The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 26, 1917, Page 12

' DO A THOROUGH JOB ‘A man in New York printed some sections of the Declaration of Inde- pendence on a handbill and beneath asked: “Does our government live up to these princinples?” He was arrest- ed for “disorderly conduct” and sent- enced to 30 days. A judge later decided that it was not “disorderly conduct” to quote the Declaration of Independence, or to criticize the government, and the man was freed. It is announced that the prosecuting officers will appeal from this ruling to a higher court. ‘We suggest that a surer way of sup- pressing such treason as exhibited by this New York man would be to col- lect and burn all copies of the Declara- tion of Independence to be found in the country. It is not enough merely to attempt prosecutions for copying a few senlences from the inflammatory statements of the agitators of 1776. As long as the document itself exists it will continue to fire men’s minds with ideas of liberty and democracy. The matter should be called to the attention of Solicitor Lamar of the post office department and an order issued barr- ing the Declaration from the mails, * * * BUT THEY WEREN'T There was an attorney named Young, ‘Whe fancied the farmers were stung Because they signed notes “To capture the votes, And he wanted the leaders all hung. * * * PATRIOTISM IS NOT ONLY OF- TEN THE LAST REFUGE OF A SCOUNDREL — IT IS SOMETIMES THE FIRST YELP OF A WHIPPED DOG. - 2 * * * . Lamar, The czar, Saves the press room tar, Suppresses papers near and far, Puffs placidly at his cigar— And there you are. * * * ——___*With prices -what they are”—has become the favorite opening sentence for articles, editorials and advertise- ments, giving evidence to future gener- ations that this is a mercenary age, but it fsn’t so bad at that—with prices what they are. * * * BY THE TIME HOOVER HAS THE TUILLIC TRAINED TO QUIT WAST- ING GARBAGE, THE WAR WILL BE OVER AND THERE WILL BE SOMETHING ELSE TO LIVE ON. * * * o Are educational institutions made for the board of regents, or is the board of regents made for the edu- cational institutions? * * * Question: If a patriotic banker lends an honest boy the money to buy a calf in the spring in order to start Lim in purebred livestock and tells the hoy to sell the calf in the fall to pay the banker his note, who gets the start? * * * While Chicago abolished May wheat and July corn trading, Minneapolis established ~ future trading in oats, and boomed the new gamble with a big whoop and hurrah. * * * ‘Wall street is all worked up over Studebaker dividends, but the North- western farmers only have to worry about spark plugs for their tin Lizzies. * * * WHEN THIEVES FALL OUT One thing the sugar barons did that was bad: Some of them it is hinted, organized *“Cuba Cane” to flim-flam some of their fellow plutes, and from the wails of Wall street, they seem to have got away with it by bulling the market, “sluffing” their stock, and in- vesting the proceeds in fat, untaxable, 814 per cent Liberty loan bonds. * * * ; What would have becorhe of France if Belgium had had a senate that would spend six weeks trying to save the hides of the food gamb- lers while Kaiser Bill bowled over her fortresses and tramped across her fields? * * * ‘With several wooden ships a day on the program, and a raise of 30 per cent in retail prices of many kinds of lumber, the lumber kings' are still grunting about hard times. * * * IT IS MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN TO BE ROBBED, * * * Several of those “million dollar rains” that the plutocratic press is always BETWEEN THE ROWS BY FARMER JONES talking about, have been badly fried by the hot weather that followed them. * * * With some of the flour mills idle and all of them having the blues because there is no movement of flour, the milling combine still manages to keep its head above water by holding flour above $13 a barrel, and boosting for $1.50 wheat —for the benefit of the consumer! * * * Thomas Sanderson, North Dakota Agricultural college miller, suggests that the test weight per bushel was first used in the wheat trade for the purpose of filling space in ships. It is still used for the purpose of filling’ space—in the pockets of the grain ring. * * * NOT FOR HIM A farmhand named Ole who had only recently arrived from Sweden met a friend the other day and saidto him: “Ay skal lak to know ’'bout das polar bear.” “Why a polar bear,” said his friend, “lives up north and sits around on cakes of ice and goes swimming in ice-cold water and when winter comes he makes a hole in a snowbank and sleeps six months without waking. But, Ole, why are you so interested in polar baers?” “Val,” said Ole, “Yon Swanson have yust been die dis morning and a faller been askin’ me to be polar bear at Yon’s funeral, but Ay hate to go up nort’ and sit on cake of ice and slape sax munt in snow-bank and Ay tank Ay skal let nudder faller be polar bear.” * * * LITTLE DROPS Little drops of water, Little grains of sand, Make the milkman wealthy And the grocer grand. * * * “COWBOY ED” ' A lot of people who are telling the - farmers what to plant, the best way to care for their crops and how to harvest The County Fair The county fair is on again—it broke out early Monday. The ‘‘kentry’’ folks came driving in with ‘‘entries’’ all day Sunday. . The Fair ground ‘stalls’” are filling up with mammoth hens and horses, with ‘“mooley’’ cows and yearling calves, and pigs from local sources. Great yellow squash are on display, and beans, and red tomatoes, and cabbage, big as cannon balls, and over- grown potatoes. They offer prizes by the score for plump and rounded babies, for needle-work, and faney cakes, and other arts of ladies. The boys are throwing rings for canes, and betting on the races, and all the girls are out in white with taleum on their faces. The Ladies’ Aid is serving meals in Johnson’s vacant store room, and just beyond the Farmers’ bank they’ve built the ‘“local Forum.”’ The ball games start at two o’clock, the air- ship flies at seven, the bowery dance begins at noon and lasts until eleven. The prizes won'’t be given out till Thursday after dinner; the. county judge will call the name of every trophy winner. You’d better try to plan your work to class among the boosters, and ‘‘enter’’-at the county fair your babies, cakes and roosters. THE VOTE IS THE BAIT Just before election a lot of politi~ -cians are abroad in the land telling how much they love the people, says Governor Frazier of North Dakota. After the election it is a different thing. Governor Frazier tells this story to show what he means: Two little darkey boys were fishing in a river. Suddenly the soft earth at the bank slipped and the smaller of the two boys fell in. He couldn’t swim and was going down for the third time when the larger boy, who had been looking helplessly around, 'plunged in and after a hard- struggle finally suc- ceeded in bringing the smaller boy ashore. A preacher who had seen the entire occurrence from a distance hurried up, out of breath, in time to pat the larger boy on the shoulder. ‘“You are a mighty brave boy,” he said, “to risk your life to save your lit- tle brother. You must love your broth- er a lot to do that.” “’Deed not, boss,” said the darkey boy. “He ain’t my brudder and I don’t love him none, needer. But he had all de bait in his pocket.” We're With You, John THE A aMER’S‘A"" them, know about as much about real farming as “Cowboy Ed” knew about ‘women. “Cowboy Ed” was a great hand with horses and cattle and knew how they ought to be treated, but he hadn’t had much experience “with women. One day, however, he decided he should get married so he came to town with an extra horse, persuaded a waitress at the hotel named Ellen to marry him, and started back to- the ranch, Ellen riding the extra horse. Four days later “Cowboy Ed’” appear- ed in town again with a long face. He was leading the extra horse, but no Ellen was in sight. “What’s'the matter?” asked a friend. “Have you and Ellen separated al- ready?” “T sure do have the worst luck with women,” said the cowboy. “Two days out Ellen fell off the horse and broke her leg, so I had to shoot her.” T0- RECRESENT Faamfi:um«eq- I Demand Reason The North Dakota board of regents have asked the resignation of E. F. Ladd, president of the - Agricultural College, and Mr. Ladd has refused to heed the request. The friends of Mr. Ladd have been expecting something of this kind to happen for some time, and look on it now not so much as a surprise but with regret, that a man who has been a conscientious worker, and a faithful public servant should be asked to quit without any apparent reason.—WAHPETON (N. D.) TIMES. HAS REAL STRENGTH The election is by a large majority for the League candidate in the district, and has again demonstrated to us that the League is more than a mere agita- tion and that it is a real strength in politics, —PEKIN (N. D.) BUDGET. PAGE THIRTEEN J.E. T. Free Speech Hit (Editorial in St. Paul Dispatch) Ten radical publications, most of them with socialistic leanings, have been forbidden the use of the malils and thus temporarily suppressed by Solicitor Lamar of the Postoffice de- partment and by various postmasters acting upon their individual initiative, Now it is probable that most, if not all, of these publications contained utter- ances opposing the governments’ war attitude which quite justified their suppression and aroused a general and loyal outburst of indignation. But a dangerous precedent is being created which may jeopardize the liberty of the press if one man is allowed to ex- clude the paper from the mails because in his opinion it contains treasonable or seditious matter. The constitution has not been sus- pended. We still have courts of jus- tice to determine guilt and to fix pun- ishment, and there are laws on our statute books which define treason and sedition and provide the penalties therefor. Why are not these lawas invoked when radical publications overstep the bounds? Why not punish the guilty man and set an example? Why is one man, not responsible to the people, entrenched in a bureau at Washington, allowed to act as judge, jury and prosecutor in these cases? As a matter of fact, Solicitor Lamar is convicted of absurd bias on his own utterances. He is quoted as saying that all Socialist papers are teaching and advocationg international Social- ism and that this teaching necessarily must repudiate national governments. FHence, he argues, the abstract theories of international Socialism are treason- able and publications containing such teachings must be forbidden the m..ils, Such an attitudc is worse than Kaiser- ism, for Max Harden and Karl Liebkn- echt were allowed more latitude in Germany than Solicitor Lamar would allow American advocates of Marxian philosophy. Such an arbitrary misuse of power is likely to harm the govern- ment more in the opinion of thinking persons than any amount of ranting sedition which may be published by radical journals. One of the papers, edited incidental- ly by a man of German extraction was suppressed because it contained an ar- ticle “telling Washington to wake up to the fact that the people don’t waut war.” This calls for prompt punish- ment as it is plainly seditious, but we still insist that no paper should be suppressed except by the orderly pro- cesses of law and that no bureaucrat should 'be installed as censor with power to say what shall and what shall not be published. . ~ Most of the papers which have been ‘suppressed deserve little considera- tion for themselves. ThLey have been- 80 rabid in their opposition to the gov- ernment even after its declaration of war that the public will waste little sympathy over their fate, be their suppression temporary or permanent, but a great principle is at stake and the government cannot afford to be other than just, even with the most obscure of these radical journals. The veriest sinner is entitled to a fair trial and in the excitement of the moment we should mnot allow bureaucratic agencies to set up a censorship which runs counter to all our constitutional forms, LOT TO LEARN ° Growers of strawberries in Minne- sota and Wisconsin are receiving five cents a quart for them. Out here they are retailing at 25 cents a pint and are hard to get at that price. Our countr)” has yet a lot to learn in quick- ly and profitably distributing food products,.—GLENBURN (N, D.) AD- VANCE.