The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 2, 1918, Page 7

:= these agers handled it badly. In the absence of a direct argument of the president for the people to stand back of his POLICIES instead of Democratic politicians—an open and direct discussion by him of hls‘1.4 peace points and his economic and reconstruction policies— and in the absence of an appeal for votes for those policies, regard- less of party, this should have been done for him by Democratic leaders. But it was not, again proving the lack of vision and leader- BURLESON AND SoMmE <€ D UNJUYSTLY SUPPRESSED PUBLICATIONS - ship in the Democratic party, outside of the president. The po- sition of Lodge and Roosevelt was essentially weak. Lodge was too apparently talking for the junkers, Roosevelt too apparently a fault-finder yapping at the heels of the man he hopes to replace ad president in 1920. - : Besides the failure to seize the opportunity to discuss policies and directly attack the Republican leaders—besides the foolish and almost insulting partisan cry of “vote ’er straight,” there has been considerable dissatisfaction in liberal circles with some of the presi- dent’s chief aides. Burleson, southern bourbon reactionary, has mishandled the postoffice. The censorship and suppression of pub- lications have been a constant irritation to liberals of all types. Gregory has let sabordinates persecute with too free a hand in so- called disloyalty cases, men whose only sin was liberal views. Pub- lications supporting the Wilson policies have been suppressed, Lib- eral leaders supporting the Wilson policies have been jailed. The president can not look for a large and hearty support ex- cept among liberals. He needs their solid support if his policies are to prevail. - They elected him president in 1916. Heé can not afford to alienate them by ignorant policies in the postoffice and attorney general’s office. We hope these errors will be realized by the president and avoided in future. We speak as friends, not as enemies, of the Wilson peace, economic and reconstruction policies, which we have supported since the start of the war. We would support them if Wilson were a Republican or a Socialist. We realize the difficulties as well as anybody. We know the Democratic party, aside from the president himself and a few like Baker, is as bankrupt of lead- ers with vision as the Republican party. organization to work with. But even admitting that, mistakes have been made that could have been avoided. There is no excuse for Burleson, for instance. AMNESTY FOR POLITICAL PRISONERS THE German, Austrian and Russian radicals who opposed the war and were jailed have been liberated. This was done in Germany even before the abdication of ‘the Hohenzollems._ In England and France, with the fighting over and the final peace about to be ‘signed, the labor and radical groups, with a big sym- pathetic following in official circles and among all classes, have started a move for amnesty for political prisoners. : : What are we in America going to do with our political prison- ers? The very term “political prisoners” is an anomaly in a de- mocracy. America for nearly 150 years has been a_haven for po- litical refugees. They fled here from Germany in ’48, from Ireland, - MALICE FOR NONE. CHARITY ~ FOR ALL S from nearly every country of Europe, and we welcomed them. By us the fact that men were hounded and pursued in other lands for their political views has been accounted for by the existence of the ivine right of kings and the suppression-of the people, or an utter failure to understand the meaning, importance and necessity . of free speech and the right of .the governed to “set the government - right,” or try to, if they pleased. But now.we have political prisoners ourselves, men and women who ran counter to the general public opinion or the sedition law - during the prosecution of the war. These war heretics, foolish and wrong-minded as we may wish to consider them, -failing as they did to see that war could be waged for a just, a sacred cause, - -and that this was such a war—granting all this, let us keep the dis- tinction clear. They are not criminals. Far from it. The great majority of them are men and women of culture and conscience, _ intellectually honest, with the courage of their convictions. They e now.in jail, thousands of ‘them, some of them for terms as long as 30 years, because their consciences would not let them shed the '. . blood of fellow men, even though those fellow men ‘were. Germans 20 a}ldperm:tteda vicious kaiser to rule. You were more practical, se, but the same God that gave you your conscience gave i._%ifigigmnem:.theirs.::anfi- their offense was merely in gimedodh o e T paies s Tana ., We no longer put men who differ with us about the Bible in ; ja o di ith us in politics and gov port of his policies, but it is névéith’é‘less true that hiQ pai'ty man- The president has a poor . ‘him to defeat Calderwood, indersed by - Now you have the bipartisan plunderbund exposed. ernment, except in war times. But now the war is over. necessity for their imprisonment is over. be generous. of the Mexican war during its progress, granted amnesty to polit- ical prisoners in the North and rebels in the South, after the great ! Abraham Lincoln was grand in war, but grander in peace after victory. Had his life not been cut short, reconstruction |} in America after the Civil war would have been reconstruction, and &} While men were clamoring for the blood of Jef- g ferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln said he wished that great rebel | would eseape, and when he was captured he was-forgiven by the g Great Republic, which was invincible in war and generous in victory. § i Any man who took German gold or, in opposition to the war, { lifted his hand to destroy property or take life, let him serve his i term out.. But if the offense was conscientious objection to war, | or was liberal ideas which led him too far in criticism (in the § Civil war. not what it was. opinion of not infallible judges and juries), let us pardon-him. Let us be great and generous in victory. Let us live up to our ideal of § democracy. - Let us leave the locking up of political heretics to the old-world countries;, now few enough, thank God, which still have the crime of “lese majeste” on their books. Let us free our political prisoners. - PAPER-COLLAR FASTIDIOUSNESS ™\ URING the recent political campaign in Minnesota the labor | campaign committee at Minneapolis received a letter from a man with a “scientific mind accustomed to analyzing “ things,” according to the letter writer’s description of himself. | This “scientific mind” had received some statements from the labor committee urging the election of labor candidates to office and dis- cussing political and economic issues of the campaign. He there- upon unburdened himself of the following, which we reproduce § exactly, including the letterhead: THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA - College of Science, Literature, and the Arts T Minneapolis Department of Botany ] October 81, 1918. Labor’s Campaign Committee, 300 Marquette Ave., Minneapolis, Minnesota. Dear Sirs: : \ I shall be obliged to you if you will refrain from circulating any of your campaign “literature” in my mail. I am not opposed to honest labor as such; I have been a laboring man myself, but that my convictions in regard to your organization are pretty sound is substantiated by certain things I observe in your “literature.” First, the careless, shiftless superscription on the en- velope; second, the soiled, I may say dirty, condition of the yellow card, not to mention its cheapness. These are perhaps little things, _ think you, but to a scientific mind accustomed to analyzing things, . the condition of your “literature” indicates slovenliness and a care- lessness, and a disregard of the simple conventions of good business, and, further, reveals a type of mind, which psychology and biology.: would say runs “true to type,” and which is not to be trusted with the affairs of government. Yours truly, A. M. JOHNSON, : 512 Delaware St. S. E. Now we think that any reader of the Leader would be able to - write a good editorial about this “scientific” mind. We print the letter merely on the chance that it is not from some callow youth, still wet behind the ears—some paper-collar fledgling whom a little book learning has made a mincing cad. But it is on a letterhead We can even AFFORD The greatest American, himself as a cohgréssman an opponent of the “department of botany” of a great university, and conse- | quently is very likely from one of the assistant professors or edu- cational straw bosses of the university. If indeed such wrote it, it- is a sad commentary on the “scientific minds” to which we are send- ing our-boys to learn their parts as men and citizens of a democ- racy. If it was written by some fastidious Young student whose chief thoughts concern girls, beer parties, the latest styles in neck- ties and vests, and other such profound topics,. the offense‘ is of course not serious and the letter merely a good laugh. 3 IS GLAD ANYWAY the governorship of Minnesota, being beaten both by Burnquist, Republican, and Evans, farmer-labor, the lat- ter having a 40,000 lead over him, has written a touching letter to Burnquist saying that anyway he is glad an “undesirable element” (the farmers and union labor) did not get control of the state po- litically. = This comes from a man ‘who tried to move.-heaven and WIIEATON, Democrat, who ran a poor third in the raee for | -earth to get the farmer-labor indorsement and prevent the p of a third man in the field. It followed a letter from Senator Nel- Son, Republican, to Wheaton, Demoerat, in which Nelson thanked Wheaton for the Democratic vote Nelson got and which emabled the farmer-labor Aforces. 7