Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1920-10-01
FARMER ORGANIZATION
CONTINUED from page one)

per cent on freight rates in the United
States AS a result of his testimony
the advance has been reduced to thir-
ty-five per cent in the western district
and twenty-five in the southern dis
trict because of the following changes:
FirstN The amount of the wage adj
vance was cut down by the labor board
from nearly a billion to approXim ately
six hundred million.
Second. At the beginning of the
case the carries proposed that all ad-
vances should be confined to freight
rate traffic.
During the progress of the case, Mr.,
Thorne asked for an analysis of the
expense of the freight and passenger
traffic on ten representative lines
which disclosed that such procedure
would be unjust to the freight shipper.
Mr. Thorne also showed that if the
entire S6O0,000,00000 advance was tax
ed up to freight rates, the farmer
would pay more than half of the bill
since the farmer pays - per cent of
the freight rates of the country.
However. iii accordance with Mr..
Thornes argument part OF this burden
was shifted and Pullman Parlor car
rates were increased 30 per cent, pas
senger rates were increasd 20 per cent
while freight rates were then increased
but 80 per cent This readjustment
saved the farmer more than SlO0W0,-
10000 in freight rates
Again railroads were asking for a re-
turn on greater investment than
was warranted by the facts and Mr..
Thorne through his argument secured
the reduction in their valuation Of
more than one billion dollars on which
the railroads were asking interest as an
investment and which would have
called for higher freight rates. This
is estimated to have saved another mil
lion dollars i'll freight rates.
Last winter bill was introduced in
to Congress known as the Nolan Raw
lison Land Tax Bill which provided
for an excise tax of one per cent on
all land holdings over and above ten
thousand dollars This act at the
time of its introduction into Congress
appeared to be so foolish that little
thought or attention was given to it
until sometime later when speakers
were appearing before various groups
Of organized industries in various cities
of our country stating that if the
manufacturer wished to reduce his
taxes that he should stand for the pas
sage of this bill The American
Farm Bureau Federation Immediately
thought that it was about time to
ask the farmers of the country what
they thought of the situation and so
n sent out a referendum to its mem
bers. This referendum was taken in
nineteen states as to whether the men
were in favor of or against the measure
and as a result five hundred and forty
FIVE county farm bureaus held meet
ings and discussed the matter and
their ballots when thew were turned
in showed two thousand two hundred
and one votes in favor of the measure
and over three hundred and sixty
three thousand against the bill.
This information was sent to Con-
gress. They Immediately forgot the
bill for the balance of the session,
That measure is not dead vet as we
have definite information that a mil
lion dollar fund is being raised to put
this measure through Congress and it
is going to be absolutely necessary that
the farming interests, if they hope to
re protected in the matter, be re
pared to fight to a finish 1t is not
possible to review the entire national,
state and local farm situation in a
brief article or il a dozen articles But
it NAV be stated that if farming is to
be put on a business basis and is to
protect itself against the unreasonable
burdens it has heretofore borne be-
cause of its helplessness it must now
organize in the COUNT, state and ma
ton NEST thoroughly.
WILLIAM E. D. RUMMELL,
Special Representative Of American
Farm Bureau Federation.