The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 19, 1918, Page 7

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T ed before the president of the United States issued his proclama- tion demanding the enforcement of law and order and the stopping of just such high-handed acts as the South Dakota farmers com- plain of. The proclamation of the president informed South Da- kota’s governor, defense council and similar officials through- out the nation, that this is America and not Russia under the czar, or Gprmany under the kaiser. They may not be brought to a realization of this fact by the president’s proclama- . tion alone, but with the proc= lamation reinforced by the de- ‘mands of the farmers of the state, WHO ARE ORGANIZED, we may expect to see some at- ~tention paid to the laws and constitution. The future historian will read the platform of the South Dakota League with ' interest. He will have to explain how it came that citizens were de- prived of their rights in the year 1918, after these things were by Magna Charta, e Bl ot y Magna Charta, the Bill o - CCUPATIONS. Rights, the Declaration of Inde- HorFE3SEHMAL_ o arions) pendence and the Constitution of the United States, the first of which documents was written in 1215 and the last in 1787. Read the farmers’ indictment of the government of South Dakota again, and consider that conditions in the year A. D. 1918 brought it forth! = WALL STREET BUYS ANOTHER PAPER HE New York Evening Post, one of the oldest papers in . America, has passed under the control of big business, marking the end of one of the few remaining independent newspapers. The Post was not even mildly radical, but it displayed a sort of high-brow progressiveness that contrasted favorably with the stupid conservatism of the New York Times and New York Sun. The Post was what might be called a silk-stocking re- former. What it will be under the new control remains to be seen. The announcement of the sale of the Post by Oswald Garrison Villard to Thomas W. Lamont is accompanied by the statement that it is to remain an “independent” organ, and the New York Times, in commenting on the transfer, professes to believe that no control will be exercised over the editors by the new owner. However, this view is probably a bit optimistic. Mr. Lamont, the purchaser, is a member of the banking firm of J. P. Morgan & Co. --He states that he has placed the control of the paper in the hands of an editorial board consisting of Theodore N. Vail, president of the American Telephone and Telegraph company, one of the big- gest trusts 'n the country ; Henry S. Pritchett, one of the adminis- trators of Millionaire Carnegie’s charities, and Ellery Sedgwick, editor of the Atlantic Monthly. s Of this editorial-board of three, Mr. Sedgwick is the only one above suspicion of being tied up with Wall street, and while he has displayed considerable liberalism along certain lines, he is in a minority on the board and may only have been appointed by Morgan’s partner as a sort of camouflage. It will be interesting at any rate to see what the Post becomes under the new deal. BANKERS REPRIMAND LEAGUE ENEMIES EWSPAPERS in and out of North Dakota, opposed to the farmers’ administration of that state, have stooped to the publication and circulation of the most vicious -stories imaginable concerning the acts of the farmers’ administration, especially the acts of the North Dakota Council of Defense, which also is in the hands of the farmers. That these stories have dam- aged the business of the state, hurt its credit and given it unfavor- . able advertising all over the country, was known to-the unscrupu- lous hired newspapers that gave them currency. They did not hesitate to injure North Dakota, its people and its business insti- tutions in order to strike at the farmers. 3 But these Hunnish methods of the hired newspapers that are fighting the League, in and out of North Dakota, have aroused the ire of the North Dakota Bank- ers’ association, which has adopted the following resolution: “WHEREAS, certain reports freely circulated in our state and in neighboring states by publica- tion in newspapers, news:items to the effect that the council of defense had taken over all grain ele- vators of the state and ordered a moratorium on - the foreclosure of chattel mortgages, and; _. “WHEREAS, the credit and good name of the state had been seriously injured by misapprehen- sion and misstatement of the facts in certain news- papers, more particularly those published outside the state, first, as to the taking over of the ele- vators, and second, as to the intent and purpose of issuing a moratorium on the foreclosure of chattel mortgages; - : < gt P “BE IT RESOLVED, that we, a special com- - - ‘mittee appointed by. the executive council of the North Dakota Bankers’ association to meet -with the executive commit- tee of the state council of defense for the purpose of inquiring into the giving of publicity to the facts in connection with harmful published statements, and for the further purpose of conferring with the state council of defense in their efforts to work out financial problems and policies made necessary by war conditions, do sincerely deprecate the hasty and ill-advised conclusions arrived at by representatives of cer- tain newspapers without their having made a necessary and proper in- vestigation which should be made in all cases. “The publication of rumors, garbled news items and wholly false statements has done very serious damage to the credit of our state;. reacts directly upon the work of the banks of the state and hampers their efforts in financing the farming and stock raising interests of the state, and; . “BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this committee pledges the loyalty of the banking and financial interests of the state in a continu- ance of their efforts to finance the farming, livestock and kindred inter- ests of the state and asks the co-operation of the public press in a more careful investigation of which without proper investigation may be harmful to the credit of and to the financial interests of the state. “W. C. McDOWELL, “F. W. CATHRO, “E. E. BATCHELLER, “W.C. MACFADDEN, “J. J. NIERLING, Secretary.” The false stories the bankers refer to in these resolutions have dealt mostly with the acts of the farmers’ administration in con- nection-with its “winning the war” program, protection of soldiers and encouragement of war crops. The farmers have been pictured as doing things that are driving business from the state, scaring capital away and making it impossible for legitimate business to be conducted. _These are damnable misrepresentations. falsehoods circulated for political purposes, but they are dangerous because they discredit the state and its people and actually injure business, as the bankers point out. The bankers are to be com- mended for coming out in this straightforward way and denounc- ing the hired political crooks guilty of this contemptible, Hunnish ruthlessness. ABOUT PETERED OUT HE game of baiting and hounding liberals and radicals, which began with the declaration of war, seems at last to be peter- ing out. The zest with which the hired press of the big interests pounced upon the alleg- ed issue of “loyalty” in the at- tempt to overwhelm and smother liberal leaders and progressive measures, gave the game away, and while the hue and cry was great for a time and many peo- ple were stampeded into the chase, there is evidence that the reaction has set in. Liberals” and radicals in America suffered during the first year of America’s participation in the war exactly what their brothers in England suffered during the first year of Great Britain’s participation. Today the British government realizes that the war can not be success- fully econducted without the sup- port of the radical elements, and Lloyd-George is frankly reaching out for aid from the labor leaders, Socialists and other radicals who were pronounced “pacifists” and “disloyalists” only a short time ago. In our own country, President Wilson from the start realized the necessity of encouraging rather than ignoring or persecuting the liberal and radical elements. The plutocratic interests and press got the start of the president, ’tis true, and for nearly a year it was deemed ‘“‘seditious’” to have any idea on political or economic questions which did not conform to the standard which the money power and reactionary vested interests set up as “patriotic.” But the president now' seems to have the situation well in hand. He has let it be known in more ways than one that he does not con- sider conformity to censervative ideas as the only test of patriotism, and with a friendly attitude prevailing toward liberalism at the national capital, the great army of progressives and radicals are coming into their own. L It seems now scarcely believable that only a few months ago persons who wished to prove the farmers or workers disloyal simply cited the fact that “they are organizing during war time.” If fall quoted the Nonpartisan Leader’s demand for more war taxes and fewer war bonds as evidence of this paper’s “pro-German’” proclivities. = One would do type, that the farmers’ conference last September in St. Paul was denounced as “anti-government” and ‘“against the war,” because it asked the regu- lation of the price of farm implements and other things the farmers have to buy! ; ~hysteria, and against the propaganda of big busi- They are seems hardly credible that eastern papers last’ doubt, were it not a fact proved in cold We have made some progress against war ness that is calculated to use the war as a means - of suppressing progressive men and measures.

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