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

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 Cummins-Esch railroad bill,
now the law Of the land.
have just returned from Cummins'
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 a 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, backed by all the powers that |
prey, polled only 10000. James M. |
Pierce, Of the Homestead says that
while he has always been a warm per-
sonal friend Of Senator Cummins and |
supported him in the past, that he
could not desert the farmers in this |
crlcis and has turned against the Sen
ator, his old time friend. Moreover, |
MIR. Pierce has caused to be prepared |
and is publishing 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 10O,-
| 600, 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 a 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 its passage and this paper
has a 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
stand it, when they see their freight
Dllls Increased by one half and the
passenger rates almost doubled.
Yet strange to say, Senator Hard
nS who expects to be elected presi-
dent of th@se United States by the
votes of the Western people calls the
Cummins Bill "a wise piece of con-
structive legislation" and gives the
aw his unqualified approval
1t seems to me that the farmer who
.tudies this measure and understands
and then gives it his endorsement
by voting for it's advocates and SUP
oortels 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 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
single Congressman who backed Cum
aims be re elected? While it is ex-
ceedmgly doubtful, Julius Reiter is
giving Anderson run for his money
down i'll the First District, and back
ed by Labor as we'll as the farmers, is
going to win. Here in the Seventh
| District, Volstead will be lucky if he
carries single county, including his
own. The working people of Mime
apolis are sure to tdump Walter New
ton, who is an enemy of organized
Labor. Up in the big Ninth Halvor
STEVENSON who won out by a 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-
ing to support the bill dscreetly ran
away when the vote was being taken.
Had Knutson, who is the Republican
"Whip' Of the House been a man of
DOIu COllVlCLlOu anu courage ana 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