The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-01-01
TO BLEED KANSAS
Farmers Union Chief VIII Fight
Nonpartisan League.
Declares TOwnley Only After
Money In New Drive.
THINKS THIS STATE IS RIPE
But ThereTl Be No Easy, Pick
ing, Says McAuliffe.
Townley Determined He'll Stay
and Finish His Work.

Salina, Kan, Jan. If A. C. Town
ley expects to form an organization of
his Nonpartisan league in Kansas he
will meet the stiffest opposition of his
fiye-year career. Townley must meet
the forces of Maurice McAuliffe. head
of the Farmers union in Kansas, who
stand like Leonidas at Thermopylae
defiantly againsttheN onpartisan chief
tain. McAuliffe has branded Townley
as a socialist. dreamer and an expert
mentalist in speeches and in his
Farmers union paper.
McAuliffe when asked why. In his
opinion, Townley had come to Kansas
with his organization. said:
Certainly I'll tell you why Townley
has come to Kansas" McAuliffe ex-
claimed, banging his right fist into his
left palm. 'Townley is here to get
money. He thinks Kansas farmers are
about ripe for picking. It's Townley
that Townley wants to benefit in his
coming to Kansas.
"Townley is forming q so-called po-
litical party founded on the principle
of state socialism. He believes he car
just as he duped the farmers Of the
Dakotas and Minnesota"
McAuliffe was asked if he had in
vestigated to find out the success
Townley's men were having in Saline
county.
o, L
farmers since 1 discovered that Town
ley's men were here. I am not ready
to announce what, course I will take to
combat the Nonpartisan propaganda.
Thinks Kansas Ready.
"Townley has come to Kansas at
time when he believes the farmers will
| be receptive to his arguments. He
knows that wheat is selling at low
price, leaving little to pay for cost of
production. That is why he is here.
He sees chance to saddle a state
socialism on Kansas using the farmers
| of the state as his decoy.
| "Townley's methods are radical.
The methods of the Farmers Union,
an old, established organization with
more than forty thousand members
| in Kansas, is conservative. The Farm
! ers' Union aids the farmer to cope
with unfavorable market conditions by
CO. Operative buying and selling. Non
partisanism means the clearing out
of all industrial elements except agri-
culture, making that industry supreme
| in the state. The Farmers Union rec
| ognizes that the farmer can't exist
| without the manufacturing element OF
the industrial system. The city man
and the farmer must work together.
the union believes, but the farmer
must be protected from the middle
man by cooperative buying and SELL
ing"
| ORGANIZERS AEc DuSys
The Nonpartisan organizers contin-
ued their personal interviews of farm
ers today. Townley himself visited
two or three farmers in the vicinity
of Salina yesterday, returning to the
hotel late last night. Christmas day
the Nonpartisan leader spent in a mo-
tor car driving thr uthe rural sections
calling on members of the league and
interviewing prospective members.
The "chief," as Townley is called by
his men, laughed heartily when i : was
told what McAuliffe had said about
the Nonpartisan League. He was pro
voked to further laughter when he
was told that McAuliffe branded hin
a Socialist and asserted ''Townley was
after money
"Well, it's too bad the old man look.
at the league that way" Townley said
'If it is true I am here for money
then I am doing what whole lot o.
other persons have done before IL
, Kansas. McAuliffe must realize tina
the league has ten thousand member
. in Kansas and we are going to ge
more. We have no particular quarre
with the Farmers Union, but we ar
. here to stay and it were best that Nc
, Au1iffe realized that