The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 3, 1919, Page 6

SRR T SR T Y T é’%‘g% Ay . /A % b g Y J EZ/,,;,% SECT Tonpartigsn 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, 2 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 do not make checks, drafts nor money orders payable to indi- viduals. - Address all letters and make all remittances to The Nonpartisan Leader, Box 576, 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. 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. . NORTH DAKOTA FARMERS AT WORK HE farmers of North Dakota, for the first time in control of both branches of their legislature, are going about the I carrying out of the program on which they were elected in an efficient and business-like manner.. To the opposition of these farmers the most disconcerting thing is not the bills which have been introduced carrying out the League program. The mere in- troduction of bills has never worried gang politicians and the spe- cial privilege interests they represent. The thing that is worrying them is the SOLIDARITY of the farmers, without which the League would not be “dangerous.” An instance of this solidarity will suffice to give a true picture of the entire attitude of the North Dakota farmers. : i League members in the house, constituting a majority of the membership, were divided on the best man for speaker. Some wanted L. L. Stair. Some wanted Walter Maddock. The news- papers declared the split threatened the League majority in the house. They did what they could to make a hot fight between the supporters of Maddock {1l THROwW and “Stair. Both these TJ“—?,.\\ESQENCH : men were tried and true ‘MACHINERY J < Leaguers. Both were = e equipped to be speaker of the house. ' TR LT o . The League members S lade .\ Rt got together in caucus . 2 ety S5 385 845 Sf and talked it over. Sup- : : porters of beth candi- - QGBS R ST g _ dates were given a hear- 0 Ry 30 N 3> 4 ing. A vote was taken o s and - Stair won in the caucus by ONE VOTE. It was pretty close, but the caucus then made it unanimous. . T The opposition papers jumped in with the cry that Stair had - been “forced down the throat” of the League members by the “League machine”’—that he was the “machine candidate,” and that the Maddock supporters were not going to stand for it. Maddock supporters among League legislators were offered the zid of the minority in the house hostile to the League to put Maddock over in place of Stair. - Everything possible was done by the papers and the politicians to cause a split in the League strength. The next day in the house Stair was elected speaker, after being put in nomination by Maddock, who made a speech for him. Every League legiclator, including all the League members who originally wanted Maddock, voted for Stair. s ITY 'That is what is worrying the Lezgue opnosition—SOLIDAR- and everything. else would not be important if it were not for the “We’ll Stick” spirit carried into the legislative halls. It proves that the League members mean business and that the opposition, with all their tricks, can’t “bust ’em up.” : LYING ABOUT RUSSIA EADLINES in the St. Paul Pioneer Press recently inform us that “Bolshevism Pops Up in Senate Bill—Alliance With Soviet Is Urged by Devold—Bill Quickly ‘- Side- tracked.” Proceeding to read the “news” which occasioned this front-page headline, we find the following: ' & Bolshevism made its first appearance on the floor of the Minne- sota senate last night and at the first glimpse a dozen members hail- ing from all parts of the state, were on their feet ready for battle on a resolution introduced by Senator O. A. Devold. ’. In its word- ing the resolution favored an alliance between the United States gov- ‘ernment and that of the Soviet organization in Russia. et & B A e T The carrying of elections, the introduction of bills—all that ° Senator Devold is a union labor member from Minneapolis. Being interested in'an unusual and unexpected proposition such as a proposed “alliance with the United States and the Russian Sm{let " Republic,” as reported by the Pioneer Press, we read the article carefully for the text of the Devold resolution. IT WAS NOT PUBLISHED. There was not even one word of quotation from it! We then procured a copy of the resolution. It DOES NOT propose an alliance between the United States and Russia. It DOES NOT, in any way, shape or form, directly or indirectly, approve the Soviet government or the Russian Bolshevist party. The resolution merely asks congress and the United States government to withdraw our troops from their present interfer- ence in the internal affairs of Russia, in accordance with one of our professed war aims, “self-determination for all nations.” The resolution further in- dorses the effort of Sena- tor Johnson of California to obtain information from the United States department of state rela- tive to the past and pres- ent relations between the United States and the Russian Soviet Republic, and the reason for keep- ing an army of. occupa- tion in Russia in opposi- tion to the present government of Russia and wishes of the major- - ity of its people. Senator Johnson is neither a Socialist nor Bol- shevik. He is a perfectly respectable Republican. -Thus does the American press distort and misrepresent news concerning Russia. . The Devold resolution is much milder in its terms than the demands made by the Liberal and Labor parties of Great Britain on the British government, which have resulted in the British government opening negotiations with the French gov- ernment with a view toward withdrawing troops from Russia. The American government, through President Wilson and our peace delegates in France, has already declared that America will send no more troops to force a form of government on Russia for- eign to her wishes, and liberals who are still supporting President Wilson here and abroad claim that he favors entire withdrawal from Russia and is endeavoring to get an agreement to that effect from France and Great Britain. The latter, due to internal pressure of the labor and liberal groups, seems willing, but the French govern- ment has announced it opposes withdrawal from Russia, and there is evidence that the present French government would like to send more men and bayonets into that distracted country. How long the French government will be able, in its Russian policy, to hold out against the common-sense and liberal elements of the French peo- ple is a question. L In the meantime, American liberal and labor groups will give what support they can to resolutions suclt as Senator Johnson has introduced in congress and Senator Devold in the Minnesota legis- lature. The continued lying of the American press about Russia and about the efforts in this country to hold our government to our expressed war aims can not in the end be successful, we think. i LABOR AND THE FARMER OLITICIANS who fear the united strength of the producers—— P farmers and city workers—and high-brow economists living in the musty past, who continue to talk about the farmer be- ing opposed to labor and labor opposed to the farmer, because, for- : o sooth, the farmer is a ; “capitalist” and the city worker is .not, and the city worker is-a “con- sumer” and the farmer a “producer”’—all theze end many others will be interested in a set of res- olutions recently adopted by the St. Paul (Minn.) Trades and Labor assem- _ bly, “declaring the posi- tion of said assembly to- Says the St. Paul Trades -ward political organizations of farmers.” and Labor assembly: - . The farmers of Minnesota and the Northwest, after being de- spoi'ed and oppressed for years by parasitic speculators and treach- erous politicians, have orzanized a great political movement: known as the National Nonpartisan league, which aims to have laws enacted "~ that will free the producers and consumers from the grievous wrongs they now suffer at the hands of the greedy. profiteers. A In this official document, St. Paul labor goes on to recount the efforts of politicians, special interests and newspapers to keep union