Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1921-05-16

u n enn1Iy tOWArd him OF the Grain gam lePS
against whom he was tryins to protect the farmers He
told of the many speeches which he had made in differ
snt places during the war and said that both the federal
government ana tbs state Of Minnesota had had operatives
watching him and listening to everything that he said,
and taking stenographic notes of his speeches. Finally,
he said that the grain gamblers found a two by four at
torney in jackson County, Minnesota. who would work
for them, and that this attorney brought suit against him.
Continuing. he said:
$50 the grain gamblers put me to the trial.
My side OF the story was never told the jury be-
cause I was not permitted to put my witnesses on
the stand, although J. had two hundred of them,
L.. each armed with stcnosraphic notes. l did, nor
take the stand in my own defense. 1 would have
been q fool to face a frame up. such as was set Tor
me. So l am convicted and sentenced to three
months in Jail. And think Of all the trouble I Y
caused the trusts and grain robbers while they
were framing"
Townley was tried in accordance with the forms of
law. He had all the opportunity that any other man ever
has to present his side Of the case. He participated in the
selection OF a jury. He had the right, and exercised 1t. to
examine jurors as to their fitness for service. He Was
entitled to the usual number of peremptory challenges
and used them as far as he desired: and neither he nor
anyone aAociated with him suggested during the trial of
the case that the jury had not been properly drawn or
that any of its members were prejudiced against him. He
lies point blank when he says that his side of the story
was not told because he was not permitted to put his two
hundred witnesses on the stand. The witnesses whom he
attempted to put on the stand were not prepared to testify
Is to anything that he had said or done in connection with
the case at issue. He desired to have these persons test
~ that they had heard hin. speak at other places ana
under other circumstances and that they had not heard
him preach sedition. 1t would have been as rcasonabl bic
for . man charged with murder and who is confronted
by the testimony of eye witnesses to his act to attempt
to bring into court, dozens or hundreds Of persons who
would swear that they had seen him at different times
and places and had never seen him murder anyone. The
cases would he exactly parallel. Very naturally. and as
everyone knows quite in accordance with every legal rui-
Ing on such eases, testimony of this sort was excluded.
The question was not what Townley had not said az some
other place. but what he had said and done in jackson
County, Minnesota, at certain specified times. Affirm
|ative testimony on this point was abundant, and TovHley
|pever offered one witness to controvert it. He had the
right to take the stand in his own defense. He refused to
avail himself Of that right because he feared cross ques-
uoning. He attempted to inject into the case the testi-
mony which he wished to give in the form of a speech to
the jury, il. which he would not have been under oath,
would have been at liberty to make any statements which
he wished to make, and could not have been subjected to
cross examination. In this again he was thwarted. He
maintained that the rulings against him We're illegal
and that his trial had been unfair. He appealed to the
supreme court OF the state on this ground. The state took
his case under adrisement and presumably gave it the
same attention that it gives to every case, and the ruling
against him was unanimous. 1t was held that there had
been no error in the procedure such as deprived him OF
any Of his legal rights. He was tried. convicted, and con-
denaned regularly and lawfully. He stands as a convicted
J seditionist, and all the attempts that he can make to gloss
over that fact will fail.
What ToHnley did in Jackson is in keeping With what
he did everywhere else. He did not in call cases utter
statements which could successfully have been made the
ground for legal action against him. Usually he was too
cautious for that but he did preach. sedition wherever
he went. Generally, his seditious thought was expressed
not in direct words. but indirectly: but quite plainly never
the less. His utterances were a continual TRADE against
the American government. He made accusation after
that this war was a rich mans war and sought to create
the impression that American participation in the war
was due to the deliberate purpose of rich men to make
themselves richer at the expense of poor men. who, with
their sons must either fight on the battle field or con
tribute funds to maintain soldiers in the field. This sort
Of thing he continued practically during the entire war,
and no man ever went away from a Townley meeting
inspired to a higher degree of loyalty by anything that had
fallen from the lips of Townley.
known. Townley may convince many people Of the cor
rectness of his statement and cause them to believe in
the recdtude of his actions: but where he is known this
would be impossible except among those whose minds are
already made up concerning him. and who have come
under his seemingly hypnotic influence. He has worn
himself out in North Dakota and he cannot last long in
Kansas. If he is successful in deceiving the people of
that state for . time, so much the worse for Kansas.
sOCHAIIs1f VERSUS
During tho STATE campaign in Minnesota last tall at.
tenion was directed very effectively to the fact that the
Socialist program which Townley and his aides we're at
tempting to impose ON that STATE would operate directly
to the disadvantage of the farmers by taking the direction
of some Of their most important aetivitie out Of their own
hands and vestinE 1t IN politicians who would be chosen
by an electorate Of which the farmers constitute oniy =
minority. A large majority Of the Inhabitants Of Mime
sota live III cities The people Of the cities are consumers
- AA.~ ~~~Au~<s- n n%hnv xh}n1v h>i.~ en,,al ths IN.