Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-09-28
THE FARMERS ARE LOYAL

The farmers of North Dakota and the northwest are
loyal and are patriotic.
This The Herald has reiterated time and again. and
repeats it in the firm belief that it is true.
NThe regent conference of producers and consum-
ers" in st. Paul at which Senator La Toilette made his
seditious speech, was not a meeting of the farmers of
North Dakota and the northwest. Nor in fact, was is a
meeting Of the rank and file Of the Nonpartisan league.
as: such. & S9Ss
It was a meeting called by Car Townley, in the first
placesto protest against the price of 1920 fxed by the
government commission as the price to be paid by the
government for wheat, but finding this move would be
decidedly unpopular with the loyal farmers of the North
west. Townley suddenly changed front and DECLARED 1t
a conference Of farmers and workers" His later dis
claimer that 1t was not a protest on wheat prices is
upset by his own paper, the Fargo Courier News, which
on September /, in an article that led the first page.
declared In so many words that the S2.20 wheat price
protest was to be the purpose of the gathering.
The delegates who attended the sessions in st. Paul
did not number more than 500 and these included many
organizers and men wel-known for their. sociaistic
attachments and tendencies--they were not representa-
tive farmers to any large degree. They included several
members of the recent North Dakota legislature who at
erences to patriotism and morality and who killed
every bill offered in that legislature to enable the officials
of the state to control the perennial l. w. w. terrorism.
The speakers included some who had been booked
for the Peoples Council, which was barred from Minne-
sofa, Wisconsin and Fargo, and the resolutions adopted
with such gusto were written by Arthur Leseure. counsel
for the Townley inner cabinet and who was one of
the organization committee of the Peoples Council.
The list of speakers did not include farmers of the
northwest, or anywhere else.
The only farmers who had a place on the platform or
the program were Governor tFrazier-and he is only
TownIey's echo, and Senator Gronna, who is only La
Follette's echo, and whose farming has been mostly in
aceumulating wealth from the farmers of North Dakota
1t is said to have been his boast that he was the first
millionaire in North Dakota
Townley now tries to disclaim responsibility for La
Toilette, yet he proclaimed him as 1.-The real patriot
and in introducing the senator, said. you are now goine
to listen to the man " " who fears nothing in
heaven or hell, but a man of whom WE are not afraid
And what Of that huge audience that assembled tc
hear La Toilette? They were not farmers. Those were
not farmers who jumped to their chairs and cheered and
Col. Roosevelt labels La Toilette. denounced the adfninis.
tration and declared the United States :" Is engaged in
an unjust war"
They were, for the most part, Van Lear and Townley
socialists-men of the type who have made Minnesota a
as in New Ulm and Glencoe and other places. The st
it be believed that Townley was not aware of their com.
ing? Anyone who saw the elaborate preparations made
to care for them could only be sure that the great meet
ing was staged just as it was pulled off by the cunning
of Townley himself.
1t was not a farmers demonstration in any degree
The farmers were not there in any large numbers, an6
the farmers are not responsible for the seditious talk OF
the generally unloyal atmosphere Of the occasion.
The farmers are the victims of the shrewd trickery
Of Townley in this as they have been in scores Of Other
cases.
. The farmers themselves 5are loyal
But it is time the Nonpartisan League should clear
house of the dangerous men who hide behind the loyalt,
of the farmers.