The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 4, 1921, Page 4

\ Mob Law Rules Once More in Kansas Some Citizens Deported, Others Assaulted and Tarred, by Mob of Two Hundred, While Authorities ook On LARMED at the progress made by the Nonpartisan league in getting mem- bers in Kansas, the anti-League ele- ment is again resorting to the use of violence to stop the farmers from or- ganizing. In the last issue of the Leader there were printed the findings of an im- partial committee, appointed by Kansas farmers and labor men to go to North Dakota and learn the truth about the League. Former Senator J. R. Burton was chairman of this committee. After the committee had rendered its report at Salina, Kan., as told in the last issue of the Leader, a request came from Barton county that Senator Burton go there and tell what he found in' North Dakota. Barton county was the scene of the mobbing of League farmers and League speakers a year previ- ously. At that time the farmers protested to Gov- ernor Allen, pointing out that Sheriff Yancy of Barton county not only made no attempt to prevent the mobbing, but apparently approved it. Governor Allen did nothing. Because the Leaguers could not get the legal protection to which they were entitled under the Constitution® of the {United States, they kept out of Barton county. Farmers of Barton county, however, requested former Sena- tor Burton to come there and tell them the results of his investiga- tion of affairs in North Dakota. Senator Burton had no connection whatever with the League and did not believe the lawless ele- ment of the county, which had previously mobbed Leaguers, would attack him and he accept- ed the invitation. ~ The meeting arranged for Sena- tor Burton was to be at -Ellin- wood, Friday; March 11. On the way to Ellinwood Senator Burton, his wife and Professor George Wilson, who were driving to- gether, were stopped by a mob of 100 persons, kidnaped and de- ported from the county. ‘ The farmers at Ellinwood who were watching for Senator Bur- ton knew nothing of this“outrage. When Burton did not arrive they notified League headquarters and J. O. Stevie, editor of the Kansas Leader, and C. O. Parsons, the latter an overseas service man who is secretary at League head- quarters, were sent out to look for him. Stevic and Parsons went to Great Bend, county seat of Barfon county, a few miles from Ellin- wood. They could find no trace of Burton and Wilson, but when it was known that the " Leaguers were in Great Bend they were set upon by a gang of young toughs and assaulted. Sheriff Hill, .instead of arresting the toughs who had set upon Stevic and Parsons, took the Leaguers and drove them out of town, leaving them in the coun- try some miles distant. Stevic and Parsons were warned to leave the county and not to return. MOB ASSEMBLED PUBLICLY WITH NO INTERFERENCE FROM AUTHORITIES Instead of leaving the county Stevie and Parsons went to Ellinwood, still trying to learn what had be- come of Burton and Wilson. They had not arrived - at Ellinwood, of course, but the farmers had come there and wanted to have a meeting. So the meet- ing was held and Stevic and Parsons spoke. Report that the meeting had been held was ear- ried to leaders of the mob that had, earlier in the day, kidnaped and deported Senator Burton and Professor Wilson. According to dispatches to the daily papers from Great Bend these leaders were American Legion men and a bugle was now used to summon a larger mob, of 200 men, to “capture” - Stevie and Parsons. They were seized by this mob, carried out of town, assaulted, stripped, daubed with tar and compelled to roll in the prairie grass to take the place of feathers. They were then told to leave the county and never to return. Stevic and Parsons arrived in Salina the next day in such physical condition that both were - confined to their beds, Parsons suffering several broken ribs. - - g Sheriff Hill and former Sheriff Yancy, who is now Hill’s deputy, both said they knew nothing of any mobbing, although the organization of the mob was publicly carried out in the streets of Great Bend. Judge Banta, another county official, issued a statement justifying the mobbing on the ground that Stevie, who had been assaulted on a previous occasion in Barton county, had at that time prom- ised not to return to the county. Protests over the mobbing were country-wide. Senator E. F. Ladd and Congressman J. H. Sinclair of North Dakota sent telegrams to Governor Allen demanding an investigation and prompt action against the guilty parties. The American Civil Liberties union also wired Governor Allen. President, A. C. Townley of the Nonpartisan league wired United States Attorney General Harry MALLON AND ALLEN George H. Mallon, whose picture is presented herewith in the uni- form that he wore in France, is state manager of the Nonpartisan Because of his heroic services in France Captain Mallon was awarded the highest distinction in the gift of our gov- ernment, the congressional medal of honor, was made a member of the French Legion of Honor, was awarded the Croix de Guerre, with palm, and other decorations. He was cited by General Pershing as one of the 100 foremost heroes. Mallon is in charge, for Kansas, of the organization which Gover- nor Allen calls “disloyal.” Mallon was fighting in France and performing one of the most he- roic exploits of the war, the cap- ture of an entire German battery in action —(Mallon having only nine men with him at the time against 150 Germans) Allen was parading in a ‘“safety first” job and writing back to Kansas about what he was doing to win the league in Kansas. war for democracy! turned from_France, wounded, to fight for democracy What side is Allen fighting on? " M. Daugherty, asking federal investigation, point- ing out that Governor Allen had refused to act in the case of earlier outrages and that there was no reason to expect that he would act in this case. In answer to this pressure Governor Allen an- nounced that there would be an “investigation.” He instructed the attorney general of Kansas to make the “investigation.” The attorney general of Kan- sas, in turn, deputized the county attorney and sheriff of Barton county to make the investigation and report. Inasmuch as the sheriff of Barton county profess- - ed to be unable to find any evidence of any mobbing and the county judge justified the mobbing on the ground that Mr. Stevic had come into that county without permission of self-constituted authkorities, the appointment of the sheriff and another mem- ber of this group of Barton county officials to make an investigation is laughable. The mob outrages of Barton county apparently are renewing the determination of farmers of that county to learn the truth about the League and or- ganization work is going on with renewed activity. Papers throughout the United States, many of which previously betrayed a strong anti-League bias, have condemned the Barton county mobbings. PAGE FOUR SR & in America. The following editorial, which was printed in the New York World under the heading, “Kansas Set- tles the Nonpartisan League Question,” is typical of many utterances: “Two hundred citizens of Barton County, Kan., broke up a meeting of Nonpartisan leaguers last Sunday, led the state secretary and the state or- ganizer to a lonely spot near Great Bend and there proceeded to apply tar and prairie grass to the of- ficials to convince them of the unsoundness of the League’s economic theories. WORLD EDITOR RIDICULES THE SELF-STYLED “100 PERCENTERS” “This proves beyond a shadow of doubt that state-owned elevators are fallacious in principle, that the extension of credit to farmers by the state * is unsound and unsafe, that the financial depression of North Dakota is due solely to the attempt to es- tablish direct relations between grain growers and milling companies, that Townley and Lemke and all those connected with them are crooks and dema- gogues, that an honest farmer can always make a living despite high interest charges and a wheat buying combination against him, and that a virtuous Kansas, 100- per-cent American and purged of cults and isms, needs no advice from its neighbors. “A more academic and neuras- thenic community might have wasted time in cajolery and ver- bal dissension, or might have al- lowed a debate pro and con, there- by running the risk of defeat. Barton county disdains logic and makes its points inescapable with tar. The Nonpartisan league, it is now apparent, was economical- ly wrong from the beginning and will remain forever and indis- putably in the wrong.” The American Civil Liberties union issued the following report gz the case under date of March “The executive committee of the American Civil Liberties union, meeting in New York to- day, wired a protest to Goverror Henry J. Allen of Kansas against the mob attacks yesterday on Nonpartisan league organizers at Great Bend, and urged a state in- vestigation of the attack, which was reported to be led by Amer- ican Legion members. Removal of the local officials responsible was asked ‘as vindication of the right of any group to conduct its lawful propaganda.’ Among those of the executive committee present who adopted the protest were Professor Harry F. Ward, chairman; L. Hol- lingsworth. Wood, Rev. John Nevin Sayre, Mrs. Henry G. Leach, Albert DeSilver, Dr. Henry R. Linville and Rev. Norman Thomas. “Al}.)ert DeSilver, director of the union, which is a national free speech organization, said of the committee’s action: ‘As long ago as last January we called Governor Allen’s attention to the inevi- table _consequences of such a campaign as the Amerlcap Legion was then conducting against the N onpartisan league. Numerous serious outbreaks re- sulted directly from that campaign. . In reply, Gov- ernor Allen assured us that mob violence would not be repeat.ed, and that “nothing in the nature of the contest violated any of the principles of free speech, free press and free assemblage.” The governor evi- dently miscalculated the-forces at work., In view of the governor’s assurances those responsible for Sun- day’s violence will doubtless be brought to justice.’” Mr. DeSilver has more faith in Governor Allen’s word than the editor of the Leader has. Parsons declared that during his service in France While Mallon re- he had never seen such brutality displayed by the . . Germans as was used by the Barton county mob. The mob, he said, was under the leadership of the local American Legion commander. :