The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 3, 1918, Page 14

§ 8 Townley. “We only insist that it be done.” - INSISTS ON Democrats. At length he struck upon one named Lemke, a man born in this country of German descent, whose father fought in the Union army. “Is Lemke a Socialist ?” ask- ed Reed. ‘LNO.” “Did he ever belong to the Socialist party?” “No.” “Sure of that?” - sell. FARM IMPLEMENTS UNDER LICENSE LICENSE system for regulating the production and sale of farm ; 'Behind the farm machinery trust is the steel trust which has already got enormous profits on iron and steel which will go into machinery and these profits must be covered by the prices at which the implement factories HAD THE ADVICE OF THE NONPARTISAN TAKE OVER BASIC INDUSTRIES, given at the time we entered the war, . been followed, iron and steel would now be reaching the makers of farm machinery at cost and they could produce at much lower figures. failure to stop the great leaks in raw materials is going to interfere seriously with the success of the present plans outlined by President Wilson in proclamation dealing with farm machinery manufacturers and jobbers. LEAGUE TO llYes » » Reed was growing desper- lic Safety Committeeman Mec- out of the record, after it had been printed all over the coun- try. Senator Reed bhegan by trying to make it appear that none but the leaders of the League had been indicted by McGee, thus limiting Town- ley’s remarks to- a narrow scope. In that he was over- ruled by the chairman. This ~ A Press Conspiracy Against Progress - Patriotism When It Doesn’t Hurt Profits Is the Kind Found in Editors’ Offices—The Vicious Newspapers of St. Paul R BY WALTER W. LIGGETT ST newspapers never tire of bragging about their loyalty. But at the behest of the powers that prey, many city dailies are attacking the nation’s con- duct of the war, the aides, and ferent standard for others. In March, 1916, when the state militia was called to the Mexican border, in repeated editorials these papers urged all of the business men of St. Paul to continue paying salaries to employes who had been called away to the border, or at least to make up the difference between the salary these men had been receiving on at least one other occasion. Just prior I;o the declaration of war, 16 Dispatch employes signed a telegram, expressing their support of the. gov-. ernment and asking that Congressman Van Dyke stand behind the president and vote for the declar- ation of war. The editor was furious when he heard of this and called several of these men into ate. Raising his v01ce, he Gee came back and took that . i asked: . DEMOCRACY A machinery was announced on May 14 by President Wilson. In so “Well, why don’t you tell us' o Senator Reed began a line far as this lowers prices and speeds production of machmery, it what party he does belong to?” gy \'" of questions to disclose the will be an important factor in increasing our food supply. “He is chairman of thé Re- =4 (o | “seditious” statements and con- After the price of wheat was fixed last fall, the organized farmers de- publican state commiitted of bl . nections of leaders of the Non- manded general price-fixing equally rigorous. President Wilson voiced the North Dakota,” answered 1S é f::t;‘:c'“:f:fig‘mmlgfte?gl; A demand in his message to congress December 4, 1917. He hoped that con- Townley. Again a shout of - A b Sational tody ‘and began hix gress would grant sufficient power to deal w1th the problem of prices. laughter arose. £ al: probe: But congress to date has not given this power, and now because of llt, de‘;)elgped _}fhat 8ftter de- il ‘ O, “aftar another. -of «the the seriousness of the situation President Wilson is going ahead to see what c ?trtmg t?x "tfe_“t © ;Ieo';a : r:i:m. i € committeemen turned out | ¢an be done under an act allowing the government to license different lines i’e}; e‘: ma:‘l Fa :traitog 2 P{;: « & - W 1o be either Republicans or of business contributory to the food supply passed August 10, 1917. gy 2 i are ready to assail the president ~ 2nd the pay they were to get in the army. Several his office and tried to influence them to withdraw = himself at the signal. Dispatch and Pioneer Press employes enlisted in the telegram. He said that the German adver- 5 Patriotism, like charity, the militi_a, but their salaries were not continued tisers and readers would be very angry if they , should begin at home and one of the best ways to by the Dispatch and the Pioneer Press after they learned about this. To the outside world the Dis- . make patriotism effective is to pay one’s fair share had enlisted. One man who, according to news- patch was parading its patriotism, but inside its ~ of the cost of government. One.of the grafts news- paper custom, was entitled to a week’s vacation office, its editor was trying to influence his em- paper monopolies in every city enjoy is low tax- on full pay at the time he enlisted, got neither the ployes to abrogate their rights as American citi- o ation. The St. Paul Dispatch and Pioneer Press pay nor the vacation. .When he returned from the zens because he feared this would have a bad ef- are notorious tax dodgers. Today, as for years past, this printing company is paying taxes upon a ridiculously low valuation. The Dispatch Printing company has one of the finest publishing plants in the West. Its whole equipment would inventory close to $500,000. The " paper itself probably could not be purchased for $1,000,000 spot cash, yet it returns its gross valu- ation at only $170, 175 and it pays taxes on an assessment of $56,725. Moreover, it was only a few years ago when both the Dispatch and the Pioneer Press were over- charging the city of St. Paul for legal notices. There is a state law which provides a maxi- mum charge for this work, but the papers cheerfully ignored this law and for some mys- terious reason the city officials seemed reluctant to enforce it. It was not until an honest and fear- less private citizen, E. A. Paradis, took up this af- fair and exposed the: il- legal practices of. these:: papers, that thesg-over- charges were stopped and the law complied with. Truly the Dispatch and the Pioneer Press can -hardly be considered as showing any great degree of public spirit. THE SHAM BACK OF THE SCENES border several months later, practically penniless, this patriotic newspaper refused to take him back unless he would accept $6 per week less than what he was getting when he resigned to serve his country. The Dispatch was ready to recommend generosity in others, but it showed a -decidedly pinch-penny policy when it came to practicing what it preached. This dual standard of patnotlsm evinced itself fect on his advertisers and readers. “GET THE FARMERS’ MONEY FIRST” Wednesday, November 14, 1917, the St. Paul Dispatch gave another evidence of its patriotism -and extreme solicitude for the “country folks.” A great Minnesota loyalty meeting had been ar- WHAT A TOWNLEY PICNIC IS LIKE ranged to be held in St. Paul November 16. Every county in the state had elected delegates. The enthusiastic farmers were spending their own time and money to jour- ney to the Twin Cities to -join in the celebration , for Uncle Sam. The mayor had been asked to declare a half holiday, which he did. The de- partment stores, . how- ever, did not want to close during the after- noon, but could hardly declare their wish open- ly. The Dispateh, as the work. = A double: take to close the depart- ment stores half a day as it would prevent the farmers from spending their money therein. Thus, while plain, every- . day citizens were being urged to give their ener- gies to the celebration of . usual, was ready to do . leaded editorial declared : that it would: be a mis-: Everybody has a good time at the League pienics which have opened the season in Minnesota, ~Other states are planning to get together in the same way. Here is shown a part of the crowd at Clarkfield, Minn., May 7. Mr. Town- ley is speaking. More than 2,500 farmers and their wives attended this outing. Refreshment booths set up in the beautiful pasture were operated by the League women, and they tumed the receipts over to the Red Gross. = " Patriotic Day, the Dis- patch was helping its - 1 main supporters, the de- 2 - partment stores, ‘to sub-- ~stitute’ business for pa-‘ -triotism, ; " This, however, does not 'bother the Dispatch or the Pioneer Press. These papers apparently have a double standard of patriotism, one for In the loyalty parade themselves, and a -dif- too. the Dlspatch and :