The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 15, 1919, Page 6

b establish a “proletarian dictatorship.” 7 & “ éflll/j g’} % @ ! Nonpartisén Tead R Entered as second-class matter September 8, 1915, at the postoffice at St. Paul, Minnesota, under the Aet of March 3, 1879. 4 OLIVER S. MORRIS, Editor E. B, Fussell, A. B, Gilbert and C. W. Vonier, Associate Editors. B. O. Foss, Art Editor. b 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 e ‘Nonpartisan Leader, . Box 575, St. Payl, Minn. - : MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS THE 8. C. BECKWITH SPECIAL AGENCY, York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. Advex;tisinz- Representatives, New 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 coluvmnn.v A i IS REVOLUTION POSSIBLE? ~ Johnson in a recent issue of the New Republic would do much- to allay the fears of conservatives who are having a case of nerves over present alleged widespread revolutionary propa- - ganda. Also it would make certain conservative propagandists feel silly—for instance, those who. ‘are capitalizing the conservative fear of revolution in the fight on farmers’ and workers’ organiza- tions which are far from revolutionary. - : Mr. Johnson shows how economic revolutions are possible only in congested industrial centers where great non-owning classes - have grievances which society neglects. -He finds that the greatest bulwark against ‘revolution is the land-owning farmer, who may sympathize with the legitimate aspirations of labor and co-operate with labor politically,- but who would instantly rally against at- tempts to overthrow the government, abolish private property or "'l would be overthrown quickly. It would immediately burn out or I ! | ’ - cal*action under the movements are primarily to make farming a safer’ o """ Mr. Johnson thus puts. his thumb o starve to death, if it could not be put down by arms, for the great bulk of our pppulation would be out of sympathy with it. Only one-third of the' people-of the United ‘States-live in cities i~ of 30,000 or over, and cities of this size or smaller have no -con- gested industrial populations and hence are not fertile. fields for revolution, and do not breed sympathy for revolutionists. Mr. Johnson finds no exception to the rule that farmers as a whole are opposed to overthrow of the present government, point- ing out that even the most advanced and progressive element among farmers—for instance, the Nonpartisan league, which is often accused of being “Bolshevik” and. “revolutionary”—is in SERS fact committed to the institution of private property, and to politi- present laws and constitutions. On this sub- ject he says: : 2 G Our common sense tells us that there is_practically no enterprise 7 undertaken by the government in North Dakota: which might'not be . - undertaken by any “bourgeois” government anywhere. We do not call ownership of docks by New York City a revolutionary adventure. Why fall into a-panic over ownership of grain. elevators by -North Dakota? Banks owned or virtually owned by the state ‘are com- - mon in ‘Europe.: They are never regarded as inimical-to the institu- - --tion‘ of private property. -And as for the use of public ‘money to ONLY TWO s ROADS OPEN /’“ 5 ‘9 e stimulate ‘farm and 'home ownership, a policy more <conducive to. fundaniental conservatism would be hard ‘to devise. ~Home owners: furnish few recruits to ‘a party proclaiming confiscation; * % * The Nonpartisan -leaguers want :to . acquiré private propert; lec i erty. under < What they conceiveto be fair terms and to hold it subjeet to minimum risks. 'In_gpirit, therefore, they may safely ‘be ranged-along with" - ' the: Test, of the agricultural’ population’ as“supporters:-of ‘the es- . -sentials of the existig ofdér. . i Lo Arelig : -a consideration w logically should cause conservatives who fea to promote and direct, rather than blindly movements among the farmers like the No able bus ess, extending and READING of an article under the above title by Alvin. He shows that a revolu- ° . tion originating in the only possible places, the industrial centers, ership of farms, than 'whichmnothiii_;g is moreconducn?e to the * stability of the present order. -~ But Mr. Johnson sounds a word:-of warning. He finds 37 per cent of the farms were operated by tenants in 1910, against only 35 per cent 10 years earlier. He believes it is close to 40 per ¢ent today, and increasing. Unless essentially conservative reform movements like the Nonpartisan league can check this rapid tend- ency toward farm tenantry, sooner or later a large rural population on which revolutionary propaganda will be capable of making a real - impression will develop. Non-owning farmers are really mere wage-workers, and with grievances as great will act similarly.- The fatuousness of the blind conservative-policy in opposing reform movements among farmers tending to more secure and widespread land ownership by individuals is thus made apparent. = = - OMETHING happened the other day in Seattle, Wash., which S we believe may prove epoch-making. The employes of the ~Post-Intelligencer, Seattle’s big morning newspaper, rebelled against continujng to assist in the circulation of lies by the: editors and publishers of the paper. It was a peaceful demonstration— not a strike or any other kind of direct action—but nevertheless a revolt against present-day corrupt newspaper practices by news- THIS M&&T S7TOR . /5 paper worfgers that may have far-reaching effect. l-’Wi_ié.t is more important still, the Post-Intelligencer was forced to publish on its front page resolutions adopted at a massmeeting of its employes. We quote the important part of these resolutions: R o * -As mentbers of the several trades unions employed in the producs - tion ‘of your newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, we ‘make the - following representations: =~ = S § 3 B e We -have been patient under 'misrepresentation, faithful in the face of slander;~long suffering under insylt; we have upheld our agreements- and produced your paper, even though in so doing we . were braiding the rope with which you propose to hang us; day after day we have put in type, stereotyped, printed. and mailed: calumny after calumny, lie after lie, insult after insult.’ IR s Little by little, as our patience seemed to be unbounded, your - ‘editorial and business policy has encroached upon and further: and further overstepped the bounds, not only of fairness and truth, but® decency and -Americanism itself. We have even meekly witnessed = your unfair and reprehensible campaign of falsehood and ruin result ‘in the 'suppression of the last medium of honest expression’ for our - cause in Seattle (the”Seattle Union Record), not: only ‘denying our - brothers the means of livelihood, but’ denying us a far: greater boon —the American right of a free press. i e e g e L Resolved, by the whole committee of yout organized employes' _in ‘meeting ‘assembled, that if your business- management can ‘not - - demonstrate its capacity and sagacity, if your editorial directing heads . must remain blind to the thing they are bringing us to; if together ‘you:can not see the abyss to which you are leading us-~all of us;: s - 1if you have no more love for our common country thanis manifested in your efforts to plunge it into anarchy, then as loyal American eiti- zens—many of us ex-service men who: very elearly proved our faith- _ in America and its institutions—we must, not because we are union- ists but hecause we are Americans, find means to protect ourselves " from. the stigma of having aided ‘and abetted ~your campaign ‘of " .destructiony: 7" et e A 3 § » The Post-Intelligencer has been the organ of Washington em- - -ployers, capitalists, politicians and reactionaries who are literally - -waging a war of extermination against labor unions and progressive - ; - object*of their campaign of " hate and prejudice being the Washington “Triple alliance,” a voters’ organization of which League, Grange and other farmers, rail- = = - road workers and trades unionists are members, . Almost unbeliev- ~able as it may Seem, the Post-Intelligencer and other papers. ‘at- - “tempted directly or indirectly. to connect the “Triple alliancé” and ~ labor and farmer organizations with the disgraceful and’ - -events .at Centralia, AWash.,wgwhiéliflne ult e . ; farmer ofganizations, the particula Amerjcan Legion menibe which, according to testin mob: action aga -alliance” were opeflly advocated. or the-federal g v '.." ] v_,‘:, o~ wf RE7. RN Pl N SRl £ —p o - ‘ Yoy A { Y Y o PR ,)\A Yl s | o | ks! (i «F 59 X <W > S '““. ¥; m": . En 1) T R el (RS P~ <