The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 18, 1918, Page 5

_the American press as a whole followed the Leaglie’s lead af once, instead of calling the League seditious, there would probably have been .a different situation in Russia today. = MARTIN COUNTY IN THE LIMELIGHT HITHERTO unknown lawyer in a small town in a remote part of Minnesota has leaped suddenly into the national limelight. He is the prosecutor of Martin county, Minn., who has caused the arrest of A. C. Townley, president of the National Nonpartisan league. Not only has this obscure lawyer furnished headlines for the newspapers throughout the country, but he has put the United States secret ; service, the federal department of justice, the postoffice department and the governments of- 15 states to shame. He has “discovered” sedition in a pamphlet which has been circulated for nine months, with the knowledge of Uncle Sam, and has had the privilege of the mails all this time. The prosecutor of Martin county, Minn., is to be commended for this ambition to do some- thing big and we do not want to deny him his fleeting popularity in newspaper headlines. But is it not unpatriotic for him to try to ‘“show up” the department of justice and postoffice depart- - ment in this way—to admit that they have been lax and derelict in their duty for nine months, while this pamphlet has been circulating, with their knowledge, unmolested ? - The pamphlet which this prosecutor alleges has “hindered enlistments” is familiar to all League members and readers of the Leader. Its - reference to the war consists of resolutions adopted last June by League membeérs in North Dakota and a statement by Congressman John M. Baer soon after his election. Both these appeared .in the Leader at the time. However, the entire -contents of the pamphlet referring to the war is reproduced in this issue of the Leader on another page. Do not fail to read it and learn what a small-town prosecutor calls sedition and what he considers “hindering enlistments.” : Of course, there is nothing of sedition in the pamphlet, but “politics is politics” in Minnesota, and right now, with the farmers about to capture the state, more so than ever. . FARMERS AND LIBERTY BONDS THE Third Liberty loan will be floated by the United States government in the near future. It is time for every citizen to be- gin making plans to take up as large a part of that loan as he possibly can. Among the chief supporters of the last Liberty loan were the farmers, as shown by -the 73 per .cent oversub- scription of the loan in North Dakota, which is almost entirely an agricultural state and also the home state of the Nonpartisan league. Despite the hearty support of the farmers for the last Liberty loan and their intention to do. their share and more when the third loan is floated, a vicious and unprincipled propaganda of slander against the farmers in connection with the third loan has been going on, conducted by anti-farmer interests and newspapers. 'Reeently the following statement appeared in a large num- ber of Eastern newspapers: “It goes without saying that the Third Liberty loan will be subscribed and oversubscribed, but as in the case of the first two, the bankers will have to take the largest part of the loan,” remarked F. R. Holt, a Pacific coast banker, at the Willard. “But while the bankers will provide the big share of the money, they will see to it that others subscribe their part. The farmers, for instance, will be called upon to be more liberal in their subscriptions. In the last two loans, the agricultural classes subscribed a very small percentage of the total, and yet even they can not deny that they have benefited more by the war than any other class of people in the country. They have had a market for their crops that a few years ago would have dazed them, and while it is true that they have had to pay additional cost for necessities, their margin of profit has been very large. Indeed, the farmers have been getting rich. They owe it to « their country to help supply the money for running: the war, and they will of course respond, but they will have to be made to understand the urgent needs of the government.. I have no doubt that when the - time comes the farmers will not be wanting, but they have got to ‘come across’ better than they have before.” . ¢ How long will the farmers have to stand for this kind of mis- ‘representation, which is little calculated to encourage them in their - support of the Third Liberty loan? However, the farmer will go right about his business supporting the government and President Wilson in this war by willingly sacrificing his wheat profits and by subscribing to the Liberty loans.. ! : > ; : It is the Leader’s opinion that the Third Liberty loan, despite % . 'PAGE e what this banker says, will be floated chiefly among farmers, al- though farmers will have to make great sacrifices to buy these - bonds, often borrowing money at 8 to 12 per cent to do so. THE MINNESOTA SITUATION AGAIN HE Leader makes no apology for devoting a large part of I this issue to Minnesota events. The Minnesota situation is important to League members in other states for two reasons. The press of the country has been grossly mis-. representing what is happening in the Gopher state, and trying to use it against the League in other states. Secondly, some of ther 7 same things that are being tried against the farmers in Minnesota may be tried in other states,¢ and besides all that, the Minnesota situation!t _ should be intensely interesting to farmers as mere_': news, no matter where they live. n The League in Minnesota is no different thany it is in North and South Dakota, Montana org other states. The difference is in the oppositionr to the League. The. opposition is desperate inr Minnesota. The political gang and its press seec the state slipping from their grasp through the: operation of a great people’s organization. The"1 state-wide primaries are close at hand. The proof’ that the people can win, as they did in North‘] Dakota, has thrown the opposition into a panic., They have lost their heads. The result is a kind,. of opposition to the farmers than can do nothing but forward their cause. The intensity of the hatred for the farmers and their cause in Minnesota can not be bettert illustrated than by a thing that happened in on ! town. League meetings during the last few week ) have taken up collections for the Red Cross amounting to thousands of dollars. In one town,, where the League held a meeting which the busi- ness men tried to suppress-but where they dids not control the town or county officers, the Redr Cross refused to accept the money contributed by League farmers at the meeting. The money* was returned to the Nonpartisan league with an insulting letter. The intensity of the bitterness] of the League opposition is such among some; people that a branch of a nonpolitical organiza- %{i&r:i like the Red Cross commits an act of this; This is the only Red Cross branch in Minne- sota that has insulted the farmers in this way. ‘It just happened that it was dominated by anti-} farmer interests who could not resist showing! their spleen. The money will of course be giveni to the Red Cross by the League through some other Red Cross branch or sent direct to the na- tional organization. The Red Cross should not be dragged into politics. Its work is such that, every citizen, of every party, of every faction, of: every wreligion, of every walk of life, can and should support it. And the farmers of Minnesota are going right along supporting it, despite the inexcusable insult of the town Red Cross branch: referred to. 2 i SOME SHORT ONES | Governor Burnquist instructed his secretary: to write a man in Nebraska to the effect that th 1 Nonpartisan league was ‘“hindering the prosecu- tion of the war.” Burnquist either told an un- truth or he should be removed from office, because, if the League is hindering the prosecution of th war in Minnesota, Governor Burnquist has ampl power to stop it through his public safety com- mission, and he says in the $ame letter his safet commission has taken no action. Why do you let an organization that is hindering the war cone tinue, governor? S i : f How we laughed when the czar changed the name of the capital of Russia from the Germa name “St. Petersburg” to “Petrograd.” A strang form of hysteria, we said. = And yet the samé¢ newspapers that laughed about that are now seriously clamoring for changing the name of the capital of North Dakota from “Bis; marck” to one less Teuton.. The patriotism of a city is not meas- ured by its name, but by its deeds, and Bismarck is not less Amer- ican on account of its name. ! 5 : T * * * ; ; f Anti-reformers never admit they are against reform. They say that they are merely against the reform “at this time” or “in the way it is at present proposed,” or “against those who proposél the reform,” or are “afraid that the leaders are dishonest,” o1 that they “believe much more can be accomplished by waiting.” ~But any of these arguments is the argument of an anti-reformer.