The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 22, 1918, Page 4

i l o b | S — ‘THE KEPT PRESS LISHED BY THE LEAGUE WHICH IN ANY WAY MADE REFERENCE TO THE WAR. There were two such pamph- lets, which up to that time INCLUDED EVERYTHING THE LEAGUE HAD SAID ABOUT THE WAR SINCE AMERICA’S ENTRY INTO IT. One of these pamphlets was published in the early summer of 1917 and contained a statement made by Congress- man Baer, following. his elec- tion with the indorsement of the League as congressman from North Dakota, and also contained a set of resolutions adopted. in April by several League farmers’ meetings in North Dakota. - The other pamphlet was is- sued by the League in Sep- tember, 1917, and contained merely a copy of the resolu- tions adopted by the now fa- mous Producers’ and Consum- ers’ conference, held at St. Paul last fall under the auspices of the Nonpartisan league. These resolutions, which appear in full elsewhere in this issue of the Leader, when Allen acted had en- joyed the freedom of the United States mails in one case for nearly a year and in the other case for seven or eight months, and their right to circulate had never been questioned by the postal authorities or the United States de- . partment of justice. GREAT NEWS FOR The resolutions, as the read- er can ascertain for himself by reading them in this issue, were an indictment of the war profiteers, contained sugges- tions for the financing of the war, declared against political and economic au- tocracy, APPROVED PRESIDENT WILSON'’S MESSAGE IN REPLY TO THE POPE’'S PEACE NOTE, declared against secret treaties between nations and contained many other suggestions for handling ECONOMIC QUESTIONS at home while the war for democracy was being conducted abroad. Prosecutor Allen, HAVING OBTAINED ABSO- LUTELY ALL OF THE LITERATURE BEAR- ING ON'THE WAR THAT THE LEAGUE HAD ISSUED, caused the arrest of A. C. Townley, president of the Nonpartisan league, and Joseph Gilbert, at that time organization manager of the League, on a charge of circulating matter in Mar- tin county, Minn,, calculated “to. discourage enlistments” and “hindering the prosecu- tion of the war.” The prose- cutor afterwards had no dif- ficulty in having the Martin county grand jury indict Messrs. Townley and Gilbert on two counts, one count based on the North Dakota farmers’ resolutions and the other based on the resolutions of the farm- er and labor union conference in St. Paul. The attorneys for the Non- partisan league entered a de- murrer to the indictments in Martin county, and argued the case before the district court there. The League’s at- ‘torneys argued that BY NO POSSIBLE STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION COULD RESOLUTIONS APPROVING THE PRESIDENT'S STATE- MENT OF WAR AIMS AND DENOUNCING WAR PROFI- TEERS HINDER ENLIST- MENTS; that, as a matter of fact, such declarations ought A. R. Allen of Fairmont, Minn.,, the {, ENCOURAGE ENLIST- erratic small-town prosecutor who brought the disloyalty charges against Mr. Townley and the League, which have just been thrown out by the supreme court. Allen last fall at the state bar meeting demanded the im- peachment of Governor Burnquist for failing to suppress disloyalty, but he stumped the state for the governmor during the primary campaign. After the supreme court threw out his case against the organized farmers, he stated in an interview in the news- papers that even if the supreme court could not find any disloyalty: in the League’s resolutions on the war, the people knew the resolutions were se- ditious and that they had utterly dis- credited the League. Read the reso- lutions in full in this issue, and also the supreme court’s Q. K. of them. MENTS, inasmuch as persons intending to enlist would rea- lize that, while they were fight- ing in Europe for democracy, THE FQLKS AT HOME WOULD BE KEEPING DE- MOCRACY ALIVE IN AMER- ICA. The Martin county dis- trict court, however, promptly overruled the demurrers, but consented to certify them to the supreme court, in order that the highest tribunal in the state could pass on the suf- ficiency of the indietments be- fore the trial of Mr. Townley and Mr. Gilbert was held. USED FOR POLITICAL CAPITAL The news of the indict- ments of the League’s heads was heralded broadcast throughout the United States, and became the stock “proof” everywhere that the League heads and the Nonpartisan league were disloyal. In states where the League is organizing, the fact that these indictments had been brought was used daily in the newspapers which are fighting the League. Every reference to the League in news or in editorial comment referred to the fact that the League was indicted for sedition. In Minnesota these indictments were used, as they were intended, as the chief political capital against the organized farmers and union labor. In many places in the staté of Minnesota, the enemies of the League were able to incite hoodlums and even some “leading citizens” against League members and League workers, on the ground that the indictments “proved conclusively” that the activities of the organ- ized farmers were seditious. Whenever a League meeting was violently and lawlessly suppressed by small-town authorities, when- ever League organizers were submitted to bru- talities and gross indignities by mobs, when- ever campaign banners were snatched from farmers’ automobiles and trampled in the dust, the excuse was that the League was under indictment and was disloyal. The governor of Minnesota and his public safety commission, the latter supposedly created to en- force law and order in Minnesota during the war, permitted this reign of terror to exist in many parts of Minnesota, and the supporters of the gov- ernor and members of his public safety commission excused and explained the matter by saying THAT IT WAS NATURAL FOR SOME PATRIOTIC PEOPLE TO BE EXERCISED OVER THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION UNDER INDICT- MENT WAS ATTEMPTING TO ELECT MEN TO OFFICE. THE TRICK OF SUPPRESSION The Martin county indictments against the League heads, for circulating pamphlets con- taining resolutions of the farmers, were also used to incite thoughtless or lawless people in other states into mob vioclence and suppression of peaceful and patriotic meetings of the farm- ers. Wherever a mob beat or tarred and feath- ered a League member, whether in the states of Washington, Montana, South Dakota or else- where, the newspapers would always answer complaints of failure to enforce law with a statement that it was natural for such things to happen in the case of an organization whose leaders were held under arrest for “stabbing the United States in the back,” while it was fighting for its life and the life of the civilized world in Europe. The supreme court heard arguments on the de- maurrers to the indictments just a few weeks before the Minnesota primaries. The newspapers, of course, covered their front pages with screaming headlines about it, and their articles set forth in full the arguments of Prosecutor Allen and: the . attorney general of the state, who came to Allen’s assistance in handling the case on appeal. The arguments of the attorneys for the Nonpartisan league were, of course, UTTERLY SUPPRESSED,* and for three weeks before the Minnesota pri- maries Messrs. Townley and Gilbert and the Non- partisan league WERE CONVICTED OF DIS- LOYALTY EVERY DAY IN NEWSPAPER HEADLINES AND EDITORIALS, although the ease had not been decided. The mere publishing of the resolutions, in full, on which the League was indicted, would have disabused the minds of the public abso- (Continued on page 13) This is a view of a section of the big St. Paul municipal auditorium dlmng the Producers’ and Consumers’ conference last September, held under auspices of the Nonpartisan league and-participated in by orgamzed labor. This is the meeting which unanimously adopted the set of resolutions used as the basis for the indxctment of President Townley of the Lreague in the case just quashed by the supreme court of Minnesota, which finds nothing dialoyal in the resolntmns " PAGE FOUR 2