Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1918-04-11
E DIT O IAL
GOVERNOR

Governor j. A. A. Burnquist, OF
Minnesota, recently received consid-
cradle newspaper advertising for pub
iicly declining to address a body of
farmers, using as his excuse for his
declination that the organization is
swayed by men who are not loyal to
the government in this war.
Mr.. Burnquist occupies a peculiar
position. Having no hope that the
farmers of his state will rally around
his political banner, he seemingly felt
that he must do something to dis.
credit their influence. The question
of loyalty being uppermost in the
public mind, he seized upon it as a
drowning mar grasps a straw.
Perhaps, at the outset. it may be
well to call Governor Burnquist's at.
tention to a little speech delivered
in the United States congress not long
ago by William e. Mason. or course,
it raised a laugh in the staid old
body, but, nevertheless, there is more
truth than poetry in this congressional
philippe. The gentleman is quoted
as having said:
I'VE have got a lot of brave fellows
in America with their arms in the
treasury clear up to the elbows-fel-
lows who call everything a traitor
that catches them stealing. Their
mouths are thoroughly patriotic. but
their legs are all pacifist."
Ii the word which comes to us from
the far-of Pacific coast is well found
ed, brought hither by a WATERFOWL
man who spent a portion of the win
ter in California, Governor Burnquist
is not far removed from that class
of p~rofiteers whom Mr.. Mason may
have had In mind. If, as we say, this
information is reliable, Mr.. Burnquist
has been concerned in the promotion
OF a company for the purpose of Sc
curing contracts for building ocean
going vessels that are designed to
carry our American boys and our Am
erican products across the Atlantic.
The great ship-building scandal is
sun 1ftsh in-the minis of the Amer
lcan people. Investigations have SHOWN
that men in high places have associ-
ated themselves together in the for
nation of corporations whose sole
business has been merely to con-
tract to build ships, with no intention
whatever of eyer building them. The
chief incentive has been to reap pro
hts that We're eve earned. Con-
tracts have been passed along from
companies absolutely unable TO con-
sIruct ships to other companies that
are presumed to be equipped for ship
construction, the result being that,
the contracts having been entered
into upon what is known as the per-
scentage basis, two profits instead of
one have been eYacted from the gov
aernment; the compeny entering into
The contract getting, say, ten per cent
on the cost of construction without
rendering an equivalent in service. In.
other words, profits paid to the con-
tracing company have been clear
velvet for the men associated in
the enterprise.
We imagine that Mr.. Burnquist
knows about as much about the build
ing of ships as a fat hog knows about
preaching the gospel, and that he is
about as well equipped for construct
ing a vessel as the hog lis fitted for
entering the kingdom Of heaven.
AT best, these p~rofiteering concerns
are no assistance in the prosecution
Of the a They are merely lab
sorbing' the unearned but stipulated
profits, and To this extent they are Il
hindrance rather than a help, since
The dollars that 90 into their pockets
for rendering no material service
might have been put TO some useful
purpose.
We shall be very glad to set Gov
n Burnquist right before the Am.
erican people and the people of his