The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 11, 1918, Page 6

The Wrong Kind of a Farmers Revolt How the Farmers of Oklahoma Lost Control of Their Government and Then Accepted Bad Advice— Another of the Historical Articles BY E. B. FUSSELL FARMER in one of the dry farming sections of Montana bought some land in Florida once. The agent who sold it told him the land was level, had plenty of water and that the climate was fine and anything would grow in Florida. land and found it was in the middle of a swamp and that it would cost $1000 an acre to drain it he tried to remember every word that the agent had said and he couldn't remember a word that, by itself, wasn’t the truth. And yet that farmer believes that agent was about the biggest liar on earth, and he has good reason for so believing. The writer of this article told something last week about the state of Oklahoma, the wonderful growth of the state, about the Indian millionaires, given fine educations at government expense, about the " fight of the people for better government and a " cities. e VPSS f # | the average farmer’s boy ' in all parts of the world? | farmer make a living? 1 Why are thousands, every progressive constitution and how they got a con- stitution admitted by eminent men to be the best in the United States. Every word in that article, to the writer's best belief, is literally true, but if that were allowed to stand alone, without this article to follow it, the writer would be as bad a liar as the Florida real estate agent. For there is another side of the Oklahoma story. In this state, where practically all the land was given away by the government within the last quarter century, there are more tenant farmers in proportion to the population than in any other state in the Union. According to the government census in 1910, 54.8 per cent of all farmers were tenants. According to the investigations of the ' . industrial relations commission in 47 counties in 1915, 68 per cent of the farmers were tenants. In 1900 only 9 per cent of the farms were mortgaged; fn 1910 nearly 60 per cent were mortgaged. INDIANS GET EDUCATION BUT WHITES GO WITHOUT Something was said last week about how well educated and “civilized” many of the Indians were. For many years, in the east half of the state where the Indian lands lie, the Indians were the only ones who could get any education at all. They were sent to expensive government schools, but there were no schools at all for the whites who lived in this part of the state and as a result there are thousands of grown men and women in Okla- homa today who can not even read and write. There is a sort of a school system throughout the state now. The schools they® will show a visitor have good looking buildings. These are in the ‘But go out in the country and you find gsomething else. The average investment, per pupil, for Oklahoma city schools, according to the latest figure is $85; the average investment in a rural school only $19. The average child attend- ing rural schools in Okla- homa, according to the latest statistics gets only 74 days of school in a year and of 289,209 stu- dents in rural schools, only 1260 are taking work, above the eighth grade. ‘What kind of a state is this, where Indians are wealthy and white men can’t make a living, where or girl gets only 74 days of school a year, yet with a state constitution that has been praised by noted historians and economists And what causes this condition? Why can’t the year, compelled to give up’ their farms and go to work as tenants? What is the use of having a fine constitution for the state if the citizens can’t make both ends meet? decreplt shack. ) When the Montana farmer went to the The Nonpartisan league and the Non- partisan Leader have no sympathy with men who would undertake to embarrass the United States government by riot- ing and violence, whether such riots are started by business men in Minne- sota or by farmers in Oklahoma. But the League and the Leader believe that when conditions exist such as existed and still exist in Oklahoma, the men who are responsible for those condi- tions are as much to blame for what may happen on account of them, as the misguided farmers who took up arms in the Oklahoma draft riots. The rioters received punishment that they probably deserved. It is up to the peo-' ple of Oklahoma and the United States to see that the men who are responsible for the conditions receive the punish- ment that they deserve, or, at least, to see that they are deprived of the power that they have misused. The answer is that the people of Oklahoma have not followed up the. advantage they won 10 years ago in their fight for the constitution. They got a good constitution, no mistake about that, but the constitution merely gives the people power, through their legislature, to handle their own busi- ness in a business like way. And the fact of the matter has been that since the adoption of the con- stitution, drafted by a people’s convention, the peo- ple have let the other fellows control their legisla- tures. WHY THE PEOPLE LOST OUT IN OKLAHOMA There have been several reasons for this. In the first place, the Farmers’ union was very strong in Oklahoma at the time the constitution was drafted, and by co-operation with organized labor was able to elect the delegates. The Farmers’ union had grown strong both in Texas and Oklahoma through the cotton holding movement, which at ‘that time promised to be successful. But the panic of 1907 came along and broke the cotfon holding movement and pretty well broke the Farmers’ union and the farmers, too. In the second place, the Union de- cided against going into politics to the extent of This s a fair sample of the homes furnished tenant farmers of Oklahoma by their landlords. - magnificent residence Is on the estate of Governor Willilams of Oklahoma who owns 2500 acres of land, farmed for him by tenants. The famlly of Wlley Blue, consisting of six persons, lives in this PA_GE sn__: electing their own legislature, so the farmers had no organization with which to work, In the third place the Democratic ‘party in Oklahoma, which came into power in 1907 as a progressive organiza- tion, grew conservative as it remained in control of the state government. Today the governor of Oklahoma is reactionary, an ex-railroad attorney, banker and owner of 2500 acres of land, farmed by tenants. How some of his tenants live is indicated by a picture printed with this article. The Oklahoma legislature has grown so reactionary that the “Sher- man and Ellis service,” an organization of.lobbyists with offices in. most of the large cities of the coun: try, mailed to their subscribers, including railroad, oil, packing and grain companies and other large interests, a letter boasting as follows: “The sixth Oklahoma legislature has adjourned sine die and no legislation inimical to our interests was passed. The fact that no such legislation was passed is due to the co-operation and concentrated effort of a great many employers through this and other organizations.” HOW ORGANIZED BANKS PREY UPON UNORGANIZED FARMERS That is a frank statement that the great business interests, through organization, were able to impose upon the farmers, who were unorganized., - How did the organized interests impose on the farmers? For one thing through the banks and credit moarchants. There is a 6 per cent interest law in Jklahoma, more generally honored in the breach than in the observance. It has no teeth in it. John Skelton Williams, controller of the United States currency, in an address to Southern bankers October 6, 1915, said: “I could give you the names of some banks—not pawnbrokers or recognized money sharks—which have admitted making loans to customers at 10 per cent—not 10 per cent per annum but 10 per cent PER MONTH, 120 per cent per annum and some banks have owned to rates much higher still.” And Mr. Williams went on to give a list of states and the number of banks in each state that admitted charging more than 12 per cent interest. Oklahoma had 287 national banks that admitted making such loans. And there were only 300 na- tional banks in the state. The farmers got soaked other ways than through extortionate interest charges. On the basis of net earnings the farmers pay 32 per cent of their earn- ings as taxes. The railroads pay 22 per cent. The farmers raise cotton in the southern part of Okla- homa and grain in the northern part. The southern farmer gets soaked by the credit merchant, the cot- ton factor and the cotton oil mill; farmer gets soaked by the credit merchant and grain buyer, and if either class of farmers under- takes to raise live stock - on the side he gets soak- ed by the packers, which are as strongly intrenched in the South as anywhere else in the country, PIRATES WITHIN THE LAW Although the constitu- tion of Oklahoma gives the people authority to go into any line of -business they please, to operate without profit or for the benefit of the producers, the people have never been able to go into any business for themselves, because they have never controlled the legisla- ture. Do the farmers of Oklahoma like this? Do & murmur? Not so you would notice it! 5 To understand what follows, to understand what action some farm- ers took, it must be re- membered that in the eastern part of Oklaho- This ma, the part that orig- . the northern . they stand for it without - [ Y o ¥ N