The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1918-01-05
@solid Type Of
Farmer Crow"

arrived in the town, delivered
my lecture just as ] had delivered it
Hlany, many times before. There
was nothing in the audience that
was unusual except the fact that 1t
was small audience. II was a
solid, substantial, stolld type OF far
mer crowd. There was not the great
enthusiasm that had prevailed at
many Of my meetings. There was
nothing to stir me, or arouse me, or
cause me to make a more impassion-
ed plea than usual. In fact, the meet
Ing at Bowman was absolutely COM
monplace and ordinary, and there
Was nothing at all in that little,
sordid, wind-blOwn town, that com
monplace audience, that should have
for q moment overbalanced my rea-
son and Judgment and common
sense, and have caused me to have
been suddenly smitten with the
hydrophobia OF sedition.
But when I arrived at Bowman,
and had delivered my lecture, and
spent the next day in resting before
the continuation of the trip found
that there were peculiar conditions
existing at Bowman. They were not
peculiar to Bowman. They are COM
mon to the whole state of North Da-
kota. It Is known to your honor, and
to everyone who has had any part in
this trial, that IN the state Of North
Dakota, in the last year and half,
the greatest and most revolutionary
social phenomena that has occurred
since the foundation OF this govern
ment, has taken place. The story is
one that is so well known / need
spend little time on 1t.
Here to these wind blown, FROST
~ vsTu NJ
and feature and muscle, who subdued
this desert and made it bloom and
produce the bread to feed the world.
And these men, tOiling in their des-
.perats struggle with adverse condi-
tions and with nature, gradually had
1t forced on their minds that in some
way they were not receiving a just
return for the labor expended; that
after their wheat was raised and
garnered, in the processes Of market
ing, men who toiled not and suffered
none of the hardships of production,
were robbing them Of the product Of
their labor; and these farmers,
smarting under that chaotic CondiT
ton, came to the town OF Bismarck.
They felt that the politicians, the
men who held the offices in the state,
the men they elected to office, were
not serving them, but that they were
using their offices and power to as
sist in the robbery and exploitation
or the farmers Of this state. So
they appealed to the legislature, and
then there came that marvellous
thing that had such wonderful eff
feet IN this state,-an insult, sneer
from the lips of the politicians who
believed themselves firm and secure
ia power-and that sneer, that in
suit, that told the farmers to go
home and slop the hogs while the
Politicians ran the state, had the et-
feet OF cementing the farmers in this
state into a great revolutionary or
ganization, and that organization
went out and swept the whole state,
and carried out of power the men
Who had been in power, and put in
poWer the men chosen by the farm
ers Of this state. This had occurred
Ill Bowman county, as it had all over
the state Of North Dakota. The old
order had been deposed. The new
order had been enforced, and natur-
ally, as always follows, the appointive
Offices that are called the spoils OF
political warfare, were taken from the
6dherents OF the old order and given
"a the adherents Of the new order.
think, SO far as can judge, the
fattest 1uiciest, most desirable plum
IL Bowman county was the postof-
lee. This was taken from the man
that had held 1t, and given to the
wife of the leader Of the new order
This naturally created bitterness,
hatred and venom in such marked
degree as I have never seen in all my
experience.
Deposed Boss is
Blamed For Action.
When I arrived III Bowman for my
lecIure II chanced that 10 was the