The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1919-08-07
UPBUILDING HOME PROSPERITY

OII DohObo "0S SAS AAoV o~SS 49, SS
start a bonafide movement for industrial independence
the first state to try to put itself on a produce-at-
home and trade at-home basis.
There was a reason for this. North Dakota was one
of the most dependent states in the union for it's mon
ey, it's markets, it's manufactured articles Of use and
consumption. It was the most purely agricultural state
in the union; had the fewest towns, factories and re-
positories of money. It was one big farm drained and
sucked yearly of it's substance by the tremendous rail-
road syphons radiating from the Twin Cities, Duluth and
Chicago and drawing away each year the crops, the
money, and even the fertilizing elements that should
have remained in the state.
This explains why the organized farmers movement
started here first and why it was essentially a move
ment to make a state which had been a dependent pro-
vince industrially independent. These farmers didn't
have the capital, so through the state they proceeded
to use their combined credit to go into business for
themselves and to establish a banking system that
would keep North Dakota money in North Dakota; an
insurance system that would keep their money in their
their state, a marketing system that would manufac-
ture the raw crop materials here and keep the pro-
ducts, fertilizers and by-products in the state; an in
dustrial system that would open the unlimited coal re-
sources of the state and furnish power and fuel from
the mines of North Dakota.
They actually began a system of industrial home rule
and independence that meant bigger towns and cities,
the birth of a substantial industrial population, the man.
ufacture and use Of home grown products at home; the
end of a tremendous money drain to big centers outside
the state. They were creating big centers inside their
own state.
But in this great and worthy enterprise one import,
ant factor was to quite an extent overlooked. The i'm
portance Of the population in all the towns trading at
home, and the place has in the larger program Of indie
~pendence for the state, was overlooked. There has not
been enough emphasis on the fact that in a state where
the people are struggling for a system Of home termin-
al marketing, manufacturing and banking, the money
that may be saved by trading at home is a natural and
important aid in building up the larger system.
North Dakotans in the past have largely sent to the
sistently continue to send abroad for goods the money
they gain through the home marketing and banking
system they are building up? Trading at home is a
mutual and reciprocal process in which both parties
are benefited and all the values and labor involved in
the process is kept at home.
If the operation OF a grain grading law and public
elevators and mills increases the average income of 500
farmers IN a given section an average of 5000 a year,
this 100000 is bound 70 be spent by these farmers
in a better standard of living. If they have learned to
trade at home, this extra 800, 900 will go through the
hands of the merchants in this locality and will blossom
and bear fruit in increased enterprise, more homes,
larger town population, growth of the local market and
increase of land values for these 500 farmers.
1t is important that the money New North Dakota
will keep at home shall be spent at home, otherwise the
state will lack just that much of gaining it's industrial
independence.