The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1900-12-22
UNITED DAIRYING INTERESTS.
What the Passage of the Grout Bill
Has Demonstrated.

What the Passage of the Grout Bill
Has Demonstrated.
The passage Of the Grout or oleo-
marmargarine bill through congress
by SO decisive majority was the
greatest victory the farmers of this
country ever accomplished and DEM
onstrates what a terrific power politi-
cally combined rural communities
would possess if they could but ef-
feet proper combination said }.
w. Foster, a farmer from central
New York, to Star reporter in one
of the down town hotels this morn
ing.
IF the constituents of member or
a prospective member of congress
from a rural district were to let him
know that if he voted against their
interests on any matter of legislation
coming up during his term he would
be promptly retired at it's close and
another man substituted who would
take the wishes and the interests of
his constituency first into considera-
ton and his personal inclinations
afterward, general sentiment in con-
gress would undergo a change.
con the stump candidate for Of
flee will and does promise andything.
He talks at length of the interests of
his constituents being first in his
heart. 1t is only when he gets to
congress that they hear anything
about his personal convictions
Farmers, as rule, are an easy-going
class of voters, but they were all
worked up over the oleomargarine
bill this year. Scores of members
came back with the positive assur-
ance that it would be their last term
if they failed to give their constitu-
encies the protection they demanded,
and so urgently needed. /, myself,
personally informed my member that
if he did not vote for the one great
bill which the farmers and dairymen
of this country demanded should be
passed l would use my strongest en-
deavors to beat him at the primaries
and failing to accomplish that, that l
would take my horse and buggy and
lose my time and spend my money
to defeat him; and, furthermore, that
| would guarantee to enlist at least
one dozen representative farmers in
my township who would do the same
thing. He assured me that his prom
Use to vote for the bill was no anti
election promise, and SO it proved.
THE great trouble with the farmer
vote in acting in unison is that it is
SO scattered that combinations can
not be readily effected, as in other
occuptions, skilled labor, for instance.
The labor unions in members dis
trlct can, as rule, control his vote
on all questions affecting their par
ticular trade. The farmers of his
district might outnumber the member
-
being ununited, the member gives
secondary thought to their demands.
IF farmers would cultivate the let
ter writing habit to the extent prac-
ticed by the constituencies of the
city members and drop their repre-
sentatives from time to time little
notes, it would go great way toward
perfecting sort of organization
among them, and that is about the
only effective way it can be done.
AN analysis of the vote on the
Circuit bill is interesting. 1t shows
briefly, that the negative vote came
largely from the members represent
ing city and manufacturing constitu
encies and from the southern mem
bers, though many from my section
voted for it, Inasmuch as the south
is essentially an agricultural coun
try it would at first be supposed that
the vote of it's members would have
been unanimous in favor of the bill
The division and strong vote agains
the bill arises from the fact that thu
dairying interests in the south ar,
yet in their infancy, and the pressure
from that quarter was necessaril,
less than from the west and east. Thu
farmers are nightly pleased over thu
result, and the members from the az
ricultural districts who voted for tn,
bill will receive their warm congratu
lations and in most instances undoubt
eddy denomination.
The Lottery of Racing.
only tlathead or village lido