The Dickinson press., 1917-03-17
THE PEOPLES FORUM
o o o o 9 o o O o o o @ o O

tlsan Leader, page 9, is an article by
Ralph l.. Harmon, Leader staff CORE
spondent, headed in big head lines,
Stealing the Leagues Thunder, Old
IGuard Quashes Measures by Farmers
Men and Cribs Ideas for Bills of
Their Own Framing"
The above headlines and the article
that follows it are an attack on Sena-
tor Kirkeide of Benson county, and I
regret to state that in many RESPECTS
1t is untrue and is without foundation
In this particular case, and as a league
member will say I believe such ac-
cusations will not buy us anything nor
get us anything of value and should
be avoided in every instance. We do
not like it when the opposition does
not state facts, neither does the oppo-
sltlon like it when we do not State
facts, and I would urgently request all
league members to be sure of the cor
RICHNESS of their statements before
making them or allowing them to be
put in print, as a retraction of a print
ed statement that is untrue, has a re-
dictionary death dealing blow.
The state grain grading bill that
Senator Kirkeide introduced was in
troduced by him through nv personal
request. The bill was drafted by
Norman Malcolm, secretary-treasurer.
and myself, president of the Stark
County Grain Growers association.
with the basic ideas gotten by us from
President Ladd.
This bill was drafted by US through
a request, to myself, of the senate
grain grading committee made to me
in the fourth week of January, dur
ing a conference I had with them to
learn if anything had been done re-
garding the matter. When they
learned Of u active part taken
throughout the state, to have farm
ers attend the federal grain grades
hearings to back up President Laid
in his findings to have federal grades
established along lines of milling val
ues, they requested me to take up the
matter with Mr.. Malcolm, as there
had been nothing done at that time,
that they knew Of, nor did we know
of any other bill of similar character,
until we arrived in Bismarck on the
evening of February 18th and again
met with the same committee with
our bill.
The bill Senator Drown introduced,
was by the request of Frank Helstrom
of Bismarck, who drafted the bill in
it's entirety, so he informed US.
Senator Kirkeide gave US a copy of
Mr.. browns bill the evening of Feb
ruary 7th so we could compare it
with ours. In conference on February
9th with Senators Drown and Kirk
eide, Mr.. Malcolm and myself compar-
ing the two bills, we talked of uniting
them, taking the best points of each
for one bill.
At a later conference the same day
with Senator Drown, Mr.. Helstrom,
Mr.. Malcolm and I, not being able. to
agree on uniting the two bills, we had
Senator Kirkeide introduce our bill,
tas we, did not car to have it go by
default, as we thought we had some
better points than the other bill.
Mr.. Dalquist of Paramount, Mr..
Malcolm and I were instrumental in
getting President Ladd to Bismarck
for a conference on February LIST on
the two bills with the state affairs
committee, to which the bills had been
referred.
Senator Drown, Mr.. Helstrom, Mr..
Malcolm and I were also present and
after a discussion of some length,
Chairman Hyland appointed a sub
committee consisting of Senators Mel
son, Mortenson and Drown, and Presi-
dent Ladd, Mr.. Helstrom, Mr.. NAL
colin and myself, to join the two bills
and report later. Senator Kirkeide
was not present.
The subcommittee on February II
took one paragraph from Mr.. Lath-
rop's bill that Representative Stair
had, and the three bills completed the
one.
It was left to Senator Drown to say
whether the bill should go in under
his name alone, or with Senator Kirk
eide, and he stated before this COM
mittee that both m might be
used. Senators Gibbons and Kirkeide
were present at this meeting. Kirk
eide for a short time only, and at that
time I requested Representative Stair,
who was there, to have his and MI.
Lathrop's names appended when the
bill got to the house.
Senator Nelson, Mr.. Helstrom and
myself had the three bills rewritten
into one, that afternoon at the bust
ness college, one block east of the
Mckenzie, and I paid for it, although
I left before it was finished.
Senator Kirkeide expressed his
pleasure and satisfaction that some
thing was being done, as he stated,
he had often thought something ought
to be done along that line, and
further offered his assistance, but he
had nothing to do with the bill more
than I have mentioned, and to accuse
him of stealing League Senator
browns ideas is malicious, as Senator
browns bill was drafted by a man
whom I understand is not a member
of the league, and our bill drafted by
Malcolm and me, both league mem
bers and introduced by a senator who
is not a member of the league. This
is interesting Gas Mr.. Harmon says
in his article), and when you have
the facts as I have stated, it convinces
me that one can get assistance from
so-called opposition, if one approaches
them in a gentlemanly manner, with
something m~eritorious.
Senator's Hyland, Paulson, Nelson,
Kirkeide, Gibbons, Gronvold, Morten-
Icon Vino Drown and others whO