The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1920-10-22

1 officer, we could never have figured
out just waht particular part of mis-
life was spent tilling the soil. OF
course it is barely possible that this
fellow is two or three hundred years
old, and in that case mis- story
could be easily analiZed. But Tom
SAID so and that should settle the
matter, for at the start we were told,
among other doubtful things, that
he was going to tell the truth. So
what is a fellow going to do in a
case like that? 1t was political
speech, you know, and naturally he
was compelled to tell the truth or
no one would have believed him.
You are no doubt aware of the fact
| that North Dakota ranks twice as
high in education as South Dakota,
yet Tom had the nerve to tell us
that those poor devils up there had
| been treated somethin' scandalous,
and stood hypnotized with their
| tongues hanging out and allowed
themselves to be separated from all
their hard earned cash by this awful
man Townley and his roughneck
gang. He picturd in detail just how
these poor. ignorant people had been
robbed, how they had been prom
ised things in the way of bettered
conditions, fair and just economic
system, ETC., and how they had been
deceived and given nothing. Strange
/ what a fool man can make of him
self sometimes trying to deliver n
political speech. But he gave him
self plenty of time to complete the
FOOLS job, for a great many left be-
fore he found place to stop think
ing. perhaps, the second of Novem-
ber had arrived and did not want
| to miss their chance at the polls.
He told us about the destructive
ness of Townley. Lemke. Cathro. Wat
ers, Brinton and all others of the
'wrecking crew.. but had very lit
| tile in this connection to say about
himself. He simply took the posi-
tion of an abused child. Very pa
thetic indeed, and when he sketch
ed the villanous picture of his perse-
cutions and close calls at the hands
of the farmers and others up there,
simply because he wanted to be diff
ferent, it was hard, tell you, very
hard indeed for us to stay the pa
thetic tear But we did. We heard
there were others. however, who
did not have such perfect control.
Truly, though, it was pathetic. The
little story about himself could very
appropriately be called story with
tear.
But Tom made a horrible mis-
take. In fact he's mistake. But
we'll not say anything about that.
But he did make bad mistake. He
confined himself so completely thru
out to personalities that real issues
were entirely lost sight of-by Tom.
He, like all others of his ilk, in or
der to formulate what they choose
to call an argument. was compelled
to speak wholly of individuals. Did
you ever stop long enough to allow
this little fact to penetrate your
think tank? If you do you will see
that these chaps only talk about GER
tain men. but steer clear of princi-
pie and fundamental issues. They
dare not speak of the things they
should. They can't
Can anyone (excepting few
! members of the republican party)
imagine the people of great com
! monwealth like North Dakota sub
mitting to such gross insults and i'm
possible conditions as those pictur-
ed by Tom Hall here last Saturday
night? Such childish nonsense may
be all right to feed an incredible
republican, but is nothing short of
insult to a thinking and reading
public, and if this old gadget thinks
anyone who knows enough to come
in out of hard rain is going to fall
fOy IL; Ind <~c L., :z.1.A
as we'll draw in his horns and take
sneak. The people of North Da-
kota have voted for this program
four different times and they are go
ing to put it across again the second
of November, Notwithstanding the
lavish expenditure of millions of dol
lars by the reactionary gang in that
state in an effort to defeat it, and
who have played him for the fool to
the extent that he has taken up their
side of the fight against the people,
and he at the same time protesting
to be Nonpartisan and a believer
in the reforms for which the farm
ers' movement stands.
He said the people up there voted
for the Nonpartisan League pro-
gram but did not get what they vot-
ed for. But he failed to tell why
they had not got all they voted for.
He made no reference to what ex-
tent the program had been put
through and he very carefully avoid
ed any explanation OF the many in
functions brought against the farm
ers program in North Dakota by the
gang of republican anarchists up
there, and how practically the en-
tire movement was held up in the