Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1932-09-15
BY SENATOR HENRIK SHIPSTEAD

You are here for two purposes.
First, to observe the national day set
aside considering the problems of la
Dor. The other is to raise money to
feed the unemployed the coming win
ter.
The problems of labor can't be all
discussed in one day. They AFFECT
life in all countries.
This magnificent city of steel and
stone stands as a monument to the
sweat and toll of the workers who
builded it, The iron was torn from
the earth and turned to steel for the
Orders by labor.
Every city stands as a monument to
labor and now stands on the backs OF
the workers to pay taxes TO support
them.
The Civil war decided that no man
should own property in the body OF
another. Human beings were valu-
able because of the products they
could produce.
While now under the law the en-
ployer can't own the body of la
borer, the idea has not been divorced
from the minds of some employers
that they don't own the labor power
of the laborer.
To own the labor power is to own
the body.
Labor power at all times is insep-
arabic from the body. The laborer
hnnnnafh : a
gift from the Creator man receives at
birth and loses at death. 1t goes back
to Him who gave it.
New things are invented and Gre
ated by this gift to man. This labor
power is so sacred we have failed to
appreciate it. 1t is the foundation of
society.
The controversy labor always has
had to contend with is between those
who own the products of labor and
who do not labor at all and those who
produce the products.
The problem today is who shall
pay for the mistakes of the leaders
of finance and industry. The pro-
ducers or collectors of wealth.
From 1920 to 1890 there were 20
billion in new capital issues alone.
This new evidence of indebtedness
was flooded among our people.
Is capital going to collect what the
printing presses said when they print
ed these bonds and stocks and mort
cages On the future of the people? If
capital is to collect the full value
then the great masses must get along
with a great deal less than they have
in the last half century. The STAN
dard of living of the masses will be
less than in so years in order that
capital shall have more.
That is the meaning of the world
wide deflation.
| was told by bankers in Europe
that the deflation to lower prices and
wages is a deliberate policy of the
central banks of the world in order
that capital may have labor and raw
material as cheap as possible.
From 1915 to 1892 policies were
pursued in this country that could
lead to nothing but depression.
In the olden days when people had
tuberculosis or other communicable
diseases they said it was because they
had been wicked. They said this UNI
til they found the cause of these dis
eases in ignorance of the ways of liv-
ing, the water supply and ventilation.
They found the causes and removed
the causes.
Depressions come because We have
been too ignorant in studying funda-
mental causes.
We have nation of 12O,OOO,OOO
people and the greatest resources in
the world. Still we have the largest
unemployed group according to popu-
lation, the greatest federal deficit, the
greatest default in debts, public and
private, than any country in the world.
The depression didn't come out of
the air. In Europe the bankers and
statesmen said. it was due to the
bankers and politicians of the United
States. Here they say the bankers
and statesmen of Europe are to blame.
If we could get them all under one
i
resolution saying the fault was en-
tirely with God.
We have made a mistake to the
extent that we have mingled into the
affairs of Europe and for that mistake
we must pay. We have made mis-
takes of our own for which we mus,
pay even a greater price.
From 1920 to 1880 there was z:
per cent increase to industry in divi
dends and interest. At the same time
agriculture lost more than 40 per cent
of it's income and labor more than 81
per cent.
Industry was permitted to take
so much from the national wealth
that it destroyed the purchasing pow
er of 100000 workers and farmers
Industrialists are now suffering the
same as hog that was so greedy tina
it ate its own trough.
lnduStrialiStS expect to come bacl