The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1918-11-01

uoAAy SAASe0IISC. II Wnedl WeIC SOlu
upon the open market today as is
cotton, the relative price for wheat
would now be about $3.50 a bushel
with cotton selling at SIC as it is,
In pre-war times when wheat aver
aged around $l.W a bushel, cotton
averaged around 1Oc or lie. Since
the war, the lowest price for wheat
has been about 9Oc and for cotton
&c, or roughly the normal prices
for both commodities we're in the
relation of about ten to one. Both
OF these widely used staples are es-
tablished commodities and cotton
more so than wheat.
1T has been estimated that more
than fifty per cent of the entire cot
ton crop is being utilized for the
war needs while the proportion OF
wheat is scarcely above twenty per
cent. At the present prices the cot
ton crop of the south will net the
planters of that section about ST.
@,OOYOO. or approximately four
times what it would in a normal
year. They feel that if the govern
ment has time to fix the price of
wheat it might also justly consider
the price of cotton.
ITO meet this situation and rem
edy some of these injustices and
many more than cannot be emit
merated in this brief space of time,
the farmers have very properly or
gained, as is their right and their
duty to themselves. Their sons are
fighting in the trenches, they have
purchased literally of Liberty
bonds, they have worked the limit
to save the allied nations from STAR
walton. Their loyalty is of the high
est type and is unquestioned. The
membership of the Non-Partisan
league is composed exclusively of
farmers. No question can be rails
ed as to the motive or patriotism of
these men. 1t is contended that the
leadership of this league is in dan
gerous hands and that the platform
by the men who have or
gained the league approaches
to socialism. Reforms last
ing in their nature are not made in
a day. Our civilization and our So
cial system, our industrial organi-
cations are the outgrowth of gen.
erations of development. Wrongs
are not corrected over night. Pro-
gress is made toward better things
by a disposition on the part of in
terested parties to give and take.
The farmer has many and legiti-
mate causes for complaint. The
just demands of the agricultural
districts must be met and promptly
granted. Doctrines that are sub
versive of good government and
opposed to the principles on which
the government is founded must be
met with courage and resisted with
out thought of such attitudes eff
feet on the probable outcome of this
campaign. While we are DESTROYS
of Republican success and the cleo
ton of Republican candidates both
in the state and nation, as loyal
citizens we can never
consent to the drafting of a plat
form of principles that will lessen
our self-respect as a party or as
citizens. To do so in order to Sc
votes of any class of our peo-
pie would prove by the very act of
our so doing that the candidates of
our party were unfit to occupy the
offices to which they aspire.
"All citizens of Montana must
be brought to a realization of the
fact that they have a common in
There are those who are
honestly opposed to the Non-Par-
tisan league because they see in that
organization the development of
socialism, because they fear that its
motive is a motive prompted by a
to further the interests of
the farmer at the expense of other
classes of people equally honest,
equally industrious and equally
burdened by economic disturbances.
Also opposed to their organization
are people who view with alarm
any organization of farmers, no
matter how earnest, as in that Or
they see a possible cor
rection of wrongs from which they
made a unjust profit. The
of both of these classes
should be called to the fact that the
very remedying of the injuries from
which the farmer is suffering
would be of as much benefit to the
classes who oppose him as it would
be to the farmers themselves, for