The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 7, 1919, Page 9

ey - always know where Frazier and Hagan League Helps Every American F arme_.r ““What Will Nonpartisan Farmers Think About It?”” Now Question in Bismarck Bureau, Nonpartisan Leader. F I lived in North Dakota I cer- tainly would be a member of the Nonpartisan league,” said Milo D. Campbell, president of the National Milk Producers’ federation, on a recent_ visit to the capital city of Bismarck. With Mr. Campbell were a num- ber of the leaders in the Farm- ers’ union and the Grange. Mr. Campbell, who is head of a fighting organization of dairymen of Michigan, Illinois and New York, summed ‘it all up when he said: “What the Nonpartisan: league is doing in North Dakota is just what the farmers everywhere want.” : In this statement he was backed up by Doctor W. J. Spillman, formerly head of the department of farm management in the United States depart- ment of agriculture, who visited at Bismarck with Mr. Campbell. Doctor Spillman, it will be remem- bered, recently resigned his federal position because Secretary of Agriculture Houston suppressed his figures showing that farmers do not receive the cost of production for their crops. He is now editor of the Farm Journal, published in Philadelphia. “My heart is with the Nonpartisan league,” said Doctor Spillman. “Everybody is looking at the movement in this state. If you succeed, the idea born ‘here will spread to all parts of the country. The farmers of North Dakota are putting their program into operation constructively and conser- vatively,” he declared after having visited Director General F. W. Cathro at the Bank of North Dakota and spending several hours at the statehouse. Mr. Campbell, Mr. Spillman and others spoke at Governor Frazier’s weekly luncheon in his room at the capitol, which is always attended by heads of the various state departments and their deputies, who discuss their work and plans around the board. First to respond was Senator Thomas P. Gore, the blind statesman of Oklahoma. Senator Gore was, until the recent change in political control of the senate, chairman of the committee on agriculture. During the war he was a consistent advocate of higher wheat prices and a champion of the interests of the farmer. He praised the way in which Governor Frazier and Commis- sioner of Agriculture and Labor John N. Hagan had stood up for the estab- lishment of a fair wheat price. “You stand,” he said. “They stand on the side of the farmers every time.” “The eyes of the nation are on you,” said Senator Gore. “Reforms and rem- edies grow out of abuses and griev- ances. The politicians who refused to abolish ancient wrongs have paid the penalty. The people in North Dakota who resisted the demand for a state- owned system of terminal elevators are now willing to see them establish- ed, but too late to hold their power. The people are now to build not only elevators but mills, and have founded a state central bank as well. “I am making a study of the Bank of North Dakota. I went there this morning and talked with Director General Cathro and Oliver S. Morris, secretary of the industrial commission. Your legislators have been -wise in giving the managers of the bank ample powers. In business a great many things can only be learned by ex- perience and it would have been a mistake to have refused to give the men trusted with the enterprise as free a hand as any private banker. FARMER PLAN HELD ENTITLED TO FAIR TRIAL “The farmers have made up their minds to try out an entirely new marketing system. Every man is entitled to a fair trial. A tree is known by its fruit. In North Dakota the tree is in-full blossom, and the fruit is soon to bear. : “I joined the Farmers’ alliance before I was 21 and have always been an advocate of organization. The farmer has too long been unorganized in this . country, and no one except the beasts of prey can object to his organizing. While the marketing monopolists have been beasts of prey, the farmer has been’ a beast of burden. He is now learning THE REFERENDUM ELECTION As this issue of the Leader is going to press, the people of North Dakota are voting on seven laws passed by the re- cent farmer legislature. On this elec- tion depends the fate of the Bank of North Dakota and the industrial com- mission, under which the state mills and elevators will be established. The returns are not yet available, but a full account of the results of the ref- erendum election will be carried in the next issue of the Leader. to get out from under the burden. From my experience in congress I know that when the farmers are organized and speak the congressmen listen. The farmers have the numbers, and they can obtain whatever they want if they go after it, not one by one, but all together.” If the North Dakota plans succeed, the world will have to scrap a lot of antiquated notions, said Sen- ator Gore, and he was echoed by Charles S. Bar- rett, national president of the Farmers’ Educa- tional and Co-Operative union. Mr. Barrett lives in Georgia, but is fully acquainted with the work of the Nonpartisan league. John A. McSparren, master of the Pennsylvania state Grange, also spoke of the problems facing - the men who till the soil. “The age we are in now is one in which we need the highest character of citizenship,” he said. “Democracy itself has to be rebuilt. And-the farmer is the backbone of Amer- icanism. ¥ “American agriculture is on trial. For genera- tion after generation it was believed that the agri- culturist ‘could feed the world and carry the bur- den§ of the world without adequate reward. The war brought out the fact that we all are dependent THE LIGHT OF LIBERTY ottonwood, Mont., This cartoon was sent to the Leader by E. L. Vinje of after he had landed in New York. In an Congress, Says Head of Milk Producers’ Association farmers have used their organization in the direc- tion of a “milk strike,” which forced the middle- men to come to terms. “I have not the slightest doubt about North Da- kota’s new laws,” said Mr. Campbell. “In my home in Michigan I have read these laws and studied them. With two classes of your legislation I am especially familiar. These are the acts for encour- aging the dairy industry and the insurance meas- ures. I was for several years insurance commis- sioner of Michigan and there learned much of the graft in the insurance business. I am glad to see North Dakota going into the business of hail insur- ance and hope that before long it will write fire insurance policies also. You have already made a beginning in setting up a state system for insuring all public buildings on the mutual plan.” “WHAT DO LEAGUE FARMERS 'THINK?” QUESTION IN CAPITAL The visit of these men of national prominence gave the North Dakota farmers new evidence of the power they have won by sticking together. Down in Washington, Mr. Campbell says, when any question relating to the agricultural life of the country comes up the congressman first asks: “What will the Nonpartisan farmers think of -this?” e “I want to tell you,” he confided to the cor- respondent of the Nonpartisan Leader, “that the League has put money in the pocket of every farmer in the United States. It is not only in the states where the League is organ- ized that it is doing good work. In every mid- dle western state the politicians have their ear to the ground. They know that if they do not give their own farming population good laws and reforms, these farmers will call on the League to come in and organize them to cap- ture the machinery of government in the next election.” The farmers of North Dakota were represented at the governor’s dinner by W. J. Mozley of Dick- inson. He is a leader in the state Farmers’ union, : as well as a strong adherent of the Nonpartisan league. “We, the farmers of North Dakota, believe we are gcing to succeed in all that we are doing,” said Mr. Mozley. “We believe that when the program is put into effect we will gain all that we have lost through the monopoly of the market system. I am one of thousands accompanying note he says: “This is how the Statue of Lib- erty appealed to me and other oversea soldiers as we sailed into the harbor of New York on our ” return from France, because of the laws passed by the last legislature of the state of North Dakota.” The idea of men who have raised large crops and had to sell them at less than the cost of production because of price juggling by speculators and handlers. “We have seen that we all have te go together if we are going to get re- sults. The different farm organiza- tions can’t stay apart. in the little N R D N S T S AT b S P S A R R N e S IO 4 A5 R R AP BN R STt Wrfldfiw““"‘ is peculiarly apt, becauge the farmers of North Dakota are striving through the industrial pro- gram they adopted, of which the soldiers’ aid plan is a part, to keep the lamp of Liberty burning. on agriculture. And in the world crisis it was American agriculture that turned the tide. This being so, the nation must realize that the farmers have earned the right to a square deal. But the farmers to get a square deal must get it for them- selves, no one will give it to them unasked. There will always be people, even in this republic, who will draw laws for private benefit. The policy we farmers outline, and the laws put on the statute books in the next few years, will determine whether agriculture will be recognized as the great basic industry in the nation or a mere side issue run for the benefit of the manufacturing and financial in- terests.” Mr. Campbell, who lives in Coldwater, Mich., was most emphatic in his approval of the aims of the farmers of North Dakota. As head of the National Milk Producers’ federation he is in a position to know the evils of the marketing system. The farmers of the dairy states are organized to put the dairy industry on a paying basis and have gone to the heart of the matter by eliminating much of the middleman’s profits and dealing more directly with' consumers. In New York and Illinois the PAGE NINE union or the local grange and succeed. We have got to go into politics all to- gether to get justice. The farmers here have learned to stick and the les- son is not lost on all the rest of the agricultural states.” Mr. Mozley then told briefly how he had been approached from every angle y by big interests hostile to the farmer. Bribery and threats alike had been used in the effort to cause a split between him, as a member of the Farmers’ union, and the League. It was mot only in the presence of Governo: Frazier that these farm leaders expressed their faith in the Nonpartisan movement. Doctor Spill- man, for instance, in private conversatipns and in interviews with newspaper men told how the heart of progressive men everywhere was with the pio- neer Leaguers of North Dakota. Doctor Spillman called at the newly organized state bank, met the industrial commission, anc - showed that from his home in the national capita: he had been keeping up with every plan of thc prairie farmers. “I am glad to notice that you are putting into office the best men you can secure, regardless of the men’s political belief,” he said. “I am greatly encouraged by what I have seen in Bismarck today. “With the right kind of men at the head of it this bank can do nought but succeed. Everybody i looking at the movement in this state. If you suc- ceed, the idea born here will spread to all parts of the country.” ¥ i ;"f £