The nonpartisan leader. [volume], November 29, 1917, Image 6

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

Image provided by: State Historical Society of North Dakota

                
PRESIDENTThe
MR.
nonpartisan lader
Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Thursday.
Entered as second-class matter September 3, 1916, at the postoffice at Fargo.
North Dakota, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
OLIVER S. MORRIS, EDITOR
Advertising rates on application. Subscription, one year, in advance, $2.50:
glx months, $1.50. Communications should be addressed to the Nonpartisan
Leader, Box 941, Fargo, North Dakota.
MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS
THE S. C. BECKWITH SPECIAL AGENCY, Advertising Representatives.
New York, Chicago, bt. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City.
Quack, fradulent and irresponsible firms are not knowingly advertised, and
we will take it as a favor if any readers will advise us promptly should they
have occasion to doubt or question the reliability of any firm which patronizes
our advertising columns.
PATRIOTISM AND ADVERTISING
WILSON made one of his noblest utterances when
he said that patriotism and profits should never be mentioned
together. same principle was recognized years ago when
congress enacted a law prohibiting the use of the flag for advertising
purposes.
Yet the spirit of the law and the advice of President Wilson are
frequently violated. One of the most flagrant violations, both of the
spirit of patriotism and of good taste, was in connection with a parade
arranged as a feature of St. Paul's recent loyalty day. Employes of
most of the large business houses were marched through the streets
bearing banners and labels advertising the businesses and products
they represented. In some cases there was the excuse for these banners
that they were needed to identify the marchers. But when one man
marched alone solely for the purpose of carrying a banner labeled
"St. Paul Pioneer Press" there could be no doubt that it was an ad
vertising device, pure and simple.
Itasca county delegates to the convention appeared with a great
banner, presumably paid for by the firms that it advertised, bearing
the statement:
"Itasca county produces iron for the war AND MAKES PAPER
FOR THE ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS and THE ST. PAUL DIS
PATCH."
The capitalization indicates the relative size of type used. The
names of the papers were given the added distinction of being printed
in.red ink.
Iron for Uncle Sam and paper for the anti-farmer twins! The
government in small letters and OURSELVES in big type and red
ink! How glad the Kaiser must be to see his "Me und Gott" ideas
copied so closely by the profiteer press on this side of the water.
HOOVER'S "BOGEY MAN"
HOOVER is making some rather amusing arguments in
order to influence Big Business to be patriotic and submit to
Mr. Hoover's plans for food and price control. He is trying
to scare the plutocrats into being obedient instead of bad little chil
dren, and to give up some of their naughty profits. And so Mr. Hoover
invents an awful "bogey man," and makes the bogey man say "boo"
•—just like that, fiercely. And the plutes tremble with fear—not so
you could notice it!
Mr. Hoover's terrible ogre is public ownership and operation of
the food marketing machinery. He says if the handlers and manu
facturers of food products do not "co-operate" willingly and patriotic
ally in giving up profits and letting the food administration take over
part of'their business and regulate the rest, the people will demand
public ownership of these facilities, and that would be a "calamity,"
both to the profiteers and to the people.
Mr. Hoover's motives in trotting out this bogey man to frighten
Big Business into a more reasonable attitude are doubtless honest. He
wants to secure the co-operation of these Big Interests in organizing
fifeRLO
THE
the country to win the war. But his choice of a bogey man is discon
certing to a large and growing number of people, who believe that
state ownership and management of marketing facilities of food prod
ucts is the only hope of the common people, in war or in peace. Does
he know that the Nonpartisan league, for instance, with a membership
of over 140,000 farmers, and that working people everywhere have
been advocating public ownership of marketing facilities for years,
and are still advocating it Does he think this great and ever increas
ing body of citizens fancies having the reforms they want, to make
the world a better .place to live in, held up as a terrible threat—the
worst thing that could happen—to "line up" Big Business?
It is our opinion that Mr. Hoover will have to revise some of his
economic ideas. In the meantime, we suggest that he answer this
question: If an economic system is so rotten and inefficient that it
breaks down under the first emergency that shows- up—in this in
stance the war—is it a good system for ordinary use, in peace times
Also, here is another question for him: Since Big Business must be
curbed and "regulated" during the war, to keep the people from being
robbed, it is not proved that it should be regulated and curbed in peace
times also, for the same reason? In other words, does Mr. Hoover
think that the Big Interests that will use war and the people's suffer
ings for robbery will be less scrupulous in peace times? Or, again, does
he think that the people like to be robbed in peace times and object to
it only in war
We suggest that Mr. Hoover has the authority to force Big Busi
ness to be good during the war, without restoring to a childish bogey
man game that insults a great group of honest and patriotic citizens,
who were working for political and economic reforms that appeal to
them as just, long before Mr. Hoover organized the food administration
and started to disseminate his erroneous and childish ideas about public
ownership being a calamity.
BANKERS IN BAD AGAIN
Leader has taken pains to show, at various times, that
neither the farmers, their organizations or their publications are
fighting banks and bankers as a class. We have tried to make
it plain that the fight has been only against unfair or crooked bankers,
questionable banking methods and banks and bankers who stoop to
political intrigues against the farmers and their interests. We have
pointed out that a great many banks and bankers are on the square.
But a determined effort, it seems, is being made by some banks and
their representatives to make it a "class war"—to force farmers and
their organizations in self protection to make an out-and-out fight on'
the entire system of banking as it exists today.
This was brought home recently in the case of the Bankers' Insur
ance company of Helena, Mont., which wrote crop insurance in North,
and South Dakota and Montana amounting to about $2,000,000, which
sustained losses of about $1,000,000 and which can pay farmers who.
insured in the company only a small fraction of the losses they suf
fered. It was bad enough to have banks handle the business of a
worthless company of this kind, and to urge farmers to take this worth
less insurance, as they did...
However, the North Dakota Bankers' association, after it was
apparent the insurance company was insolvent, issued a statement in
tended to clear its skirts. This statement was to the effect that the
association had warned its members about this company and that the
76 or so North Dakota banks that had handled the insurance com
pany's business did so in spite of the warning. In issuing that warning
the Bankers' association did a real public service in ignoring it the 76
North Dakota banks showed their folly, to put it in as charitable light
as possible.
But, while the Bankers' association can. be given due credit for
attempting to stop this so-called "bankers" insurance company from
doing business in the state, the part the association has played since
North Dakota officials have tried to collect for the farmer? a part of
their losses has not been so creditable. The farmers paid their
premiums to this company with notes, which the insurance company
traded for certificates of depomt in the 76 North Dakota banks men
tioned. The bankers took out their commission for writing the insur
ance before they issued the certificates of deposit These certificates
were discounted by the insurance company at Twin City banks. When
it became evident that the company waa insolvent, the North Dakota
farmers' administration in North Dakota ordered banks to withhold
payment on the certificates tffl proper arrangements could be made