Cottonwood Chronicle Newspaper, February 6, 1920, Page 5

THE FORUM| The Chronicle will gladly pub- | lish letters from its readers on} all questions of public interest. | All letters, however, must be signed by the writer and while) we do not assume responsibility for the opinions expressed it is simply affording a means for voicing the opinions of residents of this immediate section —FEdi- | tor. The Grangeville post of the American Legion has taken us to task for coming to the defense of | the Non-partisan League and calling their attention to what we considered the misdirected purpose to which the post had lent itself. Sufficient time has elapsed to permit of a reasonably fair consideration of the matter free from the passion that it at first created. We would not at this late date reopen the subject if we had not been placed in a false light and were not being goaded by some people that con- strue our silence as an acknow- ledgement or concession of cul- pability. We are not cowering or cringing under the charge of pro-Germanism or Bolshevism and nothing will deter us from defending the ancient traditions of our country that of free speech and peaceful assembly. The American Legion is a public institution and every American will concede its power and in- fluence in shaping the affairs of our government and asa _ real force in the spreading of better Americanism. As a public in- stitution it is also subject to public criticism. We take genuine pleasure in clearing up the misunderstand- ing of our criticism and the motives that prompted us to make them. They take the posi- tion that we made a direct at- tack upon the legionaires them- | selves and that we are in dis- agreement with them as to the| ideal purposes the legion avows. Perhaps the tenor of our criti- cism was too harsh, and as such set at naught our professions of sympathy and friendliness for the legion itself. If we had been inspired by ulterior or sinister motives the affront and ingrati- tude would be unpardonable and the very heigth of stupidity, for it was too much to expect ad- verse criticism to go unrebuked Anyone making such criticism | then, must either be imbued with a deep sense of obligations to his convictions of certain} principles that he believes have | been violated or he is an ignora- mus. Weare not concerned as to what class we are placed in so long as our statements and mo- | tives are not misinterperted or | distorted, either through misun- | derstanding or with a purpose to} discredit us. We did not criti- | cise the legionaires for denounc- ing the I. W. W. and even the socialists, but for condeming the Non-partisan League and for placing them in the same} category. The I. W. W. is an! organization of anarchists that | are avowed enemies of any and | all government. They seek only to destroy and not to construct. They preach and practice syndi- | calism and sabotage and can be | held down only by the strong} arm of the law, and in this is | needed the hearty co-operation of every citizen and in which the | legionaires have been of inesti- | mable service to’ their country. The Nonpartisan League how- ever has a right to its existence as a political party, while social- istic in its tendencies, is, never- theless advocating reforms along purely political lines and is not advocating overthrow of the gov ernment by force nor preaching syndicalism and sabotage. It is true, its leaders have been in- dicted for dislovalty but not con- victed, although they have been persecuted by the combined strength of the two great part- ies. republican and demorcratic with the bir business interests of North Dakota and Minnesota thrown in. The same week Townley’s trial was going on in Minnesota, the peonle of North Dakota voted a $20,000,000.00 hond issue thus approving the Lescue’s proeram and Townley’s policies to denounce the Non- partisan Jeague then, 2 Iso meane a denunciation of the maiority of the neonle of N. D. Tt js 2 serious matter to imnnen the Americanism and patrioticm of an entire commonwealth. The | | who received the endorsement of 4 da CP : 2 = 4 aie @O,,* ts Yr ,. +e wie The John Lauson responsible has been increased. farm help. you the only sure for itself, through increased time when your corn is ready to half the cost of running gasoline = Check the Specifications Responsibility of the manu- facturer counts for most in trac- tor ratings. Be sure you get an engine with a perfect cool- ing system, valve in head en- ne, completely enclosed and lust proof. Be sure the parts are made of the | available. Don’t buy a x. The grief and worry 20 great a loss. Tractor It is the work that fatigues farm help. —puts the Consider the short | | | | kills horses a crops, and you will find true ¢conomy im purchasing this dependable tractor. All Parts Are accessible tions. played a {nent roll in Idaho politics at the last election and although they Nonpartisans promi- were defeated they have not been annihilated. Some men now serving Idaho in the legisla- ture and congress owe their elec- tion to the league and it is a significent fact that not a single candidate in the last election the league repudiated that en- dorsement. Those who had the support of the league could not} see the danger of the new radi- calism or else placed their politi- cal ambition above principle. Frank Gooding saw the danger— to the success of his own politi- | cal ambition at least—and trained his guns on the league loaded with all the venom | and invectives that his political | managers could muster. True} he defeated Samuels, but neither did he elect himself. Within 60 | days after this spectular barrage of Goodings poisen gas and venom and his exhibition of his own conception of genuine Am- ericanism. President Wilson ap- pointed Mr. Samuels, the target of all this abuse to a position of honor and trust on some mission to Europe. Verily politics are hard to understand. Because we came to the de- fense of the principle that any gas nolitical party that advocates re-| forms along legitimate and pure- ly political lines even though re-|of doubt as to the sincerity, pa-|is too painful to repeat. MAEE UP your labor sh machinery. Put every acre under cultivation. drudgery. Select a Tractor—a LAUSON 15-25—and get all- We have been made the exclusive representatives here of the celebrated LAUSON Farm Tractor. We are pledged to satisfy and serve every LAUSON owner. Our reputation is at stake to guarantee you the kind of service you have a right to expect from the tractor you buy. i is ane of the old responsible’ manufacturers of farm engines, noted for their salability and serviceability. ‘The same experience is for the success of the LAUSON 15-25 Kerosene Burning Tractor” It same care and precision which has characterized LAUSON F ‘The LAUSON is made in only one size; all parts are interchangeable and There has been no change in general design for three years. Hyartand Timken Roller Bearings are used throughout. Perfex Radiator, Dixie Magneto, Kingston Carburetor and Bennet Air Cleaner insure ten-hour-a-day performance. Demonstrate on Your Farm A LAUSON 15-25 will earn its way on any farm of 100 acres or more. It is J ‘a guaranteed three-plow tractor with four-plow capacity under favorable condi- Don't buy a tractor until you hav guarantee of service, The number we have to sell is limited. Get one while you con. | legion itself has AUQVTAUHN AAT ARETTTTT Manufacturing Company of New Holstein, Wis., Horses cost too much to keep. yield, in one season. the grading, pull stumps or manure spreader. It has a 30 per cent surplus capacity engine., specially suited to can afford to own your own ensilage cutter and fill the bi cut. engines of the same horsepower, Specifications Rating—Draw-bar HP. 15, Bett H.P 25 Engine —Lauson-Beaver, 4%4-iech bore, ‘inch stroke. head Number Cylinders and Cyele—Fous. Normal Speed—950 R. P.M. Lubrication System— Splash and force jee ‘Transmission —-Lauson Selective Type sliding gest. Oil te gears. Number Speeds F: Two. Speed, M. P. H.—Low, 1 + plowing, 2%, high, 24. Number Wheels—Fout Drive W hecla—$4-inch diameter ; 12-inch face, Guide Wheels—32-inch diameter 6-inch face. Wheel Tread— Total V Luge—6, 000) Shipping Weight with Standard Equip- ment —6, 500 16-inch. inch. less fuel, water, oil und Standardized escena LAUSON. Try one on our pugnant to a majority of Ameri- can citizens has a right to its ex- istence we are classed as in sym-! pathy with that party. Basing! conclusions on such assumption, we suppose that because Charles Evans Hughes came to the de-| fense of the five socialists eject-| ed from the New York legisla-| ture, Mr. Hughes is in sympathy | with the socialists. We are nov| in sympathy with either the} socialists or the Non-partisans, | it is easy to get proof of that and we doubt not that Mr.| Hughes can proove that he is not in sympathy with the socialists. We profess sympathy and friendliness for the American Legion and realize the power and influence that will wield in shaping the affairs of our gov- ernment which is all the more reason why it is incumbent upon anyone in sympathy with their avowed principles of justice, freedom and democracy to call their attention to the pitfalls that they may be led into by| overzealous leaders either adver- | dently or inadverdently. We} could cite numerous press dis- patches where such has been the ease and it is truly gratifying) that in nearly everv instance the disavowed the acts and attributed them to} overzealousness or misdirected leadership. As we said before there has never been a particle DUST PROOF-ALL GEARS ENCLOSED LAUSON Tractors are in service in every part of the country. Production ‘A definite number has beenallotted to our territory. A demonstration can be arranged on the farm of any man who has a plowing or Wages are high. acres for every horse you own. y to increase your production. belt work problem with less It tak@@ the crops from five The Tractor stops ‘‘eating’’ when it stops working. It offers Many farmers make the machine pay A LAUSON 15-25 Insures Better Farm Work and More of It It will do all your plowing and do it better. It will do the'discing and harrowing, the heavy hauling and belt work. WithaLAUSON Tractor you gest silos in the shortest You can grind joni bale hay, do neigh- borhood threshing—anything and everything the large or the small farm engine will do. The speed is regulated from the operator's seat. The fuel is kerosene— triotism and spirit of fair play on the part of the rank and file of the legionaires themselves. Where false leaders have as- sumed power of the legion mem- bers, given time, may be trusted to correct the wrong. national officers came even to the five socialists ejected from the New York legislature. They did not do so out of sympathy | for the socialists but they insist | upon fair play and by doing so| have proven their championship of democracy and representative government. Hats off to the American Le- gion. We have been brandea pro-German, Non-partisan, I. W. W. or Bolshevik. The category embraces enough variety to suit | We} even the most fastidious. disclaim connection or sympathy with either or any of the cults and it effects us not a bit more than it did, Lodge, Johnson, Borah and a lot of other notabies who were denounced as such when they first started their opposition to the League of Na- tions, or in the words of H. N. Brailsford “League of Dam- nations.” It is true that before war was declared we were op- posed to it. We believed then that the cause of the war was what Wilson said in St. Louis Sent. 5th, 1919, when on his tour of the continent in the interests of the League of Nations, which The} Motorize Farm ortage with power farming’ Get away from the round service in the field and at the belt. UTTER TEE UCT ela th AGS, OCA ene built with the rost King Engines for twenty-three years. position before the war exactiy co-incided with that of the Re- view of Reviews and fully set forth in their last issue before the war, that of April 1917, also that of Edwin J. Clapp, Profes- sor of Economics, New York University, in his book Econo- mic Aspects of the War’ pub- lished shortly before our en- trance into the war and also by Senator Beveridge’s book writ- ten from personal observations and contact with European Monarchs as described in his book “What is back of the War.” We were wrong, so was the Re- view of Reviews, Edwin J. Clapp, Senator Beveridge, W. J. Bryan and thousands of others and if they are to be branded pro-German we will suffer the stigma along with them. After war was declared we set aside our personal convictions and did what we could to help win the war and we dare say that we were as loyal to our flag and country as any man no matter how much he waved the flag and pratted about his Americanism. It was natural that we could not enter the work with the hys- teria with which some men voci- ferated their patriotism which in a large measure consisted of de- nouncing those with whom be- fore war had heen declared they had been in disagreement. Na- turally the appelation of pro- Our | German is not coveted, but if it is incurred as a result of patrio- tic motives and action in doing that to one’s judgment and tirm convictions are tor the best interests of his country in so far as the facts are known at the time can not at its worst be classed other than a divergence of opinion. Only a fool or a knave would ever confuse these convictions with pacifism, pro- Germanism, or Bolshevism. But so thoroughly confused are the people the universities the Unit- ed States congress, the govern- ment departments, every news- paper office is stocked with men who are in mortal terror of those terrible epithets. They tip toe by day and quake and quail by night, because they know that at this moment the man who in domestic policy stands about where Roosevelt stood in 1912 and in foreign affairs where Woodrow Wilson stood when he first landed in Paris, and in his doctrine of toleration where John Milton stood two and a half centuries ago, is certain, abso- lutely certain to be called paci- fist, pro-German and Bolshevist. And thus the nation finds itself in the face of aggravated pro- blems without any source of in- formation that it can really trust, and without leaders to in- terpret events. People become restless and un- certain, and highly sensitive to moral epidemics. The one thing, the only thing that can stabilize men’s minds in the gigantic flux and shift of the present world, is trustworthy news, unadulterat- ed data, fair play of newspapers giving disinterested fact, and the free play of public opinion. As to other insinuations of our at- titude while in the legislature, we do not care to burden our reader with an explanation of the facts in the case as they con- cern only our own honor which cannot lightly be impugned. Suf- fice to say that when we were in © the legislature our country was not at war and any action that had for its purpose the preven- tion of war cannot be construed as unpatriotic, especially when we where elected on a peace pro- gram. To those who care to know what our attitude was at that time we suggest that they read, Reivew of Reviews, April edition 1917, Clapp’s “Economic Aspects of the War”, George Bernard Shaw’s “Common Sense about the War” as also Bertrand Russels_ writings. But who cares? The war is won even though peace is not. If some of the element in this country who pose as Super- Americans had come to the sup- port of Woodrow Wilson at the proper time and Wilson had not show quite such an intolerant attitude towards the Senate we might have realized the ideal principles of his pronouncements as to our aims in the war and also have had a workable League of Nations. But as it is, it is just what Brailsford says it is. W. B. HUSSMAN. POINTED PARAGRAPHS. Many a hot air dispenser de- velopes cold feet. We are apt to look upon can- did friends as enemies. Trouble never tries to dodge people who are looking for it. A tragedy is a comedy that fails to make good at the box office. The younger aman is the more he knows about women— he thinks. No, Hazel a man isn’t neces- sarily a cannibal because he eats lobsters. To sympathize with a woman, ery with her; to sympathize with a man, swear with him. Speaking of the skin games, the beauty specialist has the rest of the bunch skinned a block Many a man’s success is due to the fact that he went ahead first and made it right after- ward. Occasionally the short club knocks the persimmons before the long pole can get within reach, Some writer has said that as a rule preachers are not witty. Perhaps this may be due to the fact that brevity is the soul of wit. We still have several cars of alfalfa hay to arrive and would advise you ordering before prices are prohibiting and hay hard to eet at any price. Place vour orders today. Cottonwood Milling & Elevator Co. §2-tf