Oxford High School - Ravelins Yearbook (Oxford, MA)

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RAVELIN 'S they are not going to forfeit their homes be- cause of it. Congress failed to anticipate this crisis and its inefficient measures such as the Reconstruc- tion Finance Board, the Home Loan Banks, the Crop Production Loans and Seed Loans, have been of little use for they are only increasing debt and postponing the inevitable day of reckoning. The so-called Farmers' Holiday, which is spreading in the NVest, means that the farmers can't pav the interest on their mort- eaeras 'or the tarfes on their farms. The direct action of the farmers so far, has more or less frustrated the legal action against them. The difference between the farmers' dollar and the dollar of Industry must be eliminated. The farmer has to pay lndustry'S price for manufactured goods, but when he is selling his efoods he gets what Industry will nav him. Property tares are easilv moved and the sum ot' all taxes is nut 'on the manufactured goods and then paid by the consumer and when the consumer is the poor farmer he has to pay it, because he has no one on whom to shift the tariff. Now when the farmer is faced by these prob- lems what is he to do? First, to use the com- mon vernacular he can lie down and take it, second. he can beg for help: and third. he can take direct action. The first course is an old road to the farmers and they have been tak- ing it for years and years. The farmer has alwavs been easily led by politicians and would- be reformers. The second method is also fa- miliar. Farmers have sent representatives to Vifashington to beg. but it has been 'of little use. They got a farm bloc which could stop some measures from going through it, but it, in itself, was not powerful enough to get any real aid for the farmers. They got a Farm Board which loses S240,000,000 'of its revolving fund while prices continue to fall. And now, when they have seen the helplessness of these two meth- ods, they take the third. By some this is called direct action and by others passive resistance, but nevertheless it is anarchy and revolution, because isn't it going in defiance of the law? And should these farm- ers be blamed for their high-handed action? I think not, because was n'ot this country found- ed on the principle that when any form of gov- ernment becomes destructive to the ends of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, it is the right of the people to abandon or alter that form of government. VVhat is it that makes our present government so inflexible, so impotent in face of disaster? The answer is that our whole legal structure has been built up with the idea that property takes a superior stand to human rights. This must be altered, and property must become secondary. The people of the city have of late taken the farm problem rather lightly, but they should realize that it is their banks and insurance companies that hold the farm mortgages, and if the farmers default their mortgages it will be their banks and insurance companies that are worthless. It seems that most of the people think that a slight reduction in mortgage rates will cure the situation, but nothing is farther from the truth. The farmer has about SB9,500.000.000 worth of farm mortqaeres held over his head and if 800,- 000,000 bushels of wheat and 12,000 000 bales of cotton, our entire crop of these two products. were sold at prevailing prices there would not be enough to pay the interest at six per cent. In fact someone would have to put in about 514200000000 more. Vtfhat are we going to do about this? The whole system is breaking down, and I am glad that the farmer has taken the bit in his teeth. He has stayed right at home. He says, I am sorry, Gentlemen, I can 't pay, and I w'on't pay, and it won't do any good trying to collect, in fact it may be rather bad thing if you do try it. So just quit. Let us have a moratorium, or rather a complete cancellation, because a moratorium won't help this situation. lzej

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RAVELIN 'S Yellowstone Park is the ideal place. Remem- ber, Yellowstone Park is yours. This property is ours, and we hold it in feeg And all of this earth shall its majesty see. The deer and the elk unmolested shall roam, The bear and the buffalo each have a home. The eagle shall spring from her eyrie and soar O'er crags in the canyons where cataracts roar, The Wild fowl shall circle the pools in their flight The geysers shall flash in the moonbeams at night, Now we christened the country-let all nations hark! We named it the Yellowstone National Park. THE FARMERS' PROBLEM By Robert Helliwell N view of the obvious turmoil of the Ameri- can farmer I feel that a philosophic, econom- ic and political explanation of his situation is necessary. My task is, I believe, to state the problem and so far as possible to indicate how the farmer may redeem himself as a person, as a shareholder in the country's capital wealth, and as a producer. However, before going to the farmer I think it is best to give an interpretation of the pres- ent crisis, and I assure you that it is a crisis and not merely an economic depression. In the first place, if we don't change our manner of attack and our goals it will be insurmount- able. And second, we are in the crisis because our instruments of control have failed to Work. They are out-dated and have outgrown their usefulness. Representative government which is based on a naive conception of democracy is hesitat- infr and failing everywhere, and countries are drifting toward dictatorships and bureaucra- cies. America has gone far enough in her lafssez-fiire policy in economics. At the present time there are several alterna- tives open to the American people. First, they can continue to drift and then they can adjust tlrmselxes to lower standards of living. Or if they wish they Call step boldly to a revolution --'t h'ch will only substitute one class for an- other. And finally, they can turn to a program ot fundamental reforms of our institutions-a program of radical gradualism made effective by national planning instituted without force. Now to turn to the farmer. The farmer is the under-dog of under-dogs and the following examples will show how he has borne the brunt of the expenditures of this country. He paid for the American Revolution with the tarii of l789g and the VVar 'of 1812 with the tariE of 1316. He paid for the Civil War with the Mor- ill Act, he ably financed the Spanish War with the Dingley Tariff, and of late years he has been paying for the 1Vorld War by the Ford- ney-McCumber Act. He has paid for all of them in spot cash-taken out of the soil. But that is not all that the farmer paid for. What did the Railroad Companies do with the large grants of land they received fr'om the gov- ernment? Why, they sold them to the farmers, of course. For how much? For enough to build the railroads. And when the railroads were built it was the farmer who had to pay the high rates to send his bulky products to the eastern markets. When the railroads made monev they issued watered stock and who bought it? The farmers. When they needed more money they floated bond issues and who bought them? The farmers again. For the last seventy-five years every census report has shown that land values have gone up--up in tremendous leaps and bounds, and with this increase up, up went taxation. Now let us take the man who got 160 acres of land for nothing under the Homestead Act and let us presume that he can raise 1600 bush- els of wheat. In a few years time, the land value has shot up to SB30,000, but does he get 30.000 times more wheat? No, he gets just about the same amount and also the prices are about the same. As taxes went up, he received less and less for the labor until he had to mort- gage his farm. Durinff the nineties the farmers had hard times and they were content to try to cure them by lsglslation. But now, when their very homes are in danger, they have taken the only sensi- ble course-direct action. They can't pay, won't be able to pay, and should not pay, and l?5l

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RAVELIN 'S PUBLIC OVVNERSHIP OF UTILITIES By George Sibley ENV people realize the extent to which pub- lic ownership pervades our common life. Those acquainted with it are sometimes sur- prised to hear people speak of public ownership as though it were some strange doctrine, for- eign to the thought and life of our people. It may be well, therefore, to acquaint ourselves with some of the more familiar forms of public ownership. Public ownership of utilities will be taken to mean the actual ownership and operation, under any government, whether it be state, national, or municipal, of such necessities as water, gas, electricity, and telephone. The control of utilities in the United States is a very vital question. The electrical industry alone is made up of 8000 plants. The question should affect every citizen because after all the citizen pays the highest rate and is annual- ly using more of the service. It is dangerous to leave the development of the utilities plants entirely to private enterprise because it is likely to create monopolies. Under such monopolies, private companies are charg- inff excessive rates, rates which under munici- pal control are lower and can be proven so. Such utilit'es are natural monopolies and it is best that the government be in control. In the first place the government is not interested in private gain, but in the interests of the peopleg private monopolies almost invariably leave out the people's interest. In the year 1926 the price for domestic electric service in the United States was 7.4c per kilowatt hour, while in On- tario wnder government owned rates it was 1.60 per killowatt hour. CThese prices may be higher now in the United Statesl. Regulation of these utilities is insufficient. What We need is complete public ownership for such commis- sions for regulation are politically organized. In the election of Smith to the Illinois Public Utilities Commission, Insull erave S200,000. In the case of the American Telephone and Tele- graph Co., the Supreme Court held that no local regulating bodies have the riffht to pass judgfment on contracts made by utilities com- panies, and unless fraud is proved, such con- tracts must stand. The chief danger of a mon- opoly is that those who have secured control of a supply or commodity, whether honestly or otherwise, will use that control to benefit them- selves at the expense of the public. The con- trol of these industries by concentration in a few hands has increased so rapidly that in 1925 twenty companies controlled 83 percent of the electrical industry in the United States. In the eight years up to now this number certainly has not decreased. This means the control of these utilities is so colossal that the 100 millions or more people in America must depend on these corporations for their supply or go without it. That is the grip that the utilities companies have on the American home today. The point I want to bring 'out at this time is that these private companies are overcharging the domestic consumers, knowing that they have no way such as industrial companies some- times have to beat the power trust. This situa- tion should be remedied and the only proper plen is to have the government 'own and devel- op some of these utilities in order that service mev be furnished to the public at cheaper rates. These trusts threaten the political and indus- trial life of this nation by attempting to gain control of the political machines. By large ex- penditures of money they control many state commissions. There is quite a difference in price rates when municipal Plants have been put into operation in competition with private plants. VVhen there is no competition they know that they can charge what they want and the consumer must pay or do the next best thing-go without. When we consider that a discontinuation of water service would result in probable sick- nessg or when we consider the discontinuation of telephone service would perhaps mean the loss of life in emergencies, or when We consid- er that the discontinuation of electric service would result in our being cut off from the use of convenient electrical appliances, Csometimes even sold by our obliging companiesj without light, and possibly without heat, we realize the throttling control these great monopolies have on the American public. We need but slip up l27l