The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 22, 1917, Page 8

; % Some “Bunk” [L.aws in Montana Tax Measures Dictated by the Corporations—A “Terminal Elevator” Plan to Help a Few Mills to Buy Cheaply (By Leader Staff Correspondent) Helena, Mont., March 17.—The most reactionary legislature in the history of Montana has adjourned, and the members have returned to the constit- uencies that have been flouted and betrayed. Only a handful of senate and house members have any reason whatever to expect general commenda- tion—the great bulk having consistent- ly and persistently played the game for the Corporation Non-Partisan League. Several tax measures were ‘passed, but in every instance these were dic- tated by the corporations and will serve their purposes until another legislature has worked them over. The main measure—that levying a tax of one per cent upon the net profits of all corporations, with §$10,000 of annual profits exempted—may possi- bly supply the revenue so sorely need- ed by the state. - But if so, it will be done Yargely at the expense of busi- ness, manufacturing and large stock- growing enterprises that were already heavily taxed. The injustice of the measure will be apparent when it is understood that the levy was utterly indiscriminate, the enterprises enumerated having been placed on the same level with the big mines that are producing fabulous profits; and the big power monopoly, that is making profits that enable it to pay dividends upon more than six- ty millions of watered stock. However, it may be just as well so, under present political conditions in Montana. Business men too generally have refrained from actively taking an interest in politics; they have been “too busy to bother with primaries and conventions;” they have been vocifer- ously agreed that “politics is for the politicians,” and they have flouted the protests of the farmers against un- equal taxation. Now that the politi- cians have “stuck up” these same busi- ness men for big amounts in unfair taxes to enable the Invisible Govern- ment crowd to dodge theirs, perhaps there will be a change of front, and business. men will come to appréciate what the farmers have come to under-" stand, that it pays to be the govern- ment. : SOME “BUSINESS MEN” ON JOB AT LEGISLATURE Certain classes of “business men,” however, were on the job all through the session just closed. Typical among these were ‘the representatives of the fire insurance companies, the bonding companies and the accident insurance companies. Shrewdly combining their strength with that of the big copper company and the railroads, they suc- ceeded in defeating the bill for state insurance of public buildings, the bill to enable the state to bond its own officials, and the bill that would have eliminated the insurance graft from the compensation law. Also they jammed through a state hail insurance bill that will break down hopelessly in a short time, thus discrediting the idea. To the credit of the American Society of Equity be it said, however, that or- ganization vigorously protested against the transparent fraud. Another fraud perpetrated upon the farmers of the state was.the passage of an alleged “terminal elevator” law. As one of the senators aptly declared: “The bill is rightly named a ‘terminal elevator,” because the farmer who ships’ his grain to it will find his ownership in the grain very promptly terminated.” THE “TERMINAL ELEVATOR?” BILL IN MONTANA This measure deserves some discus- sion, lest Montana readers of the Leader be deceived by the press ac- counts concerning it. f In the first place the law locates the proposed elevator at Great Falls, the most grossly unfair grain market in the state. Here it would be almost at the mercy of the Royal Milling’ com- pany and the Montana Flouring Mills company, which are affiliated with the big mills at Minneapolis. All of the other Montana mills are located in the grain growing sections, and have a plentiful home supply of grain. The Pacific coast mills that use Montana grown wheat have their own elevators and buyers in the big wheat growing sections. The only buyers—if there were any such—would be:. the milling trust mills at Great Falls. And these mills would buy only at very low prices, because they both have strings of elevators leading, out from Great Falls into the wheat producing locali- ties, from which they get not only an ample supply for their own mills, but enough to ship large quantities to the terminals. Just what the trust mills at Great Falls would do to the wheat in a state-owned elevator located in that city may be understood by citing the fact that they have been taking a margin of from ten to fourteen cents a bushel on wheat, in addition to a deduction of the freight to Minneapo- lis. This extortion they have been practicing at their elevators in the vicinity of Great Falls ever since war time prices have ruled. Certainly, as a business proposition, they would not pay more for wheat stored in a state- owned elevator at Great Falls than they could buy it for at their country ele- vators in the vicinity, from which ele- vators they get a milling in transit rate. NO CHANCE TO HELP FARMERS OF STATE But the proposed law will fail before the people for other sufficient reasons, if those already given were not enough. The law proposes a bond issue of $250,- 000, if approved by a vote of the peo- ple at the next general election. These bonds are to run ten years, and to bear six per.ceht interest. This will make the total cost—if the bill gets by the A State Owned.Plant people—of $400,000, or $40,000 per year. If the elevator should earn less, a tax on all agricultural lands in the state is proposed to- make up the deficit. In- as much as the alleged terminal ele- vator at best would not be of one cent’s use to more than a few hundred farm-: ers around Great Falls it may be set down for a certainty that the other hundreds of thousands of farmers in the state will not vote a possible tax on their lands, when the. bill gets into their hands two years hence. The inside history of the bill re- veals it as a “put over” on. the - farmers. It was drawn by an inti- mate lawyer friend of the head of the Royal Milling company of ' Great Falls, arid introduced in the house by an agricultural imple- ment dealer in that city. It was not submitted to the farmer mem- bers of either house or senate. ‘When its real nature was discovered it was too late to prevent its “framed up” passage by the house. It was passed by the senate owing to the fact that the senator from Great Falls was *in the hospital suffering from a broken leg and from his sick bed appealed to his® colleagues to pass the bill to pro- tect his prestige in his home city—the Here is the little power and heating plant back of the capitol, in which is ; generated steam to heat the building and electric current to light it and operate the state-owned street railway. As seen here it is almost buried in snow, and deep cuts had be to made several times during the winter for the teams to- haut in the lignite from which the power is generated, and for the car to get to the car barn just behind the power plant. The drifts at times were 10 feet deep, blocking the track and road. Guard Millers’ Grab . Politicians in Montana Senate Will Not Permit : Grist Toll Law (Leader Staff correspondence) Helena, Mont.,"March 17. For a sec- ond time the state senate killed a bill to relieve the people of Montana from the strangle hold of the greedy millers’ trust. The extortion practiced in the price for flour and feed has been a long- standing nuisance in Montana, but the state senate has stood as a bulwark from behind which the millers’ trust has been able with impunity to levy a grievously heavy toll upon the loaf of bread, and upon feed for livestock. FINE BUSINESS FOR MILLERS IN MONTANA Just how glaringly extortionate this toll has been, and is, may be under- stood from the figures that follow: The Montana mills pay right now about $1.30 less than the Minneapolis mills for the wheat to make a barrel of 196 pounds of flour and yet charge the public $1.35 more per barrel. That is to say, the Montana mills take a profit of $2.65 per barrel for flour above the profit taken by the trust mills at Minneapolis. This is-66 cents per sack of 49 pounds. Some greedy grab that! Stated in another way: The Mon- . tana milfs deduct the freight on wheat to Minneapolis, and add the freight on flour from Minneapolis to Montana. EIGHT The farmer who grows the wheat is - thus soaked at both ends of the deal. To correct this gross injustice the lower house of the Montana legisla- ture has twice passed a bill to put into fcrce a toll system, by which the mills "would have been compelled to grind for the owner of wheat and take only the toll therefor permitted by the state public utilities commission. Twice the state senate has killed the mea- sure. 2 OVER MILLION A YEAR IN THIS LITTLE ITEM The department of agriculture at ‘Washington has estimated the annual per capita consumption of flour at slightly more than one barrel. The 400,000 folks living on the farms in Montana are thus being “skinned”; to the extent, at $2.65 per barrel, of more than a millon dollars a year. And this estimate takes no account of the steal practiced on them in the nature of feed for the livestock. The whole cost of a campaign to control the legislature would cost the farmers of Montana less ' than ome- third of the amount that is every year stolen from them by the greedy millers’ trust. 5 And that is one of the reasons why the farmers of Montana are going pell-mell into the Farmers’ Nonpartisan League. 3 4 people of that place having been foozled into the belief that it was a deserving measure, and would boost Great Falls as a milling center. ANOTHER SAMPLE OF FARMERS’ LEGISLATION “Off similar cloth was cut the alleged herd law that was foisted upon the farmers of Montana at the session just closed. ‘Even as the bill passed the house it was a miserable makeshift, and was denounced as such by many farmer members. In spite of the pro- tests the stock-growers, who were in the thick of the Corporation Nonparti- san League, put the thing over. Then the stock-growers and their corpora- tion friends in the senate took several whacks at the bill, and after emasculat- ing it pretty roughly, and making it effective only six months in the year, sent it back to the house, and the amendments were concurred in. Of course, Governor Stewart signed the measure, well knowing it to be a cheat and a fraud. 35 One of the big stock-growers in the senate, just before the bill came up on third reading and final passage, sar- castically remarked: “If the farmers want that sort of a harmless plaything ‘T am perfectly willing they shall have it S Of such as this was most of the “farmers’ legislation” passed by the 15th General Assembly. BE EASY WITH SORLIE Editor Nonpartisan Leader: I want to take this opportunity of calling your attention to Mr. Townley’s attitude towards Mr. O. J. Sorlie at Hatton, recently. I have weighed Mr. Townley’s words carefully and must say he fs too severe, because this is a serious matter with a man of Mr. Sor- lie’s type. You know, Mr. Townley, if you let a calf suck the cow the calf will bellow when you go to wean it and bellow loud‘and long, So you see men like Sorlie have been sucking the pub- lic teat so long and now since weaning time has come they just can not stand it and it isn’t right to rub it in—*“C”? ‘We Leaguers know that the time has come to wean the calf and so do the men of the Sorlie type, and they know that we are going to do it. Now, since we are going to gulde the Good Old Ship of State let us be gentle and kind to them, but keep the teat away from them, let them vote with us, just as in times passed, they let us vote with them. In a word, let’s rub on them some of the salve they have been rubbing on us and while we are rubbing them rub it on thick and hard. CHARLES MASON. BUSINESS MEN AID Editor Nonpartisan-Leader: Dear Sirs: = Our meeting here today was well at« tended, and the members were pleased with the address of Mr. Whipple. The members here, as a whole, were disgusted with the articles in a late is- sue of the “Leader,” written by N. G Jensen. Mr. Jensen tried to bring out the opinion that the business men here “had tried to oppose or break up a re- cent Nonpartisan meeting by a free show given by them. The members here do not believe that it was the in- tention of the business men to hamper the meeting, as nearly all the business men-signed the petition asking our senator and representatives to vote for Bill 44. The League members of ‘Wyndmere wish to thank the business ‘men of this place for what loyalty they have shown to our cause. A. D. HANSEN. CONDEMN EVERSON & Resolutions condemning Representa= tive E. W. Everson who was elected_by the Nonpartisan League, and who joined the opposition soon after the convening of the legislature, were passed by a standing vote at a mass meeting at Binford, March 2. The reso- lutions were presented by a committee consisting of James A. McCulloch, S. R. Klein, Nils E. Iverson, W. D. Ehlers, A. M. Hemerlin and John Thune, as the resolutions committee. After referring to having “had the wool pulled over the eyes of the American people for 40 years,” and de- claring themselves tired of this kind of government, the resolutigns touch Mr. Everson’s case in the following words: “We condemn the actions of Mr. Everson, as a representative of the Nonpartisan League at the Fifteenth legislative session at Bismarck.” Copies were sent to several newspapers in- cluding the Nonpartisan Leader, the Courier-News and the Devils Lake Journal. : :