The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 4, 1918, Page 9

= 2 . The letter came back too soon. ‘fore a federal grand jury. Mc- _disleyalty, mutiny and refusal TO USE LETTER - do 'a good job while he was .about it. He would make the _ beyond ‘ashadow of a doubt. oAb thq-,;l?emocrgtig committee « = manufacturer or hinder him in the least from pro- ducing as good a it as is possible with the much more elaborate fed- eral standards. “Or, if we must have subclasses, then abrogate all numerical grades and let the test weight per bushel be the factor for determining value per bushel which would reflect the true milling value of any lot of wheat and allow narrower margins of value to be guessed at than is the case. with the grades. “You must be aware of the fact that these grades and subclasses are recognized only for the purpose of buying and selling this commodity. The wheat buyer for any mill does not buy any of his wheat rade of flour and as much of- /2 because it is No. 1, 2 or 5 dark Northern, or ‘be- cause it is No. 1, 2 or 3 of any other subclass. His business is to secure sufficient wheat to supply his mill and of a quality that will enable the miller to make an even run of flour of good quality. These grades and subclasses are in a measure recognized and the different lots are kept separate until the process of milling is started when they again be- come a homogeneous mixture and in such quantities that the lower grades are usually all manufactured into flour each crop year. Any wheat remaining over from one crop to the other in the hands of the grain trade is wheat of the higher grades, thus showing that all of the wheat graded down for any cause in any crop year has been passed on to the consumer in the year to which it belonged. “Therefore, the grading question is of importance to the consumers because every item of expense, from the field to the table, must be met by them, and if we allow any unnecessary extravagance to enter into the natural flow of this process the con- sumers must eventually pay the bill. i “The question then is: Will the consumers re- ceive manufactured goods improved in quality to the extent of the cost of the equipment necessary to continue the federal standards? Or will the bureau of markets come forth with the data to prove the claims made and prove to the public that the federal standards are necessary to the welfare of the people?” . League Frame-Up Brings Prison Term North Dakota Gangster Forges Name of League Man to Seditious Letter —Federal Court Gives Him Three Years at Leavenworth - OMETIMES the framers of a frame-up get caught, especially “if they do not have the secret protection of the officers of the law. 'The latest anti-League framer-up to be well nabbed is A. W. McMaster of Minot, N. D. " McMaster had conceived a supposedly clever scheme to dis- ‘credit the Nonpartisan league and one of its can- didates who was running for state senator against him. He had at last found a way of making the disloyalty charge stick. The scheme was nothing less than the writing of a very seditious and treasonable letter to an American soldier in France, to which he forged the name of his opponent, Girdell Patterson. McMaster did net know the soldier to whom he sent the forg- ed letter, but because he had seen a.letter in the Farge Forum over this soldier’s name opposing the League candidates he imagined the soldier would be the proper person to use. If all went well, the soldier would send the letter back to autherities . here, it' would get in the papers and the Nenpartisan league would suffer. McMaster knew that Patterson would be able to prove the signature a forgery and se would clear himself, but this could hardly be done be- fore the November 5 election. It was a mighty pretty piece of eld-gang tactics. But something went wrong. The real writer ‘of the docu- ment was found and haled be- Master, was indicted on four counts and appeared before Federal Judge Amidon on Oc- tober 17 to plead guilty and throw himself on the mercy of the court. He was sen- tenced to three years at hard laber in the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kan." The indictment to which Me- Master pleaded guilty carried the fellowing four counts: 1. Obstructing recruiting and enlistment in the United States army and navy forces. 2. Using .profane, scurrilous and abugive languagé about the United States army and navy forces. 8. Inciting, encouraging and provoking resistance to the United States and promoting the cause of the enemy. 4. Inciting insubordination, of duty in military and naval fqtces. : GANG READY The letter itself is, of course, unfit to print and the court has not made it public, for the old gangster thought he would Nonpartisan leaghe disloyal AT meeting in Bismarck early in September the anti- farmer gang of North Dakota laid plans to use the letter. It was referred to openly, but Mr. Patter- son protested that he knew nothing of it and chal- lenged that it be shown. Whether McMaster had confederates in the dirty trick is not known, but it is certain that the gang will find the explanation of the foul, sneaking crime very difficult. The gangster attitude of mind was brought out in strong relief by the questioning-of the judge and the court’s opinion is a scathing rebuke to those who consider that the end justifies the means. McMaster’s plea for mercy on the ground that he used forgery and traitorous language to discredit’ the “terrible” League didn’t have any weight with Judge Amidon. o In answering questions propounded from the bench, McMaster said that he conceived the idea of forging the letter not only to harm his opponent, Mr. Patterson, but to damage Governor Frazier and the other League candidates. “So you hit upon this scheme, expecting that the letter would come back, get in the handi of some- one and be published, and that before the forgery : THE LATEST THING IN GANG METHODS 0,7, : ’////’/’/’// 22007, (/17 /_',/./// Here is the way a recent attempted frame-up against the League farmers appears to Car. toonist Foss. The desperate old anti-farmer gang of Northi Dakota is not only using the false arrest stunt so common in Minnesota, but it has taken to forgery. A few weeks ago the kept press circulated resolutions of the most absurd kind said to have been passed by League farmers in North Dakota. On October 17 one of the gang pleaded guilty to forging a League man’s signature to a seditious letter which he had sent out in the hope of discred- iting the League until after election.: When he *got three years for the t'rick,.as‘ de- scribed on_ this page, the gang politician proba\bly.lpst that satisfied grin. : . PAGE NINE - - [ was discovered you would be elected and Mr. Pat- terson defeated ?” inquired Judge Amidon. “Yes,” answered the prisoner. “And you thought that you were justified be- cause you thought the League and Patterson were dangerous to the welfare of the state and nation?” “Yes‘" “And you thought that you had a right to resort to forgery and falsehood because of the ‘good’ you would accomplish ?” ‘KYeS'” JUDGE SCORES SOME PATRIOTEERS “You are not the first man who has looked at matters that way,” Judge Amidon continued. “Down (in southern Illinois citizens acting under the guise of patriotism, took out an innocent man (Robert y Prager, who had bought Liberty bonds of each issue and tried to enlist) and hung him to a post. “Down in Cincinnati they took out one of the finest of Ohio’s able men (Herbert S. Bigelow, min- ister and president of the Ohio constitutional con- vention in 1912) and horse- whipped him because he had views which differed from theirs. “There is a big group of people who think they have a right to resort to any crime and any practice to defeat a man who differs with them. Many of this group are doing this in the namie of patriotism —in the name of a war that is being fought to make democ- racy safe in Europe. “You stand before this court simply as a representative of this class. You were thrown off your balance, I suppose, to some extent; 'you thought peo- ple to whom' you were opposed were dangerous; you resorted to contemptible lies and for- gery to blast the good name of an innocent man. “That’s how all crimes which history were committed; the perpetrators made a truce with their conscience = with the thought that they were acting » country. They carried their con- victions to any length—hang- ing or burning at the stake. “It seems strange that' the beginning of the twentieth cen- tury, when we are engaged in the most heroic war in history, that men will be forgetful of teachings of right and honesty; was doing something danger- ous, you resorted to this hid- eous act. crime as a slight one. It is as ‘dastardly a crime as has been . not a erime of impulse.” 7 darken the blackest pages:in ° in the name of God and their . because you thought someone” “I can not think of your i brought before this court in’ many a day. The letter‘was ~cleverly written to accomplish the ends you desired; it could = * not have been the work of an impulsive moment; forgery is At e e