The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, January 20, 1916, Page 7

- } s 3 , ) .».the tidy sum of '$237. ‘That is, he lacked $237 of makmg wages, HE SHOULD RESIGN AT ONCE ) O Robert Flint, state commissioner of. agriculture and : labor: As such state officer you are a member of the R state board of equalization. Commercial clubs in the past have escaped taxation under the classification of “religious or chartiable” institutions, while the farmers of this state, who get no benefit from the commerecial clubs, have been increasingly taxed. Now, sir, do you thmk you can conscientiously continue to occupy this state position and the private .one of being secre- tary of the state federated commercial clubs at the same time? Why not resign either one or the other position at once? The Leader doesn’t care which, but doesn’t propose that you go on riding two different horses .going in different directions at the same, at the expense and to the “detriment of the great mass of the population of this state Whadaye going to do? WILL THE FARMER GET A LERON ! WHOLE armload ‘of rural credit “bills have been intro- duced in Congress. “They range all the way from good, bad and indifferent to rotton. It is practically certain that some kind of a rural credit measure will find its way to the statute books before the sxxty-fourth Congress expires. One of the bllls most hkely “of passage is what is known as the administration bill. This bill was prepared by the special committee appomted for. that purpose and is perfectly satisfac- tory to Wall street: . Indeed, it is a‘twin sister to the federal reserve law that was passed by a former congress, which has proved such a total failure as a benefit to the borrowing farmer. There are some good rural credit measures bhefore the pres- ent congress, but the good ones have no other prospect than that of being strangled in committee. ) There is a reason for this treatment of the farmer. The reason is that money loaners have more representatlon m con-. gress than the farmmg mdustry has. VALUABE FOOD FOR SERIOUS THOUGHT T HE Nonpartisan Leader is-always ready-and anxious to ; give publlcxty to the utterances or efforts of any per- @R - son that are calculated to further the mterests of the farmers. = ... It is for that réason that we give space for the full address of Dr. J. H. Worst, presuient of the State Agricultural college, which was delivered before the Tri-State Grain Growers and Stock association m‘.“Fargo this week. President Worst's address sets forth fully and freely many of the evil condltxons the farmers of the northwest have been beset with and also pomts out the way by which such evil con- ditions may be avoided. We believe this speech is worth the space we have given it and.also that it is worth the time re- quired to read it—even to study it and preserve it. Good ideas and good suggestions are worthless unless acted upon. If these ideas and suggestions are to be of any value to the farmer they must be acted upon, and acted upon with vigor. The ideas suggested in Dr. Worst’s address are not entirely new. Such action has been strongly advocated for some time past, but it is hoped that his utterances will give added impetus to the movement that is already strongly presagmg such a cul- mination as is pointed out. Dr. Worst’s address is worth a very careful reading and will give to the reader much valuable food for, senous thought - as we]l as cause for declded ‘action. A B BUWPER GROPS HITTING THE BUMPS ECRETARY of Agriculture Houston in his annual report opens with a broadside of billions. The Secretary dees not indulge in adjectives very much but he strings figures like a professional .string- mg beads. You grow giddy trymg to get to the end of the line. The grand total shows that the 1915 crop value reaches very near the $10,000,000,000 mark which is the bumperest of all the bumper crops the American farmer has ever put across. But there is another man in the Agricultural Department who is not only strong on figures but has a leaning towards equa- tions.- Webster tells us that equation. is the process of making two ‘independent variables equal to each other. In the present " case it would mean making the loss equal to the gain, or the gain equal the loss, whichever way you want to put it. This man found that 28 cotton farms at A averaged receipts of $668 a farm, but, when farm expenses were paid and eight per cent allowed on the investment, the amount left to pay the. farmer for his labor and management of the farm Was minus in add:tmn to mterest on lus mvestmeut. THE NONPARTISAN LEADER SEVEN Of course it was a bad year for cotton, as Mr. Houston . points out in his report; yet if it had been a good year for cotton the same group of farmers would have earned $128 less than nothing. So after all, it is interesting to note that bumper is as bumper does—and bumper does hit the bumps occasionally. ARE THE CRITICISHMS JUSTIFIED? issue of December 15 pays the Leader.a nice little compliment. He says: “The Leader is telling its read-: ers.several things they ought to know, and is out with the Big Stick against every man or clique of men which works against the interest of the farmer and prevents him from get- ting the big end of the profits from his toil.”. Then he turns right around and makes us feel very sad by getting sarcastic and belittling the claims of the Leader of being a_truthtelling paper. The particular thorn that seems to be gouging Brother Colburns ribs is the alleged fact that the Leader claims to be the only truthtelling paper in-the country. Of course, that is a very sweeping and comprehensive statement, and one which the Leader has never made. The Leader knows. that.there are many papers in the country that tell the truth—at least all the truth they know and the fact that they do not know more is often due to lack of facilities for getting the facts and not to willful suppression of facts. If the Hastings Times will quote the statement from the Leader where the claim was made that the “Leader is the single and solitary champion of the truth and right of the farmer,” we will gladly republish it and follow it with a retraction and an apology. The Leader makes no such claims. It does claim that many, papers suppress the most vital and important news and does it| purposely. For proof of this we cite our editorial on the deadly par- allel in the issue of December 23. In that instance we show that statements made by L. J. Br_igker, immigration agent for the Northern Pacific railway, C. . . g C. €Connélly-and J. J. Bates, immigration agent for the Soo line, before the convention of the North Dakota Federated Commer- - cial Clubs, were entirely omitted from the reports of the Fargo Forum and the Courier-News. These statements were in the interest of the farmer—the two papers mentioned did not glve p them to the-public. > Is our claim that certain newspapers suppress the news justifled? Shall we multiply instances of tlus kind? Our claim i is Jus- tified so why add to the burden of the reader. And yet.we do not claim to be the only truthtellmg paper *in “the state.™ **#*A**-x-’f*X**#**fl-*-r*********“*** P NOTICE TO LEAGUE HEHBERS FALSE REPORTS spread over the state by certam business interests, the Gang Press; and other papers that were honest but mistaken, kept a few of your neighbors from joining the League. These farmers were perfectly sincere .but the: stones of the enemies’ of every effort the farmers make to get together made them suspicious. They were willing:-to do " their part in building a big strong farmer’s organization but did not want to be fooled and stung——they wanted to wait and see. Now these men are satisfied. They have been read- ing the ‘Leader and are attending the Leagué- meetings. They know now that the League organizer"was not a faker, but was doing just what he said he was doing— building just the organization the farmers of this state must have for their betterment and which they should. have built many years ago. Every mail brings letters from League members ‘tell- ing us of neighbors who want to join. So we are asking our members to send us the names and addresses of those of their neighbors who want to join the League and we will send them the necessary application blanks. ¥ Address, Membership Department, NONPARTISAN LEAGUE, Box 919, Fargo, N. Dak. ¥ X BB X X X B X B X X X ¥ X ¥ X ¥ £ % * X % B ¥ K F X ® Bk ok ok ko ok ok ok dkok ok ok ok R ok sk koo ok kR ok %ok kR ok % _—-- A Large Fraternity.—*“Yes,” said the old gentleman, ROTHER Colburn, editor of the Hastings Times, in his . i‘.**ifiti!***l’****fi*fi***‘X‘****"**'* in amazements. . the principal of the young ladies’ “What on earth do you mean, ma’s seminary to the proud parent, “you 8m?” Why yes, indeed,” said the. ought to be very happy, my dear sir, Pfi'nclipal. 'beaming through he glass- to be theifather of so large a family, es. “No fewer all of the members of which appear ;... +0 take her out, and she tells to be so devoted to ‘one another.” me she expects the tall one with the than eleven, of Edith’s brothers have been here this. ~ “A large family! Devoted!” grasped blue eyes again tomonow.’f—Tit-Sltgf,