An initiative measure in the election of 1932 repealed the prohibition clause in the State constitution, making North Dakota, dry since it became a Territory, a wet State.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.