The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 4, 1918, Page 20

SR 85 BRI . = VPRI o g ? i { i # -Equity Co-Operative Exchange, South St. Paul, Minn. ADVERTISEMENTS Read What Some of Our Shippers Have to Say About Our Sales and Service After Receiving Their Returns: R. No. 2, Pekin, N. D., Oct. 15, 1917. Equity Co-Operative Exchange, South St. Paul, Minn. Mr. Ferguson—Dear Sir: Coming home from St. Paul, I remembered 1 had forgotten to say good-bye to you people there, and while I believe in criticism when due, I am just as sure to praise any one when it has been earned, and the way you handled my shipment this time makes me believe that you are a lot of nl«ie people ttronilt top to bottom, and I wsllll booslt for the Exchange whenever I et an opportunity. ncerely yours, ¥ i i (Signed) P. A. PETERSON. Litchfield, Minn.,, Nov. 16, 1917. Equity Co-Operative Exchange, South St. Paul, Minn. Dear Sirs: My car of cattle you sold today far better than I expected. ‘Will have a car of hogs for you to sell soon. Yours truly, (Signed) J. A. LaMONTE. Grey Eagle, Minn., Oct. 10, 1917. Gentlemen: Have received returns on the car of cattle and hogs which I shipped you today, and am well pleased with the sales and the way in which my load was handled. You can expect our future shipments. Yours very truly, Signed) C. A. WOOD, Mgr. Grey Eagle Shipping Assn. Newport, Minn,, March 22, 1917. Equity Co-Operative Exchange, South St. Paul, Minn. Dear Sirs: Wish to say that I am well pleased with your sale of $9.36 per hundred that you got for the load of cattle that I had consigned to you and sold yesterday. I saw other cattle weighed up that were sold by other com- mission firms, and was surprised that you got $9.35 for mine. Another thing I learned while there was thnh wt;ile iotll;er dco(;ntmitsl?logtfltrmsf%el bor;gttag to the South St. Paul Exchange, the Equity is bonded to the State o nne 3 Respectfully yours, (Signed) VICTOR MUNSON. A LETTER FROM RAY McKAIG i I\1)[/[1:1n<iarx, N. D,, Dec. 1, 1917. Equity Co-Operative Exchange, South St. Paul, nn. = e};r Sir; Having been a cattle raiser in North Dakota for a number of years, having had.occasion to ship stock to South St. Paul and Sioux City, and knowing the tricks of the commission men and their treatment of the farmers, I welcomed the organization of your Exchange as one of the reliefs from an almost hopeless marketing entanglement. I shipped to you this fall two carloads of stock, and was immensely pleased by the returns that I got. I found that you did not sell these beeves to the speculators, but that you made it a point to get the fairest and the best price possible. You took care of them. You watched over them, and all I can say is that if any man wants to get the best price possible for his stock, he wants to send it to the Equity Co-Operative Exchange, which is a place where the m"’{‘ller e ands et? eali ive of my own free will, and do so gladly. s recommendation ve 0 . 3 P Yours ver)g truly, (Signed) RAY McKAIG, State Master. Equity Co-Operative Exchange LIVESTOCK DEPT. SOUTH ST. PAUL, MINN. DEMOCRACY OR DESPOTISM By WALTER THOMAS MILLS, A, M. . The World War is a Struggle between Democragy and Despotism. But what is Democracy—what itg Despotism, and why are they at war? What are the fundamental causes and what will be the final ending of this war and o!,.' all wars? What can be done in towns, cities, states, trades unions, farmers' unions and at the ballot box to create conditions under which exploitation in time of peace and bloodshed in time of war shall become as impossible then as they -are unavoidable now? . ey * If these things interest you, get and read this new book. s the resu of a lifetir?\e of gctivity in cKrrent economic and political contx,'oversies. When Mr. Mills had completed this book, he then made a five years’ journey around the world as a special commissioner for the City of Milwaukee, studying at first hand and on the ground the very matters concerning which he had writ- ten. He then rewrote his entire manuscript, thus bringing the results of his studies into conformity with the actual achievements of the most progressive communities of all the earth. Send $1.25 for this book, pleased with your bargain, re returned to you. Address: INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF SOCIAL ECONOMY R. R. No. 1, Northampton Road, Berkeley, California ostpaid, and if, after reading it, you are mot D e hook unsoiled, and your money will be Uncle Sam Says Raise Garden Truck Farmers and ‘“towners” must have dens this year. Raise your own ettuce, carrots, onions, beans, beets, j corn" and potatoes. Use ‘*Pioneer Brand®® Seeds E hing you need can be had romnfhu“Pioneer Seed House and Nursery,” which furnishes stocks that are gm:: for the West by actual ‘esf Will’s ““Pioneer ?oed llA]nmfml“ or _lgllxtearfletlll; p:{niutfl?e:ey- R 4 fablos fox the table fomses Send $1.00 in stamps farm. Write today—: s or money order to 146 E. 4th St., St. Paul, Minn. . School and Office Stationers Pencil Sharpener for the Home, Office or School McCLAIN & HEDMAN CO. The capitol of the state of Washington at Olympia, where politicians once—in imitation of the famous saying of a Kansas governor—told the farmers to go, home and raise wheat, instead of “raising so much hell” trying to get bills, favor- able to farmers, passed by the legislature. They told the North Dakota farmers, before the advent of the Nonpartisan league, to “go home and slop the hogs, we’ll make the laws.” (Continued from page 7) and beat the workers and farmers in the ‘“‘seven sisters’’ campaign. The members of the 1915 legisla- ture beat anything that the old gang in 1913 had been able to do. In 1913 they contented themselves with re- fusing the demands of the workers for new laws; in 1915 they set out to put aside the old laws. The initia- tive, referendum and recall amend- ments to the constitution provided that the legislature might enact addi- tional laws to ‘‘facilitate’’ the opera- tion of direct legislation. Under the guise of ‘“facilitating” the initiative, referendum and recall, the old gang prepared, and passed bills that would prohibit petitions from being circu- lated for signatures. The governor vetoed these bills but they were re- passed, with two-thirds votes in both houses, over his veto. A bill was passed to prevent the port commission of Seattle from ex- tending its business sufficiently to compete with private wharfs. The governor signed this bill. Bills were prepared to kill the direct primary, the compensation act and the mini- mum wage act, but the old gangsters did not quite have the nerve to pass these. Another bill to make the ini- tiative and referendum more difficult required compulsory registration in all country districts and made the farmers travel 20 miles or more, in many instances, to register. Often they would find the registration offi- cer gone when they got there. The farmers were not allowed to sign petitions until after they had reg- istered. PEOPLE “COME BACK” AND HIT THE GANG The old gangsters knew that the people would try to use the refer- endum to block these laws.- To get around this they tried a new ‘“dodge,” attaching an ‘“emergency clause” to each of these measures, to put them into effect immediately so that no time would be left to file referendums against them. But they stepped on the governor's toes by at- taching an ‘‘emergency clause” to a bill designed to take patronage away from him, he carried the case to the supreme court and got a five to four decision which put a stop to this practice. Things seemed pretty bad for the joint legislative committee at this time. The state looked like a total loss, with no insurance, so far as the people were - concerned. But the workers did not give up hope. They got. out referendum petitions against PAGE TWENTY A e DR A O 'gfimmmmwfimmfi‘@m&fi’;? . majority. seven of the worst bills that had been passed by the legislature. They cir- ulated petitions and got the necessary number of signatures. The fisheries and lumber interests, aided by the power interests, when these seven referred measures came up for vote at the 1916 election, started the same campaign of mis- representation that had been success- ful in beating the ‘‘seven sisters” in 1914. But it didn’t work. The peo- ple could not be fooled twice in the same way. In the election of 1916 every one of the seven measures, referred by the joint legislative committee was beaten by the people by a tremendous Of 268,000 people, men and women, who voted on the refer- endum measures, the vote for them averaged omnly about 70,000—the vote against them averaged more than 190,000. WHEN PEOPLE SLEEP THE POLITICIANS PROFIT But for the activities of the joint legislative committee, representing the farmers and laboring men, all the progress of the state up to 1912 would have been wiped out in the last five years. y But the farmers and workers are not satisfied. They have done wonderful things in working together —they have prevented the Big In- terests from furthering their control over the state. But this is not enough. Something affirmative must be done—something to put the people really in the saddle. The members of the'joint legislative committee themselves realize this. ‘“When - we organized,” said Miss Lucy R. Case, secretary of the com- mittee, to the writer the other day, “we did not expect to have to use the initiative and referendum as we have. We thought it would be enough to keep them like the gun be- hind the door. We thought the threat would be enough to get the workers and farmers fair treatment.” But the farmers and workers see now that it is not enough merely to have an organization and to ask poli- j ticians elected by Big Business to pass laws favorable to the people. Having the initiative and referendum helps—it enables the people to block bad laws—it gives them a chance to make piecemeal progress, after hard fights, provided always that the peo- ple are not fooled by a press con- trolled by Big Business, the cage in ‘Washington in 1914. : But the best way of all is for the farmers and labor men to_elect their