The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 18, 1919, Page 7

it MR 1t7) “It'is b_l.lt' anbther.sar_nple of appreciatién of the agricultural situation such as never has been seen before.’ Going on with the press agent’s account we learn that “Pro- fessor Curtis spoke enthusiastically of the value of the farm as a ‘starting place in life.” What a nice little compliment to pay Farmer Wilson! Professor Curtis said along this line: ; “It has been said that most people who amount to anything have or will live upon a farm.” (Rather faulty diction for a pro- . fessor to use, but maybe the press agent made an error in tran- scribing.) “Where, in fact, can you get the elements of a real home better than upon a farm? Where can you raise boys and girls as you can in the country ?” : After this, we presume, tea was served, and the guests went home “feeling that a pleasant time was had by all.” The press agent adds: ‘“Among the guests present were:” but we forbear to tax the patience of our readers further with the list of names. Do the packers-think they can masquerade as real farmers by peddling such sickly, pink-tea stuff as this? “They are fooling nobody but themselves. Whether they know it or not, their “days of delight” are about over.. The réal people of America are not particularly interested in “days of delight” at Edellyn farm, still less interested in how the farm happened to be named, and it is no concern whatever of theirs who won the silver-mounted rain stick, the gentleman’s brown derby hat or the lady’s knitted bath- tub.. The public is interested in the question of the responsibility for reduced prices on cattle and increased prices on meat, and that . is the question that the packers will have to answer. 3 _“WRITE TO YOUR .CONGRESSMAN” RITING to congressmen is a pastime to which the public s;\; in general is not much given. Often it may be because the public knows too well' that the communication is apt 1o get short shift. More often it is lack of interest or neglecu. But this method of getting to the ears of the congressmen is not neglected by those seeking special privilege. The packers, the steel trust, the man seeking to have a hand in the natural re- sources grab, hire lobbyists to win over congressmen, but they do more than that—they “write to their congressman.” Congress is -being flooded with communications from big business interests in favor of this legislation or that. They waste no small opportunity to win the congressmen over to them. There are many more men in congress apt to want to do what the people want than it would appear at first glance. Sometimes - they want to do it to hold their’job. But they are too much given to taking the voice of the business interests,- which can make themselves heard through their newspapers and the camouflaged communications for the voice of the people. And they obey, think- ing they are right. The federal trade commission has prepared the third.part of its report on the packer situation. In the capital there is a well- founded fear that this section of the report will never see the light of day unless there is a concerted demand for this part of the report, ~ which, it is said, is the most important and sensational section. The demand is being made all over the country by liberal newspapers and organizations. The packers are urging their friends to “write to their congressmen” in an effort to kill the Kenyon-Anderson licensing bill. ; This would be a good time for the readers of the Leader to write their congressmen demanding that the third part of the federal trade commission report be made public. - : ; TWO CAUCUSES press were filled with accounts of the “terrible secret caucus” at Bismarck. Of course it was not a secret caucus at all, as all newspaper men, who stopped at Bismarck and were O NLY a few months ago the columns of the éhti-League : ' immediately admitted to the deliberations, perceived. It was simply: a daily conference of the men who had banded together for a com- mon purpose, to discuss the best means of carrying out that purpose. But there is another caucus, a real caucus, that the same anti- League papers view with complete approval. This is the Re- publican congressional caucus at Washington, D. C. Daily papers the other day carried the news that this caucus was considering - a special disciplinary session to punish certain Republicans, among them Congressmen Baer and Sinclair, Leaguers from North Dakota, and Keller, labor-independent from Minnesota, who had failed to vote with the G. O. P. gang on the food sale bill. : The vote for which Baer, Sinclair and Keller are to be “dis- ciplined” is illuminating, The bill at issue was one providing for sale of surplus meat and other food supplies, held by the war department. The Republican gang in control of the lower house was perfectly willing that the bill should pass, so long as it would allow jobbers and wholesale food dealers to buy in the supplies at low prices. . But an amendment, known as the Kelly amendment, was offered, -which provided that the food supplies in question might be sold by parcel post to the people of the country, so that the real con- sumers would have opportunity to buy on the same basis as the jobbers. It was because .Baer, Sinclair and Keller voted for this amendment that they are now to be “disciplined” by a special session of the Republican caucus. =i "~ The so-called ‘“caucus” at Bismarck, which the anti-League papers held up as representative of all that was wrong in politics, never held a disciplinary session during its existence. It was expressly understood, when the Bismarck “caucus” was organized, that no person attending it was ever to be coerced into doing any- thing which in any way violated his conscientious scruples. But to the caucus at Washington, it appears, matters of right Wy BOYS BOY 657_1 Say G2 and wrong make no difference. Those who put principles before party are to feel the lash of discipline on their shoulders. The fact that the anti-League press, which excoriated the so- galled Bismarck “caucus” approves the Washington caucus, is an index of the real attitude of the subsidized newspapers. Also, as somebody or other said before us, it helps to explain the popular saying that consistency is a jewel. It is because con- sistency is so rare. WHAT WAR MEANS congressional investigations into the conduct of the war. The cruel treatment of enlisted men convicted of petty offenses by “Hard-Boiled” Smith (acting under the direction, it appears, of higher officers) ; the fact that men in the ranks were given years of hard labor for minor infractions of the military code, while a colonel accused of gross cruelties goes unpunished; the wanton destruction of millions of dollars’ worth of serviceable aircraft while a cordon of armed men stood around to prevent a photograph being taken—these are some of the high lights in the testimony so far. The investigation probably will end with a few individuals punished and with Republican campaign orators supplied with more or less effective campaign material. The latter purpose, we suspect, is the real reason for the whole investigation. But to the thoughtful man the investigation will mean a great deal more than that. There is a general ery throughout the country for the punishment of “Hard-Boiled” Smith. But is he wholly to blame? Thére are in ever nation thousands of men whose naturally cruel temperaments are only held in check by ‘the restrictions of peace-time ‘civilization. War removes. these checks. War bru- talizes men whose natural temperaments are peaceful. And the inevitable results are cases like those of “Hard-Boiled” Smith, the German atrocities in Belgium, the massacre of Jews in Poland, the S OME interesting conditions are being brought to light by the | “red terror” in Russia, the slaughter of Armenians—and race riots’ in Washington and Chicago. , War brings with it strict discipline, subserviency to higher authority and a complete repeal, temporarily at least, of every provision enacted to safeguard the rights of the common man. It follows, as a natural course, that enlisted men are convicted while - officers go free. Courts-martial are composed entirely of officers. The caste system prevails throughout every army in the world, un- less the army of Bolshevik Russia be taken as an exception. What is more natural than that the officer caste should stick together to free an officer at the same time that an enlisted man is con- demned ? War is the great destroyer. Destruction is its keynote and its object. With the doctrines of waste and destruction firmly - BN EET THLS BE THE LAST wWar! i c— < \ EOLITICLON (e implanted in> men’s minds, what more natural than that our own property should be destroyed, as in the case of the airplanes, rather than to spend the trifling amount of time needed to salvage a few million dollars’ worth of property ? i If the congressional investigation.shows anything at all, it shows that “Hard-Boiled” Smith, the officers who refused to con- vict a fellow officer and those responsible for the aircraft destruc- tion are not the real criminals. are only- the natural products of war. Such men have cropped up in every war that any nation has ever had, and they will be found _in any future war. The real culprits are the politicians of the world, who by their lack of foresight have failed to prevent war. To say that war can not be prevented is a terrible indictment against. the intelligence -of humanity. . When the people of the world come into full control of their governments, war must and will end. Blamable as these men are, they