The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, January 4, 1917, Page 2

and tell the whole story for Leader reader of the Leader’s reports. The N?rth Dakota farmers’ l_eg'islature this week started its work at Bismarck. Besides North Dakota 8, the eyes of the. entire country, especially of Minnesota, South Daketa and Montana, will be watching events at Bismarck, where the first lawmakers elected by the farmers through the Nonpartisan Leagie will make history. A member of the Leader staff who has been with this publication almost since its start will gather and write the news of the session for the Leader ) : s as fully as any other paper will handle it. In addi- tion the Leader will have a staff photographer at Bismarck and pictures will be a big feature 1 This session of the legislature would not be complete without Baer’s cartoons, and they will not be missing. The Leader will celebrate the opening of this important legislature next -week by a special number, full of pictures and cartoons and containing the first reports of the work of the lawmakers. Watch for this big edition. The “Unregenerated RuStics”!~ My Word! —Paul, Minn., that deals in society, theatrical and financial news THE SATURDAY NIGHT, a snobbish weekly publication of St. has printed an editorial on North Dakota’s election of a farmer governor that takes the cake. It remarks that even in China only the “most carefully educated” are entrusted with high office, but that in “the unregenerate rural commonwealths (meaning North Dakota). they elect RUSTICS to the most exalted office in the gift of the state—and seem to be proud of it” The Saturday Night laments this “calamity” and adds “Unlucky North Dakota! She has our deepest sympathy.” ® %k x ’ MY WORD! This ought to “tickle the society butterflies, the leisurely men about town, the smug plutocrats in dress suits and the others the Saturday Night caters to. It makes good reading alongside the pictures in the Satur- day Night of women in thousand- dollar furs and low (very low) nficked dresses. It fits in well with h~ zossip of the clubs, the theaters s ..-art galleries which constitute the Saturday Night’s stock in trade. It is ‘“deucedly well put, you know.” * * * THE TITLE of the Saturday Night’s editorial on the farmers’ woVement ’in the 'Northwest is “The Hayseed in Politics.” In all seriousness-it proves that Governor Frazier actually “keeps hogs.” t quotes a North Dakota farmer to that effect! And more than that, the Saturday Night says that Govemyor Frazier has really ‘(honest to goodness) been in the habit of slopping those hogs him- self! Just think of a farmer who owns hogs and slops them being elected governor. One can see the the gilded butterflies of the Satur- day Night’s circle shrink even at Never mind that. Hogs! The Hayseed in Politics (An editorial in the Saturday Night of St. Paul.) It were bad enough for the great State of North Dakota to elect as governor a man who is as untrained in the science of government as a high school girl. But what is even more astonishing, some of our neighboring commonwealth’s rural citizens have the audacity to come to this vicinity and brag about it! As one of the delegates to the Equity Co-operative Exchange convention, himself a member of the North Dakota Nonpartisan League, boasted “We * * * glected one of the men who had a lot of hogs to slop, governor of the state.” Governor-elect Frazier, it was explained, “is a farmer from near Grafton and never was in politics before.” | For all we know, the Honorable Mr. Frazier may be a most estimable gentleman, but in fairness we should like to know if slopping hogs is the right sort of training for any one charged with the grave duties of the state’s chief executive? Is it any wonder that we sometimes make a sad mess of government? Even China is more careful in her selection of public officials than America. Only the most intelligent, the most carefully educated men in the country are entrusted there with high office, and the same custom holds in the several states of Europe. But in the United States, particularly in the unregenerate rural commonwealths, they elect rustics to the most exalfed office in the gift of the state—and seem to be proud of it. That is, such calam- ities occur in states so fortunate as to be under the yoke of a Nompartisan Unlucky North Dakota! She has’our deepest sympathy. The Hayseed in Politics (An editorial in the St. Paul News.) A new weekly newspaper, which seeks to satiate the higher emotions of St. Paul and Minneapolis in the realms of art, literature, musie, etc., indulges in an editorial entitled “The Hayseed in Politics.” It views with alarm the “awfulness” of North Dakota in electing 2 farmer governor. A man . who is a university graduate and who has suecessfully managed a 840-acre farm for years is classed with an “untrained schoolgirl!” “I3 it any wonder that we sometimes make a sad mess of government?” the editorial asks. And then it goes on to explain why we make.such a sad mess of it: “In the United States, particularly in the unregenerated rural commonwealths, ,they elect rustics to the most exalted office in the gift of the state, and seem proud of it. That is, such calamities occur in states as unfortunate as to be under the yoke of a Nonpartisan League.” North Dakota had a long and varied experience in electing governors who wre NOT “rustics.” The net result was that her people, of whom 85 per cent are farmers, were exploited to swell the profits of the speculative : grain markets. To put a stop to this condition North Dakota elected “rustic”—and she is proud of it! - And we are proud of North Dakota because she did it. First thing we know other “unregenerated rural commonwealths”—Minne- sota included—are going to see the light of nonpartisanship and elect men— rustic and others—who will take orders only from the PEOPLE. Lucky North Dakota! ; that ever occurred in politics picked him as its leader—a broad, honest, competent, efficient, studious man of the people, the sovereign people. He actually owned them! He actnally slopped them as a part of farm routine! * * * THE LEADER admits that the Saturday Night is peddling good stuff for the social idlers and for the “elect” who have nothing to think about except the fashions, the theater and the ball room. But the editor of the Saturday Night can hardly hope that his snobbery will go down among men and women who live by work. These airy drawing-room comments on the farmers’ movement don’t seem to fit in with the broad prairies and the sturdy citizens who make the land yield that the world may eat. * * * THE LEADER reproduces in full on this page the editorial in the Saturday Night referred to; also an answer to it by the St. Paul Daily News. The Saturday Night would not deserve the advertising it is getting on account of its editorial were it not for one thought it pro- vokes. We would dismiss the Saturday Night with a smile if it were -a question merely of a snob- " bish editor pandering to a few rich idlers of the upper social crust with jaded nerves that need thrilling and comfortable superiority that likes grooming. The big lesson is that it is pessible in so-called democratic America for a class to exist for which editors find it neces- Aary to write such editorials. *® * * "THE Saturday Night proves that there is a stratum in modern . society that looks on those who perform the necessary work of the world as peasants and vassals, and on that work as degrading and _unworthy. Farmers and working thought of it. Never mind if Frazier is one of the biggest and most men are to be treated kindly, of course, because we do not look upon successful farmers of the state; never mind if he has a university educa- them as mere beasts of burden. We admit they are human, but of a tion ; never mind if one of the most progressive and earnest movements lower order, and for them we will provide laws and rulers. THE COURIER-NEWS of Fargo is your newspaper—it is the Keepin TouchWithYour ;=% 2ess e Legislature Through Your Own Newspaper the doings at Bismarck through the Courier-News. The Courier-News is the Nonpartisan Daily---Subscribe for it Now Send $4.00 for a year’s subscription or . $1.00 for two months Send it now. Subscribe to your nwspaper. Watch Bisfiqarck : through your own newspaper. SUBSCRIBE FOR IT NOW The Courier-News I'ARGO. NORTH DAKOTA . L4 $ 900000090000000 2000900000600 09