The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1924-01-25
FARMER-LABOR AIMS
DISCUSSED AT FORUM

Missoula, Jan. Capitalists, la
boring men and State University pro-
fessors and students heard j. w. An
derson, former state senator from
ldchland county. explain the aims of
the Farmer-Labor party last night in
the University church. A lively dis
cussion, one seldom equaled since
the Inauguration of the open forum
meetings. i'm MiSsoula, marked the
meeting. Senator Anderson and Pat
rick Buden, state organizer fer the
party, who also spoke, spent more
than an hour IN answering questions.
People who had come to hear radi-
cal talks found Senator Anderson to
be rather a disappointment, fer the
former Congregational minister con-
fined his remarks solely to an expOsi-
ton of the party's platform and of
the way IN which it proposed to OPP
crate Mr.. Budden, however, furnish
ed the diversion of the evening; he
believed that "ohattel slavery is bet
ter than wag slavery. for at least
a master then has to look after his
slaves, and he cannot let you starve
as soon as you are not longer able
to make a profit for him." and said,
too, that "the streets of heaven are
paved with gold"
Credit Revision Needed.
Senator Anderson, taking as his
topic, Governmental Control of Cred
it," declared that "the financial and
banking system must be rewritten be-
fore civilization can make any great
progress" Credit control, he said he
found, is toe largely in hands Of the
federal reserve boards and of a crap
idly diminishing number of individu-
ais" and so he would take it away
as being "too powerful a weapon and
too dangerous in the hands of a small
group" Government control of
money, mot for profit, but to render
service" larger gold reserves, when
necessary, and governmental gUaran-
tee at all bank deposits were among
his proposals, and he said that "be-
fore we reach a solution, it will prob
ably be necessary to do away with
usuary and interest"
Senator Anderson said he had found
everywhere in the state "a marked,
in fact, sometimes, a peculiar inter
est in the Farmer-LabOr party. Il
spent the greater part Of my time
from Thanksgiving to Christmas in
touring the northeastern section of
the state" he declared each time,
] found the people felt a sort of
a sense cf an impending disaster.
Cracking a joke there would have
been like telling a funny story at a
funeral And every time, after | had
said, That will be all for tonight,
they would come to me and ask me to
tell them some more. 1t was some
thing that l had never experienced
before"
For Government Control.
Mr.. Budden, quoting Senator La
Toilette as saying that 81 per cent
of MOntana's farmers were bankrupt
found that everything was produced
not for use. but for profit, and farms
of this state paid poorly because
wheat today will not sell for a pro-
fit" He placed the desire for profit
as the basic reason for much of So
ciety's immoral acts, and came out
strongly for governmental control of
means of communication, transporta-
ton and public utilities, which he also
believed were becoming centralized in
the hands of a few.
Professor Robert Mathews of the
State University, chairman of the
meeting, announced that at the forum
next Sunday night, Professor N. j
Lennes would talk on Democracy
and Social Stratifcation.