memorable day in the spring of 1915, to see if North Dakota farmers wanted to form an’organization to control their own ° government. When the state convention met at Fargo in 1916 to pick men for a state ticket, Hagan was one of the first men discussed and without a dissenting vote he was named for commissioner of agriculture and labor. - There had been such an of- fice in North Dakota for many years. The office was regard- ed as a pood deal of a joke. It had been filled by one profes- sional politician and another, but as the farmers of the state knew a good deal more about agriculture than the commis- sioner and there were no labor laws to enforce, little was ever done. One of the former com- missioners had a small boy build a model farmhouse and: barn, plans for which are said to have been proposed by the late James J. Hill, a big com- modious barn for the hay and livestock, and a dinky little house for the farmer and- his family. This miniature house and barn still stand behind the capitol ai -Bismarck. They represent about all that any previous commissioners of agriculture and labor have left as-mementoes of their admin- istrations. 'RECORD OF SERVICE IN FIRST TWO YEARS The farmers of North Dako- ta felt that they had a right to expect more from the office, with a real farmer filling it. They have not been disappoint- ed. John Hagan came through a first term of two years with' a record of big things done for the farmers and workingmen of North Dakota. Because he had done so much and had done it so well, the legislators last winterr decided to put new burdens on his shoulders and that is why they provided so many new offices for him to fill. As member of the indus- trial commission he is one of the three men responsible for the welfare of the Bank of North Dakota, the state-owned elevators and flour mills and - the home building association. As chairman of the workmen’s compensation bureau he is re- sponsible for seeing that every 5 But the- mg the farmers. injured workman in the state gets fair compensa- tion for his injuries. As member of the board of administration, he shares responsibility for the well-being of the common schools, the university, state college, normal schools and the state chan- table and penal institutions. As federal director of labor for the state of North Dakota, Hagan has seen, during the last year, that ‘every drouth-stricken farmer of Montana or west- ern North Dakota who needed a chance to work dur- ing the harvest season, has gottén first considera- tion. - But this is enough about Mr. Hagan’s “side lines.” s, This article is to tell what this farmer official has done with his main office—the one to which he has been elected twice, Wlth big majorities, by his fel- low farmers. Mr. Hagan’s predecessors in office made fee- ble attempts to increase’farm production in North Dakota. Commissioner Hagan, upon ° being elected to office, set to work to see that something was done to insure the farmer get-’ ting a fair price for his crop after he had rais- ed it. To this end he jumped with both feet into the fight for better grades for wheat. Last year Hagan’s fight resulted in the federal grain , administration becoming convinced that Brand’s system of grades was wrong, and orders were issued that grain grading No. 5 be bought on sample instead of on the grade. This was an important admission, by one department of the government, that another branch was practic- ing an injustice upon the wheat growers. This Some of the types of corn that can be grown successfully in North Dakota, as Hagan is show- of agriculture and labor in. North Dakota. PAGE NINE N Inset—John N. Hagan, the farmer commissioner year, as the result of Doctor E. F. Ladd’s trip to Washington, the grain administration went still farther, cutting the old, unfair differentials against light-weight wheat in half. Hagan ably seéconded Doctor Ladd in this branch of the fight. The efforts of Ladd and Hagan have meant millions to the farmers of the Northwest in getting them 5 to 10 cents better price on every bushel of wheat they have raised. Commissioner Hagan has also collected the first authentic statistics of farm production that North Dakota has had. For the first time the extent and importance of the state’s dalry industry has been shown. With Hagan’s figures in. hand, the farmer legislature has been able to learn how much farm- ers were losing each year by failure to get pay for valuable dockage and the result was the law"passed by the last legislature compelling payment for dockage Hagan’s department has found how much grain the state mill and elevator may be expected to handle. HAGAN STARTED FARM EMPLOYMENT BUREAU Although North Dakota had no labor laws Mr. Hagan, as commissioner of labor, took this depart- ment seriously, instead of regarding it as a joke. He has operated a farm employment bureau that has at all times estimated accurately the needs of the state, has provided plenty of harvest help and at the same time has prevented the state from ship- ping in thousands of men for whom there would be no work. Preference always has been given farm- ers who had suffered misfor- tunes and had to hire out to earn a living. The lack of labor laws suggested the need of them and John Hagan, farmer, has worked with the labor men to the end that North Dakota now leads al- most every state in the Union in the character of its labor legislation. The bankers, lawyers and politicians of North Dakota had been preaching for years, before John Hagan was elect- ed to office, that the farmers should diversify more and go in for stock raising and dairy cattle. Having no particular confidence in these advisers, the farmers had largely gone along on the one-crop basis. Hagan set out, not to preach to the farmers but to show them. He brought in a man named J. J. Osterhous, a dairy expert from Wisconsin, and | told him to get busy. Osterhous started to study | existing-laws as soon as he | reached Bismarck. He recom- : mended to the legislature, | f which was already in session, that authority be given the de- | cream | partment to license buyers, after éxamining them to see if they. were qualified to make the butterfat test, and to revoke licenses, if any buy- ers were found guilty of dis- honest practices, such as false f grading or underweighing, tactics frequently used in the | [ Osterhous got his law | | and also had the anti-discrimi- | past. e i it e nation law amended so that it | ki would be possible to prosecute | the big cream buyers who | | would pay a big price in one section to kill competition, and | cut the price everywhere else | to make up for it. Osterhous, | in administering his depart- | ment, also required cream and | butterfat dealers to report their sales as well as their purchases This was neces- and to prevent the same tactics - (Continued on page 21) sary to ‘check up on the agents. |