The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 10, 1918, Page 11

'ingon tempting to solve his problems there and allowing others who are his busi- ness enemies to fix all the rules out- sidlee. BANKERS, MIDDLEMEN, MONOPOLISTS, SPECULATORS, INSURANCE MEN HAVE HAD THINGS ENTIRELY THEIR OWN WAY; they have run the government, which has so much possible influence on these costs. In each of these eosts, outside vested interests have devel- oped which new believe it their divine right to perform necessary services for farmers very wastefully and at big profits. These vested interests ex- plain why it is that agricultural ex- perts do not have more to say about these outside costs; the experts have to 'please the other and more power- ful groups. For instance, Dr. E. F. Ladd of the North Dakota Agricul- tural college, a fighting friend of the farmers, would have lost his official head had not the Nonpartisan league secured a victory there. LEAGUE PROGRAM AND COSTS Even a casual glance at the pro- gram of the Nonpartisan league will show that practically every plank in it is designed to lower one of the big farm costs over which the farmer himself can have no influence. The exemption of farm improvements from taxation will take a few dollars each year off the taxes of the real farmer and push a little more of the burden on the land speculators and other special privilege. State hail insurance will give protection against that calamity and save the man who has 100 acres in-crops from $25 to $35. State-owned terminal elevators, grading grain according to milling value, and state-owned flour mills will add a few cents to each bushel of wheat and at the same time will bring the product to the consumer at lower prices. State-owned packing plants and livestock markets will do the same for the livestock of the farmers. Thorough protection of co-operative enterprises from unfair competltlon and from hostile and inefficient bank- ing service, will add many dollars to the profits from co-operative enterprises. RURAL CREDIT BANKS operated at cost to meet the needs which the Federal Farm Loan bank does not reach WILL GIVE THE FARMER HIS SEASONAL LOANS AT 2 TO 4 PER CENT LESS than he is paying. now and give him a more nearly adequate supply of credit. Equal taxation of the property of the great corporations will bring in more revenue to the state with which the state can do more for the | WHAT THE GANG IS TRYING TO DO | Politicians and plundering monopolists, with their hired thugs, are desperately trying to throttle public discussion of the Nonpartisan league platform. In Minnesota, South Dakota, Washington, Colorado and Texas, League speakers have been mobbed by the old gangsters up by the same interests. The ballot is the farmers’ protection. In North Da- kota, where the Nonpartisan league is in office, there has been no such lawless violence against any class of the population. people, or a reduction can be made in the taxes on farm property. Taken separately these gains may be small, a few dollars- here and there, but taken together they make a surprising total, enough to make a differ- ence between a profitable business and a drudging occupation for over half of our farmers. The com- fortable profit must necessarily be made up of a large number of small savings rather than a lump sum obtained by one big stroke. And although it may seem a little surprising, it is nevertheless true that it is just as easy practlcal)y for the farmer to make all these savings not- Farmers” meetings have been broken ed above as to make one of them, because no one of them can be obtained without taking political pow- er away from the large anti-farmer in- terests. Once that victory is attained, the farmers will be able to get what good business sense for themselves dictates. As they gather experience they will probably find other ways of cutting down farm costs controlled by outside conditions than are specifically noted in the League program. What the farmers can do by acting together is limited in fact only by our capacity - for civilization. THE STATE AS AN AID Our democratic forefathers gener- ally agreed with Thomas Jefferson that “that government is best which governs least” because all the gov- ernment they had known in the old world had laid heavy burdens on men's shoulders for the benefit of the few. It was the first revulsion against autocracy in all forms. Since then we have discovered that in the absence of active government effort to control business in the interests of the.peo- ple, powerful business groups can do . the same thing that the old political autocracies did, namely: deprive the people of a fair return for their labor. We have discovered that the only relief for the people is not more labor and self-denial but securing full polit- ical control for the exploited people and using this political power to reg- ulate business matters more in their favor. We have discovered that es- sentially all government is co-opera- tion from the town board to the fed- eral government; we combine to do certain things which we could not pos- sibly do alone and that our real trouble is that the fruits of this co-operation have gone in too large a measure to the few rather than to the many. So soon as farmers and city workers se- cure political control, THE STATE WILL BE NOTHING MORE THAN THEMSELVES WORKING TOGETHER CO-OPERATIVELY. When the state thus becomes the expression of the farmers and the city workers, it will fix fairer rules of business conduct; it will protect and direct- ly encourage co-operative business; it will find new methods of service to the people; it will take over and operate what has been monopolized and is now exacting tribute from other business like the old robber barons. Thus will the farmers lower those costs determined by outside conditions, and thereby secure better returns for their labor. AND THERE IS NO OTHER WAY. Keeping the News From the People Edltors, Giving Up the Effort to Lead Popular Opinion, Now Vainly - Strive to Hold It Back by Suppressing the Facts BY WALTER W. LIGGETT - S e ] NEWSPAPER is a_double-bar- .'relled weapon. ‘It can suppress - news -entirely or distort it un- der misleading headlines in its -news eolumns. If -this fails often will continfie'{'publishing . unfair attacks in its editorial columns. The editorial columns of the St. Paul stpatch and Pioneer Press are even more unfair than their alleged news columns. The St. Paul Dispatch and Pioneer: Press are notorious for their subservience to the great special’ interests—the railroads, ‘the steel trust, the pack- ers, the millers, the bankers and the Twin City - Rapid: Trangit company. interests for years and done their bidding on every: The Dispatch and Pioneer Press can . not deny that they -have fought for the corpora: - They have served these occasion. tions.and fought against the people every time " there was a real fundamental issue ‘involved. .:Take the railroads for instance: ' When the government took over the railroads—- bt because corporation ownership ‘had ' lamentably - failed the nation ina great crisis—the Dispatch - and. P:oneer,Preu immediately saw the handwrit- e wall and eommenced to publish articles.. : to -have the required resuit ‘it . against government ownership. In these articles they made wholly untrue statements, but they re- fused to publish letters written by individuals: - pointing out these fallacies. The Dispatch and Pioneer Press were looking out for the Hill inter- ests—truth, ‘accuracy or even national: welfare were’ only of secondary importance. - ; | The newspapers do not attack the Na- tional Nonpartisan league because of any principles or convictions of their “own, for they have none. They are merely the tools of those higher up, of the big business interests who are their masters. Think of the fight the ‘organized farmers are making against war profiteering and you will see one reason for the frantic, lying articles in the poison press. Read this article telling the inside workings of two wealthy metropolitan papers and you . will never read their news thhout a barrel of salt at hand - Press. According to W. G. Lee, president of the Brother- hood of Railway Trainmen, railroad officials work- ing under the government were deliberately “lying ° down on the job” so as to discredit government operation of railroads. -~ You saw little of this in the Dispatch or Pioneer These papers seldom print. news that :re- flects upon their friends. Yet, Mr. Lee’s charges were made before a fed- eral commission and he supported.them with de- tailed evidence. If his charges are true, or only part true, certain railroad officials are guilty of an offense that comes perilously near disloyalty. It certainly was unpatriotic. But the Dispatch and: Pioneer Press said nothing about this. They always are looking out for the interests of their friends, and the railroads—both steam and electric —are very close to these papers. LITTLE BROTHERS . OF THE RICH 7 Take the Chicago and South St. Paul packers ; . for another instance: It was conclusively proved in Francxs Heney’s ] recent ' investigation that the packers have made ‘.enormous profits since the war and robbed the’ farmers by’ unfair and dis_hgnest practices. This ”’m“m