The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 16, 1921, Page 3

intered as_second-class matter at the postoffice at Minneapolis, Minn., u the act of March 3, 1879, Publication address, 427 Sixth aveniue S., Minneapolis, Minn. Address all remittances to The Nonpartisan Leader, Box 2072, Minneapolis, Minn. IN THE INTEREST OF A SQUARE .~ 'DEAL FOR THE FARMERS Entered Minn, nder tl 1879, Published at Minneapolis, Minn., Every Two Weeks :\gl en dverti atives, New York, Chicago OLXVER S- MORR]S: Editfll’- . I SL.CILK‘} 5, Kansas (./E;'-I;'K:Lsenl Y = o e 3 One year, $1.50. Classificd rates on classified page other advertising rates on application. Member Audit : A MAGAZINE THAT DARES TO ea er PRINT THE TRUTH j N L f 1 S. Circulations. Beckwith Special ouis, Kansas VOL. 12, NO. 10 : MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, MAY 16, 1921 WHOLE NUMBER 272 Gossip and Comment on Current Affairs the conviction of A. C. Townley, leader of the farmers of the Northwest, while the supreme court of the United States has reversed the conviction of United States Senator New- berry, the millionaire statesman who sought to buy a seat in the senate. In the case of Mr, Townley the supreme court of Minnesota ; admi(ted that errors were committed in the " The Newberry trial, but says that these were not “substantial.” Case and the What these errors were is shown on another page. In the case of Mr. Newberry it is ad- Townley Case mifted that immense sums of money were spent to secure his election, but the case is reversed on the technicality that the authority of congress over elections means general elections only and not primary elections. - The common people may well have a feeling of temporary dis- couragement when they consider these two cases and compare one with another. But it is a long road that has no turning. Before - the Civil war abolitionists were mobbed, tarred and feathered and rotten-egged, just as Nonpartisan" leaguers were during the Minne- sota reign of terror. Just before the Civil war John Brown was tried, convicted and hanged by the neck until he was dead. But a few years later millions of men were sweeping through the South singing ‘“John Brown’s body lies a’moldering in the grave, his soul goes marching on.” o The course of history has al- ways been the same. Those who advocate new ideas must always suffer for them. But new ideas, if they are right, always win in the long run. The situation was never portrayed more. truthfully than by James Russell Lowell when he wrote in the dark days of the fight against human slavery: “Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throng, Yet that scaffold sways the future and behind the dim unknown Standeth God within the shadow,. keeping watch upon his own.” URING the last campaign D Republican orators talked : glibly about “readjust- ment of burdensome taxes” and several millions of American farmers and wage- WITHIN a week the supreme court of Minnesota has affirmed ‘Mellon’s workers voted for Taxati the Republican can- : ’ axaton didates — expecting to have their federal taxes re- Proposals quced. Now Secretary of the Treasury Mellon has made his recommendations to congress as to his “re- adjustment of burdensome taxes.” His main recommendations are: That excess profits taxes be repealed and that there-should be provided to take their place corporation and stamp taxes, both of which will be passed on to the ultimate consumer. That the income taxes, which now run as high as 73 per cent, be “readjusted” so that the highest tax on large _incomes will be 33 per cent, the difference to be made up by increasing the tax on smaller incomes or by taxing incomes now exempted. — The American people-voted for “readjustment of burdensome taxes” and they are going to get it with a vengeance. The situation recalls what happened-12 years ago. The Republican party was voted into office on a platform whieh calleq for “revision of the tar- iff,” by which everybody understood a revision downward. Con- gress immediately proceeded to revise the tariff upward. As a re- sult in 1912 the Republicans met the most crushing defeat in their history—carrying just two states. Are the Republican leaders so . forgetful that they think they can fool the people again, after their .experience with the Payne-Aldrich tariff ? | A WILLING “FIXER” | Wall Street—*“Move aside, young feller. Now that I've fixed up the rail- roads I'll fix up your industries for you.” apologize for an untruthful attack upon a former League offi- cial, has broken loose again, denouncing the League as unpa- triotic and socialistic in a speech at New York university April 30. Mr. Taft did not escape from his latest attack upon the organ- ized farmers without being “called,” however. In the United States y senate May ? Ser(lliiitor E. F. Ladd of Nortthakota, Praat in a masterly address, told the nation the facts ‘I“]Cxalliég’s’lgent about the farmers’ movement and their demand y for justice. Senator Ladd frankly served notice . Se“ator Ladd upon the country that while he was elected as a . Republican, principle meant more than party to him and that if the Republican party followed the leadership of re- actionaries like Taft and repudiated campaign promises (as the party did during the Taft administration) he would not be behind the farmers in leaving the party. Senator Ladd minced no words in telling of the conspiracy of the Wall street bankers to prevent the - sale of North Dakota bonds and thus wreck the North Dakota pro- gram. He spoke plainly of the war record of the League and de- nounced the self-styled patriots who would have set the Constitu- tion aside. , The farmers of North Dakota never did a wiser act than when they elected Dr. Ladd to the Unit- ed States senate last fall. At last the League has a national spokes- man—a man whose voice will be stilled by neither fear nor favor. There is not space in this issue of the Leader to print Senator Ladd’s speech entire or even to quote enough to give an idea of its con- tents. Our suggestion is that readers of the Leader write Sena- tor Ladd direct and ask him for theissue of the Congressional Rec- ord which contains his remarks. PRESIDENT WILLIAM H. I \ORMER P]:'LE,S_IDENT TAFT, who a few months ago had to JOHNSTON of the Interna- tional Association of Machin- ists has just returned from Mex- ico and declares that the new gov- . ernment inaugurated by President Obregon is prob- Why Can’t 2ably the most pro- 5 gressive in the Mexico Be , world. The Mex- Reécognized? jcan government is breaking up land monopolies (formerly 10 fam- ilies owned every foot of land in the big state of Morelos) and is distributing the land to the returned soldiers and farmers. The nation has taken over oil as a natural resource, though recognizing grants in which Americans have previously acquired title. Labor ‘unions are protected from injunctions by the constitution and it is & criminal offense for an employer to discharge a worker because he belongs to a union. The laws for the protection of motherhood and childhood are especially advanced. Workers are given every chance to better themselves and a union shoemaker is president, of the fed- eral district in which the City of Mexico is located. A The two governments which the United States refuses to “rec- ognize,” peculiarly, are the governments of Russia and Mexico. We know why our government doesn’t recognize the government of Russia—all our reactionary papers and politicians have carefully explained it is because Russia’s government is not a real democracy, like ours, but a “dictatorship of the proletariat.” Of course our gov- ernment never made any difficulties about recognizing Russia when it was under the dictatorship of the czar, but the world apparently has grown mueh better and more careful since those days. But we wonder why it is that our government can not recognize the government of the republic of Mexico—the same FORM of gov- ernment as our own. but apparently not-the same KIND. \ S PAGE THREE 5 =