The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 21, 1919, Page 6

for a series of four appearances in each of 97 towns. L Y, Y Yo Tonpartisén Teader Entered as second-class matter September 8, 1915, at the postoffice at St. Paul, Minnesota, under the Act of March 8, 1879, . OLIVER 8. MORRIS, Editor E. B. Fussell and A. B. Gilbert, Associate Editors B. O. 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 575, St. Paul, Minn. ' . ; MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS = e e o ) 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. AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS EXPOSED HERE is one newspaper that we are always glad to welcome I in the Leader office. ‘It is the Stars and Stripes, published : in Paris. It is the organ of the American expeditionary forces in France. Its editorial page is excellent, the news is bright and well written, its cartoons are well above the average and the top- ical verse that it contains weekly is among the best that is being done anywhere. There is a reason why the Stars and Stripes is so much better than the average big city paper published in America. Some of the brightest newspaper men of the United States are with the army in France and on the staff of Stars and Stripes. But that is not the only reason. Their work is a labor of love. They are not sub- ject to the whims of any advertising department. They are not compelled to write “policy” stories to please business interests that control the editorial columns. Writers for the Stars and Stripes can tell the truth and the whole truth as they see it. : : There is not a large daily newspaper in the United States that can boast such freedom. What American newspapers really are is set forth at some length by George Creel in the current issue of Everybody’s maga- zine. Mr. Creel has been a newspaper man all his life. During the war he was chairman of the committee on public information, and - thus had direct dealings and experience with every daily paper in the United States. In his article in Everybody’s magazine Mr. Creel tells the re- sult of that experience. What he says about the general disregard for truth on the part of American newspapers and their control by business interests, the lack of any standard of ethics and the wili- ingness to betray their readers constitutes a terrible indictment - against the press as it is administered today. During the war, says Mr. Creel, dailies like the New York .S NEWSPAPER FDITOR ASYERTISING SHACKLES Tribune and Chicago Tribune, controlled by big business interests of America, did more to hurt the cause of the United States than papers like the New York Evening Mail and the Fatherland, which actually had received money from the imperial German government. It is significant, perhaps, that the New York Tribune and the Chi- cago Tribune, as well as the New York Evening Mail, have been among the most bitter enemies of the Nonpartisan league. 'If Mr. Creel had cared to go farther on his list of papers that hurt the cause of the United States during the war, he might easily have included most of the Twin Cities dailies. PERVERTING THE CHAUTAUQUA : T IS a great scheme that business interests of the Twin Cities I have dished up now to kill the Nonpartisan league in North Dakota. Chautauqua musical artists and speakers are engaged ! v First come the Swiss yodelers, and then an oily gentleman who starts his “lec- “PAGE y s (YL et B b S A A O B R Y A A Ny BT N T g B A oA TR i A T T P Ao e e 2085w st A RO T e ture” by declaring that farmers and business men must “co-oper- ate”—that is, that the farmers must co-cperate with the business men. He gradually leads up to a denunciation of any influence that,_ tends to “set.class against class” and finally comes to a general damnation of bolshevism, socialism, anarchy—and the Nonpartisan league. By grouping these different classes of “undesirable, citi- zens” together he leads to the conclusion that they are all about the same. accompaniment, and then comes some more anti-League “lecture.” Of course this is not exactly the program that is followed everywhere.. In some towns the Hawaiian minstrels will take the place of the Swiss yodelers. In other places Mr. B. Bohunkus, the eminent basso, may sing “Asleep in the Deep” in place of Miss Spinkendorf’s “reading.” But everywhere will be found the oily gentleman urging co-operation of farmers and business men—and winding up by damning the farmers’ organization. : The cost of these entertainments and lectures is estimated at something over $100,000 for North Dakota. And as the chau- THE - ony GENT, tauqua gentlemen explain in the Billboard, the theatrical magazine which tells all the details of the plan, what a great thing it will be when they can “work each state as thoroughly as North Dakota is being worked”! ; The selection of the last word quoted is an unfortunate one. Our idea is that as a matter of cold, hard fact, North Dakota is not being “(‘{vorked” nearly as much as the chautauqua.system is being “worked.” The chautauqua, ridiculed and abused by city dwellers of the East, has been a great force in western rural life, While “tired business men” have sought relaxation in “leg shows” on New York’s roof gardens, the people of the Middle West have found clean entertainment and genuine education in the chautauqua. _ < The business men of the cities, having brought the city stage down from the heights of Shakespeare to the depths of leg shows, are now setting out to corrupt the chautauqua—to drag it from its high purpose and pervert it to base uses. ; : There are some chautauqua entertainers who will sell them- selves to the highest bidder. We have hopes that there are some l(lelft Wh(;{ will denounce this scheme to drag their institution in the muck. : 2ol THE LEAGUE AND RELIGION partisan league the worst is that it is against religion. There probably is no more deeply religious class of men and wom- en in the United States than those who live on the farms. The League membership of 250,000, scattered in 13 states, includes Catholic and Protestant, Methodist and Baptist, members of the old established evangelical churches and the newer faiths. But the Leader is willing to have this group of men and women compared, for true religion, belief in the brotherhood of man, faith in the coming of a better world and acts of Christian charity, with any o;clherlgll)'oup in this country or in any other country on the face of the globe. : - The argument that the League is opposed to religion seems to run something like thig: The League believes in public ownership. Socialists also believe in public ownership. Therefore the League is socialistic. Socialists are known as radicals. .Atheists and op- ponents of religion also are radicals. posed to religion. ; By such a fantastic and illogical course of reasoning the Leader could prove that any one opposed to the League might-be, for instance, a German spy. We would go about it like this: The opponents of the League favor autocracy. German spies are also in favor of autocracy. - Therefore opponents of the League are all German spies. Or carry it a little farther: Indians like whisky. O F ALL the malicious lies that are circulated about the Non- - ‘A great many opponents of the League like whisky. Therefore they are all Indians. is at once apparent. : e - The Nonpartisan league is organized to do political work for farmers. The League leaves each member free to follow his own The absurdity of this system of “argument”’ SIX - Then Miss Susie Spinkendorf is called upon to re.citeJ_ “Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight,” or “Crossing the Bar,” with piano Therefore the Leagug is op-' religiqn in his own way. But although the League does not deal'in