The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1928-09-07
Former Governor Dixon
Discusses Political Issues

III NAAN SONOAAAOA . az 11ClCud | I
Iour years ago last winter, while L h
was governor. G
Secretary of Agriculture Wallace, :
then In President Coolidges cabinet,
sent out to the northwest one of the +
men in the department to sound out !
the wheat farmers on that plan of ag-
Iicultural legislation, to try and re-
neve the situation when we had a
surplus wheat crop to sell in the
world market.
l asked Chester Davis, who was APP
pointed by me as commissioner of
agriculture for Montana, to call in M.
l.. Wilson of the Bozeman college
and a small group of real Montana
farmers to meet at the governors
house to discuss the matter with the
man from Washington
We had dinner together and sat /
around the table in conference until
after midnight. The equalization |
fee" which was to be assessed to the |
individual wheat grower and which
was estimated" to run from fifteen
to thirty cents per bushel was new
: to me. / had never heard of the plan
before, neither had any of us.
l confess it sounded hopeful, so
much so that | was enamoured of the
plan but still doubtful of the final re-
7 suits, when the individual wheatgrOw-
er would be called on by Uncle Sans
agents to make good on the loss of
= the exported wheat, in order to take
advantage of the domestic prices as
S measured by the forty cents per BUSH
d ell tariff on imported wheat.
E &c i,o4oroctipo fO 1oOfo fbot cincp
l. AL Smith has also denounced the
equalization fee Senator McNary, one
l. of the authors of the bill, together
n with Senators Nye and Frazier of
Is North Dakota, who were also strong
Is supporters of the bill, are now open
lie ly and enthusiastically supporting
or Herbert Hoover for president, while
t. cur own two democratic senators from
We Montana, one of whom voted for anC
ur the other against the McNary- Hanger
D. bill, are both just as earnestly sup
porting Al Smith who has denOunceC
Ell it.
nd If Coolidge and Hoover were wroni
AL Smith, who approves in his ow
he recent statement of the Coolidge veto
* can't be right.
w. Let me tell you how the MOntan
,er wheat grower can certainly add eac
ire year from eight to ten cents a busht
a on every bushel of wheat produced
lot Montana, which now goes to the Mir
neapolis market.
ol- For years there has been a dete
ous mined proposition to dig the deep W;
ary terWays canal from the Great LAKE
sly via the st. Lawrence river to the sc
ure so that seagoing vessels can load Il
western wheat at the wharves at D
.es- luth, instead of at New York Cit
eat, The New York city financierS al
politicians have been in determin
hat opposition to the Great Lakes
edi- Lawrence waterway, as they natur;
said ly want this commerce to flow by r
the to the New York city port.
he They have proposed an opposite
r Of barge canal through New York sts
lted encountered by about thirty locks a
no. at far greater freight cost to
only wheat shippers than in loading
sea vessels at Duluth and saving
had heavy rail freight to New York.
OH This past year a board of engine
dur headed by Herbert Hoover after tn
ough examination of both routes
the ported unanimously in favor of
many st. Lawrence route.
lere- In his speech of acceptance he
it down as one specific thing that
have be Immediately done to lower fret
larry rates on export wheat and add
e al lowered cost to the price receivd
7 one the wheat grower at home.
, the It's construction means from ei
2 big to ten cents per bushel more to N
which tana wheat growers.
S the 1t means far more to the int
ident country than did the Panama cana
would Herbert Hoover is pledged to
ed by construction. Al Smith as the spo
fees" man for the New York City e.
has characterized it as "visions
sisted "absurd" and Impractical"
nclud- Facing this immediate problem
with real financial help to Mon
stand wheat growers, in your sober tho
ms of and Judgment, which one of these
pinion men would better visualize the !
range lem of the American farmer
n fee, man born and raised on an Iowa
as as with the whole background OF Ki
fornia edge and sympathy for agrlcul
farm life or the man whose
Sena- life has been wrapped up Win
other York City, East Side condltlons
nat0TS who represents the Dls Ciey W
for cheap food?
equal Don't let the question OF Dooz
presi- letting down of the restrictive
him in against indiscriminate foreign
grafton as advocated by Al
of the becloud and prejudice the issue.
make q Had not Montana better choo
hem Co its president the internati
envy Of known great engineer, the adml
great organizer, the great nums
d. Gov. ian, the man who during the I.
lded as days of the wrold war admin
culture, the Belgian relief and after IN
,ndemn- fed and hospitalized the Germa
approx Russian, the Slav-friend am
i. Her alike?
also be- The man who says In his spe
. is eco acceptance that there is an ac'
kable in ricultural problem in America q
is his declaration. Listen to II
DIS. Both sThe working out of agrlc
in open relief constitutes the most I'M
alked of obligation of the next admlnlsl
deceas- I stand pledged to these pr
The object of our policies Is ~