The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 27, 1918, Page 5

- - el gl Sed i - x 3 s B -3 & o ‘ + 3 oy e “ . i) T IR 83,55 a5 wheat crep very much while carrying an interest burden of 10 and 12 per cent or more. No other business weould be expected to pay any such rates. The railroads were considered to have lost their credit when they had to borrow on terms up to 6 per cent. The new finance corporation formed by the government to relieve other industries essen- tial to the war from hxgh interest rates, can be used to help the wheat raisers. 3. Special farm - machinery can be furnished. Last year Canada bought 1,000 tractors and dis- tributed them among the farmers. The states of Michigan and North Dakota have now done the same. A much lower price is secured by buying in quantity and, at the same time, the tractor is made available to farmers whose operations are too small to make the owning of one profitable. Associa- tions of farmers similar to those formed to obtain loans from the Federal Farm Loan bank could be formed te handle tractors and other labor-saying . machinery procured by the state. 4. Assistance in furnishing farm labor especial- ly at the next harvest time. 5. Mr. Hoover’s request for authority for the state to take over the distribution of food is, per- haps, the most fundamental suggestion yet offered. It means epening up a clear road from the farmer Plot to Destroy the League in Colorado to the consumer. Every food investigation has shown the obvious waste between the two, and every such investigation has been followed by wire- pulling and hundreds of thousands of dollars of lying advertising to prevent necessary action. John Dillon, commissioner of markets of New ‘York, for instance, was fired because he demanded that the state take over the distribution of prod- ucts from the farmer to the retailer and thus save most of the difference between the dollar the con- sumer pays and the 35 cents the farmer now re- ceives. Such action by the state would give the farmer a real profit and at the same time would come near to cutting the cost of living in the cities in half. The longer we put it off the nearer we will come to sudden, unescapable food famine. SAVING FARM AND COUNTRY BY CUTTING COSTS President Wilson by advocating general price- fixing offered help to the wheat raisers by cutting __ costs, the only way by which the farmer and at the same time the nation can be saved. He recog- nized that the shoving up of prices brings tem- porary profit to the individual business but invites disaster for the nation. “Prices,” he said July 11, 1917, “mean the efficiency or inefficiency of the na- tion. They mean victory or defeat.” But the re- actionaries in congress have, up to the present, succeeded in blocking this all important policy. Now they are trying to stir up the farmers against Wiison by offering relief through higher wheat prices rather than through lower costs. BUT THE FARMERS ARE NOT BEING TRICKED INTO PLAYING INTO THE HANDS OF THE INTER- ESTS WHO WANT NO REFORM AT ALL AND WHO ARE ANXIOUS TO PROTECT EXCESS WAR PROFITS AT ALL COSTS. Of 24 delegates of important farmers’ organizations meeting in Washington recently, only one backed the senate proposal for a higher wheat price. They are stand- ing with Wilson in the hope of getting the right things done, the necessary things for the nation as well as for themselves. Lower costs and eliminate risks which are a part of cost of production, destroy market monopolies, promise the farmer a fair return and at the same time save the nation in its food crisis. Higher prices may give some farmers a larger temporary profit but only at the expense of the nation’s safety. THE AMERICAN FARMER IS NOT LIKE THE BIG BUSINESS PROFITEERS WHO WOULD GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD AND LOSE THEIR OWN COUNTRY. He demands those methods of relief that will be of mutual benefit. Violence Used After State Council of Defense Declares Nonpartisan Program Is Loyal—Corporatlons Hire Speakers to Denounce Farmers’ Organization IG business in Colorado has for- mulated plans for putting a stop to League work. For sev- eral months the exploiters have been alarmed over the hold the Nonpartisan principles were taking on the people. In spite of the fact that the loyalty and good motives of the League are established to a point where they can not, raise a question, in spite of the fact that the state'council of defense has given its indorsement of the good character of the League, Big Biz continues to de- port organizers and mob them when occasion occurs. At Colorado Springs the League representative has been ordered by the police to remove a League sign from his window. Thousands of copies of a scurrilous article from the Wichita Beacon have been printed by the business men and are given wide circulation. Merchants tie them up with the farmers’ packages and they are circulated m other ways. THE BIG BUSINESS INTERESTS ARE FI- NANCING SEVERAL MEN WHO TRAVEL OVER THE STATE DENOUNCING THE LEAGUE AS A PRO-GERMAN AND 1. W. W. ORGANIZATION. WOULD-BE KAISERS IN SEDGWICK COUNTY But in the face of all the lies and outrages, the League grows with ever-increasing vigor. The old adage that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church holds good here. The farmers are sticking in Colorado and decent people who live in"towns and cities are showing sympathy with them. Some business men, too, are wise enough to see that fair treatment of the farmers is best. In I SEEN AND HEARD IN THE LOBBIES | -—Drawn especially for the Leader by J. M. Baer M. Hugedough- “They ought to conscript those farmers and laborers.” - Mr. Lotsovrocks: “Yes, but did it ever occur to you that they might sug-’ gest: conseripting us profiteers, and then we could not make that $30,000,000 of excess: profits this year.? o e v::x'uafiu;mvirmm.aim»‘;.‘iwn".x:x,-_*.\\.E,:N..v.».'».,ra.:wxnx.zhm‘\m.ammmnmmmmv “Mobs Must Be Stop (From the Denver Public Forum ’ Reports are coming into Denver that Philip S. Bates, whose home is Portland, Ore., is traveling over the state working assiduously to break up the Nonpartisan league, and that he is stating that he is financed by bankers and other large inter- ests of Denver. ?ed When Bates first came to this state, he said he was traveling over all of the western states representing manufacturing interests who were very anx- ious that the public should know what a terrible evil the Nonpartisan league is. Of course, Bates, or any one else, has a right to devote his time to the interests of any class, but it seems unwise for business men to start a policy of this kind, for every one knows that they are organized, and they should concede others the same right.: In this state recently, a Nonpartisan league organizer was mobbed out of town in a blinding snow storm. Since, many farmers have withdrawn their accounts from a bank in that town, an official of which was one of the leaders of the mob. That big business has a man or two traveling over the state protesting against the Nonpartisan league and urging members be treated as traitors and their meet- ings broken up, shows that the powers that prey have awakened to the peril which a real organization of farmers might mean to them. The profiteering of big busi- ness has been outrageous and it evidently believes that if the farmers of the coun- try are organized into a compact organization, with sufficient funds in their treas- ury to make a fight, that it can no longer carry on brigandage. Only a small percentage of business people are fighting the,League. Many business men see in it kope of relief for the common people, and most business men are satisfied. to do business on a legitimate basis and with a legitimate profit. It is only the few who profiteer. The few who have been doing that probably are the ones who are financing the campaign of Bates through this state and of one or two others who, under the guise of making Liberty loan talks, have been out urg- ing mob action against the Nonpartisan league. Haxtun one lumberman resisted the demands of the mob that ran an organizer out of town and refused to take a hand, even when threatened by his as- sociates. His name is Wood. The first step was the interference of the council of defense of Sedgwick county, where Organizer Theodore Wick was ordered to stop work. Field Man- ager Albert Dakan, favorably known in that part of the state, was sent to Sedgwick and argued the matter at length with the council of defense. It admitted ‘that the or- ganizer had done noth- ing in conflict with the laws or the best inter- ests of the ecountry, but said that they did "PAGE FIVE i not believe it wise to permit the League to organize in’that county. They had appropriated the checks and other papers belonging to the League when they deported the organizer. On appeal to /the state council of defense, that body decided that the Nonpartisan league was not a disloyal organiza- tion and that it had a right to advance its inter~ ests by all lawful means. The checks and docu- ments were then returned. But in defiance of this decision, organizers are still barred from Sedg- wick county. Organizer B. C. Morton, a Spamsh-Amerlcan war veteran and a homesteader, has been organiz- ing in Baca and Prowers counties. These counties produce large quantities of broomcorn. Mr. Mor- ton raised broomcorn on his farm. The local buy- ers have been robbing the farmers in scandalous manner. Mr. Morton succeeded in getting $250 a ton for his corn in Kansas City at the same time the local buyers were offering him $80. In con- nection with his work as organizer he was helping - the farmers to consign their corn and protect their interests. This inflamed the buyers and their Big Biz ‘associates™ and April 16 a mob was formed at Holly. The mob was composed of broomcom buyers, bankers' and other business men of Holly. Fol- (Continued on page 23) e e S A € A e