The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 18, 1918, Page 7

" GRANGE AND UNION _and not to the farmers. ' many years. and bayonets in the hands of the state militia. Almost any act. of violence, committed by ‘a striker, by a stool pigeon of the mine owners, or by a mine guard, would serve as an excuse for - calling out" the militia. - A quarter century ago Adjutant General Sherman Bell, while deporting. Western Federation of Miners leaders in the Crip- ple Creek strike, was told it was unconstitutional. He expressed the viewpoint of the mine owners when he replied: And as lately as April 20, 1914, the laboring men had a fresh lesson, when mxhtxamen, largely im- ported strike-breakers and mine guards in the pay of the mine owners, opened a broadside fire upon a tent colony of nearly 2,000 striking miners - and their families at Ludlow, set the village in flames' and helped spread the fire from tent to tent. After the fire was over the bodies of eleven children and two women were taken from a cellar underneath one tent, this in addition to the men who had been killed, three of them after they had been taken prisoners. No, this was not Belgium in 1914; it was Colorado in 1914. “To hell with the constitution.” The labor men found that it was not enough to win better wages and working' conditions by strikes. basis. - The mine owners,weigh the coal. For ‘more than 20 years the miners have been fighting for a law that would allow them to have check wexghman, to be paid by the miners, to see e that the companies weighed -the coal fairly. Most of the miners are paid on a tonnage They were fought at every turn and blocked by the mine owners." Finally, in 1911, they got a check weighman law passed, but the poli- ticians attached such serious “jokers” to the bill before it was passed that it was worse than no law at all, and- the miners had to call upon the governor to veto the bill. It was finally passed in workable con- dition in 1913. HELP THE FARMERS But while the labor men of Colorado were quick to fight and to see the necessity of having some representation in the state government, the farmers- of Colorado were slower to act. They were more ‘“peaceful” than the labor men. Every act of violence in a strike was exagger- ated by the political leaders of the state to “show” the farmers that it “would never do for them to. associate politically w1th “bloodthirsty agi- tators” like the labor men. Every effort was made to keep the workers' of the city and country apart. The labor men largely associated themselves with the Democratic party. The politicians controlled the Democratic party as best they could and devoted their efforts to keep the farmers, as far as possible, in the Republican party. The tariff on sugar was 'one of the means devised for this end. Beet grow- ers were told that if the. Democrats should win, the tariff on sugar, which gave American sugar a pref- erence over imported sugar, would be wiped out. For a long time the beet growers did not realize that this tariff bounty, ranging between 1 and 2 ‘cents to the pound, went to the sugar manufacturers They. kept voting the Republican ticket. ‘The Grange has been in exlstence in Colorado for Ten years ago the farmers wanted a still more active organization and the Farmers’ union was organized. Both organizations, working . separately and together, have done good work for - the farmers. They have made investigations that have shown that the “penalty” against Colorado wheat was an unfair one, not justified by the ac- tual milling value. They have had separate légis- lative committees to work before the legislature, to ask the legislature for laws needed by the farmers. Finally these legislative committees came to work -tegether for mutual support. They did much good. They got some. laws, not mnearly all that were needed. They confined their activities to asking the legislators for what they wanted. The legislitors promised a great * deal—and did a little. . When it was possible to tie the legislators down on a roll call that put .. them on record the farmers often were successful, £ but time after time good bills, needed by the farming industry died in the secret committee meeting, with no record to show what interests killed them. But-the farmers did not think seri- ously, at this time, of going into politics. The constitutions of both the Grange and the Farmers’ unions prohibited this. "But the farmers did find that they were no match for the interests they were fighting. The Great Western Sugar company, they discovered, was not merely a Colerado institution. Besides the factories that it operated in Nebraska, Wyom- ing and Montana it soon came out that the real head office was in Wall street—that the Colorado. company was only one branch of an international sugar trust. The Mullen mills of Colorado, the farmers found, were working in close co-operation with the grain exchanges of Chicago, Minneapolis’ and Kansas City; that Denver packing plants were only part of the national meat trust; that bank- ers of Colorado had the usual Wall street con- nections. ENEMIES OF FARMERS CONTROLLED POLITICS The farmers saw that it was necessary for them to have a something more than a state organiza- tion to compete with these interests. So three years ago they organized an Interstate Farmers’ This shows the kind of a wheat crop that can be grown on a dry farm in Colorado under favorable condi- tions. Irrigated Colorado lands produce much larger crops.. But the trouble in Colorado, as elsewhere, is that the farmer does not get the value of what he produces. association, consisting of granges and farmers’ unions in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming and Ne- braska, in all of which states the Great Western Sugar company operated. The main work which this association did ‘was-to investigate the cost of raising sugar beets and the cost of manufacture of beet sugar. They were able to show that while the beet growers were operating at bare costs, the manufacturers were making enormous profits. As a result of the publicity given the results of these investigations, considerable advances”in the price of sugar beets were forced—the farmers refused flatly to grow them unless some increases were ° given. While the manufacturers still got the big end of the profit—and do yet—increases were gained that in the aggregate meant millions to the - farmers. . But the farmers had it unpressed on them again that they were no match for the big inter- ests.. They discovered that an interstate control of politics existed and was being used against them. Just one instance of this. The state of Mon- tana has a law permitting either the state or pri- vate corporations or individuals to make loans to farmers. The Women of Woodcraft, a fraternal insurance society, proposed a couple of years ago, ‘to loan a portion of its reserve fund, about $1,000,- 000, to Montana farmers. Just as this loan, a purely Montana proposition, was about to be made, something happened. The insurance commissioner of Colorado asked the at- torney general of Colorado if the Women of Wood- -craft had the right to make the loan. The attorney general of Colorado came back promptly with a legal opinion that” the loan shouldn’t be made. And the msurance commxssloners of Colorado im- et PAGE snvm mediately served notice upon the Women of Wood-'-! craft that if the $1,000,000 loan were to be made to the Montana farmers, the Women of Woodcraft would bé barred from business in the state of Colo- rado. The loan wasn’t made. . SUGAR MAGNATES IN FOOD ADMINISTRATION Meantime another strong interstate farmers’ or- ganization had come into existence. This was the Mountain States Sugar Beet Growers’ association._ Dr. R. E. Jones of Fort Morgan, Colo., is one of the leading spirits in this organization. Dr. Jones is an original sugar beet enthusiast. In 19056 when it was proposed to establish a sugar factory,, at Fort Morgan Dr. Jones signed up for a largerj beet acreage than any other farmer to insure the factory. But he soon found it wasn’t profitable, .and for 10 years he dropped out of the game. Hey; sympathized with the other growers and wasn’t a bit hesitant in working with them. Dr. Jones be-; came a candidate for congress. All over his dis-.. trict the power of the Great Western was thrown,. against him and he was beaten in every county. It made him mad and he started to find out why, the sugar company was so interested in polities. About this time war broke out and the govern-y ment took control of the sugar game. Dr. Jones,. and other farmers organized the Mountain States] Sugar Beet Growers’ as-, sociation. About the,. same time the sugary manufacturers were do- ing some organizing of, their own. When thel makeup of the sugar ad- ministration was an-| nounced it showed the11 sugar trust had - every, point of vantage. € George M. Rolph, gen- eral manager of the, California & Hawaiian; Sugar Refining com- pany, become sugar ad-. ministrator. At the head of the, committee for sugar dis-, tribution was Earl D'( Babst, president of the, American Sugar Refin— ing company, and thex other . American mem- bers were W. A. Jamie-, son, president of the Ar-, buckle Sugar company,‘ and Mr. Rolph. \ Thomas B.: Steams‘( who sells machinery to sugar manufacturers, is: interested in one sugar, factory and is buxldmg] another, became state. food administrator for Chicago. The government f1xed, a price for the manu- factured sugar but failed to fix a price for sugar, beets. The Great Western offered a higher pri for beets, but a price that still gave them by f:& the long end of the profit—a price that in view o increased cests of producing sugar beets gave the, growers hardly a chance for a profit. i GROWERS FINALLY GET 3 ; 4 TO HERBERT HOOVER 1 . i The Unpited States and the world ‘were faced by, a sugar shortage. They still face that dang'er, The beet growers of Colorado and the other moun- tain states wanted to do their part toward meet- ing -that shortage but they réalized that to do it they must secure a price that would give a fau; profit to the farmer. The Beet growers wired to Washington to see what could be done. Theyt wanted to send a committee to talk with Hoovera The reply came back from the sugar administrad tion that they could send a committee if they liked) but that it might mean Just a waste of time and money. ) But the growers sent a committee. The com- mittee went to Washington: The farmers dldn’fi get much encouragement from Rolph and Babsfi and Jamieson, but they determined to go ,'hlghe up, to the one man not personally interested in sugar manufacture. “If we can reach Hoover,” they thought, “it w-illi be-all right.” They reached Hoover. They found that he wu{ possessed with -the idea that the beet growerq were receiving fair treatment. That was the way, the men around him had been putting the sltua- tion up to him. / “But you have fixed the price on wheat.” saiq