Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1893-01-27
] Profit Bv ExperIenc. of Others.

O Profit BY Experience of Others.
The constitution of North Dakota
provides how the moneys of the perma-
nent school fund may be invested and
among other says Sin first mortgages on
farm lands in the state, not exceeding in
amount one.third of the actual %value,"
etc. The board of university and school
lands in North Dakota has not seen fit to
loan any of the funds under this clause,
being actuated in their decision by the
experience of other states in this respect,
notably our sister state, Minnesota. The
Pioneer Press of the 23d inst. contains
the following leading editorial on this
subject. which should receive careful
consideration by the members of this
legislature aud the state officials and
citizens generally. It is god advice
from a disinterested source
Its discOuraging sometimes to see a
new community wrestling, in all good
faith aud earnestness, with problems and
experiments and theories that older COM
mOnWealths have tried and settled years
before. There is hardly a new heresy or
IN original fantasy in politics. All are
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rected for the plague Of this. And es-
peclally hOary is the notion, which nov
lays siege to the North Dakota people.
that it would be a good idea to invest the
school fund of the state in loans to needy
farmers, on the security of their real
estate. OF course it is very attractive to
debtors. who see a possibility of renewing
attractive to the spectators, who know
that no such opportunity as this ever
passes without giving them a slice. And
the loose notions, made current by the
peoples party and the subtreasury in
sanity, about the proper relation of the
state to money, and about the propriety of
u government loaning to citizens on real
such a proposition as this.
1t is, in reality, as old as the hills. There
never yet was a state possessed of an avail
able school fund, or a cash fund for apy
other purpose, where the idea was not
urged. There never was II where it was
tried with any other result than complete.
irremediable, disgraceful failure; and
there never will be. Ii North Dakota wants
to keep her school fund for the uses Of ed
ucatiOn in future generations, she will set
this proposition severely in the back
ground. If she desires to make a present
of that fund to spectators and s%harpers,
let her go ahead with the state loaning
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of intelligence to see what will happen
next. If the state makes loans to individ-
uals. it must make them through its agents
and those agents will belong to a political
party. Unless North Dakota has a con-
slant supply of angels on hand for public
purposes, and events in her political his
tory have not always pointed in that direc-
ton, these agents will do what other poll.
ticians do; they will help their friends
| along at the public expense.
Under such q law, every man with pO-
litical influence enough to make himself in
the least feared would be able to secure a
portion of the public moneys proportioned
tity and quality of his security. Sharp
men and the 'hustlers" in politics would
be quick to take advantage of such an
opportunity. Every dollar would be
snapped up greedily, and then the fun
would begin. Up to the X legislature
would come two clamorous parties. One
would cry fraud and say that the whole
torn to pieces. The other would bewall
the woes of the distressed farmer as they
never were bewailed before, and show
how impossible it would be that he should
pay either principal or interest of his
Indebtedness to the state, as long as poor
same pressure which secured loans in the
first place would be brought to bear to
avoid the necessity of repayment; and
those who, for political reasons, dare not
refuse to grant them, would nov be will
ing to forgive the obligations Of necessi-
tous debtors. No power could prevent
the passage of Il nill, sooner or later, re-
lieving the borrower from his mortgage to
the state. and the school fund would DO
lost beyond recovery. This is q true pic
ture. 1t is the experience of the United
States, when it distributed the surplus of
its treasury, in 1887, among the several
states, with the engagement Of its return.
1t is the experience of every community
that ever permitted the property of its citi-
zens to be- put in pledge for an advance of
its funds. This is the most ruinOus finan-
! ciering IN the world. North Dakota has a
splendid school endowment, and Mime
sofa can show her what results it will b.
capable of achieving II jealOusly husband
ed. Let her refuse to waste it on scampS,
under the speclOus pretense that it would
be used to help the needy. The state rs a
money. lender. or rather as u collector of
debts after going into the business OF tho
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