The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 24, 1916, Page 5

Young Jolts Gambl Washington, D. C., Feb.19—In the house on Thursday Representative George M. Young of North Dakota made a sensational speech charging that the wheat growers are receiving little or no benefit from the high prices caused by the war, but that the most enormous profits in the history of American wheat are now being tak- en by the s?eculators and the ocean shipping pools. Mr. Young made a plea for a feder- al tax on “future” sales of grain in the various boards of trade. The North Dakota congressman de- clared that the normal “spread”, or difference in the price of wheat in Liverpool and Duluth, is 12 cents per bushel, representing the exact cost of transportation and commissions. On November 27 last, the date selected by Mr. Young, the “spread” between Du- luth and Liverpool wheat quotations was 71 cents per bushel. Of this spread, Young declared, the ocean shippers were receiving 20 cents a bushel in profits, and the grain spec- ulaters were taking 31 cents per bush- el in profits. The farmers of Young’s - congressional district, he declared, on November 27 received an average of 85 cents a bushel for their wheat, and since it cost them 70 cents a bushel to produce the wheat, their profit per bushel was 15 per cent, less than half the profit to the speculator, and only three-fourths of the profit of the ocean transportation company. 3 “I believe it is fair to say that it is_ the most colossal get-rich-quick scheme ever pulled off since the South Sea Bubble,” declared Young. “The usual method for getting at the true value of wheat is to subtract the ele- vator and transportation charges from the Liverpool quotations. The basic factor is the Liverpool price. Farmers Get Stuck “Therefore, I call your attention to the very important fact that the farmers must not only pay the trans- portation charges upon the surplus wheat which goes abroad, but must also pay these charges upon the wheat - which stays at hoie, since the market is fixed by the Liverpool price less * transportation charges. “Congress has 'thus far refused to pass a law to prohibit gambling in grain. Perhaps_now, when the states- men are racking their brains to find articles upon which to place a tax, - such, as gasoline, they may see the possibilities from the revenue stand- point as well as the justice of a tax on ‘futures.’ _ “It would be difficult to estimate the amount of revenue from such a tax. If- the trading in ‘futures’ were to keep up to the present level, billions of dollars could be collected that way. It is fair to presume, however, that " the tax would greatly reduce the amount of such transactions. If it would result in abolishing such prac- tices, it would be a blessing to the farmers as well as to the suckers who play the market.,” ~ ° ' Disclose Twine Plot The alleged plot on the part of a binder twine combine to make a clean- up of $14,000,000 this year by charg- ing American farmers a fictitious high price was exposed by Mexican inter- ests who appeared before the senate committee .on agriculture on Thurs- day and Friday of last week. The senate investigation of the alleged pool pursuant to the resolution ‘of Senator McCumber - began on Thursday. . The Mexican sisal growers alleged that they sold this year’s sisal crop to American interests at a price slightly below eight cents a pound. The retail price of twine in the Unit- ed States is usually about two cents more than the raw sisal prige at Yuc- atan, and this margin enables the twine manufacturers. to itake ‘a good profit.. According to. the Mexican wers, 2 Teasonable price for twine for 'this coming harvest would be ten cents a pound. R Influences have been at work, hew- ever, the growers alleged, to induce . them to raise the price of sisal. The sisal production is in the hands of a monepoly of Yucatan farmers, There is .;a great world shortage this year in hemp and hennequin, and the short- age is exaggerated by the action .of several producing countries in_plac- ing embargoes on the exportation of ' “hemp. ' The ‘Philippite hemp crep is shorf, and as a result the price of Manilla hemp has jumped to 14 cents av , 3 2 . In normal years the price of sisal hemp is about two cents per pound - “lower-than that of Manilla. The mar- ket price of twine, however, is based on .lt,he sisal ‘pp'ce, bemg’ about 2 cents a ‘pound higher. If, therefore, - the sisal growers were to raise their : g:ice to lgr cents a pound, or 2 cents sH low the price of Ma; the twine - here in national legislation nd na- THE NONPARTISAN LEADER North Dakota. Representative Gives Startling™ Facts on Wheat Combine in Speech, Showing Difference in Prices and Who Gets the “Spread”---Twine Plot Hearing Re- veals Interesting Facts---Labor Makes Itself Felt. By WILLIS J. RUTLEDGE Special Representative of the Leader at Washington manufacturers would be apparently Jjustified in charging 14 and 15 cents a pound for twine during the coming spring and summer. This the sisal growers have refused to do. They say that they have al- ready sold their sisal to the American manufacturers at a price below 8 cents a pound, and they refuse to set a high price that will do them no good, since they have sold their sisal, but which will enable the manufactur- ers to boost the price of twine. The sisal producers claim there are $14,- 000,000 of extra profits in the con- templated plan. Twichell at Capital Treadwell Twichell, the Republican politician of Mapleton, N. D., was in Washington last week attending the deliberations of the committee of the United States Chamber of Commerce tional affairs 10 times as great and 50 times as efficient as all the power exerted by the farmers. Organized labor puts in bill after bill and carries whatever it puts in. Scores of representatives and sena- tors vote for its bill, cursing under their_breaths, and inwardly protest- ing, but they have to vote just the same because they don’t dare to do anything else. They Are United The reason is that organized labor is compact, united and on the job. -1t keeps here a staff of able men that watch everything, cajole or coerce, and tell members of congress what’s what. They get what they want every time. To the members of congress organ- ized labor is a definile and powerful thing and the farmers are a nebulous Gamblers Make the Profit The following figures wer week by Representative Youn Liverpool price of wheat Nov. 27 Duluth price of wheat Nov. 27 Fair handling cost per bushel Lake rates Elevator Commission Insurance e presented to congress last g of North Dakota: - $1.73 Ocean rates (twice peace rates) . Foreign Exchang Emergencies Profit of gambling and shipping trust Ocean rate actually charged Reasonable rate (double peace rate) Shipping trust’s hard-earned share of the profit . [REI ) ol Grain trust’s share of profit, earned by much sweat (but not theirs) The average price of wheat in the second congres- sional district - of North Dakota on Nov. 217, 1915, was Cost of production .............................................. .85 Farmelgz e)asy profit (he only works 16 hours to investigate the rural credits sys- tems. Mr. Twichell was one of the two farmers named as members of the committee, the rest of the com- mittee being bankers and business men. Albert' Dickman, mayor of Velva, N. D, and W. E. Byerly of Velva, wer«lz‘ in Washington two days last week. A delegation of Fort Berthold In- dians were in Washington last week. in the interests of their tribal ‘busi- ness. ! / Senator Gromna last week appointed James Verne Cole of Lisbon, ansom county, as a candidate for admission to West Point Military academy. Cole was Gronna’s alternate appointee, but Sherman Gilbertson -of Towner, Mc- was unable to take the entrance ex- aminatiohs. ;> George W. Marshall has been ap- ointed mail carrier on rural route 0. 1 from Gladys, N. D.; Hiram T. Culver succeeds George D. Tripp. as Labor Has Power ; Organized labor in this country consists ‘of a ' little more than 2,- 000,000 persons, not, more than 1,200,000 are voters. The number of farmers that are voters is probably five times as great. Yet organized labor has 2 power of ‘whom certainly . body, l}eard from occasionally and to be jollied now and then, but cutting very little ice when it comes down tolau:tualities(.i am moved to say these things at this time because of the disturbance under cover made this week by the Farmers’ union. It sent in a strong memorial and remonstrance against the abolishment of the officesof comp- troller of the currency. The fact of the memorial wasn’t so disturbing to politicians as the sub- ject. Comparatively few persons out- side of the political class know that there is on foot a scheme to abolish the office of comptroller and - still fewer know of its dirty and rotten origin, and ‘to discover that the Farm- €rs’ union was ‘wise to the game and - alert enough to protest was a jolt. But what’s ‘the matter with™ more . ) i'olts of this kind? Farmers can hard- Henry-county, the principal candidate, y .imagine the power they could swing-here if they tried. . Rural Routes Suffer /: The discussion of the postofl”wé ap- .‘propriation bill has brought forth a flood of protests from the farmers in carrier on route N. 2 out of Hettinger. all parts of the country against the cutting down of the rural free de- livery service which is part of the de- partment’s economy schemes. ‘One town in Ohio reported 118 families deprived of rural mail service they. had previously had.. The complaint seemed ‘to be strongest from Ohio, dowa’and Minnesota, but it was ap- parent that if the department’s pres- ent plans are carried out hund: «of FIVB ers, But Congress Sleeps On communities in all parts of the coun- try will be obliged to suffer in a simi- lar way. Hollis Bill to Pass The Hollis or administration rural credit bill was reported to the sen- ate on Tuesday with amendments by the banking committee and a favor- able report. Senator Hollis for the committee announced that at an early date he would call it up for passage, 80 we may expect by the first of next month to see this most abominable and vicious measure passed. The amendments by the committee make it worse. than ever. Most of them are flagrantly in the interest of the banks and the money power and serve merely to tighten the rope with which the farmer is to be tied. All expenses for appraisal, exam- ining title, drawing legal papers, re- cording and the like are now to be added to the face of the loan when a farmer gets money. In the original bill these expenses were to be paid by the bank. The entire section pro- viding that the land banks may es- tablish savings departments - is stricken . out, probably because it would interfere with present banking enterprises of that kind. Additional clauses increase the farmer's diffi- culties in getting money and the banker’s cinch on him when he gets it. The substance of this bill is said to have come from a well known house in Wall street. Anyway, it couldn’t be worse for the farmer nor better for the money trust. The postoffice at Graceville, Bow- man county, has been discontinued. Mail hereafter will be addressed to Swartwood. The Bailey (Dunn coun- ty) postoffice has also been discon- itmued. The Lemmon (S. D.) to New Leip- zig (N. D.) rural route will hereafter supply mail to Otterberg both ways between Selma and Pretty Rock. ' The rural routes between Emerson and Manning ‘has been lengthened nine “miles to take in Killdeer. Lydia R. Schultz has been appoint- ed postmistress at ‘Tappan, kidder county, to succeed Mrs. Oliver H. Knapp, who was removed. Mrs. Jo- hanna Christenson has been appointed postmistress of the new postoffice at Golva, Golden Valley county. To Hear Farmers In afew days Representative Lewis of Maryland will reintroduce his bill -for the government ownership of tele- graphs and telephones and demand hearings upon it before the house postoffice committee. To these hear- ings the American Society of Equity, Farmers’ union, the Grange and all other organizations of farmers will be invited to send representatives. New Bills Agricultural bills introduced this week: By Representative Lewis of Mary- land to -establish uniform standards - of milk and cream in interstate ship- ments. By Representative Casey of Penn- sylvania to provide for a commission to_encourage making of denatured al- cohol on farms. g By Representative Lever of South Carolina, his bill to tax cotton futures, familiar in other sessions. Farmers Will Vote Together Editor Nonpartisan Leader: I have been talking with a number of the farmers in this township, also in' the adjoining precinets, and I find that all the farmers are very much interested in the League. And I think every farmer in this precinct will vote as they are instructed by the League when the time comes to - vote at the primary in June and at the fall election. I am.in a position where I know all the farmers in this neighborhood as I am secretary treasurer of our Farmers’ Telephone company and secretary -of the Equity Elevator & . Trading’ company of Berlin, and I know what it is to be organized, as 1 had a hard time to get the farm- ers around here to take part in our .elevator company, but we have suc- ceeded and- we now have one of the best Equity elevators in the state of North Dakota and we are doing a fine business and paying good divi- e t th king in Berli I was at the speal in Berlin on Jan. 81 and since then have been very interested in the League and read every part of the Nonpartisan Leader, ‘but will not mention any one article as they are all good and very inter- . Al Just keep on with the goed work.