Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-02-21
WHAT'S IN THE BOTTLE?

At Long Prairie. Mimi. about a year ago, a debate
IN the question: Should the farmers Of Minnesota
4 the Nonpartisan league? was held between N. S.
sadall. q state organizer for the league, and Rudolph
/. q local editor. In the course of that debate Edi-
Leo gave his audience this thought: 1T is an easy
aE to get up here and talk about the ills which po-
;al flesh Is heir to; we know all about the ills; but
It we want to know is, is the remedy in the bottle
good?"
Ore word defines the remedy that is in the Nom
tisan league bottle-politics-class politics at that
wing out Of consideration, for the time, the Interior
seditious activities with which the leaders of this
anization are charged. and considering it's program
the method it proposes to pursue to put that pro-
m into effect. there is no warrant in believing it can
lin the economic ends it seeks to attain.
As every one knows. the Nonpartisan league does
sound the initial bugle call for organization among
farmers. That call was sounded years ago, and IN
~ section of the United States the farmers responded
T. Not only that, but through extensive organization
8 enected the farmers have done many things that
::ertally improved their economic conditions. They
~ achieved these things not because they went INTO
ties aS a Va e class. bu: because they RETAINED from, do-
s1hatfsvery thing. III. -
On the statute kooks of every state in the Union,
FN~A Jaws VAN.s Ill appeal II IN erect, are dis
lively class laws-good laws, generally approved,
Ixing on the whole. for better government and better
tae. conditions, but none of them are the product of
Ianized class politics. We venture to say that none
Hhem would or could have been enacted if they had
n proposed and urged as a political issue by class
hnizatton under the banner of a distinctive political
Fy. gnquestlonably the Topulist party was the near
approach to- class politics of any political organiza-
Vgnf cnnaen1ioncorfbo+ oyo, ,x;s4.le -. Al. -.t..-.
Iurnber@of the reforms. urged by the .Populist party
now in effect and regarded as a matter of course,
not one Of them was brought about until the Popu-
party=was dead and buried.
Legislation and economic adjustments that have
lard for the welfare of labor were never secured
Ipugh the activities of a labor political party, and it
safe assertion that they never could have been Sc
I'D by such an agency. Social laws respecting the
Il conditions of the community, which also are of
1T economic value, like prohibition enactments for
lnple, do not owe their existence in any single case
we cantrecal tc the sole championship of one par
liar political party. With reference to that class Of
regulating the liquor traffic, it has been perfectly
Larent that the Prohibition party can not yalidly take
Hit for their enactment. On the contrary, it may be
Ter successfully maintained that this political organ
Fon has hindered quite as much as it helped the
rms it aimed to achieve.
( One of the fundamental facts in this democracy of
Il A. this. It takes all classes of the people. to. make
laws. 1t takes the laboring man. the professional
p and the merchant to help make the laws that are
n for the farmer; and the farmer joins with all these
EIaJclaaees tosxhelp make laws that are good for either
listen asawekmay to demagogic defamation to the
EIary. the laws upon our books that are of economic
tsociaI value, have not been made by the politicians
IN spite Of them. i
Politics, pure and. simple, to be administered as a
Es@ nostrum. will not help the farmers~of this state,
lssny other state or Of the nation. That is the remedy
|issiAs in the Nonpartisan league notwithstanding.
|ResSay, for the time. the more obnoxious and dan
HI label that 1t bears. It will cure nothing. 1t
only intensity the ills that exist and make them
y fhan before.--Portland. ore. Telegram.