Dakota Beacon

A few years ago North Dakota faced a dire situation. Towns were dying. Legislators were beside themselves watching their “base” shrink. What was a senator, like former senator Byron Dorgan, to do? Why, sponsor a bill to buy votes - uh, - pump tax dollars into programs to entice newcomers. This was a fine example of a spending program never authorized by the US Constitution.

First introduced in 2002, the New Homestead Act intended to attract newcomers with financial incentives, lucrative bribes if you will. If outsiders would commit to work in North Dakota for five years the state would help pay for a new home, for college, for business startup costs and help “build a nest egg,” whatever that means. Financial bait is an old, old ploy.

There was a wee bit of a hitch in the plan, however. Agriculture was the single mainstay of North Dakota’s economy. Yet, fewer farmers than ever were needed to support America’s population. In the 1790s, 90% of America’s population was involved in agriculture. By the 1990s agriculture comprised only 2.6% of the labor force. One farmer supported about one hundred people. Bottom line: More than agriculture was needed to repopulate North Dakota. The issue became problematic.

The New Homestead Act failed, but hard on the heels of that failure came the oil boom. What a blessing. The economic turnaround did what free enterprise does so well and the local offices of economic development could not do -- create jobs and wealth for so many people drawing them to the declining communities in search of a new beginning.

The dismal intent of the New Homestead Act illustrates beautifully the failure of government’s good intentions gone awry. Whereas taxpayer money, as usual, served as the mother’s milk of politics, little regard was given to what would happen five years later when billions in financial incentives had been spent and the newcomers joined the out migration.

Some things dollars will never cure. Attitude is one of them. A question never addressed was, “Did North Dakota’s small towns really want to integrate outsiders, or were the declining towns’ people merely tempted by the politicians’ promise of revenue from the public trough?” A fair question.

A set of corollaries to that question run deep. This should give the old-timers something to think about. Are small towns willing to welcome outsiders who maintain interests other than in agriculture and who might otherwise be self-sufficient? Are small towns willing to accept people with diverse social, ethnic and racial backgrounds? Are newcomers welcome for who they are and for their ideas or are they viewed merely as “fresh meat,” a new source of volunteers and dollars for community organizations or as numbers for the school census? Will communities patronize new businesses run by newcomers who are “different?” Or, will outsiders be made to “know their place?”

Now that the oil boom is in full swing, the old-timers in previously dying communities must face a new reality. Like it or not, change comes with the immigration and is evident everywhere you look. Newcomers with new ideas and new ways of doing things move into small towns. New attitudes about education, taxes, business and, yes, politics will impose themselves in years to come. New people mean new voters as well. As old-timers pass away a change in the political balance of power is inevitable. Maybe that’s what old-timers fear the most.

Behavior speaks more loudly than words.

The old-timers will always pride themselves in their “small town” atmosphere. Some, however, may have to figure out how to deal with their personal behavior, a behavior that alienates. Treating newcomers with rumor, innuendo and gossip is nothing new. Relegating them to a place as second class citizens may be deadly. A few bad eggs can ruin renewal for everyone.

Something as simple as practicing the “Golden Rule” costs nothing and is infinitely more valuable than dollars from politicians.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).