The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 19, 1920, Page 13

DITOR Nonpartisan Lead- ‘er: - The undersigned was. brought up on a farm in the province of —————— tenant had little to say as to how he should vote or what ~ form of religion he should support: Jaunting-cars went round on election day and carried the farmers to the polls where, like a flock of sheep, they were. counted for the -landlord’s can- didate. 'The collector came around in those days also, and although the es- tablished church was only patronized by one-sixth of the Irish people every landholder had to pay for its support. But the south and west of Ireland re- belled and agitated and William Glad- stone brought forth the secret ballot and thedisestablishment of the church. . By persistent agitation, and in some cases direet: action, the Irish got the “land purchase act” so that on the .‘amortization plan they became owners of the farms they tilled. - At 26 years of age I came to Da- = % kota, then a ‘territory. = There the - farmers were raising wheat for 50 ‘cents. a bushel and the bankers were loaning them money at the rate of 36 . per cent per annum and taking mort- gages ‘on all they possessed, even the - erops whick ‘had ‘not been' harvested. After a few dry summers the farmers ~in’ Dakota were worse off than the 7 farmers in Ireland. Then we organ- . THE WORKERS’ PROBLEM .~ Editor Nonpartisan Leader: I am writing this to throw a little light on the workingman’s side’of present-day .- conditions, as I-do not believe the av- serage ‘farmer understands them very The average pay here is $5 per day, + or $130 for 26 working days in ‘the < cents; ork, 85 to 40 cents; fruit, such month.. Rent is $30 and up; flour. sells at $3.90 for 49 pounds; potatoes, 10 cents per” pound; beef, 28 to 40 . as oranges, bananas, etc., 60 to 90 ‘cents per dozen; canned vegetables, 25 to 3b cents per can, and canned fruit, 35 to 55 cents per can; butter, " 65 to 7b cents per pound; milk, 15 ¢ kept for some time, I find that it o . Total expense aee 'Renfi“for_‘_montl.l .$§0 2 - cents per quart; rolled oats, 90 cents to $1 for nine pounds. Now on the above prices, after a careful record costs me, with a family of seven to support, $80 a month for provisions; and you will note that I have only mentioned the necessities, ures out'about like this: e Lo Income L. aiaes . $130 " ‘Food, fuel, etc. ;... 80 : : 110 "~ Balance .........00....8 20 0 ~ This $20 goes to buy clothing, med- icine, doctor’s bills, premium on- life insurance and incidental’ expenses. Now in case the breadwinner of the family is sick or out of work for a » « month or more during a year the fam- - ily either has to go witkout the neces- :sities of life or some charitable insti- i tution has to come to its aid, which is not 2 pleasant viewpoint for an intelli- | . gent American to look at. Do you blame us for striking under such con- Great Falls, Mont. e - WORKERS BOOST LEAGUE _ ;24The ijht‘ for Economic Justice in ‘North Dakota Goes On,” is the title of an article in the current number of ‘the Brotherhood ' of Locomotive Fire- men and Enginemen’s magazine, de- scribing ‘the henefits of the North Da- kotéprogram, o 0 B iy ‘Ulster, Ireland, when the "~ Why He Joined the Nonpartisan League « Native of Ireland Sees Same Fight Here That Faced e o Peasanigof Burope | oo e ‘i‘zed thé Populist p%u'ty and the Farm- ers” alliance. iy . I remember about this time selling some wheat to an. old-line* elevator and having four bushels; stolen out of ,one wagonload; this I proved by hav-. ingi the same nhumber of sacks filled out of the same bin and tied the same: way, weighed next trip at a farmers’ ~warehouse. ' It did not matter in those days whether your wheat was ever so clean or not, the elevators al- ways took two pounds dockage to the bushel. A 3 - Then 1 came to Minnesota and sold wheat for 37 cents a bushel and oats, ‘which weighed 40 pounds to’ the bush- “el, for 13 cents. Then I took to the woods in Aitkin county, where at least Te we do not. have to sell our wheat to- .. buy wood or coal. . History. repeats itself, in all ages and climes, and human nature is the - »same.. The English barons stole the -land from the Irish peeple, in viola= tion of the treaty of Limerick. This is the sore that rankles in the heart of ‘southern Ireland and which refuses : to ‘be healed. But organization and agitation have made the Irish farmer . more prosperous than any of his class. .in any European country. I'remember the landlords and their agents and the so-called conservatives and respectable dealers in the towns were against the reforms. The same classes are fighting the N. P. L. in Minnesota' and. Dakota today. The - subsidized press hurls the same epi- thets of “disloyalty’® and radicalism? 1n their. wrath as they did 50 years ~ago at the undaunted leaders of Irish diberty. F. B. MEGARRY. i Bain, Minn. - : e ADVERTISEMENTS "THE MOTIVE BEHIND F. B. Tipton- Sr. of Seward, Neb., sends a copy of a letter he wrote Bar- ton W. Currie, editor of the Country Gentleman, in which he says: “I have been reading the Country Gentleman: many . years ‘and I must frankly state it was from laudatory articles in the Country Gentleman that I first became interested in the League movement. - g “It was 'with a very considerable - - degree of astonishment that I noticed - - You, almost ‘over night, ‘entirely re- versed your former good opinion of the orginization and began your pres- ent unfair and untruthful attack upon it) and its leaders.” It was not until I became somewhat faniiliar with the fact that newspapers are now con- trolled, not by the opinions of their subscribers but by those of their ad- -vertisers and those who extend finan- cial aid to them; that I realized the reason.” 2 have only /‘/“‘ E \ - Free to Drive the Team .HE PO Diamond Riding Plow is one ‘ that may be dependedon for the best results in plowing; clean-cut, uniform fur- - rows. 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