The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, October 28, 1918, Page 7

' not be through the - papers in St. Paul, only one published it. Of four papérs in Min- neapolis, only one published it. The same situation prevailed throughout the country. Newspapers whose columns are open to the news no matter who it hurts, and there are a few such, had to get special dispatches from St. Paul about it. The regular news “services refused to carry the dispatches. According to the records of the telegraphic offices in the Twin Cities over 60 daily papers throughout the country had to get the news in private dispatches from private correspondents, because of the failure of the regular leadlpg news services to carry it. Only Hearst’s International News Service carried the story to clients in the newspaper field. Yet the story was big, as every newspaper man must admit. It was big even aside from its revelations concerning Roosevelt’s Minneapolis speech. It revealed the fact that his famous Baltimore speech, ostensibly in favor of the fourth Liberty loan, was really -arranged and staged and paid for by Republican politicians. His Baltimore speech was heralded abroad over the country. Yet the press services refused to carry the St. Paul story which had a most important bearing on the Baltimore speech. i .. Concerning the Baltimore speech, Rahn, corporation agent, said: “The Baltimore gathering was under the auspices of the Lib- erty loan. At 3 p. m. the streets were lined with people and the park was jammed. The whole demonstration was engineered by" the Republicans of Baltimore. He has a great speech meeting the Nonpartisan league issue. Park (at Baltimore) where he spoke jammed with thousands.” : . This exposure was by the hired corporation agent who ar- ranged the Minneapolis speech. It showed the politics back of the Baltimore speech of the great Teddy, but it was not “news,” ac- cording to the two big news services serving American daily pa- pers. The exposure of Roosevelt’s dirty political deals, masked with patriotism, is unimportant so far as most of our daily press is concerned. But what if this had been a story reflecting on Presi- dent Wilson or the Nonpartisan league? Needless to ask. It would have been carried by all news services and would have occupied front page position in all the big dailies. 'THE REAL ENEMIES OF KAISERISM ™ OME time ago the Leader commented upon the fact that Theo- dore Roosevelt, together with prominent American financiers and leaders of reactionary opinion, sent formal congratula- tions, couched in nauseating terms, to Kaiser Wilhélm of Ger- many on the occasion of the anniversary of his reign, a few years ago.. We also republished the editorial, reeking with fulsome /flat- ad & N :gry of the kaiser, which appeared in the New York Times at the ime. : There is still other evidence that the big press and the reac- tionaries, who are now clamoring the loudest about “making the world safe for democracy,” a few years ago were glorifying German autocracy and militarism, while the liberal press was ¢ondemning it. - For instance, the following telegram was sent to the kaiser by a meeting of newspaper men at Boston at the time of the visit of Prince Henry of Prussia, brother of the kaiser, to the United States: To the German Emperor: The editors of the daily newspapers of the United States, 1,000 in number, at a banquet in honor of your illustrious brother, send you cordial greetings and all good wishes for a long and prosperous reign. We hail the presence of Prince Henry in this country as an omen of ever closer: ties of unity and heartily reciprocate all of the splendid and repeated overtures of friendship you have been graciously pleased to extend. IR \ ¢ " . MELVILLE E. STONE. X *Melville E. Stone is general manager of the Associated Press. At about the time 1,000 of the newspapers of the United States, most of them of course corporation-controlled, sent this message, - James Carey, representing union workers, was a member of the Massachusetts legislature. When a motion was offered in the legis- lature doing honor to Prince Henry of Prussia, Carey said: - ' % "It is an insult to the thousands who died to strike off the shackles of a monarchy for the house to stop its business to do him honor. . v We repeat, that most of the big press and all of the reac- ~ tionaries, who are now for “making the world safe for democracy,” ‘are recent converts to that doctrine. If the world is really to be -made safe for democracy, as we sincerely hope and believe, it will the liberal men and of the leadership of activities of these recent converts, but because the liberal press that were against militarism and autocracy BEFORE THE WAR and will be against them AFTER THE WAR, and have not simply adopted a - democratic slogan for the time being DURING THE WAR. A NEW REIGN OF TERROR E HAVE had much to say about the reign of terror that the Minnesota Public Safety commission permitted to ex- ist, and in some cases actually encouraged, in communi- ties of Minnesota where the Nonpartisan league is organized. It may be that some have doubted the facts in connection with the of- ficial, semi-official and unofficial persecution of League farmers dur- ing the early months of this year. But the skeptical, if there are any such, lately have had a demonstration of official anarchy and terrorism by the safety commission in a case entirely unrelated to the Nonpartisan league, and vouched for by others than the farm- ers and their publications. The story of Blooming Prairie, Minn., will go down in history ‘as a typical example of the danger, even in war times, of concen- trating autocratic authority in a body of a few men. The public safety commission ordered the saloons of Blooming Prairie closed and their stocks of liquor confiscated. The wisdom of this order is not under discussion. It was probably justified. The commission sent to Blooming Prairie a squad of “deputies” to enforce the order. These deputies Tor several days engaged in an orgy of Prussianism that scarcely has its equal even in these days of widespread sup- pression of civil liberty. In the first place, the deputies, including their commafider, ac- cording to the testimony, got drunk on the confiscated liquor. In AT BLOOMING PRAIRIE e the second place, during their stay at the town, they took upon themselves the interpretation and enforcement, not only of the state laws, but of the federal draft laws and the rules of the na- tional fuel administration. The facts of what they did seem almost impossible. In this town, where everybody knows everybody else and where the authorities know all the citizens, making it impos- sible for draft slackers to escape detection and punishment, the deputies threw boys and old men in jail, all well-known residents of the community, and not one of whom was within the draft ages of 18 to 45 years. Scores of school boys and elderly men, residents of. the community all their lives, were forced to prove their ages to satisfy the deputies. A boy of 17 was thrown in jail with a drunken man. A young woman, arrested with a supposed draft evader, was _held in jail. .Farmers in town on business had to send miles to get The word - witnesses to prove their ages before they were released. of school teachers was refused as evidence of the ages of lads of 16 and 17. ; In addition, the deputies took it upon themselves to enforce - the federal fuel administration request not to use gasoline on Sun- days. The fact that Blooming Prairie is outside the district in which this request applies, being west of the Mississippi river, made no difference to the insolent, drunken agents of the commission. Hundreds of inoffensive, law-abiding citizens were held up at the point of guns on the roads leading in and out of Blooming Prairie .and ordered home.. Explanations that the gasoline rule did not apply to that community, that they were on business, that they were giving Sunday airings to children, were without avail. * The deputies usurped. local police powegs. They tried to en- force traffic laws and made arrests for alleged violations. They ordered the people to be in bed by 9 o’clock. They offered confis- cated liquor to citizens. They seized private stocks of liquor and took liquor frem citizens who had come in possession of it legiti- - mately, all of Which was entirely aiside from their right to close the saloons and confiscate saloon liquor stocks. For several days tryside was in a gtate of terror. 'No citizen felt safe.. The marvel is that the people suffered in patience under conditions bound to: make every red-blooded American boil with wrath. The reaction : - will be far-reaching. Town people have learned first hand what the farmers in rural communities have suffered. It has probably - cost Burnquist 20,000 votes in southern Minnesota alone. - S The commission’s action in the matter consisted merely in dis- ~charging from public service the commander of the deputies. There - has not been'a’word of apology by the governor or the commission to the people of Blooming: Prairie, and nobody has been punished for the outrages. Dismissal of the chief deputy is not suita reparation for the outrage, ' b Blooming Prairie and the surrounding coun-’