The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 25, 1918, Page 5

‘the system should be retained and de- -ers and to consumers. “ ment, and consequent suffering .and - countries ‘can recover normal produc- Custer. able speaker and an expert parliamentarian. The League elected seven candidates for the lower house. Those elected were John O. Schmidt of Wahoo, Soren M. Fries of Dannebrog, D. E. Strong of-Ord, H. W, Lang of Litchfield, Florian Jacobs of Broken Bow, Harry Johnson of Holdrege, and Charles A. Hedges of Indianola. In addition to these men who were officially in- dorsed, there were more than half a dozen elected to the legislature who were either League members: or in sympathy with the movement. Among these were Laurits Lauritsen of West Point, not a League member, but a prominent farmer, president of the Farmers’ union for Cuming county and a be- liever in the League program; C. J. Noreen of Platte county, one of the first League members in Nebraska and a Farmers’ union leader; J. M. Much is expeéted of Taylor, as he is an "’ Lampert of Wahoo, who joined the League in 1917 without being solicited; George C. Porter of Omaha, - former Socialist, who bolted the Socialist party be- cause of its anti-war program and affiliated him- self with the Republican party and was elected (Porter has done much to call attention to the plight of sugar beet growers in Nebraska and to work in .théir behalf so the producer could receive a fair share); Jerry Howard of Omaha, the only laboring -man in the Nebraska legislature—that is, from the ranks of city laborers (he is an ardent fighter against the packing house trust and all of the trust money has never been able to shake Jerry’s hold on-the vote of the “common folks” in Omaha), and H. J. Hall of Seward county, elected to the state senate, who believes in part of the League program and has been a friend of the organized farmer. In addition to these there will probably be a half dozen others. It is not definitely known how many the League will have in its caucus in the Corn- husker state this winter, but it will be from 16 to 25. These, progressive legislators will introduce laws to bring about a stop to profiteering, through the. League program, and every legislator will be placed on record so far as possible, so the organ- ized farmers, who will be strong enough in 1920 to sweep the state, will know what to expect from ‘each of them. As a result of this striking victory of the people the League will grow and prosper in the great Cornhusker state. Governor-Elect McKelvie has said. that he would enforce the law, which means that organization work will go on stronger than ever. Nebraska is one of the Union’s most progres- sive states and much may be expected in 1920 and succeeding campaigns. Shall Regulation of Prices Continue? Return of Peace Brings Unsettled Conditions for Producers—Really Fair Control of Markets Would Remove Many Grave Dangers BY W. G. ROYLANCE HALL the prices of food prod- ucts be regulated after the periods of regulation prescribed for war purposes have expired ? As yet there has been no def- inite and wunqualified answer to this question from any of the interests most concerned. Insofar as they have expressed themselves, farmers seem to be agreed that they have fared much better under price regulation dur- ing the war than they fared at the hands of un- restricted profiteering middlemen before the war, but they also are aware that they have not received as high prices for some of their products during the war as they would have obtained had the gov- ernment allowed the market to run its course. With the experience of the months between the time of our entering the war until the going into effect of the government regulations before them, consumers have no difficulty in seeing that they were tremendously benefited by reg- ulation. Flour at $18 a barrel and other food prices in proportion and still climbing, was a condition well calculated to reconcile the average householder to a much more rigid and far-reaching system of regulation than even that which was imposed. As a war policy for the whole na- tion food regulation thas amply justi- fied itself. The important question now is whether, in whole or-in part, - veloped to meet the requirements of peace. There’can be little doubt that , retention of at least a part of the food regulations will be necessary during the period of reconstruction, to prevent inconvenience, injustice and possible disaster both to produc- Of all the belligerents this country is'the only one that is in even fairly good shape to resume normal peace- time _production. - There has been a tremendous loss of man power among our allies and many of their farms have been .destroyed and their fields laid waste, and central Europe will be bankrupt. . On neither side can all the men now in- service be immediately P returned to norimal productive activi-- ties. ntire transportation systems ¢ will have to be reconstructed. Manu- facturing plants will: have to be re- converted. All industry will have to be very largely reorganized. If any serious hitch in any part of | the readjustment’ should oceur there will be a widespread lack of employ- distress. On the other hand, recovery in certain lines -of ‘food productlon may be much more rapid than can be: anticipated, resulting in relative and temporary overproductlon and a dis- . astrous slump in prices. In the case: of wheat, for example, the European tion:much sooner than in the case of meat products. - Besides ' there are some hundreds o£ millions' of bushels Congressman John M. Baer of North Dakota. farmers two years ago. and re-elected November 5.° - North Dakota, including the two largest cities of -the state, Fargo and Grand ‘Forks, the centers of hostility to the organized farmers. That the League can tepeatedly carry this district shows its organized strength in North Dakota. - Baer was the only League congressman for two years, but now he ds in Australia, owned by the British government, which were bought at prices much lower than the war prices of American wheat, and which, now that the war is over, can be delivered in England or on the continent of Europe at prices far under our fixed prices for 1919, plus the freight from this country What will American wheat prices be in 1920, in the absence of regulation? On the other hand is there any assurance that there will be wheat enough to meet our own needs and to supply possible deficiencies in Europe, unless some assur- ance be given to the farmers that they will not have to sell at ruinously low prices ? During the period of reconstruction, at least, everything depends upon certainty that there will be food enough produced to prevent want and pos- sibly starvation until the devastations of war have been repaired. We can not have that certainty Yvithout the assurance to growers.that they will | RE-ELECTED BY BIG VOTE | “ joined by two more congressmen elected by ‘the orgam;ed fnrmers as a result of the elections just held. Baer was elected b§ League . His -district is: the first not bankrupt themselves by trying to assure a suf- ficient supply. It is of course advisable that suf- ficient-food be supplied to all productive workers at, the lowest possible cost, which means that the actual cost of production, transportation and mar- keting be reduced as much as possible, and that all unnecessary charges upon production and dis- tribution be cut out entirely. This brings us to the consideration of prmcxples which are fundamental, both for war and for péace. There is no more reason why industry should be burdened with unnecéssary charges in peace times than in war times. Insofar as prices have been kept up to a reasonable.level for the producer and “down to a reasonable level to the consumer by gov- ernment regulation, surely it will be sound na- tional policy to continue that regulation, unless some better method of securing equally good re- sults -can be found. Whether any other method can be found is at least doubtful. Cer- tainly none is at present in sight. Will there be opposition to the con- tinuance of regulations of food prices ? That there will be is a practical cer- tainty. The leaders of the Republican party, which it seems will be in con- trol of the next congress, have al- ready pronounced in favor of return- ing absolutely to pre-war industrial ° conditions. They would have the rail- roads go back to private control. They propose that the elevator and milling trusts shall be restored to power, and that the grain gamblers shall again be allowed to throw dice to determine what the producers shall receive and what the consumers shall pay for the food ‘with which our. lives are sus- tained. - They propose that the. profi- teers, with gluttonous appetites, whet- ted by their enormous war profits, shall not only be restored to the ad- vantage they enjoyed before the war, but shall be given the power to make enormously greater advantage out of the distress that the war has brought to many of the mhabxtants of the earth. “ 1 “But, it may be .objected, some of the interests that are represented by these leaders favor the continuance of food control. 'That is true, as they have taken care to have set forth in . certain apparently inspired articles in leading periodicals. According to one of these articles, we ought to continue food regulatlon solely for the purpose of securing cheap food for our work- ingmen, so that the wages of those workmgmen may be reduced in order _"'that the. great industrial corporations 'employmg them - can successfully compete in foreign markets with the. industrial capitalists of 'other coun— s tries where lower wages are paid. - The writer of that article does ; suggest that with cheaper,food and lower wages the products of those em- ployers ‘will be sold cheaper ‘here,’ much less does he suggest regulatl looking to that end. Meanwhile, th American Economist, representin ) same interests—that - is, Americs monopolists—boldly advocates a p (Contmued on page-14)