Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1920-10-13
OBSERVATIONS
(By the Cornfield Philosopher
Waking Up

"Whom the Gods would destroy,
| they first make mad is an old and
true saying.
Nothing could possibly have been
done by the Plunderbund to advance
| the farmers cause more rapidly and
grandly than the passage of the in
| famous Cummns- Esch railroad bill,
now the law Of the land.
| have just returned from Cum>nins'
! own State of Iowa, and the entire ag-
ricultural population Of that state led
by that great farmers paper, The
Homestead, is literally up in arms.
| They have no Non Partisan League
there, but thru the Equity Societies
| and the Farmers Union, the boys who
till the soil for living are sending
up mighty protest which will be
heard around the world on election
day. They were so incensed at Cum
Minis that they left their fields on the
| day OF the primary and rolled up co.
900 votes, casting them for man who
openly advocates government owner
ship and operation of the railroads
and unsparingly condemned the Cum
| MINIS Act. At the same time Cum
mlns, backed by all the powers that
prey, polled only 10000. James M.
PIERCE, OF the Homestead says that
While he has always been warm per-
SOnal friend OF Senator Cummns and
supported him in the past, that he
could not desert the farmers in this
crlcls and has turned against the Sen
ator, his old time friend. Moreover,
Mr.. Pierce has caused to be prepared
and is publishing a table giving the
increase in freight rates on live stock
! and other farm products from all the
principal points in the state More
than 100000 Iowa farmers read The
Homestead each week, and you can
imagine what will follow.
Then the Iowa State Register with
| daily circulation OF more than 1OO,-
| 900, occupying the greatest newspap-
er plant in the West, has repudiated
the Act as striking deadly blow at
the prosperity Of the great Mississippi
| Valley OF which Iowa is part. The
editor told me personally that the
Cummins bill gave the railroads all
they asked and that he could not en-
dOrse the measure.
The Railroad Brotherhoods through
their great paper, Labor" published
at Washington City, are demanding
the repeal of the law and opposing
the reelection of every man who had
a hand IN it's passage and this paper
| has very large circulation in Iowa.
The most charitable construction put
| upon the action of Senator Cummins
in preparing this bill is that being old
and feeble he allowed the sharp wit
ted railroad attorneys to put one over
on him and didn't really understand
the measure. But the people under
~tand it, when they see their freight
bills increased by one half and the
passenger rates almost doubled.
Yet strange to say, Senator Hard
ny VINO expects to be elected presi-
dent OF th.se United States bv the
votes OF the Western people calls the
| Fummins Bill "a wise piece of con
structlVe legislation" and. gives the
aW his unqualified approval.
1t seems to me that the farmer who
tuules this measure and understands
and then gives it his endorsement
by voting for it's advocates and sun
2orters would do we'll to turn his
business over to the women folks or
MS ten year old boy, if he has one.
Ina then take a thorO course of treat
ment IN an institution for the feeble
! minded
Here IN Minnesota we surely have
got the enemy on the run. Will q
single Congressman who backed Cum
aims be re elected? While it is ex-
seemingly doubtful, Julius Reiter is
SWING Anderson run for his money
down III the First District, and back
7d by Labor as well as tho farmers, is
| SOlng TO win. Here in the Eleventh.
District, Eolstead will be lucky if he
carries single county, including his
own. The working people Of Mime
apol's are sure totdump Walter New
Ton who is an enemy of organized
Labor. Up in the big Ninth Halvor
ote2norson who won out by scratch
IN the primary is facing certain de-
eat in spite Of all the money big
business can throw into that District.
Harold Knutson of the Sixth. not dar-
'ng to support the bill discreetly ran
away when the vote was being taken.
Had Knutson, who is the Republican
"Whip' of the House been a man of
both conviction and courage and raj
lied his forces in opposition to the bill
that measure could never have passed
the House. For this reason he richly
deserves defeat. Knutson is being
opposed by Hon. Chas. A. Lindberg,
the only real Congressman the Sixth
has ever had. and the boys up there
are determined to send him back
again which is certainly the proper
thing to do.
We cannot get at our recreant Sen
ators for two years, but they already
see the hand writing on the wall,
which requires no prophet to inter
pref it's meaning.
Minnesota will not tamely allow her
self to be tied hand and foot to the
chariot wheels Of the great railway
magnates, and dragged down to de-
struction. Her faithless Senators who
voted as Wall Street desired will feel
her wrath when the time comes to
express herself