The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 13, 1917, Page 6

b m"““umb_-_m-w;" -~ lNonpartisan Teader Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Thursday. Entered as second-class matter September 3, 1915, at the postoffice at Fargo, North Dakota, under the Act of March 3, 1879. OLIVER S. MORRIS, EDITOR Advertising rates on application. Subscription, one year, in advance, $2.50; sIX months, $1.50. Communications should be addressed to the Nonpartisan Leader, Box 941, Fargo, North Dakota. MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU ©F CIRCULATIONS THE S. C. BECKWITH SPECIAL AGENCY, Advertising Representatives, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. Quack, fradulent and irresponsible firms are not knowingly advertised, and we will take it as a favor if any readers will advise us promptly should they have occasion to doubt or question the reliability of any firm which pattonizes our advertising columns. The Meetings HE Nonpartisan league meetings to be held in Fargo Septem- I ber 17 and in St. Paul September 18, 19 and 20, will be the most important meetings of farmers held since the United States got into the war. To the nation at large, as well as to the states where the League is organized or organizing, these meetings will be of tre- mendous. significance. They will be the first general expression of the common peobple since the war started on the economic questions which have arisen at home while the government has been carrying on the war in Europe. The fixing by the government of a price for wheat below the cost of production and one that will not stimulate production, at a time when there is a serious world shortage of wheat, is the occasion for calling the meetings, but they are not to be meetings of protest. The farmers and the coal operators have been the only ones so far that have had their prices regulated. In the case of coal, the cutting of the price at the mine by the government has been followed by actual in- creases to consumers in some of the big cities. Will the cutting down “of the farmers’ price for wheat act the same? Are the millers and the middlemen’s system going to absorb the profits taken away from the farmers, or are consumers going to benefit by it? Is the govern- ment, now that it has confiscated the farmers’ profit on wheat, going to cut down the prices of farm machinery, shoes, clothing, meat, binder twine, and all the other items of living expense of farmers and items that go into the making of a crop? If not, why not? These are a few of the questions these important meetings will thresh out. The influence of the Big Interests—organized Big Business—on the government in its food control policy has been tremendous. Hoover and the president have surrounded themselves with a group of plutocrats, on the theory that it is better to get the ‘‘patriotic co- operation’’ of these fellows than to have to fight them to force them . to disgorge profits while the country is sending its manhood to the front to fight to eradicate autocracy from the world. Due to the influence of these interests, the government has found it easy to regulate the price the farmer is to get for his wheat—has found it easy to confiscate practically all the farmers’ profits. But the government is finding it hard, if not impossible, to lower or regulate the prices of things in which organized Big Business is interested. The League’s meetings will endeavor to crystalize a public sentiment that will back the government to the limit in making food regulation and control really effeetive—in making it something more than a weapon to use against the farmer and in favor of the millers, packers and middlemen. The League’s meetings are to be producers’ and consumers’ meet- ings. Representatives of labor unipns and federations are asked to at- tend, and men prominent in the organized labor movement in the big cities have been asked to speak. Government officials, senators, con- gressmen and investigators and experts in the economic field of na- tional reputation will be on the program. The time has come for the plain people of this country to make their voice heard. The time has come when public sentiment must be organized and expressed, in order that the president will have the necessary support in really making this a democratic war—a war that is as fair as possible to every citizen, rich or poor. The meetings will be a patriotic effort to help the government solve the important domestic problems it is facing, in order that Uncle Sam, with justice and liberty reigning at home, can prosecute the war abroad with all vigor, undismayed by discontent and resentment in the ranks of his own people. : s & o Labor representatives on the government price-fixing commission were given to understand by the agricultural department, it is understood, that $2.20 wheat would mean five-cent bread (14-ounce loaves). Now the food administration and the bakers of the big cities announce that the public need not expect five-cent bread. If wheat is to remain at - $2.20 five-cent loaves should, prevail, as the Leader shows in an article on flour and bread in this issue. Will it? = Mob Action HE Leader commented somewhat at length last week on the parf - I the Fargo Forum played in creating disorder and a near-riot in Fargo at a public meeting two weeks ago. Since that was written the Forum published a story to the effect that the Home Guard of Fargo as a body approved the action its members took in breaking up the meeting, and the Forum announced that to do just that sort of thing was the chief reason for the organization of the Guard. The purported statement of the Guard approving the disorder created by its members was not signed. The Leader hoped that it was an unau- thorized statement, but to date it has not been denied by the Guard or its officers. Perhaps the Forum has refused to make a correction. The Fargo Forum has placed the Home Guard in an indefensi- ble and dangerous position to say the least. In the interest of pre- serving the fair name and reputation of Fargo and dissipating the feeling against the Guard which has been brought about by the Forum’s statements, the Guard should officially and emphatically deny, the Forum’s stories, which many people do not believe true. If the Guard has in truth been organized for the sole purpose of breaking up public meetings which members of the Guard or the Forum do not approve of, and if the Guard officers and the members of the body as a whole approve the near-riot precipitated by its mem- bers two weeks ago, the Guard has no valid reason to exist. In the ins terests of law and order in Fargo it should be'disbanded promptly. It was miraculous that blood was not shed two weeks ago, when an angry crowd gathered around the Gardner hotel and threatened mob action against the persons who were prevented from speaking a little earlier by Guard members and other citizens. Mobs once organized and inflamed can not often be controlled. The danger can be seen by every sane person. If an organized body of citizens exists for the very purpose of inflaming mob spirit, no matter against whom the mob action is directed, the danger is much greater. North Dakota must enforce law and order. Rioting in every form or degree, no matter whom the Fargo Forum would practice it against, ought to be suppressed. There are laws to take care of seditious meetings. The Leader believes that the Forum has laid itself open to indictment for inciting riots, and the Leader does mot believe the Guard exists for the purpose the Forum 'says it exists for. Home guards are supposedly formed to preserve law and order. If they should fall upde_r the leadership of persons and newspapers who use them to precipitate disorder a most dangerous situation exists. The Leader does not want to be unfair with the Fargo Home Guard, and if the Forum has misrepresented it, the Leader will be more than glad to set the Guard right if the Forum will not. * & s No f_armer should let anything prevent him from attending the big Nonpartlsap league producers and consumers meetings in Fargo and St. Paul this month. These are going to be the biggest and most import- ant meetings since the United States got into the war. e & & » A MISUNDERSTANDING HERE seems to have been a great misunderstanding somewhere I in regard to what the food control administration is going to do - in regulating the price of flour. Food Administrator Hoover told farm paper editors, assembled in Chicago recently, that he was going to fix the price of flour, allowing millefs only a 25-cent profit per barrel. He also said feed prices would be regulated so the millers , would make only 50 cents a ton profit. He made these statements to the editors perfectly plain and emphatic. He even explained that if these margins gave the millers too much profit, they would be cut down later. These statements were made on August 25. _On August 26, the next day, A. Lorenz, 1825 Elliott avenue, Minne- apolis, secretary of the Flour and Cereal Mill Workers’ union No. 15,469, a branch of the American Federation of Labor, wired Mr, Hoover as follows: ‘We request that before prlce. of flour is fixed you consult Fl Cereal Mill Workers’ union No. 15,469 of the A. F. of L. Also th:t:l ll.leaa.-‘nx'(3 ing, if any, be held here (Minneapolis). In response to this telegram, Mr. Lorenz received the following telegram : There is no intention of fixing the price on flour, as we £ this 0 eel that will be adjusted by competitive operations. ' : : HERBERT HOOVER. Taken in connection with Mr. Hoover’s statement to farm paper editors there is absolutely no explanation for this telegram from him, unless it is that the government intends to fix profits on flour sold to the government for war supplies, but does not intend to fix a price on flour sold to the general public. If this is the explanation, it should have been made plain that this was the case when Mr, Hoover talked to the farm paper editors. As it is, they went away deceived. ~ Here is another thing for the League meetings’this month at St. Paul and Fargo tn take up. These meetings probably will get definite information on the government’s intentions toward flour and feed manufacturers, and if their prices are not to be fixed, the government PAGE SIX