The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1932-03-04

CAPITALISM IN THE
BUSH COUNTRY

or 81 4or three or six months
subscription to the Producers
News, tho they like the paper
very much.
7 find these people who had
bumper crop last year, penni1ess.
I find many in actual want, es-
pecially of clothes. There is no
Red Cross aid here and the town
ships and counties don't do much
they can't, when over IS per
cent of all land in the county is on
the delinquent tax list. Next year
many vii mot even have schools
Then there is going to be trouble.
Owing to the slow ana conser-
vative development OF this section !
banks came in slowly and were
always conservative The first
bank organized in this county, the |
old State Bank of Aitkin, after |
wards the National Bank of Aitkin !
was organized back in 1894 or 95.
The 1920 debacle wasn't felt here
and the deflation of the Federal
Reserve Bank after the war never
touched a bank in the brush1and.
Not a bank failure In this section
until the Galarnau1t bank, the Ma
tiona1 Bank of Aitkin, with foot
ings of around a million dollars,
collapsed-the one bank everybody
thought would be open on dooms-
day.
The bank was taken over by the
First National and hquidated I'M
mediate1y. The First National
took all the good paper and that
not so good was given to deposi-
tor as settlement in full, most OF
which will never be collected. The
Go1arnau1ts and LeLaittres took
the bum paper. This saved q run
ON the rest of the banks, of which
there are two left in Aitkin. Close
ly following the failure of the
Bank of Aitkin, the State Bank Of
Hill City closed. Hill City is a
pretty village in the hardwood sec
ton, built about a big butter fir
kin and meat box factory located
there by Armour & Co. meat pack
ers, about 20 years ago, which
factory was abandoned a couple of
years ago when the timber became
exhausted; and since burned down.
The other banks are in a precart-
ous condition resulting from the
collapse Of land prices, the price
Of dairy cattle and live stock gen
orally, and the lack of any price
for vegetables, and the lowering
prices of butter fat and eggs, and
the total failure OF the timber
market.
Before many moons pass banks
will be as scarce in the old con
sentative backward sections as II
the great open spaces of the whea'
area of the northwest, when tn,
misery Of the workers VIII be still
more miserable.
SO I find the scenes of my DO!
hood as miserable and hopeless o.
n T11lnAlG
Those who thought they were pre-
pared for old age, find themselve
, in poverty and facing want; the,
find the children which they hal
: sacrificed SO much to rear and ed
ucate, without jobs, home wit
, their families, living with the1
: old parents, to find food and kee
!. warm where they do not have {
. pay rent, and where father Is
longer able to pay taxes.
: These people have lost the
/. pride and responsibility. The
: are thinking as they have nevC
done before. They realize that tt
s same system that has bankrupte
8 the farmers Of the west. OF sue
o rich and prosperous sections
q southern Minnesota, VISIONS.
q and iowa, has at last wound !
/ its ball of yarn, until It has clea
ed up the back woods where q
y people are pri1nattve and 1--we u
l. simple life; that there is no escal
L of its omnipresent randf1cat1oi
u exce1t the overthrow of capita
"a ism, the tearing Of il out by 6
- roots.
- So they come to hear the me
" saUe of the United Far1me
y, T,earue-of how to organize
m struggle against the system q
=, solve their immediate problems
- and they listen eagerly to ne
n from the workers and farme
ok land. where capitalism has pe
p abolished, the Union OF Social
IN Soviet Republics, the living nc
rE Of the toiling masses.
ie, The conditions discussed h
nd are the conditions of similar s
ar tions of the nation generally
the same story everywhere. In
st, IS Ono better land" one Is as
We off one place as another.
M same causes that have bigh
lid the grain country have blasted
Lch dairy country-and the one @
so country is no more broke than
IN country of the widest diversity.
ICE There is no prosperity aroI
80 the corner-there VIII De NO u
,st, go0o tLanes s1aaa and deeper
~; deeper poverty and misery ana
1@S nrehensions for the masses, IN
u s,- capitalisnn, on the pratrtes or
, 80 the woodland.
1av Everywhere, everywhere, @
rd- rades. FARMERS and workers.
Aid must organize and fight r
for for our homes and for our 9
aid. dren, and the homes and tue
'ket dren Of the WORKING
rop world over.
a.