The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1918-10-12
THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS.


! UPON REAL ESTATE IN AMOUNTS NOT TO
EXCEED ONE-HALF ITS VALUE; OR UPON
REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY OF
STATE-OWNED UTILITIES, ENTERPRISES
OR INDUSTRIES, IN AMOUNTS NOT EXCEED
ING ITS VALUE; AND PROVIDED, FURTHER,
THAT THE STATE SHALL NOT ISSUE OR
GUARANTEE BONDS UPON PROPERTY OF
STATE-OWNED UTILITIES, ENTERPRISES
OR INDUSTRIES IN EXCESS OF TEN MILLION
DOLLARS.
| This proposed amendment, as Mr.. Townley &C.
knowledges through his daily newspaper at Far
go, makes the sky the limit for North Dakota's
bonded Indebtedness. H..
! It also opens the way to the Investment Of pub
lie funds, through the guaranteeing of bonds in
all manner of public utilities and business enter
prises and industries.
A casual reading Of the proposed amendment
would leave the impression-as may have been
the desire of the authors of the draft-that the
state may not guarantee bonds in state-owned pub
lie utilities enterprises industries, in of
ten million dollars. AS matter of fact, as will
be seen by second reading ten million dollars is
not the limit as to the aggregate bonded indebted
ness which the state may incur, but is merely the
maximum which may be guaranteed in any one
public utility, enterprise or industry. Il
Being a socialist, thoroughly committed to, the
principle that the title to all property should rest
in the state, Mr. Townley may be given credit for
sincerity and honesty Of conviction in his desire
to concentrate in a state government which he
controls the ownership of land, public utilities and
all
establishments. We may grant that Mr.. Townley
is playing fair with himself, when he breaches
that private Of property of any descrip
ton is improper. The Russian bolsheviki undoubt-
eddy were sincere when they not only preached
but attempted to put into practice this same doc
trine We know what the result has been in Rus
STA, where the workmen soviet councils had the
advice of the ablest of old-world socialists-men
who have lived and breathed the theories of social
ism from the cradle up.
Granting that Mr.. Townley is PRACTICAL
socialist-and we are inclined to doubt tit must
be admitted that he has not proven practical
farmer and businessman. Townley failed miser-
ably as farmer in western North Dakota. Other
farmers, with no greater advantages than he pos
sessed, and a majority of them with far less
financial credit, have succeeded and prospered in
the same region, under the very same conditions.
Mr.. Townley has blamed Big Business the Cham
Der of Commerce and the Elements for his failure.
These same forces were encountered by his neigh
bores, out there, and still they succeeded and have
prospered. We must conclude, therefore, that Mr..
Townley was not an average good farmer; that
he lacked business ability; that he was not prac-
teal.
This arraignment can be raised against every
socialist. He has IDEAS theories ideals, but he
lacks initiative and executive. He specializes in
tearing down. rather than in building up. He is
more active in discovering flaws than in demon
strating remedies. He can reprove, but not i'm
prove; destroy, but not construct
! If Mr. Townley found structure which could.
be improved by alteration, he would first apply
stick of dynamite A more careful builder would
take what was good in the old and add to it. He
would cause less disturbance, waste less time and
effort, and accomplish his results more quickly.
But that is not the socialist way-and it is not Mr.
Townley's way, for Mr. Townley is socialist; all
of his ideas are sociastic; his utopia is socialism.
We wonder how many successful farmers who
have been attracted to the league by some Of its
sound planks would turn over the management of
their own personal affairs to Mr.. Townley, know
\ ing him and his record as they do. Yet they are
asked to make h1rn general manager Of great
state; to place at his disposal unlimited financial
resources, to remove all restrictions and to give
him free hand, with state administration and
a legislature which will do his bidding without
question.
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