The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 9, 1919, Page 5

which are cultivated shall not be assessed higher or as high as lands which shall remain uncultivated, i i XIX.—To favor the legal rate of interest shall not be to exceed 6 per cent' per annum, 7 XX.—To favor Rural Credits laws and Rural Credits banks which will assist the needy settlers.in the new country as well as in the older parts of the United States. XXI.—To favor the government inspection and grading of grains. XXII.—To favor Graded schools in rural communities; text books to be furnished by the State. XXIII.—To favor a special income tax, upon all franchises or privileges whereéin profit is presumed to be secured, given by the State, county, city or village government, which are operated, owned or controlled by a private corporation or individual. y XXIV.—To favor enactment of laws whereby the settler can secure government assistance to improve his lands; which assistance shall be allowed and provided after the same have been made and approved of. XXV.—To favor the enactment of laws whereby all govern- ment, city, State, county, school ‘and village warrants shall be deemed as of face value and bear the same relation to our monetary system or laws as national bank notes do. XXVI.—To favor old age pensions. XXVIL.—To favor in the good road construction that work shall be pushed to a greater extent during the seasons and times when the demand for labor shall be least. XXVIIL.—To at all times assist in every honorable way the election to office of men who will pledge themselves to co- operate with the league and vote for, and favor the enactment of laws for which we stand sponsor. XXIX.—To favor a tonnage tax on all minerals mined. XXX.—To_favor the enactment of laws whereby the tariff question shall be divorced from political arguments and place the tariff on a business basis as it should be through a tariff commission on some plan whereby duties assessed against im- ports shall be only of such amount as to protect the people of the United States against foreign cheap labor products. XXXI.—Te favor State owned produce exchange wherein the producer and consumer will derive a mutual benefit. XXXIIL.—To favor Farmers’ stockyards so that farmers’ shipping associations may derive a greater advantage. % XXXIII.—To favor a further extension of the equity society and use our every endeavor in the interest of Farmers’ Clubs and_kindred associations. XXXIV.—To favor enactment of laws radically reducing the interest rates on delinquent tax sales. XXXV.—To favor exemption from taxation of all prop- erty used exclusively for County Fair purposes. XXXVI.—To favor drastic laws regarding inheritance tax whereby all money in excess of certain sums shall revert to the State school fund. SCHMAHL TRIES TO MAKE POLITICAL USE OF ERROR “After the papers had been completed,” Mr. Johnson continued, “we immediately went about filing our articles in the office of the secretary of state as required by law. Stoneburg, Blomquist and myself, accompanied by Carl Malmberg and John Keinetz, editor of a paper published at Cam- bridge, met at the capitol. Our efforts came very near being wrecked at that point through the mis- take of seeking to obtain the services of a notary public in the office of State Auditor J. A. O. Preus. Julius Schmahl, secretary 'of state, protested against this procedure, and evidently tried to make political capital of our mistake, as both he and Preus, I understand, are aspirants for the next nomination for governor. “However, that is of small moment, except to remark in passing that Mr. Schmahl is so consid- erate of the persons who sit in the high places in Minnesota politics, among them Charles Patterson, that he has had bound in leather several copies of the official ‘blue book’ of the state, and presented them to these persons with their names printed thereon. : y “As soon-as our organization was officially incor- porated, I heard rumors connecting A. A. D. Rahn, state politician, lumberman and Republican boss, o~ Read every word of this important story. It exposes the unection be- tween the fake “Nonasrtisan League of Minnesota,” which died after a year, and the anti-League organization built “up by Minnesota business interests to fight the League in North Dakota and other states. The same men who help- ed to finance “The Nonpartisan;” the organ of the fake league, are now financing the anti-League headquarters in the Merchants National Bank build- ing, St. Paul, presided over by Charles Patterson. Clarence F. Johnson, one of the incorporators of the fake league and the man who got out their paper, “The Nonpartisan,” admits that he was paid by business interests of the Twin Cities while connected with the fake league and that. he went immediately from this employment into the service of Patterson and the committee organ- ized for the especial purpose of fight- ing the Nonpartisan league. We will have some more important facts to present next week, exposing the anti- League outfit in the Merchants National Bank building, St. Paul. Watch for it. with it. At that time, I had never seen Mr. Rahn. I made his acquaintance later. “We rented offices at 316 Jackson street, St. Paul, and wrote letters to more than 600 news- papers in the state, explaining our positions and outlining our program.” It might be pointed out here that the organi- zation, besides copying as closely as possible the name of the Nonpartisan league, took offices as close to those of the National Nonpartisan league as possible. The place named by Mr. Johnson was in the next building to the real League offices, thus adding another confusing complication to the situ- ation the fake “league” had created. “Our organization continued along the lines we had pointed out for some time,” Mr. Johnson con- tinued. “I had then decided that the time was ripe for interesting persons in our paper. I believed that if we could interest men in the Twin Cities it would assist us in our work. Among others, I called on C. W. Gordon of Gordon & Ferguson, wealthy wholesale fur dealers and hat manufacturers in St. Paul. He assured me that I could count on St. Paul for $250 for the paper and urged me to approach Minne- apolis business men with the proposition. The only condition stated was that the paper was to be ‘intensely patriotic,” to which I, of course, agreed. Since then I learned that by being ‘intensely pa- triotic’ my backers meant that I was to oppose the , IN THE LIMELIGHT National Nonpartisan league on ‘patriotic grounds’ and owing to what I was told were its ‘socialistic’ tendencies. . “Mr. Gordon then suggested that I consult Eli Warner of the McGill-Warner company, a large printing and publishing establishment in St. Paul. Later I met A. A. D. Rahn and Ed Smith of Min- neapolis, but after several conferences I was again referred back to Mr. Warner. It was finally agreed between Mr. Stoneburg and Mr. Warner that such a paper as I had proposed would be supported, but that it should print articles of a ‘patriotic’ na- ture and articles assailing the Nonpartisan league. WHY DID THESE MEN GET FREE COPIES? “Arrangements were made with John Keinetz of Cambridge for the printing of the paper. This arrangement continued for August and September, 1917, but after that we published from St. Paul. Mr. Warner, was virtually directing the policies of the paper and its distribution, and he gave me a list of persons who were to receive the paper. This list was apart from any subscription list, and I was instructed by Mr. Warner to see that each of these persons, except Charles Patterson and Mr. Warner himself, receive one or two copies. Mr. Patterson and Mr. Warner were to receive 15 or 20 copies each.” The copies were delivered as requested by Mr. Warner as follows: y Russell M. Bennett, 710 Security building, Min- neapolis, Minn.; reputed steel trust politician and paymaster. Fred B. Snyder, 800 Security building, Minne- - apolis; corporation attorney and family connection of the Pillsburys, Minneapolis millers. Joseph Chapman, vice president of the North- western National bank, Minneapolis. George M. Gillette, vice president of the Min- neapolis Steel & Machinery company. Robert Jamison, 610 Minneapolis Loan & Trust building, Minneapolis; attorney and large stock- holder in street railway company. E. C. Warner, 1254 Chamber of Commerce build- ing, Minneapolis; president of Midland Linseed Products company and representative of big inter- ests in grain business. Louis W. Hill, president of the Great Northern railway, St. Paul. George Prince, an official of the Merchants Na- tional bank, St. Paul. : E. H. Bailey of the First National bank, St. Paul. G. Sommers of G. Sommers & Co., a wholesale merchandising concern. C. P. Noyes of Noyes Bros. & Cutler, whole- sale druggists, St. Paul. Charles Gordon of Gordon & Ferguson, whole- sale fur dealers, St. Paul. C. H. Bigelow, president Farwell, Ozman, Kirk & Co., wholesale hardware dealers, St. Paul. A. W. Lindeke of Lindeke, Warner & Sons, whole- sale dry goods dealers, St. Paul. Sherman Finch of Finch, Van Slyke & Mec- (Continued on page 13) Darkness is the friend of all crookednesS. The political' gangster is just as fearful of the light of publicity as the ordinary burglar is of the light of day. Neither of them.can work in the view of the whole people. The searchlight has been turned on the group of political gangsters that have been fighting the Nonpartisan league with.every tool at their command. One of the most pretentious of these was the fake league, the story of which is told on this page. PAGE FIVE S