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About The Choteau Montanan (Choteau, Mont.) 1913-1925 | View This Issue
The Choteau Montanan (Choteau, Mont.), 14 Aug. 1914, located at <http://montananewspapers.org/lccn/sn85053031/1914-08-14/ed-1/seq-2/>, image provided by MONTANA NEWSPAPERS, Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana.
■' ■•y’-g-Vy That Equity Suit A couple o f weeks ago this pa per published an account taken from the Minneapolis Journal, concerning a suit started recently against the Society of Equity at Fargo and Minneapolis. During the past week we have been handed the following, taken from a co-operative paper printed at Fargo, with a request that it be published in reply to the article from the Journal: Since the organization of the Equity Co-Operative Exchange especially since it has become big enough to be a menace to the grain combine, there has been war. It has emerged from one battle royal after the other only to find itself the more strongly intrenched in the confidences of the-farmers of the Northwest. No sooner has it routed intrenched interests at one point than it has been attacked at another. The last attack by the minions of the grain combine has no more basis of right and justice than any of the numerous attacks that have preceded it and the animu-t is so apparent that no one'can be de ceived b.v-it. The only hope or expectation of the enemies of the farmers’ terminal rnaiket-ing ag ency is that they may injure its credit because they know that the big business presij^b^'this and other cities greedily'igi^b'at any thing that is calculated to injure the:b.usines8 or] Wed it of? the farm ers’ company or retard'the farm ers co-operative movement, with out regard to the truth o f falsity of their publications^ * * * * The only objects of the suits brought against the .Equity Co- Operative Exchange and its offi cials at Fargo and Minneapolis is toinjure its business and credit, if possible, by this sort of publicity. The hope is in vain. , The com bine has overplayed its hand in its various attacks upon the farmers’ terminal marketing agency and they have educated the farmers of llnlsil !i!illi:!i!iiil!!iil!lii!i Visit Glacier National Park T U i o, IN NORTHWESTERN MONTANA ON 1 1 1 1 S o u m m e r MAIN l i n e g r e a t n o r t h e r n r y per or 7-day tours via Walk through the Park at a cost of $1 to $5 day, or take advantage o f fixed, definite 1, 3, 5 tauto, stage, launch and horseback. \Other sights won’t seem a marker— Once you’ve been a Glacier Parker.” Low Round-Trip Summer Tourist Fares Call on your local agent for detailed information. Write Today for Free Travel Literature Containing detailed information, rates, etc., relative to Glacier National Park; and rates, etc., relative to Low Round-Trip Summer Tourist Fares. Amvrît I ir.M* fiiac ier Sai rima I Dark J. T. McGAUGHEY Assistant'General Freight and Passenger Agent HELENA, MONT. . Panania-Pacific-International Exposition San Francisco, 1915 A m r r it a Hr.st' S522È ■ ■ a a a a a jai r 3 a \m !£ j i ■ ja ja Ja J* I® --a f a ■ A K a a Ia I Farm For SALE ,000 320 acres of first=c!ass farm land, with 10 shares of water in the Brady Irrigation Co., two miles northwest of the town of Brady. 100 acres broke; balance all first-class plow land. Good three-roomed house, 8-horse barn. $37.50 per acre. $5,000 cash, balance at a low rate of interest, long time. Call at the Montanan for particulars. .•»JW - * • ' - ' ceh tiriterMfcfbii the expect? some; thing of this Kihd allthe timé and naturally,;each,of its attacks, have left the farmers’ company strong.-, er than ever.;,, Read what J. C. i it for the, ignoble purppse which Enright o f . the Lindeke Milling I tbiésésuits^hasVdiécloséd. ~ valúe; and 8vpèr! their investment in théiffarmiers’ company, wh ich; t hey tu raed down appaj,ently?.witb/a view/of Köldfng A A A Company; who. has taken a leading pavt in the negotiations for the removal of. the Equity Co-opera tive Exchange from Minneapolis to St. Paul on behalf of the latter 'city, has to say about it in an interview in the Pioneer Press: “ The legal proceedings institu ted against the Equity Co-opera tive Exchange in Minneapolis and Fargo, N. D., Friday will not im pair the credit o f the organization with the farmers of the North west or the business men of St. Paul,” Mr. Enright declared, “ but, on the contrary, will add to its strength. “ These men who are attacking the Equity Exchange cannot do anything and do not expect to do anything,” he said. “ Nothing will be gained by such contempti ble mudslinging practices as have been resorted to by the enemies of the organization.” Let us look into these cases a little. Who is Schmidt, one of the complainants? Schmidt is the fellow who was formerly a mem ber of the Farmers’ Elevator Company at Voltaire, N- D., and who with one Bunday, became a traitor to the co-operative cause and entered into a conspiracy with the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce and was one of the star witnesses o f the Chamber in the investigation of the Equity Co operative Exchange by the Minn esota legislature a year ago last winter. His treason was clearly proven and he was thoroughly discredited. Since then because of his equivocal position as a stockholder (holding one $50 share) he has been offered par value of his stock and 8 per cent interest during the time he has owned it. So he has no kick coming since he refused the offer. It is apparent that he is permitt ing the grain combine to continue to use him as a tool. So much for him. \ Greenfield & Crumpton is a firm of commission merchants, mem bers o f the Superior .Board of Trade. A few years ago the Eq uity exchange entered into a deal with the firm to handle its ship ments at the head o f the lakes on a basis of so much per car. This arrangement expired Aug. 1st, 1912. When Geo. F. Loftus ac cepted the position as sales mana ger of the Equity Exchange lie entered into an agreement to handle the grain consigned to the Equity at the head of the lakes on a basis of a [division of commis sion. This arrangement expired Aug. 1st, 1918, and the firm, getting wind of a rumor that the Equity was arranging to open offices of its own at Superior, made several futile efforts to se cure a contract with the Equity Exchange. The Equity Exchange simply allowed the firm to con tinue to handle its business on the same basis temporarily until it could mature its plan for opening its o\'n offices, which it did about the middle of October last fall and at that time terminated it 3 temporary agreement with Green field & Crumpton. The commission firm, Green field & Crumpton, was making a nice piece of velvet out of the Equity business and I the officers of the Equity Co-operative Ex change felt that it was their duty to save this to their stockholders as soon as they felt they were in a position to do so. It has been the policy o f the management of the Equity Co-operative /Ex change to spread out only as it coaid be done safely and to the advantage of the stockholders and farmers generally in the way of additional service and it was in line with this policy that the ar rangement with this commission firm was terminated. Both Green field & Crumpton had become stockholders of the Equity Ex change to the extent of one $50 share each, and we understand - In closing up tfie business .with’ the commission\ .company ,, a' - dis pute arose as to the -amount due it in the settlement. According to the officials of the Equity, ! its share of the commission had to' come out of the amount claimed by the commission company and it has stood ready to settle on that basis as any time. They claim if they were to pay the full claim of the firm the Equity would be out of its share of the commissions on the grain handled for it, and ver.y properly declined to be held up in that wav. There are absolutely no grounds for the charges of mismanage ment that are made in the com plaint of these enemies of the farmers’ t e r m i n a l marketing movement nor in those made by grain combine controlled news papers, as will be shown in due time. In their statement to show that the books of the farmers’ company had been audited by a competent and, presumably dis interested accountant, Pres. An derson and Sec. Thiel published the certificate of Walter Thomp son, stating clearly that the exam ination was made in 1912. Mr. Thompson is very antagonistic toward the Equity and he rushed into print repudiating the certif icate on the pretense that it was intended to make it appear that he had recently audited the books. Though nothing, perhaps, in this world would give Thomp son greater pleasure than to be able to give an adverse report on the affairs of the Equity Exchange he has bnen invited by the offi cers of the Equity to audit the books and accounts of the Equity Co-operative Exchange at the Fargo, Minneapolis and Superior offices. Mr. Thompson has agreed to do|it. In doing this the officers of the Equity Exchange feel that a favorable report from Thomp son will be worth more to the farmers* company than it * woffld if he vere friendly to it. They pay him the compliment of be lieving that he will make an hon est report, becayse as a profes sional man he cannot afiord to do anything else. It is absurd for anyone to as sume to believe that the Equity Co-operative Exchange was orga nized primarily to make dividends for its stockholders. When it is remembered that dividends 'on the stock of the corporation are limi ted to 8 per cent, and that few of the stockholders own more than one share of stock with a par value of $50, it is at once appar ent that these hundreds of farmer stockholders did not make the investment for the precious $4 that their share might earn in yearly dividends. This is the least of their troubles. Those who have followed the fight know that it they naver get a stated cash dividend that they have al ready received the face value of their stock several times jver in the reforms that have already been forced onto the grain ex changes of the Northwest by the farmers’ company and increased prices and lessened dockage be cause of the competition of the fanners’ independent treminal agency. The only wonder with most of them is that it has been able to'keep up with the aggressive and expensive tight that has been forced upon it by the grain com bine in the hope that it would in that way be able to break and bankrupt the farmers’ company. But thanks to the good manage ment o f the company’s business, its rapid growth, and the ready responselof hundreds of farmers in buying stock, this farmers’ co operative business which started in such humble fashion has grown beyond the expectations o f friends and enemies alike until it has come to be feared and dreaded by the great interests that are in trenched at the terminals and they hare also been offered par! that have fattened upon the fanu- -'f'V\ , 4 ' - Ï « ' i ^ a r fprtwO;®0ner»tionsi This war against the jencroach- m ent;ofthe ^producers ¿ u p o n t h e terminahhiarkets, considered by the sjpecfal privelege corporations ■> composing the gram? combine as their’exclusive'domain, is .Waged by what has so aptly. been called the “ invisible government.’,’ It would be comparitiyely easy for, thé farmers to breakup this com bine were it not for the fact- that the . big line elevator interests, milliiig iriterests, other terminal interests, their allied banking in terests,- railroad interests, etc., are absolutely iu control o f the poli tics of the state of Minnesota, most of the officials of the state government, of courts, of state institutions and of commissions being creatures of the great com bination of bad politics and big business. These strongly in trenched interests sit in the back ground and pull the strings and the puppets who receive the „em oluments of the office do * the jumping-jack stunt andstrutabout fatuously imagining that they are the repositories of high honors while in reality their offices are badges of dishonor because their manhood is the price they paid. These big allied and interlocked financial interests are the real government in Minnesota, invisi ble though it be. If this were not absolutely true, do you suppose that such a blot upon civilization could be maintained as the gamb ling hells known as grain ex changes? This invisible govern ment does not only actually gov ern Minnesota Lut it reaches over into the Northwest and is a more potent force in governing Fargo than are all its merchants, law yers, preachers, and toiling mas ses in office, shop, factory; or street. It is a more potent force in the government of the state of North Dakota than is all its com mon citizenery combined, it has more to do with the actual gov ernment of the state of Montana than have the citizens o f the state. It controls the politics of South Dakota. _.This invisible* govern ment is br-partisan and knows no scruples, principles or morals. Some war, isn’t it boys? The American Society of Equity and the Equity Co-operative Exchange bave bit off a pretty big “ chaw, ” but thank God, they are masticat ing it in pretty gui- 1 sbupe. These assaults should solidify thé ranks of the farmers, and those farmers who have been led off the right track by such as sistant Chamber of Commerce or ganizations as the Everett Equity Society, Drayton’s Farmers’ Un ion and others should quit play ing with fire and get behind the farmers’ movement which is wag ing a resentless war in their in terest that is bound to go down in history ns the most far reaching that has ever been waged for busi ness and industrial freedom. List Your Ranches with the Choteau Investment Company Present Address: I. A. STU B . 19-21 Dunn Block Great, Falls, Mont Call and sec our complete line o f bngg.v and harvester whips cost ing from 25 cents to $3. Best val ues ever offered to the Cboteau trade. It will pay you to see our- special-35 and 50 cent whips. Clias. Connor and Son. Ck\ , -!i - (
