AMERICAN SOCIETY OF EQUITY 139 



if anything, came from this probe other than a considerable amount of 

 publicity for the exchange. 64 



By late 1914 the exchange had plunged into the campaign to erect a 

 state-owned terminal elevator in North Dakota, a campaign which dated 

 back to the days of the Farmers' Alliance and the Populists. The elevator 

 issue was put to a popular vote in 1912 and again in 1914. Each time it 

 passed with a decided majority. Legislation also had been enacted for the 

 financing of the project, while the state board of control had been author- 

 ized to investigate the subject and to present plans to the legislature for 

 the building of the state elevator. 60 



The board of control began its investigations by visiting terminal eleva- 

 tors in the United States and Canada and interviewing government of- 

 ficials, grain merchants, bankers, business leaders, and cooperative leaders. 

 Among those consulted were representatives of the Minneapolis Chamber 

 of Commerce, the Duluth Board of Trade, and the Equity Cooperative 

 Exchange. But instead of presenting plans as it had been ordered to do, 

 the board of control became critical of the project. It recommended 

 strongly against the state's erecting such an elevator and advised that if 

 the state insisted on doing something of the sort, it would be better to lease 

 an elevator and try out the scheme at the lowest possible cost. 66 



The exchange, in anticipation of the unfavorable report, prepared a 

 lengthy statement of its own to present to the North Dakota legislature, 

 and in cooperation with other Equity groups it called a mass meeting of 

 farmers to assemble in Bismarck at the time the board of control was to 

 make its recommendations. The exchange statement criticized the board 

 for failing to interview people who were best qualified to present the 

 Equity point of view. It defended participation by the exchange in the 

 controversy on the ground that it was a North Dakota corporation, 90 per 

 cent of whose members paid taxes to the state. Such an elevator, the ex- 



64. J. E. Boyle, "The Agrarian Movement in the Northwest," American Economic 

 Review, VIII (September, 1918), p. 513. 



65. John D. Hicks, The Populist Revolt (Minneapolis, 1931), pp. 287-89; Herbert 

 Gaston, The Nonpartisan League (New York, 1920), pp. 40-41; Possum, Agrarian 

 Movements in North Dakota, p. 87; Andrew A. Bruce, Non-Partisan League (New 

 York, 1921), p. 57. 



66. North Dakota Journal of the House, 1915, pp. 165-69. 



