The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 23, 1918, Page 6

Jlonpartidan Teader Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Week Entered -as second-class matter Septemher 8, 1915, at the postoffice at St. Paul, Minnesota, under the Act of March 8, 1879, OLIVER 8. MORRIS, Editor PAUL GREER, Associate Editor B. 0. FOSS, Art Editor Advertising rates on apphcatlon Subscription, one year, .in advance, $2.50; six months, $1.560. 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 675, 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 will advise us promptly should they have occasion to doubt or question the reliability of any firm which patronizes our advertising columns. EDITORIALS MAXWELL’S PAYMASTER HE article in this issue of the Leader, disclosing secret cor- respondence indicating the source of the money with which the renegade Maxwell was paid for his treason to the or- - ganized farmers, completes the discrediting of this traitor to the - farmers’ cause. Since the article was written, further proof of the identity of Maxwell’s paymasters was furnished by a St. Paul newspaper, which published a front-page item stating that Max- - well’s articles, in book form, have been published for circulation - among League enemies by the “On the Square” Publishing com- N, R pany, the company financed by big business, which. paid him his original -selling-out price, according to the secret letter published in this issue. Leader readers should read the Maxwell article on page 10 of this issue to learn just what big interests are back of “On the Square,” Maxwell’s alleged paymaster. 2 These disclosures of the persons and interests responsible for buying Maxwell to betray the League certainly reflect seriously on the honesty and integrity of the St. Paul Dispatch, Whlch originally L vpubhshed the Maxwell stuff and declared it to be an “original and exclusive” feature of that paper. The Dispatch was permitted to copyright the articles and syndicate them to several other big daily papers fighting the League to further conceal the real interests . who acted as paymaster of the renegade. -Co-Operative union, Kansas branch. ever, does not reflect the views of the Kansas members of the F. E. It appears from the evidence, however, that the Dispatch and other papers so foolish as to fall for the artlcles were merely tools of wealthy politicians and representatives of big business enter-- prises anxious to discredit the League and pay any price necessary to buy off a minor League employe for the purpose. These inter- ests bought Maxwell—the price is said to be $10,000—and the Dispatch and other anti-farmer organs obligingly acted as mediums to exploit the “purchase” before the public. Certainly this is some commentary on the big daily. press and its use by anti-farmer in- terests with axes to grind. MISREPRESENTING THE FARMERS HERE is pubhshed at Salina, Kan., a paper called “The Farm- ° _ers’ Union.” It is edited by M. McAuhfl’e and purports to be the official publication of the Farmers’ Educational and “The Farmers’ Union,” how- and C. U., judging from numerous letters from them we have ré- ceived, The fact that Editor McAuliffe takes particular delight in misrepresenting and lying about the farmers of North Dakota and ° the state administration and legislature they have elected there, is evidence that he does not represent or speak for any kind of --farmers, let alone members of the F. E. and C. U. "~ ¥ * or officers- Several correspondents call our attentlon to an article in” Mec- Auliffe’s paper for August 29, entitled, “The Nonpartisan Program as Outlined by Themselves.”” This article states that the Nonpar- ‘tisan league in North Dakota favors state ownership of farms, farm lands and personal property of farmers. It is alleged by McAuliffe -that the Nonpartisan league backed this proposition through action . of a North Dakota county Repubhcan central commlttee controlled s : by League members. . 5 ‘Farmers’ union. members in Kansas should call Mr McA,uhfi‘e s iattentxon to these facts: The article he printed is.a lie throughout. either the Nonpartisan league or any of its members, supporters eq%r 'supported or advanced such an absurd iti It was ne\rér' gveh dlscuSSed or conslder , directly or i “ ‘”’% //1/ /M’// é@% pro or con, by the League, or any of its members or officers or sup- 4 porters The story is a hoax pure and simple. The hoax originated his wise: Opponents of the League in Adams and Hettinger countxes, N. D., AS A SO-CALLED JOKE ON THE FARMERS, framed up and gave out to some country papers a resolution de- manding state ownership of land, declaring it was passed by the county Republican central commlttee on which League members predominated. A couple of country newspapers hostile to the or- ganized farmers published it as true, also as a joke. The minutes of the Republican committee in question show that no such reso- lution was adopted or even considered. It was nevertheless widely copied in the big-city corporation press opposed to the' League, from one of which papers McAuliffe copied it. In an editorial last week the Leader showed the origin of this story. Enemies of the organized farmers have long openly threat- ened that if the organized farmers continued to insist on state’ ownership of terminal marketing machinery, such as grain ele- vators, etc., the market monopolists would force state ownership of farm land to get even with the farmers. This, of course, is a bluff, but nevertheless the proposition for state ownership of farm land orlglnates with League opponents and not the League. 1t is not a part of the League program, never was and never will be; as McAuliffe well knows. Will he be honest enough to retract his lie? We will be pleased to have Kansas farmers mform us whether he is or not. TRICKING THE SOLDIER BOYS : NE of the most contemptible tricks that enemies of the Non- partisan league have worked has been the poisoning of. army and navy men as to, purposes of the farmers and their leaders, and then attempting o use the statements of some of these boys as propaganda against the League. This kind of dirty work reached a climax recently at Boise, Idaho, wheré prom- inent citizens taught a speech against Mr. Townley to an itinerant showman, who specialized in climbing the fronts of buildings and taking up collections afterwards from the curious crowds that gathered. They then got marine recrultmg officers to stage a're- cruiting stunt at one of this man’s exhibitions, in which he made a vile attack on the president of the League. Federal authorities are on the trail of the showman and he faces indictment, in spite of the fact that he made a full confession 1mpl1cat1ng some of the leading citizens of Bmse The most en-. couraging part of the whole incident, however, is the fact that the marine recruiting officers are the most indignant parties in the transaction since they discovered how they had ‘been used by scheming politicians. Idaho newspapers pubhshed a disgusting story of the show- man’s exhibition and speech against Mr. Townley, and, of course, made much of the fact that it was a marine recrultmg meeting. This story was copied by papers throughout the country. It was given prominent space in the Fargo Forum, among others, and the Forum has to date failed to publish the confession of the showman and make amends for circulating the ‘untrue and damagmg story. LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS NE of the few magazines in the United States contnbutmg O to calm thinking and mtelllgent criticism of world affairs during these strenuous thes is The Public of New York, - which -accurately describes itself as “a journal of democraey.” The Public is edited by a group of liberal thinkers, of whom George P. West is perhaps the best known. Louis F. Post, now assistant secretary of labor, one of America’s leading llberals, was editor of The Public for 15 years. He established a standard for the. maga- zine that has been sustained by his successors. The Public is one of the few magazines of general circulation that from:the start has understood the great farmers movement of the West, and it has been: a powerful influence in dissipating many of the false no-- " tions~about the Nonpartisan‘league in states where the only other mformatlon about it has been. spread by the pmson press A THE IDAHO PRIMARY RESULT o candidates of the Nonpartisan league in Idaho. ‘We have R EADERS of the Leader are familiar with the platform and- : devoted considerable space to the Idaho fight of the farmers - Gaowed b to wrest the state from the waterpower monopoly and the pohtlcal gang. . The first test of the strength of the orgamzed farmers. took place a few days ago. Elsewhere in this issue you will find the. report of the result—-a complete and smashl , : the League. ' S s i/ the state) appeared on | the Repubhcan and Defll C1 lots, mostly on the