The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, October 18, 1917, Page 7

s mnennea e AR A | . x . RSB L R T e L " i CENM By o oo food control. “than made up for what little evil effect it has had in dividing the peo- ple and slackening war preparations. - La Follette showed eminent precedent for the right-of free speech in war times. Lincoln, a congressman during the Mexican war, with other citizens and statesmen of unquestioned patriotism, opposed the Mexican war while it was in progress. Great Britain has never had a war, including the present, but that has been opposed in parliament by certain members, whose right to do so as the elected representatives of the people has never been questioned. It is too bad that in a great free Republic like. the . United . States this right should be questioned by so many people. SER R W & s s, % bk FOOD CONTROL: IN EUROPE : - ‘N'ANOTHER ‘page the Leader publishes an article about food O control in the countries of our allies. Some of the facts are “¥Th 17 rather startling. . In France, .farmers are paid $1.74 a bushel for wheat by the millers;. and they get an additional 16 cents a bushel from the government, making $1.90 a bushel, about what the govern- ment fixed price will amount to in this country for the average grade at the-average country point. But bread in France is less than five cents a pound, while it is eight to ten and even more per pound here. To make 100 kilos of _flour-about .an American barrel—the French miller buys wheat costing him $7.93. He sells the 100 kilos for $8.20. This is only a 'margin for profit and manufacturing cost of 27 cents a barrel, plus what can be got out of the by-products: These prices, like the prices paid farmers for wheat, are enforced by the French government. e ‘ % , . Allowing for difference in cost of labor and manufacturing, it at such a high price as the American miller.. In England, the government _ehforc_es a price of four and one half would seem that the French miller does not seek to sell his patriotism cents, retail, for a pound of bread. And England, after finding price control and other kinds of :'mel"e,;c_ontrol ineffective, has actually and absolutely taken over the big mills! 'The United States, it would seem, has much to learn from 'its allies in the matter of prices and ‘THE JOURNAL ‘‘PROVES”’ IT HE Minneapolis Journal, organ of the grain combine and Big I Business generally, recently printed a letter it received from _a South Dakota farmer. -This letter pointed out the fact that President Townley of the Nonpartisan league did not: oppose the first Liberty Loan and was in fact boosting the present Liberty Loan at all League meetings attended by him. The Journal frothed at the mouth at this statement of fact by this farmer. It said in effect the farmer was a liar and proceeded to ““‘prove’” him to be one. So the Journal dug OUT OF ITS OWN FILES some alleged quotations of speeches of Mr. Townley in North Dakota during the first Liberty Loan campaign. These quotations, ‘while they nowhere placed Mr. Townley on record flatly against the Liberty bonds, made him say things that by inference could be inter- preted as opposing the bonds. As a matter of fact Mr. Townley never ‘said’ what the Journal quotes him as saying. The Journal merely quotes TTS OWN GARBLED: ACCOUNT o% what Townley said, pur- posely distorted to make it appear that the League was opposing the Liberty bonds. e e The’ Journal goes on to say that since these quotations of Mr, * Townley have never been denied, they must be true and it adds THEY, WERE: SENT THE JOURNAL BY ITS OWN CORRESPONDENT IN NORTH DAKOTA. These alleged statements of Mr. Townley, cruel distortions of what he said, WERE QUESTIONED when the Journal and some of the gang papers in North Dakota printed them. They were flatly denied by Mr. Townley and the Leader at the time they were printed, and THE LEADER AND OTHER PAPERS FRIENDLY TO THE FARMERS INTERESTS IN NORTH DAKOTA PROVED THAT THEY WERE GARBLED AND DISTORTED AC- COUNTS OF LEAGUE MEETINGS. They were proved to be such - by the ACTUAL STENOGRAPHIC REPORTS OF WHAT MR. TOWNLEY SAID, PRINTED IN FULL IN THE LEADER AND OTHER NORTH DAKOTA PAPERS. " The Fargo Forum, one of the papers fighting the Lieague and the farmers’ administration in North Dakota, printed these garbled reports of Mr. Townley’s speech at the time the Minneapolis Journal printed them. The Courier-News, the morning paper at Fargo, friendly to the League and the farmers’ interests, devoted several pages to the full stenographic text of Mr. Townley’s speech. The Courier-News on its front page then eharged the Forum with deliberats misrepresentation and intentional distertion of Me Townley's words FOB THE PUR- POSE OF DISCREDITING HIM AND THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE. The Fargo Forum did not then and has not yet answered that charge or publicly defended its report of Townley’s specches. The Leader also published letters from farmers who heard Mr. Townley’s speeches and read the Forum’s account of them, AND STOPPED TAK- ING THE FORUM FOR THE REASON IT HAD DELIBERATELY, AND WITH MALICE DISTORTED THE REPORTS OF THE LEAGUE MEETINGS AND MR. TOWNLEY’S STATEMENTS. The Forum stands convicted of lying about the League meetings and Mr, Townley. J Now, it was these very misstatements printed by the Forum and also printed by the Minneapolis dJournal, that the Journal digs up to prove the South Dakota farmer above referred to is a liar when he says Townley has never opposed the Liberty Bonds, and is, in fact, boosting their sale. The Journal’s correspondent at Fargo is known to the Leader, and he is known to be bitterly opposed to the farmers’ or- ganization and its officers. He has been systematically feeding the Journal with false and misleading reports about the League and Mr, Townley. But the Journal also is opposed to the farmers’ organization’ and-platform, AND. WANTS JUST THAT KIND OF A CORRE- SPONDENT IN NORTH DAKOTA. The Journal does not want ‘the facts from North Dakota in regard to the League, and would not pring them if it did get them. e . The desperation of the Journal in its fight on the League in be- half of the;"grgin combine and Big Business is shown when the Journal tries to pfove» a point against Mr. Townley by - its “own “garbled and lying reports, and when it defends the ‘‘accuracy’’ of such reports by stating they came from the Journal’s own correspondent, a man hired by the Journal ‘because he is‘opposed to the League and will misrepre- sent it at every opportunity. ' THE MEETING AT WABASHA . : SECOND meeting of the farmers of Wabasha county, Minne- A sota, has been held since the mayor and business interests of Lake City in that county forbade the farmers to gather in that town. The first meeting since the Lake City insult to the farmers was at Dumfries and the second at the city of Wabasha, which extended a hearty invitation to the farmers to gather there. The Wabasha meeting, called, like the others of the present series in Minnesota, to forward the organization work of the Nonpartisan league, proved also a genuine patriotic rally. The farmers got back of the government in the prosecution of the war and the meeting was a great help to the Liberty Bond sale campaign, as the speakers indorsed the bonds and urged their purchase by all who could possibly do so. The cities of Wabasha and Dumfries have shown their patriotism and fairness to the farmers in no small way by thus welcoming them and their League. It is not unreasonable to suppose that Wabasha and Dumfries will profit in a substantial way, for the farmers are loyal to their friends. The farmers support the towns by their patronage. Towns could not exist in an agricultural region without the support of the farmers. Lake City can not exist for long as a town if it permits its Commerecial club and mayor to continue to pursue the policy toward the farmers that it has been pursuing. WE’'RE NOT THROUGH WITH IT i HE fight on the farmers and the Nonpartisan league on account of the conference of producers and consumers at St. Paul, held : under the auspices of the League, seems to have let up a little in the Big Business and political gang press. The papers will now look - for something else to.fight the League on, for they must carry a certain amount of matter every day attacking the farmers’ organization and program. But the Nonpartisan Leader is not yet through with the great patriotic Producers’ and Consumers’ conference. That conference and what was said and done there, and the way Big Business and the con- trolled press tried to misrepresent it, must not be forgotten by the people. ‘When a meeting of the people—5000 delegates representing sev- eral hundred thousand farmers and working men—is made the excuse for attacking an organization like the Nonpartisan league, it is not something to forget, and the Leader is not going to let it be forgotten. The conference was patriotic and loyal, as shown by its resolutions and the text of the speeches made before. it, which the Leader has been publishing. Its only fault was that it declared for conscription of wealth and asked that all prices be fixed on the same basis as the government has fixed the price of wheat.” But this was a fatal fault in the eyes of Big Business and its Kept Press, and is the only reason why the con- ferenee has been misrepresented and denounced. PAGE SEVEN R A8 AR e T T AT L