Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, October 11, 1920, Page 2

ees Daily Ceibune une, e President and Bai EARL E. HA THOMAS DAILY .. Advertising Representatives Payid J. Randall, 341 Fifth Ave., New ¥. Prndden, & Prudden, 1720-23 Ste; Bidg., Chicago, I). Copies of the Daily Tribune are on file in the New York and Chicago offices and visitors are welcome. SUBSCRIPTION RATES Carrier No subscription by mail accepted for less-period than three months. ANi subscriptions must be paid in advance and the Daily ‘Tribune Will not insure delivery after subscription becomes = ©ne month in errears, ie Member of Audit Burean of Circulations (A. B. C.) 3 iF Member of the Associated Press ’ ‘The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the u: +| for republication of all news credited in this paper and 4 also the local news published herein. rag THE FARMERS’ LOSS. a | Under the “‘shortstop” system of profiteer pre- vention, adopted by Attorney General Palmer, the .. American farmers have lost $1,782,276,350. be- | tween July | and September | of this year, not one | dollar of which has been sayed the consuming ' | public, : The estimates and data ate furnished by Mr. George P. Hampton, managing director of the | Farmers’ National Council and when presented to | Secretary of Agriculture Meridith, Mr. Meridith sim- ply looked astounded and inquired, ‘What can. we do about it?” This tremendous loss has béen sustained by the producers of wheat, corn, potatoes, cotton, apples and beef cattle. ‘Our national policy is involyed in this situation and it would be cowardly, as well as stupid nov to face the facts. America can ¢ither give up ag- riculture and become exclusively or chiefly a manu- facturing or commercial nation—a condition which ' each succeeding, year shows we are tending—or agriculture must be put ou a paying basis. { Tn the former case we would have to import ' most of the food supply for the country. Under the present system of distribution of farm products it is clear that farmers have no assurance of costs of production plus a fair eke § The prices farmers rectived® f6r “wheat. per ' bushel fell from July 1 to Septe: | | to $2.187, while the prices for corn were, respect- | | ively, $1.856 and $1.557; for potatoes, $3.860 and $1.849; for apples, $2.87 and $1.374; for cotton, 37.4 cents and 31.1 cents; for beef cattle, 9.32 cents and 8.56 cents per pound, An important factor in placing the farmers :at the mercy of the middleman is the relative ease with which the middleman hoardey secures credit, while farmers are unable to obtain credit at all, or can do so only on terms’ which render their busi- ness, on the average, a noncommercial ‘undertak- | ing mi rt en reece A large portion of each year’s staple crops must be carried along during the year until needed for consumption. Credit to do this is necessary. Either the middleman hoarder, who holds the pro- ducts in storage at market centeys, in large quanti- ties, or the farmer-producer; who holds ‘them in storage on the farm, must have this credit.. The middleman has been recejving it from the reserve banks.- The difficulty of farmers’ ji securing the necessary crédit on the supplies they have on hand, until needed for consumption, and to prepare for ' and finance the new crop, ‘is discouraging and is a prime cause in slump in prices to the farmers’ in- ercmasemeonsttive 4 PRICE GUARANTEE. Sepeerermarne The trade practice of manufacturers’ guaran- tee against price decline is held largely responsible for continued high prices, by some 200 spokesmen for business interests before a federal trade com- mission hearing at Washington. The statement ' that prices would have gone down soon after the ' armistice, in many lines, was almost unanimously concurred in by the representatives present, had the price guarantee practice heen unknown. ponents of the system declared their belief had ‘been confizymed by breaks in commodities ‘where the system had not been employed. q Sugar and silk are typical examples. A guarantee can be construed in no other light than*as a means of maintaining a generally high Jevel of prices and as mitigating against any reduc- tion which would have followed the natural opera- tion of the law of supply and demand, >. Silk prices have declined 50 per cent in the Hast six months. This would not have taken place ‘had the wholesalers been guaranteed against loss by the manufacturers. The guarantee system extends further. It not only operates to hold up prices, but it js the means of closing down plants and stagnating in- dustry to save the manyfecturer the necessity of ‘going ‘into his pocket to settle with the wholesaler or other purchaser. The mills are closed, but the and remains, consequently prices remain high. Artificial prices, like war prices, would have re- ded long ago, but for the guarantee. The re- ler and consumer have therefore been up against ‘a hard situation with no aid whatver | competition and rebating. from the old Upon grounds, within the trade, ' the guarantee system can not be legitimately’ attacked, pe difference how outside critics may view it. The the right to employ any trade methods so long as they do not tend to monopoly or Poe. te a ¢ question of mono r iscrimination would arise in the Bo pi ep | manufacturer, who could not meet the guarantee of the big manu- facturer and be forced to sell out, close up or go into bankruptcy. : Other features of the guarantee, regarded as harmful and unfair, are the ‘tendency to specula- tion, encouragement of overstocking, stifling of One result, already noticeable, and which will occur to greater extent as time elapses, is in holding uver old goods to be offered ag fresh stock at tuture times. The inevitable effect of this, to the pur- chaser in the market, is prejudicial to the produc- ing industry. VICTORY FOR MANAGEMENT. “No one should accuse the Bolsheyiki of being fate to ran ap hl roy 8h observes oo Nation’s siness. “At «start they shook their manes, waved their armes and announced that they would free the working man and achieve the ultimate in Democracy. They would do it in one leap.’ “Who did the work? ‘Why, the workers. High- ly paid managers and technical men were so many parasites on the industrial organization. Hence there was nothing to do but take the factories from their owners and giye them to the ren who worked in them. : “How the Bolsheviki achieved’ the supreme | paradox need not now be related. The factories are once more in the hands of highly-paid experts; rl from $2:536 | instead of being free the workman finds himself un- der a compulsory, labor law that makes him the slave of the state. “The same adyanced jdeas were carried out in the organization of the Red army. Here, too, the result was hardly what was’ expected. News that comes from .Russia ‘should be taken with a little salt, but it is safe“to accept the statement that the Red soldiers were given more freedom than those who served in the ‘reactionary’ ‘armies of Foch or Pershing. Reports said that the Reds were not re- quired to salute their officers; leaders were chosen by election, etc. “In. August the Red horde was sweeping to- ward Warsaw. From every appearance,’ nothing could save the city but a miracle. The city was saved not by a miracle, but by management. “At the critical moment of the siege, enter: ‘Gen. Weygand ‘and this staff of more than 600 French officers.” ; 7 ... “There were cynical smiles carried ithe bnnodle edt i ‘only reinforce- ments sent Poland by the allies weré Gen. Weygand and his French officers, It was assumed that Po- land was “gone.” é “On -the appearance of the French officers in field, things took a decidedly new turn., No one can rob the Poles of credit for a game fight, hut it must have been more than coincidence that irn- mediately after Gen, Weygand ‘and his staff of more than 600 French officers’ arrived, the Reds Jost interest in Warsaw and started earnestly in the ‘direction of their own capital, The rout will rank with the most spectacular and complete in the his- tory of warfare. “It was a’victory for management. Gen, Wey- gand and his officers were experts. They ‘were ; who made enormous profits by buying wp te dopahes ie said Watson, looking at his watch, want to ajlude at least to the story of spruce. 7 “From first to; last lumber for air- planes was a serious problem, although it takes only 169. feet for a Curtis dein, ing plane, and correspondingly more course for lafger machines. But mil liong of feet had to be eut to find the}! selected pieces required for such con- struction. At the time we entered the war spruce lumber for planes was worth about $200 a thousand feet at the fac- tories. They bought throdgh brokers up the products of mills and reselling them,, For a while the government had the services of a practical lumber man and a vigorous business man, Charles BE. Sligh, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, whose policy was to buy direct from thr. mills, cutting out broker's and other profits. But that policy soon got him Into trouble.” i x “And weren't there I. W. W. trou- 82" asked Mr. Miller. in the state of Washington, .the governor! sympathized with the I. W. W. There were no. trou- bles in ay jwhere the governor did not cater to them. The Washington Aistirbances were in a small area around Grays and» Witipa » Harbors. Sligh asked for four companies of troops to maintain order there, but the evidence ig that Secretary Baker re- fused to alford that protection. Inztead, he. tele; ed'tg the lumber en yield to the demands of the disturbers. The himber men refused to do that for it would have meant making the I. W. W. the dictators in the camps.” “Baker was a pacifist, was he not?” asked Mr, Miller. “They said Watson. wi +| “But with the brokers and the I. W. W. against him, Sligh wae soomin trouble. He has tostified that a man named Leadbetter, a major ip the finance de- partment, hich great be reaped by selling ‘umber or logs ,to: the government. replied each time that was not profiteer- ing, He was soon informed that they would ‘get his scalp.’ They got it. Phe brokers and the labor leaders com- bined and the government succumbed. Leadbetter got Sligh’s office and a man named Disque, who. was given the title of colonel, was made the head of what was called the spruce division of the army.!" 8 Miller. “This Disque,’ continued Watson, ‘His Aescribed as a man aed ba ‘go more usiness head than a child,’ It 6, reuler He had @ short career as war- spruce division,” ‘mused Mr. he had been ‘a captain in to help get what he 3 at in the army, The governor backed off from this but Disaue got ‘his ‘safe ’ 23 com: mander of the’ spruce’ division. He went to. the Pacific northwest and opened headquarters in Portland. He had great plans ‘ahd he soon asked for “unlimited authority to carryon . ... and funds as requested.’ He wasn’t modest. either. He' surrounded himself with three publicity men, one at a salary of $12,000 and the other two at $9,100 each, who wrote the most ful- some oulogies of the wonderful Colonel Disque and who kept the country the world informed of his lahors.”” “Did he get the authority and the funds?” x ‘He took them,” said Watson. “He let big contracts without authority or approval. Captain L; C. Preston of the ‘nance division of the bureau of air- | craft production complained of this spe- schooled and experienced in fighting; that was their business. Against their intelligence the individual- istic Red army was helpless.” F JJUSTICE TO SHEEP INDUSTRY, “There was a time when ‘all wool” meant that any fabric so designated was honestcloth made from pure virgin woo!, and was synonymous with wear- ing quality,” says Cloverland Magazine. “There was a time when the purchase of an ‘all wool’ gar- ment was a good investment for rich or poor, be- cause it-was an @xchange of honest wool for honest money, a 100 per cent return for the dollar. Mod- machinery and processes of renovating rag ler pis, reworking clippings from tailor shops ani garment, factories, have produced a fine ‘all woo!’ shoddy that has robbed the old ‘all wool’ trade- nark of ifs honest heritage, and today the slogan ‘all wool’ may mean anything from a revamped heap in a junk yard to fabric made direct from the wool on a sheep’s back, y Nothing ‘ails the sheep industry’ more than this unfair and too often downright dishonest compe- tition. “The honest merchant suffers with the buy- ing public and the wool grower, for he, too, is at the mer¢y of the fabric manufacturer and is forced to accept clothing. made from the ‘all: wool and a yard wide” stuff, which may be really all wool, but a reworked fiber that has served mankind even unto the third and fourth generation—reworked until there is no. tensile strength, no wearing quality, nothing but a distorted pattern after the first ex- posure on a damp day. y "The purpose of the ‘Trith in Fabric Law,’ is’ to protect sheep husbandry from’ unfair competition with shoddy and to protect the public from. de- ceit and profiteering that result from the unrevealed presence of shoddy in woolen fabrics and cloths, by making it compulsory ‘to make known the presence of shoddy and cotton in woven fabrics and clothes made from such fabrics. : We are paying the penalty of being a large and H j Meset in the cifically. Among the contracts Disque let were three that aggregated $29,000,- 009, for spruce logs and lumber and-for the building of a railroad. Logging railroads that had cost from nine to fifteen thousand dollars a mile jumped to $110,000 4 mile under these con- cts.. A New York cory Jon got aps the fattest of the Bas for building thirty-eight miles of railroad spruce. Under, this contract over ejght mfiiions was paid out, but no logs were artually delivered over the rafiroad which they built for the government on the cost plus plan.” “And what did we (do with the planes and materials we had lefi when the war was over?" “fhe government has, of course, re- tained some 4f it for its own uses," d | Pied Watson. “We have already noted that some of it was scrapped in France “and many of the contracting companies bought back the materials they ’ had left. The Curtiss. company in a deal that bas heen much eriticized bought back planos, engines and materials that had cost over twenty million dollars for $2,720,000, or for tweive rents on the daliar, which the company bought back for a fow hundred dollars apiece, it has been reselling to American aviators for sey- eral thousand dollars euch. ‘The gov- ernment’s contention was that it did not want to take the responsibility of selling machines that might be in any way defective.” “T would call the whole thing pretty much of a scandal and failure,” said Mr. Miller, “Phe air part was so regarded by tha hoys who were over there doing the Ngbting,” said the lieutena ayestion,, Where are the Ame) nlanes? became a by-word among them them ahaut it. 5 “Yes, to thom it was pf course a bit tor disappointment,” said Watson. “In- machines on thelr successful modele age. of wasting time toe wark out models of its own. In the.air America was to them a liability, ingtead ofan ‘Wore there other such. sontracts?”* ry of them of one kindand on- T think the evidence shows they tecn pieces of useless railrond. bette th important community by the frequency of fragic o¢- currences. 4 ° . i The evidence alyo shywe that. que man, namod Storey, an admittedly reliable ‘ and for getting out $23,000,000 worth of |” It. ts charged that airplanes }- and the French and the British twitted | stead of America helping te gain the supremacy in the air, they had to de ete their own supplies to help pro: teot “the American o ‘They re-|> mretiod ii that America did not: make meee papecially Ong ate ok 89¢ were ‘assigned to ry ; bat pecame of thig Colonel Phone 9383. “He became’ brigadiergeneral,” said 'S = 3 © Watson, That was one of his aims and Mis friends saw that he was’ gratified. And Secretary Baker for his gallant British | services bestowed on him the distin- guished service “medal to boot, which* only. one enlisted man, in the war, achieved, and only 554 officers." - x “If a man like Disque courd get such ‘A medal there ought to have been about 4,000,000 others granted,” suggested Mrs. Miller, “and .you, Mark, ought to be covered with thet “You are too partial to your son,” said thé lieutenant, “{ was merely crawling in trenches while Disque was sitting in Portland.” iS “And what is he now, this Disque?” asked Mr.. Miller. 2 “That's the yea! romance ’’ said Wat- aon. ‘They made him president of the Amsinck company of New York, an im- porting and exporting corporation, at $30,000 a year, which he himself said fas ‘going som: . ‘They sure do take care-of their friends,"’ said Mr, Miller. “Yes, those who serve their, friends get more than those who serye their ernment with spruce _ Columbia, sald he could have furnished spruce enough in ne ‘ a bye Thi session of a home : in the most desirable e of alt possessions. SEE BEN Own That Home . bites “joprediate, land doe BUY A LOT 108 W. hiidwest Ave, PHONE 74.W hack thelr oftde reputable lumber But the men in contro) wanted nothing of that kind done. “And the government paid more. of ourge?” p country,” sighed Mre. Miller, “The prices ef lumber became ecan-}| “But don't Jook pitying’ at me, dalous,”” fatgon. “ 3 Cat mother,” said the Heutenant. “I bay e $754.50 thougend, and fir, $271, and) my own D. S. medal—it's my limp. edar, oer $809 @ thousand Be- ec ‘They can’t take it away from me, and fore the Deeds-Disque regime set in the I got it on the square. about $110 per . i R Armig Rim ex) \ 2 dt “As producere they failed entirely,” replied Watson. “Of the total Reantres, Disque mechine produced only 7. e cent and 4he other aoe pee gent Was produced by the indepe: toand ITS BEST b The strongest co pliment ever pad bo Scott's Emulsion is the vain altempts at imitation. Those who take cod-liver ‘ oil at its best, take “Of course, they ‘had investigations,” suggested Mr. Miller. i “The complaints poured into Wash: ington end ‘ancretary Beker was finally moved to send out two Crain Ot make | Investigations and sapere rt to him.’ One of these, Captain’ Gund, wired that he had ‘unearthed evidence indicating] | OQ YOU carry. fire in- surance for protection er from force of habit? Look up the cost of re- graft.’ But that Scott’ p call Gass not wanted woe rkaee ts hat r} he a i ow building your home, or re- Gund called off, he ‘left = for San ¥ Prencush and ‘aid tot eaaaepe “aprag: mapas Ps placing you. property, and Other inyestigators who made like adjust your insurance poli- porte were sent to gether duties. © icles: ‘But what Fat — . “ye spaia 2 nate, ‘told you ebowt ‘thatir A safe and sane insur- wanted to command an pred and he ance plan appeals to every kept calling for men yntil on Armis’ prudent man, tice day heptger 8,1 Bs, commane nd, of whom abo jut. 208 officers. ‘At hw own’ Headquarters “te Portland #t one time 182 gallant ‘oM- cers were enumerated and they lived in luxurious martunsiine while other jen were ‘fighting in the Ar gonne battles There were ann Oe ta northwest teined in his army who clamored tq to Brance, but for division a 2% men under his R. T. 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