The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 19, 1918, Page 6

. i % 'I;///,vm Tonpartidsn Tader Official Magazine of the National Nonpnrflsnn League—Every Week Entered as second-class matter September 8, 1915, at the postoffice at St. Paul, Minnesota, under the Act of March 3, 1879. OLIVER 8. MORRIS, Editor PAUL GREER, Associate Editor B. 0. FOSS, Art Editor 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 576, 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 1 advise us promptly should they have occasion to doubt or question the reliability of any firm which patronizes our advertising columns. e A MAN WITH A “PRICE” ANY times.during the strenuous four years since the Non- M partisan league organized, the enemies of the farmers have attempted to corrupt League employes, and in several in- ‘stances succeeded. Honest methods, such as argument of the League program, have failed to stop the growth of the organiza- tion, and the desperation of its enemies has caused them to resort to the vilest and most contemptible tricks in the futile attempt to stem the tide of farmer revolt against unbearable conditions. In the carrying out of these Hunnish conspiracies -to wreck the farmers’ movement for jus- tice and democracy, money has played a prominent part. The opponents of the League’s pro- gram are not embarrassed for lack of funds, and cold cash has been used freely to buy up League employes in several in- stances. The latest case of this kind is that of S. R, Maxwell, an ex-preacher, who worked for some time as a lecturer for the League. Maxwell, for a price said to be $10,000, has written a series of articles “exposing” the League. The articles have appeared in the Pioneer Press- Dispatch of St. Paul, one of the bitterest and most unscrupulous enemies of the farmers’ cause. It can not be supposed, of course, that the Press-Dispatch itself paid any such sum as $10,000 to Maxwell for his act of treason against the farmers’ organization. Newspapers do not pay that much for “news” features. The Press-Dispatch denies, however, that a fund was made up by some of the big outside enemies of the League to pay for this piece of dirty work. Maxwell was used by the enemies of the League exactly in the same way as others who were bought up by the opposition were used. He agreed to be “authority” for the same charges, distor- tions of truth and misrepresentations that from the start have been the stock-in-trade of the opposition. He failed to produce a sin- gle new charge against the League or its officers. The opposition ex- pected the Maxwell articles to be effective simply because he had been employed by the League for several months and ecould be “played up” as giving an “inside version” of League affairs. Max- well’s exploit failed to make any impression, however, because his motive was too apparent, because the word of any one who accepts money for dirty work can not be depended upon, and because his articles appeared in the meanest and most prejudiced newspapers that have been fighting the organized farmers. Maxwell centered his attack on Mr. Townley, president of the League. Maxwell secretly admires Mr. Townley, but h ira- is a tion is mixed with envy, resulting in an ineffective blind hatred for the League’s leader that colored all the articles he wrote. Maxwell- disclosed more about himself than he did about Townley. = - It was easy for this ex-preacher to be a Benedict Arnold. He possesses a small soul and mediocre ability, but a burning ambi- | tion. He joined the League in Colorado last year as an organizer and expected to be immediately recognized as a “big man” and to be given a position of responsibility. He was a fair platform talker, and, by the way, his chief stock-in-trade as a speaker was bitter denunciation of the anti-farmer papers, to whom he later sold out. He was promoted to lecturer, one of 30 or so in the League employ, - L C %"@ ret g T » ) Vi v 4 » @% but felt that his “ability” should have been recognized in a more substantial way. He conceived the idea that his failure to rise to a responsible position was.due to “fear” of his ability by officers of the League. He imagined he was being persecuted and kept down, and this was one of his motives for hating President Townley. While working for the League in Colorado, Maxwell attempted to undermine the Colorado manager and get his job. He had am- bitions to be Colorado manager and get the League indorsement for congress, despite the rule of the League that none of its em- ployes can be indorsed for any. office. Maxwell plotted to sepa- rate the Colorado League from the national League and at- tempted to line up Colorado League employes to further the plot. In this he miserably fail- ed. Seeing that he had made a fool of himself, Maxwell came to St. Paul and begged to remain with the organization, confess- ing his error in Colorado and professing his belief in the League program and organiza- tion. The League officers, be- lieving him honest in his admis- : sion of wrongdoing in Colorado, and in his promise to serve the organization instead of trying to use it for his own purposes, con- tinued him on the speakers’ staff. It seems, however, that Maxwell’s “reform” was a pretense, to give him more time to plan and execute a betrayal of the League to satisfy his resentment over the outcome of his Colorado foolish- ness, and his hate and envy of Mr. Townley. After several months ° work as speaker he was assigned to organizing, at a time when the League was holding no meetings and had no need for a large speak- ing staff. He refused to go back to organizing and quit in anger. 'Y, ////Illj POLLY WANTS A cRAcKER| A few days later the St. Paul anti-farmer press announced it would publish an “exposure” of the League by Maxwell. The articles have been published and are already forgotten. The same thing has been tried often before by League enemies, but the opposition never learns. The League is stronger for having gotten rid of a spy and traitor to the cause, and the public has been given new and conclu- sive evidence of the hatred and unscrupulous methods of the hired press. This is all that has been accomplished by the Maxwell ex-. ploit, and the result is good. SOUTH DAKOTA’S DECLARATION HE formal platform of the South Dakota farmers, drawn up _ for this year’s campaign by the Nonpartisan league conven- I tion at Mitchell, is a declaration of independence that will inspire every progressive of the state to action. Its indictment of the politicians in office, who have permitted scandalous and wide- spread infringement of the rights of citizens, is like the message our forefathers sent to King George in 1776. Consider the follow- ing, which is the platform’s indictment of Governor Norbeck and his henchmen, who have permitted a reign of terror: Citizens have been prevented the exercise of the right of free. as- semblage to discuss questions of public interest and political import. Citizens have been denied the exercise of the right of free speech. Citizens have been violently assaulted, stopped on the highways 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 lynehing if they returned. : ! ; Citizens have been forcibly and illegally denied the use of the pub- : - ~ lic highways to the place they desired to go. ; Citizens have been re-, strained ‘of their freedom, and without warrant, subpoe- - na, or other due process of law, subjected to arrest, to inquisition beéfore impromptu and illegal tribunals, and by order of said tribunals im- prisoned, held in durance by county officials who, intimi- dated by the arrogated au- _. thority of certain chairmen of councils or officers of guards, have held those victims of ‘mob rule in custody, without warrant or trial, in the coun- - ty jail. ' : The South Dakota League ANYHOW— WELL SINK 2 = . A‘platt"orm ‘was ‘written and adopt- . PAGE SIX - L ; : R R e o IR AR L R e NS A b