The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 10, 1917, Page 3

In the interest of a square deal for the farmers Tlonnartisén Teader [=- Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League VOL. 4, NO. 19 “Rival Shows’’ FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA, THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1917. WHOLE NUMBER 86 From the Country Gentleman. Leagues With “Crowds”--and Without HERE is ‘another of those Johnson cartoons from the Coun- try Gentleman. The Nonpartisan Leader is reproducing- these cartoons to show its' readers what an honest investi- gator, such as the Country Gentleman sent to the Northwest, thinks of the fariners’ movement. You haven’t noticed any of the anti-League' organs reproducing “any of these cartoons, have you? It is a safe bet that the promoters of the fake ‘‘Minnesota Nonpartisan League’’ will not reproduce this one. ‘The long suit of the anti-League men is preaching: ‘‘Carry the Truth to the People ) The only trouble is that they don’t practice what they preach. - This picture tells more of the frantlc efforts of Big Biz to discredit the farmers’ movement, by the fake league method, than could be told by pages of argument. ‘‘Rival Shows,’’ the artist calls it. One show, on the left, is in charge of the grain growers. The man at the gate is saying that this show is ‘‘just commencing,’’ and this is correct, too, for in spite of the overwhelming success” won by the North Dakota farmers at the polls last November, their main work is still ahead of them. This show at the left of the picture looks like the real thing; i that is very evidently what ‘the farmers think, because they are -all rushing to get in. This show seems-to have all the crowd. * * * NOBODY LOVES A FAKER UST across the way another ‘‘show’’ is located. It doesn’t look as ' if it would have any performance, though, if it doesn’t get more spectators than are coming that way now. There is a barker in . front of this tent, offering reduced rates to everybody, but even that doesn’t appear to attract anyone. The artist has not labeled this ‘‘bark- ”’ probably the gentleman doesn’t want to be labeled, but it is plainly to be seen that he is not a grain grower. Maybe he is ‘‘Big Biz.” Maybe he is meant for the chamber of commerce. Maybe, again, he is just a free lance faker trying to pick up a little easy money for himself. This rival ‘‘cut rate’’ show is resorting to the expedient of giving a free show outside to try and get some business. But even that doesn’t work. Their stuffed elephant is too raw a fake to fool anybody. It even makes the real elephant, across the way in the ‘“big top,”’ laugh. HooHK X IT IS A THREE-MAN SHOW OU notice that the artist shows ,]ust three men counected with i the fake show. One makes the noise and the other two make thie motions, one of them being the front legs of the falke ele-- phant and the other one the hind legs. Isn 't that just like this fake ‘“‘three man’’ Minnesota Nonpartisan league? Tt consists of President Stoneburg, who makes most of the noise, and Treasuver Blomquist-and Secretary Johnson, who are going through motions such as they think - " a real elephant would make. * ¥ £d NOISE—BUT THAT’S ALL : O NTONEBURG and Blooniquist and Johnson have been very busy re- o S cently. The noise and activity of this trio is like the noise and activity of the fake show men in the picture—the barker is malk- ing a lot of noise but is not getting any spectators, and the fake ele- phant is going through allthe motions of running, but is really just phant is going through all the motions of running, but is really just jumping up and down ‘and not getting anywhere. The ‘‘three man league’’ in Minnesota is making its noise and its jumping up and down with a series of newspaper articles that are ap- pearing in a good many of the small country weeklies in Minnesota and with a series of letters to officers of farmers clubs throughout the state. Both the letters and the newspaper articles are devoted principally to attacks upon the National Nonpartisan League, instead of boosting for their own ‘‘league,’”’ which shows, plainly enough, what the fake ‘‘league’’ was organized for. * » * A g _USE BOGIES TO SCARE FARMERS HE newspaper articles and the letters are full of the same mis- I representations which were printed in the Minneapolis news- papers controlled by the chamber of commerce when the fake “league was first organized, and which were exposed by the Non- partisan Leader at that time. The organizers of this fake league do not give the farmers of Minnesota credit for much intelligence, in try- _ing to feed them such stuff. There is the same old attempt to raise the bogy of ““Socialism’’ and the other hackneyed circus tricks of a dis- credited- politician. For one sentence in the letter being sent out by the fake ‘‘league,’” however, the Nonpartisan Leader desires to thank the writer. In this letter Seeretary Johnson says: : ‘‘Please do not get the impression that our association, éwhich is organized under the state laws of Minnesota, is the crowd who came into this state from North Dakota to tell the people of this state what they should do to remedy some seeming defects.’’ * % * YOU’RE RIGHT, MR. JOHNSON ENDING this letter out to every subscriber: of the Nonpartisan S Leader would cost the fake league $1200 in postage alone. The Leader will not charge a cent for bringing this sentence to the attention of every one of its readers. We sympathize with the fake ‘‘league’’ in wanting to tell everyone that they are not the “‘crowd from North Dakota,”’ not that ‘‘crowd,’’ 87,000 strong, that marched to the polls in November last. No, the Minnesota league has just its three-man ‘“crowd.’’ : We wonder, though what the farmers of Minnesota will think about the light and flippant manner in which the fake league speaks about the ‘‘seeming defects.”” Does the Minnesota far mer, we wonder, think that the theft of millions on Feed D wheat is only a ‘‘seeming defect?’’ North Dakota farmers don’t feel that way about it. Does the Minnesota farmer think that chamber of commerce control of his state is a ‘‘seeming defect?’ Ts the fake league going to cure all the ills of the farmer by mental suggestion, just by telling him everything is all right and to go home and forget about his troubles? Anyhow, the Leader is glad that the Minnesota promoters acknowledge that they have no connection with ‘‘the crowd from North Dakota.”’ THREK e (o o