The nonpartisan leader. [volume], March 08, 1920, 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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Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Week
OLIVER S. MORRIS, Editor.
Entered as second-class matter, September 3, 1916, at the postoffice at St. Paul,
Minxiy under the act of March 3, 1879. Application for entry at postoffice at Minneapolis.
Minn., .pending.. Publication address, 427 Sixth Avenue S.t Minneapolis, Minn.
Subscription, one year, in advance, $2.50 six months, $1.50. Classified advertising
rates on classified page other advertising rates on application. Address all letters and
make all remittances to The Nonpartisan Leader, 427 Sixth avenue S., Minneapolis,
Minn. Member of Audit Bureau of Circulations. The S. C. Beckwith Special Agency,
advertising representatives, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City.
TRYING TO PROVE BLACK IS WHITE
HE Journal of Agriculture of St. Louis, Mo., is another so
called farm paper giving its readers lectures on the iniquity
of North Leaguers, without knowing anything about
either or North Dakota. In an editorial as full of false
hoods as a hairbrush of gristles the J. of A. says:
The North Dakota constitution provides that no legislative apt
shall go into effect until after the first day of July following its pas
sage, unless it gets a two-thirds vote in. each house, but
this point was gotten around by declaring that fee special session
of the legislature which passed them was an emergency session,
which made them laws immediately, and the court supported this
contention. They were League courts, of course.
It is a very serious thing to charge that-there is collusion to
override the "constitution between judges elected by the farmers
and legislators. The facts are, however, that the North Da
kota supreme court, elected with Nonpartisan league indorsement,
held invalid the act concerning the time when the laws were to be
effective. What this paper is pleased to call "League courts" de
cided against the League majority in both houses of the'legisla
ture. Also, it wasn't a case of the League legislators trying to
override the constitution. The constitution was silent about when
acts passed by a special session are effective, and the farmers took
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the chance that it might be possible to make them effective at
once, as they were urgent acts. It was a legal questibn and theji
knew that the supreme court would decide the matter fairly.
The Leader has a letter from the editor of the Journal of Ag
riculture which he promises to correct the impression he gave.
He adds, however, that he is opposed to the "means the Nonparti
san league would employ in gaining its ends." Would he like a
bloody revolution, instead of orderly constitutional means? Our
guess is he is opposed to the ENDS, not the MEANS.
WOOD, PINCHOT AND THE FARMERS
IFFORD PINCHOT is right about nine-tenths of the time.
Just at present, however, we believe Mr. Pinchot has come
to the one time in ten when he is wrong. We refer "to the
letters being sent by him to farmers throughput the United States
boosting General Wood for president.
With the letter from Pinchot is one by Wood telling how
friendly he is. "The farmers make up a full third of our popula
tion," the general says, and goes on to tell what they need, better
rural education, better advice, on farm production, etc., etf. He
strikes nearer the root of the problem when he adds:
I believe in a far larger measure of direct dealing between
producers and consumers of food. Secure provision should
be made to enable farmers to obtain adequate credit so as to extend
the farming interests of 6ur country. I believe in the
gradual abolition of farm tenancy.
Very good, General Wood. We are glad to know what You
believe, everi if the recital does sound as if Mr. Pinchot had just
told you about it. Byt how are you going to bring these things
about In your statement there is not one definite promise of what
you
do if elected. Probably every president has believed, in
a general way, that producer and ^consumer ought to be as close
together as possible, yet they have continually grown farther
apart. Probably eViery president has been against farm tenancy,
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tenancy has increased alarmingly.
There is no reason to believe that conditions in this respect
would grow any better if General Wood were elected president,
^hfr general started his campaign as an advocate of compulsory
military training, to build up an enormous army, and as an ad
vocate of the use of the army to suppress "reds," meaning, as a
general, thing, persons with whose opinibns we can -not agree.
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Now it is beginning to be apparent that compulsory military train
ing and using the army for internal political purposes are not pop
ular and Wood becomes suddenly the friend of the farmers:
We are sorry Mr. Pinchot is being used tjius and is allowing
personal.friendship to warp his, better judgment.
ROGER BABSON SEES THE LIGHT
OGER BABSON financial and statistical expert, has recent
ly issued a pamphlet entitled "What Bothers Me," which
indicates how far an open-minded man may go, despite
naturally reactionary tendencies. Speaking of his experience
during the Boston policemen's strike, he says:
I went into one of the largest banks with some securities.
Marching up and down in front of the bank were soldiers with rifles.
A negro porter sat within the door with a belt of cartridges around
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his neck like a string of beads. Everything was guarded as if this
were the most sacred spot in America.
On iny way home I saw a group of people. I learned •?•••.
that a poor family was being evicted from its home. The land
lord had put up the price of the rent arid they were put upon the
street—a mother with several children and an old grandmother.
As I sat in my office later the vision of the Bolshevist came to
my mind. For the first time I momentarily caught his point of
view—that this government'is organized to protect'property rather
than people. No soldiers were ready to protect that poor family 5
which was being, evicted. But when a bank or store is threatened A
the entire state guard is immediately called.
I realize that there can be no blame on the soldiers or officials.
The fact remains that under the laws, as set up today, property and
capital receive greater respect than health and happiness.
This fact is the cause of the radical movements of today«and
only as we rectify the situatioR can bolshevism be curbed. In any
city where a call from a pbor widow's home will receive the same at
tention as the call from a prominent jewelry store, there will be no «r
growth of bolshevism.
Mr. Babson's statement is a pretty good editorial in itself.
We will only add this line that in North Dakota the poor
widow or farmer is now getting as much attention from the au
thorities as the rich jeweler or banker, and that all states can have
a government as good as North Dakota's if they will use the North
Dakota method—reform through organized political action.
ON NAMES
GLASSnowlanguage,CALLING
in stand up! What is the most eommop
word used in American newspapers today, especially when
the Nonpartisan league is under discussion? "Red." Very
good. And will any one tell us what a "red" is. "A Bolshe
vik." "Very well, and what is a Bolshevik?
And at this point we can expect just as many definitions as
there are members of the class. They are alike only in the gen
eral impression that they mean something undesirable. The whole
situation reminds one of the couplet:
"I do not love thee, Doctor Fell,-
The reason why I can not tell."
Today, if unable or unwilling to' say why we dislike Doctor
Fell, we simply call him a red or a Bolshevik and let it go at that.
What reason is there for calling Nonpartisan leaguers Bol
sheviki? Just this much—the Bolsheviki are men and women—
so are Leaguers. They are working people who want to have a
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voice in their governments—so do we. But, the objectors say, the
Bolsheviki believe in overturning the government by violence, they
are not fair to other elements of the people outside of their own
class, they want to overthrow the church and the home—that is the
trouble with the Bolsheviki. But in these respects the indictment'
does not run against the Nonpartisan league. The League be-:*
heves in changes by orderly process of the law, in fair representa
tion and treatment for all classes of the population, in upholding!' k
the home and moral life, instead of tearing it down.
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reactionary press is to. find some point of JL
similarity between a good man or movement and at man or move- -r~
ment already discredited. Editors have plenty of opportunities to,
learn the truth. Those who persist in calling Nonpartisan leajruers^
names as reds, Bolsheviki and I. W. have no excuse—-r
either they should be in an insane asylum or they are willful liars.
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