Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-01-04
ECONOMIC REVOLT
IN THE NORTHWEST
Minnesota Not Nest of Traitors,
Declares Editor-Steel Cor
pOration Caused Trouble

TO the Editor Of the Euening Public Ledger:
lie 0he Prcsidenn knows that Minnesota
has been corrupted that 1t is one of the Ctta-
dels of anti-AmcrIcanism and neither he nor
the Republicans intend to coddle the propa-
the Boshevik element runs away with the
prize.--l1ditorial in the EvENING PUBLIC LEDGER.
Sir-Let tina. be text for this sermon
i think that the EVENING PunILc LEDGER
would not have made such an untrue asser-
ton If it had been conversant with the facts.
The main fact is that Minnesota is not
citadel of anti-Americanism, but that it is
hot-bed of rebellion against IA group OF
economic mossbaCks who have gained con-
troll of the State and are trying to main
tain that control by disappearing loyalty and
Americanism
/ know for ! have just come from Mime
sofa, and spent year and n half there as
northwest editor of newspaper in Duluth
That job gave me chance to see what was
going on; particularly because the news
paper itself was aiding the "Bolshevlk" ee-
ment by fighting it with obsolete propaganda
weapons.
Undoubtedly, the chief element in Wiscon-
sin contributing to efforts to spike Ameri-
can war guns is German; but Minnesota
is almost an entirely different State racially.
Because of the iron ore mines in the north
1t is also almost an entirely different state
industrially.
The foundation for the present conflict
in Minnesota WIS laid several years ago,
when the Steel Corporation, aided and abetted
by ALLEGED fric~d" "hccts OF propa"o da,
entered into II fight with the village officials
of Hibbng. n community with population
of Is, 900 and deserving of it's nickname or
the richest village in the world
At that time, Victor Power, the Mayor,
was virtually unknown except in his own
bailiwick but Power beat the Steel Corpor-
alton to a fraZzle. despite the fact that the
entire set of village officials had been in
dicted on various charges of graft Their
yindcat!on was so easily obtained that it
made the steel. Corporation ridiculous. 1t
also planted the seeds of discomfort, for it
gave the impression that in order to defeat
any champion of'the people, as Power called
himself, the Steel Corporation would resort
TO anything in its unscrupulousness.
The Steel Corporation finally awakened to
the fact that what had beaten ii was unfair
tactics, un-American tactics, too much en-
thusiasm among interested employees who
tried to make a record for themselves The
generals In the anti-Power fight We're so
positively crude that the entire northern part
of the State. while despising the l. w. W.
equally desp'sed the steel Corporation and
ali of it's friends.
In the presidential election the results
of the conflict were to be seen in the fact
that Woodrow Wilson carried Duluth, rock
ribbed Republican in normal times, by a
majority of 500, while the entire State was
carried by Hughes by only about 900.
The industrial population was now bitter;
II remained only to antagonize the agricul-
tural population ana Minnesota would be In
rebellion. That antagonism came when So
called loyalists began to move against the
Nonpartisan League in precisely the same
manner as they had once moved against
Power.
The Nonpartisan League tried to get a
footho,d in Minnesota, and it's platform was
simply an economic one. demanding more
profit for the farmer on his crops. The loyal
lists were waiting to jump on that economic
program. They wanted to wave the Ameri-
can flag and cry pro-German. for they knew
Minnesota was patriotic and they were posi-
tive that the only way to beat the Nonpartl-
san League was to desecrate the American
flag by confscating it for their own pur-
poses.
Shortly after America entered the war
and while economic classes were still at
fever heat, the Nonpartisan League held a
convention in the Twin Cities. and outlined
a plan whereby It hoped to obtain political
control Of the Middle West. The so-calied
loyalists were furious and determined to
wipe out the pest But the more they tried
to wipe II out, the more unfair methods thew
employed. the more persecution into which
they entered. the more spread agieism they
unfurled the, more did the Nonpartisan
League grow. The tactics Of the so-caIled
loyalists were boomerAngs IN every inakanoe.
~ ~ ~