Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-06-17
PRO.CERMAN1sM's LATEST
The Nonpartisan League Debauched by
Self.Seekers to the Purposes OF I'm.
American Propaganda

L American Alliance has not left the
Germans without powerful propa-
pant.ist organization in this country.
With a subtlety characteristic OF all
their conduct they have been converting
to their uses the Nonpartisan League,
which was organized in North Dakota in
April, 1915.
The league is supporting Charles A.
Lindburg for the governorship in Min
nesota, where its organizers have been
indicted and some of them convicted OF
violation of the espionage act and with
interfering with the draft. Lindburg
opposed the entrance of America into the
war and in July of last year he published
a book in which he charged that this
country was forced into the conflict by
the capitalists for their selfish ends and
that the young men were asked to fight
and die that the rich might be made
richer.
The league in the beginning was or
ganized as protest by the farmers OF
North Dakota against the control of the
State by the railroads and the grain ele-
vators. It's founder is A.. c. Townley,
mar who raised fax and was for time
known as the fax king of his part of the
State. There came bad year, his crop
was poor and he failed for $4,000. He
and few other men, who charged their
misfortunes to the railroads and big busi-
ness, met in Bismarck and planned an
organization of farmers. who should con-
troll the Legislature and pass lot of laws
similar to those which the old Farmers
Alliance demanded and others which the
Populsts favored. They wanted the
State to take care of them. They wanted
.State-owned elevators to handle grain
not only in North Dakota, but at tide
water. They wanted stock yards, pack
ing plants and cold-storage houses owned
by the State. They wanted State insur-
ance against damage from hail, blight,
black rust and other things which injured
crops. And they wanted farm improve
ments exempted from taxation.
They succeeded in electing majority
of the lower house of the State Legisla-
ture in 1916 and they passed law pro-
viding that farm Improvements should
be taxed on an assessment of per cent
of their value. and that the property of
banks and railroads and other Capital
istic" enterprises should be taxed on 80
per cent assessment.
This was gratifying to the farmers and
the league began to grow. 1t has ex-
tended into eleven States in the North
west and its agents have been busy in
Pennsylvania, New York and New Eng
land, where they are attempting to bring
about union between the farmers and
the labor organizations for the election
of members of the Legislatures pledged
to their program. 1t has 100000 men,
bers, who pay an annual fee Of So for
the privilege of belonging. The organ
izers are securing between 1000 and 1000
members week, and receive 81 of the
annual fee from each new member as
pay for their services.
AS originally planned, the league was
one of those wild socialistic organizations
which have been popular with the farm
ers of the West for two generations. 1t
was Bryanistic in it's economic ignorance
and in its humanitarian idealism. The
belief of some of its members that this
was a capitalists war and their hostility
to capital evidently suggested to the Ger
mans that it could be used for their pur-
poses. Here was an organization ready
to their hand through which the war
could be made unpopular.
The reports from Minnesota indicate
that its membership there is made up
largely of the pro-Germans and that the
first members obtained by the organ
izers in new communities are the Ger
man sympathizers. And the nomination
by the league of Lindburg, who says in
his book that 1--WE have been dragged
into the war by the intrigue of the specu-
lators," confirms and justifes the suspi-
cion in which the organization is held
1t is at best anti-war and is part
of that movement in which Mrs. Rose
Pastor Stokes was active-a movement
which the judge who sentenced Mrs.
Stokes described as a systematic pro-
gram to create discomfort with the war
disagreement with the causes and JUS
tce of the war, loss of confidence in the
good faith and sincerity underlying the
conduct of the war and its ultimate aims
thereby to cause withdrawal of support
at home and relaxation of effort and
effectiveness in the field. At worst j,
is anti-American because prot German.
There are doubtless many loyal anc
patriotic Americans among the members
who Joined because they wanted the Stat,
to help them. But there is no doubt tha
many of the men directing the policy O.
the league are disloyal.
The Attorney General win fail in hi
duty unless he warns the honest farm