Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1914-12-31
OPEN LETTER TO LAW MAKERS

marck Oh lueSudy Ol next Week WT.
John S. Gogin issues a letter from the
Nora Farm at ~Osnabrock, under date
of December 3Oth, in which he adj
monishes our law makers as to what
they should and should not do in mat
tiers pertaining to Legislation in behalf
of their constituents, the tax payers
of the state of North Dakota. The
question which he takes up is a wide
one covering as it does almost every
phase of state administrative affairs,
many, however, of which are of vital
Importance to the people in general.
Among the things discussed by Mr..
Gogin, we believe there are matters
that at this time ought to be given
due consideration both by the legisla-
tors and the people who cast the
votes. There is nothing political in
what is said, in fact some of these
questions are pretty certain to be Civ
en- publicity before the Legislature
of the 1915 session reaches an ad-
journment. Mr.. Gogin's letter is ad-
dressed to the members of the two
houses of the state Legislature and
reads as follows:
Dear Sir:
In the name and interest of the
people of North Dakota in general and
of the farmers in particular, you, as
a member of our state legislature, are
hereby respectfully requested to give
the following facts or existing condi-
lions and the consequently called-for
law enactments here set forth in as con
sise form as possible, your most care
full thought and earnest consideration.
Firstly: The banks of North Dako-
ia are now paying to depositors 6, 81
and 7 per cent on deposits therein and
charging 10 and II per cent to bor-
roWers, while no farther away than in
the state of Wisconsin the prevailing
I INK rates of interest are 3 and 81
T cent to depositors and 5 and 6 per
cat to borrowers. One of the natural
~cjnsequences of these high rates of
interest in North Dakota is-industry
and business, and especially that Of
the farmer. is being paralyzed and
destroyed and accumulated wealth go
.iato the banks instead of into in
dustrial improvements and equipment.
And another result is that, according
to the annual report of the comptroller
of the currency, Washington, D. c.,
for 1913, the national banks of North
Dakota, during the period covered by
that report, after paying out in salar-
les to officials and employees thereof
an amount equal to Is per cen on
their capital stock and paying all
other current expenses, had a net pro-
fit of 21!l per cent on their capital
stock. And those aggregate returns
are fully ten times that received by
the North Dakota farmers on their
capital stock for the same period of
time.
Secondly: The loan agencies of
North Dakota through whom nearly
all farm loans are now made owing to
enforced customs and laws, or lack of
proper and adequate laws, are charg-
ing Z per cent on those loans, while
as a matter of fact, the very highest
rate received by the holder or buyer of
those mortgages is 5 per cent and the
agencies-those entirely Unnecessary
and uncalled for Industrial pirates
get 2 per cent and up. In other
words, on q loan Of $4,000, they col
lect an annual tribute of 500 and
over and all they have done to carr it
was to furnish a few cents worth of
paper and do from not over two to five
hours Of clerical work. A five year
aggregate Of the tribute thus paid to
those industrial pirates by the farmers
Of North Dakota would undoubtedly
exceed the aggregate of the war in
demnity which the Belgian cities have
been compelled to pay only once in a
century, while our farmers are COM
PEELED to pay every year until
they have sunk to destruction beneath
the burden.
Thirdly: No government worthy of
the title and having in mind the
future of the nation and its people,
ever should or would permit anyone to
speculate or gamble in the agricultur-
al lands thereof, to water it's stock or
values for their private benefit and at
the expense of the tillers of the SOIL.
The agricultural lands of this nation
are its vitals, the very nation itself
in fact, and the tillers of the soil are
its life-blood, while the gamblers in
agricultural lands, known as real
estate men, developers, ETC., are
destructive and disease-breeding ma
sional microbes, whose path of des-
truction is observable wherever they
go or get a foothold.
To illustrate by stating an actual
10no