The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 10, 1918, Page 3

i 5 In_the interest of a square deal for the farmers T Nonpartisan Teade Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League VOL. 6, NO. 28 e e ——————— s g A S 3L N A magazine that dares to print the truth ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, JUNE 10, 1918 - North Dakota, Where the Farmers Rule First Nonpartisan Administration Has a Record of Pledges Kept and Benefits Conferred HERE is an election campaign going on in North’ Dakota this year, just -as in 'a number of | other states. But . the North Dakota campaign has sev- .eral interesting features that make it different from any of the rest. For instance, you might step into a.-group of farmers anywhere in the state and inquire who was running for.governor. You would probably get this answer: “Frazier, the farmers’ governor, is up for re-election.” Then you would ask who was running against him, and this is probably what you would hear: “Why, let’s see—the gang has some one.up. Seems to me I réad somewhere they had trotted out a candidate, but blamed if I remember his name. Say, Bill, who is opposing Frazier?” Bill scratches his head and the farmers ask each other who is opposing their man, but not one in the group can tell you. They are not interested in the opposition. They have had two years of a genuine farmers’ administration of state affairs by a farmer governor and a farmer set of state officials, and to them it is a matter of course to put that admin- istration back in office, where it will continue to, govern the people in the interests of the people and not in the interests of special privilege. Probably eight out of 10 of the farmers of North Dakota will not remember from day to day between now and the primaries the names of the men whom the political gang, turned out two years ago, have put up to oppose the present officeholders. Eighty per cent of the vote in North Dakota is a farmer vote pure and simple, and so you get some idea of the kind of a .campaign North Dakota is having ° this year. THE DIE HARDS STILL KICK But do not get the ides there is no opposition, for there is—bitter, unrelenting, qncompromising, never- To work a farm in North Dakota or-anywhere else, the farmer must combine the _strength and endurance of an unskilled Iaborer with the ingenuity and mechan- ‘ a machinist. - He must be a student of the science of agriculture, t be a business man competent to manage a large and complicated undertaking and to market his goods wisely, or much of his labor will be wasted. “ical ability of and he must WHOLE NUMBER 142 Who would want to leave a comfortable farm home such as this south of Ana- moose, N. D., for the city? The exodus from the country that troubles other states will not take place where the farmers are organized to get a square deal. The Nonpartisan league believes that farmers have a right to enjoy all that life .offers, without leaving the soil for the city. die opposition—from a little minority of political soreheads who make a tremendous noise that no ° one listens to. The big interests that fattened for years off North Dakota and which do not have-the slightest notion of being successful in dislodging the people’s administration, put in by the Nonparti- san league two years ago, have seen to it that their cause is kept alive. They bought one of the larger daily papers soon after the political cyclone of 1916 which swept the farmers into power. With that and another die-hard, anti-farmer daily, and with a dozen or so country weeklies, they keep up the fight. Their plan of campaign is to make all the noise possible, to attract attention to themselves and make it appear there is a contest. They know "it is hopeless, but they must keep up their organ- ization and morale, waiting for the day when the farmers will weaken and let them slip back into power. : From this little minority with its few and utterly discredited newspapers has come a most damnable propaganda—that is it would be damnable if more than a scattering few -jobless politicians in the state paid any attention to it. North Dakota is at peace, united and efficient in promoting war ac- tivities, despite this minority which seeks to make » discontent and trouble. The state administra- . tion with its efficient state council of defense has been promoting unity and effectiveness in war activities in the state and has shown an unquestionable and common-sense brand of patriotism and loyalty to the United States government in this war* that makes the cheap flag-waving' “patriot- eering” of the officials of many other states look silly and theat- PATRIOTISM WITH-. OUT CAMOUFLAGE = North Dakota with- out any fuss has dou- bled its Liberty loan quotas. - It stands at: -the top of the list of -~ PAGE ' THR states in its Red ICross The Opposition Is Richly Financed by the Corporations, but Is Without Hope of Victory quietly sown a record war crop. There is practically no disloyalty in the state —only one or two scattering arrests for pro-Germanism since the war started. There are no tar parties or wanton, lawless or violent suppression “of public meetings. . In the face of North Dakota’s un- assailable war record, for which the sturdy farmer administration and the farmers who put them in office are responsible, the little never-die minor- ity of soreheads has tried without suc- cess to raise a “loyalty” issue against Frazier and his administration. This was to be expected, of course. That is the stock in trade of politicians and newspapers in these days when they -wish to fight people’s candidates or measures. They have called Frazier the “Hun governor” in print. In order to make out that the farmers’ officials are disloyal, they have had to intimate that.the state and the members of the League, who constitute a majority of the voters, are disloyal. That is the damnable part of their activity. They have done this in most vindictive and bitter newspaper attacks, which few read and fewer yet pay any attention to. They have said things in print that would put them in jail in two jerks of a lamb’s tail, if it was not for the tolerance of the farmer law-enforcing officials —tolerance for political opponents who are in a hopeless minority and who are merely trying to make enough noise to attract attention. Some of these minority, dying, anti-farmer papers in North Dakota are actually trying to pro- voke the governor or attorney general to bring criminal libel proceedings against them. They want to be in the limelight and to pose as persons persecuted by political opponents. And because nobody pays any attention to them, they are very angry indeed. LET’S SEE— HIS NAME IS STEEN The North Dakota political gang, however, has a full ticket in the field for the June primaries. They formed at the start what they called the “Lincoln Republican league”—a misuse of the name of the Great Emancipator which got them in bad all over the state. Later they changed the name of the or- ganization to make. it general instead of a Repub- lican party proposition. This was done so that when they are defeated in the Republican pri- maries, where all the farmers’ candidates are run- ning for re-election, they can switch to the Demo- cratic candidate for the November election, thus keeping up their organization and fight, though they know it is useless. For governor the anti-farmer political gang has indorsed John Steen, an old-line politician, the only representative of the old North Dakota regime that the farmers did not turn out of office in 1916. Steen is state treasurer. He beat the farmers’ candidate for state treasurer by less than 200 votes two years ago, he being a Republican in a Repub- lican state and the farmers’ man a Democrat. So ' Steen, the only gangster left in office in North Dakota, is to oppose Frazier, the farmers’ governor, for the Republican nomination in. the state-wide __primaries in June. What are the reasons for the almost unanimous desire. of the people of: North Dakota to keep et g i