The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 30, 1919, Page 9

et - and later in court have _itors intent on collecting wards C. W.. Ames of the West Publishing com- pany and former member of the Minnesota Public . Safety commission, arrived and went into the office where Mr. Patterson and the other two were con- ferring. “The next day Murphy and McCutcheon were closeted with Tom Parker Junkin nearly all morn- ing. During the morning, however, McCutcheon came into Patterson’s office and I asked him if matters had been fixed up and his reply was that everything was satisfactory. He said the transcript would be as large as a Standard dictionary which was at my elbow; he’also said that Mr. Patterson was to get 10 copies of the testimony. “On two occasions I was sent to the office of the United States clerk of courts to obtain certified copies of certain evidence in the Townley bank- ruptey case, for which I paid, giving on one occa- sion a check in payment. In both instances the copies so secured were placed in envelopes in my presence and mailed by me to Francis Murphy, Minot, N. D.” ; It is well known that during the Townley bank- ruptcy proceedings the attorneys supposed to be representing the creditors-paid a great deal more attention to the League than to the claims of its creditors, so much in fact that Judge Amidon warned the attorneys that the United States courts were not to be used for political purposes. In his decision Judge Amidon again took occa- sion to reprimand the — attitude of .the attor- neys. He said: “His (A. C. Townley’s) examina- tion before the referee had to: do not with his private estate, but with the funds of the League and the agencies which it has created to carry out its program. The search (for hidden funds) has been pursued not on- ly with the zeal of cred-. their debts, but that of political adversaries seeking to discredit a party. The conclusion is justified and the court 50 finds the fact to.be that the reason why this hidden treasure was not found is that it does not exist.” - - “Mr. Patterson seemed particularly interested in the fight over the work- men’s compensation act,” Mr. Johnson went on. “During the fight over the bill in the last legis- Jature "Mr. Patterson spent practically two en- tire days at the capitol. The steel interests, the street railway company and general agents of, liability insurance companies doing business in the state were fighting the bill with all their strength, and finally succeeded in changing the original bill to such an extent that the labor men who had pro- posed the measure finally voted to kill the bill altogether.” In this connection it is interésting to recall that ‘two_pretended labor men swung the balance in the legislature against Mr. Wilcox. Had these two . men voted for the regularly elected candidate his vote would have carried the workmen’s compensa- tion measure, the only big labor measure before the last -legislature. 7 ANTI-PROHIBITIONISTS GOT ., MATERIAL AT OFFICE “Another of the fights into which the office was drawn,” Mr. Johnson went on, “was the prohibition fight. A few days before the November election F. W. Zollman, who is reputed to be ‘the attorney for the liquor interests in the state, and Senator Thomas Girling, also known to be favorable to these interests, came to our office and obtained from Mr. Patterson a number of the lists of voters in several of the Minnesota counties, This list I de- livered to 417-418 Pioneer building, where several persons were employed in mailing out matter per- ‘taining to the prohibition fight then before. the people. . : ‘ -“About. February 1 of this year'it was decided to give up our offices in 1523 Merchants National . A L T S N S Bl N SR SR L BT SRS s Bank building and occupy the offices of the Reliance Publicity bureau in room 1121 of the same build- ing. Junkin and I, with several assistants, moved our records and equipment. Junkin then took of- fices around the corner of the hall in the same building, in an adjoining room. A door now con- nects Mr. Patterson’s office and that of Mr. Junkin. “When the America First magazine was started, Junkin’s first move was to try to get from Secre- tary Robert W. Hargadine of the America First association a list of county vice presidents and executive committees to be placed on the subserip- tion list of Junkin’s magazine. The first issue of the paper was about 50,000 copies, but aside from the officials of the America First association I do not know who got them. “America First was issued in a hurry just before Mr. Patterson left for the East. The purpose of this, I have been told, was to give Mr. Patterson an opportunity to take some of the copies of the papers with him to show how the Nonpartisan league was being combated in the Northwest. Junkin was very busy ob- taining material for the paper, and we mailed out 1,059 copies. A “When the Minnesota Leader appeared expos- ing the magazine and. those back of it, Mr. Har- gadine came to .our offices and showed a copy of the Minnesota Leader containing his denial that e e HIS article, closing Mr. Johnson’s exposure of the methods of Charles Patterson and others, “representing certain interests,” in fighting the League, is to be followed by a series of articles, - even more sensational and important. They are written by a private detective who for many years has been in the employ of an agency that dealt largely with industrial troubles. More than a year ago, he was ordered to “find out about the League,” for “certain clients” of the detective agency. In his story, he will tell the manner he was expected to accom clients wanted. , : The detective also will tell his experience in “investigating” labor troubles. He has been in a position to see how detective agencies de- liberately have tried to stir up strikes and incite outrages, which might be used against the strikers. He will tell how he himself joined labor organizations:and gained the confidence of the men, only to use those confidences against them. v The articles will contain a reécital of how he became an organizer for the League in the hope of obtaining some “inside” information, - and in the meantime reporting to the League enemies. He will tell of. how he became disgusted with the underhand methods he was to use and to make amends offered his services to the League. The Leader will not ask its readers to accept any unsupported statements. The Leader has in its possession decumentary evidence to_back up the story and this evidence will be presented together with this exposure. Read “My Story—By a Spy for the Interests,” which starts in the next issue of the Leader. the America First association had indorsed the new magazine. magazine would undoubtedly be indorsed by the association later. “Junkin, besides being given almost a free rein with his magazine, receives a salary of $350 a month as its editor and head of the Reliance Pub- licity bureau. “One of the things for which\I claim credit while conneécted with the Patterson outfit was the plan for a state agricultural department, which Gov- ernor Burnquist sponsored during the last session of the legislature and which is now being pointed out.as an example of the constructive legislation . »of his administration. I suggested one day to Mr. Patterson the idea of drawing up a measure for the organization of a department which would at- tempt to rectify some of the abuses to which the farmers of the state were being subjected. “I was sent to the state agricultural school, where I obtained considerable data on the matter and submitted it to Mr. Patterson. When the leg- islature met, Elias Nordgren of Chisago cpunty, a friend of Magnus Martinson, introduced a meas- ure, approved by the governor, for the establish- ment of such a department. , % “In- the report which. Mr. Patterson made to the ‘certain interests’ which he represented, he outlined a plan for employing two men whose duties would be to cover the state and arrange, if possible, to obtain the names:of ‘men avail-. . PAGE NINE plish this, and what sort of “evidence” his Patterson said, however, that the Johnson.) able as candidates to the next legislature. Mr. Patterson told me that it was his plan to di- vide off the state into districts, so that this work of picking out legislative timber would be more easily accomplished. He also gave me to understand that he expected me to be one of the two men who were to do this work. “I have been informed that Martinson is now traveling over the state looking for likely candi- dates in the next election. ELECTION EXPENSES MORE THAN $500,000, BELIEF “Our expenditures during the last campaign were tremendous. Although I have no figures on which to base my claim, I estimate that there was at least $500,000 put into the fight to defeat the Nonpartisan league, at the primary and general elections. “Much of this money went to establish the Re- liance Publicity * bureau, .Tom Parker Junkin's. scheme, and ‘On the Square,” which cost $50,000 for the two issues of that magazine. “There weore also other channels into which we put money, in some cases only a few hundred and in other cases several thousands. I do not know how many uses was found for this fund, but I do know that there were many ready to help spend this money. But I believe the ‘certain interests’ which were represented by Charles Patterson considered the money well spent, for I am con- vinced - that they are ready again to spend as large a sum to accom- plish the same result once more. “Throughout my con- nection with the anti- farmer combine I dealt entirely with Mr. Patter- son. He gave up a large ° part of every day to the work, and bore almost the entire burden.. There . were many persons who , came to the office from time to time, of course. For instance, Albert Al- len, Martin county at-. torney, responsible for several legal actions against leaders of the League, was in Mr. Pat- terson’s office on at least one occasion that I know “Chief among Mr. Patterson’s associates were Eli S. Warner and Russell M. Bennett. I gathered that of the three, Bennett was real- ly the directing genius, . but it was Mr. Patterson who appeared in the foreground. The others of the executive commit-: tee were in the offices: only occasiondlly, but Mr. Warner made almost daily visits to the office and was closeted for long periods with Mr. Pat- terson. : “After the adjournment of the legislature, I an- nounced my decision to sever my connections with Mr. Patterson and went to him to ask for the money due me in salary. There was six months’ pay due me, and Mr. Patterson, after some quib- bling, offered to give me half. I accepted that, and begau suit to obtain the remainder of my sal- ary. It was then that my connection with them naturally ceased. However, there is no reason to believe that as long as there is money available with ‘which to fight the League, Mr. Patterson and his_associates will give up their efforts to discredit the movement and its leaders among the farmers and workers of Minnesota.” (This is the-final installment of Mr. Johnson’s interview, giving detail.s‘ of the Patterson ring which fought the League in Minnesota during the last election. The interview began in the Leader of June 2. In the next issue of the Leader will begin another series of articles revealing the meth- ods used by the opposition to overcome the League. . The story is written by a private detective who was hired by the enemies of the farmer movement- to spy on League officials and to get “evidence” against them. The stories will be even more in-.: teresting and important than those told by Mr. y