The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 17, 1919, Page 4

THE LIMIT IN JOURNALISTIC DEGENERACY—THE NEW YORK SUN _——————— SECTION nEVEN NEW YORK SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12 1919.— Copyright, 1903, by the Sun Prinsing and Publishing dusociation. ownle 'I'here Collapse of Non -Partisan League in North Dakota Striking Example of State Socialism By EDWIN C. HILL. WAL oot in North Dakota a(«ght One speculates as to why the bank Llew up the other day.|¢Xaminers hadn't taken the trouble It blew un hacauss 1t waa all | PEOTE 10 poke about in the books and urity boxes of the Standinavian- of hot wir Inateay of >~ ~a.h. Thero | Armorican, for the loosences and inata- e hnnzlnl urusual stout tr t{biity of the Whole Non-Partimn i has gontha to) pta who by the pat tho 2 |HIS is a photographic repro- 2| duction of the front page of the magazine section of the New York Sun for October 12. It is doubtful whether the American press ever sank low- er than this. The pictures and headlines were occasioned by the bank-wrecking raid of anti- League politicians in North Dakota. First, study the pictures. The picture of the farmer governor of North Dakota, who was elected by a majority vote of the people under the laws ‘and constitution, after a peaceful and ordelly cam- palgn of argument and discussion of public issues, is placed beside a drawing of masked night nders, carrying guns and torches, evidently engaged in terrorism. These night riders are supposed to be League farmers burning and killing. The sugges- tion intended by the Juxtaposxtlon of these pictures s that the Nonpartisan league is a radical, revo- Iutionary movement, depending not on the ballot and the ways of law and order, but on the most extreme kind of direct action. Next, study the headlines. The North Dakota League program is not yet entirely in effect. The state bank and the mill and elevator department have been functioning only a few months. Results to date have been so successful as to astonish even the most ardent believers in the League program. But it will take several years to thoroughly test this indgstrial program. The Sun, however, says it is already a “fiasco,” because a farmers’ bank, which has since reopened, was temporarily closed by anti-farmer officeholders. The Sun says that the closing of this bank has s _Fiasco Shows I’In‘me S‘ra No Short Cut to Wealth_ 7 [l ([ caused the “collapse” of the League in North Dakota. The bank is now open and doing business, bigger and stronger than ever. The farmers in their Fargo { massmeeting voted to in- crease its capital and surplus ftom $60,000 to $600,000. The supreme court of the state has declared the bank perfectly solvent and has branded its closing as “arbitrary, unwarranted and illegal.” Anyway, the Scandinavian American bank at Fargo had no relation to or connection with the state gbvernment and the case had no bearing whatever on the in- dustrial program voted by the people, put into law by the farmers’ legislature and now being carried out by the farmers’ administration. Yet the Sun uses this bank closing as “proof” that the farmers’ program being carried out by the state is a fiasco and that the I,eague has “collapsed.” These assertions are stupid. They are also false Deposits in Reopened Fargo Bank Are BY SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT 2 |HE Scandinavian American bank of Fargo, illegally closed Octo- ber-2 in an effort to wreck the Nonpartisan league, since it triumphantly reopened Satur- day, October 25, following the opinion by the supreme court that the bank was solvent, has experienced a continual “run” by depositors to put money into the bank. On the first day’s business deposits were nearly $40,000 in excess of withdrawals. This in spite of the fact that merchants and business men pf Fargo had’ been freely accepting checks from depositors dur- ing the time it was closed, and most of these checks were presented during the first few days that the bank was opened The same condition* has been maintained during the days following the reopening of the bank. Frank Bennett, a farmer of Harwood, N. D., came in after the bank was reopened. He said: “As soon as I saw they were trying to wmake trouble: for the Scandinavian American I said to myself, ‘Instead ‘of withdrawing my money I am coming in to deposit more, if they want it.’ During three years of crop failures the bank held me up, -and I'm going to help it now.” Bennett showed the directors another reason why he resented the effort to wreck the bank -and the League at the same time. Bennett had just sold 1,000 bushels of No. 3 wheat for $2.26. On the. same day No. 1 wheat was selling for $2.35. ‘There was a spread of only 9 cents between No. 1 and No. 3, due to the fight that Doctor Ladd and League congressmen had been making for fairer payment for low-grade wheat, and due to the show- ing that the Drake mill had been making in its milling work. Mr. Bennett had another reason to defend the League and the bank. Included in the check that he . got for his 1,000 bushels of wheat was a payment for $17 worth of dock- _. age, which must be paid-for this year under the North Dakota laws. In this item alone Bennett had enough for a two-years member- ship in the League and $1 over. One Fargo woman in the lobby of the bank Mon- day-following the teopenmg counted five new de-' 'posxtors who had come m to- open new awount.s in : PAGE FOUR and slanderous. The -impression intended to be carried by the pictures is false and libelous and known to be such by the Sun. On the whole this layout proves more conclusively than anything we have seen for a long time-the prostitution of the American press to sinister purposes of autocratic and monopolistic big business. The writers, artists and editors who had to do with this absurd, fanat- ical and damnably false attack on the farmers and: their organization are a crew of low, unprincipled hirelings, worthy only of the contempt and loathing of honest men. Greater Tharl E'Vér “the 15 or 20 minutes -that she waited in the bani. " One of the conductors of the Fargo Street Car company was showing a new sheep-lined overcoat - to a friend. “I got it today, after the bank; opened,” he said. “I got my money .all right, you bet. But I'm go- ing to leave every dollar there except what I took out for my overcoat.” In a barber shop a customer asked the bar'ber who was shaving him if closing the bank was go- ing to hurt the League. = “Oh, you can’t stop them Nonparhsans," the barber replied. “The bank business is helpmg them, instead of hurting them. And it does seem " a h——of a way for these I. V. A.s to show their friendship for the ‘farmers by trying to bust the farmers’ bank.” The Scandinavian American bank is open. It is doing what the bankers ‘would call "a “normal” business, except for the fact that deposits are heavier than' ever. Everybody has .confidence in the institution and it undoubtedly is in a better “condition to continue its service to the farmers than it was before the wreckmg crew made: theit attempt to kill lt. 257 e ’