The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1919-04-03
INCREASED TAXES
HITS ALL CLASSES

would have been assessed at $500 and
the house at $400, making a total of
$500.
The tax under the new laws-pro-
viding the rate is unchanged, and it
not be lower-will be $152 ~
Under thel old laws it would have
been $500.
Who pays that $1O0 difference.
Do you think the landlord is going
to pay it?
Or will you pay it, Mr.. Renter?
Will you not find $100 added to
your annual rental?
And if you are renting just one
room, won't you find your share of
that $100 passed along to you by the
tenant?
That is the tribute you are going
to pay, Mr.. Renter, for the pleasure
of having some political parasites
test out their theories in North Da-
kota. That's the way these carpet
baggers have been fighting the bat
ties of "the peepul" against "big
business"
Why the Emergency? r
The farmers of North Dakota are
beginning to ask some very embar-
RAISING questions of the leaders of
the Nonpartisan league. In fact they
are gettin' most unreasonable and
insistent, at least from the stand
point of their self-appointed leaders.
One Of the questions asked by a
North Dakota farmer from Bantry
in letter printed in the Bismarck
Tribune is : ''Why the emergency ?"
Answering his own question, this
farmer says, $50 far as l have been
able to observe, the only emergency
was the desire of those in power to
get the program into action before the
people had time to think"
This may be the explanation, or it
may be the one given by many Of the
returned soldiers, who maintain that
the Nonpartisan leaders wanted to
get the laws into operation before
the soldiers could voice their pro-
tests. Of large number of soldiers
approached on the trains and in their
homes not a single one has been
found who is not in favor of refer
endum, and most of them expressed
in pronounced terms their opposition
to the bills to be referred.
Why Oppose Referendum?
Another unanswerable question that
is giving the leaders Of the Nonpar-
tisan@ league much concern is, "Why
are4the leaders so frantic in their op-
position to referring the most i'm
portant measures passed at the last
Legislative assembly to the people ?"
Their inability to answer this question
is daily adding hundreds Of names to
the petitions for referendum vote.
The great majority Of the membersfof
the league are fair minded citizens
who have been misled by the distorted
statements of the leaders of the
league, and although they express
themselves as in favor Of some of the
measures to be referred, they are
American enough to believe in fair
play and are willing to abide by the
decision of the electors Of the state.
A rapidly growing group of voters
are those who become suspicious
when the league papers so violently
opposed referendum, although the
referendum is one of the reforms ad-
vocated by the league itself, and be-
gan to study the laws carefully, only
to find that the league leaders have
passed measures of such a radical ma
ture as to harm rather than to bene-
fit the farmer.
A buyer for a business firm would
be branded as dishonest if he tried
to secure the approval of the stock
holders or directors for purchase
and at the same time refused to al
low his employers to examine the pur
chase. That is exactly what the Non
partisan leaders are doing when they
oppose referendum vote. THERE
IS ABSOLUTELY NO REASON
FOR OPPOSITION TO A REFER
ENDUM, UNLESS 1T IS FEAR
THAT THE VOTERS. WILL NOT
APPROVE THE MEASURES. All
that signer of the petitions for a
referendum is asking is for a fair
and open discussion of the measures
passed. To sign the petition does not
obligate any one to vote against the
bills at the election.