The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 7, 1919, Page 9

% B SR N charges. ' Seven _cases \against League men, in- cluding one against Townley, are still pending. Until one or more of these terminates in convie- : tion no League man stands finally convicted of any offense against patriotism. ; Another paper that sent a correspondent to Bismarck was the Boston Herald, a typical stand- pat sheet. The Herald correspondent tells the truth about the bills that the League farmers passed at Bismarck—the truth as he saw it. But his arti- cles are -presented with headlines that show preju- dice against the farmers and include many mis- statements that he evidently got from anti-League sources. g One part of the Herald articles deals with the -constitution of North Dakota. The Herald has a headline stating that a Harvard professor is sup- posed to have written the constitution of North Dakota. Reading down in the article one finds that the Northern Pacific railroad, back in 1889, when North Dakota was organized as a state,” “wanted to see the new sfate start off right” and arranged to have a constitution drafted for it; that the railroad employed a Harvard professor to do the drafting; that the constitution was drafted and subsequently sent to Bismarck and adopted. There is not a 'line in the Herald story that indicates that it might be questionable policy to allow railroads to draft constitutions. It is quite right and proper, in the mind of the Boston Herald, because a Har- vard professor did the actual drafting. The Boston Herald attempts, editorially and by misleading headlines, .to create prejudice against ‘the League farmers, but the correspondent gives facts about the grievances of the farmers, how the League came to be or- 2 ganized and about the measures adopted in North Dakota. In con- clusion the Herald says: Is it a socialistic move- ment ? That depends upon what socialism is defined to be. If public owner- ship of any public utility is socialism the League is a socialistic movement. * * * But whether it is or not “cuts no ice” with . the Dakota farmers. They are out to get certain things and they are get- ting them. The argu- ments of the leaders of the League can never be overcome by vituperation or any sort of personal cudgeling. The “antis” are after Townley. He knows it. Even if they “get” him the League would not be Kkilled, al- though the Leaguers would feel the blow. The only way to meet “Townleyism” is by plain argliment—down or up— on the farmer’s level. Like the man from Mis- sourii he must be “shown.” GOOD EDITORIAL IN N. Y. TIMES The New York Times, which has been one of the most bitter enemies of the Nonpartisan league and has. in the past pub- lished some absurd false- hoods about the farmers’ movement, had a recent editorial in which it re- viewed, in a reasonably -fair manner, what the League was really doing in North Dakota. The Times said: In less than seven weeks the legislature of North Dakota, adjourned short of its legal limit, enacted laws more rad- ical, more vital, more searching for good or evil, than probably any other state legislature has passed. We have not now. to debate the prin- ciples . and practices 'of the Nonpartisan 'lea?e,- whose obedient vojce that 14y r( ') /e legislature was. In many neighbor or distant states the pmpgram .of the League is urgel by an intelligent and tireless propaganda: In its home and center it is about to carry out its ideas. By their working it will be judged. : The Times then reviews briefly the measures passed by the legislature and adds: - : These are details in' a plan not, in its beginnings, by any means so dire as hermits in the- East have been led to suspect. North Dakota, forerunner or .example of half a dozen other states, is to operate a little economic policy about whose extension and potentialities most of us need not excite ourselves prematurely. Let us see, calmly, how it works. “HEARTENING NEWS,” N SAYS WORLD TOMORROW The World Tomorrow, a monthly magazine “look-. ing toward a Christian world,” as its title page says, has the following editorial in regard to the North Dakota legislature: Perhaps the most heartening political news of the month comes from North Dakota. There, un- der the rule of the Nonpartisan league, the legis- lature has passed laws providing for workmen’s compensation and state insurance; a-44-hour week, a minimum wage for women; and bills giving the state power to enter into almost any kind of busi- ness enterprise which the people may think desir- able. At present the state will confine its ven- tures to operation of state banks and grain eleva- tors. other laws making popular control more direct and immediate by restricting the power of the supreme court to declare laws unconstitutional and by pro- viding for easier amendments to the constitution itself. All these proposals have not yet borne the test of time, but they have been carefully framed and behind them is a mighty force of hope and en- thusiasm- for democracy, both in the political and | IT’"S A TERRIBLE SIGHT . I . —— ? . ; = 5 by ; o 4 4 Cartoonist Mol;iis here draws upon a setting familiar to small boys and to those who haye been small boys. It shows how the two old party leaders feel about the Nonpartisan league. Chairman Hays re- cently .visited the Twin Cities and. established a listening post, as the papers called it. In every sec- " tion the agents of both parties are working and scheming to find some way to get by the bulldog and grab those all important things—the farmer votes. = But the sign: “Keep out—beware of the dog,” is up -to stay. PAGE 'NINE - i g With these far-reaching social measures go- A - I/’ é ¢ S economical field, and a desire for orderly progress. North Dakota leads courageously in these days of social rebuilding. The .Catholic Charities Review comments very fairly upon the League program as follows: Surveying the economic program of the Nonpar- tisan league as a whole, we may properly call it radical; if we like to mix description and denun- ciation we can stigmatize it as “socialistic.” Never- theless, it is not socialism.” Whether it is too rad- ical for social safety, whether it would put upon the state a burden of industrial control and man- agement that is unscund and unwise, are questions about which men may honestly differ. Those who do not believe in the demands and proposals of the new organization need not be very fearful; for by the time that its members have removed the con- stitutional obstacles that confront them, they will probably be in a mood to proceed slowly and to test carefully each gradual step in their radical program. No body of American farmers, the ma- jority of whom are farm owners, is going to make a revolution. On the other hand, the doctrines and the history of the Nonpartisan league are a very important “sign of the times.” That the most con- servative class in our society should have produced an erganization and a program of this sort, is a phenomenon that is well worth serious and fair consideration. Capper’s Weekly, a Kansas paper published by the new United States senator from that state, has a resuthe of the North Dakota legislature in which it says: The state of North Dakota has gone into the banking, home building, flour milling, mining, in- surance, meat packing and newspaper business—un- der the industrial program adopted by the farmer legislature. It is probably the world’s greatest e)gperiment in paternalism, if we can call it that. Capper’s Weekly is somewhat inaccurate in re- ferring to the state go- ing into the newspaper business, as there is no provision for that. And there is no present inten- - tion of going into the meat packing and min- ing businesses immedi- ately. Capper’s Weekly re- views the reasons that prompted the state to go into business and adds: 8 For the next year or ! two North Dakota is go- ing to be the most inter- esting spot on the globe. It is a huge undertaking these Dakota farmers can get away with it, all the more credit to them. : A PUBLISHER WHO. BLOWS BOTH WAYS This is a very fair pres- entation of the farmers' { cause, with the exception : of the inaccuracies which | are pointed out. How- ever, Senator Capper ap- pears to be one of the newspaper owners that | blow hot and cold. In | ‘other words, indications ; are that he is attempting to play both ends of the ! game. Senator Capper has another paper, known as ' the Farmers’ Mail and Breeze. At the same time that Capper’s Week- ly is publishing a fair account of what the North Dakota legisla- ture has done, the Farm- ers’ Mail and Breeze is publishing an utterly un- fair and misleading ac- count, copied in the main from the St. Louis Re- public, a notorious ene- my of the organized farmers. This mislead- | ing account will be re- -viewed later in - the Leader along with other newspaper and magazine reports. : | N, e-relf i : Y are shouldering. If they ¥ =y