Emmons County record. [volume] (Williamsport, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-current, 1921-11-10


Kitchen, the men who led a forlorn
hope to victory. May they be able
to do great deal more in the next
few months to give North Dakota an
accounting as to where we stand in
the matter of state finances. We do
know that vast quantities of state
! funds have been sunk in rotten league
banks and excess real estate loans.
Work should begin at once to check
up our losses and to place the bill be-
fore the taxpayers. The next step
will be to arrange for payments of
indebtedness and direct tax to grad
ually liquidate the money squandered
That is the first requirement of good
business judgement. A man would
take such a course with his own busi-
ness if he found it had been run into
a financial muddle by employees. The
state needs the same medicine. In
the meantime, the result Of the cleo
ton has done much to convince the
outside world that we are emerging
from socialist debauch. Our
credit will rapidly improve, and. the
socialist movements in other states
will decline rapidly now that. the
fountain head Of the movement has
been brought low.
It is up to the Independents now
to assume the responsibility, it is up
to them to show that they have the
best interests Of the people at heart.
There is much discussion over the
defeat Of the initiated laws. There
need not be. The league so framed
their laws that the industrial COM
mission is a sort of all-powerful tri-
umvirate. They can do as they will
with nearly all the state enterprises.
With Nestos. johnson and Kitchen
comprising the commission, they can
fire every employee in every state
industry. They can close up the
homebuilders association; and can pro
coed to liquidate the Bank of North
Dakota. They can closely approxi-
mate the farm-loan system outlined
in their initiated law. It is folly to
say the defeat Of the initiated law
means the people Of North Dakota
don't want rural credits. It is equal
folly to say that they are opposed to
consolidating the offices of county
Judge and clerk of court in small
counties just because they killed the
bill. The fact is that bigger issues
than any one of the measures were
at stake; and, further, very few ell
ectors differentiated between the
measures. In Emmons county, for
instance, men voted their own ballots
and determined how to vote by the
simple process of counting the num-
Der of letters in the words Eyes" and
"no." They couldn't and didn't read
the laws. Many Others went into
the booth, called for judges and stat
ed that they wanted to vote every
thing league. They hadn't the slight
est idea what was league and what
was not. $ s9s 81 i3i.s4 ts u. 81 x
The Record hopes that Mr.. Nestos
will, first Of all, discontinue hundreds
of the useless political jobs that have
grown up under league control. We
hope that efficient men replace the
league appointees in the remaining
places, men Of business and executive
ability rather than political ability.
We hope that the affairsof the home
builders association will be cleaned
up. the losses paid; and the, business
discontinued. We hope that the Bank
Of North Dakota will cease to be used
as 9 commercial institution as at the
present, the bookkeeping cut down
and most Of the employees released,
the balance being used to perfect, .
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