The nonpartisan leader. [volume], January 06, 1916, Image 6

About The nonpartisan leader. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1915-1921

Image provided by: State Historical Society of North Dakota

                
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THE NONPARTISAN LEADER
PUBLISHED WEEKLY
Official Paper of the Farmers Nonpartisan Political League of N. Dale.
Entered as second-class matter September 3, 1915, at the post office at
Fargo, North Dakota, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
D. C. Coates, Managing Editor
Advertising rates on application.
Subscriptions, one year, in advance, $1.50.
Communications intended for the paper should be addressed to the Non
partisan Leader, Box 919, Fargo, N. Dak., and not to any individual.
The Leader solicits advertisements of meritorious articles needed by
farmers. Quack, fraudulent and irresponsible firms are not knowingly ad
rertised, and we will take it as a favor if any readers will advise us promptly
Ihould they have occasion to doubt or question the reliability of any firm
•rhich patronizes our advertising columns.
Discriminating advertisers recognize The Nonpartisan Leader as the best
medium in the state of North Dakota through which to reach the wide
awake and up-to-date farmers.
OUR NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION.
Farmers Nonpartisan Political League of North
Dakota and its official paper, the Nonpartisan
Leader, have made a New Year resolution which
is going to be kept, and it is as follows:
Resolved, That the Farmer, the fundamental creator
of the necessities of life, shall be looked upon by others in
the light of his importance to his fellows and treated just
ly as such—that he shall be no longer used as a work mule
for all other classes to ride that he shall no longer be con
sidered as a producer of fundamental wealth for the profit
of all others but himself and family that he shall be no
longer be burdened to poverty and despe.ration by the bank
ing, railroad, elevator, harvester, grain, food and other
trusts and middlemen—but that, by the Eternal, he shall
stand erect as a man, shorn of the artificial and parasiti
cal burdens put upon him, equal with his fellows, under
peaceful government, to enjoy, in its fulness, the constitu
tional right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
And we have determinedly resolved to carry out this
resolution in the spirit of the great Lincoln, the emancipa
tor, who said: "With malice toward none, with charity
for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see
the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in."
And in the words of General Grant, "we will fight
along these lines if it takes all summer."
So we say to our membership, on the threshold of this
New Year which is fraught with such great possibilities
for the farmers of this state, have courage, have confidence
in yourselves and your cause, and nothing shall prevail
against you.
Don't worry about the newspaper attacks being made on the
Farmers Nonpartisan League and the Nonpartisan Leader. Such
howls are never made except when the interests of the papers
themselves are hurt. These papers have never worried about the
farmers before and the farmers' cause can get along without
them now.
GOOD GENERALSHIP—IS BAD BUSINESS
HE Froman Independent seems to be greatly distressed
over the fact that the Nonpartisan League refuses to
betray its plans before the battle starts.
Will the Independent kindly name the time when the
political bosses of this state, or of any other state, ever made
public their plans—their schemes and tricks?
Will the Independent please inform its readers of the name
of the successful general who appraised his opponent of his
plans of battle? •.
Will the Independent kindly quote from its back numbers'
where it screamed, "Gorgons and hydras," because the political
gang at Bismarck carefully concealed its schemes and plans in any
past campaign?
The Independent says:
The organ of the Nonpartisan League boasts that it is keep
ing its hands concealed, and that the other fellow shall never
know until it is too late. This sounds like cutting a water
melon for the benefit of a special few. Gorgons and hydras,
eh? or, in plainer words, just rank selfishness exemplified.
Webster says a Gorgon is "one of the three fable sisters,
Stheno, Euryale and Medusa, with snaky hair and terrific aspect
any person or woman very ugly or terrible."
And this is the Independent's opinion of the farmers' organ
ization in North Dakota. And yet the Independent will swear
that it is a friend to the farmer.
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Does the Independent regard the strategy of the gang a
virtue and the strategy of the farmers a vice?
Why, pray tell us, is it that what professional politicians do
to protect their interests is right and what farmers do to pro
tect their interests is wrong?
Is it politicians only who can do no wrong?
SPEAKING OF "PREPAREDNESS"
AR is already on—and we're unprepared. The packing
trust has declared war on the stomaches of America
and is making a big drive to success.
The farmers' price for pigs grows less and less, while
the consumers' cost of pork, ham and bacon continues to climb
higher and higher.
General Competition seems to have been completely routed,
leaving General Monopoly in full control.
In Germany, France, England and all the other nations
where men are needed for killing, one of the first steps taken
when war broke out was to put a stop to this particular sort
of extortion—by the different governments and municipalities
seizing the supply and fixing the prices charged.
Even the American beef trust has not been permitted to
gouge the citizens of the warring countries.
But of course such measures, tho fine in times of war,
would never do in times of peace.
Does organization help?—ask John Rockefeller, J. P. Mor
gan or Jim Hill.
SUPPRESSING MORE INFORMATION
three years ago Congress had created and the
president had appointed the Commission on Industrial
Relations.
This commission, of which Frank P. Walsh was chair­
man, worked for two years investigating the causes of indus
trial unrest. Its report has been submitted to congress.
The report is the result of one of the most thoro, far
reaching and extensive investigations ever made into the indus
trial conditions of this country.
The conditions disclosed in the report are appauling—even
alarming.
The question of publishing the report will come before
Congress after the present holiday recess. At the most only
20,000 copies of the full report will be printed and 200,000 of the
committee's special reports and recommendations.
But there are grave doubts whether any will be printed.
The Manufacturers' Association and other allied and interlock
ing interests are marshaling their forces for the purpose of op
posing the publishing of the report. This is an attempt to
press some very vital and important information.
Every voter should keep tab on how his representative in
congress votes on that question—then pay him back in his own
coin.
Read Hon. Frank O. Hellstrom's article in this issue showing
the great loss to the farmers of North Dakota through wrong
grading and dockage. Perhaps the farmers, their wives and
families could spend that $7,700,000 just as well as the grain
grafters, their wives and families. Eh, what!N
THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE
HE Nonpartisan League is a strong organization and is
growing stronger. The Searchlight hopes its strength
may be such that no man can be elected to office in
this state next year without being acceptable to it with
out respect to party.
In the league as its most active members are men of var
ious political preferences, and it embraces within its member
ship active republicans, democrats, progressives, socialists and
others, and it would seem to this paper that when these differ
ent persons as to party belief unite for the time being for a
political cleaning up, that it is a healthy indication and a move
to be commended. Some complain because there area number of
socialists in the movement. Have the socialists less right to
take part'in a good movement than republicans and democrats?
A good citizen will not fear a socialist any more than he
would fear a republican or a democrat or a progressive. Where
one is wrong, it matters not what his party brand is, and where
one is right, it matters not what his party brand is. The Non
partisan League should be encouraged and not condemned and
if at any time it commits error, it will be open to the same just
criticism as any other movement, but surely it should be given
credit for the good it does. The newspapers that talk about
six-dollar rubes are likely to have a very rude awakening next
year, and if the six-dollar men are rubes, they will be found to
assay well, as a whole, as to good and active citizenship. The
newspapers that have been discovering rubes, as they think, may
.find themselves not entitled to belong even to the rube class, but
SU{K
in the goat class.—Searchlights