Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-02-11
MORE CORRESPONDENCE REVELATIONS.

Members of the late ousted state administration
ana their subordinates attempted a work of house
cleaning IN the departments with which they had
been connected, by removing from the files and
destroying documents and correspondence which
they feared might reflect on them if they found their
way into other hands. The work of cleaning up,
however, was not very thoroughly performed, and
enough correspondence has been found since their
retirement to show very clearly the general trend
of their activities and their sentiment. Selections
from this correspondence have been published from
time to time as showing the close working alliance
between those league officials of the state and the
radical leaders throughout the country.
A new batch of correspondence contains letters
written to and by John N. Hagan, former commits
sioner of agriculture and labor. These letters in
dlcate the close intimacy that existed between Mr..
Hagan and the publishers of radical papers in vari-
Gus parts OF the country, and of the consideration
Whclh was given IN one instance to the proposal to
place in North Dakota for purposes of observation
and organization a young man who had been a
conscientious objector during the war, and who had
served his time in prison on that account. Mr.,
Hagan had promised to look up a place for this man
at a later date. Whether or not his promise was
fulfilled is not indicated in the letters thus far ex-
amined.
The statement has often been made that the
state mill at Drake was selling -four at a lower rate
than the price charged for other -four. This is not
IN accord with a test of the letter written BY Mr..
Hagan, June rs, 1920, to J. A. McGovern, at that
time manager of the mill and elevator business. Mr..
Hagan says that his attention had been called to
-four prices by the manager Of the Consumers
Stores Co., at Bisbee, and that on June 1880, the
Drake patent flour was selling at 1881 per hundred,
and on June II at 5000; while another brand Of
-four had been selling during the entire time a,
$785 per hundred. Other hours are said to have
been sold at the same price during the same period.
Mr.. Hagan seems to have been quite disturbed by
this price difference, and he says the local store
manager believed that the price of the other -four
had not been manipulated because there had been
no change in that price since the Drake flour had
been shipped into town.
1t is also interesting to know Mr.. Hagan's
opinion of the Home Builders association, as indi
Gated in a letter which he wrote to a Washington
man, setting forth that the association was building
homes much more cheaply than unds the ordinary
plan, and that the purchase of these homes was very
popular. The date of this letter is not given, but it
is evident that Mr.. Hagan's opinion must have
changed very materially, because last fall he moved
out of the house which the state had built for him
because the price which the Home Builders associ-
alton sought to charge for it was So much greater
that the estimated price that he threw up the con-
tract in disgust. That house now stands unoccu-
pied, and it has been unoccupied since its abandon
ment by Mr.. Hagan.