The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, October 4, 1917, Page 10

s ILANGER MAKES THEM SQUIRM HE attacks on the farmers’ administration of North Dakota burst out with new fury in the gang press last week. The Fargo Forum, acquired last spring to fight the farmers’ gov- ernor and the rest of the men elected to office by the farmers, as well as to oppose the Nonpartisan league and its officers, has now included Attorney General William Langer in its attacks, along with Governor Frazier. The Grand Forks Herald, ancient enemy of the farm- ers, continues in its bitter attacks and reckless distortions of the facts. The Herald, long-ago beaten and diseredited, has mever had a chance to make any progress against the League—its motives and policy of misrepresentation are too well known. For a while, however, a few months, ago the Fargo Forum promised to make some impression by its protestations of fair play and denial that it was going to fight the farmers, their men in office or their organization. The Leader views with considerable satisfaction the present policy of the Forum, which is now the same as the Herald’s. The Forum has thrown aside its mask. It is now frankly fighting the farmers and their movement from every possible angle and without reserve. It has nothing but denunciation for every man the farmers have elected in North Dakota; it misrepresents and distorts everything the governor or officers of the League say or doj; it attacks every move of the League. LEADER TAKES CREDIT FOR BRINGING FORUM INTO OPEN The Leader takes eredit for bringing the Forum out into the open. The Leader by its exposure of the Forum fakes and the Forum motives has shown Norman Black, ‘‘president’’ of the Forum, the uselessness of trying to hide opposition to the farmers by a pretense of fairness. Black, as manager of the discredited and defunt ‘‘Good Government’’ lcague, tried to save that organization by announcing it was ‘‘not fight- ing the farmers’’.” He tried the same thing with the Forum. The TForum was an enemy to be feared while conducted on a policy of seem- ing fairness, carrying on its fight against the League and the farmers under cover, without the violence and bitterness which characterized the Grand Forks Herald policy. Black declared to his friends he would never make the mistake with the Forum that Jerry Bacon did with the Herald. But the Leader foiled Black’s well-laid plans. The Forum is now run on the same policy as the Herald—complete, bitter and violent opposition to the farmers’ administration, the League and its policies and the officers of the League. The Leader drove Black into the open. The Forum has destroyed its usefullness to the opposi- tion. It lost its head. It is no longer to be feared because its motives are too apparent. The Herald-Forum campaign against the farmers has taken the form of charges of disloyalty against the farmers’ men in office and their organization. These organs of the political gang know the falsity of these charges even better than the people of the state. But they are playing a bold game. It is war times and naturally and rightly the people are looking for loyalty and patriotism on the part of all publie officials and organizations. The gang thinks it can make political capital out of this by garbling facts to make the gang’s enemies seem disloyal. And so the Forum-Herald are attempting to divert the spirit of patriotism of the people into channels that suit the political aims of the Forum-Herald—they are trying to direct it against the farmers’ organi- zation and its elected officials, and against the program of the League. To ery ‘‘traitor’’, ‘‘pro-German’’, ‘‘disloyalist’’ takes little effort or brain work—but, lacking any foundation whatever, these epithets can not take the place of argument and will have no effect on the League, or its policies, or its popularity, or the loyalty of its members. ATTORNEY GENERAL ANSWERS RECKLESS FORUM CHARGES In a letter to the Forum, Attorney General Langer answers a few of the attacks that have been made on the farmers’ administration. His letter is well worth reading. It is full of facts. It contains proof. It makes the Forum and the other dishonest enemies of the League squirm. Here it is: Bismarck, N. D., Sept. 22, 1917. The Editor of the The Fargo Forum, Fargo, N. D. Dear Sir: My attention has been called to a statement published in the issue of the Fargo Forum, Friday evening, Sept. 21, 1917, in which you re- port one Harry Curran Wilbur, executive secretary of the North Da- kota Red Cross society, as challenging me to name the attorney or at- torneys whom in a speech at LaMoure, I charged with making a great ery of patriotism for political profits. This man is also reported to have placed $1,000 in the First Na- tional bank of Fargo but if he has done so I have had no official notifi- cation of it and even if I had I frankly confess that I have in the past not been representing ‘‘Big Business’’ and I therefore am rather hard up for money. ; However, without the forfeiture of his $1,000 T am perfectly will- ing and delighted to name to the people of this state and to Mr. Wilbur one man of the legal profession who I am convinced has been going up and down the state making a display of patriotism as a cloak for po- litical purposes. I name Tracy R. Bangs of Grand Forks, who has been lecturing under the auspices of the state Red Cross society of which Judge N. C. Young of Fargo is state leader, and of which Mr. Wilbur is executive secretary, with using the cloak of patriotism and the Red Cross to at- tack the present state administration. BANGS TIES TO THE RED CROSS TO AIR POLITICAL PREJUDICES In a speech at Jamestown, under the auspices of the Red Cross so- cicty, as reported in the issue of The Fargo Forum of Sept. 4, Mr. Bangs affirmed in the course of his speech ‘‘that it was up to all persons to be right in this war,”’ and his statement that ‘‘certdin state officers will have to get in line with the rest of us’’ brought forth enthusiastic ap-. lause. > In a report of this same speech in The Jamestown Alert of Sept. 4, Mr. Bangs made a bitter attack on state officials in the following lan- PAGE TEN aze: ‘‘The state has been adversely advertised because of those in Esthgority who have raised their voices in giefen_se of the Peace Council and the pacifists, and have not raised their voices 1n behalf of such great works at the Red Cross society.”’ S : When a prominent attorney and politician speaking under the authority of the Red Cross society and with the full knowl- edge of its state chairman and secretary makes such wanton and wilful false statements in order to fux_'t.hgr a political cause, I assert that he is guilty of using patriotism as a cloak for the furtherance of a political cause and prostituting the Red Cross society to political ends. So far from having remained silent concerning the Red erss, Gov- vernor Frazier, the responsible head of the present administration, has repeatedly spoken in favor of the Red Cross and urged upon .':Lll per- sons liberal subseriptions. When the Red Cross drive was on in Bur- leigh county, which netted the largest per capita result of any drive in the United States, Governor Frazier, and other members of his admin- istration, addressed the assembled state officials and employes with the result that in fifteen minutes $1,300 in cash was subscribed, Governor Frazier’s subscription being very liberal. GOVERNOR HAS BOOSTED AND CONTRIBUTED TO RED CROSS In every speech that Governor Frazier has made since the Red Cross drive began, and in many of them prior to the speech made by Mr. Bangs at Jamestown, he boosted the Red Cross—pointed out what an invaluable aid it is to our military organization and urged the peo- ple to subscribe to the fullest extent of their means. Not only has Governor Frazier been boosting the Red Cross in public speeches but the members of his administration have constantly boosted the Red Cross and are all liberal subseribers. I declare that Mr. Wilbur, Mr. Bangs, or Judge Young can not se- lect another group of men in the state who have been more loyal or liberal to the Red Cross than the present state officials of North Dakota. In view of these easily ascertainable facts, I deliberately state that the language used by Tracy R. Bangs in his speech at Jamestown -was a prostitution-of the cause of the Red Cross and of patriotism to polit- -ical ends—he availed himself of the opportunity, while speaking to people of all political parties, under the auspices of the Red Cross, to at- tack and malign honorable and loyal state officials to further the polit- ical cause of those opposed to the principles for which the present ad- ministration stands. : Further, I brand Mr. Wilbur’s statements as false when he says that Governor Frazier sent me to Fargo for the purpose of protecting and sheltering the proposed meeting of the Peace Council in that city. This falsehood is all the more inexcusable after my LaMoure speech, in which I explained the nature of my mission to Fargo. NOT A SCRAP OF TRUTH TO SUBSTANTIATE CHARGES In a report of that speech in the Edgeley Mail, Thursday, Sept. 20, we find the following: ‘‘The sting came when Mr. Langer said that Governor Frazier had instructed him to use all the forees of his office and the state to prosecute to the limit any man or woman uttering a seditious or treasonable word.”’ Governor Frazier and his administration have done every- - ! thing in their power to assist the federal government in draft- ing and mobilizing troops and in co-operating in every way to guarantee a successful conclusion to the present war. As the people of the state know, when the Second regiment of the North Dakota national guard was formed Governor Frazier searched the state for the best men that he could find to lead the new organization and in no way did politics enter into the consideration of men, I state that the traducers of Governor Frazier’s administration can not produce a single line of evidence under the governor’s signature or of any member of his administration or any authenticated utterance in a speech in which there has been any sedition or treason or any want of loyalty to the Red Cross or to our common country in the present crisis, On the contrary, many of us would be with the First or Second regis ments of the state were-it not for the sole fact that the president of the United Sates and congress have indicated that we could be of more as< sistance and aid to our country by faithfully and energetically serving at our posts as the servants of the people and carrying out their will by a rigid enforcement of the laws in all departments than by enlisting. DUTY OF PEOPLE TO PROTEST AGAINST UNPATRIOTIC PROFITS I again pledge to the people of the state that I will go to the very limit £ necessary to assist in bringing to justice any person guilty of sedition or treasom or of interfering with the work of the Red Cross soclety and in this I am satis« fied that I will have practically the united support of the members of the Nortk Dakota Bar association who are as loyal and true and patriotic and self-sacrifio ing as any attorneys in the United States. In conclusion I wish to reiterate the substan namely: That it is the patriotic duty of the common €0 - test to their congressional representatives against thz egiil;i;nh: ;:I'm:r:gitzmo! such corporations as the Dupont Powder company, which during the years 1911, 1912 and 1913 made an average annual profit of $5,625,964, but since 1914 has made an average annual profit of $82,107,693; as also the United States Steel corporation, which during the three years mentioned made an average annual profit of $63,585,777, but since the war commenced has made an average annual profit of $271,531,730; as also the Central Leat! g her company, which duri th three years mentioned made an annual average profit of 33,4'72,804, but si:llge th: war commenced has made an annual average profit of $15 - American Sugar company, which during the three yZar:4§;2e(x)12t'lt$:e¢tlh ;nga:n annual average profit of $409,988, but since the war has made an annual ave profit of $8,275,162, and other companies which have made fabulous profltsrg txn-ém:gr gffi??:anfi' Swit;nf Company, New York Central Railroad company, e nt oil com es an S04, the difere )} . d, hundreds of other corporations too numers It was in dealing with bloody, unpatriotic profits of concerns ik these that | appear to have incurred i Sy the kept politicians of this state. e Japicasurs chitne £8pt presyand But, notwithstanding articles like Mr, I propose to continue to call attention to for the profits there are in it rather than underneath, ce of my speech at LaMoure, ‘Wilbur's or speeches like Mr, Bangs,* the disloyalty of those who favor war for the real cause of the DPeople lying Sincerely yours, LANGER, [