The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1930-09-12
WE ARE PAYING FOR The WAX
NOW


Wetald We commend this article to our readers
as one of the most lucid explanations we nave seen
of the cause of the economic depression CnaC pre-
walls in the United States at the present tlme.
The editorial, however, stops short of excellence
in that it does not place the blame on the capltast
system as a whole and does not suggest way out
for the farmers and workers. 1t Is futile TO urge
the to struggle for abstract justice without
showing them how they struggle effectively.
The Producers News holds that until the farmers,
in alliance with the industrial workers organize
politically to abolish the capitalist system and es-
tablish Socialist system of economy their efforts
will be comparatively ineffective. The workers and
farmers of Russia have showed the way. No mat
ter what is said by the capitalists and their hired
agents about the Soviet Union, the fact remains
and is becoming clearer every day that the Rus
sian people alone-"people' in the Soviet Union
readers the "producers"-are the road to per-
manent prosperity while the exploited peoples OF
every other country in the world are the road
to ruin. The immediate step to be taken by the
workers and farmers in the United States is the
organization of Farmer-Labor Party, with
In which every shade of proletarian opinion can
have free expression; party based on the United
Front of the farmers and workers who realize
that only thru the development of their political
powers as producing class can they solve their
problems:
"In 1917 America entered the World War. 1t
lasted until near the close of 1913 This war
the biggest crime in history; say that without
trying to fix the blame. And we took part in it.
"The sins of the fathers shall be visited upon
alton, otherwise the effects of sin would not be
so enduring and so devastating. The first genera
ton of the offspring of the fathers who sanctioned
the war is now partakng of their share of suffer
mg-wlth their fathers.
"a generation is reckoned twenty-five years,
shall therefore the sins of the World War cause
us suffering for hundred years?
"The Nation suffers!
I'VE might have risen in our might and cried
out: we will not war!-But we submitted meekly
hot I'll
the music of GOOD TIMES. With tears in the
eyes of few-mostly the mothers-but with our
own brains full of mathematical calculations of
profits to be reaped, that would land us in never
ending prosperity, with heart-we we did
not listen to tive embarked upon the most reck-
less orgy of money spending that the world has
ever seen.
"The cost the European participants in it's
tremendous treasures of wealth sunk in seas of
blood from their best young men.
I'VE are paying for the War But how are
we paying for it?
"The rich, those who own our industries make
the payments for us in their income tax payments
But first they collect it the producers 1t al
BE?
Cup until now our burdens have not been as
heavy as they will be from on, for heretofore
we have only been paying the interest on the
debt, NOW WE ARE BEGINNING TO PAY
ON THE PRINCIPAL SUM OF THE WAR
DEBT. There will be no easing up in the burdens
from now For the debt must be pad
"The income tax payments that are applied on
the war debt must not diminish private dividends.
There is Only one way in which this can be done
Ihe raw materials, like farm products, must be
depressed in price and the price of the manufac-
tured, finished products, must be boosted higher,
higher! The wider the spread between the cost of
the raw product and the price of the finished pro-
! duct, the greater the profits to those at whose
| bidding the wheels of industry turn and at whose
beck and call commerce hastens or sackens its
] pace. Out of these profits the government takes
such portion as it thinks is needed to run the
government and with which to meet the payments
OF the war debt from year TO year.
But sometimes the government RENTS back to
the payers OF big income taxes staggering sums of
money either In reductions in taxes, after the
taxes have been levied on the people bv those who
expect to pay the tax, or by direct return of the
money already collected. This is called reducing
taxes, but it is adding to the burdens of the pro-
In such tax reductions ten billions of dol
lars have been added to the burdens of the people
during the last ten years. Calvin Coolidge said in
recent article that tax reductjons' during that
period, had appropriated this amount. But in
stead OF being tax reduction to the people il is
IN reality an added war tax in times of peace,
saddled on the producers, who were taxed in this
amount, TO pay war debt payments.
Had these ten billions of dollars been applied
on tne war deot 1t would have helped materially to
narrow the spread between the prices of raw ma
terials and the price Of the finished products
Ihere is limit 30 the burdens that even the
american people can carry under its tremendous
lax burden IL Is slackenlng its pace and business
Tags. The producer of raw materials can no long
er consume the mass of manufactured, finished
products, therefore the manufacturer needs NOT as
much OF the raw materials, and the command
| goes out to stop to produce. Hence the command
70 reduce the production of wheat, among other
Things But If the production of raw materials Is
curtaled, It does not follow that the prices will
De enhanced, prices may even have DO be lowered
1t Is found necessary to still further widen the
gap between the price of raw and finished pro-
ducts, In order that the war debt payments NAV
be met. ''s Al''S
| The farm crisis has been on for ten wears. The
farmer has been bled white, it is found that he
alone can not pay for the war, SO the next thing
TO do is to lower the wages for those who turn the
raw materials into the finished product But first
the LABOR force Is reduced to the minimum that
Is why we have our present unemployment situa-
uon. General wage cuts will be the next thing IN
order The laborer must help the farmer nav for
tne war The war debt is heavy load M mil
the aborer must take his pace in the woke besides
the farmer $500 ues
Yet the question arises: Can These TWO Pull
the Load Alone? wv VII
of course, down through history. We find that
tnese TWO have pulled the load of all the war
deDts, and they have paid for all the wars Wbv ?
Because they have sinnedl
Inc greatest sin that the producers of tbe
world commit is that they do not look ont for
.nelr own interests, that they do not demand ms
Clce 1t is sin TO commit iniustica h,,t = = -