The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1917-04-14
STOCK GAMBLERS
CONTROL S0L0NS
FRAZIER THINKS
Accuses Chamber of Commerce
and Board Of Trade of Buy
ing the Legislature
WOULD GIVE WOMEN VOTE
TO CLEAN UP POLITICS
Couldn't Make Worse Fist OF
IT, Declares Chief Executive
in Gotham Talk

in Gotham Talk
New York, N. Y, April 14.-That
the stock gamblers control the law
makers, and that the lawmakers
legislate" according to the dictates Of
their masters, to the detriment OF
producers and consumers alike are
convictions EXPRESSED by Lynn j.
Frazier governor of North Dakota,
in an address to New York Social
lists assembled at Cooper Union last
evening.
Governor Frazier said in part:
North Dakota is a great agricultur-
al state. Ordinarily we raise about
1OO000,000 bushels of wheat per
year, but in 1915 we raised over
155,O00,OO0 bushels, and in 1916 only
39,00O,0OO bushels. Most of our
grains are sold through the chamber
of commerce Of Minneapolis, one of
the great combines, and our live
stock is sold through the packing
trusts of St. Paul and Chicago.
I'VE pay the freight on the wheat,
cattle and hogs when we ship them
out of the state and pay the freight
on flour and meats when they come
back into the state. We not only
pay the freight both ways, but we
pay the grain combines, milling
trusts and packing trusts a good, fat
profit for handling our products.
"Fine, Smooth Takers
For years the farmers have been
preached to by better farming ex-
perts-fine, smooth takers who gell-
orally have had no actual expert
ence in farming. The railroads want
ed more grain to haul; the chamber
of commerce, wanted to sell more
grain; the bankers wanted to loan
us more, money, 1and the machine
companies Wapted to sell us more
machinery, 'Ai1,', anxious to see us
raise bigger crops, regardless as to
whether we got equitable prices for
those crops or not.
"They were perfectly willing to let
the big interests look after the law
making and marketing and to keep
the farmers attention. centered on
the one subject of raising bigger
crops. The farmers have felt for a
long time that they have not been
getting a square deal. They get their
products ready for the markets and
they haul them to town and ask the
representatives of the grain combine
or the packing trust what they will
give them for those products. Talk
about the independence of the farm
er! The farmers Of North Dakota
are getting tired Of working just for
the exercise.
The High Cost Of Living.
"You hear a lot of talk about the
farmer being responsible for the
present high cost of living, and about
the farmers getting enormous war
profits. 1t is true that the farm pro-
ducts have composed the. larger part
of our great commerce since the war
began, but it is not the farmers that
get the war prices.
What Farmers Are Doing.
"Now what the farmers Of North
Dakota are trying to do is to work
out method of handling or distri-
buting the farm products whereby
we can go ffty-fifty with the con-
sumer; whereby we can save this
enormous waste; whereby we can
save the unnecessary difference in
the price the producer receives and
the price the consumer pays.
81 believe that it is all wrong for
any one to gamble in food products.
The gamblers and the chamber of
commerce of Minneapolis and the
boards of trade of Chicago ard Wall
street are protected by law and
backed by millions Of dollars that
have been taken out of the pockets of
the producers and consumers of this
country. Why are they protected by
law? Because they control the law
makers, and have controlled them for
years, both in our state legislatures
and in congress. Whose fault is it
that two per cent of the people in
this country control sixty per cent
of the wealth?
Franchise the Women.
"It is time that we take an interest
in politics.; it is time that we wake
up. 1t is time that we elect men to
Office that will honestly represent the
majority of the people that elected
them, and if the men can't take
enough interest in public affairs to
clean things up, let us franchise the
women and let them try it. There
is one thing sure-they can't make
any worse fist of it than the men
have done"