The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, January 21, 1918, Page 9

_ of the Leader. T ———————— R — ble to frame. The grades seemed t6 have been framed to furnish just the opposite of what was needed. When Mr. Brand, head of the office of markets, came before the farmers a year ago with these grades and held hearings, the Leader took the liberty of explaining that they would not do—that they were unfair to the farmers and too technical. We predicted the farmers would not stand for them. The farmers told Mr. Brand these things at the hearings a year ago. But he brushed all objections aside and promulgated the grades substantially as they had been framed before the hearings were held. ! 4 Then it came tosenforcing the new grades. There was a large- sized kick from the outraged farmers—a just complaint. The grades were working just as the Leader and the farmers predicted during the hearings a year -ago. This kick got so strong that Mr. Brand decided new hearings would have to be held. In the meantime some farm papers that had been asleep a year ago woke up and protested. Even some newspapers, that had called the Leader an ‘‘unprincipled agitator’’ a ycar ago, joined in the protest. During the recent rehearings on the grades, Mr. Brand did a lot of talking. He was not quite as presumptuous as he was a year ago, for he had had a lesson in the meantime. But what he said indicated that he would like to-decide, as a result of the hearings, that the pro- tests have been unfounded. We hope no such decision will he made. We hope the old grades will be discarded and some new, sensible ones, fair to all, made effective. And we hope that somebody hesides Mr. Brand does the deciding for the department of agriculture. If there is some doubt about the federal grades being unfair, it exists only in the mind of Mr. Brand and the millers and grain buyers. Think it over carefully, Mr. Brand. The farmers will give you plenty of time for thought. But they want a square deal in the decision when it comes. g THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS OU are a reader of the Leader. You have noticed that the Leader -‘ publishes advertisements. You have more than likely patronized ‘some of our advertisers. But did you know that the dealers who use the advertising columns of the Leader have a special mark of honor? ~Well, they have, and we are going to tell you why. Probably no other publication in the United States can say of its advertisers what we are going to say about ours. Every dealer who advertises in the Leader BELIEVES IN THE FUNDAMENTAL AMERICAN DOCTRINE OF THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. Whenever you see an ad in the Leader, you see an ad of a man who does not believe that advertisers should control the editorial policy of the publications in which they advertise. Many of the dealers who use Leader advertising space are friendly to the cause of the organized farmers. Some, on the other hand, do not approve entirely of the program the farmers want ecarried out, which the Leader is doing its best to promote. But, to which ever of these two classes our advertisers belong, you can be assured that any one of them you pick out is a man who does not seek to control the editorial policy of this publication—who does not believe that money spent for ADVER- TISING should buy favorable EDITORTAL consideration. Does not this speak well for every dealer to whom we sell adver- tising space? You know how the magazines and: newspapers of America are eontrolled—some through outright ownership by the Big Interests and beneficiaries of Special Privilege; some by the poli- ticians who in turn are controlled-by sinister interests seeking power over the people. And most publications are dictated to more or less by their advertisers. The packers, the railroads and the millers have ‘‘converted’’ many publications by judiciously spending a few hundred million for advertising space in the publications of the country. .- Not all advertisers do that—not even all railroads, millers or pack- ers. Most advertisers are honest men, with straight-forward, legiti- mate propositions to place before the people. And it is such that EX- CLUSIVELY compose the advertisers in the Leader. How do we know " that to be true? Because every man to whom the Leader sells 'space understands that his money buys just one thing, and that thing is an advertising space in the Leader, so many inches wide and so many inches long. He gets absolutely nothing else for his money or his influence. Se when you see an ad in the Leader you see an ad of a “man who believes in the FREEDOM OF THE PRESS; who does not seek to influence the EDITORIAL POLICY of the Leader in the - slightest way; who knows that our advertising space is valuable and that it' gets him results in more eustomers, and who is perfectly con- tent to let the Leader editorial policy be for the best interests of the readers of the Leader as the éditors-and the readers determine it. * When yon read Leader advertisements, think of this. If is a big thing. ‘Advertisers who believe in the freedom of the press, and who do not seek to influence public opinion with money, OUGHT TO BE . PATRONIZED, hadn’t they? We know you agree. Tell Leader ad- vertisers you patronize WHY you are giving them the business. Show . them that their STAND FOR HONESTY AND SQUARE DEALING .and the FREEDOM OF THE PRESS is appreciated by the readers | PAGENINE LET’S HAVE AN UNDERSTANDING NE of the first things that the government intends to do in O connection with the taking over of the railroads for the war F' is to assist the railroads financially. The government has asked all the roads to make known their financial wants. The government then intends to see that the railroads find a market for their sccurities to raise this money, or perhaps the government will take up the bonds itself. This is necessary because the railroads under private owner- ship were run for profit instead of for service, and were run into the ground financially. It.may be that congress will pass some legislation along this line, too. If the government finances the railroads in the interest of effi- ciency during the war—and it appears certain that it will—it will be the first step toward complete public ownership of transportation after the war. In fact, many are predicting that the railroads will never be given back for private operation if the government invests money in them. And that is reasonable.- If the people, through the govern- ment, put money into the roads, it should be a permanent investment and not only ‘‘for the war.”’ It will be another argument for perma- nent public ownership. Whatever action the government takes or congress takes in finane- ing the railroads should-be taken AFTER there is an understanding on this matter. Let congress decide at once whether it is"going to make the present government control permanent—whether we are to have public ownership of transportation after the war. Then, if it is decided in tlre affirmative, there will be no complaint about putting government money—the people’s money-—into the roads to finance them. Otherwise the government must invest its money in the roads with great care and with plenty of saféguards. The people do not want government control for the duration of the war to be made the exeuse for putting the railroads in a position to gouge the public more than ever after the war, if a return is to be made to the old chaotic condi- tions of private ownership and operation. Let there be-an-understand- ing on this proposition at once. S WAS to have been expected, a howl has gone up from a few A newspapeérs in North Dakota over the removal. of the national § edition of the Leader to St. Paul, from Fargo. The howlers profess to be déeply indignant at the way the farmers, who have backed the paper since its ineeption, have been hilked. The idea of taking the Leader to St. Paul, they wail! Yes, it’s too bad—too bad! ' The Leader is sorry, too—sorry for these ‘‘friends of the farmer’’ who are always worrying about how someone else is bilking him. The stronger the farmers’ movement gets, the slimmer become the chances of the old gang newspapers and their bosses. North Dakota farmers are through being bilked. One of the signs. that they are through is that they refuse to read or support the newspapers that used to bilk them in the past, newspapers that used to lie to them about candidates before election, and then, after those candidates had been elected, cover up and keep still about the rotten way in which the state government was run. The farmer now reads ‘his own papers, daily and weekly, or other publications which he knows are not ready and willing to betray his interests at the: first oppor- tunity. : x The old gang papers’ grief is a sad sight. Tt has always been sorie- thing to arouse pity, but now that the Leader has moved to St. Paul it is positively heart-rending! : . There’s a reason. The Leader, reflecting the growth of the Non- partisan league, had grown so big that it had to have bigger publica- tion facilities. The movement the North Dakota farmers started is sweeping the country. So that it could keep pace with the farmers’ movement, rapidly increasing in scope and power, the Leader made the move, and is now better than ever prepared to continue the fight for Justice for the farmers and for all others who produce. The Leader hopes and believes it will continue to grow until even its present publication facilities will be taxed to meet the demand for more Leaders. Then it will move to Chicago. That will be awful, won’t it? 4 In the meantime, the enemies of the farmers’ movement for polit- ical and industrial demoeracy may continue to howl. The ‘vigor and intensity of their grief will doubtless increase with the League. : Ph Incidentally, this editorial is written in the office of the North Dakota edition of the The Lieader in the Pioneer Life building in Fargo. Communications for the editor of the North Dakota edition may be ‘addressed to the North Dakota editor at Box 941, Fargo. : - Se R ot P e oo : e e growth of the - B O 2 s A B e o a2 Do P €