The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 16, 1918, Page 7

- .the German and Austrian people the wholly suppressed voice of those people. Aye, indeed, let Russia and Gerraany and Austria “work out their own salvation,” as Mexico has done. ; The Leader has never approved the measures of Lenine and Trotzky.. We'do, however, hold to the opinion that Russia, as well as Germany and Austria, should be permitted to work out their own problems. It is none of our business. There is no danger of bolshevik rule in America or any other country where reform is not suppressed—where self-government is possible and it is pos- gible by discussion-of public questions to obtain majorities by the ballot for measures reforming social and industrial abuses and political evils. ; But there is this danger in America: that special interests, for whom the St. Paul Pioneer Press and most of our newspapers BOLSHEVIK )\ '~ 2 are ‘spokesmen, will be able, through domination of the channels of publicity and reigns of terror such as used in the recent Min- nesota political campaign, to throttle all attempts at even mod- erate reforms, resulting.in widespread discontent and consequently contributing to radical and perhaps violent reforms when the dam holding back suppressed righteousness gives way. We have re- peatedly said that America was safe so long as orderly evolution- ary progress was possible—that political and economic abuses are .not fatal so long as the means of righting them are in the hands of ‘the people, and the people are not prevented by fraud, poisoned publicity and unfair methods from exercising that right. This may seem altogether too long and serious.a reply to make to an editorial writer who spews malice and hate for all reform at so much per line, while believing in none of it himself and probably made sick at his stomach by the bad odor rising from his own reek- ing pages. At least, 15 years’ work in newspaper. offices has made the editor of the Leader prefer this charitable view to one which ~would set down men like the editor of the Pioneer Press as fools or ignoramuses. However, one more word about Russia. No government will be stable there that is not. worked out and set up by the people of Russia themselves. Any government we set up for them will last just as long as the military prop we give it remains, and no longer. We believe the bolsheviki will ultimately be overthrown in Russia, but we also believe that the military and other aid and encourage- ment we are giving to-counter revolutionary groups in Russia is merely helping to prolong the turmoil. = All patriotic Russians, whether of radical red tendencies or not, naturally resent outside interference, as we would have done in 1776, and as we did in 18€1 when we ourselves fought out a difference of opinion about gov- ernment. 2 o2 The Leader’s entire editorial attitude on this question hai simply been an appeal to all good American citizens to stand by our professed war aims, which include the proposition of self-determi- nation for all nations, big or little, conqueror or conquered, radical or conservative, Russian, English, German or French. Appeals to prejudice and passion and sensationalism, such as constitute the stock in trade of papers like the St. Paul Pioneer Press, can not prevail, we think, against candid and calm argument on this question of making the world safe for democracy. We have enough faith in the American people—yes, and in the Russian and German people also—to believe that right and justice will pre- . :“vail in the end. . THE INJUSTICE NOT WIPED OUT HILE the vote of nine to two in the senate cofiimittee 7 which rejected -the Minnesota Public Safety commis- was an act of injustice hard to account for by honest motives. The senator from Wisconsin has not been the only one forced.to re- main under: the cloud of suspicion ‘for over a year. The speech which the Minnesota commission alleged merited the senator’s: dis- . missal as a traitor was made, as is well known, before about 8,000 OUR WAR AIMS | ARE MISCHIEVOUS LET WEALTH PAY THE cOST OF THIS WAR THIS IS ' seomops ~ OEDITIOUS - g ;délégafes;,_o'f fhe éanpartisén league_,'t;nd nof_lqnly”:tho'se‘del_egates: but 200,000 organized farmers have been compelled, through the cowardly delay of the committee, to suffer unmerited slander and - ~abuse for 14 months. . : : A ., -~The: state - the acre but all wrong to organize for better laws and better gov- sion’s charges against Senator La Follette is‘encourag- '~ ing, thre committee’s failure to act on the false charge for 14 months _.come more of a factor in nonpartisan politics. Bo RO R e e i and approved a “seditious” speech was of course an unfair charge. : Senator La Follette was only one of several senators and many public men invited to address the great League meeting of Sep- tember, 1917. The League invited Liberty loan and Red Cross ' workers and representatives of the government, and the resolutions _adopted by the convention expressed the loyalty and patriotism of the farmers in terms whose sincerity could not be doubted. Yet the fact that the Minnesota Committee on Public Safety, dominated by anti-League politicians, asked Senator La Follette’s removal, on account of his speech before a League gathering, was sufficient basis in the eyes of the press for a wholesale charge of disloyalty. against the farmers and ‘members of the League. This also in spite ' of the fact. that the League immediately, before the convention - broke up, in a formal statement said that La Follette’s war views in no way represented the farmer delegates’ opinion, which was expressed in the resolutions adopted and not in La Follette’s speech. | The senate committee waited until after the fall elections were held and the war was over before throwing out the charges against the Wisconsin senator. It should have been done a year ago. Be- lated justice is often not justice at all and this is a case of that kind. Nothing can compensate the senator and the League for the slander and hate with which both were pursued during the time the committee allowed the ridiculous charges to stand. One. is almost tempted to say that this delay was on purpose, to allow the enemies of free speech, the enemies of La Follette and the ene- mies of the organized farmers to make the most of false charges, before outraged decency and the end of the war at last compelled their dismissal. : : Whether or not the motive of the senate committee is plain, there can be no doubt about the motive of the Minnesota Public Safety commission. That body was aiming at the League, and La Follette was simply an opportunity and an excuse. The Min- nesota commission wanted to discredit the League. It and the governor whose creature it was feared the League, and knowing that the big press would give only one side of the question—theirs —they went the limit. In Minnesota the utter discrediting of the Minnesota commission by the decision is as significant as the vic- tory for free speech. - GRANGE ALIVE TO ISSUES a hand in politics is an encouraging sign of the progressive- | THE decision of the national convention of the Grange to take ness of American farmers. against the Grange taking up political questions, on the theory > DON'T GO IN THERE ! = GRANGE il 3 FARMER_ . that it is all right to organize for better pigs and more grain to ernment. The Grange, like all farmer organizations, should keep out of partisan politics, but no -group of organized citizens should refrain from discussing and acting on public questions. Self-gov- ernment and GOOD GOVERNMENT require the active participa- tion of all thinking citizens. If politics really is a “game,” it is too vital and important a “game” to be left to ward heelers, brew- | eries, gang politicians and big interests which subsidize newspapers ' and finance political parties. Through politics laws are made, and law is the most important | et ——a e b oo e e e 2 Many pretended friends of the | - Grange, both inside and outside the organization, have cautioned P i thing affecting citizens. The citizen is vitally affected by law every | minute of the day and night. He can not escape it. Every made or repealed affects him in some way, directly or indirectly, | and failure to pass certain laws makes for his prosperity and h piness, or the opposite. Law has'a bearing on everything he does. He is up against some law at every turn of the road. ‘Law no longer merely affects a citizen politically. It affects him economic- _ally. Laws determine his economic environment and the environ- ment of those with whomt he desls, to his of their advantage.. For any farmers’ organization to declare it has no interest in politics and therefore in laws, which are made as a result of politics, is ab- surd and is merely playing the game of the monopolists, industrial despots and their politicians, who fear the common people and their organizations. 2 The National Grange, in convention at 1 : cently, demanded full representation for farmers in all law-mak- ing bodies; state and national. That means the Grange is going to take a more active part in politics. The Grange is primarily an economic organization, interested chiefly in co-operative buying and selling, but the Grange realizes that the success of co-operative _ buying and selling depends largely on law. n : success or failure of co-operation, can create conditions that will Law can make for the make co-operation in buying and sellingnhard or easy. -And so the .Grange wants farmers to have a hand Vilars o R e o Syracuse, N. Y.,r re- law-making proportionate * to their numerical strength, that farmers’ interests may be pro- v e e oo tected in-the making of laws. And to do that the Grange must be- ment that League farmers had invited, welcomed St hap- R R ARG