The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 23, 1920, Page 6

e e e TS S T STRAER R, i H il I ; B ARTON W. CURRIE, edi- _tion and the League. llonpartiséin Teader Entered as second-class matter, September 8, 1915, at the postoffice at St. Paul, Minn., under the act of March 3, 1879. Application for entry at postoffice at Minneapolis, Minn., pending. Publication address, 427 Sixth avenue S., Minneapolis, Minn. Subscription, 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, 427 Sixth avenue S., Minneapolis, Minn. Member of Audit Bureau of Circulations. The S. C! Beckwith Special Agency, advertising representatives, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. JOHN BAER’S CARTOON HEN Congressman John M. Baer drew the cartoon on this ‘ ;\ / page he either was thinking of his boyhood experiences in carrying water to the elephant to earn a circus ticket, or else of a song in a musical comedy that John might have seen in his college days. This song was about “a king, who a herd of elephants had, while a peasant poor, who lived next door; he wanted an elephant bad.” The king was finally moved to give the ‘poor peasant an elephant for a Christmas or a birthday present, the song goes, but the peasant found then that his troubles were worse, for “the elephant ate all night, the elephant ate all day, and every cent of his earnings went to keep the beast in hay.”. That is just the position the American public is going to find itself in if the Cummins-Esch bill for return of the railroads to private ownership is passed by congress. This bill, while returning the railroads to stockholders, who will collect any profits that may be made, provides that the government.must make good any losses and besides must guarantee the stockholders 6 per cent returns on capitalizations that represent millions of dollars’ worth of water. So by returning the railroads the American public will riot merely be carrying hay te the elephant, in the form of providing all op- erating revenues, as in the past, but will besides be carrying the water, in the form of guaranteed profits. . And these guaranteed profits, of course, will in turn make the railroads more valuable and thus add millions to ‘the watered valuation. "By all means, if the Plumb plan can not be adopted now in its present form, let us hold the railroads two years more until a bet- ter plan than that provided in the Cummins-Esch bill can be devised. WITH THE FARM PRESS tor of the Country Gen- tleman, is writing per- sonal letters of defense to farm- ers who write him protesting |- against the Country Gentle- - man’s bitter and unfair attitude toward the organized farmers’ movement. In justifying him- self in these letters Mr. Currie is not careful of the facts. For instance, to John H. Ford of Fontana, Cal., he writes: They (Nonpartisan leaguers in North Dakota) have succeeded in starving the independent press of the state to death and set up in its place a League-controlled press in which there is no at- tempt at free or fair d-iscussion. This, of course, is laughable to persons familiar with the - press situation in Morth Dako- ta. Of the nine daily papers in North Dakota, two only sup- port the organized farmers’ cause, six are owned by inter- ests bitterly opposed to the League and only one is neutral or pretends to be. Of the week- lies, about 52 out of over 200 published in the state are own- ed by League farmers and sup- port the League program. The balance, practically without ex- ception, are violently opposed to the present state administra- What does Mr. Currie mean when he says that the League Docsars e s e Do e s e iR Rl I - CARRYING HAY AND WATER TOO | —Drawn expressly for thé Le See editorial on this page, “John Baer’s Cartoon.” PAGE SIX A farmers have starved to death fhe independent press? We give it up. The League carried North Dakota elections in 1916 without" any daily paper support whatever and against the active opposition of most of the country press. The League farmers found it nec- essary to establish their own press to favor their own program. " What is Mr. Currie’s objection to that? Does he want a monopoly that will prevent his falsehoods being called ? NEW YORK ,FARMERS KNOW THE FAC’i‘S I N SPITE of attempts of:New York City newspapers to picture North Dakota taxes as “ruinous” it is evident that New York - state farmers know otherwise. A circular put out by a farm- ers’ organization of Hannibal, N. Y., attacks New York state taxes and points out that the Néw York levy in 1918 was at the rate of 11 mills, as compared with a levy at the rate of about 4 milis in North Dakota. The circular also cites New York state’s public debt of $160,000,000, all contracted in the 1ast 20 yvears. In other words, besides taxing property at a rate three times as great as North Dakota, New York state has gone “in the hole” $160,000;= 000 at the same time. The circular goes on with the following comparison of the personal expenditures of the New York executive and those of Governor Frazier of North Dakota: § ; ; Governor Whitman’s Governor Frazier's personal expenses personal expenses paid by state, 1918 paid by state, 1918 Printing for executive mansion. .. $ 1,900 None Travel and hotel bills ........... 6,064 $ 897 Automobiles for executive mansion 6,000 None Employes for executive mansion. . 14,038 ; 900 Suppliess v m s 2,000 360 Executive mansion’s equipment ... 12,918 360 Salary: Gorsiian R R e tang 10,000 5,000 Total ..... AR KR e $52,920 $7,017 From this circular it appears that New York state farmers place about as much reliance in newspapers published in New York City as northwestern farmers do in the press of the Twin Cities. KICK OUT THE LAME DUCKS : HE activities of C. B. Miller, former representative from the eighth Minnesota district, as secretary of the Republican na- tional committee, will do nothing to help that party in Min- nesota. Millér, because of his record as a dyed-in-the-wool reac- tionary, labor hater and enemy of the organized farmers, met a ; : crushing defeat when he ran for re-election in the fall of 1918. Is that the kind of man that the Republican party wants to put forward as representative of what the party will do if re- turned to complete national power in the election this year? The elimination of men like Miller, Jonathan Bourne, the Oregon ex-senator who heads the Republican Publicity asso- ciation, and a few others would paign in the West. A LAY EDITORIAL E. WEBER of Liberty : Bond, Wash., not only é lives in a patriotic town (judging from its name) but he reads the Leader and under- stands the essentials of true “Americanism. He writes us: I have read the New York Times article entitled “Terror- 1>m in North Dakota,” same be- ing an attack on the Nonparti- san league farmers’ administra- tion in that state. With all their - alleged “terrorism?” (merely con- sisting of peacefully eliminating special privilege from the state government through the ballot) - the North Dakota farmers con- tinue to permit the League op- Dposition to sit in the legislature. The editor of the New: York Times lives in a state where REAL terrorism prevails (kick- ing out regularly elected mem- bers of the legislature who dis- agree politically ‘with the ma- ader by Congressman John M. Baer. house at home before going so far afield to find “terrorism.” . jority) afd might well clean = help the G. O. P. in its cam- &