Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1921-10-14

were to be expected, but it was to be expected that
periodicals of real character and standing would
have been able, by this time, to reach a moderately
just appreciation Of the subject, and to treat it with
at least some measure of the sympathy which would
mark their treatment of affairs with which. they
were more closely in touch. Some Of the eastern
publications have shown real progress in this direc-
ton, and it is therefore all the more amazing and
distressing to note that one holding such a place in
the public confidence and esteem as the New York
Outlook does should at this late day mar its splendid
record by the publication of an article on North Da-
kota which seems to combine all the blunders made
ship.
The article, which appears in the current issue
of the Outlook, is entitled "The Political Storm In.
North Dakota" and is written by William c. Gregg.
We gather from the text that Mr.. Gregg actually
visited North Dakota. His visit was to little pur-
pose. Here are his opening paragraphs:
About seven hundred thousand human beings
live on that part Of the earth's surface called
North Dakota. Their soil and climate will not
keep alive a large population. The fact is, North
Dakota now finds its living margin too small I
Some of the people are leaving the state and will
finally settle where conditions are more favor
able.
1t is the way of this old world of ours. Since
the time of Abraham people have protested and
moved on. Sometimes they have improved
local conditions and stayed a while longer, but
they had to move later or die.
What can be expected from a writer who be-
gins his article with such palpable contradictions
of demonstrate and demonstrated facts? Obvious
ly nothing can be expected other than the shallow
and superficial, and it is just that which Mr.. Gregg
delivers. We are given a picture of a population of
three-quarters of a million wheat growers, working
four months in the year and using the leisure of the
other eight months in which to grumble at fate ard
ton which stupidity ~refusese to diversity its indus
tries and which sells hides at so cents apiece when
the farmers might just as we'll tan their own leather
and make their own shoes and harness.
Mr.. Gregg's suggestion that the limit of popu-
lation in North Dakota has been passed, or ap-
preached, is too silly to justify argument. Tier.
must be somebody around the Outlook who can set
him right on that, and who can convince him, if he is
a reasonable being, that with a population ten times
its present 100000 the state would just be getting
into its stride in the utilization of the possibilities Of
its soil and climate
As to its progress in the direction of diversified
ton, everyone with even a moderately intelligent
understanding of the subject understands that North
Dakota is passing through the experiences which
have marked the development of every part Of the
earth's surface First in the line of agriculture came
the superficial treatment, the %skimming of the sur
face, and in every case the line of least resistance,
was followed until the more permanent methods
were adopted through the combination Of human in
lte1ligence with force OF circumstances. These transi-
tons require time. The process is by no means
complete in the Atlantic states, with their three cen
turtles of agriculture, and North Dakota, with an
average of a single generation of settlement, is NOV
ing toward the common goal, not as ripidly as many
desire, but as rapidly, in most cases, as circum-
stances will permit
It may not be amiss, in this connection, to- men
ton some of the difficulties under which North Da-
kota labors.
First, there is the youthfulness of the state, not
its decadence: as MI: Gregg supposes. Its prog
iress in Investigation has in most instances kept
pace with the availability of markets for the pro-
ducts of Investigation Take the potato industry,
for instance. A very few years ago the farmer who
had raised ten acres of potatoes would have had his
trouble for his pains. The local market was supplied
from back yards and the surplus of acre patches, and
shipping markets had not been developed. Today
the state is shipping potatoes by the train load, and
the crop is proving a godsend to the farmers.
The state is suffering this year from the same
|crop conditions which have afflicted other states. Its
crops are as good as those in adjacent states, better,
in some cases, but they are not good. OF its major
crop, wheat, the state has produced about half what
it has produced and can produce again, on the same
acres, with the anne treatment, with the same soil
and the same climate, but, Mr.. Gregg will please
note, with different weather conditions. In this re.
spect the state shares a common misfortune.
North Dakota is suffering, as all the world is
suffering, from the throes of postwar readjustment
In the process agriculture has been hit earliest and
hardest. The short crop brings an even shorter price
Money is scarce, and the need for money is more
urgent here because the demands of the work of de-
velopment are greater than in an older state.
In addition to these conditions, against which
no human wisdom could provide, and in which
North Dakota shares the experience of its neighbors
the state has been cursed by a political propaganda
which has intensified and aggravated every temper.
airy condition of undesirability with which this state
has had to contend. This is a condition which the
people of the state themselves can remedy, and
which we believe they are about to do.
It has not been The Herald's purpose, in thi.
article. to enter l1DOn a discussion NJ the eronorn;r
possibilities of North Dakota, but merely to point
out the shallowness and super6ciality of an article
which must have shocked every Outlook reader who
is even moderately conversant with the facts. Blu,
ifSthe Outlook is really DESTROYS Of presenting tts
facts to its readers, and will put a really capable mar