The Delta independent., 1921-11-25

wages of coal miners and railroad en-
ployees.
1--WE need postponement far less
than we need $25 lumber, and $75
wagons, SO shoes and cent nails
That we do not have these things is
due partly to the price of coal con-
sumed in transportation. still more to
existing railroad wages, and most of
all to the earnest desire on the part
of those town dwellers who dispense
these things, to get theirs.
81 say this without animosity or
prejudice, and with an entire willing
ness to acknowledge that we need the
retailer, the brakeman, the GOAL miner
and the banker, Just as much as they
need US; but know that my assertion
is true They will give you a thou
sand reasons why their commodities
are higher in price than they were
before the war. but they will not give
you one that does not apply with
equal force to farmers products, and
yet all of his products are selling at
pre-war prices or less. Has 1t cost
them any more than formerly to pro-
duce their merchandise? 1t has also
cost the farmer more to raise his last
two crops than he has got or will get
for them. They talk of freight rates
The farmer pays the same exho-
horbitant freight rates. and yet, in
stead of being able to add that to
the price of his commodity. as the
merchant does, he is obliged to de-
duct it from the price that he would
otherwise get.
'T am not silly enough to imagine
that there is any sinister compact
among coal miners and railroad en-
ployes and retailers to profit at the
expense of farmers, or that there is
any other designed hostility toward
farmers. When anyone begins to tell
you that there is. you may be quite
sure that the strain of these trying
that his morale has been broken down.
"But whether anyone intended to do
1t or not, the farmer is being bled
white. The longer he can be kept
alive, the longer he will continue TO
bleed, but bo long as he has to pay
present prices for everything he needs
he will be bled to death in any event.
The postponement Of the opening will
not avert the fatal outcome, but It
will enable him a little longer to buy
so coal. $500 wagons, and pay 800
for $25 suit of clothes.
do you begin to see what / mean
by morale? Do you begin to see that
every dollar that the farmer pays to
the government ON his construction
charges will get him out Of debt.
whereas, II he does not have to begin
to pay to the government next year
he will keep right on paying $40 for
$3 coal, and 800 for $25 suit, and
SO long as he does that he will never
be any better able to pay his con-
struction charges than he is right
now. II the project Is opened next
year the farmer will patch the patches
on his overalls again instead Of buy
ing a new suit. and that will not be
good for the clothier, but 1t will not
hurt the farmer. We have worn
patches so long now that we are more
comfortable In them than in anything
else. II we begin to pay our con.
| struction charges next year we shall
not get new cars-though some of us
surely need them badly enough-but
that will not hurt anyone but the
makers and distributors of cars We
will be getting out Of debt, and that
is what we are not doing now.
"If'. tine farmers want a postpone.
ment--after thinking deeply of these
things with their own heads-I am
willing to help them to get It, But
I am not willing to persuade them
that even II they get a postponement
for know they will not be-
| What oIathe Criterion Thinks
I Under the rules established at the
time the Gunnison tunnel and conse-
quent canals were constructed, own.
ers Of land in the project were re.
quired to begin payment Of construc.
tion charges on December 1, 1922.
says the Olathe Criterion, continuing:
An effort has been launched re-.
Gently to ask the Reclamation Bureau
to extend time of payment two to five
years on account OF the scarcity Of
money and the distress II would bring
to many holders Of land in the I'm.
compahgre valley. The Lions Club at
Montrose is leading the movement.
and we understand petitions for post
ponement are in circulation around
Olethe. It is desired to crystalize
public sentiment before the annual
Water Users meeting which will oc.
cur In February.
The construction charges will amount
to IS to $40 per acre. The exact
amount has not yet been determined.
Water users will be required IN rov