The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 9, 1915, Page 4

? | | { FOUR “THE NONPARTISAN LEADER Farmers Reject Service of the H igh-brows = By Otto T. Monroe ' URING the last week in' October the First National Con- . ference of Producers and Consumers was held in: Chicago. In a feature article on page six of the Nonpartisan Leader, dated November 11 the following statement was made. “It was a real producers and: gonsumers gathering. It was ar- ranged, carried out and rparticipated in: by actual farmersz real workers and ultimate: consumers. And not a word concerning it leaked' out through the public press.” All of which turned out as predicted. In the same article, it was further stated: ‘ There is to be another meeting in Chicago, Nov..29 to Dec., 2nd. The name of this organization is the: National Conference on Mar- keting and Farm Credits. It is engineered by the National Coun- cil: of Farmers" Cooperative Societies. It is' a mixture of bankers;. economists, owners. of so-called cooperative enterprises, and' pub- lishers' of alleged farm papers. AN £ e “Tweo very prominent organizations: which have: leading roles in: the hetrogenous. mass: are the American Bankers’ Association and the Farm Mortgage Bankers’ Association.” : The Leader’s article closed with this statement: “Farmers will do well to look with doubt. and suspicien: upon: any move that is- directed by the same class: of men who: prey upon the farmer’s toil. - They sheuld judge them by their past conduct. In. the past they have bilked the: farmer at every turn in the raod.” : » Well, the meeting was held. The newspapers were full of the: long winded. speeches by. high-browed experts, profound students of economics: and benevolent philanthropists who: are: fust dying to “help. the dear farmer”.. Papers were filled with: the :learned -addresses. on how the country would go to the dogs if the State or the Federal gov- ernment took any hand in extending credits to the farmers. On the other hand is was shown that the only safe way to help the farmer was to let the banks do it. It was also advocated that the “redemption time on forclosure mortgages be reduced,” which would enhance the value of mortgages. But there happened to be some regular farmers at this meeting. May God bless them and multiply their kind. ; They stood the bunk quite a while—then rebelled, bolted and revolted. Read what the Chicago Tribune of December 3rd, says about it. Here it is: “The horny fisted, flannel shirted farmer—the real thing this time—yesterday served notice on the high brow city folk that he is going to refom himself all by himesIf. - It was a stormy “organization” meeting in a little side room in the Sherman hotesl’, just off the crystal room, where the main body of professors, bankers, editors, co_nservatlonhsts, rural credit and cooperative experts were discussing the farmer and .hls rights. C. ?) Resler, farmer, of Chanute, Kansas, was presiding. d . Hot Air Clearing House. 4 “That is a hot air clearing house in there,” Resler began “They have made a patient of the farmer and gathered in Chicago to talk over his ills. And not a single practical farmer has had a chance to throw a word in edgewise for four days. They have tal}llc- ed, talked; and talked about reforming everything under the canopy of heaven, and we actual farmers have had to- st here and take it. “I want about forty of you cool headed fellows_ to get to- gether, and we will organize a real farmers"o_rgamzal‘:lon, on a broad democratic basis, where the farmer will come in and do the speaking and advising. The bankers and professors and edi- tors have run away with the.other organization. fiut if they will recognize us we will go in with them. Otherwise I am for starting another organization, beginnng with the: township and going: up through the country and state toward a complete na- tional organization.’”” ¢ Farmer Wright Has His Say. I. M. Wright, another farmer of Waukesha, Wis., then got the floor.. “It is. a. fight between the ‘hot airs” and the real, practical men,” he said. “Those fellows have been standing up here tell- ing us a lot of stuff that none of us could do. They have not even given us a chance to tell them that we can’t do it, and why.” The fight has been brewing for the last four days be- tween the men in charge of the: conference and farmer delegates.” Gradually it is penetrating the mind of the actual farmer that. if he is ever saved from the powers that prey upon his products;. he will have to save himself., y In the hard school of experience he is learning that any .- remedies brought to him on a silver platter, served in high-brow style, by the flunkies of Big Business, will serve only to enmesh him more tightly in the clutches of the Octopus of Greed. Very soon, let us hope and pray, the actual tillers of the soil, will Jearn that they must get together as farmers. They must solve their own problems. They must kick out the saviors who come from the sanctums of the money power. No banker, no business man and no newspaper nm.an, who profits in any way from the toil of the farmer is going to give the farmer anything that will help the farmer. What will help the farmer will hurt him. He knows that, and he is going to be sure that any suggestion made to the farmer, will, in the end, help him and not the farmer. Speed the day when we will have more farmers like C. D.. Resler, Chanute, Kansas, and I. M. Wright, Waukesha, Wisconsin. Financial Legislation in the United States By Hon. Charles A. Lindberg, Congressman from Sixth Minnesota District In previous articles I have been describing the different measures which the money Trust resc "2d to for the purpose of prepar the minds of the people to acce . with complaceney, if not with eager 1leas ure, a new currency law designad and intended to place in the hards cf the greatest trust on earth, a mon- opoly and unlimited use of govern- ment credit. These measures in- cluded the panic of 1907, which “threw a scare“ into the western bankers who found more than a hundred million dollars of their depositer’s money tied up in the eastern- banks beyond their reach. It also “threw a scare” into Congress and the administration at Washing- ton to such an extent that, when the Federal Reserve Law was being enacted, all the Money Trust had to do in order to get any feature that it wanted included in that law was to send word from New York that if Congress did not do thus and so, a panic would ensue. Not once, but several times, this “scare’” was works ed. I have also shown how the Ald- rich Vreeland Act of 1908 was a part of the general scheme of preparing the minds of the small bankers. and the people to accept what was: going to be done and further that the 'Aldrich-Vréeland, Act was needed to give stability to the market for “un- digested securities” by enabling them o be used by the banks: as security ffor National Bank Currency.. Trusty Men Were Needed. When the money Truct had secured enactment of the Federal Reszrve Law, it needed trusty men to admin- ister it. We have heard a lot about those “safe and sane” fellows that never' can hear or understand any .*flemand for legislation in the inter- e B ests of the common people, but are quick to respond to the insistent de- mands of big business.” Well, that was the kind needed in this ecrisis. President Wilson made eight appoint- ments, including the Secretary of the Treasury and the Comptroller of the Currency, to the Federal Reserve Board to adminicter this law, and seven of them were confirmed by the Senate. One of the eight failed, be- cause the public happened to find out that he was connected with the Harvester Trust, before the Senate: got the fact concealed. The Fight on Warburg. . Paul M. Warburg, of New York, was one of the seven who were con- firmed. He is now a member of the Federal Reserve Board. His nomina- tion was not confirmed without a struggle, however, chiefly’ for the reason that he was a member of one: of the firms that had been named by the Money Trust investigating com- mittee of the House, as constituent: members of 'the deed, before he could be confirmed at all he was forced to come down from New York and appear before a committe of the Senate to answer certain: questions as to his qualifica- tions to take part in the administra- tion of a law bestowing the free use of the government credit. His ex- amination by the Senate committes was a matter of pure buncombe; however, intended to make: the peo- ple: believe: that. every precaution, had been taken to secure only such men as had the wellbeing of the' country at heart. A few of the senators are entitled to credit for bringing out some: important faets and, for oppos- ing the confirmation. - Undoubtedly Mr.Warburg would have been appoint- ed and confirmed, in any event, bes Money: Trust. In~ cause he was the one man whom the it just as good as the Aldrich Plan. Money Trust wanted. But his exam- That is to say, he could—and no ination by the Senate Committtee doubt can—so administer the Act of left behind a record of his peculiar Congress as to make the law that the fitness for the work he was picked Money Trust got just as good for to do. This record is very hard to the Money Trust as the Aldrich Plan get becauve it was suppressed by would have been. the Senate. A dozen or so of these He Was in Deinaud. got out in spite of the attempt t0 From the time of the publication suppress them all. of his plan for banking reform, Mr. Allied to Money Trust. Warburg was in demand. He publishe’ According to his own testimony ed a number of pamphlets, delivered Mr. Warburg came to this country in several addresses and was consulted 1902, and entered the banking firm by Senator Aldrich in the formula-- of Kuhn, Loeb and Co., of New York, tion of his plan and was the chief. which was one of the firms whose atcthor of the bill forced through principle business it was to market Congress by President Wilson. That American scurities in Europe. It is its origin. It was born in Walll would be greatly to the interest of Street, nurtured under the tutelage: this firm as well as that of others: of one who, trained in European: connected’ with the Money Trust, to banks, was chiefly interested in stab- have these foreign securities estab- ilizing: the holdings of foreign inves- ilized”" by having them made avail- tors. able: as security for the issue of Na- The man and the plan having ars tional Bank Currency.. rived, no time was lost. We have: Same - as: Aldrich Bill seen the panjc of 1907, which quickly: Soon .after he came to this coun- dgllowtdthe pflblicafionl_"f the plan, P e Wbt teakincngy Bofonss was a po,t,ent influence in “throwing the Senate Committee shows he saw the. Soare.: Other' measures follow- what was necessary to give Wall ed b quick 'succ‘e ssion. One of them, Street a financial and banking swstera };h?;llrl describe in the next paper of: to: suit it. He wrote an article ar £ETies, bout. it and put it away in his desk - until he could bring it out as. coming from one not: quite: so new. In 1906, : he had it published. The Money b- J- Monaghan, one of the League Trust: knew what it. wanted when it 2783nizers, is ill in the hospital at saw it. The man and the plan had Westhope, but’ that does not dampen arrived. This was the germ of the hls, ent}ms“_’sm for the work. He Aldrich Plan and the Federal Reserve WIites: “Give regards. to all the boys Law. Mr. Warburg testified that he and I hope to see them all again soon;; was the: author of the main an d es. Everyone around here is a members of: sential provisions of both, He also the Leagu.e; the fellow in next room to: testified that he could, “by adminis- me h,qre in th§ hosgital is a booster.™ tration” of the Federal Reserve Law, 108t'S the spirit that has built the where he considered it effective, make ilé‘;a%:fr;;‘ga.wmc}l T 1t sccompliny NOT TOO SICK TO BOOST. i 4 ! § f ¢ £ i i 23