The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 7, 1919, Page 8

EWhat Other Papers Say of Farmer Laws Newspapers and Magazines From All Parts of the Nation Show Interest in N. D. Legislation—Representatives of More Than 40 Present at Bismarck YEAR ago there might have of the 48. states in the Union was best known. There is no chance for doubt today. Ask a dozen men; 11 of the 12 will answer “North Dakota.” - At the recent session of the legislature in Bismarck representatives of approx- imately 40 newspapers and magazines were pres- ent, at one time or another, to see what the farmer legislators were doing. What the writers saw is - being told now in newspapers and magazines whose ¢ combined circulations run into many millions. Most of the correspondents, although prejudiced ; against the League when they came to Bismareck, were honest men. They saw what the League was . doing and when they got home they told the facts. Sometimes their honesty was not relished by the . editors who sent them to North Dakota expecting them to “roast” the farmers. One magazine re- . fused flatly to publish the facts that its staff writer . brought back. Other papers published the facts, i but with misleading headlines and editorial mat- i ter interspersed with the truth. On the whole the correspondents told the truth, and that is all the farmers ask. There are a few notable exceptions to the gen- eral statement that the newspaper men told the. facts. Take, for instance, the following series of - absolutely false statements which appeared in_the . Wenatchee (Wash.) Daily World, as special cor- respondence from Rufus Woods: The Nonpartisan league * * * grew out of a ‘. legitimate complaint which the farmers of that | state (North Dakota) had to register in reference to certain state policies. The farmers wanted a i state elevator. The party in control in its platform agreed to give it to them. They were turned down | at two successive sessions of the state legislature. Seizing the opportunity Townley and associates or- ganized the Nonpartisan league, charged $16 per || membership and hauled in the money by the hun- dreds of thousands. The farmers of North Dakota o got their state elevator, which is said to be a gross | financial failure and reports say that it lost $500,000 the past year. * * * Kate Richards O’Hare is an- ' other of the bright and shining leaders of the Non- partisan league. She is the one who stood up and ;| said that the mothers who sent their boys to Europe . were “no better than brood sows.” Townley, pres- || ident of the League, opposed the first Liberty loan . and has a long record as a stimulator of class hatred. * * * Another of the North Dakota leaders . of the League is “Free Lover” Williams, who made ', this statement in a speech in Petersburg, N. D., two years ago: “Society,” he says, “is handicapped by ! 2 belief in God.” '/ A WILD STORY FOR K3 3| 4 hios e DISTANT CONSUMPTION Every statement in this list—that the farmers got a state elevator, that it lost $500,000 the past year, that Kate Richards O’Hare and “Free Lover” Williams (whoéver he is) are connected in any way with the Nonpartisan league, that Mr. Townley opposed the Liberty loans—is false. Rufus Woods, the correspondent of the Wenatchee Daily World, never visited Bismarck. He evidently got his in- formation from the Minneapolis Chamber of Com- - merce. The League enemies would not dare to publish such stuff in North Dakota or Minnesota. They evidently thought they could get away with it by arranging for publication in an obscure Wasgh- ington paper. The Newark (N. J.) News, a big, wide-awake eastern paper, is one that sent a correspondent to Bismarck instead of depending upon the Minne- apolis Chamber of Commerce dope. In his articles this correspondent te]ls what he heard about the League on his way west. The traveling men he met on the train told him he was going to “Bol- sheviki” headquarters. He kept 'a list of other names that the farmers were called on ‘the train. These were: Spartacans, Socialists, fools, cranks, pro-Germans, I. W. W.s, atheists, free lovers. That is what the newspaper man was told on the train. When he got to Bismarck what he found he tells in his own words: been some doubt about which . " day, There are 113 members of the lower house of - the North Dakota legislature. Seventy-six are Nonpartisan and. of that number 74 are farmers and two are labor men. Every one of the 74 is a landowner. In the senate 36 out of the 49 members are Nonpartisans and farmers, likewise landowners. Of course there is nothing to suggest the I. W. W. about them. They have a big stake in this country; the I. W. W. has none. The North Dakota farmer knows the I. W. W. only as gentry who held him up in the harvesting season of last year for wages sometimes as high as $8 per day and who were guilty of some sabotage here two years ago. Is the Nonpartisan a Socialist? He would be anathema to Karl Marx, and the fact is that he is beginning to draw the fire of the International Socialists. These men are capitalists; they are “haves.” Governor Lynn J. Frazier, for example, one of the big figures in the League, a graduate of the University of North Dakota, is a successful farmer, the owner of 640 acres. The governor’s place is so well equipped that it is famous in the “movies.” Lieutenant Governor Howard R. Wood is another farmer who owns broad and prosperous acres. He is the son of the first member of the League, Francis B. Wood, one of its guiding lights. As tending to combat any theory of I. W. W.ism or unconventional views of life, it might be men- tioned that Governor Frazier is a consistent Meth- odist and that Mr. Wood is a Roman Catholic. NEWARK NEWS SEES BENEFICIAL CHANGES The Newark News correspondent goes on to tell the story of how the League originated; how the caucus, to which he and other visiting newspaper men were freely admitted, operates; what the League bills are and. what they will accomplish. He says that the failure of professional politicians to keep their promises is largely responsible for the growth of the farmers’ movement, adding: Some of the most prominent news- papers and magazines in the United States are paying attention today to the Nonpartisan league and the North Dakota legislature. What is being said about the League and the North Da- kota program will be of ‘interest to all Leaguers. The Leader quotes some of the comments in this issue. In a suc- ceeding issue further comments on the work of the organized farm- ers will be presented. One permanent influence this new political move- ment probably will leave behind—nonpartisanship in respect to existing national parties, The gen- tlemen who “view with alarm” and “point with pride” will have to put real meat into their politi- cal platforms hereafter and extract the- hot air before they can make progress with voters who are so zealous for new ideas. Following the publication of this series of arti- cles by its correspondent, the Newark News pub- lished a long editorial on the Nonpartisan league in which it said: . It is just as well to keep in mind that the North Dakota farmers who seem determined to -travel these unbeaten paths in America are substantial citizens, the men of the class who, in their state, have the greatest stake in the community. It is absurd to call them Bolsheviks. . Bolsheviks would hardly enact a law lending the credit of the state to all who had an ambition to build their own homes, provided they could furnish 20 per cent of the capital themselves and give evidence of such character that they could reasonably be relied upon to meet the annual installments of interest and principal, * * * ; And let us not forget that 30 years ago there was a convention of farmers at Omaha, in the days of - the Populist movement, that demanded government ownership- of railroads- and telegraphs, cheaper money, popular election of United States senators * —a new idea then—and the initiative and referen- dum. * * * The North Dakota movement springs, In a measure, from the western grass roots. This is populism over again, but going further, more highly organized, more efficiently led and operating in a period when its ideas appear less fantastic. - The Republican conference at St. Paul the other resided over by Chairman Hays, indicates that the Republican leaders are not so blind to the possible effects of the Nonpartisan movement in "PAGE EIGHT ‘ . the Nonpartisan picnics. 1920. But Republican leadership in the Northwest seems bent on suppressing political nonconformity, as the St. Paul Daily News puts it, “with a shot- gun.” A red flag bill, introduced in Minnesota, prohibited pennants of other colors also, even those the farmers tie to their automobile windshields at- There is a state constab- ulary bill in nearly every legislature in the North- west that is under suspicion. Legislators of this school are proposing to define bolshevism by law, as they conceive it, and inflict heavy penalties upon the guilty. The temper of some of these gentle- men is such that nobody can be confident that they will not include perfectly respectable forms of non- conformity in their definition of bolshevism. There is no attempt to demonstrate that grievances are imaginary, or, if they are not, to try and remedy them. Another newspaper investigator, who wrote arti- - cles for the New York Evening Post and for the Nebraska State Journal of Lincoln, Neb., also found that the men who oppose the Neonpartisan league are doing nothing to remedy the farmers’ griev- ances. This writer found one element, represented. in the Minnéapolis Chamber of Commerce, that in- sisted the farmers had no grievances. The article in the New York Evening Post goes on to say: In other quarters is found a disposition to sup- pose that when the farmers of a whole state agree in complaining of specified abuses there must be somewhere a certain amount of foundation for the complaint. ; ¥ ” s “We have made a great mistake in dealing with the farmers,” says a prominent banker. “We should have investigated their complaints and recti- fied matters where complaints were well founded. I, myself,” he-said, “am in favor of having the bankers maintain a committee to investigate com- glaints against bankers and wherever they find a anker taking advantage of the farmers to apply stiff discipline. If we had done .such things in North Dakota, this storm could have been averted.” Asked what measures were being taken, while flet the legislature of Minnesota is in conservative ands, thus to remove excuse for such a revolt in Minnesota as has taken place in North Dakota, he answered that nothing is being done save to pass the motor corps bill and perhaps to alter the direct primary law with a view to making it harder for the Nonpartisan league to capture a party organi- zation and candidates. The Nebraska State Journal correspondent paid particular attention to investigating complaints of disloyalty against the League. One of the men he interviewed about the League was former Governor John Lind, until recently a member of Governor Burnquist’s public safety commission. Governor Burnquist has flatly charged the Nonpartisan league with violation of the law, disloyalty and alliance with Socialists, I. W. W.s and Bolshevists. The Nebraska newspaper man asked former Gov- ernor Lind if the League movement was “legiti- mate polities.” “Absolutely yes,” Mr. Lind replied. “The League conducts its political operations according to law. It seeks its ends by constitutional processes. It js no more alarming than was the Populist party and it is as legitimate as any party. Since it follows the lawful ways of politics it has no re- semblance to bolshevism.” JOHN LIND'S VIEWS OF DISLOYALTY CHARGES The newspaper man asked Mr. Lind if the League was disloyal as charged. Mr. Lind replied: “There was nothing to the charges of special dis- loya!ty against the League. The League contained no more disloyalty than any other party.” The Nebraska paper says on this question: Was it (the League) disloyal ? or a long story here. There h around League organizers’ necks. There has been hot tar and feathers on League men’s backs. A large proportion of the prosecutions and acts of violence against League men occurred in Minne- sota, directly under Mr. Lind’s notice, In his view he is suit:ported by statistics. Alto- gether, in all states, there were only four federal arrests of League agents on disloyalty or sedition charges. Three of these have been dismissed.or acquitted. The fourth has not been brought .to trial. Of the state prosecutions of League agents or members all but seven have been dismissed or.. have resulted in acquittal, No League man has ye paid a fine or served a prison -sentence on these There is room ave been ropes