The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, October 13, 1919, Page 6

e e Sy t—y TNonpartisén Teader Official 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 8, 1879. OLIVER 8. MORRIS,. Editor E. B. Fussell, A. B. Gilbert and C. W. Vonier, Associate Editors. B. 0. Foss, Art Editor. Advertising rates on application. = Subscription, one year, in 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 Box 575, St. Paul, Minn. % MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS THE S. C. BECKWITH SPECIAL AGENCY, Advertising: Representatives, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. < _— Quack, 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. REAL ISSUES FORGOTTEN HE Russian Bolsheviki are a group of extreme radical revo- lutionists, who believe in a political and economic dictator- ship of the workers and who do not hesitate to maintain that dictatorship by terror, if necessary, the object being eventually to destroy all classes except the producing class. They propose to do this by withdrawing all privileges that enable men to live without brain or hand work, and not only force everybody to work and produce-in order to be citizens and participate in the government, but force everybody to work and produce in order to even live. But, whatever the fallacies of this program and whatever the excesses of the Bolsheviki in attempting to carry it out, pro-Germanism during the war was not one of their sins, though this was the charge on which their opponents in allied countries attempted to discredit them and justify the Russian invasion. This is now pretty well understood, but if further testimony were needed that of General THRTS BETTER = Lo > A/ A qu%ndorfi', commander-in-chief of the German armies, settles the point. The allied peoples were asked by their governments to sane- tion the invasion of Russia on the ground the Bolsheviki were co- operating with Germany and that it was necessary to put troops into Russia as a military measure against the kaiser. Of course, that was a mere pretense. The troops are still in Russia, though Germany is smashed and is no longer a military menace to the world. In his memoirs, just published, General Ludendorff says: With the consent of the Soviet government, the entente had con- tinued to organize the Czecho-Slovak bands of troops from the Austro- Hungarian war prisoners. They were intended to be used against us, and were to be brought to France across the Siberian railway. And this was allowed by the Soviet government with which we were at peace, and we let it go on! I wrote to the imperial chancellor at length about this at the beginning of June, and called his attention to the dangers which threatened us from the Soviet government. * * * If the Soviet government had been in good faith with its peace treaty with us, these same trains which carried the Czecho-Slovak troops could have borne German prisoners of war as well (with the object of permitting them to return to Germany). ; iy Bk The German commander-in-chief is bitter in his attitude to ward the Bolsheviki for their anti-German attitude during the war, after they seized the power in Russia. “They hurt us wherever they were able,” he says. Tty ¢ But the American people were fed on the fiction that the Soviet government was pro-German, to justify our infamous interference in the internal affairs of Russia, which still continues on our part without even a declaration of war. American lives and American money are being spent in Russia. today on behalf of reactionary, - czarist groups, in violation of our every profession during the war that we were fighting for democracy and the self-dgtermination of - all nations. SR ‘It is a few things like this that have caused the widespread suspicion of the present Democratic administration and its treaty of peace and league of nations. And these are the things that the selfish, partisan opposition to the president in the senate are not emphasizing. G _ The real issues are forgotten in the bitter, unseemly - ‘partisan fight of the Republicans and Democrats over the treaty 7 W%% - : "%”"”’«/ ' 4 7 i % %/ %M 4 4% : TAXES IN NORTH DAKOTA Coas ENEMIES of the North Dakota farmers’ administration pre- Ld dicted that this year’s state tax levy in that state would be 5 or 6 mills—that $8,000,000 would be needed for the pur- poses of the government, against only about $2,000,000 raised by taxes for the state last year. This increase, they said, was caused by the “hell-bent plunge of North Dakota into wild state ownership enterprises.” e The farmers’ administration has just fixed the tax rate for this year. It is 2.98 mills—less than 3 mills—instead of the 5 or 6 pre- S TOYING TO BLOW. . ™y, : 17 UR TQ MINNESTTAS 5/2E o7 " MINNESOTA . TAXES. ot LERGUE ENEMY. dicted by League enemies, and covers all the legislative appropria- tions to carry out the farmers’ program as well as including a half- mill levy to pay North Dakota soldiers $25 a month for every month they served in the army during the war. It is true North Dakota state taxes will be higher this year. The amount to be raised is $4,500,000, against $2,000,000 last year, but only a very small part of this increase is caused by appropriations and interest on. bonds to carry out the League program. The greater part of the increase is accounted for by the soldiers’ bonus and the general increase in the cost of administering the govern- ment, which has increased phenomenally along with everything else. The increase in North Dakota, even with the L.eague program ap- propriations included, is no greater than in states bordering on North Dakota, where they have had to take care merely of the in- creased high cost of government, and not appropriations to inaugu- rate a program of state ownership. Thus, in Minnesota, the state levy last year was only 3.5 mills, but the tax fixed this year is 8.1 mills, and even this increase of 131 per cent may not cover. the appropriations made by the state. : It should be borne in mind also that the small increase in North Dakota due to the actual appropriations to carry out the League program is in the nature of a temporary loan to the industries to be established, and that it will be paid back to the state strong box as soon as these industries are established and making a revenue of their own. WHEN FREE SPEECH ISN’T FREE SPEECH HE St. Paul Dispatch has evolved so curious an argument to : warrant the suppression of free speech that it is worth a s larger circulation than the Dispatch can give it. We have the Dispatch’s weighty opinion that workmen in Allegheny county, Pa., whose admittedly peaceful meeting was violently broken up by the sheriff, were in reality “rioters” and the suppression justified. ~ But let us give the argument in the Dispatch’s own words: - But the whole truth puts the occurrence in a different light. The fact is that on the previous Saturday the sheriff of Allegheny county, in the performance of his duty, issued a proclamation under the statute of Pennsylvania prohibiting gatherings of three or more persons in THRT MEANS UNLESS ] /! SAY THAT YoU e CON'T TALH —~ GANG OFFKCIARL populous sections. The proclamation was amply: distributed and the course was to safeguard life and property by taking all means to pre- .. vent possible riot and disorder. The mandate of the law officer of the . county was disregarded and the meetings in public places were or-. ~ dered dispersed by the state police. It was resistance to the order that - - created the disturbance. * * * Peaceable assembly is among the rights of Americans and as long as it is peaceable it is lawful and 1abor has the undoubted right to enjoy it. But when assembly of any kind be- comes contrary to law or when it is prohibited under due legal author- o ;:y, it céases to be peaceful assembly and becomes: riot under the same * .~ Under this definition of free speech, speech is as'a matter of fact efi"eqtlvely suppressed. By this reasoning the breaking up of peaceful meetings and arrest and prosecution of those seeking to speak at such meetings can everywhere be justified; when a sheriff or other peace officer can be.influenced to issue a proclamation against peaceful assemblage. The worst outrages in Minnesota last year against the Nonpartisan league are thus justified, because in almost every case some sheriff, mayor, county attorney or so-called public safety commissioner decreed that the farmers could not hold ‘meetings, The late czar and his secret police were acting within = their 'Bhts'Wheni-they'.,guppressed‘ e ro / g meetings all ove i