The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 24, 1919, Page 8

H { H § H R A SN AT TP T s e i S A3 i i | i i | { - TOWNLEY IS i , the right man in the right - Listen to this, from Tuttle, _of knowing Mr. Townley per- 753 Referendum Voters Show Confidence Excerpts From the Thousands of Letters Sent in With the Farmer Votes Sustaining Mr. Townley—‘‘Enemies Prove He Is Right Man” OW would you like to have sev- eral thousand letters from farmers placed before you in a big pile, and be told to read them all and pick out the best for publication? Well, that’s of the Leader staff who hap- pens to be writing this. Per- haps they thought the job would make me “sore.” Undoubtedly they knew it would take several days to go through all those letters. But if they thought I wouldn’t enjoy it they were mistaken. The letters, as you know if you read the Lead- er’s account-of the counting of ballots in the ref- erendum on Mr. Townley, were turned over to the Leader by the referendum canvassing board. Thousands of farmers were not satisfied to merely vote to sustain Mr. Townley and the national committee. Besides their ballots they sent personal letters, telling why they voted as they did and what they thought of the League. These were the let- ters I have just finished read- ng. - Why did the League farm- ers vote 100 to 1 to sustain the League management. Well, I ought to know, for I have read their reasons—several® thou- sand of them. The reason most often given was that “Townley was the right man because of the enemies he has made.” RIGHT MAN “As long as Big Biz calls A. C. Townley the names they have called him during the last few years, why he is the man to keep at the head of the League,” wrote W. J. Beaver of Monango, N. D.,, and Mr. Beaver struck the keynote of most of the. letters. “It is proved,” wrote John P. Larson of Arnegard, N. D, saying the same thing in dif- ferent words, “that Townley is place—that’s why enemies of the League hate him so.” Thomas G. Stafford of Au- dubon, Minn., put it this way: “I have been pestered with poisonous literature during the past year condemning A. C. Townley, but it has only con- vinced me thoroughly that A. C. Townley is the right man— long may he live and stronger may he get to resist such bit- ter enemies.” % Never was anything said with more truth than that “a man is known by his enemies.” Col., and signed .G. Holbrook: “I-do not have the pleasure sonally, but since eminent plutocrats and powers-that-be fight him so freely, it is cre- 3 dentials sufficient enough for me that man for the place.” 2 I might go on giving you hundreds of statements like these from the letters, but I will stop with one more showing that every time the kept press knocks Mr. Townley it makes 1,000 more reasons why the farmers should have confidence in him: “Mr. Townley certainly must be the proper man,” he is the says James L. Strait of Bonesteel, S. D., “otherwise - the opposition would not be so bitterly opposed to him. Oh, ‘the League principles are all right, but the leaders are rotten,’” concludes this writer sarcas- tically, quoting a stock “argument” of hired editors. C. D. Webster, farmer and oil refiner of Oklahoma City, Okla., seizes thg opportunity, in voting to what happened to the member scheduled for over three years. A R B A A B R T S o S e et e T R a2 sustain the national committee, to give the follow- ing interesting account of himself: “I was an independent refiner for 40 years and in my great struggle to succeed independent of the oil trust I made and lost over $1,000,000 and was driven from one end of the country to the other by this relentless foe.” George J. Klein of Ellinwood, Kan., says that he “believes that A. C. Townley is the greatest leader of the common people.” H. W. Dean of Randolph, S. D., thinks that “Townley is the only man that could have put ‘the organization through as he has done.” g George G. Shelton of Everson, Wash., says: “I have just read Federal Judge Charles F. Ami- ] ~ CATCHING THE REBOUND l = e don’s decision in the old bankruptcy case. Say, it’s great! I wish the kept press that assailed Mr. Townley could be compelled to print this decision on their first pages.” PLEASURE TO VOTE FOR TOWNLEY From Yakima, in the same state, Henry A. Mc- Cormick writes: ; “I consider it not only a pleasure but an honor to cast this ballot for Mr. Townley, one of the greatest leaders of mankind.” -George H. Comings of Eau Claire, Wis., wishes that Mr. Townley will get every vote cast, “200,000 farmers voting TOGETHER for-a new freedom in PAGE ' EIGHT Zi S S S A T E R e A MR S LSRR S e | — gjj Cartoonist Morris here draws on the gymnasium for an apt illustration of what happened to the anti-farmer gang in their many -attacks on the League. disloyal, but the patriotic activity of the League farmers and the record of North Dakota put the opposition to shame by comparison. The opposition has declared that the League was merely trying to deceive the farmers, but everything promised has gone through as The opposition pressed the charge that the League lead- ers were taking the farmers’ money, but a federal court nailed this lie. declared from the house tops that the League leaders did not represent the farmers, but the farmers have killed this one by a 100 to 1 vote. being laid out cold is their control of the press and unlimited money for cir- culating new slanders as fast as the old are knocked out. The League was declared What prevents the opposition from America, cracking the foundations of autocracy,”’ he says. E. M. Albertson of Sanborn, Minn., assumed there was no doubt at all about the outcome of the referendum. “I am very glad that Mr. Townley is going to be our president,” he says: “Let the good work go on. We will get the old gang yet!” “I notice a tendency in certain quarters,” wrote A. W. Mahin of Bowdon, N. D., “to praise the League and damn its leaders. I think that the trouble with Mr. Townley as president of the League is that he has been guilty of GETTING US SOMEWHERE.” Well, Mr. Mahin, Townley was found guilty of that by a vote of 100 to 1 in the League referendum! G. Peery of the South Side Farm, Aldrich, Minn., who has a “We'll Stick” button printed on his stationery, is a personal friend of Mr. Townley. Why? Let him tell: “I have known Mr. Townley for a long time, and also his parents. Several of the people of this town who are now Townley’s enemies went to school with him, and the worst they say about him is that he was an ‘odd fellow’ in those days.” NO NEED FOR REFERENDUM S. S. Slaybaugh of Chinook, Mont.,, had good reasons for voting for ‘Mr. Townley. He said: . “He is the man that created the League. He has stood all the abuse and slander that could be heaped upon him. He is the man who has been tried and found true. He is the man who has shown the farm- ers and workingmen the way to better their conditions. He is the man who can not be tempted with money. He is no Maxwell.” L. A. Whiteman of Shep- perd, Mont.,, was one of the many who wrote saying they could not understand the rea- son for the referendum, as there was no doubt at all that - the League wanted Townley. Archie M. Martin of Belgrade, .Mont., expressed the same thought when he said: “Why should the national commit- tee’s decision in electing Mr. Townley be questioned?” Scores of others wrote that there was no need for the ref- erendum—that the action of the national committee was enough. Gust Weickum of Naper, Neb., wrote that he was proud to be a member of the League and said he would remain a member “as long as I can get ‘a chance to vote for A. C. Townley. I will stick.” George Sherman of Plain- view, Neb.,, who was put in mob danger for his belief in the League, takes occasion in writing to praise the Leader,. as did hundreds of others. “Have been reading the Leader and will say it sounds pretty good to me,” he said. L. A. Graves of Ashton, Idaho, was another that took the opportunity to say a good word for the Leader. “I am a farmer and a reader of your most valuable paper, and I surely do appreciate the work you are doing for the farmer and the laborer,” he wrote. : : J. A. Mansmith of Rush City, Minn., was away The opposition “from home and couldn’t vote in the referendum, but Mrs. Mansmith marked the ballot for him and sent it in, and it was counted by the board. “Please ~ notice,” she wrote, “that I made a DOUBLE CROSS ‘after Ml:. Townley’s name, one for myself as well (Continued on page 14) ;