The nonpartisan leader. [volume], July 19, 1920, Image 13

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

Image provided by: State Historical Society of North Dakota

                
Native of Ireland Sees
.. Peasants
At 26 years of age I came to Da
kota, then a territory. Here the
farmers were raising wheat for 50
cents a bushel and the bankers were
loaning them money at the rate of 36
per cent per annum and taking mort
gages on all they possessed,- even the
Crops whiefcliad not been harvested.
After a few dry summers the farmers
in Dakota were worse off than the
farmers in Ireland. Then we organ-
THE WORKERS' PROBLEM
Editor Nonpartisan Leader: I am
Writing this to throw a little light on
the workingmari's side 'of present-day
conditions, as I-do not believe the av
erage farmer understands them very
well.
The average pay here is $5 per day,
or $130 for 26 forking days in the
month. Renl is $30 and up flour
sells at $3.90 for 49 pounds potatoes,
10 cents per" pound beef, 28 to 40
cents {fork, 35 to 40 cents fruit, such
as oranges, bananas, etc., 60 to 90
cents per dozen canned vegetables,
25 to 35 cents per" can, and canned
fruit, 35 to 55 cents per can butter,
6| to 75 cents per pound milk, 15
cents per quart rolled oats, 90 cents
to $1 for nine pounds. Now on the
above prices, after, a careful record
kept for some time, I find -that it
costs me, with a family of seven to
support, $80 a month for provisions
and you will note that I have only
mentioned the necessities. This fig-'
ores out*about like this:
Income $130
Sent for .month ...,$30,
Food, fuel, etc. .... 80
f5^ Total expense .... 110-
Balance .....$ 20
ffl^-..is $20 goes to buy clothing, med
'Ifeme, doctor's bills, premium on life
insurance and incidental expenses.
Now in csise the breadwinner of the
family is sick or out of work for a
month or more during a year the fam
ily either has to go without the neces
sities of life or some charitable insti
tution has to come to its aid, which is
not a pleasant viewpoint for an intelli
gent American tp look at. Dolyou
blame us for striking under such con
ditions? Q, A. PARSONS.
Great Falls, Mont. CB"
WORKERS BOOST LEAGUE
-/•The Fight for Economic Justice in
North Dakota Goes On," is the title
of an article in the current number of
the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firer
men and Enginemen's magazine de
scribing the benefits of the North Da
kota program
^Vhy He Joined the Nonpartisan League
DITOR Nonpartisan Lead
er: The undersigned
was brought tip on a
farm in the province of
Ulster, Ireland, when the
tenant had little to say
as to how he should vote or what
form of religion he should support.
Jaunting-cars went round on election
day and canned the farmers to the
polls where, like a flock of sheep, they
were Counted for the landlord's can
didate. The collector came around in
those days also, and although the es
tablished church was only patronized
by one-sixth of the Irish people every
landholder had to pay for its support.
But he south and west' of Ireland re
belled and agitated and William Glad
Stone brought forth the secret ballot
and the
disestablishment of the church.
By persistent agitation, and in some
caros direct-action, the Irish got the
"land purchase act" so that on the
amortization plan they became owners
of the farms they tilled.
Fight Here Th^t Faced
of Europe
feed the Populist party and the Farm
ers' alliance.
I remember 'about' this" lame selling
some wheat to an old-line1 elevator
and having four bushels stolen out of
one wagonload this I proved by hav
ing the same number of sacks filled
out of the same bin and tied the same
way, weighed.next trip at a farmers'
warehouse. It did not matter in
those days whether your wheat Was
e.ver so clean or not,- the elevators al
ways took two pounds dockage to the
bushel.
Then I came to Minnesota android
wheat for 37 cents a bushel and oats,
which weighed 40 pounds to the bush
el, for 13 cents. Then I took to the
woods in Aitkin county, where at least
rows.
we do not have to sell our wheat to
buy wood or coal.
History repeats itself, in all ages
and climes, and human nature is the
»same. The English barons stole the
land from the Irish people, in viola
tion of the treaty of Limerick. This
is the sore that rankles in the heai$
of southern Ireland and which refuses
to be healed. But organization and
agitation have made the Irish farmer
more prosperous than any of his class,
in any European country.
I remember the landlords and their
agents and the so-called conservatives
and respectable dealers in the towns
were against the reforms. The same
classes are fighting the N. P. L. in
Minnesota and Dakota today. The
subsidized press hurls the same epi
thets of "disloyalty'* and radicalism''
in their wrath as they did 50 years
ago at the undaunted leaders of Irish
liberty. P. B. MEGARRY.
Bain, Minn,
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PAGE THIRTEEN
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THE MOTIVE BEHIND
F. B. Tipton Sr. of Seward, Neb.,
Bends
a copy of a letter he wrote Bar
ton W. Currie, editor of the Country 1
Gentleman, in 'which he says: }.
"I have been reading the Country
Gentleman* many.yeart and I must
frankly state it was from laudatory
articles in the Country Gentleman that
I first became interested in the League 1
movement.
"It was with a very considerable
degree of astonishment that I noticed
you, almost over night, entirely re
versed, your former good opinion of
th& organization and began your pres-
ent unfair and untruthful attack upon
it and its leaders. It was not until
I became somewhat familiar with the
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111
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8
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