Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-02-17
SENATORIAL FARM BLOC
CONTINUED From Page One.)

partly interested in a bill for the es-
tablishment of the unqucstionable lie.
Gality of such organizations. The great
purpose of such organizations Is to
eliminate as many of the middlemen as
possible between the producer and the
consumer. l remember tracing, during
the war, a bushel of potatoes from the
producer to the consumer. The pro-
ducer on a farm in Michigan sold MS
bushel Of potatoes to local grocer Tor
one dollar. The grocer, sold these po-
tatoes to a buyer and he In turn trans
ferred them to a commission house IN
Detroit. That commission house in De-
troit sold them to a wholesaler In the
city of Washington. The wholesaler
sold them to a market man and the
market man sold them to the consum-
er. Every individual who handled this
bushel of potatoes must Of necessity
get paid for his work and get a pront
on the transaction. So II worked out
that this bushel of potatoes, sold for 81
in Michigan, cost the consumer s4.5o
in Washington. We believe that the
growth of cooperative marketing among
farmers, particularly If it leads to CO.
operative buying of farm products by
the consumer, will do much toward
eliminating many parasite middiemen.'
This man Capper Of Kansas, VINO
thus occupies q position of leadership
in a governmental group that Is gain
ing for itself point Of vantage IN d.
recting the affairs of the nation, Is an
interesting personality. Out in topeka
there is situated the biggest publishing
house west of the Mississippi river, q
publishing house from which issue a
daily newspaper and half a dozen
weekly and monthly publications, cir
culated almost exclusively among the
farmer people in the United States, and
all are hugely successful. All are own
ed outright by Arthur Capper, twice
governor of the state Of Kansas ana
member of the United States senate
since 1918.
This successful publisher and politi-
clan Is, despite his wealth and promi-
nence quite shy and modest, slim and
sensitive gentleman, who fails to meas
ure up to the preconceived idea OF eith-
er the politician or the industrial giant.
Senator Capper is blue-eyed and blond
frail of stature, tipping the scales at
about 1875 pounds. He is wiry and act
i've, inclined to be leathery and lined OF
countenance, much given TO earnest
work and the playing Of golf. ~.
The leader of the agricultural bloc
likes to tell Of his early youth, when he
went down to Topeka, much as Benja-
min Franklin once journeyedJto Phila-
delphia. Arthur Capper had grown
up in Garnett, Kan. little prairie
town, and had gone through its public
schools and in vacation time had stuck
type for the Garnett Journal, which
boasted some four pages of news and
advertisements and which was famed
out by an old fiat-bed press once
week. So when Arthur Capper arrived
in Topeka he thought he knew more
about setting type than any other thing
to, which he might turn his hand and
applied for a job on the Topeka Cap
ital.N He probably would not have got
that Job and his career might have run
along different channels had it not been
for the fact that Kansas was not then
dry; that payday on the Capital had
been the day before and some OF the
printers had, because Of inebrition fall
ed to report for work. The Capital had
to have printers, and although Capper
was not very good he was the best
thing available.
Six months later a big story broke
and there were no reporters in the city
room. The city editor stuck his head
into the composing room and asked II
there was anybody there who could get
out on this story. Arthur Capper VOL
unteered. Thus he became reporter.
He worked through all the jobs on the
paper, went to New York for METRO
politan experience, spent six months In
Washington as a correspondent, came
back TO Topeka and eventually came to
own the paper for which he worked.
There are many bits of legislation"
Senator Capper continued, "in which
the agricultural bloc is directly inter-
ested, but there probably is none more
important than the Truth in Fabric
bill, which it contemplates pushing Wig
orously at the next regular session Of
congress.
This bill requires that the manu-
facturer of woolens shall stamp on the
margin Of the goods the facts with re-
lation to the contents Of the goods. The
public is constatly deceived by claims
for goods that they are all wool or
pure WOOL when, as a matter Of fact,
they may be but part wool, and where
they are all wool they may be 'rework-
ed wool They may be 'shoddy,' shod-
dy being a cloth made from wool which
has already known one era Of useful
ness, which has been reworked by the
manufacturers from old garments.
What We propose TO do is to inform the
public as to the nature Of the materials
that go into the garments. If they are
all wool and virgin wool, we want the
n,,bI;o ipfnrrood RI that effect