The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 5, 1921, Page 4

poses that the railroads turn over their paper for the debt they owe, and that then the government GUARANTEE this paper and sell it, realizing cash for it. Instead of the government KEEPING this cash to pay the railroad debt to the government, Harding proposes that it be given back to the railroads! He proposes, in effect, that the rail:'oags tbfcehallowed tt}c; borrow frong'the gov- ernment what they owe the government! gf‘tl; %fi’fggn If farmers, badly in need of credit at this " time, could issue bonds for what they owe, have on Congress their creditors guarantee and sell those bonds, and then give the proceeds of the sale to the farm- ers to finance them through this winter and -néxt spring, it would be “pretty soft,” wouldn’t it? Yet that is the president’s proposi- tion in regard to railroads! The money that the railroads will get in this way will be $5900,- 000,000, according to the president’s estimate. Garet Garrett, writ- ing in the New Republic (New York), points out that this amazing operation proposed by the president—letting the railroads borrow from the government what they owe the government, under the nice- sounding phrase of “refunding the indebtedness”—means that Wall street has shifted the burden of financing the roads to the govern- ment. The government takes the risk. The railroads remain in private hands for private operation for private profit, but your Uncle Sam steps in, in place of private capital, to do the financing! A fine scheme, to be sure! Will congress stand for it? You might write your congressman and ask him. : * * * * ELEGRAPH wires from grain gamblers’ headquarters back east were made hot recently with frantic orders sent to news- papers all over the country. The telegrams said: “Spare no expense. Eliminate last two lines.” The order had reference to advertisements offered to newspapers and headed: “Mr. Farmer: Look before you leap.” Perhaps ; you saw those ads. They were an attack on the grain pooling movements of co-operative or- ganizations, but ended up with these two lines: Remember North Dakota! Remember the Nonpartisan league! The Leader showed last week that the committee of the Grain Dealers’ National asso- ciation, ap- pointed specif- * A Boomerang That Flew Back Quick jcally to fight ' co - operative pooling and marketing of grain by the farmers, was instead really fighting the Nonpartisan league, because the League is feared by them more than the co-operative marketing move- ment. The ads above referred to are more evidence that grain gamblers believe the League is the most effective organization | they have to meet. Why else - would they attack the League | while ostensibly_attacking pool- ing movements that the League is not connected with and has not indorsed ? ‘Why the telegraphic order to newspapers to eliminate the attack on the League from the ads, which was received by most newspapers too late? Simply be- PAGE FOUR Farmers at this time would do well to consider what organized labor is doing to prevent the pres- ent business depression and hard times being used as a club to break up the unions and force - workers to accept the terms of employers. The ordinary union dues of city workers run from $15 to $50 a year, more than any farmer organization ever required of members. many unions, as in the printing trades, are making assessments on members, in ADDITION to the ordinary dues, amounting to from 15 to 25 per cent of the wages of members! Experience has taught union men that the REAL time to stick—the time when organization is the MOST effective—is in times like these, when: big business and employing interests are trying to use the business depression to destroy unionism. Will farmers quit THEIR organization because of hard times, when THAT is the time that they need a FIGHTING organization MOST? Renew your Nonpartisan league membership at once! Organize, stick, fight! At this time cause the gi‘ain 'g:amblers discovered, after the first few ads ap- l TAKES MAGNIFYING GLASS TO SEE HIM I DY \- THE UNORGANIZED peared, that the attack on the League was a boomerang—that it was helping to build up instead of tear down the pooling movements. Farmers everywhere, Leaguers as well as farmers who never joined the League, began to figure that any movement which grain gam- blers were fighting by the same methods that they fight North Da- kota farmers, is a good movement—that it must have something in it of benefit to farmers. The Prairie Farmer (Chicago), opposed to the League, interprets the mention of the League as a boost for the U. S. Grain Growers, Inc. The Farmers’ Dispatch of St. Paul, a weekly edition of the Daily Dispatch, which has been the League’s bitterest enemy in Minnesota, refers to the slogan, “Remember North Dakota,” as a reason why farmers should join the pool. But the attack on the League in the ads is really unfortunate for the League, even if it is 3 boost for the pooling movement. . It connects the League with a farmers’ venture that the League has nothing to do with and never indorsed—a venture which may turn out all right, but which is highly risky and to date has had little success. Also it tends to divert attention from the fact that the Farm Bureau movement, which is responsible for the U. S. Grain - Growers, Inc., nationally and in many states is controlled or influ- enced by sinister non-farming interests, and that many of the Farm Bureau leaders, as in Minnesota, are cheap politicians who will have - %* League would rather not have its name used by grain gamblers to boost ventures with which the League is not connected. 2 HE' Leader has seen a letter from one of the largest whole- sale houses of -the Twin Cities, sent to retailers throughout wholesale house is in close touch with the financial and business situ- ation, and the letter to retailers contains advice as to how proceed in sential part of the letter follows: The talk in Twin Cities bank- ceived by the farmer for his crop will have to be Merchants : most part, in this federal re- Have “Edge” . to pay off notes at the town and city banks. It is ing closely for receipts of grain at the elevators, and as fast as ing collection of their notes. Go to your farmer customers get your share. Go to them while they are threshing, or at least be- ot get them to take .care of you . first. Otherwise~they will not do to be heavy on them this fall, and in most districts there will not be “indebtedness. The letter is 4 plain admis- going to pull the farmer out of debt, and it shows that there. -er creditors to “get theirs.” But the most significant aspect of the bankers are squeezing ‘the farmers and have the_ inside to be kicked out if the bureaus are to really serve agriculture. The * * * * Tthe Northwest with whom the wholesale house deals. This the present emergency. The es- ing circles is that money re- used, for the See Banks serve district, said that the bankers are watch- farmers are selling they-are push- and make a strenuous effort to fore they sell, and see if you can it, because the pressure is going enough of a crop to pay off their sion that this year’s crop is not will be a scramble among farm- the letter is its assurance that track ar“n'dqg. farmer creditors. PEOPLE y‘n. .. —Drawn expressly for the Leader by John M BRaer.