The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 13, 1917, Page 7

R T N S e e s e R S N — Z must be shown the serious error of such a course. ‘‘Competitive operations,”’ which Hoover in the telegram says will fix the price of flour, at this moment have fixed a price that is robbing the public. If farmers’ prices are to be cut down-to nothing under a rigid price- fixing policy, why not millers’ also? ‘Why should millers’ prices be permitted to be fixed by ‘‘competitive operations,’”” when farmers’ prices are not permitted to be fixed that way. ‘‘Competitive opera- tions’’ fixed the farmers’ price for wheat at $3.06. Why does not that stand, if ‘‘competitive operations’’ are to be the basis for price fixing$ ® * ® The Fargo Forum, an organ devoted to fanning mob spirit: for the purpose of breaking up public meetings, has not yet begun a campaign to break up the League meeting in Fargo scheduled for September 17. The Forum, however, has had a severe lesson and may not attempt to precipitate rioting again. In thé interests of law and order let us hope so. ® ® @ FIVE-CENT BREAD ONSUMERS who are clamoring for five-cent bread have been ‘ jolted by the food administra_.tion and the big millers, who have stated, since the price of wheat was fixed, that a five-cent loaf is impossible with farmers getting $2.20 for their grain. But there is another side to this question. Dr. E. F. Ladd, member of the wheat price-fixing committee, not only says that a five-cent loaf of . bread should prevail under the $2.20 price to farmers, but he gives figures which show that a five-cent loaf, say of 12 ounces or perhaps 13 or 14 ounces, could be sold at a profit for five cents with farmers getting much more than $2.20 for wheat. The point at issue is this: The food administration and the millers say the best the public can hope for under the $2.20 price to farmers is a 16-ounce loaf for ten cents; Dr. Ladd, an expert on grain, flour and milling questions, shows that a 14-ounce loaf can be sold for a profit for five cents. His figures in addition indicate that if the food administration’s and the millers’ figure of 10 cents for a 16-ounce loaf is allowed, the farmers ought to get $3 for their wheat. (See article in this issue of the Leader, giving all the figures). think either the farmers or the United States senators could be so easily fooled by this class of logic. Because government authorities have fixed the price of wheat too low, it does not follow that government price fixing is wrong. That is the kind of logie that is used by anarchists, men who would over- throw the government and every law, good or bad. Every time a mur- der is committed the anarchists say: ‘‘See, we have a law against murder but still we have murders. Let’s wipe out the law. It’s no good.” The trouble with the price of wheat is not due to the principle of government price control being wrong; it is due to the wrong men being in charge of price fixing. Tt is due, ‘undoubtedly, to a large degree to the influence of men like Julius Barnes of the Duluth Chamber of Commerce, one of Hoover’s appointees. These men, like Senator Nelson, are unfriendly to the principle of government control. They think that by getting a low price they can make price control unpopular with the farmers and get back to the good old, open-town style of unlimited gambling on the grain exchanges. Senator Nelson’s studied insult was not allowed to go unanswered. . Senator James H. Brady of Idaho came back with a statement that he believed the farmers’ organization would prove its worth—was, in fact, already doing so, although it had hardly had time to be tried out. Senator Brady continued, according to the senate record : The farmers of North Dakota are not attempting to make great for- tunes out of wheat. They are not attempting to make great fortunes out of any crop. They are simply trying to protect their interests and get the product that they raise on the farm delivered to the consumer without these billions and billions of profits that are made in the different indus- tries of the country every year being distributed to men who do not per- form the labor. That is their intention, and they are going to make a success of it before they finish. It may not be successful at the moment; it has not had time to be tried out, but those farmers are in earnest. They are starting on the right line. They are getting their grain elevators and their different cold-storage buildings erected, and they are going in the future to receive benefit from that organization, and if it proves success- ful it is going to be a stepping- stone to such an organization throughout all these United Now, what are we going to l ABQUT TIME TO DO IT | St do about this? Does this show ; that fair prices to farmers mean a high price to consumers? Or does it show that a low price to farmers does not help the con- sumers, on account of the rapaeci- ous middleman’s system? Is the food administration alert in the interests of the public here? Oris the conscription of the farmers’ profit on wheat going to fatten middlemen, millers and bakers, instead of ,benefitting the con- sumer? I'VE GOT TO TAKE THIS *PLUTE"IN HAND * * * The Nonpartisan league meet- ings at Fargo September 17 and at St. Paul September 18, 19 and 20 will be epoch-making. It will be the first time the people in any wide and general sense have had a chance to express themselves on the economic issues that have arisen out of the war. o * * * A SENATE DEBATE OMETHING which happened S in the United States senate recently shows clearly how the friends of the grain gamblers and the enemies of the farmer are trying to discredit government eontrol of food. The - senators were discussing the dissatisfaction of the farmers with low-priced wheat when Senator Knute Nel- son of Minnesota, one of the most bitter enemies of the organized farmers, got the floor. Senator Nelson said: Mr. President, for every poison there is said to be some antidote. Last fall I was at Grand Forks, North Dakota, and the governor of that state made a speech on the platform. Among other things he said: : ‘“We have organized the state of North Dakota under the Nonpaxiisan - league. We have secured control of the state. We shall labor to get the adjoining states—Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota—under the Nonpartisan league, and when we succeed in doing that we will have all speculation and trading on chambers of commerce and grain exchanges stopped.” They have now succeeded in accomplishing that. All trading on the grain exchanges has stopped and still those classes of men 30 not seem to, be satisfied. ; It is not surprising that Senator Nelsap, old and stauneh friend of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commercs, should refer to the farmery as ‘‘those classes of men”, in the samq fone ps he would gy *fhose kinds of cattle.”’ It is surprising, though, that fids mxu Nelson shonld MILLING <J INTERESTS THE , AMERICAN DREAD BASKET Besides President Townley and Governor Frazier of North Dakota, some of the most prominent na- tional and state officials in the country, as well as many experts in economic subjects of national reputation, will address farmers and consumers at the big League meetings in Fargo and St. Paul this month. - L7 * * 'THE BANKERS KNOW ARMERS will surely agree F with the bankers in giving a prominent place to debts, mortgages and kindred subjects in connection with the business of farming. In a recent examination of many forms for farm accounting put out by various agricultural extension departments operated Jjointly with state agricultural col- leges, there appeared one put out by the bankers. These blanks showed farmers how to keep books, and the items that should go into the expense side of farm- ing. The different forms varied widely according to the bent of mind of those who framed them, but in one respect they were all completely outclassed by the bank- ,ers’ offering. The first dozen pages of this book were taken up with rules for Drawn expressly for the Leader by C. C. Amidon ?‘arming; Bulletinized dope tell- ing farmers when to fall plow, when to spring plow, when to disk, when to harrow, seed, harvest and thresh, were enlivened with life-like representations of full sacks and half full sacks. The full sacks illustrated the results where the farmers bankerized their methods—the half full ones, where the farmers just plugged along the' best why they could without bankers’ first aid to farming But better than all else was the unerring financial instinet with which the bankers put first and foremost in their blank forms a num- ber of pages: for entering mortgages, notes and miscellaneous debts, No one knows better than the bankers how big a part of farming these things are. No one of the other blank-form makers thought of putting in sueh things. At any rate it is a smile-worthy comment on the pros- pexity of farmers in general. A & et A N e