The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 21, 1919, Page 8

S et P TP W Wi - TP S S PR VA SP R SPE Sy ¥ S < e e E et D S - possible. My Story By a Spy for the Interests No. 3—Plot to Pack Farmer Meeting Blocked—Two ‘‘Frame Ups” That BY RALPH A. MOORE R. PALMER told me that the business men and his clients were behind the plans for a meeting of the Farmers’ War council, the purpose of which was to pass a resolution bar- ring the Nonpartisan league from further operation in Ne- braska. He gave me instruc- tions to report to him the number of League mem- bers who were planning to attend the meeting of the council. If I remember correctly, the meeting was held on Tuesday or Wednesday and Mr. Palmer came to Lincoln a day or two before and registered at the Lindell hotel. He got into communication with me and told me to report by telephone hourly, or oftener if necessary, the number of League farm- ers who were arriving and gather their names, if The meeting was presided over by Mr. Gustafson of the Farm- ers’ union. I carried out these in- structions to the best of my ability. Shortly after the meeting had begun Palmer informed me that my estimate of the number of League members at the meeting was practically correct, but that his outfit had fallen down and that farmers who had promised him and other business men to attend the meeting and vote in favor of the business men had failed to appear. He said that from his standpoint the meeting would be a failure, and that the League would dominate it and carry the session. This was what ac- tually happened. ' After the council meeting I went to Palmer’s room in the Lindell hotel. Palmer expressed deep regret that the League had succeeded in controlling the council. He said it had upset his plans temporarily, but that he would “get them yet.” - He assured me that my work had been well done, and that the fault lay with the anti-League farmers who had promised to attend and pack the meet- ing and then failed to do so. During this interview with Palmer, Henry Richmond called at Palmer’s room. The latter introduced me first as a “League organizer.” Richmond assumed a haughty attitude and gave me the “once over.” Palmer laughed and then told Richmond who I really was. At that the visitor dropped his “holier-than-thou” expression, almost leaped from his chair to come over and pump my hand. He gave me one of his cards and urged me to call on him any time. SOUGHT CHANCE TO USE GUARDS AGAINST FARMERS Palmer then told me that Rich- mond was very bitter against the League, and that he held a com- mission in the Lincoln Home Guards. Some time before this meeting, Palmer had expressed the hope that the League farmers s would start some kind of demonstration in th Farmers’ War council, so that Richmond might have an opportunity to bring in the home guards. s He told me that Richmond was itching for a chance to get after these farmers with the home guards. Richmond told me that night that he was “tickled to death” to meet me, and that he wished I would inform him of the exact location and time that any speeches were to be made by O. E. Wood, a League lecturer, or any other of the lecturers. He said that Wood in particular was a “dirty snake in the grass” and that if I would inform him where Wood was to speak he and other members of the home guard company would go out to the meet- ing and break it up. y “And the way we’ll break it up won’t be healthy for Wood,” he added. As.he left the room, Richmond repeated his re- quest, saying that he was “sure anxious” to put - a stop to the League meetings. After Richmond had left, Palmer said he was rather sorry he had told Richmond who I was, as Richmond was un- reliable and had altogether too much to say. How- ever, he hastened to add, he was sincere in his fight against the League, but he wasn’t very ca- pable, and he didn’t see why the council of defense and the home guards had taken him into their confidence. Palmer was still very much depressed over the failure of his scheme to pack the Farmers’ War council, which he said he had helped to organize. He informed me that he expected to return to Omaha on the morning train. Before giving me any new instructions, he said he would have to study the matter over thoroughly and formulate some new plan of action. He said the fight would practically have to be started over, as they had great hope, before the League carried the council meeting, of banishing the League from the state through its action. He instructed me to keep in | MOB RULE | Lynch law as a political argument was common during the war in several states where the League was organized, but nowhere was the animus so-great as in Nebraska. Not only did the leaders in the fight against the League use every weapon they had at their command, but they did not hesitate, according to the story told by Mr. Moore on these pages, to incite mobs to inflame public sentiment against the League farmers, close touch as to the whereabouts of the organiz- ers and told me that I would hear from him again in a few days. 5 Not long after this, Mr. Palmer telephoned me from Omaha and asked me to be at his office in that city on the following Sunday morning. I fol- lowed instructions and, on arriving at Palmer’s office, found Palmer, Senator Ollis, who was con- nected with the Federal Land bank; H. M. Davis, postmaster at Ord, Neb.; R. L. Metcalfe of the state council of defense, a Mr. McClelland and two other gentlemen whose names I have forgotten, but who Mr. Palmer said were insurance men. As soon as I had reached the office, I was asked to report in full any irregularity I had found dur- ing my investigation. I told them that I had been unsuccessful in finding anything disloyal or out of the ordinary concerning Olson, Evans or any other of the League officers or organizers. ‘Thereupon one of the men present, Mr. Davis I believe, suggested that they would have to PAGE EIGHT Failed—League Organizer Attacked by Mob get together and manufacture some evidence which would convict one or more of the organ- izers. or officials of the League of disloyalty. He said it was their only hope of putting the League out of business in the near future. Another of the men asked me just what kind of a man Olson was to talk to. I told him that Olson was inclined to talk freely with any farmer who came to the League offices. ! It was then decided at this meeting that they would try to “get something” on Olson. The plan decided upon was this: Two men, whose names I do not remember, were to call on Olson at some time when there was no one else in-the office. These men were to represent themselves as farmers, and one of them, who, I un- derstood, was a judge, and who, they said, acted and talked just like a farmer, but who really was a very smart lawyer, was to ask Olson a number of questions about the Liberty loan, Red Cross ac- tivities and economic conditions, in the hope .that Olson would answer them in such a way that would give them a chance to cause his arrest on a disloyalty charge. EVIDENCE MAKERS PLAN TO INVOLVE LEAGUER My part in this was to inform the two evidence manufacturers upon their arrival in Lincoln as to just when Ol- son would be alone in the office. It was explained that I would be notified as soon as they arrived in the city, and that I was to stay in the League offices until I found Olson to be alone, when I was to hurry to the nearest telephone and notify them that Olson was alone in the office. This plan was never carried out, however, because Palmer was afraid he could trust none but an experienced detective to carry out this job, They also decided at this meeting to “get” Organizer Jen- sen, who was then working near Lex- ington, in Dawson county. They in- formed me that they had considerable information from a Mr. Gillen, an at- torney and chairman of the Dawson County Council of Defense, to the ef- fect that Jensen was signing mem- bers right and left, and that something would have to be done at once. It was suggested by two or three of the members there that I go out to Lexington and frame up a deal on Jensen to trap him into saying some- thing that might be construed. as dis- loyal. knew, this would be impossible. Then it was suggested that I go to Lexington and attempt to frame up a proposition to involve Jensen with a young girl. In answer to this, I told them that I could not make a trip to Lexington without creating suspicion in the League offices, and that furthermore I refused to have any part in their plan to “frame up” young Jensen. Then they decided to put another man on Jensen’s trail at once. ; They employed another Thiel detec- tive from the St. Louis office by the name of Aspry. Upon his arrival in Omaha, he reported to Palmer, and Palmer, so Aspry informed me, instructed him to proceed to Lexington and try to trick Jensen into saying something disloyal or to try to involve him with a young woman. Palmer gave Aspry a letter of introduction to me and told him to stop off-in Lincoln on his way to Lexington and ask me where Jensen was at the time. I told Aspry where he could find Jensen, and the detective started on his way. - : Som_e time later Palmer told me that Aspry had failed. He said that the detective had put in seven days riding with Jensen, but that he was unable to get anything whatever on the organizer. Shortly after this Jensen came to !,incoln and reported that he had been hothered in his work in Dawson county by Gillen and others, I was present at the time that Attor- ney Sorensen and League officials advised Jen- sen to work somewhere else for a.time, to avoid I told them that, as far as I . L A SRS A ) £ [ 3 d o f [ 4 7 Py