Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1916-11-03
FARMER REAPS GAIN
BY E|GAT-AouR LAW
Prevented Tying Up Of His Prod
ucts Valued at Sc, .000,0 900.
PRESIDENT is BEST FRIEND,
BY FRANK G. ODELL.
Editor Nebraska Farm MAGAZINE.


The New York Sun quotes James
Wilson, Of Iowa, former Secretary of
Agriculture, as saying that the farm.
ers were hit hardest by the Adamson
eight-hour law, which stopped the
threatened general railroad strike. Ac-
cording to The Sun, Mr.. Wilson said:
"The farmer has no eight-hour day.
Should that number of hours become
general In all occupations, including
the farm, the prices of food would
rise still higher than those current"
The logic of thu venerable ex-Secre-
tary is bad. The farmer is not worry
ing about the high price Of food. He
raises his own food. He grows food
for sale. That's his business. If. as
| the ex-Secretary says. the eight-hour
day will increase the cost of food.
the farmer has everything to gain.
And "Uncle Jim" has overlooked
the fact that the farmers of the Unit
| ed States had not less than $G,O00,OO0,
600 worth Of products practically
ready to send to market when the
strike crisis was imminent at the
| first of September: The threatened
strike would have paralyzed the farm
| er's market and stopped the wage Of
the worker in every industry.
Incalculable losses. running into
hundreds Of millions. we're averted
when the strike was prevented. Wood
! row Wilson did it.
llama JIM WIS Secretary of Agri-
| culture through four Republican adj
ministrations - sixteen years. These
| were sixteen years of monopolistic con-
troll Of the farmers market. During
this period. these great combinations,
! which have stood between the produc-
, er and the consumer, reached the zen
it'll of their power. Greed and extor'
ton ran riot. The high cost Of living
became a cry of universal complaint.
for which the farmer was made the
goat.
| During this period the farmers of
the country complained continually of
capitalistic extortion. They held con-
ventions throughout the great grain
| and live stock belt to voice their pro
test. They sent Populations Of able
men to Washington. They sent their
appeals for justice to the Secretary Of
| Agriculture, and waited at the door OF
the White House during the admins
Etrations Of Mckinley. Roosevelt aud
Taft They asked for bread and re-
ceived stones Of Indifference. They de-
l n1Of 6nc
about prosperity" ''contentment," and
making two blades of grass grow
where one grew before"
Then came another Wflson-Wood
row Wilson. Things began to change.
David F. Houston was made Secretary
Of Agriculture. For the first time in
F.. the history of the Government the
business problems of the farmer re.
ceived the attention of his Govern
ment. The Office Of Markets and the
Bureau of Rural Organization were
created to help him break the strangle-
hold of entrenchei monopoly. The
epoch making Rural Credits Law was
passed by Woodrow Wilson AID a Dem
ocratic congress. The power OF the
usurer and extortioner was broken
when that act was signed.
The farmer has a good memory. He
does not forget his lifelong battle with
entrenched privilege - organized and
grown purseproud curing forty years
! of Republican Indifference and misrule
He will not forget that it was WOOD.
ROW WILSON, the Peoples Presi-
dent, who saved his market from ruin
on Sept. 2, 1916. The special pleadings
of Republican defenders Of special
privilege and monopoly will find the
! farmers ready on Nov. Z.