The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, January 12, 1920, Page 6

Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Week = Entered at the postoffice, St. Paul, Minn., as second-class matter. N OLIVER 8. MORRIS, Editor. Sfibscription, one year, in advance, $2.50; six months, $1.50. Classified advertising rates on classified page; other advertising rates on application.- Address all letters and make all remittances to The Nonpartisan Leader, Box 575, St. Paul, Minn. _Member of Audit Bureau of Circulations. The S. C. Beckwith Special Agency, advertising repre- sentatives, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. Irresponsible firms are not knowingly advertised. Readers should advise us promptly if they have occasion to question the reliability of any advertiser. . - FARMERS’ LETTERS DID IT OME weeks ago the Leader had occasion to refer to a grossly S unfair article on the attempted wrecking of the Scandinavian American bank, which appeared in the Literary Digest. The statement was not only one-sided but contained a number of mis- statements of fact. All this was inexcusable in the first instance, as the Literary Digest gets copies of the Leader weekly, and had the facts about the Scandinavian American bank before it when the article in question was prepared. League farmers by the dozen saw the article. Without any suggestion from this office they got busy and told the editor of the Digest a few things. One of the farmers, a regular subscriber to the Digest, had occasion_to renew his subscription. He sent his money in the form of a check on the Scandinavian Americanbank to prove to the Digest, he said, that this bank had not “gone bust” a; the Digest had charged. Apparently the Digest did not have ruch faith in the “facts” about the bank having “gone bust,” as l.ad been stated in the previous article, for they accepted the check. They ‘also promised the farmers who had written to protest against the misstatements that they would “make good” in a later article. ; This has now been done. In its issue dated December 20 the Digest prints a second article on the Scandinavian American bank case. The article this time contains facts rather than prejudiced opinions. Its quotations are taken from the Leader and the Cour- ier-News. . This shows what can be done by farmers in nailing lies of the opposition.. . If the first Digest article had been permitted to go uncorrected a false impression in regard to the League would have been spread among thousands.of people who had no opportunity of getting first-hand facts. The activity of the farmers has pre- vented this. There are plenty of other lies about the League going the rounds. Don’t let them go unanswered. Nail them. 3 WHO CAN PROPHESY? . ; N JANUARY, 1915, Doctor John H. Worst, then president of I the North Dakota Agricultural college, announced at a meet- ing of the Tri-State Grain Growers’ convention the writing of a prophecy of the progress that North Dakota would make during the next five years. The farmers of North Dakota had not started to organize their League; it was nearly two years later that they elected Lynn J. Frazier governor. The prophecy was written-and sealed. Its contents are known to no one but the writer. But the seal will be broken and the contents read, it is announced, at the 1920 grain growers’ con- vention to be held at Fargo January 20-23, inclusive. What did Doctor Worst foresee? Did he know, that because of his own sympathy for the organized farmers, he would be ousted from-the position he had held, with dignity, for a quarter century? Did he dream of the victorious growth of a little band of North Dakotans to an organization that would extend throughout the West? Did he guess at the bitter and unprincipled opposition that the movement would develop? Only the reading of the proph- - ecy will tell. But what of the next five years? -If, in 1915, it was difficult to tell that in 1920 the Nonpartisan league would be 250,000 strong, who can say what progress is possible by 1925? o PAGE SIX THE TIDE IS TURNING : : HE tide of public sentiment, which for a time apparently approved ‘vigilance committees” of returned soldiers and others taking the law, or what they thought was the law, into their own hands, is turning. Former President Taft, who can hardly be charged with being a “radical,” said in a recent copy- righted article: 3 The disposition of small local groups of American Legion men to take the law into their own hands should be discountenanced and restrained. * * * The law should take its course. ; < The New York World declared that one of the most urgent duties of the rank and file of the Legion was to “suppress bump- tious individuals whose self-constituted censorship is becoming intolerable,” and the ‘Evening World suggests that a few expul- OB /M- LYNCH £ ! sions of offending members would do more good than preaching. Even the Seattle Times and the Minneapolis Journal warn the Legionnaires against violent acts. 5 Stars and Stripes, published at Washington, D. C., which comes as close as any paper to being the organ of the returned service men, says editorially: ‘ __ Efforts are being made throughout the country to organize vig- ilance committees within the American Legion. * * Their pur- pose is to take the law into their own hands when they decide that such action is necessary. The Legion has given no official support to any such movement. It is neither in accord with American principles, democratic ideals nor the purposes of the Legion. If the Legion hopes . to spread recognition for the law it will have to be more law-abiding than average, not less so. . ; Following this series of criticisms (we have quoted only a few out of dozens) Lieutenant Colonel Franklin D’Olier, national com- "~ mander of the Legion, issued a statement specifically condemning actions of self-appointed vigilance committees “in disregard of law and properly constituted authority. Colonel D’Olier said, in part: * * * There is only one way to maintain law and order and that is through orderly process of government and its duly constituted agencies. Neither national, state nor any local organization has the right nor will it presume to take the law into its own hands or inter- fere with proper authority. * * * In our efforts to assist in the maintenance of law and order the American Legion must itself set an example of lawful and orderly action: : LAND VALUES AND EQUALITY OMPARATIVELY few people knew of the late Horace E. Thompson of St. Paul, hut the recent appraisal of his estate showed that he owned Minnesota lands valued at more than $4,500,000, with smaller amounts in other states. But Mr. Thomp- son did not pay $4,500,000 for this real estate, or any sum approach- ing that. He bought the property, his newspaper biographies say, - at a fraction of its present value. He added nothing to the land. i o P Others worked it for him. He took profits on their operations but greater than these were the accretions of value caused by the settling of the country, by the increased demand for food and - by the improvements made by the real farmers, both on Mr. Thomp- son’s lands ‘and those in the vicinity. And this resulted in adding millions to the value of the lands that the late financier had acquired for trifling sums many years ago. ‘Those lands must now be rented out at figures that will give the Thompson heirs a good return on the $4,500,000 valuation. The renting farmers must work longer hours and save more frugally yet to earn a profit on the “watered” valuation that has come sz the result of their own work. And that will make the lands that much more valuable and still greater profits must be made. Thus the load, ever increasing, is heaped on the back of the producer. . And remember that each year in the United States sees thousands of farm owners forced'into the renter class. In a year like 1919 the number probably will go into the hundreds of thousands. : To correct such vicious conditions a new form of taxation is necessary. The selfish holding of millions of dollars’ worth of lands by any 1nd1v1dugl can not be tolerated while millions are land hungry: The United States can not afford to degenerate to a state of society where a few aristocrats will own all the land and have it tilled by the “peasantry.” : “All men are created equal,” says the Declaration of Inde- pendence. That is true enough. But if a child is left unattended after its birth, it dies. If equality is to mean anything it must mean equality of opportunity throughout life. d who can say we have that now?