The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 4, 1916, Page 6

§ - SIX B i THE NONPARTISAN LEADER Mr. Bacon Writes a Letter. And Mr. Kurtz Writes One, Too, Riéht »*-Baick; Read Both and See Which One You Like Best . - E. E. Kurtz is a farmer of Schafer and a member of the Nonpartisan League. The Grand Forks Daily Herald is one of the newspapers that has been mak- ing attacks on the League, just as it has on many other move- ments through which the farm- ers have sought relief from poli- tical and economic oppression. Mr. Kurtz used to be one of the subscribers of the Herald. Like a good many other farmers who have resented the attacks of the Herald on their organiza- tion he wrote to the Herald. ask- ing that his subscription be can- celed. (This is getting to be a very popular occupation among the thinking farmers of Nerth ’ Dakota.) -The Herald didn’t like to cut Mr. Kurtz’s name off -its lists. It was uncomfortable to have the farmers analyzing the mo- tives of the newspaper which they were supporting through their subscriptions. It was un- comfortable to have the farmers asking: “What is this newspaper . doing with the money we are paying to keep it alive? using that money to furnish us news discolored and distorted with the object of defeating our interests? Are we paying some- body to fight us?” : So the Grand Forks Herald didn’t cut Mr. Kurtz’s name oft n ) W3 .w.' .',Al" i C ter, aski g him please name stay -on the lists of sub- scribers and ‘supporters of this paper, this enemy of the farmer. The business manager wrote him at length. He realized he had a lot of explaining to do, 0 A CORRECTION | Editor Nonpartisan Leader: |, | I have just learned the truth | of the incident of the $5 bill. ‘ and the reporter for the Ceourier- News, which caused the so-called | editor of that publication to ad- | vertise the fact that members of | his staff are in a receptive atti- ‘ tude toward tips of all kinds, or “pickups,” as he calls them. The | man who handed the $5 hill to the reporter- during the Grain- growers’ convention didn’t do so in order to buy space in the | | Couriex-News. I have it on good I authority that he doesn’t consider all the available space in the pa- I i | per worth that much. No, the man i | with the $5 bill had agreed’ to send out to another newspaper a yeport of the day’s proceedings of the convention. He found himself pressed for time and asked the lo- | cal reporter to do the work for him. He handed the reporter the $5 bill, a legitimate wage for an honest service. I write this cor- : rection in justice both to the man | ~ who paid the money and the re- | porter who accepted it. I have | no doubt that the latter is an | honest and hard-working young man. If there is anyone on the Courier-News who accepts bribes I don’t think it is the reporter. ‘ —JULIUS SHOEMAKER. (5, FARMERS CAN STICK A very successful meeting was held ~ at Powers Lake on April 5 with more than 200 farmets in attendance. The speaker handled his subject well and was constantly cheered by the audi- ence. It is now hard to find a farmer- in this/part of the state that does not belong to the Nonpartisan League. Who said the farmers couldn’t stick? Be dad; and they are sticking tight- . er every day.—. Is it. - . YOUNGQUIST. L and it had to be a long letter. showed it to some friends and Mr. Kurtz has been kind enough to send this letter to the Leader. it—it gave them a few such hap- It was too good: to keep. He py moments to see the enemy A LETTER FROM THE GRAND FORKS HERALD. _ Mr. E. E. Kurtz, Schafer, N. D., Dear Sir:. 3 % We regret very much to receive your letter of April 14 asking us cancel your subscription to the Grand Forks Daily Herald. If you feel that the Herald is trying to discourage or knock the Nonpartisan League you are entirely mistaken, as we have neyer had any desire to do that. We have only assailed the organizers of the League, who appear to us from a most thorough investigation to be simply agitators and boomers who will take out of the Nonpartisan League whatever they are able in the shape of remuneration for their services and then pass on to greener fields, leaving the" League . dis- rupted within its own ranks and in a position where it will be much more difficult for them to get together later on. ~ The -Herald. always has believed in business organization of farmers or any other class of people for the purpose of promoting the agricultural interests of the country. As proof of the above assertien you will nete the publicity that we have given to the Kempton Farmers' Coeperative Livestock proposition on page 10 ef our issue of Friday morning, April 14th, this morning. Also note the publicity for the Farmers' elevator for Douglas, N. D, on page of our issue of April 14. Every day you will find articles of this sort in the Herald, which meet with the entire approval of the management of the Herald. e ‘What we believe the farmers should do is te organize and run their own business, elect their own officers; perfect their own. organization and conduct their own affairs without hiring a bunch of outside socialistic agitators. 5 MR. BACON’S INTEREST IN “FARM LANDS.” Toshow_you how inconsistent it would be for the Herald to oppose arything which is for the good of North Dakota farm lands, especially, I would-advise that Mr. J. D. Bacen is the chief owner in the Grand Forks.Daily Herald, but his chief financial interests lie in several thou- sands ‘acres of North Dakota farm lands, which he owns and operates and hopes to make a profit from them. No person gives more freely of his time in vis\itifig‘rfhrming insti- tutions and talking to farmers of our state than does Mr. Bacon. - Not only that, but he;has made frequent trips east solely in the interest of North Dakota and its farm lands. T 5 Concerning the Herald itself I venture the statement that there is 3 inati apers-in the State of- ; Dakota whi N0 paper or no combination of pape ate of which .send out:some literature to: the east erning ‘our ei_-v’i%‘g ‘have - instrumental in compiling and. working- out statisti coneerning the State of b%th Dakota which have gone broadcast through the east ceniral states. [ = . : S o i We have not discontinued your paper-as yet, but if you will advise me that after reading this letter you still wish the same di tinued . we shall be glad to.comply with your request. I believe, however, that the time is not far distant when you will thank the Herald for the attitude it has taken concerning ‘the organizers of the Nonpartisan League. Yours very truly, J. F. BACON, Business Manager, & S Grand Forks Daily Herald. A LETTER TO THE GRAND FORKS DAILY HERALD. The Times-Herald Publishing Company, Grand Forks, N. D., Gentlemen: Your letter of the 14th inst. at hand,.and contents carefully -noted. In reply will say: ; 0 I may be mistaken as you say, regarding the Herald “knocking the League,” hut it looks. to me as though it was. You admit knocking the organizers or the head men, don’t you? Well, in my estimation, it is always the leaders that are being sought first, in order to break up a gang or organization. B Uncle Sam is at present trying to break up a gang in Mexico—if they are successful in capturing the leader. 4 We are at present organizing a farmers’ league in this state for ~a good purpose—not a bad one. Qur leaders, or organizers, are not bad men; they are not criminals; the majority of them are, or have been, farmers. Maybe one or two of them have gome broke, hut it is a wonder that all of us are not broke before now under existing conditions 1 AM GOING TO ASK YOU ONE @R TWO MORE QUESTIONS AND LET YOU JUDGE FOR YOURSELF. IF YOU WERE TQ STOP A-RUNAWAY HORSE, WOULD YOU CATCH HIM BY THE TAJL TO STOP HIM? OF COURSE NOT! YOU WOULD GET HIM BY THE HEAD. IF YOU WERE GOING TO CAPTURE A SWARM OF BEES YOU WOULD TRY TO GET THE QUEEN BEE FIRST, WOULD YOU NOT? JF A PRAIRIE FIRE SWEPT THE STATE AND BORE IN ORBER UNDER CONTROL.: e And just "so_with leaders of the League. . You are going to them first, and .then try and control the League. Now, the Leagueg?: like the fire sweeping the state—not destroying though—they are Zaing to sweep the state and make a general cleaning for the benefit of all, not ~oR fe¥' }individ:glz. = e ; appened ‘to one of the delegates to the state econventi Fargo amg helped to select- the candidates. We picked the: bg:tn:te could find, and the organizers had no hand in it either. But this is ~ not-all. We are going to elect them this fall in spite of all oppositian, - ; a?(} fqr-1 otr;ce in many years give the people of fl?; state a clean piece - of legislation, - i ¢ ; 2k Sl : I NOTE WHAT YOU SAY REGARDING MR. BACON’S LAND HOLDINGS IN THIS STATE. I SURE WOULD LIKE TO HAVE THE "I;LEASURE, OF SEEING HIM FOLLOWING A DRAG ON A REAL 'INDY DAY—OR PITCHING HAY, OR SHOCKING GRAIN-—AND AFTER HE GOT HIS CROP READY FOR MARKET SEE HIM TURN IT OVER TO THE BIG INTERESTS FOR, SAY, 50c ON THE DOLLAR. I FEEL CERTAIN HE WOULD THEN .BE READY TO JOIN THE LEAGUE AN BE A BOOSTER FOR IT, TOO. SR I thank you for canceling my subseription to the Herald,! S iPEGG U X Yours, E. E. KURTZ. = they were so well pleased with’ | and it will be a cold da squirm—they begged him to pass it along. 3 Mr. Kurtz, after receiving this ; remarkable letter, sat down and wrote another letter to the Her- ald. The Leader has that letter, too. We leave you te judge if it isn’t just as interesting a let- ter as Mr. Baecon’s, even though : written by a plain, hard-working J farmer. Mr. Kurtz's letter isn’t B as long as Mr. Bacon’s. He didn’t : have as much to explain. But ~his letter gets there just the same. The Leader reprints it be- cause it is proper that these at- tacks on the leaders of the farm- ers’ organizations should be an- swered by the farmers them- selves. : Read Mr. Bacon’s letfer all through. You will enjoy it. It . has some good things in it. No- tice that the Herald, and Mr. Ba- con, are working for “THE AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS OF THE COUNTRY.” Maybe you might think this is a wordy man’s way of saying that he is working for the farmer. But not so. Read a little further. “Mr. Bacon’s chief finaneial interests lie'in several thousands acres of North Dakota farm lands.” These, no doubt, are the “agri- cultural interests” for which Mr. Bacon is working, rather than _the welfare of the farmers:“Not® ~ only that, but he has made sev- .eral trips-east solely in the in e :of: North Dakota and’ : - farm lands.”’" Did he ever make’ ' any trips east IN THE INTER- NORTH DAKOTA WHO TILL ITS FARM LANDS? 7 He doesn’t say so, and we have to conclude that he didn’t. A SMITH PROPHECY AMUCK Mr. Hall has been indorsed by the Nonpartisan League, which is the only thing that might reflect upon his candidacy, but this should not, as anyone who is elose to Tom knows how serious he takes the League. It is_hardly likely that he will line u with the League ecandidates, but hle, could not objegt te them indorsing i }um_, or supporting him for reelection. if While the League has held several e r‘;}::hngs whfre cta!ggidates for office ' ! e present, yet it was noticeable thatPem Hall did not appear to be there.—BISMARCK PUBLIC OPIN- < ION, George J. Smith, Editor. “They told me, said Mr. Hall, “that I had a better chance without the League’s indorsement. They used various - arguments and promised various kinds of support if I would give up the League’s support. The League’s indorsement came to me un- * solicited and'I consider it the greatest honor T ever had. T could not have a better asset in this campaign than the approval of 385,000 farmers for my - candidaey. I intend to live up to the o3 eonfidence in me the farmegs have, _ When an; kind of promises or uences . ca.lyx bring me to throw away' this honor. These fellows ‘have another guess. m League candidate for secre- % MEST SAY T like the way vou o after the compt.polificians,)"g,:é‘ \C.'g S : w‘t‘l"'gt‘wliht"%ether and knock ‘them ' = : ~out, for the farmers helong in tha; - % _Place—R. STAHN. ~ CC Den . 'AM SENDING you a new memb to join our'circle.r):"l‘-lflnkn;gem: 13 O, K. Hope to see th o - g0 ahead.—JOHN ANDERSON,