The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 25, 1919, Page 7

" ment will put into operation soon. Public ownershlp of railroads, - - efficiently managed in the mterest of the people, will lessen the cost of distribution. stood. If the United States, when the war started, -had followed the League plan for government ownership and operatlon of all ° natural resources and public utilities and for conscription of all problem today. The cause of high prices is the fact that private concerns are making today, and have been making during the past three years, profits averaging 200 to 300 per cent higher than during the normal years before the world war. Seventeen thousand new millionaires ‘have been made in the United States during the war. The common people—the farmer, the city wage-worker and the smatl;l salaried clerk—have had to pay the bill, and are still paying i ‘ WE WILL WIN - : VERY day, almost every hour, brings new support to the E fight of the farmers, organized in the Nonpartisan league, for reform through political action. The choice of today is between two methods—reform by the orderly process of electing real representatives of the people to positions of power, or bolshe- vism. Organized labor 1s seeing this more clearly than ever before. Labor for years placed almost sole dependence upon strikes to win wage advances and better working conditions.- But labor has found recently that regardless of what increases in wages it has been able to wring from reluctant employers, the cost of living has in- creased faster. Organized labor sees clearly today that funda- mental reforms are needed. Warren S. Stone, chief of the Brother- hood of Railway Locomotive Engineers, is one of the men to an- nounce labor’s new attitude. "Mr. Stone was being questioned by a congressional committee about the attitude of labor in regard to the Plumb plan for handling the railroads. The Associated Press report ‘says: i 3 In the event the committee rejected the Plumb plan it would be e the policy of labor, Mr. Stone added, to create enough sentiment in and out of congress to force its adoptlon * This is a method with which the organized farmers of the Northwest can agree heartily. It is their own method—‘carrying the fight to the people, convinced that the sound Judgment of the American public, fully informed, is to be trusted thoroughly. after the two great forces=—the organized farmers and organized labor—will work together more closely than ever before. They will work steadily but swiftly to a sure victory. .Reform by the orderly process of carrying the question to the people will win and _there will be no bolshevism in America. : : INVESTIGATING ONGRESS again is engaging in its favorite game of" investi- gating. This time it is investigating the cost of living. Congress so far has found, to its own astonishment, that there are at least two laws it can’t repeal: The laws of gravitation and of supply .and demand. It was the idea of some of President Wilson’s advisers that the proper thing to do was to buy up the wheat at the guaranteed price and sell it at a lower price. But it was discovered that the market price was considerably above the guaranteed price. Mr. Barnes of the grain corporation of the federal food admin- istration told administration officials that the farmers were not subsidized, but rather were victims of the guaranteed price. That is, the price would advance rather than recede if the restrictions -were removed. He also said that there is no relation between the price of wheat and other food- products This has been the theory of the government. plan to make the farmer, as he always has been, the goat for the have been congress’ fault if the people found later that it hadn’t made any difference. It would have pointed out that it had done all it could. But this illumination doesn’t get congress out of the hole. It is in the position of having to do something and doing it quickly. - It has been the experience of the nation that congress may be warned and warned again, but ‘it never has acted until the emer- gency was upon them. The federal trade commission has shown to congress. the menace of the packers, and congress failed to do any- no telling. It must do something, because there is an election pend- ing. It will attempt to salve the sore and let it go at that. . There is a most. insistent call for a man such as described by ; the emergency 8 head 7 N R S i O A W e S Pl e 0 In other words, the League stands Just where it always has private war profits, there would have been no high-cost-of-living - The Leader congratulates orgamzed labor on its stand. Here- There was, until the appearance of Mr. Barnes, a developed . cost of living. It was the easiest way out of it, and it would not thing. Now congress is up against it. How it will jump there is . ~ Artemus Ward, “A man who can nse to an emergency and bust in THE LEAGUE AND THE PRIMARY : -WoRD has come from two states where the Nonpartlsan league is organized that attempts to kill the state pnmary law have been foiled by the united farmers. Both in Montana and Nebraska efforts of the reactionary politicians opposed to the League to repeal the law were defeated through efforts of the League members and other progressive elements. In another state, Colorado, League members of the leglslature raised so great an opposition to the plan to knife the primary law that the bill was lost in the senate after it had passed the house. . In Montana the legislature voted to submit a primary repeal bill to.a referendum, but set the date at a time when farmers would be so busy in the fields that they would be unable to go to the polls. A state-wide fight, in which the reactionary politicians tried in every way to hamper the League solicitors, resulted in the post- 6&]’/’50/ LERGIE LRRLIER ponement of the repeal referendum until the general election in 1920, when the farmers would be able to get to the polls. In Nebraska the leglslature passed a primary repeal. Mem- bers of the League rose in opposition to the plan, circulated peti- tions throughout the state, obtained 24,000 signatures and forced the submission of the measure to a referendum. Although the law required that 5 per cent of the voters in 38 counties petition for a referendum, signatures of 5 per cent of the voters in 58 counties were obtained. - The League is facing a fourth primary fight in Minnesota. Although through efforts of Leaguers and labor representatives and the dilatory tactics of the entire Burnquist machine defeated the primary repeal at the regular session of the legislature, there will be another attack on the law which permits the direct choice of candidates by the people at a special session of the Minnesota lawmakers. Governor Burnquist has decided to cali an extra session, and it is expected that the battle on the law will come up at that tlme It is no coincidence that in the four states where there has been an effort to kill the primary law the Nonpartisan league is organized and growing stronger. In Minnesota the plot tc knife the bill. was frankly a plan to knife the farmer and take away from him the right to choose his own candidates. The reactionary politicians in all these states feared the organized farmers and “hent as far as they dared 1n an effort to partially disenfranchise them. The plan failed in Colorado, Montana and Nebraska. The success of the League in these states gives hope for a like success in Minnesota. EXTEND THE FARM LOAN. ACT HE directors of the Federal Land bank of Omaha have started a campaign to extend the provisions of the farm loan act. At present the largest loan that can be made is $10,000. The Omaha directors propose that the maximum ‘be increased to $25,000. They point out that it is good business to allow a farmer to increase his operations; that only by making farming more profitable and more businesslike can enough popula- tion be kept on the farms to produce food for the world. This is sound reasoning. We wish success to the Omaha direc- tors in their campaign. But while they are campaigning for this amendment, are there not others, even more desirable, that might ~ be written to extend the scope of the farm loan act? The large farmer, who needs $20,000 or $25,000, ought to be encouraged, but there are others who need help more. This is the farmer just starting out. Because no loans can be made upon.unimproved land, he can get no help from the farm loan act. The farm tenant WHERE DO 7 CoME Y £ present in this country in ever-increasing numbers, needs help to get on his own feet more than any other class. He likewise looks to the federal land bank in vain. It is these defects and shortcommgs in the federal farm loan system that are causing the farmers in all the agricultural states to demand broader systems of rural credits. Such systems have been supplied in North Dakota through the state-owned bank and home building association. The federal farm loan act has done much good, but it has barely scratched the surface. Until a congress can be elected, com- posed of men with minds broad enough to study fundamental con- ditions in this country, it will be necessary for the states to supple- ment the federal dct with rural credits systems of then' own 1f<; . the farmer is to get a square deal in financlal matters ‘EVEN