The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1921-11-04
:; COUNTY CORRESPONDENCE =:

| iNiiNh 'iiiNSNB SpNiib L ldag an
Saturday here on business and will
relatives.
Thos. O'Sullivan spent Monday il
Trade Commission similar to the + ed
eral Trade Commission, and every city
should have a Municipal Trade Com
mission. In a community publicity
may be sufficient to stop profteering.
At present there is no machinery for
investigation.
Unnecessary middle men should be
eliminated and necessary middle men
should be limited to reasonable pro-
| fit. If anyone is shocked at the sug-
gestion that profits of the middle men
should be limited, | remind you that
we now limit the rate of interest. If
banker can be restricted to six,
eight or ten per cent for the use of
money for a year, why should a mer-
chant resent the idea of a limitation
of his profits when he turns his stock
| over two or three times year The
books at the tax office show profits of
middle men running up to 10 per cent,
to 1000 per cent and in some cases to
two or three thousand per cent. Why
should highway robbery be permitted
indoors any more than outdoors?
1t may be necessary to establish a
minimum price for such staple crops
as cotton, corn and wheat-the foun-
dations of the farm and the basis of
our food and clothing, just as it may
be necessary to fix minimum price
for labor. Self preservation is the
first law of nature and it is the first
law of society as well. The people
acting together under the form of
government can pass such laws as
may be necessary for the protection
of society. The question to be decid-
ed-and that the people alone can de-
eide is what legislation is necessary
for the protection of society.
If l may speak now of a fundamen-
tai need. | beg to call attention to
what | regard as the real disease that
afflictS the world. 1t is the overthrow
of Gods law of rewards. When God
gave US the earth with it's fertile soil,
the sunshine with its warmth and the
rains with their moisture, His voice
proclaimed as clearly as if it had is
sued from clouds: go work, and in
proportion to your industry or intelli-
gence, so shall be your reward" This
is Gods law and it must prevail ex-
cept where force suppressed it or cum
ming evades it. The government has
no more important work than the es-
Establishment of Gods law on earth
and this can only be done by legisla-
ton which will prevent the suppress
ing of Gods law by force or it's eva
sion by cunning. Here, too, the church
has a duty to perform. 1t must en-
deavor to teach its members to know
and respect Gods law so that they
will not desire to collect from society
beyond what they earn by service to
society. If every American citizen
would resolve and keep the resolve not
to collect from society one dollar with
out conscientiously endeavoring to
give to society dollars worth of SER
vice in return, injustice would be
eliminated, for injustice is nothing
more than a system under which some
collect from society more than they
earn and because some collect more
than they earn. others are unable to
collect all that they earn.
Allow me in conclusion to suggest
that remedies are slow in coming be-
cause the masses have not sufficient
means of bringing their grievances
before the public. The avenues of in
formation are all in private hands.
The partisan newspapers are partial
to their side and do not fairly present
the situation. 1t is impossible for a
man with convictions to present the
opposite side as strongly as he pre-
sents his own. The so-called independ-
ent papers may be divided into two
classes, viz: those that try to be indie
pendent and those that do not try.
Those that try do not succeed because
the bias of those who own the paper
will not permit impartiality in the
presentation of the issue and there
many so-called independent papers
that are now adjuncts of predatory in
terests and deliberately deceive the
public. In the contested states that
decide presidential elections, Repub-
lican newspapers are almost always
with the corporations that enjoy spe-
cial privileges. The public, therefore,
is not clearly informed as to the real
issues and as to the arguments pro
and con. l see no hope except through
the establishment of national bulle-
tin-not newspaper, but bulletin