Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-01-18
UTTERLY REGARDLESS

are, and have been, utterly regardless Of both law and
common sense in dealing with public questions. and they
seem to- have impaired a great deal Of this indifference
to their following. One illustration Of this lack of ordin-
airy horse sense is found in the history Of the seed grain
loan bill passed by the last legislature. That bill, intend
ed to provide relief for farmers whose crops had failed,
made the notes given for money borrowed or seed and
feed furnished under the provisions Of the bill, first hens
on the land where the material furnished was to be used,
precedence over all other obligations.
When this bill was before the committee which dealt
with it. montague members of that committee pointed
out that this first lien provision would materially affect
the security which the ordinary real estate mortgage fur
nishes by causing the mortgage to come in after the seed
grain note. 1t was urged that this clause be omitted, as
its retention would impair the borrowing power OF the
farmers of the state generally. The advice fell on deaf
ears. The league members of the committee insisted Oh
the provision as it stood, and, rather than fail to pass any
bill at all, the then majority in the senate and minority
in the house accepted the bill under protest, and it was
passed.
Everyone who has followed state affairs with even
reasonable closeness is familiar with what followed. Sew
eral private loaning companies withdrew from the state.
Those that remained felt themselves obliged to scrutinlze
their loans with much more than ordinary care, and to
reject many applications which otherwise would have
been passed: Then came the federal government with
the announcement that its farm loan bank could not oper-
ate in North Dakota with that law on the statute books.
After much correspondence a sort of modus tivendi was
fixed up. and now, at the first opportunity, the present
legislature takes up the subject and re-enacts the law
with the Objectionable provision omitted.
1t is impossible to imagine what reason other than
sheer bull-headedness could have actuated the men who.
in the face of earnest warning, and with the facts plainly
before them. hung onto an unavoidable provision and in
sisted on passing it.
The same stubborn disregard of both law and facts
has characterized the attitude of these Socialist bosses to-
ward the proposed constitutional amendments submitted
last fall. Reversing the Interpretation of the law made
by the league committee in charge of the campaign last
summer, the canvassing board declared that all of the
amendments had been passed, whereas five of them had
not received a majority of the votes cast at the general
election. Directors to this reversal of the plain reading
OF the constitution promptly brought suit to obtain from
the supreme court, the only body competent to pass on
the question, an authoritative decision: The common
sense course would be for the legislature, knowing a de-
cision to be pending, to wait until that decision had been
rendered, so that it could act with certainty and intelli-
gence. ID
Nothing Of this sort would do. Immediate action was
insisted on. The league caucus was ordered to get busy
and ratify all the amendments. and the caucus has been
plant and obedient. The yext step will be, of course, the
enactment Of statutes prokiding for the creation of COM
missions and other bodies for putting into effect the pro-
Ijects to which the Socialists are committed. Then. il
the supreme court should declare that the five amend
ments have not been legally carried, the opinion already
expressed by one Of the judges. the time of the legislat ura
Will nave been consumed to no purpose, for the statutes
WILL be invalid without the support Of the amendments
upon which it was proposed to base them. It is quite con.
ceivable that even then the Socialists will insist on ,ro.
ceding with their plans, in which case the state would bo
involved in legislation, needless and expensive. and u,ti-
mately all such action would be stopped.