The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 4, 1918, Page 8

Nonpartisan Teader Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Week Entered as second-class matter September 3, 1915, at the postoffice at St. Paul, Minnesota, under the Act of March 3, 1879. OLIVER 8. MORRIS, EDITOR Advertising rates on application. Subscription, one year, in advance, $2.50; six months, $1.50. Communications should be addressed to the Nonpartisan Leader, Box 575, St. Paul, Minn. MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS E 8. C. BECKWITH SPECIAL AGENCY, Advertising Representatives, TH New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Xansas City. Quack, fraudulent and irresponsible firms are not knowingly advertised, and we will take it as a favor if any readers will advise us promptl;,' lshould they c have occasion to doubt or question the reliability of any firm wh \ patronizes our advertising columns. WHEN CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY PROTEST down manufacturing plants for five days. In addition manu- THE United States fuel administrator has issued an order closing facturing plants, stores, office buildings and other businesses with a few exceptions, are ordered to suspend all work and busi- ness on Mondays each week for 10 weeks, The reason given for the order is the coal shortage. Millions of men will be thrown out of work. Millions of dollars will be lost by the slow-up in production. The fuel administrator’s order has brought home to the business men of America the fact that we are at war. The farmers became ac- quainted with this fact some time ago, when the price of wheat was fixed at 86 cents below the market price, and fixed at a figure that was below cost of production in many localities. The farmers also .. felt the stress of war when their sons volunteered or were drafted for the army, menacing the supply of agricultural labor. But this shut- down order is the first thing that has happened that has brought home * to manufacturers and captains of industry what war really means. They have had to pay a little more income tax. The excess war profits | tax has taken a little, ’tis true. Also, they have had to buy Liberty — VIR T ST AT i . denounced the government. . message to congress. bonds—which pay good interest. But what was all that beside the five billions or so a year of excess war profits? What was all that beside the fact that, in such industries as the government has sought to con- trol, the ‘‘usual 10 per cent’’ profit is being allowed ? On the other hand, the farmers have not been guaranteed the ‘“‘usual 10 per cent’’ profit. They couldn’t, because the average farmer has never made 10 per cent. And while the price of the farm- ers’ wheat has been fixed, what has been done to fix the price of the .. things the farmer must, buy and which are kiting in price, with the war as the excuse? Nothing, as President Wilson pointed out in his recent But the captains of industry know now that we are at war; they know because an order of the government has affected THEIR profits, just as the wheat order affeeted the profits of farmers. You will recollect that when the price of wheat was fixed, the farmers held a- big meeting at St. Paul—a producers’ and consumers’ conference. You will recollect that the farmers at that conference ACCEPTED THE PRICE OF WHEAT WITHOUT ANY PROTEST. All they asked was that the government set the prices of the things the farmers have to BUY on the same basis as the price of wheat had been fixed. But the farmers were branded as ‘‘traitors’’ and ‘‘disloyalists’’ for -this. They had not PROTESTED, but they were called ‘‘pro-German’’ because they even dared TO DISCUSS an act of government, the price of wheat. But what happened when the government shut-down order to save fuel was given? This is what happened: A HOWL WAS LET OUT BY THE CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY THAT HAS SELDOM BEEN . EQUALED IN THE COUNTRY. The press—spokesman for the manu- facturers and others affected by the order—published some of the most bitter and vicious attacks on Fuel Administrator.Garfield and the president that have ever been brought out, in war or peace. Issues 1% of these organs of big business were filled with attacks on the govern- ment that make the mild discussions of the farmers about the price of wheat look weak and insipid by comparison. perate attempt to have the Garfield order repealed. Seldom has an B D e e e Business men openly Congressmen and senators made a des- - PAGE EIGHT e A A TR S S TS act of government—in war or peace—been ridiculed and assailed like this was. ; BUT WERE THE CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY, AND NEWS- PAPERS WHO TOOK UP THEIR CAUSE, DISLOYAL AND PRO- GERMAN, ON ACCOUNT OF THIS PROTEST ABOUT AN ACT OF GOVERNMENT IN TIME OF WAR? Certainly not! Nobody has breathed such a thing! But the farmers, who merely discussed the price of wheat, and didn’t make any protest at all—well, you know how the press of the nation was filled with condemnation and charges of pro-Germanism and disloyalty. It makes a difference when busi- ness men protest, doesn’t it? - THE FIGHT IN MONTANA HE Nonpartisan league numbered many thousands of members in Montana before the mining and water power magnates who exploit the state and have controlled its politics realized what was up. They were busy breaking up the miners’ union at Butte and they didn’t eredit the ‘‘rubes’’ with enough sense to or- ganize effectively. When they finally woke up, the politicians told them that the thing to do was to get the farmers to fighting among themselves. And so the first round of the fight was an attempt by the politi- cians who serve the Amalgamated to get the American Society of Equity and other old farmers’ organizations of Montana to oppose the Nonpartisan league. This fell absolutely flat. The water power and mining barons of the state then turned loose the lesser ‘‘fry’’ among their newspapers—many of the country weeklies and a few of the smaller dailies.. A - campaign of slander against the League and its officers and leaders was inaugurated. But the League grew in Montana by leaps and bounds. And at last, in des- peration, the powers-that-be turned their so-called BIG GUN on the League. The Butte Miner, the largest paper of the state, has been thrown into the fray against the organized farmers. Recently the Butte Miner printed a series of articles attacking the organized farmers. The articles were played up under red-type streamers across the front page, and were accompanied by daily edi- torials denouncing the League. : This attack by the Miner means that the organized farmers’ move- ment in Montana is looked upon as A VERY IMPORTANT THING by the copper trust and its allied interests. It means that the League has become so important in Montana that somebody is getting scared —badly scared. The farmers need no testimonial, outside of the Miner’s attack, to prove to the world that they are making progress in Montana—that they at last have an effeective weapon and are on the way to certain success at the polls, and that the thrones of the mining and water power magnates in Montana are tottering. . PETTY GRAFT BY THE TRUST : I ITTLE wonder that there have been attempts in certain quarters to diseredit the Federal Trade commission for its investiga- tion of the packingtrust! Little wonder that Francis J. Heney’s methods of conducting the investigation for the government have been ‘‘deplored’’ by some of the newspapers! The big news- papers that suppressed most of the important testimony probably had goodErea.sonl.1 i ; 3 : Gven the relatively unimportant patt of the testimon illuminating. At' the hearing at the South St. Paul livestgel:u:;ml;ii: the government investigators found that farmers who came in with hogs to sell had to*pay as much as $2.50 per bushel for soft moldy corn, worth at the most $1. They had to have corn to feed th,eir hogs while they were at the yards, before they were sold. The yards, CONTROLLED BY SWIFT & CO., permitted the farmers to buy the, corn only of the yard ecompany. blllltgl-%otl%lal; packing tl'filst to be practicing! / _but that was not the worst of the petty larce i YARDS RECENTLY REMOVED ALL pTHiVB TROlngHl‘gelt;fiegM %I?E PENS, SO THAT THE FARMERS HAD TO FEED THE HOGS ON THE GROUND. And why, do you suppose? Because, apparently, a R S R e A g R TR .r‘ A T A nice little side-line of graft for the £, & I ) H { il ! 3 [ el ~f 2 < Al b‘ i 1 Y