Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1921-10-31
PERMANENcY OF THE CHANGE.

PERMANENcY OF H CHANGE.
One comment on the election. from a league
source, is to the effect that the Independents have
won, but by such a narrow margin that the change
will not be permanent. That, of course, is a natural
attitude for the defeated faction. When defeat
must at last be recognized, it is quite usual to ex-
tract what comfort may be found in the prospect OF
better luck next time.
The change which the people of North Dakota
have decreed in their state government is a perma-
nent one. There is not the slightest prospect that
in any conceivable circumstances there will be a re-
turn to the policy and the program that have come
to be known as Townleyism. That system has been
discarded and its official ministers voted into re-
tirernent because OF the conviction that the system
was unsound and that the men administering it
were not to be trusted with the management of the
business of the state. That conviction has been
reached through actual demonstration and as the
result Of mature thought. The action just taken
is not the result of a passing whim. 1t represents
the settled determination Of a people whose conf
dence has been abused and whose trust has been
misplaced. That determination, once expressed, as
it has been, in an effective manner at the polls, will
not be changed by the renewal of agitation by the
men whose counsels have been repudiated. On the
contrary, it is undoubtedly destined to grow in
strength and to express itself with continued force
and authority.
If men of another type than those elected had
been chosen to fill the offices just declared vacant
there might be reason to anticipate an entire re-
alignment of our political conditions before another
election. In many sections of Europe, in the dis
turbed conditions which prevail, the pendulum
swings between the extremes Of anarchy and des-
potism. The woes of a people suffering under the
excuses of Bolshevism in any of it's numerous
forms are thought by supporters of some of the old
regimes to provide opportunity for the return of alb
solutism, and constant effort in that direction is be-
ing made. The success of that effort would merely
insure another revolution, and conditions could not,
in such a case, be regarded as stable until govern
ment were ordered on a basis unknown alike to
radical and reactionary.
. We have experienced in this state, as far as
Our circumstances would permit, something CORE
spending to the radicalis1n found in many sections
of Europe. That system has been abandoned. If,
in the process of abandonment, there had been
placed in positions of leadership men Of reactionary
tendencies, who, in the common parlance, might be
termed hard boiled" who, in a spirit of exultation,
would ride roughshod over everything that stood
in the way of their creation of a strong political
machine to be operated for the benefit of the few
at the expense of the many, there would be a re-
organization and read ustnent, but there would be
no return to the policies which have been abandon
The people Of North Dakota demand, and will
have, honest and efficient government, administer
ed in accordance with laws which they have ap-
proved. They have turned their faces away from
the radical doctrines of untrustworthy leaders. But
they have not turned their faces backward. This
election was won in spite of the opposition of men
who represent the spirit of absolutism and oppor-
turlism as definitely as does Townley, and it is idle
for these men to expect to inject the spirit which
they represent into the policies of the new admin
~istration. The people have abandoned ralicalism
but they have not rejected progress. On the con.
trary, they have thrown radcalism aside in order
that there may be no obstruction to progress, and
they will be as quick to cast aside any other OBJ.
stacle which may present itself.
The members of the incoming administrator
are in hearty accord with, the sober, orderly and
progressive spirit of the state. If they were not
their tenure of office would be brief. But even il
they were not, the people of this state would never
again return to that which they have tried, con
dennned and abandoned.