The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1919-11-06

LEY-"THE SKY is THE LIMIT"
PATRIOTISM CUT OUT OF
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES TO
RAILROADS AND TRUSTS
MILITIA EMASCULATION
The Inside Story of the National Nom
partisan League Under Townley
Dictatorship
North Dakota is a farmers state.
The United States census shows that
80 per cent of the population is en-
gagged in agricultural pursuits. If
there is one characteristic of men who
are farmers from choice it is that htey
are of open minds, free spirited, low
ers of sterling honesty and above all
vigorous in their dislike of deeds that
are done in the dark and in secret.
They are trusting by nature and they
have wholesome hatred for men of
hidden purposes and mysterious de-
signs that cannot face the light of full
publicity.
The farmers of North Dakota are
of this type, almost to man. And
yet the experience of North Dakota
is that the farmers were betrayed by
Townley and his close followers when
they had by their votes in the cam
paign of 1915 elected state admin
istration and a legislature under the
guise of nonpartisanship. For, when
the state administration had been in
stalled in Office and the legislature
was about to meet, it was discovered
that Townley had planned and order
ed program of the most glaring So
cialistic nature.
And as the climax, the workings of
the ring were to be done in the dark,
behind closed doors, in Secret Caucus.
This is how it was worked.
Townley established headquarters
at the Hotel Mckenzie at Bismarck
at least one week before the date for
the opening of the legislature and was
on the ground with a number of his
trsted Iieutenants when the members
of the legislature began to arrive at
the capital. AS each member came he
was conducted to the Townley head
quarters on the upper floor of the no
tel where he was given copy of a
compact-almost in the nature of an
oath-which he was asked to sign.
Signing Away All Their independence
This document required each signer
to surrender his independence of
thought and action on all matters
coming before the legislature for con-
sideration. They virtually became
the slaves of Townley and were no
longer free to think Or act according
to the dictates of their own con-
sciences. They were mere tools OF
Townley and his Socialistic comrades.
Eighty-one members of the house
of representatives signed this com
pact and sowe Is members of the SEN
ate. This was large majority of the
House, but a minority of the Senate.
All bills tina toriginated in the House
and all that were sent to the House
from the Senate were carried to the
Secret Caucus, to which no one was
admitted except those who had sign
ed the secret compact or were the re
representatives. of Townley or were in
vited by him or his representative on
special occasions.
In fact so completely did Townley
dominate the House that in the early
days of the session members who had
not signed the Secret Oath were told
by Chief Clerk Bowen, Townley' S
closest lieutenant, that they ought to
"sign up" to insure their bills receiv-
ing consideration.
In the Secret Caucus the will of the
majority of the oath bound members
present at any meeting on which bill
was considered was binding on ever
member of the legislature who had
signed the compact. Messrs. Town-
ley, Bowen, LeSeuer, Thomson and
others, were present at every session
of the secret caucus, one or all O.
them, to see that the will of the car
was complied with in every particular.
1t was in this Secret Caucus that
measures intended to give the county
and state officials power to cope with
the 1. W. w. menace were throttled
one after another, as well as other
measures prepared for the betterment
of the welfare of the state but which
had not received the sanction of the
car.
1t is not probable that any other
state legislature in the history Of the
United States ever has been so COM
pletely and so continuously dominated
by men who were not members of the
legislature-and none of these dista-
tors acting for Townley were mem
bers chosen by the people nor in any
way Endorsed by the voters.
It was this ''boss ridden crowd
who dominated the House and the
Secret Caucus, that enabled Townley
and his radical Socialistic lieutenants
to pass through the House Of Repre-
sentatives the famous-or Infamous
House Bill A
House Bill 44-The Socialist Consti