The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1921-01-27
"FARMERS GETTING RICH"

FARMERS GETTING RICH"
Not so many moons ago Big Biz
was busy trying to split the workers
in the great industrial centers against
the farmers by propaganding the lie
that the Farmers are getting rich"
Some of their sheets yer went so far
as to charge the farmers with "prof-
iteering," which certainly was news
to the farmers.
A Farmer Adds Up
We asked a North Dakota farmer
about this "getting rich" report the
other day and he pulled out a book
and pencil and began to show US how
it worked, and, if the farmers keep
on "getting rich" at this rate, all
we've got to say is that they will soon
be in the same class with the bankers,
for all their riches will be on the debt
side of the ledgers.
"Last Year," he. said, 81 raised
5000 bushels of wheat. Of this I sold
500 bushels, which makes 4,500 BUSH
els still on hand.
1t cost we $11,6OO, not counting in
terest on my investment, to produce
this 5000 bushels, or $2.52 a bushel.
With interest figured in, it cost $2.56
a bushel to produce.
AS wheat is now selling for about
$3.50 a bushel, I will, if I must sell
now, receive around $500 for the en-
tire crop.
Deduct $500 from $11, 900 and you
| will note that I am rich in debt to the
amount of $4,10O, and this does not
include interest OF my investment"
"Geewhilikens", I says, "you will
sure soon be in the Billionaire class
at that rate, old man."
"Sure", said he, 4 know it. But that
amt all. If the bankers want us farm
ers to keep on producing wheat so
they and theirs can eat bread, they'll
have to carry this loss Of $4,100 for
me and my brothers and, in addition
they will have to advance us not less
than $4,000 more to enable us to raise
another crop. This will put them in
possession of just $4,000 more of good
paper to carry if we farmers are to
carry on" elsewise we can't.
"Not only are my brothers and l in
this fix. it is the general condition
of whole community and, from all
I can gather, it is the fix the farmers
are in from here to Texas and back
and across again.
And it was all brought on by allow
ing a handful of men to gamble in
the wheat and bread supply of the
nations, for it is now admitted by ev-
en- Wall Street that Professor Roy
lance was correct when he said last
fall that there was no real shortage
of wheat in the world and that fall
ing prices had been caused by a con-
spiracy of gamblers. All men now
know this is true"
Social Effect
Few people and, strange as it may
seem, among them the majority of
merchants never seem to think of
what this farmers figures mean to the
welfare of the entire nation.
For n thing these figures mean
that this farmer and his brothers will
this year have to cut their own wages
and all other expenses to the bone if
they are ever to get out Of debt again.
This means, of course, that the farm
ing class will be unable to make the
demand on the market their position
in society entities them to by all the
laws of economic justice.
This, in turn, means a curtailment
of factory production and mining out
put, which means that. the industrial
workers, the other greatest market af-
ter the farmers, r also driven to
cutting expenses to the bone, and this
inevitably means that thousands of
merchants, the third great class of
consumers in the market, will be
ruined by the thousands.
Literally, this is what the world is
up against today, and no one is prof
iting by the disaster except a small
group Of international m~illionaires
and billionaires, and their profiteer-
ing will be of short duration, for not
even they can squeeze o blood out
of a turnip than is in it.
1t is this vicious circle that leads
nowhere for the masses of men except
from bankruptcy to worse bankruptcy
that the Nonpartisan League is strug-
Cling so nightly to break, and break
for all time, and the only group really
interested in fighting the League and
the farmers Industrial Program, and
they only because they blindly assume
themselves better than and above the
Race, are that pitiful handful of NOR
tails the peoples call the "plutocracy."
But the Plutocracy has itself proven
that it can no longer efficiently adj
minister society and now it is up to
the producers dependent on agricul-
ture and industry to get together and
save themselves, their families and
the Race by a mighty effort Of CO.
oooro&;oo This fhaxy oar orJ uu;11 do