The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1945-06-29
{ Co.ppti9g'al:sf
F.U.O.T.A.,,
Open Memory Gates.
1t Was No Joke, Then.
Marched Down Again.
Old Guard Turned Out.
We Like the Change!

|
We Like the Change!
When M. w. Thatcher, genera
manager Of the GTA, announced a
Minot, N D., that the board of di
rectors of the GTA was planning the
erection of a $2,000,O00 terminal ele
vator at Grand Forks, N. D., he mus
have opened up the sluice gates Of
memory for many an old-time North
Dakotan. Instinctively their minds
would revert to first proposal to build
a terminal elevator either within OF
outside the state and the seven years
of battle that ragged over putting the
state government into the business
of marketing grain. The farmers won
that fight, but only when they had
put the old-line politicians out of of
flee and elected their own farmers as
state officials and members of the
Legislature.
The fight began when, under the
old provision of the state constitution,
the legislatures of 1909 and 1911 sue
cessively approved an amendment to
to- build terminal elevators "in the
states of Minnesota and Wisconsin"
and to provide for the inspection,
weighing and grading of all grain re-
ceived by such elevators. Following
legislative approval the proposed
amendment was submitted to the vote
of the people and won, 56,488 to 49,
1884, But it turned out that while the
state of North Dakota might build
elevators in Minnesota, the Minnesota
grain grading laws would control =
and it was to avoid these grades that
the state-owned elevators were pro-
posed. At that time there were no
federal grades. So back to the legis-
lature came second amendment,
which provided that the state should
build elevators inside the state That
was approved by the legislatures of
1911 and 1913 and approved by popu-
lar vote in 1914, 51,507 for, to 18,483
against. The board of control took
on the job of investigating the feast
bility of the plan, already approved
by the votersl 1t might be laughable
now, but it. was no joke then.
When the legislature convened in
January 1915, the board filed an ad
verse report on the project of building
elevators by the state. 1t claimed its
investigations showed that govern
owned elevators were impracticable
for the taxpayer That was the time
when the farmer got up on his hind
legs and roared Thousands of them
came to Bismarck and marched in a
long column to the capitol and filled
the corridors and balconies of the old
building until the custodian was fran
tic lest the floors, grown feeble since
they were laid in territorial days,
would collapse. Then it was that one
of the house, viewing the
mass of farmers in the galleries, |
turned to the mob and told them to
go home and slop the hogs-it is
our job to consider and enact the |
laws" So the farmers, having |
up the hill, marched down |
again and went home. They were
used to being licked in those days.
But farmers can be stubborn and
carry resentment. That same year |
A. G. Townley, flax farmer of Golden
Valley county and another farmer and |
leader in the Equity Coop, F. B.
Wood, got a few model T Fords and |
/ few hundred mimeographed sheets
setting out the II points of the farm
er's program, one of which was the |
erection of terminal elevators in the |
state. They called it the Nonpartisan
League and so rapid was it's growth
that in the 1916 election, the old
guard was turned out of office and a
farmer, Lynn ]. Frazier was elected
governor. Then those farmers en-
acted a law which resulted in the
not only of state-owned
elevator at Grand Forks but
4 big flour mill, still there and operat-
ng at profit to the state.
Think now of the years of battling
struggle to get that one elevator and
low hear M. w. Thatcher propose
. GTA elevator of from four to five
million bushel capacity. If the farm
RS of 1909-1915 had thought of $780,,
100 as the price for that terminal
elevator, nobody would have dared to
hink of putting in two million dol
ars. And if the elevator had been
,uilt in two or three years, that would
lave been good progress, whereas if
he GTA takes more than year to
10 it, somebody's ears will be cracked
Town for loafing on the job! "Times
.hange," says the old sage, land man
lers with them" Now the farmers
ire not asking the state to build ter
ninal elevators - they are building
hem themselves from the earnings
hey have made by tending to their
,wn business-which is the market
ng and distributing of their grain by
heir own institution. Somehow we
ike the change-don't we?