Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1935-03-07
is MIDDLEMAN A PESTs

IS MIDDLEMAN A PEST!
Editor AskOv American:
w. B. johnson sent out Call to
Action" last week. l am glad l don't
know who Mr.. johnson is, so / can
give my opinion unprecedented or i'm
personal. Mr.. Johnsens opinion is
well meaning propaganda for CO.
operation, 1 agree we should have
more of it-by our free will on a
sound basis,-but some of his argu-
ments are fundamentally wrong Mr.
johnson says that consumers cooper
alton is the one and only salvation
towards economic security and free
dom. That is almost too easy if it
were true. ...fi.
Russia under the Gear was one of
the most intensively organized con-
sumers' cooperative nations in the
world. Consequently the Russians
should have gotten economic security
and freedom long ago. What hap
pened? They could work for yet
little less on account of their. in
creased buying power in their con-
sumers' cooperatives. Something sim
liar would happen if interest on mort
cages were cut down to half or less
A farm that can carry a mortgage of
$4,000 at 40 interest can carry an
$4,000 mortgage at go under equal
conditions. 1t could give the present
socalled owner an additional $4,000
loaded on the shoulder of the next
holder Of the farm. The fundamental
wrong lies iii our present system that
land and natural resources can be
sold, mortgaged and owned by indi-
viduals. The earth we live on with
developed by labor to supply humanity
with all reasonable comfort and Sc
curity, before we recognize this funda-
mental law and act accordingly We
will have one depression after an
other with futile attempts to put a
patch ON here, and there and a long
line OF cure all quack remedies such
as 5000 a month pension, adjustment
of rent or interest. profit. and now
Mr.. johnson thinks he has found a
cure-all in consumers cooperation as
the only salvation.
In 1920 when l travelled over north
ern Minnesota and organized the po-
tato growers, l said in meeting after
meeting, cooperation is justified only
if We can make a saving in service
otherwise we should leave this work
to the middlemen." The middlemen
have given efficient service for a rea-
sonable profit. If we have free trade,
competition will always regulate ex-
cess profit and we have the freedom
coOperatives which will, if Loyalty
supported bring us step forward to-
wards economic freedom, only If we
at the same time abolish monopolies
and protective tariffs. 1t is not really
what we get for a pound Of butter or
a ton Of rutabagas that counts, but
it is what We can buy for the price
OF a pound of butter or a ton of ruta-
bagas. The more we save or gain.
the more our monopoly and protective
system can put on our back in form
Of taxes and prices for protected in
dustrial products.
/ am convinced that free trade and
free access to the natural resources
for reasonable tax or rental, ground
rent, single tax, the one and only tax
system which does not take the prod
uct or fruit of labor by taxes and
give it to Paul. What Peter produces
by his personal labor belongs to him
unimpaired, this will cut out the
sources of millions of fortunes. The
U. S. under present conditions is a
very fertile field for growing a million
fortunes; if we don't Like that crop,
let us plant Justice
Then there is the general cry for
cost of productions! stabilized by law
or codes. Russia is trying it's hand
in that line / doubt they will sue
coed; it can't be done by law unless
we go in for 1000 communism. am
too much of an individHalist to want
that.
How then can we get cost of produc-
ton and a reasonable profit for the
products of our labor? Simply by or
ganizing ourselves into q producers
cooperative sales association, let US
take for example rutabagas.
Just as many growers as believe in
cooperation to give quality and ef-
| ficient service pool their entire pro-
duction to be sold or directed, graded,
loaded and shipped by one central
manager or management, and when
one car is sold a certain percentage
belongs to every member in the asso-
citation. regardless of where the car
is loaded. every member will get an
average price for each pooling period
for the quantity he is entitled to mar
ket in that period. whether he has de-
| livered more or less.
Quality and service will in the long
run always win in competitive mar
ket and by not pouring on the market
more than can be absorbed at a rea-
sonable profit We set the price. Bet
ter keep a surplus and feed to our
stock. they are always worth 81 per
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