St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-11-25
MURRAY STANDS PAT,
And Rehearses the North Dakota
Situation as He Saw Ii.

And Rehearses the North Dakota
Situation as He Saw 1t.
W. P. Murray read "Old Timers" let
ter to the GLOBE and says, in reply:
IAN odd Timer who claims to write
from st. Thomas, Dak., appears to have
taken exceptions i'm the DAILY GLOBE
of yesterday as to what l said in an in
terview with a GLOBE reporter in re-
gard to money sharks, elevator sharks,
machine sharks and other sharks in
North Dakota. in which [ claimed that
they were worse than the drought and
failure of crops; and, apparently to
show his good faith, offers to sell $780,
600 of farmers notes at 50 cents on the
dollar. and SIS, 900 at 25 cents on the dol
lar. 1t would have been more salts
factory to me if he had written over his
own signature-I never night under
Governor it may have been possible
for me to have demonstrated that the
Sl00.000-the S25,0OO-were odds and
ends of notes which he held after fore
closure of real and chattel mortgages
where property to three times the
amount had been sold-Say good horses
at SO a head; good mich cows at So
and everything else in proportion. leav-
ing balance due on the notes. to show
that there was still God in Israel, and
that if the next year the farmers had q
good crop these humane money lend
erS. who are sent from the East as mis-
siOnaEes to feed the hungry and elothe
the naked, would only want the surplus
after the eXp'DSp of threShing was paid,
while the wife and children went half
clothed and hungry.
1t may be possible that | have been
mistaken i'm regard to the money sharks
of North DakOta-if SO desire to apOl-
OgiZe. In that view of the case, Old
Timer has admitted too much-fOrlfit be
true that none of the farmers of NOrthDa-
kota can pay their liabilities something
must he wrong. for farmers are gen.
orally honest. There must have been
short crops perhaps destitutiOn--and
perhaps want. And it NAV be that the
Old-time legend which Sibley, KittSOn.
ROlette. Mcleod and other were famil-
lar with third of century agO-that
no white man could live on the prairies
of the DakOtas-is true. Let me sug-
gest to ''Old Timer" that i'm the cOun-
ties of Ramsey and Nelson there is want
and destltutiOn. In place of two hours
/ was in those counties three days. j
know whereof L speak. There was
no intention to attack any buSi-
ness or any interest, but when
fellows of the caliber Of "Old
Timer" insist that there is no poverty
and no want, to keep up the reputation
of the state as one of the best OH earth
to induce other poor men to emgrate
and settle upon vast prairieS and suffer
and starve in order that they may sell
out and skip. lose my patience. If
'Old Timer is manly, honest, let him
admit the fact, go to the legislature, ask
for state loan for temporary aid and
to buy seed wheat for next year. Do as
Ka nsas and Minnesota did when the
grasshopper plague was upon them
make provision by state loan to take
care of the poor and needy. In that
event "Old Timer" may have hundreds
of women and children rise up and call
him blessed, in place of saying, as they
do now. that he is all old pirate and
ought to be driven out of the country.