The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 5, 1917, Page 25

Badger State Also Enlists Several Wisconsin Farmers’ Organizations Unite to Adopt the National Nonpartisan League Platform, March 22 S THEY AGREE ON THIS We, as representative farmers of Wisconsin in meeting assembled, hereby indorse the work of the Na- tional Nonpartisan League and pledge our support to advance the same in the state of Wisconsin. 1. Farmers for legislative office. 2. State Ownership of Public utilities. 3. Exemption of farm improve- ments from taxation. 4. That buying and selling of options, dealing in futures and gambling in farm products and nec- essaries of life be made a felony by law, with adequate punishment for such offenses. 5. State and private banks to give good and sufficient security for all deposits. & -& With the entrance of Wisconsin into the Nonpartisan League movement at Marshfield March 22, the National Nonpartisan League’ formally added another state to its growing list of branch organizations. The DBadger state farmers talked over their prob- lems and the League's method of meet- ing them for two days, and then adopt- ed a short, terse platform very similar to that so victoriously used by the farmers of North Dakota last year, and announced they will go .into the state campaign prepared to win their legisla- ture in 1918. The delegates numbered over 100. They represented a number of farmers' co-operative and agricul- tural organizations. They brought to the conference a mass of demands, which, if they had found expression in the platform, would have totaled 75 or 80 planks. For one whole day they discussed their various demands, but many groups, supporting separate groups of demands, found themselves so divided that there was little hope of getting together. Then it was they called upon Leon Durocher and F. B. Wood, representa- tives from the national headquarters of the League in St. Paul, who had come to Marshfield on special invita- tion by the promoters of the confer- ence. Mr. Durocher pointed out the great variety in their program. and how impossible it was for them to unite upon the whole of it. ALL MUST JOIN OR ALL WILL FAIL ¢'Your demands are all good”, said Mr. Durocher, “and perhaps they all ought to be indorsed, and laws ought to be passed putting them into effect. But you now have an example of the difficulty of the farmers’ problem. Some of you are interested in one thing, some in another. A group here or there, believing firmly that its little program is vital, insists upon having it adopted—but vou see there are other groups of the same mind. No one of these is strong enough to put across its own program alone. You must all have the aid of all the rest, or you will all fail. That is what the farmers of North Dakota discovered. In that state we had three national farmers’ organ- izations, the Farmers’ Union, the Grange and the Equity, the strongest of them. But if the Equity had tried to put across its program alone, it would not have succeeded. It had to have the help of the Union and the Grange. You are in the same situation today. Here you have the Equity also a leading organization, and others with programs somewhat different. “Perhaps if you would investigate all of these various programs you would find there are some things on which you all agree. That was what the farmers discovered in North Da- kota, when they began to look for a point of common interest. For the present they dropped the things upon which they were not agreed, and by uniting on the small set of demands upon which they were a unit, they won the splendid success about which the whole United States is talking. If farmers of Wisconsin want to put across the whole of their program -ultimately, they will find they must make a start by putting across first the things they all want. “By adopting this policy your ene- mies can not divide your forces. Rival- ries can not spring up. They can not play one faction against the other and defeat both.” “BADGER FARMERS SEE THE POINT . 4 5 "V itle talk, together with ~her and Mr. Wood, . and the answering of many questions, that brought the Wisconsin farmers into committee action upon their de- mands, and resulted in omitting all the side issues until they have made a suc- cess of their big program. Mr. Durochier did not tell them it was easy to do. He showed them how money had been fighting the farmers of North Dakota for two ‘years; how he farmers had sacrificed their time and financial resources to build the organization they now have; how the politicians had tried to slip in under the guise of “farmers’ friends” and take upestrategic positions within the organization; and how the farmers of North Dakota repudiated all such at- tempts, and finally decided that only real farmers should be allowed to have control of their organization. He told them that it was the CON- TROL OF THEIR OWN ORGANIZA- TION that they must safeguard. The Populist party, the famers’ alliance, and all other great attempts of the farmers for deliverance from the tyranny of speculators, politicians and united Big Business, he said had fail- ed to get for the farmers what the farmers wanted, because the latter had surrendered the leadership to “friends of the farmers.” He .warned them against possible friends of that nature right in this their first convention, al- though activities of such were not ap- parent. The League stands Qut distinct from all other farmer movements, he told them, by the one fact that it retains absolute control of the farmers’ organ- ization in the hands of the farmers themselves. Many questions were asked. They wanted to know whether they should start a paper at once. They were told how the North .Dakota farmers re- Address by President Townley at Grand Forks (Continued from page 5) these other men came to he members of the committee CONFIRMED BY DELEGATES TO FARGO CONVENTION “Now last winter when we had a convention down in Fargo, there were a great many ambitious people outside of ,the organization who wanted an election of officers. And most promi- nent among th® men that wanted an election, were Dr. Guild of the Cour- ier-News, and Jerry Bacon of the Grand Forks Herald (Laughter and applause). “And they have been wanting an election ever since. They want one today. SORLIE down here wants one. I think Sorlie wants an election of offi- cers in the Nonpartisan League, worse than anything else in the world. I don't know how much longer he will last if he don't get it. He is having a hard time! (Laughter!). “Well, at the convention in Fargo when 49 men, delegates from the dif- ferent counties, met to pick candidates for state offices, and chose Frazier and Langer and the other nien, this matter of the committee was discussed, and it was agreed by common consent that it would not be well to change the com- mittee at that time. There was not money enough in the treasury that anybody else wanted the job anyway. So they left us on the job, and we con- tinued. We continued through that election, and with the organization work up to this time; and this com- mittee will continue up to the time that your delegates meet next winter to indorse men again for state office at that time. NEW COMMITTEE TO BE ELECTED “The delegates that you send to in- dorse men for state office—Irazier or somebody else for governor and men for the other state offices—those 49 men will select men to take our places —to take Mr. F. B. Wood's place, be- cause he does not want to serve any more; and Mr. Evans’ place, because he is working on organization work and it takes him out of the state a good deal; and it will be necessary to elect some farmer like Lageson here, or Hagan, or Stair, as a member of that committee from then on to run this organization in the state of North Dakota. I am not going to run it. No. I may make a talk once in a while— help what little I can—but I am not going to run it. Mr. Howard Wood would not let me run his AUTQMO- BILE, when we first started out. He was afraid I would run it up ‘against a tree I guess (Laughter); and this man, the man your representatives made 'Speaker of the House last winter, is now managing the organization work in the state of North Dakota. A REAL FARMER! I am going to grant you that I was NOT a'real farmer, be- cause so many men don’t believe that. “That ought to suit Jerry Bacon, but I don’t know whether it will or not. “This is a kind of a dry talk the way I am giving it; but the SUBJECT of it is the BIGGEST STORY IN THE UNITED STATES TODAY! So listen, and I will try to liven it up after a while, when I get down to the REAL STUFF. “Well, Howard and I drove that day FOURTEEN with the car as long as we could see the road; and the next day, and the next. We put on eight or 10 members a day, until we had enrolled 79 farmers WITHOUT MISSING A MAN. That was pretty fair. You know what that meant. They did not know whether you boys down here would come across or not. They did not know whether Andrews here would pay his part, or whether Lageson would pay his. They were just taking a chance, because they knew it ought to be done. MANY POSTDATED CHECKS BUT LITTLE CASH “When we had organized 79 men or thereabout, we slackened up a little. “Up to that time, if 2 man would not join, we took him in the car, or—I don't know—but anyway, we gave him the impression that he had BETTER JOIN. (Laughter). “Until we had organized three or four townships, and had $2,000 in post- dated checks, AND NOT CASH ENOUGH TO PAY IFOR GASOLINE AND THE REST "OF THE EX- PENSES OF DOING THE WORK! “And Howard began wondering how we were going to go on, and buy auto- mobiles, etc. That got to be a pretty good sized problem. JUNKIN NOT INTERESTED “Junkin is not interested yet! “I am going to explain it and make it so clear, that after this week there will not be any reason why any paper should print the misrepresentation, and the ROT, that this paper does. I want to warn the gentleman that this may be a little dry; but wait till I am through with the story. I will warm it up a little. I can do that; and so you had better stay.” M’GRAY GETS REPLY Turtle Lake, N. D., Feb., 1917, Senator C. W. McGray, Dear Sir: I have at hand a pamphlet the title page of which reads “A Socialist Con- stitution for North Dakota” etc. At the top is written “Shall I vote for this?’ signed McGray. I presume that this query is in reply to the petition that was sent you askihg you to vote for House Bill 44, which petition I had the pleasure of signing and circulating. In reply I say “Yes, vote for it” be- cause I believe it jg the wish of the majority. 'Who are you representing? Now this pamphlet which seems to have your approval—who paid for its publication and circulation? How much did it cost? The “Good Book” says the ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master’s crib. Perhaps you can glwe me this in- formation. For when I know the in- terests that lie behind it I will be more able to judge its merits of course. I know that farmers and lawyers who array themselves on the side of the people should never attempt to revise the sacred constitution. They should leave that and the legislating to their guardian angels, those intellectnal giants, yourself ineluded and the lawyers who are not “Socialists.”” In conclusion let me say that I hope you will be a candidate for re-election on your record. Respectfully yours, ED. PHILBRICK. L frained from doing this until they had a strong enough organization to sup- port it and assure its continuance. They wanted to know how “nonparti- sanism” could be worked out where laws cunningly designed by politicians to divide the people into separate, preju- diced political camps compelled them all to register as “Republicans” or “Democrats” or what not. He pointed to Bottineau County, N. D., where the League elected two Democrats and two Republicans by larger votes than any of their anti-League opponents, because the League Republicans re- frained from voting for anti-League Republicans, and the ILeague Demo- crats did the same. ORGANIZED LABOR WIRES INDORSEMENT A telegram from J. J. Handley, sec- retary-treasurer of the Wisconsin I'ederation of Labor, showed that other classes of people than the farmers are looking to the National Nonpartisan League for relief. It was as follows: “The Wisconsin State Federation of Labor extends fraternal greetings and best wishes. We hope you will adopt measures that will more firmly solidify the ranks of the agricultural and in- dustrial workers of our state and na- tion, let the powers and influences of labor in the field and factory be felt in the legislative halls, and may your efforts in the uplift of humanity be un- ceasing.” When the convention resolved itself into committees on resolutions and on organization and platform, Mr. Durocher and Mr. Wood were asked to act as advisory members, and they did so. In the windup the Wisconsin farmers decided to define “farmer” as an actual tiller of the soil, thus leaving out the bankers ,and politicians who “farm” by proxy; and decided to start no state paper until they are strong enough. They will make use of the Nonpartisan Leader as organ of the national movement in pushing their work, which is to go forward as soon as the roads clear up. Among the Wisconsin men promi- nent in the convention were: H. G. Tank, W. B. Clements, A. C. Schmidt, O. A. Stolen, James' Clemons, John Prince, William Croft, W. R. Hoppe, John Shea, J. H. Carnahan, J. I Fitzgibbons, H. S. Pomeroy and W. S. Kunzelmann, EVERSON AS “MASCOT.” Jessie, N. D., March 12. Editor Nonpartisan Leader: Would like to tell you something about the Nonpartisan League meet- ing held at Cooper§town March 8, and the one held at Binford March 9. The Cooperstown meeting was good and there was a fairly large attendance, among them Representative &, We. Everson, who was elected as a Non- partisan, but who never lined up with the League on any measure after he got into- office by League votes. Mr. Everson was the mascot of the meet-" ing, and created considerable diver< sion for the audience as well as for Mr. Fox and Mr. ‘Wood, the speakers. But the Binford meeting was a real . ilve one. In fact it was a regular humdinger, the best I-have had the pleasure of attending since our first big convention at Fargo. Fox and Wood, the speakers, were at their be. and had the encouragement of about 150 enthusiastic listeners. When we add to this the fact that our mascot was still on the job, we certainly had all the requirements for an ideal meet« ing, and it will be long remembered in these parts. g Mr. Everson remained quite until a resolution was introduced condemn- ing his action, when he got the floor, and talked for 15 minutes, at the end of which time Chairman Iverson put the resolution and it was adopted by a standing vote without one dissenting, After this Mr. Everson again took the floor, and the audience again listened patiently ‘for several minutes, vainly trying to make out what he was trying to tell them. He wound up by de- nouncing President A. C. Townley and the League organizers, as I. W. Ws and Socialists. This is invariably of course the Old Gang’s last resort. T sincerely hope Mr. Everson’s erstwhile companions at Bismarck are getting plenty of the same kind of dope he got here. The League meeting was followed by one of the best home talent plays I have ever seen in this part of the state. JAMES A, M'CULLOCH,