The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 27, 1921, Page 4

il ing to $74,279.71, g0 that the state had actually earned only $104,- 003.58 of the $178,283.29 in premiums collected. A The actual losses paid by the state during the period reported upon, plus total operating expense and all other charges, were only $32,918.79. This left over $71,000 net profit on the business. The state will continue to charge-the same rates as the private compa- nies untii there has been accumulatcl a sufficient fund from the profits so that all public property will be amply protected. Then the premiums will be reduced so that the income will merely cover- the yearly losses and expense, and public property will be insured for a half of what private stock companies charge. . Who says the insurance monopoly hasn’t got a fine graft? EWS from Washington is that the house will not pass the Borah senate resolution requesting the president to call a conference with Great Britain and Japan in the interest of putting a stop to the present insane race for naval supremacy. The house instead will pass a resolution, already reported out ef com- mittee, approving President Harding’s declaration - Peace May for a conference some time or other to bring about Get Blow “approximate disarmament,” in the meantime our in House naval and military preparations to go on at full speed. In other words, the lower branch of con- gress proposes merely to congratulate the president for making a side-stepping statement about disarmament. For that is all the president’s “approximate disarmament” proposition It is not a _ s ] CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME = | amounts to. genuine move to put a stop immediately to the war preparations by us and other nations which are rushing the world into an- other devastating conflict that may end civilization. President Harding originally opposed the Bo- rah resolution in the sen- ate. While senators were for it, they would not have passed it, in all probabil- ity, had they not been led to* believe that the presi- dent had withdrawn his opposition. The Republi- can majority in the upper body is not yet ready, so early in the new adminis- tration, to beard the pres- ident. But the resolution was passed when it was believed that the presi- dent no longer objected. However, . it seems that this apparent concession by the president to the disarmament movement was made when he knew his friends in the house would hold up the Borah resolution and substitute the silly and meaningless resolution lately reported by the heuse committee. : ; Gentlemen, the people of the United States will not long stand for this trifling with a matter that is of overshadowing importance and concerning which the people, especially new women voters, feel moved to the depths. Get busy and call a world conference on im- mediate disarmament! ' WELL. IF T GOT TO SLOP ANY HOGS - THEY WILL BE MY OWN HOGS , ANYWAYA T IS remarkable that an administration admittedly reactionary I and dominated by big business interests has taken a step to re- store the liberty of the press which was withdrawn by the sup- posedly liberal administration preceding it. Postmaster General Hays has restored mailing privileges to the New York Call and Mil- waukee Leader, leading Socialist dailies, and to the Liberator, a monthly Communist publication. It is also encour- They Get aging to hear editors of conservative New York daily Big Credit Papers, like the World and Globe, applauding this act £ ollg Thllg L of the new postmaster general, especially in refer- ence to the Call, a radical competitor of-the very journals whose editors approve of the restoration of the Call’s rights to the mails. : The postmaster general says that the principle of a free press is too necessary to the well-being of a democracy to.permit of its - withdrawal simply to punish a few publications’ which may some- times be too violent, or which may eccasionally step over the line marking what many people believe is the limit of freedom of speech that can be safely permitted. This is good, sound American doctrine, reminding us of Jefferson’s dictum that error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. Sty PAGE FOUR @ - —Drawn expressly for the Leader by John M. Baer. Cartoonist Baer thinks that farmers everywhere will feed their own pig, in this case North Dakota, before slopping any others. So, he says, buy North Dakota bonds! Baer makes the bars of the pen, holding in the big hogs, represent the five planks - of the Nonpartisan league program. The best answer to false doctrine promulgated by Socialist and Communist papers is not suppression, which was the weapon of the Wilson administration, but facts and argument. We are in a bad way as a people, and our form of government is weak and unjusti- fied, if a few radical journals threaten its existence. We admit just that when we suppress such publications. We admit we can not answer their arguments any other way. : S THE school of agriculture of the University of Minnésota has” reported to the United States department of agriculture the results of a careful survey of farming ‘conditions in Minne- sota. The report finds that every major crop was produced at a tremendous loss to farmers of the state last year. Of the minor crops only alfalfa paid cost of production. The farmers of the state lost on the average 50 to 75 cents on every dollar What Will they invested in crops last year. “Best Minds” The cost of producing corn was found to be : o as follows: Labor, $14.99 an acre; seed, 72 cents; Do About It? twine, 2 cents; threshing, 2 cents; manure, 37 _cents; machinery, $2.65; rental, $11.85; total cost of an acre, $30.62. The farmers on the average got $13.30 oit of -each acre, a loss of $17.32. £ It would be tedious to go into.the figures for the other Minne- sota crops, for each tells the same story. e One of the “best minds” with which President Harding sur- rounded himself is Secretary of Agriculture. Wallace, of whom the Leader had great hopes. Recently he refused to al- ter the unfair features of the federal grain grades = = for spring wheat. What ; is he, and the other “best minds,” doing about the agricultural situation, be- sides the cheap sop of an emergency tariff, which will be a precedent for raising the tariff on things the farmer has to buy, so worse off in the end ? The effort of Secre- taries Hoover and Wallace - to work out a plan where- o N = Vo —— A 7 - BT = =, AR 2 * suR W W “ ple storage facilities for his crops and a warehouse receipt on which he can borrow money at favora- ble rates, without having to flood the market with his crops at inopportune times in order to get cash, is .praiseworthy. But we doubt seriously if much can be accomplished along this line without a system of state or government- owned warehouses, eleva- tors and cold storage plants. Will the present administration undertake a so-called “radical” and “socialistic” plan like that? But it would not be radical. Four states, three besides North Dakota, have undertaken such a program. HE American Legion should be congratulated by all believers in law and order for the action taken by the departmental jurisdiction in the case of the Cal. Tt is to be hoped that the national Legion post at Carpenteria, body will sustain the depart- ment. The California post has had its charter revoked, and thus has been kicked out of the Legion for subjecting a local editor to mob violence. The outrage could not be put off on indi- Legion’s vidual members of the Legion acting without Charter knowledge or authority of the post, for the editor . : was taken to Legion headquarters and there abused Withdrawn 54 beaten. : For interfering with Nonpartisan league meet- ings in Kansas and directly and indirectly promoting mob violence against farmers there, the local posts were reprimanded by the na- tional body,-which declared that the Legion would not uphold that kind of lawlessness. In addition officers of the Kansas Legion repu- diated the acts of the local posts. If the California post merited having its charter révoked for beating and injuring one man, a mere reprimand for the posts in Kansas that were instrumental in beating up many farmers and causing violence at several farmers’ meetings, while it helped, was perhaps too mild. oix ‘At any rate, Legion members who have violent proclivities are learning their lesson, and the organization as a whole should not be condemned for their lawlessness. . i ’ that he will probably be by the farmer can get am-