The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 1, 1918, Page 8

_Feeding Iowa on Anti-Farmer Prejudice How Big Business Converted an Innocent Booster Club Into a Political Machine to Crush the Nonpartisan League, and Is Skulking Under Secret Meetings OWHERE else in the United States have the farmers’ ene- mies' hit upon so unique and. bold a plan of fighting farmers as in the state of Iowa. In several states where the Non- partisan league is now flourish- ing there have been efforts of one kind or another to block the growth of the farmers’ movement, but it was left for the big business interests and politicians of Iowa to convert an innocent looking “booster club” into a political machine and set out enlisting farm- ers to help them in breaking up the farmers’ move- ment—AND MAKE THE FARMERS PAY THE BILL. The Greater Iowa association was formed in 1914 by some big business representatives and commer- cial club officials for the purpose of influencing the state of Iowa to refund to them $32,000 which they had voluntarily added to the state’s appropriation for an exhibit at the Panama Pacific exposition. When Iowa first became ‘business men will vouch for. They collected $500 that night and laid the plans for 40 SECRET MEETINGS to be attended and ad- dressed by Clum. Later it was found Clum had to have assistants' and others were engaged, among them H. E. Ross, an insurance agent of Des Moines. Clum and Ross and the others have been going about the state HOLDING SECRET MEETINGS AND COLLECTING FUNDS with which to fight. the farmers. They meet in the cities and towns. No one is allowed in their meetings except the business men who have been especially invited in advance by post card or letter, and friends whom these trusted In a few places they have had some “farmers” among the manufacturers, merchants, bankers and politicians, “farmers” who are opposed to the farmers’ movement and prefer to line up with the big special interests against the farmers. No. one in Iowa any longer doubts the purpose for which the Greater Iowa association now exists. All the anti-farmer papers of the state have been making capital out of the fact that this supposedly powerful organization has definitely lined up to club the farmers into submission. Clum gives out interviews in every city he visits flaying the Non- partisan league and repeating thefalsehoods and slanderous charges that were used against the League two years ago in North Dakota. He has also invented some new ones on his own account. In one of his pamphlets appealing particularly to retail merchants to organize against the Non- partisan league, he said that the League has formed a working agreement with the American Rochdale union, a wholesale concern that deals with co-oper- ative stores in the United States. “Merchants who have read of the operation of the Rochdale system in England, Scotland, Ireland and Denmark find that its purpose is the ultimate elimination of retail merchandising,” he says. . It makes no difference to him that this is un- true, and that the League has no connection with the concern he mentions. It makes good fuel to fan the flames of prejudice, and interested in the exposition, some of its chief cities offered to subscribe the money to erect a suitable building, the state to help out in the exhibit with - additional funds. This was done, and then the business men who had fur- nished the money, organized the Greater Iowa association to lobby at Des Moines for an appropriation to reimburse them. ~ They also pretended to be organiz- ing for a “better and bigger Iowa,” and as such handled the Iowa exhibit at San Francisco. Their program pre- tended to include the federation of the commercial bodies of the state for general boosting of its resources, and thus were brought together into a compact body all the big business in- terests that have special privileges to seek at the hands of the legislature. Since its formation in April, 1914, it has been growing among the business interests, and since the Nonpartisan league began organization in the state, IT HAS STARTED A SPECIAL CAMPAIGN TO ENLIST FARMER MEMBERS ALSO. GREATER IOWA ASSOCIATION SPURS ANTI-FARMER PREJUDICE Within the past eight or nine weeks, the Greater Iowa association has thrown off its mask of pretended STATE COUNCIL or NATIONAL DEFENSS W. L. MARDING, GovERNOR OFFICERS CAPAYETTE YOUNG, Sn. CHAIBMAN oes mMOINE® @. WATSON FRENCH. VICE-CMAIRMAN DAVENPORT wae RALPH BOLTON, SECRETANY Tas MOINES JOHN T ADAMS ousuaur d. 3. DOTY SHENANDOAW J. 7 DEEMS BURLINGTON W. 8. Dows CEDAR RAPIDS €. C. DEERING DEB MOINES PFRANK EVEREST COUNCIL BLUFPS @. WATEON FRENCH DAVENPORT ¥, W HAMMILL sooNE PAUL JUNKIN crzsTON 4 L KENNEDY soux PRED LARRABER PoRT DOOGN GUY E. LOGAN ous M JOMN MORRELL orTuKwA W W. MARSH WATERLOG ® A. O'CONNOR NEW HAMPFTOR 4 W, PIERCE DRS MOINES COMMONWEALTH OF IOWA EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT DES MOINES Chicago, Jan. 17, 1928, ¥r, Frank Carter, Editor, Mesarvey Register, Neservey, Iowa. My dear Sir: I have & olipping from your pm headed "Teddy and the-Farmers Non-Partisan League.® This does not sound very good to mse There i8 no occasion for the None Partidan Ieague in Iowa. We have not had a crop -failure. Ve are not anarchists, and we have no occasion to get up this row. This Non-Partisan Political League 1s simply a new form of treason. It does not have the endorsement and consent of the State Counoid of Defenses. My dear friend Carter, we are at war with the meanest nation on earth, and thers ocan be anly two oclasses of people - patriots and traitors, The thing for you to decide 1s, whoth@&@ ~you are for the United States or whether you are for Germany. There is no other issue. : The State Council of Defense would 1ike to hear from you. arouse local merchants to fight the Nonpartisan league. : In one of his pamphlets he appeals to the bankers to line up against the League. He says: RESORTS TO FALSEHOODS IN FIGHT AGAINST LEAGUE “The facts herein contained.- should be sufficient to urge every loyal Towa banker to do his bit in this defense against an unpatriotic and unreason- able propaganda by sending his ap- plication for membership _in the . Greater: Iowa association.” In other appeals the word “banker” is replaced by the word “merchant,” “manu- facturer,” etc. One of the most glaring falsehoods in his series of pamphlets is his studied misquotation of one of the laws enacted at the last. session of _the North Dakota legislature, a tax law put on the books by the Nonpar- tisan league members of that body. Of this statute, the Greater Iowa association says: “The League forced through senate bill 49 providing that certain city property be taxed at 80 per cent of its true value, and all other city prop- erty be taxed at 20 per cent of its true value, while ‘all household goods and house equipment, wearing ap- parel, structures and improvements upon farm land’ be taxed at 5 per cent -of the big manufacturing concerns of ~ were gathered there for. ¥ a. POTTER “boosting” for Iowa, and has openly e— declared its purpose to be the destruc- ' waewmeron tion of the National Nonpartisan **“\cw league in Iowa. To this end it has begun the publication and circulation of pamphlets and circular letters among manufacturers, bankers, pro- fessional and business men, seeking memberships and financial support, and every pamphlet is filled with at- tacks on the Nonpartisan league and appeals to awaken the prejudice of the business interests against the League. The decision to turn the Greater Iowa association into a political club to fight the farmers, was taken at Ottumwa, January 22, Business men from four counties were gathered there, also a few farmers who had large interests outside of their farm- ing. The meeting was presided over by F. W. Simmons, president of the American Mining Tool company, one ‘WAUCOMA the state. After sketching the causes that led to the formation of the Greater Iowa association, Mr. Sim-. mons said the “time has come for us to. go into politics.” He said the state -was confronted with “a great danger” ‘(the National Nonpartisan league) and that all present knew what they He intro- duced Woodworth Clum, of unsavory fame in connection with state finances, and Clum delivered a venomous speech against the Nonpartisan league. ittt o s 5 e S G AL RIS orivic = cHAS. w. wEmsTER GAFAYETTE YOUNG, O OEs MOINES \ Respedtfully yours, The above is a photographic reproduction of a most remarkable letter that throws considerable light on the fight on the organized farmers in Iowa. Frank Carter, editor of an Iowa paper, published an article showing that the Nonpar- tisan league had not joined Theodore Roosevelt in his attacks on the president and the government. In other words, the article showed, which is true, that the League intended to unite the people back of the president and deplored the attacks of Roosevelt and others, which are undermining President Wilson and bringing about a lack of confidence in our war plans and prosecution of the war. Lafayette Young, author of this letter, is a reactionary politician and news- paper publisher of Iowa—also a member of the Iowa State Council of Defense, — He writes a letter as chairman of the council of defense to an editor who de- fended President Wilson, and says: “This does not sound very good to me.” Well, what of it? Who cares what sounds good to Mr. Young? Mr, Young says there is no occasion for the Nonpartisan league in Iowa. Who is Mr. Young, to say whether or not the farmers of Towa shall organize? When he says the League is “a new form of treason” he says that which is un- true, and which he knows is untrue—it is treason only to war profiteers and the big interests. We agree with kim that there are two classes of people—patriots and traitors—and we say that a man who will object to a newspaper printing an article defending the president from attacks is not of the patriot class. - The very humorous part of this letter is that Mr. Young states that the League “does not have the indorsement of the state council of defense,” What difference does that make? Is the League damned because & body of -human beings, headed by a reactionary politician, has not indorsed it? Since when have the people of Towa had to get the consent of a tory and reactionary news- paper publisher before joining an organization? It is to laugh. PAGE EIGHT irman, Xowa State Counoil of Defe! of its true value.” This is calculated to enrage all resi- dents of cities against the farmers and show what would happen in Iowa if, through the League, farmers were to have an influence in making laws. But in order to produce this neat gem of deception, Clum had to omit from the very middle of the statute this {)aragraph, which is quoted from the aw: “Provided, however, the city cam- mission, the city council or board of trustees may by resolution at a regu- lar or stated meeting fix a different percentage of value upon structures and improvements on town and city lots which rate shall be not less than 5 per cent of the true and full value.” HOW TO SAVE $16 BY SPENDING $30 This, of course, puts all improve- ments on city property on exactly the same footing as improvements on farm land—but to have told the truth about it would have been to lose a _ against the farmers; The Greater Towa association has made a special attack on the League lets Clum says: (Continued on page 23) chance to ‘arouse ' city prejudice membership dues of $16 for two years, - or $8 a year, and in one of the pamph- - “H we need a stronger federation