The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 11, 1918, Page 9

i [ o it e e = & £x A TIP TO MR. M’'ADOO HE present government control of railroads must;succeed. There are two reasons. why it must. First, it must succeed if the war is to be brought to the soonest possible successful close. Second, it must succeed in order to prove that the government can make a succes§ of public operation of railways, as the first step toward per- manent government ownership. The Leader hailed government opera- tion of railways: with joy. We want to see it succeed and succeed big, and we want to give Director- General McAdoo every possible op- portunity to make good. " But the government is liable to fall into a trap unless it watches out. Powerful influences are at work to limit the extent of govern- ment control and, we are sorry to say, reports from Washington indi- cate that” Mr. McAdoo may -allow genuine and thorough government operation, to be sidetracked for a kind of so-called government con- trol that will be disastrous. i ‘What is Mr. McAdoo going to do about pooling the terminals of : : the railroads, eliminating the com- peting and the many-times duplicated railroad executive staffs and offices, and doing away with duplicate, and other unnecessary service? There are indications that he has not seized onto this problem as he should. Has he been afraid to cut loose and do the right thing regard- less of the protests of railroad executives and railroad stockholders? ‘We hope he hasn’t. We hope he realizes that government operation will be a flat failure—with no savings made and little additional effi- cieney resulting—unless the railroads are operated AS ONE BIG UNIT. This means cutting out rival depots, terminals, offices and staffs in the big cities. ' It means making a lot of people angry. It means a lot of people will lose jobs. But it has to be done, Mr. McAdoo! It doesn’t mean the loss of any jobs in the railroad operating departments, however. It is merely getting rid of useless ‘‘overhead.”’ WHAT RIG HAS UNCLE 8AM GOT To -Music, P].EASE 'THE SO-CALLED ‘‘SECURITY’’ LEAGUE HE National Security league, a so-called ‘‘patriotic: organiza- tion,”’ conviects itself of being something entirely different in a recent statement. It gives ground for the belief that, instead of being a patriotic organization it is a political organization of a sinister nature, existing for the purpose of discrediting people’s candidates for ' office, especially candidates 'who indorse reform measures that are disapproved by . ; the Big Interests and their servants amonig the politicians and news- papers. A statement issued in New York by this so-called ‘‘security’’ league, having reference to the situation in Wisconsin, is in part a warning to voters to ‘‘shy clear’’ of any candidates for congress put up this year by the organized farm- ers, because such candidates will be ‘“disloyal’’ and ‘‘pro-German.’’ The statement says: The Nonpartisan league claims a membership in the Northwest and Middle West of 1,000,000 voters. Their dues of $16 a year would place in ; their hands $16,000,000. The Nonpartisan league’s organizers are spread- ing throughout the country and declare they are striving to enroll 5,000,000 members before next summer. While the Nonpartisan league . has announced no actual congressional program as yet, its object is clear. It was responsible for the election of Governor Frazier, of North Dakota, who welcomed the outlawed delegates of the People’s council when they were being debarred by the authorities of state after state last summer. It seems to us that the menace here involved is self-evident. EXPOSURE BY THE LEADER. In the first place, the statement that Governor Frazier of North. Dakota ‘‘welcomed the outlawed delegates of the People’s council’’ exhibits a degree of density scarcely understandable. While we differ with the People’s council on many fundamental' matters—and we un- derstand Governor Frazier does also—we do not understand that the People’s eouncil delegates are ‘‘outlaws.”” We do not understand that the protection of the law has been withdrawn from any American citi- zen as long as he obeys the law. We do not understand that there is an_ ‘‘open season’’ on delegates of the People’s council or any other group of citizens, or that persons are at liberty to form mobs and lynch them at will. S : ; : Be that as it ‘may, whether ‘‘outlaws’’ or not iii the opinion of the Security league, delegates of the People’s council were not ‘‘ welcom- “ed”’ to North Dakota by Governor Frazier. The secretary of the Peo- ‘ple’s council telegraphed Governor Frazier asking whether a meeting. of the council would have the protection of the law if it met in North Dakota. Governor Frazier replied that the North Dakota laws and con- ‘stitution guaranteed the right of free speech and free assembly and that A .. PAGENINE Gy his sworn duty was to enforce the law. HE ADDED THAT THE LAW FORBADE SEDITIOUS OR TREASONABLE STATEMENTS AT A PUBLIC MEETING IN TIME OF WAR. He said that if the People’s council met in North Dakota the law against sedition would be en- forced. 2 The people of North Dakota are proud of a governor who stands back of the laws of the state which guarantee free assembly, prohibit mob violence and suppress sedition. If Governor Frazier had said: ¢‘No, you may not meet here, and if you do we will mob you,’’ he would have violated his oath of office and made an hysterical ass out of him- self, just as some other governors did. In attempting to use the ‘charge of ‘‘disloyalty’’ against the or- ganized farmers and their candidates, the Security league (so-called) is stirring up class bitterness, setting neighbor against neighbor and attempting to place honest and patriotic citizens with whom it differs politically under suspicion. Ip addition it is beng made the tool of the sinister interests which would halt all progress and reform on the ground that progress and reform are seditious. JOHN BAER AND HIS BILL OHN M. BAER, congressmgn elected by Nonpartisan league mem- J bers of the First district of North Dakota, has, as you know, in- troduced a bill in congress making an appropriation of $50,000,000 to lend to farmers in drouth-stricken states. These farmers will be unable to put in crops without loans at reasonable rates, and private money lenders can not take care of the situation. The introduction of the Baer bill was the signal, as you also know, for bitter attacks on Mr. Baer and the Nonpartisan league farmers who elected him, North Dakota ' gang papers said Baer wanted ALL this money for North Dakota and that it was ridiculous. His bill plainly states that only . $5,000,000 is intended for North Dakota. The rest was for farmetrs in need of it in 47 other states. Another . group of papers.la- mented the fact that the farmers had been put ‘‘in the light of being paupers’’ by the introduction of this bill and that it was therefore a shame. Still others, failing in argu- ments, said Baer was just ‘‘grand- standing.”’ But now it is different. .Thousands of farmers and hundreds of farmers’ organizations are demanding that congress make some such provision for drouth-stricken farmers as Baer proposes. Baer merely - WE'RE = ALL RIGHT, TH wWoORLD'S ALL WRONG'! _paved the way. He was merely the FIRST to see the need, and he drew the fire of the anti-farmer gang. Some of the newspapers that attacked the Baer bill now-admit that congress should do something along the line. The result of Baer’s pioneering is that there is a uni- versal demand for action by congress. Other organizations are at- tempting to take credit for originating the proposition, -and other in- dividuals are attempting to get in the limelight. ‘ John Baer doesn’t care who gets the credit if congress passes a bill to relieve drouth-stricken farmers. Ile doesn’t care whether his bill is passed, or one like it. The thing is to get action to help these farmers and help win the war with big crops. The point is, they at- tacked Baer for asking for this loan to farmers, because Baer was a League man, and now everybody wants to appear as a friend of ‘the farmer by asking the same thing in the same or a different way. The . Leader believes the bandwagon is big enough to hold ’em all, and is glad Baer pointed the way and that the signs for action by congress on some sort of a bill are favorable. SOME SHORT ONES : i ; " A few months ago Teddy was going up and down the country call- ing people ‘‘shadow huns.”’ Now he is engaged in defending his own patriotism! How do:you like it, ded);? . Have you filled out that blank yet, reporting your financial needs, which appeared on page 2 in the January 28 and February 4 issues of the Leader? 2 5 J * * * 5 It is rumored that the farmers have started a co-operative store proposition that is expected to drive all the merchants out of North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, and get a corner on green cheese from the moon. Ask Norm Black and Jerry Bacon about it. They have the ‘‘facts.”’ gt It keeps us puzzied figuring out why it is that when the farmers -ask something from the government they are traitors but when Teddy the Terrible roasts the tar out of the same government he is a patriot. * * * - ' Tt is beautiful to see the unselfish attempts of the big city papers, to keep the innocent, unsuspecting farmer from doing anything with his money (or his vote) but what the aforesaid B. C. papers want him to do. = S E ; N | So far no- member of the Nonpartisan league has been Aél_'ihrg\eqj., with being responsible for those ax murders at Camp Funston.”