The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 17, 1918, Page 15

Shouldér to Shoulder in Montana in Spite of All the Persecution Frenzied Opposition of the Copper Huns Has United the Farmers and Put Them on the Road to Trriumph in the Fall Election—The Deeds of the Gang —Townley Picnics Soon LT ARNTIL Vast herds of beef cattle, which were once the ch_ief product of the Montana plain's, are giving way to farm and dairy stock. D now the farmers of Montana are feeling the mailed fist of the Copper Huns. Laboring men in the cities long have endured the oppression of the monop- olistic kaisers, but the pressure on the agricultural population was so indirect most farmers N . . were unconscious it existed. When the Nonpartisan league entered Montana, the exploiters fell into fear and trembling. A unit- ed producers’ vote was a menace to the easy money crowd. The campaign is on in full swing with the membership 100 per cent efficient. The common " people stand as a unit in the strongest Nonpartisamr organization in the Union. All other farmers’ asso- ciations have linked themselves up, and labor, too, is four-square for victory. All over Montana farmers will hold their precinct caucuses June 20. Here delegates will be chosen to select Nonpartisan candidates. All but three state officers hold over this year, the railroad com- missioner, judge of the supreme court and state auditor. The League will put its men in these positions, and will have candidates for all legisla- tive seats, and for 26 senatorial places. Ten or 12 women will sit in the next legislature. It is planned to name a woman to run in each large city. Mon- tana is a state in which equal suffrage prevails, and if women can vote, they can hold office. BOUGHT AND 2 . PAID FOR 7 What has caused this whirlwind of enthusiasm? ,'Miinly the persecution of League workers. by the :~Shadow ‘Huns of monopoly. “Amalgamated Copper - owns every official in Montana down:to dog catcher, with the shining exceptions of Jack Hall, railroad.. commissioner, and Attorney General S. C. Ford. And with the machinery. of justice thus clogged, a campaign of persecution has been pushed against the League:: The farmers have felt the injustice keenly, but- will- not retaliate until election time. No.doubt some of the men in the mobs are honest, : but they are mistaken, deluded by tools of the big ~ interests. Take the case of the band of marauders known as the Musselshell Hundred. With great show of force this armed gang mobbed two League organizers, W. H. Brownell and Ben H.. Brinton. They were threatened and ordered out of the coun- ty and warned not to do any more work there. Thomas_ W. Bradley of Billings has received warning to stop his legal and loyal task of organ- izing. At Columbus he was gone after with shot- guns. The mob was all about him when the sheriff came to his rescue. Sincere men, ‘forgetting that President Wilson has said that he who goes in such a mob is not fit to live in-a democracy, have been duped and directed by a few conspirators in the pay of ’Amalgamated Copper. Since the newspapers are controlled by the same interests, the people have had only one side, and that side is not the truth. THE KIDNAPPING OF McGLYNN . The most shameless incident of this kind is the case of Organizer J. A. McGlynn. While in Miles City in April to speak before an andience of union men and farmers, he was kidnapped by a gang of men who consider themselves leading citizens, was taken to the chamber of commerce, and then was deported on the first train. Attorney General Ford, an official so merally right that he is lonesome, ordered the prosecution of the gangsters, charging that “these men were setting a flagrant example of the very kaiserism against which the United States is warring today.” Of course, a servile justice secured the release of these kidnappers. Here is the story by the edi- tor of the Producers’ News of Plentywood: *“The people of Miles City, or the influertial ones, made this prosecution a joke. The state of Mon- tana was insulted by a picked mob there for that purpose. After the dismissal of the case, all Non-- partisan league organizers were immediately ar- rested on charges of®sedition, although they were there only’as witnesses for the state. “It is reported that the court was treated as a burlesque and that hoodlums dressed as Red Cross nurses sold tickets to the courtroom and on the - Montana Dates for the Townley and Frazier Picnics 1 7 I VHE farmers of Montana have already arranged for three mammoth picnics to, bring the workers of town - -f and country together. A. C. Townley, president of the League, and Lynn J. Frazier, Nonpartisan governor 1~ =% - of North Dakota, will speak. The first picnic and barbecue, at which at least 10,000 persons are expected, | will be at Spring' Hill, July 13. The second will be at Missoula; July 15. The other date is July 1 tickets were printed remarks calculated to ridicule the courts and constituted authorities of the state of Montana. “The United States goverment has special agents at work investigating the profane use of the uni- form of the Red Cross and other lawlessness by these notorious desperadoes, and when warrants are issued in the federal courts for the criminals, it will not be the source of so much merriment. They can’t insult the United States and the old flag and get away with it, even if they can ridicule and spit in the face of the state of Montana through control of the machinery of justice.” : WHAT THE FARMERS ARE THINKING After the farce, McGlynn himself was arrested on framed-up charges of sedition. : Another paper that gives the farmers’ side is the New Northwest of Missoula. It says: “God save America, the refuge of the oppressed, from the anarchy of the mob and the intolerance and anarchy of impudent plunderers and rapacious multi-millionaires. No man is great enough, no mob is wise enough, to wield a whip over his fellowmen.” The Montana Equity News of Great Falls also printed the facts. Despite the defeat of justice, Attorney Ford turned to the state council of defense with a clear ,warning. In a letter he called upon it to co-operate with him in securing to Nonpartisan league organizers and every one else, the right to - free speech. He charged that members of the coun- ty councils have been among those who have denied free speech. . Letters that pour in on the editor of the Leader " prove the truth of the statement of D. C. Dorman, Montana manager of the League 'with headquarters - at Great Falls, when he said that the newspapers of the state are discredited. The fighting spirit of these communications is invincible. Men who think straight like this are organizing a series of big picnics for Montana in July. The biggest of these is expected to be that in Gallatin county, near Spring Hill. A. E. Cramer of Bel- grade is secretary of the picnic committee. e ARG P O A GRS T R B S s SN N T G D 2 e i i | 4 1 7, at Billings. | ||