The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 25, 1918, Page 4

1.4 rya % % %, \\ Tonpartisén feader Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Week Entered as second-class matter September 8, 1915, at the postofice at St. Paul, Minnesota, under the Act of March 8, 1879. OLIVER S. MORRIS, EDITOR Advertising rates on application. Subscription, one year, in advance, $2.50; 3 six months, $1.50. Communications should be addressed to the Nonpartisan Leader, Box 576, St. Paul, Minn. 4 MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS THE 8. C. BECKWITH SPECIAL AGENCY, Advertising Representatives, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. Quack, fraudulent and irresponsible firms are not knowingly advertised, and we will take it as a favor if any readers will advise us promptly should they have occasion to doubt or question the reliability of any firm which patronizes our advertising columns. CONGRESS VOTES FOR R. R. STOCKHOLDERS HE national house and senate have voted against government ownership of the railroads after the war. Not only that. l They have also voted to pay railroad stockholders an ex- orbitant rental for the roads while they are under govern- ment control during the war. The Leader’s Washington bureau in an article in this issue points out that if the railroad stockholders instead of the people of the country had elected the house and sen- ate, congressmen and senators would not have voted differently than they did. - : Despite this action of congress is there anybody that seriously questions how the majority of the people feel? Is there anybody who claims that the people, if they had the chance, would vote against government ownership? There is a universal demand that the private monopoly in American transportation, with its graft - and profits and utter inefficiency, shall end. And it will end. Gov- ernment ownership of railroads is coming as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow. The vote of congress against the proposition is a mere incident. Government ownership will be an issue in the con- gressional elections this fall. Tt will also be an issue in 1920. - Our guess is that the first congress that meets after the elections of 1920 will take the first steps toward permanent ownership and oper- ation by the people of transportation. . Senator Johnson of California made a brilliant stand for gov- -ernment ownership before the recent vote by congress, but even he did not have a bill prepared and ready to push to carry out his ideas. It remained for the .Public Ownership League of America to pre- pare, unofficially, such a bill, and this bill will be introduced in con- gress, it is expected, by one of the progressive congressmen in the near future. It will at least furnish a basis for the friends of gov- ernment ownership to work upon. JUST ONE JUMP AREAD OF THE LEAGUE AND L0SING GROUND- NEW FEDERAL GRADES ECRETARY agriculture has taken steps .to repeal thé infamous: federal grain grades made effective by him about a year ago. At last he has come to the conclusion that was apparent to every one » else since the federal grades were promulgated, and that is that those grades were framed to penalize the farmers and to help grain i "buyers and millers. The secretary has drawn up a new set of grades, and hearings will be held on‘them in the near future. The proposed new grades are considerably simpler and they make fewer - f penalties against the producer and give fewer advantages to grain RIAL SE % K II% (%a vap,,%‘ /d v’/////,//f '//////// ey Houston of the United States department of - - PAGBZFOUR <% G N\ CTION. %// r/ém w4 ' A '. buyers and millers. They are not all that could be expected, but they are an improvement. . v But the remarkable thing about the official announcement of‘ the proposed new grades is a statement by Mr. »Houston _THAT THEY WILL BE FOR THE WAR ONLY and that, inferentially, a k| return to the old federal grades will be made after the war. "Guess ¥ again, Mr. Houston! The farmers like to be bilked and robbed dur- - ing peace times no better than during war times. You must be joking. There will never be a return to the complex, unfair feder::tl grain grades which the new grades repeal. That is the Leader’s prediction. Mr. Houston was compelled to change the grades be- cause of a protest of the farmers such as has seldom developed against an act of the department of agriculture. But that protest will be a weak and insignificant thing compared to the protest that will follow any attempt to place back in effect the federal grades that it is now proposed to repeal “for the duration of the war.” The Leader may be pardoned for looking with cons1de1:a.b_le satis- faction on the surrender of Mr. Houston, even if he says it is a sur- % render ‘“‘only for the duration of the war.” It will be recollected that, e when the original federal grades were proposed, the Leader was y the ONLY PUBLICATION IN THE COUNTRY that pointed out their unfairness and protested. It will be remembered that the Leader was the only publication that exposed the bias of C. J. ¢ Brand of the agricultural department in favor of the millers, dur- =3 ing the hearing on the grades he conducted in the Northwest a year | K ago. It will be remembered that when the grades were finally ‘ adopted by Mr. Houston, we protested again and demanded ‘their 3 repeal, and that we were the only publication, farm paper or other- ) wise, that began the fight for fairer grades at that time. Since then, the protests of farmers have lined up other farm papers, but o | the Leader was the pioneer. And it will not be forgotten that the first official protest against the federal grain grades was-made by : the farmer governor and farmer administration of North Dakota. = Since then other governors got on the bandwagon, and of course they are welcome to seats, for it all helped in.prodding Mr. Houston ) to action. LIES ABouT &™ "THE LEAEUE Sc—— .- e S — ———— - - T o LS $ WILSON HITS MILITARISTS ; 2 EWS dispatches from Washington inform us that President b Wilson has let congress know in no uncertain terms that at the present time there are more important things to discuss and more important legislation to enact than a universal. military training or conscription law to be effective AFTER THE WAR.: The president’s stand on the matter was made public after the Leader’s editorial on the same subject in a recent issue. Besides the argument that we made that there are more important things to decide at this time and that no after- the-war military policy should be decided during the war, the presi- dent adds a much more important and convincing argument. Speak- ing after-an interview with the president, a Washington corre- spondent writes as follows: oo o BT :---»-..4_'- K2 But .the administration’s position with respect to post-bellum universal military training is this: = The United States is fighting to obtain a durable peace, one in which it shall not be necessary to continue the rage for armaments or the rivalry in armies and navies. Of course, if the plans of this country fail not only would a large part of our army have to be re- tained, but provision would have to be made for permanent military service. 5 But Washington is going on the assumption that the cause of democracy will triumph, and that large armies and high income taxes will be unnecessary. So to decide the question of after-the-war mili- tary training before the outcome of the war is determined is regarded as unnecessary and superfluous. - ; As for the alleged menace of Japan which the advocates of mili- - tary training are constantly preaching, the expectation here is that - Japan will join the league of nations and abide by the agreements 4 made, just as faithfully as she has kept her pledges of the Anglo- Japanese alliance. - To urge universal military training only as appre- hension against possible trouble with Japan is considered’ very dans. gerous to good relations. - i il A . This ought to be enough for the militarists and jingoes in this country who would stampede the country at this time into a i- tary policy that ought to be decided only in the calmness of peace and after 1t-is known what results the war will bring about. It may be wise for this nation eventually to adopt some sort of: military: