The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 20, 1917, Page 6

AL a [l 0 = TNonpartigan Teader Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Thursday. Entered as second-class matter S North Dakota, under the Act of Ma eptember 3, 1915, at the postoffice at Fargo, rch 3, 1879. OLIVER S. MORRIS, EDITOR Advertising rates on application. Subscription, one year, in advance, $2.50; six months, $1.50. ommunications should be addressed to the Nonpartisan Leader, Box 941, Fargo, North Dakota. MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF 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 patronizes our advertising columns, il THE FOOD ADMINISTRATION HE Nonpartisan Leader and its readers, the farmers, want to | support the government in making food control efficient and price regulation fair and square to all interests. We want to get back of Uncle Sam and help make conditions such that the growing discontent over economic conditions at home can be dissipated, and the vigorous conduct of the war abroad not interferred with. The * Leader and the farmers want to put Uncle Sam in a strong pesition. We want to give him backing that will enable him to get after the Big Interests and force them to disgorge profits on flour and other things, and also to give the consumers the benefit of the reduced price of wheat, instead of ietting the prof- its taken away from the farmers go to the middlemen, packers and millers. PRODUCERS I AM HERE TO But the food administration unfortunately seems to be doing all it can to prevent the people getting back of it and supporting it. Its explanations have been evasive; it has contradicted itself time and time again; it has not been frank in stating the facts. Here are a few of the things it has done (besides writing the evasive reply to Mr. Cadle, ap- pearing ,on another page of the Leader) : T |1 WANT You TO T Is It stated that millers’ prices and profits would be regulated by ‘‘patriotic co-operation’”’ with millers, making millers’ profits only 25 cents a barrel; and then it has denied that flour prices were to be fixed at all—that ‘‘competitive operations’’ would take care of the price of flour. It has stated that the price of $2.20 for wheat is not ‘‘a maxi- mum, a minimum or a fixed price,”’ when, as a matter of fact, this is not the whole truth, be- cause the price of $2.20 will act as a maximum fixed price and the government intends that no farm- er shall get more than that for his wheat if it can help it. It has stated that the $2.20 price might not be enforced through until the $2 guarantee in the food bill for next year’s erop begins to apply, and then it has turned around and said it would apply right through. > The United States department of agriculture assured representa- tives of the consumers on the wheat price board that five-cent bread would be possible under the $2.20 price, and Dr. E. F. Ladd of the board has figures to show that bread ought to be sold, under the $2.20 price for wheat, at 5 cents for a 14-ounce loaf. Yet the food adminis- . iration has announced since the $2.20 price was fixed that a 16-ounce loaf for ten cents is all the public can expect. . The government fixed prices of coal at the mines, yet the price of coal to consumers in some of the big ‘cites has increased since then. The farmers and people generally are anxious, naturally, that the same thing will not happen in the case of wheat and flour. They want the ..~ PAGE -it the confidence of the people. I TRUE WORDS NEVER SPOKEN | ' AND CONSUMERS, SUARE OF YOUR. PROFITS » Y Drawn expressly for the Leader by Frank Chaney, Jr, consumers to benefit by the profits on wheat which have been taken away from the farmers, but they are getting no assurance on that score. The food administration has said that a ‘‘glut’’- of wheat was possible. This was said evidently to satisfy farmers with the $2.20 price, which would look good to them if a ‘‘glut’’ really did oeccur. But Mr. Hoover could not have been frank in using the ‘‘glut’’ story to frighten farmers, because he has stated that there is not only a world wheat shortage now, but that there will be a world shortage of wheat for years after the war stops, and he is urging the conservation even of garbage, because he says there is an alarming shortage of food. The “glut’’ story and his former statements do not hitch. If the wheat price is fair, it does not need that kind of an argument to support it. These are a few of the things that are worrying the people. Autocratic orders and evasive statements will not allay the feeling of discontent which is growing and which must be allayed if the United States is not to be seriously hampered in winning the war. There is need for a more frank attitude by the food administration and for the realization on its part that the people are not babies to be satisfied with half truths and evasions. This is said not in a spirit of eriticizing or trying to hamper food administraton, but to facilitate it and gain The farmers, the consumers and the people as a whole must co-operate with the food administration, and the food administration must co-operate and be fair to all concerned. It must not raise the ery of ‘‘traitor’’ if someone offers suggestions. Above all it must understand that the people can not be expected to sit patiently and approve a one-sided price-fixing plan. All must be treated alike. If the farmers are to sacrifice all profits on Wheat this : year, so must millers and packers —so0 must all other manufactur- ers. Shall the farm_ef give up his profit on wheat and yet pay un- ‘heard-of profits on farm ma- chinery and the steel that goes _into it, as well as pay excessive profits on everything else he buys? The Nonpartisan Leader and the farmers want to support and get back of Uncle Sam in a propo- sition for fair prices and profits in all lines. This is a patriotic work, because if price fixing and food control are not made fair they will fail, with dire conse- quences to the government, en- dangering the efficiency of the United States in this war. * * * TELL YOU THAT/ ING A GOODN|. CETY AND) NOW THAT T NT RIGHT. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but practically: all the senators who favored increasing the taxes on war profits came from states where the farmers are organizing the Nonpartisan league. * » : BUSINESS MEN AND FARMERS IX thousand farmers from S five counties gathered at Alexandria, Minn., to cele- brate Labor Day at a Nonparti- san league meeting. The Com- mercial club of Alexandria insult- ed these farmers by refusing to help in the plans for the meeting and refusing to furnish music or other entertainment for the city’s " guests. The Commercial club al- ways has helped plan meetings and has furnished music in the . past for other kinds of gatherings at Alexandria. A similar thing happened at Aberdeen, S. D., on the same Gay. The labor unions of Aberdeen planned a big Labor Day celebration and invited the National Nonpartisan league to send a speaker, who was given a prominent place on the proposed program. The Commercial club of Aberdeen had donated money. to help make the Labor Day celebration of the unions a \suecess; but when the club found that the union men had invited a repre- sentative of the organized farmers to 'speak, it objected. There are 20,000 League farmers in South Dakota and the business men of Aberdeen insulted them by refusing to permit their represent- ative to speak. The union men, objecting to this position of the Commercial club, for § while “insisted on hearing the League speaker, Finally the Commercial club agreed ‘he could speak if SIX