The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 22, 1919, Page 7

From North Dakota Drake Woman Tells of Experience That ‘ Made Her “Wake Up” - Drake, N. D. DITOR Nonpartisan Leader: I see Attorney General Palmer is after the farmer for profiteer- ing. I thought maybe you would like the views of a farmer’s wife. To begin with my son and I have a few sheep in partnérship. We had five in 3 g the spring of 1918. After they were sheared we decided we would take the wool to Minot. As yarn was $7 per pound and they told us wool was awful high we expected to get rich on 60 pounds of wool. Well, wool was worth 45 to 50 cents. We got $30 and son needed a mew suit. Nothing less than $25 and from that up. All the < awful farmers’ fault— ; wool was so high.- We decided on a suit at $27.60. It wasn’t .all wool; they explained to us the government need- ed the wool for the sol- diers’ clothes. But some- how they did not seem to have time to explain why three pounds of cotton shoddy should be worth the same as 55 pounds of wool. = Who made the shoddy high? I suppose the ragpicker. ‘ Last winter a bunch of community workers came to Drake. The speaker talked mostly about the crime of sending to Sears * & Roebuck and Mont- gomery Ward & Co. He shed real tears when he told - us every time we sent a penny out of our ‘town we were taking a drop ‘of the heart blood N e%; i "TWO LETTERS FROM FARM WOMEN—SEND US MORE Mich., crackers from South Dakota. . We raised the wheat and oats right. out on our farm and we had to ship it to Minneapolis and ship the finished product back again, and they talk of sending away for things and killing our town. I wonder if it ever entered their thick heads they might be helping to kill our state. : I had brought 20 dozen eggs to town and I wanted to get my boy a pair of shoes. When I got down to the store the best I could do was $6. I asked the storekeeper why shoes were so high. “It’s the price of the hides,” he said. “Are hides high?” I asked. “Oh yes, they are awful high, the farmers are get- ting rich on hides and then they kick on $6 shoes.” “Do you know,” I said, “we sell cows for 5 cents per pound with the hides on ?” X ego I took my shoes and mentally agreed hides were high, but not while the farmer had them. I asked ° him what he paid for.eggs.. “Thirty-five cents,” he said. You notice I had nothing to say about-the price, though I know very well I could not feed my Mrs. Jessup Wishes Frazier Were Governor place to make a shadow. RTIAL SANTA CLAUS | From Nebraéka AR AT ALt in Her Own State McGrew, Neb. EAR Farm Sisters: Since the editor was so kind as to give us a page to ourselves in the Leader, are we not going to make use of it? . There are so many things I want to ask you all about. I think I'd like liv- ing in your state if I didn’ have such a habit of living in Nebraska. I wonder if it gets any colder in North Dakota than here, if it does I don’t think I could stand it. I'm dreadfully thin and the wind chills me through in a minute. A lady friend not long ago.accused me of having to stand twice in one I think Mrs. Borner’s poetry is excellent. I was very much interest- ed in the article, “Decent Schools for Farm Chil- # dren,” and wish we had a | Governor Frazier here, or someone like him. _ = I am hoping to have a ' new house some day in | the future. I won’t say near future for maybe it - won’t be as soon as I ex- ' pect, but I'm trying- to : plan the kitchen so that ! it will be just as con- venient as possible and if ; any of you farm sisters | have a convenient farm- ' chouse kitchen, won’t you please describe it to me? . Or maybe there is just . some special little ar- @ rangement or contrivance | which helps to make the kitchen work easier, and if so won’t you let me - hear abo\ut it? ; e U e O s R e e e B s RIGHT PLANS - SAVE STEPS I'm helping m&» hubby draw plans for a new barn which he expects to of our town and were de- stroying our churches and tearing down our schools. TRIES TO HELP N BUILD UP TOWN Something hurt awful- ly inside me. I suppose it must have been my evil conscience, because "I had often sent to.St. “ Paul to the Equity Co- Operative exchange mail order department. And I really thought I had done it to_save a little money so we could pay our taxes and keep up our schools and churches and here I had been kill- . ing our town and pulling things.down generally. ° I sure felt ashamed and kind of dazed. You see I am only a farmer’s - wife and my mind works kind of slow. I walked over to the meat market " to buy some steak for supper. We had salt pork at® home good enough for amy farmer, but I wanted to start- building that town up at once. I heard the butcher % say steak was 35 cents, ; g ik .bologna 35 cents, boiling meat 30 cents, and so forth. - A lady said, “You charge too- much for meat, - you only paid us 5 cents for the cow you bought of us yesterday.” “But just think of the shrinkage,” said the butcher. He mentioned the hide and sev- - eral other things. “But you get paid for the hide, it’s no loss.” “Well, we get very little, Mrs., very little.” In the meantime I was looking around the store. I saw macaroni from Minnesota, oatmeal - from 3 l‘_Ced,arv Rapids, -Towa, wheat flakes. from Detroit, Congress evidently intends to treat th chickens $2 wheat or corn and sell my eggs for 85 cents. I asked the storekeeper how it was he paid only 35 cents and they were retailing in St.: Paul for 50 and 60 cents. “It’s on account of the freight charges, freight on eggs is awfully high.” I knew those eggs would never leave Drake but still I must be charged up with the freight. e : ; I went to another store to get some yarn to make my son a sweater. The yarn was 75 cents for a two-ounce ball, and' it takes 10 balls to make a {(Continued on page 12)- e -;biawn ‘expressly for the Leader by Congressman John M. Baer. e farmer and the worker like stepchildren this Christmas and save all its good things for the selfish interests. Besides passing the natural resource grab bill .and getting ready to give back the railroads and merchant marine with a nice fat bonus, the expansive old gentleman seems to be showering other monopolies with good gifts. . . My daughter would like to correspond with some | . nice young lady about 15 to 16 years of age who | Jessup, McGrew, Neb., and now I'll ring off. " PAGE§EVEN, . . s build when he builds the’| new house. ‘Some peo- ple think a barn is mere- | ly a boxlike structure, é but I think differently. A barn can be built so as to save the farmer many | steps by a little thought and planning. We intend to arrange it so as to | house the cows, calves, | horses and machinery un- : der the same roof, also / have a workshop, grain @ bin and room to stow or g E ¢ T TR TR mow about three tons of hay. I want to tell you how I make pie crust. Iputa | heaping tablespoonful of lard (for every pie) in a f mixing bowl with a pinch { of salt. Then I take half : of a coffee cup of hot | water and mix with the & lard. Add flour and roill f.' out without handling any | more than you can help. | This makes a nice flaky | crust and it’s so much g _easier to make than with | ; ‘cold lard. 'When I cook cranberries, I put with them one apple, sometimes two, and it improves the flavor very much.. 9 Sisters, do you all have a motto which you try to | live up to? Here is one of mine—“If I can’t get ' what I like, then I'll like what I can get.” It has proved to be a pretty good motto for me. ¢ lives in the country too. Her address: Miss Mildred | 4 MRS. JAMES JESSUP.