New-York tribune., 1919-04-09
By Kenneth Macgowan
N HE Nonpartisan League has its limi

HE Nonpart1san League has its limi-
tations-limitations Of outlook and
Of scope. A. G. Townley realizes this
Ee realizes that a farmers party pure and
simple may be bourgeois party pure and
simple; satisfied with high prices for grain
and cattle and low prices for farm labor.
lie realizes that farmers party pure and
simple can never be a national party,
however important 1t may become as
wedcr OF the balance Of power. Townley
realizes these things as the leader Of the
Farmers Alliance and Of the Peoples Party
realized them in tho '80s and '0Os And,
like them, he is broadening the outlook
and tho scope Of his party by allying it
with labor. If the leagues farrcachng
plans materializc by 1920, it will not only
control the electoral vote of from six to
thirteen agricultural states, but it will also
be a national "producers' party" signif-
can't and powerful wherever industrial
labor is active and politically minded.
The Alliance With Labor
Townley began his alliance with labor
back in 1917. 1t was in Minnesota, the
one state Of those then organized by the
league where labor really counted for
something. With characteristic acumen, he
was looking forward to the state election
of 1918 Labor had become powerful and
politically minded in Minneapolis That was
the secret of the large Socialist vote polled
by Thomas Van Leer in Minneapolis which
finally put him in the Mayors chair by q
small majority. Van Leer ran as a So
calist, but he got the support of the Min
ncapolis central labor body and he got
ioh ", f,lJ
saw his opening. 1t was the streetcar
strike in the Twin Cities. While it twisted
its way through the customary intricacies
of the War Labor Boards arbitration, the
Nonpartisan League gave the union $4,000
toward it's war chest. To labor that was
better evidence Of common interests than
speeches and pamphlets and programmes
Fourteen Points
Very soon Townley supplied these, too
With declarations Of the common interests
and common sufferings Of the farmer and
the laborer, and under the name of Farm
er-Labor," the Nonpartisan League and the
Minnesota Federation Of Labor went into
the campaign Of 1913 Both state and city
labor bodies got behind the ticket, after
naming the candidate for Governor In
loyalty" campaigns launched in the
United States, 'Farmer-Labor's" exact
amount of success is hard to estimate
The union didn't carry the election. A large
of the labor vote wasn't delivered
or deliverable But the league "stuck" and
won with labor an unquestionably solid
minority and solidarity The next step
in December-was to approach the newly
formed Labor party Of Chicago. AS prep
aration, the league issued its fighting
programme" and fourteen points" Half
of them dealt with matters affecting labor.
RECONSTRUCTION
2. reconstruction programme must be
adopted which will provide employment for
all, reduce the cost Of living maintain the
earnings Of labor and of primary producers,
make end Of monopoly extortion, and re-
deem the state and national governments
from the autocratic control Of monopo!ies
and in this way make our nation safe for
democracy.
PUBLIC OWNERSHIP
8. The termination of the present ma
tional control of railways and all other pub
lie utilities, not by returning the properties
of triplicate order blanks, giving the date to
private monopolies, but by national owner
ship, which shall be extended to include
all means Of transportation and communi-
cation, and all other undertakings, which in
their nature must be either great private
monopolies or public enterprises
HOMES, SCHOOLS AND EMPLOYMENT
FOR THE UNEMPLOYED
a. Employment for the unemployed, in CO.
operation with organized labor, through
government works in such enterprises as
road building, forestry and timber and fuel
production. flood prot tactiOu md lind raca