The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, January 14, 1918, Page 6

_ going into—to get laws and.pricesj»favorable;‘to farmers, j Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—i"lvery Week Entered as second-class matter September 3, 1915, at the postoffice at St. Paul, Minnesota, under the Act of March 3, 18%9. OLIVER S. MORRIS, EDITOR Advertising rates on application. Subsecription, one year, in advance, $2.50; six months, $1.560. Communications should be addressed to the Nonpartisan Leader, Box 575, St. Paul, Minn. MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS THE S. C. BECKWITH SPECIAL AGENCY, Advertising Representatives, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. - Quack, fraudulent and irresponsible firms are not knowingly advertised, and we will take it as a favor if any readers will advise us promptlfv should they have occasion to doubt or question the reliability of any firm which patronizes our advertising columns. THE GREAT TEST HE scores of railroad systems operating in the United States are - ' I now under central control, in the hands of the government. The test of government operation of railroads is at hand. Control of the railroads was assumed by Uncle Sam at a time when transporta- tion was disorganized. Private ownership and control failed to meet the emergency of war. Railways were congested. There were not enough cars in some places and too many in others. Food and fuel shipments were stalled. Railroad yards were blocked with thousands of cars which did not move. Large sections of the country were clamoring for coal and could not get it because transportation had broken down.. 5 - And out of this wreck and ruin the railroads eried helplessly for an increase of rates. With the biggest business and revenue they had ever had they said that the only thing that was wrong was that rates were too low! ;i : This is the transportation situation that Uncle Sam took over to operate for the people. It is a severe test of government control. If it proves successful—if the congestion is relieved, coal furnished to the heatless and food'to the starving—if economies under centralized con- trol make unnecessary the raise in rates which railroad heads said was necessary under the old, separate, scattered management—if the gov- ernment can solve these problems, outright government swnership of railroads in peace will follow the government control now made effec- tive for the war. Uncle Sam has a big job. HE MUST MAKE GOOD. He must have the co-operation of all interests, all factions, in this great experi- ment in democracy. Government ownership and control of transporta- tion will come eventually anyway, but it will come sooner if the present control for the war is successful. \@‘“@m ]EZ fié’g’ e PARGISAN S hERDER THE RIGHT TO ORGANIZE FARMER recently ‘‘got under the skin’’ of the Minneapolis Journal, organ of the Chamber of* Commerce, by stating that ; farmers had just as much right to organize in the Nonpartisan league as editors have to organize in a state or national editorial asso- ciation. The Journal denies this. It says that editorial associations keep out of politics and that the farmers, in their organization, do not keep out of politics. It says that the farmers, in their organization, - ‘‘are trying to set themselves against the rest of mankind,’’ but that the editors, in their organization, are not. - : : Editorial associations and publishers’ organizations do ‘keep out of PARTISAN POLITICS. So:does the farmers’ organization. But editorial and publishers’ organizations are in NONPARTISAN PQLI- TICS up to their necks all the time. And that is what the farmers are doing—no more or no less. : Publishers’ organizations for over a year have been seeking political and government aid to lower the priee of paper, which has soared unreasonably in price, with the war as an excuse. The publishers, BECAUSE THEY WERE ORGANIZED, were able to force the United States trade commission at Washington, ‘D..C., to aid them and secure a reduction in paper costs. ~This saved publishers millions of dollars. This was not engdging in PARTISAN politics, but it was engaging in NONPARTISAN: politics; and doing'it ‘effectively. That is the kind of nonpartisan politics the farmers a;e, : t as pub-" - EDITORIAL SECTION lishers get laws and prices favorable to publishers—BY ORGAN- IZATION. - : Sy At this minute editorial associations and publishers’ organizations throughout the nation are exerting all the POLITICAL pressure they can summon through their powerful organizations to get congress to reconsider the ‘‘zone’’ system of postal rates recently adopted, which affects publishers adversely. And these publishers’ organizations, through the publications they issue, are going to fight against the re- election of every member of congress who does not vote to repeal this ‘‘zone system’’ plan of postal rates. : Is this keeping out of politics? The Minneapolis Journal says so. It says editors and publishers are not in politics with their organiza- tions, but that farmers are—therefore farmers are ‘‘setting class against class,’”’ but editors and publishers are not. The Journal adds that the organized farmers are selling their right of citizenship, because they have agreed to vote for candidates that ‘‘heads of their organization tell them to vote for.’’ This is a gross falsehood. No farmer who has joined the Nonpartisan league has made any such promise nor been asked to make any such promise. All the organized farmers have done is this: They have pledged each other their mutual aid in electing to office NONPARTISAN candidates ‘WHO SHALL BE SELECTED BY THE ORGANIZED FARMERS THEMSELVES IN CONVENTION ASSEMBLED. The organ of the Chamber of Commerce will have to come again— and stronger—before it can convince farmers by lies and misrepresenta- . tions that they do not have the right to organize and exercise NON- PARTISAN political power, just as the editors and publishers are doing. THE “DOPE” OF THE HIRED PRESS HE anti-farmer press continues to use the same old tricks to dis- credit anyone—especially anyone in an official position—who * takes the farmers’ side. President E. G. Quamme of the federal land bank at St. Paul issued a statement showing the crisis the govern-. ment rural credit system is going through. The Leader covered the situation last week. Quamme showed what the opposition of the private money lenders and their friends in congress has done and is doing to cripple government rural credits. Therefore Quamme had to b}(le dits)eredited by the hired press favorable to the financial powers that be. ; It was done this way: St. Paul and Minneapolis papers tele- graphed their Washington correspondents that Quamme had issued a “‘‘sensational’’ statement about the immediate co-operation of congress being needed to save the banks. They asked their Washington corre- spondents to get something ‘‘to show Quamme up’’ for such ‘‘rash’’ statements. The next day their papers carried Washington dispatches saying that ‘‘great surprise’’ existed in the national capital over the . Quamme statement. The ‘‘surprise’’ was due to the fact that Quamme should go off half cocked, ‘‘when congress was doing everything possible to help the federal land banks.”” Quamme was made to appear as a sensational, wild-eyed individual who was lying about the federal land banks for some ulterior motive. Thus does the hired press seek to discredit every person ‘who raises. his. voice against things as they are—thus does it seek to be- smirch those who cry out against economic and political abuses under which certain interests are profiting. ’ The most powerful financial interests in the country are spending ? great sums of money freely and exerting every influence to prevent -congress from passing a bill that will permit the federal land banks to = sell their bonds and thus make more loans to farmers at rates under what the money lenders, unmolested, can exact. When Mr, Quamme issued his statement, the United States senate had already amended the bill wanted by the land banks. 1 make it a farce and useless as a measure of relief, Yet Washington f:‘orrgspondents telegraphed the anti-farmer press that congress was doing everything possible to meet the needs of the land banks.’’ And a large part of the public continues to swallow the “ddpéi’,? . peddled by the hired press. 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