The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 15, 1917, Page 9

W e s s e T — HOW THEY DO IT HE desperation of the opposition to the League is proved when such slender pretexts as the bankruptey proceedings of Town- A ley Brothers, a firm of farmers, are seized upon in attempts to discredit the movement. Townley Brothers, of whom A. C. Townley, president of the Nonpartisan league, was a member, engaged in flax farming on a large scale in western North Dakota and failed in the venture, several years before the Nonpartisan league was organized. Attempts were madein North Dakota during the political campaign last year to use this failure of Townley Brothers against the League, but—strangely enough, from the politicians’ point of view—the farm- ers could see no connection between the failure several years ago of Mr. Townley and his brother on the one hand, and the justice of the League cause and the merits of its candidates on the other. By a vote of 80,000 to 20,000—the vote which elected League candidates—the farmers decided that the Townley Brothers farm operations were not a political issue in North Dakota. Lately, formal proceedings in bankruptey have been brought in court by the Townley Brothers, to clear up-the matters connected with the flax farming venture, which occurred long before the League was organized or thought of. Another attempt was promptly made by the League opposition again, in some way, to involve the Leagug or Mr. Townley as president of the League, in this matter. Papers hostile to the League in Minnesota and South Dakota and other states ‘have intimated, in their campaign of slander against Mr. Townley and the League, that the League was ‘‘bankrupt,”’ or ‘‘unsafe financially,”’ or something else wrong, on account of this ancient farm failure of the Townley Brothers. It wasn’t necessary, but the commissioner in bankruptcy, who heard the case, promptly ruled on the opening of the bankruptey pro- ceedings, that the Nonpartisan league was in no way involved and could in no way be involved. Little ‘‘unimportant’’ facts like these, how- ever, ‘‘escape’’ the politicians and newspapers interested in trying to break up the farmers’ movement by lies and innuendo. “FIGHTING’ THE BANKS HE Nonpartisan league has been accused of ‘‘fighting the I banks.”” The impression that League enemies want to make, of course, is that the League is against ‘all banks, right or wrong. Nothing c¢ould be further from the facts. The League is opposed to usury and it has exposed ruthlessly banks guilty of this practice, and it has demanded the enforcement of the law. The Leader has given publicity on many occasions to political intrigues against the farmers in which some bankers have become involved. But no honest bank or banker has anything to fear from the League or the Leader. -It is a fact, however, that many banks have ‘‘done their bit’’ in trying to break up the League. One of the methods used has been to refuse to handlesthe perfectly good securities of the League. Another method has been to refuse to cash checks of farmers drawn in favor of the League, in payment of League dues. Bankers, when they have had these checks presented for payment, sometimes have refused flatly to cash them. At other times they have called up the farmers who signed the checks, told them the League was a ‘‘graft,”’ a ‘‘fraud,’’ or $‘bankrupt’’—or some other cock-and-bull story—and in some in- gtances intimidated farmers into stopping payment on their checks. Farmers of North Dakota recently supplied the bank examiner of that state with scores of affidavits, stating that certain banks had re- fised to cash their checks in favor of the League, although the farmers had plenty of money on deposit in checking accounts. This was ample ground, under the law, for the bank examiner to bring pro- ceedings for the cancellation of the charters of the banks in question: Instead, Bank Examiner Waters sent a courteous letter to i.ll banks in the state, advising them of the instances called to his at- f.ention, explaining the law and stating that the department would be forced to bring proceedings against banks which violated the law IN THE FUTURE. Mr. Waters stated that there was nothing in the lavjv that made bankers guardians of the farmers, and that when a farmer drew a check on a bank for dues in favor of the League, it could not be assumed by a bank that such a farmer was a ““boob’’ or an imbecile, in need of having the bank take over his private affairs for him and stop payment on his checks. The bank examiner made it plain that when a farmer gave a check for his League dues, it was to be presumed that he wished to join the League, and that his act was just as legitimate as when a banker draws a check in payment of his dues to the state bankers’ association. ; ! The Leader did not suppose, when the banks had the law made plain to them in this way by Mr. Waters, that some of them which are fighting the League would jump into print about it. We thought they would be ashamed, after having got caught in illegal methods, and, would shut up, letting it blow over. But, such is the hatred of some of these bankers against this people’s movement, that they forgot dis- cretion, and they had the Fargo (N. D.) Forum indulge in nearly a column of misrepresentation about Mr. Waters and his letter to the banks. The Forum was, of course, perfectly willing to let itself be used by the bankers who are fighting the League, and it was so anxious to make out a case against Waters and the League that, as usual, the facts were entirely absent in the Forum’s front page editorial on the subject. The editorial would make it appear that Waters had told banks to pay farmers’ checks WHETHER THEY HAD MONEY ON DEPOSIT OR NOT. L] It never ‘‘oceurred’’ to the Forum and the bankers who inspired its silly attack, that, if the bank examiner had such power as that, all ~ the League or Waters would have to do to get rich quick would be to have &everal thousand checks drawn on banks by persons who had no money in the bank, and force their payment, regardless. Waters doesn’t assume to have any such authority. If he did assume it, the banks could put him in the penitentiary within a week. It seems absurd to have to do it, but the Leader hereby informs the Forum and the bankers fighting the League, who use its columns, *that Mr. Waters’ letter has only to do with farmers’ checks which are backed by farmers’ deposits, that the Waters’ letter is merely a state- ment of the law, and that the Forum and the bankers who made the attack on Waters and the League in this connection have made come plete asses of themselves. THE ‘‘PATRIOTIC’’ PRESS NSTEAD of using the eensorship established by congress, as some I would use it if they could, to suppress reform movements and pub- lications, it should be used to injeet some common sense into the daily press. We are not, in general, in favor of hampering the press in any way, except to suppress treason and sedition and to keep military information from the enemy. But if we must have a censorship that goes further than that, let it be used to keep the big newspapers of the country from playing continually into the cnyemy’s hands. The story that thé German army and navy were rotten with treason, sedition and disloyalty, undoubtedly was invented or ex- aggerated and spread by the German government. If this is not how it originated, the Kaiser overlooked a bet, because, as it worked out, it was the best kind of stuff to cause suspicion and unrest among the American people. The daily press in this country let itself out on this story. Great headlines and sensational articles told of suppressed re- bellion in the German army and navy, and editorials forecasted a Ger- man revolution in the near future. If there was any fact at all in the stories, it was a slender reed on which to hang the press opinions. No sooner had the American people absorbed this false hope, than Germany, with ‘‘its armed forces honeycombed with disloyalty,’’ as the press had led us to believe, hit Italy a smashing blow, utterly dis- proving the claim made by the press. Do you see how the “‘patriotic’? American press, so anxious to question the patriotism of others, has played Germany’s game$ If Germany can break down the confidence of our people in our newspapers, which are generally believed to be carrying only such war news as is passed by the American and allied censorship, it is worth a lot to the Kaiser. Nothing so disorganizes a nation at war as distrust of the sources of news about the war. The German army and navy rebellion stories, disproved by the great offensive of Germany on Italy, has helped to stir up that distrust. A few words of kindly advice by the government censorship authorities to the ‘‘patriotie’? daily press ought to help. PUTTING IT FIGURATIVELY : PEAKING of the attempted monopoly in patriotism sought by S certain ‘persons, Congressman John M. Baer says: ‘‘There are a lot of people who would pluck all the feathers out of the Ameri- can eagle to feather their own nests.”” Baer has a way of putting big thoughts in a striking way. Those who use patriotism for personal or political profit are scoundrels. One brand of this kind of ‘‘patriot”’ is the newspaper editor who calls the League “disonaL”