The nonpartisan leader. [volume], September 23, 1918, Image 12

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

Image provided by: State Historical Society of North Dakota

                
I
THE PRICE-FIXING POWER
Denton, Mont.
WOULD like to know whether or
not congress gave President Wil
son power to fix prices on farm ma
chinery and the like."
GEORGE RAASCH.
No. The only power so given was
that to fix the prices on coal and
wheat. What other so-called prices
fixing we have had, has been brought
about by voluntary agreement and
licensing. In his address to congress
on December 4, 1917, the president
said: "Recent experience has con
vinced me that the congress must go
further in authorizing the government
to set limits tp prices." Congressmen
evidently, didn't hear this part of the
speech nor the part about the farmers
"explaining with a great deal of
justice that no restraints are placed
upon the prices of most of the things
they must themselves purchase," for
congress has done nothing of the sort
to date. After waiting several months
in the hope congress would act, the
president decided to try licensing
farm machinery manufacturers and
dealers as better than nothing. Un
der this plan if a dealer, for instance,
does not act within the regulations set,
his license to do business is taken
away.
YOUR RIGHT AND DUTY TO
ASK HELP
IF
YOU have had such hard luck
this last year that you will not be
able to continue farming, don't be
ashamed to ask for a part of that
$5,000,000 the government has set
aside for creditless farmers. The
-seasoned farmer serves his country
best on the farm, and inasmuch as the
nation needs him there it owes him
help if circumstances have arisen that
makes it impossible for him to con
tinue. When the government wakes
up to the great need there is in various
parts of the United States for help of
this kind, the amount available may
be increased. Senator Gore of Okla
homa just launched a move in the
senate to make $150,000,000 available
to drouth-stricken farmers. The gov
ernment builds whole plants and turns
them over to munition makers, but it
has all the caution of a miserly old
lady when it comes to helping needy
farmers save the world from that
nasty thing called famine.
PROFITEre
W
-1 .-V 5 Wfc.1'.
AA/%60
1919 WHEAT PRICE
rpHE administration has announced
A that the wheat price which has
held for two years will be continued
as a minimum price for the 1919 crop
and a special commission is to deter
mine whether a higher price may not
be necessary. Inasmuch as congress
never acted on the president's urgent
request for pow6r to fix the prices
which the farmer has to pay for sup
plies, made on December 4, 1917, it
would seem that the farmers were en
titled to relief through higher price
for their product. If our farmers
have been keeping track of their costs
of raising wheat in the last two years,
they will have "knockout" proof for
this special committee when it visits
the Northwest.
PREMIUMS ON WHEAT
BECAUSE
MORE ATTENTION TO SEED
PRICES
IN
THESE days, when so much is
expected of the farmer, would it
not be a fair thing for the government
to give some attention to cutting out
the profiteering in seed grains The
farmer's seed bill amounts to a-tidy
sum in the course of the year, and it
is a common thing for the seed to
double and triple in price between the
farmer-raiser and the farmer-buyer.
Shortage in the supply of certain
kinds of seed merely furnishes the oc
casion and not a satisfactory excuse
for this profiteering.
GOOD SEED WHEAT NECESSARY
BY
REQUIRING that farmers
should. ship in all their surplus
wheat this spring, the government
really has assumed' more than the
normal obligation of seeing that the
farmers get a good seed wheat for the
next planting 'at a fair price. There
should be a special penalty for ship
ping a farmer foul seed.
GOVERNMENT RULES EXPLAINED AND COMMENTED ON
•a.'-fo- v/. BY A. B. GILBERT
If.There Is Any Federal Regulation Concerning Food, Fuel, Labor, Farm Machinery Costs, or the Like That You
Do Not Understand, Write a Letter to Mr. Gilbert, Postoffice Box 575, St. Paul,
Minn., and He Will Look-It Up and Give You the Facts.
the 1918 wheat price is
a minimum and because the maxi
mum is determined by what the mill
ers can pay with fixedprices for flour,
a good deal of the present wheat crop
is being sold at a premium over the
so-called "fixed price." These premi
ums are probably sticking to the pock
ets of the middlemen .in the grain
trade except where farmers are sell
ing their grain co-operatively.
PROFfTEEQ
S E W SR N
Here the Leader cartoonist has shown the government officials as busy plumbers mending the pipe line from farmer to consumer. They have been trying to
patch up in a few months the leaks caused by 25 years .of neglect and^domination by- the profiteering market ihterests. No
wonder the consumer is surprised by the small amount he gets for his*"nUmejr.
fjfePAGB TWELVES,
BEET SUGAR CROP IS SHORT
NEED
for additional sugar conser
vation in the United States,"
says the food administration, "is re
flected by estimate? of our domestic
beet sugar crop this year. After se
curing and averaging estimates from
the three most trustworthy sources
available the food administration finds
a probable decrease in domestic beet
sugar production of 5.2 per cent com
pared with last year. This represents
about 38,174 tons of sugar less than
in 1917."
Last winter the organized beet"
sugar growers tried to put their case
for relief from the domination of th£
sugar trust and its subsidiaries before
the nation, but they received scant
attention. Perhaps this shortage, in
place of a necessary increase, is the
logical result of letting the sugar trust
speak for the beet sugar industry.
Will we be wiser before the next
planting season starts?
THE WAR LABOR POLICIES
BOARD
1
T17HEN we entered the war it'was
necessary to do something to
prevent do far as was consistent with
fair dealing the delay of production
incident to disputes between employ
ers and employes. With the cost of
living mounting rapidly and with em
ployers anxious to keep wages where
they were, the problem was especially
difficult. As a possible way out the
Washington administration formed
the war labor, policies board, and so
far it has been successful beyond the
hopes of its originators.
The American Federation of Labor
was called upon to nominate five men
and the national organization of em
ployers an -equal number. Then the
labor men chose as a chairman out
side the ranks of labor, Mr. Frank
Walsh, former chairman of the great
industrial relations commission, and
five representatives of employers chose
ex-President Taft as chairman of their
group. Remarkable as it may seem,
this board, made up of union "men and
union haters, was able to agree on a,
basis of operations, the most impor
tant principles of which were: Unions
have a right to organize "by peaceful
methods unions to be recognized in
union shops a living wage for work
ers, and women to receive equal pay
Mi
for doing the same work as men.
Representatives of this board are now
going about adjusting labor troubles
wherever they arise.
STOP RENT PROFITEERING
rpHE federal housing bureau reports
J- that certain landlords in munition
areas are endangering the national
defense by unreasonable and excessive
rental charges. The war labor poli
cies board has petitioned congress to
protect the workers against'this prof
iteering and-has designed a bill with
this end in view.
Why not recognize the plain truth
that the whole country is a munition
area and that renters everywhere are
being rack-rented because of war con
ditions, prominent among which is the
curtailment of new building? The
federal government is starting on the
most apparent cases where land hogs
are driving workers, away from the
shipyards, steel mills, etc. The gen
eral problem is really one for state
defense councils and state legislatures
rather than for the overworked federal
government. By pretending to pass
.the buck to the federal government
the state governments use a very, thin
disguise for protecting# unearned prof
its of landlords.
HELP FIGHT HOG CHOLERA
HOG
cholera is a very contagious
"disease. It is carried by birds,
dogs and roving animals as well as
man. When hog cholera breaks out
in the„ neighborhood keep the hogs
confined, let no one btit the feeder go
near them. When one of the hogs
Acts sluggish and keeps away from
the other hogs, hiding in straw or lit
ter, better have the county agent or a*
veterinarian determine if it is hog
cholera, and if it is, the serum treat
ment should be given the whole herd
as quickly as possible. Tested serum
can be secured at cost from the veteri
nary department of the North Dakota
Agricultural college. NORTH DA
KOTA BULLETIN.
THE
FARMERS 'PFDPDAL
COOPERATION. FOOD ^?FDTL
AWUNISTMTOON coroMiSStOH
.connis
present household sugar ra
tion—with little chance of in
crease—is two pounds a month in.
America, two pounds in England, one
and one-half pounds in France anty
one pound in Italy.—FOOD'ADMIN
ISTRATION.
tS0.
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