The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-11-19


the financier-who can without much
difficulty be imagined as merged
place him under a microscope slide,
and study him. For the consolidated
denizens OF Wall street would in such
a world be microscopic or ultra mi
croscopic. Greater Reuben would look
on him with something of the fearful
respect with which we examine the
bacillus of cholera or bubonic plague.
He would squeeze his eyelids together,
shift the light, peer through the eye
piece, and when he finally got the
morganissimus gigantues in focus, he
would exclaim: 'Wa-al! l snum!
That little cuss!"
And yet, the real tlg-of-war would
be between the big fellow, and the
man under the, microscope slide, rath-
err than with any of the giants I'm
whom tive other occupations should be
embodied-some of whom might be
able to reach to his knees For the
man under the slide would have con-
troll of the railways, the mines, the
wharves and docks, the banks and
trust companies, the iron and steel and
oil and copper and agricultural ma
chinery, the strategic sites in cities and
canons and power lands, the lumber
and coal, and almost everything ex-
cept the lands of the farmer. He would
be in control of the government, and
through the government, of the army
and navy.
The Bell Telephone Co. in the farm
ing regions of the west make no eff
fort to maintain exchanges in small
towns. This is not because these ex-
changes cannot be made to pay, but
because they are afraid of the farm
ers The farm lines come converg-
ing in on ali roads, and demand con-
nections and arrangements that the
octopus has rules against. On being
refused what they want, the farmers
put irf a town exchange of their own.
Immediately the trust exchange be-
comes q thing anathema and tabu. No
merchant will have anything but
farmers phone in his store. The
farmers terrorize the village with the
possibility of their displeasure; and
one of these days the old Bell ex-
change is closed, and the farmers have
the business all to themselves. So
powerful are the farmers where they
know their strength.
In Greene county, Iowa, "home"
telephone system built lines along al
most every public road in the county.
After a while the farmers made up
their minds that this company was be-
coming trustified, and began building
their own lines parallel with the ones
with which they had so recently been.
identified. At last accounts the sec
4 Al
county limits, and almost every coun-
try road had its telephone line on both
sides. A waste of capital of course,
but the farmers, when they made up
their minds they wanted thing, be-
ing united, got it, and then got it the
second time. 1t was their own money,
and they spent it as they pleased.
The Truth About Reuben's Automobile
A good deal Of nonsense has been
written about the monetary stringency
or tendency toward it-caused by
the grangers of the west borrowing
money for the purpose of buying au-
tomobiles That they have bought
thousands of automobiles is quite
true. AS this is written the news
comes in of Colonel Roosevelts visit
to Sioux City, S. d. 1t seems to have
been a wonderful event; but the most
wonderful thing about it to me is the
fact that, in that purely agricultural
region, there were 5000 automobiles in
! town. But are the farmers straining
their credit to buy these cars? APP
parently not. Mr.. George w. Mason
of the Omaha Bee recently concluded
an interesting investigation of this
| question, and on the equally interest
| ing one as to the percentage owned
| by farmers of the deposits in the rep
resentative banks of f1fty-four coun-
| ty seat towns in Nebraska. Only one
of these banks had made loan to a
farmer for automobile money-and
| that loan was on the car itself, not
on the mans farm. as Mr.. James Pat
| ten, the wheat king, would apparently
have us think is ruinously common.
Every bank said that many of the
farmers were buying cars. Every one
said that the farmers credit is good,
and all denied that it had been in any
way affected by this new extravag-
| ance.
All the banks reported heavy per-
centages OF their deposits owned by
| farmers Even the First National
| bank of Omaha reported from 33 to
40 per cent of it's deposits as farmers
and many Of them gave the proportion
as over rs per cent. One bank said
that all its depositors are farmers;
and the average of the fffty-four re-
ports show 81 per cent of the deposits