Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1938-04-07
State Capitol News
BY A. I. HARRIS

Perhaps the outstanding thing about
the Farmer-Labor Association state
convention held at Duluth last week
was the unmistakable rank and file
nature of the gathering. In that re-
spect it was different from most other
political conventions.
There were none at this convention
who were born in the lap of luxury
and who were interested in preserv-
ing a social order in which only rel
atively few enjoy the blessings of our
great material wealth. AS Benson re-
marked: "You are Representatives of
political movement which holds
that democracy must be extended to
all forms of social endeavor if we are
to enjoy the full blessings of demo-
cratic society. :. You have been Sc
lected by the rank and file. Ours
is a mass movement, controlled from
the bottom and not from the top.
The Farmer-Labor ward clubs, COM
posed of workers, farmers, profess
sional people and small business men,
and the affiliated economic organiza-
tons composed of progressive farm
groups, labor unions, co-operatives,
liberal organizations and organized
unemployed, which selected you to act
for them, representing in excess of
100000 men and women belonging to
our party"
Here was a meeting of the common
people of the state, assembled to fur
Their the program of common peo-
pies political movement, the dele
gates represented not the powerful
trusts and monopolies, not the cor
porate overlords, not special privi-
lege, not entrenched wealth, but they
represented the masses who till the
soil, who work in our factories, who
operate our machines, and who per-
form useful social functions.
This democratic gathering of the
plain folks was a challenge to those
who would rob our people of their
heritage to live as free human beings.
1t was challenge to those who would
impose upon this country fascist
dictatorship.
The convention was the largest ever
held by Farmer-Labor Association,
both in point of actual number of
delegates present and the number of
persons these delegates represented.
These delegates were not asking
thing for themselves and the people
they represented which they would
deny to others. They were there to
help establish new deal for every
body-the kind of a new deal which
would enable those who produce our
social wealth to enjoy the things in
life to which they are entitled. They
were there to help establish in truth
and in fact the American standard of
living of which we boast so much
about but which only relatively
few enjoy.
The Governor called attention of
the independent business people to a
few very pertinent economic facts
which they would do well to ponder
over before deciding whether their
economic welfare is better advanced
through liberal political movement
such as the Farmer-Labor party or
through conservative political move
ment dominated by the forces of
wealth such as the Republican party.
The Republican party, controlled
by Wall street, the Governor himself
a former independent merchant, con-
tended in addressing himself to the
independent businessman, means
the death of private, individual enter
prise in America"
Why? Let us quote from the Gov
ernor's talk:
'From 1920 to 1929, the number of
grocery stores controlled by chains
increased from 8,461 to 30,125; drug
stores from 400 to $685.; the sales
of local department stores dropped
by at least IL percent, but the sales
of the two big mail-order houses more
than doubled.
"Since 1929 the encroachment of
chain stores upon Independent bust
ness has grown despite the fact that
thousands of persons out of jobs have
invested their savings in small bust
ness enterprises in an effort to exc
out a bare existence. In 1929 &C
cording to the Federal Bureau of the
Census, chain stores did 20 percent
of the nations business; in 1885 they
did 22.8 percent, growth of nearly
three percent, at the expense of the
independent businessman.
'"That is the kind of future that
the corporate overlords hold out to
the average businessman.