The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 15, 1916, Page 6

) This is a photograph of the darkened front of.the storeroom in VGrand Forks where the Black Hand secret circular entitled “North Dakota is Facin was prepared for circulation. It is next door to the office of the Times-Herald. Publishing company, printed in the Herald printing plant and circulated anonymously. ot £ gfn_Cfifs" Jerry Bacon’s Grand Forks Herald outfit. The circular was - In Fargo it was printed as a newspaper advertisement with the name of the fictitious “Good Government League” attached and an effort made to have it appe D I ar that it was written by or at the instance of Fargo citizens. It was not. printed and prepared for circulation at the place shown in the picture. It was written, " THE BIG BUSINESS BROADSIDE ERMIT us, this week, to present some more facts about the P BLACK HAND.CIRCULAR. We told you last week that such ‘a circular was in course of preparation. Before last week’s issue of the Leader was off the press distribution of the “circular had And, just as we expected would be the case, the circular is EN- TIRELY ANONYMOUS! The people who got it out DON'T WANT ANYBODY TO KNOW EVEN WHERE IT WAS PRINTED, least of all WHO PAID FOR IT. It has even been distributed AFTER DARK ~—=s0 as to spare the feelings of the boys who pass it around, we assume. Besides being peddled in Fargo, Grand Forks and other towns by carrier—MASKED, we suppose, though ‘we didn’t see any of them, be- cause they went around at night—it has been sent through the mails to all registered voters, or is to be, as the publishers of it have obtained from each county the complete list of voters.” : . Because this circular is ENTIRELY ANONYMOUS, because its authors HAVE NOT THE HONESTY OR THE COURAGE TO TELL WHO THEY ARE OR WHO IS PAYING FOR IT, it becomes the duty of the Leader to tell something about what it knows of the circular’s origin. : We print herewith a picture of the front of a storeroom on a street in Grand Forks. Look at the windows and notice how heavy building paper has been tacked over them. Notice that the curtain is drawn on the door. Now look at the sign on the window adjoining. » THIS IS THE BUILDING IN WHICH THE GRAND FORKS HERALD IS PRINTED. The office next door is that of the Times- Herald Publishing company. The darkened storeroom is the place where the circular was being folded for mailing when the picture was taken, nearly two weeks ago. ; The circular was PRINTED IN THE OFFICE OF.THE GRAND FORKS HERALD. It bears internal evidence of having been WRIT- TEN _BY THE EDITORIAL WRITER OF THE GRAND FORKS HERALD. It is rather cleverly done. Big Business put his best writer in the state to work on it. 'Then he had it printed and circulated IN SECRET. / 7 The circular is headed “North Dakota Is Facing a Crisis.” The . recipient is asked to “read carefully this appeal.”: Who from? The circular doesn’t say. When somebody “appeals” to you to do something you usually want to know who it is that’s doing the appealing, don’t you? An “appeal” from nobody ig particilar is ‘not a very effective “appeal,” is it? e : e , Whose appeal is this? Is it yours, Jerry Bacon? If it is, why didn’t you sign it? Is your reputation so bad that it would injure any cause to which your name is attached? Was that the reason, or is it that you and your hired men were MERELY PAID FOR:GETTING . THIS THING OUT? To be fair with the people bf ;NOrth.Da.kota'ought you not to tell WHO PAID YOU FOR DOING THIS JOB, this under- < _ story good— hand, concealed, shady and secret: ATTACK UPON THE NONPAR- TISAN LEAGUE? ; Evidently you did get paid for it, because you ran the same thing, without the extracts from the columns of the little press lackeys of Big Business, as an advertisement in the paid advertising columns of the - Herald. You didn’t label it “Paid Political Advertising,” which it is. We refer that to the state’s attorney of Grand Forks county. : It is a fact known to the Leader—something you do not dare to deny —that this circular had been in course of preparation for a WEEK AND PROBABLY LONGER at the time you gave it publicity in the columns- of your paper and the Fargo publicity medium of Big Business, Govern-"_ or Hanna and the Insurance Federation. Something like 200,000 copies . had been run off for distribution through the mails and by other | SECRET METHODS. ~ Now we come to the joke. Dr. Guilty—excuse us, we mean Dr.- Guild—furnished the laugh as usual. ~ ; He didn’t want to print this ANONYMOUSLY, as you did,: Jerry | Bacon.- His money CAME FROM THE SAME SOURCE, of course, but he has very TENDER SENSIBILITIES, and he WANTED TO SAVE HIS FACE. So he scuttled around in an amusing effort to. GET SOME-| BODY TO STAND FOR-IT. He didn’t have much success, but then, | he’s a man who is not very particula?. : l So he calls two or three of his cronies together and with his own trusty typewriter he cooks up this fake about the “Good Government| League,” which was “organized” (on a plan of ORGANIZATION to bei “suggested” later) by “sixty”—why not say six hundred and make the; “farmers and- citizens of Cass county.”. Very good, Doc; very good, indeed. Always something new; always something amus- ing. But did you ever think of trying to tell the truth? That would be a REAL novelty, would it not? Yes it would. Try it once and see how| it works. ' Now the fact of the matter is, THE COPY FOR THIS AD—VEM_"Rj 'TISEMENT WAS IN YOUR OFFICE LONG BEFORE THE DATE OF, THE “MEETING” AND THE “ORGANIZATION” OF THE GOOD GOVERNMENT LEAGUE, WHICH YOU SAY OCCURREDMO_NDAY‘.! 2 ' ‘Were you paid for. this ad by the people who SENT YOU THE COPY? If so, why did you label the ad “Paid for by the Good Govern-' ment League”? Did Morton Page, -millionaire land dealer and insur-! ance man, who is the only VISIBLE SUPPORT of your “Good Govern- ment League,” ALSO PAY FOR THIS AD? If so, did you SEND BACK THE MONEY TO THE MEN WHO ORDERED THE AD IN THE + FIRST PLACE OR DID YOU TAKE PAY FOR IT TWICE? It's none of our business, really, but we “just wanted to know.” = . - There was, in fact, a meeting at which plans to issue this circular, - : and other attacks upon the League were formed. The meeting wasn’t held when the Courier-News said it was held, nor was it a meeting of “Cass county citizens.” One or two Cass county citizens were there ., PAGE SIX, e g oo