The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 26, 1917, Page 3

Nag VOL. 5, NO. 4. ~ | OW extensively the ene- mies of the farmers and their political and econom- ic movement in North Da- kota have succeeded in misrepre- senting Congressman John M. Baer in the East and distorting the issues involved in his election, is shown by editorial comment in some of the Eastern papers. Mat- ter concerning Baer and the elec- tion so absurd that it would get the laugh in North Dakota or in the other states where the League is organized has gone out by wire and letter to diseredit the Non- partisan league in the Bast. The. occasion of the farmers’ sweeping victory has been used by the anti- farmer gang of North Dakota to spread poison abroad that they did not dare to spread at home. Lo114En E0aEA) YISy Many Eastern newspapers have taken a ghoulish. glee in be- smirching Baer and the Northwest farmers, because it is their mis- sion to misrepresent and- contort every political and economic move- ment that comes from the people. Other papers have simply been de- ceived by the stuff sent out by disreputable liars who haye kept their identity secret. BAER NOT FIGHTING- THE RED CROSS The Buffalo (N. Y.) Express says that Baer’s election ‘‘is not creditable to North Dakota,’” be- cause it shows the state is un- ‘American, the distriect being pro- German on account of a big Ger- man and Scandinavian population. How this erazy idea got out is a mystery. Baer in his campaign strongly supported the adminis- tration’s food bill and bill to tax excess-war profits heavily. He be- lieves in the prosecution of the lNonpartisan Teader Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA, THURSDAY, JULY 26, 191T % # i o Ry ¢ IVE yQur Maney § dollars as well as the men should be drafted into Uncle Sam’s serv- ice by conscription., He believes that autoeracy in America should be fought as well as autocracy in Burope. Is this un-American? The New York Mail reported under a Fargo date line that the Nonpartisan league leaders were opposing Liberty Loan and Red Cross subseriptions, intimating that Baer ran on that kind of a platform. The League leaders never opposed the Liberty loan, as every person in the Northwest knows, but members of the League believe there is a better way of financing the war—an excess war profit tax and conscription of wealth, As to opposition to the Red Cross by the League and farmers, no charge could be more untrue or absurd. This mereiful work has been given every en- couragement and financial sup- port possible by the farmers of North Dakota. MAIL IS FAIR WITH FARMERS The New York Mail, however, later printed in full a correct ver- sion of the Baér campaign and the issues at stake, and has since in cartoons and articles done more than any other eastern paper to carry the truth about the League A magazine that dares t» print the truth WHOLE NUMBER 97 Under These Cirumstances, Why Not Conscription? THAT |NTERFERES WITH LEC [TMATE to eastern people. The Mail itself is fighting for a heavy tax on war profits. It was simply a case of the Mail bheing deceived by a North Dakota correspondent in- terested in besmirching the farm- ers. Perhaps the most cruel false- hoods about Baer and the League were circulated by papers like the Indianapolis Star, which said he ran on a platform ‘‘for immediate peace and repeal of the conserip- tion law.’”’ Bear did not discuss peace or peace terms, but he does believe in the prosecution of the war with all the energy possible. Instead of opposing conseription, he emphatically indorsed it, and urged its application to get the dollars to fight the war as well as the men. Some Eastern newspapers car- ried alleged news articles from their Washington correspondents stating that the administration was alarmed at Baer’s election, because it showed what -inroads the pro-German propaganda was making in the West, and they suggested that immediate steps should be etaken ‘‘to put the farmers right on the war and the government’s war aims.”’ If ad- ministration members did have any such alarm, it no longer ex- ists, because they know by this 7 Tt was to be expected that the majority of the Eastern press would use the oceasion of Baer’s election to congress to attack the economie views of the western farmers. But it was hardly to be expected that circulation would be given to gross errors of faet. With their FACTS wrong, of what value are the time that Baer will be a mainstay of President Wilson’s plans for food control and for his plan to tax excess war profits and swollen incomes all they can stand. There is no organized pro-German pro- paganda in the Northwest so far as we know and it is an insult to farmers to state that they do not understand the government’s war policy and war aims. MOST OF PAPERS WERE MALICIOUS Another section of the Eastern press has swallowed the fiction that Baer is a Socialist and that he approves the Socialist party’s majority report on the war. Baer is not and has never been'a Social- ist, as everyone in North Dakota knows. Before becoming a Non- partisan he was a Democrat, - though in the campaign he got the support of progressive Republi- cans also. There is no doubt but that most of the Eastern papers misrepre- sented Baer intentionally and with malice, because they are controll- .ed by the Big Interests, and the Big Interests fear the farmers’ League and Baer. However, many of the papers merely swallowed what passed for facts for a time in the Bast, and had no intention of fighting a farmers’ or people’s movement as such. The whole situation goes to prove that the farmers’ enemies in North Dakota are bitter and prejudiced enough, and liars enough, to send out false reports to damage their own state, so that North Dakota can be held up to contempt in the East, just to satisfy these mean and low spirits within the state and their desire to rule or ruin. They have sent out stuff that they did not dare s i OPINIONS of the‘ Eas_tern press? war to a successful finish, to to print in North Dakota, and thus which end he believes that the they are cowards also. PAGE THREE