Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1932-04-14

The farm relief bill before Con-
gress which has teeth in it and
which is fundamental. going to the
root of the farmers trOubleS-inter-
est payments-and which was in
troduced by Senator Lynn Frazier
of North Dakota is bill that
agricultural sect on S especially.
William Lemke. former attorney
general of North Dakota. and the
man who spoke before the recent
Minnesota Farmer-Labor convention
in st. Paul. has written an article
on the Frazier bill which is here
with passed on to the readers of the
Askoy American.-Edttor.
BY WILLIAM LEMKE
The farmers farm relief bill has
again been introduced in the United
States Senate by Senator Lynn ).
Frazier. 1t is up for discussion be-
fore the agricultural committee now.
Il is universally recognized that II
this bill is passed it will bring I'M
mediate relief to the farmers and the
starving millions of this nation. A
number of state legislatures have
passed resolutions asking congress to
pass it without delay, and the Farm
ers Union is unanimously supporting
1T, as are other farm organizations.
Therefore. it is important that we
create a universal enlightened public
opinion i'm support of the bill.
This bill provides that the United
States government shall re-finance
the existing farm Indebtedness at
115G interest and &c principal on
the amortization plan. 1t provides
that the United States government
shall get the money with which to do
this. not by issuing and selling bonds,
but by issuing Federal Reserve notes
secured by first mortgages on farms.
Government Has Helped Others.
This bill asks nothing new. During
the war the government virtually
doubled the money in actual circula-
ton by issuing Federal Reserve notes,
secured by commercial and agricul-
tural paper-prOmiSsOry nOtes-en-
dorsed by the local banks. This was
done so that the governmental peo-
pie of the United States as
sumo the Indebtedness that foreign
nations owed to the international
bankers. who had bet on the wrong
horse over in Europe to the extent of
billions of dollars. If our govern
ment could do this to save the inter-
national bankers why not do the same
thing now to save the farmers and the
starving millions?
If the farmers farm relief bill be-
comes law then there will be issued
and put into circulation, among the
people, several billion dollars of new
money-Federal Reserve notes. 1t
will again give purchasing power to
the people-the farmer will pay his
banker, his merchant. his lawyer and
his doctor, and they in turn will pay
their bills, and all will start in again
repairing and improving their homes
unemployment and starvation will
,cease-the enforced idleness of from
to II million men and women will
disappear and we will hear no more
of overproduction- consumption will
again be normal, real prosperity, the
kind we had in 1919, will return.
Not Enough Money I'm Circulation.
we nave HOT enough ulOHcy W uO
the money business. Money is yard
stick with which we measure the
energy of our peOple-we have not
enough yard sticks to measure that
energy-that is why there are seven
TO IA million people out of employ
ment and why about % to 30 million
90 to bed hungry every night, while
at least another 100 million need new
clothes and other necessities.
We are being reduced to nation
OF IndianS-to a nation OF trade and
barter. Farmers are trading oats for
gasoline, wheat for newspaper sub
,scriptions, cabbageS and eggs for
wearing apparel; ranchers are ex-
changing horses for vegetables, cows
and hogs for feed: and colleges are
even exchanging education for wheat,
and all because there is not money
enough to do the money businessmen
sufficient yard sticks to measure our
energy. In Kansas recently young
man paid his wedding fees with a few
sacks of wheat and in West Virginia
d young couple traded a basket of
grapes to the county clerk for a mar
riage license not even enough money
to do the marriage business.
We have less money today in circu-
lation than we had in 1865. At pres
ent, if we deduct the amount that is in
foreign countries, we have S27.32 per
capita as against $31.18 in 1865. But
that is not the whole story-in 1865
we had but a few millionaires-toda
we have over AZ thousand million
aires, multimillionaires and billion
aires-and on top of that we have
mergers. consultations and combina-
tions, until practically all of the
money is in the hands of few in
ternational monarchs, who are starv-
ing and throttling the prosperity of
the nation.
There is less than $40 per capita
in actual circulation among the peo-
pie today as against $31.18 in 1865.