hand whose occupation was by far the most dangerous and therefore were only applied to a very small group and of even smaller influence in the State. That such laws were passed for the purpose of influencing the discontented minority in other states is beyond a doubt. The fourth class of legislation, that which we have termed punitive, was by far the most vicious. During the campaigns the leaders of the League had railed against the opposing newspapers calling them the "Kept Press" and mouthpieces of the chamber of commerce. It was natural, then, that they should attempt to wreak vengeance upon them for their temerity in opposing the farmers' cause. To effect such punishment legislation was enacted limiting the number of papers permitted to publish legal notices for a charge to one in each county and this one to be designated by a state publication and printing commission composed of the secretary of state, the commissioner of agriculture and labor and the chairman of the board of railroad commissioners. This selection was to stand until the next general election when the citizens of each county should select by ballot that newspaper which should be the official newspaper for the next two years. The move was a most subtle one. It empowered the commission, which was controlled by the League, to select those papers which should be the official newspapers for the ensuing eighteen months. Since these men naturally favored those sheets that had supported them and since the legal notices furnished a substantial part of the income of every paper, it was hoped that such action would not only save the farmer a considerable sum, since he need not subscribe for more than one paper in order to obtain all the legal notices, business and that he desires to be left as it is, resenting any change in the outside world that will inconvenience him. His reforming attitude is amply evidenced in the Prohibition movement which secured its first great victories in the agrarian districts where the farmers deplored the drunken sots who hung around small town saloons. The other side of his character is amply evidenced in his hostility to Dr. Wiley after he had made an attempt to prohibit the sale of bin-burnt wheat. When Dr. Wiley was reforming the Beef Trust, however, he was very popular. but what was most important, it was hoped that by cutting off a substantial part of the income of each paper, both from notices and from a fall in the number of subscribers, the opposition press would be substantially reduced in numbers.35 In addition to the above mentioned attempt to stifle criticism, the legislature enacted what has been commonly called the "Anti-Liars Act" which permitted the State to prosecute any state official who had made a false statement concerning the state industries. This law, together with the act creating the so-called "Smelling Committee," which was empowered to investigate and bring to trial any state employe willfully spreading false reports concerning the state industries, were passed at the special session of the legislature held in the fall of 1919 after the defection of State Auditor Thomas Hall and Attorney-General Langer, and were to be used to punish them for their share in the closing of the ScandinavianAmerican Bank and also their open and most damaging exposé of the lavish conduct of the State industres. In the preceding discussion it has been apparent that no opportunity seems to have been lost to drive home to the opposition the fact that the League could not only threaten but dared to attempt revenge. To add to their power the judicial system, which was elective, came under their control. Here all precedent was cast to the winds. The judges of the supreme court had run on platforms in which they had announced what stand they would take on important cases about to come before the Court. They discussed pending cases in the press and pledged themselves to uphold all industrial legislation. Thus not even the courts were free to the private citizen, should the case in any way have a bearing upon the policy of the administration.36 35 N. Dakota Publicity Pamphlet, June 26, 1919, p. 17. 36 At the Fargo Convention of the Non-Partisan League in the spring of 1916, Mr. Townley had said, "We've got to have a Supreme Court that will hold constitutional the laws we pass in the Legislature "(The Grand Forks Herald, Feb. 2, 1919). One case of particular notoriety, the Youman's Bank case, was reopened even after final judgment and the sending down of the final order or remittitur (A. A. Bruce, The Non-Partisan League, pp. 190-198). It might be asked, what is the purpose of reciting the details of this petty quarreling and class prejudice? The answer to this question reveals the cause for the fall of the League from power. The vindictive spirit of its leaders, the terroristic methods of the administration, the seeming eagerness of the legislature to lend aid to the spread of the League in other States, the reckless use of public monies, the violent class-feeling aroused, and finally the prostitution of the courts so influenced the opinion of the money market that the Industrial Commission was not able even after favorable court decisions to dispose of any of the bonds of the industrial series and only three million dollars of the farm loan series and these at a substantial discount. This circumstance so tied the hands of the administration that when the financial crisis came in the fall of 1920 the League leaders found that they had burned all their bridges behind them. Public opinion had begun to disfavor them and the elections of that year though they gave the executive offices to the League gave the lower house of the legislature to the opposition. Investigations became the order of the day adding discredit to the already embarrassed position of the League. With its financial methods exposed, its program incomplete, and its credit worthless, the recall election directed against the Industrial Commission in the fall of 1921 ended the misery of an already hopeless position. There is no doubt that the great slump in the value of farm products had aided materially in the defeat in that it had added greatly to the prevailing feeling of pessimism. Even under these circumstances, however, the farmers defeated the League only upon the administration issue. They carefully withheld their approval of the request to scrap the Added to this open prostitution of the courts the League heaped insult upon injury in its brazen attempts to violate the neutral position of the schools by the attempt not only to control the funds but the faculties as well. The University and Mayville Normal scandals only served to add still more to the numbers of the opposition. industries. By means of the referendum and initiative the electorate was permitted thus to outline the policies which they expected the government to follow. The endorsement of the industrial program by the electorate, it seems, was not due to any belief on the part of the majority that any relief would be extended the farmer through state ownership. The exposures of the past two years seemed to have definitely convinced the farmer that politically controlled industries would not function. Therefore the affirmative vote on the state industries seems to have been due to other causes. Since 1916 the per capita tax had risen from $24.81 to $48.43, an increase of 195 per cent. The state general property tax had increased 320 per cent. School taxes, due to the rise in teachers' salaries, the general willingness to bond the districts for new buildings and the rise in the price of supplies and equipment, were increased 236 per cent. This increase, in itself, could have been borne easily had the price of the farmers' chief product remained somewhere near its war-time value. This, however, was not the case. Wheat had fallen to one-third its 1919 value and to almost one-half the 1916 price. Farm products in general had their value cut to one-third of the war-time prices. Farms which had sold for $100 to $150 an acre now had the money value of their crops reduced to the point where not even the interest on the investment could be paid. In general the farmer found deflation affecting everything but his debts. Under such conditions he was loath to saddle himself with more taxes when those he now paid amounted to what was considered excellent rent.3 37 The action of the electorate in refusing to give its assent to the destruction of the state industries, it seems, should therefore be understood rather as an attempt to save what little there was left and in this manner relieve themselves of a heavier tax burden than as an endorsement of a program of state industries which, it seems, 87 For taxes and wheat prices see Plate III and Appendices I and IX. the majority had already made up their minds was impractical.88 Thus came to a close a movement marked by bitterness perhaps unequaled since the movement for the abolition of slavery. It had been watched most intently both by the most radical as well as those imbued with a sense of rigid conservatism. To the Socialist it appeared as the dawn of a new day. To the opposition it seemed to be an attempt to undermine the system of private property. However, to the farmer it meant far more than the embodiment of a theory or the destruction of a system. It was to him an attempt to secure control of the marketing of his products. The diminishing returns of his broad acres had forced him to seek out new economies and he felt that the middlemen ought to be forced to forego a part of their profits. True his idea of the size of those profits was exaggerated, for he had grossly 1. Debt Limit. To increase to $7,750,000.00 from $2,000,000.00 101,034 104,822 2. Compensation members of the Legislature from $300.00 to $1,000.00.. 88,168 112,622 3. County officials. County judge to be clerk of court in counties having less than 8,000 inhabitants 94,661 105,975 Initiated Measures: 1. Non-Partisan elections.. 2. Partisan elections... 3. Public depositories. Removes the bank of North Dakota from the list of public depositories 4. Industrial Commission. Limiting the power of the Industrial Commission.. 5. Rural credits. Curtails the Rural Credits Departments 6. Bank of North Dakota. Dissolution of the Bank |