The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 2, 1921, Page 3

IN THE INTEREST OF A SQUARE DEAL FOR THE FARMERS Entered ag_second-class matter at the postoffice at Minneapolis, Minn., under the act of March 3, 1879, Publication address, 427 Sixth avenue S., Minneapolis, nn. Address all “remittances to The Nonpartisan Leader, Box 2072, Minneapolis, Minn. Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Two Weeks 8 OLIVER S. MORRIS, Editor. > s s i i g et A MAGAZINE THAT DARES TO PRINT THE TRUTH One year, $1.50, Classified rates on classified page; other advertising rates on application. Member Audit ureau of Circulations. 8. C. Beckwith Special Agency, advertising representatives, New York, Chicago, 8t. Louls, Kansas City. = VOL. 12, NO. 9 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, MAY 2, 1921 WHOLE NUMBER 271 What Kind of Medicine Does Agriculture Need? treating symptoms; the other in treating the causes of symp- toms. If a doctor of the first school finds a patient with a sore throat he may tell him to wrap an old sock around his throat ‘and after awhile it will be well. - When the sore throat comes back he will tell him to do the same thing over again. A doctor of the second school will examine the man to find what 4 I VHERE are two main schools of medicine. One believes in Two Ways caused the sore throat. Perhaps it is diseased ton- to Treat a sils, in which case the tonsils come out. Or it may - be that the sick man is “run down” through over- -Sick Man work or lack of proper nourishment. Whatever the cause the physician tries to remove it, so that the soreness will not merely go away, but will stay away. American agriculture today is in bad condition. It is sicker than a man with a sore throat, chillblains, housemaid’s knee and the flu rolled into one. In every line producers are offered less than the cost of production ; they can not borrow enough to finance their cperations, and for what money they can borrow they are charged extortionate rates. And the Harding administration realizes the condition of agriculture, it says, and has a remedy. That remedy is an emergency tariff bill. Now it is undoubtedly true that CONGRESS “HELPS” foreign producers, in many instances, can lay their prod- ucts down in the American market at prices that would force the Amer- ican producer into bankruptcy. To mention a few instances, Italian lem- . ons can be sold The Effect at New York so f Incr d cheaply that _Cal- o ncrease ifornia producers Freight Rates 1ose on every box ; they sell, Danish butter is being imported to compete with our own butter and Australian -and Argentine wool are likewise coming in. Why is this? In the case of lemons the freight and war tax on a box of lemons from California to New York is $1.441%4, while the grower is offered $2.10 for the box, leaving him 6514 cents for all ex- penses of production, picking and packing. The Italian grower, whose freight costs him perhaps 25 cents a box, on the other hand, can make a good profit on the sale. Canada thus - far is the only country that has sent any considerable amount of wheat into the United States, but Argentina can ship to New York for 12 cents, while it costs 88 cents to ship the same wheat from Minneapolis and much more from North Dakota or Montana. The freight rate on corn from Omaha to Chicago is 86 per cent higher than in 1918, freight rates on livestock from the producing centers of the West to the consuming centers of the East are ap- proximately double the rates of 1918, and the freight rate on cotton from Memphis, Tenn., to New York is 192 per cent greater. Now, after considering these facts, what does American agri- culture need most—an old sock tied around its neck, in the form of an emergency tariff, or an operation for enlarged freight rates? UT the Esch-Cummins act is not the only disease that is at- y tacking Ameriean agriculture. Wool is in particularly bad . shape. Why? Freight rates are largely responsible.” The wool haul is a long one, most of it having to travel from the Rocky "mountains to the Atlantic coast, and the cost of Why Weol transportation is two or three times the cost of Produce transporting wool from foreign seaports to New 10“ ucers s York. But another reason that wool is so low is Go “Broke that there is now stored in this country enough wool to last manufacturers a year and one-half or two years at the present rate of consumption. 5 : / The reason for this is that during the last six years manufac- turers of woolen goods have been using more and more “shoddy” (wool worked over from wornout garments) mixing a large propor- tion of this with a small proportion of new or virgin wool and selling the cloth for “all wool.” There is pending before ‘congress a so- called “pure wool” bill which would allow manufacturers to brand cloth made of new wool “virgin wool” and would compel them to brand shoddy cloth for what it is. If the American consumer had a chance he would demand virgin wool cloth whenever possible. He has no such chance at the present time and the woolen manufac- turers, who seem to have more influence with congress than either the producer or the consumer, do not intend to let him have it. The present system allows the woolen manufacturers to prey upon both producers and consumers. A tariff won’t hurt the manufacturer, but a “pure wool” bill is simply unthinkable. the neck has cured a sore throat. At any rate, the sore throat has eventually gotten better and the doctor who prescribed the sock claimed the credit. Of course the sore throat comes back later to be relieved the next time, perhaps, by pink pills administered ; by a second quack physician. But the worst of the tariff rem- edy that the quack doctors at Wash- ington are prescribing as a cure-all for winter colds, IN SOME cases it may be true that an old sock wrapped around GRAIN QGAHBLER Which Kind spring fever and " summer com- on %’cml lng? plaints of man e We Want? ;4 beast, is that the emergency tariff for farmers is only an entering wedge. It is to be followed by a tar- iff for the benefit of manufacturers, and if the American farmer should get increased prices for his products he will immediately- have to pay it out in increased prices for farm machinery, clothing, shoes, flour, bacon and everything else that he has to buy. Isn’t it time to cut out the quackery? Let us get at the cause of the condition of American agri- culture. Let us have whatever op- erations are necessary to relieve the American farmer of the leeches and parasites that prey upon him in the form of unnecessary middlemen, usurious bankers, grafting railroad barons and the like. If we can get rid of the cause of the disease we can rid ourselves of the necessity for a tariff “treatment” that may prove as bad as the disease. N ANOTHER page in this issue will be found an account of the final plans for the grain growers’ national sales agency. Organizers will soon be in the field to see individual farm- ers. . Whether the United States Grain Growers, Inc., is a success depends upon many things. The members must stick in spite of whatever temporary discouragements may arise and the officers and directors must prove themselves able and honest. Political But there is another factor and a big one. The dele- Action Is gates who adopted the plan saw it and pointed it out. 2 They adopted a list of resolutions concerning matters Required ¢opgidered necessary for the success of the farmers’ grain marketing plan—and every resolution demands one or more pieces of legislation to make the new grain marketing system effective. : . There is just one way to get this legislation. The farmers had experience enough, during the last session of congress, asking po- litely for help and getting nothing. The only way to get the help that the farmers must have is to build-up the farmers’ political or- ganization—the National Nonpartisan league—stronger than ever, 8o that the farmers can-send enough of their men to Washington to enact the legislation that is required. Unless farmers are organ- ized politically to protect their marketing organizations, politicians and big business will destroy them. Stick to the League! PAGE THREE * R S RS NS S W RO