The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 8, 1917, Page 3

RO — G y 3 & i lonparfisan Teader [==] - Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League -8 In the interest of a square deal for the farmer _— e e , — , , e —————————— VOL. 4, NO. 10 FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA, THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1917 WHOLE NUMBER 77 Uncle Sam Has an Affable Policeman on the Job \;‘{_, a’% I HAVE DECIDED THAT /3 "'U/“//// LADD WILL BE. OF | : % LITTLE HELP TO US - T FINE! FINE! I AM WELL PLEASED!. POLICE! POLICE! The federal grain hearings in the Northwest, preparatory to the establishment of federal grades to supplant state grading systems, developed the fact that the important tests and discoveries of Dr. E. F. Ladd are to be ignored in the grades. The cartoonist has put the situation into this picture. The federal police- man is having an agreeable conversation with the millers while the grain combine is beating up the farmer. policeman to what is going on, but it seems the policeman can not hear him. Shall the Enemy Choose Our Generals? By the Editor of the Leader T SEEMS that cowardly and dishonest attacks on the farmers, lobbies brought too much pressure, and the men the people had sent to 3 I their organization and their leaders will never cease. The enemy make laws fought each other, broke up into factions and made them- dare not openly attack the League program. The program is selves easy marks for the men the Special Interests always have in what the people want, and the enemy knows it. The enemy also knows legislatures and who never allow their ranks to be disorganized. But that the people will get that program carried out unless the solidarity it was not so with the farmer members of the 1917 North Dakota legis- of the farmers is broken up. The enemy knows that the solidarity of lature. They put up a united front. ‘‘We’ll Stick,”’ was their slogan. Dr. Ladd is trying to attract the attention of the the farmers can not be broken up from the outside, except indirectly. True, one or two slipped back, but what was one or two out of over 100? n It therefore resorts to attempts from the outside to create suspicion This solidarity of the farmers in the legislature was a bitter ' and discord within the League. pill for the Interests and the gang press. They tried attacking the From the beginning of this great farmers’ and people’s move- caucuses of League senators and representatives. They tried ridicule. ment a battle has had to be waged constantly against outside influ- They charged that loyalty of these farmer legislators to the cause, and ences brought to bear by the enemy for the purpose of causing discon- to their neighbors back on the farms who sent them there, was sub- tent and suspicion among members of the League, the plan being to mission to a ‘‘boss.”” They charged that in voting for their own inter- . break up the organization. Farmers of North Dakota will remember ests and the interests of the people the farmers in the legislature ‘‘ were the fake stories spread broadecast last year about the League tottering voting like sheep.’”” But the farmers at Bismarck stuck through financially and about every member being responsible personally for ridicule and slander. all the dehts of the League, because the League was a ‘‘partnership.’’ s 0 That fake story was to scare members into resigning—to make them THEY TRIED ANOTHER PLAN repudiate their own cause and leaders and thus break up the organiza- HEN THE gang tried to create discord from within. The Girand tion, so it could not win at the polls. The faet that three or four I Forks Herald and other gang newspapers gleefully printed a traitors to the farmers’ cause before the primaries last year were in- “flat lie to the effect that a large number of League senators fluenced to make public statements against the League and its leaders and representatives were demanding ‘‘a new plan for organization of was used to show that the League was ‘‘disintegrating’’ and would the League and new officers.”” The Herald mentioned C. P. Peterson, soon go to smash entirely. The idea was to destroy the confidence and loyal League member of the house, as one of those ‘‘understood’’ to be loyalty of members of the League. . working for ‘‘reorganization.’’ Peterson was the only one of the sup- i ; j & & posed ‘‘large number’’ named. The League senators and representa- SOLIDARITY SECRET OF SUCCESS tives replied to this by unanimously adopting resolutions giving the N LINE with these attempts, which failed so miserably last year, lie to these stories, stating that they had investigated the League plan I is the one made a weelk or so ago at Bismarck by the enemy. The of organization and the work of the officers and that they had the marvel of the farmers’ organization has been its solidarity. This utmost confidence in the plan of organization and in the leaders, and solidarity, the secret of its success to date, did not end with the prima- asking members of the League to support them, as they have in the ries and election. It was carried into the legislative halls at Bismarck, past. They denied that there was any move for reorganization or new to the chagrin and astonishment of the Old Gang and the Special In- officers. Mr. Peterson wrote a scathing letter to the Grand Forks terests lobby. Never had a body of people’s representatives in the Herald for daring to use his name as one who was not *‘sticking.”’ legislature been able before to stick together for the people’s cause. - This dirty gang trick did not work. It was nailed at its incep- The influence of the controlled press and the gang press and the tion, but it carries a lesson that every member of the League should THREE