The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1889-10-03
No Truth IN THEM,
Stories Or Widespread Distress
I'm North Dakota Counties
Are Lies.
Sensational Reports from Nelson and
Other Counties Have Been
Rum Down."
And the Facts Are Given I'm the Article
Which Follows, from Our Special
Correspondent.


and Minneapolis papers about destitu.
ton and suffering among farmers in
Nelson and other counties of North Da.
kota have been run down" by a special
correspondent Of this paper, who fur.
nishes the following very interesting in
formation. Our correspondent was in
structed to Investigate and report i'm
partially, and his letter will show that
farmers Of North Dakots and Nelson
county are not so bad off after all. He
says:
Dakota in general, and this particular
portion of Dakota in particular, has fire.
9uently had occasion to pray with great
fervor to be delivered from her "fool
friends" and if we may judge from the
tenor Of certain items which bob up with
exasperating regularity in the columns
Of some of the Minnesota daily papers
relative to alleged financial distress and
consequent suffering among farmers
she certainly has occasion to put up this
petition with increased earnestness at
the present time.
That the crops throughout large part
Of North Dakota have been for the past
two years a partial failure no one will
deny, and that Nelson county has met
with her full share of this misfortune we
are willing to admit; but that there ex-
lists any such widespread suffering or
need for assistance as would be inferred
from the items referred to above any
person who is conversant with the state
of affairs throughout Nelson county will
deny and stigmatize as the widest kind
of fabrication.
That there will be families in the
county who during the coming winter
months will need a certain amount Of
assistance is unquestionably true, and
that a large number of Our farmers will
be unable to pay such portion of their
indebtedness as comes due this fall is
also undoubtedly a fact. But there is
probably not q county in the exclu-
sively agricultural regions of any part of
the West or Northwest where this same
condition of affairs could not be found.
If a reasonable degree of leniency is ex-
ercised towards those who show a will
ingness to do the best they can under
the existing circumstances, there need
be no fear of q famine in this country,
or in fact, of any appreciate amount Of
distress.
Crops throughout Nelson county, as
elsewhere in North Dakota, this season,
Ire spotted. While a few farmers will
harvest a good crop, others perhaps but
a short distance from them will have
comparatively nothing. Yet there are
almost none but who will have some.
We do not wish to be understood as
saying that there are not some deserving
poor in Nelson county. There are, and
the necessities of such will be promptly
attended to.
The condition of Nelson county may,
in fact, be summed up in very few
words. She has suffered two compar-
tive failures Of crops. As is common
with all new counties, a majority of her
farmers are in debt, and if the parties
holding chattel mortgages should shut
down on them and demand the s'pound
Of fesh," then there might be great
financial distress, but unless this should
be the case there will be comparatively
few who will have to be assisted.