Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1918-10-17
E DIT O RIAL
WHY NOT MAKE TT PUBLIC?

The attorney general Of the United States has turned over to
the senate committee all the documents relating to the so-caled Ger
man-American Alliance and the brewers connected with the associa-
ton. II has been said repeatedly that if all the facts which this
evidence discoses were given to the public it would ruin the repu-
tations of many prominent men.
If a person be endowed with any sort Of a gambling spirit he
may bet his last dollar that if members Of the Nonpartisan League
Or of the organized farmers movement were involved, instead Of a
bunch Of republicans and democrats, the facts would have been
hurled at the public within fifteen minutes after the senate committee
got possession Of the evidence, but since the prominent men con
cerned are profteering republicans or profteering democrats it will
be d long time after election, If ever, before the disclosures are made
public
This is a time wnen men re put to the supreme test. 1t applies
not only to men and artisans and laborng men, but to men engaged in
commercial enterprises and to those associated III the political phase.
Of our government,
Patriotism is, or should be, the supreme test. No man who is
seeking to ahold up his fenow-men, and especially his government,
because he happens TO be endowed with the power through a monop
oily or q corner on the markets, is q patriot in the true sense.
No man who is seeking to screen another from the consequences
q any disloyal act Of which he may he guilty is a true patriot, what
ever he himself may affect to think about it.
If the senate committee has before it a mass of evidence, which
Il IS declared to possess, showing that prominent republicans or
democrats, or men engaged in industrial enterprises which are fur
nishing war materials, have been guilty of eennyng with the brew
efs or Others IN a movement which has 1lndered or handicapped the
government III the prosecution Of the war, or has a tendency to han
dieap ors hinder, and that would handicap or hinder if carried out.
to withhold them until this political campaign is over.
Tie chief, and in fact the only, point which the politicians are
raising against the organized farmers relates to this question OF 10y
atty. No political manager of standing even seeks to argue against
the principles for which the farmers movement stands. The whole
political campaign, especially from the republican standpoint, is cen
tered upon an effort to show that the farmers organization is reek-
ingrwith diloyal tendencies.
When for months. it has. been heralded around the corridors
at Washington that big interests have been guilty OF doing or under
taking to do things which would obstrnct the progress Of the war
and when for weeks it is openly admitted that the regulations of
many Republicans would be blasted il the disclosures were made pub
AS, IS Indicates that many prominent men have been either very In
discreet or outlandishly corrupt.
II goes without saying that they are not affiliated with the or
ganized farmers. AS we have said, they are either republicans oil
democrats--and the chances are thatSthe greater proportion of them
arc supporters lof the republican party and contributors to its cam
pasgn funds, for the simple reason that Special Privilege has no
~Tespectfor te position Of Woodrow Wilson with regard to financial
measures fr war purposes.
Whosar these naen2 Why does the senate, largely sympathetic
with Special Privilege, undertake. ID eoneeal their identity
lt 81 Obvious that they are not farmers. It's likewise obvious
that they are not sympathizers with the farmers movement