The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, October 18, 1917, Page 4

B e DA G ST P A R AIN'T FARMERS LEGAL? Petty Politicians and Corrupt Press of Minnesota Attempt to Break Up | League Meetings, But the Farmers “Come Back” Stronger Than Ever BY E. B. FUSSELL u HAVE seen some strange THE ROTTEN EGG THREAT FROM FERGUS FAL]..S > things in Minnesota during the last week. ? At Lake City 1 saw farmers of Wabasha county, who had gathered for a peaceable organization meeting, greeted’ with a fire hose, which local authorities had laid out in front of the meeting place, with a wrench at the tap, ready to turn on the water. At Mankato I saw the city police hustling the farmers along the streets, telling them to “move along” and to “get back on the sidewalks,” when there were so many that the sidewalks hardly would hold them and when they couldn’t move along very fast. It was enough to remind a North Dakotan of some early experiences in that state, like the time at New Rock- ford, when the late George S. Loftus was billed to speak and the merchants, to prevent the meeting, hired all the HENRY G. DAHL, CHAIRMAN . JOHN S, BILLINGS COMMITTEES? FINANCE. A.G Anderson, Chalrman,and il ‘other bankers in the JOHN L. TOWNLEY, Pazsiozwy OTTER TAIL ASSOCIATION FERGUS FALLS. MINNESOTA PHONE NO_ 131 A. C. Townley. P't, Non Partisan League: available halls and locked them up, or county. St.Paul.Minn. i the time at Fargo, when the commer- 00 . cial club sent city police to the city WELFARE OF ENLISTED Dear Sir : auditorium to drive Iquity farmers off MEN from the platform and out of the build- ing. In last week’s Leader a short account was given of affairs at Lake City, E. T. Ferry, Chairman Mrs. G, 0. Welch Mrs. F. J. Evans Mrs. Geo. B. Wright LOUIS KEANE, SECRETARY J. v BOPP, Treasiugp RICHARD J ANGUS COUNTY PUBLIC SAFETY OCtOQ 2rd. 19;7. Information hes reached this office to the effect that you contemplate speaking here in this county on Octo.20. Minn. (where the fire hose was laid " M. C. R. Wright out by the reception committee of busi- 00 I am instructed to notify you that this Association ness men). Last week something was fe PRODUCTS AND z ) told, also, of how the farmers came L Back. There were about 250 in Lake GARDENS will not tolerate any kind of talk here exeept that whioh City that day for the meeting. When they were welcomed at Lake City with the fire hose they decided to go to Dumfries, in the same county of Wa- basha, that night, but instead of 250 therc were 400 at Dumfries. This is to tell something about how the farmers “came back” in Wabasha county the second time. BANKER INVITES FARMERS FOR PATRIOTIC MEETING Among those who attended the Dum- fries mecting (after the farmers had been met with the fire hose at Lake City) was E. B. Kenefic, president of the Farmers & Traders bank of Wa- basha. of the farmers. He also is boosting the sale of Liberty bonds in Wabasha county. How Mr. Kenefic happened to go to the Dumfries meeting I don’t know. Maybe he had read in some of the Twin City papers that the farmers were dis- loyal and unpatriotic and were oppos- ing the sale of Liberty bonds, and wanted to find out for himself. But Mr. Kenefic did go to the Dumfries meeting, and he heard, —not disloyalty and opposition to the Liberty bonds, but a plea to the farmers to stand behind their gov- No Disloyal Meetings Be Tolerated in Otter Tail Co of Any Kind to 1t has been understood for some time past that A C Townley head e of the Non-Partizan league, would ;hold 8 mectig in Fergus Falls on Oct 20 In view of the recent dis- feiclosures regarding his attitude to-| ids |ward the government, the Otter Tail ier |County Public Sdfety commission ir- | publishes the following notice todayv 1ith 18- | NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE ATTEN- ‘e TION. all| The Otter Tail county PubMciSafe- Oc- |ty assoctation has been informed that ‘|a meeting is to be held here on Oct: |} M35 20, by the Non-Partisan leaghe. We ““k therefore wish totéll you et this time| tor] £231 10 such meeting will take place TG in this county. We will ."’.op it, No public meetfngs of @ politichl nature \ ::; will take place.in Otter Tail County ) raild except such as honor and respect our | == and flag and the country it symbolizes. Otter Tai} County Public Safety Association.” By Louis Keane, See. Above is a photographic reproduction of the report in the Fergus Falls (Minn.) Daily Journal of the rotten egg letter sent to the Nonpartisan league by the Otter Tail county so-called “safety” association. The Journal, as can be seen, even though fighting the League and the farmers, considered the rotten egg threat so disgusting and illegal, that it cut out that part of the letter before printing it. See photo- graphic reproduction of the whole let- ter on this page. Mr, Kenefic has been a friend - . V. Bopp, Chalrman N H. Gray, Fergus Fclls H. A. Putnar, Battle Lake Yisnosh ). Kempher, Erhard Fred Syck, Campbel! S. M. Skrove, Dalton 00 - ENLISTMENTS Dr. A. B Ccle. Chairman Dr A C.EBaker, Fergus Falls C. H. Dahlstrom. Parkers Praltle P. C. Frazee, Pelicsn Raplds 3. W, Shea, Perham honors our flag end the country for whioh 1t stands. So you will construe this motice as an invitatien not to come, If after the receipt of this motioce you persist in ' trying to talk here we have made arrangements with our Hayor 00 who has given orders to the police force mot to interfere it PUBLICITY W. L. Robarison, Chatrmad, and all the editors in the county. smal_l boys (end others) use ancient eggs and other missiles o whore with to punctuate your Uiscourse, PUBLIC SAFETY 3. S. Bitlings, Shesiff, and al dbe otber Peace Officers in he county. 00 POBLIC HEALTH Dr. 0. ¥, Haugan, Chairman, and sl other Health Cfcers in the county. Yours fruly Secretary. \ Above is a photographic reproduction of the letter sent by the so-called “public safety association” of Otter Tail county, Minnesota, to President Townley of the Nonpartisan league, stating that the mayor of Fergus Falls had given orders to the police force not to suppress rioting and disorder at-a meeting of League members scheduled for Fergus Falls., The letter meant that town people opposed to the farmers’ organization would be permitted by the mayor and police to throw rotten eggs at Mr. Townley or other speakers. The Otter Tail county “safety” association is probably indictable for inciting riot on the strength of this letter. The rotten egg threat was so d’'sgusting, so apparently a violation of the law and of public decency and order, that even the Fergus Falls Daily Journal, a paper that has been fighting the farmers and the League, in printing the letter, cut that part of it out, as shown by the photographic reproduction of the article in the Journal ap- pearing on this page in another column. ernment, not only to the extent of helping President Wilson and Her- bert Hoover to fix prices all along the line, but also to back up the boys at the front by the purchase of bonds. Other citizens of Wabasha and farm- ers from that vicinity also attended the Dumfries meeting, and they urged Ieague speakers, who had an open date for Monday, October 8, to give * them a meeting.© And on that day the farmers of Wabasha county had their second “come back”. They crowded the Wabasha auditorium to the doors. They heard former Congressman C. A. Lindbergh of Minnesota in a masterly discussion of the financial question and they heard President A. C. Townley of the League discuss the problems of the farmer and the need of conscription of ‘war profits to finance the war and urge the farmers to back up their government in its fight for world-wide liberty and democracy. ~ It might have been that there were some doubts among the cititzens of Wabasha about the loyalty of the farmers before the meeting. I don’t know about that. But one thing is certain—there are no doubts now. HOW ANTI-FARMER GANG SPREADS POISONED NEWS To show how the minds of residents of the small towns in Minnesota have been poisoned against the farmers, partly by the unfair Twin City papers, partly by other means, I am going to tell one little incident about Wabasha. The vice-president of Kenefic’s bank, the Farmers & Traders, is Lawrence Shoehammer, Shoehammer on the day of the meeting received a letter from a man who had formerly worked for him, who now lives at Enderlin, N. D. This man wrote that he had heard that the Nonpartisan Leaguers had been “run out of Lake City” and that he was glad of it, “because they were nothing but a bunch of I. W. W.s.” Shoehammer attended the Wabasha meeting. He said after it was over: “That was a real loyalty meeting, because Townley is plugging for the interests of the people. “lt was more of a loyalty meet- ing than a meeting that was held at Kellogg awhile ago, that was an- nounced as a ‘Loyalty meeting’ and where they denounced Townley, because the Kellogg meeting turn- ed out really to be a meeting to boost the political interests of Julius Schmahl, the Minnesota sec- retary of state, and Congressman Sidney Anderson. GET REAL INFORMATION AT LEAGUE MEETING “And I am going to write this man. at Enderlin,” said Shoehammer, “and tell him that before he sends out let- ters poasting people, he ought to find out what he is talking about.” And at the hotel at supper that night I heard a couple of school ma’ams talk- ing with some local business men about the meeting. They were talking about some of the statistics and information PAGE FOUR about war profits and government ex- penditures and needs that they had heard at the farmers’ meeting—things they didn’'t know about because they couldn’t find them in the Twin City papers they had been reading. “Those are real ideas,” one of the school ma'ams said. “Everyone ought to know those things. We ought to be able to teach the Non- partisan league ideas in our classes ~at school.” The next day a meeting was sched- uled for Litchfield. Now the Commer- cial club at Litchfield, a few days be- fore, had held a meeting and had re- quested Governor Burnquist of Minne- sota to prevent the meeting of the farmers. The Litchfield papers report- ed this meeting in such a way as to give the impression among the farmers that the meeting would 'not be held. But Governor Burnquist knew the / meeting could not be stopped legally. The state authorities had a stenogra- pher with the party for the first few days—they knew exactly what was be- ing said, and that there was nothing unpatriotic or disloyal. So the meeting was held at Litch- field. "In spite of the hostile advertis= ing that had been given by local news- papers the farmers flocked in. Shortly before noon a bunch of them got.to- gether and organized a committee, They went to see the merchants, and find out who were the ones who had tried to prevent the farmers from hav- ing their meeting. They took a paper