The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1933-04-07
THE HERALD and
GRAVEL SHOVELINC
(BY HANS RASMUSSEN

Last week the Plentywood Her.
aid had a long editorial, written
from a purely capitalistic stand
point, as could be expected. In
which it brags up what the county
has done for the people of Sheri-
dan county. It'winds up by saw
ing that "sOme day we should find
time to say thank you to a govern
ment that has well supported US"
The Herald says: "The fact is
the government has been liberal
There Is mo other country in the
world where the government has
shown such concern and generous
response to the conditions of its
people,"
The people connected with the
Herald knows better, they are not
as ignorant as all of that. They
know it pleases their advertisers
to support a paper that will fool
the people, so they just go ahead
and do it. They don't dare to
have a mind of their own for fear
they would be losing a lousy little
ad.
There are countries in this world
not one but many of them
where the people out of work get
their unemployment insurance,
where people o yer 60 years get
their pensions so they need not
worry about their old age. But
not so here in this, the richest
country in the world. Here they
have to demonstrate, parade, de-
mand and beg in order to get a
bowl of thin soup and a lousy bed
to sleep in. They have to pick
their meals from garbage cans
and city dumps.
Workers and farmers by the
thousands have faced all kinds of
hardships and gone to Washington.
Many have been killed and many
put i Jail but, that didn't stop
them. By the thousands they keep
DIN coming to Washington, to the
state legislature. So, when the
Herald says "The government was
more than anxious that the de-
serving and unfortunate should be
cared for" it is not SO, and the
Herald knows it.
Only thru this mass pressure
did farmers and workers get the
government to listen. When they
now start talking unemployment
insurance and have started hand
handing out some relief, it is not
because htey have had change of
heart or change of President. it is
because the pressure got so great
they did not dare resist any long
er. The government and it's sup
pOrters that the Herald praise so
highly, did everything they could
to ruin the farmers. They told
US to buy more land and machin-
cry, told us to hold our wheat and
buy options, told us to put our
money in banks and by following
their advise we lost everything we
had and they got it all. They
fixed it so that the more we pro-
duce the poorer we get.
When we now demand that we
be paid back a small portion of
what has been taken away from us
the Herald says we are in honor
bound to shovel gravel for what
ever we get. When the banks
closed its doors and kept our
money, that part was perfectly all
right with the Herald. Neither
have we ever heard the Herald
mention anything about machine
companies selling two thousand
dollar combines to the farmers
that the company insisted ON hav-
ing assessed for only three hun
dred dollars as being the actual
cost. The herald never questioned
their honor and never mentioned
that they should shovel a little
gravel for part of what they had
actually stolen from the people.
But it is different with the peo-
pie who have received relief dur
ing the winter, these people don't
advertise much in the Herald. If
they don't go out and shovel gravel
then the Herald says: "They will
destroy their standing as honor
able citizens"
The Herald forgot to mention
what has become of the merch-
ants "honor" and how much gravel
they have been shoveling. But
the Herald gets a little advertis-
ing from these people off and on,
so leaves them out of the gravel
ing proposition, it is the honor
system the Herald is using. Sell
ing out for the sake of getting q
few small ads.
PRODUCERS NEWS WANT