The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 30, 1918, Page 7

on the basis adopted by the League is thoroughly un-American and aunpatriotic.” This gives his whole motive away. , .. In those words the colonel is not attacking the “leaders.” He - I8 attacking the right of farmers and city workers to organize: The “basis of organization adopted by the League,” referred to by the colonel, is this: -operation of farmetrs and city workers in poli- tics, to secure a square deal for the producing classes, which num- ber over two-thirds of the population. The producing classes have no right to get in politics as a body, says the colonel. Such a plan is “un-American and unpatriotic,” says the colonel. : The colonel would have the farmers and union labor let the good old plan of political organization stand. ‘Under that plan half the farmers and workers voted for one candidate : and half for another, with the result that the candidate elected did not owe his election to the ~ united farmer-labor support, and therefore felt - no obligation to carry out the measures demanded by the producers, constituting two-thirds of the people. Under the good old plan that the colonel - approves, half the farmers and city workers join= ed the Republitan party and half joined the Demo- cratic party and fought each other over unimpor- tant issues, thus keeping in power the seekers after special privilege, the monopolists, the big . interests, who knew no party but controlled all parties, and who laughed at the hilarious spectacle of farmers and workers fighting each other, in- stead of getting together and enforcing political "and economic measures of benefit to them. No matter whom the farmers chose as lead- ers, so long as they attempted to co-operate in - politics, the colonel would be against them, for he says that farm- ers have no right to organize politically as farmers. It is perfectly _all right for them to organize as Republicans and Democrats and fight each other, but to organize as farmers and co-operate—that’s “unpatriotic and un-American.” - The colonel is not after the “lead- ers” of the farmers’ movement. He is against the movement itself. Any leaders the 'farmgrs chose, so long as they could not be con- trolled by politicians like the colonel and by the big interests, the :-colonel would call them “I. W. W.s,” “Lenines” and “Trotzkys.” He proves this himself in the unguarded sentence quoted above, in - 'which he denies farmers and city workers the right to organize as ‘such on the political field. T . : A .insinuation in the big press that the president was weak- —ening in his opposition to universal military training in times of peace was true. ng reply was that the president stands today as he always has—against deciding this question until the results of the present war are known. He said the president’s position was that it' would be dlsgrediting our own war aims to decide the ques- tion before the war is over. We are fighting to down militarism for all time. to enforce f UP TO THE PEOPLE , : ‘ FEDERAL administration man close to President Wilson peace and a complete or partial disarmament of nations; universal military training will not be needed after the war in any _country. To decide now on a military policy for after the war will be to admit that we do not want to, or hope to, crush militarism in " announced war aims. But this administration man added—and this is the big point —that President Wilson consid- ers himself merely the instru- . ment and not the leader of de- mocracy. He conceives his func- tion to be the interpreting and carrying out of the public will, not the forming of public opin- ion. - The president believed the people to be against deciding the -after the war, and so he opposed - it being decided at this time. Ky o . tration man quoted above, the TR ~ooooo o+ president will withdraw his ob- ~ Jections to universal training if he finds the PEOPLE WILL NOT -~ This situation makes it imperative for aken -in the matter. The president will stand pat as long as the people _do not weaken, Already a powerful, well-financed propaganda is at ‘work to turn Americans from th - military establishments and universal tr ¥ or gervice in time .. of peace. Those who stand for démocracy must get busy if they n them. t want to be defeated and have sinister Roosey € ed upo Show the president that the'g:id.-“ aganda bt R Die interants 0 faver ooy your ideas. P = SHARPEN! - KNIFE EO FARMERS CA and affairs at Washington, D. C., was asked whether the If the war succeeds in bringing about a league of nations - his war, thus belying our own - g question until But, according to the adminis- the people not to weaken m their traditional objection to great “stror : 2 - 8ort to yellow paint or a8 call attention to and exaggerate the very few. instances. of réfus a) . to buy bonds by persons able to do so. The Minnesota Public Safety = commission’s announcement that “official inquiries” will be made _ into the property" ce of not b against this kind of militarism in times of peace as long as he knows the people are-backing him up. For the big interests and anti-democratic forces to spend money at this time to put over a military program to apply after the war is criminal. It is being done now by taking advantage of the patriotic fervor of ‘Americans to win the war, but it has no cbearing on the war. We are enforcing conscription to win the war, and it is not necessary to decide on future military policies until after the war is over, and the matter can be discussed in a calmer atmosphere. 2 has its betrayers, vilifiers and unscrupu- ) lous opponents, willing to lie and misrep- resent in the interests of enemies of the unions. The Leader last week recorded the action of the central labor body of Seattle, Wash., in demand- ing the removal of Assistant Attorney General Reames, who is assigned to the Pacific coast to help in the enforcement of the sedition laws. La- bor charged Reames with being perniciously ac- tive in working up sedition cases against progres- sive leaders, whose only crime was differing with certain vested interests on ecomonic questions growing out of the war, and against ignorant workmen who let their mouths slip and needed education rather than prosecution. : The result of this action by Seattle labor was a deluge of misrepresentation in the daily press of the Pacific coast. It was charged that “leaders” and “agitators” among the workmen were trying to “protect pro-Germans and se- ditionists” ; that the simple request for the removal of a tactless and inefficient prosecutor was “discrediting patriotic workmen,” etc., ete. To show how false these attacks on the Seattle workmen are, the Leader publishes below the full text of labor’s resolution concerning Reames. This was passed just after the prosecutor had brought his case against William Bouck, master of the Wash- ington state Grange, on account of a speech by Bouck advocating more taxes and: fewer bonds to finance the war: ' Whereas, this union stands squarely behind President Woodrow Wilson and our fellow Americans on the battlefields of France, and Whereas, we recognize that a united America is necessary for the waging of a successful war for democracy, and Whereas, nothing tends so strongly to discourage the patriotism - of the common people as the straining of the law in order to discredit and imprison progressives, unless it is the prosecution of ignorant and helpless workmen for foolish utterances, and : Whereas, during the incumbency of Assistant Attorney General Clarence L. Reames, he has devoted much the larger portion of his time to the prosecution of such cases as that against Hulet M. Wells, who opposed conscription before, and not after, the selective draft act be- e a law, and W. H. Kaufman, who. advocated the conscription of wealth and demanded that the war profiteers should bear the heavy ‘burden of the war, and cases against defenseless workmen for silly re- marks, which, however ignor- “ant of the high aims of the_ * ‘nation they may have been,- could never have been danger- ous, and Whereas, it is rumored and " commonly believed that there are large numbers of German . spies in this vicinity sorel needing the attention of the assistant attorney general’s of- fice, and yet receiving little or none; be it therefore Resolved, that this union call the attention 'of the presi- dent to-the official acts of the said Reames in the belief that when the conduct of the said Reames is known to the presi- dent, the said Reames will be : - removed, and be. replaced with an official more in line with the wise ‘policies of the president, more imbued ‘with real patriotism and less ' -desire to serve the predatory classes by the destruction of their &7 opponents. . : LABOR UNDERSTANDS IT ALSO ’ & Tt?g RGANIZED labor, like organized farmers, TN D\DATES. "HOW NOT TO SELL WAR BONDS - e ~§ VHE organization of voluntary “third-degree” committees, or - of official inquests to “judge” persons who do not subscribe : to the Liberty loans, is to be deplored. We have noted with satisfaction that several Liberty loan committees have issued state- ‘ments to allay public unrest over frequent newspaper t_hreat‘s that similar methods of intimidation to sell bonds can not aid the sale of the bonds in the long run. ' Such .methods. holdings and financial condition of person: pected” of bonds fo-the limit of th