The people's voice., 1944-01-07
FARMER-LAB0R
GROUP MAKES
HISTORY

Great Falls, Montana is the setting
for story which the big business
critics and many of the faint hearted
in the ranks of the workers said
couldn't be written.
The wiseacres had always said:
l"Farmers and labor can't get together.
Their objectives are diametrically op-
posed, tac., ETC."
But the development which Mon
tana is witnessing, while it is not new
in sense, does represent a crystalli-
cation of the feeling that progressive
leadership in both camps have held
for some time; that the working farm
er and organized labor does have
more joint problems in common to
| justify their working together than
they have differences which would
keep them apart.
| If the farmers of the United States
are considered to be adequately rep
resented by the Farm Bloc then there
is a wide difference in the thinking
of the farmers" and organized labor.
However, it might be mentioned
that there is an equally wide rift be-
tween the actual farmers of the
United States, the operators of fam
ily-type farms, the working farmers
and the often quoted Farm Bloc.
Perhaps if there is a difference of
opinion between the working farmers
plno fhaTo ic a
difference of opinion between organ
lied labor and the Farm Bloc, there
might be some community of interest
between the working farmers and or
ganized labor? In the minds of the
leaders of Montana Farmers Union
and progressive labor leaders in the
stae this is not probability but
fact.
Out of this feeling has come a def
mite effort to bring that picture home
to the people of Montana, to show
that the detectives of the working
man whether he lives in the country
or on the farm are identical and that
much of the current "misunderstand-
ing" and working at cross purposes
are part of the strategy to prevent
united action.
The Montana Farmers Union and
the Cascade County Trades & Labor
Assembly have gotten together for
some time in discussion groups and
study groups to examine many of the
current economic and social philos-
ophies and to analyze the effect of
widely publicized panaceas on our ma
tional economy
Out of their study sessions has de-
veloped a program of action in which
their findings are brought home to
the people of northern Montana in
regular Sunday afternoon broadcasts
over Radio Station KFBB at Great
Falls, the broadcast time having been
donated by the Farmers Union Grain
Terminal Association.
OF particular interest in recent
weeks has been their round table dis
cussions on the Sales tax and the
Subsidy program, both of which are
receiving attention from congress.
lu6 COnCluolOno III tuC ooiCo L "a
discussion were, in the words of Don
Chapman, Farmers Union president,
that the Sales Tax was: "a tax based |
not on ability to pay but on inability |
to resist; an income tax in reverse
with the great bulk of the tax being |
levied on the masses with the least |
ability to pay"
Participating in the December 21st |
broadcast on Subsidies were: Bruce |
Steinmetz, president Cascade County |
Trades & Labor Assembly; Don Chap |
man, president Montana Farmers I'm |
ion; Mildred K. Stoltz, educational di-
rector Montana Farmers Union; and |
John Evanko Jr., secretary, Cascade |
County Trades & Labor Assembly.
A few excerpts from the broadcast |
are worth quoting:
Mr.. Steinmetz: Many people still |
think that subsidies are something |
new and un-American, Don. Nothing
could be farther from the truth. Sub
sides have been used extensively and
have been accepted generally during
the entire history of America. :"
Labor considers subsidies as the
only means of preventing devastat-t
ing initiation. Wages are fixed. With
put the subsidy costs will go up at
east 1919 or more at once. 1t has
already been shown that the lower in
come group is now using up its entire
income on necessities, taxes and
ponds The subsidy will relieve the
CONTINUED on Page Four)