The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 29, 1918, Page 6

EDER AL officials knew that trouble - was brewing in Mineola, Texas, be- fore it broke out. All over the coun- try tributary to Mineola the rumor } : had spread that a e Nonpartisan meeting in Mineola March e 23 would be broken up. A banker of the town was heard to say that he would pay the fine of any one who would beat up any League speaker or “ O organizer. On the Sunday preceding 3 the meeting, E. Gentry, supervisor of the federal department of agriculture and chairman of the local Red Cross, “Y made a talk at the Methodist church. = He used these words: “The Nonparti- san league is another form of German propaganda, financed by German money.” Later, Rev. Charles V. Hughes, i pastor of the same church, repeatedly 2 denounced League organizers. A typ- ical remark, in which he used language far from scriptural was: “The dirty ! — — —, they shan’t organize the &' < ~ farmers.’ I have a Winchester, and . it will pop, too.” Similar incendiary remarks were | B heard from various politicians and < business men of Mineola. Wishing to i i\ give the politicians no excuse for any illegal interference with the meeting, @ - Mr. Hoover, one of the, organizers, presented to e | the Mineola Monitor a temperate article showing B that the League had the O. K. of the United States - government as to the legality and loyalty of its principles. After some hesitation, the editor de- clined to publish it before the meeting, although he was offered pay for it as an ad. Al - TOLD. FEDERAL OFFICIALS OF PERIL K Nevertheless, this first meeting opened in the ! = city hall park. A crowd of farmers 5 e was on hand. Men who were not farm- - ers also came, with the intention of breaking up the meeting. L 4 These facts, together with the story b of the meeting, were told -by E. R. | & Meitzen of the League headquarters - staff at Waco BEFORE THE BEAT- 3 ING UP OF LEAGUE MEN, ‘to the A " & chief ‘of the federal department of s justice for Texas, B. E. Bierneman. ! He went to San Antonio and at the s request of this official of the United _ States government wrote out a full : 4 statement, calling attention to the 3 . fact that certain “leading” citizens were in a conspiracy illegally to in- ] flame the people. Mr.—Meitzen made this written statement of what was threatened before three League men were brutally assaulted. 3 ~ In his statement, which is filed with the department of justice, Mr. Meitzen told of the menacing attitude of Post- master D. S. Lankford; John Williams, ¢ . father of the mayor;.1. G. Bromberg, .- merchant; E. Gentry, Dr. Buchanan, s B * J. C., Covington, restaurant keeper; | W. D. Williams and Tom Browning. ~Among the opposition also were Dab- X tinction of ran triumphs of Goths and Sarmatians.’ e | but burnt alive, in the forms of law; and having displayed admirable patience under sufferings, he was consumed i ‘ to ashes.”—LACTANTIUS, A. D. 803, account of the persecution of the early Christians, iy ; e - Dpage 15, Vol. 4, Library of Original Sources. o Mr. Gregory, who chain said: - 3 2 “Unless an emphatic veto comes from your department, these outrages will grow in frequency and violence. Just here it is well to pause and to ask why this frenzy against the Non- partisan league? How has it happened the peoplé have sud- denly become thus inflamed? From where has come their in- formation? Evidently but from one source, the daily press. It makes the opinions of the people who read it and read noth- ing else. I say it has deliberately misrepresented the Nonpar- tisan league as distoyal and, to hide-the duplicity of its nefa- rious purpose, invokes the cry of patriotism—that last refuge of a scoundrel. - . g “It is from this source that these Mineola people have been falsely informed and so act like madmen, thinking they are performing their patriotic duty. I am a reader of the League magazine, the Nonpartisan Leader. There is not a par- ticle of truth in charges that in its aims it is in league with anything against the government. The fact that the League paper circulates unmolested by the government should con- vince thinking people that what they read about it is not true, else its mailing privileges would be canceled. “The truth is the press of the country is subsidized against. it for political.and economic. reasons. . “But how can these facts be put before the people if your department remains silent while such outrages are permitted ?” William Warcontract: “Did you read that do going to get together at the election?” James Excessprofitss here in OUR congress.” 7 Before the Nonpartisan league had acted to take the mat- ter of the Mineola atrocity up with the government in Wash- ington, C. E. Oberchain of Greenville, Texas, had written a letter of protest to the office of the federal attorney general, is himself a Texan. In this letter Mr. Ober- ney White of the Tyler Tribune, Mr. Marsh, a credit merchant, and Dunk Maynard, district attorney and politician, all of whom drove over from Tyler. “Before any of our speakers could take the stand,” says Mr. Meitzen in his statement, “Mr. .Maynard got up without permission and made what he called “a patriotic speech.” At the close he denounced the League, read the new state loy- alty law and advised (as district attorney) the farmers that if they joined they were liable to land in the penientiary. - SEEN "AND HEARD IN THE LOBBIES —Drawn expressly for the Leader by J. M. Baer “An edict was fiublished depriving the Christians of all honors and dignities; ordaining also that without any dis- or degree, they should be subjected to tortures and that every suit at law should be received against ‘them; while, on the other hand, they were debarred from being plaintiffs in questions of wrong, adultery, or theft; and, finally, that they should neither be capable of freedom nor have right tore down this edict,-and cut it in pieces, improperly indeed, but with high spirit, saying in scorn: ‘These are the Having been instantly seized and brought to judgment, he was not tortured, pe about fan’ners and laborers Yes, and they will even ask to be represented down _Is the Black Hand Supreme in Texas? .- The Federal Attorney General Will Be Asked to Prosecute Men ' Guilty of the Mineola Rioting Against the League Mr. Meitzen was the third speaker. While he was talking, one of the gang came up on the platform with an open knife in his hand. He stood three feet off. CONVERTED THE GOOD CITIZENS “His name,” according to the state- ment filed with the government, “is J. C. Covington. He is a Mineola restaurant proprietor.” Mr. Meitzen added that a friend told him he was not a bad fellow, but had been stirred up by the town gang. “By documents, telegrams and otherwise I proved the loyalty of the League and was not interrupted further,” states Mr. Meitzen. “How- ever, I am sure the meeting would have been broken up had we not se- cured the support through. our con- duct and speeches of various good citi- zens who had come to the meeting in the belief that we were disloyal—a belief that they told us had been care- fully fostered by the leading citizens of Mineola. And it is very evident that these leading citizens had no other reason for lying thus about us except political motives. - “Immediately after the close of our meeting, Organizer Hoover tock up a Red Cross collection, as is the cus- tom at Nonpartisan meetings wher- ever held. Eleven dollars was col- lected, and it was noticed that not one cent was contributed by our “patri- otic” opponents. Mr. Gentry, the Red Cross chair- man, was present and accepted the contribution.” For the further information of the justice de- partment, he added that a week later in a public spg;ch on the streets of Mineola, Rev. C. V. Hughes said: “The organizers for the League should be lined up against a brick wall and shot, and that this would be done,” or words to that effect. 2 “All of this is submitted,” Mr. Meitzen stated, “to show that the political business cliques of Tyler and Mineola are doing their best to deprive League organizers and speak- ers of rights guaranteed them by the federal and state constitutions and at the same time trying to create a con- dition that must result in riot and disorder. AN APPEAL FOR LAW AND ORDER “We submit td® the department .of Jjustice that merely A FEW WORDS IN THE RIGHT PLACE FROM FED- ERAL OFFICIALS WILL PREVENT FURTHER INCITEMENT TO RIOT on the part of the men mentioned.” In the face of this danger, the League organizers continued to carry on their work. True to the warning Mr. Meitzen had given the representa- tive of the United States government in Texas, violence broke out April 4, when- Higdon, Hoover, Cother and Offutt were victims of a cowardly assault. ok H. M. Offutt of the League was born in Missouri in 1862 of parents both descended from the families that gave George Washington to the (Continued on page 20) of suffrage. A certain person e e b e 2 e e