The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 18, 1918, Page 10

Farmers Must Organize for Safety National Board of Farm Organizations Warns of Peril to America in Business Concentration Unbalanced by Effective Voice of the People HE war may soon be over. If so, what plans have the farmers made to make certain that in readjustments the welfare of ggriculture will receive its full measure of consideration? Letters will be sent out by the National Board of Farm Or- ganizations within a few days to farmers in every state in the Union suggesting that quick action be taken in regard to matters of reconstruction after the war. Bills are already in congress and others are certain to fol- low bearing on the methods under ‘which this nation, un- hampered by the restrictions of war, shall once more pursue the commercial and industrial pathways of peace. Unless the farm organiza- tions of this country take a hand in the shaping of legisla- tion bearing on the problems arising out of the war there is grave danger that measures will be enacted which may lead to permanent injury to agricul- ture. It is high time for farm organizations to get their af- fairs in order and be ready to act together in the making of wise and constructive plans. FARMERS SHOULD ORGANIZE The farmer who belongs to no farmers’ organization should join one without a moment’s delay; every part of the country has some educa- tional or business organization ready to receive him. Individ- ual ideas count for little in the framing of laws or in the building of national institutions unless they reflect the thought and accurately interpret the desires, of the masses. To weigh évidence in the business experience of many farmers and unite on a program which will give the greatest benefit to the greatest num- ber is the legitimate object of farm organizations. In this way only can the voice of the individual be heard and the needs of commumtles be made ar- ticulate. Business long before the days of the Hanseatic league has been organized to take care of its own. At this moment wealth, Dprestige, the power to do great good or evil, are in the hands of men who have organized. These men will emerge from the war stlll better prepared and with sharpened appetite. Business will reach out in every direction for trade and profits. It will ask for special privilege legislation and get it if it can. On former occasions it has been successful. Unless agriculture develops simultane- ously with business there will be no real progress in this nation. There must be greater guarantees in agriculture than now exist. People flock into the The Farmers’ Hard Fight for Freedom" businesses that are remuneratlve The tendency is to the cities and away from the farm. The number of tenant farmers in this country is increasing too rapidly. Perhaps half of the farms are now oper- ated by renters or tenants who afford the basis for shifting farm populations, concerned but little with the responsibility for sound and healthy rural in- stitutions. Without organizations-of farmers and unity of action among them industry and commerce will get more than their share of consideration from the COPPER SMELTER AT GREAT FALLS, Great ifidustries such as the copper industry have long been combined in a few hands and then further combined with other lines of industries through interlocking directorates and men who own great blocks of stock in each, as well as through commercial organizations. The war has given them still greater concentration and whetted the trust appetite for profits at the expense of the people. The interests of the farmers and workers will be completely ignored unless these classes can so organize as to limit the political and industrial power of these giant business combmatlons. lawmakers in matters affecting thé creation and di- vision of wealth. Great corporations gre now in existence with insatiable desire for profits. New vast combinations are in the making with ambi- tions for world trade conquest. International com- bines are already formed, now a necessary arm to jmilitary success, and in them lie the seeds of com- ‘mercial world-wide domination. Since last year the farmers of America have been - .affected by regulatory powers vested in the national food administration. On this body have sat the leaders and representatives of some of the greatest industrial and commercial interests of the nation. Packers, millers, manufacturers, processors, dealers and vendors-of foods and feeds have been called to _ Washington frequently to determine policies affect- ing the financial condition of every farmer in the United States. The same thing is true of the war . industries board, the fuel administration and other governmental agencies. The past year has called for the patriot and found him fighting on land and sea and in the air and unquestionably on the war boards. The national danger has stirred men’s nobler impulses. With few exceptions, the repre- sentatives of business who have sat on the war boards have sought to protect the public interests as they understood the meaning of the term. Few if any farmers have been asked to become members of these boards. There are a number of men in the food administration who own fine farms. But ownership of land does not make a city man a farmer. His business connec- tions and instincts throw him into sympathetic association with the urban trend of thought whenever it conflicts with that of the farmer. The farmers’ part in determining policies has been largely negative. A small handful of wealthy and influential farmers have been called into consultation at Washington from time to time. Several leaders of farm organ- izations, among them members of the National Board of Farm MONT. times of emergency. BIG INTERESTS IN KEY POSITIONS The job of the national food - administration has been to get sufficient food at the lowest cost to the nonproducers of food at home and abroad. Farmers be- lieve they are entitled to-what is fair and rightfully theirs. They are still asking that they be assured the cost of produc- and other products. Whatever concessions have heen made to the farmers have been made slowly, reluctantly, of neces- sity, and from fear that the food program would fall down. Military necessity alone justified such a policy, if in truth there is any justification, in the carrying out of which captains of industry have: di- rectly or indirectly had a hand. Working patri- otically for a dollar a year on the government boards some of these people have secured an insight into trade conditions and human psychology which at the close of the war may be capitalized for count- less millions by the interests these men represent. The farmers of America should know and con- sider these facts and be ready to protect them- selves. Nobody else will do it for them half so well. There is talk of continuing these boards after the war. Then patriotism will not be so ~—~ gtrong a motive in men’s hearts. Farmers are not wholly unselfish. They are but human. But" the structure of their plan for co-operatlve busi- “ness is sound and democratic. It is based on the “principle of “self-help through mutnal help.” It is a more altruistic conception than that of the modern business world and as one of the builders of true democracy its voice ‘should be heard in the ‘reeonstmction. : Campaign Just Finished in Northwest Marked by Special Interest Lawlessness— * People Aroused to Slze and Necessuy of the F 1ght HE League farmers have just passed through an eye-opening political campaign. - Probably not a third of the farmers who participated and bucked the old litical power to 'the people, autocratic tactics as have been ‘used against them were possible in America. It - certain]y has been a lesson and a proof of: the false 5 _party machines to restore po- - imagined that such foul and secunty in whlch we were hvxng before the farm- ers organized to have ‘a voice in the government. They see now that the special interests who have - been stealing within the law for a generation or more—a condition possible because they were mak- . ing the laws—are entirely willing to violate every law. and every American tradition of decency and fair play to keep this law-makmg power in 'their. They have seen the flunkies of the . ‘special interests directly deprive American' citi- , -zens of the mght to: assemble' ‘and dxscuss polmcs.f own hands. ‘hopes about America, they have no ,,_somethmg more valu in’ They have seen’ American citlzens attacked by mobs. as a means of scaring the opposition to spe- " cial privilege. And worse still they have had suf- ficient proof that ‘these mobs were ‘approved by state officers. In no state in wlnch the farmers are well organized, except North Dakota, bave there been officials’ who respected thelrb oaths of ‘office any fomlA o he !ess gnven §53 o enough to punish mob leaders. SRR ‘If these experiences have ‘destroyed Organizations, are consulted in - tion for wheat, livestock, milk.