The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 8, 1918, Page 13

- jor i L S o 1 . - { " the United States army ~ and navy. It quotes'the - sheriff as saying: U N DREDS S oi 2 rium. It did so in/the i- of thou. Farmer Baiting by the Reactionary Interests of 5um & did so inthe corri sands of s . . > sent $115.25 to the National tamers m VWV ashington State Creates Internal Dissension & .15 PR 3 the state e e : “The Walla Walla element of Wash- S “/ hat F air EdltOl‘S Say which wreaked its vengégnce ington still on the Grange was headed by are un- J. G. Kelly, publisher of the aware that Walla Walla Bulletin and in- 500 of their brother tillers cidentally chairman of the pub- of the sail were driven "’ out of Walla Walla a month ago. Such is the treachery of papers that suppress all news conflicting with the interests ‘of their masters. Rasher edi- tors - have excused and even praised the mob violence that broke up the annual meeting of the Washington state Grange. The editor of the Walla Walla Bulletin boasts that he was responsible. The editor of the Spokane Spokes- man-Review excuses the mob “and even verges on praise. But there are yet some honest- papers. Through all the days of farmer baiting at Walla Walla, the Bellingham Journal continued to print the truth and stand for the right. In one editorial it demolished the pretences of the political disloyalists of Walla Walla and stated the case for the farmers. said: PATRIOTEERING AND 2 PROFITEERING “Since it is probable a federal investigation will be made of the affair of the state Grange at Walla Walla, wherein representatives of the farming communities of the state were insulted and threat- ened with being mobbed and their wives locked out of the churches, it is to be hoped that the facts will receive wide publicity and those responsible for the disgraceful episode, carefully planned and organ- ized, will receive their just rewards. “Readers of the Journal, the only daily news- paper in the state which so far has published the story in any detail—most of them have deliberately suppressed - it—have expressed the utmost aston- ishment at the affair & and have even been in- clined to consider it in- credible. . The facts, however, are exactly as . the Journal has pub- . lished them. “The explanation of* the seemingly incredi- ble affair is politics. Back of the politics are the profiteers. The lat- ter are alarmed, na- tionally, over the growth of the farmers’ power in politics. They can not handle the farmers’ organizations as in the past they have handled the Republican and Democratic organi- zations. And the break- ing away of the farmer vote from the old-line parties, in combination with the growing labor vote, threatens the con- trol or partial control of national politics by the special interests.” THE BRAVE STAY- AT-HOME GUARD One of the best ac- counts of Walla Walla’s inhospitality to the " farmers was printed in the Blaine Journal. It states that the Granger * delegates’_branded as disloyal by the gang- sters had -mnearly 200 -of Washington. sons in the service of : . » 3 > 'm; o This is what it William Bouck of Sedro Woolley, re- elected master of the Washington Grange after he had indorsed the Nonpartisan league and aroused the angry fear of the political grafters - With the executive committee of the state Grange, he has appealed to President. Wilson for an . - investigation of what is back of - - .mob rule in Walla Walla. The high school from whiéh the meeting of the Washington Grange was driven by the farmer haters. of Walla Walla. “I sympathize with the Grange but I can not promise you protection. : “The home guard is armed, has plenty of ammu- nition and is aching to use it. The home guard numbers more men than I can gather for your defense.” This Whatcom county paper then says: “And what was the excuse given for this antag- onism to the Grange? It was because the Grange refused, at the demand of the Walla Walla Bul- letin, which organized the whole mobbist scheme, to pass a resolution condemning the Nonpartisan league! And the Grange is not allowed, by its rules, either to indorse or condemn any political organization. Some of the Grangers are members of the League and others are not. There is no con- nection between the two. organizations. “A great- effort is being made by the standpat 5 element in politics, the special inter- ests and all who favor privilege, to stamp the Nonpartisan league as disloyal. Abso- lutely nothing. of the sort ever has ~been proved against the League, whose platform has to do entirely with co-operative schemes to eliminate the middle- man and the profiteer from exploiting the farm- er, and whether the plat- form is practicable or de- - sirable is a matter of opinion. It has nothing to do with the war or with any question of loyalty one way or another, so far as can be learned. “The Journal is inform- ed that a newspaper man, formerly secretary of the Employers’ . union ‘of Se- attle, was engaged “two months ago to edit the Walla Walla Bulletin and to organize the opposition . to the Grange and foster a mob spirit in the town.” LIKE AUTOCRACY OF EUROPE The ‘Washington Stand- ard of Olympia, in a very complete story, calls at- tention to the lack of pa- triotism ~ of the leading” hoodlums of Walla Walla thus: : “At a public reception the Grange proposed to take up a collection for the Red-Cross but was: _prevented from doing so in’ “ the high school audito-: e PAGE’ THIRTEEN ~ K.. Falkenburg, president of the Walla Walla Commercial club. It was “to him that the Grangers had to ap- peal for law and order. H. F. Samuels, a prominent Idaho farmer, and E. E. - Faville, editor of the Western Farmer, urged him to call off the attacks of Editor Kelly. vain. and the plot against the farm- ‘ers’ continued with renewed violence. licity committee of the state council of defense. He lined up the Commercial club and business interests of the city.” This Olympia editor makes the following cutting comment, calling attention to the fact that a federal investigation of the outrage is probable: “Rightly has the executive committee of the organization appealed directly to President Wilson for investigation and action,in the case. It certainly should be had. If local, county or state authorities will not grant protection and prevent perpetration of such acts—and it was not forthcoming in this instance—the only hope for maintenance of democracy rests with the federal author- ities. Such acts as these can not be countenanted in a re- public. They savor too much of the autocracy we seek to down in Europe for us to permit them here.” ; The distortion of the news by the Spokesman- Review never was better indicated than in its handling of the aftermath, the demand for an.in- vestigation of the mistreatment of the farmers. Cunningly, and through a dispatch written to order by his correspondent in the national capital, the editor strove to make it appear that the govern- ment inquiry was to be directed toward the ques- tion of the loyalty of the farmers. THE LOYALTY OF THE FARMERS This subterfuge was exposed by W. W. Deal, chaplain of the national Grange and master of the Idaho Grange. It was while the chaplain was speaking that the order came for the Grangers to get out of the Walla Walla high school. He wrote: “If anybody could be 100 per cent plus in their loyalty it is certainly these hard-working till- ers of the soil, who are not only saving, as are the people of the cities, to win the war, but they save and then they work “to grow more wheat and more pork that our allies and our -boys may be fed. * * * ‘More than a million loyal .and’ true Amer- ican citizens who are members of the Grange in the various states of this nation have been bowed with shame by the acts of a few citi- zens of Walla. Walla, and that without a cause.” Another progressive, William Mathews, wrote the following to the Spokane editor: “While looking for the town of Walla Walla in ejecting the shocked to find your Sunday editorial in which you actually de- fend this disgraceful, The attempt’ was in’ § those overzealous, aqlt_’»_ some expression con- - demning the action of state Grange conven- tion, I was still further undemocratic and even - criminal act. 2 “Walla: Walla must: 3 be ~well blessed ' with ' righteous, patri_oti ti-! T