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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDENFOUNDATIONS

CHAPTER XXXVIII

THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION IN NORTH DAKOTA

"History maketh a young man to be old, without either wrinkles or gray hairs. Yea, it not only maketh things past present; but enableth one to make a rational conjecture of things to come."

-Thomas Fuller.

The general election in North Dakota in 1916, may properly be styled a revolution. It was full of surprises and the causes leading up to it should go into the history of the state. A former revolution, when the populists gained control, came from the fear of so-called bosses and the domination of corporate influences. It was gained through the Farmers' Alliance, whose organizers visited all portions of the state, organizing at one point in the morning, at another in the forenoon, others at midday, in the afternoon, in the evening, and late at night. Their work being in secret there was no opportunity to refute or explain the allegation which set the hearts of the farmers aflame, and led to distrust of the party in power. The fact that the affairs of the state had been properly administered and that the railroads, against whom their shafts were directed, had reason to encourage and none to destroy or retard their prosperity, was ignored. Control of the state government was their purpose, and it was accomplished. The revolution was quite as complete as in 1916. There was then no charge of corruption; it was an uprising of a class to gain measures of protection they deemed essential.

THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE,

In the legislative assembly of 1914, there was a determined movement on the part of the farmers to secure a large appropriation from the state for a state owned and operated terminal elevator at St. Paul. Delegations of farmers from all over the state, under the leadership of George S. Loftus of St. Paul, who had been from 1912 the sales manager for the Equity Exchange at St. Paul, labored with might and main to induce the Legislature to make the appropriation. The refusal of the Legislature to accede to the wishes of the farmers, was the primary cause of the revolution which has taken place in the political history of the state.

The Board of Control of the State, by direction of Governor Hanna, had investigated the provincial owned elevators in Manitoba and in Canada, and reported to the Legislature that these elevators had been operated at a loss, and had been of no substantial benefit to the farmers of that dominion in the regulating of grades, or in obtaining higher prices for their grain, and that it would be unwise for the state to appropriate for the construction of a terminal elevator

to be operated by officers of the state, as it would certainly prove a bad investment of state funds. That it could in no wise control the grading or inspection of wheat, and would be without influence in fixing the price of grain. That the great law of supply and demand was the controlling factor, and prices were always regulated by the surplus over home consumption, which was shipped to foreign countries, and determined in a large degree the price.

This report had much to do with the action of the Legislature. The report did not, however, convince the farmers. They felt that through mixing of wheat and in other ways they were not getting the grade their wheat was to receive from the Millers' Association at Minneapolis, and the great elevator companies. in Duluth, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Chicago, and the only way in which they could get proper inspection and grading of their grain, and a price according to its quality was to have their own terminal elevator.

In the fall of 1914, Mr. A. C. Townley, now president of the Farmers' Nonpartisan League, and the most prominent man in its organization, began his plan of campaign and entered actively upon the forming of what is now known as the Farmers' Nonpartisan League. In this work he had the active co-operation of a Mr. Russell, a writer for the Pearsons Magazine. The plan of organization was the creating of an executive committee of five, who were to outline the policy and the work of the league. They put organizers and speakers into the field with the program of what they expected to accomplish in the way of legislation in 1917.

They were to obtain members of the farmers' organization who would pledge themselves to favor the nomination and election of members of the Legislature, pledged to work out a different system of grain grading and inspection, and would favor the building of a state controlled and operated terminal elevator, state hail insurance, state owned and operated mills, factories and packing houses. Each farmer who became a member of the league was to receive 'for a year a copy of Pearsons Magazine, and a weekly newspaper called The Non Partisan Leader, which they started in Fargo, with David C. Coates of Spokane, Wash., as the editor.

The organization moved forward by leaps and bounds and prior to the June primaries, they claimed to have enrolled as members of the organization from thirty-six to forty thousand farmers, thirty thousand of whom had theretofore been identified with the republican party in the state, and from six to eight thousand of whom had been identified with the socialist and democratic parties in the state.

In the fall of 1915, and in the spring and summer of 1916, they had perfected their organization in practically every county in the state. The executive committee arranged a large number of what they called picnics held in each legislative district of the state; they called upon these district organizations to send delegates to a state meeting to be held in Fargo the last of March, or about the first of April, 1916. This convention was very largely attended by farmers representing every section of the state. They decided to put no farmers' ticket as such in the field, but to nominate a state ticket as republicans, headed by Lynn J. Frazier of Pembina County for governor. They did endorse one democrat of the name of Casey for state treasurer, and they proceeded to name state senators and state representatives from every senatorial and legislative district. A very

large proportion of these nominees had theretofore been affiliated with the republican party, and were endorsed as republicans.

Under a state law the voters of the state are registered by the assessors. Each man must declare his party affiliation and he must vote in the primary election the ticket that he declares for, and to carry out their plans some eight thousand or more democrats and socialists registered as republicans that they might vote for the ticket named by the Non Partisan League.

In the June primaries the entire state ticket as named by the convention was nominated, and in the election on November 7th, were elected, excepting the democrat, Casey, for state treasurer, who was defeated by the republican candidate, Steen, by a small majority.

The league officers took no stand on national candidates for president or senators or congressmen. They left that to the individual judgment of the republicans. The great work in Congress for national inspection by Senator Porter J. McCumber was favorable to his election. The republican candidates for Congress were also elected.

The essential purpose claimed by the officers of the league is to prevent the acquisition of enormous fortunes by persons who make no adequate return for them and to make easier and pleasanter the lot of the actual toiler in every legitimate field of endeavor.

Their program appears to include the public ownership of everything that enters into the business of production and distribution. Whether the state is to become a great social and business organization with the activities of all its members directly under its control remains to be demonstrated. Presumably the power placed in their hands by an intelligent and confiding people will be wisely used.

GOVERNOR LYNN J. FRAZIER

Lynn J. Frazier was born on a farm in Steele County, Minnesota, on December 21st, 1874. His father came with his family to North Dakota in the spring of 1881, and settled on Section 33 of Township 159, Range 54, in Pembina County. Thomas Frazier, his father, built a little sod house in which his family lived for several years. Lynn Frazier's present home is on the same place, practically the only home he has ever known.

The boy Lynn began his education in the country school in his neighborhood; later he went to Grafton High School, where he graduated at the age of seventeen. His father had died a year before and he and his brothers had taken up the work of running the farm.

The next fall Lynn, mature and manly for his age, began teaching a country school, developing an ambition to become a well-educated man, having visions of a profession, as a lawyer or a doctor. At 19 years of age he entered the Normal School at Mayville, graduating with that institution's first class in 1895, when he returned to teaching, with his former teachers and classmates predicting for him a brilliant future in whatever profession he might adopt.

He continued teaching for two years.

In the fall of 1897, young Frazier, then nearly 23, entered the state university of Grand Forks. He had been a classmate at Mayville Normal with N. C. Mac

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