The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1919-08-01
THE WEEK
Townley Case Backfres
A Second Rockefeller
German Trade Starts
More Independent Labor
Why Bryan Passed


have been opposing the Nonpartisan
league. 1t is much too raw to be
talked about in the usual anti-League
fashion and the prune peddlers are
not using it as a sideline around the
hotels and the country stores.
Another court has discredited itself
and so added to the widespread feel
ing Of dissatisfaction with our legal
machinery. If lawyers and judges
were anxious to maintain their sup
posed reputation they would do well
to begin some housekeeping.
The anti-farmer crowd have
strengthened the bonds which unite
the organized farmers and they have
strengthened the leadership of Mr..
Townley by making a martyr of him.
And the maximum sentence the Judge
can impose is six months in the coun-
ty jail. The opposition, therefore,
has not "gotten" Townley so much as
Townley has gotten the opposition,
as Ben Franklin remarked when the
British general, Howe, stayed in the
captured city of Philadelphia so long
that the defeat of another British
army was made certain.
Reports from inside sources have
it that due to war Opportunities"
the fortunes of the DUPONT family
promise to surpass those of the
Rockefellers. All 100 and 200 per
cent Americans will rejoice at this
typlcally American piece of news.
While the rest of the world is rails
ing those terrible things known as
"Bolsheviks" we are quietly and
quickly raising millionaires. They
are such nice parties to have around,
as they can always be reached for con-
trlbutions for good works, such as
feeding few of the poor, welcoming
the returned soldiers, or fighting the
Nonpartlsan league and labor unions.
Now America can boast that it has
not only the richest but two or more
or the riches men in the world.
A New York bank announces that
1t will soon open branch bank in
Berlin and be ready to accommodate
customers in international business.
New. York papers carry such hea1-
lines as Cotton for Hamburg"
Really it begins toalook as if the silly
season and the days of hunbug ma
tionalism were about over. A few
months ago leading firms in New
York and London were hanging out
signs declaring that they would new
er, never, do business with the
Huns" .-..s.
At that time it would probably
nave been seditious to question any
thing that announced itself as patri-
otto and promoted hate. Yet it was
things of this kind that aroused sus-
plcions among thinking people and
did more to interfere with whole
hearted support Of the war than any
talk of the extreme radicals.
Let the old cat die as quickly as
possible. Let US get back to friendly
and business relations and not even
take time to wonder how some couIs
imagine that we could get along well
without the trade of over 10000. 900
civilized people. The blockade con-
tlnued after the armistice slew it's
hundreds of thousands in Germany
and prevented normal return to peace
business in allied countries. Let us
write it off as another great sacri-
nee to the NAV Of scheming imperial
ism, and begin the work Of making
such things speedily impossible again.
A good illustration of how ouick-
ly the general sentiment of the COM
mon people can change is found in
the annual convention of the Mime
sofa Federation of Labor, held dur
ing the present month. Two years
ago the convention of the same fed
Grafton was one of the most reac-
tionary labor meetings ever held in
America. The old-style labor poll
ticians put on a festival of supposed
patriotism, in which they resolved
away about everything labor had
fought for. The progressive labor
men hardly had a chance to peep a
protest
But two years Of living with the
protiteers and under the Burnouist
regime has had great effect. Now
the progressive leaders do the talk
ing and write the resolutions. indie
pendent politics in cooperation with
the Nonpatrisan league farmers is
planned. Labor demands platform
along the lines of the farmers de-
mands. Labor demands that we get
out of Russia and abandon other
forms of imperialism.
The last fnger-hold Of the reac-
tionary labor men disappeared when
the machine politicians double-crossed
these same men in the legislature.
Several who represented labor in
name from the Twin Cities made a
deal whereby they would turn down
the tonnage tax and certain other
big bills in return for the passage
of state workmen's compensation.
The gang put the vote on the COM
pensation bill after the others and
killed it. Those who were preaching
that labor could get more by staying
out of politics and let the gang
agents do the work had on argument |
left. Workmen began to ask: How
could we get less by independence ?
and we have chance to get every
thing.
yxy:Ir.-