The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 28, 1919, Page 3

In the interest. of a sgquare deal for the farmers Jlor varfigin Rader Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League B A magazine, . that dares to print the truth VOL. 9, NO. 4 ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, JULY 28, 1919 . {:‘ The History of tional Nonpartisan league, had WHOLE NUMBER 201 the Jackson “Frame Up” Case Born With Illegal Barring of League From County—Unfairness of a-boomerang far more likely to destroy the con- spirators who hurled this cowardly missile than the - men and the movement at which it was directed. Already the man on the street refers to the affair $ Trial Proving Boomerang to Farmer Foes v - BY W. W. LIGGETT of the very papers fighting the League could 4 y L B HE trial of President Townley detect the “frame up.’ S and Joseph Gilbert, former or- That’s why the conspirators are disappointed. ; A ganization manager of the Na- . That’s why. their newspaper organs are not chort- oA ling much about the result. ‘They realize this long- sought “conviction” was -obtained under circum- stances which really make it a vote of confidence and it already is beginning to dawn upon them with to. the handsome courthouse dismay that the farce staged at Jackson county is where the case was being con- s ducted, the morning after my arrival, an outside ' _ newspaper man whom I was with called my atten- | SRR THE J ACKSON IDE A l been_in progress for nearly a week when I arrived in the little city of Jackson. As I walked tion to the huge statue of Justice which surmounted the dome of the structure. “See . anything peculiar about that statue?” he asked. ; : 7.{ s I didn’t at first sight, but on closer inspection 3 discovered that one of the scales which Justice held R j‘ in her hand was far lower than the other. Possibly e - 3. < wind or a lightning bolt was responsible for this. i { ¢ “The scales of justice seem to be lopsided,” I - told my friend. - : R “Well, that’s prophetic,” he replied with a cyn- "' - ical grin. “That’s the same kind of lopsided i (5 justice that Townley and Gilbert are getting in b this court. ; ~ “I have attended a good many trials,” he $ thoughtfully added, “but.I never saw one like this before. It isn’t prosecution—it’s / political persecution all made to order.” / I cite this instance merely to show the j’ kind of impression which the trial of Townley and Gilbert. made upon outsid- ; ers. The reporter I was talking to was em- ployed on a paper hostile to the Nonpartisan league. He himself knew little about the or- ganization. . He had come to Jackson with a prej- udice against it, but he was a fair-minded man and in less than a week’s attendance at the trial his sense of justice revolted at what he saw. - And he made this remark to me while the state was + still ‘introducing its evidence. Even then the unfairness of the proceedings were evident, but the bias of the judge be- came even more marked when the defense began introducing . testimony. It was then that Judge Dean began to make his remarkable rulings which prevented the attorneys of Mr. Town- ley and Mr. Gilbert from showing what they had done to win the " war and from proving that the state’s star witness was a per-- jurer in the employ of men who had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in their efforts to destroy the Nonpartisan league. DENIED RIGHT TO PROVE " TRIAL WAS A “FRAME UP”. In fact, after the defendants had been repeatedly denied the right either to prove their loyalty or to show the jury the obvious fact that the whole case against them was a conspiracy hatched by their political foes and directed, not at them personally, but against the movement they represented, the farcical unfairness of the trial was so plain that it could be and was detected by the majority of the readers of the Twin Cities papers. Hostile head- -lines and the occasional suppression of remarks and evidence as the “Townley frame up” and the general opinion among lawyers and laymen alike is that the Min- nesota supreme court will set aside a verdict ob- tained through a denial of the fundamental rights which have been accorded to even the vilest crim- inals since time immemorial. LEAGUERS ILLEGALLY BARRED FROM SPEAKING IN COUNTY Consider the case in all its surroundings. Its inception was a letter sent to the officials of the Nonpartisan league during the month of February, 1918, signed by the members of the public safety board of Jackson county, warning them that or- ganizers or speakers would not be permitted within the county. This letter was a flagrant violation of the constitutional rights of free speech and peaceable assemblage, and Joseph Gilbert, or- ganization manager of the League, went to Jackson county to take charge of the 'sit _uation. e He first met with the members: of th Lakefield Commercial club, members of “public safety ‘board,” Prosecuting Atto ney Nicholas, Sheriff Lee and other offi- cials. The matter was discussed at some length and Gilbert finally made a few re- marks. He was interrupted and forbidden to say more. He then left the commer- cial club and started to deliver a speech in a livery barn yard. He was arrested by the sheriff almost before he had completed his introduction. : Gilbert was then tried and convicted on a charge of conducting an,illegal assemblage after a farcical trial in which there was a riot in the ° courtroom and Gilbert’s chief counsel was driven out of town by a mob before the case was com- pleted. As a result of-this outrage, charges of mal- feasance in office were preferred against County Attorney Nicholas and Sheriff Leé. Governor Burnquist “whitewashed” both officials, but, with- hatred in their hearts, they determined to “get” the Nonpartisan league. There is but little doubt that Nicholas was egged on by the organization of Twin Cities special interest heads who were pouring out money like water in an effort to de- feat the farmers’ movement which threatened to put a stop to their profiteering. Gilbert was rearrested on the more serious " charge of making seditious remarks and a few months afterwards another indictment was re- turned against Gilbert and also against President. Townley charging them with conspiring to teach that men should not enlist in the United States g armies or aid the government in the war against = favorable to Townley ‘and Giibert could not conceal the vicious Germany. ; X animus™ of the prosecuting attorneys, the bias of the judge and The basis of this indictment was the speech : the. still more evident fact that practically all the testimony given made at Lakefield by Gilbert, alleged remarks ‘ against the defendants came from professional politicians made by a League organizer, Irving Friday, and - * whose future depended upon blackening the names of the the circulation of a Nonpartisan league pamphlet. f defendants. : 2 which previously had been passed upon by the o s This is why the trial has been a bitter disappoint- Minnesota supreme court and its language held \" oy ment to the conspirators who staged it. 2 . to, be ]oyal,. e : : . : o | e . They thought that a conviction- of : It is significant that Gilbert’s Lak_ef_ie]d i the Nonpartisan league leadgrs was speech was 'not considered seditious i i necessary to cripple the growing until Prosecuting Attorney Nicholas { I8 - power of the farmers’ movement in and others saw it afforded them' a ““Minnesota, and they procured this conviction with consummate cun- " ‘ning. But in so doing it was neces- . sary to resort to rulings so “raw” A mnew conception of justice has come from Jackson, Minn. The Townley- Gilbert proceedings have evolved the amazing judicial theory of a justice, not blind, but gagged—a justice that will not permit a man “to ‘prove by con- . structive testimony that he is loyal.” It is unlikely, however, that the = 3 . néw form of “justi chance to “frame up” on Townley and - it is even more significant that Irving . Friday, the League organizer alleged - “to have made disloyal remarks, never has been arrested. " -