Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-06-03
THE AUTOCRACY OF 1T

Certain of the measures passed by the North Dakota
legislature in order that Socialistic experiments might
lie worked out at the expense of the taxpayers of this
state are dangerous and vicious in themselves, and should
therefore be defeated on their own dement's. But be-
yond and behind the specific provisions of any bill and
the regulations which may be made from time to time
for its enforcement, there lies the fact that each of these
more important bills vests almost unlimited power in
individuals. and that in cases now under consideration
that authority is actually to be welded by men who are
not residents of the state, are in no way responsible to
it's people, and who have not a penny's worth of interest
in it.
The mill and elevator bill vests full control over the
whole mill and elevator business of the state in the in
dustrial commission That commission is empowered to
appoint managers, directors, and so forth. and to make
rules and regulations for the conduct of the business
The manager of the vast business in which it is proposed
to engage will be merely the commissions hired man.
subject to its orders, and removable at will. He will do
exactly assthe commission tells him, or he will lose his
job. The commission is composed of three men, the gov
ernor. the attorney general, and the secretary of asricul-
ture. No act of the commission will be valid unless it
is approved by the governor, a provision which, in effect,
makes the governor the dictator of the commission, and
,reduces the commission to a one man proposition. That
is a measure of power dangerously large to be conferred
on a governor who acts on his own judgment and feels
himself to be really accountable to all the people Of his
state. But when, as in the present case, the governor
+, of the state is VIGOROUSLY under the domination of a
man who is not a resident of the state: who owns no
property and pays no taxes in the state; who holds no
official position in the state; who is under no bond or
other similar obligation to protect the interests, of the
state: we have a system of autocratic government utterly
foreign to the American system. highly dangerous to its
people, and wholly in accord with the undesirable man.
\ ifestations of Socialism.
What has been said of the mill and elevator bill is
true of the banking bill. That bill vests supreme power
in the industrial commission: through it in the governor
and through him in A. C. Townley. Managers may man
age, and directors may direct, but they will do so in a-
cordance with their orders, or they will cease to be bank
officials. For certain temporary purposes the regulations
made today may be the most admirable, and, without
they will be changed whenever Mr.. Townley says the
tant legislation elected by the late legislature. The
passed, but that absolute power has been placed in the
hands of irresponsible men.
This attempt to concentrate authority in the hands
of the self-appointed leader Of the Socialist movement
here is notlocal or accidental. 1t is typical of the whole
Socialist movement. That movement, which purports
to be democratic, is essentially despotic. The Socialist
party in the United States, when not an absolute despot
ism in the hands of a single individual. is and always has
been an oligarchy in which the acts. and, so far as il
could be made possible. the very thoughts of the mem.
bers at large were dominated by the handful of mer
higher up. Independent action on the part of local or
CARNATIONS or individuals is unknown to Russian Boil
shevisnn, and -Ienine has recently served notice on So
cialist Europe that it must take IT'S orders from Moscow
North Dakota Socialism takes it's orders from st. Paul
hut Moscow is not far away.