older States. The legislative branch in North Dakota consists of a
bicameral legislature which meets in January each odd-numbered year.
The executive branch is headed by the Governor, who is elected for
a term of two years. He has the general veto power and authority to
reject any item in an appropriation bill. The judicial department
consists of a supreme court of five members, elected for 10-year
terms; district courts, county courts, and justices of the peace.
The State is divided into six judicial districts, each one under an
elective district judge. County courts are courts of record concerned
with such matters as probate and guardianship, but in counties having
county courts of increased jurisdiction such courts have concurrent
jurisdiction with district courts in certain cases.
The State is divided into counties whose administrative functions
are carried out by boards of commissioners elected every two years.
Any city or village of 500 population or more may choose either the
commission form of government or the mayor and council type.
The framework of government is perhaps not very different from that
in many other States. It is the legislation in North Dakota that has
been anything but a copy of that in any sister State, and the outcome
of some of her political experiments has often been of Nation-wide
interest. The economy of the State is preponderantly rural, and the
tendency has therefore been to try anything that seemed likely to help
in the solution of the farmer's problems.
The legislature of the State of North Dakota met for the first time
November 19, 1889. This session lasted 120 days, but the length of all
subsequent sessions was fixed by the constitution at 60 days. The first
men this State sent to the United States Senate were Gilbert Pierce of
Fargo and Lyman Casey of Jamestown. H. C. Hansbrough of Devils Lake
was the first Congressman. The supreme court had for its chief justice
Guy C. H. Corliss, and Joseph M. Bartholomew and Alfred Wallin were
associate justices.
In this first session the legislature instituted a department of
agriculture for "the promotion of stock-breeding, agriculture,
horticulture, manufactures and domestic arts." A school law enacted
at this session was an enlightened and detailed piece of legislation.
North Dakota had at the beginning of statehood a well-organized school
system of 1,362 public schools with 1,741 teachers; a State university
at Grand Forks; Catholic schools at Fargo, Grand Forks, and Bismarck; a
Congregational college at Fargo; a Presbyterian college at Jamestown;
and at Tower City a Baptist college, which, however, failed to survive.
One of the most exciting battles of the first legislative session
was the bill to license the Louisiana Lottery. Rumors circulated to
the effect that bribery was being practiced, that the lobbyists for
the lottery were making liberal offers for votes. The Governor and
his friends had hired detectives from the Pinkerton Agency to mingle
with the legislators and lobbyists. When the detectives had all the
information they needed, they revealed their identity to the lottery
supporters. Fearing exposure, the lottery enthusiasts gave up the fight
and the bill was killed.
North Dakota was faced with the drought problem during the
administration of Gov. Andrew Burke (1891-92), and the people looked to
the legislature for some solution to their problems. Their petitions
were not at all times considered seriously. One member offered a
resolution praying Congress to pass a law establishing a scientific
rain bureau and a law offering a reward to anyone discovering a
practical system of producing rainfall. The house referred his
resolution to the temperance committee.
At the beginning of statehood North Dakota had been subject to a
rather autocratic form of government in spite of decidedly democratic
constitutional provisions. The State had been economically dependent
on the East. The directing powers in the early State government were
centered in St. Paul and Minneapolis. Eastern wealth had furnished
capital for the railroads, and the railroads had been responsible for
the settlement of the State. Likewise, the farmer's crops had also to
be sold in the East, and his machinery and supplies must necessarily be
purchased there.
At the time North Dakota was admitted to the Union the Republican Party
was in control. Democrats at that time in State history and for long
afterward were few and far between. These two old-line parties were the
only two worthy of note in this early period, although the Populists
polled a large vote in the first Presidential election and North Dakota
divided its first electoral vote, one vote going to the Democratic, one
to the Republican, and one to the Populist candidate.
The railroads and financial interests of St. Paul and Minneapolis had
very early begun interfering in North Dakota politics. Judson LaMoure
and Alexander McKenzie were the lords of this era, both representing
railroad interests in State politics, and the favors they were able to
bestow were a safeguard against legislation hostile to the companies.
In time they came to be the protectors of other interests, including
banks, insurance companies, line elevators, and lumber companies.
The first revolt against this system came in 1892. Gov. Andrew Burke
had vetoed a bill favored by the Farmers' Alliance which would force
railroads to lease sites or rights-of-way for grain elevators and
warehouses. The Farmers' Alliance, Democrats, and Populists fused, and
Eli C. D. Shortridge was elected Governor.
In Governor Shortridge's administration the legislature passed a bill
for highway improvement. Money was appropriated to enlarge the State
capitol building.
The tendency of legislation during the session of 1893 was definitely
toward the principles of the Populist platform. During Shortridge's
administration North Dakota attempted its first State ownership
venture. One hundred thousand dollars was appropriated to build a State
elevator at Duluth, Superior, or West Superior. The panic of 1893 came
on and the plan was not carried out. In 1894 Roger Allin, regular
Republican, was elected Governor, and with that election the first
brief rebellion against Eastern capitalism was ended.
Governor Allin felt it necessary to veto several appropriations in
order to keep within the probable revenue, and State institutions had
practically no funds for operation. In the case of the university,
salary was provided for the janitor but not for the faculty. President
Merrifield and the faculty preferred to serve without any pay rather
than close the institution, and necessary expenditures were met by
private subscription. Other institutions were kept open in the same way.
During the administration of Gov. Frank Briggs (1897-98) the
Spanish-American War broke out. The entire National Guard volunteered
its services, but many members could not be accepted because of the
quota set for North Dakota. North Dakota volunteers took part in 30
engagements and skirmishes during the Philippine insurrection.
Governor Briggs died in July 1898 and his term was completed by the
Lieutenant Governor, Joseph M. Devine, who later served several
years as commissioner of immigration. Both Briggs and Devine were
Republicans, and they were succeeded in 1898 by another member of their
party, Frederick B. Fancher, a leader in the Farmers' Alliance. Fancher
declined a second term, and was succeeded by Maj. Frank White, who had
served in the Philippines. White found the State debt the chief problem
of his administration. He served two terms and yielded his office to E.
Y. Sarles.
Legislation during Sarles' term tended toward control and regulation
of corporations. A board was created to supervise State banks, and the
manner of organizing insurance companies in the State was prescribed.
Sarles was defeated for reelection by "Honest John" Burke, a Democrat,
and the only Governor of this State to serve three terms. From the
governorship he left North Dakota to become United States Treasurer
under President Wilson, later served as chief justice of the North
Dakota Supreme Court, remaining a member of the court until his death
in 1937. Crawford, in his history of North Dakota, has said, "The
legislative history of the Burke administrations is an instructive
illustration of the ideals and motives which were so characteristic
of the [Theodore] Roosevelt era." State institutions were liberally
provided for, a primary election law was enacted, prohibition laws were
enforced, schools were improved, and various regulatory offices and
boards were created.
A second revolution in North Dakota political history was ushered in
with the election of Burke. The Progressive Republicans, enthusiastic
supporters of the so-called "LaFollette reforms," had formed a
coalition with the Democrats to elect this first Democrat Governor of
North Dakota. "It was," according to Judge Andrew Bruce in his book
_The Non-Partisan League_, "the revolution which laid the foundations
for the present Non-Partisan League, for in it the farmers found a new
war cry and new objects of anathema. The war cry was 'North Dakota for
North Dakotans' and the objects of their anathema were 'Big Business,
McKenzie, and McKenzieism.'"
Gov. Louis B. Hanna succeeded Burke in 1913. In 1912, a Presidential
election year, North Dakota's electoral votes went to Woodrow Wilson.
New apportionment gave this State three representatives in Congress
instead of two. Governor Hanna asserted his belief in businesslike
administration of government offices, and revised the accounting
methods in State departments. Throughout this period tendencies in the
State were progressive: social legislation was favored; the State grew
rapidly in population; new towns were springing up; the automobile age
had arrived.
Through all this ran the thread of the second political revolution
which Burke's election had begun, and which was continued through the
Hanna administration. It was directed principally against injustices
in the grain trade. Farmers were incapable of developing their own
marketing facilities. Millions had been invested in the mills and
elevators of St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Duluth, and in the "line"
(corporation) elevator companies throughout North Dakota. The farmers
complained of unfair methods of grading and docking their grain;
they claimed that the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce was a closed
corporation, and that its members were identified with the big milling
and elevator interests. Even conservative Senator McCumber of North
Dakota protested in 1916 before the United States Senate against abuses
in the grain trade.
The Equity Exchange had been organized in 1909 to act as a farmers'
general selling agency in St. Paul, but had been denied membership in
the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce. The Society of Equity and the
Equity Exchange tried to get a bill through the 1915 legislature for
the establishment of a State-owned elevator, but the attempt failed.
Indignation at the defeat of the bill resulted in the birth, in
February 1915, of a new political party, the Nonpartisan[1] League.
[1] The party name was originally spelled "Non-Partisan" but through
usage has been changed to its present form.
A. C. Townley, a genius in the art of organization, spread the league
gospel through the State. Townley had begun life in poverty, had
failed in a large-scale flax-growing enterprise, and had for a time
been identified with the Socialist Party. A. C. Bowen suggested the
formation of the league. Charles Edward Russell was the first editor
of the newspaper, the _Non-Partisan Leader_, and Walter Thomas Mills
drafted many of its laws. All three of these men were Socialists.
After winning the support of a prominent farmer, Fred Wood, and his two
sons, the movement spread rapidly. Before the end of the first year the
league had 30,000 members. Its platform embodied five planks:
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 the acreage tax basis.
5. Rural credit banks operated at cost.
"Practical salesmanship, a program of immediate and forceful action and
the use of the Ford automobile are the factors principally explaining
the rise of the Non-Partisan League," declares Herbert Gaston in his
book _The Non-Partisan League_.
Most of the league membership was Republican; it was therefore an
easy step to the use of the machinery of that party. In the primary
election of June 1916 and again in the fall the league was successful.
Lynn J. Frazier became the first league-elected Governor, and three
league-endorsed candidates, R. H. Grace, James E. Robinson, and L. E.
Birdzell, were placed on the supreme court bench.
Three hundred thousand dollars was appropriated by the legislature
to carry out the provisions of a Terminal Elevator Commission bill,
but Frazier vetoed the act, declaring the appropriation insufficient.
Among the progressive legislation enacted at this session were bills
providing for the creation of a State highway department, land title
registration (never enforced, however), increased funds for rural
schools, reduction of rate of assessments on farm improvements to 5
percent of the true value, and guarantee of deposits in State banks.
Entry of the United States into the World War brought new activities
to North Dakota in the spring of 1917. National Guard units were
sent, a Council of National Defense was created to aid in the work of
mobilization, Liberty Bonds were sold, and the State went $200,000 over
its quota in the United War Work campaign.
The World War interrupted, but did not deter, the progress of the
league program. Governor Frazier was reelected in 1918, and seven
initiated amendments were added to the State constitution, forming
the basis for the league program. The law for initiated petitions was
changed to require only 20,000 signers; the $200,000 debt limit of the
State was abolished and the State was allowed to issue or guarantee
bonds not to exceed $10,000,000.
The league's industrial program was established at the 1919 legislative
session. The industrial commission, composed of the Governor, the
attorney general, and the commissioner of agriculture and labor, was to
manage the industries and enterprises undertaken by the State. Under
authority of the new legislation, the North Dakota Mill and Elevator
Association was established. A small mill was purchased at Drake and
later a mill and elevator were built at Grand Forks with a capacity of
3,000 barrels per day and a storage capacity of 1,659,500 bushels (_see
Tour 1_).
In the March primary of 1920 an unusual initiated measure was the
center of interest. It was the "recall", which provided for the removal
of any elective officers, even judges. The measure became Article 33 of
the constitution.
The elections of 1920 again saw the league victorious. In the
Republican primaries Dr. E. F. Ladd, president of the State
agricultural college, defeated Senator Gronna for the nomination as
United States Senator. William Langer, who had been elected attorney
general in 1916 with the endorsement of the league, opposed Governor
Frazier in the primary and was defeated by a small margin. Frazier and
Ladd were elected in November.
Two important initiated measures were passed, one providing for a board
of auditors to audit the accounts of the State treasurer, the Bank of
North Dakota, and all State industries, the other amending a previous
measure so that although State funds and State institution funds must
be deposited in the Bank of North Dakota, county, township, municipal,
and school district funds need not be deposited there.
In 1920 deflation of the league's boom set in. The United States
Supreme Court declared the grain grading law unconstitutional. The
Independent Voters Association, anti-Nonpartisan, argued that the
cost of government had greatly increased under the Nonpartisans. In
the 1921 session of the legislature committees were appointed to
investigate. The minority of the Senate committee reported that the
industrial commission had practiced a policy of favoritism in affairs
of the Bank of North Dakota in distributing public funds to private
banks, so that the bank could not at that time meet its obligations;
that the commission had failed to exercise proper control of the North
Dakota Home Builders' Association, so that its affairs were hopelessly
muddled; that it had approved contracts between the Drake mill and
private merchants, especially the Consumers United Stores Company, a
subsidiary corporation of the Nonpartisan League, resulting in losses
to the State; that it had approved a policy of the Bank of North Dakota
by which $2,000,000 of a total $5,200,000 in live claims against
solvent banks were against 37 institutions mostly classed as "league
banks" or "friendly" politically; that it had allowed officers of the
bank to deposit public funds in private banks with the result that
$1,400,000 of these funds were tied up in insolvent banks.
The recall was exercised for the first time in the United States
against the governor of a State. In a special election of 1921, Frazier
was defeated by R. A. Nestos, Republican, a member of the Independent
Voters Association, or I. V. A.'s, as they were popularly called.
The other two members of the industrial commission, Attorney General
William Lemke and Commissioner of Agriculture and Labor John Hagan,
were also recalled. But measures initiated to curtail the industrial
program failed; Governor Nestos had to administer a program to which
his party was opposed. Nestos was reelected in 1922. In the same
election former Governor Frazier, running for United States Senator,
defeated J. F. T. O'Connor, Democrat, who later became comptroller of
currency under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Governor Nestos was defeated by the Nonpartisan candidate, Arthur G.
Sorlie, in the primary of 1924 while I. V. A. Republicans won several
of the State offices. Senator Ladd died in office and a Nonpartisan
newspaperman, Gerald P. Nye, was appointed to fill the vacancy. He
holds that office at the present time (1938). When Governor Sorlie
died, Walter Maddock, Lieutenant Governor, filled out the term.
In 1928 George Shafer, an I. V. A., who had been attorney general under
Nestos, was elected Governor, and in 1930 he was reelected.
The debt limit having been increased at various times, North Dakota's
bonded debt in 1930 was estimated to be $36,357,200; $1,000,000
represented in capital stock of the Bank of North Dakota; $4,000,000
in mill and elevator construction and milling bonds; the remainder in
various real estate bond series.
By 1930 North Dakota's population was 680,845, more than double the
figure at the opening of the century. Large foreign immigrations
accounted for the approximately 88 percent rise in the 1910 census over
that of 1900, and by 1920 the figure had risen to 646,872. Statistics
of the U. S. Bureau of Census show North Dakota to have been the only
spring wheat State having an increase of population during the period
from 1930-35. The growth has been almost entirely rural; from 1920 to
1930 no new urban centers (above 2,500) have appeared in the State.
The State capitol building was destroyed by fire December 28, 1930, and
plans were immediately laid for building a new statehouse. A $2,000,000
building, unique in that it is North Dakota's only skyscraper, today
stands on Bismarck's Capitol Hill.
An initiative measure in the election of 1932 repealed the prohibition
clause in the State constitution, making North Dakota, dry since it
became a Territory, a wet State.
William Langer, who had been elected attorney general on the
Nonpartisan ticket with Frazier and later was defeated as I. V. A.
candidate for governor by Frazier, was elected Governor in 1932, once
more running as a Nonpartisan.
The period following proved a trying one for the rural population of
North Dakota. The farmers suffered because of low market prices for
farm products, low land values, bank failures, and crop failures. The
situation was acute at the beginning of Langer's administration because
many farm mortgages had been based on pre-depression valuations.
Farmers feared foreclosure and the wastage of their life efforts.
To prevent foreclosure Governor Langer declared various farm mortgage
moratoriums by executive order. For a time an embargo was in effect on
agricultural products, forbidding shipment of them from the State in
the hope that prices would be forced up. A law enacted to extend the
period of redemption on real estate mortgages was held unconstitutional
by the North Dakota Supreme Court as applied to existing mortgages. In
1933 laws were passed outlawing crop mortgages and deficiency judgments.
A stormy period in State history ensued when Governor Langer was
removed from office July 18, 1934, having been held disqualified
under the State constitution by the supreme court because of his
conviction on a Federal charge of conspiracy, arising from solicitation
of contributions from State and Federal employes for support of his
political newspaper, the _Leader_. (The Federal Courts later reversed
the conviction.) Ole Olson, Lieutenant Governor, served the remainder
of the term.
Thomas H. Moodie, first Democratic Governor to be elected in 24 years,
took office in January 1935, only to be declared ineligible by the
supreme court February 2, because of insufficient residence in the
State. Walter Welford, Nonpartisan Lieutenant Governor, became acting
Governor, the fourth to occupy the gubernatorial chair in little more
than six months.
The legislature of 1935 created a State Planning Board to make
investigations and surveys relative to the conservation and utilization
of the State's natural resources, and a State Welfare Board to act as
official agency of the State in any social welfare activity initiated
by the Federal Government and to allocate State and Federal funds
available for such purpose. The planning board has since cooperated
with the Federal Government in work which has involved development of
natural resources and building of dams to overcome effects of drought.
Other legislation of the 1935 session provided for a retail sales tax
which resulted in greatly increased revenues for education and public
welfare purposes, a drivers license law, and a two-year mortgage
foreclosure moratorium. Two radical changes in public policy effected
through initiated measures in 1935 were provision for manufacture,
sale, and distribution of beer, and for Sunday motion pictures.
Former Governor Langer, defeated by Acting Governor Welford for
the Nonpartisan nomination for the governorship in 1936, surprised
opponents in both the league and other parties by polling a majority in
the election, the first governor of any State elected in the individual
column on the ballot. In the same election North Dakota put liquor
control in the hands of counties, municipalities, and villages.
Indicative of the increasing responsibilities of State Governments, the
social-minded legislature of 1937 made the largest appropriation for
public welfare in the history of the State--more than $6,100,000 for
the 1937-39 biennium.
AGRICULTURE AND FARM LIFE
Land of supersized farms, of spring wheat and winter rye rippling in
the wind, of gigantic flower gardens of paradise-blue flax--this is
North Dakota, one of the greatest agricultural States of the Nation.
Those who have seen the vast fields in the summer know the meaning
of this land to the farmer and the stock-raiser; for while the
romantically inclined can meditate on the beauties of a bronze
wheatfield under the July sun, or the picturesque qualities of fine
cattle grazing on a hillside, the agricultural statistician can point
out that 87 percent of the land in the State is devoted to agriculture,
and, given sufficient moisture, the richly productive soil will more
than repay the efforts of the farmer or stockman who depends upon it
for his livelihood.