The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 22, 1917, Page 3

-~ 1 Nonpartigsn Teader Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League VOL. 4, NO. 8 FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1917 WHOLE NO. 75 Vet B e R £ . HE United States is on the verge of one of those great political I and economic revolutions that periodically shake mations to their foundations, revise old ways of thinking and doing things and make way for building anew on the ruins of outgrown ideals and institutions. . This is to be a peaceful revolution by means of the ballot. 1t has found its place of incubation in the Northwest states. The states of‘Minnesota, North and South Dakota and Montana are to take the: lead. Things are going to happen in the next few years that will make many interesting pages in histories for future generations to read. o Already the rumblings of this revolution ecan be heard by those who_care to listen. The producers of one state have organized and thrown off a ruling calss out of sympathy with the aspirations of the people. Three other states are organizing to the same end. The leaven is in the loaf and it is working. The shrewder of the politicians have read aright the signs of the times and know what is coming. They have either got on the bandwagon or they are engaged in frenzied pre- tentions of meeting the people half way. The present legislatures that have about completed their work in the various Northwest states have tossed an unusual lot '0f erumbs to the people, in the hope of appeasing 'th_e multitude. This alone is a sign that great changes are under way. o 2 s & @ THERE IS NO MIDDLE OF THE ROAD HESE great movements of the people seem to come more or less I suddenly. In reality they are slow in development. Quietly, more or less unnoticed even by students of political and economic conditions, the forces are collected that are to break through the surface to the astonishment of the conservatives. Through years of patient existence by the majority under political wrongs and cconomic abuses, the explosives that are to burst forth to light the progress of man to a better, broader life are accumulated. This aec- cumulation has already taken place in the Northwest. All the frantic efforts of a satisfied, ¢onservative minority, content with things as they have been, can not change this condition.. The fuel is there. The spark has been applied. The fire alarm has been sent in, but the conflagra- tion can not be stopped.” ; The tragedywof these movements is the fact that they sweep by so many so-called progressive and liberal-minded people, leaving them high and dry on deserts of doubt. Men who should be in the vanguard of progress are untouched by the new slogans and the new ideals - of progress. They do not like the leaders; they can not approve some of the minor expressed planks of the platform of the movement ; they think it is going too fast; they want to be the prophets of the new order Something is the Matter With a Scale .That Works Like This themselves and they are piqued when the people choose other leaders. These doubting” Thomases of progress are its real enemies, because they are used by the dead hand of the past that reaches out to throttle living majorities. The ‘‘whatever-is-is-right’’ faction depends on these hesitating ones to lend an air of respectabiligy to the reactionaryism that is opposed to all progress. = This is no time to be on the fence. The armies of progress are “being organized. Their way is lighted by enthusiasm and loyalty to the cause. Thé bands are playing.” The slogans of the people march- ing on to new and better things fill the air. This inspired army is passing your door. It is marching on to victory as certain as the rising of the sun tomorrow. You can not wait. Soon its music and its shout- ing will be to you a faint sound in the distance, as the sound of battle at the front is wafted back to the slacker in the rear. Shall it pass you by? Shall history put you down as a Tory of the new American revolution? We do not know anything of the hesitators and doubters and on-the-fencers of 1776. History has labeled every man of that period as a patriot or as a Tory. There was no middle of the road then. There is none now. * % » THE MEANING OF THE MOVEMENT HE Leader is often asked by interested people of distant states I to express in a brief statement the meaning and purpose of the 3 present political and economic movement in the Northwest. Tt is difficult to do that. Perhaps the following expresses it in its briefest form: ‘A realization that the toilers, the producers of wealth, have not had a square deal; a desire, the result of that realization, for a better, broader life for those who work and create the wealth; a determination, based on that desire, to get these better living conditions through organization of the people and use of the machinery of gov- ernment, so long run for the benefit of the few only.”’ Yet that definition is not entirely satisfactory.” What does this movement, in a few words, mean to you who read these lines? Think it over. If you read the Leader and are a member of the League this movement has not passed you by—you have elected not to be a Tory of 1917. What inspired you to join your fellow producers in this great movement to fulfill the aspirations of the people? What did you see in it that attracted you? Try to put down your thoughts in a few words and see if it would give a stranger in a distant state a right im- pression of what is doing in the great Northwest. We toolk nearly 70 words in the above definition. Can you express it in 50 words, in 25 words, or better still in 15% : THREE