The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 1, 1920, Page 6

e "must choose the way that suits him best. _highway to wealth that all may take. "One man may succeed JlonnartSn Teader OLIVER S. MORRIS, Editor. _———— Entered as second-class matter, September 8, 1915, at the postoffice at St. Paul, Minn., under the act of March 8, 1879. Application for entry at postoffice at Minneapolis, Minn., pending. Publication address, 427 Sixth avenue S., Minneapolis, Minn. —_— Subscription, one year, inh advance, $2.50; six months, $1.50. Classifiedgadvertising rates on classified page; other advertising rates on application. Address all letters ar}d make all remittances to The Nonpartisan Leader, 427 Sixth avenue 8., Minneapolis, Minn. Member of Audit Bureau of Circulations. The S. C. Beckwith Special :Agency, advertising representatives, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. CHANGES COME SLOWLY 4 HE history of the woman suffrage amendment, which, with- in the next few weelks, undoubtedly will have been ratified by three-fourths of the states, shows the difficulty of chang- ing our basic law. The amendment was first drafted by Susan-B. Anthony in 1875. It was three years before a member of con- - gress could be‘induced to introduce it. In 1882 a majority of the senate committee recommended its adoption.. But not until 1887 would the senate vote upon it and then it received only 16 votes, with 34 opposed. 2 In 1914 the amendment received a majority vote in the senate (35 yeas, 34 nays), but a two-thirds majority was required in both houses. THe lower house, the following year, gave it only 174 yeas and 204 nays. x s The suffragists started out to control the lower house. They gccomplished this in 1918, when the amendment passed with 274 yeas and 136 nays, one more vote than was needed. But though the majority in the senate had favered the amendment since 1914, the membership.of the senate changes so slowly that a hostile mi- nority still prevented passage. Finally, on June 4, 1919, the senate passed the amendment with the necessary two-thirds vote, 56 to 25. The country had been ready for woman suffrage years before. This was. shown by the fact that within the first seven months after the amendment had been passed 27 state legislatures ratified the amendment. Twenty-one of these were called in special ses- gion for the purpose. Only four legislatures out of 31 which met refused to ratify. : The speed with which the organized farmers are carrying out their program is all the more remarkable when one takes into con- sideration the long stretch of years that it has taken to put other impertant changes into effect. THREE PATHS ‘TO PROGRESS HERE are a thousand paths to paradise,” says an old Per- I sian proverb. Paraphrasing this, we might say that there are thousands of ways to success for the farmer. Each There is no single because he raises the best clover seed in the United States; another because he has devised the most. efficient system for marketing poultry products. But we all can not raise clover seed or poultry. Charley Chaplin had a ridiculous walk and earns a million dollars a year for being such a good joke. But if we all walked like Mr. Chaplin who would be left to pay the million dollars for the priv- ilege of laughing? The paths of progress open to the normal farmer may be grouped under three main heads. First let us consider the better- farming movement. - s Farming is an occupation started thousands of years ago, when the first cave man, having noticed that seeds grow, punched holes in the ground with a stick and dropped them in. The bet-" ter-farming movement started about five minutes later when a neighbor, happening.along, showed him that if the point of the stick were dragged along the ground, to make a little trench, the planting would go easier. Since then the better-farming move- ment has made progress, century after century and year by year, but in spite of this advance thousands of farmers still meet total losses each year from drouth, frost, hail, insects or plant diseases, and millions more lose money on théir year’s business. - . Within the last 20 years farmers have discovered that much of their annual loss may be traced to faulty marketing conditions. They have attempted to remedy this by co-operative selling agen- cies. Such efforts may be considered along the line of the second ] PAGE SIX path to progress. Co-operative marketing has been guceessfu_l to & ‘large degree, but the farmer co-operators of America are discov- ering just what the labor co-operators of England (hscoyex:ed years ! ago—that when the co-operative enterprises seriously interfere . with private profits of vested commercial interests the commer- cial interests use their political power-to crush co-op'eg'ation. : That brings us to the-third path to progress—political action. " This is a virgin field, but enough already has been done in North Dakota to show that political action can bolster up and helpgthe better-farming and co-operative movements, and at the same j:nne take immense strides toward remedying conditions that neither - better farming nor co-operation could touch. The best systems of farming, for instance, can not prevent hail damage, but politi'cal’ action has given North Dakota farmers hail protection at a trifling - cost. Some time in future why can not the hail insurance be.ex- I tended to insure crops from all forms of damage from weather, insects or disease? We do not pretend for a minute that political action can pass laws that will force success on a farmer who will not work his field or use his head. All means for progress must work together. But in view of the many ills of the farmer which the bettei-farm- ing movement has failed, in thousands of years, to remedy, and the remarkable progress that has been made, in a few years, by co-operation and political action, can it be thought for a minute that the politicians and papers which attack co-operative enter- prises and advise farmers to “stay out of politics” have their best interests at heart? ; NORTH DAKOTA TQPS THE LIST AGAIN HE Stars and Stripes, which, at Washington, D. C., is now -acting in behalf of the returned soldiers, as it did in Paris I during the war for the fighters, publishes in its January 24 issue an “honor roll” of the states which have made provisions for the service men. There are 11 states in the list and North Dakota is at the top with its provision of $25 per month. Oregon also provides $25 per month, but the purposes for which the funds can be used are much more limited. Down at the bottom is North Car- olina, rewarding its returned fighters with a service medal. A BLOW TO THE NORTHWEST BOLITION of the milling-in-transit and merchandising-in- transit privileges of the Twin Cities and a number of other 2 centers in the Northwest is a flagrant discrimination against this section_of the country in favor of Chicago as a milling center. The recent order of the interstate commerce commission effecting this change adds about 214 cents per hundredweight to flour milled a,r;d grgin cleaned, dried or mixed at centers which come under this ruling. Chicago, however, retains the advantage. Consequently there will be a strong tendency to ship more grain, destined for the East, to that point to be milled or cleaned. Two interests probably are responsible for making the change —the rgllroads, which like long hauls, and Chicago real estate and business firms. These two forces, with the supervising finan- cial interests of Chicago, appear to have been stronger than the LETS PIRHE HIM SHIP BYS WHERAT FRETHER! oo (- P N WY CHICAGO o SN FINANCIER, business and financial interests of the Twin Cities and » the welfare of the people of the Northwest. ; fopal; o + Farmers have at least three reasons for strong protest: 1. Concentration of cleaning and milling at Chicago will be woarse for them than concentration at the Twin Cities. 2. Damaged grain needing immediate treatment may not get to Chicago in time and it will cost 214 cents more per hundred- ~weight 'Ii‘(;l clean it at points nearer the farm. . e move may within reason be considered the beginni of a1r;1>. a%t%n}xlpt to ‘cake(al a&ay t{lxetse ’Eransit privileges fro?n al;lgpc?iri‘tgs west o icago an us hit state and oth illi i Norf/ilI Dakota ag;ld in Minnesota. 5 Lo sl il Here 18 another powerful argument for governm i of railroads. With public operation we may bg able to figfnngggg(g)fl pressure on public officials to force a reversal of this order. With - return to private control the roads will be left firmly in the hands of the financial powers which fought to get the change made.