The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, January 4, 1917, Page 16

5! i erre il i i B S N S PR figuratively speaking, (Contributed) HEN YOU climb up on the high pedestal in front of a grab - it-and-eat-while-you-run lunch counter, scoop out the - thin wafer of butter in the bottom of a thick individual butter plate, smear it over a pair of pan cakes and send the réd-tiedded waiter back for another thin wafer you probably think your struggle for butter is the biggest and only strug- £le for butter there is. But it is not. %h’_ete is a bigger and more fierce strug- &le and one that is being fought out on a larger scale. Y\On' ohe side of this big struggle is the dairy farmer of the northwest and on the othe? side are a few.enterprising middle men who are struggling to cop off the bulk of the profits involved in the butter industry. ; The struggle is between the co-opera- tive creamery and the corporation central- izer. The co-operative creamery is owned and run by the farmers who feed and Hp4il” their cows and haul the cream to town. The corporation centralizer is owned by certain astute businessmen who never taught a calf to drink, who never +pailed” a cow and whose hands would be iblistered like a tender toe in a tight shoe if they turned a cream separator ten THEY SUCCEED AT FIRST * For a number of years the success of .the co-operative creamery has been “amazing. They dot the whole northwest ~—especially Minnesota and Wisconsil.l. ¥These co-operative creameries are run on the patronage dividend plan and have {inot-only proven a boon to the dairy man but at the same time have been a sharp thérn in the side of the corporation- owned creameries--because they inter- ‘fered with the swag the middlemen might get. . )i{"But many of the co-operative cream- ‘eries, which once flourished like a green /bay tree, are now showing unmistakable /'gigns of decay. One example will suffice to show how it is done. || Three years ago a certain creamery echream scparalor is a useful piece of machinery. The 4 a separator just as efficient as the one has hgre pictured. Notice who is doing all the work and reamery “correspondingly declines w . How Co-operative Plants Are Forced to th DO ALL THE E HAVE 7o Z2 A Y. Methods of Old-line Centralizers down in Minnesota (and this is only one of many such examples) was doing @ good business. It was running four cream wagons, which averaged daily for that year 2000 pounds per wagon. That same year the corporation centralizer put in an innocent little cream station at the same town. The next year the cream wagons made a daily average of only 1000 pounds of cream per wagon. Business .at the cream station was, in the mean time, picking up. This year the cream wagons have so far averaged only 500 pounds of cream per day. Busi- ness at the cream station was flourishing. Business at the co-operative creamery was dragging. Y i HOW 'IRICK IS TURNED This is the way the centralizer does the trick. First, it establishes a cream station in town—in the same town where there is a co-operative creamery. This station may be in charge of the local butcher or it may be run by the dealer in pouliry, eggs, hides, pelts and furs. There are always farmers in every community who are part and parcel of the co-operative creameries, that are disgruntled, dissatisfied and have a grouch on. This may be real or imag- inary, but it serves the purpose. Mr. Disgruntled feels that he is not getting a square deal at the co-operative cream- ery and so, “just to see,” he goes over to try the cream station. 3 % At the eo-operative his cream, say, had been testing 35 pounds of butterfat to the hundred pounds of cream. The cream station man has found this out. He thereupon proceeds to test Mr. Disgrunt-i led’s cream at 40 pounds. And sure® encugh the farmer “sees” that he has - been robbed, “and that by his own creamg ery, too!” Quickly the news spreads. The glad tidings go out. Other farmers grow a grouch and develop a suspicion. Busi- ness picks up at the cream station. It at the co-oper- LAW NOT ENFORCED You may wonder how the- centralizer breaks even and keeps from going broke ’ ative. when it “over” tests the cream. That's easy. There are many localities where there are no co-operative creameries, In such localities the centralizers have it their own way. At such places they “under” test the cream to the amount of five pounds to, the hundred. - This more than evens up the matter. It is the same old trick the Standard Oil and the Beef Trust work when they want to eliminate a competitor. Yes, it is true there is a iaw against “over” testing cream, but it is not enforced. In the first place, you:would have to get one of the men who had profited by such over-testing to make the complaint and prosecute the case. It would be about as easy as getting the fellow to “squeal” who orders “cold tea” and gives the soda fountain clerk a wink and instead of tea gets Kentucky Bourbon. Besides, the centarlizer is quite a sturdy combination and has considerable of a “pull” with those whose business it is to enforce the law. It likewise has a passing acquaintance wtih those who sit in the judgment seats. - This assures it of considerable’ liberty, as corporations do about as they please, because they own the men who make the laws as well as those who enforce and construe the laws. ‘They are organized and are “in” politics. They tell the farmers to stay “out” of politics and not to organize. And some farmers are good natured enough to take their advice. - Others refuse to take it and get called “suckers.” All this presents a problem. The problem is, what shall the farmers do in order to protect themselves? The answer to the problem is that they should ~ organize and go into politics and at the same time put the other fellows out of politics. - ORGANIZATION. NEEDED When the farmers get organized in Minnesota as they are in North Dakota they can elect a governor, attorney gen- eral, judges and members of the legisla- ture, just exactly as the farmers of North . Dakota = have already done. SIXTEEN M- umm7 = man who invented it was & benefactor of humanity. It efficiently separates the milk and cream. There is, known to the dairy man in mse in our economic system. It is the “middleman’s separator,” which the artist where the cream and skim milk goes. Some great little What? & ! machine this! Game in Minnesota e Wall By Unfair Officers thus selected would not be swift to listen to the tools of the corporation, but would enact laws, enforce laws and construe laws in the interest of all the people, not for Big Business. A gove ernor of that kind would appoint a milk inspector who would do something besideg turn in monthly expense accounts and draw pay checks. An attorney general thus elected would not be so busy: ook« ing for technical loopholes in the laws to benefit respectable criminals. Judges thus elected would not defer a decision until after they had returned from their vacations. ; If this is not done decay and. destrue- tion will continue to spread:in“the dairy fields of the northwest and‘the dairymen will soon find themselyes in' the clutch of a combination that will skin them as effectively as they please. Corporations are organized. That’s: the reason they are corporations. A GOOD IDEA" Justice Robinson proposes” that the supreme court shall keep up with its ~work, just-as should any other businéss concern. Should the court accomplish this desirable feat there will be no pro- tests coming from lawyers or clients, provided their work does not show evi dences of t{oo much haste—NEW ROCKFORD STATE CENTER, APPROVES FRAZIER’S IDEA Governor Frazier’s decision to dispense with the usual inaugural ball will meej with approval generally. It has served solely as an oh-be-joyful occasion for the Bismarckites and the few who have money and the duds to Frazier's statement that the frivolities are to be cut out during his administras tion listens good to the voters, 1If the incoming legislature will cut out the gah and horseplay, cutting down the session’ to about a month, it will be further causq for congratulating the farmers of the travel therg ™ state in taking a hand in the importani = ° business of politics. — PARSHALL