The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1919-01-30
RIDING THE WILD HORSE

The League that farms the farmers
is in the saddle in North Dakota.
Booted and spurred, it rowels the
tanks of it's steed. The wild ride to-
ward bankruptcy, with the farmers
paying the bill, has begun. There is
rich loot in sight, and if the wild
horse can be guided, it will land it's
piratical rider in the midst of millions
Of the peoples money.
Meanwhile, North Dakota is to be
made a forbidden land for the settler
and the investor.
The Grandiose scheme of eXploita-
ton is being gradually disclosed at
Bismarck. It covers everything. The
press is to be gagged at the outset
by the simple expedient of naming a
League organ in each county as the
sole official paper to which all public
business must be given. Independent
newspapers are thus to be driven out
of business, and uncomfortable crit
icism prevented.
Sixty million dollars in the state
school fund is to be gathered into
the control of the wild rider. Eigh-
teen millions in taxes and seven in
bonds are to go into the same clutch.
A state bank is to be established with
two million capital. Every dollar of
public funds in the state is to be
forced into it's vaults. The millions
thus accumulated can be ganlbled
with in various state enterprises. The
big issues of bonds, which no one else
would risk buying, are to be sold to
the school fund-thus becoming the
spigot through which this great trust
fund of the people can be speedily
drained away.
These visionary projects are not to
be submitted to the judgment of the
people. The referendum, that grand
device for safeguarding the people,
is to be evaded if possible, by passing
all measures as emergency bills with
two-thirds vote. The farmers might
wake up, if asked to vote millions
away, but as they showed great hes
itancy in passing the constitutional
amendments, thus making it neces-
sary for the legislature to ignore the
constitution.
How has the North Dakota farmer
been hypnotized? BY being told in
flaming language that he was being
robbed every year Of fifty-fve million
dollars by the Minneapolis Chamber
of Commerce wheat trust" This
beautiful fiction has made so deep an
impression on him that he has helped
the League to it's seat in the saddle
and cleared the way for the wild ride.
Only few years ago the farmers
of North Dakota were led to complain
bitterly Of the Minnesota wheat grad
ing system and to demand federal
system that would relieve them of al
legged exactions. They got what they
demanded. And now they complain
more bitterly of the new grades than
they did of the old. They see that
they were i'll advised. Will they never
learn to distrust the demagogues
The cooperative store is one of the
new devices for farming the farmer.
A few years will demonstrate that
the old and tested methods Of ner-
chandising are the best all around.
Meanwhile, where doer the money go
that is paid in by farmers for shares
in cooperative stores-money that
gains them no real share in the man.
agement thereof?
So the wild ride goes on toward
bankruptcy, with the farmer left to
settle the ruinous bill. Will he wake
up in time to head off the freeboot-
ers Minneapolis Journal.