The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-12-17
Other Mems Views
An Editorial That May or May Not
Square With The Forums
Opinions.

The Grand Forks Herald: At its
Bismarck meeting on Saturday the
State Council Of Defense adopted
resolutions declaring the loyalty OF
the people Of North Dakota, and
denouncing all and sundry who have
expressed doubts as to their attitude
The resolution was directed speci-
| fically at newspapers which have
published false and libelous articles
rejecting on the patriotism Of the
| people Of this state. Inasmuch as no
newspaper in North Dakota has ever,
to the best Of our belief, questioned
the loyalty Of the great body of the
people of North Dakota, we take ii
that the committee had in mind
Newspapers outside of the state,
which, unfortunately, were not nam-
| ed or particularly described.
Inasmuch as one of the speakers in
discussing the resolution condemned
| in unmeasured terms a statement
made by an officer of the American
Defense society in New York con-
corning the activities Of A. G. Town
ley, the inference was not unnatural
that the resolution itself was intend
! ed as a certificate of good character
for Mr.. Townley as much for any
| other purpose. The Herald is as
sured by a member OF the council
who is not at all in sympathy with
Mr.. TownIey or his methods that
this Interpretation is a mistaken one,
and that no endorsement of Townley
was intended, but that what was in
tended was to set the state right in
the eyes of the world by calling at
tention to its actual accomplishments
in the line of patriotic duty.
Every good citizen of North Da-
kota will endorse the resolutions as
interpreted in this spirit, just as ev-
cry informed citizen knows that. in
spite OF a good many unfortunate
surface indications. the people of
North Dakota, taken as a great
group, are loyal to the core.
The unfortunate fact is that
while the great body of the people
have gone about their business OF
being good citizens diligently and
unostentatiously, the disloyal ac-
tivities of a few individuals have
been conducted in such spectacular
manner that they have attracted at
tention throughout the nation, and
the few putrid and malignant
excrescences which have forced
themselves upon the notice of people
without the state have been accept
ed as being, in a measure, typical or
the whole life and sentiment of the
state, and a million people have been
damned for the disloyalty of hand
full.
The reputation Of the state has
suffered, not from the comment of
distant newspapers which have
seized upon conspicuous features to
serve as the basis of their comment,
but from the actions and utterances
Of men like Townley, who, notwith-
standing his alleged reformation,
cannot yet even urge the purchase OF
Liberty bonds without a sheer.
The men Of active and aggressive
loyalty on the State Council of De-
tense are placed in a difficult posi-
ton, for they are necessarily assoc
ciated with a state administration
whose members owe their positions
to a political alliance with Townley.
But the council could do more for
the good name Of the state by de-
nouncing in a dozen words the un-
patriotic utterances of Townley and
others of his stripe than by columns
of resolutions telling Of the good
things that the state has done.