New-York tribune., 1917-11-27
First Steps Taken at Group
Conference and Mass
Meeting
State Food Board
Is Asked for $4,000
North Dakota Men Explain
Cooperative Plan Aimed
Against Middlemen

First steps to form in New York an
organization like the Farmers Nom
Partisan League Of North Dakota, with
the purpose Of reducing the cost of
food by bringing the producer and
consumer together, were taken at
group conference yesterday afternoon
and a mass meeting at Cooper Union
last night
The afternoon meeting of farmers
and labor representatives at the Hotel
McAlpin passed resolutions asking the
/ State Food Commission TO appropriate
| $4,000 to carry out the cooperative
/ plan devised by the Department OF
Foods and Markets, and demanding
prompt execution of the plan of ship
ment under state supervision to termi-
/ nal wholesale markets in the city.
A temporary committee OF five
grange representatives and five labor
men was appointed to call state COG
vention and establish a permanent or
| ganization for the benefit of both farm
ers and ultimate consumers, to the coa-
/ fusion of all middlemen.
A. c. Townley, president of the
/ Farmers Non-Partisan League, and
/ Congressman John Baer, of North Da-
/ kota, the representative of the league
! in Congress, were the exponents at
| both meetings of the plan so success
/ fully tried in the Northwest
First Bow to New York Audience
The mass meeting. held under the
auspices of the Labor Food Confer
ence, officially authorized by the Cen
trail Labor bodies of New York, was
the initial bow to New York audience
Of the leaders Of the Western League.
Chairman John Mitchell of the state
Food Commission presided. The other
speakers we're Representative Baer,
Mr.. Townley, and john J. Dillon, Com
missioner of the State Department OF
Foods and Markets.
"The first purpose of my visit is to
bring about an arrangement whereby
the surplus of the farm will go to the
city, and the surplus of the city worker
will 90 to the farm" said Mr.. Town
lev. "If we can establish conditions
whereby you of the city buy from the
farmers the things you need, giving no
man an illegal profit, and we OF the
farm buy from the city the things we
need without giving an lllegitlma:e
profit-and we will and must do that
no sacrifice will be too great.
Demands State Ownership
At another point in his address, Mr..
Townley, after telling his audiance that
the farmers, the wheat raisers of North
Dakota, were losing $55,000,000 a year
because they were not paid for the
husks and other valuable byproducts,
declared
we must get the cooperation be-
tween the farmer and the consumer.
Whether YOU call il state ownership or
state socialism, we've got to have it, be-
cause we've got to have that S55,OOO,-
000."
Chairman Mitchell, in his introduc-
tion of Townley, declared that although
food prices would not drop below ante
war prices, there would be a drop from
the present prices in very short time
as a result of the cooperation it is
hoped will come out Of the meetings
yesterday.
Refutes Disloyalty Charge
Townley. at the very start, took pains
to show his audience that the charges
of disloyalty made against the Nom
Partisan League were absolutely false.
held such assemblages habitually, ]
would be in Jail in North Dakota now,"
he said. 81 thought | was far enough
away from the big business of North
Dakota, which brought those charges,
TO hear the end Of them"
Mr.. Townley said that in North
Dakota the farmers had in several in
stances been denied the right to meet
and discuss the food problem and other
vital questions. He said tnat IN Lake
City they had been told by the Mavor
that "the Constitution was not working
that afternoon" and that when they at
tempted to gather in the streets, by or
/ der of the Commercial Club, Ere
nozzle was pointed at them and they
/ were forced to disperse.
| SAYS Farmers Are Poor
/ The farmers, he said, were not doing
as well as they expected, and the
average wage of farm family, IN
cluding the children, amounted TO only
| S3l9.22 a year.
| "Out Of twenty-nine billions paid
yearly to the farmers for their prod
ucts, they get only nine billions" he
continued. "Who gets the difference
When we ask the railroads why we
have 20 pay 30 much for freight, they
{ tell US that the railroad men nave or
ganized, and must be paid good wages.
Likewise, We are told that the packing
house men and the miners have or
ganized for better wages.
"I'm sorry you havoa': got the diff
ference, because we cSs.o nave made a
deal. The political activity Of the farm
ers of the Northwest has been TO get
into the position where such a dec
with you could be made possible"
Attacks Docking System
/ Mr.. Townley then told of the efforts
of the Minneapolis millers, using the
state officials, to break up the coopera-
! tive societies and TO destroy the CO.
operative grain elevators, packing
houses and Hour mills. He said that
| the farmers gave away seven billion
dollars year through the system en-
| ployed by the millers Of docking" or
substracting from the weight Of the
grain brought them for Impurities.
He declared that l00,000,000 bushels
OF wheat were raised IN North Dakota
annually and sold at $2.20 a bushel
from the patriotic motive of helping
the war.
Then the Minneapolis millers
handle IT," Townley declared, "and,
instead Of making rs cents barrel, as
they state. arc now making 81 barrel
Il = L.. 4. 4