The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 10, 1917, Page 6

[.abor Hears | » Farmers’ Side The Great Speech of President A. C. Townley of - the National Nonpartisan League Before the National Convention of the American : Federation of Labor at Buffalo BY SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT RGANIZED wage-workers and organized farmers throughout the nation should get together and will get together in the common battle against the food profiteers and the other interests that consume the surplus of all the workers. That was the message that President Townley of the National Nonpartisan league brought to the 37th annual con- vention of the American Federation of Labor, when he addressed the 450 delegates at Buffalo, N. Y., November 16. The delegates liked the {dea. They applauded Townley; they applauded the League as he told of its growth and its plans; but most of all they applauded his offer of the fullest co- operation between the workers in the fields and the workers in the cities, to “protect our families against those who are robbing us.” The speech, in soméwbat condensed form, appears in the official report of the proceedings of the convention as follows: THE ADDRESS OF PRESHDENT TOWNLEY I want to repeat just one thing" that the gentleman who preceded me has sajd, and that is that the farmers of this country, especially of the North- west, misunderstand the organized workers. They class the organized workers too largely as I. W. W’'s. and anarghists, and I want to submit that the farmers are not altogether to blame for that impression, beecause they have a great deal of help in ar- riving at tbat eonclusion. For a few minutes this morning 1 want to carry to you a message from the farmers, the workers in the fields of the Northwest. I represent directly some hundreds of thousands of farm- ers, and indirectly, T think T ean speak for many millions of farmers in these United States. In a time like this when all the liberties that your fore- fathers and mine fought for and won are in jeopardy, when no man ecan tell just what the future may hold for us, it is very important that you, the workers in the 'cities, and we in the country should understand each other; it is very important that no third, per- son, for selfish purposes, shall be per- mitted to lead you to believe that we are opposed to you and to lead us to believe that you are opposed to us. And so it is necessary that we come in contact with each other, because there are at work in this nation tre- mendous forces whose very life de- pends upon keeping you workers in the cities fighting the workers on the farm. If you will permit me, I will tell you what we understand to be our rights and our duties as American citizens. In this country, a democracy, the farm- ers understand that the laws of the land are not made by any one man or group of men to rule us all our lifetime; we understand that the laws of this land are the will of the major- ity of the citizens, and we understand es our duty as American citizens that when a majority of the citizens of this country have spoken, when they have passed a law or have placed men in office to make laws, it is our duty as American citizeng to obey those laws and to obey the men whom the majority authorize to make them. We admit that sometimes the law may not suit us; sometimes, usually never do the men in power sguit all the people of the nation, but we believe that our first duty is to fulfill our first pledge, and that pledge in this country is that we obey, not the law of a king, a kaiger, or a czar, but that we obey the decision of a majority of our fel- low citizens. 1S THE FARMER A CAPITALIST? I want to tell you something about the condition of the farmer, especially of the West., I am sensible of the fact that the organized workers feel that the farmer is in some measure a capit- alist, that the farmer in a large meas- ure is robbing the workers in the city. 1 want to tell you that in the state of ‘North Dakota because of two bad erops in succession it is going to take “ bave now; then when . we us up there ten years to make up what we have lost in the last two years. Our mortgages are continually increasing, the number of farms that are farmed by tenants are continually increasing. I can take you to vast stretches of territory in the Northwest and in the Southwest where the farmers are so thoroughly bankrupt that it is a physi- cal impossibility for them to pay an eight dollar membership fee a year. There are whole groups of counties where they can not pay a membership fee because they never see any money. This may be surprising to some of you. but it is nevertheless a fact. The average inceme of the average farm family in the United States is $31822 a year; now I mean by that that the average. farm family, after they have paid for their maehinery, paid the in- terest, paid the threshing bill, paid all those expenses of producing the crop that they must pay, they have $318.22, out of which they may buy clothing, groceries, educate their children, buy automobiles, take a trip to Flerida and furnish themselves with whiskey and tobaceo. I wouidn’'t bave you under- stand, however, that that $318.22 is used to pay for the mlk and the butter _and the potatoes and things raised an the farm. That is what shey bave left for the work of the family with which to buy those things that they ean not produee upen the farm. Since the war began you will find the farmere’ wives and daughters and their chifdren working in the field. [ have mpent many days the last few weeks driving over the ceumtry and I find theilr scheools closed and the mothers, brethers and sisters of those boys that bave gone to war out in the field picking the corn, digging up the potatees, gathering in the.food te feed the world and its armies of liberty. WHAT BECOMES OF THE EIGHTEEN BiLLION? We are not satisfied with these con- ditiens; we are not getting along very well; we want better conditions and we think we deserve them, beeause we be- lieve that with the improved farm ma- chimery we have to wse we are pro- ducing many times more than it takes to support our families. Years ago we didn’'t have the machinery that we came to thresh the wheat we did it with a flail. We argue that at that time the farm- ers of this country were able to live, they got all they wanted to eat, cloth- ing and shelter enough, and they did not work much longer than they work now; they didn’'t produce one-fiftieth part of what they produce now. The average North Dakota farmer in an TWO LEAGUE BOOSTERS average year will raise wheat enough to feed his family for fifty years, but two weeks after he raises his wheat he hasn’'t any more than any one else. We average In this country $27,000,- 000,000 worth of farm produtcs per year, and of that amount it is esti- mated that farmers get $9,000,000,000 for producing them. 1t is getting to be quite a problem for us to find out where these other $18,- 000;000,000 go to. When we begin to inguire why it is that we only get eight, ten or twelve cents a pourid for pork out of the thirty-five or forty- five cents that the consumer pays, the packers tell us that the reasen we only get eight or ten cents is because the tellows who work in the packing plants are making o much money, that they ezan't do anything with them, and if they don’t give # to them they will go on strike. When we inquire why it is that we got $4.00 last year for the wiseat that makes a barrel of flour and that barrel sells to the consumer. for $14.00 to $19.00 a barrel, the millers ted us it is beocause the mill workers are organized and they take all the money. And when they raised the freight rates on stuff we ship out and we complained about the raise, the railroads published the story in all of the papers that the railroad workers were on strilte and they had to raise the rates to get money enocugh to pay them. When we want to know why it is that we bhave to pay $250.00 for a bingder that we used to get for $115.00, the International Harvester company fells us that the fellows who make binders are living in high society and fesding poodle dogs and that they have to have the money. That's about the way the story gees. I want to say that I am very glad this morning for the opportunity of meeting face to face, representatives of teat group of workers in the United States who are getting our money. For a long time we have wanted to talk this matter over with you. Now, there are some of the farmers who actually believe you are getting the money, but there are a lot of them who are suspicious about it, and I want to take back the word of your own mouths to tell the farmers what you said about it. I want to know whether you dele- gates and those you represent, Mr. President, have got that money or not. President Gompers (interposing): I will tell you on the quiet after awhile, Howard W. Lang of Litchfield, Neb., who has worked energetically for._the Non- partisan league, and his grandson. | One of the most significant things that has happened recently was the invitation extended to the Nonpartisan league farmers to send a representative to make a speech before the great annual conven- tion of the American Federation of Labor at Buffalo recently. President A. C. Townley of the Nonpartisan league was selected to make the speech and did make it, from the same platform occu- pied by President Wilson a day or two before when he gave his message to labor on the war. Mr. Townley, as the representative of 150,000 organized American farmers, was enthusiastically re- ceived and his speech, which is reprinted here as it occurs in the official record of thé:convention, made a tremendous hit with the delegates of the organized workingmen of the United States. Mr. Townley showed how the organized workers of the country, the farmers, and the organized workers of the cities, the labor unions, have a common cause and may well work together in earrying on the fight against a common enemy. If League members want to know what their president told the labor delegates about the ~ League, its purpose and its aceomplishments to date, they should read this speech. Mr. Townley (continuing): The boss doesn’t want to confess to his part of it, but I want to say to you that you don’t need to be a bit afraid to confess if you have been getting thé money. As a matter of fact we hope you have got it, because if you have it we be- lieve we can settle the problem fairly easy, and if some other fellows have it who we have a sneaking notion have got it we are going to have some troue ble settling the problem. 3 THE COMMON INTEREST OF ALL WORKERS The surplus of the farm belongs te the worker in the city and the surplus of the worker in the city belongs to the farmer. The farmers of this coun- ' try are tremendously interested in the surplus you produce, and if you are as much interested as the farmers are it is only a matter of a few years until Wwe can make a tremendous bargain here that will be very much to the benefit of all of us. We are going to make a trade, we are going to make a deal, and the farmers tbat produce in the fields of the United States and the workers that produce in the cities in the United States will get together and they will bring about better conditions, not only for the workers in the field and city, but for all the deserving peo- ple in all the land. We farmers in these United States have been very much asleep, while you and your president for 30 years or more have been struggling to perfeet an organization to protect yourselves industrially, but we are awakening because we are compelled to awake. In the state of North Dakota we don’t mine very much gold; we don’t do much of anything except to raise wheat. North Dakota raises more wheat than any other state in the United States; a hundred million bushels of wheat is the average wheat crop for the state. I want you to no- tice that in North Dakota the farmers raise the wheat, and that is all we have to do with it. After we raise it we turn it over to the Minneapolis mill- ing interests to handle it for us. There is a great difference between raising and handling anything. Let me illus- trate. We elected a farmer-governor in North Dakota last year and he loaded his potatoes on a box car for 83 cents a bushel. During the winter he came to New York to talk about the high cost of living and he found potatoes gelling for $5.50 a bushel, He came back with a glowing report to us on how to make money in the potato busi- ness, and he told us what we wanted to do was to go into the business of hand- ling the potatoes and let somebody else raise them. Let me make that plainer to you still. When a farmer raises potatoes all he does is plow the ground, drag it and disc it, cut up the potatoes In seed, drop the potatoes in. the fur- Tow, cover them up, then cultivate and hoe them and fight the weeds and potato bugs; a little later on he pulls them out, loads the pile in a wagon, puts them in a pit or cellar, and then & little later on puts them on a box car and then somebody else begins to handle them. All he has been doing up to that time is to raise them. The other fellow makes more money hand- ling one bushel than the farmer makes raising ten. : RAISING WHEAT AND “HANDLING” IT What is true of potatoes is true of wheat, and particularly of the wheat in North Dakota: Three years ago Pro- fessor Worst, of the Agricultural col- lege, told us that if we would establish elevators and flour mills in North Da- kota and handle our own -wheat, sell the flour, bran and shorts and get what the people paid for it—if we .would grind up. our Wheat - into I« bran and shorts, feed the bran an- - orts to cattle and sell the flour to you at the L]