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

to be continued. If it has reached
the hands of grafters whom are
even worse than the politicians
+ whom they supplant, the real hon.
est people of North Dakota will
find it out and retrace their steps.
But the farmers of North Da-
kota and Nebraska have no right
to select this war time as a fit
opportunity for the settlement of
local grievances.
l have no information as the charg
es made in the first paragraph of thu
editorial against the German-Luther
an preachers Of Nebraska, but if this
charge is no more true than the
charge made in the succeeding para
graphs of the editorial against the
loyalty Of the people of my State
there is not a scintilla of truth in it
Mr.. Young, the editor Of the Des
Moines Capital, does not live SO fal
from the borders Of North Dakota
but that he must have some fair &C.
qu%aintance with the people of my
State, and so l am amazed that he
should have permitted the maliciously
false statements and innuendoes con
tanned in this article concerning North
Dakota to be given circulation in his
publication. The chief false indict-
ments in the article are contained in
the following:
No mar desires to see his name
in print as a possible traitor. But
in North Dakota, we are told,
there is distinctly a new breed Of
disloyalty, with which the Ger
mans have little or nothing to do.
The 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 ago a
special 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
lust want to live in North Dakota,
to own their own elevators, to
sell their own wheat at 81 per
bushel, and they do not care If
Germany sweeps over the entire
United States.
I have lived in North Dakota since
the time I was a very small boy. l
have grown up among the people Of
that state. I know the people there,
not only in the congressional district
which 1 represent, but I know them
from one end of the state to the other:
I know how the people of my state
think and I know how they feel. |
have eaten, drunk, slept and worked
with them all the years Of my active
life. 1 have labored early and late on
farms and on ranches in the State. l
have lived in some of the largest and
in some of the smallest towns in the
| State. I know the innermost thoughts
of the great mass of the farmers IN
my State. 1 know their joys and their
sorrows. I know their pleasures and
their griefs. I know their successes
and their failures. I know their year
ly springtime hopes and expectations
in newly sow fields. I know their
autumnal gloom, disappointment, and
final resignation when the season has
been u%nfavorable and there is little or
nothing to harvest. I know their joyful
and happy plans for all the household,
even to the tiniest tot, when the gran
aries have been filled with bounteous
crops. l know their bravery, their
courage, and their hardy character:
And knowing my people as l do,
feel deeply that no more foul or malic-
ious SANDER could be heaped upon
them than the charge that they arr
unpatriotic and disloyal to their coun'
try in this great war in which oul
Nation is engaged defending the in
violable rights Of our citizens against
the ruthless attacks Of unbridled au'
tocracy. No more utterly false and ne
meaner Indictment could be made
against the people of my State thar
to say, as has been said in this edi
torial, 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 w their
own elevators, to sell their own
wheat at 50 per bushel; they do
not care if Germany sweeps over
the entire United States.
No more brave, no more loyal, n
more patriotic, and no truer American
citizens can be found anywhere il
this Nation than the farmers of m,