The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 6, 1920, Page 5

League Pledges—Were They Fulfilled? \ What the Nonpartisan League Promised Farmers of North Dakota and ‘ What Has Been Done to Carry Out These Promises BY E. B. FUSSELL years ago, A. C. Townley started to get members for the Nonpartisan | league. “What isithe League going:to “do?” was the question every farmer " asked, when he was approached to join. “It is going to elect men to office pledged in advance to make laws that the farmers need,” said Townley. . “This is what our men are going to be pledged to carry out,” and he showed the farmer a slip of paper that said: “NONPARTISAN LEAGUE PROGRAM “State ownership of terminal elevators, flour mills; packing houses and cold storage plants. “State inspection of grain and grain dockage. “Exemption of farm improvements from taxation. “State ‘hail insurance. - “Raral credit banks operated at cost.” . And the farmer usually said: “That sounds good to me,” and signed up as a member of the League. Nearly 50,000 farmers in North Dakota had affirm- ed their faith in this program of five simple planks before the primary election of 1916, a year later. The original program of the League has been left unchanged to the present, except that it has been generally agreed that packing plants and cold stor- age plants are not to be started until the terminal ° elevator and flour mill system is in full and success- ful operation. N Let us see what has been done to carry out this program of five planks. . Has the League kept its promises to the farmers of North Da- kota? S Plank No. 1 is: “State ownership of terminal elevators and flour mills.” . At Drake, N. D., the state’s first flour mill has been in operation since August 20, 1919. " It is paying on the average 12 cents a bushel more for the farmer’s grain than is being paid by private buyers, is selling flour at . slightly lower prices than those previously charged ‘by private mills and is selling mill feed at from $56 to $7.50 per ton less ‘than the prices of Minne- - apolis mills for that ter- ritory. At Grand Forks, N. D., the site of the new state-owned terminal elevator, " with a capacity of 1,800,000 bushels, and the state- owned flour mill, with a daily capacity of 3,000 bar- rels, work is starting upon the pouring of concrete. Excavation work was completed two months ago, 40,000 cubic yards of earth being removed, prepar- ing for a foundation 20 feet deep beneath the work- house ‘and scales and eight feet deep beneath the rest of the buildings.. i RAILROAD PARALYSIS AND COAL SHORTAGE DELAY WORK Overcoming - all difficulties caused by the car shortage and difficulty of securing wmaterials, the contractors have collected all necessary gravel, steel and lumber, built all needed forms and were ready to proceed June 1 with the actual pouring of con- crete—but the cement failed to appear. For more than two months the job has been de- layed by the nonarrival of the promised cement, - during the period when work should have been ~ busiest. Within the last two weeks it has started to arrive. ' Of 300 carloads ordered, the first 12 cars ' had been received August 20 and regular shipments were then expected daily, so that work is beixj‘g re- sumed with all possible speed. ; : H. G. Lykken, engineer in charge of the work for the Pillsbury Engineering company, said of the difficulties that have been met and overcome: “Two months ago we had completed the excava= tion work, removing 40,000 cubic yards of earth. N THE spring of 1915, more than five - The car shortage threatened to interfere with the securing of gravel, as the railroads could not fur- nish us with gondola cars, but we succeeded in making arrangements with the: Northern Pacific for the use of their work train:and with it hauled 6,000 yards of gravel from Melvin, Minn., 35 miles away. A “We secured 12 carloads of steel and a million feet of lumber, in spite of the shortage in these ma- terials, and have completed the forms for the en- tire buildings. ; “Contract was signed with the Lehigh Cement company for the 60,000 barrels of cement required, at an excellent price, $1 a barrel below the present market, and deliveries were to begin in May. The Lehigh company was to secure this cement from a factory at Winnipeg. The Winnipeg factory is equipped to turn out 4,000 barrels a day. On ac- count.of the car shortage and the coal shortage, however, the Winnipeg factory was unable to get the eastern coal which it was equipped to use. This made it necessary to use Manitoba lignite. With the lignite coal the factory was able to turn out ogly a little more than half its usual capacity and instead of furnishing the Lehigh company with 8,000 bar- rels a day their quota was cut to 1,000 barrels. Of this amount, it was agreed, following conferences at Winnipeg and at the Lehigh company headquarters in Jowa three weeks ago, the Grand Forks elevator Ready for the first concrete to be poured at the Grand Forks elevator and mill site. . was to get 400 barrels a day. Under this agreement the Grand Forks elevator, three weeks ago, was to be-supplied with 10 cars of cement at once and two cars a day thereafter. “It proved impossible for the Winnipeg factory to fill this order promptly, but 12 cars are now on-hand - and more are coming. ““We will rush work with all possible speed so as . to complete all buildings which are to be equipped:. with machinery before cold weather sets in. Dur- ing the winter the machinery can be installed -and . the bins can be completed early next year, so that the entire plant will be ready before the 1921 crop sets in. : 5 “I do not feel that there is any effort on the part " of the cement companies to cripple the Grand Forks work. Contractors everywhere have found it next : to impossible to get cement and throughout the Northwest dozens of paving and construction jobs, planned for 1920, have been abandoned or put over for another year because of the impossibility of get- ting materials.” A . Mr. Lykken said labor on the Grand Forks job had not only been plentiful but “very good.” The workers are taking almost as much interest in the state-owned elevator as the farmers of North Da- kota, who have worked and fought for the big im- provement year after year. : Up until a year ago it was impossible for the League to take any steps toward construction of . either terminal elevators or flour mills, At the leg- - PAGE FIVE, islative session of 1917 holdover anti-League sena- tors blocked any action. The League controlled both houses of the legislature as a result of the 1918 elections and in 1919 the industrial commis- sion was created and authorized to go ahead. Opponents of the League then brought suits against the industrial program, charging that it was unconstitutional.. The farmers won these cases in the United States district court and in the state su- preme court. Appeal was then taken to the supreme court of the United States. On June 1 the supreme court upheld the North Dakota program by unani- mous decision. GRAND FORKS CITIZENS BACK STATE-OWNED ELEVATOR Shortly before the decision was rendered citi- zens of Grand Forks, unwilling that the program should be delayed longer through the court suit, had subscribed to sufficient state bonds to enable work to be started and the Bank of North Dakota had also advanced money. With the indorsement of the supreme court of the United States there are no legal obstacles to completion of work. Since the bringing of the suit against the state, however, the financial condition has changed to such an extent that 5 and 5% per cent state bonds are no longer salable. If it had not been for the creation of the Bank of North Dakota by the 1919 legislature it would be impossible at the present time to go ahead with work on the big mill and elevator, Plank No. 2 of* the League platform is: “State inspection of grain and grain dockage.” The first step toward carrying out this pledge was taken at the legisla- tive session of 1917. In spite of the opposition in the - upper house the Leaguers forced through a Dbill establishing the state grain inspection de- partment. This law pro- vided a licensing’ system for all country elevators and other buyers. It pro- vided that in case of a dispute over the proper grade, the state should fix the grade and that the buyer must pay the price for the grade determined by the state. It provided that the license of any dealer should be revoked for any improper or illegal action. G Doctor E, F. Ladd, president of the North Dakota agricultural college and one-of the leading ‘grain experts of the nation, was placed in charge of the administration of this law. ‘Doctor Ladd estimated: that.in the one year of 1918 this law saved the farmers of North Dakdta $12,500,000. .~ o In the 1919 session of the legislature this law " was re-enacted with some additional provisions. One of the most important of the new provisions was that a buyer, in purchasing any kind of grain, must either pay the farmer for all dockage of value (less the cost of cleaning) or else return the dock- age, which the farmer could use for feed. Another provision allows the state authorities to determinc the proper margin of profit which country elevators may make, just as the interstate commerce commis- sion and the state railroad commissions are author- ized to determine the margins of profits which rail- roads are allowed to make. X The stringent provisions of the grain inspection act, as amended, raised the wrath of the members of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce. A suit was brought in the federal courts and three federal. judges, sitting in Minnesota, at the behest of thc grain buying interests, issued an injunction re straining the state of North Dakota from enfore- : ing the law before the case could be heard on it~ merits, Deputies of William Langer, the turncoa’ 7 (Continued on page 14) LR 2 i 5 ] ] B 3 | B gé | 3 i} ]