The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1919-06-27
TEMPTATION

>~S'NS
How did Townley, the adventurer,
get next to so many of our real worthy |
people and manage to use them for his |
own purposes? Well use plain lam
guage. Just as the devil took the
hungry and suffering savior up on a
high mountain and tempted him by
showing him "all the riches and
glories of the world" and Offering
them to him as inducement for serv-
ice, so Townley appealed to the baser
passions Of men who either had or
imagined they had grievance. The
love of power has always been lure
to men of all classes. For this, wars
have been fought. nations have been
bled and even "the angels fell because
OF desire for Over-much power"
No wonder. A promise Of wealth and
power always wins adherents and
robber bands, plundering expeditions,
and selfish organizations of all kinds
have come into existence through un-
scrupulous leaders of glib tongue and
reckless thought, promising "all the
banks; you will hold all offices; you
will own the mills; you can load your
taxes onto the city people and the
utility corporations; in short, you Gan
get something for nothing. Besides,
they have been robbing you and now
it's your turn. Go to 'em. Do 'em up.
Greed, revenge, hatred, violence,-all
the lowest passions Of man, but still
real passions which he often falls a
victim to, were appealed to by Town
ley and his henchmen. The fact that
the farmer in the Northwest had never
before in fifty years received SUCH pay
for his grain, his livestock, his poul-
try or his dairy produce mattered not.
The fact that thousands of farmers
were interested in business outside Of
farming, proving Townley's "class
talk" lie, mattered not.
The farmers Of North Dakota were
jogging along having in their posses
sion bone, worth not less than one
billion dollars. They had acquired
this marrow bone in less than gen
GRAFTON. They were prosperous and
very busy, buildings schools, churches,
farmers elevators, fine houses, send
ing their children to school, even feel
ing little sorry for most of those
whose lot was cast in town. Then
came the evil spirit Of hatred, greed,
envy, falsehood and injustice. True
to the artist conception of the evil
spirit, this messenger had evil, CLINT
ing eyes, q long thin nose which
prudent man wouldn't pull even if it
was creased, sneer for everything
holy, clean and right. The evil spirit
proceeded to pour envy and hatred
into the farmers ears, to stir up their
greed, and most surprising Of ALL he
did not hesitate to tempt these patri-
otic and Christian farmers to look
down on their own government and
country which had dealt so generously
with Them, given them the finest farm
ing lands in the world for nothing, do
mated hundreds of thousands Of acres
Of land to the people of the State for
which they might build Universities,
Colleges, Normal Schools and other in
stitutions, and in addition, Sections 16
and 35 in every Township, these to
be sold and made in permanent fund
for the education of all the children.
This last item alone would, If handled
as honestly and conservatively as here
tofore, amount to about $5O,OOO,OOO.
This would mean two million a year
at four percent interest-quite q lift
in paying school taxes. Besides sneer-
ing at the government and finding
fault with it he never failed to sneer
at church and religion. His language,
private and public, reeked with oaths.
Still this abominable creature appeal
ed to the greed and envy Of his hear
ers and won the minds of many, The
arch fiend had read in the Bible that
"love money is the root Of all evil"
Knowing the truth Of mans greatest
book he turned its information to his
own use with much success, following
the Devils example when he tempted
the Master. This evil spirit knew that
the more busy a farmer is and espe. |
citlly the less English he knows, the
easier 1t is to capitalize his ignorance
and weaknesses. Thus 1t came to pass |
that thousands Of North Dakota farm.
ers who were content and busy with
their fine, fat bone, became greedy and
envious and filed witt, the same un.
reasonable hatred that their new
teacher overfowed with. They saw
the bones the bankers. naillers and ele-
vator people had, and, while these had
all worked with the min harmony and
they had helped each other to find
bones when times were hard and they
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