The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 11, 1918, Page 6

onpartisan Teader Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Week Entered as second-class matter September 8, 1915, at the postoffice at St. Paul, Minnesota, under the Act of March 8, 1879. OLIVER 8. MORRIS, Editor A. B. GILBERT, Associate Editor B. 0. FOSS, Art Editor Advertising “rates on application. Subscription, one year, in advance, $2.50; six months, $1.50. Please dp not make checks, drafts nor money orders payable to indi- viduals. Address all letters and make all remittances to The Nonpartisan Leader, Box 5756, 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. RIS e SN e e it A e e B S e e S T PGS 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. - WHAT MIGHT. HAVE BEEN TWO weeks before scattered blazes in northern Minnesota got out of hand and became the disastrous conflagration which cost a thousand lives and millions in property, a forest ranger in that country was beseeching the state administration, Governor J. A. A. Burnquist and his million-dollar “safety” com- mission, for help. With control over a huge fund, with sweeping legislative powers, with command over the home guard, the motor reserve corps and other organizations, with power to call upon all civilians for help, with plentiful funds for the purpose at their disposal, the governor and the public safety commission could have taken steps to meet the danger. They could have stopped the Soo railroad from setting the fires which, according to this ranger’s statement, were the cause of the disaster. They could have put thousands of men at work to combat the fires and to stamp them out. Why that was not done is a proper in- quiry for the special legislative session which Governor Burnquist “sees no need” for calling, even though bankers and busi- ness men of the Twin Cities have joined in the appeal for such a session. The governor was doing something, of course, at the time when he might have been busy issuing the orders that would have. prevented the greatest disaster in the his- tory of the state. He was delivering polit- ical speeches in the interest of his candidacy for re-election. “Fight from the S o SR A LOSE!” _BURNQUIST “FORGETS POLITICS” FTER the forest fires had worked their terrible devastation, suffering and ruin in Minnesota, Governor Burnquist moved. During all the days when something might have been done to prevent the disaster he had neglected his duty. When it had happened he took action. It is interesting for every observer of state gov- ernment to note what he did. He went to the scene of the disaster and of the state’s disgrace and “took a prominent part” in the relief work. He reached at once the very center of publicity in the distressing days that followed. Perhaps Governor Burnquist then was animated with sincere grief at the catastrophe and with sincere remorse over what might have been done but was not. No doubt he wanted to do, too late, the best that could be done. He may not have been personally responsible for the fact that the stories of the relief effort in the corporation newspapers-all appeared to be designed primarily to give personal political advertising to him. Perhaps he himself did not order the newspaper photographers to take the pictures which depicted the ghastly scene of the burying of 50 bodies in one grave, with Governor Burnquist in the center of the background. The governor might be excused responsibility for this. But other responsibility he will have to accept.. The “Official Bulletin of the Minnesota ‘Commission of Public Safety,” published under the title, “Minnesota in the War,” shows the tragedy as viewed from the statehouse angle. ernor Burnquist’s name heads the editorial column of this publication. The first page of the issue of October 19 is devoted to the great fire. Is it a concise and sober summary of the toll of the great fire? It is not. Is it an appeal to the people of Minnesota to stand by their stricken brothers? It is not. Does it contain any explanation of the cir- -~ ground ? WE’LL WIN!” < Fight From the Furrow BY PEARL RIGGS CROUCH O farmer, wherever your heart leaps high To the tread of nations marching by— Wherever your yearning sight gropes on, Over the rim when the sun is gone— A challenge of faith, of love, of plea, Is singing its way across the sea— From Noyon’s heights to the winding Meuse— O farmer, wherever you dream and do For those who offer their blood for you— Your soul—is it with the stoic band That faces the foe on sea and land ? Your thoughts—with a thrill do they rebound To your sinewed -hands — your fertile The challenge is met—like flint your chin— “We’ll fight from the furrow — AND AR AN, P ) e, vy, o P o 9 Y, gy, 7///// I/%»vy- : “, ’v// s g//%%éy/gg/%gfg/@ | %%/%/4 | g%é/%% “ 7 2% 7 » W 4 77 : Z cumstances of record that led up to this great tragedy or any as- surance to the people of Minnesota that their officials will take the steps necessary to do what is possible to atone to the sufferers for their loss? It contains none of these things. It contains not one word of the utterances that-might reasonably Qe expected from a governor of humanity and conscience to the stricken people of his state in the face of such a calamity. ‘ 9 The title of the first page of the publication is this: “Safety Commission Hastens Relief to Fire Sufferers. “Minnesota’s War Governor Rises to Great Emergency.” The entire article is in pursuance of this theme and this alone. Standing face to face with death and destruction, appearing before a people who have just suffered from a heartrendugg and needless tragedy in which a thousand lives have been sacrificed, the gov- ernor and the safety commission of the state of Minnesota, the ruling powers ‘in the state, the wartime dictators of civil affairs, have nothing to communicate to the people but disgusting and fulsome praise of their own acts in tardy effort to save their own faces. : The following ‘paragraph from the publication gives the flavor of the whole thing: ' In the midst of these calamitous circumstances the state is for- tunate in having an executive who rose equal to the occasion. He was in the midst of an exciting campaign with an opposition deter- minedly bent on ousting him from the position he now occupies. He was billed for from one to three addresses each day up to the very minute of election. The people were eager to listen to him whenever he appeared before the public. The masses were clamorous to hear his able exposition of public questions.” Regardless of all, Governor Burnquist canceled all of his speaking engagements and hastened to Moose Lake, the center.of the devastated district, and took personal charge of the work of relief and lent the prestige of his position of chief executive of the state to every movement of -aid for the sufferers. There is not one solitary line in the entire article on the forest fires which is not a part of or made the basis for eulogy of the governor and the state safety commission. - The whole publication, in the circumstances under which it was issued, is an affront and an insult to the people of Minnesota. It is a complete and a true picture of the attitude toward public affairs taken by men, not elected by the people, but forced upon them to serve corporations. No man whose desire was to serve the public good could have taken the part Burnquist took in the forest fire situation, nor have per- mitted the publication of such a monstrous and disgusting self-revelation. POINDEXTER—LEAD MULE T WAS Poindexter of ‘Washington who Purrow = LEST. W proposed to the senate of the United States an- asinine resolution which would have ordered the president not to exchange any more notes with Germany. Many will laugh at this as merely the ridi- culous blunder of a crude westerner, ig- norant of the president’s constitutional du- ties and his present great responsibility and unaware of the implications of such a pro- posal. make a mistake. It is true that the resolution was an in- sult to the president, to whom above all others the people of the United States and the people of the allied nations look for the aceomplishment of the full aims of the American people in this war. a5 It is true also that Poindexter has been making an ass of him- self in his efforts, like an imitation Roosevelt, to make partisan capital ‘out of attacks on the president. But it is not true that Poindexter is wholly without influence and support. - He has been quoted at length lately under circumstances that indicate that he, with Senator Lodge, is one of the chosen spokesmen for the anti- Wilson Republicans in the senate and in the nation. The fihome of Poindexter is significant. He was one of the so-called “progressives,” once followers. of Roosevelt. He attained cheap and easy fame by joining in the attack on “Czar” Cannon, when Cannon_wz_:s about to fall. the house. His insurgency enabled him to ride into the senate on :fle Bl‘llflil t?g![oose wave. 1.tNe‘lrer, however, has he contributed On? oug genuine political progress, nor in rea fight for real reform. e e taken part : any 3 - Now it is very plain to be seen that he is being groomed to act as one of the lead mules for the remnant of the “progressives” in the Republican pa ackin of the old Republican gang. But those who take this- position He was one of the insurgents of - ; , & part in which he has the backing and. assistance of such able “progressives” as Lodge and his associates _