The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 23, 1919, Page 6

SRR s A z AL TR E A AL Ve A e i B K ] Vil o ot bets td et b el b O3 D 0000 0. O "?' [lonparnxan [ader 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 8. MORRIS, Editor E. B. Fussell, A. B. Gilbert and C. W. Vonier, Associate Editors. B. O. Foss, Art Editor Advertlemg rates on application. Snbsenptwn, one year, in_advance, $2.50; six months, 0. Please do not make checks, drafts nor money orders payahle to. 'indi- viduals. Addrens 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, York, Chicago, St. Louis, -Detroit, Kansas’ City. Advertising Representatives, New 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 queetmn the reliability of any firm which patronizes our advertising columns. OUR COVER THIS WEEK HE cover of the Nonpartisan Leader this week consusts of I the copy of a document presented to this paper by the United States government in recognition of our services during the war. It is reproduced exactly as it was received, evén to the red seal. We are glad to have received.this document and to be able to hand it on to our readers, who, in overwhelming majority, we be- lieve, approve the course taken by the Leader and the League throughout the war. But what a travesty on ‘justice it is, that just as we receive this certificate, A. C. Townley, leader of our organization, the man who has sought, as we have, to interpret the wishes of the 250,000 farmer members of the League, is compelled to go on trial in Jack- son county, Minn., on the absurd ¢harge of conspiracy to commit. _sedition and mterfere with the successful prosecution of the war! It is not the government of the United States that is respon- sible for this persecution. The government of the United States commends us. It is an obscure county attorney of Minnesota who is bringing this action, backed in sympathy, if not otherwise, by the financial interests that the League threatens. NONPARTISANSHIP NE of the interesting features that is being brought out in the interview with Clarence F. Johnson, published in this week’s Leader, is the nonpartisanship of the interests that - are attacking the Nonpartisan league. Farmers have been abused, ever since the League was organized, for being “traitors” to their old parties. Yet what do we find at the anti-League headquarters, Mer- chants National Bank building, St. Paul? The offices being run by Mr. Patterson, reputed to be a Democrat, conducting a campaign in behalf of Burnquist, Republican candldate for governor. “Dick” O’Connor and Dan Lawler, Democratic leaders, constant. visitors. Gust Lindquist, Republican leader, another constant visitor. A glance at-Mr. Johnson’s interview gives the names of many other lesser lights of both parties, drawn together for one common pur- pose—to beat the organized farmers. It is a mistake to believe that Democratic and Repubhcan gang politicians have been forced together by the League. They always have been united: Only the people have been divided. Now the people are becoming united and the bxpartlsan polit- xcal machine that has been functioning in behalf of special pnvflege is facmg a complete collapse. - CAUSE FOR SATISFACTION - : HE last week in May saw the largest_enrollment of members of the Nonpartisan league in the history of the great farm- ers’ organization. That is the answer of the farmers of the Northwest to the attempts of their enemies, during the recent ses- sions of legislatures in many states, to put the League out of busi- ness by repealing direct primary laws, estabhshmg state constabu- ' lary forces and the like. “done for the common people in North Dakota. Heretofore, in get- ting new members, League.organizers haye had to hold out the promise of what the League men would do, when they got in power. Now that ‘the North Dakota legislature has completed its epoch-" making session, the orgamzers can pomt to what actually has . been done. It is a compellmg argument. There is no answer to it. The peoples representatives having adopted the program in North Da- o Lo kota, the people of the nation are now:watching that state fio 8 e-:_.q e whether 1ts people w111 mdorse the action. June 26 wfll - R T R S L SO Sy It is also an indorsement of what the League leglslature hasb ///4: oy %%‘Q '/¢//I], //II/// %M MANKIND’S RIGHT AND DUTY ANKIND are more disposed to suffer, while evils are suf- ferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms (of government) to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such gov- ernment and to provide new guards for their future security.” So reads the Declaration of Independence. There was no doubt in the minds of the signers of that document of the people’s right to revolution. But when, in .1789, the Constitution of the United . States finally was adopted, it probably was the belief and ‘expecta- tion of most of the revolutionists that no further revolutions of violence would be necessary. They had provided a way, they thought, by which oppressive forms of government could be changed by the ballot, rather than the bullet. - The Constitution and laws of the United States and: of the _states provide means by which the people may express their will But laws and constitutions are no. better than the officials who. en- force them. There is sitting in the United States senate, as these lmes are written, Truman Newberry of Michigan, In contravention of the laws of Michigan and the laws of the United States, $176,000 was spent in Michigan to insure Mr. Newberry’s election. :Much of this money was spent under the direction of Mr. Newberry’s relatives and business associates, yet he took oath that he knew of no money that had been expended in his behalf! Mr. Newberry is still srttmg in the senate and voting as a member of, that body. en it becomes necessary to spend $176, 000 to secure the . election of one candidate in a contest involving only one state, it can hardly be said that the will of the people has been expressed fairly, as the founders of the Constitution expected. Yet the expenditures in behalf of Mr. Ngwberry ’S. candldacy in Michigan are trifling as compared with the expenditures of the anti-League headquarters maintained in the Merchants National Bank building; St. Paul, in an effort to control the political affairs of the 13 states in which the Nonpartisan league is organized.. A facsimile letter, printed in the Leader last week, showed that Tom - Parker Junkin, director of publicity for- this outfit estimated’ the necessary expenditure for this item at $150,000 for the first 10 months, plus 1214 per cent for overhead. At this rate the Merchants National outfit will have spent $400,000 on publicity alone during the two years that it has been operating. Clarence F. Johnson, former assistant to Charles Patterson, in charge of the anti-League headquarters, -estimates the total expenditures at $500 000.. In the belxef of the Nonpartisan Leader, this estimate is entlrely , Wlth the expenditure of such vast sums of money to defeat the- people’s will, how can the voice of the people be heard? Ts it now the duty of the people, as the Declaration of Independence says, “to throw off such government.and to provide new guards. for thelr further secunty”" Some “radicals” may think 'so. But the Leader does not advise a revolution of v1olence. ~ We are not as “radical” as the men who signed the Declaration :of Independence. We believe, as the more conservative drafters of the Constitution did, in a revolution of ballots, not bullets. - 2! The people can throw off the. rule of the men who have been exploiting them. They have done it in North Dakota, despite the efforts of the Patterson committee, it in Minnesota and several other states in 1920 _Despite all efforts to interfere with the rule of the pebple, man- is' bound ‘eventually to come into its own—to carry out its right and duty “to throw off misrepresentative government and : , to prov1de new guards for their future security.” ; Where the statesman plows . i Furrow for the wheat— Then the perfect state is come, The republicans at home. 2 -—Ralph Waldo Emereon Tom Parker Junkin and J - Bacon to dictate the politics of that state. They are going tgr(xig : When the church is social worth: V'IQ_' ; ~ When the statehouse is the hearth, ] i S