The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 13, 1918, Page 11

working classes of society by the wealthy minority ever seeking its own gain through control of the - government. “The farmer classes, which were formerly incapable of taking care of their own af- fairs, have taken things in their own hands. By their suc- cesses and their mistakes they have gained knowledge and practical wisdom. By taking part in the management of" their enterprises they have de- veloped ability. It has all been of vast educational value to the great masses. A THERE ARE MEN SITTING IN THE SUPREME GOVERNMENT OF THE NATION TODAY WHO GOT THE CAPACITY FOR THEIR TASKS THROUGH TRAINING IN THIS MOVEMENT. AND THEY ARE THE STRONG- EST MEN WE HAVE IN DE- FENDING AND EXTEND- ING THE RIGHTS OF DE- MOCRACY AND SELF-GOV- ERNMENT. “Knowledge is power, as the : proverb says. As long as the business man is wiser than his customers he will fix prices. ° As long as the politicians are wiser and cleverer than the voter they will rule the state in combina- tion with the business man. But this power they must give up as soon as the people are as wise as they—and this is no injustice.” HOW THEY LICKED A MONOPOLY ; As Mr. Jorgnsen talked on, telling me of their co-operative stores which had a “turn-over” or busi- ness of $23,000,000 in 1915; of the 13 factories they own; of the.11 branch wholesale houses, tributary to the big one in Copenhagen; of their credit unions; buying and selling unions; hospitals; schools; and the Lord knows what till my head grew dizzy, I began to realize what it all meant to the people in security, education, health and comfort- able, happy and independent'lives. No wonder those farmers of Funen held up their heads. And they had done this themselves without asking their - superiors if they might. The organized farmers of Odense are never barred from a hall. They built their own meeting place. Here in this building is a restaurant and a women’s rest room. - It has not all been easy sailing. Nor was it done in a day, or in one election. The big thing about those Scandinavians is that they not only started something, but they stuck by it and drove it through to success. I observed one thing which serves as a practical example of how they go at things in a crisis. : For many. years, the farmers, through their co- operative buying society, have purchased their fertilizer from the Danish Fertilizer company, which is a member of the international trust. This company had for several years been paying divi- .dends of 30 per cent. In 1915 the trust managers made a sudden demand of the co-operative that it sign up a five-year contract to take all its fertilizer from the trust. No price was fixed. Market rates were to prevail. This, of course, put the farmers at the mercy of the trust. Prices already were three times as high as before the war. I am re- liably informed that the farmers were some mad. But they did not take it out in cussing. They pro- ceeded to organize the “Danish Co-Operative Ferti- lizer Society of 1916.” The responsible leaders in this movement were Mr. Anders Nielsen of Aarhus, president of the union of all Danish co-operatives, and Mr. L. Broberg of Copen- hagen, the active manager of the fertilizer co-operative. Just before I sailed for home, in September, I had a visit with Mr. Broberg, whose office was at the great Co- Operative Wholesale, in Copen- hagen. He informed me that in five months’ time the mem- bership was already 70,000, and he expected it to go over 100,000. They would have a guaranteed capital of 5,000,000 kroner ($1,350,000). “When will you begin to build your plant?” I asked. “I do not know yet,” he re- plied, “the trust may come to our terms, and if they do, we will not build at this time.” “But why?” EVEN READY TO BUILD SHIPS “Well, you see we would like to build two ocean going steamships to _carry our products to foreign markets. It is understood if the trust will be fair, we will use the money for this purpose. If not, we will build our factory, and if we do, the trust will be driven out of Denmark. Our farmers will not stand robbing.” He smiled, and I smiled; he with the calm as- _ surance of a man who holds four aces in a poker game; I, in admiration of a bunch of FARMERS building steamships for their own use. What would our American folks say to that? I have since learned that the trust, seeing itself helpless, yielded to the demands of the farmers. Afterwards, my surprise calmed down. What was building a steamship or a fertilizer plant to a body of farmers who had organized and put into successful operation one of the biggest, and abso- lutely the soundest, BANKING SYSTEM in Den- mark? I recalled that, down in Switzerland, a few years before, Mr. Sultzér, a prominent manu- facturer, had told me that in 60 years the Swiss Co-Operative Wholesale would be the strongest force in the nation. I began to think the Danes had put one over on the Swiss. Washington Will Try to Cut Its Fetters “Initiative Proposals Would Hit the Profiteering Middleman a Heavy Blow— The Nonpartisan League Indorsed by the King County Grange HE state of Washington is alive to the needs of modernizing government. Three initiative measures are being prepared for the vote next November. One of these deals with mar- keting. It provides that cities, counties, port districts and : -~ townships may own and operate mills, warehouses, storehouses, elevators, grain bins, cold storage plants and wood and fuel yards. These districts would be authorized to buy directly at wholesale all forms of food products and fuel, and resell the same at wholesale or retail to the inhabitants. It provides that such corporations may sell food products and fuel.on commission for the producers thereof. Such corporations might own and operate flour mills for milling grains and cereals for flour and meal, and sell the-same di- rectly to the inhabitants. It also would establish a complete transportation system, collecting food products from the producers and distributing them to the consumers. Such districts could own and operate their own telephone and power systems. . “THIS WOULD REVOLUTIONIZE THE WHOLE SYSTEM OF MARKETING, SALE AND DIS- TRIBUTION OF THE NECESSARIES OF LIFE. FOR NONPARTISAN ELECTIONS The second initiative measure discourages gov- ernment by injunction through the simple n}ethod of enacting into state law the Clayton anti-trust law which was enacted by congress and approved by President Wilson.. The: third measure would abolish partisan pol-. - itics in all state, county and muncipal elections. It _-would enable the voter to make his choice for presi- e L e .- through a dent in a presidential primary, and to direct his delegates to national conventions as to planks to be supported for the party platform. It would curb the control exercised by the press under the direct primary system through forbidding any corporation to contribute to a party slush fund, under heavy penalty, and through this section: “No owner, publisher, editor, reporter, agent or employe of any newspa- per or other periodical shall, directly or indi- rectly, solicit, receive or accept any ‘payment promise. or compensation * * * ‘for influencing or attempting to influence through any printed mat- ter in such newspaper any voting at any elec- tion through any means whatsoever, except through the matter in- serted in such paper as ‘Paid Advertisement, which advertisement shall state who paid for the same.” : THE GRANGE PRAISES LEAGUE . This' direct appeal to the people is being made legislative committee of the Wash- ington State Federation of Labor, the Farmers’ union and the Grange. 3 There are, of course, many attempts to stop the wheels of progress in Washington. One of these (Continued on page 23) SEEN AND HEARD IN THE LOBBIES —Drawn expressly for the Leader by J. M. Baer g Mr. Packer: “Oh, the farmers will never organize in my state. They can’t stick.” ; Mr. Miller: “They’ve organized in my state, and by Gad, they’ve stnck me!” PAGE ELEVEN = = - 2 i