Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-04-14
North Dakota News
no room in the home. Of the farmer.

AnOIuOT young man Oy the name OF
Plotkin. who helped lead
the high food costs. asked Governor
Frasier what an honest man should
do who believed that the government
had perpetrated q crime in declaring
war. The question was ruled out
Dillon Present.
State Commissioner Of Food and
Markets Dillon sat on the platform
tho governors address. Dill
lon led the recent dairymen's strike
In this state.
In his address Frazier declared that
the farmers Of North Dakota were
lighting tho spectators who some-
times made more In twenty minutes
than the farmers made all year, and
that the latter wore trying to work
out some scheme by which they could
meet the consumer IN q hfty:ffty
basis. Tho middle man now cats the
cream Of the farmers profit and makes
the consumer pay exhorbitant prices,
declared Frazier.
The "Big I~nterests."
Then tho governor described the his
tory Of the farmers organisations in
his state and told how they had been
opposed by tho interests Of the Twin
Cities and by tho railroads. "Our
state has been controlled for years by
politicians and they in turn by big in
terests for the most part outside the
state. That 10 why We could not got
any progressive legislation, he said.
Change Market System.
The story Of the formation Of the
Nonpartdsan league and its surprising
Srowth wa the next topic. Frazier
said that it had been fought by the
newspapers az well a. tho special In
terests and rdtculed by the Good Gov
league organised shortly be-
fore the election. The governor fol-
lowed with an attack upon the food
gamblers who. he insisted, control the
price Of wheat and other commodi-
n keep down prices in the fail
Wnen The farmer must sell, IN order
mssl to reap huge profits later.
He charged them with regulating the
prices Of cash wheat by sales Of imag-
mary wheat that they never expected
TO own. and said that our whole mar
his hearers that they too paid a tri-
butte to the food gamblers, Of whom
there were 10000 in New York City
alone, and they should form q buy
Ing agency to deal directly with the
farmers' organization. He advised
them to enfranchise women, a. they
could not do worse than men had
done. ana predicted that II there were
not . peaceable adjustment Of condi-
tons In the near future to bring them
Into accord with the principles Of the
Declaration Of Independence, the ad-
5ustment would como in q different
fashion.
Principles sodalisto.
In the heokling Of Governor FraE-
Ter an attempt was made by his hear
ers. a large number Of whom were So
cialtsts. to pin him down to q declara-
don In favor of Socialism, but Frazier
refused to go farther than to nay that
the principles of the league wore So
cialistio but that the farmers had
formed their organization because the
Socialists. who had bsen at work for
many years, had never accomplished
How Aboat Consumerf
The farmerJ program of tho league
was also attacked by other persons
from tho audience. who wanted to
know what good it would do tho con-
sumer o the farmer to mako the OK
ira proht that now goes to the middle
man. Frazier admitted that there was
danger in making the farmer too DOW
erful. but said that in the hast resort
the state or the nation could alway1
step in and hx prices
Fraxser attributed tho failure Of hi
organization to obtain the passaso OF
~ laws 70 the hold-over senate, but
he added that at the next election the
league would win that body also. He
said That the lsAguers had worked ia
harmony with the other bodies Of ths
state, and that labor leaders had told
him they were pleased at the q the
league officials representatives had
voted on their measures, and that they
would make 1t known to union men
throughout the state.
Governor Frazier said in part:
North Dakota is a great agricultural
state. Ordinarily we raise about 100,-
100000 bushels of wheat per year,
but in 1915 we raised over 1855, 000,-
600 bushels, and in 1915 only $4,000
900 bushels. Most Of our grains are
sold through the chamber of COM
merce Of. Minneapolis. one Of the
great combines, and Dur live stock Ia
sold through the packing trusts Of st.
Paul and Chicago.
I'VE pay the freight ON the wheat,
cattle and hogs whom We ship them
put OF tho state and pay the freight
on aour and meats when they come
into the state. We not only pay the
freight both ways. but We pay the
grain combines. milling trusts and
packing trusts a good. fat profit for
handling our products.
"Ffno, Smooth TAlkeRR"
"For years the farmers, have been
preached to by better farming experts
-fne. smooth takers, who generally