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

Nonpartian Teader Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Week Entered as second-class matter September 1915, at the toffice at 8t. Paul, Minnesota, under the Act of March 3, x:‘zs. P OLIVER 8. MORRIS, EDITOR Advertising rates on application. Subscription, one year, in advance, $2.50; 8ix. months, $1.60. Communications should be addressed to the Nonpartisan Leader, Box 676, St. Paul, Minn. MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS e TS Esan Sk sl e nllesedaaidsi TR s Wstne s ki R S SR, THE 8. C. BECKWITH SPECIAL AGENCY, Advertising Representatives, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas dky. Quack, fraudulent and irresponsible firms are not knowingly advertised, and we will take it as a favor if any readers will advise us smnptln should they have occasion to doubt or question the reliability of any firm which patronizes our advertising columns. e THE “PAY" IN PATRIOTISM PRESIDEN’I‘ WILSON has ordered an investigation by the United States department of justice into charges of wholesale graft in connection with government contracts at the Hog Island ship- yard. A senate committee has been investigating the matter. - Some very significant testimony was given the senate committee by George Baldwin, chairman of the International Ship corporation, which . is building the yards. He said that stockholders of this company will get about six millions of dollars in il profits out of this job, to pay them 3l _for their patriotism in putting the government in a position to build ships. ; ; Senator Johnson of California questioned Mr. Baldwin in detail about the huge profits being made out of a government contract. Mr. Baldwin became angry. ‘‘You can not keep a corporation alive on patriotism,”” said Mr. Baldwin. : However, the farm boy, whose most precious asset, his life, is of- fered o his country in this erisis, is expected to and does make the sacrifice FOR THE SAKE OF PATRIOTISM, and not profits. Shame on war profitcers who boldly brag of almost unbelievable profits in war contracts,” and tell the i senate that you ‘‘cannot keep a war industry alive on patriotism.’’ Another part of Mr. Baldwin’s testimony was: very interesting. { Who do you suppose was one of the stockholders of this shipbuilding ! company, sharing in these fanecy profits? None other than our friend, . J. Ogden Armour, whose profiteering methods and high-financing deals were recently dragged into the light of day by the investigation of . the federal trade commission into the Amertean packing trust. /-4 i ' page of League meetings, and of riots and near riots. The article on THE SITUATIOf IN MINNESOTA .‘ situation existing in Minnesota with reference to the Nonpartisan league. For a couple of weeks League members have been read- ing in their newspapers of arrests.and threats of arrests, of stop- It l :LSEWHERE in this issue the Leader publishes an aceount of the i -page 11 of this issue contains nothing new for Minnesota readers, but i { it will be of utmost interest to League members in other states, who -havé been wondering what all these newspaper reports which have come you cannot afford to miss this artiele on page 11. formed in Minnesota to stamp out the League. A campaign of ‘mis- League scarcely without a parallel was opened in the press of Minne- sota over a year ago. The situation was different in Minnpesota from what it was in North Dakota when the League first became active. In North Dakota they laughed -at the farmers—ridiculed and ‘“joshed”’ , v them when they started to organize to restore the government to the people. But in Minnesota THEY - out of Minnesota mean. * Fherefore’ A gigantic conspiracy has been. representation and lies about the . REALIZED IT WAS NO JOKE. They had the example OfNorth Da-. S i e : PAGE EIGHT ) kota, a neighbor state, before them, They knew the farmers meant business when they started to organize the League, and they knew that ridicule and ‘‘ joshing’’ would not balk them. They would have fo go at it seriously to beat the Minnesota farmers, or Minnesota would follow in North Dakota’s tracks. . ’ ; e Consequently one of the most ruthless and scandalous campaigns of slander against the League and its leaders that a hired press ever stooped to was started in Minnesota. But the League grew by leaps and bounds. Today the League in Minnesota is mach more thoroughly or- ganized than it was at the corresponding time before the election in North Dakota two years ago. And the League is growing in Minnesota as fast, if not faster than it is growing in any other state. g Frantic with desperation, the servile press, the politicians an ' the big interests that the organized farmers are fighting started a big cam paign to set the Minnesota towns and Minnesota businesg men against the organized farmers, and temporarily succeeded to the extent 0. gets ting about 40 of 250 League meetings scheduled during the las ' fes weeks stopped by town authorities and sheriffs. - S A remarkable situation in the Minnesota state house at St. | made this possible—the full details are on page 11. You will be - iter- ested to hear of the trumped-up charges that have been made, an = you will be interested to know that.the tide has turned—that this pe t; - : i THE PRICE.OF WHEAT t tion has reacted, as only it colild, on those who framed the conspira; a.. BILL has been introduced in the United States senate provid- ing that the fixed price of wheat for the 1918 erop shali be . $2.75 per bushel, an increase of 55 cents a bushel over the fixed price for the 1917 crop, Reports from Washington are to the effect that this bill has a very good chance of passing, as there is gen- eral recognition of the fact that the price of $2.20, which prevailed in 1917, does not cover the cost of production, in many localities, at a time when farm costs-and general living costs are soaring to unheard of levels. ; The Leader knows, because it is in mtimate touch with conditions in the wheat producing region;, that the $2.20 price of wheat, in comparison with the increased cost of farming and the general increase in the cost of living, is too low. We ventured that opinion when the $2.20' price was fixed, and we were called ‘‘pro- German’’ for daring to question a government order in war time. On. this theory, those who have intro- duced the bill for a higher wheat price are secret emissaries of the Kaiser. But this is not the moral of this editorial. . g The fact is that those who are backing the bill to inerease the price of wheat realize something is wrong, but have started to right it in the wrong way. By all means, say we, if there is no other way out of the condition the farmqr has been forced into by the $2.20 price of wheat, let the price be raised. Under the $2.20 price thousands of farmers failed to mnke costs last year. Other thousands merely broke even. Many were fuined. If there is no other way, let’s raise the fixed price of wheat! But the farmers themselves have shown a better way. In their great St. Panl Producers’ and Consumers’ conference last fall, under the auspices of the Nonpartisan league, the farmers patriotically aceepted the price of wheat, and voted to ‘‘pocket, the losses’’ that would - result from lowering the price from $3.06, which then prevailed on the ~ market. ‘When the farmers did that, they did something else: equall important. THEY REQUESTED THE GOVERNMEN’lll‘gTO R’.EI%UCI‘S‘: OTHER PRICES TO THE SAME BASIS AS THE PRICE OF WHEAT. - The Leader submits that this is still the solution. Let the govern- ment REDUCE THE PRICE OF FARM MACHINERY AND OF EV- ERYTHING ELSE THE FARMER HAS TO BUY, whether it goes into the making of a erop of wheat or into general living expenses. And let these reduetions be on the same basis as the price of wheat was reduced. Then the price of wheat will not have to be raised. Other interests will of eourse, have to sacrifice some of the four billion dollars a year now being made in excess war profits, but in our opinion the man who is capitalizing this war for profits should have no consideration whatever. President Wilson was shown the way. In a recent message to con- gress he recommended that price-fixing be ‘‘earried down-the line.” He'said that is only fair, since the farmers have already willingly sac: - rificed profits for patriotism. The price for wheat was out of praportion to farming costs last® year. This year, owing to further inereases in farmin "costs, it i than ever too low. If the pirates who are getiing. Eleh ontl t)l't's@;-tl::l.; leather, shoes and a thousand other things must have their blood money R P ey ' P st T vl tommnerndd i T 53 gy g e