Bemidji Daily Pioneer Newspaper, January 16, 1922, Page 13

“of food MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY 16, SOME ASPECTS .OF Tflf P_ROBLEMS OF THE FARMERS (Continued from Page 1) and with coimerclal relations In other Industries, 5 ‘When a business requires speciallzed talent, it has to buy it, - So will the farmers ; aud perhaps the best way for them to get it would be to utilize some of the present machinery of the larg- est established agencies dealing in farm prodacts, Of course, if he wishes, the farmer mway go further and engage in flour-willing and other manufactures produets. In. my opinion, Towever, he would be wise to stop short of that. Public interest may be opposed to all great integrations; but, in justice, should they be forbidden to the farmer and permitted to others? The corporate form of association can- not now be wholly adapted to his ob- Jjects and -conditions, The looser co- operative form'seems more generally suitable. Therefore, he wishes to be free, it he finds it desirable and feas- ible, to resort to co-operation with his fellows and neighbors, without run- ning afoul of the law. To urge that the farmers should have the same lib- erty to consolidate and co-ordinate their peculiar economic furctions, which other industries in their fields enjoy, is not, however, to concede that uny business integration should have legislative sanction to exercise monop- olistic power. The American people are as firmly opposed to industrial as to political autocracy, whether at- tempted by rural.or by urban industry. For lack of unlted effort the farmers as' a whole are still mafketing their crops by antlquated methods, or by no methods at all, but they are surrounded by a business world that has been modernized to the last minute and is tirelessly striving for efficlency. This efficiency is due in large measure to big business, to united business, to in- tegrated business. The farmers now seek the benefits of such largeness, un- ion and integration. The American farmer is a modern of the moderns in the use of labor saving machinery, and he has made vast strides in recent years In scientific tillage and efficient farm management, but as a business in contact with other husinesses agirculture is a “one horse shay” in competition with high power automobiles. The American farmer is ‘the greatest and most intractable of 4ndividualists. While industrial pro- duection and all phases of the huge com- imercial mechanism and its myriad ac- cessories have articuiated and co-ordi- nated themselves all the way from nat- ural raw. materials to retail sales, the Vusiness of agriculture has gone on in much the one man fashion of the back- woods of the first part of the nine- teenth century, when the farmer was self sufficient and did not depend upon, or care very much, what the great world was doing, The result is that the agricultural group is almost as much at a disadvantage in dealing with other economic groups as the jay farm- er of the funny pages in the hands of sleek urban confidence men;- who sell. him acreage in Central Park or. the Chicago city hall. The leaders of the farmers thoroughly understand this, and they ave intelligently striving to integrate their,industry so that it will be on an equal footing with other busi- nesses. As an example of integration, take the steel industry, in which the model is the United States Steel Corporation, «with its iron mines, its coal mines, its lake and rail transportation, its ocean vessels, its by-product coke ovens, its blast furnaces, its open hearth and Bessemer furnaces, its rolling mills, its tube mills and other manufacturing processes that are carried to the high- est degree of finished production com- patible with the large trade. it has built up. All this is generally conced- ed to be to the advantage of the con- sumer, Nor does the steel corporation inconsiderately dump its products on the market. On the contrary, it 'so acts that it is frequently a stabilizing influence, as is often the case with oth- pr large organizations, It is master of its distribution as well as of its pro- duetion. Xt prices are not satisfactory the products are held back or produc- tton is reduced or suspended. It is not compelled to send a year's work to the market at one time and take whatever it can get under such circumstances. It has one selling policy and lts own export department. Neither are the grades and qualities of steel determin- ed at the caprice of the buyer, nor does the latter hold the scales. In this sin- gle integration of the steel corporation 1s represented about 40 per cent of the steel production of America. The rest is mostly in the hands of a few large companies, In ordinary times the steel corporation, by example, stabilizes all steel prices, If this Is permissible (it is even desirable, because stable and fair prices are essential to solid and continued prosperity) why would it be wrong for the farmers to utilize central agencies that would have simj- Jar effects on agricultural products? ‘Something like that Is what they are piming at. Some farmers favored by regional ‘compactness and contiguity, such as the citrus-fruit-raisers of California, al- ready have found a way legally to merge and sell their products inte- grally anad in accordance with seasonal and local demand, thus improving their position and rendering the con- sumer a reliable service of ensured quality, certain supply, and reasonable and relatively steady. prices. They have not found it necessary to resort to any special privilege, or to claim any exemption under the anti-trust leglslation of the state or nation. ‘With- out removing local control, they have puilt up a very efficient marketing agency. The grain, cotton, and to- bacco farmers, and the producers of hides and wool, because of their num- ‘pers and the vastness of their regions, and for other reasons, have found integration a more difitcult task; though there are now some thousands of farmer's ¢ ative _ elevators, warehouses, creameries, and ofh terprises of one sort and aunother, with a turn-over of a billion dollers a year. They are glving the farmers business experience and training, and, so far as they go, they meet the need of honest welghing and fair grading; but they do not meet the requirements of rationally adjusted marketing in any large and fundamental way. The next step, which will be a pat- tern for other groups, is now being prepared by the grain-raisers through the establishment of sales media which shall handle grain separately or col- lectively, as the individual farmer may elect, It is this step—the plan of the Committee of Seventeen—which has created so much opposition and is thought by some to be in conflict with the anti-trust laws, Though there is now before congress a wmeasure de- signed to 'dlear up doubt on this point, the grain-producers are not relying on any immunity from anti-trust legisla- tion, titled, to co-ordinate their efforts just as effectively as the large business in- terests of the country have done. In connection with the selling organiza- tions the United States Grain Growers Tncorporated is drafting a scheme of financing instrumeatalities and auxili- ary agencies which are indispensable to the successful utilization of modern business methods. It is essential that the farmers should proceed gradually with these plans, and aim to avoid the error of serapping the existing marketing ma- chinery, which has been so laboriously built up by long experience, before they have a tried and proved substi- tute or supplementary mechanism. They must be careful not to become enmeshed in their own reforms and lose the perspective of their place in the national system. They must guard against fanatical devotion to new doc- trines, and should seek articulation with the general economic system rather than its reckless destruction as it relates to them, v To tak# a tolerant and sympathetic view of the farmers’ strivings for bet- ter things is not to give a blanket endorsement to any specific plan, and still less to applaud the vagaries of some of their leaders and groups. Neither should we, on the other hand, allow the froth of bitter agitatio false economics, and mistaken radical- ism to conceal the facts of the farm- ers’ disadvantages, and the practicab! ity of eliminating them by well-con- sidered measures. It may be that the farmers will not show the business sagacity and develop the. wise lead: ghip to casTy through sound plans; hut that possibility does not justify the obstruction of their apward eflorts, We, as city people, see in high &nd speculatively manipulated prices, spollage, waste, scarcity, the results of defective distribution of farm prod- uets, Should it not occur to us that we have.a common interest with the farmer in his attempts to attain a de- gree-of efficiency in’ distribution cor- responding to his efliciency in produc- tion? Do not the recent fluctuations in the May wheat option, apparently unrelated to normal interaction of supply and demand, offer a timely proof of the need of some such stabil- izing agency as the grain growers have in contemplation? It is contended that, if their pro- posed organizations be perfected and operated, the farmers will have in their hands an instrument that will be capable of dangerous abuse. We are told that it will be possible to pervert it to arbitrary and oppressive price- fixing from its legitimate use of order- ing and stabilizing the flow of farm products to the market, to the mutual benefit of producer and consumer. I have no apprehensions on this point. In the first place, a loose organiz tion, such as any union of farmers must be at best, cannot be so arbi- trarily and promptly controlled as a great corporation. The one is a lum- bering democracy and the other an agile autocracy. In the second-place, with “all possible power of orgznization, the farmers cannot succeed to any great extent, or for any considerable length of time, in fixing prices. The great law of supply and demand works fn various and surprising ways, to the undoing of the best laid plans that attempt to foil it. In the third place, their power will avail the farmers nothing if it be abused. In our time and country power is of valuc to its possessor only so long as it is not abused. It is fair to say that I have seen no signs in responsible quarters of a disposition to dictate prices, There seems, on the contrary, to be a commonly beneficial purpose to realize a stability that will giva-an orderly and abundant flow of farm products to the consumer and ensure reasonable and dependable returns to the pro- ducer, In view of the supreme Importance | to the national well-being of a pros- perous and contented agricultural pop: ulation, we should be prepared to zo | a long way in assisting the farmers to | zet an equitable share of the wealth they produce, through the inaugura- tion of reforms that will procure a continuous and increasing stream of farm products. They are far from get- ting a fair share now. Considering his capital and the long hours of labor put in by-the average farmer and his family, he is remunerated less than any other occupational class, with the possible exception of teachers, reli- gious and lay. Though we know that the present general distress of the farmers is exceptional and is linked with the inevitable economic readjust- ment following the war, it must be remeinbered that, aithongh represent- ing one-third of the industrial product and half the total population of the nation, the rural communities ordl- narily enjoy but a fifth to a quarter ~* the het annual national gain.. Notwith- standing the taste of prosperify that They desire, and they are en-’ thie farmers had during {he Wwar, thére is today a lower standard of living among the cotton farmers of the South than in any other pursuit in the conntry, Tn conclusion, it seems to me that the farmers are chiefly striving for a gen- erally beneficial integration of their husiness, of the same kind and char: ter that other husiness enjoys. If i should be found on examination that the attainment of this end requires methods different from those which other activities have followed for the same purppse shonld we not sympa- thetically consider the plea for the right to co-operate, if only from our own enlightened self interest, in oh- taining an abundant and steady flow of farm-products? In examining the agricultural situa. tion with a view to its fmprovement, we shall be most helpful if we m tain @ detached and judicial viewpoint, vémembering that existing wrongs may be chiefly-an accident of unsymnetrl- cal.economic growth instead of a crea- tion.of malevolent design and conspira- ey. We Americans are prone, as Pro- fessor David Friday well says in his admirable book, “Profits, Wages and Prices,” to seek a “criminal intent be- fiind every dlfficult and undesirable eco- nomic- situation.” I can positively as- sert from my contact with men of large affairs, including bankers, that, as a whole, they are endeavoring to fulfill as they see them the obligations that 'go with their power. Preoccupled with the grave problems and heavy tasks of their own immediate affairs, they have not turned their thoughtful personal attention or their construc- tive abilities to the deficiencies of agri- cultural business organization. Agris culture, it may be said, suffers from thelr preoccupation and neglect rather than from any purposeful exploitation by them. They ought pow to begin to respond to . the farmers' difliculties, which they must realize are their own, On the other hand, my contacts with the farmers have filled me with respect for them—for their sanity, their pa- tience, their balance. Within the Tast year, and pa 1l at a mecting called by the Kansas State Board ot Agriculture and at another called by | the Committee of Seveoteen, T have | met many of the leaders of the new | form movement, and T testify in all sincerity that they are endeavoring to deal with their problems, not as pro- Inoters of & narTow class interest, not | as exploiters of the hapless consumer, not as merciless monopolists, but as honest ment bent on the improvement of the common weal. We can and must meet such men and such a cause half way, Thelr is our business—the nmlnn‘sl | LONDON HAS DOG CEMETERY Founded Nearly Twenty Years Ago, Ground Set Off 1s Now Over crowded With “Graves.” Comparatively few of London’s vis- | ftors—or inhabitants either, for: that matter—find their way to the dogs’ cemetery in Hyde park, says a_cor- respondent, Situated in a corner of the pazk it is o shut in by trees and thick hedges that the ordinary passers- by would hardly notice it, but it Is well worth a visit. Nearly 20 years ago the favorite dog of an old gentle- man living near the Victoria gate died. His master obtained permis- sion- to bury his' canine friend in the garden. belonging to the cottage oc. cupied by the gatekeeper; and so the dogs’ Icemetery was started. Soon there were other applications from people who wanted to find a quiet rest- ing-place for their pets, and now the cemetery is so crowded that more ground will have to be taken or the cemetery ‘closed, and dogs' funerals things of the past. Not being reserved solely for dogs, cats and even one monkey are- buried there. The ceme- tery is neatly and carefully kept. The' graves are marked by miniature head- stones, while on many, flowers are planted, and some arc kept constantly bright with fresh wreaths. Some of the epitaphs are curious, while many are pathetic, and nearly all express a hope of meeting in some future world. HAD IDEAL DEMOCfiATIC RULE In Early Years of the Republic, Roman Citizens in Mass Meeting Enacted Laws. ‘The constitution of the Roman re- | public, especially during the early centuries of its existence, was demo- | cratic beyond any constitution known | today. The citizens of Rome assem- | bled_ in a mass meeting called_the | Bad Colds ET, stormy weather, exposure, sniffles, and the heavy cold 1s on. Dr. King's New Discovery breaks it up quickly and pleasantly. Head cleancd up, cough relicved and you feel bettey At your druggists, 60c. Dr. King’s | New Discovery For Colds and C’oug‘l_zi Bowels Begging for Help? Dr. King's Pills will bring you the” happiness of regular, nornal bowels and liver functioning. Mild but ways reliable. At all druggists, 25 PROMPT! WON'T GRIPE Dr.King's Pills | (0 the Taws, i the eai elected two chief ex- who were called con- Auother fmportant office wig the tribune, whe was also He possessed the suls, that of elected for a year. veto power, that is, he could veto or annul laws passed hy the comitia, and was held to be the speclal and powerful guardian of popular. rights and the welfare of the commonwealth. The number was inereased, and the body of tribunes hecame one of the most powerful farts of the govern- ment. ording o the modern use of the word, a tribune is n champion of the rights and liberties of the peo- ple. The word also had another mean- Ing, being used as @ name for o plat- form and espeeially the platform and pulpitlike structure in the French chamber of deputies from which a member addresses the assembly, Every House Numbered in India. Numbering hou is an important to census-taking in India, months in advance of the date all the villages in the em- pire are scheduled, and every is numbered. In some provine the census authorities determine in ad- vance the size of the number and speelfy the proportion of rea ochre and oil, or other ingredients, forming the substance with which the nuiber is to be painted. Racial prejudices have to be ceu- sidered. In Myderabad objection 's made to tar because of the coior, whi.» in other districts the natives consider red ochre unlucky, d if it Is used they erase the figures. In the cnse of huts made of leaves, and also when abjection is made on account of casie restrictions to the nunbering of houses by enumerators, the numbers are painted ‘on bits of tin, tiles, or pots, and arve usually treated with great respect- by the natlves, \UBSCRIBE FOR TH;P[ON ) TP ’/ WNich P 7N B - principles. here for the first time it is in fact & Dictionary / Co MAKES IT | Publishers’ Price ‘. $4.00 The New +* Best Dictionary Ever Printed From cover to cover it teems with scores of bright ideas, novel features and new educationsl Whole coiumns of new words are proper, is only one of its many dep?rtments. is & vegular iittie giant Encyelopedia, ) it is a guide to everything educational. Having @ separate Dictionary for every art and science. . 22 Dictionaries in One #- Ail other dictionaries are out-of-date. onc, offered exclusively to readers of this paper, for alimited time onty, is right up ta the minuic. You necd it—your children need it every day. OUR GREAT COUPON OFFER ALMOST A GIFT T G #Ali, OKDERS FILLED ON FERMS EXPLAINED IN COUI A e e S i A N E ONE HOME TODAY . e [IX2Z2 233332222 280 % SHEVLIN IEXE SRS E S R0 R S 2 The Ladies’ Aid. met at the home of Mrs. F. A. Noyes Wednesday af- ternoon, Miss Elizabeth Barr, principal of the school, returned Monday after spending a week with relatives at Bufralo, Minn. a Mabel Anderson returned Tuesday after spending a week’s va- cation at Heetor, Minn. } Mrs. W. O. Gordon number of friends at t Tuesday evening. 1 entertained her home Signa Paulson returned to hool near Clearbrook Saturday at her M her after spending two wecks home at this place. Gordon Noyes left Monday 'night for Duluth, where he is employed, after spending the holidays here with his parents. Mrs. P. L. Renne rcturned Fri- day from Bagley where she has been v\i: ing relatives. Mr. Mus. and Charles McDonald were Bemidji visitors Friday. ser of Bagley was a caller day. here Fric Mrs. B. Jenneson and son returned to Zimmerman, Minn.,, Thursday night after spending the holidays here with BMr. Jenneson who is em- ployed in the potato warehouse. J. Clark of Warren was a visitor here last week. Mr. and Mrs. Nick Hanson were Bemidji shopp Friday. Mrs: B. W. Schreck and children -eturned home Sunday after spend- ng the holidays with- relatives in Minneapolis. A. E. Rain spent Sunday in Be- midji with his mother. Mrs. A. L. Gordon has returned from ‘Minneapolis where she has been visiting her daughter. The Women’s Home and Foreign " contributed to' Universities Dictionary Now Being Distn‘bufieé by the ] M ociety “met with M 4| William ‘Bromaghin Thursday after- noon. Qrville Eliefson was reported on the sick list one day last week. Miss Olga Gulbranson returned Monday after spending w few days at Vining, Minn. Mrs. H. W. Teichroew and Mis Bernice Burfield spent Friday at th < home at Wilton, Ludwig Holum was a hopper Wednesday, of Alida her cousi midji Miss Grace Gardon Wednesdayh ere with s 0. G. Lee of Bagley was a business caller here last Monday Mrs. Detta Nelson of € N. D., visited relatives week. C. Thorpe went to Minneapolis Monday wheve he will attend school prior to taking up his duties as post- master at this place. ittic Eldon Bredeson is reported v i at this writi and Mrs. d Forks, here last Carl Henrickson of ' PAGE FIVE few days with friends. Hans Bye of Leonard, transacted business heve Monday, to her work at th spending the holi in Alida. Nick H sony Trio of Erskine, Minn. 8. W. Lakin, Pres. E. R. Evans, Mgr. BEMIDJI LUMBER & FUEL GO, Opposite Great Northern Depot Building Material and Fuel COMPLETE STOCK TELEPHONE 100 [r—ry \ PROMPT DELIVERIES Hard and Soft Coal—Briquetts—Blacksmith Coal ’ WE HAVE REDUCED THE PRICE OF HARD COAL 50c A TON—EFFECTIVE JANUARY 16TH. MEN Puit BEMIDJI PIONEER THE leading teachers of Enélish and Latin of these five gicat universities have contributed articles to the New. Universities Dictionary. This is the The vocabulary It and more, defined. of Dictionaries ntaining This e 98cC Only And 3 Coupons i Greatl PON MuidSiu +amarioss rd ate nnsylvania, "\ Harvard, Comell, Pe | (‘:olumbiawénd* Prmoeton — . MONEY Thousands of newW by scientifie, artistic, Jtical chapges elnco all other diction- aries wero printed appear fned in The New Universities Oiction- PS words brought ir military s vo- clearly de- it nromptly—supply simited. BACK IF NOT SATISFIED B B R Y PE OO C. L. Isted, Secy-Treas. =, G Y sy i were shoppers here Monday. Arthur Luggar returned from Monday where she spent a < Grace Thoreson has returned restaurant after at her home on attended the annual meeting of thd Shevlin-Ttasca Tele- phone company at Alida last Mon- dunce will be given at the M. hall January 11. Music by the S