The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 13, 1920, Page 4

Organization by Farmers Will Win Every Time - more of Congressman John M. Baer’s inimitable cartoons. We are going to keep on presenting just as many of Baer’s cartoons as we'can, and Cartoonist Morris will continue giving us his work at the same time. - : The cartoon Baer has drawn this week for our cover is worth studying. It presents a real moral and it pictures John Baer’s 2 real da}nger that is facing the farmers. Cover for Politicians, as we all know, are long on prom- * This Issue PROBABLY Leader readers have noticed that we are printing ises. During a campaign they all promise to do wonderful things for the farmer, though they are delightfully vague as to just -what those things are going to be. They have been particularly generous with their promises this year, because they are afraid of the farmer when he is organized politically. S . Some of their promises to the farmer will be kept—provided the farmers keep their own political organization in good working order. But if the farmer trusts so blindly to the promises of the old party politicians that he abandons his own organization, the pol- iticians will no longer have any reason to carry out their promises. patterned after North Dakota’s, that have been adopted by other states since the Nonpartisan league was organized. These states have not gotten nearly the relief that North Dakota has se- cured, but they have made a small start. The same thing is likely to happen nationally, long before the I N THE last issue of the Leader we pointed out some of the laws, Etérnal recent Republican national convention farmers’ organ- Yiecilance izations appeared for the first time with a series of Nei ded definite planks which they wanted written in the na- tional platform. About half of these planks were : adopted. : / The writer of this editorial was talking at Chicago with the head of one of the largest of the national farmers’ organizations that appeared before the convention. 7 “We would never have gotten what we did,” said this man, “if it hadn’t been for you Leaguers back there in the Dakotas and Min- nesgta, ready to raise Cain -with these politicians if they turned us down.” ; : The promises that the Republicans made have not been fulfilled yet. They may be fulfilled, some of them at least, but only if the farmers have a political organization, camping eternally on the job, threatening to “raise Cain” with the politicians if they break faith with the people. : AN %8 40,3 Q\)\\/ \ o //“/// ///7 i 1 / ,'4.,'-”,/‘ = 7 //////; AN ez — 7 ‘ /', L‘N \\-\ \<\\l\\\ o < VAN YN : League has power enough to control congress. At the ° JUST TRY TAKING HIM BY THE HORNS! P s = -.,,.4 o IR Old-line politicians in Minnesota, Washington and other states are advised by the Minneapolis-dour law and reinstate the old convention system. This right on top of the fact that the pgggl,g;} f tempts of the legislatures of these states to mutilate the direct primary.: direct primary, Morris believes the politicians are __‘guing'tqt tlpni” E HAD occasion some months ago to quote from some of the letters which Roger S. Babson’s service at Washington, D. C., is sending to business men throughout the nation. Here are some further excerpts: ot S First and foremost clients may now count upon reduced taxation which should eliminate business profits taxes almost entirely and ease in many other ways Roger Babson the present federal burdens on manufacturers, . Tells Us What g “ merchants and investors. The people have con-’ We May Expect clusively shown that they want an administra- tion friendly to business and: we surely now shall have it. For 60 years the Republican party has been the business man’s party. For the next four years we shall have a thoroughly Re- publican administration. * * * . The administration’s labor policy may be a radical departure from present tendencies.. At this stage in the business cycle conditions are unfavorable to organized labor. Under these conditions the Republican administration may be able to hold downthe lid on the labor element. Mr. Babson has the grace to add: : Frankly, the labor policy of the new administration is one about which we are much concerned. ‘ fi2ch 3 He explains that too harsh treatment of labor may cause a re- action against the Republicans, just as the unfair attitude of Palmer and Burleson’caused a reaction against the Democrats. As the Leader pointed out immediately after the election, Pres- ident-elect Harding and the Republican party may be headed for a worse beating in 1924 than the Democrats got this year. They cer- tainly are if Mr. Babson correctly expresses their views. - "VHE Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce announces that farm- ers’ organizations will be admitted to the chamber if they will form a corporation to hold membership, will agree not to distribute their earnings back to their membership on a patronage : basis -and will pay $9,000 to $15,000 for a “seat.” Sitting in Why any farmers’ organization should desire the Other membership under these conditions is problemat-. oo ical. A farmers’ selling organization may have Man’s Game 50,000 members. In the chamber of commerce it would have just one vote. Two Minneapolis banks have 12 votes each in the chamber. There are several hundred other votes, all of which would be cast against the one vote representing . 50,000 farmers. The cards would be stacked against the farmer from the beginning. No farmer would sit in a poker game when all the other players were professional gamblers, working together to beat him and with power to change the rules of the game whenever they saw fit. : e e :