Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1921-08-20
WHY BONDS DO NOT SELL,

w. W. ANY d1ISS VIII d 1llpOI I'LL INOIll ~
Dakota as a tax and economic expert to assist in the
framing of laws for the working out of the Townley.
Lemke industrial program, has contributed an article
to the journal of the American Bankers association,
in which he discusses the North Dakota situation.
Among other things, he writes:
So far as the charge of socialism is concern
ed, it would seem that the existence in North
Dakota of state-ownede elevators and mills, home
building enterprises and rural credit facilities
affords no greater reason for diserediting the
states bonds than does the existence Of similar
enterprises in South Dakota, Montana, Mime
sofa, Louisiana, Washington, Oregon, Califor-
MIA and New York. The North Dakota program
of state enterprises includes the building of
homes for its people; California makes similar
provisions; North Dakota is building a state
flour mill; the public port of Astoria in Oregon
already has and is operating one or more; North
Dakota is building a terminal elevator; Louisi-
ana already has one there is another owned and
operated by the port of Seattle; there are pub
licly owned elevators at Tacoma and Portland;
and the state Of New York is building one and
planning to build more.
So far as The Herald is aware, disinclination to
purchase North Dakota bonds is not based on doubt
as to their ultimate redemption, but rather as to
when and under what circumstances they will be
this uncertainty arising from the cratic
plans of those who have had charge of the state adj
,Ininistration. MIR. Roylance calls attention to the
tact that one state has undertaken home. building
that another is completing a terminal eleva-
tor, and that similar enterprises of greater or less
are being carried on by cities in various
parts of the country.
These enterprises to which Mr.. Roylance calls
are admittedly experimental. They may
turn out well or i'll. In no case has a state of city
;rlsked its entire future on the success of any such
Those who have promoted them are will
ing to experiment up to a certain point. They believe
that the enterprise which they have established will
!be successful. Presumably they recognize the posi-
;blItV that ff1ev rUi11 r70f succeed Tf fhevido no+ c,,~-
Iceed some loss will be entailed, but the loss will not
he Of such a nature as to cripple the entire state or
city. IT the experiment is unsatisfactory it can be
abandoned without jeopardizing everything else.
There is no state except North Dakota which has
the run the entire ganlut Of publicly own-
ed and operated industrial enterprises. No other state
seen fit to experiment on this scale, and the peo-
|ple to whom the bonds of North Dakota have been
Offered and by whom they have been rejected recog-
,nized in the character of North Dakota's expert
does not promise well for an early redemption of
the bonds which they are invited to purchase.
In addition to the unwisdom Of entering upon
experiments SO wide in variety and SO great in scope,
there is the fact that North Dakota's administrators
have exhibited utter lack Of capacity to handle even
the simplest industrial, commercial or financial bus
Ilness. Not one Of the men prominently identified
with the program has made any conspicuous sue
cess in his own business. Several Of these men have
scored utter failures in private enterprise, and the
history of their connection with state enterprises
thus far is simply a repetition Of the history Of their
own private business operations. They have plung-
led fhe state into debt, and they have squzndered
right and left.They have been loose and negiigent
in accounting They have permitted state funds to
be diverted from their proper purpose and used for
partisan political purposes, and they have loaded
up the state with an army OF incompetent employees,
whose only recommendation has been that they had
done good service to the party.
It IS this collection Of facts and NOT ANYTHING ii
the essential business conditions IN North 1Dakofa