Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-06-17
NORTH DAKOTA POLITICS.

9, to the Fargo, N. D., Courier-New
NORTH DAKOTA POLITICS.
Whirlwind Camoaign on State BanI
| Referendum.
Only two weeks and two days of th
referendum campaign remain. Public
sentiment has been going all one wa!
from the first. If the election Were
held tomorrow the entire farmers ro
gramme would be approved ay
overwhelming majority.
1t has been a repetition Of previou!
campaigns. The opposition in the be-
ginning has made a show Of meeting
the farmers argument with argument
Of their own. Always they have beer
beaten at this game. This time theil
route has been complete. Scarcely 6
single speaker for the I. v. A. objects
to the principles Of the farmers bills
They. want to, but they don't dare
They admit that the principle Is good
but they pick flaws in details, and ask
that the programme for which farmers
of North Dakota have been working
for years be defeated, just because ir
some minor point they think it imper-
feet.
The net result of the arguments o1
the farmers speakers, and the lack Of
argument Of the I. v. A. campaigners
has been the decision Of the vast ma.
jority Of the voters to vote yes sever
as does the Nonpartisan League
Hence, within the next few days, II
will have recourse to its last weapon
in the desperation Of defeat.
1t is the same weapon upon which
the farmers opposition has always re-
lied, in every campaign: mud-slinging
A. c. Townley will, as usual, be the
chief target. Walter Thomas Mills and
other speakers and leaders will come
in for their share. Having failed to
shake public confidence in the laws
themselves, the I. v. A. will make a
final attempt to defeat them by assert
ing that Townley and the other chosen
leaders Of the farmers are atheists,
free lovers, corrupt, grafters, self seek
ers, bolshevists, I. w. w. and every
other sort of criminal.
It is an old story to North Dakota
farmers. It has never fooled them In
the past; it will not do so now. In ev-
cry campaign they have been told that
Townley would betray them, yet every
campaign has brought them nearer
their final goal, and on June 26 they
will win all for which they have been
fighting. 81
OF course stories Of great verisimili-
tude will be printed. But that has
been done before. There was the story
of that 100000 home in st. Paul
which resolved itself into $3.50 room
in the Sherman house. There was the
story that Mrs. Townley has put away
vast sums which Mr.. Townley had
turned over to her-and which was
disproved, as Judge Amidon pointed
out in district court, after one Of the
most searching Investigations ever
made of mans record.
There are plenty Of men wanting to
"get even" with Townley. Such men
will stop at no tale, however wild. The
three traitors at Bismarck are smarting
because, owing to Townley's opposition,
they were unable to prostitute the far
mers' movement to a machine for their
personal political advancement. There
are other men, outside the league, and
some unfortunately inside it, who have
also sought to use it to make money
for themselves, or to win office, who
are peddling slander and poison to the
Il. ". A. It will all be used before June
26th.
But 1t Is the same old game. It's al
ways been done. 1t Is the opposition's
confession that it is beaten. Men
don't descend to the gutter until all
other hope has gone. Even If all that
has ever been and will be said about
Townley and other leaders were true,
still 1t would not affect the situation on
June 26. The farmer programme, and
not Townley, is the issue, and the far
mers' programme is the most splendid
ly democratic body of laws for which
any state has ever had the privilege OF
voting.
But the things that will be said
and that have been said-against
Townley and the others are not true
They are merely variations Of the same
old lies that have been peddled every
campaign, and disproved every time
The one purpose in peddling them is to
help big business kill the farmers pro-
gramme.
1t Is an effort that has always been
rebuked by the voters. Never, how
ever, has it been so scathingly rebuked
as it will be on June 26. The voters OF
North Dakota have made up their
minds on the farmers programme. and
they will give the I. v. A. lesson that
ought to chasten even its hardened
politicians.-Fargo, N. D., Courier
News, juno 10.