Evening star., 1921-10-24

Meet Senator Arthur Capper Of
Kansas, who has very practical
solution for the pro and con of the
of the industrial situation-producer
consumer-whose interests he finds
identical and interdependent
| To start off with. Senator Capper
figures out that the farmers are the
one greatest and most essential fac
tor in production. Next he calls at
tention to the fact that the farmers
are more than one-half of the entire
consuming force in the country. So
he views the farmers as at once ma
ijority producers and majority con-
sumers.
His resolution has two parts: First
prompt lowering of freight rates,
which at once reduce the increasing
spread between the prices received
by the farmer and the prices paid by
the consumer. This he has already
taken up with President Harding. as
as a consequence of which the Presi-
dent had group of railway execu-
tives in conference with himself and
Chairman Cummins Of the interstate
commerce committee. and discussed
at a conference of the agricultural
bloc in Congress.
Second-legalizing cooperative bar
gaining by the agricultural interests.
at the same time logically reasoning
! that the farmers can never achleVe a
monopoly, which is the one reasonable
lobjection to the formation of farm
| ers' union.
Senator Capper's Personality.
! Senator Capper is a natural type of
those boys who always keep their
teachers worried to keep them busy
mot that they are bad or even mis-
cheivous. but because they are bun
die of nervous energy, with fertile.
imaginative minds. always keyed up
to keep things going.
! Mr.. Capper is in some respects like
President Harding. He started in to
carve out his career by sticking type
and now owns not one but whole
string of papers. With training for
years as a practical, keen and re-
the Senate-and has kept it awake
with a surprising number of timely
and forward-looking proposals. He
made himself a man to be reckoned
with and one looked to for practi-
cal solution Of current problems-es-
pecially as regards the farmers. be-
cause for a quarter of century he
has studied their problems and in
terests intensively..
Senator Capper is a live wire. a
good fellow, keen legislator, al
ways up to something-pretty often
lsucceeding-and tediously persistent.
He is thoroughly human, one of the
people. and that explains why what
ever he starts generally awakes pub
lie interest. Some of his arguments
are particularly refreshing because
he thinks for himself and doesn't
have his ideas and utterances ready
made for him. He is decidedly origi-
nal, practical sincere and convincing.
Farming Trust Not Sought.
"Can the farmers organize trust?"
asks Senator Capper as prelude to
not want to, and to drive home the
desirability of passing the Volstead-
Capper bill as it passed the House.
without the Senate judiciary commit
tee amendment-on which issue he is
ready to take the mat in the Senate
in a battle royal of those who think
they have the best solution of the
present economic and industrial
crisis. He charges that the Senate
takes away with one hand what the
bill gives farmers with the other
the right to do business collectively
on a par with other industries. On
account of this attitude he has come
to be called by his colleagues "the
Sam Gompers of the farmers
"Give the people of Chicago 10-cent
milk" said Illinois dairy farmers re-
Gently to the city distributing organ
lization which sells their milk supply
to the consumers, "or we will start a
CO cooperative distributing company
and do it ourselves" Senator Capper
the producer. who naturally wishes to
sell more milk instead of less, has
learned what many of our corpora
tions have not learned, with all their
vaunted business acumen-that the
producer and the consuper have a
mutual live-and-let-live interest.
Then he mentions another instance
to point a moral:
During the time last year when
milk in cities was higher than it ever
was before in the United States milk
sold for IL cents a quart in Minneap-
oils. Middle west cities were paying
16 cents and several big eastern cities
from IS to 20 and 81 cents. An or
ganization Of Minnesota dairy farm
lively low price in Minneapolis. and
to bring it about sold their milk sup
ply for much less than IL cents a
quart to the city distributing COM
pany.'
Determination Against Farmers.
Describing the Senate judiciary COM
mittee as lawyer-like body. fearful
that farmers would get monopoly II
given the clear legal right to market
their products Comparatively, he
points out that the proposed amend.
farmers engaged in cooperative mar
keting the legal standing that the
Sherman antitrust law freely gives
to any corporation. including indus
100. 900 stockholders" He also en-
phasizes that this legal standing is
granted to farm cooperative associa-
tions by virtually every other civilized
nation without question. and that
both nationa! political party s conven,
this to the country at the last presi-
Dental election.
Strange. isn't it," Senator Capper
queries. :'that a corporation with
many thousands Of stockholders may
ness. but that the Rock Hill Farmers
Cooperative Society. for instance. of
not to exceed a few score members,
may not do business free from the
possibility Of legal attack under the
Clayton antitrust law. which was
passed to remedy this very defect?''
Then the fighting spirit Of Capper
shows itself: II call it not only
strange but wrong and vastly harm
full to the general welfare.
"If thousands Of stockholders in a
big corporation" he continues his
argument "have the right to act to-
gether. why should this right be
denied to group of farmers in a lit
together to market a certain product
or products?
passed in the House. the farmers of