The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 17, 1917, Page 4

B S e e e The East Learns the Truth A Review of the Newspaper Articles Concerning the Visit to New York and Washington of President Townley of the National Nonpartisan League v . JoUN 3 DiLronN CotMsiIoN ER STATE DEFP'T- Foons. HE truth has been carried to I the people of the IZast! Led to believe, through the sland- ers of the gang newspapers of the Northwest, that the Non- partisan league was some kind of an un-American, undesirable “agitation,” Eastern people and independent East- ern newspapers have at last had their eyes opened. -~ The story of the Nonpartisan league, what it has done, what it proposes to do and how it proposes to do it, was taken to the East last month by Presi- dent A. C. Townley of the League. Mr. Townley was first invited to address the national convention of the Ameri- can Federation of Labor at Buffalo, and did so from the same platform that was occupied a day or two before by President Wilson, when he gave his message to labor on the war. Next Mr. Townley was asked to ad- dress a great mass meeting at Cooper Union hall, New York, called by a group of progressive labor leaders and farmers to start the organization of a Nonpartisan league in New York state. Over a thousand delegates attended and listened to Mr. Townley’s message. While East Mr. Townley called on Herbert Hoover, food administrator, and sought his support for a plan to loan $50,000,000 of government money at low rates to farmers in drouth- stricken regions. These farmers, un- less aided by the government, will be unable to put in their regular acreage, let alone the extra acreage demanded by the food administration, unless they get federal aid. Mr. Townley also called on President Wilson, who, despite the press of war ¥ BCTowrer ' Pacs. Nowt ParTIsAN JoHN MiTenEL CHAIRMAN STATE, ™ Foop. COMMrSOK - . Joun Baer CENaRESSMAN QND CARTo o N15T These sketches of speakers and promi- nent persons who attended the great New York Cooper Union meeting were made by Morris, Leader cartoonist, who was present, and were published in the New York Evening Mail in con- nection with the Mail’s splendid report of the meeting. N work, gave him an interview. Mr. Townley also asked President Wilson to recommend to congress the $50,000,- 000 loan to farmers, and the president promised it his careful consideration. The fact that Mr. Townley got the president’s ear at a time when all or- dinary visits to the president are cut off and only persons with the most im- portant and most urgent business are allowed to see him, is not especially a compliment to Mr, Townley, but to the 150,000 organized, patrictic farmers he represents as president of the Non- partisan league. VISIT COUNTERACTS LIES OF GANG PRESS Before the war, Eastern newspapers, depending on the Big Business press of the Northwest for their information about the League, had described it to Eastern readers as a “Socialistic agi- tation with a destructive propaganda;” they reported it was an ally of the I. W. W. and said that it was run by “discredited agitators”; they professed to believe it was a ‘“passing agitation.” Since the war, many of these papers— some of them honestly deceived by the anti-farmer press of the Northwest— have peddled the old charges in a new form. They have called the movement “pro-German,” ‘“disloyal,” “unpatriotic” —new invectives employed by the Big Business press since the war has given the opportunity. And so it is with considerable satis- faction that members of the Nonparti- san league learn what KEastern papers are now saying, as a a result of Presi- dent Townley's eastern visit. Almost every Kastern paper carried fair and exhaustive reports of Mr., Townley's speeches at Buffalo and New York, and reported his interviews = with Mr. Hoover and the: president. - In addition some of the most influential Eastern papers have given the League their editorial approval. The result is that the truth has been carried to the peo- ple of the East and the Atlantic coast. The strength and importance of the PAGE FOUR “%am N, DaKoTh “”,RM:)“-CB-GRH'LSDOQ{ FooD cunE, great farmers' organization is now known, and the slanderous stories that the Northwest press have circulated to discredit their own states and their own farmers have been counteracted. The great meeting at Cooper Union occupied the front pages of the New York mewspapers, which print- ed most of Mr. Townley’s speech and in addition had interviews with him. The Eastern press was struck with the sincerity of Mr. Townley and the jus- tice of the farmers’ cause. The Cooper Union meeting was hailed as a first step for the co-operation politically and economically of the farmers and the working men of the cities, LABOR IN SYMPATHY, NEWSPAPERS REPORT “Townley won his audience heart and soul,” said the New York World. “His homely speech, his twinkling small brown eyes, his direct, logical argu- ment and his habit of placing his right hand on his knee as he leaned forward to drive some point home, made his story as effective as it was pictur- esque.” The reporter of the New York American, who interviewed Mr. Town- ley, in opening his account of Mr. Townley’s visit, said: “Out of the West there came to New York yesterday a big brawny farmer who aims to lop a few dollars off the war cost of living. He is A. C. Town- one at New York, which is r answered in the portant event. broken up-the ¢ ey e S —— AR The visit of President Townley of the Nonpartisan league to the East was handled by the Eastern newspapers as one of the most Important events last month. Mr. Townley speeches, one at Buffalo, which the Leader printed last week, and N ) eported in the accompanying article. In addition he interviewed Herbert Hoover and President Wilson. qu was he received in the East, which for two years has been poisoned against the great farmers’ movement by the slanders of the Northwest gang press? What- did he say and how was it} accepted by the Bastern press and people? These questions aré ¢ accompanying article, which is a review of what the big Eastern papers said about Mr. Townley, the movement he represents and the effort to organize a similar movement in the Last. No League member should miss this report of a really im- In one brief visit Mr! Townley has completely ampaign against.the League in the East, conduet- ed l)y_ the Northwest Big Business papers, which have tried to— and till now in a measure succeeded—in making Eastern news-, papers and Eastern people helieve the grosg slanders which have been c11'c11}aied. You will be interested in how Eastern editors ° -+ discussed your organization and your president. < 5 a— ley, president of the Nonpartisan league.” Of the League’s co-operation with organized labor in North Dakota and elsewhere and of the prospects of or- ganized labor in New York organizing with the farmers there, the American said: “Mr. Townley has the full co-opera- tion of labor organizations in every ‘Western state where the League has branches. In New York city it is said already labor is in sympathy with the Nonpartisan league idea.” The New York Herald hailed the Cooper Union meeting as ‘“the first step” in forming in New York state “a political combination of farmers and organized labor after the model of the Nonpartisan league, which has become a political factor in the Northwest.” The Washington Times, published by the most famous editor in the United States, Arthur Brisbane, realized the significance of Mr. Townley's visit and printed some cartoons by Congressman John M. Baer, the League's represent- ative in congress, in celebration of the event. TOWNLEY “LINCOLNESQUE,” SAYS EVENING MAIL “A new force in politics is beginning to disturb the dreams of members of congress,” said the Washington Times in reporting Mr. Townley’s visit to the national capital. “It has taken on new proportions lately and the activity of Mr: Townley in the East emphasizes it, This force is.the proposed combination of organized labor and of organized farmers.” ; Editorially the Evening Mail of New York said: “There is something Lincolnesque about A. C. Townley, the North Dakota farmer who spoke before the meeting of the Labor Food conference in Cooper Union on Monday night. His homely, simple ‘illustrations of his arguments went direct to the heart, as did his unaf- affected manner. Those who heard him will not soon forget his way of putting things. - 3 e “But Mr. Townley went further than to present the ancient griev- ances of the farmer. He told whére- in their weakness lay, and he de- scribed the organization of the Non- partisan league in North Dakota to provide the missing organization. It should be understood as an eco- nomic movement, not a political movement. It is the farmer's drive against the middieman. “It has been one of the wonders of our political history that the greatest single interest in America, the farming interest, was unorgan- ized. They sat still and accepted - the political doctrines that were grouped about the interests of the city men. In the city, big business was predominant—the banks, the industrials, the railroads, the mil- lers, the commission men and the whole race of middlemen. Farmers supported the Republican party, which spent its main energies in the organization of industries and the creation of tariffs to protect them against foreign competition. - All the advantages of protected in- dustry were on the side of the city worker. The burden was korne by the farmer in the form of higher made two - great