The producers news. [volume], December 07, 1923, Page Page Two, Image 2

About The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937

Image provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT

                
STATISTICS OF STATE
GOVERNMENT
EXPENDITURES
Washington, D. C., December 3,
1923.—The Department of Commerce
announces that the costs of govern
ment for the state of Montana for the
fiscal year ended June 30,
amounted to $8,281,224, which was a
per capita cast of $13i)9. * In 1917
the per capita cost was $8.39, and in
1914, $7.06. the totals of these years
being $4,220,151 and $3,173,644, re
spectively. The per capita cost for
1922 consisted of expenses of general
departments $7.99; payments for in
terest. $0.56; and for outlays. $5.44,
more than two-thirds of which was
from highways.
1922,
REVENUES
The total revenue receipts for 1922
were $8,457,638, or $14.29 per capita.
For the fiscal year the per capita ex
cess of revenue receipts over govern
mental costs was, therefore, $0.30.
In Montana, property and special
taxes represented 26.1 per cent of the
total revenue for 1922, 23.1 per cent
for 1917, and 39.3 per cent for 1914.
The increase in the amount of pro
perty and special taxes collected was
13.8 per cent from 1914 to 1917, and
50.0 per cent from 1917 to 1922. The
per capita property and special taxes
were $7.72 in 1922, $2.92 in 1917 and
$2.87 in 1914.
Earnings of general departments,
or compensation for services rendered
by state officials, represented 7.0 per
cent of the total revenue for 1922, 5.7
per cent for 1917, and 11.0 per cent
for 1914.
Business and nonbusiness licenses
constituted 14.3 per cent of the total
revenue for 1922, 28.7 per cent for
1917, and 19.3 per cent for 1914. Re
ceipts from business licenses consist
chiefly of taxes exacted from insur
ance and other incorporated compa
nies, while those from nonbusiness li
censes comprise taxes on motor ve
hicles and amounts paid for hunting
and fishing privileges.
INDEBTEDNESS
The net indebtedness (funded and
floating debt less sinking fund assets)
of Montana was $7.29 per capita for
1922, $1.91 for 1917, and $2.83 for
1914. Of the bonds issued during the
year $3,299,000 were for educational
purposes and $21,400 for veterans'
welfare.
ASSESSED VALUATIONS AND
TAX LEVIES.
For 1922 the assessed valuation of
property in Montana subject to ad
vxcrem taxation was $456.200,278;
the amount of taxes levied was $2,
105,487; and the per capita levy,
$3.56.
CANADIANS AGAINST
AMERICAN TARIFF
That Canadian grain merchants and
commercial interests are becoming
aroused over the alleged misuse of
the "milling in bond" feature of the
American Tariff on wheat, is indicat
ed by an item recently appearing in
The Corn Trade News, a prominent
English paper. It is alleged that
Canadian grain, shipped into this
country under bond, to be milled and
re-exported, is diverted into this coun
try, while lower grades of American
wheat are substituted for shipment
abroad, thereby allegedly defrauding
both the United States government
and the farmers of this country, and
defeating the legitimate purposes of
the Tariff.
The item referred to is as follows:
A Royal Grain Commission is now
sitting at Montreal, and both millers
and merchants are giving evidence.
Mr. James Carruthers, a leading grain
merchant of Canada, complained that
Canadian Hard Wheat is substituted
in shipments through the United
States, the good Canadian wheat be
ing retained for bread making, while
interior United States grain was rent
over-seas as first class Canadian
wheat.
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WHY PITY THE POOR FARMER;
LET'S RAISE MORE HORSES
Wiîliston, N. D., Dec. 4.—Discourag
ing returns have just been received by
several McKenzie county farmers who
jointed in the shipment to St. Louis
of a oar load of horses.
J. W. Goodall says he had to pay
$87.20 freight charges over and above
what his horses brought, while
other who contributed two horses
ceived net returns of 10 cents
horse.
Similar shipments in past
have at times at least resulted
an
re
per
years
. pro
fitably. and this is believed to be the
first case of the failure of a shipment
to pay the freight charges.
Try a Want Ad, it brings results.
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MILLIONS OF POUNDS BOUGHT
EY OUR GOVERNMENT
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Farmers Distress Showed
By Increased Bank Failures
In the six business days, October
23rd to 29th, twenty-four business
banks closed in the Minneapolis ter
ritory. Many peoples believe that this
serious condition ended with the bum
per crop of farm bank failures two
years ago. But at no time before
have so many banks failed. Besides
for every bank repeated failed, accor
ding to the Wall Sreet Journal, there
is one bank that is to be classed doubt
ful.
Takes Tool from Workers
The inability of the farmers to pay
old debts and the depleted cash re
serves are given as the cause for this
collapse. Of these closed banks one
was in Minnesota, two in Montana,
and twenty-one in North Dakota.
We wonder why Coolidge's farm in
vestigators have overlooked this op
portunity to show that the farmers
are getting more prosperous day by
day as the 1924 elections approach.
Most interesting of all is the fact
disclosed by these failures that the
poor farmers are the ones hardest
hit. Most of these banks were small.
They had as depositors the poor
working farmers who have very little
to put away after the railroads and
grain gamblers and packers get
through with them. Nine were small
banks whose capital was $12*000 or
less. The total capital of the 24
banks was less than half a million
dollars and their total deposits a
little over three and a half million
dollars.
Investigators of the conditions pf
the farming masses the country over
who do not play the role of political
pawnbrokers for the big interests of
the capitalist class report similar dis
tress prevailing in all the farming
areas.
*
Privately Owned Industry
M. Call Hookstadt of the Depart
ment of Labor has just completed an
interesting study of the heavy toll
taken from the workers engaged in
industry.
to an exceptionally large number of
accidents for the year 1923—in some
States more than ever have been re
ported," says the November Monthly
Labor Review.
The estimated annual number of
industrial accidents is 2,453,418 and
the total number of working days lost
is 227,169,970. Taking the average
wage per clay as $4.50 Mr. Hookstadt
finds a minimum wage loss of $1,
022,264,866 per year. To this should
be added at least $75,000,000 the
workers spent for medical and hos
pital service.
It is especially significant that the
unskilled workers, the workers who
draw a weekly wage averaging from
$24 to $30 are the ones who suffer
most. Coal mining has the highest
rate of fatalities. 4.08 per 1000, next
to lumbermen and woodchoppers
whose accident rate is 5.00. The
steam railroad workers have a fatali
ty rate of 2.25 per 1000, the
house workers 2.84; iron and steel
1.36; water transportation. 4.00; and
the electric light and power workers
top the list with an accident rate of
5.73 per 1000 workers employed.
Of the above fatalities, 21,232 were
death; 1,728 permanent total disabili
ty; 105,629 permanent partial dis
ability. and 2,324,829 temporary to
tal disability.
Of course these heavy losses in life
and pay to the workers are not consid
ered by the employers in their esti
mates of the big profits the working
man annually grinds out for them.
* * *
Present indications point
ware
Little Rhode Island—A
Big Political Lesson
If anyone wants a lesson in the
elementary principles of our great na
tional game of politics as it is played
by those who are the stars in the great
sport let him turn to Rhode Island.
Rhode Island is the smallest
H
r
INDEPENDENT
*
Which?
It Is up
to You
Next to agriculture, Petroleum is
America's biggest industry and it
ranks with agriculture in impor
tance.
Whether this big industry shall he
controlled, or whether there shall
he real American Independence
and true competition in the oil in
dustry depends on where you buy
your petroleum products.
So that you can decide for your
self which type of business you
will support, the independent,
competitive oil men—distributors
of petroleum products are identi
fying themselves and their prod
ucts with this sign.
If you would encourage and sup
port the principles of American
Democracy—Independence, Free
" dom and real Competition
Buy at the si£n of "Independent Oil".
WESTLAND OIL CO.
STATIONS AT
Scobey, Flaxville, Redstone.
Plentywood, Raymond, Outlook,
Dooley, Medicine Lake, Home
stead, Froid and Bainville.
TheBadge of True Independence
Look For The Si£n
1 v j »]
1
State in the Union, but Rhode Island
just now offers a mighty big lesson
in the first principals of political ac
tion to the workers and poor farmers
of the country.
The Republican Party, the govern
ing party in the country, has time and
again come before the masses and
asked to be entrusted with the man
agement and operation of the govern
ment. All too often the workers and
farmers.have listened to the fruadu
lent pleas of the capitalist politicians.
An examination of the personnal of
the Republican State Central Commit
tee discloses who the real owners of
the Administration party are.
Of the 55 members of this Central
Committee more than two-thirds are
directly or indirectly connected with
the textile industry, public utility and
banking corporations of the State.
One of these owners of the Republican
Party is a director in 16 banks, rail
ways. textile companies, and manufac
turing concerns. He is the director of
several and the president of two tex
tile corporations. Another stockhold
er in the Repubican machine is an
officer in 13 companies; a third mem
ber is affiliated with eight concerns,
four of which are textile firms.
Rhode Island has long been consid
ered a State of oppression and cod
fish aristocracy. The govenrment of
Rhode Island is securely in the hands
of the peoples who do nothing for a
living but own the machines used by
the workers. This is the real reason
w hy the textile operators were able to
send 600 National Guardsmen, five
companies of Coast Artillery and a
machine gun company against the
strikers at the cost of over $3,000
daily in the textile strike of 1922.
Haitians Favoring Independ
ence Arrested By American
Military Forces
Joseph Mirault, one of the National
ist Leaders of Haiti has just arrived
in New York to inform the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People of the outrages visited
upon the Haitians by the American
military forces serving as the agents
of our big hankers and business men
trying to enslave the country.
Such prominent advocates of Hai
tian independence from the duchés
of American imperialism as the Joli
bons brothers, Elie Guerin, Antoine
Pierre-Pual, and George Petit have
been put in jail by the United States
army of occupation.
What is more, in their wanton
attacks on the Haitians the military
forces have prevented all cable
munication with the United States.
A rigorous censorship of all outgoing
mail has also been forced on the Hai
tians by the troops. -
Dollar democracy at home means
dollar diplomacy abroad. The Hai
tians are learning this lesson,
price they are paying for it is an aw
ful one. The American army in the
service of our imperial bandits is a
stern schoolmaster.
Yet, one might ask Washington
what happened to the much-vaunted
principle of "self-determination" for
which so many workingmen and for
mers died on Flanders field and in
France ?
com
The
Industrial Profits
While the farmers are having the
devil's own time making ends meet
and the workers are being threatened
with wage-cuts and shut-downs, the
merry dance on dividends goes
and the orgy of profits shows no
sign of a let-up.
For the nine months ending Sep
tember 30th, ten indusrial
tions showed
available for common dividends of
$164,539,971. against $90,272,730 in
the corresponding period of 1922.
This is a gain of $74,271, or 82 per
cent.
That the bulk of these giant profits
is due to the fact that the workers
are compelled to labor for these cor
on
corpora
a combined balança
porations under intolerable conditions
is proved by the fact that these con
cerns are largely operated "on the f.p
en-shop plan.
Among these anti-union corpora
tions who have prospered at the ex
pense of the working men are the
American Telephone and Telegraph
Co., the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co.,
and the U. S. Steel Corporation.
After paying preferred dividends
the U. S. Steel Corporation had a sur
plus of $57,475,341. The surplus that
that the National Biscuit Co. had i
available for common dividends was j
double what it had in the same perio :1,
for 1922. *
Grave European Situation
Worries American Capitalists
Our banking and manufacturing |
class is becoming acutely disturbed
over the European conditions. A lead
ing financier has remarked that "the
unemployed of America are now in
Europe but that the European unem
ployed will soon be here."
Germay s a victim of capitalist
bankruptcy. Senator King reports
that the granaries are filled. Stinnes
is growing richer minute by minute.
But the German working masses are
starving. A complete rupture of the
Entente is expected daily.
The economic disorganization of
Europe is proceeding apace. Latest
estimates of the Department of Com
merce show that even in Czechoslo
vakia whose prosperity has been high
ly advertised there are 107,500 unem
ployed receiving state subsidies and
66,100 out of weak receiving; help
from private sources. In Germany
unemployment is on the climb. In
England, Scotland, and Switzerland
the conditions are no better. The con
ditions in Poland are espeiVUy bad
according to the Department of Com
merce,
How critical the situation is can be
seen from the chaotic condition of the
exchange. The Polish mark fell from
380,000 to the dollar on September
30th to 1,575,000 on October 31st.
The downward trend of the* Spanish
Peseta is continuing steadily.
German mark is off the exchtnge
map. Even Sterling has gone down
to the extremely low level of $4.28.
In the face of all these signs of
ruin overwhelming Europe our ruling
class has only one solution to propose,
This is an American receivership for
Germany and perhaps the other ;
countries—a receivership guaranteed
by American battleships and bayonets
and the corpses of the farmers and
workingmen who will again be sent
"over there" to fight for "national
The
honor and democracy!"
* ♦ *
Farmers' Earnings
Show Steady Decline
In a recent issue of the well-known
financial paper, the Annaplist, there
appeared a very interesting study of
the farmers' earnings. The investiga
tion was made by the statistician, Mr.
L. M. Graves, of the reactionary Farm
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former price
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Infant Hose, a pair
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$ 1.50
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$335
Worlds
FLOUR
per
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100
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Above prices are cash
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Family Shoe Shopee
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GOOD
CIGARETTES
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GENUINE
ly
"BULL"
DURHAM
TOBACCO
Bureau Federation. Yet in view of
the intensive propaganda being waged
by the daily press to show thaj; the
farmers are improving their condi
tions, the figures are highly instruc
tive for all farmers. rn
In the four-year period of _ 1919
1922. Mr. Graves shows a continuous
decline in the gross sales of the farm
products. In millions of dollars . the
gross sales of farm products declined
from $7,860 in 1919 to $4,523 for the
year 1922. In the same period the
gross sales of livestock fell from
$3,622,000,000 in 1919 to $2,256,000,000
in 1922. During these years animal
products fell in gross sales from
$2,114,000,000 to $1,700,000,000.
In view of the rising cost of living
this condition of steadily declining in
come for the farmers is becoming still
unbearable to millions of the
rural working masses.
more
Cotton Interests
Organizing In Congress
Congressmen and Senators of the
cotton-growing States are going to
organize a bloc in the next Congress
to defend the interests of the big'
cotton-growers. On November 30th,
these Senators and Congressmen will
get together. They will devise ways
and means to do for the Southern
Cotton Barons what Capper's farm
bloc did for wealthy farmers and
against the poor farmers. Represen
tative B. G. Lowry of Mississippi has
se nt out t he call.
The moving èpirit of this proposed
cotton bloc in the Senate is Senator |
William J. Harris of Georgia who has j
been a prominent figure in Southern |
banking and insurance business for j
many years.
Textile Workers Resist Op
erators Productive Schemes
At a meeting of the New England
Conference of the United Textile
Workers of America resolutions were
adopted against the attempt of the
Pacific Co. of Dover, New Hampshire,
force them to run additional ma
chinery per man.
The workers are bent on prevent
ing the bosses from forcing them to
turn out 50 per cent more at the
same wages. The employers are
threatening to shut down the mills in
order to force the working men to ac
to
Keen
Your
Boy at
Home
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For those who like to build their
own sets will
do well by getting the arts from me, and I will
save you money. And if I can be of
vice to you in the construction of
will be welcome.
any ser
same, y 0u
Price Depends Upon Size and Quality of Yo
Machine
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A Complete Set as low as $37.50
SEE US BEFORE YOU BUY
Plentywood Machine Shop
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L. S. SMITH, Prop.
A Warm Welcome
A MAN CAME to the bank
one day and
told us that he wanted to spend the winter
months in southern California.
He wanted to know how best to take care of
the money needed for expenses while on this
trip.
We suggested two things:
First—that we write a letter to one of the
banks in the town where he was to spend most
of his time and tell them about him—that he
was all right and to give him any service he
needed.
Second—we issued Traveler's Checks for
this man for all the money he might need while
among strangers.
man received a hearty welcome from
the California bank and he had a very pleasant
trip; free from worry or risk.
This is only one of a great variety
of things we can do for patrons.
This
THE
First National Bank
Member Federal Reserve System
PLENTYWOOD, MONT.
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WATKIN'S SERVICE
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YOU ARE RIGHT AND YOU ARE SAR
WHEN YOU DEMAND ANY ONE OF in
WATKINS 137 PRODUCTS. OUR MEDlUi
AND SALVES HAVE PROVED THEIR Mt»
FOR 55 YEARS. WATKINS LINIMENT Æ
NOT BE BEAT. WATKINS MENTHOL t*
PHOR FOR SORE THROAT.
OINTMENT FOR RHEUMATIC PAINS. ^ rST
AND GRIPPE TABLETS FOR Y ÇUR r
COLD. EACH AND EVERY ARTICLE
BEST THAT CAN BE PRODUCED. g
REMEMBER—ANY VANILLA E *™ N p A RD
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INFERIOR TO V/ATKINS—THE
-IF IT DOES NOT CONTAIN 50 PER
VANILLA.
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J. M. NIELSON
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RETAILER IN SHERIDAN
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