The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1918-02-28
FOUNDATIONS OF A RUDE.

kUMlNAllUNS UF A kUbE.
Falky states in the News that mo
other business man is called upon to
do as much gratuitous work in the
interest Of his neighbors and the pub
lie as the editor of a newspaper" Well,
how about a business man who has to
be nagged at thru the press before
he will come across with a donation
for the Red Cross society? It appears
to us that Falky had to be called
several times before he answered
How about the Y. M. G. A. call Fal-
ky, have you answered that? We
doubt it. &
The former Hanna ward heller,
who in his second childhood has tax
en- to the pen and airs his brain CHATS
doubtful) throbs in the Minot Messen-
ger accuses some people of being
"Reds." Well, fov our part we'd
rather have a red streak than to be
burdened with the yellow streak of a
gutter such as is the former ward
heller. One week he came out and
was going to go down the line with
us but the next he was as meek as
a lamb. What's the matter, Mac, is
your conscience hurting you?
Perhaps our readers would like to
know how some price fixing has been
done in the past. For their benefit
we produce the following: In De-
cember, 1908, the price Of No. z Rio
coffee in New York was 6k cents a
pound. In January, 1911, the same
grade of coffee in the same market
sold at 13 1-3 cents a pound, an in
crease in two years of more than 100
per cent. This rate was caused by an
arrangement entered into by the Bra
lillian government and a group of
financial bandits, of which J. P. Nor
gan & Co., are the American repres-
entatives, whereby the coffee crop OF
Brazil is cornered and held out of the
market so as to enable this combin-
alton to regulate the price of coffee
turnout the world. After the forma-
ton of the combination the Brazilian
government sent it's agents thruout
the coffee districts destroying grow
ing trees so as to keep down the sup
ply. The government also had a law
limiting the export of coffee. 1t was
also proposed to replace this law by
a new law creating an export tax Of
ten per cent on all exports of coffee,
the tax to be paid in kind and the
coffee thus collected to be burned.
This scheme was not carried out be-
cause it was not found necessary to
support the monopoly. Coffee could
be proftably produced at a price OF
4 cents per pound" The above shows
the manner in which the Big Biz clique
control the price setting in n COM
modify. It is quite apparent that
their power Of control extends into
every marketable product in one way
or another.
The middleman is an absolutely un-
necessary luxury. We mean by that
that such as travelling statesmen hold
an unnecessary position. As an ex-
ample we can use the following: a
large typewriter manufacturing COM
pany used to sell their product thru
statesmen and the price was $1,000
per machine. The company decided
that they could produce just as good
a machine and sell directly to the
purchaser, eliminating the travelling
salesman, and by so doing they U
sell the machine at less than one half
the price charged under the salesman
plan. The company cut out the sales
men and now they sell a standard ma
chine for $4,000, which under a
former plan sold for $4,000 and win
the present low price the company also
does extensive advertising.
We are told that our country is
fphtinp for democracy. We believe
Il. Our Washington representatives
have shown by their favorable VOTE
On the prohibition bill and the woman
suffrage bill that they Al advancing
to a certain extent, toward 9 real
democratic goal. But why stop there.
Whv not pass a bill in favor Of direct
election Of the president, by abolish,
NJ that useless body, the electoral.
college: why not pass 9 bill in favor OF
reducing the Washington representa-
tiveg mileage from twenty cents per
mile to actual cost; why not pass 2
bill prohibiting the entrance OF thl
country with any other country, o.
oroup Of countries, into secret treat
les. better known perhaps as secre
diplomacy, which without 9 doubt Is :
! war breeding system. Let Us not
onlv fight abroad for democracy Dut
also battle at home for democracy
with our ballots.
Testimony at the Federal inyestlga-
ton IL st. Paul showed that tne
nackinr trust beat the farmers OUT q
: .OOO,0OO, ia the ST. Paul stockkards'
vearly. Also the farmer paid
nackers Tor hay used ~ feed I 4 the
vsrda. several dollars = ton profit =