Evening star., 1923-07-21
by FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.


FARGO. y. d, July 21.-Though
geogra phically, ethnologically and In
an economic respect as alike as two
peas North and South Dakota present
strange political contrasts. North Da-
kota has been bitten by the Non-Par-
tisan League bug and stung hard, In
the monetary as we'll as the metaphori-
cal sense. South Dakota, on the other
hand, has escaped the blight. Town
leyism stopped at her northern border,
and, while the Ladds and the Fraziers
were bleeding North Dakota white
with visionary socialistic schemes,
South Dakota remained sane, stalWart
and republican.
State Not Sure.
With her two northern neiGhborS
North Dakota and Minnesota, now rep
resented in the United States Senate
by Utopian farmer-laborlteS OF the
La Toilette breed, South Dakota is not
SO sure of herself as she was, say,
week ago. The flaming star Of Magnus
Johnson had not yet burst upon the
affrighted northwestern horizon. To-
day, tomorrow. next yedr-nobody,
even in South Dakota, is sure what
might not happen. The Non-fartlSah
p
Tor governor in 1922 polled 10000 votes
to $4,000 for the democratic nominee
and $4,000 for the victorious republl-
can. There are South DakotanS VINO
quietly fear that If farm conditions do
not improve, some radical leader may
arise and exploit rural discomfort to
the undoing OF the existing political
order.
Sterling Faces Test.
Senator Sterling. republican stall
wart, comes up for reelection in
South Dakota IN 1924. Despite his
good standing in the community, he
could hardly withstand a farm la bor
tidal wave set rolling into the circum-
stances that have just swept Mag
nus Johnson into the Senate. Ster-
ling voted for the ship subsidy. for
the seating of Newberry and for the
Fordney- y-McCumber tariff Those
are not the best recommendations
in these times among the embittered
and embattled farmers of the west.
III Senator Sterling survives the radi-
cal hurricane now blowing across
this region, he mainly will have to
ing prohibitionist for the saving of
| his political life. The dryS are in
the saddle in South Dakota, as else
where in the western country. Per
haps ii was not without method in
MS madness" that Senator Sterling
labor blizzard in Minnesota to an
nounce that he would oppose any at
tempt to. let down the prohibition
bars in favor of foreign shipping.
In proclaiming that wet, either do
mestic or alien. can hone for no ia
vors at the hands Of Congress, Ster-
ling played the strongest card Of any
western politician now has up his
sleeve. Like Kansas and Colorado,
the Dakotas are sternly determined
10 remain dry and to do their ut
most toward keeping the rest of the
country dry.
Believe Pest Has Run Course.
North Dakota, the soil from which
the dragons teeth of the Non-Parti-
san League sprang. is confident the
pest they bred has run its course.
Ihat contention is stoutly maintained
even in the face of the emergence
across. the state line, of Shipstead
plus Johnson. Jerry u. Bacon OF
Grand Forks, pioneer crusader
against the -partisanites. declares
they are through" He says that
patriotic republicans AMI democrats
need to remain on the watch-tower
because farm discomfort is rife and
raw material for political incen-
diaries is plentiful. But North pa
kota. according to Bacon. has had
its full dose of non partisan pana-
Ceas, has paid a costly toll for the
treatment, and never again will hand
the state over to the element which
brought 1T to the verge of ruin.
Frazier Won by Chance.
1t appears that Lynn j. Frazier's
election to the Senate in 1922 was
due TO local circumSta and in
no wise denotes that North Dakota
has re-embraced the league Sena-
tor McCumber might have been re-
nominated and reelected, except for
certain unpopular federal appoint
ments which he instigated and for
his ftirtations with the nom partisan
crowd. Then the democrats made
an unfortunate nomination in opposi-
tion to Frazier. who had wrested the
regular republican nomination from
McCumber. The religious note en-
tercu into the campaign and, because
or combination of factors that had
little to do with the non-partisan
movement, Frazier was elected At
the same election the state admin
1stration was recovered by the stall
warts, NestoS. a republican, being
chosen governor. Thus, the phenonte-
non. ineXpllcable to the east, OF a
recalled non-partisan governor.
Frazier, being promoted year later
to the senatorship, is in reality, not
what it appears to be.
Believes "BOlshevists, Licked.
Tell 'em in Washington" was
Jerry Bacon's parting sally to the
writer, that the North Dakota
bolshevists are licked out of their
boots"
If Bacon's cry of triumph is justi-
fed, North Dakota may well chant
hallelujah, for her little fling at the
millennium, via the non-partisan route
cost the state anywhere from SIS
100000 to $l8,00O,000 in hard cash.
Those figures may not impress the
plutocratic east, but to a state with
only 100000 population they repre-
sent real money. OF the entire group
Of socialistic ventures in which the
peoples treasure was suuandered
only the state flour mill and elevator
at Grand Forks remains as an asset
upon which the taxpayers eventually
may cash in. Wasted are the millions
put into the Bank of North Dakota"
now in inglorious liquidation. Gone
are the fortunes invested in state
financed homes and dwelling houses.
To the land where the woodbine
twineth have vanished the subsidies
for consumers stores" In dismal
eclipse and bankruptcy are the scores
of semi-state banks, farmer-subsi-
dfzed newspapers and all the other
fantastic projects which were to turn
North Dakota into a commonwealth
drenched with milk and honey. with
troubles for farmers banished forever
more.
$3OOO,0OO In State Mill.
n H.