THE FARMERS IN CONTROL 



dealing. It profited an elevator man nothing 

 to refer to the fact that his business was owned 

 in Minneapolis nor that the grain he was buy- 

 ing must be graded there. What was incum- 

 bent upon him was to adjust his grades to 

 those of Doctor Ladd and to do business with 

 circumspect probity lest he find his institution 

 closed. 



The net result was an incalculable benefit 

 to the farmers of North Dakota, and before 

 long a boon to wheat-growers elsewhere. For 

 the first time in their experience they sold 

 their wheat at prices approximating its real 

 value, and if there were nothing else to be put 

 to the credit of the League but only this, I 

 should say deliberately, from my long ac- 

 quaintance with the farmer's troubles in the 

 Northwest, that this justified its existence and 

 all that it had cost. 



Two other features of this legislature's work 

 came later under vehement attack. One 

 was the bill for the unifying of the state's 

 educational system under a consolidated con- 

 trol. The other looked to establish in every 

 county an official newspaper in which all 

 notices of foreclosure and other legal pro- 

 ceedings and all announcements about the 

 official business of the county were to be 

 printed. 



The Educational Bill created a new body 

 called the Board of Administration, which 



19 275 



