The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1907-02-28

That the good name of North
Dakota should not be tainted
with the false stories that have
been spread far and wide thruout
the east, and injustice be done to
the contented prosperous, lot OF
people who have grown wealthy
here, as we'll as injustice to those
who have been contemplating
casting their lot with us, led to
the movement of the assembly
ing of fifty of the representative
business men of Northwestern
North Dakota at the Commercial
Club rooms in MinOt Friday aud
Saturday.
The meeting was not that OF
an angry lot of citizens who
were bent on having revenge on
the people who ;had started the
reports. They realized how easy
it could be to believe anything
about our state, which has long
stood the abuse at the hands Of
the skeptics Of the east. When
they reported that 500 people
had frozen to death in our state,
and that snow drifts we're Is
feet high, they no doubt believed
what they said. And didn't
someone who wanted a little
cheap notriety write back to
their home paper an exaggerated
report and didn't Mother Grundy
get hold OF the story and say
that 500 people cashed in their
checks on the cold bleak, fruitless
prairies of North Dakota when
perhaps the writer had said only
five had died, which is about
right?
The meeting was a very happy
one in every respect. In their en-
thusiasm over the great pros
perity of the state, which in real
ity is the cause of the whole tro-
uble, and not the cold at all, the
delegates forgot all about the
time when the thermometer reg
istered 35 degrees below zero.
Stories of wonderful crops were
told, of elevators filled to over.
flowing with golden grain, grain
piled high on the ground with no
cars to ship it. The whole trou-
BILE arose over the inadequacy of
the railroads to handle the
bountiful crops, the passenger
business in this locality having
increased S5 per cent and the
freight business 12l per cent
while the railway equipment in
crease only 20 per cent. This is
the reason that some OF the
towns were short of coal, and
yet the delegates reported that
there was no real suffering from
this cause. Mohall was the
shortest and the worst that hap
pened there was the cutting down
OF a mile of telephone poles tor
fuel. J. w. Schnitzler, Mohalps
delegate, said that as far as he
knew no wheat or barley had
been burned, tho a little straw
might have been used. The
meeting was presided over by T.
w. jackson, a real estate dealer
from Williston, and secretary OF
the Williston Commercial club.
Gov. Devine opened the meet
| ing with short butappropriate
address calling attention to the
wrongs which North Dakota had
been subjected to and giving a
remedy for the same.
The delegates were all OF one
opinion and that is that nothing
hut facts should be used in right
ling the wrongs done us. We
| will wage no war on the eastern
newspapers, but we will supply
them with facts and kindly ask
them to grant us space as read
lily as they did for the false re-
ports.
individuals can do a great
deal by writing the true condi-
tions to their home papers Of the
east, or sending clippings from
the newspapers with request
that they copy them. No fair
minded editor will refuse to grant
this request, and in this manner,
good will be done where it is
needed the most. Such papers
as the Commercial Westcan do US
much good. We expect to pay
for considerable that WILDE done