The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 2, 1918, Page 8

““miillions of credulous people. Bombard the Farmers With Hoaxes Newspapers Try the Most Fantastic Lies in a Vain Effort to Break the League—More of “Spies, Traitors and the Kept Press” O THE list of famous hoaxes that have victimized the public in the past and gone down in his- tory will have to be added hun- dreds that were sprung during the last four years to discredit the Nonpartisan league. A hoax is an “exciting fabrication,” d according to the" dictionary. Our grandfathers remember the “Cardiff man” of P. T. Barnum. Barnum had a huge figure carved out of stone and displayed it all over the world as a petrified man. Millions came to see and wonder. A tremendous controversy raged for years as to whether the exhibit was genuine or not. A Frenchman in the early days came to Amer- ica with a wooden man who sat at a table and played chess. He beat America’s best chess play- ers. The papers were full of it. Learned men wrote books about:this “thing of springs and cegs” which actually “thought like a man.” Finally Edgar Allen Poe exposed the hoax. The French- man kept a dwarf, an expert chess player, inside the wooden man, and he directed the mechanism. The Frenchman made untold wealth exhibiting his “mechanical chess player” before the game was exposed. The New York Sun in 1836 sprang the “moon hoax.” For months people all over the world be- lieved that Herschel, the famous astronomer, had erected a huge reflecting telescope at the Cape of Good Hope and discovered that the moon was in- habited. The minutest details of the life and habits of these “moonmen” were described. The world was thrilled. Scientific societies applauded the “discovery.” It was reprinted all over the world. The Sun sold millions of papers containing the original copyrighted article. The New York Herald finally exposed it. NO TALE TOO WILD FOR PAPERS At about this same time another hoax deceived It was the “balloon hoax,” also exposed by Edgar Allen Poe. The pa- pers published a sensational item about a Mr. Monck Mason having flown across the Atlantic in three days in a marvelous flying machine. It was an 80-day wonder before it became known as a hoax. Newspaper fakes have been many and varied. At one time the schools of New York were closed and the people kept indoors for a week on account of a sensational report about all the wild animals at the Central Park zoo having escaped. The newspaper details told of hundreds of corpses strewn about the streets, victims of the jungle beasts which were at large. It was a.hodx. The hoaxes that have been invented about the Nonpartisan league would fill a volume, " Eér weeks and even months the general public- pag dctually believed the most absurd stories about’ the:League and those connected with it, and persons connected with the League often meet people who"-believe weird yarns about the organization spiung. and : exploded two or three years ago. "The Leader. got. . - a letter the other day from a man.who wanted the details about “the free love doctrine taught by. the League.” He said he had heard .of it from a minister of the gospel in a distant state. NEVER TRY TO VERIFY SENSATIONAL REPORTS This hoax dates back almost three years. North Dakota’ papers published a story, when the League was first organized, stating that most of its of- ficers and leaders believed in free love. . The basis for it was that a League organizer had been seen reading an article about free love. By much re- peating and copying in newspapers the story finally became a flat statement that free love was part . of the program of the organized farmers. Very L) and others. .troversies in his day. The z|HIS installment of the articles about attempts to break up the League is a story of some of the famous hoakes sprung by the League opposition in its blind attempt to discredit. the organization. You perhaps have read of some of the famous historic' hoaxes, such 'as the “Cardiff man,” the balleon hoax Edgar Allen Poe used to make it a business to expose hoaxes, whi®h deceived millions of people and created great con- hoaxes sprung by League enemies are every. bit likely there are many people who still believe it, besides the “anxious inquirer” who wrote the Leader about it the other day. A few months ago the St. Paul Dispatch covered its front page with a story to the effect that Mrs. Townley, wife of the president of the League, had told a woman two years ago at Detroit, Minn., that she had deposited $60,000 at a Detroit bank—money that Mr. Townley had stolen from the farmers! It was said by the Dispatch that a deposition had been introduced in court to this effect. The name of the woman to whom Mrs. Townley was said to have told this story was given. Her address in the state of Maryland was given. It had all the earmarks of a genuine piece of news. The Asso- ciated Press sent this by wire to all the country. It was printed by thousands of papers. Other pa- pers copied verbatim the Dispatch story, which took up nearly a page. No deposition of this kind was ever introduced in court. No woman of the name given ever ex- isted—at least there was no such person at the | TAKING A CLUB TO IT | i il “/(‘t;}/‘h/ ! o i Wf‘% —Dr'awn expressly for the Leader b; J. M. Baer. One of the purposes of the hoaxes spread by the gang newspapers about the League was to keep people from thinking about how sensible the League program for public ownership is. By telling some tall lie, the editors would stir up mob violence and bar members of the League from holding meetings to explain their beliefs. The proclamation of President Wilson against mob law has ended this. Now the kept press must think of other slick devices. address given in'Maryland nor had any one at Detroit ever known such a person. It was just a hoax. So interested were the papers’in ‘letting this remarkable lie stand unquestioned that they - failed to find out from the banks at Detroit, Minn., whether Mr. or Mrs. Townley ever had any money on deposit there. The story, if true, could have been verified in an hour by the Associated Press, and the Dispatch lie nailed. Instead of that, the Associated Press sent the story as truth all over the nation. Finally, the editor of a_weekly paper at Detroit, who, by the way, was opposed to the League, took the trouble to call on all the Detroit banks and ask if Mr. or Mrs. Townley had ever had $60,000 on deposit theres, The reply from each bank was that, not only had they not had $60,000 on deposit, but they had never had a cent on de- posit.. So far as the Leader knows, no paper in America that published the original lie has yet retracted it, although several months have gone by in the meantime. One of the most remarkable hoaxes sprung by P as interesting as the old historic examples. these “exciting fabrications” since the Lea ago. Of course, only a few of them can. be explained here. The next in- stallment of these articles will give the story of “Rev.” Maxwell, the most . recent example of the methods used to break up the organized farmers. You will all want to hear about Ma Each article is complete in itself. If you-have not started to read the ‘series, begin with this chapter. PRI R e : enemies of the League originated in North Dakota, and while exploded there two years ago, last winter made its appearance in Minnesota, and even yet occasionally appears in print. This hoax was that the League is a “business partnership” under the law and that each member of the League is a “business partner” of each other member and of the officers of the League. Therefore, it was said that all debts contracted by officers of the League, on behalf of themselves or the League, were a debt against League members, and League members stood a chance of losing their farms! The fact that the League, as in the case of labor unions and political parties, is not incorporated, enabled those who framed the hoax to give a color of truth to the story. “If it is not incorporated, it must be a partnership,” they said, with show of profound reason. : The hoax was sprung during the. primary cam- paign in North Dakota in 1916. Suddenly all the papers fighting the farmers came out with big black® headlines and double-leaded editorials. “Farmers, resign from the League,” they said. “If you do not do so at once, creditors of the League and of the officers of the League will sweep down upon you and take your property to pay the debts.” Several papers gave what purported to be legal opinions on the subject. Universally, however, these opinions were unsigned and were merely said to have been written by “eminent lawyers” or “prominent attorneys.” R BUNK ABOUT THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS * This hoax was so preposterous that its attempted use by the opposition seemed unbelievable. The newspapers-.actually kept it up, day after day, call- ing on League members to resign to “save their farms.” The matter got %o serious that the Non- partisan Leader offered $1,000 in gold to any per- son or newspaper that would prove that the League was a “business partnership.” The Leader pub- lished written legal opinions by some 20 of the most prominent judges and lawyers of North Dakota, showing the utter ridiculousness of the charge. A . “legal partnership” can exist only when each per- son in the partnership specifically agrees in writ- ing to that effect, and it can exist only for business purposes. The League is not in business. It is a political organization, and anyway there has been no partnership agreement between members. This exposure killed the hoax in North Dakota, but it actually made its appearance in Minnesota last fall, and doubtless'it will be sprung again. Other hoaxes planned to delude the public have been the story that the League is allied with the I. W. W.—that “a card in the I. W. W. entitles a man to entrance to all League meetings.” This hoax is still taken so seriously in some localities: that a candidate for congress in the state of Wash- ington recently formally denounced the League in a public statement for permitting I. W. W. mem- bers to sit in its meetings! Readers of the Leader are familiar with the hoax about an alleged speech of Mr. Townley’s in ‘which he is said to have de- clared: “This is a rich man’s war.” This origi- nated through the fact that Mr. Townley early -in the war in' a speech said that the rich should be made to pay a fair share of the cost of the war, .in taxes on unused wealth and on excess war prof- its. Palgers fighting the League declared that this was’ “evxdence'.’ that Townley considered it a rich man’s war. Finally, by repeating, the story came to be that Mr. Townley had actually said it was ~ a rich man’s war! 2 One more example of the newspaper hoax will be given. This also is a St. Paul Dispatch hoax.’ A man named Teagarden in Montana sought the - League indorsement for United States senator. The League decided not to indorse any one for senator. Teagarden got angry and came out in a (Continued on page 14) There have been hundreds of ; gue was organized four years xwell’s exploit. It will appear next week.