The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1918-01-17

that manufacturing point. The farm |
er has the greatest purchasing power,
he asserted, when he has the most
money. Therefore if he received ST.
100 for his carload Of wheat he could
purchase three times as much of the
commodities which the other people
not engaged in farming produced as he
could when he only received $500 for
the wheat. Therefore, he concluded,
all other service organizations would
be benefited by the improved condi-
lions for which the Nonpartisan
league is working.
He enlarged on the natural resour-
ces of the state and pointed out it's
mineral wealth and that it was one
of the big fuel producing states of the
union. He referred to the tremendous
embarrassed water power of the Mis-
souri, river and called attention to the
fact that while the Niagara Falls
were only 100 feet high thy We're be-
ing made to produce electric energy
for commercial enterprises in far dis
tant states, and that the Missouri
river, from the point where it entered
the state to the point where it left it
in its natural course, has fall of L.
900 feet, and that this potential water
power is being allowed to waste. He
urged that the great accomplishment
for the state was to harness the latent
manufacturing power to the natural
productions Of the state and to thus
supply the markets Of the world with
the finished product of the farms
rather than the raw product.
Ho occortaJ fho% +ho M;oooo~o1;e
chamber of commerce was taking one
half the products of North Dakota and
asserted that if Germany were doing
that it would be justifable cause Of
war, and that it seems to be justi-
fable cause Of the war which the
Nonpartisan league had declared
against the chamber of commerce.
The speaker asserted that every
plank in the program of the Non
partisan league had been tried out
somewhere and had proven successful
He advocated the creation of
home market by which every man
would receive enough for his service
to buy back sufficient for his needs,
but SO conducted that none but those
who renderd service would have any
part in the result. He answered the
criticism of the advocates of open
world markets by citing the case of
Japan and the United States in which
Japan needed flour and the exchange
of these might be all right but the
trouble with the present system is
that those who neither produce nor
carry nor manufacture would get the
largest share of the costs of both.
Ii the farmer got more for his wheat
he would have more money with
which to buy silk and If the Japanese
silk producer got more money for his
silk he would have more money with
which to buy wheat.
He urged that it was essential to
the success Of the Farmers that they
send their finished products into the
markets of the world instead Of the
raw material. He declared that if
the test mill at the state agricultural
college were enlarged sufficiently to
grind all the wheat of North Dakota
and the experimental bakery there
.swere enlarged enough to bake all the
commercial bread used in the state
the farmer would get more for his
product and the consumer would get
the product for smaller cost.
The speaker illustrated his objec-
tons to private-owned industrial ne
cessities by beet sugar factory. He
said he was speaking in Idaho and
referred to the beet sugar industry.
This stirred up considerable opposi-
ton among the sugar manufacturers
and they sought to correct his state
ments. He had referred to the fact
that the beet farmers got SIS for the
beets out Of which 300 pounds Of sugar
were made, and that from the actual
payroll of the plant the labor which
was required to produce that sugar
cost twenty seven cents. The manu-
facturers objected that they had $780,
900 invested in the plant which turned
out this product and that they should
have pay for that investment. DR..
Mills began an inquiry in which it was
disclosed that the farmers who raised
the beets had to have twice the acre
age required to be planted each year
so that the crops could be rotated and
then from the figures given by the
manufacturers, as to the acreage re-
quired to supply the mill and their
statement of the value of sugar-beet
land, it was found that the farmers
who were supplying the product had
$2,8O0,0O0 invested in sugar lands.
They got SIS for the raw product which
produced 300 pounds of sugar and the
cost of manufacturing being twenty
seven cents, the total cost when the
commodity was ready to market was
s5.27 and it sold to the consumer for
little more than eight cents a pound
or for S25. The difference between the
1928 and the s25 is the difference,
the speaker asserted, between private
owned industries and public owned
ones.
The speaker used South Australia
as an illustration of success of public
owned utilities. In that division there
are large government owned packing
plants and flour mills and bakeries and
other industrial plants. The farmer
who raises sheep sends them to the
public owned government packing
plant and receives an advance on the
value of the same. They are then
slaughtered and sold by the govern