The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 8, 1918, Page 3

In the interest - of a square deal | Tonparti$én Teader for the farmers VOL. 6, NO. 14 Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, APRIL 8, 1918 A magazine that dares to print the truth WHOLE NUMBER 133 “Bill” Dech and the Farmers’ Alliance A Glimpse at Nebraska Thirty Years Ago When the Farmers . Were Organized for. Political Action BY RALPH L. HARMON VERYBODY in Nebraska knows “Bill” Dech. For 45 years his word. He is one of the con- necting links between the great farmers’ movement of the '70s and '80s, and that of 1918. He spans the chasm between the . Farmers’ alliance and the Na- tional" Nonpartlsan league, Since 1873, when his nelghbors first elected him to represent Saunders county in the legislature, down to the present week, he has been an uncompromising foe of all kmds of special privilege. And he isn’t a burnt-out em- ber either. You should hear him talk. " He is 78 years old and was so severely wounded during the Civil war that he has been a cripple ever since, but his eyes burn with the fires of that old “Populism”- that first ushered farmers’ rights into the political arena, and his eloquence, as he recounts those battles in N@braska, tells you plainly enough why he was one of the favorite campaign- ers for a quarter of a century. Since he first voted for Peter Cooper for president on the Greenback ticket back in the '70s, down to the last election he has always belonged to political movements that were held in contempt by “regular’” party bosses. Several times he was a candidate for legislative or state office and sometimes successful. Eight campaigns he “stumped the state” for Alliance, Populist or other progressive issues. He has been a delegate at every national convention since he first threw overboard old-time partyism for mod- ern issues. - And if one calls him “Bill,” don’t you worry. He doesn't care. He used to have regular initials like corporation presidents,-but if you go hunting for him by those initials and‘ask for W. H. Dech, you first stir up a puzzled stare, and then a look of regret. No, they don’t know any one by any such name. Maybe you mean Bill Dech—oh yes, well, he lives at Ithaca—great old man—you ought to see him—and, "believe- me, if you miss seeing him and talk- ing with him, you-miss one of - the keys that can help unlock the past for ‘you, and maybe you miss that something that tells you why the “farmers’ movement” has only slumber- ed instead of dying, and why it will never die until:-it has written xts full program mto law. % NEBRASKA PROUD OF ‘POPULIST RECORD' o Does Bill Dech -think thq great movement to which ‘he and nearly all of Nebraska gave severs;l strenuous years has failed? Indeed mno, In Nebraska the people-are still proud - of . their “Populistic” record and point ~to what" “Populism” did. In some parts . i of the United States for many years there have been: those who ' laugh, a::pitying, half scornful laugh, when you talk -of the Farmers’ alliance ‘and ‘the Peéople’s party—but Ne- braska is still proud. The his- torical society of the state is - digging diligently to fill its archives . with €very scrap of “Blll" Dech, 8y name has been a household- . she was once a “Popu- the pioneers to read papers and deliver lec- tures on every phase of that farmers’ movement that made Nebraska fa- mous, even before W. J. Bryan contributed the luster of his name. They have all that books and magazines have said about it, and a big vol-- ume to be devoted ex- clusively to that subject is now being prepared. Yes, Nebraska is proud list” state, proud that in one of her great cities the first great convention of that farmers’ party put forth its first presi- dential candidate (James B. Weaver, at Omaha in 1892); and her common people, her farmers who belong to other .farmer organizations that keep aloof from polities, are joining the Nonpartlsan league, as another step in the same du‘ectlon WHEN THEY SOLD CORN AT 8 CENTS A BUSHEL Why—if the People’s party and Alliance did not fail—why are the people of Nebraska again join- ing-~another movement having for its object the same main purpose—namely, the purpose to give government into the hands of the people, to relieve the economic distress that is made worse by con- trolled legislation, and to select and put in office men who are, first of ‘all, heart to heart, and hand to hand with the wage-workers in the cities and the farmers on the farms? The answer to that question is worth getting and understanding, and nowhere better than in Ne- braska can you get a just answer and feel sure that you understand. Away back in 1874 and 1875 farmers were selling corn at 8 cents a bushel—Bill Dech hauled it 30 miles and sold it at that price—and hogs at $1.95 per 100 pounds. Heifers- that would .today bring ‘$100 were hawked about then and gold at $10 per head. Then there were grasshopper years and there was drouth. Crops failed, and the farmers who had peopled the plains in the era of 'expanding prosperity that followed the Civil - war found ' themselves mortgaged ~up to the neck, found them- selves robbed by the railroads “‘that they had helped to build, often by subscription, their legxs‘ature and their na- tional politics in the hands of the railroad tyrants. : Ah; " those were o hmes wanted credit, but the money- 'lendéx:s bloeked the way. They i ted -2 ch;nce hto reach the “rocky” and - indeed. The ' farmers \ “Toadstool Park,” one of the scenic wonders of western Nebraska, in Sioux county, not far from Crawford. The fantastic shapes have been cut by wind and weather and occasionally one of these “toadstools,” undermined by the elements, loses its balance and falls. B levied the tolls on frexght and sucked the profits dry. Then they tried to get political relief, but the railroads had them by the throat. The rail- roads dominated the conventions. They could do this because they could furnish free passes to all the delegates who saw things as the railroads wanted them to. nated the judges and the state officers and the legislators that the railroads wanted. Just to make sure that they did, the railroads used to send their lawyers to the blggest hotels in the convention citiés to watch proceedmgs When farmers in some places were successful in electing delegates to these conventions, then the railroads would get up con- testing delegations and beat the farmers out. It . cost nothing to go as a railroad delegate, for you ‘rode on a pass and had your hotel bills paid. WHAT THE ALLIANCE FARMERS DEMANDED . And so when the farmers found that their cher- ished organization, the Grange, could not bring ,them relief with all its literary programs and its groping for the higher, better things in community life, they began to organize for mdependent po- litical action.- And what.do -you suppose these po- litically minded farmers demanded?. ‘Why, all they wanted was the right to elect United States sena- tors by popular vote—so the railroads couldn’t pick the candidates; they only wanted the initiative and referendum, so that bought-and-paid-for legis- latures could neither saddle tyrranical laws upon them, nor prevent them from enacting laws for the popular welfare; they only wanted the right to elect the railroad commissioners instead of leav- ing their appointment to a railroad-made governor; they only wanted the government to loan money to-. ° farmers ‘on first mortgages upon farm land, or upon nonperishable products, just as it was loan- ing ‘money to national banks. They wanted this money at 2 per cent, and they said they had as goo'd a right to it as the banks. They. demanded that judges be elected by popular _ vote—even United States Judges-—-for they ob- served how judges generally decldecL in favor of . ‘those who had put them in office. - tlgretore, the peop'e wanted’ to. put the ‘judges in Quite naturally, They. wanted the government to cease giv- Py T AR These conventions always nomi- R AP et T Y I Tt O Dl U AT Pt PR ID T T T O N O et e O bla D0 RS ay land to. Tailroads, and to take back the ilroads, where .the roads had’ D D Y A G A L= i = s = T M AR THET O PP O BT RO R T=E RO TR S ¥ qra— = TR W e