The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 23, 1917, Page 7

. world peace. By that he means we 7 TOR antee the freedom of the seas, not only from future inhuman, ruthless submarine warfare, but from the domination of the British navy. The world must be protected in future, not only from the menace of great military establishments like that of Germany, but from huge naval es- tablishments like that of Great Britain. One is as indefensible as the other, although in the present war the United States holds that the Brit- ish navy is on the side of right and the German army on the side of wrong. No nation has an inherent right to ‘‘command the seas’’ any more than any nation has a right to dominate all the land. Both policies lead ultimately to war. Baer says that Germany must be made to give up-conquered territory, but he likewise says that Great Britain, which has conquered German colonial territory equal to five times the area of the German empire in Europe, must give that up. The United States is fighting to overthrow German autocracy. In overthrowing that, it must not.permit Great Britain to set up a new imperialism. And then Baer says that we have autocrats and imperialists in the United States who are a menace to AN have here interests—war prof- iteers—that make money out of war and whose influence is there- fore thrown in the balance for war when-crises arise. And we have individuals and groups of indi- viduals who believe that patriot- ism consists in forcing the United States into a poliey of foreign ag- gression, 50 t}}at it can become T'R"JUHH (L:s world dominating. These are the interests that, under guise of “‘preparedness’’ and ‘‘self-de- fense,”’ the same arguments used by the Kaiser, favor great Ameri- can armaments in times of peace —one of the things that caused” the present Buropean war. Baer’s statement gives a meaning to the phrase, ‘‘making the world safe for democracy’’— making democraey safe in Amer- ica as well as Europe, at home as well as abroad. It is a courageous statement of principles that the people have been waiting for somebody with a voice in congress and the ear of the public to make. * * * How would you like to play poker under rules you make your- self, without the consent of the other fellow? MNever lose, would you? Of course not. The Cham- ber of Commerce at Minneapolis makes its own rules. A new rule, made by the Chamber is that the commissions for buying and selling grain shall be double what they have been. By this means the grain gamblers win an extra mil- o dollars this year. Pretty soft! * * * THE VALUE OF NEWS T’S funny the ideas some newspapers have about the value of news. -i Papers like the Minneapolis Journal and the Fargo Forum didn’t see much of importance in the faet that the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce doubled its commissions recently and this year will take an extra million dollars out of the farmers’ pockets by this trick alone. These papers and others like them either printed this news so small nobody.could see it or ignored it entirely. What boots it if the Cham- ber of Commerece does take an extra million out of the farmers’ pockets this year? 3 . : But, on the other hand, papers like the Minneapolis Journal and their small-town imitators, like the Forum, maks a big play of the alleged fact that the present crop is a humdinger—that farmers’ re- turns from it will be amazingly large. All of which is good Chamber of Commerce propaganda and hence important news for these papers. Making great news displays of good or fair crops in isolated sections, and soft-peddling the main fact, which is that the crop as a whole is the smallest, with two exceptions, in 10 years, is part of the grain gamblers’ plan of beating down prices now, while the bulk of the crop is being marketed, with the intention of boosting prices later, after the crop is out of the hands of the farmer. ; These Chamber of Commerce propagandists will ‘‘discover’’ later “that the fair crops in isolated sections and in some products, which they are engaged in ‘‘playing up,”” ARE NOT the governing factor, and that the crop a8 & whels ig short—and very short—which IS the gov- AL SECT I CAN HE MAKE IT? l erning factor. They will ‘‘discover’’ this after the crop is out of the hands of the producers and in the hands of the middicmen, and the ‘‘discovery,”’ the Chamber hopes, will boost prices after the farmer has been forced to sell. * * * . The Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce doubled its commissions by a vote of 213 to 33. What we can not understand is why 33 brokers should object to getting in on this gouge. It’s so easy—all you have to do is to pass the rule. All the farmers can do is to “holler” about it. L THE OSTRICH PRESS HE interests and their newspapers that see in the Nonpartisan I league a great menace are still busy trying to account for it. 3 Their most popular‘‘explanation’’is that it is a‘“manufactured’’ protest, based only partly on real grievances, and that it can not last. As an eastern paper recently put it, it ‘‘is a movement manufactured by a few shrewd agitators. It can not last.”” A Kansas paper, not to be outdone by such a conservative statement, lajer declared it was a movement manufactured BY ONE MAN, and that it would prove ‘‘a flash in the pan.”’ These explanations are curi- ous. Of course the Nonpartisan league has to he ‘“accounted for’’ by the plutocrats and their, or- gans. It is the first real pro- ducers and consumers movement that ever got anywhere in Ameri- can polities. - It wouldn’t do for these interests that are shaking in their hootshecause of the growth of the League to admit it has any valid existence. So, like Podsnap, they brush aside the whole prob- lem of trying to account for it and state it is ““manufactured,’”” what- ever they mean by that. If the plutocratic press really tried to account for the Nonparti- san league and its tremendous growth with reasons suiting their propaganda they would have a hard time. They would have to account for a movement to which practically every farmer in one state attached himself; for a movement that swept people’s candidates into all the public offi- ces in that state by one of the big- gest political overturns in history, and, a year later, sent a man to the national congress by even a ; bigger vote than was recorded a They would have to 7 ¥ AN A year prior. : - \\;Jgfi“}s?"’i&‘y:‘_’:_c.}.\?&, (V account for a movement that, in the state referred to, had the in- dorsement of the State Federation of Labor, the American Society of Equity, the Farmers’ Union and the State Grange. They would have to account for a movement that, spreading from this state, has estab- lished headquarters in nearly a dozen other states, and which now has more members outside the state of its birth than it has within that state; for a movement that is signing new members at the rate of 3000 to 4000 a week; for a movement to which over a hundred thousand ac- tual voters so far have pinned their faith and pledged their support by the payment of $16 dues for two years membership. ; ‘With. this set of facts before them, the plutocratic press announces that the Nonpartisan league is a movement ‘‘manufactured’’ by a few agitators or by one man, and adds that it is a flash in the pan and can not endure. So far as we are concerned they are welcome to that ex- planation, if it satisfies them and their readers. But it reminds us of the country boy who had never been to the circus, and who, on seeing a hippopotamus, stopped to study it for several minutes, and then left disgusted, with the remark: ‘‘Shucks. There ain’t any such animal.”’ " & = : The government says that it is going to fix the prices and profits of the farmers this year by a commission, under the power granted in the food bill. At the same time it says the prices of the millers and packers are going to be fixed, not by commission; but by “patriotic co-operation” of the packers and millers. Have the farmers and the people generally any confidence in the “patriotism” of the packers and millers? And also, why not fix the millers’-and packers’ profits the same way as farmers’ profits are to be fixed? Or, why not fix both the profits of farmers and millers by “patriotic co-operation?” What is sauce for the. goose is sauce for the gander. PAGE SEVEN % ) - { 1 | { H ] ) | ¢ \