The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 22, 1917, Page 2

R — L r———— Your Governor Attécked---Ffom Behmdv ITHIN the last few days an attack from an unexpected quarter \;‘/ has been made upon Lynn J. Frazier, the farmer’s governor of North Dakota. 'While farmers and leaders of farmers’ organizations from all over the state have been praising the good sense of Governor Frazier in disapproving Senate Bill 84, the Old Gang’s terminal elevator bill, the Co-Operators’ Herald, supposed to be an organ of the farmers’ movement, has made a bitter and unfair attack upon the governor for his veto of the bill. In this amazing and unexplainable action the editor of the Co- Operators’ Herald, who has heretofore posed as a sincere friend of the farmer, has ranged himself alongside the editors of the Grand Forks Herald and Normanden, the persistent foes of the farmers’ interests. He has ranged himself also alongside the Old Gang in the Fifteenth North Dakota assembly, whose members cunningly designed this fake bill to trap the farmer legislators and who rejoiced with open glee when it passed; and alongside the Minneapolis Chamber of Commeree and all the big interests allied with it in its fight on the farmer. At a critical point in the battle for their rights the farmers have been betrayed by a leader they have trusted. The grounds upon w ‘hich ‘the Co-Operators’ Herald makes its ill-timed and lmxettablc attack upon the farmers’ governor are the same grounds on which the Old Gang members in the senate urged the passage of the bill. It is impossible to say whether the editor of the Herald designed this attack to furnish ammunition to the enemies of the League to fight the farmers’ cause, but the nature and the occasion of the attack seems to justify that suspicion. ‘‘The governor’s action has aroused the Equity men to a realiza- tion of the fact that the Equity fight is again unsuccessful—this time at the hands of a man who owes his election to the battle for, a state- owned elevator,”” says the Co-Operators’ Herald. At the very moment when these deceitful words were written real Equity leaders in all parts of the state were engaged in writing to Governor Frazier their whole-hearted approval of his action in vetoing this Old Gang bill: In the very number of the Co-Operators’ Herald which contains this statement there are printed resolutions adopted by the member Shlp of the North Dakota Union of the American Society of Equity at their annual meeting in Bismarck in which the entire course of action of the Nonpartisan League senators and representa- ~ tives in the legislature is approved and the VERY MEN RESPONSI- BLE FOR FRAMING THIS FAKE “TERMINAL ELEVATOR’’ BILL ARE ROUNDLY CONDEMNED. Whom does the Co-Operators’ Herald represent in its attack on Governor Frazier? It can not represent the Equity society of the state, because the MEMBERS of the Equity society stand with the governor and with the men who were faithful to the farmers’ interests at Bismarck. It is unnecessary to defend Governor Frazier’s action, thus so unexpectedly attacked. The objections to the bill which he vetoed were very plainly told by President E. F. Ladd of North Dakota Agri- cultural college, the veteran friend of the farmers. A single elevator without a flouring mill in co-operation with it—an elevator as small as it would have to be with the appropriation provided, would fail to accomplish the purposes sought for it. It would not be of any substan- tial benefit to the growers of the state. ) Such an elevator might furnish a source of personal profit to a few men interested in capitalizing the farmers’ co-operative movement to théir own advantage, but the Leader hesitates to believe that there are any in the ranks of the Equity who would stoop thus to explmtmg the farmers. The farmers of North Dakota and other Northwestern states so far have resoliitely fought the effort to use the name ‘“‘Equity’’ as a means to the private gain of a few individuals, though that menace has always been present. It is certain that the membership of the Equity society will repudiate any such attempt and will repudiate also this attack upon the man whom they have honored by placing in the highest office in Y the state and in whom they repose complete confidence and trust. The language in which the Co-Operators’ Herald attacks the governor undoubtedly will give pain to every reader. They-will resent reference to him as a ‘‘recent recruit’’ and the intimation that he is not faithful to their interests. Lynn J. Frazier, by his manliness, his plam speakmg, his un- questioned integrity, his simplicity and loyalty to their cause has en- deared himself to every worker in the state. He is not likely to.k< in- jured by such an attack as that made by the Co-operators’ Herald, noz can the great cause of the farmers suffer a.ecrious setback because of it. The main injury will be to tkc Equity society, whose members thus find themselves misrepresented and the co-operative movement dis- credited through some strange freak of personal animosity whose origin can not.be explained. The membership of the Equity society and the backers of the variofis true Equity enterprises, who have make known their unani- mous adherence to the League program, the men, in fact, who made the League’s existence possible, undoubtedly will want to take prompt steps to set their house in order, to see that they are not again attacked from the inside and to guarantee that thelr trust shall not be used as a means for exploiting them. 9 But with that matter the Leader has nothing to do The men upon whom the duty will devolve are perfectly competent to take care of it. ‘THE YEOMEN’S REVOLT (Dedicated to the North Dakota contingent of the Nonpartisan League) Enough: Ye patient toilers of the soil; Too long the burden ye have borne alone. - No thanks for all your unrequited toil N Have ye received; nor claimed what is your own. O wist ye not, ye men of brawn and brain, Ye are co-workers with the living God? He gives the soil, the sunshine and the rain. Ye sow, and reap, and turn the stubborn sod. And thus the great, wide, hungry world is fed.. If God for one brief year the clouds should seal, And ye withhold your hand from sowing bread, How soon would opulence with' hunger reel? Prate not, of freedom nor of liberty. *While millions cry for bread themselves have %med. And greed has robbed them of prosperity; oS And pleas and cries for justice are all spurned. To arms! brave yeomen; God is calling you. Restore the people’s rights; your own defend. - Enough to eat? Is that meant for the few? Must millions earn what but the few.may spend? The cattle on a thousand hills are God’s; The mountains’ boundless treasures—silver, gold; But poor humanity still onward plods, Half clad, less fed, amidst this wealth untold. Yet the Creator loves His creatures all, And wills that all alike His bounties share. And would not He who notes the sparrow’s fall QO’er all the people exercise His eare? These predatory foxes must be caught; These sly despoilers of many heritage, Their silken fur well tanned and finely wrought And sold, to substitute a bastard wage. Yoemen to arms! The country is ablaze; On every hilltop flames a beac¢on light. On high the standard of revolt now raise. The gathering clans will reach it over night. To arms! But yours must be a bloodless strife. Ner sword, nor bayonet, nor cannon’s roar, Nor ruthless slaughter, giving life for life, Shall win, as battles have been won before. Let not be heard, in your victorious wake, Nor orphan’s nor the widows’ piteous ery— - FOR YOUR MUNITIONS ONLY BALLOTS TAKE. IN SOLID PHALANX THUS YOUR FOES DEFY. ~ This battle is the Lord’s; fight ye for Him And strike swift blows for all humanity. Fear naught, 'though conquest’s vision may seem dim. A rxghteous cause must gain the victory. —G. WM. HICKMAN, Bath, N. D. Important League Meeting at Grand Forks, - Friday, March 30--- Preszdent Townley to Speak 2 A series of three impertant meetings to be addressed by President A. C. Townley of the Nonpartisan League and by some of the best speakers of the League, will begin at Wahpeton, March 27 in the city hall. President ° Townley will tell what the League did at Bismarck, and what it tried to do and failed because of the Old Gang.. He will talk about terminal elevators, and the grist of fake bills the Old Gang tried to palin off as relief legis- lation. g % From Wahpeton he will go to New Rockford and from there to the center of the bitterest opposition the I.eague has in North Dakota—Grand 2 Forks, where on March 30, he will address farmers from all the northeast- i ern counties of the state. The big auditorium has been secured and will hold an audience of 3000, which it 1s believed will take advantagev of this % TWO opportunity to hear charges against the League answered, and get the truth !rom these who were en hand at Bismarck. Other important speak- ers for'the’ Grand Forks meeting besides President Townley, will be A. H. Bowen, chief clerk of the house of representatives; O. M. Thomason of the League, who attended the legislature; and W. E. Quigley, who is in charge of organization wark in the Northeastern part of the state. : Two meetings will be held in Grand Ferks, the first at 10 a. m. and the second at 2 p. m. An especial effort to have a large number of busi- ness-and city people at the meetings, will be made. _ The other meeting of the series will be held at New Rockford, March 28 where President Townley and O. M. Thomason will both speak. This will be held in the opera house at 2 p. m. Sl A e LR, e N LA o L il