The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, October 7, 1915, Page 9

i +.-d0US. . wand ‘the roadside ‘wheat brokers became elevator men. | -the wagon or climbing up on the wheels. -J:'armmg mdustry is “at-sixes:and sevens," | :What -good is- farming? - d’AGE ‘TEN Farmers. Are Now Helpless By Orange Wrzght L raising. and marketing grain forty years ago almostas much as the moden separator differs form the old hand ™ flall—only the farmer is'growing:worse:off. instead of better. There was a time when the farmer had something to say about the price he would, take for his wheat. Not that the grain frowers ‘were better organized: then than they are now, but the ~abuyes§ were not oganized then, either. Take the Red River valley in the seventies there were no bridges. The railroad stopred on the Minnesota side of the Red river. -To reach it from North Dakota we drove <ur loads-onto a ferry and then up the other bank. 3 “Generally we never reached the ferry before the grain was sold :-and we had our money. All along the road for ten m:les -aut of Grand Forks would be the buyers. A few in bugg’es, smost’.of them in wagons, and here and there one’ afcot everyone dead on buying our load or bust. A’fi times there would be eight or ten men crowding around Everyone wculd be .anxious. to get that particular load and get down before the pext’ ‘team drove up.. Often the bidding would wax fast and fur- A difference of from five to fifteen cénts per bushel in ‘the offers made was not at all uncommon. < But this was too good to last. The railroad went through Then -we began to.go to them. The elevators combined or were taken ~over-by the holding companies. - Wheat. buying had become OR- . “GANIZED. Then we began to go to them at THEIR terms. Instead of buyers bidding against each other for the farm- <rs’ wheat the farmers began to bid: against each other for a ~‘buyer. ‘In place of many prices there:-was Just one price for the -entire northwest and dlctated from _some office down egst. . Ev- ~ery buyer offered that prxce and-no other. He knew he had us’ ~and we would.be -compelled to sell sooner or later. At first one: -+aere and there went:a little higher but they soon found out that -at paid ‘better to stick -with the orga.mzatlon After that there awas mothing to it—for the buyers. .- ‘Today it is-the farmer whois anxieus and the buyers who .- .We -producers bave not been 50 wise and have neg- {ected: to build up an organization. We have debts to pay in the £all and tumble all over each other to.throw our wheat on the In those days “marketzt the lowest -possible priee——We-have not even arranged -#o finance -ourselves: without .geing :hat .in- hand to the other Fellow’s bank," and -he refuses-us-meney-when we need it most ‘fl:o;g!:i we have in -wheat as ‘goed secumty as there is outsuie p B¢l R As far. .as” marketing . condltxons are < concerned the entire Perhaps the. League is. the permanent orgamzatlon we S0 i «--bédiy need. If it is, well and gaod.. , In any case, it is up-te every .manof us to do our part. Con- ~dltmns ‘in North Dakota haye. grown - ml,ghty serious. r (thloy Glty. N. Dak, Z{he, o}nl,y first class European “"Hotel in the City. TROBMS 50c to $1.50 .a NIGHT We endeavor to give. special s _serviee to the farmer, Our restaurant is the best in YoaMeed WMot Be Sick 1} flhmdieA%‘USfllh 41 INVESTIGATE Gy ~Fargos Only ‘Moderi Fire Proof - Hotel POWERS HOTEL Hot and Cold Running Water and Telephone in Every Room - FIRST GLASS CAFETERIA IN CQNNECTION & On Broadway, One Block South of Great “Northern Depot e FARGO N. DAK IMES have certainly changed. Farming. tb(ia'.‘y”&x.ffer‘ from 4 : And]| . And without' markets; THE NONPARTISAN LEADER AstoF ighting and Thmkzng By Franklin H. Powers OMETHING wonderful is going on in the war trenches and - : camps’ of Europe—something you don’t read about in the* - . papers. linérs, the destruction of towns and cities and the wiping- out of entire armies. When the Russian peasént-——millions of him—joined the col- : ors, ‘it didn’t enter his mind that there was anything else to do.: He had to go—his czar had ordered it—God therefore willed it— there was nothing else to do. So' it was in England, France, Germany, Austria—in every country swept into the war. ‘Whole-bodied, healthy men—and boys—left factory, shop and farm—singing patriotic songs—-off to the battle front to kill and be Kkilled. Without thinking much about it they put on their uniforms, . shouldered their guns and went off to war. They did what they had been trained for—what they had been prepared for through years. : And, of course, God was on their side. They were told that by their superior officers and by those whose special business was to pray to God and keep Him posted and the private soldier patriotic and satisfied. None of these patriots hated any other patriots in the ene- my’s country. They didn’t know just who their enemies might be . when they reached the front. In fact there wasn’t much gomg on in their minds except thoughts of leaving home and mother, wife, children, or other loved.ones. ‘Millions of those unthinking men and boys, who fared forth so patrlotlcally will be dead and out of the reckoning when their masters get together around . a mahongany table and- agree. on the terms of peace. We can pass them by—the dead ones. . But many live ones will go home—some whole, some chipped off a bit or minus a leg, arm or some other useful member of the body. ; But every mother’s son of the millions who go home alive will have a head on his shoulders. And there will be 'something . in that head that wasn’t there when its owner went to war. There are hours when a soldier. hasn’t anything to do but think. And he thinks of himself, the soldier next to him, the lieutenant, the captain, the general, the king—jyes, and the other fellows, the enemy, over in the trenches in front. He’ll think a whole lot of things in the trenches. And he’ll wonder. He may wonder what it’s all about. He may think hard enough to wonder how God can be on both sides of the war, 'simply ‘because Chrlstlans are on both sides, and praymg ‘to the same God. : He may wonder—while he is thinking—whether God had a.nythmg to do with making czars, emperors, kings and other mas- ters—and whether God has specxal molds for masters and a dif- ferent set for men. We can’t.tell all that is running through a man’s mind when A he has time to think, and really begins thinking. But we may be sure something is running through his mind—and that home, mother, wife, sweetheart, children, country, = patriotism, czar, king, fight, enemy, Chfist, God, brotherhood will run through, all mixed up at first—but-may finally get sorted out in order. And when the soldier goes, home with a thinking head on his shoulders the masters might better watch his step—for the think- ing soldier is very apt to become a thinking man. : That’s the big. thought-for the day. “The world is thinking, - who may think ;hemselves into an understanding that God doesn’t 1 +un two sets of molds, but that all of us come from the same heav- - {enly mold—that all men are created free and equal, and that it | was none of God’s work that some became masters and others be-v came slaves. £ J. R. Kll‘k Commlssmn Co. Inc. i South St. Paul, Minn, s Sales Agency and Authorized Represeatative of ‘the American Society of Equity Consign Your Live Stock t¢ Us and Get a Square Deal, Yes, something .that may have more mfluence QL i e : | htimanity’s~-future ~than the .sinking of - battleships ‘and: ‘Geean - thmkmg' Things are getting sorted-out. .The:men are thinking .= - - {about masters, and | masters are thinking about men. Andmotonly ~ . i in-Furope, where the masters can’t' fight without men, but - SONEE e ol s i There—and everywhere—and out of it all will eome millions of men -