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Image provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT
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The story of the Callahan robbery which has been running serially in the Producers News, pictures in base relief the facts lead mg up to one of the most remarkable and brazen plots to defraud a farmer out of his life's accumulations, ever coming tô the notice of the writer who is very famil lar with such affairs. We have gone to considerable, pains to bring out the back ground so all may fully comprehend the foul deed in its full significance. THE PRODUCERS NEW» mt «* ikvw«#4, », mi. la a r rf «* W «. mi. m»). rahsf Ut ». I 4 T 1 ). • » V »»«; ito tar «••■Äa, • 12 »; >«n B. TATL THE CALLAHAN CASE The part of the story published so far has aroused great interest in the county, and is the subject of conversation of every farm home. But the best is yet to come. It is plain now to every discerning mind that this is a story of no ordinary doing a farmer out of his all, but that behind it there must be a hidden hand directing it all : for why on any plausible theory should the Union Central Life Insurance Company do what it has done to Hurshel Callahan? It is impossible to rationalize its actions, to understand the procedure, until the hid den hand is disclosed. And this hidden hand is the hand of no other person that Carl Bull, ex-banker, formerly operating at Plentywood and Redstone, as will in time be disclosed. . .. .. , The story is now reaching its dramatic stage and its unfoldments will be as sen sational as the details of an intrigue m tiie French Court. It will expose Carl Bull, ms stool pigeons and concubines, and their parts J n the nefarious scheme to do an old neighbor and his children out of their * a «n.*? n( li^ 0m ? lfes e .^ rnll ?^ s - . .. While this story is exceptional as to its details, in its results it is quite typical of the way the system works and the end that waits hundreds of farmer in this county. The fact that they are hard work ers and thrifty does not alter their fate in the least. The Callahan robbery is a matter that concerns every farmer in the county. It is something for him to consider. What has happened at Redstone can very likely hap pen to him. What are the farmers going to do about the matter? Are they going to stand by and let Callahan be swindled or are they going to step in and put a stop to the looting? Follow the story carefully, and see that your neighbors read it every week, and then make up your mind. American big business was in a jam iu 1932." says Prof. Scott Nearing in the Fed «rated Press: And continuing says: "The national income had declined 50 per cent m three years. Export trade had fallen off by two-thirds. Stock values had collapsed. Bond values had shrunk to such a degree that banks and insurance companies were authorized to carry them on their books at purchase price in order to avoid insol vency. LEFT' AND "RIGHT" « M Despite such subterfuges, during the one year of 1932, 31,800 businesses failed, farmers were evicted wholesale, and the number of unemptoyed rose to a total of It 40 ^ »»»»Ihons. "In the early months of 1983, state gov ernors began to suspend banking opera tions in order to prevent a general panic I i ( run, universal hoarding, and a complete collapse of credit. Local relief funds were exhausted. The unemployed and the veter ans' organizations were centers of seeth ing unrest. Mississippi valley farmers were in open revolt. When Roosevelt was inaug erated on March 4, 1933, the United States was on the edge of a social volcano. Big business was in a jam, and the big businessmen knew it. They called upon the president and federal government to do something." In the language of the prizefighter and of the revolutionist, they used their left. ... . The new administration acted with vig or and determination. It took control of the banks : loaned billions to tottering busi nesses; provided huge sums for direct re lief to the unemployed; began an extended system of public works; established a pro cessing tax that provided a subsidy for the desperate farmers; and launched a cam paign for a system of collective bargaining that was based on a guarantee to labor of the right to organize. Big businessmen by the score accepted posts in Washington at nominal salaries or no salaries at all. Day after day they work ed tirelessly under the Blue Eagle to save their system from collapse. Through 1933 big business continued to support the New Deal. There were exceptions, of course, but by and large the country was behind the president. .« The scene changed in 1934 and 1935. »j»he worst of the depression was over. The farmer an d the unemployed had ceased to agitate and threaten. Production was rising. The stock market climbed steadily, p ro fits were 40 per cent higher in 1935 than they had been in 1934. Big business was ou t 0 f the woods and it acted accord ingly a new u a Big business had used its left in 1932 and 1933. In 1935 the timt had come for it to use its right. William Randolph Hearst, the highest salaried man in the United States, led off with a red scare. Suits were entered against the NRA, the utilities act, the AAA. The Liberty League swung into action. The Natl. Manufactur ers Assn, made a frontal attack on the pol icies of the Roosevelt administration. The Supreme Court did its best by declaring unconstitutional one feature after another of the New Deal. u "This successive use of left and right is a method employed by every ruling class in periods of emergency. 'Tor example, during the Russian revo lution of 1905, the czar was eager to grant reforms to his people. In 1907 and 1908, when the revolutionary wave had subsided, the reforms were swept aside by a tidal wave of reaction. Recent experience in Ger many, Austria and Italy bears out the con tention. So long as the ruling class in these countries felt their positions to be serious ly threatened, they called the forces of the left to their defense. As this danger sub sided they turned from the left back the right, abandoning and wrecking the re forms on which they had made their come to back to power. "A social reform that leaves ownership of the means of production, control of the agencies of propaganda, and the armed forces in the hands of the ruling class bears about the same relations to the ; . cial system that a coat of paint bears to a house. It changes the appearance but does not change the structure. Further more, with a little additional brush-work it may be pink today and white tomorrow.'* so . ». TAX BURDEN OF RICH CUT Dr. Joseph Gilman, an economist, writes: "Between 1930 and 1934 the tax burden of the poor was proportionately more than doubled; that of the wealthier classes had been more than cut in two. In his study for the Labor Research As sociation and Interprofessional Association for Social Insurance, Dr. Gilman ateo ported the following; ■ Pr „^ rf . „ . „ * Proport, ° 11 of Federal » ncom * Tu. mo »» re 10 ?*» 1930 1933 Paid by those with incomes below $5,000 a year _ Paid by those With incomes $100,000 a year and over ... 2 % 11 % Sheridan county seems to be the county in Northeastern Montana induS in tax foreclosures. The other counties ar^ delaying so as to give the legislature * chance to again abate penalties and inte, w t. What is the reason^ ° 1 -,...60% 37 % Primitiv« Communist Coloni ROBERT OWEN: The Owemte Communs«: BY BRUCE N. TAYLOR mmum hei es In America - [. £miMM—..... The more important of the re ligious communities have been considered. The reader has notic ed the similarity of these primi tive exeprimcirts, how each devel oped about a religious leader with a social program. The following articles will describe those without a religious base and of definite economic origin. With the develop ment of steam as a motive power and the invention of the spinning jenny, and the application of the use of power in manufacture and the use of the steel ' plow, and horse hoes, displaced hand in agriculture, thousands pie lost their jobs just as today when the tractors have displaced horse power and the farm units must be enlarged; so the horse machines forced the tools of peo en power largement of the farm units then. This today has driven thousands from the farms iust as thousands were driven at that time. 'Leaders With radical programs sprang up everywhere then just the same as today. As these experiments were failures financially it is enough to give a biographical sketch of the leaders and their programs. Robert Owen was bom in New town, Wales, a part of England, on the 14th of May, 1771. His father was a saddler and ironmanger. His schooling was very limited as he left school at the age of nine to be apprenticed to a draperyman and worked in the shop several years when he left home to go to Manchester, England, a center of textile manufacturing and at the age of 19 was made manager of a cotton mill which employed 500 people. He greatly improved machinery and the quality of the spun cotton. He used the first sea island cotton imported from Am erica. He soon became a partner and f ailing in love with the daugh ter of the oWner of mills at New Lanark, he persuaded his partners to buy these mills of which he be came manager. I mention this as this was the center of Owen's ex periments in better housing for workmen, better education for their children. the The working conditions of fac tory workers Were very severe— long hours, low wages and unsan itary conditions were usual and coupled with this was the vicious Children from poor houses Vere farmed out to factory owners and they were in fact slaves. Mere babes worked at the looms and received the most bru tal treatment. The conditions in the sweat shop textile factories are about the same today here in America. It was in this field that Owen sought to ameliorate the conditions of the working people by providing sanitary workshops, shorter hours of labor, better housing and better schools. New Larnark had been estab lished by David Dale (Owen's father-in-law) and Arkwright, the inventor of the spinning jenny and was run by Waterpower. The factory employed about 2000 pe pie, 500 of whom were children Most of the latter were from the poorhouses of Edinburgh and Glasgow and were only 6 or 6 years of age. The working condi tions were bad, the shops and houses unsanitary and the work in R people were forced to submit to demoralizing drudgery. Under these conditions is it any wonder there were theft, drunkenness, prostitution? This Was the field as Owen found it, and he set to work to provide better houses, more sanitary conditions in the home and factory. He established mfwit schools. Result—friction bewteen himself and his partners *0 th *t he was forced to break with them and to organize a com P«ny of persons sympathetic With mm. New Lanark soon became a place of pilgrimage to all who had advanced ideas in education or workers' welfare. J* 1 ' 8 experiment, and the econ omic conditions existing at the mrTk\ vNapoleonic Wars U« 16 ) which caused > a general stagnation of trade and general misery among the Workers, caus ed him to conclude that the cause «Le v nuser y. T" the competi tion of human labor with the TrvtlL^d t he remedy to be the » a nd SSiS r ™ on 0P vp»m S i& ior human welfare Topait«?! ' up °?. t hls conclusion. P^Poaed col orue# 1200 people on lead * fee child labor. o ma MA . . . UUMMMM reages of 1000 to ijaa to live m one large build? re8 ' common kitchen and Zt* when they should bl w, S by the community. WorV^t to ste" & ä ^ < oe in common. These to be united in vr™,-. —-'«u. 100's, 1000's etc* "tin £ 5 brace the whole world in y b interest?" to rely on agriculture tries and to own all best in machinery * *** To try out his plan 0w,„ others came to AmericT.?j - tabhshed a colony in th* îft * Indiana, U. S. a! which led New Harmony. Thl«*» ^ failure and was later sold Tr ' Rapp, *who will he the suhiaî ^ later article. ul>Ject «U T , h « te |™ "Sodalist" was &. used to denote Owen's fnS» andi. from the Utinwofe lus" meaning comrade. Th. internationale also being f? at this time shoVs the budding idea of the present commÏÏ program. ar< Afterlcavin* America. Own established another colony Æ land which also failed and with wealth gone he turned to liter», ture. His ideas on marriage uA religion were as radical ag hi* * onomic beliefs and gained for him the enmity of the ormiïï church. He died at NeWtown * the 17th of November, 1858. Hit four sons settled in the United States and took an active part in he life of the "West", as Indiana was called at that time. IN REGARD TO L0DAHL »PLATFORM GONIUS LAURSEN I read Jens Lodahl's proposed platform for a Farmer Labor par ty with much interest. If more will join in this discussion then, if a third party is formed, it will be possible to form a platform that deally represents the wish of the majority of the people. Jens starts with saying that the chief cause of our deplorable con dition is interest. I wish to differ with him on that point. He ia not digging deep enough. I, however, will be one of the last to try to minimize the necessity for low in* terest rates and am more than willing to admit that interest Is one of the major curses of the farmer and home owner. A curs that we should all be 'willing to join hands in fighting and uani our utmost effort to shake But isn't one inclined to *"• "Just why did we get in all thi* debt?" Whatever # it was tw caused us to get in this d«J that's What is the chief eauaej» our deplorable condition. Intcres of course, could have nothing w do with us getting into debt, be fore Ve ever paid any. Our pwj lem wouldn't be solved even our debt was cancelled tomo and nothing more done to cor'«* our difficulties. Inside of » short time we would again in debt to the top of the chi At the Farmers Union ** convention held last states adopted the slogs "production for use and not profit", while others adop^ of production pins a profit." Here are (Wo slogans Ut at the root of ou r Wjj» condition, because if * nation-wide principle » ^ would be able to get» and ^TheLrst mentioned the most perfect andiarr^-^ of the two and .houW ** 0 timate aim. But i * eIor ^ CD ; e reach this goal, more P®° $ have to realize that this only true solution fo r , ep j or ifci< ment relief and ou ^ h :«<r cin^J dition, and that n0 ^ g n a^ more common sense ^ p^ than, that all things ««st^ dœedforuseanàno f««" pose of making P 1 ™ 1 ' on - \ 'I, however, see no «£* £ wt can not all ag*** slogan right now. it s same demand that aU ^ p claim the right to. They • (Continued w : gome of con