The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-09-26

tory nature of its proceedings. Says
1T should not escape notice in
the farmers league at st. Paul which
took the widest range of s:isloyalty
and 0ftenest touched The border-line
Of sedition was delivered by United
States senator.
''Under the influence Of some ST
their leaders the Maximalists of the
new Populism had been persuaded,
contrary to their recent record, 20
combine with their demand for SO
wheat and the confiscation of all
profits on the part of everybody else
a patriotic pretenSe OF earnestness
in support of the war. But when Sen
stor La Toilette boldly proclaimed the
with Germany only because of tech
nicality relating to the munitions
traffic, and urged his hearers to ter
inmate at once the struggle which we
latent radicalism, pacifism, German
ism and traitorism in the assemblage
found unrestTained expression in the
widest applause greeting any
speaker.
THE incident proved two things
hNst, that the farmers league may
easily become serviceable to the enc
my, and, secondly, that a treacherous
appeal at which its own envenomed
agrarians hesitated was lightly made
by a man under oath to support the
constitution and laws of the United
States. At the beginning of the civil
war many southern senator's who re-
jected this obligation resigned and a.
few who were less honorable were ex-
PEELED. Not one of our German sena-
tors has yet had the decency to re-
sign, and ii Is to be remembered that
expulsion requires a two-thirds vote"
"Neo-copperhead."
The Kansas City Star undertakes
to tell the public what "neo-copper-
head, the term applied by Colonel
Roosevelt to Senator La Toilette,
means. Says The Star:
ing of 'neo-copperhead'? see that it
is what Colonel Roosevelt calls La
Toilette. 1t sounds good, but / don't
find 1t in the dictionary. J. C.
It's 1T does .s.s sound sand goGd; and probably
the slightest difficulty in knowing
what Colonel Roosevelt meant, any
more than when years ago he refer
red to one Objectionable citizen as
troglodyte' and another as a molly
coddle'. But just to be accurate it
may be said that 'neo' comes from the
Greek work 'neos', meaning new. 1t
is used as a prefix in the sense of
modern, 'up-to-date,' and usually
it. A 'neo-copperhead', We should say,
is a particularly Objectionable modern
copperhead with frills.'
About the Price of Wheat.
The New York World comments up
on the northwestern farmers demand
for higher prices for wheat, and it
deals with the problem in a style not
very complimentary to the farmers.
The attitude The Sun takes toward
the whole issue, the editorial COM
ment indicates, has been created
through the activities Of the Nom
partisan league leaders. The Sun
says:
"The assertion of Prof. @. E. Call,
of the Kansas City College of Agri-
culture, that with wheat at 50 or 1920
bushel, farmers have a profit of
$1.21 or $1.41 a bushel is based on a
calculation which takes into account
conditions prevailing upon the ave-
rage western farm. AS he is highly
esteemed as an instructor and expert
his testimony is having serious atten-
tention at Washington.
THESE figures, of course, represent
extreme cases. Not many farmers
are to receive 1920 and 50, the prices
years and next years crops.
1t may cost some farmers
more than 10 cents a bushel to
raise wheat; but the value Of their
grain at the point of shipment will be |
so much in excess Of Prof. Calls es- |
innate of 20 cents as the average cost |
of wheat production and so much |
larger than the prices obtained in |
normal years as to give the grow
ers a conspicuous place among war
profiteers.
There is no hint of this, however,
in the proceedings Of the Nonparti- |
san League Of Farmers, now in ses- |
sion at st. Paul. Every speaker in |
that interesting assembly holds that, !
although dollar wheat in time of |
peace was considered ideal, the GER
cal cannot be profitably grown today |
unless the government price is at |
least $500 a bushel. Moreover, the |
league is unanimous in advocating |
price fixing for all commodities and !
services not related to the farm on a |
scale so low as to do away with every |
idea of gain during the war.
I'VE have had Jack Cades on the |
farms heretofore, but this new philos-
ophy transcends anything embraced |
in the madcap economy of the Kent |
ish rebel In brief, our wheat grow |
ers ask the government to guarantee |
them famine prices free of tax for |
excess profits and to fix prices for |
everybody else so that there will be |
no profits at all. |
The New PopulisH.
on another issue, The World com |
ments as follows on the situation in |
the northwest:
'sAs represented by the Farmers |
National Nonpartisan league of the |
northwest, the new 'Populism differs !
sharply from the old. The great |
movement which became effective |
through national organization in 1891 |
had poverty, debt, low prices and |
high interest rates for its inspira-
ton. However mistaken 1t may have |
been in the financial remedies 1t pro- |
posed, it had genuine grievances, and |
its voice was heard.
1.-THE new Populism, confined thus
far chiefly to wheat growers, is not |
an outcry against want, suffering |
and injustice. 1t proceeds from a |
farming population comparatively |
free OF debt enjoying high prices for |
its products. relieved by law of many |
burdens regularly applied to other /
industries, the object of governments |
most solicitous care in banking |
privileges and, generally, richer than |
any like number OF agriculturists the |
world has ever seen. Waxing fat, |
like Jeshurun, these people have |
kicked, not because Of their wrongs
but because they have not been able .
as yet to infiict hardship upon others.
Dollar wheat disbanded the old /
Populism. The new Populisn1y with |
$500 wheat guaranteed, has become |
formidable in response to the de-
mand for SO wheat. 1t wants more /
than that 1t insists that world |
war-stricken and hungry shall pay |
it the SO without toll Of taxation and /
that prices Of all commodities not l