Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-04-11
"DAKOTA LIARS"

iS uko Jaw VI oSuA up
on those plains, backed in their operations
by certain subsidized local newspapers
who are engaged in heaping insults upon
Minneapolis and ST. Paul, and in lying in
their characteristic fashion about the ma
ture of the seed wheat arrangement in
which the people of these two cities have
had some part. These d~isreputable scoun-
drels are telling the farmers of North Da-
kOta that Minneapolis and st. Paul are
furnishing them inferior seed wheat at
ruinous prices" They know perfectly
we'll that the arrangement originated with
arrangement"
That the suggestion Of some kind of
an arrangement with the elevator COM
panies was suggested by Gov. Miller and
some other North Dakota men is true
enough, but to charge that the arrange
ment and scheme proposed by the Min
neapolis elevator combination is entirely
satisfactory to the needy farmers of
| North Dakota and Is an 'admirable ar
rangement" is as ridiculous as it is un-
true.
Under the arrangement proposed by
the Governor Miller seed wheat commits
sion the farmer pays at the rate of over
100 per cent. for the use of seed grain.
There is no doubt about it and time will
demonstrate the fact. But it is not this
feature of the proposition we now desire
to discuss, for the TRIBUNE has leaned to
the opinion that if the poor farmers in
some of the drouth- stricken regions could
get seed. grain in no other way, this
scheme, outrageously usurious though it
be, is better than to do without seed en-
tirely.
It is the Misrepresentation of the
Minneapolis organ of the elevator syndi-
cate that challenges rebuke. The Trib-
une seems to have "lottery ~octapus" on
the brain and if a North Dakota paper
takes occasion to express the opinion
which the Tribune in another place in
the same article admits-that "the guar
antors do not pretend they are taking
any serious risks or making any sacri-
fees for North Dakota" this great SELF
constituted keeper of the public morals
OOCOA1C6 duu dU OuC0 CIl6S
"bribed lottery schemers."
The Tribune says, eff the lottery COM
pany had advanced the wheat to the
farmers it would have made terms un-
doubtedly, that would have been far
more burdensome than those which the
official commission Is making. It would
have charged a dollar a bushel and never
allowed any rebates"
Let us see what the proposition of the
lottery gang" was. Here it is: "250,0W
bushels of No. l hard seed wheat; said
wheat to be returned by the parties re-
ceiving the same upon the harvesting
and threshing Of their crops, bushel for
bushel, and to be loaned upon the person.
al Gre dit of those receiving it," That was
the proposition-no chattel mortgage on
the cow--every farmer to have wheat on his
personal h~onor-without interest-and if
his crops should fail again, his independ-
ence still Mountaineering money shark to
foreclose on all his earthly possessions
and set him adrift upon tho face of the
earth.
Is it not strange that with the expert
ence of the Northern Pacifc-as ex-
pressed by President Oakes-that out of
the 100000 bushels of seed grain fur
Dished by that company to needy farm
ers two years ago-after two years of
crop failure-all but 1000 bushels was
returned, why is it that such a sure
thing is 10Y demanded by the elevator
companies?
The TRIBUNE does not wish to be un-
derstood as criticising the action or ques-
tioning the motives of the good citizens
of st. Paul and Minneapolis and other
cities who guarantee the elevators against
loss, but there is no compliment due to
the elevators. When the farmer has
wheat to sell the elevator and Minneapo-
Lis mill ring take it for what they are a
mind to pay-not for what it is worth
and when the farmers of North Dakota,
on the fruits of whose toll thousands are
now living in luxury in the city of mills,
are in need of seed they are offered it
under an iron-clad, frst-lien Estate law.
upon a 100 per cent. interest basis. /.
Thanks to the generosity of Hon. Alex
Mckenzie, Burleigh county farmers will
not be compelled-the few who need
seed grain-to put such a yoke upon
their neck. Every farmer in this county
can get seed grain of his committee
-Messrs. Yegen, Fields and Quinlan-
for rs cents per bushel with six per cent.
interest. And Mckenzie is one of those
who are black-listed by the Minneapolis
Tribune as having favored the lottery.
A SPECIAL from Devils Lake to the
Argus says that Whipple for mayor and
the anti-H 81 nsbrough forces took every
think in sight in the municipal election