The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 15, 1918, Page 4

R . “which is called the Nonpar- ‘‘and new hope. We have found _in it more perfect democracy. . operates in the: interests of P —— s —— him and indorsed for lieu- tenant governor this year Howard Wood, farmer and League member, who was speaker of the last North Dakota house. Wood beat Kraabel for lieutenant gov- ernor in the recent voting by over 16,000 votes. . Much the same condition existed in the railroad commission. The farm- ers two years ago elected Johnson and two others as railroad commissioners. He was one of the few who betrayed the League after he got into power and openly defied the men who placed him in office. The farmers resented fore, decided to eliminartem this keenly and in the recent primary retired John- son to private life, nominating in his stead Mil- hollan, a member of organized labor indorsed by organized labor for the position. Aandahl, elected railroad commissioner by the farmers two years ago, was returned by a big vote, and the third railroad commissionership went to Dupuis, for- merly a member of the North Dakota house, to which he was elected with the League indorsement. As for the balance of the League’s state ticket, it carried the primaries by overwhelming majori- ties. The League candidate for the supreme court also received an overwhelming majority over his only opponent, as did Macdonald, League candidate for state superintendent of schools. However, both Bronson, League candidate for the supreme court, and Macdonald, for superintendent of ‘schools, will have to face - tisan elections, and the pri- _and from one end of the state to the other. their same opponents again’ at the fall election as these offices are filled at nohpar- maries merely eliminate all but two of the candidates for each office. It was a clean sweep for the organized farmers from top to bottom of the ticket big fact, however, is that THE LEAGUE IS CON- TINUING IN POWER IN NORTH DAKOTA BY A MUCH BIGGER TOTAL VOTE AND MUCH LARGER MAJORITIES than it obtained in 1916, when it first won in North Dakota. A Triumph of Right and Democracy North Dakota, Staunch in Its Loyalty, Could Not Have Been True to American Traditions if It Had Voted Against the League . Mr. Gaston, the author of this article about the recent North Dakota campaign and pri- mary result, is editor of the Fargo Daily Courier-News. He was in the midst of the campaign, one of the most remarkable any state ever had. Mr. Gaston and the paper he edits played a prominent part in the events of which he writes. The Leader is fortunate in getting Mr. Gaston’s services to tell the farm- ers of America—the million readers of the Nonpartisan Leader—what happened in North Dakota, how it happened and why it happened. Here you will get a close-up view and a human interest story that no reader of this magazine should miss.—THE EDITOR. BY HERBERT E. GASTON STEN, brother farmers of the West; listen, producers of the nation; listen, friends of de- mocracy throughout the world! North Dakota brings you a message: “We are democracy throughout the world and we are in it to the last man. We are also standing by democracy at home. We are standing by it sixty thousand strong. A farm- ers’ organization has brought us rule in the interest of the people of our state. “We have tried it for two years and we have found it good. We are for it to the last man. “We are sending our boys to Europe to fight, we are do- ing our best.té support them - and to support our govern- ment, and while they are fight- ing we are alSo doing every- thing we can to protect their interests while they are gone, 44 / to preserve our American de- mocracy from assault, to make the conditions better for those at home and for the boys when they come back again from the war. A BIRTH OF NEW FREEDOM “Don’t be deceived, you farmers of other states. They are lying to you about this movement for fundamental de- mocracy and economic justice in the fight for 47, 14, n l‘zl!’ L« tisan league. They are telling you it is ‘pro-German.’ They are telling you it is ‘disloyal.’ They are telling you it is a failure when it gets into power. “But we have tried it and we know these stories are lies. We have found it good. We have found in it new freedom We have found in it the means ° by which the real producers. can create a government which the people. “We are sticking. We are <, standing by the ship of democracy. Our message to you is not to be discouraged, but to stay with the fight. We are going to conquer the enemies of democracy at home just as they will be con- quered in Europe.” This is from North Dakota—North Dakota, the state which had the lowest per capita cost in the draft of any state in the Union—North ‘Dakota, the state which has oversubscribed its quota on every issue of the Liberty bonds, the Red Cross and every other patriotic fund—North Dakota, which was first to go over the top in the last Lib- erty loan drive. North Dakota, where a farmers’ legislature, called together in special session by a farmer gov- ernor, elected on the indorsement of the Nonpar- tisan league, passed a law protecting the property of soldiers from seizure for debt during the war; the state whose council of defense, appointed by this same governor and consisting of Nonpartisan league farmers, has enforced that law by com- pelling two bankers who had turned soldiers’ wives out of doors for debt to make restitution. Here’s the last rose of summer, left blooming alone. -In Minnesota and North Dakota, the flower of Big Biz has been clipped by the farmers’ keen cutting shears. The hopes of Big Biz grow faint in all the other states in which the National Nonpartisan league is organ- ized. Now the only hope of the anti-farmer gang is to:prevent the mes- : - sage of League organization spreading: afar, PAGE FOUR: - : North Dakota, where this same farmers’ legis- lature provided loans to drouth-stricken farmers so that they might increase their crops in this year of war need, and whose administration put that law into effect, increasing the crop by many thousands of acres in spite of the bitterest op- position by bankers and money lenders and the newspaper organs of the selfish interests. North Dakota, where the farmers’ council of de- fense has thrown open to cultivation land held by speculators and has put nearly 100,000 acres of such land into crop by the use of extraordinary war powers given to it by this same farmers’ legislature. FIRM IN THE FAITH OF.' DEMOCRACY What do they think about these things in North Dakota? : 5 Have you been reading your daily newspapers lately? Maybe they told you that- Steen, the old- gang candidate, the candidate of the Minneapolis .Chamber of Commerce and all the rest of the gl / plunderbund, was “in the lead” for governor of North Dakota in the primary elec- tion held Wednesday, June 26. . Maybe they told you that the “pro-Germans” were vot- ing for Frazier and the farm- ers’ ticket. We -know newspapers that did those very things. But listen to the truth: The final count, the official count, of thé election returns has not been made while this 'is being written, but an un- official | compilation with 300 voting precincts in the state missing, shows that Lynn J. Frazier, the farmers’ candi- date for governor of North Dakota, the present farmer governor of North Dakota, has the Minneapolis Chamber - of Commerce candidate, has 36,- 000 votes. Frazier will prob- _ably have 60,000 votes on the final count and his opponent less than 40,000. g Two years ago, when Frazier League, he had a majority of 4,090. This year he has a majority of approximately 20,000. T The League has been “going- have been-telling you! They are the same ligrs who told you that North Dakota was “pro-German.” - 2 REACHING THE NATIONAL CAPITAL If ‘there is another state in @.,W;,; that is working 'as hard at its as North Dakota, we have yet to hearit, ’» v ; of 'the Nonpartisan league. North Daketa is proud of her TR The — 51,000 votes and his opponent, was first nominated by the - back” in North Dakota, they the Union "a§ patriotic and. patriotism-and talking as little - A North Dakota is ‘the ‘mother -