The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 19, 1918, Page 5

and their “personal - property “forcibly “and feloniously taken from them. - Citizens have been taken against their will and forcibly deported from the state and even from particular counties under threats of lynching if they returned. Citizens have been forcibly and lllegslly de- nied the use of the public highways to the place they desired to go. Citizens have been restrained of their free- dom, and without warrant, subpoena or other due process of law, subjected to arrest, to in- quisition before lmpromptu and fllegal tribu- nals, imprisoned, held in durance by county of- ficials who, intimidated by the arrogated au- thority of certain chairmen of councils or offi- cers of guards, have held those victims of mob rule in custody, without warrant or trial, in the county jail, Another result of such lawlessness and cowardice --on the part of sworn officers of the peace, and with the co-operation of certain servile newspapers, is that the unhappy and blameless victims of these mob outrages have suffered the opprobnum and humiliation of bemg publicly branded in the eyes of their fellow citizens as “dlsloyal ” “pro-German,” “enemies of their country,” “seditionists and traitors.” Those thus outraged are farmers and members -of the National Nonpartisan league, and all of them loyal citizens of our country and some of them fathers of sons enlisted in the military sérvice of our country. We denounce all such high-handed, Ku Klux ter- rorism and mob action as outrageously un-Ameri- can and deserving of the most drastic penalties by v law provided for such conduct. We assert that they, who inspired and participated in those out- rages, have forfeited all right to be regarded as good citizens. We brand them with our scorn, as faithless at once to the honorable traditions and . standards of our country and to the laws and insti- tutions of this free state and nation. Greater and deeper than the insult and wrong they inflicted upon their victims are the insults they have flung in the face of every loyal American and the wrong they have done to the falr fame of our country. . WHAT GOVERNOR NORBECK KNOWS The several violations of citizens’ rights having been brought to the official notice of the governor of this state, he took no effective steps, nor has he yet done anything effective, to stop such lawless- ness or to see that the law-breakers are brought to Jjustice or the victims of these mobs vindicated and their wrongs righted. He has done nothing but - make promises, none of which he has fulfilled. He onfessed his inability to stop such law- nd in justification of his inactivity and inability, 'has given currency to the slanders and libels by which those law-breakers attempted to justify their lawlessness. Hiding behind quibbles and subterfuge, he has manifested more the qual- ities of a weak and vacillating politician than those of a statesman and chief executive of a great state. We denounce Governor Norbeck for incompetency. We impeach him at the bar .of public opinion as an unfaithful public servant. His incompetency and unfaithfulness have compelled us to resort to the federal and state courts to secure justice and pro- " tection of the most fundamental rights of citizens, Reluctant as we have been to do this, the use of the power of civil officers for the prostitution of justice wto the ends of contemptible trickery has left us no other self-respecting course. We reaffirm, as by the signing of the program - and the payment of our fee as members of the Nonpartisan league of South Dakota we have al- ready affirmed, our desire and will that laws be enacted by the next state legislature to put into effect the following demands and objects of this organization of farmers: Exemption of farm improvements from taxa- tion. Rural credit banks operated at cost. State hail insurance. State inspection of dockage and grading of grain. State terminal elevators, warehouses, flour mills, stockyards, packing houses, creameries and cold storage plants, All of these were the original demands of our League. They are still our demands. Both the Republican and Democratic parties have recently adopted, almost in toto, the foregoing program. We congratulate them for being able, on the eve of a campalgn, to see in which direction the political wind is blowing. We raised that wind with our $16, and are glad to see the old cob-webbed political fences and platforms go whirling away before it. We recognize in the pending constitutional amendment to permit the state to develop the waterpowers and natural resources of the state and to establish terminal elevators and a packing (Continued on page 14) . Now Beg the Farmers for State Plants South Dakota Cities Realize That Public Ownership of Flour-Mills and Packing Houses Would Be a Great Asset JOUTH DAKOTA farmers are now amused spectators of the scramble of the rival cities of the state for the :state-owned packing plant and stockyards and flouring mill that every one now sees are coming. News- papers and commercial clubs that have fought a losing fig'ht against the Nonpartisan league are now vieing with each other, tossing bouquets to the farmers, and explaining why their particular city is the - best situated for the state-owned industrial plants. That a reaction has come as a result of the vitriolic campaign of abuse against the Nonparti- san league is becoming more and more apparent. This reaction is best evidenced by the scrap being waged by the commercial clubs. Every city of any size in the state is anxious to add to its industrial population. Business and professional men are puttmg aside their early prejudices and civic pride is working, . But first the wrongs against the League must be wiped out. Three suits for damages aggregating a quarter of a million dollars have been filed in federal court in Sioux Falls'against mob outlaws’ in the western part of South Dakota by organizers of the Nonpartisan league. These League members have been kidnaped, falsely imprison- 1 ed and robbed and beaten by mobs. Additional suits are in preparation and the total amount of damages ask- ed will be over a million. These damage suits, which are to be followed by criminal prosecutions, comprise part of the comeback of the League in South Dakota against its enemies, who have not hesitated to flaunt -American institutions and ° make the Constitution a scrap of paper. The rest of the comeback will be administered the gang politicians at the polls November 5. MADE THE OLD PARTIES WHIP UP The Republican and = Democratic politicians, by the way, are scared to : death. They were scared into advocatmg every measure in the Nonpartisan league program at their conventions ~in Sioux Falls last month, and as a ° result the platforms of both parties are “Leaguey” to the extreme. .. The gangsters that have heeded the', beck and’call of those higher up and committed the mob outrages in the western district are scared to death as 2 result of the damage suits filed. Governor Peter Norbeck has lost his goat and _ the Nonpartisan league has it. The recent decision of the Minnesota supreme court was the hardest blow to Governor Norbeck and his henchmen. The decision has removed loy- alty as an issue in the campaign. The recent proclamation of President Wilson also has:not tended to relieve the minds of the politi- cians, who have been wrapping the folds of Old Glory about them and chantmg, “The Nonpartisan league is disloyal.” - The Nonpartisan league-held its state conven- tion June 23 and 24 and put up a complete ticket. The Leaguers nominated a real man, M. P. Bates, for governor—a farmer who is without taint of politics or disloyalty. The dazed politicians received the announcement with ashen faces. Two days later the Republican machine held a secret meeting in Huron. The meeting was called to plan the campaign. Considerable planning was necessary. Next to.the Nonpartisan league, the sub- ject of campaign contributions was uppermost in the minds of the delegates. For decades, the Republi- can machine has counted on the slush fund of big Here is a field of spring. whelt on a Leaguer s farm in the Belle Fourche coun- try. Farmers want a Nonpartisan government so they can have a state mill to msure them a square deal when it comes to sellmg their product. PAGE FIVE business. This year, however, there were compli- cations. Big business is unalterably opposed to the Nonpartisan league program, whether advocated by farmers or Republican politicians. The agents of big business who attended the secret convention had to be assured that the Republicans were not serious in advocating the Nonpartisan Ileague’s economic program. That the assurance was given -and that.the assurance was satisfactory to big business is not doubted. Indeed, there were few farmers in South Dakota credulous enough to be- lieve that either the Republicans or the Democrats intended to enact the League measures into law. SECRET TREATIES TO GET €AMPAIGN FUNDS That the Republicans and Democrats were in- dulging in the war-time art of camouflage, by advocating League measures in order to get votes, is perfectly clear. The fact that the politicians had to adopt this camouflage to prop up their political fences is a fairly good indication of the way the political wind is blowing. The Leaguers of South Dakota take considerable satisfaction in the knowl- edge that they caused that wind with their $16. Meanwhile organization work goes on rapidly, despxte the efforts of the state council of defense and its auxiliaries, the county coun- cils of defense. \The members of the state council, all of them polit- ical henchmen of Governor Norbeck, promulgated a work or fight order directed at League organizers, which, if enforced, would cripple the organization work. Preparations have been made to fight this order on constitutional grounds, however, and the Davison county council of de- fense — the first body to attempt to impress League workers ' into involuntary servitude — dropped the case like a hot potato, its chairman declaring that the council had no de- sire to test the constitutionality of the order. In justice to the Davison coun- ty council of defense, however, its members have shown a laudable spirit of fairness in their attitude toward the League. coiinty councils of defense throughout the state is not doubted at state head- quarters in Mitchell. The League is | prepared for. a battle, however, and | there is little question of the final out- k! come. 5 g s That arrests will be made by servile |