The nonpartisan leader. [volume], October 28, 1915, Image 7

About The nonpartisan leader. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1915-1921

Image provided by: State Historical Society of North Dakota

                
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H. W. Rupp was born in Austria 54
years ago and came to America in
1D81, amd in 1884 began iioinesfceadiiigj
in Minnesota.
He soon saw that farming alone
H. W. Rupp1, the- man' who madei
more in tend. specuiktfion, than he didi
in farming farms.
of land at $10.00 per avre, and soon
would ruin him, because of the rob-j
bery practiced upon the farmers of
that time in transportation and in-,
terest rates and the private owner-!
ship of the facilities of converting'
A State Daily newspaper recently
had an editorial in which it asked
the following questions:
*1. "if any farmers in North
kota have been grafted we want to
know it.
.2. Aire there at^ of the 90,00®
farmers, in North Dakota who cannot
get capital at a reasonable rate?
'3. Are any of 13je farmers exploi
ed'? jso, -wftiepe,' n4ien and how?
4. Are any fairanevs refused credit
on gnain in bins or elevators at .rea
sonable rates?
This editorial winds up by admit
ting, that—
It has been reported that settle
ments of RnsaieiK ton been victims
of elewai&or men in tiie past and the
would like to get some of the
facts."
•In 'Che first place there are so few
farmers in the State that read the
that any amswers that may
come to the foregoing questions
would not and could' not be repre
sentative of the .actual conditions.
No doubt the few farmers who can
afford to read the State Daily can
also get capital when they want it1.
But the great mass of. North Dakota
farmers—tillers of the soil will never
know that tlie State Daily asked
questions.
But such questions are an insult
to the inteUigeift of 'the average
Northwest farmer. Every thinking
man knows they have been and are
being grafted. Are there an#'trusts
or corporations Ivhitii do not bleed
the farmers? ..
The farmer pays $165 for- binder
that costs $80 tie ^nxUd. is
1
fiv=
mi
rtfaat
r-
Do the Farmers Get Justice?
!H®w
a
graft? He pays (90 for a $20 wagen.
Is that graft? He pays $4,c«0 to $6,
000 for a threshing machine which
does not cost $1,090 to manufactore.
Is that graft «r gwt $hgft? He pays
6^ per cent for hatl insurance wbidt
the -Sadcatebewan farmer gets Joar 1
-per cent. If that is not-gi-aft, please
name it.
',
Did anyone ever-tear of a North
Dakota farmer •Whs could not get
'money alt MasoHatoie tiftes? Who bor
^ro^ned the moBafHtemn^the iriiiety
National banks fn Kerki Daketa
which, according to: the.
Comptroller
uMW'ii-puiui
sJJBtt&f**"
"Vsi#
THE DQWARHSifll
She products of the fai'm into food.
"He soon began a career of land
•spfecuflatkm, selling a forill "for 580.00
atofl making- a .paymetit on €0 acres
boogtot en paganeirt another 80 mores
.at $15.00 per acre.
Fifteen years =ago he sold his 340
acrcs of land in -Minnesota and came
to Baldwin, Burleigh county, North
Ktrta.
A cwrreBpondertt of the Nonpaatt
isan (header wtho where viewed Mr.
Hupp todwjc, -asked
ihim
if Ttbe land
he homesteaded in Minnesota, which
cost him ntfthrng was £0 times more
•productive to fhe -man to "wftrom he
sold it at $40.00 pier acre. Mr. ®wpp
laughed gesd-^naturedly and made no
jȤply.
Asmvad at £ald#un, North Dakota,
in 1901, he invested the proceeds off!
bis Minr.erota land speculation which,
aifter paying his debts was $10,000,'
sewen quarter sections -of Worth
iialheita Hasfi. Mr. Si$p.p. and ibis -four'
sons hanie farmed these fern quar
ters and another subs-qnently
bought, for the last fourteen years.
"How much have you made farm
ing these eight quarter sections for
fourteen year^?" he was asSked. 'One
tfhonsarad "dollars would cower it," ire
arejadied. Continuing, lie explained J®
Jus incredulous listener, that after
giving three quarter-sections to his
sons he had left' five quarter sec
tions of land to show for his thirty
wne years of land speculation and
of the .CurBency Williams' report,
changed more than the legal irate of
ten ppr cent? Was that graft or
was it Wghway -robbery?
many farmers 'harwe wheat in
4Stesr Sin some TO nasties less
than one-fourth of the thuesiiing
done. What is threshed is licked up
to pay current bills and millions of
dollars cannot be paid. AH this w®
9»e Tenewefl and -increased witfti.ixniTW-i
es throw® in, if qsoesiKle.
But, at least, it tgot report tbcut
a Russian settlement had been graft
ed, "in the past" by elevator men.
It "is to laugh!
For thirty years it has %een the
mile of old-iine ieleva£or cotapanies to
maiie enough profit on one house to
build -another, over and above, run
ning expenses, in one year. One hun
dred per cent! This can be verified
by countless elevator men who are
now in eitiher lines off business.
It -is tfirash An the memory «f jnanyi
how that at one •-bime,it was impossi
ble for an independent buyer to get
an elevator site along the' Great
Northern railroad. This graft "would
have been going on yet had not the
law Soroed it to grant sites to all.
It has always been the custom for
care to be short at (Competing points.
This has caused the elevsttors
to fill rapidly and forced the
farmers to sell at «ny price, grade
and weight tthtft $faey conld
get.
VS.
By H. P. Richards
Is
•UUere a Norih Dakota faraer who
does not know this? And
yet
after
30 years of it the State Daily has
%eard of a Russian settlemfertt that
apas grafted ^5le
KMiT wdndetfal guardian of the
farmers' rights and liberties!
A Banker.
Newer mind the little difference
with your neighbor. Remember he's
a farmer two. He warfts the same
things. Thst's whsft TOtttly cousrts.
iOooble year tttawg^fti ibp eonadsiniBg
It with 4ris to :g«t those iilnngs.
The kejait press iftahns WortJh Da-i
feotta as a £tarte ^acoeaBfid fui^
•era. We «w ftwlf in •embryo and thiej
irest in bankruptcy,
'only $1,090:90 for the same period -of
(farming.
This, he made clear, was in spite
of the fact that he hired no outside
labor, and that .he -and Jitu sens had
dome afll Uhe wffrt? themselves.
Asked to eftplawi wfay Terming
hi'.
itself ris .so 'hoiking in fapoftt to $he
(farmer, -Mr. Rupp nwraend tfast it
was due to the fact that the farm-,
era do not have .bettor •ooatcol «of tJiej
(facilities for transporting, .trajop-,
(forming into food, and marketing the
products of their labor, nor do they
vcontrol the granting of credit nor
the rates at whidh "erefftts 'Kie given.
"What is the remedy?" I asked.
"Organization," was 4Jbe en^pbatie ira-^
ply
'•But, H!r. Rupp,," I interrupted,'
"wtost is to become eff all these mid
dlemen?" "Let them put on overalls
•and go "to wark," he continued.
"Would not .that overstock abhej
market?" I asked. Overstock the,
market! Nonrense.. It- would shorten
the hours of farm work. It would'
Ipvrt Uhe farnaer'-s boys and girts
throngh Singh-school and m:i© obli(?gee
where they belong', .and whene fasti
reach. It would gave the farmere .and
their wives ,i.nd children tin.e for
recreation and travel and culture,
that now is utterly impossible save
to thosa jtflio live o.T the feftor
others."
"Then, Mr. Eupp, yo» -are .not
iproud of your achievement in having,
cquireda by speculation uc[8arters
ants. There are now tenants on 3.
per cent of our farm land That is
because -each farmer tries ito bo wow
for himself .and manket for himself
instead of doing it through an organ
ization of the kind outlined, such as
is in operation in the countries of
continental Europe.
Farmers Must Get Together
U. S. Delegate, International Insrbi
tute of. Agriculture, Rome.
New York, Oct. 18.—If you "farm
ers don't soon organise your naftkmal
•products' distribution, 'oztganira&ian
under Government charter iwrhh co
operative State, County and Town-,
ship unit bodies mode/led after the
German landwirtschaftsrttt, you are1
going down to financial ruin.
onto 'I'Unv. nun X. rtn
By David Labin
Cold 'Government figures ^faow ifobat
this nation of farm owners is .rapid
ly becoming a .nation of farm ieoa neier,.«n «ac-jp3sttiBaBtea'-®eneral, etc. It
You, the farmers, teve to plead
and pray-on bended iknees for money
to finance your crops. You pay big!
interest on short-time loans. If you
happen not to be .able to pay it back
promptly, you are apt to be sold out.
Then you become a tenarft.
Fanner fc th|fcit.
When you take your crop to mar
ket, you have to take the mat^et
price orr leave it, even if you Ispow
it is less than your crop cost you toi
produce. Debts have been piling up
for months. You must have money.
You s§lL
Next year it may jbe .a Kfctfe' bet
ter, or a great deal worse. At best
at is haphazard. What I can not
understand is why you submit to this,
state of affairs. You don't liave to
do it one instant longer than you
choose -to ilo it. Why not Isoild 'zp
the proposed OEgamzatioci?
Rome died in the pomp and gran-:
ideur of lier marble halls because she
(crushed the mud-house of the small
Hand-owning farmer. She made Iris
markets poor amd bis capital barfl
to get.' The same thing is happen
ing in the United States .tedq$.
Therefore a real market and a rural
wmmmm
•acquired by speculation 8 'quarter
sections of land and yet .having only
$1000 to show for 31 years of active
farm work? "Certainly not," he
Teplied, "if I were to sell my re-,
nsrining '5 quarters now at the ad
vanced j^rioe ctf land the farmer to
whom sold would have to .carry the
burden of higdi .priced land :and yet
be the victims of the same paraBit
ism from which -as an actual ilarmer
1 'have suffered for 31 years.
•'Are you in favor of making
speculation in land an impossibility?"
1 as"ked. "I am," Tie answered. "]^'hy?"
"'RecauBe -our cJiftdr8n 'and children's
children will each successive year facei
-the «wer ..increasing (burden wfeich wUHt
end in outright landlordism and
practical slavery^"
-•Mr. Rupp is an active and en
thusiastic member of the 'ISJoitpar
tiaan Political Orgaaaization (League.
"Mr. Eupp,," I said, I am fre
quently teld that the facmers will
not stick together how about that?"
"That has been largefly true in the
pset," foe answered. ''But -on e\ ery
Aand .1- obaerwe that, at .'least the
awal«ening is here. They have been
reading too many lying newspapers
and magazine that are owned and run
by the pirates that rob them." He
'added, "But organized right, I know
tthey will stick."
Then Mr. Rupp turned to dig po
tatoes, for whidh he witl not trealize
enough to allow for ordinary wages
for digging.
tion, state, county-.and township. I
mean that all the units should be
organized under a government char
"ter. This gives it gtrfhding and pres
tige without the danger of its be
•Dorning sinister political ioiganiza
tion, or tjplit into .dozens of hetero
geneous ineffective organizations.
There would be the national com
iriissron of 29 la afble representative
ffiarmers 'and 14 other men from vari
ous walks of life a carrier, a finan-
would meet a few daj's tv/ice or
three times a year to draft .necessary
measures for "the operation of "the
workSng bureau, xsomposed of the Bec
Tetory jgewBral and hie stfcaff. This'
bureau would work the yeair ground.
In each state there would be a
state commission with its working
bureau similarly organized and work
ing the year around. Next these
would be a Bounty commission with &
working bureau for- each county in
.the country and finally a township
commission for every township, with
its working bureau.
•These 'collective organizations would
constitute the national macketing •or
ganization. They would be the farm
ers' chamber .of commerce, .board of
trade, mercantile agenay and clear
ing house, which now he does not'
have.
if a farmer at Rulo, Ne4»r,, taft
an idea for a new tomato basket#
he'd give it to the township bureau,
and it would, if practicable, go up
through the organization and bei.
adopted nationally.
Tire township unit would keep the
county, state and national bodies: tai
hourly touch, with exact conditions
everywhere. The fruit I saw Brit
ting on the ground in New England,
'because there was-no market for,
it," would not bave been there if
we'd bad this nwrnketing organization
in operation.
In
other womds, every farmer in
u. ito.! uwci ouu a ruim the United States, instead of look-
credit plan is vital to the-life of1 ing at all his problems through nfi
eyes but his own, -would be looking. :..
mt them, efficiently and irtteiagently^ i'"..yj,t^Y?
The «g^l»tang o^anjuet3f»n Bfa6u^dj 4)hiKmgii i^ie eyes «f -v-^
be semi-officially governmental "in ®a- 000,000 of his fellow farmers.
«iwnu
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