The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1919-12-11
LEAGUE IS REAL CHRISTIANITY
Sioux City, Iowa.

lender or the right OF the common people, / am
amazed and heartsick at the TRADE of abuse
that some ministers in the various churches
have heaped upon the Nonpartisan League. To
read some Of the editorials in the leading church
papers against the League and it's ideals, makes
me. wonder whether some Of these church edi-
tors really are acquainted with the life and
teachings of Jesus.
We preachers no doubt have been guilty of
rejecting the sentiments of those who pay our
salary. Profiteers often times use the church as
a mantle of responsibility in their schemes of
exploitation of the common people. We have
been inclined to preach other things than to
denounce legalized robbery. But if we cannot
Genounce exploitation from the pulpit, we can,
out Of loyalty to our Christ, refuse to be a par
ty in denouncing the Nonpartisan league, which
is exposing profiteers and the exploitation of
society.
was a homesteader in North Dakota when
the League was born. I used my Civil war rights
and located near my two sons. I knew the farm
ers were being robbed-that the grain game
was in the hands of the grain gamblers of Min
neapolis. The banking interests of the Twin
Cities and other centers were cooperating with
the grain men. The more l studied conditions, I
recognized that there was a direct legalized
system of robbing the North Dakota farmers.
When the Nonpartisan League first took &C
ton, [ often discussed the matter with some of
the leaders. / went to the League rallies and
1cdllACu tIldC L Was d CIuSdu0 lOI UGCC6T living,
for fair play in marketing, and to give the farm
er half a chance to prosper.
| have studied the League literature and
many of their publications. / know their pro-
gram is for a better America for the people. To
me the ideals of the League are "applied Chris
tianity.' can not but condemn any preacher
Of the gospel of Jesus Christ for c%urrying favor
from organized capital, when he delivers TRADES
against the Nonpartisan league. ,~ 49,:
| think the time has come for the preachers
to know what the League means. In my study of
the Scriptures I find that Jesus was not perse-
cuted by any organized greed until he aroused
the resentment of the exploiters the time he
drove out the money changers from the temple.
Let each preacher ask this question of him
self, if Jesus Christ were here in person would
ne condemn the Nonpartisan Leaguers in their
fi"ht for a better government and better living
conditions, or would he condemn the "profi-
teering interests as they squeeze out from the
fathers and mothers the last drop of profit and
starve the boys and girls in their mad greed for
the American dollar? -.
Think of it! Hundreds of thousands of boys
and girls in rich America goino to school every
morning without breakfast. Think of it! Over
half a million boys in the first American army
draft who could not read or write the Enolish
language. Think of it! Nine children out of ten
have to 90 to work before they reach the eighth
grade. Over 5000. 900 women in this country
have to work outside the home that they may
live. Over three-foi1rths of the men that reach
the age of IS get there without a dollar ahead.
To any man who is really concerned about
his country, the thought is terrible that in
Christian America the rich are growing richer
and the poor growing poorer every day. OUGHT
we not preach against the cause of this political
unrest and not deliver TRADES aoainst the Non
partisan league, which is one of the great rene
dies? 81
So far as / can see it, the Nonpartisan league
aims to shift the burden of taxation from the
poor to the rich. The Nonpartisan league aims
to utterly destroy the system of the greedy
profiteering food spectators that "hold down.
the farmer and "hold up'' the consumer. Amen
to that.
North Dakota, a league stronghold, was the
only northwestern state to take care of the re-
turned soldier on a economic basis, givinp him
flour as we'll as flowers, and BODYBUILDING
arches as we'll as homecoming: arches, irving
him the chance to have the music of a happy
familv as well as the music of a heroes band.
III League in North Dakota also gives a poor
man the chance to buy a farm and build a home.
England is doing that and calling it common
sense and yet some preachers here call it So
cialis1n.
AS a veteran of the Civil War and as a preach
er who has preached the gospel for over so
years. l hope that those ministers who condemn
the League will read and learn first what the
Nonpartisan LEAGUE is before they. utter their
condemnation. If they are true to the gospel of
the Christ, if they are true to their convictions.
if they are true to their ordinations they will
no longer condemn the League but will COM
mend.-R. N. McKAIG.
EDITORS NOTE: Doctor r. N. McKaig lives
in Sioux City, Iowa. Doctor McKaig has been
one of Methodism's leading preachers. He
preached in the first Methodist churches in
Minneapolis, Lincoln, Omaha and Sioux City,