The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1921-01-06
LeSUEUR'S SUGGESTIONS FOR
THE CONDUCT OF STATE
MINISTRIES

INDUSTRIES
Arthur IeSueur, former mayor Of
Minot, and well known to our readers,
has issued in pamphlet form an open
letter to the governor and legislature
of North Dakota, advocating certain
important changes in the methods Of
governing the state industries estab~
lished by the last Nonpartisan League
legislature Mr.. LeSueur has been a
prominent socialist, and, we under
stand, holds socialist views as strongly
as he ever did, although he severed his
connection with the Socialist party
when it denounced the war. His mark
ed ability and strong reasoning pow
ers, together with his record for hon
esty and freedom from graft, make his
views we'll worth considering.
Mr.. LeSueur in his pamphlet goes
into the history Of the League legisla-
ton, and tells how he himself framed
bills for the state institutions, which
Townley rejected, substituting very
different laws. LeSueur's bills were
framed so as to keep the state indus
tries, so far as possible, out of poll
tics. The laws passed by Townley's
insistence tied these industries up
closely to politics.
Briefly stated..and it is impossible
in the space and time at our command
TO do Justice to this subject-Mr. Le-
Sueur's suggestions are as follows:
The Industries must be taken away
from politics by having the present
elective industrial commission super
intend them only, leaving the active
management to separate boards, APP
pointed, not elected, and appointed for
long terms, so as to secure continuity
of management and responsibility,
and this by experts, specialists in their
own line. The elective officers of the
state have already far too much to do
30 allow them to be efficient manag-
ers of the states industrial enter
prises. To make them such involves
the danger Of a change of business
industry should be separately man
aged. 1t is absurd, for instance, to
put under the same heads state mill,
which must try to get it's wheat for
milling as cheaply as it can, and
the farmers the best possible price
either of these two industries under
the same management as the bank, of
which they must from time to time
borrow Think of the righteousness
of man passing on his own applica
ton for loan. Business cannot be
conducted efficiently that way. The
bank should be managed by board of
I, governors appointed for long terms,
say five men appointed for ten years
each, the term Of one expiring every
two years. The mill and elevator
should likewise be under separate
boards, say of three men appointed for
nine years, the term of one expiring
every three years. No man shrould
be allowed to serve on more than one
board, and no man on any board should
be allowed to be either an elective Of
fetal or candidate for office during
his term. Make these appointees sub.
ject to the recall. Compel the in
dustries, by law, to charge enough for
their services to stand each on its own
feet. Make all industries subject to
examination, not by the powers man.
aging them, as was the case with the
bank until the passage of the new
initiated law, but by the elected offic-
ials of the state, at least every two
I months, and as much oftener as those
elected officials may desire
Mr.. LeSueur lays stress on the de-
STABILITY of not throwing out these
industries we have created, but chang
ing their management SO as to make
them efficient. Mr.. LeSueur, of
course, believes in these industries,
and in the principle of the state en-
gaging in business. We are not sure
whether we believe in them or not.
We incline not to believe in them, and
to think rather that it is so difficult
to keep from, giving state industries
artificial advantages, which prevents
them from showing fairly what they
can do in open competition, and so
difficult also to get for their manage
ment the energy and efficiency that
has been developed by long training
in private business, that they probab-
ly will not prove a success, and that
we shall probably have to resort to
other methods, of which the most
promising appear to be regulation Of
private business and cooperative as
sociations, to cure the evils Of which,
in present day business the farmers
aud other have had good reason to
complain But we realize that this is
a very two-sided question, and we shall
not attempt to discuss it here be>
cause we agree absolutely with Mr..
LeSueur that the people Of the state
have shown that they desire % cnto.
into business as a state, and that,
having SO decided, the experiment
ought to be given the fairest possible
trial, which means, as Mr.. LeSueur
points out, trial under carefully
framed regulations looking to the
largest possible degree of business ef-
tciency.
With most Of Mr.. LeSueur's sugges-
tons we heartily agree, and we COM
mend them impartially to Non-par-
tisans and other opponents. We also
agree heartily with Mr.. LeSueur that
the people, and the elected officials,
especially the governor and legisla-
I; ture, must forget their differences and
s.stptive honestly and earnestly, and we
might add unselfshly and without OBJ
stinacy, to get together on a common
ground.
In fact. we find but one suggestion
nf Mr. ,eSueur's with which we en-