THE LEAGUE AND THE WAR 



that with all the rest of the wheat country the 

 Northwest had some reason to complain, and 

 more to be uneasy. The government fixed the 

 price of wheat at $2.20> for No. 1, at Min- 

 neapolis, the equivalent of about $1.85 at the 

 North Dakota elevator. But when that price 

 was fixed arbitrarily the market price for No. 1 

 at Minneapolis was $3.06. The growers, 

 therefore, by this order, underwent a loss of 

 nearly $1 a bushel. What made the case far 

 worse, they were unable to get any explana- 

 tion for this arbitrary reduction, nor was 

 there any appeal to them to accept it. At 

 the same time they saw that the government 

 steadily refused to fix any price for cotton, 

 for which the market was soaring unto un- 

 precedented heights. It seemed to them, 

 therefore, that the government was favoring 

 one section of the country at the expense of 

 another. The propaganda told them that this 

 was in the interest of the cotton speculators 

 in New York and once more illustrated the 

 assertion that the war was made for the 

 fattening of exploiters' profits. Even the 

 best-informed patriot might be excused if, in 

 these conditions, he resented the fact that no 

 explanation was furnished to him. No one 

 need wonder, therefore, that some of the 

 League speakers objected vigorously to the 

 apparent discrimination. 



Not with study and research could they 



235 



