The twice-a-week Twin Falls times. (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1916-1918, 1918-01-22

sell and the prices of the stuff they
buy One at a time. These men arc
farmers, are they not? Maybe they
work on section.
A farmer from Burley arose to say
that he had nothing to do With the
price of what he sold and after tell
ing an amusing anecdote touching the
answer the speaker continued
$50 you here are in the same posi-
tion as some of North Dakota farmers,
and admit that you have not gotten
as far as the l. w w. in attending to
the most important part of your bust
ness. You have SO far neglected the
most important part of your business
but don't worry 1t hasn't been for
gotten altogether Somebody elseihas
attended to 1t. The matter is very
well taken care of. Not, however, to
your interests How ridiculous il is
for some six or seven millions of far
mers, the farmers in this United
States, the basis upon which all our
civilization rests, the best inteli-
gence and the best blood of our ma
tion to have neglected the most vital.
the most important part of their bust
ness How defenseless you are. All
you get out of your profession Is plen-
ty of exercise. Somebody else gets
most of the profits, What is it fixes
the price OF what you sell and what
you buy? I'm going to tell you right
now in a way so you will understand.
Those of you who keep chickens. all
of you, even though you may not work
on farm, know that II you keep
chickens it is not q good plan to take
all the eggs out of the nest If yOn
do you won't get any more eggs, may
be. And so with this great producing
population called the farmers. You
have got to leave enough there so that
they can go on raising more produce,
enough so that they can live Look
at the papers today What is the cry
that goes up from the wheat raisers
Don't cut down the price any more or
we can't raise wheat From the cat
tie raisers. if the price is cut any
lower we can't raise cattle, we can t
feed cattle From the pork raisers.
I can't feed pork if the price goes
any lower; from the beet grower I
can't grow beets if the price goes any
lower. The price is fixed so as to
give you just enough so that you can
sustain yourselves, perhaps increase
your production and go further into
debt. ] challenge any man to prove
otherwise.
Mr.. Townley stirred the audience
TO- laughter and applause by likening
the dealings of the farmers with the
trusts to a gambling game in which
the farmer was taken care Of" the
gambler who understood poker, did
all the dealing, played cards for both,
elected poker playing legislators TO
pass laws and poker playing judges
to construe them, and kept the far
mer under obligations to him be-
cause of an occasional loan to allow
the farmer to ante. Suppose that
some Non-Partisan man should warn
the farmer and suggest that he and
other poker playing farmers get into
an organization to amend the rules
of the game and elect farmer legisla-
tors and judges. Mr.. Townley said
were he the professional poker play
er he would get busy and should all
other sophistry fail he would warn
the farmer against the organizer, say
ing:
81 know who he is, know where he
comes from, / know who his associ-
ates are and ] want to tell you You
want to stay away from him, because
he is Socialist and an l. w. w And
it that wouldn't get him | would ii
him he was an atheist or something
else, if l could think of something bad
enough. Then if my friend here was
little jealous of his wife and the or
ganizer was as good looking as my
friend here, I would come back a few
days later and 1 would say: Brother.
brother, I have found out something.
| want to tell you that you want TO
keep that fellow that was at your
place and to whom you paid $16-you
want to keep that fellow off the place,
because he is a free lover and he is
going to steal your wife. I would
scare him with something or other.
= =
President Wilson says about it IN
tits book: We will not destroy any
thing that anybody should wish re-
tanned"