The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1932-11-15

whose husband earns enough to sup
port her will go off the payroll II he
has the power.
Another important attitude is Mr.
Langer's position on railroads. He
will appoint q tax commissioner who
will serve with him as q member OF
the board Of equalization which fixes
railroad and other utility taxes.
Early in his campaign, Mr.. LANCER
lambasted the utilities and called for
an investigation into rates despite
the fact that the Nonpartisans have
controlled the commission which reg:
ulates these utilities since 1917 and
generally speaking the work Of this
board in all its departments has met
with public approval. This is reflect
ed in the fact that its membership
has never failed of reelection. At
all elections they have secured much
greater majorities than has Mr..
LANCER. For some reason Mr.. LANCER
toned down on his utility attacks
early in the primaries, but in his Bis
nlarck speech he vehemently de-
clared that the railroads were hos
tile to him and opposed his nominal
ton In the League convention last
March favoring anybody but him.
Mr.. LANCER explained why the rail-
roads are fighting him. Here are his
own words:
Nov, don't pretend to be gen.
ius, but when was a county officer
over in Morton county, had law
suit and that law suit has caused me
more grief and political worry than
any lawsuit I ever had in my life
When ran for county attorney over
there, said that would make the
railroads pay taxes on their leased
sites. The lawyer who was running
against me, however, said that 1t was
unjust and that it could not be done.
And finally those people over there
took me at my word and I brought
my action against the Northern Pa
cific Railway company. That case is
reported in Volume 80 of the North
Dakota Reports at page 627. and as a
result of that case the railroad had to
pay taxes on $3O,O0O,0O0 worth of
that they had not paid one
penny of taxes on to the State of
North Dakota prior to that time. For
Is years the farmers of North Dakota
paid taxes on every acre of land they
owned, while you people in Bimsarck
paid taxes on every resident lot, but
down there in Fargo for example, all
the way from the depot to where Alex
Stern has his big store, on those lots
owned by the railroad company, the
company did not pay one
penny of taxes. When Judge GQss of
the supreme court wrote his opinion
he said that we could go back six
years and make them pay those taxes
AS result of that lawsuit the rail-
roads have had to pay millions Of dol
lars worth of taxes to the State of
North Dakota. They wrote check to
every county in North Dakota, that
together totaled over $1,250,000.
Nov any time you make railroad
pay out good money you al
ways get back slap from the men of
The railroad company, and these other
large corporations and all the news
papers which the railroads control.
and all of the newspapers friendly to
big business from that moment on
become the enemy of that man. And
so it was over here in Patterson Hall
On the second or third day Of March.
Over there in rooms $40 and 312 of
the Patterson Hotel, there you had
the lawyers for this railroad company,
and every delegate that they thought
was friendly to me were called over
to that room, including young Dubs
from New Leipzig. and great many
more, and they said to them, We
don't care who you nominate for
Governor, just so it is not this man
LANCER and then those farmers got
together and they got to milling
around. and they said If the railroad
companies don't like this man Lam
ger. he must be pretty good kind Of
a fellow for the farmers of this state
and so they endorsed mel"