The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 20, 1920, Page 8

P A Let’'s Take Our Hats Off to Montana! Leaguers Win in Primaries With Every Candidate for State and Congressional . Office and With Big Majority of Legislators EAGUE forces in Montana, with the co-operation of ‘organized labor, won one of the most sweeping victories in the history of the farmers’ movement at the recent primaries. This is what the farmers and their wives and the men and women of organized labor did: Nominated B. K. Wheeler for governor with more votes than his two Democratic opponents combined. Mr. Wheeler’s plurality over his nearest opponent, Lieutenant Governor McDowell, had ‘passed 15,000 on incomplete returns and probably will reach 18,~ 000 when all reports are in. . Nominated every other candidate for state office, with pluralities ranging from 10,000 to 20,000. Nominated candidates for both seats in congress, defeating Congressman Evans, standpatter, who was a candidate for renomination. Nominated candidates for the legislature ‘and county offices in 89 of the 51 counties of the state. Nominated complete county tickets in a majority of these counties. y / The following table shows the Leaguers nominat- ed for each state office and for congress and the votes they received, with about four-fifths of the state reporting. 1In the last two columns are given . the votes received by the next highest Democratic candidates and the vote received by the leading candidate for the same office on the Republican ticket. Office League candidate Votes Democratic candidate Vote of leading Republican candidate Governor B. K. Wheeler ..., Lieut. governor R.°C. Arnold Attorney general i i 3| Vote of next 32,228 [y~ o= ‘0o 2R X7 o 73 3 32 [ Secretary of state 18,3 169 Treasurer 20,724 16,266 Auditor 9,914 28,633 Railroad com. Supt. schools Congress—First VY Congress—Second M. " McCusker .... Supreme court— W. W. Palmer ...." e Harlow Pease .... *No contest in Republican primary Twenty-eight of the 51 counties in the _state qualified as 100-per-cent League, not only giving a lead to the League candidates for state office and congress, but also nominating every League' candi- date for the legislature and for county office. These 28 counties, and the votes they gave for Wheeler and McDowell for governor, are: 19, 128, 20,249 14,557 no opposition Y 7,919 7,487 1,578 16,420 10,525 * 25,474 14,678 16,951 DI~ P - P ;-< g n=8W = ¥ uz2g O MO VS B O @ =} wg8ge Sh5s S5p8 “5TE County - 8§ &5 §C°x 25 County 8¢ §3 §8 a5 SE8F 235% S53% 2ef% >EC8 SRESS B2 8 pESS Big Horn .. 241 44 Park ...... 600 150 Blaine ..... 409 210 Phillips .... 429 110 Carbon . 6138 389 Pondera ... 476 179 Choteau 232 Richland ... 981 1 Custer ..... 432 290 Rosebud .., 824 132 Dawson 736 166 Roosevelt .. 619 . 155 Fergus .. 513 168 Sanders .... 585 186 Flathead . 856 263 Sheridan ..1,566 154 11 e 1,152 886 eton ..... 416 141 Liberty .. 40! 112 Toole ...... 241 123 McCone . 681 174 Treasure 103 22 Mineral 363 92 Valley ..... 795 262 Missoula ...1,899 520 Wibaux ... 1 36 Mussellshell. 639 239 Yellowstone. 1,166 486 Notice in the table above what Richland and. Sheridan counties did—giving Wheeler 10 votes for every one for McDowell. - North Dakota and Min- nesota counties will have to go some this fall to beat this record. 2 5 In addition to these 100-per-cent counties the League nominated a majority of its candidates in. Cascade county, in which the city of Great Falls is located; in Silver Bow county, i which the city of Butte is located; in Fallon, Ravalli, Stillwater and Sweetgrass. Some League candidates also won in Gallatin, Lincoln, Wheatland, Powell and Lewis and Clark counties. In four other counties the League state ticket won. < This makes the total score: Counties in which every League candidate won —28. ; Counties in which a majority of League candi- dates won—=6. > , Counties in which a minority of League candi- .dates won—>b. . : : - Counties’ lost by local ticket or with no local G p B 28,052 '16,891 17,642 A R e s ~tiI:ket, but carried by League candidates on state i T Nt il B RO ticket—4. : & Total counties in which League won victories—43. _ The farmers put up a campaign that appealed to all the people of Montana. Montana is tired of the "domination of the copper trust. It was necessary -for the farmers, however, to combat the campaign “trust newspapers. of lies against the League put out by the copper Governor Frazier of North Dakota delivered a ~ series of speeches throughout the state, telling the North Dakota Completes State Ticket Congressman John M. Baer “Drafted” to Make Race Again—Woman for Sec- . retary of State—Demand for Houses Continues I . MONTANA CAPITOL I In Montana it has been true in the past that-head- quarters of state government was at the offices of the Anaconda Copper Mining.company, rather than at the state capitol, But after the next election state headquarters will be in this building and they will be PEOPLE'S HEADQUARTERS. ONGRESSMAN JOHN M. BAER, de- feated by a narrow margin in the re- cent Republican primaries, was “draft- ed” to make'the race again this fall as an independent by a special Non- partisan league convention which met in Fargo to fill vacancies on the state ticket. Baer ran several thousand votes ahead of his ticket:in the primary, but the heavy anti-League votes of Fargo, Grand Forks and Devils Lake defeated him. Baer stated, following the primaries, that he would not be a candidate, but the convention insisted upon his acceptance. Bl The League convention filled other vacancies on the state ticket as follows: =~ For secretary of state—Miss Alfhild Alfson of Burleigh county. Miss Alfson is the daughter of a well-known Bismarck minister. She has many friends of her own and is known as a woman of marked ability. ; Foristate treasurer—Ole Kaldor of Trail county. : Mr. Kaldor has had-wide experience in business - life;and is at present treasurer of Traill county. 4 For congress, second district—Ole Olson of Eddy county. Mr. Olson is at present state senator. He is a leading political figure in his section of the _state and at the recent presidential primary was candidate for Republican natiohal committeeman. For railroad commissioner—F. 'G. Hildebrand of LaMoure county. ' Mr. Hildebrand is a _successful farmer and is president-of the First State bank of Kulm, a farmer institution. 5 PAGE EIGHT. Lt \.j “trust thugs had attempted to provoke riots and “ Sheridan county, every business house in town was ‘the Nonpartisan league and Labor league in enter- . people attended the Frazier meeting. -dance as a part of the affair, the proceeds going to - more votes than Dixon, the leading Republican. Sil- . the association, explained the provisions of the act farmers will lose money. Much better prices are _posure of the attempt to buy up North Dakota - ‘railroad freight and passenger rates, bringing ac- - ¢ 4 plain facts of what the people had done in North Dakota, At the beginning of the campaign copper cause a reign of terror. But the terrorists had no chance to interfere with the North Dakota governor. ‘When the small business men of western Montana - saw and heard Governor Frazier they co-operated with the farmers to welcome him. At Wolf Point, closed for the Frazier speech and the Merchants’ association and Commercial club co-operated with taining him. At Outlook, in the same.county, 2,000 The farmers ran a refreshment stand, giving the profits to the state campaign fund. The Red Cross ladies ran a lunch stand and the American Legion post gave a build a community hospital. ; “But the farmers could never have won such an impressive victory without the aid of the labor forces. Through the influence of the ¢opper trust the Montana legislature fixed August 24, the busiest time in the harvest season, as the date for the pri- mary. Montana farmers at this time were harvest- ing their first crop in four years. With a shortage of farm help thousands of them were urnable to leave their fields long enough to go to the polls. The labor men jumped into the breach nobly. In every labor center with the exception of Helena, which is not so much of a center of labor as of po- litical hangers-on, the League ticket won a big plurality. In Butte, the largest city of the state, ‘Wheeler won over McDowell by 2,000 and got 4,000 ver Bow county, in which Butte is located, also elected seven of the twelve representatives in the legislature on the League-labor ticket. - Great Falls, second city in the-state, gave Wheeler a lead of 800 votes, Billings gave him a lead of more than 600 votes and Missoula gave Wheeler a lead of 1,200. The Montana Labor league also furnished watch- ers at the polls in Butte, where more than 8,000 votes were stolen by the copper trust at the 1918. election, The labor men and women will be found supporting the ticket in November just as actively as they were in August, and in November they will have the help of thousands of farmers and their wives, who were virtually disfranchised at the re- cent primary, held in the middle of the harvest season. RS In addition to the 12 houses built by the Home Building association, which are now nearing com- pletion in Fargo, contracts have been signed for six additional houses and work will be started imme- diately. Railroad workers of Jamestown are anxious to have a number of homes started in that city at once. Oscar B. Tewes, assistant manager of to more than 200 prospective home builders at a meeting. : : Doctor E. F. Ladd has urged the farmers of the state to hold their wheat for a price of $2.65, point- ing out that at a lower price the majority of the now being paid at country elevators since the ex- wheat at the price of December futures. The state- owned mill at'Drake is continuing to buy wheat at prices of cash wheat at Minneapolis. = William Lemke, appointed a special assistant at- torney géneral by Governor Frazier, has taken steps to protect the shippers and passengers of North Dakota against uncaled-for increases' in tion before the state supreme court. The court is- sued a temporary injunction, prohibiting the in- stallation of increased rates until the case can be heard upon its merits. o i - Taking a leaf out of the successful experience of the state with its industrial enterprises, the city of Fargo has voted to establish a municipal coal yard, which will sell lignite coal and wood to the S )