Exhibit - "Book Scandal of 1919": House Bill 28

As the special session of the legislature began, House Bill 28 (or HB 28) was introduced by Rep. James A. Harris of Stanton on November 28, 1919. The bill would create a new Board of Supervisors to replace the already controversial Board of Administration. The bill also sought to return certain responsibilities to the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

After hearing reports about controversial books within the collection of the State Library Commission (SLC), Rep. Olger B. Burtness of Grand Forks decided to investigate the rumors himself. He briefly visited the SLC, checked out a few books, and then left. Burtness was affiliated with the Independent Voters Association (IVA) and was a strong opponent of the Nonpartisan League (NPL).

After it was introduced, the Committee on Judiciary received HB 28 for review. Rep. Frank Prater, chair of the committee, quickly submitted the recommendation to the House that the bill be "indefinitely postponed" (or "do not pass").

On December 1, 1919, HB 28 went before the entire House for a vote. Before the bill could be voted down by the House's NPL majority, Burtness helped instigate a scandal for the Board of Administration and the SLC. He gave a sensational speech in the House claiming the SLC had radical and controversial books in its collections that were ready to circulate to schools.

He brought the books with him that he had previously checked out from the SLC, and read certain passages, particularly from Love and Ethics by Ellen Key.

Burtness' speech was not recorded in the Journal of House for the session, but reporters were in attendance. Although Burtness would later say he was misquoted in the newspapers, one of the excerpts from his speech that appeared in the Bismarck Tribune (December 1, 1919) included:

"I was surprised and shocked when I stepped into the State Library Saturday to find there at the left of the door a circulating library, reading to go out to some country school, filled with such literature that if the fathers of this state knew what it actually was they would be down here with shotguns."

Burtness claimed the books encouraged free love and were anti-marriage, they promoted disrespect for the country, and they were pro-anarchism. Burtness pointedly placed the blame for these books on the NPL, the Board of Administration, and their consultant Charles E. Stangeland, who he said had "buffeted from one jail to another" and was "telling our country schools what to read."

The "exposé" from Burtness, as the Bismarck Tribune called it, caused an uproar in the House. There were some cries of support, like from Rep. Girdell A. Patterson, for the Board of Administration, Stangeland, or the books, but most were outraged. Even strong supporters of the NPL, like Rep. Walter J. Maddock, were appalled. Maddock reportedly responded with:

"There's enough red-blooded Americanism and Christian manhood in this [House] to protect the schools and the home of our state from this sort of socialistic rubbish and free love rot if we have to repeal the [Board of Administration] and every other law on our statute-books."