The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 19, 1917, Page 4

0D s, PRECHRECE I add that other motto, ““Let the People Rule’’? THarsh and erude and course, the most ‘‘conservative’” authority, but still pretty good au- thority. 'Why didn’t they Oh, well, what’s the use of asking? We know the answer, any- “way. How could a group of men made up largely and dominated by the very men who in the last legislature REFUSED the people the right to have their say—how could such a group go on record as in favor of the rule of the people. They couldn’t do it. It would be too grotesque; too much of a strain even on their own consciences. It would make them look foolish to repudiate so mueh of their cardinal belief. CARRY THE TRUTH TO THE PEOPLE simple it may be but still there is excellent authority for it—mnot, of 3 S IT was, they made themselves foolish enough, Heaven knows, It is but necessary to repeat some of the things they said to make them the laughing-stock of the state. You bet! Wateh us! ‘‘Carry the truth to the people.”’ ‘We believe in this motto. We are carrying it out to the extent of publishing as far as the demands of space will allow some of the peculiar brand of truth they used at the Grand Forks conference. We haven’t room not time for much of any comment on what they said. We can afford to overlook personalities, though the other fel- lows can’t. We dare to talk about the issues; though they dare not. Gang Was Nearly All There Political Bell Wethers Bemoan “Theft” of Party Machinery : by Voters of State—Rail at League Leaders “The Republican party has been stolen League. I have got nothing against the farmers’ organizing. I do organize, gentlemen, I want to tell you gentlemen , body and soul, by a program called the Nonpartisan Later, as time rolled on, the name of Farmers’ was added to this Nonpartisan League. believe it is their privilege, but when they that you should run the organization.” —From the remarks of Senator John E. Paulson of Traill county at the “anti-socialist” conference held in Grand Forks, Wednesday, April 11. HE Old Guard caucus has met and transacted its business. It has formed an “anti-So- cialist union” whose purpose is to combat the Nonpartisan League with every resource at the com- mand of the political group which con- trolled the state senate of the Fifteenth assembly. The eloquent words of Senator Paul- son, printed above, may be taken as the keynote of the Grand Forks gather- ing on Wednesday of last week. They express exactly the spirit which called together the hundred men who met to denounce the leaders of the League and to lay plans for opposing the political movement of the farmers of the state. In Grand Forks, where, less than two weeks before, two thousand farm- ers crowded the big Grand Forks audi- torium and listened to a series of ad- dresses giving voice to the . patriotic purpose of the farmers of the state to right the wrongs of the producers of the nation, to give the workers a square deal and to put the government in the hands of the people—in this same Grand Forks a little band of scarcely more than a hundred (swelled by curiosity seekers to perhaps a hundred and fifty) gathered to preach hatred and revenge and joined cursing of the farmers’ leaders with grandilo- quent protests of devotion to the flag. WHAT THEY MEANT BY “CARRYING THE TRUTH” As has been the case with every one of the abortive and feeble attempts to fight the Nonpartisan League, this latest movement in its public procla- mations covers up its real purpose. It adopted as its motto the words “Carry the Truth to the People—That's All”, but the politicians who had engineered the gathering and who addressed it showed what they meant by that motto when they avoided discussion of the issues which brought the Nonpartisan League into meeting, avoided discus- sion of the merits of the program of the League, and instead gave their time to the bitterest denunciation of the League movement and the most vicious of personal attacks upon its leaders. It was a gathering of familiar heroes of the political ilfe of North Dakota. There was Hyland, leader of the OQld Gang in the senate; Ployhar, the gas magnate who was his able second; there was Divet of the house, engineer of the opposition to the farmers in that body; there was Everson, deserter of his League comrades; there was Meyer, the Wahpeton laundryman who was elected by professing adherence to the League principles and worked against the League at Bismarck after having taken part in-a number of the League caucuses; there were Sandstrom and Nick Nelson and McGray and Gronvold and Gil Haggart of. Fargo and Gibbons and nearly all the rest who “saved the - state” from the rule of the people of the state. But there were others, too. Tread- well Twichell—you know him—and Judge N. C. Young of Fargo, the rail- road attorney who was the power be- hind the scenes of the “Good Govern- ment” league, and Fraine of Grafton, former lieutenant governor; Overson of ‘Williston, who managed the unsuccess- ful campaign of Burdick for governor; ‘Walt Cushing, ex-secretary of the state Gems from the Speeches at Grand Forks: BY DIVET OF WAHPETON: ‘‘This cock-eyed son of Jezebel grimaced at us and mocked God as the man on the platform was invoking Divine guidance for us. Then he would go on the floor of the house during intermission and put the bridle on free-born men and drive them around with a scourge of scorpions; and they submitted. to the scourge.’’ This was a reference to A. E. Bowen, chief clerk of the house in the Fifteenth assembly, whom Divet called “the foreman of the house”. Divet kept his eyes open during prayer to see whether Bowen closed his. The “cock-eyed grimace” is a physical infirm- ity which Divet considered proper material with which to insult Bowen. ‘*This was the malicious cut of the poisoned dagger of hate. The man who would do this would put poison in the wells in front of his country’s army or lead his little sister to the brothel.”’ This choice bit of billingsgate was caused by the fact that Divet as a matter of parliamentary quibbling and delay attempted to insert in school sections of House Bill 44 the words “patriotism and morality” at another place than that in which they actually occurred. The League members of the house considered the effort a mere grandstand play and voted down the amendment. ‘“This is the direct brand of treason and disloyalty.’’ This added insult to the farmer members of the house is on the ground that from the section excusing a citizen from military service TO THE STATE on the grounds of religious or conscienti- ous scruples House Bill 44 omits the words “in times of peace.” The section has no bearing on the right of the national govern« ment to summon any man for military duty. FROM TREADWELL TWICHELL'S SPEECH: ‘I hope that when this committee gets into action that they will ask Mr. Bowen and Mr. Townley and—I am going to speak plain- ly—Professor Ladd and John Worst, how they know that the farmers have lost $100,000,000, as some of them put it, and how they have lost $50,000,000. There ought to be some means by which you could put a reasonable estimate on what the steal is. * % % ¥ am not saying somebody is not stealing some of it. I’ fancy they are, but they should not tell the farmer he is losing two-thirds or one-third of it. Let’s find out how much it is.’’ You can understand why Twichell is so ignorant, becase he doesn’t read the Nonpartisan Leadér, which is always engaged in “carry- ing the truth to the people.” For Mr. Twichell’'s benefit the Leader will reprint in an early issue the address of Former Presi- dent John H. Worst of the Agricultural college, containing a com- pilation of figures reached by Dr. Ladd and others showing an- nual losses of §$55,000,000 on the wheat crop of North Dakota. ‘“This is not a political campaign. There is absolutely no politics in it, excepting the base part of politics, and that is getting con- trol of the offices. This is an economic proposition pure and sim- ple. It goes to the industrial activity of the state. It goes to the measure of our prosperity and the permanency of that prosperity. It goes to our credit, which'is as essential as our individual ef- forts.”’ ‘‘I have had occasion to know the farmer pretty well, and I would not say in the words of the illustrious savior of the nation, Mr. Townley, that the farmer is a queer animal, but he does some queer thinking. Or, in other words, he lets some queer people do his thinking. I have no reason to believe but what the farmers of this state, being the same men that they were ten or twenty years ago, some of them 30 years ago, have just that same moral fiber in them that they have always had; and nobody has ever had the right, until the last two years, to question generally THE JUDG- II‘IENT AND HONESTY of the farmers of this state UNTIL oW, The Leader may be able to use other extracts from the Grand Forks speeches in later issues. These few are sufficient to show the speakers proved that the farmer members of the legislature are traitors and fools and the farmers of the state who elected them are dupes and crooks. railroad commission, who after he lost his job at Bismarck acquired a weekly newspaper in Fargo which is now to be used to fight the League; and John Steen was there, too, and Bratton, the Rugby newspaper man who was able to serve his own interests so ably when in the legislature and who has fought the League since its start. Surely it was a fine and interesting assortment. If there is a . political wire-puller in the state, a disappointed politician, a self-appointed savior of the people who was not there we fail to recall them just now. Oh, yes! Sorlie, who voted for himself and then quit the League because of inadequate sup- port—he was there too—the amusing old codger. : “I saw Townley and I equldn't see anything so wonderful about him,” said Sorlie. A REMINDER OF THE OLD-TIME CONVENTION Oldtimers in the state who came to look on were given their money'’s worth. No political convention ever held in the state saw a more char- acteristic and picturesque group than that which gathered at the Dacotah hotel. It was an old-time politicians’ gathering which sat in the lobby and buzzed for hours before it adjourned to the city hall, two blocks away. Jerry Bacon practically gave his hotel up to the anti-Leaguers for two days, be- cause it was necessary to rehearse the show for a day in advance, to get the extemporaneous speeches fixed up, and the motions and the cheering and im- promptu mottoes painted. on banners; and it was necessary to have the reso- lutions thoughtfully drawn up, because in the excitement of the moment there might be a tendency to go to extremes. All of this was done and the thing went off beautifully except for the un- guarded remarks of old “Honest John” Paulson, who spoke in part as quoted above. You have, perhaps, seen it stated in other papers that “Honest John” stated “when they (the farmers) do organize, THEY should run the organization”. That may have been what “Honest John” intended to say, but it is not what he did say. It is strange how a man once in a while will blur¢ out his real meaning and we verily believe that it is more honest and appropriate to let""Honest John's” words stand Jjust as he said them. WHAT “HONEST JOHN” PAULSON ACTUALLY DID SAY As transcribed by two persons, one of them a court stenographer, Mr: Paulson’s words were just as they are quoted at the opening of this story, that is: g “I have got nothing against the farmers' organizing. I believe it is their privilege, but when they do or- ganize, gentlemen, I want to tell you gentlemen that YOU should run the . organization.” That and the words which immedi- ately preceded it show the complaint and the grievance of the men who met at Grand Forks. As Paulson put it, “The Republican prarty has been stolen, body and soul, by the program called the Nonpartisan League”. (They have said a.great . e T RN—