The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-10-21
TIE that BINDS
NATIONAL PARTY
TO LEAGUE Being
WOUND BY COATES
League Socialists Open
Guns on Senator Knute
Nelson, in Minnesota

z The working out Of the long con-
templated attempt to merge the Nom
partisan league and the new Nation
al party is in process this week at
St. Paul. d. c. Coates, who was more
or less CLOSE up" in the league in
North Dakota till a months ago,
when he dropped out of front line
service and became identified with
the National party, has been in St.
Paul this week, talking it over with
the headquarters of the league.
1t has long been understood in GER
tain circles that Mr.. Coates was &C
tive in the NATIONAL party movement
as the representative of the Town
lev Socialists and that he would, at
the proper moment, seek to bring
about a merger.
This theory is further strengthen
ed by the fact that in Minnesota
the Townley papers have come out
openly against Senator Knute Mel
son for L. s. senator, and in favor
of W. C. Calderwood. the National
party candidate.
In the primaries the Socialists
didn't come out openly against Sena-
tor Nelson except that in certain
communities where there was strong
pro-German sentiment. Joe Peterson
of Minneapolis, convicted for sedi-
ton, running for the senate, ran neck
and neck with Lindbergh, the Town
ley candidate for governor and auth
or of why Your Country Is at
War;" and in some Instances cards
were distributed carrying the names
of Peterson and Lindbergh.
The Fargo Socialist organ Is also
backing the fight against Senator
Knute Nelson in Minnesota, in the
face OF President Wilson's request
that Senator Nelson again be a can
didate, and in face of the fact that
the Minnesota Democrats have en-
dorsed him.
Over in Montana there is further
evidence of the attempt to work out
a working agreement between the
National party and the league, for
there the Townley men are sup
porting Jeanette Rankin for the sem
ate. She was defeated in the Re-
publican primaries, but was nomi-
mated on the National party ticket
She voted against the war.
The action Of the Minnesota Safe
ty commission in making public the
correspondence between Arthur Lee
Sueur, secretary of the National
Nonpartisan league, and Bill Hay
wood, the l. w w. chief consplrator
against the government, is being
condemned by the league papers in
Minnesota with unceasing regulari-
ty.
The league press, OF course, has
LOT RI rP
their ability and insist that the
other papers should have done the
same thing, or that tie safety COM
mission souldnt have made them
public.
Another coincidence in the long
chain of similar incidents was re-
vealed in the trial Of Paul Dehnel,
charged with violating the espion-
age act. DehneI owned a paper,
subscribed to by Germans, the gov
eminent charging that the whole
aim was to circulate German propa-
ganda.
The trial brought out that Gates
e. NJ. Young, who worked with Deb
mel on his Minneapolis and St Paul
American, the alleged seditious pa
per, Is claimed by Dehnel to have
been its real editor, and now Young
is an organizer for the Nonpartisan
league.
So many men who have a similar
chapter in Their life are now or have
been from time TO time. on the Town
ley payroll.
For some reason or other. the name
Nonpartisan isn't being used to q
very great extent b. Townley and
his aides in Minnesota. They talk
there of the farmer-labor ticket. In
political circles it is generally
thought that Townley mas come To
appreciate the fact that the name
NOnpartisan isn't muct Of an asset
in that state.
Headquarters have been opened in
st. Paul independent Of the league
headquarters, the whole purpose he
ing, It is said, to get away from the
name Nonpartisan-
The Mortified News declares the
attempt of Arthur LleSueur and Mr.
Town1ey to explain away the Hay
wood-LeSueur letters has made the
situation worse, insead Of letter. He
goes into Details" The News saws
(which prove that he was on init
mate terms with Big Biz and that
he associated with and defended and
sympathiZed with members of the /
w. w. for long time-for so long
that he seems to follow the same
mental processes that this organiza-
ton Of tramps and red socialists do
He approves, apparently, of their at
titude of being 'ag:n' every constitut
ed rule Of society and of their sys-
tenn of destroy what we cannot use.'
If there ever was any. doubt of the
tendency and disposition of the
management of the Nonpartisan
league toward disloyalty, scdition ard
socialism, that doubt must have been
dispelled by these two letters of lie
Sueur."
Many OF the leading Democrats Of
Minnesota are in the fight in support
of Governor J. A. A. Burnquist, tho
number including Judge Charles w
stanton, of Bemidji; Dan LAWYER, Of
st. Paul; and A. G. Weiss, Of Du-
sesS 9 s-s.la.zss.-sa
They're mishty Sood