The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, October 17, 1921, Page 4

program, if they are adopted. The I. V. A. candidates will, if elect- ed, delay and knife the program at every opportunity. It would be well if anti-League newspapers and interests in other states understood this situation. The fact is that the League program is so thoroughly believed in by the great mass of the peo- ple of North Dakota that the League opposition must profess friend- ship to it to have even a ghost of a chance of political success. When : the press outside of North Dakota urges and hopes An Honest for the success of the I. V. As in that state, it is 0 iti backing candidates and measures purporting to be PPOSIUION pOR the League program. If the I. V. A. is Is Needed HONEST, it doesn’t matter which faction wins the coming election, because the program of the Non- partisan league will be carried out in any event. But Leaguers know that they can have no hope for the success of the program if Some of you have been getting the Nonpartisan Leader for six years. Most of you have probably received it four years or more. Until the last few months the Leader has never bothered you with requests to watch the date of the expiration of your subscription and reminders to see that your subscription is renewed promptly. That was taken care of automatically, through your payment of Nonpartisan league dues. But now, during this business crisis which has hit the Leader as hard as it has hit any business, and when we can not get credit, with publication costs still away above what they were before the war, we must ask every friend and reader to remit promptly, cash in advance, or the paper will be discontinued. Do you want to miss even one issue, during this time when of all times the farmers need the truth about political and economic questions? Read the announcement on the front. cover of this issue. Act today. We CAN NOT WAIT for the organizer to get your League dues. Send us your Leader subscription, and later, when you pay your dues, you will get credit for what you have paid the Leader on subseription account. Thousands of subscriptions are expiring. They must be renewed if the Leader is to live. *its carrying out is entrusted to trimming opposition politicians. The fight is a bitter and hard one, with every prospect of the farmers’ winning a final overwhelming victory and putting the 1. V. A. out of business for all time. This would be a good thing for the League opposition as well as the League, for any new or- ganization formed to take the place of the I. V. A. would undoubt- edly have to be honest enough to oppose the League and its pro- gram ‘on their merits, and not attempt to get office by dishonest professions of friendship for the program. The I. V. A.s failure at this recall election would be final proof that the League and the farmers can not be beaten by camouflage, and that if the farmers are turned out of office it must be by a political organization or party honestly and frankly meeting the real- issue, which is whether or not the program is GOOD and should be CARRIED OUT, or BAD and should be REPEALED, ‘ 3 Fight on the Fordney Bill— Other Comment goods are probably surprised, but pleasantly so, to learn that retail merchants and business men’s organizations have at last come out against the Fordney tariff bill, the high-handed Republican administration measure which, if passed, will increase prices and inaugurate another unholy era of profiteering by manu- facturers. : - The Leader is in receipt of a letter from the Chicago Associa- tion of Commerce, the leading business'men’s organization of the second largest city in America, declaring that organization’s oppo- sition to the Fordney bill and inclosing a circular FARMERS, workers anci other consumers of manufactured Retailers giving facts and figures which prove boyond a Fichti shadow of a doubt that the Fordney bill is the most Ni’,gw 'll‘t:ig;' if vicious and unprincipled measure that the present dominating political party has yet proposed. This is saying a lot, because in their tax and railroad leg- islation the Republicans were thought to have gone the limit. On the day we received the welcome news that Chicago busi- ness men had awakened to the menace of the Fordney bill, the Twin City newspapers published resolutions adopted by the St. Paul Re- tail Merchants association, which,declare that the bill will give American manufacturers a monopoly and permit them to raise " prices, which in turn will force wholesalers and retailers to increase prices. living for the already virtually bankrupt consumer. Other merch- ants’ associations in other cities are expected to follow suit. An important cog in the Republican plans has thus slipped, jamming the smooth running machinery which they expected would enable them to fulfill their campaign promises to big business. The Fordney bill ought, among other things, to convince retail merch- ants and business men of the danger of electing a national admin- istration whose campaign funds are derived from profiteering big corporations, financiers and manufacturers. . The business men and merchants voted almost solidly for Harding. Now they see that one of the Republicans’ chief measures will so raise retail prices that the overburdened consumer will be unable to buy, thus injur- ing the retail business. men, on account of their meek co-operation with big business in electing Harding, deserve to suffer through the passage of the Fordney bill. But the bill will hurt the people as a whole worse, and so it is welcome news fhat the business men will assist in getting it altered or defeated. : ITH the international conference on disarmament about to open at Washington, D. C., one would think that the Repub- licans, if they are really sincere in saying they want the conference to be a success, would refrain from war-like bluffs, talk and preparations. Yet a congressional committee has just announc- ed plans for creating a reserve army of 4,000,000 to 5,000,000. Every little while a “statesman” comes out with big talk about hav- ing an unbeatable navy, or says something to the effect that the United States must enter into no agreements with foreign powers. This would be bad enough. But in addition the Republican ad- ministration lets it be known that it fears the public is putting too This, say the St. Paul merchants, will increase the cost of’ There is no doubt but that most business. much trust in the proposed conference and that it would be better if the people were not led to expect too much. The conference, it is officially announced, will not ABOLISH armaments, but only LIMIT them, which may mean nothing. To cut off one battleship . a year, or even one gun, from present plans, would Not Sincere Pe “limiting armaments.” . Worse yet, President Harding says wars are in Move to inevitable and a matter of course, that mankind al- Stop Wars ways will fight, and, while something may be done to see that wars do not come too often,-it is futile to hope for perpetual world peace. ; What hope is there for the success of the conference with our politicians talking like this? The personnel of the delegation of the United States to the conference contains not one man who has been conspicuous in the movement for world disarmament. Senator Borah, a sincere advocate of world peace and the author of the senate resolution which forced Harding to call the conference, is not named as a delegate. Little wonder that the pessimists are cynically laughing and predicting failure. HE Farmers’ Educational and Co-Operative union of Iowa has I elected Milo Reno president. He defeated T. A. Hougas after a hard-fought battle, which has been brewing for some time and which came to an issue on the floor of the recent Union convention. Mr. Reno is a liberal and progressive, and he stood for maintaining the independence and integrity of the Farm- ers’ uniqn in JTowa. The candidate he defeated was backed by reac- tionary interests of the state, largely outside of the Farmers’ union, which wanted that organization to “co-operate” with Progressive the Iowa State Farm Bureau federation. E Farmers of . Co-op_eratlon.between farmers’ organizations is I Wi a good thing. The Leader has always urged it. As owa win a matter of ‘policy and principle farmers’ organiza- tions should not fight among themselves. But in Towa the Farm Bureaus are farmer organizations practically only in name. The Bureau movement in that state was organized and fostered by the unspeakable Greater Iowa association, which repre- sented the banking and big business interests. The Bureaus were intended in Iowa to throttle genuinely progressive farmers’ organ- izations and measures. “Co-operation” with the Farm Bureau fed- eration in Iowa virtually meant consolidating the Farmers’ union with the Bureaus, and putting both organizations under the control of non-farming interests, so that they could be used by big business and big bapking interests. - ] The victory of Mr. Reno is therefore a triumph for the farmers of the state. . 'The Leader congratulates the Farmers’ union of Iowa. We believe, with Mr. Reno at the head, and with the policy of maintaining the Union independent of the Bureau movement, the organization is in a position to do much good for the farmers. We hope that the efforts of politicians and business interests in other states to dominate genuine farmer organizations through the Farm Bureaus will meet a similar set-back. Meanwhile those progressive farmers who have joined the Farm Bureau should keep up their agitation to kick out evil leaders. 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