Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1918-10-06
NONPARTISAN
LEAGUE SCORED
BY ROOSEVELT
Colonel Says Party Leading
U. S. Must Be Foremost in
Americanism; Talks
at Billings.

Billings, Mont, Oct. s.-America
cannot afford TO accept the lead OF
any party, nor any organization call
ing itself nonpartisan, but really
acting as a party, which is not first
and foremost American, and nothing
but American, declared Colonel The
odore Roosevelt here tonight in an
address in which he outlined various
phases of the war and its many
sidelights.
There are real and grave causes
for complaint among the farmers
here in the northwest" the former
president continued as he read from
. PAPER figures which purportsd to
shoE discrepancies in connection
with the prices paid for wheat and
inf freight rates, but he asserted
I at MANY of the remedies propos-
are not only false, but mischiev-
BUS and very grave harm may be
caused by the character OF the agi.
tation conducted by some of these
men who profess to be seeking
these remedies.
U. s. Coptrol Of Elevators.
ITO introduce state socialism as
relief for these conditions would
result in nothing but widespread
! damage. Some of the. conditions
complained of can be met by state
action. There should be federal con-
troll of elevators and -four mills with
established terminal elevators at con-
venient points.
But ! emphatically disbelieve in
any party. and especially if that par
ty calls itself nonpartisan party,
which organizes single class
against other classes. | object just
as strongly whether such a political
organization claims to be in the in
terest OF townspeople. or country
people, of merchants, lawyers, farm
ers or wage earners..
League Seditious.
when the nonpartsan league
I first appeared l was inclined to wei.
come it and it was with real reluc-
lance that was obliged to believe
that the leadership that controlled
It was OF such character as to
threaten this country with evils anal
ogous to those which came from the
bolshevism abroad and from I. w.
w. ism at home.
Finally the league at Minneapolis
about year ago was turned into a
ghost dance of the Hun within-our-
gates, and it, became evident to me,
that insofar as they dared, the most
prominent leaders of the league were
playing the game of sedition and dis
loyalty and that they were seeking
I to acquire power by pandering to
and influencing the base spirit of
greed and envy and ignorance and
class hatred. They were trying to
10 what Lenine and Trotsky have
done to Russia.
Huns Favor League.
1.-THE |. w. w. leaders have been
convicted of disloyalty and yet it
was to the head of this organization,
w. D.. Hayward, that the secretary
OF the Nonpartisan league wrote on
April 5, 1917, a letter in which he
spoke of This damned war bust
ness"
"There isn't,a German abroad, or
pro-German at home who doesn't
+. wish success to the Nonpartisan
league as at present controlled, and
to the /. w. w."
Colonel Roosevelt asserted that
the two great issues at this time
were to put through the war success
fully and insist on thorough-going
Americanism.
In connection with Germany's pro-
posal to enter league of nations,
MIR. Roosevelt vehemently declared
that until Germany has been beaten
TO her knees and just so long as
Germany is under her present gov
ernment, to allow her to join such
I league would be like asking out
laws, train-robbers, and gunner to
Join sheriff's posse as guardians OF
she peace"
Should Fight Turkey.
1--WE have a, league of free nations
now that is an actual going con-
Germ" continued the colonel, land
inasmuch as we are members of that
league, we have been culpably dere-
iect in our duty in not long ago de-
claring war ON the armed enemies of
the league, Turkey and Bulgaria.
We have wrongfully left our allies
to win without our aid, decisive vic
tories over these vassal states OF
Germany.
The speaker advocated the recog-
milton of the Jugo-Slavs, Armenians,
Poles and other oppressed national
tiles, as we'll as the Czecho-Slovaks
and continued:
"But we must not expect from
such a league more than it can do,
nor ourselves promise more than we
can perform; and we must never
forget that such league to enforce
peace, or league of nations, must be
treated as an addition to. and under
no circumstances a substitute for,
the preparing OF our own defense.
Uncle Sam must, in the last analysis,
RELY on himself for his safety and
not on scraps of paper signed by
others"