The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 17, 1918, Page 12

X | ; Calls on the Grange to Back the League Fiery Spirit of Progress and Patriotism Shown in the Address oli William CLARION note of progress and patriotism was sounded in the Master’s address at the Wash- ington State Grange, delivered at Walla Walla June 4. “Farm- war,” was the message of the ’ znin Master, William Bouck. 'The i fine spirit of the speech proved clearly his worth as a successor of the late C..B. Kegley. Nothing better illustrates the breadth of the Grange Master’s vision of the future than these paragraphs: “I believe the time is at hand when the Grange must make common cause with other farm organi- zations in this state. We can not be indifferent to the mob attacks on the Nonpartisan league and its leaders; we can not stay divided in the fact of the enemy profiteers, who will attack us as soon as this sister organization is ruined. This band of plunderers are whispering to some Grangers: ‘It is just disloyalty we are after.’ It is the organized farmer they are after. Let no one be deceived. And, to be right with ourselves and the other farmer, we can not ignore this lawless attack on the Nonpartisan league. “The Grange has always been in politics—it can not stay out. Many well-meaning farmers of the old school believed that it was right to stay out of politics, but when they viewed their tax receipts, ers, get together and win the Bouck, Master of the Washington State GGrange Rally to the Farmers’ Own Press! HAT shall we say of the press of our state? Would that we cquld say _something praiseworthy! What should we say of an institution conceived in thg minds of the founders of our country as the day star of promise to protect the llbgrtle_s of the peo- ple, which has become the maudlin mouthpiece of soulless greed_, be_sml.rchmg the name of him who in honest-patriotism stands for righteousness and justice in the land. _The printing press that our fathers thought so much of has become the organ of medieval reactionism in our day, and is a byword and a reproach all over the land. Therg is no longer such a thing as believing what you see in the papers, particularly if it is along any lmg favored by the special interests. The time was when you could, but that time has gone by. ; I believe tl.mt a great many of the country newspapers would like to be honest, but as to thg daily press, with few ex- ceptions they are edited solely from the pockethook, and the fellow with the biggest pocketbook is the man who says what shall and what shall not be printed. o It is a pleasure to turn from the record of the public press and consider the Grange press and allied publications. The Agricultural Grange News is filling a want long felt in this state by the farmer who wishes to discuss his problems, and for keeping him in touch with all t_he movements of the time. The National Grange Monthly takes up the questions of organization and progress. The Farmers’ Open Forum is doing in a national way what dur paper is doing in the state. It ought to have every farmer in the state on its subscription list. Another valuable paper for all farmers is the Nonpartisan Leader, which furnishes a great many ideas that can not be got elsewhere. The amount of real, live, intelligent reading a community does is a measure of its_progress, and no com- munity can be progressive that depends for its reading and information on the kept press.—WIL- LIAM BOUCK, Master of the Washington State Grange. stay at home and raise more crops and let him* trons. If farmers will wake up and work together e s or hefted the returns from their crops represent- ing their year'’s labor, they found the other fellow was in politics for his benefit and their destruction, and that same fellow encouraged the farmers to tend to the political game—which he did, to the farmer’s undoing and ruin. This is becoming bef,- ter understood by the farmer every day, and he is ~now taking up his political duties. In a democ- racy, like ours, no one | BIRDS OF A FEATHER . ] class of society can neglect civic duties or civic obligations with- out suffering the con- sequences. This is as immutable as the laws of the universe. The farmer has come to a realization that the 35 per cent he has been receiving for his prod- ucts is a direct result ‘of shirking his duties as a citizen. If he is not ready to assume these, he had better change his residence to Germany or some other autocracy, where he will not have to think ~ —some one else will do that for him. NONPARTISAN- SHIP IS THE KEY “Practically all legis- lation benefiting farm- HOW CAN WE | EVADE UNCLE SPAMS 1 INDUSTRIAL DRAFT through nonpartisan political action. Among the measures are the oleo and wheat grading laws, rural free deliv- ery, railroad tion, the postal savings bank, the parcel post, the farm loan bank, and many' more national - and_state measures, all forward looking, and the result of political action in which the Grange has had an hon- orable part.” situation, this is the way Mr. Bouck hit out: “Again this fall we shall be called upon to cast our ballots for an- other legislature — 1 . wish I'could say, as we will some time, that it was to be the last one. Shall it be as insuffer- able as most of those that have gone before? That rests.in a great ———————e oo ——————— e — A RTOEETEECSRReTS®G Here are two souls with but a single thought, the rich loafer and the hobo. Neither one of them knows what work looks like. The recent orders for all men of draft age to find a man size job or get into the #rmy has struck them with consternation. Of the two, the idle rich man is worse than the bum. Besides objecting to Uncle Sam’s work or fight rule, the wealthy dude is putting up an. . awful howl against taxation of his unearned fortune and ‘ : i the excess profits taxes. AT by 5 : ; © PAGE TWELVE O TS S TR AR AT BT\ B I oW T SR G et & e ce i e e ‘wife. ers has been secured legisla- Coming to the state’ measure with you, pa- R —as there is an opportunity tc do this fall—and quit their age-long pifling over political parties, they can control the legislature in the interest of the producing class—the farmer and laborer: Will you do it? “The time is now here when the farmer must take his part and assume the obligations of citi- zenship or quit. The parting of the ways is just before us. Which will we take? ; Shall we go to sleep as in the past, or shall we assert ourselves as the feeders of the nation, as the conservers of its best citizenship, and take our place, as is our just due, as the master builders of this country, and take, as is our right, the rightful amount for the product of our labor, which, I assure you, is more than the 35 per cent we have been getting ? "CLAP HEAVY TAXES ON THE PROFITEERS : b . “If this year we follow our old course—our minds in the ground—and lawyers and other self-seeking classes keep us disunited, we shall have: “Two years more of Stone & Webster’s graft and profits; 4 “Two years more of tax plundering; “Two years more of the burdens of the world on the backs of the farmer and his overburdened “Farmers, what are you going to do this year?” The spirit of the West was well voiced in this reference to the aims of President Wilson: “We have every confidence in the democracy of our president and in his good will and sympathy with the farming interests of the country. We have pledged our support to this war, and we shall con- tinue our utmost efforts to win the war by feeding the armies and peoples of ‘the allies, as well as our own. We shall do this as long as our country needs our help. We ask only" for equal consider- ation. : “It seems clear to me that if we raise the money to carry on the war by issuing bonds, we shift the bu;'den from our shoulders to those of our children. We also thereby shift the cost of the war largely upon the ‘shoulders of the ,producers of our coun- Y, where the cost of all previous wars has been shifted.” The right way to pay the cost of .this war for democracy is through taxation of excess war profits, of large unearned incomes, and of monopoly. We must realize thatt WHEN WE HAVE: WON THE WAR WE SHALL HAVE SERIOUS TROU- BLE WITH OUR MONEY LORDS here unless we finance the war in the way I have suggested.” There is no mistaking the militant spirit ‘of the . farmers of Washington. The Master of the Grange, in this keynote address, took a firm stand for the continuation after the war of a goverqment-own@r_ and operated merchant marine, and demanded tha the railroads remain in the hands of the govern- ment. Government operation of all waterpower apd hydro-electric plants, and all mines, including oil wells and phosphate rock: deposits, was recom- mended. He also urged that the government take . over the packing houses and stockyards. ' . £t >