The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 2, 1921, Page 4

v A MesSage to the Far . \ mers e of America “We Will Stick to the Program—W:ill You Stick With Us?” Asks the . BY LYNN J. FRAZIER Governor of North Dakota LN west came to the state of North Da- kota and said to us, in effect, “We will help you sell your $6,000,000 worth of state bonds if you will give up most of your industrial program.” When that offer was made public I began to get let- ters from farmers in all parts of the United States. They said, “Don’t abandon the North Dakota pro- gram. Don’t compromise. Don’t sell out to the -Min- neapolis Chamber of Ccmmerce and Wall street.” We have made no compromise. We have not abandoned the North Dakota program and we are not going to abandon it. The only people who have the power to abandon the North Dakota program are the farmers themselves. I know the farmers don’t want to abandon the North Dakota program and won’t abandon it. But if the North Dakota program is going to go through the farmers of the United States must support it definitely. We have always had their moral sup- port. Now we must have their financial support as well. Because we would not abandon the North Dakota program the banks and bond houses controlled by Wall street and the Minneapolis Chamber of Com- merce will not sell our bonds. The bonds must be sold if the program is to go through. Since the banks will not sell the bonds, we must sell them direct to the people who.believe-in our program, and that means the farmers first of all. Six million dollars’ worth of bonds sounds like more than it would be possible for farmers to buy. There are plenty of bankers whose wealth totals into the millions, but no real farmer that I ever heard of is worth a million. But the aggregate wealth of the farmers is suf- ficient to put the North Dakota program over, . without hardship to any one. Unorganized the farmers can do nothing; organized they can do al- most anything. s ORGANIZED LABOR AND EASTERN PROGRESSIVES WILL BUY BONDS There are something like 250,000 farmers en- rolled in the Nonpartisan league. Many of these, I know, have been hit so hard by price reductions, by crop failures and other causes that they can not afford to do anything. But if 60,000 of them buy a $100 bond apiece, the entire $6,000,000 will be sub- seribed. Farmers will not have to buy the whole $6,000,- 000 bond issue. I have just returned from a trip to the East, where I have talked with leading men among organized labor and other progres- sives. The consensus of opinion is that in- dividual progressives and labor men will buy a million dollars’ worth of North Da- kota bonds and that the unions themselves will buy another million dollars’ worth. Progressives everywhere realize the im- portance of the North Dakota program. If the organized bankers could kill the program at this time by their financial boycott, the progressive movement in poli- ties would be set back for many years. If they could successfully boycott the North Dakota bonds, the financial interests could successfully boycott the program of any progressive state or even the program of the nation itself. ‘ On the other hand, if the North Dakota bonds are bought by the people of the United States, the financial boycott of Wall street and the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce will be broken and these in- terests can never again attempt to tell a sovereign people that they can not carry out a program that the people have decided upon. . Realizing the importance of the North Dakota program as a sort of “test case” the progressives of the East are ready and anxious to help the farmers of the West— if we can show them that the farmers of the West are standing solidly behind their program. = There is one issue of North Dakota state FEW weeks ago bankers of the North- - GOVERNOR FRAZIER : bonds that the farmers should take up themselves, every dollar’s worth, without any help from eastern progressives, labor men or any other interests. This is the $2,000,000 issue of bonds for the state mill and elevator. 4 The state mill and elevator is at the very center of the North Dakota program. At nine successive elections the people of North Dakota have voted for the state elevator. Three times the courts have passed upon the question, each time favorably, and at last the supreme court of the United States, by a unanimous opinion, upheld the will of the people of North Dakota and pronounced the North Dakota program constitutional. i At Grand Forks stands the half-completed mill and elevator, on which $1,000,000 already has been spent. If the grain interests can prevent this ele- vator from receiving grain and the mill from grind- THE ETERNAL STRUGGLE The age-long struggle is not between Republicans and Democrats, but between progress and reaction, John Baer shows in picture form. This eternal struggle is on in North Dakota today. Progress can win only if every American who believes in it does his bit. Are you doing your bit to help progress in North Dakota and in the world? PAGE FOUR - . Farmer Governor of North Dakota ing it, they will feel themselves strong enough to - block the grain marketing plan that the grain grow- ers of the nation are now launching. They will feel “themselves strong enough to block any future move- ment to help the grain grower to get a fair price for his product. It will take only 20,000 farmers, each buying a $100 bond, to subscribe for the entire issue of North Dakota mill and elevator bonds. No farmer who has $100 can call himself a true supporter of the League movement and the North Dakota program - if he fails to put himself down for one of thes bonds. 2 The North Dakota mill and elevator bonds are backed not only by the value of the mill and eleva- tor, but by the entire credit of the state of North Dakota, which has private property with an assess- ed valuation of $1,500,000,000, or almost 800 times the value of the mill and elevator bonds. Few people realize the natural wealth of the state. of North Dakota or its excellent financial condition. Its present bonded debt, outside of these industrial bonds, is $247,000, the lowest of any.state in the Union. North Dakota has 29;159,300 acres of tilla- ble land, and coal deposits estimated by geologists to contain 600,000,000,000 tons of coal—the largest deposits in the United States—which have been barely touched as yet. NORTH DAKOTA BONDS BACKED BY WEALTH OF A GREAT STATE With all this security behind them the bonds of North Dakota are as safe and sound as government bonds. They are free from all taxes, state and na- tional, and because of the greater interest rate they offer even a better investment than government bonds. The interest rate on the mill and elevator bonds, which run for 20 and 25 years, is 6 per cent. The highest interest rate on government bonds is 4% per cent. Therefore, in asking the farmers of the United States to subseribe to North Dakota bonds we are not asking them to give us a cent. We are asking them to make an investment that will be of benefit to them and their wives and children, and that will at the same time express their faith in the program of the organized farmers of the pioneer League state. < ’}fwenty thousand farmers, buying a $100 bond apiece, can subscribe for the entire mill and elevator issue. The farmer who can invest $200, $500 or $1,000 should do it, to make up for the many ‘thou- sand fa'rmers who have been stripped of all their possessions by market manipulations and ecrop failures. But for the benefit of the farmer who wants to help the movement, but can not afford to subscribe $100, we have arranged to issue bends in the denomination of $50 and $25. And for the benefit of farmers who want a shorter term bond than one running to 25.year.s, the state of North Dakota is-is- suing nine and 10-year bonds, with inter- est yields of 5% to 5% per cent. There are also thousands of farmers who have life insurance policies, upon which ’ghey can borrow cheap money from the Insurance companies, with which to buy North Dakota bonds, which are a safer m‘éestment than the insurance policy it- self, I feel sure that the farmers of the Unit- ed States will not allow organized labor and the progressives of the East to be ahead of them in supporting the farmers’ own program. I feel sure that there are 20,000 farmers who will buy a $100 bond each, and thus insure the speedy comple- tion of the great terminal elevator and flour mill at Grand Forks, that will receive and g-;'ir_nd the farmer’s own wheat, instead . of_ turning it over to the gamblers of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce. It is necessary to act without delay and it is . for-this reason that I am addressing this earnest appeal to the farmers of the na-— tion to show their faith in the program of the organized farmers of North Dakota and to say to the financial interests of the | voters of a sovereign state. - nation that they can not dictate- to the - |