The Pickens sentinel. (Pickens, S.C.) 1911-2016, 1917-02-01
Farmers in Full Con
troll in North Dakota


the United States stage! A kind OF
government new on this continent or
( anywhere else is about to take hold OF
the machine here! 1t is q farmers gov
ernment from top to bottom and all the
way across!
That is one novel thing aboutit. Then
it is strictly nonpartisian, being chosen
by the farmers for reasons of their own
and without the least regard to party
lines.
1t is also a government that owes
nothing to any politician on earth and no
corporation, bank, railroad or interest
4 has single string on it.
Few of the men who are about to take
office ever held office before. None of
the men that put them there had any
previous experience in politics.
At the last election the farmers, in re-
volt, captured the legislature, all the
state offices except one and what is still
more important, grabbed off the supreme
court.
They will now run the whole shooting
match from A to lizard.
They can pass any law they please and
nothing this side Of the supreme court of
the United States can interfere.
1t is the biggest revolution that ever
occurred in any state in this union.
North Dakota has been from the be-
ginning just a fine old pocket borough
for the interests. The railroads, banks,
elevators and grain men had an ironclad
combination that ruled the politics of
the state the way bucko mate used to
rule a Cape Horner. Do what you're
told, keep still or get hurt.
Today there isn't railroad politician,
grain agent or corporation valet in the
state that dares peep. The farmers are
the whole cheese.
Also, they have introduced new sys-
tenn for choosing men for office. They
start out literally to let the office seek
the man. When it became evident last
spring that they were likely to win out,
fine crop of their dear old friends and
college chummies sprang up all about
the state offering the glad hand and
pulling for this office or that.
All they ever got was the icy stare and
the swift kick Instead Of listening to
the dulcet notes of these charmers, the
farmers went about hunting for good
men that were on the level and not lob
hunters
Their candidate for governor, for in
cta -
plow over his wheat lands when he was
chosen. The committe wanted to tele-
phone him and had to wait until he could
be summoned to the house He was the
most amazed man inAmerica and thought
it was some kind of joke.
But he quickly showed that no error
had been made about him. He had new
er made set public speech in his life,
but he jumped into the campaign and
turned out to be crackerjack. He
made more than 200 speeches. He got
81, 900 in total vote Of about 102, 600
that's ALL
The name of the organization that put
all this over is the Farmers Non-par-
tisan Political league. 1t is only two
years old but has 1000 enrolled mem
bers of the SO, 600 farmers in North Da-
kota.
1t works with new scheme and new
method. Every farmer that joins pays
for his membership. Formerly the an
nual fees were &c. Now they are SIG
for two years in advance, and practical
~ every man whose first years sub
scription has expired is renewing at the
newrate.
New members are put on the rolls by
personal interviews. The league owns
l4O automobiles and keeps corps of or
ganizers always in the field. The money
received is used to carry on this work
and to publish the leagues paper, the
Leader
ms paper started in September, 1915,
on shotstring and now has 65. 900 cir
cuation. The league has lately acou;red
daily paper at Fargo and owns the onlv
photo-engraving plant in North Dakota
Branch leagues are being formed in
other states. The welcome the idea has
received causes northwestern politic;ons
to view the movement with pain and ex-
treme disgust. 1t looks as if an entirely
new deal was on in this part of the world
Nobody can join the league except an
actual tiller Of the soil, so there is M
chance for others to come in and pot
possession of the thing.
The thing that had most to do with
the creation of the league was the de.
plorable state of the farmers in North
Dakota as a result of 81 varieties of