The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 21, 1921, Page 4

| i j 4 | g T WS : J oo DO YOU remember, early in the winter of 1919-1920, when daily newspapers were full of “news” about an impending _ coal shortage and were urging everybody to buy their win- . ter’s supply immediately, without waiting for prices to come down? . “This gave it very good effect,” said the - that decreased production enti- ‘How the Kept 'hidebound reactionary though There was recently presented to the senate -committee on man- ufactures, considering the fuel control bill, the confidential report of a meeting of the board of directors of the National Wholesale Coal association. This report says that mine _op-. erators reported a tremendous supply of coal which the public was refusing to buy at war prices. The coal companies would be forced either to lower prices or else close down their mines until the surplus could be marketed unless Press Helped Coal Barons “some other way out of the difficulty could be devised. The coal companies found a way out of the difficulty, however. They appropriated $1,000,000 for a “publicity campaign.” Secre- tary Peabody of the publicity committee reported that he had per- suaded a number of editors to print alarmist stories of an imminent coal famine and that Melville E. Stone, the manager of the Asso- ciated Press (“my dear friend,” Mr. Peabody calls him), had tried out the plan with gratifying success. The Associated Press, the publicity director reported, sent a 1,000- word article, written by the publicity experts of the coal association, without changing a word and assuming full re- sponsibility for its statements, which were exactly the opposite of the truth. confidential report of the publicity agent, “because the public coulé) not see > in it any propaganda.” In one day the coal companies re- ceived enough buying orders to meet the entire cost of the $1,‘OO0,000’ campaign. V] VHE robbery of the American public by the coal operators, with the aid of the Associat- ed Press and the kept press gener- ally, stands out as the most bare- faced profiteering yet exposed. Ac- cording to the findings of an In- diana federal grand jury, the oper- ators entered into A “Control” a deliberate con Bill—Minus spiracy. to sell tha Control no coal at prices lower than those prevailing dur- ing the war and deliberately pro- voked strikes in order to claim tled them to higher prices. Senator Calder of New York, he is, after investigating the sit- - A NEW PERFORMER BUT THE SAME RINGMASTER Our Profiteers, Our Newspapers imdi Our Congress commission shows that by interlocking directorates, New York banks control most of the railroads. private manufacturing firms. Formerly the railroads operated their own repair shops. Since the passage of the Esch-Cummins law, however, they have been having most of their repair work done by outside concerns. The reason given for this was that the railroads could thus escape paying the wages they had‘agreed to pay their own machinists. . But investigation now shows that on one order of 512 locomo- tives, the contract repair work, dene by the Baldwin company, cost the railroads $5,852,000 more than if they had done the work in their own shops. . The Hocking Valley railroad has a contract with the Ralston company for the repair of freight cars which will cost the railroad $600 more per car than if the work were done in the - railroad shops. .On this basis the repair work of the railroads is costing $250,000,000 a year more than if done in their own_shops. AILROAD directors and managers apfiarently have been operating on the thecry that whatever the operation of the roads might cost, the government would make good their loss. That the senate, at any rate, is looking after the interests of : the railroads more than the interests-of the people was indicated the other day - whenbtlhe senate pass- Wh ed a bill appropriating Ma;)tggeog‘he' $350,000,000 - to pay Our Senate? roads had suffered in operation under the Esch-Cummins act. : The senate passed the bill to pay the railroads :$350,000,000 in face. of the fact that the railroads now owe the gov- ernment $1,292,000,000 for cars, tracks and loans provided by the government during the war-time period of govern- ment control. Instead of giving the - railroads credit for the $350,000,000, thus reducing their debt to the gov- ernment to a little less than a billion dollats, the senate provides for. pay- ing the railroads cash and allows the much greater debt of the railroads to the government to stand. Here are two questions that suggest themselves: How long would a man last in business if he followed such a policy ? - If the graft on railroad re- pair work is due to interlocking directorates between the rail- roads and the repair companies, what interlocking directorates are there between the railroads and the United States senate? uation confessed that govern- ment control was the only meth- od of curbing the greed of the coal barons. Even Judge McGee of Minnesota, who branded Non- partisan leaguers who talked government ownership during the war as “disloyalists,” came out for government supervision. - What is the government going to do about it? The press dis- patches told us the other day. The Calder bill, for government control of coal operators was approved—with all provision for government control eliminated. The government politely asks the coal operators to file reports showing how much coal they have mined—and they can then charge what prices for it they wish. HE people of Wisconsin defeated Congressman Esch and elected a Leaguer in his place. Senator Cummins, the other author of the Esch-Cummins law, returning the railroads and_ guaranteeing their earnings, barely managed to get back to con- gress, and now admits that the law was a mistake. - Nothing but econemieal administration on the part of the rail- Graft Makes roads and their joint operation will prevent pub- Milli Fade lic ownership, he said in a recent interview. In: nions 'a 1e spite of government guarantees of earnings, Into Thin Air $300,000,000 loans by the government (which could not spare money to be loaned to farmers) and sharply increased freight and passenger rates, the roads are practically bankrupt. Why? ' y For one reason, on account of wholesale graft on the part of railroad directors and New York bankers. The interstate commerce A A A A R G T s TR S S SO 2 What difference will the change in administration at Washington, D. C., make? The Democratic'donkey is performing no longer, but the Republican elephant is doing the same “stunts” under the same command, John Baer says in picture form. The coal profiteers and the railroads may ‘enjoy the show, but not the common people. . Congress - PAGE FOUR ————r %5 gress has done for the cor- porations, what it has done for the farmers is pitiful. - The retiring congress made a railroads, besides allowing the s one-sided bargain noted above. North Dakota and Montana representatives asked congress for a loan of $5,000,000 for the drouth-stricken farmers of these two states and South Dakota. The house of representa- tives declared this was too much for mere farmers, and cut it down to $2,000,000. : ; : » Eve_n this was not .allowed without protest. Rep- resentative Royal Johnson of South Dakota declared that North Dakota was “in charge of long-haired So- and the Farmers - cialists, I. W. W.s and Bolshevists of all kinds,” and intimated that the Nonpartisan league was responsible for-the drouth in western North Dakota because, he said, he had received no request for aid - from any farmer in South Dakota. How the League caused the drouth in Montana Mr. Johnson did fiot explain, nor did he ‘explain ‘how, by any stretch of the imagination, Governor Frazier ‘could be called a “long-haired Socialist.” : i ' -~ Mr. Johnson during the war was one of the 4,000,000 service men and in 1918 sought to-capitalize his reputation by becoming a candidate for congress. Mr. Johnson’s friends induced the League -farmers of South Dakota to put nd candidate in the field against him. The Nonvartisan league undoubtedly has made mistakes in its career, One of the worst probably was in ever being imposed upon by a man of Johnson’s type. 3 b Grs, . Ve The banks also control many- “losses” that the rail- - COMPARED with what con- new-loan of $300,000,000 to the 0