THE STORY OF THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 



since it will have security for all the bonds 

 issued. 



E. The Needless Middlemen. Under the 

 foregoing acts the plan is for the state to erect 

 its own elevators and grind flour in its own 

 mills. So far as it shall be able to do this it 

 will eliminate the middlemen, save the useless 

 haulage of gram, save all the commissions 

 and wash sales, and abolish the "spread" 

 by abolishing the marketing outside of the 

 state of the grain raised within it. 



F. Excessive Railroad Rates. House Bill 

 No. 48, approved February 19th, reduces the 

 number of classifications to which freight was 

 formerly subject, and then imposes on these 

 a new tariff for all railroad freight transpor- 

 tation within the state, based strictly upon 

 distance and service and effecting a reduction 

 on rates to be charged. All this is inside the 

 state limits. On interstate commerce, of 

 course, the North Dakota legislature could 

 do nothing. 



G. The Misuse of the Power of the State 

 vanished, of course, when the old machine was 

 routed and the farmers took possession of the 

 government. There is extant some interest- 

 ing testimony by impartial witnesses as to the 

 change at Bismarck. It seems the capital of 

 North Dakota had been, like other state capi- 

 tals, a gathering-place for lobbyists in sup- 

 port of measures to promote private gain of 



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