The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1920-07-08
INTERESTS CAN'T
FOOL lEACuERS
Try Every Dodge But Even the
%Overworked Tax Bogey Fails
to Blind the Farmers.

Program Is bitter, malicious, unscru-
pulous and unfair beyond description.
And yet if North Dakota farmers lose
it will be their own fault. They have
the decision Of this fight entirely in
their own hands. 1t is entirely a mat
ter of sticking to their organization.
Of refusing to be misled, Of keeping
their heads, as they have done since
the league was organized. Just glance
back over the history Of the league.
Since it's beginning there have been
a hundred or more different schemes
proposed for killing it-and every one
of them have been a sure winner.
One after another some enterprising
fellow connected with Big Business
interests or some traitor in the ranks
of the farmers organization has been
given a chance to get a big piece of
Big Business money by proposing one
of these dead sure methods Of killing
the league.
First, it was going to be shown that
the league is simply a development of
the socialistic party; next that it vas
opposed to the farmers cooperative
organizations and that through state
ownership it would put them out of
business. That would array the CO
operatives against the league with the
possibility that they would destroy
each other. Then, after the war .ha(
begun, it was going to be shown that
all the, league leaders were pro-Ger-
man and the league was to be killed
by the simple method of having all
the leaders arrested and put in Jail.
Then it was going to be shown that
the league organization was .undemo'
cratic and that the autocrats at the
head of it were making themselves
rich out of the $1,000 fees the farmers
were paying. Then it was going to be
shown that the state ownership pro-
gram proposed by the league would
cost SO much that it couldn't be put
into operation. And finally, 1t was
going to be shown that the league was
running the farmers Of the state by
imposing high taxes.
Hoped Would Be Friction.
Before the converting of the first
league legislature, opponents of the
farmers program hoped that the
farmers program hoped that the farm
ers would not be able to agree among
themselves sufficiently to put their
program through. In less than three
weeks after the legislature met this
hope had gone glimmering. The oppo-
sition saw that there vas a unity
among the farmers representatives
such as had never existed in any for.
mer legislature. They also saw that
the entire program Of legislation had
been completely thought out before
hand, and that the organization for
putting the bills through was complete
and perfect in every detail. They were
compelled to shift their ground. They
then raised the cry that the program
had been cooked up in st. Paul by a
lot Of socialists hired by the league.
with the purpose of foisting socialism
upon unwilling farmers in North
Dakota.
They seized upon certain tax bills
especially the bill reclassifying the
property tax and exempting farm i'm.
provements, as being in the direction
Of the single tax, and raised the alarm
that these hired socialists were going
to take the farmers land away from
them. They coupled with this another
bill which merely provided that when
the taxes on real estate had been de.
lmquent for three years. ample notice
given, and continued failure to pay.
the land should escheat to the state
They ignored the fact that under the
present law. if carried out, the land
would 60 to the county and be subject
to future sale, instead Of to the state
as contemplated in the bill. They is.
nored the fact that exactly similar
legislation had been favored in Mime.
sofa by interests in no way connected
with the league, and also that a SINH.
lar bill had been introduced in the
North Dakota legislature two years
earlier by persons not connected with
the league.
Work Up Tax Scare.
But in all this it was very apparent
that the opposition had not settled
down upon a line of attack which they
themselves had any confidence in. A
little later, when the different state
budgets began to come in, they saw
that If the legislature made reason.
able provision for the support of edu.
cational and other state institutions
and for the carrying on Of the ordi.
nary functions of the state govern.
ment, state taxes would have to be
more than doubled. They saw thai
the new tax laws would make it pos.
sible for the state to obtain revenue
sufficient for these purposes, where
under the old classification that could
not be done under the four mill limit
fixed in the Constitution. Here then
was an issue that promised to get the
opposition somewhere. They found
that they couldn't. make a dent in the
farmers organization.
They overlooked the fact that North
Dakota farmers, through years Of des,
perate effort to protect themselves