The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 23, 1918, Page 8

ey s P TR 1 i) \ Sy SR LA e ) > -realize that the farmers mean business. How the League Wwill Bu1ld Up Towné South Dakota Is the First State to Reahze the Value of Home-Owned BY A. B. GILBERT = ]OES South Dakota have the most intelligent towns in the North- west? The evidence would seem to point that way, for many of the wide-awake towns of that state are planning to increase their size by taking advantage of the League pro- gram of the farmers. They They realize that we are coming into an era of co-oper- ation and state ownershlp which will build local markets, creameries, packing plants, cold storage houses, ebc They, like the farmers, will lose nothing and gain much when outside domination of production and distribution is removed. Consequently these towns are now surveying themselves to find out what their good points are and each is telling the farmers why that particular city would be a splen- *.did location for enterprises of the new kind. Thelr good sense is deserving imitation by towns in other League states. " GREAT CHANCE FOR WIDE-AWAKE TOWNS In the old days of horse-drawn vehicles we ‘needed more towns in the Northwest than we do now. That is why fully a third of our towns are now going behind and nearly a third more are hav- ing no growth. The automobile makes it easy for farmers to travel far to towns they prefer. But this situation is just the opportunity for the wide- awake town to make itself secure and to flourish. The new conditions which must inevitably kill off some towns because there are too many of them for modern needs will just as surely give. others a new life. Most of them are still asleep, unaware that the times have changed. Just as the Minneapolis Chamber of Com- merce, which expects to go back to wheat gambling before the ink is dry on the final peace agreement, some of these towns will be dead before they ever wake up. To use a phrase of the stock brokers, “Now is the time to get in on the ground floor” for . the small towns, before the new conditions and the steps to be taken are ap- - parent to all. Inasmuch as the growth of the town depends on getting farmers to “come in to trade, we can say: - Happy is theitown which con- tains a farmers’ co- operative elevator because this binds the farmers to it. Again we can say: More happy still is the town which con- tains a. co-operative creamery because this brings the farm- ers in several times a week. . The more the town possesses in the way of actual investments by co-operating farmers, the more of a cinch it has on the future. The small- town business man, in- - stead of fighting these co-operative ventures as he has so’ frequently in the past, should thank God —~and the sticking spirit of the farmers that they are there. If he uses. any sense at all, In is a hog slopper. - they are as good as in- surance policies against future loss. They solve the all-lmportant problem of gettmg the farm- ers in the town.. THE BENEFIT FROM AT FARMER-OWNED PAPER + These co-operative enterprises “almost always - add to the volume of the particular line of busi- ness:going through the town, for farmers cdme in - to get the saving and they come in on principle. What; for instance; does“the old-line elevator do - for: ,the town which the co- -operative. elevator does not improve upon? Or, to go a_little out of the field of strict' business, what town paper could have such influence as an advertising medium to draw farmers in as one which the farmers have bought and which they run co-operatively ? reaches those farmers who may be a little sore at all towns because of the treatment they have re- ceived from misrepresentatives: of the towns, better than any other paper could. Even the co-operative store which big business holds up to the small retailer as a green-eyed monster, in almost every case would be an advan- tage to the town in that it would bring in a great | . BATES IS HIS NAME | deal of trade that would not otherwise come to it. There would probably be . enough trade for all in the same line, for the . merchants. would find on careful survey that they are not getting more than half to two- thirds of the trade in their legitimate ter- ritory. Trade in other lines would be » i : s handed a nice volume of increased ‘business—very profitable business in fact because the fixed charges - which the normal business meets would not be any larger with the larger trade.: The ‘hollowness’ of " the. special ‘interest howl against co-operation and especlally co-operative stores, is shown by the absolute silence of these - - same interests on the chain store, an enemy many times more dangerous to the independent retailer than cosoperative stores could possibly be. Big ‘business -feeds: them with prices so much lower It - -—-Photograph by Staxr. the words of the South Dakota Leader, M. P. Bates, League candldate for governor of that state, This picture, taken on his farm, proves it. His fat friend is his grand champwn Chester White boar. Yes, both look like winners to the farmers. The League. nominee is famed as a breeder of purebred hogs and Hereford cnttle. 5 Industries—Friendly Cities Will Draw. Farmers’ Trade their ability to undersell. Lumber yards, clothmg stores, grocery stores, banks, etc., in chains' of even 20 -or more can be found all over the North- west. Some of these chains have more than a thousand local stores each. Back of many of the chain stores are the millions of the great financiers, . such as J. D. Rockefeller. Yet there is not a peep ‘about these and at the same time the kept press gets red in the face over the farmers’ own stores ’ in the state of North Dakota. The co-operative store brings in new trade; the chain store grabs what the town already has. If the co-operation we now have binds farmers to the town and promises to keep it on the map, the co-operation of the future when the farmers have secured political power and protection will be even more potent to build it up. The full work- ing out of the program of the organized farmers will give a surprising amount of local development.: Let us take, for instance, state-owned cold storage plants First will come the plants in the large centefs, then smaller plants_in the small towns will be built either by the state or co-operatively to handle local needs. TIME FOR MILLING ON THE SPOT Farmers will use them to preserve their perish< able goods; retailers and townspeople will likewise use them. They will thus, for example, lay in their winter supply of eggs for themselves instead of depending on the cold storage plant in the distant city. Retailers will be ahble to buy fruits and. vege- tables in much larger quantity without fear of loss because they can keep all. but what immediate needs demand in the community cold storage plant. Cold storage plants are practicable in units from the size used by the local butcher to the mammoth plant in the big city. With an opportunity for free _discussion and with protection from unfair competmon, these plants will spring up rapidly in towns favorable to. the farmers. State-owned flour mills w1ll lead to a'similar local development. combine broken, more _of the milling will be done locally to save the freight and other costs connected with sending out the grain and bringing back the centers. -State-owned and co- gperatively owned elevators, lo- ‘cated in the best towns, will replace the present town which gets one will have ‘a' larger business than it could have other- wise. Local warehous- _ing will be developed to a much greater extent Government ownership of railroads, which will through the influence of organized farmers, will and past discriminations against - local that wonderful develop- ¢ . 'be expected What may come to pass may be seen from what happened in the size of the state of Minnesota, has more than 40 local packing: plants In the United States, on the ‘other hand, we now send stock hundreds, if not thousards, ‘of ‘miles away and then bring back over these magnificent, monopoly-made dlstances the meat prdducts needed ‘ = locally. 80 remove the present. industry 5 With the grip of the milling flour and feeds from the distant ' undoubtedly be retained ments in_thig line may ‘Out of the vzctory of: the people over the spe- B _cial interests now dominating politics and business, will shortly come-a more balanced community in- Here: 'we touch the :weakest spot ““in’ the local commumty in. Ame?loa. . thant extorts from the mdependeni retanler Hence;,_, . dustrial life. : farm work system. There will be . ‘fewer of them but the’ Denmark when farmers and workers got cortrol of the government. This . . ; . little country, one-fifth Much of our i