The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1925-04-21
N0N-PARTISAN
LEAGUE FAILURE.
IS ANALYZEDI
History CT Agrarian Move.
ment in North Dakota Re-
corded in Monograph

That the Nonpartisan League
through it's failure has made DIS
tinct contribution to the Agrarlan
Movement, and that that movement,
which came into existence through
a division of labor first applied to
industry, is disappearing through
the industrialization of agriculture,
are the conclusions OF the eXhaus-
tive monograph on "The Agrarian
Movement in North Dakota" by Paul
r. Fossum, Phi. D.. Instructor in
Economics and Social Science in
Wesleyan University, which has just
been issued in the Johns Hopkins
University series of studies in his
torical and political science.
The Nonpartisan League, whose
inception was due to- demand for
better marketing conditions, failed
first and primarily, the author con
cludes in recapltulating lengthy
chapter on the League, because the
movement was political and was
therefore forced to draw its appoint
ees from that number who possessed
influence rather than ability
Aroused Class Preju0ice
In the second place, he says, the
League was forced to appeal to class
prejudices in order to keep up in
terest in its proposals, which chad
the effect of not only making the
movement class movement but
aroused those forces Of terror so
fatal in the predominance of sim
gle class"
Finally, the League failed, DR..
Fossum declares, because it sought
to make of state government IT,.
.h ~ fu ~ ion nj dc
entirely upon the existence of at
least two sometimes Numerically
opposed parties, business machine
whose success depends upon the
unanimous confidence of it's COM
pany in the ability of the directing
officers"
Failure Aids Movement
In it's failure, however, the author
thinks, the League has made great
contributions to the Agraran Move
ment, by proving that state owner
ship can not exist when it must COM
pete with privately owned and eff
ficently conducted organizations,
and by teaching the farmer to look
beyond the small sphere of activity
to his terminal market for the solu.
ton of some of his problems.
Summing up at the end Of the
volume the general tendencies of the
agrarian movement in North Dakota,
DR.. Fossum, who travelled over the
entire spring wheat district during
the years 1912 to 1922. finds it's his
tory to be that of almost every large
industry, the separation Of the func.
tions Of production and sales and
tn" specialization of both.
1t has been movement, he saws.
"tD control the markets of the chief
products of the state, first, by at
tempting to restore competition at
country points; second, by local CO.
operative marketing, and finally, by
cooperation at the terminals, which
was at first impeded by disastrous
experiment in state ownership. bat
which now seems to be about to
triumph, due to the changing sys-
tenn Of production brought about BIZ
the disappearance of free lands and
the subsequent capitalization Of land
according to its ability to produce
Gives Early History
Tracing in his second chapter
which deals with the early agrarian
movement in the state, the develop
ment of the milling industry, and
the expansion of northwestern from
tiers by means of the railroads and
the author gives detailed history
OF the attempts of the North Dakota
farmers to free themselves from the
power of the grain and railroad in
terests.
The general tendency of agraran
laws and agrarian policy during the