The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 13, 1918, Page 17

R R — 'T'o Save Cripples From the Scrap Heap blinded in industry and in all fields® of ‘production of war materials. As the whole nation is mobilized behind the army, as President Wilson says, this amendment is in line with the first object of the bill—the saving and England today engaged in study. and research and planning, all aimed at the rebuilding of England and English life and institutions, during the war as well as after the war. The most notable of the programs drawn up thus far is that of the British Labor Kansas and the Farmers’ Union Nonpartisan League Will Co-Operate With Union Mem- bers in Spite of All the Politicians Can Do Lindsborg, Kan. Editor Nonpartisan Leader: Enclosed you will find clipping from the Farmers’ Union (suppesed to be the official organ of the Farmers’ union in Kansas). I thought I would send this to you in case you would want to mention it in the Leader. It doesn’t worry me, but I thought it would interest you. : FRANK P. NELSON. The copy of the Farmers’ Union sent by Mr. Nelson contained a lengthy attack on the Nonpartisan league by Mr. McAuliffe, editor of the paper. Mr. McAuliffe does not ex- press the sentiments of the Farmers’ union in Kansas, judging from the. many letters about him and his paper that the Leader receives from Kansas farmers, and judging by the rapid growth of the League in Kansas. For some reason, Mr. McAuliffe fears that the League will destroy what influ- ence, if any, he has over farmers who read his paper. He need not fear on that score, however, for the League attempts to dictate to no existing farmers’ organization. e The Farmers’ union is one of the most influential and beneficial of farmers’ organizations. It is doing a great work all over the country. Iis members - are progressive. - Many of the local unions of Kansas have in- dorsed the League and its Kansas members are joining the League in large numbers. In North Dakota and other states the Farmers’ union is closely co-operating with the I.eague. There can be no conflict. The Union under its constitution can not enter politics. The League is a political or- ganization. The American Society of and the needed solidarity. The experi- ence of the Equity, Grange and Farm- ers’ union in the states where the League is well organized is that these organizations grow and prosper along with the League. 3 Mr. McAuliffe will not succeed in getting the Union and League to fighting each other in Kansas. Simi- lar agitators have tried the same thing in other states and failed. Such at- tempts by farmer politicians are re- ceived with glee by the big interests fighting all farmers’ organizations, which hate the Union equally with the League but which pretend friendship to the Union in order to get its mem- bers to fight the League. If these two great farmers’ organizations could be made to fight each other through the efforts of such men as McAuliffe, it would be disastrous to both. It is only by dividing the farmers and getting them to fight among them- selves that the politicians and big in- terests and the newspapers that serve them can hope to defeat the farmers’ program of reforms. McAuliffe’s folly is shown by, his “arguments.” He states that the League can not succeed, forgetting the evidence of North Dakota, and says it will never get a foothold in Kansas. If that is the case, why does Mr. McAuliffe devote a large part of every issue of his paper to fighting the League? Why worry if thcre is nothing to worry about? Secondly, he says the farmers can never capture Kansas politically. He quotes figures to show the farmers are outnumbered - in the state and can never hope to be strongly enough organized to carry out the League program. He forgets the old Farmers’ alliance and how it No Friend of Ours Introducing Mr: E. Normous Profitts, who, at a banquet given in his honor by the Organized Bankers and Brokers said: “I know it to be a fact that every man in the Northwest that tills the soil or wears chin whiskers is a pro-German and a spy and should be backed up against a wall and shot. The most treacherous and most dan- gerous of these German agents all wear a queer little button which says some- thing ahout sticking somebody.” or crutch, watching the gate at some industrial plant or railway yard, tells the story of the humiliation and wage- P ¢ 2 The Senate Considers a Bill to Teach Crafts and Trades Suitable for , &y 2 Soldiers Who Have Been Maimed in Battle ‘ % g Washmg.ton Bureau, turning to its best account of all hu- party, which has within a few weeks need partial re-education in their < >~ Nonpartisan Leader man talent and strength that under become almost a charter of civil read- trades or means of livelihood. s |IRST steps toward the old system would have been justment for the anti-militarist forces Back of this scheme of human re- . rebuilding the hu- thrown on the scrap-heap. of the whole world. truction i thi - t deal { P man wreckage of Reconstruction programs have been ~ Taking the experience of Canada R lo:tls :o:;e &g adgr_ea fe . 1 I the war are pro- engaging a vast amount of the atten- as a fair test of the numbers who will M0T¢ lmportant tnan the cesire of a s posed in the voca- tion of England, France, Italy, Ger- have to be re-educated in order that S°vernment to a'voxd the financial sup- g ] 3 tional rehabilita- many, Austria, Canada, South Africa they may earn their livelihood after POTt of the war’s human wreckage in : tion, bill, introduc- and Australia during the last two the war, the United States will have future years. The federal vocational LM ed in the senate years. This bill in the senate is the to give partial training to about 10,000 education board, in a report on the = i ; by Hoke Smith, first official step toward reconstruc- for each one million men under arms situation, points out that the crippled chairman of the committee on educa- tion work in the United States. Eng- each year of the continuance of the soldier tends to lose interest in self- ] tion and labor. . This bill proposes to land has created a special cabinet de- war, and will have to give complete support, and to degenerate as an in- i teach new trades to the blinded, the partment known as the ministry of re-education to another 10,000 men dividual, as he loses his mental grip maimed, and the crippled soldiers and reconstruction. Fifteen separate di- for each one million under arms each of his own trade. He must have the < P E sailors discharged from the American visions have been established under year. Canada has discovered that 10 self-reliance that goes with mastery forces during and after the war. that ministry. They cover everything per cent of her men return home f a useful occupation, if he is to re- : € An amendment of the highest im-~ f}‘om trade and finance to demobiliza- wounded each year, and that only 1 ain a first-class citizen. ! ; portance, which is promised the sup- tion, and education. Eighty-seven per cent of her total need complete More than that, he must be protect- ‘ £, port of administration leaders, gives Committees are doing the work. Be- - vocational re-education, and 1 pepent ed from exploitsttion The familiar v the same schooling privilege to the sides those government committees, figure of the man wi";h empty sleeve &k men and women crippled or maimed or (1€Té are 200 other committees in sweating of the man no longer able to command full pay at his old occupa- tion. Saving of scores of thousands of farm boys and town boys from lives | of industrial helplessness, and turning them into men of higher skill and greater degree of economic independ- ence than before their injury, is only one item in the big program of Ameri- can reconstruction that is to be work- ed out. As the days pass, it becomes more evident that the rest of the program must be adapted to be put in effect during war, and not merely after the war, under circumstances that no man can foresee. Plans for vast agricul- tural readjustment — probably on a basis of government co-operation with producer and consumer—and indus- trial readjustment which will largely do away with the old lines between in- dustrial workers and employers, will _ ' step by step be proposed. The Walsh- Taft report is the first step toward an industrial understanding. Public ownership and operation of packing plants, stockyards and possibly grain elevators and flour mills may be the next step toward securing agricultural efficiency. FARMINGDALE SCHOOL, KANSAS Equity, another great-farmers’ organ- captured Kansas politically time after ization, has officially indorsed the time, and the great reforms it brought League in North Dakota, Montana to the state. : i and Idaho. The state Granges: of Farmers can not hope for much ,f _ Idaho, North Dakota, Washington and from alleged leaders who attempt to { Oregon also have given the League discourage their organization, who . formal indorsement. These far-see- preach defeat for farmers and the re- ing farmers’ organizations realize that forms they want and who thereby 3 the League interferes with no legiti- serve the politicians and big interests This is the third schoolhouse on this site in almost half a century, and still mate farmers’ organization previous- ly existing, but that it correlates the whose only hope is to keep farmers from realizing their power and or- Kansas’ youngsters are learning their A B C’s and learning to be citizens on, the same spot. This building was designed by A. K. Mills, school director for - -work of all farmers’ organizations, ganizing to make it effective—THE -~ givesthem a united and effective voice a generation, and now a prominent member of the Nonpartisan league and EDITOR. ° Farmers’ union. It is in Norton county. : PAGE SEVENTEEN : 4