The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1917-08-16
CONGRESSMAN NORTON
REPUDIATES CHARGES

It remained for an Irishman, Con
gresham Patrick D. Norton, with tn,
blood of a thoroughbred running thr,
his veins, to defend the people of hi
state from the villainous attacks O.
the Jerry Bacon stripe which hav,
been floating around through kept
newspapers of the country. On thu
floor Of Congress last Thursday hi
took the Shiny, crawling slanderer anc
held it up SO that the people of the
nation may see it as it is. The follow.
ing is from the Congressional Record
July 26th, page 6O34:
The Speaker: The gentleman from
North Dakota (Mr. Norton) is recog-
nized for 10 minutes.
Mr.. Norton. Mr.. Speaker, my at
tention has been called this morning to
an editorial in the Des Moines Capital
and edited by former Senator Lafay-
cite Young, who for five months dur
ing 1910 and 1911 represented the
State of Iowa in the United States
Senate. This editorial falsely reflects
upon the loyalty and patriotism of the
people of the State which l have the
honor in part to represent. Ordinar-
lily l would not dignity with denial the
many extravagant and foolish false
hoods shallow-minded and provincial
people in certain sections of the coun-
try are wont to recount concerning
North Dakota. but during the past
few months there seems to have been
a premeditated propaganda by a GER
tain class of reactionary newspapers
to discredit the farmers of my State
in the mind of the rest of the Nation
and to hold them up to criticism and
contempt, and for this reason this ly-
ing editorial from the Des Moines
Capital, a copy of which I hold in my
hand, l cannot permit to go unchal-
lenged. The editorial is as follows:
r The Council of Defense for the
State of Nebraska has issued an
address, calling attention to the
prevalence of disloyalty in the
State. The Council says that the
German Lutheran preachers are
unpatriotic. We are not surprised
at this assertion. During the first
year of the war the Capital con-
sidered it a dull day when no let
ter was received from a German
Lutheran preacher. The preach
er generally devoted himself to
asserting that the Capital was in
sympathy with England. This
used to be the general charge
against a thoroughly American
newspaper. But the Luth-
eran ministers have subsidized, so
far as we are concerned. They
: ar not wasting any postage. But
in Nebraska there seems to have
ben a lack of patriotic leadership
early in the fight. We do not
know what course the Nebraska
newspapers have taken, therefore,
we do not know what responsible
ity rests upon the press. But we
know that the general statement
is true that on this loyalty ques-
ton, wherever the newspapers
have been right, the people have
been right.
No man desires to see his name
in print as a possible traitor, but
in North Dakota, We are told,
there is distinctly a new breeder
Of disloyalty with which the Ger
mans have little or nothing to do.
TIL farmers of North Dakota are
composed of Scandinavians. They
have organized a political party
and at the election last year swept
the state. They elected their gov
ernor and filled practically every
other office. A few days q spec
ial election was held in one of the
North Dakota districts for the
purpose of filling a vacancy IN
Congress.
Again the farmers party was
triumphant. A travelling man
who lives somewhere in Iowa tells
the Capital that North Dakota
does not take any interest in the
war and does not care who wins.
They just want to live in North
Dakota; to own their W ele-
VdCOrS, W Sell llell O"H "ilCoC q
So per bushel; and they do not
are if Germany sweeps over the
entire United States.
This farmers party is regular
ly organized with campaign head
quarters all the year round. The
movement is spreading into Min
nesota, also into South Dakota
and Nebraska and the organiza-
ton is soon to tackle the political
situation in Iowa. The agricultur-
al newspapers are feeling their
way and winking at this big or
g%anization. Some of the agricul-
tural newspapers have sent cor
respondents to North Dakota to
tell all about the farmers politi-
cal organization. Our Iowa trav-
cling man says that it sounds to
him more like anarchy than poll
tics. He says the movement is
only one removed from the l. w.
W.'ism.