The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 27, 1916, Page 4

| { ! | :automoblle line, all with the same result. ! implieitly to the advice of the ‘expert,’ or would you try to find out - something on your own account about this piece of machinery, so that Iy - than a thousand oily apostles 'of soul-deadening ‘inaction and com- | promise. f 1 . The career of George Loftus ought to furnish an msplrmg example, - lfor many a young man in the Northwest to devote himself to real leadershlp in the eternal battle ag'amst commerclal and legalized robbery, against unfalr distribution of the products of mens toil,. and agamst political corruption. It ought to 1nc1te the’ people of the state to recognize -real leadershlp, to encourage honesty and to, support the fight for Justlce ; THE INSURANCE POINT OF VIEW An insurance man ca.me mto the Leader oflice the other day, pre- pared to make the Leader ashamed of itself for. havmg had the temerity . to say anything about the insurance busmess The day was really too hot to argue about. anything, but the insurance man msxsted and there was some controversy, all in an amiable mood., " “I have been in the insurance business all my hfe,” he sald “but 1 find I don’t know anything about it. T’ve got to come to you fellows to learn something.” |1 . That’s. what he said, but of course that isn’t just exactly what _he meant. Dlvestmg hJs words of thelr ‘gentle i irony, what he really “said, in effect, was: “I've.been in- the i msuranee business all my life.. I know all about it. What right’ have you mere amateurs to be.telling the people of | this ‘state any :of-the facts about the msurance busmess or d1aw1ng any of your ignorant conclusions.” . t%‘* We answered him something like thlS’ 2 “Suppose you bought an automobile and pretty soon- you found that your were under tremendous expense to keep it up. Suppose you ; had a suspicion that you were being held up by being charged high prices for unnecessary work or incompetent work in the way of repairs. You went to several different places that employed experts in the Would you go on trusting you might protect yourself from extortion?” Of course, this was merely a suppositious case. We didn’t assert _ that North Dakota automobile mechanics made excessive charges, but there was a time in the history of the automobile industry when com- - = thE power of the state government only where it is nece o plaints of this sort of condition were pretty frequent. i We submit that it’s a pretty good parallel to the condition the people of a state often find themselves in. Whom shall they consult when they suspect they are being robbed by insurance men, or by grain dealers, or by the railroads? The “experts” in these lines, meaning the men whom they suspect of robbing them? Shall the people of a sovereign state admit that it’s hopeless for them to try to find ,out anything about their own business? Shall they submit to being robbed because they themselves are not “experts” in some particular branch of robbery? * * * WHAT THIS MAN DIDN'T KNOW The insurance man who called at the Leader office to criticize the League and the Leader may know a great deal about the insurance business, but he didn’t know anything about the League or its program. All the information he had was mere hearsay. He had been told that the Leader was “fighting the insurance compames” and that the: League proposed to put into effect state insurance in all lines. He didn’t know the provisions of.the amendment which the next legis- lature must act upon. He didn’t know that there was an amendment affecting hail insurance to be considered by the legislature. & His lifetime of experience in the insurance business had not pro- vided him with some of the more recent details of developments affec- ting the insurance business in North Dakota. ‘The Leader was pleased to give him some information along these lines. * * * SOME ADVICE TO AN “EXPERT” The editor of the Leader thought it not improper: to give some advice to this gentlemen who admitted that he was in the Leader office seeking information and advice. ° The advice was this: That if the insurance men of North Daketa wish to do what is best for their own business in' North Dakota they will not continue to carry on a fight' against any proposal to regulate or to investigate insurance, but will co-operate with the people and the next legislature to bring about legislation which will protect the buyers of insurance in the state. So far they have not seen fit to do that. By means of an official publication and by word spread about by agents they have misrepresented ‘the Nonpartisan League and have been hold- ing over the heads of business men the' threat that the insurarce companies 'will *“withdraw from the sta 1f»\any ‘legislat'ion unfavor- able to 1"-emis passed. 7 4 : % ok %k b INSURANCE MEN MAY KNOW - /. They have asserted that state.hail insurance is merely the “en- tering wedge” and that if a compulsory acreage-tax law is passed it will be followed by the entrance of the state into all lines of insurance. Why:do they say that? Is it-a prediction that if the state once enters the insurance field its citizens will find the venture so profitable they will -want to extend it ? Is that the “expert" v:ew of the sxtuatlon? It sounds mterestmg. . The insurance “expert” who called on the Leader made exceedmgly plain the nature of his objection to state regulation of insurance. “I'don’t believe the state has any right to interfere with 1 my _busmess " he said. Questioned a little further he made this. more sweeping. - He doesn’t believe in-state regulation or “interference”, as! he calls it, w1th _any business: He extends this even to the rallroads.‘ The public has no business regulating busmess, he sald : So there you have an msurance man s pomt of v1ew A CRISIS FORTHE IMPLEMENT MEN st The Farm Implement News a weekly trade pubhcatlon cn'cunatmg- among, farm 1mp1ement dea.lers in North Dakota_and other _states, is Se. i, - allowing- itself- to-be -used. by the..enemies.- of the farmers ofi North Dakota.: It has attacked the Nonpartxsan League in ethonals appeanng' m recent issues, in one of ‘which thése statements are made: “The League and its candidates stand for paternahsm in its most radical form, and the promoters of the orgamzatmu apparently are determined to put the state in competition with tradesmen of many, g classes. They have been, shrewd enough to seek the aid of small town I merchants and promrsed ‘that those who' Jomed the Leagué would be protected. Nevertheless if their rea] plans:are carrled out the small town ( merchant will be the prmcxpal suiferer for the aim of the Leag'ue is to have the state ‘supply the wants of its farmers. : “Every 1mplement dealer in North:Dakota owes 1t to hnnself and his family to use every means to defeat candldates afiihated thh the so-called Nonpartisan League.” Every member. of the League and every other’ person ‘who’has heard the League speakers and familiarized himself with the League program knows that these are wild statements and untrue statements. They reflect the sort of ignorant appeal to prejudice by which powerful enemies of the farming industry in North Dakota are seeking to- break up the League and prevent the people of North Dakota from govermng their ~-— -tate. * * * TO BUILD, NOT TO DESTROY "The aim of-the League,as everybody in the state of Noirth Dakota should know by this time, is- ~to build up the industries of, th.ls state, use 1t to break up the powerful marketing combine wluch holds thrs. state in its grip. . The magazine which reprmts these false statements about tha League is published in: Chicago. * It undoubtedly is endeavoring to serve the interests of the big implement manufacturers who: support it. It is not concerned with the welfare of the people of North Dakota either merchants or farmers. Whether North Dakota prospers or suffers makes no difference to the editor of this paper, so long as he gets his advertising revenue. 5 The merchants who deal in farm implements in North Dakota are in a different situation.. Their prosperity depends upon the prosperity, of the farmer. If the farmer does not prosper they can not prosper. If the farmer does not get the right price for his products they can not sell him machmery he ought to have. TPk SEAT ek IT MEANS PROSPERITY FOR ALL The farm implement dealers in North Dakota ought to support the League program, because ‘it will mean prosperity for them. It will give the farmer a better and surer return for his crops and more .Mmoney- to spend on his farm. It will enable him to buy better machinery, to buy the best regardless of price. He can afford power machinery and lighting plants and all sorts of modern labor-saving and comfort-giving devices. ; Farmers ought to make this plain to the implement dealers and the implementdealers ought to make it plain to the companies with which they deal. The implement dealers ask the: farmer teo co-operate * with them and to buy from them. Why should not the implement dealer co-operate with the farmer once in a while? : M S THE PRICE OF A CHANCE TO GAMBLE . A news item the other day‘told that Henry F. Selyard of Duluth had paid $5000 for a membership in the Minneapolis Chamber of Com- -merce.’ There are 550 memberships in this body, which bnngs the total value of all membershlps to $2,750,000. This sum is not a fair estimate of the value placed on the privilege of gamblmg in the wheat market at aneapohs It is merely the price which an outsider will pay to get in the game’ and have a chance at the farmers’ money. On that basis‘it gives a clue to how immensely valu- - able this privilege is to those who are “on the ingide.” This group’ y;f/, powerful men would not allow themselves to be separated from the gram i gambling privilege for many millions. , The Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce is not ‘a free and open';; : market where the price of wheat is “regulated by-the law of supply and . demand.” This is the claim of its members, but it is not true. : the wheat his toil has produced. - Instead it is a gambling pit where a ring of speculators make deals in gram they e _do not possess and manipulate the pnces whlch the ~farmer recelves for "