The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 1, 1917, Page 7

b e S ity ‘ MR. Hoover and the United States food administration” merit © trying to do the right thing in regard to the grades. - 5 “‘reputable lawyers’’ and ‘“‘prominent legal liéhfs" of the state wers authority for the charge—but not one was named in the sensational stories. The plain truth was that the League was not in debt, any more than it is now, and in no prospect of being, as it was loyally and ade- quately financed by the farmers. The plain law of the matter was that - the League was not a ‘‘legal partnership”’, and by no stretch of the imagination could it be so held. The Nonpartisan Leader at once produced 20 written legal opinions over the signatures of 20 of the best attorneys in the state, ‘branding the charge as ridiculous. Remember, the other side did not produce a single signed opinion of any lawyer—they couldn’t even find a shyster to sign such an opinion. Then the Leader offered $1000 in gold to the chief daily newspaper of the state making the charge, if that paper would prove its point under the following conditions: | That paper and the Leader each to select a lawyer and those two . lawyers to seleet a third lawyer, and the decision of these three to be | binding on the Leader and the chief daily paper making the charge. . It was not a bet. The Leader was to get nothing if it won, but the daily paper was to get $1000 in gold if it proved its point. Well, the daily paper quit cold, ignored the offer and shut up like a clam, and so did every other paper that for weeks had been pounding on'this false charge with a view to getting League members to resign. The story had the effect of giving the League a great boost and the papers that made the :fiuge became' the laughing stock of the state. : : The fact is, of course, that the League is no more a legal partner- ship, with each member liable for debts of the organization, than the Republican or Democratic parties, and nobody was ever silly enough to claim that those parties were legal partnerships. There can be no legal partnership without a specific agreement of all the partners to that effect and League members have made no such agreement. League members are liable under the law for their annual dug and not a cent more. ‘h‘ R M : = ~ THANKS, MR. HOOVER the thanks of the farmers for the fairness displayed in listen- ing to farmers’ protests in regard to the federal grain grades, and for the official action so far taken in making those grades more fair. There is also hope that further steps will be taken to mitigate the severe penalties farmers suffer as a result of the enforcement of these ill-considered and foolish grading rules. In order to get a measure of/justice for the farmers in this in- stance, Mr. Hoover and his associates had to overcome the pride and prejudice of those in the federal department of agriculture responsible for putting these grades in effect—and these bureaucrats were loath to give in, as they felt that to do 50 was a confession of their mistake in trying to enforce the unjust rules. . . The food. administration has already given orders permitting the sale of all wheat under No. 3 by sample, instead of compelling eom- pliance to the No. 4 and No. 5 grades. Since then a committee of the North Dakota state farmers’ officials, accompanied by Congressmen Baer and Young of North Dakota, have interviewed officials of the . federal grain-handling corporation regarding further mitigation of . the rules wanted by the farmers, and this committee has been respect- fully received and listened to, with the prospect of further .concessions . i being granted. with Mr. Hoover and his associates in thejr belief that the price fixed_}} for wheat is,*‘a liberal one that will stimulate production’’, but they are not protesting that price and they will give Mr, Hoover credit for . TOO LARGE A COMNISSION e 4 S this issue of the Leader is received by Leaguers new war taxes | will be going into effect. Letter postage will -be three cents,"_ - instead of two cents, a postecard will cost two cents, instead " of one. Moving picture tickets, medicines, toilet articles, playing. - cards, tobacco and almost every kind of legal and financial paper " imaginable, will call for new taxes: The Ameriean public does not like lsta,mx')i ta};qs, : Bgt it will submit gracefully, knowing that the money is needed and that IT WILL GO INTO THE HANDS OF THE GOVERNMENT. = - " The American public will submit to this new war tax a great deal more gracefully than it has to a war tax which it has been paying fop the last three years, rising in the last year to the total amount of FOUR BILLIONS OF DOLLARS. These four billions represent the excess war profits ABOVE NORMAL PROFITS, made by American corpora- tions, in part by extortionate prices on war materials charged to our European allies, but principally by extortoinate prices charged OUR OWN PEOPLE. To these war taxes the people of the United States contributed to a greater extent than they will contribute to the new stamp taxes. But . none of this money went to the government in the past. Under the new war tax bill, approximately 30 per cent of these excess war profits will be taken by the government in future. The - corporations®will be left undisturbed in the possession of normal prof- its and 70 per cent of the excess war profits. In England the theory has been adopted that excess war profits belong to the government. The government takes 80 per cent of them, allowing the corporations 20 per cent for collection. In the United States the government takes 30 per cent and allows _ the corporations 70 per cent for collection. It is too large a commission. THE WALL STREET PATRIOTS HILE patriotie citizens in all parts of the United States were ‘}‘/ making a supreme effort in behalf of the second Liberty loan, professional speculators in Wall street were making a determined raid upon the bond market. As a result of their actions, the price of every bond in the list, including United States bonds of the first Liberty loan, was depressed. So sensational was the drop in prices that the United States treasury department was forced to make the unusual ruling that banks might carry bonds on their books at more than the market price, Otherwise many banks might have been compelled to suspend business, The effect of the depression of the bond market was to say to the investors of the country: ‘“‘Uncle Sam’s promise to repay loans with interest is not worth ‘par. The commercial fabrie of the country is unsafe.”’ - The effect of the raid of the gamblers has done more than lower the prices of government bonds. It has thrown bonds of all the great corporations on the bargain counter. It has not only shaken confi- dence in the government’s promises to pay, it has also thrown prime industrial and railroad securities on the bargain counter, as an active competitor of Liberty loan bonds of the second issue, and has lessened their value millions of dollars to widows and orphans whose all is in- vested in them. i ' : Yet Wall street calls the western farmers unpatriotic. Vaz PROPERTY RIGHTS E CAN'T quite forget the effrontery of that statement in the ‘}‘/ literature of the National Citizens’ union that we have re- ferred to previously. As you remember this union is an or- ganization formed to oppose the Nonpartisan league on a nation-wide e . seale. It is backed, as we showed, by some of the most trusted friends The farmers in the spring wheat states may not be able to agree . « of Big Business. The statement of the N. C. U. that keeps coming up i.fn_our mind is that one which refers to the League and other organiza- tions of the common people as ‘‘trying to sweep away property rights.’’ Somehow, that makes us downright angry.. There never was an -organization of the common people with a wide following that proposed “to.do that. Good heavens, man, the farmers want TO PROTECT legit- imate property rights—their own and yours. Do you think they have no property rights? They own land, and buildings, and machinery, and livestock—mortgaged, perhaps—and maybe their wives have washing machines or sewing machines, Perhaps the family ownsa Ford. The farmers want to protect their rights in this property. Not only that. They want to protect the rights of everybody in property— in all kinds of property, WITH ONE EXCEPTION. That exception .is this: PROPERTY USED TO OPPRESS AND EXPLOIT HU. ANy U < Listen, you folks who 'talksloosely about “swéeping away property rights”. .The kind of property that is used to oppress and exploit hu- . manity consists of the great public utilities, the natural monopolies— like railways, telegraph and telephone lines, grain elevators, terminal marketing’ facilities for food products, natural resources like water power sites, and the like. These things should be publicly owned, and when the N. ‘C. U. speaks about ‘‘sweeping away property rights?’, THAT AND THAT ONLY is the kind of property rights it means. No other kind of property rights are menaced. | centins o