The Bismarck tribune., 1919-03-27

and all the while gotten worse for the
plain farmer who was farmer only;
and the only benefit or grains accruing
to him came thru the voluntary re-
duction Of freight rates by the rail-
roads; so that in 1917, as then point
Ell out in the offices of the Equity
Cooperative: Exchange in St. Paul,
with all this history Of struggle and
effort and with that institution run
ming smoothly and in full realization
of its founders most extravagant
dreams, there was never time IN
all those 80 years when the plain farm
er Jared SO badly at the hands OF the
grain handlers as he was then far
ing; never a previous time when he
paid such high or excessive rates Of
handling charges on his outgoing
grain and the returning manufactured
products as, on his 1916 crop. And
no official of that exchange attempted
to refute or deny that assertion Of
fact.
L.. .... What Is Their GOall
Perhaps my brother farmers who
are such sheep-like followers of Mr..
Townley will say that all this is ar
gument in their favor; that this mere
ly recapitulates the farmers struggle
and progress toward the goal at which
they, under the leadership of Mr..
Townley and his Socialist associates.
are aiming; the goal wherein "the
people will themselves own and con-
troll the means Of handling and manu-
featuring their grain and other farm
products"
But men should remember, nor ever
forget. that the state NOT the people
any more than the manager of farm
ers elevator is the farmers who finan-
ced, built and equipped that elevator
and which manager sometimes and
often, to my certain knowledge, alb
seconds leaving deficits as high as
S2O.OO0.O0 for a few struggling farm
ers who only three or four years be-
fore had started in the elevator busi-
ness on a paid up capital Of $6,OGO.OO.
Even i'll the2 case Of State which
comes the nearest to being govern
mentGof, by and sfof the people, the
rcigning forces OF government are not
The People even though they may be
more or less representative of the peo-
pie governed. And how near they do
Or do not truly represent and SERVE
the people governed depends upon
whether that State is or is not what
Mr.. Lincoln at Gettysburg called IA
Nation under Cod, and whether they
accordingly, are actuated and guided
by the Divine .or:Christian principles
Of Faith, Hope and Charity or, by
tho wnr11Txy 0,,fs @S
which just now is very much in the
ascendancy-, envy, greed and selfish
ness. . @ss- a-
&, On the other hand an Autocratic or
Despotic. State is anything but The
People, and. its distance from or op-
posite to The People, lis measured only
by the. extent to which it is despotic
and arrogant. . No State or Empire
OF history has been SO :despotic and
far from being The People as State
founded upon Socialism would be; for
in the, latter, the State lis everything
and the pople are merely its wards
or chattle to be handled and done with
In whatever way the State chooses.
A H6mesteader as Slmile.
As this state of North Dakota is not
so old that It's citizens know nothing
about pioneer conditions and problems
let us consider what young, and
capable man might be expected to do
upon going into a forest wilderness
to there heW. out q home for himself.
Do you think that he would begin BY
Immediately undertaking to provide
himself with what we call modern
residence and builded of pressed brick
or, do you suppose that he would de-
eide that the first requisite was the
laying out, clearing. grading and
bridging of first class road from
his land to the far distant railroad
or, river town? In fine, do you think
he would demand that the future with
all itsNpromise must come and still
!