1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/North Dakota

NORTH DAKOTA (see ) had in 1920 a pop. of 645,680, as compared with 577,056 in 1910 and 319,146 in 1900, an increase in the latter decade of 68,624 or 11.9%; in the earlier of 257,910 or 80.8%. The state remains essentially rural, as is indicated by the following table giving the pop. of the chief cities in 1920 and 1910, and the percentage of growth.

History.&mdash;The political and social history of North Dakota during the period 1911-21 attracted a good deal of outside

attention. Serious abuses in grain grading and marketing had been pointed out by the State Bankers' Association as far back as 1906. The Legislatures in 1909 and 1911 passed an amendment to the constitution, ratified by popular vote in 1912, which made it legal to provide for a state-owned terminal grain elevator. A second amendment for a terminal elevator within the state became effective in 1914. The Legislature of 1913 laid a tax to create a fund to build a terminal elevator and the Board of Control was authorized to prepare plans. In 1915 the Board reported against the whole plan, the tax was repealed and no appropriation made.

In the spring of 1915 a movement was begun to organize the farmers politically upon the following platform: (1) state ownership of terminal elevators, flour-mills, packing-houses and cold-storage plants; (2) state inspection of grain and grain dockage; (3) exemption of farm improvements from taxation; (4) state hail insurance on an acreage basis; (5) rural credit banks operated at cost. The movement was so successful that by Nov. 26,000 members had joined the Non-Partisan League.

The first state convention was held at Fargo March 28 1916, and a full state ticket was nominated. At the primary election in June all the nominees supporting the League were elected, with the exception of the state treasurer. The Legislature was divided; the House was controlled by the supporters of the League, the Senate by its opponents.

The 1917 Legislature provided for: (1) state grain grading; (2) Torrens title registration; (3) state guarantee of deposits in state banks; (4) reduction of assessments on farm improvements to 5%; (5) a state highway commission; (6) a tripling of the former appropriation for rural schools.

After the United States entered the World War the state prepared to take its part and a special session of the Legislature was called for Jan. 1918. A Seed and Feed Loan Act was passed to relieve drought-stricken farmers in the western part of the state. Special county bonds could be issued under this law to provide funds, and possible conflict with the work of the Federal Land Banks was obviated by a special issue of state indemnity bonds to protect Federal loans to farmers. A moratorium was laid on all debts of men in the national service and a State Council of Defence created.

The adoption of a new industrial programme by the farmers of the state in 1918 was not the result of any sudden impulse or mere theory. The investigations of the faculty of the state Agricultural College supplied the foundation for the new system of grain marketing. For instance, President E. F. Ladd of the college gave scientific proof of the loss of fertility that followed the constant shipping of grain out of the state. The annual loss to the soil he estimated at 46,018,440 lb. of nitrogen; 44,648,760 lb. of phosphoric acid; 10,700,200 lb. of potash and 1,787,280 lb. of lime. He showed, also, by experiments in the model flour-mill at the college that the grain grades of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce were not based on the flour-producing quality of the various crops handled by them, but were arbitrary, and that they tended to deprive the farmer of any possibility of raising grain at a profit. The methods used by the wheat buyers and millers at Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth had been carefully studied by the same investigators and their conclusions were well known throughout the state.

On this solid foundation of research and practical experience was built the programme of legislation carried through after the election of 1918.

The recall election of Oct. 28 1921 resulted in the recall of the three Non-Partisan League officials who composed the Industrial Commission, the governor, the attorney-general and the commissioner of agriculture and labor.

At this election, also, the constitutional amendments and initiated laws which were proposed for the purpose of changing or overturning the programme of the Non-Partisan League were all defeated by substantial majorities.

The World War.&mdash;The total registration of the state was 160,392 men; of these 27,253 were called to service in the army or navy. The state sent two regiments overseas, the First and Second North Dakota Infantry, and these regiments were attached to the 41st Division. The Liberty Loan subscriptions totalled $65,476,000, or over $100 per capita. The increased crop acreage of 1918 was confined to the chief agricultural needs of

the war period, wheat and rye. Wheat showed an unusually heavy increase of 11%, rye acreage showed an increase of 100% over the harvested acreage in 1917, notwithstanding the fact that slightly more than 10% of the acreage planted in the fall had been ploughed down in the spring of 1918. North Dakota led the United States in the season of 1918 in the harvested acreage of wheat, barley, rye and flax.

The state governors were: John Burke (Dem.), 1907-13; L. B. Hanna (Rep.), 1913-7; Lynn J. Frazier (Rep.), 1917-21; R. A. Nestos (Rep.), 1921-. (O. G. L.)