The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 13, 1918, Page 7

IT WOULD BE HARD TO SCARE UP AN EVEN DOZEN OF NORTH DAKOTA COUNTRY PAPERS THAT ARE FIGHTING THE FARMERS. FULLY 200 OF THEM ARE NOW ACTIVELY SUPPORTING THE FARMERS IN THIS FIGHT. Those North Dakota weeklies that refused to lay off on the vicious anti-farmer propaganda of the kind that Mr. Junkin is now peddling in Minnesota, had to close up or sell out on account of lack of public support, and about 50 of these papers have, in the last two_years, passed into the hands of co-operative farmers’ com- panies that are running them with a policy favorable to the League. They are flourishing under this ownership. The balance, almost without exception, that opposed the League two years ago in North Dakota, had to change their policy—either become neutral or League advocates—in order to head off financial ruin. THE FARMERS JUST NATURALLY QUIT SUBSCRIBING FOR THESE VICIOUS OPPONENTS OF THEIR-RIGHTS AND WITH- DREW THEIR PATRONAGE FROM MERCHANTS THAT AD- VERTISED IN THEM. ' And then Mr. Junkin, knowing these facts, comes over into Minnesota and tells country papers they ought to fight the farmers IN ORDER TO BECOME SAFE AND INFLUENTIAL. Come, Junkin, smoke up! Or are you just kiddin’? UPTON SINCLAIR - PTON SINCLAIR, author of “The Jungle,” a novel of tre- mendous power, which exposed the economic exploitation of the workers in the packing industry and created a sen- sation a few years ago, is . now publishing a magazine e M55 VOTES) called “Upton Sinclair’s,” et at 15613 Sunset avenue, Pas- ' adena, Cal. Mr. Sinclair was one of America’s many: leading radicals opposed to war on_principle, but who saw in German militarism and autocracy a menace to world democracy. Mr. Sin- clair felt America’s entry into the war was a chance to end all wars and forever put militarism out of busi- ness, and he has therefore been a strong supporter of President Wilson and his war -views. Mr. Sinclair represents the large group > of socialists who may be termed “American socialists,” as opposed to that other group of socialists in America who have been accused ‘of following the German brand of socialism. The national convention of the Socialist party has twice re- fused to approve of its members joining the Nonpartisan league and voting for candidates indorsed by the League, and has de- nounced the League as not being the solution for present economic and political abuses. The state conventions of the socialists in anesota. and other states have taken the same position, and the recent socialist “Year Book” pictures the Nonpartisan league as an organization of “land owners made rich by the recent high level of prices for farm products, who are now thirsting for political power for themselves.” However, many of the leading socialists, and among:them Sin- clair, do not have this false view of the organized farmers, and - large numbers of socialists everywhere, the same as members of the Republican and Democratic parties, see in the League a chance to work out important and badly needed reforms in an effective way, at once. It is with pleasure that the Leader acknowledges here a] r_ecen@deditorial of Mr. Sinclair’s in his new magazine. Mr. Sin- clair said: “If you want to see the joyful spectacle of farmers and their wives thoroughly awakened, class-conscious and alert, discussing their own interests and acting upon them, repelling the slanders and evading: the snares of their cunningest. exploiters, send to St. Paul, Minn., for a copy of the Nonpartisan Leader, and read!” : HOW ABOUT IT, MR. M’ADOO? 14 I \HE widespread effort to brand farmers as profiteers and slackers, which might have a bad effect in agricultural dis- tricts by dampening enthusiasm for the government war ‘loans, merits the serious consideration of Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo. Farmers are doing their share in the Liberty loan sub- scriptions. One fact going to prove that is the enthusiasm for the _ government loans in North Dakota, purely an agricultural state, where the second loan was oversubscribed 70 per cent and the third oversubscribed over 80 per cent. Nearly all the population of North Dakota is rural, and what is just as significant is the fact that nearly all the farmers belong to the Nonpaljtisan league, which con- © trols the state politically. - 7 Despite these facts bankers who are in charge of the govern- ment loan campaigns are sending out official statements to the effect that farmers are loan slackers, and that there is no excuse for their being loan slackers, as they are war profiteers. To men who are doing their duty and more in supporting the Liberty loans, : who*are'givin_g sonS"flfeely-tq;i)reseIVe our country and ‘win world - gents against them. _democracy and who are sacrificing to put in record war crops, these base charges of bankers in charge of the government loans are in- sulting. Men who are patriotic and doing their duty during the war naturally resent being called slackers and profiteers, and these silly and prejudiced charges can have no other effect than that of dam- pening enthusiasm in the rural districts. s Farmers might be guilty of wrong thinking if they said: “Well, what’s the use of my making a sacrifice to take Liberty bonds, when I get no credit for it and am called a profiteer and slacker by Liberty loan managers, no matter how many bonds I take?” More reasonably farmers under these ill-advised attacks by bank- ers should say: “I will give the Liberty loans even more support than I have and will suffer under these attacks as an additional sacrifice for my country.” But why should things be done in connection with the Liberty loans that tend to dampen the ardor of rural communities in these loan campaigns? The Leader submits to Mr. McAdoo the following news report of action taken by the Liberty loan heads in one district, with the suggestion that this warrants prompt and vigorous action by the proper authorities in Washington, in the shape of a rebuke to these Chicago bankers and assurance to the farmers that no such state- ment will be issued during a loan campaign again: Chicago, April 10.—Farmers are accused, as a class, of being Lib- erty loan slackers in a bulletin being mailed through the seventh re- serve district by the Liberty loan committee. The bulletin alleges that farmers undersubscribed their share of the first and second loans, despite the fact that enormous profits have been assured them, and that the taxes fall very lightly on them as com- pared to business men and workers in the in- dustrial centers. The bulletin does not hesitate to call the agriculturist a profiteer, stating that he gets 56 per cent more for his meat, 77 per cent more for his garden and dairy products, 86 per cent more for other products. Foodstuffs, says the bul- letin, have advanced 146 per cent since 1914, while — metals have advanced only 82 per cent and other staples, outside food, 53 per cent. : Such figures, the bulletin says, take away all point from talk of . industrial profiteering. Farmers, it says, escape 90 per cent of the income tax. . IN THE SAME BREATH EWSPAPERS carried some very significant headlines re- N cently. Here is one that is quite interesting: “Wilson a State Socialist, Illinois Senator Declares—Cabinet Mem- bers Included by Sherman in Overman Bill Debate—Says Townley Represents German Influence and Gets Money From Pro-German Sources.” Other papers carried similar headlines over the reports of Senator Sherman’s senseless attack on the president of the United States and the president of the Nonpartisan league. It ought to give organized farmers considerable satisfaction to see the president of their country and the president of their League denounced in the same breath by the same politician. Mr. Sherman’s attacks of course do no harm either to Mr. Wilson or Mr. Townley, but they do prove that the same interests that are trying to undermine Mr. Wilson on account of his world policy of democracy and justice are trying to do the same thing with Mr. Townley, on account of the League’s program of democracy and justice in the United States. ; If other movements of the people had been as fortunate in their enemies as the League has been, they would have had a greater degree of success. For instance, it is only necessary to quote Sena- tor Sherman literally to show his motives and to justify the League. The news report of Mr. Sherman’s violent strictures in part follows: During his attack on Townley, Senator Sherman said that “he advocated the same principles in Minnesota that Frank Little advo- cated in Butte, but they hanged Frank Little, while Mr. Townley got a railroad ticket quick enough so that he is still head of the League.” “Well, maybe I've hung up more snakes than I can kill now,” Sherman resumed, when Senator Watson of Indiana interrupted: “Does the senator remember Mr. Creel, and remember that Mr. Creel took Townley to the White House, and to make a speech at New York?” Senator Watson queried. “I've paid my respects to Mr. Creel,” Senator Sherman responded. “He ought to be where Lenine and Trotzky are mow.” These are the words of a politician who calls President Wilson a “state socialist,” whatever that may be, and makes a nasty per- sonal attack on Mr. Creel and the progressive and liberal members of the president’s official family. We congratulate both Mr. Wilson and Mr. Townley on having made an enemy of Mr. Sherman, and we can see only success for all the men attacked, so long as they keep such men as Sherman and such interests as Sherman repre- R SRR TR R R I S