The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1920-07-21

l submit Tor your consideration my
views and platform upon which | am
asking your support Of my candidacy
Tor the United States senate.
Our government has been 50 busy
taking care Of European peoples that
it has not had time to protect its pco-
pie from greedy and corrupt prof.
tecrs.
High Cost OF Living.
The high cost OF living is such
menace TO the welfare CT the people
and is brought about by such power
full financial interests that it is neccs-
sary for the national government TO
aid in protecting the people from its
evils. While the farmer gets less than
l6 cents per pound for his dressed
meat. it is selling i'll the towns and
cities at 10 and 80 cents per pound.
The packers trust made in 1917. ac-
cordinS to their sworn statements,
4,2ti per cent. profits. This was sur
ticicnt to buy their plants ~ times in
one year The farmers have no mar
kct for their surplus live stock OK
'ccpt 10 ship it TO Chicago and other
packing ccntcrs, pay freight, Feed it
on cars and in Stockyards, pay a COM
mission merchant that may be the Sc
Icrct agent Of the packer TO cSll il for
him. This places them al the mercy
of the packers as to prices and many
farmers throughout the South and
West have LOST so heavily that they
were compelled TO quit the live stock
business. If YOU ship a carload Of
butter, eggs, etc, to New York, the
railroads will sidctracli it, and wire
the packers in Chicago so they can
rush enough OF the same commodities
ahead Of it to slut the market and
enable them to buy ii at their own
price.
DO YOU wonder that Southern farm
crs have received letters containing
! a postage stamp with statement it
was all that was left after paying
freight on their carload OF valuable
foOdstuf? This condition has driven
lO,0O0,O00 farmers to the towns and
cities, to become consumers instead
of producers. creating shortage of
food and adding to the cost Of living.
| The Remedy.
| To remedy this the national govern
mcnt should Immediately furnish fin
ancial aid to the states to enable them
to provide for the establishment of
packing houses, cold storage, and cx-
changes sufficient to care for all per-
ishable products in the communities
where produced. 1t should also Gre
ate bureau of information to enable
the exchanges 10 know where their
surplus is needed.
! They should be operated, co-opcra-
lively, at cost, by committee repre-
senting the farmers and consumers
under government regulation While
operated by the people directly inter-
cstcd, the ownership should remain
in the public, so as to prevent their
being bought up by selfish interests.
This would encourage greater produc
ton OF the necessarics OF life, reduce
the cost Of living. to the benefit of
producers and consumers, and render
the cold storage blessing to man
kind instead of a curse. 1t would en-
IaDlc the exchanges to find an cX-
change that needed its surplus and
the price would be fixed and payment
made before shipment This principle
applied to cotton warehouses, etc, for
southern farmers, and grain elevators
for western farmers, controlled local
ly but protected by the national gov
.crnmcnt with a government bureau
.of information as to where surplus
is needed would absolutely destroy
the corrupt New York exchange, be-
cause it would not take advantage Of
lack Of information Of the people as
to markets to make enormous profits.
Why Government Aid!
The national government should
furnish the financial aid for The fol-
lowing reasons. There is federal
tax of 10 per cent on currency issued
by the states. The national govern
mcnt could issue a sufficient amount
Of legal tender notes and lend them
10 the states with provision for the
retirement Of a small pcrccntum each
year out OF the operation Of the plants
md in few years the people in every
state would own these valuable plants
at the cost Of the paper, ink and
printing Of the money to erect them.
some may say this would not be good
money. Lincoln used about 100000
O0O OF the same kind OF money 10
hire foreign soldiers to face South
ern soldiers, and it is still in circula-
ton. Also, we sell the foreign mar
kcts about $1,000. 100000 worth Of
merchandise while we buy from them
only about $3,0O0000,000 worth. If
they were to refuse to accept our
money, we could require them to pay
for our merchandise in money they
would accept for theirs. Also, when
the packers trust needs money they
simply go into their federal reserve
banks, have enough federal reserve
bank notes issued to them to buy the
products Of the farmers and put on
cold storage until they can starve con-
sumers into paying intolcrablc pro-
fits.