The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 16, 1915, Page 2

1 _years have any such a TWO THE NONPARTISAN LEADER Significant Things in Events of the Day Big Burden of Debt Kansas Farmers To Wisconsin Speaker To Bring Crisis To Saint City In 1917 St. Paul, Dec. 14.—A silver lid 100 miles in circumference and 373 in weight will close down over St. Paul tax payers in 1917. That year the city will be called upon to pay $1,350,000 in debts by issuing $1,350,000 of refunding bonds. In other words Mr. St. Paul will have to dig into his pocket and fish out one big silver dollar of the afore- said dimensions. Borrowed 30 Years Ago. He borrowed the money 30 years ago. He has had to pay a dollar 135 miles in circumference ‘and 50% tons in weight by way of interest. He probably will have to pay a dollar 270 miles in circumference and 101 tons in weight for interest be fore he emerges from beneath the debt. Then a3 a final financial operatior on the aforesaid pocket he will have to extract the criginal dollar -of 100 miles in circumference and 37 tons in weight to pay off the principal. Biggest Amount Due in 1917 In 1917 the biggest accumulation of indcbtedness in the city’s history falls due when $1,542,000 in bonds mature. Tke money was borrowed 30 years ago at 41% per cent. No rrovision was made for an adeguate sinking fund. It is estimated that the sinking fund that can be applied in 1917 i> enough to reduce the dcbt about $1,350,000. i Must Be Paid Twice. Incidentally, this sum will have been paid twice, once for the first 30 years the city borrowed the money and once for the second 30 years. The year 1917 will really be a cris- is year in the city’s financial history. When it is passed the citizens can breathe more freely. No future burden in store. Here are some of the purposes for which this huge silver dollar debt was incurred: $198,000, upjper town bridge; $100,000, fire bureau real estate; $145,000 public school build- ings; $100;000, council appropriations; $46,000, hospital buildings; $192,000 waterworks; $196,000 sewers; $14,060, aprroaches 3rd St. bridge; $198,000, court house and city hall; $203,000 parks; $50,000, bulldmgs and, $10,000 playgrounds. SCHOOL TO HELP FARMERS. If a farmer’s wife’s chickens had the “pip” or her baby the croup, what would you do about it? That is, if you were a domestic science expert sent out to interest residents of ru- ral neighborhoods in the most up- to date methods of homemaking. Just such problems must be met by college or normal school gradust:s who go out to organize home econ- omics classes. So Miss Cavrie Alber- ta Lyford of the government bu- reau of hcme economies, told normal school instructors in co~1fe1cnc= here recently. “If you are to make any headway interesting the farm women you must be able to.meet their problems” said Miss Lyford, “If you can quiet a erying baby or cure a sick chicken they: will kave faith in'you.” The government is éspecially anx- ious to arouse interest among farm women in better methods of home- making. Miss Lyford is holding con- ferences with ‘normal school instruc- tors thruout the.United- States-with.. this aim in view. About twenty instructors from Mis- souri, Kanscas, Iowa, and Nebraska at- tended the conference, which ended last night. Yesterday afterncon they inspected the domestic science work in the Kansas. Clty schools, Form Big Farmer Wheat Trust Is Effort Kansas City, Dec. 14.—One hundred thousand Kansas wheat growers are going to form a union which will have for its slogan “Dollar Wheat, or More”. Its object will be to icontrol prices of wheat by regulating the marketing -of the crop. Already ev- ery township in the state has been organized. ‘The vcounties will soon rerfect organizations and the threads of all will be gathered, in a meeting of all the county representatives at which the Kansas Wheat Growers’ Unicn will come into being as a statz body. ‘Nation-Wide [Farmers’ Trust Later on efforts will be made to extend the movement to all the other important wheat-growing states, in- cluding Minnesota, North and South Dakota. In a few yeras the union will be a nation-wide farmers’ trust, if plans go thraugh. One of the main points that the Kansas Farmers’ union will impress upon its members is that it costs the farmer $1 to grow and market a bushel of wheat. This includes a fair -allowance for the farmer’s labor, his farm horses, seed, rental, inter- est, cost of hauling and commercial prices for the elements of plant food which wheat takes from the ground. Following are the objects of the union as formulated in the prelimin- ary organization: Price to bhe Based -on Gost. 1. To fix a minimum price for wheat, based upon the average cost of production, estimated to be at least $1 a bushel, and enforce it through concerted nondelivery. 2. To give the market for the first few months after harvest to those forced to sell, and pay interest to those who store by a monthly in- crease in price of 2 cents a bushel, beginning with August -each year thus preventing excessive delivery at threshing time and providing for delivery throughout the year as de- mand requires. 3. To establish and maintain pri« vate markets and, sales agents thru which to market the surplus wheat in the most economlcal and expedi- ent way. 4. To secure the cooperation of boards of agriculture, agricultural educational institutions, other grain interests and ascociations, commer- cial and business clubs and all others who will share in the prosperity re- sulting from a stable and increased price of wheat. WILLIAMS WMAKES STATEMENT. Washington, Dec. 7,—In reply to’ the criticisms of the American Bankers’ Asscciation in connection with his declaration that many na- tional banks charge usurious inter- cst rates, John Skelton William~, comptroller of the currercy issued a statement recently again giving instances of such practices. Mr. Williams said it was true that a mojority of the national banks obeyed the uspary laws of the var- ious state, but that the reports ren- dered to him slowed, as he announc- ed in speeches and previous public statements, that this was far from: bzing universally truae. : Only a Few Exoceptions. " “The only - states where . there were no national banks which ad- mitted under oath in their state- ments of Septembzr 2, 1915,. that they wecre charging as ‘high per cent on any of their Toans: were: Connecticut, Delaware, Mississipp’, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Ver- . mont and'Wisconsin,'said the state- - the 7,613 natio,na.l Declares a Big Food Trust Is Planned Chicago, Dec. 14.—From Dr. Charles McCarty of Madison, Wis., treasurer of the National Conference on Mar- keting and Farm Credits and for many years a close student of condi- tions that link the farm with the dinner table cames the warning of & gigantic food trust, to “corner bread and butter.” “The American..people face today a food trust of-gigantic proportions,” declares Dr. McCarty. “the food trust is now in process of formati Itw organizers are. alrcady - in-tho™ ficll hy its promoters are engaged on a- plan' that will corner the food prodpq_ts ‘of ’ the country—the vegetables“in ‘the garden, the fruits in the-orchard, the dairy products, the grain, in fact all. . of life’s food necessities. : Effisiency the Keynofe. “The methods that have - made Standard Oil powerful are the meth~ ods to be followed by the food-trust.: Efficiency will be the keynote; it will be organized thoroly; after the man~ ner of the oil trust it will elimate waste, and farm waste now averages from 10 to 100 por cent. It will standardize farm products. “But all of its efficiency and itsor- ganization will be in the interest of the trust, not in the farmer or the consumer. 0% “This is no ctretch of my imagina- tion. I know khat I am talking about. The food trust is forming. Chlcogo will be its birthplace. Its orgamzezs are already active; unless federal ac- tion checks it the food trust will scon be a reality.” Cooperation the Weapon. But Dr. MeCarty believes farmers have a weapon with which they can fight their new and powerful enemy. it tis COOPERATION. If the farmers organize and ac- complish the things the food, trust contemplates .doing they can advance ‘their own interests and the interests .0of the consumer. They can organize as the farmers of Germany organized on a coopera- tive plan. Working in unity under this plan they can ‘themselves elim- inate waste that eats up so much farm credits; they can secure market facilities so that tons of farm pro- ducts need not rot on the ground for want of reasonable transporta- tion facilities; they «can do these things as effectively as the trust can do. them. “The cooperative plan,” says. Dr. McCarty, “can be operated :as effec- tively as the trust plan—but under the-cooparative plan the farmer and ‘the consumer will reap the benefits, not the trust!” R. H. Bilden, southwest of Aneta, had the right thumb torn” out b the roots. Mr. Bilden was fixing a power windmill and his hand became caught on a projection on a revolv: ing shaft and in order to keep his whole arm from being drawn into the gears and destroyed, Mr. Bilden braced himsglf and allowed his thumb . to be jerked out, thus saving his arm and pprhavs his life.. ment. It added that reports of Sep- tember 2, 191%, showed that 2,743 of banks - of the country were charging ten,.per .cent on some loans.. Mr. Williams sug- gested .that heéreafter natmnal _banks'. be requiredto print in fheir pubhsh- ed statements of condition the maxi- mum rate of interest charged. - “He--expressed, the 'hops that the association would work ' with the comyitroller’s office to end the prac- tice complained of. 4 -out” the 'wi “‘the ‘way to renrove ‘nison -company; she says, This Wealthy Woman Does Not Believe In Absentee Ownership Now York, Dec. 14.—A woman who desn’t believe in roof gardens and rest rooms, free medicine, free um- brellas for rainy days and all that sort of thing for employes, is the head of a manufacturing concern in this city that is making an immense amount of money. The woman is Mrs. James P. War- basse, Brooklyn, head of the Denni- son Manufacturing” company. Also she is wife, mother and.mistress of a happy_ home. 'To her husband and, her x.chhdren ‘he sgives a great part- of: ‘the credit- ‘for: the- system-being. work=: ed out by “the manufacturmg coms-. . Fany. .-To: Relieve World: Suflehmg. * Her -idea -is - that;:the “way “to *wipo - 1d’s * sufiermg and want,” - “industrial unrest”" is "'to havé all large enterprises: ad- ‘ministered;at the point ofpreduction. This will be literally true of the Den-. when the- employes have $100 000 worth ‘of stock. “I.should 'class myself as ‘a parasite if it were not for my family,” Mrs. Warbasse told Zoe Beckley, a reporter when he hunted Ler up at her Brook- lyn residence. ‘My children are what justify my existence. They are my only creative production. If I simply lived here in Brooklyn idle and childless, visiting the Dennison factories in South Fram- ingham twice a.year, I should have no right on earth to any nrofits from those factories.” ‘Democracy Her Aim “This” says she, hoisting an ins’st- ent baby Warbasse into her lap, “is not nearly radical enough for me. My conception of industrial partnership is to allow every worker a voice as to salaries, hours, condition§, environ- ment, production and general running of the business. “Absentee ownership,” say: she, “is the curse of civilization. The coal mines of far away states are adminis- tered from Wall street. This is pre- posterous. The management must be by the workers themselves, .at the point of production. I can not make that emphatic enough. Takes Shot at ‘Rockefeller “When Rockefeller was appealed ta at the time of the Denver riots he re- fused to accept any responsibility. No blame attached to him, he said, be- cause he ‘was not on the ground and had nothing to do with the cause of the revolt. Again I say that the man ‘who . tries te -escape- blame won, the ground that he had me .direct :admin- istrative influence over his properties should ‘also escape the benefits.” The employes-ownership plan of the Dennison Manufacturing comrany has not escaped criticism. A Philadelpia new:paper: recently called it the dream of a few idealistic young peo- pel.- Successful bu:iness enterprises, it was pointed, out, were not run by workmen, but by superior minds, cap- tains of industry, men of broad vmon : and marked ability. : : taken u1- “~'To-this Mrs. Warbasse-replies sim-r-.. ply: “Tke ma]orrty of those who ‘head ‘large businestes” have "worked “them- selves from the bottom. upwards. These make the best ‘captains.’ ” Mr ard Mrs J H Cox:f*faml and, Mrs. B. P. Keefe, Geo., Gilson and daughters, Pearl and ‘Opal, ‘Math Han- sen, H. Lockman, N. Roles, E. G. Mc- Ilroy, Martin Nelson, Wm. Billmeyer and N.:-Weber -were.delegates from the Glenburn, local Society of. Equity to. the big. convenmon at St Paul, g last_week.