The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1919-03-27
TRAITORS AT

President Townley warns that there are trait
ors at Bismarck among those who were elected
pledged to the farmers program. In our judge
ment Mr.. Townley does these gentry entirely too
much honor in describing them as traitors. AT
ter all, the word traitors connotes something of
character, past, if not present. A traitor must
at one time have had beliefs, and stood for
something, else he cannot become q traitor.
The men who have now gone over to big bus
mess have never been anything but officeseek-
ers. Your true office chaser cannot be q traitor;
he has no convictions to betray. These men pick
ed the Nonpartisan League as likely to land
them in office. Therefore they were for the Lea
que. Promotion, they discovered, was dependent
upon the possession of brains, of ability, of de-
votion to the public interest. These were quail
ties they die. not possess, while many men about
them did. Their future in the League was there
fore hopeless.
And that accounts for their present repudia-
tion Of the League, which is being so extensive
ly advertised these days, in the kept press both
in North Dakota and Minnesota. The big inter-
know better than these small politicians the
small likelihood Of election as opponents of the
League, but at least there is a chance there, and
no chance with the League. The interests have
taken them upon the hill and shown them the
country-and they have clinched the bargain.
They have thereby of course, ~repudiated'
their past professions Of loyalty to the farmers
cause. But, in gentlemen of their lack of char
acter, that does not indicate that they are trait
ors: they are simply politicians, of the variety
technically known as peanut. They will betray
their new friends, if occasion arises, with just
as little conjunction as they have abandoned
all their professions of last fall. It's the nature
of the Observation-Disclosures
The Independent, official organ Of the MOTOR
iousl V. A., has made it's appearancesin Edge
ley, being distributed by a few .misledI followers
of the Chamber: of Commerce organ, the Fargo
Forum and others Of like ilk. The first issue Of
this. paper shows that the I. ". A. feels itself
slipping, and complains that the league speak
ers are spelling their rare little game, in spite
of the fact that they have speakers on the road
trying to pull the old stuff TO- fool the.faEneFs.
Let's see! It seems to- us that. we havooheard
that one Of the defunct associations |of the
Chamber of Commerce Of Minneapolis (these
organizations change names SO fast we can't re-
call which one it was) started :: similar |publica-
ton some time ago. But for pure unadulterated
bunk, the Independent has any off them skinned.
. 6 us, published from the office Of the Fargo
: Forum and printed % the Forum presses, 50 you:
may draw your conclusions without even read
3 ing the sheet. The best medicine that could be-
/: administered to a weak league man would be to
= send hin the Independent regularly. Itsubould.
soon make him strong enough to- sit up, and see
the bui1co game. Of the I. v. A : = ,e1>. =
The pain which the press outsfd6bf North
no1ofo fools hoool1co tho p,1,o ohnHIHf Hn~o,,c -