The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 25, 1916, Page 12

g ‘ “ ELL, the gang’s all here,” commented Slipry, mock- 1 = ingly, as Crafty busied himself with some letters of! and telegrams and had not noticed that evi - . Dodger, Smoanthe_and M. T. Head had foi entered the headquarters.” M. T. Head otl | was a new recruit to the Crafty forces ha and was noted for his ability to line up bo editors, lodges and labor organizations. At Slipry’s remark Crafty scowled at f him from under his heavy brows but said ¢ ~— nothing in reply. ’ The big boss then turned from his desk, struck a match and relighted his cigar while he glanced around the room. § “What’s the news, Slipry?” he in- { ... quired, directing his question to the latter. 3 §" “Nothin’ new,” replied Slipry, “unless . N 3 _—-you would-consider ‘hard luck’ something mi g new. That seems to. me, however, pretty old stuff.” Crafty’s face g darkened, while 8- Slipry continued. plg‘ ; “T}I:ey are as thy ' tight as a drum qut &5 down at League h’z /7 headquarters. . -Two or three fel- lers have got the sore : head ; and _.slopped over a little but they didn’t spill noth- , in’ much for the simple reason that there ain’t nuthin’ to spill. But when you see and size up those fellers you are convinced at once that they are small potatoes and no one" has any confidence in ’em. All they can i, _s®ey—ie—just--what the enemies of the £ ' League puts in their mouths and all that * has been repeated so much that nobody believes it any more, if they ever believe it in the first place.” “Well,” said Crafty, “if things are quiet, I guess it is up to us to make some noise——" “0, there’s plenty of noise,” Slipry butted in, “but of course these farmers are the ones that’s makin’ it. They've got the line busy.all the time and you can’t even get central an’ when you do happen to get a feller on the line he yells at you to ‘ring off, the line’s busy,” just . -as soon as he finds out who you are.” Crafty sat in silence for a full minute and the “boys” knew from his expres- Sion that something new was brewing. CRAFTY’S SOLILOQUY: “ARE WE BEATEN?” The Dictagraph-then caught thé fol- { lowing important message, uttered by It Crafty, as though he was talking in his & sleep: “Is it possible that we, old hands at the game, are going to let that farmer from Beach, or wherever he hails from, slip.one over on us? He gives us cards and spades and then takes every trick. Packed decks and secret signal codes do "~ not seem to stem his run of good luck, or whatever it is.. By the great horn spoon we've got to get busy and that quick, ‘too, or we’ll miss connections with the %« bread wagon——" Just then the telephone rang and “Slipry, noticing- Crafty’s preoccupied - state of mind, took down the receiver. “Crafty’s headquarters,” he monotoned into the transmitter. ¢ turned to Crafty and stated that Doc { }%. e —ty % = Guilty of the Daily Cargo Distorted Views wanted to speak to him. just now. “0, tell him to go to—tell him I’'m busy I'll call him when I want to talk to him,” Crafty exploded. on. (Tm wim e ) Wae caL W ig Lee ' ]Zo Auslf up Game of lthe By NP epicfayra/)fi: this The new Rubes.” learn. But he’s’a good mud hook and he likes mud as well as a duck likes water but we have to hold him back. He’s “That fellow makes me sick,” he went I've got to watch him every minute. He thinks he knows the political game but if he only knew it he’s got a lot to new in the game and pulls on the bit too hard and there’s danger that he'll get in so deep that he’ll never get out. But They’re All Willing to Sign The Nonpartisan League, Fargo, N. D. . Gentlemen: Enclosed please find petitions for League candidates, it I am sorry I have not got any. more signers than.1 have, but I have been so busy, have not had much time to get out. : I could have had about sixty signersiif I could have gone out more. are 80 busy in: the field that they don’t take time to come tp town; and then it is'hard to get around to see them all; They are all will- I never saw a ing to.sign. signers for as this one. need.——JOHN- MOLINE., I hope you will get all the signers you need. I hope-every candidate will be elected- They are just the men we ' The farmers petition yet that was so easy to get ““Touching _(foirfnx}btee . ~a.lot-of ffe_ll’ei'S'for‘mor‘e © Producers Are Heavily Burdened Editor Nonpartisan Leader: I cir- culated the petitions for League candi- dates and got the signatures-of all voters in the township who were home. Some are registered as socialists and will .be \ unable to vote for our-men at the June- primaries. We can depend, however, on getting the votes of all those in the pre- - cinet who registered Republican. I signed up another member to the League. s ; I expected to get more but owing to the rather insecure financial conditions of these men they refused to chance be- _ing unable to pay the check this fall. In a mement, he These men are all loyal to the League but most of them are having a hard struggle - to. make both ends meet. I have been giving them some' of the Leaders that I had saved and we’ll post them up before -election. The farmers. are. certainly ‘in need of better legislation inNorth Dakota. ' The taxes here are-almost confiscatory. Old line hail insurance companies have raised the premium for 1916 to ten per cent, in this section of the. state. : A law in use in New Zealand by which the. government ‘exercises its right of eminent domain by buying land held by speculators and seling it on long, easy terms to actual settlers would work out: here I think. 5 ; The landed aristocracy there; as heve, retarded development and. forced people into industrial slavery by charging their. tenants extortionate rentals or held _their' lands out of use. Thousands of acres of good land is -lying here in western North Dakota pro- ducing nothing and thousands of willing men and women are sincerely anxious to own a farm and help in producing the -are making history and T hope you will necessities of life. Something must be done to. bring these two elements to- gether. Other governments have begun to realize the necessity of providing their . people with land and putting a stop to the growing menace of land monopoly. German efficiency is attributable pri- marily to the fact that they have some of the best social and economic laws of any nation on earth. That is why the Germans love ~their fatherland. Even though an imperial government it takes far greater care of its people than does cour ~own government. Germany has learned to conserve its people as well as its natural resources. Here all things are subservient to money. The capital- ist is a. god and most of our politicians and some of our presidents worship at his shrine, R \ The 'Leader and the leaders of the League ‘are to be congratulated on the success thus far attained and should we fail in electing all of our indorsees, which we trust we-shall not, these men and the Leader will have awakened the people to a knowledge of- their vast power and responsibility—a revelation that will arouse them to action analagous only to the great revolutions in history, where the people have thrown off the intoler- able yoke of oppression in their fight for civic and economic liberty. '~ - - Thanks to' the League and kindred co- operative enterprises we are on the eve - of industrial and political changes that will educate all of us to the duty we owe both to ourselves and to posterity in:con- serving our natural wealth and utilizing it to the common good. © ' g . You who are leading this' movement succeed —HOWARD C. ATKINSON. - ' PAGE TWELVE . he’ll‘do anything we tell him to-and that means that he'll be good ‘as long as—as long as'we want him:to. © = .- “But. what I.started to-say was: this: I’ve been out over.the state a little my- self an’ I find that them fellers that lectured all over the country last winter certainly put the armor plate around the Nonpartisan League. " They’ve load- ed them farmers to the muzzlé and you can’t get an idea into their skulls with a submarine. -They do all the talking and rattle off stuff about farmers paying 75 per cent of the taxes, casting 80 per cent of the vote and.losing $55,000,000 a year on wheat until. you would think they were all professors of economics” TOUCHING COMMITTEE IS NEEDED RIGHT AWAY Dodger tried to-get in a word just here but Crafty was wound up for a speech and waving a silencing hand at him: . ! “There’s. one" thing ‘that’s' got - to be done * and ‘“done.: quick”"he said with emphasis. “W ¢ significant sneer, “but that’s of their blooniin’ business. When . we can get'a feller’s money invested: in a thing we'can get more work out of him. ~ Besides we’ve got to make some liberal contributions to some " worthy charitable causes so’s to line up some o’ " -them organizations. “Now here’s a letter I have just received from the Society for the Erec- tion .of a Monument for the Dead Cock of the Pit. I have answered them that because of th/e corrupt practice act it will be impossible to make a direct contribu- -tion but reminded them that our candi- date for governor will be in their city soon and that he will mention their good work to his many friends and urge them to give it the support it so richly deserves.” it Crafty studied in silence a moment. “Oh yes,” he exclaimed, “I’m going to the Sin Twitties tomorrow to call on Big Biz and replenish the munitions store. I had a telegram to day from Him Jill and I'm sure that he’ll come through with a handsome sum. : “Dodger, I want you to keep up the. work among the bankers and business men and Empty Head you must - keep after the newspapers. 1 see you .did some good work on this last trip for you lined up a couniry weekly with fully 300 circulation.” e ety ; “Yes,” -interrupted Dodger, “but two - other®papers. with twice the circulation flopped over to the League while he was getting that one. That don't look to me _like very swift work.” Crafty frowned and Head shrugged his shoulders. . The big-boss looked at: Dod- ger .and . gritted: his _teeth. . Dodger turned his eyes awd - __dnw winked st Slipry, who (GOODNIGHT( bit his lips., - e “Now, :mo balking = on this job,”-‘stormed . g Crafty. “We can’t - ‘ quit at this stage of the game and there's no use gettin® cold feet, i 80 get busy now and 4 get results—get . re- ZB= gulta? Sooin it e O ol