The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 7, 1919, Page 6

N §§\\\ N N N MM S S 'Iy III#,% . / N\ \\N.\f S = s N N S N §\\\ NN NN N N A\ onpartissn Teader Official Magagzine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Week Entered as second-class matter September 38, 1915, at the postoffice at St. Paul, Minnesota, under the Act of March 3, 1879. OLIVER S. MORRIS, Editor . E. B. Fussell and A. B. Gilbert, Associate Editors _—— 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 575, St. Paul, Minn. MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS THE S. C. BECK{)VITH SPECIAL AGENCY, Advertising Representatives, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. : B. O. Foss, Art Editor 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. THEIR STRONGEST CASE HARLES W. GORDON, prominent St. Paul manufacturer, C jobber and Commercial club leader, has recently tried to make a case against the new industrial legislation in North Dakota. In his press article he avoids the usual language of abuse, but he fails miserably to make a case and as a supposedly intelli- gent business man makes himself ridiculous. After reciting the powers given to the North Dakota indus- trial commission, the investments they are to make, and the kinds of industrial service they are to undertake, he gets down to his main point—that of putting such ‘vast” powers in the hands of so few men. He says: ¥ It may be that the governor of North Dakota is a man fit to take his place beside the great men of the ages, but under our system of government we have been educated to believe that no one man, or small coterie of men, shall be given the power to wreck private enter- prises or te plunge any state into financial and industrial panic. Please understand that I do not say that the industrial commis- 7OO MUCH e RESPONSIBILITY| 7\ YOUNG MAN, 5 [ & sion of North Dakota will do these things—I do say that it has the power to do them. 3 The ridiculous part of this argument is well illustrated by the fact that there are more than a score of men in the Twin Cities - each of whom handles much greater investments than this North Dakota commission will have in charge. None of them are subject to recall as are the North Dakota officials. Think, for instance, of just one railroad, the Great Northern, which has many millions of capitalization and has the territory it serves by the throaj;. Does Mr. Gordon protest this immense concentration of power in a few hands? What does he think of the steel corporation? Then there is the aged John D. Rockefeller, with nearly two billions of property in the oil trust, in mines, in factories, in rail- roads. If it is dangerous to give three officials responsible to the people of North Dakotd the control over the investment of $7,000,000 and the lending of $10,000,000 more on first mortgages as the bankers do, what shall we say about the grasping Rockefeller responsible to no one?. Yet Mr. Gordon evidently sees no danger in the Rockefeller power. Think this over. sincere in his argument, or is he merely “agin” anything the farm- ers might do, and taking the first argument that occurs to him in a desperate attempt to build up a case? . 7 ARCH AND THE STANDSTILLERS HERE recently died in England a remarkable man. He ‘was Joseph Arch, the first workingman to sit in the English parliament. ; - . g Arch was born 92 years ago, in humble circumstances. He became a farm laborer. The condition of small farmers and farm laborers then was pitiful. The tiller of the soil received an: average of $2 a week, which had to meet the expenses of himself and his family. They subsisted chiefly on barley bread and many never knew the taste of tea or sugar. : ' : e Labor organizations or farmers’ organizations at this period e : : : : S PAGE . "s?illers. Then. ask yourself whether Mr. Gordon is z 7 % Q) N\ N\ NN A\ were practically unheard of. The reactionaries of that day, like those of this day, insisted that we lived in the best of all possible worlds and preached perfect contentment. In 1872 Arch organized 200 farm workers in the “National Agricultural Laborers’ union.” When it came to the attention of the privileged classes of England that Arch and his fellows wanted better living conditions for the tillers, there was a howl of protest. The leaders were called every name on the calendar except Bolshe- ° viki, and they only escaped that because the Bolsheviki had not been invented at that time. The bishop of London advq_cated ducking Arch and other leaders in a horse pond to stop their de- mands for something better than $2 a week. Arch, who was a DUCH HIM IN THE HORSE POND! primitive Methodist preacher besides being a farm worker and organizer, retorted: “Adult baptism is not the rule of the Church of England.” x Arch took his abuse. It did not hurt him. His cause was just and to a large measure it won. Arch was sent to the house of com- mons in 1885 as the sole labor member. It was a revolutionary - thing then. Today the Labor party is the largest single progressive force in England. As the result of the agitation started by Arch; England has been forced to adopt measures for the protection of farmers and city workingmen which, in many ways, are the su- perior of anything we have in the United States. There have been many changes since Arch began his work, but there are still plenty of people who believe in the remedy of the former bishop of London for settling all economic grievances. The world goes forward, but such men remain stationary. They are not standpatters but stand- A LESSON FROM HISTORY LASS in history, stand up! When did the United States be- gin? In 1789, when the Constitution was adopted? In 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was issued? No, to get back to the very beginning of things, we have to look for an earlier date. We must take the year 1754 as a starting point. In that year the idea of the “league of colonies” first took definite shape, just as in 1919 the idea of the “league of nations” has first been taken up on a practical basis. There was a conven- - tion held at Albany, N. Y., in 1754, to which all of the 13 colonies were invited to send delegates to map out a plan for all of the col- onies to act in unison on certain matters. Only seven colonies accepted the invitation to be represented. Most of the newspapers of the time were against the plan. The only prominent supporter, among the papers, was the Pennsylvania Gazette, edited by Benja- min Franklin. : The opponents of the plan of getting together used all the arguments that are being used against the league of nations today. They objected that a league would interfere with local sovereignty. Here were 13separate colonies, under different forms of government, settled by peoples of different nationalities, they said. Some were . peopled with French,some with English,some with Dutch. Some had governors appointed, some elected their own officers. They had different climates and soils. How could they be expected to ‘act together?. Suppose Connecticut got into a quarrel which meant the LEAGUE OF cozo_z‘_wss I7 /S NOT ALTOGETHER TO oUR MINDS BUT IT /S use of troops. ticut’s fight? However, ¢he delegates from the seven colonies met and drew up a plan of government, which was to be submitted to English : Should Virginia be expected to take up Connec- authorities. It provided for a grand council, with representatives from all the colonies in the proportion in which they could furnish troops, this council to have authority to levy taxes, build forts, make treaties with Indians and nominate all civil officers. An officer to be appointed by the English crown was to have the veto power over the acts of the grand council. Probably none of the delegates representing the seven colonies were satisfied with their own plan. Some wanted more power; SIX = : o3