The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 24, 1918, Page 7

J " for justifiable purposes, yet we do not believe the act will be a menace to freedom of thought and speech if enforced intelligently under the instructions of Attorney General Gregory, which he has sent to all federal attorneys in the country. Mr. Gregory’s handling of disloyalty and sedition since the start of the war has been wonderfully efficient. Also, his appeals to the people and instructions to federal law enforcers concerning mob violence have given him the confidence of thinking citizens. He has from. the start given the impression that honest persons have nothing to fear from him. His advocacy of the law, there- fore, bore weight with the Leader and we refrained from criticiz- ing something about which we had many misgivings. What misgivings we did have, how- ever, have been dissipated by Mr. Gregory’s recent instruc- tions to federal attorneys. Mr. Gregory declares that it is “quite as important” to protect loyal persons from un- *just suspicion- and prosecution as to prevent actual disloyalty. He declares the law must not be used for political purposes or to promote the interests of either side to a feud. His in- structions, if carried out, ought to make every citizen feel un- afraid of persecution of him- self, as well as safe from mach- inations of plotters against his letter to federal attorneys contained the country. The Gregory following instructions:. The prompt and aggressive enforcement of this act is of the highest importance in ‘suppressing disloyal utterances and prevent- ing breaches of peace. It is also of great importance that this statute be administered with discretion. X It should not be permitted to become the medium whereby efforts ~ are made to suppress honest, legitimate criticism of the adminis- tration or discussion of the government policies; nor should be per- mitted to become a medium for personal feuds or persecution. The wide scope of the act and powers con- ferred increase the importance of discretion in administering it. Protection of loyal persons from unjust sus- picion and prosecution is quite as important as the suppression of actual disloyalty. THE WALLA WALLA OUTRAGE HE events which happened at Walla Walla, Wash.,, in connection with the annual con- vention of the state Grange, told else- where in this issue of the Leader, ought to make honest citizens everywhere blush for shame. Five hundred farmer delegates to the Grange conven- . - tion were vilified, hounded, threatened with vio- lence, intimidated and finally driven from the - high school auditorium and from the city by news- papers, politicians and business men who serve the interests of the state which object to ‘the stand on political and economic questions taken by the Washington farmers. Nothing has happened in recent years in the state of Washington that has stirred the farmers so deeply. Nothing has shown the farmers so conclusively the prej- udice and ruthlessness of the interests that are opposing them and will continue to oppose them in any EFFECTIVE plans they have to better their own conditions: . The loyalty and patriotism of the farmers of Washington, par- ticularly the Grange farmers, and of their officers and leaders is absolutely above suspicion. Neither the Grange or any of its. of- ficers has said or done anything that can in the remotest way be distorted into evidence of lack of patriotism or loyalty to this country and this government in this crisis. On the contrary, the Grange and its officers have shown their loyalty in a positive, ag- gressive way by their response to the plea of the government for big crops, and for support for the Liberty bonds, Red Cross and .other necessary and worthy war activities. Any person, organi- zation or newspaper would be set down as insane if it dared to even question or hint at any disloyalty or lack- of patriotism on ‘the part of the Washington Grange or its officers. : Then why was the Grange reviled and insulted and its state .convention broken up and driven. from the city of Walla Walla under circumstances that are a disgrace:-to the whole state and particularly to the city of Walla Walla? - Simply this: The Grange dared to express, and dared to back up its state master in express- ing, the opinion of the farmers on economic and political questions,- and on the matter of organizing to obtain the political and eco- nomic reforms that farmers want. : The Nonpartisan league is organizing in the state of Wash- ington under direction of a committee of leading Washington farmers, on. invitation of the existing farmers’ organizations of. the state. Past Master C. B. Kegley of the Grange was one of the leaders in bringing the League to Washington, and the League’s work from the start has had the approval of the Grange and its s s ey e TR T PAGE SEVEN THE SOUL OF THE OLD GANG POLITICIAN MAGN| FIED 50,000,000 TIMEpD. Nonpartidsn Toader Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan Leagne—Every“ Week Entered as second-class matter September 8, 1915, at th toffi St. Paul, Minnesota, under the Act of March 3, 1879. ¥ ® g L i OLIVER S. MORRIS, EDITOR S SR T AR NS e daed o el i sl w ks Wiam Seeibaere LS I Advertising rates on application. Subscription, one year, in advance, $2.50; six months, $1.50. Please do not make checks, drafts nor money orders payable to indi- viduals. Address all letters and make all remittances to The Nonpartisan Leader, . Box 575, St. Paul, Minn. - MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS "THE S. C. BECKWITH SPECIAL AGENCY, Advertising Representatives; New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. Quack, fraudulent and irresponsible firms are not knowingly advertised, and we will take it as a favor if any readers will advise us promptly should they have occasion to doubt or question the reliability of any firm which patronizes our advertising columns. leaders and the vast majority of its members. At the recent Walla Walla convention the present master, Mr. Bouck, discussed the program of the League and its work in other states and urged farmers to stand together and organize to bring about the eco- nomic and political refoims they believe in. There was nothing in his speech, or in anything that he has said or done in the past, that even hints, directly or remotely, of any lack of patriotism. His speech was published in last week’s Nonpartisan Leader. Far from being tainted with any disloyalty, it rings with patriotism. Yet this speech and the re-election of Bouck as state master was the signal for letting loose the deluge of hate and prejudice against the Grange that precipitated the events at Walla Walla, which events have astonished the farmers and raised the ire of every decent, law-abiding citizen of Washington. ~ Are the farmers of Washington to be denied the right to as- semble and peacefully to discuss economic and political questions? Is the Walla Walla outrage going to be more than a.temporary and fleeting victory for the forces of Prussianism and oppression in - that state? No—a thousand times no! Such methods can not ” prevail against the sturdy farmers of the Ever- green state. A day of reckoning is coming, and such a day it will be! Those guilty of this out- rage and the servile newspapers which are try- ing to excuse, defend or “explain” it will be held accountable to the farmers of the state, and it will be a case of “strict accountability,” to use the words of President Wilson to Germany. The most disgraceful and humiliating part of the whole business—the part that makes men’s blood boil—is the fact that most of the big press of the state, like the Spokesman-Review of Spo- kane, has not protested against this outrage against the farmers, has not demanded justice and fair play for the Grange, but on the contrary, HAS DEFENDED AND EXCUSED THE GRANGE’S TRADUCERS. The Spokesman-Review, which waged a 10- . year war on C. B. Kegley before he died, in an editorial containing the usual lies and misrepresentations about the Nonpartisan league, points the finger of shame at the farmers of Washington for their “associations.” The Spokesman-Review reviling the farmers for their “associations”! But the most in- sulting part of this paper’s defense of the traducers of the Grange is its statement that “Walla: Walla knows and sympathizes with the farmers and the Grange.” Walla Walla has a strange way of showing its “understanding and sympathy,” to put it mildly. What shall be said of a paper that not only refuses to defend loyal and: patriotic citizens in their constitutional rights, not only refuses to protest against the grossest kind of oppression of the farmers, but actively DEFENDS THE 3 LAWLESS, HATE-FILLED ENEMIES OF THE FARMERS WHO ARE GUILTY OF WHAT HAPPENED AT WALLA WALLA? GERMAN PROPAGANDA : HE biography of Theodore Roosevelt by Max Kull- . nick, Prussian scholar, which is reviewed in this issue of the Leader, has every evi- dence of having been written as ?& part of Gftrman prolx))atg)'landa 1;1 merica. was probably writ- ten on order of the kaiser with WHICH Ap';'e' SFE‘E&Y&%Z‘S WPATE. the sole idea of having it trans- ! . lated into English, as has been : done by Frederick von Reithdorf, and circulated and read in Amer- ica to promote a friendliness for the kaiser and the German mili- tary system in America. Read the review of it on page 5. N WE MUST RN .WE FREEMEN, TO-MEET,AS OUR FATHERS DID, SOMEHOW, EWHERE, FOR CONSULTATION, THERE MUST BE DISCUSSION AND DEBATE, Iy