The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1918-07-11
The Farmers Were Right.
fIohn Andrews in Richland Co. Farmer)

For daring to assert that Big Business was
NOT n~atriotic. for believing that the great In
terests Of the country were guilty of gross pro-
fteering, for demanding that mammoth war
profits should pay the cost OF the war, Tor this
attitude the farmers OF North Dakota and oIh-
or northwestern states were denounced as dis
loyal. seditious and traitorous to the govern
ment. .,
Those who demanded a CONSUMPTION OF wealth
when human lives were being conscripted were
classed as little better than pro-German.
Speakers employed by the League have been
jailed for calling attention to the vast profits
that inure to the great CORPORATIONS and COM
pairing these profits with the losses that the
common people must endure, even to the loss
of their sons. We were told that such remarks
"hindered enlistment" and destroyed the peo-
pies will to win the war.
Despite this attitude, despite the statement
made by the agents Of malefactors OF great
wealth that everything must ne forgotten, all
domestic wrongs and evils overlooked, until the
end of the war, the farmers of North Dakota
held firmly to their belief and to the position
that if the war is to be won, it must be Won
by the immediate righting of the wrongs that
now depress our people and hamper them in
their efforts. The injustice of permitting
great corporations to sweep into their treasur-
les vast streams of money, which represent in
truth the blood of our sons over in France, still
persists and must be ended.
Before primary election day the report Of the
Federal Trade Commission had not been made
public. The farmers of this state did not need
that to confirm them in their faith. Yet its
publication, after the primaries, should have its
influence with those who have been led to- be-
lieve that the conditions the farmers complained
about were fanciful and the creatures of inn
%agination. It should have it's influence with
those who were convinced by a campaign OF
Misrepresentation and distortion; such as the
state has never before witnessed, that the
League and it's candidates stood for disloyalty.
It should show to those honest but deceived
voters that the farmer knew whereof he spoke
and that he was neither misguided nor deceived.
In another column in this paper will be found
a synopsis of the report of the Federal Trade
Commission made last week to the u. s. Sem
ate. That synopsis is taken from the Associat-
ed Press report, certainly as unbiased a source
of information as the opponents Of the League
could desire. It exposes only in the briefest
manner, the criminal activities of the great
business concerns of this country which have
bent their efforts, despite the war, to extort
from a nation in a struggle for it's life, profits
unprecedented in the history of the world.
Who dare say that the farmers or their
leaders are disloyal in the face of this tremen-
dous indictment of the foulest treachery that
ever a nation suffered under? Who dares to
sit in judgment upon the verdict of the farm
ers of this state as recorded last week? Who
dares to uphold the methods of Big Business
when the record of the United States govern
ment shows them to be venal, greedy and cor
rupt?