The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 8, 1917, Page 6

T i e 5 “On With the People’s Fight” Leaguers in Banquet to President Townley Give Lie to Enemies’ Tales of Dissension and Pledge Themselves to Continue Great Battle EAGUE senators and repre- sentatives of the Fifteenth North Dakota assembly gave a banquet to President A. C. Townley of the Nonpartisan League at the McKenzie hotel in Bis- marck on Thursday evening, March 1. The affair was memorable and his- toric for several reasons, the principal one of them being that it showed the fighting spirit of the men whom the farmers of North Dakota sent down to the state capitol to make laws for them and to retrieve the state from the clutches of the market monopolies. Though they had been baffled at near- ly every turn by the obdurate resist- ance of a reactionary majority in the state senate, the-I.eague cohorts were not disheartened and they had not weakened in any of their purposes. WILL KEEP UP FIGHT UNTIL VICTORY IS WON ‘While the banquet was a personal tribute to the head of the League it was much more than that. It was made the occasion for the unanimous renewal of loyalty on the part of the farmers’ representatives to the League itself and the expression of their determina- tion to “stick” until the final battle was won. “We'll Stick,” was the motto of the meeting, just as it has been the motto of the great League battle from the start. The occasion was all the more sig- nificant because just a few days before the Old Gang press agents had caused a story to be put in circulation that dissension had arisen in the ranks of the League members at Bismarck. The Old Gang political plotters had been working earnestly to create factions among the League members and they had put out stories indicating that what they were trying to accomplish was' true. The answer by the League members was prompt and decisive. It was told in the Leader last week in the shape of unanimous resolutions by the League men meeting in caucus expressing their faith in the League cause, its leaders and its purposes and giving voice to their unalterable determination to see the fight through, no matter how diffi- cult might be.the battle, confident that in the end the people of the statg are sure to win. SPIRIT OF MEETING TOLD BY RESOLUTIONS A paragraph from those resolutions expresses the spirit that was made plain at the League banquet to Presi- dent Townley. The paragraph reads: “Resolved, that we urge every member to stand steadfast with us in faith and confidence in the League and its—-leaders, and their - ability to accomplish the great work of emancipation of all of the people from the heavy burdens put upon them by trusts and cor-- portions and their political tools and newspaper advocates, so that the people may enjoy the full fruits of their labor and the ad- vantages of modern civilization.” While the banquet’ was in" progress Old Gang senators and representatives were clustered- in- the ‘hotel balcony, which has large windows opening into the dining room where the banquet was being held. These men heard noiex- pressions of gloom at the fact that they had been able to block all progres- sive legislation. Instead they heard the people’s representatives thunder defiance at corrupt corporate interests which have controlled the state and at all their tools in places of public trust and when President Townley called on the League representatives to stand steadfast in the battle against privilege they saw these men from the farms rise as one man and pledge their loyal- ty and their unending support to the people’s cause. ; LEAGUE'S PROGRESS IN NATION IS TOLD Tears of emotion stood in the eyes of all present, but they were not tears of defeat and they gave no comfort to the Old Gang forces who had come to sneer at the gathering of the people's representatives/ - A feature of the meeting was the revelation by President Townley of the national progress of the League, of the invitation being extended from -other states in the west and of what was be- ing done to meet those requests. To the cheers of "the banqueters President Townley predicted that the Nonpartisan ILeague will have a bal- ance of power in the national congress four years from now and that it will be the main factor in the selection of the next president. This was the climax of a plain narra- tion of the progress -of the League which gave everyone present a new vision of how the issues raiged by the farmers. of North Dakota have ‘taken possession of the great west. The enemies of the League who had gathered in the balcony. above and at the glass doors of the dining room be- low received this announcement in silence. For a few moments they may have realized how petty their opposi- tion to the farmers’ opposition looked in view of the full facts. ENEMIES HEAR THEIR ACTS LAID BARE They heard and saw the League dis- cussing the overthrow of reactionaries, not only in North Dakota, where they .' More B One of the biggest and most important series of to be published in the "Non- partisan Leader.. Oliver S. Morris, editor of Blocked by Old Gang, but not beaten, League men at memorable dinner in Bismarck resolve to carry on the fight—Old Gang members come to exult but go away with new concep- tion about what League movement means— Spread of League throughout west and nation- al plans are told. ig Stuff for the Leader articles on public ownership g, and its results ever printed is || the Leader, has started on a tour of the west and south which will include more than a (i have just made their last stand in the legislature, but in Colorado, Idaho, Washington, Wisconsin, and all the states bordering on North Dakota. They heard President Townley call them by name and point to the 60-day record of their opposition to popular government in this state, but there was no attempt even among them to receive his statements, or those of other speak- ers with ridicule. The smiles of satis- faction with which, one month ago, they killed House Bill 44 were gone, their faces were tense and serious— seemingly they felt that this meant business. President Townley touched upon some of the North Dakota history of the organization in speaking on ‘“The League,” but chiefly he laid before the , beople the fast spreading plans to reach into other states, and the audi- ence cheered and cheered as he progressed. | “The League,” he said, “is not at dozen states and cities where [l the people have engaged in big public-projects. Mr. Morris will what he sees of public owner- ship in operation, of the diffi- _culties it has had to face and to what degree they have been overcome. His series will in- clude articles on the big public write - Oljver S. Morris (Sketch' by J. M. Baer) terminals of the port of Seattle, stories of the efforts of the orchardists of the Pacific coast to.control the marketing of their produce, state attempts to regulate marketing, a study of the operation of the grain and cotton ‘terminals at New Orleans and other articles to be outlined later. .= . g These will be of great interest to every student of Ameri- can government and of especially vital importance to the farm- ers of the Northwest in their fight to ‘curb market monopoly and to get for the growers the full value of what they produce. The first of these articles will be printed within the next two or three weeks. - No readersof the Leader can afford to miss any of thlem. All will be illustrated with photographs. - A Blow to Old " Editor Nénpartisan Leader : foul attaeks, s The resolution adopted by the League members of the legislature, -urging the producers of the state to support whole- heartedly the work of A.-C. Townley and other officials and advisors of the League, was a severe blow to Big Business, The Special Interests are all the time hoping for a break within the ranks of the League by discrediting its leaders. They do not like men like Townley and F. B. Wood beeause they cannot control them, and they are therefore suggesting a complete reorganization of the League so that they can get men in as directors who will do their bidding. The League senators ‘and representatives and the members in general got wise to this move and took appropriate action to guard themselves and their organization against such Gang Plott'etrs ' Tolna, N. D., Feb. 28, 1917. ALFRED KNUTSON, SIX . League. Fargo. What you have been thinking of as the Nonpartisan League is. not there at all, I want to say to you that the headquarters of the League are up here on the hill—in the governor’s of- fice in the capitol, and what you see at . Fargo is only the instrument by which we have built the organization. That is the kit of tools. The League is the structure and it stands when the car- penters are done. The carpenters are. still on the job, the building is almost finished, and soon they are to go away. Everyone is looking to see if the struc- ture will stand, I am looking, you are looking, - the people of this United States are looking. If it should fail the carpenters might return and make re- pairs, but this is a new building, built of the right kind of timber and those who built it—the people of North Dakota who are to occupy it are pretty well satisfied. SENATORS DON'T KNOW WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT “Across the prairies of this country 50,000,000 workers have lost interest in all but this. They are well satisfied with what they see thus far, But some don’t know. I am very sure that 28 senators of this state don’t know what it is all about, If this League did not contain within it the hope of the robbed and the downtrodden in every state, they would not be looking this way. The big thing you have accomplished in this legislature is that you have proved you could stick, and would work for the people who sent you here. And it is the first time tiat was ever done and preves that democracy is not a failure, “In six months because of the suc- cess of the democracy you have proven to us and all the United States, all the states west of the Mississippi river will be organizing under. the Nonpartisan I Dbelieve the Nonpartisan League will hold the balance of power in the national government in four years; that it is going to dictate the next president, and that for years to come it will be the biggest element in in national politics.” M’KAIG BRINGS WORD OF WORK IN WEST The League was happy. - It did not look like an organization defeated in its first attempt. Ray McKaig, state master of' the N. D. grange who has been on a, two-months speaking trip throughout the west, related many incidents showing that the people of Nebraska, Colorado, Idaho and ‘Wash- ington are urging the North Dakota League organizers to help them get started in their own states, He con- veyed the pledge of organized labor of Colorado to unite with the state’s 65,000 farmers in the Nonpartisan League.. He told of a meeting at Boise, the. capital of Idaho with representa- tives of three statewide organizations where $400 was subscribed in member- ships to the League, (at $16 each) while he spoke —all of which had to be re- turned to the subscribers because the organization js not yet in working trim there. He brought word from C. B. Kegley, master of the Washing=- ton state grange, that the 22,000 mem- bers of the grange in that state will unite with the Farmers’ union and the Farmers’ Equity union in the League, and how Mr. Kegley urged the North Dakota men to hurry to their aid. He Wwas speaking on “The League Spirit out West,” and among other things, he said: “It is the greatest thing-~to think that you men can go over into that caucus and hit each other on the back and call each other names and then go up to the capitol and vote 82 solid. Loyalty—that's it. That is everywhere. They have almost quit reading the Associated Press out in these states I _ bave been visiting and are reading the Nonpartisan Leader or Papers that convey news of League activities.” g Mr. McKaig declared that ‘Washing- ton was the original nonpartisan state, " and he guoted the words of People in Spokane, given him while there, that D. C. Coates was the leader in the nonpartisan organization which for the last three sessions of the ‘Washington legislature, has brought the farmers and organized labor together there at least during the session for united ac- tion on members of that body. Mr. Coates who acted as toastmaster, an- nounced that this was perhaps his last public appearance here for some time, as he is to return to his home in Spo- kane to give attention to his business affairg, g