History Annex North Dakota

Territorial Governor Dakota Territory 1865 Appointment - RARE

2008-07-11T23:01:00.000-07:00

At Antiques On Broadway 1865 Dakota Territory Document - the link:

http://www.listedartistsgallery.com/Dakota_Territory.html

Fargo Street Fair July 17 - 19 2008.

Listed Artists fine art work now available in North Dakota

2007-10-27T22:47:00.001-07:00

At Antiques on Broadway, # 6 Broadway North, Fargo North Dakota, now available for viewing and purchase is original fine art works by listed artists with a national, international reputation. These artists are among the top 2 percent of all artists in that they are represented in the data bases of art services such as AskArt and Art Price (registered trademarks of their owners). Everett Nelson, owner of Listed Artists Gallery stated "The region has a fine representation of local artists and some have reached acclaim even nationally and internationally, there has not however been a place to go to purchase a wider selection of acclaimed "listed" artists in the area". Nelson stated that a web site has been established explaining some of the products now available in historic downtown Fargo, North Dakota that web site address is:

http://www.listedartistsgallery.com/

FDR ERA PHOTOS ADDED - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

2007-05-24T19:45:00.001-07:00

Courtesy FDR Library

SCROLL TO BOTTOM OF PAGE TO VIEW

35 of North Dakota's 53 counties meet the criteria of frontier

2007-05-08T21:19:00.000-07:00

Thirty-five of North Dakota's fifty-three counties meet the definition of being "frontier" - according to Wikipedia's article on the Frontier Thesis of Frederick Jackson Turner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontier_thesis

Strange Coincidence (?) of the last day of Arthur Charles Townley, organizer of the Non-Partisan League and North Dakota Senator (R) William Langer

2007-04-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

Arthur Charles Townley, organizer of the Nonpartisan League, was killed in a car-farm truck collision near Makoti, ND, the late afternoon of Saturday, Nov. 7, 1959. Recounting Dick Dobson’s Prairie Perspectives column, published in the Minot Daily News on Saturday, Nov. 3, 1979: The day prior he (Townley) had paid a visit to John W. Scott of Gilby, ND, a prominent, politically conservative banker-farmer.
Townley had become an adherent of faith healing. Townley told Scott that he was keeping Langer alive through mental telepathy. Townley told Scott “I’m holding him. When you guys get ready and figure out the next senator, I’ll drop the old bastard through the hatch.”
The night following Townley’s fatal accident, William Langer died in his sleep.

(From Part II of William Langer and the FBI, copyright 2000, Mark E. Nelson, All Rights Reserved.)

North Dakota "We never got over ourselves"

2007-04-14T10:45:00.000-07:00

"It would be helpful if we could understand ourselves as a state. We would not go through the trauma of nursing great expectations of ourselves when history teaches us that great expectations are not us." Lloyd Omdahl, former ND Lieutenant Governor and retired UND Professor in his syndicated column as appearing in The Forum, A 17, Saturday, April 7, 2007.

Link to Time Magazine Archive, Monday, December 29, 1941, Dakota's Gentleman

2007-04-10T22:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,772925,00.html

Regarding controversy over seating Senatorial seating.

William Langer and the FBI, copyright 2000 Mark E. Nelson, All Rights Reserved, Part I, Blogged online!

2007-04-10T21:25:00.000-07:00

http://north--dakota.blogspot.com/

Book: The Unloved Germans (An examination of the German National Character before, during and after the Nazi period)

2007-04-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

The Unloved Germans by Hermann Eich

The Germans (published originally as The Unloved Germans (1963 translated 1965) – look for this used under this later title at abebooks – it is much easier to find), from the back cover of the later paperback: (First Scarbourough books edition 1980)

Two generations of Germans in this century have shattered the peace of the world and caused the death of tens of millions. This bestseller from Germany is important because it reveals more clearly than any other book of German origin just how Germans see themselves.
When it was published in hardcover, this book caused a thunder of controversy. Publishers Weekly described it as “a clever, highly literate and readable attempt to whitewash the reputation of the German people.” How important it is, then, for the world to understand why the book was a hotly debated bestseller in Germany. Die Welt praised the author’s “continual sense of fairness” while Welt am Sonntag declared that Dr. Eich “evinces that drive toward self-analysis which accuses itself in order to pronounce itself innocent and makes charges in order to clear itself all the more thoroughly.” The publisher offers The Germans to the American public to alert readers to a point of view which, however little we like it, must be recognized as the attitude of thousands of Germans today.

Dr. Hermann Eich was an editor of the Berliner Tageblatt until the outbreak of World War II, when he became an official of the foreign press section of the German government, and then a soldier. After the war, he served as editor of the Dusseldorfer Nachrichten and an editor-in-chief of the Westdeutsche Zeitung.

Part I of III, Immigration - Alien Smuggling Story, New York Herald Tribune, Sunday May 25, 1952

2007-04-10T21:03:00.000-07:00

Sunday, May 25, 1952
New York Herald Tribune

World Racket Smuggles Aliens Into U.S. At $100-$1500 Apiece
Unwitting Congressmen Aid Illegal Entrants by Their Private Bills That Delay Deportation
(This is the first of three articles in smuggling aliens into the United States.)

By David McConnell

WASHINGTON, May 24.- A multi-million-dollar racket in slipping illegal aliens into the United States is flourishing in key ports of the world, and in many cases the operation is receiving the aid of innocent and unwitting members of Congress.
From as yet unreleased reports furnished Congress by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, from records, from talks with Congressional experts on the immigration problem and with other members of Congress, the following facts were learned:

1. Alien smugglers have centers stretching from Bombay to Naples.

2. The Standard prices charged to help foreigners get into the United States illegally now runs up to $1,500 for Europeans and East Indians and up to $100 for Mexicans, according to the unreleased report of the Immigration Service.

3. The best estimates place the number who have illegally entered the country since the end of World War II at between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000. How many are still at large remains a mystery.

4. The immigration report also warns that the smuggling practice offers an open road for undercover Communist to slip into the country. It asserts: “Never before has our country been more greatly endangered by the clandestine entry of so many aliens. The path worn
by illegal entrants has readied a smooth road for dangerous aliens to travel. Many of them have been found to be professional criminals. Others are subversive. Many are susceptible to Communist influence because of their exploited and depressed economic situation in their own countries, and in many instances, in the United States after their arrival. From any point of view those who seek admission in this manner are highly undesirable.”

5. If picked up by authorities, well coached aliens immediately seek to have introduced for them in Congress private bills to stay their deportation and give them a legal status in this country. At the same time large numbers of private bills are introduced in the House and Senate for the relief of legitimate hardship cases such as permitting the entry of a wife or children of service men.
The immigration report, however, asserted: “ District directors report that it is evident that a growing number of aliens arrested apply for a private bill as soon as they are released under bond. The majority of these cases are groundless and succeed only in delaying action.”

Deportations Delayed

Whether or not bills are enacted, their mere introduction results in most cases in stays of deportation as a courtesy to Congress. Many members of Congress will admit privately that a large number of private bills are introduced without hope of obtaining favorable action because of pressure in their home districts or states.

6. To keep the heavy flow of private bills moving – it is estimated 2,500 will be introduced in the House and 2,600 in the Senate this session-Rep. Francis E. Walter, D., Pa., chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on Immigration and naturalization, has instituted what he calls “operation slaughter house” The representative and his subcommittee each week “table” scores of bills and in that manner give authorities a go-ahead to deport aliens.

7. Known as the “third Senator from New York” is Sen. William Langer, R., N.D. He gained the label because of his penchant for introducing many private bills for persons in the New York and East Coast area. From 1947 to early this year he had introduced 301 bills involving 1,116 persons. The legislative and executive calendar of the Judiciary Committee shows that up to March 25 of the 82nd Congress Sen. Langer had introduced 130 bills.

Many Legitimate Cases

Not all of these are private bills involving aliens facing deportation. Many are to assist Americans to bring in wives they married overseas while in service. In the immediate post-war years Sen. Langer introduced bills to stay deportation of many former Nazis and members of the German-American Bund. At the time he explained that he did so to protect their constitutional rights, which he felt were being invaded.
Senators from east and west coast states and in heavy industrial sections such as New York and Connecticut report they are swamped with requests to introduce private bills and keep members of their staffs busy screening them.
Current immigration quotas permit the entry annually of 154,657 persons, but nations such as Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with a quota of 65,361, frequently do not use more than half of the allowance, which is non-transferable. All told, 670,823 aliens were admitted legally to the country last year, the balance over the quota being non-quota persons such as husbands or wives of American citizens, their children or persons seeking to marry military personnel.
Foreigners use every trick to enter the United States and take advantage of every opportunity to stay here even after they are apprehended. Those who are not smuggled in or jump ship enter on visitor’s visas and disappear after they expire. Others gain entry through transit visas which authorize them to stop over en route to another country.
Edward J. Shaughnessy, director of the New York Immigration and Naturalization District, calls illegal aliens “economic refugees,” who know that they may be caught but gamble that they will be able to make enough money here to set themselves up in business when they are deported.
Estimates of the number of aliens who have escaped detection run into the millions. They are based on the number of persons picked up in raids on suspected areas and estimates on the number who have come into the country at points the Immigration and Naturalization Service has left unguarded because of lack of manpower.

(A second article will appear tomorrow.)

Part II of III, Immigration Story, New York Herald Tribune, Monday, May 26, 1952, Langer Defends Private Bills To Aid Aliens Illegally in U.S.

2007-04-10T20:52:00.000-07:00

New York Herald Tribune, Monday, May 26, 1952

Langer Defends Private Bills To Aid Aliens Illegally in U.S.

“3d Senator From N.Y.” Traces Interest in Problem to Time He Headed Immigration Subcommittee

This is the second of three articles on a widespread racket in smuggling aliens into the United States.

By David McConnell

WASHINGTON, May 25.- Sen. William Langer, R., N.D. who has introduced more than twice as many private immigration bills as any other member of Congress ,, explained today he had done so because in 1947 and 1948 he headed a Senate subcommittee with jurisdiction over Ellis Island.

Sen. Langer is sometimes referred to as the “third Senator from New York” because of his penchant for introducing bills for persons in that area.

Congressional records show he introduced 295 bills containing more than 1,000 names from 1947 through 1951 and during the present session has put in or reintroduced 130 measures. The next highest number by a single senator is sixty. Runners-up have introduced forty-one and thirty-nine. Many have introduced only one or two.

Senator Langer surrendered the Chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on penitentiaries, which has jurisdiction of Ellis Island, when the Democrats regained control of Congress in 1949. However, he remained as a member and has continued to introduce private immigration bills or reintroduce measures which had died or been killed by the Judiciary Committee in previous sessions.

Introduction of a private bill in the Senate automatically brings a stay of deportation for an alien until the Senate Judiciary Committee kills the bill.

Sen. Langer explained his interest in introducing private bills in a reply to questions sent to him in North Dakota, where he is campaigning for renomination in the Republican Senatorial primary June 24. Opposing him is Rep. Fred G. Aandahl, R., one of North Dakota’s two Representatives at large.

In his reply Sen. Langer said:

1. “It was because I was chairman of the subcommittee that I introduced more private bills than any other Senator.” He said representatives on Ellis Island of the Catholic Welfare League, the Lutheran Welfare League and other organizations would report meritorious cases to him. He would interview the individual and introduce a private bill if convinced the case was good. He said most Senators know little about Ellis Island, so he introduced the bills instead of referring them to the Senator of the individual’s home state.

Doesn’t Press Bills

2. Once he had introduced a bill, he said, he made no effort to press it. He said the Immigration subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee makes a complete investigation and gets Federal Bureau of Investigation reports. Most of the bills introduced by Sen. Langer at this session have been killed by the Judiciary Committee on recommendations from the subcommittee.

3. He introduced one blanket bill for 207 persons held on Ellis Island in 1947. At his insistence, he said, Supreme Court Associate Justice Tom C. Clark, then Attorney General, had appointed a committee to screen aliens held on the island. After two screenings fifty-seven were found to be Nazis and Communists while the 207 he sponsored were cleared, he said. Sen. Langer said he had urged the screening because when he first went to Ellis Island as chairman of the subcommittee he found “hundreds” of persons, many of whom had been held there for years, awaiting deportation. Most had been picked up during World War II.

4. He made no direct reply to a question asking him to elaborate on the fact that some bills he introduced in 1947 to stay deportations were for former Nazis and former German American Bundists. At the time he defended the bills on grounds he felt the Constitutional rights of those involved had been violated. By indirection his answer suggested the former Nazis and former members of the German American Bund were included on the screened list of 209 aliens he supported.

5. He disagreed with the fears of some immigration authorities that the introduction of private bills tends to encourage the alien smuggling racket. He said: “There have been some charges to the effect and the most serious one involved the Pakistani. Last February I made a thorough investigation of that in the State of California and became entirely satisfied from that investigation that that charge is not true.”

6. About the same time he was making his west coast investigation, Sen. Langer withdrew a series of bills seeking to stay deportation of more that seventy-five Pakistani seaman who jumped ship in this country. He asserted he had introduced the measures because he had been told the seamen feared they would be executed if they returned home. At the time, he said, Pakistan was being organized in India and there was trouble between the Moslems and the Hindus.

As differentiated from seamen who have jumped ship, Sen. Langer said he refused to introduce bills for stowaways, except for “orphaned boys” who have smuggled themselves into the United States. He said: I have admired the grit of the young boys who would have the ingenuity and the enterprise to do that.”

Despite the number of measures he has sponsored, Sen. Langer said he agreed with other members of Congress in their dislike of adjusting the status of aliens illegally in this country. For every person successful in obtaining approval of a private bill a point is charged against the quota of the country they come from.

Members of Congress have protested that this means those waiting for a legal means of immigrating here are penalized.

In outlining his general approach to the private-bill question, Sen. Langer said, that whenever he believes an individual case is good he introduces a bill. He added: “I believe you will find upon investigation that sometimes various charges are made that some alien is a Communist when in truth the alien is only a person believing in progressive ideas or working for the betterment of mankind,”

(A third article will appear tomorrow.)

Part III, Immigration Story, Tuesday May 27, 1952, New York Herald Tribune

2007-04-10T20:46:00.000-07:00

New York Herald Tribune, Tuesday May 27, 1952

World Ring Forging Passports Helps Smuggle Aliens Into U.S.

From Hong Kong to Naples Bogus Documents Are Sold as First Step to Entering Promised Land
This is the last of three articles on a widespread racket in smuggling aliens into the United States.
By David McConnell
WASHINGTON, May 26. – An organized international traffic in forged or altered passports which aliens use to obtain a visa to enter the United States is flourishing abroad, according to unpublished reports of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
The reports say that in some cases foreign passports “have been stolen in blank and trafficked commercially to be filled in as required by the purchaser.” In other cases, they assert, aliens have obtained American birth certificates through the use of forged documents.
The forging, it was learned today, is tied closely with international smuggling rings whose methods of operations take various forms. One example is the operation of an agency in Bombay which, according to reliable sources, sends agents into the villages of Pakistan and India to sell young men on the advantages of making money in the United States.

“School” in Hong Kong

Another group in Hong Kong conducted a school to train Chinese to claim they are the sons or daughters of Chinese-Americans who have agreed to participate in the racket. Candidates are drilled in the family background and names of relatives of the Chinese-Americans so they can face close questioning by Immigration Agents when they arrive here.
When the Bombay agency has sold a Pakistani or Indian on the idea of coming to the United States, it either takes a $1500 mortgage on his farm or home or accepts notes for a like amount from parents or relatives, informed sources say. Usually, to raise the sum, both a mortgage and notes are required.
In most cases, the alien either is smuggled in as a stowaway or is furnished seaman’s papers, often forged, and is instructed how to jump ship when he arrives at an American port. Seamen who clear security barriers are permitted to stay in the country twenty-nine days, or until their ship leaves.
Often work as Laborers
Once they have successfully slipped into the country, Pakistani aliens usually go to San Francisco, Detroit or New York to work as laborers or on farms. In New York, they are known to live up to twelve to a room, sleeping in shifts and cooking their own meals to keep cost down and save money.
On the other side of the world, smuggling rings are reported operating in such Italian ports such as Naples and Livorno. Immigration reports in the possession of Congress show that Antonio Palazzolo, of Detroit, paid 700,00 (sic) lire – more than $1000 at today’s rates – to be smuggled into the country as a stowaway, in June 1949.
Almost a year after his entry, he was arrested by Immigration authorities and ordered deported, but at the request of attorneys for the Legal Aid Society and other groups in Detroit, Rep. Thaddeus Machrowicz , D., Mich., introduced a private bill seeking to stay his deportation and give him legal status in the United States. Rep. Machrowicz said he did not know of the 700,000 lire payment, but introduced the bill because Mr. Palazzolo had been told in Italy that once here he could have his status adjusted. Rep. Machrowicz said his policy is not to adjust the status of persons here illegally unless he is furnished affidavits from citizens and organizations certifying that a case has special merits.
Most illegal aliens have two objectives once they slip into the country, Immigration experts say. The first is to make as much money as possible and the second is to avoid deportation for seven years in the hope of qualifying to stay under a provision of the present immigration laws which give aliens legal status in some cases if they have been here seven or more years.

Smuggled in Savannah

Czeslaw Laskowski, thirty-two, of Chicago, was smuggled through Savannah, Ga., in February, 1946, according to Congressional records. He was arrested in 1951, but deportation was stopped when Rep. Thomas S. Gordon, D., Ill., introduced a private bill. Rep. Gordon explained that Mr. Laskowski, from Poland feared persecution by the communists if he is sent back. For that reason and because he was highly recommended by Polish organizations in Chicago, Rep. Gordon said he introduced the private bill.
Reports on Mr. Laskowski show that he had more than $2,200 in cash he had saved while working as an engraver at $78 a week. Rep. Katharine St. George, R., said she used the private bill method to keep Man Kui-ling, operator of a hotel food concession in Middleton, N.Y., in the country long enough for him to qualify under the seven-year provision. She said he was “highly regarded” and feared deportation because of the Communists in China. He came in as a seaman in 1942 and was picked up in 1944. Since then he has managed to avoid deportation.