The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 23, 1918, Page 12

{ 2 % ! 4.7 411 : 2] / ' % 4 //// o, é,,'/ Ib'é/‘ A 1e Farm GOVERNMENT RULES EXPLAINED AND COMMENTED ON BY A. B. GILBERT If There Is Any Federal Regulation Concerning Food, Fuel, Labor, Farm Machinery Costs, or the Like That You Do Not Understand, Write a Letter toMr. Gllbert Postoffice Box 575, St. Paul, Minn.,, and He Will Look It Up and lee You the Facts. THE PRICE-FIXING POWER Denton, Mont. WOULD hke to know whether or . not congress gave President Wil- son power to fix prices on farm ma- _chinery and the like.” GEORGE H. RAASCH. No. The only power so given was that to fix the prices on coal and wheat. What other so-called price- fixing we have had, has been brought about by voluntary agreement and licensing. In his address to congress on December 4, 1917, the president said: “Recent experience has con- “vinced me that the congress must go further in authomzmg‘ the government to set limits to prices.” Congressmen evidently. didn’t hear this part of the speech nor the part about the farmers gb plaining with a great deal of - Jjusti ce that no restraints are placed upon the prices of most of the things they must themselves purchase,” for congress has done nothing of the sort to date. After waiting several months in the hope congress would act, the president decided to try licensing farm machinery manufacturers and dealers as better than nothing. Un- der this plan if a dealer, for instance, does not act within the regulations set, his license to do business is taken away. YOUR RIGHT AND DUTY TO ASK HELP F YOU have had such hard luck this last year that you will not be able to continue farming, don’t be ashamed to ask for a part of that $5,000,000 the government has set aside for- creditless farmers. The -seasoned farmer serves his country best on the farm, and inasmuch as the nation needs him there it owes him help if circumstances have arisen that . makes it impossible for him to con- | tinue. When the government wakes i up to the great need there is in various t2 parts of the United States for help of this kind, the amount available may be increased. Senator Gore of Okla- homa just launched a move. in the" senate to make $150,000,000 available to drouth-stricken farmers.. The gov- . ernment builds whole plants and turns ‘i them over to munition makers, but it has all the caution of a miserly old lady when it comes to helping needy farmers save the world from that nasty thing called famine. 1919 WHEAT PRICE E administration has announced that the wheat price which has held for two years will be continued as a minimum price for the 1919 crop and a special commission is to deter- mine whether a higher price may not be necessary. Inasmuch as congress never acted on the president’s urgent request for poweér to fix the prices which the farmer has to pay for sup- plies, made on December 4, 1917, it would seem that the farmers were en- titled to relief through higher price for their product. If our farmers have been keepmg track of their costs of raising wheat in the last two years, they will have “knockout” proof for this special committee when it visits the Northwest. PREMIUMS ON WHEAT BECAUSE the 1918 wheat price is a minimum and because the maxi- mum is determined by what the mill- ers can pay with fixed prices for flour, a good deal of the present wheat crop is being sold at a premium over the so-called “fixed price.” These premi- ums are probably sticking to the pock- ets of the middlemen in the grain trade except where farmers are sell- ing their grain co-operatively. MORE ATTENTION TO SEED PRICES IN THESE days, when so much is expected of the farmer, would it not be a fair thing for the government to give some attention to cutting out the profiteering in seed grains? The farmer’s seed bill amounts to ‘a-tidy sum in the course of the year, and it is a common thing for the seed to double and triple in price between the farmer-raiser and the farmer-buyer. Shortage in the supply of certain kinds of seed merely furnishes the oc- casion and not a satisfactory. excuse for this profiteering. GOOD SEED WHEAT NECESSARY Y REQUIRING that farmers should ship in all their surplus wheat this spring, the government really has assumed ' more than the normal obligation of seeing that the farmers get a good seed wheat for the. - next planting ‘at a fair price. There should be a special penalty for ship- ping a farmer foul seed. 2 - PROFITEER “‘ers and employes. * living mounting rapidly and with em- BEET SUGAR CROP IS SHORT NEED for additional sugar conser- vation in the ~United States,” says the food administration, “is re- flected by estimates of our domestic beet sugar crop this year. After se- curing: and averaging estimates from the three most trustworthy sources available the food administration finds a probable decrease in domesti¢ beet sugar production of 5.2 per cent com- pared with last year. This represents about 38,174 tons of sugar less than in 1917." Last winter the organized beet sugar growers tried to put their case for relief from the domination of theé - sugar trust and its subsidiaries before’ the nation, but they received scant attention. Perhaps this shortage, in place of a necessary increase, is the logical result of letting the sugar trust speak for the .beet sugar industry. Will we be wiser before the next planting season starts? THE WAR LABOR POLICIES BOARD ! EN we entered the war it was necessary to do something ‘to prevent so far as was consistent with fair dealing the delay of production incident to disputes between employ- With the cost of ployers anxious to keep wages where they were, the problem was especially difficult.” As a possible ‘way out the Washington administration formed the war labor. policies board, and so ° far it has been successful beyond the hopes of its originators. The American Federation of Labor was called upon to nominate five men and the national organization of em- ployers an -equal number. Then the labor men- chose as a chairman out- side the ranks of labor, Mr. Frank Walsh, former chairman of the great industrial relations commission, and five representatives of employers chose ex-President Taft as chairman of their group. Remarkable as it may seem, this board, made up of union ‘men and . union haters, was able to agree on a basis of operations, the most impor- tant principles of which were: Unions have a right to organize "by peaceful methods; unions to be recognized in union shops; a living wage for work- ers, and women to receive equal pay RS A Aomammmw Y ‘KOTA BULLETIN. for doing the same work as men. Representatives of this board are now going about adjusting labor troubles wherever they arise. w STOP RENT PROFITEERING THE federal housing bureau reports that certain landlords in munition areas are endangering the mnational defense by unreasonable and excessive rental charges. The war labor poli- cies board has petitioned congress to protect the workers against-this prof- iteering and' has designed a-bill with this end in view. Why not recognize the plain truth that the whole country is a munition area and that renters everywhere are being rack-rented because of war con- ditions, prominent among which is the curtailment of mnew building? The federal government is starting on the most apparent cases where land hogs are driving workers away from the shipyards, steel mills, ete. The gen- eral problem is really one for state defense councils and- state legislatures - rather than for the overworked federal government. By pretending to pass . the buck to the federal government the state governments use a very. thin disguise for protectmgounearned prof- its of landlords. HELP FIGHT HOG CHOLERA HOG cholera is a very contagious disease. It is carried by birds, dogs and roving animals as wéll as man. When hog cholera breaks out in the_ neighborhood keep the hogs confined, let no one but the feeder go near them. When one of the hogs acts sluggish and keeps away from the other hogs, hiding in straw or lit- ter, better have the county agent or a veterinarian determine if it is hog cholera, and if it 1s, the serum treat- ment should be given the whole herd as quickly as possible.. Tested serum can be secured at cost from the veteri- nary department of the North Dakota Agricultural college. — NORTH DA- X HE ' present household sugar ra- "tion—with little chance of in-. crease—is two pounds a month in. America, two pounds:in England, one and one-half pounds in France an .one pound in Italy.-—FOOD ADMIN- ISTRATION. FEDEQBL %fl' commssxon 4 ¢ Here the Leader cartoonist has shown the government oflicmls as busy. plumbers mendmg the pipe lme from farmer to eom Hmer, X feier patch up in a few months the leaks caused by 25 years .of meglect and ‘domination by. the: pmfiteering marke nterests, . : s wonder the consumer is surprlsed by the small amount h {