The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 7, 1917, Page 7

" BAER FOR Nonpartisan CONGRESS! League to Put Leader’s Cartoonist in National Ho -~ From the First District of North Dakota OHN M. BAER must be sent to congress, the state convention of the North Dakota Nonpartisan League, held at Fargo last by week, decided. Baer was given the unanimous indorsement for : ¥ congressman from the First North. Dakota district by the 79 delegates present, after 14 names had been considered for the con- gressional nomination, and after the first and only ballot had shown that Baer had twice as much support as all other candidates combined. Everybody knows John Baer. His cartoons of ““Big Biz’’ and “‘Crafty’’ and ‘‘Hiram Rube’’ in the Nonpartisan Leader have brought laughter and understanding in nearly 70,000 farm homes in the Northwest. Baer is a farmer and the son of a farmer. He was born on a farm at Black Creck, Wis. He graduated from Lawrence University with the degree of Bachelor of Arts and later took up civil engineering, also securing a degree in that. : Baer came west to Beach, North Dakota. Beach wanted a public owned water system instead of private ‘monopoly. Beach looked around for a city engineer to put in this $200,000 water and sewer systgm. Beach picked John Baer for the job and Baer delivered the goods. Baer married the daughter of the late J. R. Smith, known as ‘‘Flax King”’ Smith. After Mr. Smith’s death Baer managed the farming of more than 5000 acres of land. Baer delivered the goods as farm manager. The business men of Beach, who knew and trusted Baer, made him secretary of the Commercial club. President Woodrow Wilson selected Baer as postmaster of Beach. Baer delivered. the goods in these jobs, too. But Baer was not content to settle down in the town of Beach with the postoffice and the Commercial club. Farmer blood tells. Baer got out and worked for a farmers’ ticket in Golden Valley county. When The call to rally round the League flag is again sounded! The same farmers who put Lynn J. Frazier and the rest of the winning ticket in the field last fall in North Dakota have nomi- nated John M. Baer in the first North Dakota congressional district, to succeed Congress- man Helgesen, deceased. The election is July 10. Let’s give Baer the biggest vote a congressman ever got in North Dakota. the Farmers’ Nonpartisan League came along Baer felt an itching to draw. He wanted to tell, with his pen and pencil and chalk, just how Big Biz and-Crafty and their allies were preying on Hiram Rube. After the Nonpartisan Leader was started, Baer was called upon to put in all his time with the farmers’ movement. So he gave up his postoffice and the fat salary that went with it, gave up the manage- ment of the Smith farm, gave up his connections with his friends and associates at:Beach and came to Fargo to tell to the farmers of the Northwest, by drawing and cartoon, how Big Biz was imposing on them and how they could put Big Biz on the run. And Baer delivered the goods. - In congress, instead of carrying this message to 70,000 farmers, John Baer will carry it to 100,000,000 people in the United States. He will deliver the goods in congress, just as he did in Beach and in his work for the farmers. Y Baer will be elected from the First district in North Dakota at the special election called by Governor Frazier for July 10, but he will rep- resent more than the First district of North Dakota. He will represent all the farmers of the Northwest and the revolt of producers and con- sumers the country over, against the toll charged by the middlemen and Big Business. : Baer was selected as the farmers congressional candidate by the same delegates who selected Lynn J. Frazier for governor a year ago. They followed the same method for selecting a winning congressman that they followed a year ago in selecting a winning state txck_et. Dele- gates proposed by ballots different names for consideration. The names were all written on a large sheet of paper at the front of the hall. Fourteen names in all were proposed. : : : The delegates discussed in a free and impartial manner the dif- ferent names proposed. Several of the names were those of delegates. Most of these men said they did not want to be candidates. The men who were proposed as candidates besides Baer were: H. A. Bronson, C. O. Swenson, O. B. Burtness, Richard McCarten, Howard R. Wood, Ray Craig, Walter Wellford, M. A. Hoghaug, C. P. Peterson, Charles E. Drown, E. E. Cole, William Lemke and H. Vick. After two hours of discussion one man after another was eliminated and it was decided to call upon John Baer, who wasn’t a candidate at all, and elect him to congress, just as Lynn J. Frazier, who wasn’t seeking the office.of governor at all, was called upon by the same delegates a year before, and was elected as governor. 3 . ‘Applause greeted Fay Harding, who first rose to tell the conven- tion why John Baer would be the idea] candidate, and applause greeted every succeeding speaker who mentioned Baer’s name. The conven- tion had all the ‘‘pep’’ and ginger of the convention of a year ago. Finally vote was taken and Baer’s nomination was made unanimous. ; The Fargo convention of last week was the first meeting of the League senators and representatives held since the adjournment of the North Dakota legislature. The delegates spent the day recalling old experiences and reporting the progress made by the League movement in their various neighborhoods. Delegates reported that for every man who had dropped out of the League, five to ten new members were put on. Every mention of the name of Governor Lynn J. Frazier brought applause, and the convention, by unanimous vote, directed that a I » This is John Baer I telegram be sent to the governor, thanking him for having vetoed Senate Bill 84, the “‘fake’’ terminal elevator bill which the old gang in the senate put forward as a sop to prevent the farmers from secur- ing a real elevator within the state, with a flour mill in connection. Delegates present at the convention were: A. L. Maxwell, Turtle Lake; R. L. Fraser, Garrison; J. O. Anderson, Hatton ; Alex Ferguson, Lankin ; Richard McCarten, Cogswell; E. E. Pindall, Lisbon ; James A. Wenstrom, Dover; Fred Eckert, Williston; E. E. Kurtz, Schafer; L. O. Frederickson, Pekin; O. C. Enstad, Pekin; J. J. Schrag, Munich; D. A, Cross, Lisbon ; H. R. Wopd, Deering ; Fay A. Harding, Braddock; F. B. Wood, Deering; J. J. Hastings, Fargo; Paul Messner, Jr., Pekin; C. J. Lee, Fargo; 0. C. Martin, De Sart; Wm. Patten, Plaza ; Henning Gun- hus, Edinburg; H. R. Albrecht, Perth; John W. Benson, Rolette ; James McManus, St. John; J. N. Hagan, Deering; Wm.- Holmquist, Reeder; F. J. Nims, Lisbon; Robert Wadeson, Alice; Martin Larson, Nome; M. A. Hoghaug, Devils Lake; C. O. Swenson, Northwood; A. J. Huso, Northwood ; Peter Romsaas, Ryder; C. J. Christenson, Grafton; Thor- wald Mostad, Minot; Christ Levang, Adams; Chas. E. Drown, Page; Martin Larsen, Wheatland; O. T. Haakenson, Towner; Frank Riba, Geneseo ; C. W. McDonnell, Kensal ; C. H. Noltimier, Valley City; J. H. Sinclair, Kenmare; J. E. Quam, Portland; Lloyd Rader, Dickinson; C. P. Peterson, Bisbee; Anthony Walton, Minot; F. W. Mees, Glen Ullin; A. M. Hagan, Westhope; N. E. ‘Whipple, Eckelson; Obert A. Olson, Bowman; Roy B. Weld, Chaseley; G. F. Hunt, Beach; O. K. Lageson, Reynolds; C. A. Ward, Hazelton ; A. S. Marshall, Forbes; J. L. Cahill, Leith; J. W. Kirtzman, Lakota; J. P. Hemmingsen, Shawnee; N. 0. Hagen, Pekin; O. H. Olson, New Rockford ; E. S. Dale, Rughy; J. N. Kunkel, Fessenden; Peter Enger, Mayville; H. L. Hol- grim, Traill ; Albert C. Moen, Mayville; N. H. Skadlend, Mayville; Henry Strom, Traill; and several others.