Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1938-03-31
State Capitol News
BY A. I. HARRIS

Just how much do those people who
shout Communism at the Farmer
Labor party believe in the allega-
tons they make?
Governor Benson, in his address
before the convention of the Farmer
Labor Association at Duluth, cited
from an editorial appearing in the
Duluth Evening Herald on November
26, 1886, which among other things
said: with the Communist vote in
Minnesota declining 81 percent in
four years, the Chicago Tribune, so
worried about our state few months
ago, can turn to those other concerns
such as trying to keep us from getting
the waterways"
This, mind you, appeared just a
few weeks after election. For sew
eral months prior to election day the
Duluth Evening Herald almost daily
engaged in spreading the Commun-
list scare. The editorial above certain
ly shows that the editors of this paper
were in no way scared about Com
munism themselves, but were trying
to scare others.
What the people who engage in at
tempting to create Communist ScareS
are frightened about is not that Com
muniSm is about to descend upon us,
but rather that government is fast
slipping from the control of a special
privileged few. They fear that the
people will have something to say
about how industry is being run so
that it will benefit all the people and
not merely the economic royalistS.
A committee for cooperative PLAN
ming has been appointed by Commits
sioner of Agriculture Charles ON
modt at Governor Benson's sugges-
ton that cooperative education and
organization should be speeded.
Members of the committee selected
were Emil Selvig, director of the De-
partment of Agriculture's Coop di-
vision; Charles Egley, manager of the
Farmers Union Livestock Exchange;
Joseph Gilbert, editor of the Mid
land Cooperator; Leo Knute, director
of Smith-Hughes educational work,
and Walter R. SaSSaman, secretary of
the state planning board.
The committee contemplates coun-
ty cooperative councils to further
educational work
A WPA weed eradication project
for Minnesota farmers came nearer
as DR.. S. B. Fracker, expert for the
United States Department of Agricul-
ture, conferred with state and WPA
officials here.
They worked out a plan whereby
state and WPA funds would be used,
with the United States agriculture
department loaning an adviser.
State officials approved the plan at
once and it was sent to Federal au-
thorities for their consideration.
The second of two farm meetings
asking cancellation of back feed and
seed loans incurred during the dis
astrous drouths of 1884 and 1886 was
held in Ortonville with large crowd
packing the armory.
A joint committee selected at the
meeting, and its companion held at
Dawson, later came to ST. Paul for a
conference with Governor Benson and
Federal officials. The committee asked
the Federal government to withdraw
forceful collection actions now in the
courts.
70 cub
mobilization plan which would pre-
serve the democratic character of the
country to replace the Sheppard-Ma
bill now before Congress has been
offered by two Minnesotans. The pro-
posal, which will be offered to Con-
gress shortly, establishes war coun-
Gil consisting of representatives of the
peoples mass organizations which
would direct the mobilization of the
country during the times of war.
The two authors of the plan are
Howard Y. Williams, state director
of soldiers welfare, and Walter r.
Sassaman, executive secretary of the
state planning board. A third author
is Samuel B. Corr, Milwaukee, ma
tional vice-chairman of the United
States Veterans, Inc.
The war council would be composed
of spokesman for organized labor, the
organized farmers, cooperatives, pro-
fessional groups, independent mer-
chants, consumers, and industry. 1t
would sit in constant session during
the course of war, and would be
empowered to approve or reject war
acts of the president acting as COM
mander-in-chief. "While the Shep-
pard-May bill has fascist character
in putting complete control in the
hands of the President, who would
become the military dictator when
war is declared" say the authors,
''this bill puts complete control in
the hands of war council directly
representing the mass of the people"
Minnesota's major railroad lines
and the state tax commission have
agreed that railway right
which is used for commercial pur-
poses will be placed upon the state