Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-10-05
RAD|CAL|SM| ISSUE
D|MS THE NATIONAL
CAMPAIGN IN WEST
Non-Partisan League Seeks
to Win Farmers From
Old Parties.
ar DAVID LAWRENCE.

(This is the second Of a series Of three ar
ticles analyxing political and economic con-
ditions west Of the Mississippi river based
upon personal investigation in fourteen
states, including twenty-five of the most i'm
portant cities, during the last thirty days)
Radicalism. which the average east
erner may have thought was on the
wane, has penetrated the politics Of
the west to such an extent that It Is
hardly an exaggeratisn to say. most
folks in the majority Of the western
states hardly realize there is presf-
Dental election this year. Far more
Important to the people of Montana,
Colorado, Idaho, North Dakota and
Washington are the local issues in
troduced by the Non-Partisan League
or a coalition of the farmer and labor
ing elements. Party lines have been
broken.
Seek to Beat Proletariat.
The business men of community,
the bankers. the merchants, the pro-
Iessional classes generally, are for
democrats and republicans and unit
ing to beat the effort of the agricu1-
tural proletariat to gain control of
the reins OF state governments.
Similarly the farmers and the
laboring classes have forgotten their
own party ofhiations, and wherever
the Non-Partisan League candidates
are listed as democrats. the farmer
and labor strength is mustered for
the democratic state ticket, as in
Montana and Colorado, whereas in
North Dakota, where the machinery
Of the republican state organization
is in the hands of the Non-Partisan
League, the vote of the farmers is
for the regular republican state
ticket, all of whose candidates as a
rule have succeeded in getting their
names on the ballot as the regular
nominees in the primaries.
Non-Partisan Move.
Heretofore whenever reforms have
been desired people who thought in
political terms imagined that the
third party idea was the best means
to their end. It went to the other
kind Of an end: The third party
gone by the boards. Three-cornered
fights even in the states have proved
futile.
The advertising given the old party
labels. democratic and republican, has
made them precious. The Non-Parti-
san League hasn't tried third party
tickets. 1t has gone into the primaries
or republican organization.
That's why there's so much agita-
tion in the west to abolish the pri-
mary system and go back to conven-
tions. where the choice Of candidates
can be more easily controlled and
party machinery preserved. But the
Non-Partisan League has enough
strength. for the present at least, to
keep the primary system-its most
valuable asset. It can easily be seen.
however, what the effect on a presi-
Dental contest can be when the abb
sorbing interest in 80 many states is
whether the Non-Partisan League
ton of another non-partisan char
acter between conservative democrats
and republicans.
~Red" Epithet Reserved.
OF course one hears the Non-Parti-
san League leaders called reds and
"bolshevists" and radicals" In the
different from what has been the
usual course of political affairs in the
past, the whole thing may be called
radicalism, but even the most ardent
foes of the Non-Partisan League no
longer call the average farmer or
Iaborer who votes for the Non-Parti-
san League ticket 'bolshevist" or
red The epithets are reserved
for the organizers and leaders.
It is amusing in some states to see
how the Non-Partisan League, which
denounces the 'kept press and the
"plutocratic interests for controlling
the newspapers. turns around and
establishes newspapers of its own
and colors the news along lines ia
yorable to the Non-Partisan League.
C.. A. Townley. head Of the Nom
Partisan League, is as dominant
hrure in the movement as Penrose is
in the republican party. Opinions
may vary as to the types of men or
their benefit to the community, but
fundamentally each has his lieuten-
ants and gives orders and controls his
organization just as efficiently as the
other.
Cox Encounters League.
Gov. Cox. the democratic presiden-
tial nominee, has encountered the
Non-Partisan League movement on
his travels and has sought to capture
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