The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, January 20, 1919, Page 7

| 4 ‘@‘ ern leglslatures than they have ever had before. e ‘.h‘lgh protective: tariff ? : Great Britain in na: orrie . blo “COVI}}RING” THE LEGISLATURES kind in the United States—a farmers’ political and economic journal—the Nonpartisan Leader during the next three months is going to devote its space largely to reporting and inter- preting the acts of the legislatures in the states where the farm- ers, through the League, have elecied representatives. The or- ganized farmers control, by big majorities, both branches of the North Dakota leglslature, which has just opened its sessions, and the organized farmers have elected over 100 lawmakers to the legis- latures of other western states. _ The North Dakota legislature for the first time is in complete control of the organized farmers, the latter having retained their majority in the lower house and in addition captured the senate in the recent elections. Besides this control of the law-making : a S BEFITTING its standing as the leading publication of its _MADE I NORTH DAKOT. body, the North Ilakota farmers obtained in the recent elections big majorities for the constitutional amendments permitting the carrying out of their program. Therefore, the North Dakota legis- lature is in a position to proceed, and wjll proceed, with the con- structive legislation the Nonpartisan league was organized to carry out. Naturally the work of the North Dakota legislature will be more important and more interesting to farmers all over the na- tion than the work this year of any other state legislature. - Our reports of the North Dakota session will therefore be exhaustive. You can,not expect to learn the truth of what the North Dakota. farmers do at this géssion from the big-city press.. Watch the Leader. In Minnesota the farmers, in co-operation with organized la- bor, have elected 48 senators and representatives, and while the old political gang.at a preliminary caucus has already organized the Minnesota legislature against the farmer-labor répresentatives, the work of these people’s legislators and the fights they will put up will ‘be important and interesting. There will be a tremendous effort in Minnesota and other states outside of North Dakota, where ° the organized farmers. do not yet have a clear maJorlty, to so manipulate and ‘maneuver as to discredit the League lawmakers, but ‘they will have to travel some to do it; and the Nonpartisan Leader will be on the job to tell the facts. We have felt warranted in going to considerable expense to employ an able staff of reporters-and writers to cover the various legislatures this winter. Our cartoonists will also be on the job. The Nonpartisan Leader during the coming months will be in- valuable to farmers interested in political and economic questions, whether they are members of the League or not The coming leg- islatures will be historic. Organized farmers and Workmgmen are going to take an ever-increasing part in American politics. They have already made a start by procuring this year a larger representation in the west- \ AN ASININE PROPAGANDA O KNOW the real opinion of the editors of our daily press, as to the mental capacity of the average American citizen, one has only to consider the slogans by which these editors expect to’sway public opinion for or agamst various men, meas- ures or propositions.- - At the present moment the press is attempting desperately to prevent the odium of the adjective “pro-German” from de- teriorating. ' With the war over, and consequently the fear of the enemy and hatred for his defeated institutions less calculated to produce hysteria, the press is nevertheless determined not to let-- the adjective “pro'-German” lose any of its efi'ect We are, there-. . fore, expectefito keep this name-calhng as a species of “argument” to be used on all occasions to sway public opinion. " Does ‘a ‘publisher: represent interests which are in favor of a insis*znce on President Wilson’s “no economic barriers” point. Do < the interests of ‘a publisher or those he represents demand a big - navy for the United States, even to the point of competition with -build,mg? Then let him brand as: “pro-Ger- en Then let him brand as' “pro-German” all ces: to Presxdent Wllsons' “freedom of 'i; conve tlon, and whlch attempted to behttle and diseredxthr. Bouck. Tonparti®an Teader Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Week Entered as second-class matter September 3, 1915, at the postoffice at St. Paul, Minnesota. under the Act of March 8, OLIVER S. MORRIS, Editor A. B. GILBERT, Associate Editor B. 0. FOSS, Art Editor Advertising rates on application. Subscription one year, in advance, $2.60; six months, $1.50. Please do not make checks, drafts nor money orders payable to indi- viduals. Address all letters and make all remittances to The Nonpartisan Leader, Box 675, St. Paul, Minn. MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS THE S. C. BECKWITH SPECIAL AGENCY, York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. Advertising Representatives, New Quack, fraudulent and xrresponmble 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 relmbxllty of any firm which patronizes our advertising columns. v there is a serious difference among the allles as to President Wil- son’s peace program. Various statesmen in England, France and Italy are openly urging an old-style peace, with a “balance of power” and naval and military competition among the powers, but we must, not point that out on penalty of being charged with “in- spiration from Berlin.” - The secret treaties between Great Britain, France, Italy and Russia under the czar are the absolute negation of everything we professed to be fighting for during the war. Those treaties have never been formally abrogated. Yet it is “pro-Ger- man” to mention such a matter, although an open discussion and settlement of this problem is essential if the future peace of the world is to be secured. Is the press right? Is the average American a child or an ignorar;ms who can be swayed only by silly slogans and name- calling ? GRANGE LEADER FREED ILLIAM BOUCK, master of the Washington state Grange, a keen-thmkmg and true leader of the farmers of his ; state, has been freed and completely vindicated of the preposterous charge of disloyalty lodged against him by political -enemies of the tillers of the soil of Washington. It is with con- siderable satisfaction that we record this fact. There was not, o MR. BoucK. | SPOKANE APOLOGIZE FOR SHKESMAN REVIEW. SLANDERING Y THIS HAS NOT HAPPENE ; YET. and could not be, the slightest suspicion of Mr. Bouck’s loyalty and patriotism. The charges against him were based on his enemies’ interpretation of a speech he made arguing for more taxes and fewer bonds to pay the cost of the war, and condemning the war profiteers. At the time of Mr. Bouck’s indictment and arrest the Nonpar- tisan Leader did not hesitate to give the full and true facts of the case. Knowing Mr. Bouck as we did, knowing his thorough-going Americanism, understandmg the polltlcal conditions in his state . and the hysteria abroad in the land which enabled sinister inter- ests to trump up disloyalty cases against honest and patriotic citizens, the Leader branded the whole thing as a contemptlble frame-up. ~ Mr. Bouck’s arrest and indictment followed .the historic out- rage at Walla Walla, from which city the state convention of the Washington Grange was kicked out. It was charged by enemies of the Grange, led by a special-interest organ of Walla Walla, that Mr. Bouck was disloyal, because, in his annual speech to the Grange, published at the time in the Leader, he had approved political or- ganization by the farmers and advised them to study the Nonpar- tisan league program as representing the most advanced and pro- gressive thought among American farmers. In spite of these at- tacks on Mr. Bouck the Grange re-elected him by a big majority. Immediately the authorities ordered the Grange out of the city, ; closed all hally to the farmers and sought to brand them as dis- loyalists, because they had sustained an efficient leader. The subsequent charge of disloyalty against the Grange head was too apparently an effort to bolster up the act of the Walla Walla kaisers in kicking ‘the Grange out. - The act of ‘ejecting. a. state convention of patriotic farmers-was “too raw,” without some - concrete excuse for.it, and the subsequent indictment of Bouck was an attempt to manuf acture the excuse after ‘the act, as an excuse for the act. It hasn’t worked. Mr. Bouck is completely vindicated. The loyal Grange farmers’ who' re-elected h1m in spite of the po- litical-attacks =7e vindicated. All that remains to complete the ~matter is a confession of guilt by the Spokesman-Rewew of Spokane, -which' defendéd Walla Walla for the outrage against the farmers’