The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1918-06-06
THE FARMERS ARE ALL RIGHT.
The Independent has explicit faith
in the farmers of North Dakota. We

LIE FARMERS AXE ALL RIGHT
The Independent has explicit faith
in the farmers of North Dakota. We
have had close relations with them for
more than sixteen yeas. The writer
has known thousands of them init
mately and as a matter of fact has
been one of them. The farmers have
had just grievances in the past and
this publication has done what it could
in their interests just as it intends to
do in the future. The farmers have
not always been given the squarest
kind of a deal To illustrate, they
have no doubt been cheated out of a
good many hundreds of thousands of
dollars by unfair grading methods at
terminals. This is an old story with
which every farmer is now familiar
They have paid interest rates in the
past, in many cases much too high.
Their hands were tied thru a lack of
organization and it is little wonder
that they grasped at most any straw
that came their way in the shape of
an organization They were willing to
take chance and no one should blame
them for organizing and we do not be-
leve that anyone cah be dense enough
to blame them, except the millionaires
perhaps, who live at the terminals.
Surely nobody in North Dakota should
blame them for trying to improve
their condition. They have organized
their Grange, their Farmers Union,
the Society of Equity, all Of which un-
doubtedly resulted in much good.
Three or four years ago, the Nonpar-
tisan league had it's inception and this
has grown to be a great organization
numerically. The growth of the
League has been remarkable. The pop
ulation of North Dakota is made up
largely of farmers and large major
ity of these farmers joined the League
which has held out promise of doing
much for the farming element. There
is still an opportunity for the League
to do much for the farmers of the
state in constructive way and this
can be done without doing any damage
whatsoever to other legitimate inter-
ests of North Dakota. The League
favors terminal elevators. Let US
have try at them. The League IA
vors packing plants for North Dakota
Let's have them. The League favors
mills, better marketing conditions,
etc. These are things that may be
tried out in moderate way and their
success will soon be proved.
The Independent doesn't believe
that there's any objection in the state
to any of the above mentioned pro-
jects, as all parties and factions ap-
pear to agree on these things. The
Independent does believe, however,
that there is serious objection to pass
ing such a measure as House Bill AZ
for the simple reason that it was too
unlimited in it's scope, therefore pos
itively dangerous As a matter of
fact, one of the prominent league
leaders stated that such a measure
would never again be introduced for
consideration by our legislative body.
The Independent believes that our
state should go very slowly in the
proposition of changing our consti
tuition. This is matter that will re-
quire serious consideration.
AS we said before, we have the ut
aost faith in our farmers and believe
nat one could go out over the state
nd select them here and there pro-
miscuously, send them down to Bis
marck and say, "Now go ahead and
make our laws" and no one would
have anything to fear. We would not