The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 3, 1918, Page 7

yield to the senator from Missouri? MR. SHERMAN—Yes, sir. : : MR. REED—My attention has been diverted from the remarks of the senator, so that I am not sure that I followed all-he was saying; but I understood him to read a statément purporting to set forth the language of Mr. Townley, uttered at some meeting in one of the Dakotas. ; A MR. SHERMAN—In North Dakota. - ; MR. REED—Mr. Townley appeared before the military affairs. committee on, I think, the day before yesterday, and under oath denied the truth of a number of newspaper statements which were read to him, and I think that among those statements was the one the senator read, or one very similar to it in terms. Mr. Townley claimed that: the press had deliberately misrepresented him. I hold no brief for Mr. Townley; but I know that the senator from Illinois, if he had been advised of the fact that I have just stated, would have stated that fact in connection with what - he has said. MR. SHERMAN-—Yes, sir. He is entitled to the benefit of the denial, and to - be heard at proper times and places.. I assume that the military affairs committee in due time will report the evi- dence taken in its hearings, so that it may be accessible to the general public. MR. KING—Mr. Presi- dent, will the senator permit- me to interrupt him? THE PRESIDING OF- FICER—Does . the senator from Illinois yield to the senator from Utah? ' MR. SHERMAN-—Yes, MR. KING — Notwith- standing he may have ‘so appeared before the committee and have so * testified, if he was with Frank Little in Butte and appeared upon the public stands with him and supported the activities of the I. W. W. in Butte or elsewhere, then he deserves all of the condemnation, and more, that was bestowed upon him by the senator from Illinois. MR. SHERMAN—Yes, sir; I agree with the senator. : - The Mr. Little referred to by the senators in this debate, and with whom President Townley of the Nonpartisan league is accused of stumping Montana against the war, was hanged by a mob last year at Butte. The facts of the matter are, of course, that Mr. Townley. never knew Little, never was in Butte with him, never spoke in Montana with him and has never had the slightest connec- tion with Little or the I. W. W. troubles in Montana. The only speech that Mr. Townley ever made in Montana was at Great Falls at a convention of farmers’ organizations, known as the Producers’ congress. That was last winter. : g R THE PRESIDING OFFICER—Does the semator from Illinois sir However, Senator Sherman parades these damnable false statements about the League president before the senate, and much indignation is expressed by ‘“‘the gentleman from Utah” and others. We know what Senator Sherman’s object is in making these false and malicious statements. However, it seems utterly preposterous that a United States senator can imagine that false statements-of this kind, so easily disproved, will hurt Mr. Townley . or the great farmers’ movement which he represents. : THE LESSONS OF ‘WAR class are the brave men of the army and navy. From the - tiresome round of the farm or the shop they have been plunged into foreign lands to live a life ‘of excitement and stress, with ever shifting scenes and ever deepening responsibilities. They: THE great war is educating America. At the head of the will come back with a larger knowledge of life and a wholesome’ hatred of militarism, together with a resolve to make their {)mme land as democratic as can e. : But the whole nation is in the classroom of war. There is . an imperious call for leaders that is not satisfied with the agitators who mistakenly arouse division instead of unanimity in the home front. Truly it is a college course in which will be developed efficiency and self- reliance and wideness of vision and courage and restless activ- ity that will produce wonderful changes in American life. * The disbanding of the armies after the Civil war was followed by a period of restlessness such as America never before had known. “War,” observed Emerson, “passes the power of all chem- ical solvents, breaking up the old adhesions and allowing the atoms ~of society to take a mew order.” If the war between the states set in motion mighty forces that did not stop when peace was de- _clared, how much more will this (be'ltru‘e of the world war? . sianism!” highly vocal hatred of volunteer There . - and strivings of the people that they will find their richest material. | is need of calm, organized effort to direct the wandering, un- settled high spirits which will follow the lifting of all the repres- _sions of conflict into democratic channels. That is why it behooves the. forces of progress to present a united front to mistaken advo- cates of the old order. That is why the farmers are organizing amil planning for a more scientific, rational, orderly civilization at home. : MINEOLA’S DEFENSE FRIEND in Texas has sent the Leader a copy of the Mineola A Monitor, published at the town where three League farmers and workers were seized by a lawless mob of “leading” citi- | zens recently and cruelly beaten. The Leader carried a report of | this outrage and among the delectable details was the account of how the Mineola heroes cut off the white hair and whiskers of an aged farmer and expressed them to Washington, D. C., as a final act of hilarity and toothless hate. The Mineola. Monitor enters a general denial to the Leader’s report but does not deny that several hundred brave men of Mineola heroically captured three defenseless men and, after lashing them into unconsciousness on their bare backs, danced a fiendish dance on their prostrate forms. The Monitor says there is not a word of truth in “the rag,” referring to the Leader. Our report of the matter was somewhat exhaustive. It in- -cluded the affidavits of the three men concerned and an impartial account of the incidents leading up to the outrage. But what ought to be sufficient answer to the Mineola Monitor is the fact that the Leader included in its report THE-FULL ACCOUNT OF THE " MATTER AS PRINTED IN THE LOCAL PAPERS. These papers are hostile to the League, but we gave their report in full, showing what the friends of the members of the mob considered to be the facts. How could the Leader have had a more impartial report? In order that there -can be no mistake'about the matter, we herewith quote in full the Monitor’s final shot, which is an ad- mission of the mob outrage and a threat that it will be repeated. The Monitor says: “Asg to the treatment accorded the three Nonpartisan organ- izers, no denial has been made of the same as far as we are able to learn. The community is strictly loyal and will not tolerate any- thing that will help to uphold Prussianism.” Don’t overlook that last thought. They are against “Prus- THE PEOPLE’S WILL HERE have always been two classes of people in this world —the pullbacks and the pushful. While the aims of for- ward-looking men have altered as the situation demanded, the designs of the reactionaries ever have been the same. That old Roman, Cato the Elder, had i it right when he said: ? = 3 Some have said that it was not the business of pri- vate men to meddle with gov- ernment—a bold and dis- honest saying fit to come from no mouth but that of a tyrant or slave. To say that private men have nothing to do with government is to say that private men have noth- ing to do with their own happiness. or misery; that people ought not to concérn themselves whether they be " naked or clothed, fed or . starved, deceived -or in- structed, protected or de- stroyed. s < Every farmer knows the class of men who desire election only that they may have power, not to serve the people, or to harken to their: desires, but to rule without guidance. ; Rome fell.. America will avoid the pitfall. o ! SHAKING HANDS ' i O MANY the most interesting part of the Leader is that ! filled with the letters of brother farmers from Maine to L~ California. Growers of wheat, growers of corn, truck gar- | deners, stock raisers, dairymen, sympathetic small town merchants, all have their say in the pages of this magazine. All have the same message—that they are standing shoulder to shoulder for progress and a higher civilization; that they will stick. “All have the same belief that, cut from business the profiteering, all the organs of reaction will wither and die. ' Never before has the rural population understood so clearly i that its interests are one. Even today there are sinister efforts of | false leaders who are striving to keep them apart, divided, that the _exploiters may conquer. The same scheme for many years kept the toilers of the farms and the toilers of the city at daggers’ points. It’s fine to shake hands with the farmers of America through these letters. In future years when historians are delving for the | well spring of the great surging forward of the forces of democ- i ' racy, it will be in these intimate, honest revelations of the difficulties &