The Montana nonpartisan. [volume], January 11, 1919, Image 1

About The Montana nonpartisan. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1918-192?

Image provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT

                
Official Publication of the National Nonpartisan League in the State of Montana
TI2' MONTANA NONPARTISAN
VOLUME 3 GREAT FALLS, MONTANA, SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 1919 NUMBER I
Labor Tickled by League Measure
New Compensation Bill Indorsed
INDUSTRIAL
COMPENSATION
TO BE REALITY
Farmer-Labor
Co-Operation
Impregnable
Combination
Committee on Legisla
tion Congratulated
NEW COMPENSATION BILL
TICKLES UNION MEN. CASCADE
TRADES AND LABOR ASSEMBLY
HEARTILY INDORSE MEASURE
AND PROMISE SUPPORT. THE
BEST COMPENSATION BILL
EVER DRAWN OPINION OF
PROMINENT MEN IN LABOR'S
RANKS. GREAT BATTLE EX
PECTED AT HELENA WHEN
COPPER CROWD GET IN.STRUC
TIONS FROM SIXTH FLOOR.
On Friday night last the Cascade
Trades and Labor Assembly, official
central body for all the unions in and
around Great Falls, went on record
as indorsing and pledging themselves
to the support of the new compensa
tion act drafted by the Nonpartisan
league and to be presented at Helena
this session.
A great deal of interest and appro
bation was stirred up over the pre
sentation of the bill to the Assembly
by the Legislative Committee who
had the thing in hand and the warm
ly expressed admiration for the man
ner in which the bill was drawn, to
gether with murmurs of assent dur
ing the discussion of the various
clauses showed very conclusively that
the proposed legislation embraced
those points which had been so skill
fully left out when the present law
was drawn.
A. C. M. Compensation.
The old law which will go into the
discard as soon as the League bill
becomes law, was drawn, it will be
remembered, not because the A. C.
M. wished to be fair to anybody but
themselves, but because for one
thing such an expense was continu
ally occurring owing to the constant
legal fights centering around civil
claims for damage to injured miners
and smeltermen that it was found
better to enact a system of "compen
sation" or rather automatic dismissal
of the wrecks of industry for a given
sum, by which means a great deal of
expense was lifted off the company.
Also the workers of the state, be
coming tired of having to fight their
cases through the courts, drafted a
bill which approximates the present
League effort very closely and which
the Copper crowd were so alarmed
over that they forthwith enacted into
law, their own pet measure, which
the wage workers and farmers have
suffered under ever since.
League Bill Covers Field.
The League bill covers the whole
ground with great skill and certainty
and leaves no doubt in the minds of
the legislators and the people, just
what is meant and how compensa
tion should be apportioned. It pro
vides a form of insurance for farm
crs, it looks after dependants, it
seeks to cover unemployment, it has
provisions for industrial conciliation
and most important of all IT PRO
VIDES AMPLE COMPENSATION
FOR VOCATIONAL DISEASES.
This legislation has proven to the
wage workers of this state that the
Nonpartisan league is in deadly ear
nest and is what it claims to be, a
farmer-labor organization for the
purpose of looking after the inter
ests of both as it has already done
in other states and will do in many
more before the day of its usefulness
has passed.
Labor men everywhere are offer
ing congratulations over the new
bill.
To be considered prosperous the
business man has to meet all ex
penses, including salary for himself
and interest on his investment, and
have more or less left over which is
known as net profit. But the farm
er is considered prosperous without
reason for kicking so long as he can
hold on to the old place. That is
why the big papers can find so much
farm prosperity and why the farm
ers have begun to ask for a little net
profit such as business, big and lit
tle, demands.
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_AD WTO SU H THS.ES
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AND NOW TO SQi.SH THIS P.S
IIIIIIIllIllulllllll III I uIIIII1111111111 ll
Bald on the outside
alright, but alright
on the inside
Thats Gov. Frazier
Hooked by publicity
man to speak at
the Meeting of Non
partisan Leaguers
at Great Falls soon.
IIIIIIIIllulIIIIIIIIIlIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Charlie Schwab of the Bethlem
Steel corporation, known among his
associates as the "Star of Bethle
hem," declared at the recent plute
convention at Atlantic City that he
liked labor unions if they are run
right. The big press likewise likes
f:rmer organizations if they are run
righbt. But what workingman or far
mer would want an organization that
satisfied the plutes? They can get
just as much as such an organization
would offer with no organization at
all.
Doesn't it look as though the far
mers of Swede township knew pretty
well what they wanted? If there is
another township in the state that
made a 100 per cent amendment rec
ord the Leader would like to hear of
it.
RETURNED SLDIERS AND FARM
WORK.
Plans for the education of returned
soldiers in farm work, and the views
of the government in obtaining land
for the veterans were fully outlined
in Calgary by.Dr. W. J. Black of Ot
tawa, chairman of the Soldier Settle
ment Board, who is making a tour
of the west. In the first place, said
Dr. Black, red tape will be eliminated
as far as possible in dealing with the
men.
The general plan is to give each re
turned man 160 acres of land with a
loan of $2,500 repayable over 1wenty
years, but this is conditional upon the
men going on the land.
It is proposed to start courses of
practical instruction at once, one al
ready being in operation at the
Guelph Agricultural College in Winni
peg, and similar courses will be insti
tuted at the McDonald Institute near
Montreal, and at Truro, Nova Scotia;'
also at Saskatoon and Edmonton.
Settlement Privileges.
One of the features of the plan is to
establish a "qualification commit
tee" in agriculture. Soldiers who de
sire settlement privileges undeir the
act before the committee which will
decide whether they have ha:i suf
ficient training or knowledge to go on
the land. In the case of experienced
farmers, they will be allowed to go
before the loan board at one, andl
in the case of those who have had no
training and know nothing of farm
ing, an intensive and very ra'ctical:
course will be provided.
"They will be well drilled on each
separate part of farm work, such as
the handling and care of horses, the
use of agricultural machinery, milk
ing of cows, etc. It is the idea of the
board that if, for instance, a man can
handle horses intelligently, he is then
of assistance to a farmer, and can go
on a farm to get practical knowledge.
Instruction Work.
The work will be taught them with I
the same thoroughness that they were
taught to drill and handle a rifle in
the army. They will spend twelve
weeks at this instruction and the., be
sent out with a farmer for a season
to get instruction on the farm.
The farmers will be selected for
their sympathetic understanding, and
counsel will be taken with the farmer
organizations, the departments of ag
riculture, and others especially in
touch with farmers to whom the sol
diers will be in a measure apprentic
ed.
The soldier will then go before the
loan board and will get out on his!
own account, but the government will
supervise his efforts for some years !
to come, and give him assistance. The
supervision may take the form of su
pervisors sent out by the board, or
a committee of practical farmers in
each district.
Too Far Away.
It was the first intenti n of the
government to allot the soldliers
crown lands, but inspection proves
that most of these are too fat: from
railways. As a conseqtlu ne, the gSov
ernment is making plans for th,t pur
chase and appropriatin of large
areas of vacant and speculatie lands
near railways for the lurpos.
Col. R. Innis. who is director of
agricultural instruction for th, Sol
diers' Settlement Board, is aicom
panying Dr. Black on the trip. lie
comes to the federal board from the
Ottawa government where he has
for the past year been working on a
co-operative colony system in the
clay belt west of Cochrane. IHe will
have general supervision of the ag
ricultural education ol soldiers all
over Canada.
( IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIillllllllllllllllllllllll l llllll
= Overhaul that har
ness now.
You will have to
take three days off
early in March to
attend the great
League gathering at
Great Falls
ANYWAY
.IIIllllllllllIIIIIIIIIllll IIlllllllIIIIllIl I -
Those who think that the Nonparti
san league has done nothing illegal to
miorit mob violence, big newspaper,
hostility, and frame up arrests, should
rmeember that law frequently lags be
hind the necessity for it. The crimec
of farmer organization is not yet rec
ognized in the law; so it must be pun-'
ished by the defenders of things as
they are, with these seemingly violent
and anarchistic methods.
One of the "nice" things about the'
spoils of war which our big press!
talks so much about these days, is the
fact that those who get them can
never long agree on the distribution
of them. So more wars are necessary.
Again the big press might tell us the
difference between an imperialistic
war and a war for democracy which
lets imperialistic aims in at the peace
table ?
LOYALTY LEAGUE
NOW ADMITS
REAL PURPOSE
Will A. Campbell Speaks
Right Out Against
State Ownership
Press dispatches carry the story
of a meeting of the so-called Mon
tana Loyalty League in which Will
A Campbell, its ,guiding spirit, is
quoted as saying that it is opposed
to most of the things now generally
recognized as necessary to the pro
gressive advance of modern commu
nities. The Montana Loyalty League
it will be remembered appeared dur
ing the war period as the supposed
champion of Democracy but many
people were inclined to regard the or
ganization with suspicion because of
its secretive and peculiar activities.
It is said by many that the great
er proportion of the mob outrages
which disgraced the state of Montana
can be traced to this source, while
others declare that it was nothing
but the organized expression of the
A. C. M. determination to defeat the
Nonpartisan league and the organized
labor forces. These suspicions were
strengthened by the peculiar nature
of its advertising and the fact that
although it was numerically strong
and carried on a good deal of activity,
its financial support came from un
known quarters, since its members
were not required to pay dues.
It now however, develops that un
der all the propaganda of patriot
ism was hidden the following stand
pat economic designs and those far
mers and workers who voted against
the Nonpartisan league because of
the poisonous misinformation spread
by the Loyalty league will no doubt
at last realize how easily one may be
fooled by loud pretenses covering
piratical purposes. The dispatch
follows:
"The Montana Loyalty league,"
said Mr. Campbell, "is absolutely op
posed to socialism as generally, un
derstood. It is opposed to the public
ownership of the farmers' lands and
of industrial enterprises which have
always been and can be better han
dled by individual effort rather than
by the government. It is against
building up a great political machine
by turning railroads, telegraph,
telephone and cable lines over to the
government. It is opposed to state
ownership of creameries, packing
houses. stockyards, farm lands and
other lines of. business with which the
state should have no connection be
yond supervisory control as the state
or government has and ever will have
since the dawn of the new era a
decade ago.
DEPENDS WHOS
OX IS GORED
MINNEAI'(1SJI TRIBUNE, IIOW
FVEIR. COND)EINS. EQ[UALLY
FOUL ATTACK ON DOCTOR.
The Mlnn.eapolis Tribune has taken
i sttand against mob violence.
)uring the reign of terror in Min
nis.ta, when Minnesota farmere
iwere mobbed because of their views
on (economici. the Minneapolis Tri
ibunn said little or nothing. It did
not attempt to defend constitutional
rights of citizens ,if th ec citizens
wore membner. of the Nonpartisan
league. It did not protest against
lda~tardly and cowardly night at
tacks on farmers.
Then some cowards recently made
a midni'ght attack on Dr. A P. Ro
per of (Ilenrco. According to reports
he was takin from his hoeme and
beaten. '1Th att:ack ,was most repul
sive. A.\tiakl:s sh as that reported
to hiave beeln a'" Ion )i toc Roper
iar cr1itiu, 5pist. et Americail is~: and
ar iusr.ly conicnmeod by all right
thinkin people.
Butil the attack against Doctor Ro
pearwas simila ii nmany respects to)
the attack :against numerous Minne
.ota f:armers. The significant fact
is that the big newspapers of the
tilte have not raised their voices
aiaainst attacks against farmers--yet
they are loud in their condemnation
of the equally despicable attack on
Doctor Roper.