The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 30, 1921, Page 4

The Townley-Langer Debates in Kansas - President of Nonpartisan League Meets Abusive Attack of Traitor BY SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT Z1INCE May 10 thousands of Kansas farmers have turned out daily to attend a series of debates between A. C. Townley, president of the : National Nonpartisan league, and William Langer, former attorney gen- eral of North Dakota, who turned traitor to the farmers who elected hini and has since been touring the country as the chief spokesman of the anti-League interests. Langer has been upholding the affirma- tive of the question: “Resolved, that the Nonpartisan league program, as managed by the leaders, has been detrimental to the interest of North Dakota,” and Mr. Town- - ley has upheld the negative, Debates have been held in small cities and towns in the farming sections and have been attended by business men, League farmers and farmers not yét mem- Official With Facts and Logic A CHANCE TO EARN $1,000 In reporting the first debate between A. C. Townley and William Langer at Salina, Kan., the Associated Press quoted Langer as stating that the editor of the first Nonpartisan league paper was “Bill” Haywood, head of the I. W. W. This statement was published by Associated Press papers throughout the United States. Our own correspondent and other correspondents make no mention of Langer having made such a statement. Whether Langer made such a statement, or whether the Associated Press deliberately lied, the statement is wholly false. The Nonpartisan Leader offers a re- ward of $1,000 to any one who will show that “Bill” Haywood was ever editor of the Leader, that he ever had any connection with the Leader, that he ever en- tered the Leader offices or that any representative of the Leader even so much as met or talked with Hay- wood. If the Associated Press can back up the state- ment it carried over its wire, this is an easy way and placed them in positions where they did organization work.” e Haywood is the former head of the I. W. W., now supposed to be a fugitive in Rus- sia. At no time did he have any connec- tion with the Nonpartisan league. The same is true of Kate Richards O’Hare, who was a lecturer for the Socialist party, ar- rested in North Dakota during the war by federal authorities. Langer charged Mr. Townley with or- ganizing the Nonpartisan league in the in- terests of the Socialist party and said he had “rgbbed the United Consumers Stores of $20,000,” without stating, however, how the “robbery” had been accomplished. Langer was interrupted during the Sa- lina speech and during subsequent speeches by farmers in the audience who _objected to his policy of name-calling and demanded facts. At several meetings it was necessary for Mr. Townley to quiet bers of the League. Probably in no meet- ing have the League farmers been in the majority, yet at every debate thus far held the temper of the audience has shown un- mistakably that the League program has the ‘sup- port of the vast majority of the audience. ¢ At Salina, where the opening debate was held, adherents of Langer attempted to pack the audi- ence with anti-Leaguers and threatening- weather kept many farmers away, yet the majority of the crowd rose and cheered when Mr. Townley stepped upon the stage. And when Langer, after an hour of abusive language, attempted to secure some ‘cheers by extolling Governor Allen of Kansas, the crowd quickly showed him that he had made a bad mistake. At Lindsborg, the following day, Langer continted his abusive tactics, but did not attempt any laudation of Allen. When he reached his final 15 minutes of rebuttal, however, the majority of the crowd got up and walked out of the meeting. Every meeting between the two men has been marked by a cool presentation of facts and logic by Mr. Townley and by a rabid personal abuse on the part of Langer. In opening the Salina meeting Mr. Townley ex- plained how the series of debates came to be ar- ranged. For two Vears Langer, paid by the League opposition to lecture against the organized farm- ers, has at intervals been issuing challenges to League leaders to debate with him. No attention has'been paid to these challenges because in a single debate the attendance would necessari- ly be limited to residents of the imme- diate vicinity, while almost all the newspapers of the nation, owned by interests opposing the League, would naturally misrepresent the debate to millions of readers. “I might clean up Langer before a few thousand people who attended the meeting, but Langer would clean me up before millions of people who had . no opportunity of attending it, except through reading the newspapers,” Mr. Townley explained it. TOWNLEY INSISTS THAT ALL THE PEOPLE MUST LEARN THE TRUTH Mr. Townley therefore notified Langer that he would accept the challenge to a debate only on con- dition that debates be held throughout farming states, in as long a series as Mr. Townley had time to make. This proposition Langer accepted. The debate at Salina wag typical of others thus far held. Langer opened by stating the question (quoted in the second paragraph of this article) and ‘hereafter failed to refer to it through the course of his “argument.” In the debate at Salina Langer said he had been pursuing Mr. Townley for two years with chal- lenged debates and then opened his case by stating: “The state of North Dakota is being run by a bunch of dirtless farmers who never farmed any- thing except the farmers themselves.”. 2 Langer did not explain who the “dirtless farm- ers” were. Governor Frazier, elected three times by the League, never held office before his election as governor; but owned and operated a 640-acre for that organization to earn $1,000. farm, one of the best improved properties in the state, which he still owns and operates. John N. Hagan, commissioner of agriculture and labor, also owns and operates a big dairy farm, and other state officials, with one_or two exceptions, are all oper- ating farmers who have never held political office before. Langer referred to himself as a farmer and said the League had imported “Socialists,” who had robbed “us.farmers.” The fact is that Langer, a lawyer, was the one state official elected by the League in 1916 who was not a farmer. Continuing his personal attack, Langer said: “Townley brought W. D. Haywood, Kate Richards O’Hare, Arthur LeSueur and Walter Thomas Mills | UNTIE THAT HAND! | John Baer has drawn above his favorite character, the fighting farmer—but with his right hand tied behind his back. That is the position of the farmer who puts all his trust in his economic power. At the same time the interests opposing him are using both _ their economic and political power against him. The " farmer can never fight on even terms until he brings his right hand into play. -As a two-" fisted fighter he can win every time. PAGE FOUR » the audience before Langer. could proceed. When Langer’s time had ‘expired and Mr. Townley advanced to take the plat- form practically the entire audience stood and cheered. Hats were thrown in the air and the shouting died and rose again. It was a full minute before the League leader could make himself heard. RECORD OF NORTH DAKOTA CITED AND LANGER FAILS TO ANSWER ,“Of all that Mr. Langer has said today there was one true statement,” Mr. Townley began.\ “This was when he said that for two years he had been attemnpting to get a debate. Now he has, not one debate, but a whole series, and under our agree- ment I am going to drag him from coast to coast, -if necessary, to let the people of this country learn the truth about the League.” Taking up the charge that the League was social- istic, Mr. Townley admitted that several years ago he had been a Socialist for a short time but showed that he had left the party and that “bosses” of the Socialist party were at present almost as active in attacking the League as Republican and Democratic bosses, and for the same reason, the League being nonpartisan in fact as well as in name and there- fore threatening all the old party machines. . Answering the statement that he had benefited financially through his position with the League, Mr. Townley referred to the findings of the United States district court, which after an investigation of nearly two years found that Mr. Townley had con- ducted League affairs as an “honest steward.” The League president then devoted himself en- tirely to a discussion of affairs in North Dakota, the subject of the debate. . He quoted United States Senator E. F. Ladd as estimating the savings under North Dakota’s grain inspection law at $12,500,000 a year. He quoted the United States department of agri- culture’s figures of an average mortgage interest rate of 8.7 per cent in North Dakota, prior to the organization of the Bank of North Dakota, and. showed that the 1920 census now proved that the average interest rate had been lowered to 6.7 per cent, a-saving of 2 per cent a year on $108,000,000 in farm mortgages, or $2,160,000 a year. ; He cited the private insurance rate averaging 77 cents an acre for $7 worth of hail insurance, as compared with the state rate of 28 cents an acre, and showed that the saving of 49 cents an acre on more than 12,000,000 acres insured amounted to nearly $6,000,000 a year. . Mr. Townley then cited the laws enacted by North Dakota for the benefit of labor, for the benefit of women and children and for the benefit of service men. During the war, Mr. Townley showed, North . Dakota was orne of the first states to'declare a | moratorium for the benefit of soldiers. It not only | enacted a “work or fight” law but was the first | state in the Union to apply this principle to land ! held idle by speculators, providing that such land| could be seized temporarily and planted by the! state. During the war North Dakota oversubscrib-! ed every Liberty loan drive, the Y. M. C. A. and. other drives and the Nonpartisan league collected thousands of dollars for the Red Cross at meetings' in all states. After the war North Dakota was ’che*_i