The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 2, 1920, Page 6

Tonpartifsn Tader Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Week Entered at the postoffice, St. Paul, Minn., as second-class matter. ' OLIVER 8. MORRIS, Editor. Classified advertisi Subscription, one year, in advance, $2.50; six months, $1.50. nfi Address all letters an rates on classified page; other advertising rates on application. make all remittances to The Nonpartisan Leader, Box 575, St. Paul, Minn. .Member of Audit Bureau of Circulations. The S. C. Beckwith §pecml. Ag_sncy. 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. o ANOTHER FAKE NAILED . _ THE January 3 issue of the Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash., under the heading, “Turn X-Ray on Nonpartisan League, Is Plan of Senate—Investigation Needed, Says Comi- mittee Chairman,” said: ; Recent developments, added to the attitude of leaders and ore ganizers of the Nomnpartisan league in North Dakota and elsewhere during the war, appear to make some inquiry in that direction es- sential, in the opinion of Senator George H. Moses. chairman of the committee (committee investigating the bolshevistic propaganda). The Leader has a letter from Senator-Moses in which he denies having made the statement attributed to him by the Spokesman- Review. The senator says he has no evidence that the Nonpartisan league is in any way connected with bolshevistic propaganda. Furthermore the Leader ‘has a report from its Washington cor- respondent, in which he says: Senator Moses told me immediately that he had never mentioned the Nonpartisan league to anybody in any connection “since the pro- posal for an investigation of Russian #propaganda activities in this country was first made and his committee designated to make it. I asked him whether any one had suggested to him that the Nonparti- HERE'S 17y CEOWww, A o ~ bl STUPID, You Wl RN A 1 SPOKESMAN & REVIEW san league might be brought within the scope of the inquiry. He an- swered: “I have not received any such suggestion. Nobody has men- tioned the Nonpartisan league to me, and I have given no answer to any question in which it was mentioned.” The Spokesman-Review fake was original and exclusive in that paper. Neither the Associated Press nor any other news serv- ice carried any such yarn from Washington, and no other news- paper in the country carried the report except the Spokesman- Review, with the exception, perhaps, of some papers which have since copied it from the S.-R. Senator Moses’ letter and the report of our Washington correspondent have been laid before the Spokes- man-Review and a correction requested. THE JOINT STOCK LAND BANKS ° ator Smoot has introduced a bill to abolish the private joint stock land banks created at the same time. A large part of the agricultural press appears to be supporting the bill, ‘appealing to the senators to protect the farmer. > : These joint stock land banks lend money to farnuers on terms similar to those offered by the federal farm loan bazks and are free from many limitations imposed on the farm loan banks. 'These limitations, as well as the operation of the joint stock banks, were undoubtedly planned by reactionaries in congress with the idea that they would kill the government institutions. One of these limitations, lack of power to dispose of bonds, would have killed them had not the war emergency forced congress to advance mon- ey and allow the banks to sell bonds independent of Wall street. - The supporters of the Smoot bill speak of protecting the fed- eral land banks., If that is the purpose, why not remove some of the unfair limitations on the banks? Why not enable them to raise their loan limit above $10,000? . Why not give them full power to dispose of bonds in any business way possible? Why not give them postal savings deposits on which depositors now get only 214 per cent? Why not give the land banks opportunity to O N THE plea of protecting the federal farm loan banks Sen-- lend money for workmen’s town homes as the joint stock banks do?, On the other hand, why kill the joint stock banks which are getting 6 per cent money to the farmers in the territory they cover? Surely the farmers of the West a¥e not overburdened with 6 per cent mortgages on 20-year terms these days. With its limitations removed the federal farm loan bank is in no danger from the joint stock land banks, because it operates at cost while they must have a profit. Isn’t it possible that the old- line farm mortgage brokers hate to see the 6 per cent money of the joint stock banks about as much as 51% per cent money of the - federal farm loan bank? e s e e e A A A b e s e by e oA - LOUISIANA AND NORTH DAKOTA vertisements offering for sale a new $5,000,000 issue_ of state of Louisiana port commission bonds. This will bring the total bonded debt of Louisiana for port commission purchases t0 $44,588,600. Some of the money is to be spent in canal construe- tion and general port improvement, but the big outstanding accom- DAILY newspapers and financial journals are carrying ad- - plishment in the state has been the construction, at New Orleans, _ of great terminal warehouses and grain elevators. Just what is planned in North Dakota, you say? But we have not yet heard of any 42 Louisiana taxpayers fightmg the .bond IF THIS IS ALL RIGHT WY IYOT TS P issues in the supreme court of the United States (although the bond issues of Louisiana are more than three times as large as the total proposed issues for all purposes in North Dakota). We haven’t heard of any one running for governor of Louisiana on a . platform of tearing down the elevator and warehouse systéem. On the contrary the mayor of New Orleans, in a series of magazine advertisements, points out the excellent opportunities in his city for investment because of the state warehouse system. Why are capital and the politicians friendly to the Louisiana scheme and opposed to the North Dakota program? Just for this reason: The cotton and -grain that are stored in the state ware- houses and elevators at New Orleans, by the time they reach that port, are all in the hands of the big dealers. The cotton factors - and the grain exporters have taken over the products of the farm- ers. The New Orleans elevators and warehouses are not used by the producers to -store their products to await a more favorable market. So there is nothing at all “revolutionary” about spending $44,588,500 in Louisiana. The expenditure will give better facil- ‘ ities to the big dealers and shippers, at the expense of the state, and all is well. But to spend one-third~of that sum, in North Da- kota, to improve the chances of the producers to get a fair price for their product is quite a different matter. s BEYOND THE LIMI 5 IN OUR childlike simplicity -we had thought that Attorne General Palmer, in his noisy publicity campaign for the Demo- cratic nomination for president, had about reached the limit of intolerance in his prosecution of the so-called “reds,” the organ- ized -coal miners and the like. But according to the Republican Publicity association, headed by Jonathan Bourne Jr., former Unit- ed States senator from Oregon, Palmer does not go nearly far enough. . It seems that somewhere in a report upon the prosecution -of “red” agitators Attorney General Palmer said that “it is clearly recognized that the present unrest and tendency toward radicalism arise from: social and economic conditions that are of greater con- sequence than the individual agitators.” This sentence arouses the ire of former Senator Bourne and the Republican Publicity association. They say: If that sentence means anything at all it means that social and economic conditions in this country are worse than the agitators. Mr. Palmer says that these deplorable social and economic conditions are “clearly recognized.” By whom? Are they recognized by the hundreds of thousands of wage-earners who, according to merchants in all parts of the country, will not be satisfied to buy” ordinary sub-. stantial clothing but demand expensive silk shirts, shoes, clothing, etc. ? Senator Bourne’s language is a little confusing. Does he mean that the “hundreds of thousands of wage-earners” are buy- ing silk shoes? Or does he merely mean expensive shoes? If S0, THEY ACTUQLLY WEDR SHOES —. THEY OUGHT 70 GO EARLE FOOT, BOVENE will he explain how they could buy any other kind? Or does he - mean that they ought to go barefoot? As we said before, we thought Attorney General Palmer had nearly reached the limit of intolerance. He said one wise word, for which we commend him.* We wish we could say he was doing one-tenth as much to remedy economic conditions as He is to per- secute agitators. . But if Attorney General Palmer has about reached the limit of intolerance, what about Senator Bourne and the Republican Pub- licity association? : LIFE AND CO-OPERATION - HE finest public life will exist in a community which has learnetq to’i;:ombtine itsfcitizens in the largest number of co- operative functions for the common good — WALTER RAUSCHENBUSH, late dean of Rochester Theoglogical Seminary. ~PAGE SIX