The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, January 27, 1919, Page 6

i) ¢ {4 A s e e o e s A ot 5 A III/ ,,//, 7 7 % S Y Z 2 % ' onpartisan feader Minnesota, under the Act of March 8, 1879. OLIVER 8. MORRIS, Editor Entered as second-class matter September 38, 1915, at the postoffice at St. Pnnl. A. B. GILBERT, Associate Editor B. 0. FOS8S, Art Editor Advertisins rates on application.. Subscription,” one year, in_advance, $2.50; six P easel do not make (:1'1ecl:xii drafts nor money orders payable to "indi- all letters and make remittances to The Nonpartisan Leader, Box 576, St. Paul. Minn. MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS THE C. BECKWITH SPECIAL AGENCY. Advertising Representatives, New - York, Ghieago. 8t. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. 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. A REAL SOLDIER : OME time ago we quoted a statement made by Alan Seeger, S American poet, who gave his life for France while a mem- ber of the famous Foreign Legion in the early days of the war. Seeger was a splendid type of American and soldier. He said that hate was no part of the makeup of the soldiers of the Legion. They left that business of war to the noncombatant editors far from the fighting front. In news dispatches the other day-there was another statement from another American soldier which we. desire to record along with Seeger’s. It is as follows: “Our men are not going to come back hating the Germans. No man who has been in-the line facing the Germans will bear any malice toward them. I know if any American infantrymen met the kaiser on the road he would be willing to share his hardtack with him. This is not a false sentiment. Was the soldier who thus spoke some I. W. W. or pacifist caught in the meshes of the draft? Was he, more likely, some so- called German-American, still secretly full of sympathy for Ger- man kultur and kaiserism, in spite of the uniform he wore and pre- tenses to loyalty and patriotism? The words were spoken at a patriotic meetmg in New York recently by Lieutenant Colonel Whittlesey, commander of the “lost - battalion” in the Argonne forest, which was surrounded by the Ger- mans and faced what was beheved to be certain annihilation. It will be remembered that the German commander sent a note to Colonel Whittlesey asking the surrender of the battalion and stat- ing that the Americans had fought gloriously, with unexcelled courage, and that the Germans did not desire to wipe out so many brave men, but preferred to take them as honorable prisoners of war. Colonel Whittlesey sent a note back to the German com- ~mander saying: “Go to hell.” - The “lost battalion” (or what was left of it) finally fought its way out of the encircling line of Germans. Colonel Whittlesey has been decorated with the highest honors in the power of-the people of America to award to brave soldiers. It should be noted that the colonel appeared on the New York platform to make his speech in citizens’ clothes, without wearing any of the medals he is entitled to dlsplay HE PROVES OUR CHARGE vertising trade paper, for the text of a speech made be- fore the New York convention of the Association of Na- tional Advertisers, by B. C. Forbes of Forbes Magazine. The Leader has frequently discussed what we believe is a widespread and generally successful attempt of big business, through advertis- -ing patronage, to control the editorial policy of publications. . Mr. . Forbes confirms everything we have said. He very frankly advises advertlsers to tighten this big business censorship of our press, and gives very conclusive. evidence to show that advertisers IN . THIS WAY CAN CRUSH AND PUT OUT OF BUSINESS EDI- i ‘ ‘ N J E ARE indebted to a recent issue of Printers’ Ink, an ad- . TORS AND PUBLISHERS WHO DISAGREE WITH BIG BUSI- . : NESS OPINIONS IN POLITICS AND ECONOMICS. »w '//,,,,/ W Persons mterested in a free press w1ll cheerfully thank Mr. £ rmnsxx Forbes for his candor. He wants to see the American press muzzled by business, and he is honest enough to state openly that it can be done by pressure from advertisers, and clever enough to con- struct an ingenious defense of such a system that will appeal to big business interests which have advertising appropriations to spend. Mr. Forbes asks the question: “Are advertisers expected to set themselves up as censors of every publication in America?”” and he answers this question as follows: Every one of us, if we are to fulfill our duhes as decent citizens, must act as censors every day of our lives. We pick and clioose our ghoes, our hats, our suits. We pick and choose when we want to buy a phonograph or a piano or an office desk. Why, if we were not HO!' HO! | ENTIRELY PROPER N HE' ANY'\'H!NG L WANT HiM TOy censors, if thé whole public were not censors in every phase of t-heir _ life, what in thunder would be the good of advertising ? Having thus declared the Tight of big business to control editors and ‘publishers through advertising boycotts, Mr. Forbes gives us an indication of what publications advertisers, using this weapon, should muzzle. All publications that “sap and undermine” the “fabric of business” are to come under the ban. Thus, we sup- pose, publications which publish the federal trade commission’s revelations of the monopoly and profiteerings of the Big Five pack- ers, and demand_that such abuses of big business be remedied, are to be disciplined by advertisers. Is not the packing trust part of the “fabric of business,” and is it not “sapping and undermining” that “fabric of business” to denounce this unholy profiteermg combine? Printers’ Ink, in a subsequent 1ssue, published an answer to Mr. Forbes by E. 'T Gundlach of the information and educational service of the United States department of labor. Mr. Gundlach pointed out the danger and menace to American institutions of such a policy as that recommended by Mr. Forbes. We might be inclined to give Printers’ Ink credit for fairly publishing both sides of the question, except for the gratuitous insult to Mr. Gundlach and to every intelligent reader of Printers’ Ink contained in that paper’s heading of Mr. Gundlach’s reply. It was headed as fol- lows: “Gundlach Disagrees With B. C. Forbes, Who Would Have Advel;tlsers Shun Publications That Are Not 100 Per Cent Amer- ican”! dares to question the right of big business to censor the press! They are opposed to 100 per ce,.t American policies! ANOTHEPF, OVE IN IOWA HE efforts of the fleat('r Jowa association and its $10,000 a year secretary and manager evidently have been- dis- .. appointing to the big business interests of the state. This association, which started out by declaring that Iowa farmers must not organize except in a way approved by the backers of the asso- ciation, for two years has been spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in a propaganda campaign against the Nonpartisan, league. That the association has not made much headway we gather from a recent official announcement that a NEW Iowa “farmers’” organization has been formed to fight the Nonpartisan league. 'We quote the announcement as follows: At last the progressive farmers of Iowa are perfecting a state- wide farm organization, devoid of prejudice and devoid of all sem- blance of politics. Also, this new organization will make impossible HEH-HER! THEY'LL NEVER GET WISE - any further propaganda in Iowa by the Nonpartisan league and its Socialist agitators from North Dakota. -That is a pretty large order, to say the least. All the time the Greater Iowa association was tellmg us that the farmers were flocking to join it, and that it was a great “farmers’ organization” we were being decelved because now we are told that “at last” the farmers are to have a “real” organization, and itiisn’t the Greater Iowa association—but only a branch of it. Wltness the followmg from the official announcement: . The perfection of this Iowa farmers’ organization has been nrged by thtf Greater Iowa association for more than a year—or ever since the Nonpartlsan league made :ts first entry into the stafc. . That ought to settle Mr. Gundlach and anybody else who -