The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 6, 1916, Page 14

14 8 35! i B it ek S U D 12 FOURTEEN The Nonpartisan Leader ‘PUBLISHED WEEKLY—EVERY THURSDAY o TS e S i s e e SN S A SO I S S R SRR Official Paper of the Farmers’ Nonpartisan Political League of North Dakota b At etetial Dbt e ot ML b it e e ool S Tor s Il Entered as second-class matter September 3; 1915, at the postoffice at Fargo, North Dakota, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Herbert Gaston, Editor. Advertising rates on application. u@ Subscription, one year, in advance, $1.50; six months, $1.0 Communications intended for the paper "should be addressed to the Non- partisan Leader, Box 919, Fargo, North Dakota, and not to any individual. D. C. Coates, Managing Editor. 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 promptly should they have occasion to doubt or question the reliability of any firm which patronizes our advertising columns. Discriminating advertisers recognize the Nonpartisan Leader as_the best medium in the state of North Dakota through which to reach the wideawake and up-to-date farmers. THE STATE CONVENTION. HIS ISSUE of the Leader brings to the farmers of North A Dakota—those of them who did not attend the great con- vention massmeetings at Fargo last week—the names of the men whom their delegates have nominated for state offices. ; Last week the Leader printed most of the names of the men nominated at the district conventions for membership in the legis- lature. The Leader said then that it was proud of the work of the conventions and proud of the men who had been nominated. It presents the list of candidates for state office with the same feelings in greater degree. It was a compalatlvely easy task for the farmer delegates to the district conventions, meeting in their own districts, to choose as their legislative candidates men whom they personally knew to be well fitted to represent them in the legislature. It was a task much more difficult for the farmer delegates gathering from all over the state to pick out men well fitted for their indorsement for state office. The record of the state convention is a triumph that will go down in history. The candidates nominated ought to sweep the state. Every farmer in the state, whether he belongs to the League or not, should vote for these men. Every citizen of the state who wants better government, government in the interest of the people, should vote for these men, regardless of whether he is a farmer or whether he has any interest in the farming industry besides the fact that he lives in a farming state. It was not merely in naming its candidates that this state convention achieved a triumph. The character of its deliberations is just as much to its credit. In other columns of this issue of the Leader there is told the story of the convention in detail. From the lips of the delegates themselves the members of the League may learn how their can- didates were chosen. Never before in the history of the state has there been a political gathering where discussion was as free and open; never was there one with so complete absence of wire pulling; never was there a political gathering with so little friction; never was there one in which all present were so well satisfied. Those officers of the League who counted on the state delegates to make complete answer to the charges that have been made against the League and its officers are exultant today. The dele- gates have spoken. Read what they say in the columns of the Leader. Write to them. Hunt them up and talk to them. Hear in their own words what sort of an organization their League is and just how it goes about its business. There is no secret about what was done at the conventlon The record and the result are open for inspection and for criticism. OUR CANDIDATES. HERE are farmers in the League’s list of state candidates. They are all good men and big men. Otherwise they would )] not have been selected. There are other men in the list who are not farmers. They also are good men and big men. The state convention has indorsed for election or re-election several men now holding public office. There is no apology needed for that.- The members of the League want from men in state ofiice just exactly what every good citizen wants. They want honesty, ability and loyalty to the service of the people. If they can find these qualities PLUS EXPERIENCE, so much the better, The League delegates in their state convention canvassed the records of men now holding state office who are candidates for election and they approved the records and indorsed the aspir- ations of Tom Hall, the present secretary of state, who seeks re- election to that office; of Carl R. Kositzky, secretary of the tax com- mission and county commissioner of Burleigh county, who is a candidate for state auditor, and of William Langer, state’s attorney of Morton county, who seeks election as attorney general of the state. Staté’s Attorney Langer has achieved a record as a man vigi- lant in the enforcement of the law. His activities against boot- \‘l:ggels and bhndplgs have won h1m the mdoz sement of many anti- THE NONPARTISAN LEADER : S liquor organizations and the approval of all who believe that when laws are written on the statute books they should be enforced. That is the sort of man the members of the League want to see in state office—a man who has the courage to do his sworn.duty. The League doesn’t want to oust from state office men who, have shown themselves reasonably w1111no' and able ‘to serve the - people right. . The schools of the state need the supervision of men especlally fitted for this work. The League has indorsed for state superin- tendent of schools N. C. Macdonald of Valley City, present super- visor of rural consolidated schools. ~He is a North Dakota product, a graduate of the state umversfl:y—a good and competent man for the job. The whole list of fourteen state norrunees includes eight far- mers, three state office holders, one county office holder, one college professor and two lawyers. There is not a man in the list who is not eminently worthy of the support of every voter in the state. Every member of the League can work for all of these candidates with enthusiasm, because he will find them to be men able and will- ing to serve him and to serve the state. As was said last week of the legislative indorsements, so it can be said of these state indorsements. Never did any political party or faction in the state of North Dakota put forward a ticket as clean and high-grade as this NONPARTISAN list -of indorse- ments by the members of the Farmers’ Nonpartisan Political League. LYNN J. FRAZIER FOR GOVERNOR. FARMER candidate for governor! How does that sound to the farmers and the other good people of North Dakota who “),J ave used to being bossed by bankers and politicians? Your delegates, beset by ambitious politicians, consid- - ering the claims of rival office-seekers, have shown that they dared to be independent. They have hominated a man unknown in politics—an honest, conscientious, able, fearless and substantlal citizen; a veteran farmer, a graduate of the state university of this very state, a man respected by all who know him. ; Your delegates didn’t try to pick a man with a political follow- ing. -All they tried to do was to find a man big enough, honest enough and able enough to make a good governor. They found him. They indorsed him. He'is Lynn J. Frazier of Hoople, North Dakota, a member of the Farmers’ Nonpartisan Political League. He is the right man for governor. He ought to be elected gov-- ernor. HE MUST BE ELECTED GOVERNOR. It is up to you to see that he is. Then there will be a free and honest man in the governor’s office, a-man really devoted to the welfare of the state— no political trimmer, no agent of Big Business, no financial plunder- er, but a real representative of the common people. Will you elect this man governor? ; Let’s do it. Let’s get to work now. Let’s show the politicians something about politics. : You've got a man worth working for. And HE WILL WIN! : NONPARTISAN — WHAT IT MEANS. ONPARTISAN henceforward means something to the people of North Dakota. The Farmers’ League has written the word across the state in big type that can be read and under- stood. What does it mean? As far as the League is comncerned it means: THE BEST MAN REGARDLESS OF PARTY. The district convention indorsements proved that in every dis- trict. The state convention indorsements have proved it more fully and more plainly. Why should partisan politics have anything to do with state affairs in North Dakota? For no reason in the world—no legiti- =~ mate reason, that is. There is a reason from the politician’s standpoint, and a very good reason, too. Partisanship in state affairs helps to obscure the real issues and divide the people. To the politicians belong the’ spoils. So far as there is any meaning at all in party divisions the meaning relates to national and not to state affairs. The issues— if there are any real issues—are national issues. Votmg a party ticket for state offices because it is a party ticket is as senseless and wrong as it would be to vote a church tlcket or a Iodge ticket for the same offices.’ The last excuse for national party partisanship in state affairs vanished when by - constitutional amendment the people of the United States provided for the direct election of United States sen- ators. Before that the political complexion of the legislature de- cided the political affiliation of the man who was to go to the United States senate. Men who wanted a republican senator voted the republican legislative ticket. They have gone on doing it because ‘ they are used to doing it. In the meantime real issues have grown up in the state, the chief one of which is the question of whether the state shall be ruled by its citizens or by crooked pohtlclans in the interest of political and commercial vandals and pirates, - It is time to get rid of this'nonsense. It is time to thro the chams of party cont1 ol and get down to busi