Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1922-10-20
TIMES not BAD
K'laUTS0N ! SAYS
CONGRESSMAN, IN SPEECH HERE.
SAYS DEPRESSION Is
.'s ONLYIMAGINARY

" Congressman Harold Knutson, repre-
sentative in Congress from the Sixth
District and. a candidate for re-elec
tion, pleaded gfQr a revival of the
spirit Of '76, of the Civil war and Of
the world war and asked tat ths
people buck up and think of low much
worse the timesscould be, in an address
before large gathering of men and
women in the court house auditorium
here Tuesday evening. The congress-
man, however,, crossed himself on
present conditions, at the beginning of
his speech admitting that times were
bad, but later stating that the present
depression was only imaginary.
G. Rosenmeier, candidate for state
senator from Morrison and Crow Wing
counties, introduced Congressman;
Knutson. H. :A...sRider, county republ-
can chairman, presided
Opening his talk with a brief men.
tion of the time when he resided in
Morrison county. Cong. Knutson re-
marked that this evening had a Pc
culiar Significance to him as it called
up memories Of those days when the
world looked pretty bright and we
were care free. "But times have
changed" he said EFand it would be
futile for me to stand here and say to
you that times are good and we are
enjoying great prosperity. We all
know that the times are not good.
The times with The farmers are par
ticularly bad. And yet I don It know
that these conditions can be ascribed
to any one political party or to any
one group of individuals. They are
the result Of a great war from which
this country not long ago emerged.'
The speaker then went on to say that
the war raised prices; it resulted in a
cost to the government of billions of
dollars and in destruction such as we
had never seen before. We raised
big army and xstupendous sums of
money. All this could not help hut
tax the economic soundness of this
country to the utmost. Mr.. Knutson
also charged that the defation policy
of the federal reserve system late in
1920, when notes were called in, caus-
ing Cutting Of the market and a
slump in prices was also responsible.
This was labeled by Mr.. Knutson as
one Of the most unjustifable acts
ever committed by branch Of the
American government and he added
that this has since been remedi, I'd by
placing dirt farmer on the federd
reserve board.
High freight rates were named by
Mr. Knutson as one Of the outstanding
reasons for the *presefss depression and
he admitted that the Esch- Cummins
bill, passed by a republican congress,
caused increased rates. He said that
he favored modification of this bill
so as to reduce freight rates and re-
marked that he did not vote for this
bill as it practically guarantees the
railroads a return on their investment:
IT could not see, - he said, ffwhy the
railroads should have this guaranteed
return any. more than any other busi-
ness concern and furthermore T be-
lieved that this would only lead to .ex-
travaga1'ce on the part of the rail-
roads,
Another reason given for the pres.
ent depression was the industrial
strikes Of the last year. Mr.. Knutson
said that last spring we looked for
ward to prosperity but along came the
coal strike and; resulted in a curtail-
ing Of purchasing'power. Then came
the railroad strike to complete the tie
up. ~ do not say that people have
not the right to-. strike or that they
should be prohibited from doing so,0
he said, "but when a group VI On in
dividual tries; to tell me that I shall
not work, then it is going too far.
When this happens we cease to be a
democracy and it becomes a. confes.
sion that we are incapable of self
government. The time has come when
this must stop. The time has come
when the government must protect
! those who wish to work; we must es-
sert ourselves and make it plain that
we cannot tolerate the like of the Her.
rim massacre
The loss of the European markets to
us has also been contributing factor
to this depression, Mr.. K1utson held.
He pointed out that up to the signing
of the armistice and short time af-
|.terward we could ship all our surplus
! products but now Europe is practically
bankrupt. 'tThere are those," - he
said,< "who claim that we should can
eel the foreign debts to this country
to help this, but I do not think we
should do this as Europe has not
shown q disposition to get on her feet.
Today the European countries are
leaning on: US and we must carry not
only their burdens but also Of the en-
tire world. In some countries they are
not doing anything because they are
waiting for reparations; in others they
i are waiting for tho government TO- do
it, :
Asking what ,esn be done to help
the farmer whoss condition is a. lad
as it ever was Mr.. Knutson stated
that some time ago a commission was
appointed to look into this, situation
All lines Of endeavor were represented
on this commission, which made it's re-.
: port not long ago. The outstanding
feature Of that report, according to
Mr.. Knutson, was q recommendation
for short time credit act to enable
y the farmer to hold his crops until the
prices are right. He said he was
hopeful that such an act can be >passet
at the coming winter session.
: Mr.. Knutson said that the republi
: can party promised q protective tarif
and in compliance with that promis
= Congress passed the Fordney- Nc Cum
: Der tariff bill. Ip<this connection h
said that the republican party believe
lin reasonable protective tariff whi:l
will keep the American market at it