The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 24, 1916, Page 7

i 3 i T W SR i P TS i H In It was read the second time two days before the legislature "closed and that «was the end of it. Had it passed in the last hours of the senate session it would have been useless, for the house would tnot have had time to concur in the 'senate amendments. Those opposed to .the measure had it fixed going and com- ing, through-'the month delay in_com- P'form, however, it never came to-a vote. ’ ing -other lines of business are effective in Mihnesota. It was the practice of old line elevators to bid higher for farmers’ grain in towns. where there was a farm- ers’ or cooperative elevator than in towns where there Was no competition. This, of course, was to put farmers’: elevators out of business by keeping the grain away from them or making them pray so high for it that they would go "‘This is a field of northwest grain ready to thresh. From rIlilliohs and millions of acres of this sort of land, tilled by the sweat of hundreds of thousangis of farmers, comes the wealth that has been chiefly responsible in building up Minneapolis and St. Paul. mittee and the amendments that the house would not have had time to concur in. And senators did not have to go on tecord as opposing it. 1 JUST ANOTHER TRAGEDY ' 'O SHOW THE METHOD - { The fate of House Bill 509 was much. the same. This was a: bill to prevent diserimination and unfair competition of old line elevators against farmers’ or cooperative elevators in the country. {The same bill is law in North Dakota and other states and similar measures affect- Dr. Greene on Rural Editor Nonpartisan Leader: In your issue of August 10th you have nn article entitled “Will this Law Help Farmers,” discussing the Moss-Hollis ing to your readers let me quote a little ancient history. : ‘The American commission sent abroad during Taft’s administration reported almost unanimously in- favor of a rural credit system based on that of the prin- tiples of Raiffeisen found suceessful in Russis, - France, Canada, Scotland, Ire- land, Germany, Austria, Belgium, It,aly, Rumania, Servia, Bulgaria, in the 'far east; India, Syria, the - Antilles, Tunis and the Isle of Reunion. Taft indorsed the system in his letter to the governors of the states in organ- iziing this commission dated October 11, 1912, as follows: - “A study of these reports and of the " recommendation of - Ambassador -Herrick broke. . An old line elevator in one town, where there was. competition, would often bid five cents more a bushel for grain. than an. elevator owned by the same old line company in a nearby town, where there was no competition. The reason for the opposition of the grain combine to a bill putting a stop-to this can readily be seen. SN This bill passed the house March 15 with only 9 votes against it, five of which were the votes of Hennepin county (Minneapolis) representatives. It went immediately to the senate where it was ] The safe and sane way to exploit the peopleis to.control the law read how neatly and smoothly a hand-picked senate turns tr later referred to the committee on rail- roads, grain® and warehouses. It remained in the senate considerably over a month without action, being re- ported out of committee: for pas- sage April 21, ''THE NEXT TO THE LAST DAY OF THE LE- GISLATIVE SESSION, WHEN IT WAS KNOWN IT WOULD BE -TOO - LATE TO GET IT ON THE CALEN- DAR FOR PASSAGE: It was read the second time that day and that was the end of it. The month’s delay in: the senate killed it. And the beauty of it was o senator was placed on record in a rollcall as opposing so reasonable a measure. : JUSTICE 'FOR THE FARMERS? WHAT AN ABSURD IDEA! ‘The other two bills had a briefer his- tory. - H. B. 324 was a bill to require all terminal. elevators and warehouses to weigh grain on track scales, the only fair way of weighing it, according to .universal experience. It would cost the grain trust . elevators. some money to re-equip to meet the terms of this bill if it.became law, and it was freely charged that the grain combine fouynd it more profitable to weigh grain in other ways, because the inaccuracies in weight were toll now exacted -from tillers of the soil. Present Federal Act an Exceedingly Sour Lemon, Says North Dakota Farmer delegation first, and David Lubin, Amer- - " ican delegate to the Inmternational Insti- tute of Agriculture, Rome. In a letter to Senator Fletcher Lubin \ “You give a list of representatives commissioned by the American Banking interests to make a preliminary investi- gation of these sys'bems._ I note at your conclusions seemed to be for the -estab-’ lishment by bankers of mortgage credit banks for’ farmers, with a security in a form that would warrant a lower rate of interest than now current. select committes is to investigate with. a " view of their adaptation to American needs) seems to me far superior to any such plan for the following reasons: farmers form their own banks under a. method whereby they are continuously enabled to obtain meney at an interest ative use of money gives the European profits resulting from the etonomie,-eo- hich their eozof ’ it : | . used "apparently failed "to convince the - rs.” (Sen. Document congress, 3rd session, pages 13 and 14.)‘5 It is o be regretted that ... One of the numerous luxurious clubs built b Cl_hea and others who have profited ‘magnificentl tributary . northwest to this financial and commercial center; where sought for 20 years in vain to secure reforms in AT never in favor of the farmer or farmers® elevator shipping the grain. Represent~ ative Lydiard’s ¢ommittee in the house reported this bill without recommenda~ tion March 11 in the house and this end- ed it. It never got to second or third reading or passage. It just naturally died. House bill 427 was intended to correct a very plain abuse in the Chamber of Commerce ‘rules. The rules' provided that when a Chamber member failed or couldn’t pay his debts, fellow members of the Chamber of Commerce could have -first lien on his membership, worth about $5000. So that by this rule members of the Chamber of Commerce protected themselves against loss from debts owing by fellow members. But what of farm- ers or country elevators who had shipped grain to the bankrupt member and-had money coming from him? Oh well, they . could get theirs if there was anything left after . fellow members of . the.” Chamber got through. z ; This bill abolished this rule of the Chamber and niade the claim of a ship- per of grain the first lien on a default- ing Chamber member’s membership. The Chamber was against that. 'The record shows the bill went to second reading in the house, but the record fails to show any other action ever taken on it. by grain milljonnires of the Twin y in business brought by the great - 3 producers have marketing methods to important measure lacking is that ‘it does not afford relief to those most needing it, and the greatest menace . Its basic cter is t