NONPARTISAN LEAGUE: BEGINNINGS I?5 



sale to the Equity. Still another bill required physicians and surgeons to 

 keep prominently posted a list of all their charges and fees, and surgeons 

 who removed appendixes, tapeworms, or the like were to send the re- 

 moved parts to the medical school of the University of North Dakota, 

 which, in turn, would forward to the patient a certified report to aid 

 him in auditing his doctor bills. 



A bill termed the "Old Gang" elevator bill, calling for a $300,000 

 appropriation to be raised by direct taxation, was vetoed by Governor 

 Frazier, who described it as "a fake bill," the purpose of which was to 

 discredit state ownership and defeat the farmers' purposes. 92 The objec- 

 tions to this bill were particularly strong because it provided for only one 

 small elevator; its taxing features would have been a burden to the state; 

 it would not have been re-enforced with a flour mill or any other state- 

 controlled marketing unit; furthermore, it would not prove of any sub- 

 stantial service to the grain producers, and finally it would give the 

 enemies of the League an opportunity to declare state ownership a failure. 



The important board of regents bill, known as house bill 65, called for 

 the abolition of the existing board and the establishment of a new one. It 

 was strictly a League bill which, according to the League, was in line with 

 the purpose of placing the agricultural college in the hands of a board 

 that was friendly to the farmer. The League was particularly in opposition 

 to the old board because of the investigations that had resulted in the 

 dismissal of John Worst, who was then also the superintendent of public 

 instruction, from the presidency of the college of agriculture. 93 Besides 

 eliminating the salary of the commissioner of agriculture, League leaders 

 claimed that leaving the superintendent of public instruction as head of 

 the entire system would have brought about unity in the state adminis- 

 tration of education. The League charged that Governor Hanna had ap- 

 pointed the board of regents on March 2, 1915 two days before there 

 was any law providing for the establishment of such a body. In the course 

 of this controversy the members of the board refused to relinquish their 

 posts, and their actions were upheld by the senate, which defeated the bill 

 by a vote of 26 to 17. Another measure, house bill 174, provided for the 



92. Non-partisan Leader, March 8, 1917, p. 5. 



93. Ibid., January 25, 1917, p. n; February 22, 1917, p. 22. The office of com- 

 missioner of education was created by the 1915 legislature. 



