The Northwest worker. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1915-1917, 1917-08-24
THE SMOULDERING VOLCANO OVER
WHICH THE GOVERNMENT SITS

years ago, long before the draft was
ever thought of. 1t is an organiza-
ton of tenant farmers for mutual
relief. 1t was formed to meet a
special need. The Socialist Party
cannot function between elections.
The |. w. w. is not open to tenant
farmers-only to wage laborers.
Hence came the Working Class
Union, composed of tenant farmers,
starting in Van Buren,, Ark, has
spread al lover Arkansas, Oklahoma,
and north Texas, and has some
strength in Kansas and Nebraska and
all the other agricultural states
where tenancy is common.
MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED
BANKS IN THE STATE OF OK
LAHOMA HAVE BEEN COMPELL-
ED BY SUITS ENGINEERED BY
THE w. C. U. TO PAY BACK
USURIOUS INTEREST EXPORTED
FROM TENANT FARMERS.
LANDLORDS ALL OVER THE
STATE HAVE BEEN COMPELL-
ED BY THIS UNION OF TENANT
FARMERS TO RAISE THE RATES
AND LOWER THE RENTS.
Hence the animosity between the
respectable citizens" and the w. c.
u. The plea of resistance to the
draft" is a preteXt.
For example: For two years the
w. c. U. has been meeting once a
week in a certain locality. The of
ficials know this. Acting on the
strength of the present unheavel, they
surround the schoolhouse or the grove
or the springs where the meeting is
held and take every one prisoner on
the ground that he is Opposing the
draft" When the actual reason is
that he has been protecting himself
against outrageous eXtortion.
The real purpose of the organiZa-
ton has been to reach the tenant
farmers to act together. They meet
to decide on a price for their labor
and the proper rent they should pay
for the farm. When tenant farm
er was found scabbing they dashed
him a few times, burnt his crops and
scared him in other ways, until he
saw the light" If landlord raise
the rent, they saw to it that no one
would rent his place.
Hence the landlords are opposed to
the W. Z. u.
In this state the legal rate Of in
terest is 10 per cent. But usury
among the bankers is so common that
a comptroller Of the currency recent
ly denounced them as thieves and
robbers. Many Of them charge
and extort-24 per cent and 40 per
cent. Some have been known to
demand 100 per cent for one month
One tenant farmer came to a bank
to borrow sufficient mony to cover
the funeral expenses of his daugh-
ter. The bank compelled him to
sign a note for 10000, payable in
one year. Eighty per cent interest
One bank in Muskogee county was
compelled to give back a farmers
mule, which it had seized in payment
Of usurious debt.
In Mcintosh County, a prominent
Socialist lawyer presented to the
bank a bill for $500. Ousurious in
terest he had extorted from a
client. The banker laughed at
him. When the lawyer had left
the banker went over to see tie real
state man hitched up his buggy
drove out to the farmers place, and
told him that he would have to
either clear off the farm in ten days
or call off that suit. 1t was late
in the season, an dto leave the farm
then would have meant the loss of a
whole years work, together with all
his credit. Besides, this, if a ten
ant farmer is blacklisted by one
bank, he cannot get land anywhere
else in that state SO the farmer
told the lawyer to call off the suit
1t was cheaper then to pay the usury
and than to lose his years labor.
"The landlord holds the tenant
farmer while the banker robs him
is the way minister put it to me
The W. c. T. u. fights this anC
hence the bankers oppose the W
c. u.
The United States Industrial Re
lations commission proclaimed the
land conditions in Texas and Okla
homa to be a disgrace to the ma
ton, TO be unparalleled in any civil,