The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 17, 1919, Page 6

7y :V@ gy, ‘ ’I%R SN % '/%//1//// /é/// P 7 P r//l/) o l/%//m Nonpartigén Teader Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Week Entered as second-class matter September 3, 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. 0. Foss, Art Editor. Advertisihg rates on application. Subscription, one year, .in advance, $2.50; six months, $1.50. lease do not make checks, drafts nor money orders payable to indi- viduals. Address all N i Box 575, St. Paul, Min MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS THE S. C. BECKWITH SPECIAL AGENCY, Advertising Representatives, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. letters and make all remittances to The Nonpartisan Leader, n. . Q_unck. 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 coiumns. S of the Republican party for president next year. At the- risk of giving the impression that we take his presidential aspira- tions seriously, it may be worth while to analyze briefly his platform for the benefit of others who really have a chance for the Republican nomination and who want to learn what to avoid in the way of - statements. - ) At a time when the whole world is in a state of ferment, with the masses of people everywhere either making or proposing to make experiments of new ideas in industry and government; labor thor- oughly dissatisfied with existing conditions in our own country, re- sulting in widespread strikes and still wider spread threats of strikes; with labor and farmers’ organizations demanding political and economic reforms, with a high-cost-of-living problem daily growing more serious while the number of millionaires is alarmingly MILES HAS PRESIDENTIAL ITCH - ENATOR MILES POINDEXTER has sent us for publication a long statement announcing that he will seek the nomination increasing—in the face of these facts and others too numerous to - mention, which indicate something is fundamentally wrong and must be corrected if we are to have peace and prosperity, Senator Poindexter offers us—NOTHING. ' : His statement assumes that the evidences of unrest and dis- content are the result of ‘“agitation” by revolutionists and ‘“red radicals” and that the remedy is simply to deport or suppress these revolutionists or “red radicals.” Agitators of the type against whieh the senator rails flourish only where the ground is fertile— where social and economic conditions need reform. They will con- tinue to flourish, no matter how much deporting and suppressing is done by political ignoramuses like Poindexter. The real states- man recognizes that the CAUSES of unrest, the CAUSES of suc- cessful agitation, must be studied and removed. We searched the senator’s statement in vain for one word on the subject of profit-sharing by laber in industry, on giving labor a larger voice in the management of industry, on the remedy for autocratic and monopolistic domination of the food supply by the packers, on the sinister conditions growing out of the multiplica- . -tion of millionaires and concentration of wealth, on the subject: . of government ownership and operation of railroads and coal mines ¢ —in fact, on ANY subject of the many which lie at the botton®of. | the unrest in America. Instead we find stupid demands for the ! deportation of “alien slackers,” the suppression of radicals, the { wiping out of discussion of social questions, the encouragement of | an “Americanism” which would have Uncle Sam strutting about with a chip on his shoulder, and the old, old appeals of reactionaries | who talk of “a return to the ancient policy of the forefathers.” i There are the usual platitudes about good roads and a protective tariff, a few patriotic flourishes and an argument that labor can not . | remain free and independent under any system but the one which | makes the workman a wage slave. There is just one sentence on ; the demands of labor, a mere generality to the effect that “the just claims of labor should be recognized.” : A e ; " The Republican candidate, even if a conservative, ‘must, to have any chance at all, at least “make‘a stab” at discussing the | real problems facing the country. e i et il e % gff’é %/I ' ry . ] i T THE ROOSEVELT MEMORIAL FUND HEODORE ROOSEVELT has been dead less than a year. At this time many of his former political enemies even seem willing to concede that he will go down in history as one of our greatest presidents and one of the greatest citizens of the great republic. His claim to greatness rests on achievements in more than one field—in statesmanship, literature and science, not to men- tion sportsmanship. : But it is far too soon to pronounce a final verdict on his ac-° complishments for -America and for humanity. Whether on the whole the good he.did overbalances the evil, entitling him to a place among the world’s immortals and greatest Americans, is a question for the next generation to decide. It can not be dispas- wHICH WAY wiuL IT 7T/P? &A1 Mistory e : KOOSEVELTS |, g s, ossepers QL D5—~g .’," H ’\‘. DEEDLS <& sionately and finally decided.sooner. The heated controversies which raged over his personality and- policies are too recent, and partisans on both sides still too intent on advantages for their fac- tions to permit a calm verdict now. : : Until the political and economic doctrines for which Roosevelt stood when he died are tested by time, and the conditions to which they referred settled, placing these mattersout of politics and hence out of factional, class or partisan controversy, the verdict of no man or group of men on the claim of Roosevelt to greatness can have any value. We say this in no spirit of disparagement of an American who, in his-time, became world famous. Roosevelt him- self, a historian of no mean ability, would agree to this. , There can be no objection to friends of Roosevelt contributing to a fund to erect a memorial, though it would be better far for partisans of his doctrine to let congress in the generation to come erect for him a monument at the nation’s expense, as has been done for-Lincoln, if indeed history accords him a place making him worthy of such honors. But subscriptions to the Roosevelt fund should not be solicited on the basis that he who does not sub- . scribe is “un-American” or a “Bolshevik.” The late colonel’s friends should observe the common decencies enough to prevent them from using the death of their hero and the sympathy of the generous American public for his fdthily as a means of clubbing - their opponents into agreement or seeming agreement with his doctrines, about which there is and will continue to be for some time, a wide and honest divergence of opinion. The death of a prominent, perhaps a great man, should not be used for political, paz'tisan or class advantage while his grave is still fresh. » THE DRAKE MILL PROFITS _ . THE manager of the North Dakota Mill and Elevator associ- ation has given out:a financial report of the first few weeks of operation of the Drake mill. This shows that the earnings for 26 days were $2,340, at at the rate of $30,000 a year. The state’s investment in this experimental mill is only $20,000. The annual earningg, therefore, according to these figures, would be 150 per cent on the investment. The manager’s estimate of expenses, we understand, does not include interest on the $20,000 investment and on about $10,000 working capital, which should be figured in to reach a fair statement of net earnings. The mill bonds bear 5 per FIGURES DON'T LIE ' - SOME LIARS FIGURE ég éj cRAZY CAR KOSITZITY. (e = (3{ T YRR it cent and the interest on the investment, figured at that i'ate, would amount to only $1,500 a-year. If you also put on the debit side the overhead expenses of the industrial commission properly chargeable =~ to the mill, which is only a small department under commigssion, you still have a handsome annual profit, The state auditor, one of the turncoat officials, has given out a report that the expense of the industrial commission for the 26 days covered in the manager’s financial report of the mill was $2,614. He claims ALL that should be added to the expense of the mill. Such a statement is ridiculous, however, as the commission supervises, besides the mill at Drake, the. Home Building associa- - tion, a survey of the coal fields, the Bank of North Dakota and other the industrial , activities of the Mill and Ele'vator.asspciatiqn_more ‘important th