THE BALLOT-BOX AS A JOKE 



Thereupon the legislature repealed the tax 

 that had been levied to provide the fund to 

 build the elevator. Of course, if Mr. Hill 

 and Mr. Wells and Mr. Barnes said it was 

 not necessary, what was the use of keeping 

 the tax.'^ 



But the farmers looked upon these develop- 

 ments without the least enthusiasm for them. 

 To their simple, untutored minds a vote of 

 the people was a vote of the people and the 

 highest law of the land, and they were not 

 willing to admit that the office of president 

 of a railroad conferred upon the holder the 

 privilege of vetoing the verdict of the ballot- 

 box. On Friday, February 19, 1915, a dele- 

 gation of them gathered at Bismarck, the 

 state capital, and petitioned the legislature 

 that it should proceed to carry out the will 

 of the voters, twice expressed in the required 

 American way. By a vote of sixty -four to 

 forty the House of Representatives refused 

 to accede to this request and a member, 

 reporting the facts to the delegation of farmers, 

 genially advised them to go home and slop 

 the hogs. 



Every farmer in that delegation, every 

 farmer in the state, knew perfectly weU that 

 at the next general election he would be in- 

 vited to choose between voting for a candi- 

 date of the railroads nominated on the ticket 

 of his party and a candidate of the railroads 



107 



