Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1934-10-25
FL. NOTES
By OSCAR w. ANDERSON
Secretary Central Committee Pine Co
Farmer-Labor Association
Williams Speaks at HinckIey,

Farmer-Labor Association
Williams Speaks at HinckIey.
In his address at Hinckley October
10, Howard Y. Williams stated that
we are at the end of the present eco
nomic era, and on the threshold of a
new. If we tumble, it may be a dark
era, but if we make a right move, it
will mean brighter days. The old era,
| he said, was one i'm which we could
never produce enough, and only few
could enjoy leisure and luxury. Today
we can produce everything people
need. but the problem of distribution
| remains for us to solve.
Capitalism Has Served It's Purpose.
Capitalism grows and flourishes
only when there are new frontiers to
exploit, said Mr. Williams. Today,
these frontiers are closed, and the
| system is crashing. Just as feudalism
was an improvement over slavery, so
| capitalism was an improvement over
feudalism. Profit in small dose has
a beneficial effect, he commented, but
profit in large dose such as we have
lis destructive.
Concentration Of Wealth i'm
Few Hands.
Four holding companies control 25%
| of the production of bread in the ma
ton, he stated, and can therefore set
the price of bread. The consumer
pays approximately twenty-four times
what the farmer receives. The Bell
Telephone Co. controls 500 of the
telephones of the nation. People in
Minneapolis pay $40 per month for
telephone service, while engineers say
that the actual cost is one-third of
| vestment of S1O,500 in Ford Motors
which netted him 10 million dollars
in dividends and which he later sold
for 16 million dollars. Two hundred
banks control $50 of the credit of the
nation; twenty chain retail stores with
an income of 100 millions control one
| fourth of the retail trade of America;
two hundred corporations control one
half of all corporate wealth in the ma
ton; and fifteen thousand men control
these corporations and the wealth OF
America, Mr.. Williams stated.
Results of Concentrated Wealth.
AS a result of this control of the
wealth of the nation, 80 million PEG
pie live on 5000 a year and less. The
group who have concentrated the
wealth cannot possibly spend more
than $50 of that wealth. The COM
mon people can not get so much of
the national income, Mr.. Williams
said, because we must pay dividends
on the other 1870. The debt of Amer
lea today, he stated, is over 200 bill
| lions, or more than our actual worth.
We are held up, at the present time,
| only by the credit of the federal gov
eminent. In spite of this bolstering,
the business index has been lower
each month since March Of last
spring. America needs to be organ
lied, he said so that when the crisis
comes, we will be ready to step in
with the cooperative commonwealth.
Scores Sales and Gross Income Taxes.
Over half of the states in the union
have sales taxes in one form or an
other, said Mr.. Williams, and we have
the Farmer-Laborites in our state to
thank that we have been spared them.
In South Dakota everyone, even the
washerwoman on relief and the farm
err bringing his load of grain to the
elevator, must pay the tax. Packing
plants and mining companies are en-
empt from the tax because they claim
that most of their products are sold in
other states. Today, 65%o of the prop
erty in South Dakota is owned by peo-