The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 26, 1920, Page 6

Nonpartisan Teader Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Week OLIVER S. MORRIS, Editor. Entered as second-class matter at the postoffice at Minneapolis, Minn., under the act of March 8, 1879. Publication address, 427 Sixth avenue 8., Minneapolis, Minn. Subscription, one year, in advance, $2.50; six months, $1.50. Classified advertising rates on classified page; other advertising rates on applieation. Address all letters and make all remittances to the Nonpartisan Leader, P. O. Box 2075, Minneapolis, Minn. Member Audit Bureau of Circulation. The S. S. Beckwith Special Agency, advertising representatives, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. 70, THE SALES TAX ONGRESS, we learn, proposes to raise sufficient money to C pay soldiers’ bonuses by a special “sales tax” of 1 or 2 cents on each dollar of sales. Some congressmen, it is re- norted, are so enthusiastic over this form of a tax that there is -nuch talk of keeping it permanently to replace the excess profits cax. Let us study it a minute and see what it means. Whenever a man earns a dollar, whether he be farmer, la- “orer or capitalist, he either saves it or spends it. Of the total revenues of the country it may be said, for purposes of argument, ~hat about half is spent immediately for current living expenses, and about half is “saved” or invested in some form or other. But of the people of the United States it is probably true that st the present time 90 per cent are spending, for living expenses, nractically all of their income. The remaining 10 per cent have such a large surplus above their living expenses, high though they . may be, that they are able to furnish the capital for new specula- :ive enterprises or pile up a fortune in safe bonds or bank accounts. The plan of congress, it seems, is to tax only the half of the national income that is used for living expenses, thereby sending the cost of living up another notch, and let the surplus earnings of the rich go untouched. Ninety per cent of those who pay this tax will be farmers, wage-workers and earners of small sal- aries who need every cent that they can get to keep body and ‘soul together and maintain a pretense of decent comfort. We do not pretend to be very wise or deeply versed in eco- nomics, but it seems to us that a 10-year-old child could have made a better decision than the leaders in congress. The problem is a WELL-WELL! simple one. Here are so many billions being spent for the living of the people; here, on the other side, are so many billions of surplus earnings. More money is needed. Shall it be taken from the current expenses of the many or from the huge surplus of the few? Let us suggest to congress another plan. No one with an annual income of more than $25,000 is apt to suffer severe hard- ships, even at the present prices of food and clothing. In pro- viding a bonus for the returned soldiers (who certainly are en- ritled to it) let congress raise whatever money is necessary by ad- ditional income taxes to be paid by possessors of incomes of more than $25,000, and forget the sales tax that is proposed. But we haven’t the slightest idea that congress, as it is at present constituted, will pay the least attention to any suggestion that proposes to lay a burden upon intrenched wealth, certainly 1ot when both of the old parties are besieging the special inter- ests for campaign contributions. CONGRESS CREDIT AND THE H. C. OF L. ‘ N TE CAN never solve the high cost of living until we solve the problem of credit,” says Frederic C. Howe, noted economist, in a recent article. Truer words never were spoken. Food production this year threatens to be short. Why? Because farmers can not obtain credit to put in large enough crops. Crops will be forced on the market at a low price as soon as har- - vested. Why? Because farmers are unable to hold them for a fair market. But as soon as the bulk of the crops are in the hands ~f middlemen the price to the consumer will be forced up to heights that can not even be guessed now. Every agency that stands between the producer and the con- sumer is able to get ample credit. If the farmer and the associ- ated consumers could get like treatment the associated farmers could sell on fair terms to co-operative organizations of consumers and the high cost of living problem would vanish. DECEIVING THE HIRED MAN ? OT a little of the exodus of farm boys, as well as hired men, from the farm can be laid to the wild stories of city labor prosperity peddled by the controlled press. The purpose of these stories is obvious. The people want to know who is responsible for the high cost of living. The farmer, espe- cially, wants to know why his products are down in price while everything he buys jumps skyward. And the profiteers attempt to shift the burden of their guilt and that of their servants, the- politicians, by yelling “stop thief” at labor. Naturally when farm workers read this profiteer propaganda in their newspapers and so-called farm papers, they are likely to think they can do better in the city. But the man from the country has to have special ability and what we call luck to find what these papers have led him to hope for. The great offices of the corporations are crowded with clerks, bookkeepers, general office men, &te., who came from the farm and whose position now is pathetic. They have obtained little or no increases in wages and in the meantime their cost of living is up over 80 per cent. HE'S RESPONSIBLE 'R THE HIGH COST OF LIVING = In the different kinds of manual work only those trades which require long preparation are drawing wages comparable to the increase in the cost of living. The farmer may own his own house and raise a large part of the food he eats, but city labor has to go to the profiteer for everything—a house to live in, all the food for his family, all the clothes he wears, all the general supplies he needs. And the farm workman who goes to the city to make money has about eight chances in ten of working at a man-killing pace, living in what is called slum conditions and winding up the month with close to nothing in his pocket. The “service” which the controlled farm press is rendering the farmers in this matter is similar to its boasting about im- mense farm production just before the farmer is ready to market his crops and their “easy money on the farm” stuff in general. HOW THEY FIGHT O OUR desk have come newspaper statements regarding the Nonpartisan league from opposite ends of the continent. One is from the Press of Dayton, Wash., and the other from the Post-Standard of Syracuse, N. Y. A lot of territory separates the men who run these two papers, but they are pretty close together in their ignorance and prejudice. The Washington paper is a remote country weekly, whose small-bore editor says: No wonder that the Nonpartisan bunk became so popular in North Dakota. The census taker found only five bath tubs in four counties. Uncleanliness and ignorance are ever companions, in- stance the Bolsheviki in Russia and the Bolsheviki hoboes of the I. W. W. and other unclean classes in the United States. The New York paper is a daily and expresses the same kind of hate and lack of information in a different way. In a circular letter to business men it says: Dear Friend: The state of North Dakota is helpless in the hands of terrorists. Minnesota is struggling to escape a like fate. And 11 other members of the Union are sickening with the poison of a monstrous organization. This menace is the Nonpartisan league. With fiendish cunning it started in a farming state—ensnaring the farmers by professing hatred for the I. W. W., the Socialists and other radicals. Once in control, it bound and gagged the governor, the senate, R ETER = the house, the courts, militia, schools and banks. And after forcing laws through the legislative bodies to protect its members, it boldly announced itself and has since formed connections with all branches of labor. It is planning campaigns to gain footholds throughout the United States. To prepare the people of central New York against the mission- aries of the sly band, the Post-Standard will unmask its methods in a series of articles. JOHN HINES, Mail Circulation Director, Syracuse Post- Standard, Syracuse, N. Y. 3 The opposition to the earnest, thinking farmers who are spending their money and time to make this a better land to live in, may think this stuff effective infighting the League. To Leaguers who know. the facts it is so violent and prejudiced that it destroys itself and we print it without further comment. PAGE SIX e A