The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1894-02-17
Plan OF the Farmers of the DakotaS
for United Action.
THEY ARE IN EARNEST
Purpose Forming an Organization Which
VIII Down the Thresher Manufae-
lures Association.

ST. PAUL, Feb. 12.-The farmers of
North and South Dakota are going TO
! smash big combine of the thresher
manufacturers, if OF organization will do
it. They are going about their work in
quiet, determined way, and will hold
| farmers of the two states Feb. Is. Min
neapolis has been selected as the meet
ing point because of its greater conven-
fence to the delegates from both states
in interest. The tillers of the soil who
will take part in the proceedings are
not the bonanza farmers, the men who
own thousands of acres of land which
| they annually sow to grain, but the
small farmers, each of whom owns from
100 to 500 acres. At first it was in
tended to get the Minnesota farmers
! into the new organization, but this
| scheme has been abandoned, anc only
the agriculturists of the Dakotas will
participate. For the last four weeks
| letters have passed between farmers of
4 Is
have been made as to the best method
! of procedure, and week ago a general
circular letter was directed to all small
farm owners in the two commonwealths,
calling their attention to this opportun-
| ity to throttle the manufacturers
thresher combine. The letter is plain
/ spoken business one, in which the
status of the case from the farmers
standpoint is given. 1t sets forth that
at the present price paid for grain the
farmer has had hard work to pay legiti-
mate debts, and that any effort to re-
store prices for threshing, which were
only possible as result of the abnor-
mally heavy crop of 1892, must mean a
still further reduction of the producers
margin. 1t is also shown that If the
matter is taken up by the farmers of
the grain growing region with proper
vigor the aims of the combine may be
defeated.
The farmers are in great earnest
about the matter, and have agitated
it not only through their letters and
circulars, but through the farmers al
lance of South Dakota. The situation
was first canvassed in the alliances by
H. L. Loucks, who has constantly
urged organization. 1t has not been
settled, of course, just what action to
take, but the most reasonable plan
proposed is to form among the farmers
an independent threshers' organization,
half dozen farm owners in each com
munity to cooperate in owning and
running thresher. 1t is proposed to
form an interstate organization, all
members to pledge themselves not to
engage, under any pretext, machine
operated by the combine. The farmers
believe that by pooling their interests
they will be able to defeat the aims of
the latter, which are, in brief, to re-
store the thresh ing prices of three
years ago. The farmers claim, and
with deal of justice, that the condi-
tions are so changed owing to the gen
eral depression that they cannot pay
for machines what they did in 1892.
They argue that when wheat sells, as it
did this year, at from As to so cents a
bushel in the Dakotas, there is an actual
loss to the farmer in raising it unless
his crop exceeds eighteen bushels to
the acre. The past year, they say,
there were numerous instances where
the crop was from six to ten bushels to
the acre.
The farmers of the Dakotas are TAX
ing this action because of a challenge
thrown down to them by the thresher
manufacturer last November. AT that
time the manufacturers, agents and
operators of threshing machines held a
meeting in Minneapolis. At that meet
ing it was said that the owners and
operators of threshing machines had
been running at loss, and that, unless
prices were advanced, they would have
to go out of the business and allow the
farmers of the remote counties of
North Dakota to thresh their grain
with fails. 1t was finally decided to
restore the former prices for threshing,
which were cents bushel for wheat
and 31 cents for oats. The meeting
was a large one, all the manufacturers
in the district being represented, and
since that time the organization has en-
rolled as members nearly every owner