The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 9, 1920, Page 6

Tonparfigan Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan Teague—Every Week OLIVER 8. MORRIS, Editor. Es'ta-blished at Fargo, N. D., September, 1915; moved to- St. Paul, January, 1918, and to Minneapolis, February, 1920. Entered as second class matter September 3, 1915, at the postoffice at Minneapolis, Minn. k- , i Subscription, one year, in advance, $2.50; six months, $1.59. 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. _l-lembet of Audit Bureau of Circulations. The 8. C. Beckwith Special Agency, advertising repre- sentatives, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. - - WISDOM WORTH REMEMBERING ITH malice toward none; with charity for all; with firm- ness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. R : Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justli‘fs of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? S : : God must have loved the common people; he made so many cf them.—ABRAHAM LINCOLN. & NEW YORK NEWSPAPER -VERACITY OME time ago we had occasion to refer to an article in the g New York Sun, illustrated with pictures purporting to be h_J Nonpartisan league farmers riding around the country, mask- ed and with torches, burning up each other’s homes and wheat fields. But the Sun is not alone in this kind-of fanciful journalism. The New York Times of January 4 has a page and one-half article entitled “Terrorism and Fraud of the Nonpartisan League,” il- lustrated with a picture purporting to be of A. C. Townley, with icng kair reaching down to his shoulders. : { There is not a word in the Times story to justify either the charges of “terrorism” or “fraud” contained in the headline—but there are enough misstatements of fact. In a hasty reading (it is ANY. PRESS not worth more) we counted 32 flat lies. The misrepresentations range from taking VALUATIONS of property in North Dakota and alleging that these figures are TAXES, to'a statement that Judge Robinson of the supreme court (the Times calls him “Chief Justice Robinson”) went around the country barefoot and ringing a cowbell, to tell people that they could cure all their diseases by going withcut shoes! Some of the other misstatements of the Times are: That a majority of the judges-of the supreme court of North Dakota were appointed by Governor Frazier. - (All were elected by the people.) That practically all newspapers in North Dakota opposed to the League have been put out of business. (The majority of papers in that state, both daily and weekly, are controlled by interests op- posing the League.) : = ; That the League has taken in 60,000 workingmen as members in Minnesota. (The League, in every state, admits only farmers.) The Leader has written the New York Times pointing out its errors. Considering the low standard of veracity of New York papers it is perhaps too much to hope for correction. As a sample of the standards of morals of the New York press, it is worth while noticing a fake in which the New York Tribune 'recently has been caught. On December 28, 1919, it ran a picture, showing smoke in the background and barrels of oil in the foreground, with the caption: : : A remarkable smoke picture, showing thousands of barrels of per- fectly good American oil and tar’ going up at Archangel from fires set by Bolsheviki spies, hundreds of which infest northern Russia. An opposition newspaper was unkind enough to dig up the file of a Russian paper called “World View,” published at St. Petersburg {(now Petrograd), Russia, on August 14, 1909 (eight years before the word “Bolshevik” was invented). Precisely the same picture was printed in the World View of 1909 with the caption: Fai Big fire in' Archangel, starting from unknown cause, consumes 30.000 barrels of sea lion fat. ‘ ; The Tribune prints on its front page the motto: “First to last the truth—News, Editorials and Advertisements.” Apparent- ly this doesn’t cover pictures. o v ; And at that we doubt if the standard of the New York news- papers is much lower than the standard of the Twin Cities papers. LEGITIMATE BUSINESS AND THE FARMER WO of the laws passed by the North Dakota legislature of 1919, about which comparatively little is known outside the state, are the “machinery repairs’” and “warranty’” statutes. The first-named law provides that any firm selling tractors, steam or gas engines, harvesting and threshing machinery, automo_b;%s £33 or auto trucks must maintain “at least one supply depot within the state where shall be kept constantly on hand a full and com- plete supply of parts for the same.” The second law provides that the purchaser of a tractor, gas or steam engine, or harvesting or thre-bing ‘machinery, shall have a reasonable time after delivery for mspection and testing and that if the machinery does not prove reasonably fit for the purpose for which it was purchased may re- scind the sale by notifying the seller and returning the article. Neither of these laws is a “radical” measure. Both are good common sense and good business. Together they have saved North Dakota farmers thousands of dollars in the past year. "The laws also have been a good thing for the honest business houses. Machinery houses whose products have stood the test of time have established supply depots within the state, complying with the law. Wildcat, fly-by-night concerns, anxious to make a quick clean-up of a state by misrepresenting an inferior produet, are automatically barred and the honest concerns get the business. As a matter of fact the general laws of most states give the farmer the protection of the North Dakota warranty act: It was necessary for a specific statute to be enacted in that state because the previous decisions of a reactionary supreme court had deprived purchasers of the guarantees to which they were elsewhere entitled. The best proof of laws is how they work out. Have.the two laws prevented the sale of tractors, farm machinery and automo- biles in North Dakota during the past year? -On the contrary Fargo machinery and automotive vehicle dealers report a 1919 business 41 per cent above their 1918 business! o No honest machinery house wants to sell a farmer something which he can not get repaired. No honest house wants to sell its machinery by misrepresenting what it will do. The honest houses in North Dakota have been getting the business that here- tofore has gone to dishonest, get-rich-quick competitors. The farmer i3 helped and so is legitimate business. ° ..EQUAL JUSTICE FOR ALL FTER reading column after column in the dajly newspapers A about the prosecution and deportation-of 1-3, ...:, “reds,” Bolshevists, anarchists, communists, etc., etc., nearly all from the working classes, it. was refreshing for.us to run across one little item telling about ‘a proseeuting aitcrner °: San Juan county, Wash., who was bringing acticn against iwo newspaper publishers, V. W. Fritz and G. A. Ludwig, for inciting disorder. The paper published by these men printed an editorial in which they stated: : P g It seems deplorable to advocate mob violence, but when such out- rages as the recent trouble at Centralia occur, it seems this is the only course to take. The editorial went on to advocate tarring and feathering openly and fo intimate that more stringent measures might well be taken. : Brooke M. Wright, the prosecuting attorney in question, ev- idently has seen that there may be “reds” and 1. W. W.s among newspaper publishers as well as among laboring men. Whn;hever class it is that advocates or practices mob violence —capitalist or workingman—should be punished severely. But it is a great deal more popular for the ordinary official, it seems, to go-after the poor man than after the rich and powerful. San Juan county, Wash., is luckyto have an official who believes in treatm_g all classes alike.” - i y X UNIVERSAL MILITARY TRAINING : C ONGRESS is reported to be faltering in its intention to adopt compulsory military training. Washington corre- spondents say congressmen now ‘“have some doubt” whether it would prove popular. We invite any congressman who may *“have some doubt” to get in touch with the 1 all doubt would vanish, o e"f gradew ‘hoursv. Then ‘PAGE SIX