The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 16, 1919, Page 7

T R TR T A ST o A P kb N S T A S R Y i AW ! which the citizens’ committee represents. . holding the real “law and order.” T —— ' Il////’ “/ ”00 % ’/éllll// //I/I 7/ /4 3 . The Nonpartizan Teader Official Magazine of the National . Nonpartisan League—Every Week Entered as second-class matter September 38, 1915, at the postoffice at St. Paul, Minnesota, under the Act of March 8, 1879. & OLIVER_S. MORRIS, Editor E. B. Fussell, A. B. Gilbert and C. W. Vonier, Associate Editors. B. O. Foss, Art Editor 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 THE S. C. BECKWITH SPECIAL AGENCY, Advertising Representatives, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas, City. d Advertising rates on application. 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. WHERE THE SOLDIERS STAND HE hope of the reactionaries is that the soldiers, as they come home, are going to prove subservient and willing to I “stand for anything.” But are they? If you think so, read this editorial, taken from the Stars and Stripes, official organ of - the A. E. F. (American Expeditionary Force) in France, and pub- lished in the last issue under the head of “Profiteering”: The profiteer is in a class by himself. He is not capital, he is not labor, though he may be each or both. But he is a profiteer before he is anything else. He is the person who sells the army things it has to have at such a neat profit that he has hundreds of thousands of dollars over with which to buy Liberty bonds—not such a bad in- vestment; he is the restaurant keeper near a camp in the States who charges b cents extra for ketchup; he is the worker on a government job who soldiers (somebody has got to change that word) simply because he is on a government job. ‘‘He is a traitor in the guise of respectability and far, far too often, he gets away with it. Folks back home may be used to him. They may have seen him develop so naturally before their very eyes that they do not know him for what he is. You can’t see a tree grow but you can see the difference if you don’t look at it for two whole years. That advantage the A. E. F. has. When it gets back it will know the profiteer in a minute. And some of the reports of “trouble” at home are only profiteering camouflage put out to cover up profiteering. It won’t work. . This is neatly put and says about all there is to say on the subject. ! : LAW AND .ORDER s HE citizens’ committee of 1,000,” says a correspondent of I a Minneapolis newspaper, writing of the Winnipeg general strike, “represents law and order.” , What is this law and order that the committee of 1,000 rep- resents, and which, by inference, the strikers are disregarding? Is law and order a possession of the privileged class alone, and are the workers of the world entitled to share in it only when they b‘(;,have respectfully toward the employers and the men of money ? ; _ The entire citizenship of the United States and Canada, with the exception, of course, of its criminal element and a‘few anarch- ists, believes in law—Ilaw for all the people. And as a result of believing in that law, they also believe in and seek to maintain order. How much the Canadian strikers respect law and order is shown constantly in their conduct. They are conducting them- selves as peacefully as ever they did before the strike. - By the vote of the strikers themselves, the policemen, members of a union, remained at work. There have been fewer arrests since the strike than before it. There probably is as great a respect and observance of law and maintenance of order as there ever has been in the history - of the Canadian city. What then is meant by the statement that the citizens’ committee of 1,000 “represents law and order” ? The correspondent hints at the answer. He discusses in- A voking martial law. That is, “law and order” at the bayonet’s point. Winnipeg has no need of the brand of “law and order” The workers are up- e : WHAT CHANCE? ENATOR PENROSE and Senator Warren have won their fight and control the organization of the upper house of the new congress. The Mann faction is in the saddle in the house, /17 4 ’//IA ’I/{/a 'I%///A '/ " But conditions in Jackson county are not normal. "~ farmer. What are the chances for progressive legislation in the -present _congress? : P R e e L G PAGR SIX Z/% //I///Il//,l‘ 'I/ZA ) . Yy g % i n 7 & A. C. TOWNLEY EN who have tried to do something for the benefit of their fellow men always have been persecuted. - To go no far- ther back than the history of our own country, the colonial governor of Massachusetts referred to the men who were advocat- ing greater freedom for the colonies in his day as “deacons, atheists- and black-hearted fellows, whom one would not care to meet alone after night.” Among the men thus referred to were Wash- ington, Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, the Adamses and Patrick Henry. Abraham Lincoln was persecuted throughout his lifetime and called a demagogue. He finally met death from an assassin’s bullet. John Brown was sentenced to be hanged by the neck until he was dead and the sentence was carried out. But inside of five years an irresistible army of millions of men was sweeping south, free- ing slaves as they went, and their marching song was, “John Brown’,s body lies a-mouldering in the grave; his soul goes march- ing on.” b : A. C. Townley, president of the National Nonpartisan league, has met persecution, as have all other men who have tried to do anything for the masses. The cause he is championing undoubt- edly will succeed, whatever becomes of its leader. But instead of waiting until he is dead to-pay tribute to what he has done, why . not do him justice while he is living? - _ Mr. Townley wants no praises. He has requested that his name be used,in the Nonpartisan Leader only when it is absolutely neces- sary and that his picture be used not at all. The writer of these lines has attended meetings addressed by Mr. Townley and others and has been told by him: “Never mind me. said and what Congressman Baer said.” But it is only right that the farmers of America ,should' know - the untiring work that their leader has done in their behalf, un- equaled by any other man in the world today. bl e Mr. Townley is now about to face trial on an absurd charge .in Jackson county, Minn. The charge is that Mr. Townley is guilty of conspiracy to commit sedition because two other men, neither of whom acted under orders of Mr. Townley, made statements in speeches objected to by the authorities. Mr. Townley also is charg- ed with allowing the distribution of Nonpartisan league pamphlets. .The pamphlets in question were held, some months ago, by the Minnesota supreme court, to be patriotic in nature, yet the same court now allows Mr. Townley to be tried under these circum- stances. { The trial would be a ridiculous thing under normal conditions. it] In the face of the provisions in the Constitution of the United States, guaran- teting free speech and peaceful assemblage, Nonpartisan league speakers have been barred from Jackson county and League farm- ers denied the right to hold meetings. At the same time an ac- tive propaganda of speeches and literature has been carried on against the League, which the League has been unable to answer. The result is that public sentiment has been inflamed against Mr. Townley. With a fair trial it is difficult to see how the enemies of the League could hope to obtain a conviction; but it is difficult to see how a fair county. ; E ; Right now, when the enemies of the League are making their last desperate effort against the League leader, is the time when he should be given the support of every loyal League rmer. Properly speaking, it is not Mr. Townley who is to be tried in Jackson county—it is the farmers_of the Nonpartisan league. He has been fighting their battles and ‘bearing the brunt of the hostilities. It is only right that at:this time -Mr. Townley should be told that the 250,000 members of the League are solidly behind him in his fight for human welfare. : - The opinions of men are not the object of civil government. To suf- fer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on suppo- - sition of their ill tendency is a dan- gerous fallacy, because he being, of course, judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of judg- ment and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his . own. ; : —Thomas Jefferson. Vi % Tell the farmers what Governor Frazier - trial can be expected in Jackson 8 { ! J 4 - q it S o . a‘ who T B Lo 7 e n. AL & ) ¥ . S 13