Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1934-06-28
Experiences Of A Traveller
BY CHAS. d. EGLEY, Manager,
Farmers Union Live Stock Com.
mission Company, So. ST Paul,
MINI.

L
south of Paynesville in Renville
county near Morton, Minnesota, and
that night l was to speak north OF
Paynesville, near Freeport, Minnesota.
Laying around the hotel looking for
something to do to waste time,
picked up the Minneapolis Journal
One the front page was an article
headed: Law and Order League
Formed" in Minneapolis by business
men. Remembering that only a few
weeks previously, during the truck
strike, Minneapolis business men
Joined an organization somewhat SIM
liar, got themselves deputized as
police. and now two of them lie dead,
six feet under the sod.
And being very much opposed to all
forms of bloodshed, and feeling espe-
cially sorry for the families of these
dead men, who apparently had little
sympathy for the near-starving chill
dren of the working truckers, l i'm
mediately wrote the Journal letter
offering a suggestion how future
trouble of this kind could be avoided.
(nanSe social Ofuers
There is no need of organizing Law
and Order Leagues, and taking chance
of murder and mayhem, if they will
merely get busy and change the So
cial order. All that needs to be done
is to give every man willing to work
a job at decent pay, and give the
farmers production cost.
Both farmers and workers are uSu-
ally law abiding citizens. If they
were treated as outlined in the above
paragraphs, clubbing and shooting
would be unnecessary.
After | wrote the article | walked
over to the post office to buy a
stamp and mail the letter. Hardly
had | stepped into the post office
when | saw a big sign hanging on
the wall. 1t said: United States
Post Office Immediately it struck
me that that was one of those Social
list institutions we now hear so much
about here in Minnesota.
One of those communist or public
government owned institutions. One
of those collective or comparatively
owned institutions. Says | to myself
Immediately: I'm not going to do
any business in here. Why l might
lose my iniative. Or my liberty.
Or freedom. 1t might even have a
bad effect on the construction"
No Private Post Office.
So | got out of there Immediately.
| started walking all over town looking
for a privately owned post office doing
business for private profit. l am an
American citizen, and | want to up
hold American principles. l couldn't
find any. But while l was looking for
such post office l did find eight
or ten privately owned gasoline filling
stations in a little town OF around
1000 population.
And practically none of them doing
anything. All of them combined
weren't doing as much business as
Montgomery-Ward and Sears-ROebuck
was doing through the post office.
The post office is our own business.
We only have one in a town. The
business of distributing gasoline we
leave TO the other fellow. Paynes-
Vile had nearly a dozen. The same
was true of grocery and other stores.
Oh, how foolish to keep up such an
unnecessary, eXtravagant useless over
head. The producers and cOnsum-
ers, farmers and workers, must keep
up this overhead. Is it any wonder
they are broke? No, but we have
to continue suffering under this kind
of an economic system in the midst
of plenty rather than establish a sys-
tenn of public or cooperative owner
ship because that might be social
istic.
Post Office Gives Service.
Well, when | couldn't find a pri-
vately owned post office operated for
private profit, | was up against it. l
had to 90 back to the original post
office. When | got in there l fully
expected to have to wait at least
thirty minutes before | could get
waited on. You know the service is
so bad in these publicly owned insti-
buttons.
But 10 and behold. As | stepped up
to the WINDOW there was man there
meeting me. With a pleasant smile
he said, What can l do for you.'
/ said, Il want a &c stamp" l eX-
pected he would get mad. You know
if | had gone into privately owned
store and asked for &c worth OF tooth
picks, apples, or what not, / would
not have gotten a pleasant smile.
Most likely / would have landed
out in the middle of the street in
front of the privately owned store
with the imprint of shoe sole on that
part of my pants used for seating pur-
poses. After he gave me the stamp
1 said to the postmaster, 81 sure hate
to do business with these socialist in
stitutions.'
He didn't seem to know what l
meant He said, Il am public serv-
ant. | work for the public. And by
the way" he continued, 1--WE have
operated so efficiently in the post Of
fee department during the past year
that we have wiped out So million
dollars of deficit" Maybe l don't re-
member those figures exactly, but l
know it was a lot of money.