The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 10, 1916, Page 3

“sell them wheat at $1.00 per bushel, they sell it back to you THE NONPARTISAN LEADER THRER - League Members, Attention! A (all to Patriotic Action’ You Have Built the State and Have Produced Its Wealth, But Others Have Controlled to Their Profit and Your Detriment---You Now Have An Organization of Your Own and the Day Has Dawned for United Action to Preserve “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”---Being True to Each Other and the Principles and Program of the League Means the Defense of Your Homes, Your Prosperity, Your State and Your Country--- To Action, Men of North Dakota! OU have built the state of North Dakota. All its towns and cities, all its schools and public institutions, every railroad, telephone, bank and business institution, all of these would not be here but for your toil. You have builded all of them and you maintain them all. If you should cease to labor every town and city, every railroad, every bank The Great American Patriot---Father of His Country GEORGE WASHINGTON and business house would go out of existence. The state could not exist without you—you are the state. You work long hours and save—you deny yourselves, wives - and children: leisure, luxury, education—often the necessities of life, yet you are more than $300,000,000 in debt and in spite of all that you can make the soil produce the debt grows greater every year. - For while you toil and sweat a MIDDLEMAN’S BUSINESS SYSTEM, fixing prices, and protected by laws, takes frem you a hundred million dollars every year. You have no word to say - about what you pay for what you buy or the prices you get for what you have to sell: e iy A small number of organized middiemen and graftir}g poli- ticians conspire to make all the laws and fix all the priees, to ‘their great gain and your complete disadvantage. Though you .outnumber them ten to one you have been compelled to do their bidding because they were organized and you were not. e While you are busy producing an abundance for every human being, they though only a few in number, cunningly arrange to “take the lion’s share. You sell them fresh meat for six cents a pound—they smoke it and sell it back to you for 30 cents. You o breakfast food at $27.00 per bushel. You ask for a state owned 4 terminal elevator, they give you a law to govern the use of snuff. You ask for other needed legislation and they answer, “Go home and feed the pigs.” You, unorganized, till the soil and produce the wealth; they organized, fix prices and make the laws. But a new day dawns in North Dakota! Fifty thousand of her best citizens demand a change and are at work to bring about that change. You have awakened, farmer members of the League, and you are organized to act! On Washington’s birthday, February 22nd, you begin your work. What better day could you select to take up again the burden of the cause for which he lived and struggled—the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Be true to yourselves and your children and so be true to the principles of the greatest of American citizens. On that day, lay aside your work, go to the voting place in your precinct and there select a man who can be true to you and to the cause of Washington. Select a delegate from your precinct to represent you at the legislative convention to be held a little later. The success of the League depends on how faith- fully and well you attend to your duty in this matter of select- ing delegates. 5 Avoid the politician who seeks office, for he usually, though he may not admit it, seeks it for himself and not for the good that he may do for all the people. Avoid also the men who may be too friendly with bankers, middlemen and big business, for they may betray you. . A heavy and sacred duty will rest upon these delegates. Heretofore, when you went to the polls you have had no way of knowing about the fitness of candidates for the different offices. Usually they were all politicians seeking office for the benefit the office would bring to them, and if two or three good men were candidates the farmer vote would be split between them and some smooth grafter would be elected. Now these delegates, one from each precinct, will act as a committee to investigate the FITNESS of the candidates for office. They will learn which of the men who want your votes are sincere in their professions of friendship for the farmers and the people of the state, and if none for any given office, in the judgment of these delegates, are sincere they will find some - one who is and recommend that you support him at the polls. Or if two men are equally fit and sincere they will decide between the two, so you may throw all your voting strength to one man and make sure of his election. : So ifi you select for precinct delegates, strong, levelheaded men—men who seek nothing for themselves but only the good that they may do for you—then will the men whom they endorse to make your laws be men upon whom-you can depend, and when these men take up the affairs of this state they will have only one purpose—THE GREATEST GOOD FOR THE GREATEST NUMBER. Again, let us warn you to beware of the politician, for men who announce themselves candidates for office and spend their time and money to get the endorsement of -this League, are not so much concerned about your welfare as they are about office for themselves. Nine out of every ten politicians are the same kind of men who have always filled the offices, and have always betrayed you. : The best public servants are men among you whom you have to ask to take the office. They do not compromise and cheapen themselves by seeking: political honor. They are not blatant. Phey do not talk or even think of their own fitness. They are just solid, trustworthy neighbors of yours, whom you know in - every day dife. They do not want office. But when office is thrust upon them all power of greed and corruption: cannot in- fluence them. § | Washington was such a man. He was not a politician. He sought no office. His countrymen thrust the office upon him and how well he served them, every schoolboy knows. Many twentieth century Washingtons are among you. But you must hunt them out. ' They will never lower their manhood by Continued on Page 14 A o B e et A