The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 11, 1918, Page 13

. thought A New Farmer-Owned Daily Paper One Thousand League Men Near Grand Forks, N. D., Start Press of Their Own - HROUGHOUT North Da- kota and Minnesota farmers have formed as- sociations and establish- ed their own weekly newspapers, but what about the daily news? Things are happening very fast nowadays-—too fast for anything but a daily news- paper to cover fully. That’s what 1,000 farmers in the Red River valley thought, and they contributed $100 each to establish a daily evening newspaper in Grand Forks, N. D. From the start this adventure in " the free press was a success. The city of Grand Forks has been dominated by a political gang led by Jerry Bacon and backed by his newspaper,. the Grand Forks Herald. The people of that community have never had the truth. The enemies of the Nonpar- tisan league have poisoned the well of information. Daily the farmers, both on' the North Dakota and the Minnesota side of the Red river, were insulted and fought by the Grand Forks Herald. Then the American came to town. It obtained \the fastest telegraphic service, with a leased wire running direct from Chicago. It employed a staff of trained and honest newspaper men and women, (who were able to _see the truth and write it. The cartoon by Congressman John M. Baer, which appeared in one of the early issues of the American, hit off very cleverly the reception ex- tended to them by the people of the city. They were as glad to get the unadulterated news as were the farm- ers. ‘The merchants of the city felt that here was a paper that would demonstrate to the . farmers that Grand Forks was not unfriendly to them, and that the people that had been kept from the town by Jerry Bacon would now come back. At first the Herald resorted to is- suing fake extra editions in order to cut down the street sales of the American, which. did not print the news until it was complete. Then there came a day when big news broke. The American issued an ex- tra edition. Then it issued the home edition and then a second extra. All . this time the Herald, which was not used to getting out stuff in a hurry, never having had any competition, was running behind, half an hour late on the first extra and a’ quarter of an hour late on the second, and then they forgot to issue the home edition at all. 3 It has been that way throughout tbcg three: weeks the American has been published. It gets the news complete and gives it to the people first. ‘It is. telling the truth about Governor Frazier and the Nonpartisan league. It is not dealing in personali- ties and covers the field of important. news both at home and abroad.: 4 -Down in Mayville the citizens had. proved to them the superiority of the American news service. -On the same train came the edition of the Herald and of the American. The subscrib- ers to the Herald read on their first page that Ostend was in danger of . capture from the Germans. The sub- scribers to the American learned from their first page that Ostend already had fallen and the British had entered the city. When the subscribers of the old gang paper and the new peo- ple’s paper got together and com- pared 'notes, it was clear to them which: was the better paper. Ten thousand subscribers show the place which the American already has ‘made in the life of eastern North . " Dakota and western Minnesota. There were maqg“people .who took the Jerry . roads, Bacon poison ‘paper because ' they ht. there was no other way to get the war news on the day it hap- pened. They now have found that the Herald has not printed the news the day it happened but, not having had any competition, gave the news a day late. The motto of the American is, “First With the News.” It is keeping up to that. The 1,000 wide-awake farmers of the Red River valley who made the Grand Forks American possible, are well aware of the close relation of the daily press to democracy. A Paper Not Controlled by Advertising Farmers’ Sentinel of Forbes, N. D., Carries Anti-Farmer Political Ad and Powerful Editorial in Reply The anti-farmer gang of North Da- kota has been sending out recently a large two-column.political advertise- ment to the press of the state. The Farmers’ Sentinel of Forbes got one of these ads, but to make sure that the readers would not misunderstand the acceptance of this political bluff and tirade against the real people’s government in that state, the Sen- tinel put the following editorial in large type in the next column. It is well worth reading for its pointers on advertising and as a concise sum- WELCOMING THE NEWCOMER ™ unrER cagey FArmen N Lo - E'.. Qe Yy REO RvaN VALLeY 'S G0 0veR Yo CRoP This is'the way the arrival of the new farmer-owned daily in Grand Forks, N. D,, appears to John M. Baer, well-known cartoonist and League congressman from North Dakota. It is a great day for any town when ‘a reliable paper, owned by the common people and therefore uninfluenced by the forces con- trolling the kept press, is started. Grand Forks is a mighty lucky town, A Peep Behind the (Continued from page 9) likely to be a “socialistic crowd” in a joint committee of congress made up of the standpat chairmen of a lot of standpat committees. Because such a committee would promptly become an obstacle to President Wilson’s plan for securing a League of Nations with no economic combinations between na- tions as against other nations. sight, the power of the president to :sway public sentiment throughaout the entire world toward democracy—eco- nomic along with political democracy —is rapidly increasing, and the jun- kers are in a panic. . | WHAT INTERESTS WANT IN RECONSTRUCTION ° —~Bourne’s propaganda campaign of ; the present year makes it evident that he has great confidence that the Weeks Jjoint committee, if it were established, would recommend something like this: 1. That the government turn back to the private owners all of the rail- ,. steamships, telegraphs, tele- phones, shipyards, = manufacturing ~plants and’ _evgry’- other industrial or : PAGE THIRTEEN Be- | cause, with the gend of the war in Old Guard Scenery transportation enterprise now in pub- lic hands. 2. That the government promptly strip off all such new growths as the war labor board, the employment serv-: ice, the food and fuel administrations, the shipping board and the railroad administration. 3. That the principles proclaimed by President Wilson as to, the rights of labor to organize, and the right to a fair wage to:maintain the working- man’s family in decent comfort, be annulled. 4. That the government turn over its insurance business to private cor- porations’ operating for profit. b. That the 'federal trade-eommis- sion be abolished. : 6. That the army and navy be only slightly demobilized, and without any guaranty of jobs in civil life to the ~ men who will take off the uniform. 7. That universal military training be established. ; : 8. That press censorship be retained, but under control of a bipartisan board of military officers. ! ; Such is - the junker program,’ in rough outline.” " . and still hold the people’s confidence ' . and respect. . ; BTN “(Not paid for by any Joint.)? @ = ‘' - seed and feed bonding act? acres act? The soldiers’ moratorium? - mary of what the farmers have done in North DaKota: ‘“Calling particular attention to the double-column matter next to this column on the left, we offer our apolo- gies to our readers for allowing this vile slander on the fair name of our governor and the entire state adminis- tration to appear in our columns at all, and' give our reasons, which are three-fold: “First, it adds to the revenue of the Forbes Farmers’ Publishing com- pany, being paid advertising=—paid for, we presume, out of the gigantic Doyle ‘slush fund,” which is being col- lected from the corporations and big business politicians all over the state, and to which the Minneapolis Cham- ber of Commerce is reported to have put in dollar for dollar with the state fund, though the order comes from the ‘Joint Campaign Committee, Doyle for Governor, Ellendale, N. D.; and ~we are to send the bill to ‘R. M. Dickey, Secretary,’ and ‘I will remit.’ “Second, the advertising columns of the Sentinel are open at all times to legitimate advertising, and though we question the truth and genuineness of this advertising, it is givem space in the same spirit that any article of merchandise would and with the same reservation as to the reliability of the advertisers: ‘We can not guar- antee the quality of products adver- tised in this paper but will make what investigation is possible upon request of subscribers who contemplate be- coming patrons of such advertiser.’ CALLING NAMES VS. DOING THINGS ““Third, we particularly desire that our readers get a good big bellyful of the kind of rot that the ‘joint cam- paign committee’ is attempting to poison the minds of the people with. Read it! Give it your most careful attention! What is it? A puerile, - sniffling rant against ‘socialism, I. W. W.ism, ete., ete.,,’ with a veiled in- sinuation connecting them with. the present state administration. Does this implied maligning detract one iota from the splendid record of Gov- ernor Frazier and his associates? Certainly not! No administration in the history of the state ever passed so much splendid legislation or gave such an honest administration of the state’s business. Does it discuss the The idle The creation of the state grain grad- ing department? The guarantee of bank deposits? the rural schools? The splendid work done by the state highway commis- sion? -Or any other one of the: in- numerable meritorious measures ac-. complished by the efficient and de- pendable Frazier administration? Not much, it doesn’t! “And, in the face of North Dakota’s record in war work—Liberty bonds, War. Savings stamps, food conserva- tion, enlistments, draft cost, and every other endeavor in the support of war activities—they dare not copy from Minnesota’s primary campaign book and cry ‘disloyalty,’ and their only refuge is to- put their thumbs to their ‘noses and wriggle “their- fingers in childish hate, and call names—‘So- cialists! I. W. W.s! Bullshovikers!’ ad infinitum. - 2 ~“Well,.go on—go on, and see who cares. People ‘of - this state know what the administration of state af- fairs has done for them the past two - years and the vote at the November election will be pretty conclusive proof ‘that the captain of the ‘ship and his able crew have performed creditably 2 : The improvement in . A