The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 23, 1917, Page 6

Tonpartisan Teader Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Thursday. Tntered as second-class matter September 3, 1915, at the postoffice at Fargo, North Dakota, under the Act of March 3, 1879, OLIVER 8. MORRIS, EDITOR Advertising rates on application. Subscription, one year, in advance, $2.50; siX months, $1.50. Communications should be addressed to the Nonpartisan Leader, Box 941, Fargo, North Dakota. MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS THE 8. C,'i&ECK\VlTI] SPECIAL AGENCY, Advertising Representatives, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. Quack, fradulent and irresponsible firms are not knowingly advertised, and we will take it as a favor if any readers will advise us promptly should they have occasion to doubt or question the reliability of any firm which patronizes our advertising columns. MR. BLACK AGAIN IIE Fargo Forum, acquired last spring by interests who intend I to use it to fight the Nonpartisan league, has been rather meek since its attempt to make the cause of the farmers seem unpa- triotic failed a few weeks ago. But while the Forum has had little to say about the League for some time, its president, Norman B. Black, former manager of the defunct ‘‘Good Government’’ league, lately, in private conversation and personal letter, has been saying some things in defense of his paper. It has been necessary for him to say some things, because he has been given to understand that the farmers will not support a paper that is fighting their interests and their organi- zation. In defense, Mr. Black has said (not in his paper, but privately) that he is not fighting the farm- . I TORIAL SECT and the Forum believes that the farmers’ League can be broken up if confidence is destroyed In the men the farmers have entrusted with leadership—that the farmers’ program can be defeated easily when the League no longer exists and is no longer supported by the farmers. Mr. Black and the Forum believe that they can break up the League and defeat the farmers in this way, WITHOUT APPEARING TO OP- POSE THE FARMERS’ PROGRAM, WHICH ALL THE FARMERS WANT; WITHOUT APPEARING TO FIGHT THE FARMERS AS FARMERS, WHICH NO PERSON OR PAPER COULD DO AND GET AWAY WITH IT; WITHOUT APPEARING TO DENY THE RIGHT OF THE FARMERS TO ORGANIZE AND HAVE A LEAGUE, WHICH RIGHT NO SANE MAN WOULD DENY. And so, regardless of who the leaders of the League were, Mr. Black would be fighting them. When the necessity of pretending to be for the farmers, but against their leaders, no longer exists, the persons who fight the lead- -ers of the League ADMIT THAT THEY ARE REALLY OPPOSED TO THE FARMERS AND NOT THE LEADERS. This is true in the case of Dr. L. T. Guild, who formerly owned the Fargo Courier-News, in which he insisted he was with the farmers and for their interests and recognized that they had a right to organize. But, he said, he was opposed to and was fighting the leaders of the League, which is exactly the position of the Grand Forks Herald, the recognized champion of the anti-farmer gang. Since Dr. Guild has left North Dakota, and it is no longer neces- sary for him to pretend to love the farmers, he has admitted that he thinks they are ‘‘boobs.”” He claims they are gullible, that they are selfish. He says they are getting rich and pretending they are abused. He says they are a bunch of chumps and that their program is ‘‘bunk.”’ He says these things editorially about the North Dakota farmers in the paper which he is now conducting ers; that, in fact, he is for them at Santa Monica, Cal, and in strong ; that he is not fighting the l GIVING HIM A TIP I which it is not necessary for him League or denying the farmers’ - right to organize. No, certainly not! He says he IS FIGHTING THE LEADERS OF THE LEAGUE. And Mr. Black ex- plains that he does not approve of the methods of the Grand Forks Herald. ‘We are going to discuss this attitude of Mr. Black, because it is the argument of practically every paper and practically every interest that is AGAINST THE FARMERS’ PROGRAM AND IS TRYING TO BREAK UP THE LEAGUE—THE ONLY ORGANI- ZATION THAT HAS A CHANCE TO GET FOR THE FARMERS WHAT THEY WANT. How could anybody ‘‘fight the farmers’’ directly and openly? It would be impossible for a paper to do that and exist a month. It would ‘be suicide. The farmers are the people—the producers that sustain, in agricultural states, the entire social and economic struc- ture. Any man who said, ‘‘I am against the farmers,”” would not last long in public estimation. Likewise, how can any person deny the right of the farmers to organizé¢? Any body or class of citizens has that right, and it is unquestioned. A person who said : openly, no matter what he thought personally, ‘‘I am against the farm- ers’ organizing and hence opposed to the League,”” would be making an ass of himself and would not get very far. Again, it is not safe for a person or a paper to fight the political and economic desires of the farmers as expressed in the League pro- gram. The people want that program. Mr. Black ‘and all enemies of the farmers know that. They can read election figures as well as any- body. They do not dare frankly and openly to oppose the farmers’ pro- gram. That, too, would be suicide. Therefore, what avenue is open to men like Mr. Black and papers like the Forum, who wish to defeat the farmers’ program and destroy the only farmers’ organization that ever had a ghost of a show of get- ting the farmers what they want? There is an avenue of attack open. It is: FIGHT THE LEADERS OF THE LEAGUE. Mr. Black believes IT GETS STRAIGHT TO THE OUR BOYS IN THE TRENCHES PAGE SIX THERE'S THE 1917 CROP, UNGLE ! NOW 1T'S UP TO YOU TO SEE THAT (£ MOUTHS OF THE HUNGRY AND TO to pretend to love the North Da- kota farmer when he doesn’t. Santa Monica is a long ways from North Dakota. ‘When it no longer becomes necessary for men like Mr. Black to pretend to love the farmers— when they no longer need to take this attitude in order to get farm- ers to subscribe for their papers and support the men who adver- tise in them, they too will express their real sentiments about the farmers. They are doing it pri- vately right now. : * T A great “hurrah” is being made by some newspapers over the alleged fact that the farmers’ “money return” from the present crop will be greater, even, than the return from the bumper 1915 crop. It is doubtful if the money return will be as great, but, whatever it is, these papers should remember that a dollar now is worth only about half as much as it was in 1915. Why not play that up in your paper, brother? * * * BAER'S STATEMENT HE people have been waiting for somebody to give a real meaning to the phrase ‘‘making the world safe for democracy.’”” Noble as some of the president’s expressions on . this subject have been, they have not been complete. -They have not satisfied. The people of the Unit- efl States are patriotic and are ready to do and to die for liberty and right, just like the people of any country are—like the people of Ger- many are. We must not blind ourselves to the fact that the German pef)ple believe they are bleeding for liberty and right, although, as we think, they are deceived by an insolent autocracy. i Real meaning HAS been given to the phrase ‘“‘making the world safe for democracy.’”’ It has been given in Congressman Baer’s formal stz?.f,ement, following his election by the Nonpartisan league. Baer has said what the people hnv_e been waiting for someone with courage to say. The new congressman declares in effect that something besides the defeat of Germany must come out of this war. He gays that im-- perialism, whether manufactured in ‘Washington, in Berlin or in Lon- don, must end forever. 2 By that he means that the peace which follows thiz war must guar-