The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 16, 1920, Page 6

ER TR S R AT e R ] TR SV ke “T—d— Nonnarigan Teader ' Entered as second-class matter, September 3, 1915, at the postoffice at St. Paul, Minn., under the act of March 8, 1879. Application for entry at postoffice at Minneapolis, Minn., pending. qulication address, 427 Sixth avenue S., Minneapolis, Minn, * : Subseription, one year, in advance, $2.50; six months, $1.50. rates on classified page, other advertising rates on application. make ail remittances The Nonpartisan Leader, Box 575, St. Paul, Minn. Member of Audit Bureau of Circulations. The S. C. Beckwith Special Agency, advertising repre- sentatives, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. Classified advertising Address all letters and THE NEW SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE ECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE HOUSTON, who did not S« have the confidence 'and support of the American farmers, steps out. In his place, by presidential appointment, steps E. T. Meredith of Des Moines, Iowa. The farmers protested against Houston and their voice was heard. They were sick of a .tweedle-dee big business administration of the department, and s0. they are now going to have a tweedle-dum big business admin- istration of the department. For if Mr. Houston was a rubber stamp for the big and spe- cial interests against whom the farmers are contending in their fight. for a fairer deal, Mr. Meredith is a director of the United States Chamber of Commerce, financed largely by the packers, and . the publisher ot a “farm” paper which opposes the fundamental economic reforms demanded by the farmers. In appointing Mr. Meredith, banker and publisher, the pres- ident either must be understood as believing that there is no farmer in this broad land, actual or connected with our various state departments of agriculture and agricultural colleges, fit to hold down this farmer’s job—or else he has acted from motives of political expediency. The latter seems to be the case. : <~ Mr. Meredith is an able Democratic politician, a perennial an HE DOESN'T ) }ng@ffiffl?‘flf Y 3 & SN w [FRRMERS JOB N o LN THE COUNTRYE always-defeated candidate for political office on the Democratic ticket in Iowa; was a delegate to the last Democratic national con- vention and has been the recipient of many plums from the pres- ent Democrsitic administration, prior to the recent appointment as secretary of agriculture. - Among other-“jobs” he has obtained because he is a good party man is one of the directorships of the Chicago Federal Re- serve bank, to which he is eligible also on account of his banking connections. A directorship of one of the federal land banks might by many be considered a legitimate stepping stone into the sec- retaryship of agriculture, but the national reserve banks belong to an entirely different category. They are a part of the great bank- ing and financial machinery of the country and, unlike the land banks, deal only incidentally with agriculture. g Will the farmers be satisfied by the removal of Houston and vote the Democratic ticket? Will Meredith’s appointment put TIowa, grateful for the recognition of one of.her sons, into the Democratic column this year? Will this recognition.by the na- tional administration ot a good Iowa Democrat even be a factor in defeating Senator Cummins, Republican? It remains to be seen. We expect to follow with interest the acts of this banker-pub- lisher-politician in the biggest farmer’s job in the country. THE KANSAS INDUSTRIAL COURT ANSAS, under a law just passed, has established an “indus- trial court” planned to settle all labor disputes. It is to consist of three men, appointed by the governor, who are tc have pov’ar, if labor does not abide by their decrees, to take charge of all books, récords, ' strike funds and any other prop- erty of any union, oust it from the state, fine and jail leaders and individual members alike. This is seemingly balanced by equally broad powers to co- erce employers. It was this su- perficial fairness that probably appealed to the farmer members of the legislature, who in the main are reported as voting for FROM “THE ANTIQUITY 7 ; * Mayst thou unbrace thy corslet, nor lay by Thy sword; nor yet, O Freedom! close thy lids In slumber; for thine enemy never sleeps,- And thou must watch and combat till the day Of the new earth and heaven. PAGE SIX o3 L the law. Elected on the old party basis, they prooably took their par- - ty leader’s word for the fairness of the law and voted “aye” with visions of unscrupulous employers suffering severe penalties. “ But Kansas labor men see dangers ahead. Who is to appoint this court? - Governor Allen, a product of machine politics, openly. hostile to organized labor and equally hostile to the farmers, when they are organized for political action. Under these circumstances what reliance can be placed upon the chances of penalties being inflicted upon unscrupulous employers? There are plenty of laws on the statute books-to punish profiteers but how many of them 1M SATISFIED N s TR R, W, cover S | LA80°" EROATEER 8 have gone to jail? Under such conditions Kansas labor sees a pros- pect of tyranny under laws that, in operation, will work one way only. There is one way out of this condition—independent political organization and victory by farmer-labor groups. Unless farmers are associated politically as farmers they will get little benefit from such individuals as may be elected. They will continue to be used, as in the past, as pawns in the fight against organized labor. THE NEW YORK TIMES “EXPLAINS’; S*INCE our editorial of February 9, headed “New York News- paper Veracity,” was written the New York Times has tried . : to hedge out of some of the falsehoods we nailed by printing a portion of the letter sent it by the editor of the Leader. The Times attempts to explain some of its “mistakes” by stating that its correspondent got the material for his article from “four North Dakota officials.” We can guess, without much trouble; who these officials were. It was to curb just such reckless lying intended to- destroy the credit of the state (for instance, by representing the total valuation of property as the taxes that it would have to pay) that the North Dakota legislature in special session passed the.so- called “liar’” bill to punish state officials and others wilfully making false statements. - The New York Times pans the League unmerci- fully for this attempt to protect the credit of the state, but has s -nothing to say of numerous other states which make it a felony to spread faise reports affecting the credit of a private bank. TUn- fortinately the “liar” law will not become effective until July 1 and "until that date Bill Langer, Carl Kositzky and two of their deputies can continue to peddle, to credulous eastern newspaper men, lies that they would not dare to circulate in North Dakota. A RIDICULOUS THEORY HE United States should be sending :butter to Eurepe. stead of that press dispatches announce receipt at New York of 144,480 pounds of Danish butter for sale in this country. This probably is only a beginning. It is due to the rate of exchange. The English pound is worth only $3.50 in New York at present, . compared with a normal value of $4.86. The Danish importer can buy a dollar’s worth of English money in New York for 72 cents. Or, to put it another way,:he gets 60 cents of our money for a pound of butter and buys 83 cents’ worth of supplies in England for it. High protectionists preach that the United States always should have a “favorable balance of trade,” that is, that we ought continually to sell Europe more goods than Europe sells us. We have been doing that for five years now. The result is that the . exchange market is “shot to pieces” and it is for the first time pos- X A (47 MUST BE PRETTY . ow?! l PACIFIC OCEAN sible for European farmers to ship to America at a profit, com- peting with American farmers and cutting’ down their earnings. If we don’t allow England to ship in its woolens and cutlery, France its dress goods, Germans their dyestuffs and steel man- : ufactures, it means that we must allow all Europe to send food to break down the prices of farm products. : . Everybody can see now how ridiculous the high protectionist theory is in the final analysis. We can not pump all the gold out of Europe and keep it here, any- more than we can pump all the water out of the Atlantic ocean and keep it in the Pacific. ¥ OF FREEDOM” ¥ % Oh; not yet —William Cullen Bryant. | Il’l-., Eie