The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 28, 1919, Page 13

o f& - I & 1 -~ 2l - Y 2| t i s ¥ AR - Excess Wool Profits Being Refunded . Department of Agriculture Announces Return of Money After Exposure of Profiteering OLLOWING the exposure recently by Milo D. Campbell, a Michigan farmer and head of the Michigan Milk Produc- ers’ association, of the wool profiteering, announcement comes from the department of agri- culture that farmers are receiving checks from the collection of excess wool profits. However, the department of agri- . culture declares that “excess profits were made by about 10 per cent of the country dealers.” Mr. Campbell’s statement shaows that not only the local or country dealers profited hugely and almost universally in the government wool- buying deal, but that the wholesale wool dealers, who were named for the wool division of the war industries board, made profits of 100 to 200 per cent. Mr. Campbell told how, by a change in the designation of the prod- uct, these dealers added 65 cents to $1.25 to the price of wool between the farmer and the government. However, the department of agri- culture is seeking to make partial restitution and is charging the local agents or country dealers with the ex- cess profits. The statement of the department follows: “Collection of excess profits from wool dealers is proceeding, and their distribution to wool growers will be- gin in the near future. This an- nouncement is made by the United States department of agriculture, which is completing the work of the domestic wool section of the war in- dustries board, in accordance with a provision of the agricultural appro- priation bill. “Reports thus far received show that excess profits were-made by about 10 per cent of the ‘country’ dealers. Correspondence. with ‘dis- tributing .center’ dealers, whose total reports are not yet completed, indi- cate that some of them have accumu- lated substantial amounts of excess profits on the wool which they actual- ly bought. Auditing of the accounts of the larger dealers is a considerable task and will require several months. The bureau of markets, which acts for the department of agriculture in this work, will inclose with each check sent to a grower a circular letter giv- ing the name of the firm which han- dled his wool and which has returned the excess profits, of which the cus- tomer is receiving his share. “The department calls attention to - the fact that the regulations of the war industries board did not permit the purchase of wool in the great wool-growing states of the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast region ex- cept in the case of clips of less than 1,000 pounds each. All larger clips were required to be consigned. This region produces about two-thirds of the entire wool clip- of the country, which was about 257,000,000 pounds in 1918. Growers in the eastern states were urged to pool and con- sign their wools, and many of them did so. Since the government paid the dealers a fixed commission on con- signed wool, excess profits could be made only on that part of the wool which they bought outright. There- fore, growers who consigned their clips should not expect to receive re- funds. “Since the government control of wool has ceased, the work of the de- partment of agriculture in this con- nection consists only of auditing the records and accounts of approved wool dealers, the collection of any profits which they may have made in excess of those permitted under the regula- tions of the war industries board, and the distribution by the department of agriculture of these profits directly to the growers upon whose wool the profits were made wherever the iden- -tity of the wool can be traced. “The war industries board issued permits to about 3,500 “country’ deal- ers authorizing them to buy wool di- rectly from the grower. Permits were also issued to 179 ‘distributing center’ dealers who had facilities for handling wool in large quantities and most of whom were located on the eastern seaboard near the centers of wool manufacture. These larger deal- ers were required to handle wool on consignment from either growers or country dealers and were also permrit- ted to buy from country dealers di- rect, or from growers through their agents. d “Blank forms calling for a detailed accounting have been sent by the de- partment to both classes of dealers. Reports have been received from about 3,000 of the country dealers and about one:half of the dealers in dis- tributing centers., The taking over of the wool by the war department was completed so recently _that many of the larger dealers have been unable to prepare their reports at an earlier date. The auditing of these reports is proceeding as rapidly as it can be done with the limited force available for assignment to this work, the de- partment says.” The Example of North Dakota Farmers of Other States Looking to League Common- " wealth to Guide Way BY GEORGE HUGHES — BOUT 1,900 years ago, a devout Jew holding in his arms the infant Messiah, gave praise to the Je- hovah whom he had real- ly loved and worshipped, .in blank verse, in a psalm. Every Sunday in the Roman cathedrals and churches, in the Episcopalian cathe- drals and churches, and in many of the Protestant churches in every land on earth this thanksgiving psalm of Simeon’s is sung to Gregory’s simple, impressive chant, and never fails to fill the thinking soul with deep feeling. Those simple words convey the relief of a really devout soul as it saw the tiny beginning of the end of the in- solent atheistic rule of Roman might on the one hand, and of the hypo- critical, lip-serving, privilege-ridden synagogue of his day on the other. They are so simply great, those words: . “Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace: for' mine eyes have seen thy salvation.” : Thirty years ago in Kansas school- houses many a man now old or middle- aged spent hours debating over the rule of privilege which we recognized was intangibly enslaving us, and de- humanizing the beneficiaries of privi- leged laws, the landlords, the railroad kings, the packers and the lenders of ours and other folks’ money. Our chiefest inspiration was the keen, simple analysis by Jerry Simpson of taxation, of the ownership of natural rights of way called railroads, of mo- nopoly, of the enslavement of labor. Those of us Farmers’ alliance mem- bers. who have not lost the priceless understanding those schoolhouse meet- ings gave us by contemplating the treachery of our elected servants and the weakness and prejudice of our Populist party in less lean years than then, are again singing with Simeon: “For our eyes have seen the tiny be- ginning of thy greater justice, thy peace, of evolution to a clearer under- standing—love—of thy natural laws.” Extravagant! Well, yes, to one who has eyes seeing no further than din- ner, personal social position, bank and securities account, the above is bosh. But to the men who suffered without reckoning for the creed of the Farm- ers’ alliance and the People’s party here in Kansas, the news from North Dakota feels as did the infant Mes- siah to Simeon. It is the tangible approach of that-greater justice for which in the late ’80s and early ’90s they gladly sacrificed. In North Dakota, elected public servants passed laws to lessen and weaken that blot on God’s earth, the power of legal privilege. Elected pub- lic servants in North Dakota have started to do the state’s new business of banking, milling, grain storing and buying, and taxing more equi- tably, by choosing men to manage, first for competency and courage and not first for party service and vote- controlling power. Then come the beneficiaries of privilege—injustice— with money and subtie cajoling and brutal power. They sue in the courts, their usual weapon; they get referred seven bills back to be voted on, be- lieving money and clouds of intimida- tion and sophistry will return them their graft. But the supreme court of North Dakota uses justice in place of precedent, declaring that what the people want it is their right to have even if it is new. ' And better yet, the people of North Dakota reaffirm the seven bills their servants enacted try- ing to do their will. To the real, old-time Populist this is the sight of a goal: “For mine eyes have seen thy salvation.” No, it is not perfect, it is human. No, it is not quitting time, for privi- lege never dies, though now badly de- feated. But that lover of justice who does not hail with unspoken psalm this clear but tiny 'star in North Da- kota 'leading upward; neglects one source of strength to go on and see. | clearer and do and vote more wisely and bravely. If we who love justice keep on “sticking” this tiny star shall grow to light the world. CONSIGN YOUR ADVERTISEMENTS Rawhide Shoes Cut Out the Shoe Profiteer On Approval-—No Money in Advance Why we actually DO cut BLACK OR TAN out the PROFITEERING 7 MIDDLEMAN: We sell direct to you, the CON- SUMER, C. 0. D. on APPROVAL. No back number ‘styles but only one standard RAWHIDE work shoe, something that will outwear anything you have ever had. Double uppers. Dirt and water- proof tongue. A real shoe at a real price. Sent on approval. 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