The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 24, 1919, Page 6

%, ity 12y, K 7////////,," 1, iy, 7y X /fl/é," iy, %w/ 4; W sl ENITODRTAT CBCOTION VEPE Rl GV e Y 0 1Y Nonpartisan Téader Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Week Entered as second-class matter September 8, 1915, at the postoffice at St. Paul, Minnesota, under the Act of March 3, 1879. OLIVER S. MORRIS, Editor E. B. Fussell, A. B. Gilbert and C. W. Vonier, Associate Editors. B. O. Foss, Art Editor. Advertising rates on application. Subscription, one yedr, in advance, $2.50; six months, $1.50. Please do not make checks, drafts nor money orders payable to indi- viduals. Address all letters and make all remittances to The Nonpartisan Leader, Box 575, St. Paul, Minn. ; MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS THE S. C. BECKWITH SPECIAL AGENCY, Advertising Representatives, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. Quack, fraudulent and irresponsible firms are not knowingly advertised, and we will take it as a favor if any readers will advise us promptly should they have ocecasion to doubt or question the reliability of any firm which patronizes our advertising columns. O " containing the big city of Toronto, has gone “hell-bent into anarchy,” as the St. Paul Dispatch would probably put it, or “turned Bolshevist,” as some other “friends” of the idea of the farmer in politics would say. For the United Farmers of Ontario, the Nonpartisan league of the province, have upset the Conservative- Liberal -party control by electing to the provincial legislature 45 farmers, making the farmers’ party the largest in the law-making body. The Liberal party membership-in the legislature is cut to 29 and the Conservative party to 25. Labor has gained 11 seats and one soldier was elected, unaffiliated with.any party. The program on which the farmers secured a plurality in the legislature is similar—identical in many respects—to that of the Nonpartisan league, calling, among other things, for public owner- ship and operation of public utilities. The North Dakota idea has taken root in Canada. The farmer plurality in the legislature, CLEANING HOUSE 1Y ONTRRIO 7'00//; ONTARIO AND THE N. D. IDEA NTARIO, one of the greatest eastern provinces of Canada, 3 EO aw pReTY . ""%ZJE'?‘ MICROBES ONTERIO [ v L QQ}?@?@ we are informed by the Farmers’ Sun of Toronto, official organ of the farmers’ movement, will not co-cperate with either or both of the two big parties, the Liberals and Conservatives. There is a probability, the same paper says, that they will co-operate with the Labor party legislators and with individual progressive mem- bers of other parties. This would be the logical alignment. We remember the expressions of disgust which escaped the politicians when, in 1916, North Dakota got a farmer government, and we are not a little amused by the horror with which politicians in Minnesota, for instance, at the present time contemplate an almost certain farmer-labor victory in that state next year. Re- marking on the same feelings of politicians in Ontario, the Farmers’ Sun says: _ The bureaucrats are horrified by the notion of being governed by .“a lot of farmers,” but farmers need not have the slightest fear about taking government matters into their own hands. - Of course, there is no reason why they should not engage members of other profes- sions as experts, just as a farmer may engage a lawyer or a black- smith to do certain work, but the direction of policy ought to be in the farmers’ own hands. - The farmers of Ontario have won a great victory and they appreciate the responsibility that rests upon‘them. Like the North Dakota farmers, they will have to face lying, misrepresentation and vilification. But if they “stick” they will win, as they are in North Dakota. More power to them. 3 MORE FARMER STATESMANSHIP GAIN the farmer government of North Dakota has shown the nation the way to deal with great public problems. When the coal miners, dissatisfied with wages and working conditions imposed by the coal barons, threatened to strike, para- lyzing the coal industry and incurring great suffering throughout the country, Governor Frazier of North Dakota offered a solution to the coal mine workers and owners of North Dakota which they accepted and which was also approved by the national committee of the United Mine Workers. : Governor Frazier did not call out the troops to protect strike- breakers and precipitate civil war. He did not ask the courts to enjoin labor from striking, the ill-advised move which the national- administration took and which threatens to intensify the labor unrest because it strikes at the very foundation of what labor re- gards as its most sacred right—the right to quit work when and where it pleases. Farmers appreciate labor’s position in regard to the right to strike, for farmers themselves often find it necessary to organize and combine to get fair prices or to refuse to produce crops which do not pay. If the big interests can prevent labor from enforcing its rights by the only weapon it has, it can likewise prevent farmers from doing the same thing. If the government can use courts to break up labor unions it can use them to break up farmers’ unions. : : No, Governor Frazier simply proposed that the state take over ° the North Dakota mines and work them, seeing that both the coal- HERE! THIS pUST 570P~ THE SIHTE WLl RUNTHE PTINES S consuming public and the workers received justice. Such a pro- posal was possible in North Dakota because the farmers gave it a constitution which permits public ownership or operation, or both, of public utilities, and because the farmer legislature has provided the state with an industrial commission with power to take over and operate any public utility. If anything is a public utility, coal mines are. In England and many other countries the movements to nationalize the mines are making great headway. The future historian will marvel at the ignorance and prejudice of Americans of today, who permit natural resources like coal to be exploited for private profit and who tolerate financial barons who hold the public up on one hand and the workers on the other, when the simple solution for the entire matter is public ownership and operation. IN AUSTRALIA TOO ARMERS do not need to bother themselves about politics. The old political parties will take care of them. We don’t _~want any “class movements.” How often we hear this ar- gument! But the “darn fool” farmers seem to be organizing and getting into politics everywhere—not only in America, but in Can- ada, Australia and elsewhere—in spite of all this “friendly” ad- vice by various editors and politicians. Listen to the following, from the Farmers’ Advocate of Melbourne, state of Victoria, Australia: : : The main factor in deciding the formation of the V. F. U. was the belief that existing political parties were incapable of dealing justly with the great farming community. The whole trend of recently enacted legislation is drastically inimical to the interests of the primary producers, upon whom the country is, admittedly, practically wholly dependent for its wealth and prosperity. There are men in the community whom. a powerful farmers’ organization will hit, and hit hard, in a tender spot, and knowledge of this fact reveals the source of the major portion of adverse criticism directed against the Union. "The producer in the past has been led by the nose and used as a tool, irrespective of his own welfare—and with no credit to himself —by scheming politicians, until at last he has been compelled, in sheer self-defense, to call a halt, formulate a policy and “paddle his "own canoe” in that way best suited to his' own interests. Farmers are not dreamers but. practical men, and do not expect a- paradise on earth; but they do expect a fair deal, and that much they are deter- mined to have, and the Farmers’ union is out to get it for them’ by the most direct method, viz., co-operation and political representa- tion. It behooves all who have the true welfare of the state at heart to foster the movement, so that the primary industries, the founda- tion of our prosperity, may be placed on a sound footing. The V. F. U. is the Victorian Fafmers’ union. The same issue of the Farmers’ Advocate gives a list of this organization’s can- didates for office in Victoria and the farmers’ plans for the cam- paign. The Leader welcomes these Australian farmers into the international fraternity of upstanding, thinking producers who are becoming a force in every land to obtain wider democracy, better government and more social and economic justice. ~ 3 " PAGE SIX : : it Al