The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 15, 1917, Page 7

P - TR City consumers are entitled to milk at reasonable prices. But when it comes to lowering prices, why do state authorities not make an attempt to end the many duplications of service that come In Minneapolis and St. Paul milk producers get only 6 cents a quart after from a faulty system? paying express to the cities. The distributors get 4 cents a quart merely for distribution. In ‘Wisconsin and Illinois milk producers get 7 cents, the distributors add 5 cents, making the price to the consumer 12 cents. ders cutting down the Minneapolis flour mills to a 50 per cent run. This was done, apparently, so that more wheat could be diverted to KEastern mills to manufacture flour for export purposes. While the mills were running at only 60 per cent of capacity, however, these overhead expenses were running at the usual 100 per cent, and this na- turally is added to the price of mill feeds. FARMERS RESENT CHARGE OF EXTORTION The farmers of Wisconsin and Minnesota, while bowing to the decrees of the. state authorities in lowering the prices of their products, continue to maintain that they are entitled to at least the cost of production. They are looking to the government to step in and fix a price that will represent the cost of production. The farmers have not put up their prices with the ex- pectation of reaping war profits. At the meeting of Wisconsin and lllinois pro- ducers in September every local association produced figures on the cost of pro- duction. These were aver- aged up and the figure of $2.42 was obtained as the average. The milk produc- ers say this was merely an advisory figure. But on ac- count of this meeting to de- termine costs, every Wiscon- sin producer present has been proceeded against by a hostile attorney general on the charge that they consti- tute a milk trust. No action has been taken against the Chicago distributors. The farmers resent bitterly the .ccusation that they are at- tempting to charge extortionate prices or to make war profits. They say that they are entitled to the cost of production, and that this is all they are seeking. In this connection there is an interesting matter to be consid- ered. The food administration has already had a committee of experts investigating milk pro- duction costs, but ‘their report has never been made public. However, F. A. Pearson of the University of Illinois college of agriculture, one of the members of this committee, has made a report of his own, based on in- vestigations of more than 100 cows, and this has been made, public. = PROFESSOR PEARSON ASCERTAINS COSTS Professor Pearson found that the average cost of producing 100 pounds of milk, the year around, was $3.14. This figure was based on the following table of year-around costs: Grain, 44 lbs., at $52.50......$1.15 Silage, 88 Ibs. at $8...~eeee. .75 Hay, 50 1bs., at $20.......... .50 Bedding, 31 lbs,, at $7........ .14 Man labor, 2.42 hrs,, at 25c.. .60 $3.14 Additional debits of horse labor and @verhead expense, Professor Pearson found, were offset Dy credits of manure, etc Professor Pearson found that the ex- penses varied greatly, month by month. He prepared the following table, s.how- ing the variation by months, the figure quoted for each month being the per- Some L.etters | GETS FAKE LEAGUE PAPER . Brooten, Minn. Editor Nonpartisan Leader: I am sending vyou under separate cover, a copy of the St. Cloud Times, showing what undemocratic arguments the enemies of democracy will use to further their cause. They are very much worried over where the $16 goes, but they don't make any attempt to show us farmers where the money that the Chamber of Commerce of Minne- apolis steals from us goes. Have you seen the Nonpartisan, a monthly publication, official organ of the fake “Minnesota Nonpartisan léague”? If not I will send you a copy. centage that should be applied to the base figure of $3.14 to find the expense for that month: i January ...... Seiteens ol 19 February c...eecoessecsssees ...114.3 March ....... 106.5 MaY .ceoeersscersnocccssssses 13.2 JUNe L i e s eanes e 0040 July ...... B RO k- AUBUSt ....etveeeescciinenen. 94.3 September ......ceeneeerenes. 96.7 October ..... et S e 10952 November ......... ve...118.3 December .......coceeceeese ..120.3 According to Profecssor Pearson’s percentages, the actual cost of pro- duction for October was $3.43, a etV TO THE (€ 1 Too.MucH oN, MILK . 70L0 70 SAY /T By THE Mowopoly MILK DISTRIBUTORS OF THE BIG CITIES The farmers constitute a milk trust, the attor- ney general of Wisconsin says, and he prose- cutes them. The farmers say that the great distributing companies in Chicago constitute the real milk trust. Maybe if the farmers of Wisconsin had an attorney general of their own in office, as the farmers of North Dakota have, he would see things, once in a while, from the farmers’ viewpoint. b has E production. 5 steps taken THE puBlIC FARMER Y IS MAKING This is too big a middleman’s profit. cent higher than the figure arrived at by the Wisconsin and lllinois milk producers, and the cost of production for November is $3.71. Producers are accepting the $3.22, following the ruling of the gover- ' nor's commission. While costs of production are going up, the price of the farmers' products is being forced down. That is why the milk producers are demanding that the food ad- ministration take some steps to protect them. The milk producers want Her- bert Hoover to make public the findings of the committee that already investigated milk They want some that will put the prices of mill feeds down to fol- low the reduction made in the wheat price. And whatever theip costs may be, they want to be able to get for their product the cost of production. FOR THE LEAGUE AND EQUITY Blanchard, N. D. Editor Nonpartisan Leader: I desire earnestly to urge upon the farmers of the Northwest the support in all respects, especially the financial support, of the two organizations that have done so much for us and have a great future of usefulness. I refer to the Xquity Co-operative Ex- change and the Nonpartisan league. Though they are so dif- ferent, they are twin-brothers fighting our battles for us. Is there something you have not approved in one organization or the other? Probably. Some mistalkes have been made, hut is there anyone worth while who has not made mistakes? These societies have achieved things in our behalf that we know not of. It would be hard to estimate the beneficial in- fluence they have had in the one matter of the fixing of the prices for wheat and in the persistent open fight for fair marketing conditions. Though the unfair grades have not been changed, as they must be, everyone who is shipping wheat must have observed an improvement in the grading, an improvement due in no small measure to the earnest work of the Equity Co-Operative Ex- change and the Nonpartisan league, through their able voices the Co-operators’ Herald and the Nonpartisan Leader. A man without a voice can not be heard; neither can a society that would mold public opinion. For that reason we must loyally support these two organs. It takes money to make the mare go. Since the progressive mare is ours and the going good, hadn't we better keep her going? DATUS C. SMITH. A LETTER IN RHYME Hoyt, Colo. Editor Nonpartisan Leader: Do you hear a rumbling in the North and in the West, A rumbling like an earthquake on the Rocky mountain’s crest? Is it a Dakota blizzard and no cause for alarm? No, it is next year's election, and the ballots of the farm. E. L. STEVENSON. From Readers of the Nonpartisan [.eader ‘Wish you success in your noble work. D. H. HALVORSON. LIKES LEADER, QUITS JOURNAL Red Lake Falls, Minn. Editor Nonpartisan Leader: I just enjoy reading the Leader and am much pleased with the work and I earnestly hope the Leader will always keep its record clean, which will ac- complish no small deed at the end. Let us all who believe in right and justice stand firmly on our founda- tions. Let's be patriots, Patriotism is the true keystone to success, so let us abide by it, through dark and light, through good and evil. Be steadfast, We shall win. I am enclosing you a letter I wrote to the Minneapolis Journal: “Your paper, the Journal, is the most slandering ‘and libeling piece of paper I have ever set my eyes on. Are you doing justice to the people of the Northwest by slandering the farmers for organizing to get justice for them- selves, which they would never get un- less they did organize? “Don’t you think the farmers have a right to organize, that they are exercis- ing the freedom and liberty gained for them by their forefathers? Are we to shame them and give up our rights to a gang press, the tool of Big Biz? Is the farmer a traitor because he defends his rights? Are not the farmers buy- ing Liberty bonds? Are not the farm- ers’ sons responding to the call of the nation? Is not the farmer steering the plow to produce the food the na- tion depends on? “Has not the farmer any morals or feelings for his country and his flag? Yes, a thousand times yes—as noble feelings for his country as any gang press that ever existed. Sift these questions out for yourselves and think twice before you speak again.” SEVER SLINDE. P. S. I have promptly stopped my sub to this slandering paper.