The producers news. [volume], May 31, 1935, Image 1

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

Image provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT

                
HEUENA
CARL HANSEN SPEAKS SATURDAY! DON'T MISS HIS LECTURE!
THE PRODUCERS NEWS
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__ The Paper of the Oppressed and Exploited
PLENTYWOOD, SHERIDAN COUNTY, MONTANA, FRIDAY, MAY 31, 1935
No U*
Vol. '
PUBLISHED WEE
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9
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« :
Rules That Codes Are Unconstitutional and In- !
valid; Federal Government Not Allowed to
Fix Wages and Hours of Labor
Court
WASHINGTON, May 28.—The United States supreme
court here ruled yesterday that the federal government has
neither right nor power to establish codes for the business
enterprises of the country. All codes introduced by the
Roosevelt administration were declared to be unconstitution
al and invalid.
This decision of the supreme court, as read by Chief
Justice Charles E. Hughes, constitutes the end of the NRA.
It means the end of the blue eagle and everything connected
it.
with
A special provision in the long
àocuiuont handed down by the
lOttrt, is the clause referring to
tie regulation of wages and hours
•f labor by the federal govern
ment. Once and for all, it de
dared that the government had no
power to fix the hours and wages
*f employees.
No Fixing of Wages
"We are of th e opinion," the
documert reads, that the attempt
through provisions of the code to
fix the hours and wages of em
ployes of defendants in their in
terstate business was not a valid
exercise of federal power."
The NRA is done for and the
Rooaevelt administration will have
t* look around to find another
program which can be presented
to the masses of the American
people as being the way to "re
WTer > , r '
Whateyer the program Will be
«d whatever color the eagle ^ a y
hare. Roosevelt has made sure thru
the supreme court decision, that
Jto administration will not again
W bothered with the responsibility
to fix wages and hours of labor,
Il n Kr w th f, • C0Urt haS f irn ? y
reestablished this power in the
kands of Big Business.
Newspaper reports state that
•e decision will virtually effect
"pressing labor and social prob
lems" and that "nobody knows at
♦c present" hoW these problems
Relief Wage Scale
Will Cause Strikes
MAV \ ORK.—Strike action will
be cor,ducted on relief projects in
•ß effort to enforce a trade union
*cale of wages, the National Un
employment Council of the United
States announced last week.
Herbert Benjamin, national
retary, said the organization had
telegraphed Harr v L. Hopkins,
u*f administrator, its protests
against the scale set by President
Roosevelt for relief workers' wag
sec
fe
es.
Gov'ment Hay Delivery
Develops Into a Racket!
|
By HANS RASMUSSEN j
During th w
building f r° d V •' some
'.he nLü * ^ working for |
t*sis ent ° n i!® 10 - per cent '
day bumi», me ^ ^° r , ng nig ht and
her. P,, per ? „ y good lum_
'»ived fnr tu ^ C <)1 '? r t ^ le men re '
■®en v i T lr wor * c ' hhe govern
He al=t' ( the - C °. ntractor 10 cents.
cent fir received another 10 per
lumber «„ÜÜÎ7 dollar ' s worth 01
and in rH / • ° thGy used some
fits thev I n to , in " ease their pro
their l a E thGy could lay
0ts - lumL'r H* 1 1 um her bar
«dao made * andrailroads
lumber bum<vt e °°T* pro ^ lt on
#as v m tt was a lot oi
K racket somplTî 11 *' v,
^niust te S atmt ^V. ame
Estime We bnv T at
T* nice shower. q . uite a
W month or so qnH r&in m
î e Vei 7 last nart f n °J P .
w- is Sin! ay Vhe
^n. And the Lvernmir'
J^PPing bailed hay in here a/the
5L* a «"Pie of toSAÏ
er y veek. rioaov,
Pil e
i he pii e is gettimr a
every day until it F ^
y* whole city block son fill
u ,. , Wa y and 3Ô0 feet tb f .V
in a l°t of
it*
's;»'*-!
Farmers Can't Buy It and
the Pile Grows Big
ger Daily
tons. No
^jll be met. In other words, the
Roosevelt administration will_
CO urt decision as an excuse to
stall off as long as possible any
legislation regarding unemploy
me nt insurance and other prob
Jems that are facing the American
workers today.
use
Now more than ever it has be
come the task of workers and
farmers all over the country to
fight for immediate eractment of
t h e Workers Unemployment and
Social Insurance Bill and the Far
1 mers Emergency Relief Bill.
j __
f^aFollette Discourages
I
j
;
!
Inird Party for 1936
,
;
POND DU LAC, Wis.—Wiscon
| sin's one-year-old but precocious :
progressive party Monday declare«!
ungymi)athetic ti
i , hirH • ÎX
: al t* 1 ™ Party movement m 1936.
Governor Phillip F. LaPollette
discouraged proponents of a 1936
: political insurrection at a célébra
j here , . week f ,
, P ^ j
| party s first birthday anmver- .
saryi but at the same time exprès- ,
I sed confidence that
!
a realignment
of party lines eventually will be
., .. ,
He Mid his remarks were in
tended to make it clear that the
progressive party that he and his
brother, Senator Robert M. LaFol-1
lette, organized and led to victorv
.......
i s irst e ection last year, will
not ally itself immediately with
Speaking from the steps of the
Fond du Lac courthouse, where th
first progressive convention was
held a year ago, LaFoIlette said
the "inevitable" political realign-
ment must be built
state.
effected.
other liberal movements.
state by
il
The county commissioners met
in a special session Saturday.
!
knows what to do with it !
and more of it is still coming in. I
That the people Who produce
this hay are getting in on the fat'
end of this racket is very doubt
ifuL The men who do the unload-!
ixvg* and the farmer who buys a
few h® 1 ® 8 surel y are not. In be- ,
tween those parties are the rail
roads and those who buy and han
dle 1116 hay- If they are not mak
ing a good things out of it for
themselves, the pil e of hay here
would not grow bigger day by,
day. j
if you ask at the relief office
w bat the idea is of piling up all
this hay, they Will blame it onto
' the farmers. They will tell you
; that the farmers are a lot of
| croo ks and had given in much more
stock than they actually had. Some
of them even applied for feed
j loans who had no stock at all, they
5ay .
■ Perhaps there is some truth in
that statement, but it was the
government itself that made
i "crooks" out of the farmers. They
i simply had to be in order to live.
i Most farmers had no feed at all.
^The government allowed them $3
i per mont h per cow and $4 per
hoTSe ' and then charged the farm
I er f " " ay - Faeding
a cow geven mon th on one ton oJ
hay, or a horse five months, Is
absolutely impossible to do. In
order to get by and feed his stock
through the winter, the farmer
simple had to double and triple the
number of stock he actually had.
" r the . that
" out fte farmere -
body
(Continued on page three)
THEY SMILE IN FACE OF THE TIGER
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Despite probability of a serious industrial and relief crisis, these heads of the govern
mcnt s spending board manage to smile for the camera. FERA funds will be hacked down '
and business is in a nosedive, but Harry Hopkins (left), Morris L. Cooke (center) rural!
electncfication head, and Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes keep
Jobless aren't.
The
on grinning
UNITY PICNIC AT
VANDAUA SUNDAY!
i
Carl Hansen and Charles E.
Taylor Are Main
Sneakers
By MARION HELLSTERN
VANDALIA, Mont.—The Farm-,
ers Union, United Farmers League
.and the Finnish Workers Fédéra
tion are sponsoring a United Front
^ !
picric to take place here Sunday, !
June 2. Principal speakers at the ,
affair will b e Carl Hansen of the
South Dakota State College, who |
will speak on "Russia of Today,"
and Gharl6s E * Taylor of Plenty '
W00( j ; w h 0 will talk on "Do We
Need a Labor Party?" !
A program of sports is planned
and there wil1 ^ refreshments
available at the picnic grounds
which are at the Well known Buf
falo Couloe, one mile south of j
Vandalia.
A dance will take place on Sat-1
urday evening, before the picric, |
at Tampico.
I Arrangements for the picnic are
made bv the Lime CteeU , 0 . ;
cal of the Farmers Union, the New
Deal local of the U.F.L. and the ;
Vandalia lo cal of the Firnish Fed- ;
cratkm : T he ™hi purpose of the
picnic is to promote a better un
derstanding between these farm
organizations and to help them
i unite in their struggle for better
! Irving conditions in this age of
surplus and poverty.
A large crowd is expected to be
at the picnic.
-
i
;
FARMS DECLINED
_____ ___ .lln
1 DfPfTMT IN PA
1 f LdVvEu.ll 111 w.
nr\lCUO Off AUTO
CENSUS SHOWSœ'S
!
wAcu-.rrTHM Af qq
WASHiNGTON, May 29.— Pre
! liminary tabulations of the 1935.
I census of agriculture returns for
the state of Moutana, released yes
! terday by Director William Aus
! tin > disclosed a decrease of on e per
I c en t in the number of farms in
Sheridan county,
The cersus of 1930 reported 1,
492 in the county while on Jan.
1 * 1935, ther e were only 1,473, or
19 farms less than five years ago.
, For the state of Montana, the
census shows an ir crease of six
per cent in the number of farms
during th© last fiv e year. Last
January there were 50,465 farms
hi the state as compared with 47,
4 95 in 1930.
j Roosevelt county showed an in
crease of 11 per cent in the num
he* of farms. There were 1,276
in 1930 compared with 1,422 now.
Ia Valley county the number of
farm s decreased from 1,833 to 1,
684 * a reduction of eight per cent,
#
in
$3
oJ
Is
In
-
AUTOS' COLLISION
CAUSES DEATH OF
COMERTOWN YOUTH
Arnold Hensler of Comertown
was killed in a head-on collision
Friday on the Glasgow-Fort PecK
highway. Arthur Person of the
Glasgow vicinity died at the hos
pital. Four other occupants of the
automobiles were injured, one ser
iously. Only one escaped injury.
Hensler, who was working
Fort Peck, died of a broken necx
and a fratetured skull shortly af
ter the accident. Person, a gov
ernment employee at Fort Peck,
died of a skull fracture.
I
1
!
UeSlrUCCIOn t J 'OliCyi
*
*- !
160,564 Vote Yes, 26,327 Vote No; Number of Non- '
roter» Not Given; Out of 1,600 In County. :
1 000 Vote In Favor 34 Avainst It
i,UUU voie m ravor, M Against It (
Wheat Farmers Vote
to Continue A. A. A.
I
The AAA experts are jubilant
again for Saturday's wheat refer
endum turned out to be in their
, . . , TT
favor ' as was to be expected. Un
official returns shdw that 160,564
wheat farmers voted for continua
tion of the AAA crop destruction
program while 26^27 cast their
voteg against it
The vote in Sheridan county was
unofficially reported by the coun
ty ag ent to be as follows: 975 con
tract signers voted "yes," 34 vot
e d "no." Of non-contractors, 55
voted "yes.
N
"Absentee Capitalist Land
I nr rl" Mtid K#» Protect,
Frazier-Lemke
Law Scrapped
by Ü.S. Court
ed, Court Holds
f T WASHINGTON, May as—
a unanimous decision the
|U. S. supreme court yesterday
declared the Frazier-Lemke
act ' which was passed by
Ä th » e esÄ
i
an amendment of the bank
ruptcy act, illegal and uncon
, gtitutional.
„ . , . . .,
1 JJV"* 1 '" ?f at " e 0t th * ft™,
I * at " l ? T » conditional
:f,ye ye f m ° r f t ° n ™ lo J fa ™"
j
\
{
j
h — m
i
Don't IVliss
THE LECTURE OF CARL HANSEN
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE COLLEGE
Carl A. Hansen of South Dakota State Col
lege will lecture on "Experiences in Soviet Rus
sia" at the following places:
Plentywood, Farmer-Labor Temple, Satur
day, June 1, 8 p. m.
Vandalia, United Front Picnic at Buffalo
Coulee, Sunday, June 2, 2:30 p. m.
Comertown, Tuesday. June 4, 8 p. in.
Dagmar, Brotherhood Hall, Wednesday, June
5, at 2 ;30 p. m.
As technical assistant to his father, Niels
E. Hansen, America's foremost agriculturist, Carl
Hansen has toured the Soviet Union
times for purposes of agricultural exploration.
On these trips they had plenty of opportunities
to observe conditions as they are in Russia and
as they have developed. What they have seen
there with the eyes of the farmer and scientist,
they have put down in articles and pamphlets;
they have reported in lectures such as those an
nounced.
!
i
!
!
numerous
!
!
!
at
Both Carl and Niels Hansen talk the lan
guage of the farmer, and in their talks they are
foremost concerned with farm conditions in the
U.S.S.R. They returned from their last trip in
October, 1934. Their experiences, therefore, are
of a recent origin.
Don't fail to hear Carl Hansen talk!
Come and bring your friends anl neighbors!
i
i
Of about 1,600 farmers qualified i
vote in the county, only about
two-thirds participated in the ref-!
erend-iim. No figure was reported,
anywhere as to how many farmers 1
"were qualified to vote on a coun-1
i
to
try-wide scale.
TKq AAA administration will Kp 1
busy this week preparing amend- i
ments to the AAA program to be ■
nut before the senate at once
of the grain division announced,
■
For five years they could not be i
driven off their farms if they '
were able to pay on time taxes,
certain interest and rental during
these years.
In addition the act enabled far
mers to regain full title to their
properties by payment of the ap
praised value of their farms.
Although the Frazier-Lemk e law
had left the vast majority of im
poverished farmers out in the cold
just because they were unable to
pay taxes and rental on the dot,
the act was beneficial to certain
groups of middle farmers who
were still able to live up to its
provisions. Even this bit of farm
legislation is now done away with.
The decision was announced by
Justice Brandeis who explained
that the opinion of the court Was
based on the "due process" clause
of the constitution.
He analyzed the features of the
act and declared that the law ef
fected the
landlord" and others whose income
was derived from land. And that,
of course, cannot be allowed.
The rate of interest of one per
S
(4
absentee capitalist
(Continued on page three)
Montana Relief Commission
Clumsily Evades Question of
Wiiy Case Worker Was Fired
— f
RUFFCORN GETS
JOB AS STATE
RELIEF DIRECTOR
Butler Is Out, Erickson In
Charge Pensions, Hors
ford Controls East
wïtt ttwa a oo . I
HELENA, April 28.—Ar.othe.
'shakeup in th e relief administra- '
ition of the state was annouved 1
here today Vhen the appointment j
Of William Ruffcom of Glasgow !
COTfirmcd,bytelcgramfromWil *
ington. j
Butler is out and Ruffcorn, for- !
mer ; cnat " r from Valley co,mty
15 h,s pl " e ' . . „
a ot er changes took
place, with F. W. McCarthy, FERA
Warren.
At the same time the state was
divided into two sections for the
administration of relief. The east- i
em part will be under the direc- I
tion of O. B. Horsford of Wolf
Point while the western section i
purchasing agent of Havre, taking
the place of Butler's assistant, Dr.
will be under the control of J. W. i
Stewart of M !» 80ula > former I
coordmätor there, i
Tw0 rew departments were ere- j
ääPä tr" d fr :
il"Lo„, f r e ot h ^ v t e oT,
KalTranchfr
in Glacier county.
The real relief administrator for
state * Samuel Gerson, who car '
I" 68 ^He of social welfare di
rec tor, remains in office, however.
t
i ..'Ä "'WW
\ The county round-up which had
i been postponed to last Friday on
*
astic and 54% points in the ath
HOMESTEAD FIRST
IN CONTESTS OF
COUNTY ROUNDUP
account of rain during the previous
week, showed a fair participation
and the contests had some surpris
ing results.
Homestead won first place both
in the rural scholastic and in the
rural athletic contests. Home
stead gained 78 points in the schol
letic contest.
The town scholastic contest Was
by Redstone with 154 points
with Plentywood running second
with 146 points.
Plentywood won the grade ath
letic contest, its participants gain
ing 66 points. Outlook made sec
ond place with 39 points.
In the art and manual training
contest, the judges awarded first
place rural to Hiawatha and first
place town to Plentywood.
Bernhard Winter of Medicine
'Lake was first in the flag contest.
The list of winners as reported
by the county superintendent's of
fice is as follows:
Winners
Rural Scholastic Contest—Home
stead, 78 points, 1st; Hiawatha,, 66
points, 2nd; Garfield, 52 points,
Lone Star. 52 points, tied for 3rd.
Rural Athletic Contest—Home
stead, 54% points, 1st; Raymond,
22% points, 2nd; Ueland, 19 points,
3rd.
won
,, , m . . rv
Art and Manual Trainng Ex
hibit Hiawatha, 1st, Homestea
2nd; Lone Star, 3rd.
Town Scholastic o ,
stone, !54 potats, Jrtî Plen^wo^*
146 points, Medicine Lake, 14b,
points, tied for ^ nd '_, . . F
Art and Manual g
hibit—Plentywood. 1st; Redstone
2nd; Antelope, 3rd.
Grade Athletic Contest^Plenty
wood, 66 points, 1st; Outlook,
P °i?i t3 ' winter
IHag Contest-Bernani Winter,
Medicine hahe, . j ensen " j^cl
Medicine Outlook
stone; Norma Prescott, Outlook.
For Daniels county the census
shows a decrease of seven farms;
906 farms in 1930 as compared
with 899 in January, 19 35.
State Director of Social Service Gives Same Flimsy Ex
cuse In Answer to Protests That Was Given
Originally to Martha Scherlie
I
Farmers Insist On Knowing Why Best Case Worker Was
Discharged While M. Randall Is Allowed to
Stay ; Protests Continue
Tbe question, "Why was Miss Scherlie, local case work
er, fired?" is being asked by farmers and workers all over
th ,® ?° UIlty an answer is demanded from the Montana
jrelief commission. The commission has now answered, that
is it has evaded the answer in the most clumsy manner,
"Funds have been cut drastically and every department
compelled to release a certain number of people," Samuel
f* Br ? on ' director of social service, writes under the letter
commission.
He repeats the flimsy excuse
that was given Miss Scherlie or
iginally and he does not explain
'ia^d
Ge rs „„ h imsel ,^ad"éd
her P° 8iti ™ »» ^nior case worker.
This question remains unanswered.
And it seems that neither Gerson
nor Dr. Butler can answer it with
Rowing their hand, without
admitting that the discharge of
Scherlie was arbitrary and
en tirely m line with the discrim
in atory and corrupt methods that
are Practiced, not only in Plenty
woot *> but in Helena as well.
The following is an exchange of
inf relief^cT 8861 !
. rn, • • , omn ^'
S10n * lh f commission has sent the
s s fe îterstî:
di6 -|
GorS^answerThey f clunue
their protests and Will direct them
also to Harry L. Hopkins, federal
relief administrator, at Washing
ton, D. C.
! I
May 16, 1935.
State Relief Commission,
Helena, Mont.
r -
T*n. eme ? : • • . !
When I am writing this letter 1
I am not speaking for myself only,
I am speaking for the people of
Sheridan county, the people that
I know so well and think a lot of.
We have here a local relief of
fice, with which we have not been
getting along any too well, and
we have been justified in not get
ting along with them any too well.
From other parts of the state ad
ministrators and case workers have
been sent in here, and the snippy,
insulting and mean way they
have treated the people is scandal-1
ous.
Cooney Admits Government
Oppression of the Indians
Promises "New Deal" In a
Clumsy Speech at
Ashland
ASHLAND, Mont., May 26.—
Governor Frank H. Coonev, speak
ing at the celebration of the an
niversary of the foundation of the
St. Labre mission here yesterday,
frankly admitted that "the Indi
ans have been made to suffer thru
acts of the government or those
of individuals."
Such an admission on the part
of the governor is, of course, quite
! out of the ordinary since it justi
fies the position of all people who
criticize the administration for op
pressing and exploiting the Indian
*
, ^ seems, however, that the gov
emor was so frank only because
he wanted to add the ring of sin
cerit to new p roIîlises .
3
j method by Which to satisfy the
Indian people, and so Mr. Cooney
' promises again: "But now it ap
pears there is to be a new deal
for the white man's red brother."
And in this new deal, the gover
Promises
hav e always been and still are the
39,
nor sa * d * "the great white father
. g ^ ^ & ^ ^ ^
°* helping the Indian to bet
ter things materially, culturally
^ gpir f tually ., He p y romises th / t
j "a new policy in the administra
, tion of Indian affairs is being
i formed in the national capitol un
; der which there will be no more
disregard of solemn treaties and
„ u , ....
V® result of . i ? us wa « that We
a .., c ®f im ! ttee 1 to . Helena , t0
it
bare t hi "I t ° f
° f ± ' comml ' t, f k was that " lss
one of t ? e . case workers,
f houl £. be [from the coun
g: T ^ e ^
he^des^and given ^Tittfe better
^, hieher oosition S.he ia otill
magg meetin resolution^ have
, „ , nn . . ,
ge . , Helena „ s V in _ f jP *, ftr
mova i
Miss Shirley is another case
worker. She has been here for
quite some time. She is not like
BRITAIN PLANS TO
DOUBLE AIR FLEET
I/wUULiLi /mill 1 LLL1
(Continued from page 3)
LONDON, May 24.—Great Brit
ain warned Europe she would let
no neighboring power gain mas
jtery of the air yesterday.
In both houses of parliament
they were planning to double Brit
ain's air forces. The home line
defense force was to be trebled as
quickly as possible. They plan
ned to have 1,500 planes for home
defense by April 1, 1937.
Lord Londonderry, secretary of
war, said that Britain "under no
circumstances" would accept air
inferiority to Germany,
The government crushed a labor
j party amendment to reduce the
| huge air expansion expenditures,
1 by a vote of 340 to 62.
| The government's aim is to at
tain and keep air parity with Ger
1 many, Stanley Baldwin stated.
tf
no more exploiting of the tribes.
With the little words "no more,
the governor again admits that
there is and has been exploitation.
But now there comes a New Deal
for you also, again you are our
red! brothers and all the better
things of Uf e will now finally
come to you, he told members of
the Cheyenne nation.
This kind of New Deal propa
ganda is rather clumsy because it
does not even promise anything
definite and Indians are getting
more and more fed up with it.
Hheir dissatisfaction finds expres
sion in such militant organizations
as the Indian Federaton. To
counteract the influence of these
organizations was apparently the
purpose of the governor's talk. We
doubt that he was very successful.
ff
Hart Accepts Job as Work
Progress Head of Montana
WASHINGTON, D. C., May 24.
—Works Progress Director Harry
L. Hopkins tonight appointed Ray
Hart of Billings, Mont., works pro
gress administrator for Montana.
Ray Hart, widely known Bill
ings merchant, recently was nam
ed to the post of Montana NRA
administrator by the state relief
commission, but his name at that
time received no confirmation from
Washington, and He himself an
nounced that he had withdrawn his
name from consideration.
Hart has accept»! his item ap
pointment.