The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1921-05-20
SENATOR LADD's DEFENSE OF
THE NONPARTIsAN LEAGUE

SENATOR LADD'S DEFENSE OF
THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE
Senator Laid, North Dakota's new
senator, in his maiden speech at
Washington, made plea in behalf
of fair play that is arousing consid-
cradle favorable comment in the lib
eral section Of the press The senator
took issue with eX-President Taft's
recent statement that the combina-
ton of farmers known as the nonpar-
tisan league 'is not patriotic Amer
lean party" Ladd himself is a re-
publican, as we'll as a league MEM
Der: therefore his declaration that
cit is clearly evident Mr. Taft knows
very little of the real problems of the
practical farmer" cannot be consid-
cred as political duel.
Going into the origin of the league
movement, Senator Ladd pointed out
what is generally known in these
sections, but what was unknown
back east; and that is the fact that
the league is the outgrowth of eco
nomic injustices, particularly pro-
test against system of marketing
that causes farmers to sell when
prices are the lowest; system that
helps keep mortgages on farms.
Taking up one phase of marketing,
that of grading grain, Senator Ladd
explained:
"The fragrant injustices of allow
ing the grades of grain to be arbi-
trarily fixed by the buyer is best evil
denced by the fact that the great ter
minal elevators at Minneapolis and
Duluth habitually sold more bushels
of high-grade grain than their rec
ords showed they had purchased
from the farmers. Evidently by
some mysterious hocus-pocus grain
became enhanced in value after it
had left the farm and gone into the
hands of the grain buyers, and, of
course, this manipulation in grades
cost the farmers of North Dakota in
INV o6Si CSdlc many uIllJlOUS OIL doll
lars every year.
'The best illustration of the es-
sential dishonesty of this system If
marketing was shown i'm 1916, when
hot winds resulted in the production
of shriveled kernels of wheat thru
out North Dakota. The grain buyers
announced that this wheat was unfit
TOR human consumption and that
none of the existing grades would
cover the case. Therefore they said
that the North Dakota wheat that
year would have to be used for
grade chicken feed, and special feed
of the A, B, G, and ID grade was dc
vised to suit the accession. Practical
ly the entire crop of North Dakota
wheat that year was purchased as
feed-A, B, C, or d wheat-and the
price OF this wheat ranged from 4Oc
to $l.O5 per bushel under the ordin-
airy grades at which the farmers had
formerly sold their wheat. AS con-
sequence the farmers OF North Dako-
ia lost millions Of dollars on that one
crop, and their rage and chargin can
be imagined when it was afterwards
discovered that the mills Of Minne-
apolis not only manufactured this
wheat into -four but had the supreme
audacity to claim superior quality
for this -four on the ground that it
was unusually rich in gluten-ab-
sorbed large amount Of water and
made an exceptionally large loaf of
nutritious bread. Copies of the cir
cular letters which millers sent out
to their trade advertising this -four
came into my possession and enabled
me to expose this gigantic swind,e
which had been perpetrated upon the
producers of North Dakota. 1t was
this fact more than any other that
caused the farmers of North Dakota
to enroll in the nonpartisan league
in such numbers"
1t is not necessary to go into the
\ history of the league with Senator
Ladd. Not everyone. even those who