The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, October 21, 1915, Page 4

e L S o R S _right and ‘the straight goods. . harmless but subtly charged with poison. PAGE FOQUR THE NONPARTISAN LEADER 'Speczal Brands of News Pozson for Us By Charles Edward Russell EYOND any question, the people of North Dakota are gen- B “erally aroused on the subject of Privilege. They know they are plundered and are getting weary of the plunderers. plunderers. Beyond any question there is more progressive faith and sentiment in: North Daketa teday than in any other state infgy the Umon, and if that sentiment goes on.without being side- | tracked, North Dakota will he the first State to be emancipated. Far and away the greatest danger of sidetracking lies in| this thing of Tainted News. " That is why I continue to harp upon it so persistently. 1 hope to see the emancipation movement in North Dakota go forward to success. If thlS State wins free other states wilk win free. But you will have to be on “your guard every moment of every day against the poison stuff the press deals out to you. You can spot the poisoned. editorial and it does you no harm.” You know it is poisoned and pass it up. But you can’t always spot the poisoned news:item, not the poisoned specal article.” You pick up your newspaper and see prominently displayed tion entxtled “Scientific Facts About Railroads” or “Important Phases of the Transpertation Problem.” Or maybe it has a general heading such as “Questions of the-Day Discussed by Great Thinkers” of “Views of Great Men on Current Issues.” "You read it. So far as yau can tell it seems to be all Somebody in an apparent spirit of 1mpa.rt1allty and accuracy is discussing a question of history or a phase of the transportation business. Somewhere in -that article he inj'ects two or three sentences that are seemingly You take them for truth; they remain fixed in your mind as definite impressions; your conclusions and actions are influenced accordingly. And yet those sentences are absolutely unfounded or are clever per- _ versions of fact. this cunning art is practiced. Almost every daily newspaper. and many weeklies publish some- of it in every issue. . Somewhere in the East are several bureaus’ maintained’ by the Interests, whose sole business is to turn out these adroit. concoctions: and scatter them broadcast. through what printers call “hoiler plate,” which means matter g furmshed in stereotyped plates already to be printed Wlthollt being ‘set up in tyue: S e - This matter the interest’s bureaus furnish free. No doubt hundreds of editors publish it innecently. Why not? Here is matter already in type. It costs nothing, it fills space, it saves composition bills, and it seems all right. Very likely it bears some well known name and therefore looks like “feature.” In it goes. Beware of all such things. Beware of the so-called “Public Forums” or departments of “Current Problems.” Ninety-nine times in a hundred they come straight from Wall Street. About a thousand newspaeprs in the Northwest lately iprinted: a “plate” article on .Railroads, in which, with consum- ‘mate skill the patriotic pride of Americans was played upon that a totally false impression might be created in behalf of the predatory railroad companies of the United States Here are some of its sentences: “America holds her proud place among the natlons of the - earth on account of her supremacy in transpertation facilities. The mighty minds of the age are-engaged in the problems of transportation and the greatest men ‘in the history of the world’s .commerce are at the head of the transpmta.tlon systems of the | United States.” s what seems to be an article of serious and important informa-| Of course, as a matter of fact “the raxhoad system of the United states is not conducted to. tra.nsport things or persons but as enterprises in high_finance. - The “mighty minds” at the head of them are not engaged in solving any problems of trans- portation but only in issuing and maniptlating securities. Later in the article the. sklllful artist gives the needle an-- other jab in fhese sentences: “The United States has the 1a1gqst mlleage, the best service, the cheapest rates, pays labor the: hlghest wages, and we have the most efficiently managed- railways in-the world. They stand as a monument to the natlve genius of our marvelous builders and mest of the railreads in foreign countrtes have been. built under American orders.” s Millions of Americang read these sentences in the course of 'a week and believe them: Yet a mo;-e mopstrous aggregatmn of Very few persons have- any notion of the extent to whichl} fakes was never put into equal. compass. Except the opening clause. about mileage, every other Statément is abselutely untrue. In another article: I shall. analyze in detail these misstate- ments and show the error in each for- here is a good opportunity to see exactly how these thmgs are dcme Meantime, I wish merely to pomt out the fact that the - terests know what is. going forward. in Nerth Dakota and how much Privilege is threatene& in“this state, for they are now making unusual eForts to 14and their Tamted News here. Some Stdelights on Farm Credtts in Germany By Otto T. Monroe - In 19]3 a commwsnon consisting aof 68 members, four of whom were from Canadmn, Provinces- and 64 from <9 states of the United States, went to Europe ‘to study credit conditions| It was known| among - the farmers. that couditions had greaily imgioved . and that the farmers of, especially Germany, had: made rapid strides ix the past few years. This commission has made it re- port, which is compiled. in a vol- ~ ume of 916 pages and is called Sen- ate document No. 214. As Congress: iprinted only 20 copjes for each state: the report has not had a very ex- tenswe circulation. From time to time the Nonpartisan " Leader will supply its readers with the most important discoveries made. in this investigation. One thing that that all the -advancement. made by "« ithe farmers has been due to -their . own efforts and not because of any “help” extended to. them by the poL . @ticians The, most interesting and probably| . mast vital phase of the subjects. eov- . ered by the investigation is that} of rural credits. What is called the:| - Raiffeisen. System of cooperative cre- _-dit bankmg is; the most. suecessfull -and was the most- wonderful of all . the wonderful things mvestlgated inf all Europe. Until this system 'was established, credit was based on property only. As a result only the rich could get ‘eredit, and the poor man, the man whe needed credit the mest, eounld| not get it. Raiffeisen preached the doctrme that industry, sobriety, character and thrift. were better foundations foi credit' than property, because they| could: not. be seld up. ' The sober, in-. ‘dustrious, honest man pays his obli- | gations. Not only so-but the applica- tion: of his principle has exerted on | the: German agricultural character an ‘influence: most remarkable. "It has | taught. him to be more industrious, soher and honest. It has caused: him to. bring forth his small hoarded sav- ings and: deposit them in-those small banks, thus mcteasmg the total flow: ' of trade. stands out very forcibly is the fact| After years of work, orgam‘bmg be- '‘novolent societies, Frederick William: ‘Raiffeisen became convineed that . charity was not teh right principle, ‘that self-help: was the- only: selution:: | to- the problem. | And se’ in 1862 he founded: the first coopnmki’ve bank at. ' Anhausen. ‘was: this enterprise that ethers quiek- 1y followed. The object of = these| banks, as' provided in the by-laws, | (was. ‘to provide: members with the: money necessary, in the form of | loans; at interest, so.as to put. them | in; a cendition to utilize to their own advantage the fruit of their labor and to assure them a certain inde- pendence; so: that they may- dispense ' with: aid frem third: pertiesi” 2 The chief foundation stone of the Raiffeisen banks are unlimited liabil- ity, limited' field of operations, care- supervision, absence of salaries and ‘ciple of one man one vote: Each shareholder has only one vote ?‘regardless of the numher of shares ‘held: and the management of thqge . banks: isi in: the hands of a managmg committee of five which in turn is supervised by: a supervising commnt- tee of nine members. The: seeretary and cashier is no inated” by the two comnuttees»aafi elected’ by the general meetmg Ior from $2'to $12 _per month, according (to the amount of business done.: In 'some of the larger banks where clerks ‘are: necessary; they are paid,*“of ‘course. A few pieces of cheap furni- ‘ture, a second-hand safe and a set of ‘books ecomstitute the equipment of ‘Raiffeisen banking house. - Interest charges varies from 3% to '3 per cent and never increases even in times of financial stringency. Germany now has more than 16,- 000: of these litile banks. The total .membership. is 1,600,000 and in 1916 ful selection. of members, constant profits and the basie cooperative: p.un 4 | four years. He is the only offieial| | who reeeives a salary, which Tanges| tnmover of $1 ,300,000,000 and oqut-- standing - leans of $46,000,000. When. the success of the system countries so- that now it has spread .t Ftaly, :Austria, Hnngary, Holland, Belgium. and Switzerland. In Aus- - trip. there: are more than 8,000 such institutions: now. They do an annual ‘business. of nearly $350,000,000. - There are no. class who would be :morg benefitted by the establishment .of pragtical cooperative rural eredit ,,sysgem .than the American farmer. The same conditions that confront us alto distressed the European farmer until he found relief in cooperation. ;pur present faulty method of food distribution hag brought aheut: a.very imarked discrepancy hetween ‘what is ‘paid to the producer and what it costs the consumer.. And at the same. time: we: possess the greatest possible’ facilities: for producing foodstuffs of every kind. On the: other hand while mast native products tend to cheapen, | food risey higher and higher. Farming is a failure to the farmer unless. it is profitahle to the farmer. In order to be profitable it must be |based on well-established husiness iprinciples. Scientific farming i val- ‘uable but scientific- marketin, is‘ more impertant to the farmslr only 14,000 of these hanks had al . (Continued O_n Pake 3}:) _:, 0 in Germany became knmown through- ‘out: the continent of Europe similar .institutions began. to start up, in the k¢ i %