The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 9, 1918, Page 12

Snakesin the Grass—The Pamphleteers |+ Nearly a Billion Booklets Issued Against the Nonpartisan League in F our <] Years—Done by *“‘Spies, Traitors and the Kept Press” ‘ " of dollars have been spent for pamphlets against . ization. “«farmer pamphlets, of which the Leader has 4]0 STORY of the methods of the opponents of the organized farmers would be complete without an account of the anti- League pamphleteers. These articles so far have described the spies that have been set to watch League officers and League headquarters, the hun- dreds of thousands of dollars spent to publish so- called “farmers’” magazines, the remarkable cam- paign of astonishing newspaper hoaxes, the sen- sational attempts to bribe League employes to “ex- pose the organization from the inside,” and other equally futile methods. But' the story of the pamphleteers still remains to be told. ; Two hundred years ago and down to 75 years ago, the pamphlet played the leading part in polit- ical campaigns. Many of the most illustrious names in literature are coupled with pamphlets, issued in this or that cause at'a time when news- papers and magazines did not exist to any extent. Voltaire, the great French historian, philosopher and poet, was a pamphleteer. So was Daniel Defoe of Robinson Crusoe fame. So was Dean Swift, the satirist. Nearly every- body remembers Thomas Paine, the Revolution- ary radical, whose pamphlets presenting the arguments of 'the American colonists fired the troops of George Washington and disconcerted George the Third. < But in those days pamphleteering was an honorable pursuit. Today the profession does not stand very high at best, and it has remained for enemies of the Nonpartisan league to completely discredit it, by lower- ing it to 2 mean and contemptible plane. The anti-League pam- phleteers are a crew of - anony- mous hirelings of politicians and big interests, ‘and their work, while in- teresting, has been crude and dirty. WHAT NOT EVEN THE KEPT PRESS WILL PRINT It can be conservatively said that millions the League, and their total circulation, at lowest estimates, has been nearly one billion in the brief four-year career. of this farmers’ organ- Almost without exception these anti- tabulated ' 550 varieties, are anonymous, and nearly 'always they deal with charges so low and base that even the anti-League newspapers refuse to publish the matter they contain. And there is the reason for the anti-League pamphlets. Bitter and prejudiced as they are, willing to publish the most absurd and ridiculous things about the League, the newspapers still are not vicious and unscrupulous enough for the League enemies. And so the anonymous pamphlet has been resorted to, and has been circulated to poison. the public with charges and false stories too rank for the newspapers to risk the libel laws. The very fact that only one in 20 of-these anti-League pamphlets is signed, proves that they emanate from sources ashamed of their own dia- bolical work. : ' The anti-League pamphleteers have been a boon to printers. In Minnesota alone during the recent primary election campaign, in a period of less than three months, no less than 21 anonymous pam- phlets, with an estimated circulation of 8,500,000, made. their appearance, There may have been other pamphlets issued in Minnesota in this period, “but the Leader secured, listed and indexed 21 dif- ferent :ones, all anonymous. So careful were the agencies issuing this matter to conceal their iden- tity that only one such agency was trailed down and - exposed. . This was the “Reliance Publicity © A handful of pam'phlbebs attacking th received your share? See the story on this page for a OW- the ‘League has boosted the game of printers by furnish- ing them, through enemies of the League, with millions’ of _dollars worth of work, is told in this article of the series about " methods of the League_ opposition.. - pamphleteers and laugh! This series of articles has -been ez, o . running under the general title, “Spies, Traitors and the Kept ‘Press,” and was planned after the latest exploit of the opposition of service” of St. Paul, which was the author of at least eight unsigned pamphlets dealing with con- temptible insinuations and misrepresentations re- garding the League. ‘ A BREAKDOWN OF JUSTICE Some of these pamphlets traced to the Reliance bureau were clearly in violation of the law. For instance, the Minnesota law requires matter issuéd against any candidate for office to be signed by the person or agency issuing it, and a statement as to whose interests it was issued in. This is a part of the coriupt practices act. The Reliance bureau issued at least one pamphlet against C. A. Lindbergh, labor-farmer candidate for the Republican nomination for governor, For this, Tom Parker Junkin, sometimes known as “Tom Barker Bunkum,” head of the bureau, was arrested. He appeared in a justice court, admitted the authorship, admitted it was against a candi- If You Are An-American -- Read BOLSHEVISM HERE AT HOME Non Partisan League Leaders Close Relations With 1. W. W. —— e ‘Mr. Frazier description of these works of the imagination. date for office, BUT DENIED IT WAS IN THE INTEREST OF GOVERNOR BURNQUIST, MR. LINDBERGH’S OPPONENT. The court found Mr. Junkin not guilty, on his plea that this-violation of the law had been in the interests of “loyalty and patriotism.” Junkin said Mr. Lindbergh was a “disloyal” candidate, and the anonymous pamphlet was intended to serve the cause of the United States in the war, not the cause of Burnquist, Lindbergh’s opponent! He was not even asked to explain how it came that Amer- ica’s cause in the war needed .the defense of anonymous pamphleteers, especially during a polit- ical- campaign, when the organized farmers and union labor were attempting to overthrow the Minnesota, political gang! s “I would have signed the pamphlet if I thought there would have been any question about it,” said It can well be imagined that Mr. Junkin had . League—the bu Read the story of ‘the a i Please Answer! ~ e League. Have you ying of Maxwell, a minor League employe, for a sum said | to be $10,000. We had previously announced -that this week’s issue would |~ contain” the interesting story of Maxwell himself, but that article has | = been reseryed, for the final chapter, and will end the series in the mext’ | issue.” The demand for issues of the Leader containing these articles has been very great. - Each article is complete in itself. Begin with this one -if you have not started the series. S A RELSRN difficulty in keeping his face straight during thig trial. The judge did not smile as Mr. Junkin was dismissed. The failure of this attempt to bring to justice alleged violators of the corrupt practices act whe write anonymous pamphlets against candidates for office in Minnesota, of course prevented any further prosecutions. It was “open season” for anonymous pamphlets against the League and its candidates, the corrupt practices law to the contrary notwith- standing. And it can well be imagined that the decision in the Junkin case did not serve -to em- barrass the pamphleteers, or cut down the revenue of the printers. > THE MYSTERY OF " JERRY BACON’S BACKERS One of the very few pamphleteers who has been willing to father his own work is Jerry Bacon of Grand Forks, newspaper publisher and hotel owner, whose many pamphlets against the League are well known. But because the source of Jerry's pamphlets ARE known, they have been ineffec- tive. The enemies of the League as well as the friends of the League know this, and hence the: effort to conceal the source of most of the anti- League literature. The Manufacturer, a’ big business magazine of Portland, Ore., is another anti-League pamphlet. agency which fathers its own work, but, as in the case of Jerry, the source o}tl‘ its pamphlets being known has discredited them. But while Jerry, the Manufacturer and a few other pamphleteers have admitted the authorship of their pamphlets, the factor of anonym- ity is not entirely eliminated, even in their cases. ' Their pamphlets have been purchased in wholesale lots by others with axes to grind and circulated at 'the expense of these others, who remain in the’ background, unidentified. = Thus we have a case of the author of the, pamphlet being known, but its circulator being anonymous. Chances are that if you have received one of Jerry’s pamphlets, the cost” of it and. the mailing charge has been paid by somebody besides Jerry. Recently it was discovered that Jerry was circulating .hun- dreds of thousands of his pamphlets through the Employers’ association of Montana, a big busi- - ness organization opposed to organized labor and organized farmers. Likewise, it was learned that wholesale lots of Jerry’s pamphlets and handbills were being circulated by the “Lincoln. club” of Minneapolis, of which F. H. Carpenter, " millionaire lumberman, was president. HOW THE €OUNTRY HAS’ BEEN FLOODED From time to time League publications have exposed many of these pamphlets, especially the anonymous ones. It was said at the beginning of this article that the Leader had secured and listed 550 varieties of these pamphlets, all anonymous. It may be interesting to give a table showing how these have been distributed by states. The figures include the entire four-year career of the League, and are as follows: U S . State . Pamphlets Estimated circulation North Dakota ...... eeden 13 40,000,000 Minnesota ... *92 *110,000,0! South Dakota 35 25,000,000 _Montana .... 28 23,000,000 Iowa ..eseveee 4] .- **55,000,000 Idaho ..ieeeee ceceee 30 3 30,000,000 All other states .... 251~ 592,000,000 Total civevvineaas sas - BBO 875,000,000 *Includes the 21 with a circulation of 8,500,000 issued-dur- ing three months of the recent Minnesota primary campaign. **Includes all pamphlets of Greater .Iowa association, some of which were not anonymous. Otherwise all the figures given for all states are for strictly anonymous pamphlets, . Hence Jerry Bacon’s are not included. ; From this you get some idea of this contempt/:ible