The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 8, 1919, Page 7

: ‘' THE CHANGE IN THREE YEARS HREE years ago, in the fall of 1916, North Dakota harvested a crop of shriveled, light wheat like the crop that is being harvested throughout the Northwest this year. Earmers were paid for it about half the price that was paid for No. 1 north- _ern, the wheat being graded-as “D Feed” under a new system of grades, adopted without any warrant of law, by the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce. At the same time tests made by Doctor E. F. Ladd of the " North. Dakota Agricultural college showed that this light' wheat, for which the millers were paying only half the regular price, would make almost exactly as much flour and as good flour as No. 1 north- ern. In fact, in some respects the shriveled-wheat, pound for pound, . was better than No. 1 northern, for its kernels contained a larger percentage of gluten, the most valuable content of wheat, the gluten having formed before the berries were shriveled. "After Doctor Ladd’s exposure of the profit of millions that was being made by the big millers hearings were held throughout the country to establish federal grain grades that would replace the Minnesota grades that had ruled in the grain trade up until that time. A reasonable man would have thought that Doctor Ladd’s facts and figures, showing the robbery that had been perpetrated upon the wheat growers, would have been given serious attention by the men conducting the hearings. But Charles J. Brand, head of the bureau of markets of the department of agriculture, who held the hearings, openly scoffed at Doctor Ladd. Hearings were held, but they were little more than a joke. Doctor Ladd, the Nonpartisan Leader and the Non- partisan league, representing the farmers of North Dakota, insisted that grades should be established that would base the price of wheat to the farmer upon its milling value. “Experts” of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce insisted that this could not be done, though it is well known that for years the flour mills have purchased from speculators on the basis of milling value, while the speculators have bought the same wheat from the farmer, under the grading system, at a much more favorable price. State officials and politicians, commercial organizations and the like all sided in with the specu- lators. When the new federal grain grades were announced it was seen that no attempt had been made to base grading on milling value. The farmers of North Dakota, Doctor Ladd and the League had temporarily lost their fight. ¢ But the League does not give up easily. The farmers had their . 9 fighting blood up. For three years now the Leader has ceaselessly been calling attention to the injustice of the federal grain grades. As the result of this fight Charles J. Brand, who scoffed at Ladd and foisted the present grading system on the farmers of the Northwest, has stepped out of his federal job and to.the employ of big business, which he has served right along. And today,every man and woman in the country who has given the matter serious attention admits that the League is right in its contention that grades of wheat can be and should be based on the milling value of wheat. ' In Washington, D. C., the other day, the senate committee on agriculture adopted a resolution calling for a new grading system to supplant the present unfair one. Representatives of the Min- nesota railroad and warehouse commission, which permitted the establishment of the “D Feed” grades three years ago without war- rant by law, have gone down to Washington now to fight for a new system of grades; so have representatives of the St. Paul Associa- tion and other commercial organizations which heretofore have always been aligned with the speculators. " But the'farmers of the Northwest know who started the fight and who carried it on against every obstacle. To Doctor Ladd of North Dakota and the Nonpartisan league the credit belongs. ANTI-MEXICAN PROPAGANDA EW reasons for American interference in Mexico are being N brought forward as soon as old ones are killed by the truth. There is an active propaganda in progress for intervention to “clean up Mexico as we did Cuba.” To foster this benign pur- pose, there has been a society formed under the name of the “Na- !;ion?.l Association for the Protection of American Rights in Mex- ico. : ' } - Now comes this association with the bugbear of German eco- nomic conquest of Mexico. It has to do with the tale of an “Amer- ican secret agent,” who, the society says, served as an enemy spy - and a Carranza army officer. According to the story of this “secret agent,” Germany will have economic control of Mexico within. six months after the ratification of the peace treaty, and within a few years, unless the plan is interfered with, will use Mexico as its western hemisphere base of operations in a second attempt at world domination, the agent declares. 2 He goes on to tell how, during the German drive in July, 1918, PAGE § an invasion of America by a Mexican-German army of 45,000 was planned; how he himself, with the confidence of the German am- bassador and the Carranza government, helped to train 900 German reservists who were to serve as the nucleus for the invading army; how 250,000 Germans in the United States were prepared to emi- grate to Mexico with a capital of $400,000,000 as soon as the peace treaty is ratified; how many “high officials” of the Mexican govern- ment were in the pay of Germany; how Germany is now preparing for the manufacture of ammunition in Mexico on a large scale, and how the German ambassador has promised Carranza German capi- tal to make Mexico an industrial country. How in the name of everything sensible the association hopes to make America swallow this propaganda is beyond guess. Ger- many itself will be much too busy trying to pay off the stupendous war indemnity to have anything to spend on another dream of CGOGET '[/f " - GO GRTINY world conquest. To assume that any German who had a sense of military tactics could hope with an army of 45,000 even to get into the United States is to underrate the Germany that was beaten only after four years of the hardest sort of fighting. The United States had army camps strung from the Atlantic to the Pacific, reagsonably close to the Mexican border, containing many times 45,000 men. : To believe that Germany will be able, “within a few years,” " for a second attempt at world domination is to admit that the Paris effort to make Germany powerless is futile. Germany’s army is scattered to the four winds, Germany’s ships are either at the bottom of the sea or in the hands of the allies, Germany’s munition plants are dismantled. Whatever capital is available for enterprise undoubtedly will be invested in German factories. ot The charge that Mexican officials were in the pay of the Ger- man government may or may not be true. There is in the state- ment of the “American special agent” no other proof than his own word for all his allegations. But Carranza is hardly so blind as to believe, if he actually is hostile to the United States, that he can hope to gain anything from actually antagonizing this country. . But the “National Association for Protection of American Rights in Mexico” very evidently has an axe to grind in its propa- ganda. It would be interesting to know who the real backers of the association are. Standard Oil has “rights” it would like to have the United States protect. There are others with investments from which they expected to reap big profits who would also be gainers financially if the government undertook to “clean up” Mexico. It will take more than the biased and unproved charges of the association to convince American citizens that there is any other reason for interference in Mexico than the wishes of the gamblers in Mexico who want the United States government to guarantee them that their plans to exploit the country will be protected by the troops of this country. - THE SOLDIER GETS THE - BLAME T IS becoming quite the proper thing these days, when any I disturbance occurs, to say that the returned soldier is re- sponsible. Especially is this true of any attack incited against liberal or radical groups. The returned soldier is a convenient goat for the men who are responsible for such outrages. In Nebraska a little more than a week ago, hoodlums in a town where League farmers were holding a picnic broke up the meeting. As usual, reports said that “returned soldiers were re- | sponsible.” As a matter of fact, investigation by a lecturer on government projects proved that there were no returned soldiers | HES 10 BLAME = LOODLIIT in the crowd, that none of the hoodlums had ever served in France and only one or two had been in an army uniform. On the other hand, League organizers have found that re- turned soldiers on the farm are heartily in sympathy with the League program. They find in it what they have been seeking and what they have learned overseas to seek. The soldiers have had an insight into political issues while in France, and they have returned with a-new political outlook. There may be some soldiers engaged in these disturbances, but if so they engaged in them not because they are soldiers but because they are hoodlums by nature. real disturbers not only seek to protect their own hides, but at- tempt to give the rowdyism a shade of justification in that camou- flage of all reactionaries—‘“patriotism.” SEVEN ' SR TR e B e R S T S P S R A G S e e P T e By blaming the soldier the | APt 45 B e B T