The nonpartisan leader. [volume], January 06, 1916, Image 3

About The nonpartisan leader. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1915-1921

Image provided by: State Historical Society of North Dakota

                
There is one educational institu
tion in North Dakota dedicated prin
cipally to the farmer and his inter
ests. It is the one educational insti
tution of the state dedicated to the
higher education, that pertains to
agriculture and agriculture is the
chief industry of the state.
The passage of an act by the legis
lature of 1915 and subsequent devel
opments have pilaced the fate of this
institution, the State Agricultural
college, in the hands of five business
and professional men, only one of
whom by any stretch of the imagina
tion can call himself a farmer.
The importance, future success and
efficiency of the agricultural college
are at stake. The farmers of North
Dakota, who pay 79 per cent of the
taxes and cast over 80 per cent of
the votes in the state, are going to
watch with closest scrutiny the acts
of these five business and professional
men.
Hand Not Shown
No intimation has been given of
what the policy of these five men
will betoward the farmers' institu
tion, and no prediction can be made.
It is within the power 6f these five,
however, to reduce the State Agri
cultural college to an institution of
relatively small importance and rank
—to make a mere trade school of it,
for instance, and to develop the other
educational institutions of the state,
in which the farmer has much less
interest and which are not near as
important to him, into predominating
positions in the educationaKfieldfl
On the other hand these five busi
ness and professional men can adopt
a policy that will continue the pres
ent splendid development of the ag
ricultural college and make it, as it
should be in a state where agriculture
predominates and where nearly 80
per cent of the taxes are paidi by
farmers, the leading educational in
stitution of the Northwest—a great
It will be recognized, that what ...
has been said with reference to vari-
ties mentioned in the first'plank of
the League's program—namely, flour
mills, stock yards, packing houses
and cold storage plants. There is no
If one doubts thp imnnrW* nf
aublic ownership of such institutions
tunes that have been made hv the
te the Chicago stock yards the Kan- °Ur
r:+v
wil/convince one of the vital nublic
Break Great Institution.
bulwark and asset of a great com
monwealth of farmers.
Regents Created
The legislature of 1915 abolished all
the local boards of trustees which
had charge of the eight principal
educational institutions of the state
and did away with the board of con
trol for the normal schools. In the
place of these boards a state board
of regents was created "to assume all
powers and duties" formerly intrust
ed to the several local boards of the
eight state institutions affected. Five
regents, therefore, now have coVnplete
control of the State university and.
School of Mines at Grand Forks, the
State Agricultural college at Fargo,
the School of Science at Wahpeton,
the State Normal schools at Valley
City, Mayville and Minot, the State
Industrial school at Ellendale and the
School of Forestry at Bottineau.
The chief immediate duty of the
new state board of regents under the
act is "to coordinate and correlate"
the work and courses of the various,
schools, "so as to prevent wasteful
duplication and to develop coopera
tion among such iristitutins."
These are the men, the new state
boad of regents, to whom this vital
task hai been assigned under the apr
pointment of the governor, confirmed
by the state senate:
L. F. Crawford, banker and land
owner, Sentinel Butte.
Emil Scow, lawyer, Bowman.
J. A. Power, farmer and banker,
Power.
Frank White* former governor, now
insurance njan, Valley City.
Dr. Taylor, practicing physician,
Grand Forks.
To carry out its work of "-correla­
in
If one
dustry
is a vital and
tunes
terests of
theF
fet him contemplate the vast for- ™eId%in
contemPlate
the
c°n£ol
tlon of
Brivate ownership of them A visit terials and the finished products. in his book, "Social Welfare in New
9°vernmeni'
n®c!on
THE NONPARTISAN LEADER
Fate ot Farmers' School Is Up To Five Men
Destiny of Agricultural College at Stake Under Act of
Last Legislature—Business and Professional Men Will
Decide—Farmers To Watch Acts Which Will Make or
rule in logic whereby one can dif- let him contemplate the collossal for- The Example of New Zealand structed under conditions that would
ferentiate between them
wWch shies
with
l*vW,ed
hs
necessity of such institutions Privale indu8ry-
PaiernaJ!st!o
OmnVm Ft WnrtVi ?t P**ern"",m when btentioned in con- Zealand had about 1,800 miles of nation can always borrow money at a
T^nuiq. or' Smt£Vi St 'i
b,e8sin9 UP"
sub"-
Packing and Storage Plants to ndining and timber companies and 000 miles of lines. Twenty years ago rate than private capital could offer.1*
If one doubts the economic value legislated in the interest of many the New Zealand trains ran all to- What applies to the railroads of
ef such institutions to the public private enterprises, but has never gether—both passenger and freight— New Zealand will also appiy to pub
let him contemplate the many charges lifted its little finger to help lighten nearly 3,000,000 miles and carried 5,- lie utilities on a smaller scale in
that are levied against a car of stock the burden that crushes down on the 500,000 passengers, 6,000,000 tons of deed, it has been so applied in New
that is handled by them. shoulders of the farming industry— produce, as well as 1,300,000 headi of Zealand with great success as we
If one doubts that the* packing the tast important industry in the live stock. At the end of that twen- shall learn in a subsequent article,
house is a valuable utility, let him nation. Only let it be suggested that ty years the trains (in one year), ran Nothing New and- Untried
conjure the figures that represent such help fchould be extended anil the more than 8,000,000 miles and carried From these observations it will be
the fortunes of the members of the air is rent with the violent screams 12,300,000 passengers, nearly 5,000,000 seen that the demands of the Non
beef trust, with its far-reaching ef "paternalism" by the subsidized tons of freight and nearly 8*000,000 partisan Political League's program
power through its interlocking sys- ,preM of the country. head of live stock. is not a new and untried visionary
:tem of packing houses and cold stor- Permitting, and even assisting, pri- And as Mr. Lusk says, "They trav- it is well established, not
age plants andi the certainty with. vate capital in ravishing the heritage eled ami their goods traveled over only in New Zealand but in other
which they control prices—both to of man in devastating the forests, the puUlely owned railroads at rates countries and has proved ali that was
the producer and to the consumer— monopolizing mineral deposits, cor- lower—in most caaels very touch ever or is claimed for it. It is one
by virtue of such economic power. nering manufacturing possibilities, is lower—than those which the railroad of the new pjhases in the great
This closely related group of insti- considered, a very laudabe work, authorities of Amerfoa or of England scheme oi social progress, which
tutions alone have built up a money- while striking even one little blow are ready to denounce as ruinous." seeks the better welfare of the whole
ed aristocracy in this country which to break the economic chains from These lines were constructed at a people. No country or people
tion and coordination" the regents
are required by the law to cause a
survey of the state educational in
situations to be made by "competent
experts from without the state." The
regents have named the United,
States commissioner of education to
direct the survey and his field men
will do it during January. The sur
vey is intended to show "wherein
the efficiency of the state educational
institutions can be best served and
economy in conducting the same best
practiced."
Courses Interlock
On the facts gathered and recom
mendations made in the report of
this survey the regents will act.
Nonpartisan Political League's Official Program
wealth accumulated by this small To those who .fear this country earth. Some of our American railroads ducers of wealth a fair and justshare
'group of men represents the losses would go to the dogs if the govern- are capitalized at over $60,000 per of Wealth cannot balk at any step
sustained by ,the fanners on one ments—state and federal—took an mile including those through the which means the better well-being^
hapd, and the consumers on the'other active part in owning and operating plains country. ..^.N.(j, of the great masses,.^
The agricultural college is much
more than a trade or agricultural
school at the present time and, must
continue to be what it is if it is to
continue to benefit under the United
States act giving aid to state schools
of this kind. Its courses are closely
interwoven and its work a unit. It
has a school of veterinary medicine
and surgery, a course related to that
of agriculture. The school has a pure
seed, drug and food department doing
work for the farmers of the state,
and this department, with the school
of veterinary medicine and surgery,
is- dependent upon and closely inter
woven with the school of pharmacy,
on whose laboratory both the veter
inary and food departments depend.
A course in chemical engineering is
taught, dependent, like the others
named, on the laboratory of the
school of pharmacy. Architectural
engineering, civil and mechanical en
gineering also are taught.
0
Flour Mills5 Packing OJld CjOld Storage Plants
ous municipal utilities and also pub- Article No 3 State VersuB Private Capital
lie terminal facilities, will apply
"New Zealand's experience has
with equal force to the ether utili-
By OTTO T. MONROE
this country. such industries, it would enlighten j,y
doubts that the milling in- them to study the little country of
important one, New Zealand. shown, besides, that they can be con-
accumulated by the milling in- Hugh M. Lusk, for ten years a mem- appeal to no railroad promoter, but
the country. Let him fur- ber of the New Zealand parliament,
the great power it tells us of the great social and econ- conditions of the people and so great-
and determina- omic advantage that public owner- ,y increase the wealth of the nation,
Ence—both of the raw ma- ship has been to that little country has shown, finally, that it can bo
Zealand." Twenty years ago New
diied railroads, made liberal grants work and today operates nearly 3,- can always be provided at a lower
whlfoh may very grea
no
pro
producers, hat railroad. At that time it took over rate much lower than a private cotn-
the privately owned lines (two short pany, the service rendered by real
Hnes) and continued construction railroads of the people to the people
THREE
These interlocking courses have
given the farmers of the state a
real college, bound to grow and de
velop under a favorable policy into
an even greater asset to farmers and)
their sons, who constitute the great
bulk of the voters of North Dakota,
and to agriculture, the chief and
only industry of the state.
Farmer Not Heard.
But much can be done under the
guise of "coordinating and correlat
ing," provided, for by the last legis
lature and to be carried out by a
board on which the farmer has lit
tle or no voice, although it is his
college that is concerned.
Will any courses be taken away
from the agricultural college and
given to other schools of the state
in the interest of "preventing waste
ful duplication?"
Will anything be done to make the
agricultural college anything less
than what the farmers of this state
insist that it shall be, a great, pre
dominating educational institution of
the first rank?
There is no evidence as yet that
anything of this kind is contemplat
ed, but the acts of the five business
and professional men who hold the
destiny of the farmers' college in
their hands will be watched with the
closest scrutiny.
Commission Complete
Last week United States Commis
sioner of Education Claxton an
nounced the third member of the
commission which, under his direc
tion, will conduct the survey of the
educational institutions of the state,
as provided for by the legislature.
Dr. L. D. Coffman, dean of the col
lege of education, University of Min
nesota, is the last member named
and will make the survey with Dr.
W. T. Bawden of the United States
department of education and Dr. E.
B. Craighead of Montana.
Concluding the subject of railroads
Mr. Lusk says:
proved that railroads can be built,
,. equipped and operated as honestly
an
by a
honest government as they can
company of capitalists. It has
t|y improve th«
advantage to a people to make
fits at its own expense/and as a
pro-