The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 23, 1916, Page 6

THE NONPARTISAN LEADER The Nonpartisan Leader PUBLISHED WEEKLY—EVERY THURSDAY Official Paper of the Farmers’ Nonpartlsan Political League of North Dakota Entered as second-class matter September 8, 1915, at the postofiice at Fargo, North Dakota, under the Act of March 3, 1879. D. C. Coates - - & g < & X X Advertising rates on application. Subscription, one year, in advance, $1.50; six months, $1.00. Communications intended for the paper should be addressed to the Non- partisan Leader, Box 919, Fargo, North Dakota, and not to any individual. The Leader solicits advertisements of meritorious articles needed by Farmers. Quack, fraudulent and irresponsible firms are not knowingly ad- .vertised, and we will take it as a favor if any readers will advise us promgtly should they have occasion te doubt or questlon the rehabxhty of any which patronizes our advertising columns. Discriminating advertisers_recognize the Nonpartlsan Leader as the best medium in the state of North Dakota through which to reach the wideawake HE Leader presents to its readers in this issue the aston- Most of the important facts regarding thls bank fail- In particular, the people of North Dakota have been denied ac- and up-to-date farmers. ishing story of the collapse of the Medina State bank in ure and the deals behind the scenes that preceded it heretofore have cess to the evidence which goes to show the connection of the gov- Managmg Editor @ HANNA AND THE MEDINA BANK January, 1914. been denied publicity. ernor of their state with these transactions, both in his private . capacity as the leading banker of the state and in his capacity as a public official sworn to uphold the law and to protect the interests of the public, and especially the interests of the dep051t01s in the banks of the state. The Leader does not now propose to speak its full mind concern- ing Hanna’s connection with this.case. It reserves opinion for two reasons: First, because the facts speak plainly for themselves and eévery man who can read can judge; and, second, because it does not want to do injustice eithei to Han- na or to any other man. It does not want to prejudice the people of this state in forming their judgment of this incident. The case here is, after all, bigger than Hanna and bigger than the connection of any individual or set of individuals with the col- lapse of this particular bank and the loss of the hard-earned savings of those who trusted the bank and ‘its officials. It is important to every citizen of the state of Nor th Dakota, because it shows how Big Business, on the inside of the big deals which cause banks to go to the wall, can hurry to protect-its own interests and let the “little fellows” bear all the loss. It shows how the state laws, as they have been administered in North Dakota, totally fail to protect the very. persons who are entitled to protection, while the men who gamble with vast sums of money and who speak of the savings of a lifetime as a “little ac- count” of some $700 or $800 or $1,000, can dodge the disaster they _ themselves have brought about. That is the big issue before the members of the Nonpartisan League and before all the people of the state. When a bank can go on receiving deposits after it is a matter of common knowledge among bankers that it is tottering; when bank- ers, that faet being known, can rush in te protect themselves more than amply and thus knock the last props out from under the fail- ing institution, without hindrance by the official chiefly entrusted with protecting the depositors of all the banks in the state; when that official in his private capacity becomes one of the beneficiaries ° of that action—then indeed there is something rotten with the banking laws of the state and their administration. Was it for this that the leading banker of the state was elect- ed its chief executive and the chief administrator of the banking laws? Do the people of the state of North Dakota know why they elected and re-elected Hanna governor? Was-it for the private benefit of Hanna the banker and his high-finance associates of the Weiser syndicate? . The people of the state must seek the answer to thls questlon and when they have found it they must act upon it. It may be realized before the Leader is done with its search- ing of the records of this state that it is working not alone in the interests of the farmers of the Nonpartisan Political League but that it is working in the interests of the people of the whole state, and in the interests of clean government, The people of the state may be brought to reahze that in th1s organ of the Farmers’ League they have at last a newspaper that dares to print the truth. - And that is what chlefly has been needed in thls state THE CHALLENGE TO BATTLE i A‘ 4:'_' . F the farmers of the state think they can get what they want without a fight they may quickly learn better by. reading of the formation of the Insurance Federatlon of North Dakota and noting its purposes. The Leader has shown in previous issues the huge profits thath : are being made in hail insurance ‘and how the present state law i " so framed that it offers no-effective compet1tmn to It goes further in thls issue and wfll g pames. . right out into the open. ‘ness. ' put an end in those states to one of the dirtiest grafts of unscru- other issues in takmg up the general question of msurance .profits to show what a heavy tax this busmess is upon the productlve in- dustries of: the state. - The insurance men have frankly announced their mtentmn to fight to protect this business and these profits. The members of - the League know what to expect. They can admire these partic- ular enemies of their program for being honorable enough to come But this opposition is to go further than the insurance busi- It seeks to link together other state-wide business to resist projects for state control of business and state enterprise. It is, in fact, a challenge to the League on every line of its program, a move to prevent it from accomplishing its main objects. . - So the fight is on. The enemy is consolidated and ready to move as a unit. There is no going back now. 5 Are we all ready for the fight? Is there dny famt-hearted" i ; LOOK OUT FOR THE “GOOD MEN.” SHORT time ago one of the state papers suggested that the run agamst the League candidates! That’s some compli- ment to your organization. They as much as admit you couldn’t be defeated with the kind of men they have been runnmg ; for office. This is a favorite trick of big business—to run for office' good men that can be controlled. You will be told that the men running against your candldates are just as good or better than those the farmers indorsed. Grant it! Grant that every candidate big business puts up is honest and sincere—all good men. But—the good men indorsed by big business will serve big business because they will, if elected, owe their election to big busi- ness. If they are honorable men they will serve the powers that elected them. That is why you win nothing if you vote for these big-business “good men.” Even if some of the men your delegates indorse are not any better men than some big business candidates they are better candidates for you because they will do what you want done. So when the storm breaks don’t let them fool you. Just stick to your own candidates, for if you do not you lose again. A FINAL WORD OF WARNING NE more word of warning before the storm breaks. - The next issue of the Leader will announce the names of the men whom your delegates will have endorsed. Then watch the antics of the politicians and self seekers. Watch them tear their shirts. But be not alarmed. If you mem- bers of the League will just sit tight and keep cool these gentlemen: will interfere with nobody’s welfare but their own. They will de- stroy nothing but their own clothes. Give them rope and they will hang themselves. Remember, when these over anxious politicians find you have left them out they will say anything and do anything to destroy your League. While they had hopes that you might endorse them these self seekers had no word of fault to find with either -your orgamzatlon or the men at the head of it. Only when they find that they can not use the League to gain their selfish purposes do they condemn it—only when they find they can not centrol its officers do they vilify them. : They will make much noise trying to get you exclted and . confused. If you will sit tight, refuse to be disturbed, and follow the course you have mapped out you will win. (e SSL * WHY NOT JUST GET THE FACTS? -’ OT a smgle state msurance plan has been anythmg but a fiasco.” So reads a sentence in a circular letter sent out by the ; promoters of the new Insurance Federation of North Da- ‘kota. The statement is made on the authority of Mark T -McKee, secretary of the National Council of Insurance Federatlons, who was brought to this state to launch this attack on the Farmers Nonpartisan League and its objects.’ ! If this is a sample of the “educational” efforts to be expected of the new federation they are stariing in with the assumptlon that the people of this state don’t know very much That we be- : heve, is .a ‘dangerous assumption to make. 5 The workmen’s compensation acts of a number of states have pulous lawyers ‘and soulless b1g busmess “with whlch any govern: ment ever had to deal. Are these laws a “fiasco?” Then the hlgh courts vfluch 3 pronounced them salutary measures and ‘good ‘pub made up of lying shysters then every statesman an ,j' 6 these laws good and beneficial is a demagogue, It is. a cheap process to deal merely best way to defeat the League was to put up good men to _ )