The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 4, 1919, Page 6

”/%”I% 4 7 0 K //Il/% '%/ - The MNonpartisén Teader Ofiiciai 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 3, 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, fn_ 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, Bex 575, St. Paul, Minn. , MEMBER OFF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS THE S. C. BECKWITH SPECIAL AGENCY, Advertising Representatives, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. 2 > Advertising rates on application. Quhck. 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. “Judges and lawyers may quibble, but in the court of public opinion the common sense of the people will never approve a ruling that says a man may merely deny he is disloyal and is forbidden to prove by constructive testimony that he is loyal.” —A. C. Townley at Jackson. MR. NICHOLAS’ SENTIMENTS - ATRIOTISM, Mr: Nicholas, county attorney of Jackson county, Pdeclared, was the spur that urged him to the prosecution of A. C. Townley and Joseph Gilbert on a conspiracy charge. Mr. Nicholas wished it understood that only his burning sense of loy- alty to America prompted the action which resulted in the trial of the head of the Nonpartisan league. . But let us see just how much it was patriotism and how much it was politics that motivated the prosecution at Jackson. The county attorney of Jackson county, on the stand, made it understood that he had had nothing to do with Ferdinand A. Teigen, chief witness for the state, prior to the latter’s offer to testify in the trial and his answer accepting that offer. Yet letters reproduced on another page show that Teigen had had correspondence with Mr. Nicholas and had received answers from him. This correspondence shows no signs of the repugnance in which Mr. Nicholas pretends to hold those whose activities ° against the government in the war hampered its prosecution. When the correspondence took place, Teigen had been discharged from the League when his anti-government activities were called to its attention. He had been indicted by a FEDERAL grand jury on a charge of violating the espionage law. He had been utterly dis- credited in Minnesotd with the farmers and their organization. He had been accused by government agents of having been ac- tive against the war. And yet af this time, E. H. Nicholas, the staunch loyalist, the man who went up and down the country as- sailing the Nonpartisan league as disloyal, was in close touch with Teigen, the discredited, accused of disloyalty. He was helping Teigen dispose of a book. L 3 And the object of this book? To “expose” the League! Evi- dently Mr. Nicholas was not averse to tying his loyalty to a stake while he went ‘about conferring with Teigen in an-attempt to “ex- pose” the League. Mr. Nicholas was very active in this regard. He spent much time going before business men in the interests of the book written by Mr. Teigen, accused of disloyalty by a federal grand jury. Mr. Nicholas was a politician all the time, it is quite evident from the exceedingly interesting letters reproduced in the Leader. But he was a patriot when patriotism squared with political am- bitions. » 0 Pt Political ambitions of the county attorney were behind the [ trial at Jackson—one of the many sinister purposes behind that | .trial. Mr. Nicholas probably saw in that trial great political capital, || ‘alever which would raise him to a high place in the politics of the i state. z cious, succulent, but it is filled with bitter ashes. In the persecution B e e T e ‘eroachment. There is a fruit known as the apple of Eden. It appears lus- : "/// gty | ?1/}'///4/" W, 2 / %, Z ” . of Mr. Townley, the county attorney at Jackson has eaten of the apples of Eden. His bid for fame has brought him only the re- proaches of all lovers of justice in Minnesota. The ambition of Mr. Nicholas has overreached itself. THE MENACE TO FOOD ; AST domination of all important foods in the United States by the Big Five packers is charged by the federal trade com- mission in a report to the president. The commission points out that there is now no adequate legislation for curbing this en- It is further shown that the Big Five—Swift & Co., Armour & Co., Morris & Co., Wilson & Co. and the Cudahy com- pany—now control 574 companies, hold minority interests in 95 REQ & g ,. g R :.5.’ 5o < 7 & . & 7, ®) & [~ Q < Foco U TCRA o Cb LN - 03, o O 25 R o0p . ey = L BT mis others, and they produce and deal in 775 commodities. port says: ' They have interests enough to be the dominating. influence in most of the service connected with the production and distribution of animal foods and their by-products, and are reaching out for control, not only of substitutes of animal food, but of substitutes for other ‘lines into which the integration of their business has led them. . “ The Kenyon-Anderson bill, now before both houses of congress, aims to curb this control by a license system. Ome of the most ingenious and important features of the bill provides that if the “moral bankruptcy” of any licensee is proven a receiver may be appointed by the court to take over the business to conduct it for the public good. : : - "The menace of absolute control of all food products, now The re- - recognized by a federal agency, is before congress and the presi- dent. The whole nation is crying for relief from the present food condition. Will congress dare to disregard this popular demand for curbing the power of the Big Five? If they do, the issue in 1920 will be clear. ' FAIR TO NORTH DAKOTA ; HE Seattle Post-Intelligencer is a daily paper that is opposed l to the Nonpartisan league and its program and is known as one of the most conservative organs in the state of Wash- ington. But the “P.-I’s” comment on North Dakota is, in striking contrast to the vicious, bitter and unfair comment which practically all of the reactionary press indulges in when discussing either the Nonpartisan league or the state of its birth. We have previously pointed out in these columns the fairness of this anti-League paper in its comment to date, and we print below the first two paragraphs of one of its more recent editorials: - The people of North Dakota have by referendum vote given their approval to certain experiments in state socialism. We can call it advanced legislation or radicalism, according as it elicits our ap- proval or disapproval, but whatever we call it does not alter its char- . acter. The state of North Dakota, as such, is going into business in - certain lines, much the same as Seattle has gone into-business in the electric power and transportation lines. In both instances the ma- jority of the people expressed their will, and the result is that their will will be put into effect. 3 The people of North Dakota went about their business, it will be observed, in-an orderly, democratic fashion. There was no word of a dictatorship, except the dictatorship of the majority. The state ’ henceforth will buy wheat, grind flour and loan money to farmers. The farmers are in the majority in North Dakota and have simply exercised the right of the majority, the same right that inheres in every majority, up to the constitutional protection of the minority; whether the minority is 49 per cent or consists of but one individual. ; This comment, coming from a paper with the beliefs and back- ing for which the “P.-1.” is notorious, is remarkable in several re- spects. It admits there are two sides to the question. It admits that “socialism,” as applied by League enemies to its program, is no more or no less than public ownership of public utilities, compar- able, the “P.-1.” says, to Seattle’s ownership of electric power and transportation, and, it might also be added, to Seattle’s publicly . owned wharves, warehouses, cold storage plants and grain eleva- = -