The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 19, 1917, Page 3

In the interest of a square deal . for the farmers Tonpartisan Teader A magazine that dares t» print the truth Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League VOL. 4, NO. 16 FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA, THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 1917 WHOLE NUMBER 83 | Carry the Truth to the People HE conference of old party politicians which met at Grand Forks last Wednesday adopted—for publication—a motto on which they should be congratulated. It is this: ““CARRY THE TRUTH TO THE PEOPLE—THAT’S ALL.” As a motto this is a good one. We heartily indorse it. But as a practical program for fighting the League we don’t think it will amount to much—supposing, merely for the sake of the argument, that there was a disposition to put it into effect. We feel quite certain that the men who adopted it have not the slightest intention of interpreting it literally. 5 There was an old farmer present among the crowd of city poli- ticians and lawyers and when this motto was hung up on the wall he turned and asked: ‘‘I wonder what they mean by ‘truth’? Is it the old stuff they have been telling us or have they something new?”’ This old farmer knew—what everybody else knows—that what this crowd has been telling has not been the truth. If they start in telling the truth now it will be a complete reversal of policy. It will be something new indeed. * * * MR. DIVET’S HAPPY THOUGHT IVET of Wahpeton launched this slogan—Divet, the ‘‘shepherd D; of the flock’’—and for it he received the heartfelt thanks of i all the'men present. They cheered him in emotional gratitude for his suggestion. ! v It had just come to him on the ‘“‘spur of the moment,’”’ so to speak—borne in on the wings of his own oratory; and lo and behold, in a couple of hours here it was, painted on a flaming banner to be hung up in the back of the hall and cheered, a marvelous feat of im- promptu mind reading or sign painting or something of the sort. It was a wonderful inspiration—original, daring, Napoleonie. ‘Who would have thought of it? Who but the bold Divet would have dared suggest it to such a crowd? And what does he mean by it anyhow, the sly dog? The humor of the thing caught the faney of the crowd. It pleased them, put them in good spirits and made them feel almost virtuous. * * * THE MOTTO’S ONLY DEFECT HIS motto is like a good | many other things the poli- ticians in North Dakota have thought of. It is. too late. If the truth had been told in North Dakota in years past there might never have been any Nonpartisan League. The people might never have risen in revolt because they might have been- able to get justice before. It is because there have been so many people interested in sup- pressing and distorting the truth that the people of the state have failed to ,see how their state was being looted to enrich people in other states and how their “poli- tical shepherds within the state were helping to perpetuate the conditions which made this possi- ble. ) Yes, the truth, if had been told long ago, would have been ‘“‘bad medicine’’ for the Nonpartisan League. If it had been told fully and persistently no one ever would have thought of forming a Nonpartisan League. It would hands and instituting an economic order which they feel will remedy them. . They have waited long years to hear the truth from these self- appointed political masters. They have not heard it, and now that it has been told by others; now that they have a constructive plan for bettering conditions, do they hear the truth admitted or discussed? Oh, no! Not for a minute. They hear complaints about the manner in which they are trying to remedy things; they hear vile slander of the men who have been pointing out the way; but they hear not one soli- tary syllable of constructive suggestion of any alternative method. * % * AREN'T YOU TIRED OF THIS? 66 HE farmers have a right to organize;’’ ‘‘I believe in the or- I ganization of farmers’—— Oh yes! They have heard those statements until they are sick of them. But——. That’s the way it always concludes—with a ‘‘but,’”’ and ‘‘we don’t be- lieve in this organization they have now ; they should have done it some other way.”’ Think of the insolence of it! After all these years in which the farmers have been pleading and pleading; have been steadily bound up tighter in a net of unjust conditions; have been trying to find the way of release—in all this time which of these crities has lifted a finger to give them an opportunity to express themselves? Which of them has suggested a plan of organization? Which has tried to make this state in faet a real democracy with the power given to all men to make their opinions count? Tell the truth, you little band of political thimble-riggers! Yes, tell the truth; and shame yourselves! It’s time it was told a little more fully in North Dakota. ‘We are telling it to nearly half the people, but we’re not able to reach them all yet. We want help. kL AL Rk A lal e S S Bl o e M e G Rl ST WHY NOT TRY THIS ONE? THE EAST HEARS ABOUT ¢‘FEED D’ HEN this group at Grand ‘;‘/ Forks set out to appro- priate the principles of the Nonpartisan League it is a pity they didn’t go a little further. Why stop with ‘“Tell the Truth’’? Why not also indorse those other two excellent mottoes of the League, ‘““We Trust the People’’ and ‘‘Let the People Rule’’? We submit that it isn’t enough merely to tell the people the truth if you have a force in the state adamant against giving the peo- ple of the state a chance to work out their own will; if you have a force which assumes for itself all the intelligence and all the pa- triotism and all the right of power and WILL NOT GIVE THE PLAIN PEOPLE A CHANCE TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES. ‘We do not deny to these sleek and well-fed gentlemen who came from their comfortable, steam- heated: offices to take part in this conference the right to express themselves on public 4questions, to cast their votes and to use their influence for whatever form of government they wish, be it mere- ly a form of autocratic plutocraey, but we do deny them the right to govern the state according to their own desires and to refuse their fellow citizens a voice in its af- not have been necessary. But telling the truth now will not stop the League. It will not stop the farmers in their venture of taking affairs into their own —Reproduced by courtesy of The Country Gentleman fairs. This cartoon is reproduced from the April 11 issue of the Country Gentleman, a magazine for farmers of national circulation which is running a series of articles on the Nonpartisan League, under the title, “A Great Upheaval.” The article with which this cartoon is printed tells all about “Feed D” wheat and contains extracts from Dr. Ladd’s bulletins on the subjects and an interview with Dr, Ladd showing the causes that led to the formation of the League, THREE' * * % WELL, HERE’S THE REASON HY did these suave and ‘;‘/ comfortable and soft- handed gentlemen not