The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1922-04-21
COUNTRY NEWSPAPER
BLOC PROPOSED

\ All wealth. is produced from the
Garth. Country America does the
producing. Yet. it only gets very
small part Of what it produces.
AS an example, the r. j. Reynolds
Tobacco Company last year made a
net profit of sixteen million dollars
($16,000,000). They paid Country
America few cents pound to pro-
duce the tobacco, added a few cents
per pound for labor, and sold back
the product for several dollars a
pound and reaped harvest of sixteen
million dollars net profit.
How many tobacco growers would
you have to stand shoulder to Shout
der whose combined net profit would
equal sixteen million dollars? All
the tobacco growers in America last
year didn't make a profit of one-half
of what the r. J. Reynolds Tobacco
Company made.
Or, take the American Telephone
and Telegraph Company. They took
$54, 100000 net profit from the Amer
lean public. How many billions of
wealth would Country America have
to produce to make $54,000,000 net
profit?
The same unfair and disproportion-
ate distribution of profits is true as
to the live stock growers when COM
pared to the profits of the Packers
Trust. The wool growers get $1.96
out of the wool that goes to make the
$40 suit. The same system of I'M
equal profits is true as to the cotton
growers of the south. the grain
growers of the east and west-the pro-
ducers of Country America every
where.
The United States has total
wealth Of two hundred and fifty bill
lions. Country America gets less
than 25~per cent, when it should get
more than so per cent of the wealth
created annually.
A hullabaloo was made about plac-
ing ONE "dirt farmer" in the Presi-
dents Cabinet. Some big city papers
raved at the idea Of putting ONE
farmer on the Federal Reserve Board.
Country America should not only have
enc member in the cabinet, but not
less than one-half of all the cabinet
members, The country has six votes
to the city's five. Yet, the country's
voice has hardly been heard in Wash
ington. 1t has never been needed to
any considerable extent. The Farm
Bloc in Congress, with only score of
members, has been able to make both
political parties sit up and take heed
chiefly because of the sleeping power
of Country America.
If Country America will awaken
and demand her rights, irrespective
of parties, it will obtain what justly
belongs to it politically, industrially,
economically, socially, and CONNER
cially.
If the country publishers of Ameri-
ca will unity into a Newspaper Bloc
and demand what belongs to Country
America, no power on earth will stop
them from getting it.
This government, for the first time,
has recognized the right of Country
America to combine to do co-opera-
tive marketing. This is only one step
in the right direction.
Country America produces the
wealth of America, yet, when it sells
its product, it has no say about the
price for which it's product shall sell.
Mr.. City Man fixes that price for
you, Mr.. Countryman!
When Mr.. City Man sells his pro-
duct TO Country America, Country
America has no say as to the price it
shall pay for what it buys.
Mr.. City Man also obligingly fixes
that price for you.
The country publishers of America
can force the rights of the country
producer to have something to say
about the price for which he sells his
product and the cost of the product
he buys.
What's more, the city men combine
to fix the buying and selling prices in
! Country America, and for many years
have combined to do so, and nothing
seriously has ever been done to stop
it except some political wind-jam-
ming. For instance, former Attorney
General Palmer's broadcasted state
ments of the guilt of the Packers
Trust, and his intention to send the
higher-ups to the penitentiary. Such
statements, having served their polit-
ical purposes, the procedure was end
en-.
The same is true with the numer-
GUS indictments by the Federal Trade
Commission and the United States
Senate Investigations, which find div
ers and sundry trusts guilty of con-
spiracy. What happens to these
findings? Nothing ever has hap
pened-nothing ever will happen un-
til Country America arises from its
sleep and demands from its represent
atives and its supposed servants in Of
fice in Washington that they will no
longer accept promises for perform
ance.
The large city dailies of America
last year made an estimated profit of
over one hundred million dollars. They
did this because City America absorbs
such large share of wealth produced.
Twelve thousand country publishers
last year made far less than five mil
lion dollars-not $500 net profit per
paper. Their net profits should have
been between five and six thousand
dollars a year each, or a total of fif
ty to sixty millions.
If Country America gets its fair
share of the wealth it produces, the
Country Publishers would share in a
prosperity heretofore undreamed of.
We can get this if we will form