The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 8, 1920, Page 6

Tlonpartigan Teader Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Week - OLIVER S. MORRIS, Editor. Entered as second-class matter, Sepbeq:ber 8, 1915, at the postoffice at St. Paul, Minn,, under the act of March 8, 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, icago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. TRYING TO PROVE BLACK IS-WHITE R HE Journal of Agriculture of St. Louis, Mo., is another so- called farm paper giving its readers lectures on the iniquity of North Dakota Leaguers, without knowing anything about either Leaguers or North Dakota. In an editorial as full of false- hoods as a hairbrush of pristles the J. of A. says: " The North Dakota constitution provides that no legislative act shall go into effect until after the first day of July following its pas- sage, unless it gets a two-thirds vote in each house, * * * pyt this point was gotten around by Jdeclaring that the special session of the legislature which passed them was an emergency session, which made them laws immediately, and the court supported this contention. They were League courts, of course. It is a very serious thing to charge that there is collusion to override the constitution between judges elected by the farmers and legislators. The facts are, however, that the North Da- kota supreme court, elected with Nonpartisan league indorsement, - held invalid the act concerning the time when the laws were to be effective. What this paper is pleased to call “League courts” de- cided against the League majority in both houses of the legisla- .ture. Also, it wasn’t a case of the League legislators trying to override the constitution. The constitution was silent about when acts passed by a special session are effective, and the farmers took ~canGUE D figg‘&xflfi %,AWS!.'! COURT - ity Ve ~a g0 /8 7 e the chance that it might be possible\to make them _effective at once, as they were urgent acts. It was a legal question and thep knew that the supreme court would decide the matter fairly. The Leader has a letter from the editor of the Journal of Ag- riculture in which he promises to correct the impression he gave. He adds, however, that he is opposed to the “means the Nonparti- san league would employ in gaining its ends.” ' Would -he like a bloody revolution, instead of orderly constitutional means? Our guess is he is opposed to the ENDS, not the MEANS. WOOD, PINCHOT AND THE FARMERS GIFFORD PINCHOT is right about nine-tenths of the time. Just at present, however, we believe Mr. Pinchot has come B to the one time in ten when he is wrong. We refer to the letters being sent by him to farmers throughout the United States boosting General Wood for president. * With the letter from Pinchot is one by Wood telling how friendly he is. “The farmers make up a full third of our popula- tion,” the general says, and goes on to tell what they need, better - rural education, better advice.on farm production, etc., eté. He strikes nearer the root of the problem when he adds: : I believe in a far larger measure of direct dealing between producers and consumers of food. * * * Secure provision should be made to enable farmers to obtain adequate credit so as to extend the farming interests of éur country. * * # T believe in the gradual abolition of farm tenancy. 5 ¢ Very good, General Wood. We are glad to know what you believe, even if the recital does sound as if Mr. Pinchot had just told you about it. But how are you going to bring these things about? In your statement there is not one definite promise of what you will do if elected. Probably every president has believed, in a general way, that producer andsconsumer ought to be as close together as possible, yet they have continually grown farther apart. Probablx every president has been against farm tenancy, as a general policy, yet tenancy has increased alarmingly. There is no reason to believe that conditions in this respect would grow any better if General Wood were elected president. The general started his campaign as an advocate of compulsory military training. to build up an enormous army, and as an ad- vocate of the use of the army to suppress “reds,” meaning, as a general thing, persons with whose opinions we can -not agree. / - =, Now it is beginning to be apparent that compulsory military train- ing and using the army for internal political purposes are not pop- ular and Wood becomes suddenly the friend of the farmers. : We are sorry Mr. Pinchot is being used thus and is allowin personal friendship to warp his better Juflgment. X ‘ ROGER -BABSON SEES THE LIGHT ly issued a pamphlet entitled “What Bothers Me,” which j indicates how far an' open-minded man may go, despite naturally reactionary tendencies. Speaking of his experience during the Boston policemen’s strike, he says: 5 I went into one of the largest banks with some securities. Marching up and down in front of the bank were soldiers with rifles. R OGER BABSON; financial and statistical expert, has recent- WHERE (S A GOVERNMENT THAT s WOAHOTA ; his neck like ‘a string of beads. Everything was guarded as if this were the most sacred spot in America. : - On my way home * * * [ saw a group of people. I learned that a poor family was being evicted from its home. The land- lord had put up the price of the rent and they were put upon the street—a mother with several children and an old grandmother. As I sat in my office later the vision of the Bolshevist came to my mind. For the first time I momentarily caught his point of view—that this government-is organized to protect ‘property rather than people. No. soldiers were ready to protect that poor family . ‘which was being, evicted. But when a bank or store is threatened the entire state guard is immediately called. 5 I realize that there can be no'blame on the soldiers or officials. . The fact remains that under the laws, as set up today, property and capital receive greater respect than health and happiness: " This fact is the cause of the radical movements of todaysand - only as we rectify the situation can bolshevism be curbed.' In any city where a call from a poor widow’s home will receive the same at- tention as the call from a prominent jewelry store, there will be no growth of bolshevism. Mr. Babson’s statement is a pretty good: editorial in itself. ‘We will only add this line— that in North Dakota the poor widow or farmer is now getting as much attention from the au- thorities as the rich jeweler or banker, and that all states can have a government as good as North Dakota’s if they will use the North Dakota method—reform through organized political action. : - ~ ON CALLING NAMES : CLASS in language, stand up! What is the most eommon word used in American newspapers today, especially when the Nonpartisan league is under discussion? “Red.” Very good. ‘And now will any one tell us what a “red” is. “A Bolshe- vik.” Very well, and what is a Bolshevik? * And at this point we can expect just as many definitions as there are members of the class. - They are alike only in the gen- eral impression that they mean something undesirable. The whole situation reminds one of the couplet: i ™ ; “I do not love thee, Doctor Fell, The reason why I can not tell.” - : Today, if unable or unwilling to say why we dislike Doctor Fell, we simply call him a red or a Bolshevik and let it go at that. at reason is there for calling Nonpartisan leaguers Bol- sheviki? Just this much—the Bolsheviki are men and women— : so are Leaguers. They are working people who want to have a e |~ BOLSHEVIRI ) 43 n (ANABCAIST) P % THi-Yi- s e o fooceus jwpp . ANO 1 k\,,,-._, 2 \/' { "T WOooF ~ Wog - N AN T B e voice in their governments—so do we. But, the objectors say, the Bolsheviki believe in overturning the government by violence, they are not fair fo other elements of 'the people outside of their own class, they want to overthrow the church and the home—that is the trouble with the Bolsheviki. But in these respects the indictment does not run against the Nonpartisan league. The League be- lieves in changes by orderly process of the law, in fair representa- tion and treatment for all classes of the population, in upholding the home and moral life, instead of tearing it down. : The game of the reactionary press.is to find some point of similarity between a good man or movement and & man or move- ment already discredited. Editors have plenty of opportunities to learn the truth. Those who persist in calling Nonpartisan leaguers such names as reds, Bolsheviki and I. W. W. have no excuse— either they should be in an insane asylum or they are willful liars. PAGE SIX 2