The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 5, 1919, Page 6

e LW W> 7 N % | / d ///% V/,///,”/ 'Ié////// wy, A4 7 2 7 Z / , oy B Nonpartigan Teader Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Week Entered as second-class matter September 8, 1915, at the postoffice at St. Paul, Minnesota, under the Act of March 8, 1879. OLIVER S. MORRIS, Editor E. B. Fussell and A. B. Gilbert, Associate Editors B. O. Foss, Art Editor Advertising rates on application. Subsecription, one year, in advance, $2.50; six months, $1.50. lease 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 BUR EAU OF CIRCULATIONS THE S. C. BECKWITH SPECIAL AGENCY, Advertising Representatives, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. Quack, fraudule_nt 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. WILL CAMPBELL AGAIN WILL A. CAMPBELL has broken out again. You remember Will, don’t you? He is the funny man of the Anaconda Copper Mining company in Montana. He is the one we had a story about a few weeks ago when he discovered “the great conspiracy” by which Nonpartisan league farmers were first going to build grain elevators, next were going to burn the deeds of their own farms, then were going to murder all the presidents and gov- _ ernors in reach, and finally were going to turn into Indians, wearing . blankets and meeting around the campfire every night to show the i scalps that they had collected during the day. Will has gotten out a new book called “Who’s Who in the Non- partisan League,” which consists of about as choice a collection of plain and fancy lies as could be herded together by any one. Will : purports to give short biographical sketches of leaders in the Non- . partisan league. He leaves out, altogether, such men as Governor Frazier, Congressman Baer and other real leaders of the farmers. The “facts” that he gives about other men are so wofully twisted NOW HERE'S AW~ DON'T MAHE ME ANOTHER GOOD LA, ~MY LIPS ONE — 1T ARE CHAPPED —- -—C___‘___\/fi o e CAMPBELL 1 FARARMIER | that the book, if circulated in North Dakota, would make farmers laugh more than some of Baer’s cartoons. Lieutenant Governor . Howard Wood is described as a Socialist. Max Eastman, a New" i York magazine editor, who never has had any connection whatever - with the North Dakota farmers, is put down as a “prominent lec- ! turer and organizer of the League.” “Who’s Who” says on its . title page that it is “second edition, 1919.” Yet it lists as prom- ! inent leaders in the League D. C. Coates, who has not been con- . nected with the League for years; Joseph Gilbert, put down as “general manager”; Arthur LeSueur, “secretary”; L. J. Duncan, | “state manager” for South Dakota, and many others, none of whom .. hold any such positions or have held them at all recently. L. L. . Stair, speaker of the North Dakota house of representatives, a life- i long Democrat and prosperous farmer, is listed as a “Socialist and L. W.W.” W.F.Dunn, a Butte (Mont.) labor man and member of i the Montana legislature, is another “League leader.” It is alleged .| that L. L. Randall was convicted of ‘sedition; another lie. And so il it goes. We can not begin to call the roll on all of Mr. Campbell’s 21 “mistakes.” ; i Farmers ,appreciate a little humor of Mr. Campbell’s variety ¢ once in a while. Every one likes, occasionally, to read a thrilling * Daredevil Dick detective story, like Mr. Campbell’s “The Great i - Conspiracy,” even though we know it isn’t true. But the farmers ¢ haven’t time to read melodrama, romantic fiction and humor as a . | steady thing. They are likely to get annoyed at Mr. Campbell if ¢ | he keeps up his imaginative literary output. GIVE PUBLIC OWNERSHIP A CHANCE ERE method or plan is not enough. A good plan will not work right in the hands of an enemy of it; a friend of a Iy very poor plan can make it work fairly well. - Most people ¢ ' will recognize this as a well-founded principle. Why not apply it ¢ | to public ownership of utilities? L § Why, for instance, expect hostile politicians on whom we have . erowded a law providing a publicly: owned light plant or railroad ! | to carry the law out efficiently? The whole interest of the parties | whom' these politicians represent demands that the public owner- .Russian army. PAGE SIX - ship be made a mockery and a byword, and it is very easy for those charged with management to wreck the best of plans. . The North Dakota farmers were the first big reform group in America to recognize this essential point. They not only adopted and fought for a platform, but fought for the .pohtlcal management which was to carry it out. The new industrial program of North Dakota is consequently today in the hands of its friends. Its ene- mies are only on the outside looking in. It will have a real chance to succeed. g : This important point also has a direct bearing on the present ‘railroad controversy.” Enemies of public ownership are trying to make out a bad case for present government operation, and in many L HOSTILE MENAGEMENT, respects this is not difficult. The government took over an im- possible private management situation, and probably has done much to make railroad service possible. But its reported failures are no argument against government ownership at all. e o Government management was forced on an administration which had never declared its friendliness to the principle. It was delayed beyond all reason. Ridiculously high returns were granted the stock owners. Profiteers in railroad equipment had practically a free hand. Now the steel trust is trying to do the final bleeding with high prices and the administration is ‘divided half and half over giving the trust a clear field. Neither government ownership nor any other method is proof against hostile management. Wherever people want real public ownership they must follow the Nonpartisan league plan. THE RUSSIAN SITUATION : T IS a peculiar thing that it always has been hard to get the I _truth about Russia. In the early days of the war, long before .-the Russian revolution, press dispatches had the entire Rus- sian army captured two or three times over by the Austrian army, and the Austrian army captured two or three times over by the Since the revolution it would take seven strong men to believe half of what is handed out about Russia as “news.” One day the former czar is reported alive, the next day shot, the next day alive, the next day shot again, and so on. The Bolsheviki are reported one day about ready to give up Petrograd, Moscow, all other important points, and flee for their lives. The next day they are reported to have captured Ukraine and to be pushing the allied army into the sea at Archangel. Syt The so-called “nationalization of women” story is a case in point. One day it was reported that the Bolsheviki had issued such a decree. The next day it was reported that the anarchists, the bitter enemies of the Bolsheviki, had put out the proclamation in question. The anarchists disclaimed the proclamation; they said someone had attached their names to it to discredit them. As a matter of fact, the “proclamation” was a sort of sign painted on a wall or billboard in an obscure town in Russia. It may well be possible that some Russian with a rather broad sense of humor painted it as a sort of practical joke to see if American newspaper correspondents would “fall for it.”- Or it may be that some news- . paper man himself painted the sign so as to manufacture his own “story.” As a newspaper man the writer of this editorial can tes- tify that such things have been known to happen. What we want to impress on readers of the Leader is that EXTRA—! 3% Tz (7 7H' CZAR'S EXTRA /i P g -/ T1 EXTRA! g =p PUBLIC - 80 many lies are coming out of Russia today that the best rule is to believe nothing. After peace terms have been ratified finally, maybe the French .and British censorship will be lifted and the American people will get some of the facts about what has been happening behind the closed doors all these months. Until we know more about the Russian situation we will do well to keep our minds open and free from prejudice. i atever may be happening now in Russia, we believe that the Russian people, if left alone by other governments, will in- the course of time work out their own destiny. We hope that at the earliest .possible moment, American soldiers may be withdrawn; the undeclared war against the Russian people ended and the em-- bargo lifted. - : : ; : - .