The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1918-05-02
ARE POLITICAL
PHARISEES" ALL
The Slanderers of the Farmers of the
Northwest Are So Designated by
Senator Borah in the Halls of Con-
gress.
N. OAK. HAS BEEN LIBELED.
War Not Only Calls Out the Great
Virtues of People, But Other
Characteristics Less Admirable a.
Well.

Senator Borah, of Idaho, arose in
his place in the United States senate
on April 22nd and delivered the fol-
lowing we'll merited rebuke to the
graceless scoundrels who lose no op-
portunity of slandering and villifying
the people of the northwestn states,
and for no other cause than that the
inhabitants Of these commonwealths,
the majority Of whom are farmers,
are evincing a disposition to think
and act for themselves.
"Mr. President, I observed through
the press last week that there were
number of people appearing before
one of the important committees Of
the Senate testifying with regard to
disloyalty in different parts Of the
United States. One reading the re-
port of the hearings would conclude
that the agricultural sections Of the
country were saturated with disloy-
atty. do not know just how accur-
ately these witnesses were reported,
but the inference to be drawn from
their statements was that entire COM
munities-indeed, if not entire states
particularly agricultural or rural
districts or communities were, as I
said, saturated with disloyalty.
1t seems, while these gentlemen
were here advertising the disloyalty
of the farmers and farmers organiza-
tions throughout the country, the
farmers at home were engaged in put
ting in their crops and subscribing
for liberty bonds.
In order that the two sides of the
question may go to the country and
that the people in other parts of the
world may understand that our farm
ers are no less loyal and no less de-
voted to this cause than any other
class Of people, I call attention to this
item, which appears this morning in
the Post:
All the States which have gone
over the top and won honor flags
are largely rural. Montana,
whose quota was S9,O00,00O, has
reported subscriptions of $14,-
741,000. North Dakota, with
quota of $6,5OO,0OO, has reported
more than S10,0OO,O0O.
And North Dakota was particularly
subjected to attack by some of these
witnesses. You would suppose that
the farmers, and it is almost entire
ly an agricultural State, were practi-
cally all out of sympathy with this
Republic in it's hour of peril. I re-
gard it as a libel respecting those peo-
pie.
Indications are that South Da-
kota has also subscribed it's quota
of $22,O00,0OO. Minnesota has
contributed $3s,9OO,OOO, exclusive
Of subscriptions from Minneapo-
lis, St. Paul and Duluth, whose
pledges amount to $37, 100000.
Northern Wisconsin and northern
Michigan, which report to the
Minneapolis Federal reserve bank,
have about $8,OOO,OOO each.
Mr.. President, state Of war not
only calls out the great virtues of the
people, but it calls out other charac-
teristics less admirable. l trust that
these political Pharasees who come
here with the American flag wrapped
around them to exploit their own vir-
tues and to decry the virtues of en-
tire communities and entire States
will not be regarded as voicing the
real sentiments of the American peo-
pie in this war. l trust also that this
wholesale denunciation of entire class
es and communities will receive the
condemnation at the hands of all sane
and patriotic citizens which it de-
serves"