The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, October 25, 1917, Page 6

The “New Freedom” in Actlon The’Nonpartlsan League Today is Bringing T I, About Reforms That President Woodrow Wilson Wrote About Years Ago NE of the most alarming phenomena of the time—or rather it would be alarming if the nation had not awak- ened to it and shown its de- termination to control it—one of the most significant signs of the new so- cial era is the degree to which govern- ment has become associated with busi- ness. I speak, for the moment, of the control over the government exercised by Big Business. 5 Our gov- ernment has been for the past few years under the control of heads of great allied corporations with special interests.” What it this? Part of a speech by A. C. Townley? Guess again. An editorial from the Nonpartisan Leader? No, you are wrong. It is just one excerpt from the book, “The New Freedom,” by Woodrow Wil- son, president of the United States, a man who should know what he is talk- ing about on governmental affairs. It was not written while he was a college professor, either, but after he had seen things from the inside as governor of New Jersey and, for a short time, as president of the United States. The book was printed in 1914, BOTH OLD PARTIES FAIL TO MEET NEW CONDITIONS “The New Freedom” is particularly worth while reading under present cir- cumstances. Prepared more than a year before the Nonpartisan league was organized, it points clearly to the failure of both old parties and the need for a new organization, to bring about a ‘“bloodless revolution.” If President Wilson had known of the plans for organization of the farmers he could hardly have prepared a stronger handbook for them. On page 27 of his book the presxdent states: “All over the Union people are com- ing to feel that they have. no control over the course of affairs. . Men said: ‘We vote; we-are offered the platform we want; we elect the men who stand on that platform, and we get absolutely nothing.! So they began to ask: ‘What is the use of voting? ‘We know that the machines of both parties are subsidized by the same per- sons and therefore.it is useless to turn in either direction.’ - “This is not confined to some of the state governments and those of some of the towns and cities. We know that 'something intervenes between the people of the United States and the control of their own affairs at Washington. It is not the people who have been ruling there of late.” BIG BIZ IN SADDLE MUST BE THROWN OUT President Wilson’s book goes into more detail later. On page 56 he asks: ‘““Who have been consulted when im- portant measures of government, like tariff acts, like currency acts and rail- road acts were under consideration? The people whom the tariff chiefly af- fects, the people for whom the currency is supposed to exist, the people who pay the duties and ride on the rail- roads? f “Oh, no! What do they know about such matters! The gentlemen whose ideas have been sought ‘are the big manufacturers, the bankers and the heads of the great railroad combina- tions. THE MASTERS OF THE GOV- ERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES ARE THE COMBINED CAPITALISTS AND MANUFACTUR- ERS OF THE UNITED STATES. It is written over every initimate page of the records of congress, it is written all through the history of conferences at - the White House, that the suggestions of economic policy in this country have come from one source, not from many sources.” And on page 58 President Wilson sums up the whole trend of his argu- ment in this one sentence: “The government of the United Gtates at present is a foster child of the special interests.” FARMERS WILL BRING ABOUT BLOODLESS RE,VOL‘UTION‘ i Several pages of the Leader .might be filled with further quotations along this same line. But what is to be the result of all this? This is President Wilson’s remarka- ble prophecy, of some years ago, being fulfilled now through the Nonpartisan league. It is on page 30 of his book: “Wa gtand in the ‘presence of a | The Big Business press of the United States is now gwmg lip serv- lce to President Wilson—asserting with much noise that it is “‘standing back of the president’’. How far will this press and its controlling power, Big Business, really go in “‘standing by the president’’ in nlakmg this nation a real demccracy, industrial as well as political, in fact as well as in theory? The Leader asserts without fear of contradiction that the noisy ones referred to will not go one step. i'rom President Wilson’s book, The accompanying article consists of quotations . “The New Freedom’’. These quotations might have been taken from speeches by President Townley of the Nonpartican league; or might be things heard at a League meeting. Come, which-will be the first Big Business newspaper now loudlv proclzummfr its loyalty to the president, to come out and indorse these things said by President Wilson? The Nonpartisan Leader heartily indorses these ideas of the president. Come, you Big Business press; you assert you are against auto- cracy and for democraey——come print some of these statements of the president, outlining A REAL DEMOCRACY for this coun- try, and state you are for them! You dare not! You are for democracy in some foreign land, NOT AT HOME. We are for democracy at home AS WELL as abroad, and so is President Wilson. T —— S —— | revolution—not a bloody revolu- tion; America is not given to the spilling of blood—but a silent revo- lution, whereby America will insist upon recovering in practice those ideals which she has always pro- fessed, upon securing a government devoted to the general interests and not to the special interests.” It is foolish to believe that any real reforms can be brought about by the men of wealth and “influence”, Presi- dent Wilson says, because they have only the point of view of wealth, “Its (wealth’s) point of view is the special point of view,” he says. “It is the point of view of those men who do not wish that the people should deter- mine. their own affairs, because they do not believe that the people’s judg-' ment is sound. . They.want to be com-* missioned to take care of the people of the United States because théy be- -leve that they, better than anybody " else, understand the interests of the United Sta.tes ki Z WEALTH CAN NOT SECURE THE NEEDED REFORMS But they do mot understand, says President Wilson. Just as the Non- partisan league has always insisted that Big Business representatives do not really know the minds of the ¢om-~ _ mon people, President Wilson sa."é' “I believe that the very wealthy~men who_have got their money by certain kinds - of . corporate- enterprise "have closed in their horizon and’ that they do not see and do not-understand the rank and file of the people.” If the men who now have influence with the government are not capable of bringing these reforms about, who can be trusted to do it? President Wilson answers: “We need some man, who has not been associated with the gov- erning classes and the governing \WILSON influences of this country, to stand up and speak for us; we need to hear a voice from the outside call- ing upon the American peopl ] assert agam their rights and rogqtnves in‘the possesslon of thelr own government.” _And_then comes this remaxkable ntatement -on, page 53, as fresh.as if . it _were written today, to tell, of Non- partisan league successes. and to in- vite ‘the old gang bosses to get on the bandwagon: - - “Well, we have sta.rted now . at all events. The standpatter doegn’t know there is & procession. He is asleep in the back part of his house.” He doesn’'t know that tho road u resounding with the - PAGE SIX The procession is under way. - tramp of men going to the front. And when he wakes up, the country will be empty. He will be deserted and he will wonder what has happened. ’ ROOM FOR MORE ON THE OLD BAND WAGON “Nothing has happened. The world has been going on. The world has a habit of going on. The world has a habit of leaving those behind who won't go with it. The world has always neg- lected standpatters. “And, therefore, the standpatter does not excite my indignation; he excites my sympathy. He is going to be so lonely before it is all over. And we are good fellows, we are good com- pany; why cGoesn’t he come along? “We are not going to do him any harm. We are going to show him a good time. We are going to climb the slow road until it reaches some upland Where, the air is fresher, where the whole talk of mere politicians is still- ed, where men can look in each other's faces and see that there is nothing to conceal, that all they have to talk about they are willing to talk about in the open and talk about with each other; and whence, looking back over the road, we shall see at last that we have fulfilled our promise to man- kind. We had' said to all the world ‘America was created to break every kind of monopoly, to set men free, upon a footing of equality, upen a footing of opportunity, to match' their brains and their energies,’ and now we have. proved that we meant it.” TOPS THE PAPER Savage, Mont. Editor ‘Nonpartisan Leader:, . The inclosed copy of a letter written by me to the editor of the Fairview Fribune is self explanatory. The battle is on, friends, and my advice to every member of the League is to face.the issue squarely, do not shirk nor falter, be men, show your determination to win, act whenever opportunity pre- sents itself, stay by your leader in the fight, help, if you- possibly can, to re- deem the struggling classes from graft and oppression. I am for the League and.its program % and believe me, I shall leave no stone “-unturned in this great movement to help bring vxctory at the polls. E. L. FISHER. This is the letter written by Mr. Fisher: Savage, Mont. C. M. Mumby, Editor Fairview Tribune: If your opinion is biased according to your copied article from the nefari- ous lying press of Big Business, the Minneapolis Journal, insinuating and slandering the farmers’ organmization, . the Nonpartisan league, I don’t want to read your cheap little sheet again. I am a member of the Nonpartisan league—so is every farmer in this * territory. I defy any man living when it comes to loyalty and true American " citizenship. Remember, Mumby, that you are lining yourself up against the farmers when you copy the lying stuff .. of the kept press and it will do you no good, Never again do I want to read your paper until you become a man and stay thh the people that give you a living, E. L. FISHER, HIS BROTHER JOINS Overly, N. D, Nonpartisan League, Organization Department. ‘Enclosed herein you will please find a draft for payment of my own dues. I am sorry that I had to let you wait 80 long for it, but crops were such that I have spent more to‘produce them than I have received. The other $16 are for a new member,” my brother, A. G. Weber, from: Gardena, N. D. He usually was not for the League, but has met Mr. Frazier, and has heard those gentlemen at Minot and I am pleased to say that Mr. Frazier has made a very favorable impressxon on my brother. .. I was at Bismarck last week and while there met and spoke.to Governor Frazier, his secretary, . Mr. Mason, - Judge Birdzell and others, and I can't help but say that we farmers have all the reason in the world to:be PROUD . of .those we elected to, office. E feel sure that we can rest assured that our business is in honest hands, and hope that the day is near at hand when we will have men Iike those at Bismarck also-at the-national capitol., : Hoping that the enclosed draft is satisfactory, . and with best wishes for eur League, . ‘P, A, WEBER.