The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1890-12-20
Haasbrough's Seed Wheat Bill.

Hansbr0ugh's Seed Wheat Bill.
The Grand Forks Herald very properly
criticises Mr.. Hansbrough for his bill to
appropriate 100000 for seed wheat for
North Dakota. This state needs no such
an appropriation and it asks for nothing.
North Dakota is ready to raise money by
tens of thousands of dollars for the pur-
pose of showing the entire world that it is
q rich state, offering great inducements to
new settlers, and here comes our repreeen-
tative stating that We need seed wheat. If
we did need it, there might be an excuse
for the bill, but as we don't, We are being
damaged.-Mandan Pioneer.
The editor Of the Pioneer is just about
as familiar with the needs of farmers in
some of the counties in North Dakota as q
Fiji Islander is with the Indian situation
at Pine Ridge. There are several counties
in North Dakota where the farmers have
not raised a hundred bushels of wheat for
the last three years. There are at least one
hundred farmers in Ward county who have
not raised q .bushel of grain of any kind
during the past two years. In MoHenry
county there are at least another hundred
who have suffered total failures; and in
Bottineau, Pierce, Ramsey and portions of
other counties throughout the state, hun
dreds of farmers can be found who have
been compelled each year topurchase their
seed grain on credit, and to-day are unable
to repay it either in kind or in money.
This state of affairs We know to exist from
personal knowledge, and unless they can
secure an extension of their credit, or aid
comics TO them in some form, they will not
be able to plant an acre of their farms
next spring. In consequence of three sue
cessive failures of crops, thousands of
farmers have been compelled to abandon
their farms to seek employment elsewhere,
many of them leaving the state altogether.
The Pioneers bluster about North Da-
kota being "ready to raise money by tens
of thousands of dollars" may sound well
enough to those who are drawing large
salaries through the ordinary avenues Of
business, but it doesn't jibe worth cent
when we realize that the North Dakota
treasury is already bankrupt, and that the
state is without the necessary resources to
meet its current expenses and the vast ap-
propriations that are annually called for.
That the state of North Dakota offers
the greatest inducements to new settlers
because of her rich and fertile soil and
superior grazing lands, We freely admit;
but It verges upon criminality to deny the
fact that thousands of her people are actu-
ally in want; to deny that the drouths of
the last three or four years have discour-
aged and impoverished large numbers of
her most courageous and industrious hus-
bsndmen, or to openly assest that her
farmers are universally prosperous and
happy. Of course, on the Missouri slope,
and in some other portions of the state,
and especially in the Red river valley, it is
true, the farmers have generally been fa-
vored with fair crops; but while this is true
rs to those sections, it is also true that in
other portions the farmers have met with
dire disasters.
This being the case, We can see no harm
in Mr.. Hansbrough's bill asking the gov
ernment to assist the unfortunate and des-
titute farmers of this young state. Mr..
Hansbrough's position is right. The ask
ing for government aid to help these peo-
nle ia humane and manly, To oppose it,
is false pride and cowardly. Be honest,
and act upon the principle of familiar
expression to ''tel the truth and shame
the devil"