The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1922-06-01
TELLING THE O R

May 18th in Faribault, Mimi, by our
governor, r. A. Nestos, contains two
jewel-like paragraphs that must not
be hidden. ,
Those paragraphs are: y..
The League was organized for the
sole purpose Of converting North Da-
kota to radical Socialism, he said, and
was repudiated BY the people of the
commonwealth after they found they
had been imposed upon.
The whole history of the Nonparti-
san regime was a record of misgov-
eminent, selfishness and greed, Gov
ernor Nestos said. His address was
received with great enthusiasm and
he was cheered by the audience when
he finished.
We trust that every farmer and
particularly every Nonpartisan Lea
que farmer and without fail every
farmer who has been dispossessed of
his land through mortgage foreclosure
in the past six months, will read and
understand what the governor is tell
ing the neighbors about the farmers
organization.
The League, says he, was organized
with the sole purpose of converting
North Dakota to radical Socialism.
What did you farmers join the Or
ganization for and vote for the candi-
dates you Endorsed? Gov. Nestos says
your only purpose was to turn the
state over to radical Socialism. How
about it? Do you plead guilty?
But, if you had no such purpose
would it make any difference with
you? Suppose all you wanted was a
fair shake on the price of your grain
and a chance to get a loan on your
farm OF your grain at a reasonable
rate of interest? Suppose you had no
more use for Socialism or radical So
cialism than you have for the crooked
grating, thieving, high-binders in the
grain business and in other business
who have ridden your necks and
off your labor the last fifty
T.
Well-what else would you expect
Nestos to say? He had to tell the
or SANDER you. He did not dare
tell the truth of you or your organ
i~zation, SO he said you planned. to put
radical Socialism on the state
on yourselves-on your homes and on
your children. He was hopeless He
was assistant states attorney of Ward
at the time and you were too
many for him. But he got to be gov
ernor and grew big enough to go
and tell the world what a bunch
of scalawags the farmers of his home
are.
An when the farmers got into pow
they any better? Listen 'tis
the voice Of Ragnvold A. Nestos Tilt
ing through the breezes at Faribault,
Mimi: "The whole history of the Nom
partisan regime was a record of mis-
government, se%lfishness and greed"
That is, the sentence that Gov. Mes
tos passes upon the effort of the
farmer to help himself and his class
out Of the misery into which he had
fallen. disagreement, selfishness
and greed! When he tried to help him
self, through his government, a thous-
and hands reached out to pull him
down, a thousand tricks and traps
were laid to throw him, and the Pa
t%rioteers joined in a holy Crusade of
law suits to hinder and prevent him
from doing what he hoped and tried
to do. That was his misgovernment.
The things that caused the farmers
to organize Were-misgovernment,
greed and selfishness. The record of
history is too plain on that to be con-
troverted successfully. Had there
been less greed in stealing the farm
ers' grain, through depressed prices,
through s%candalous dockage and grad
ing law, through unjust taxation,
through livestock exchanges that stole
the cattle he worked to raise; thru
Ubiquitous insurance gratis; thru un-
bearable interest rates; thru all the
long toll of open and underhanded
theft of the products Of his toil-there
never would have been the need for a
farmers organization nor would there
ever have risen in North Dakotaa that
protest AGAINST misgovernment,
selfishness and greed that arose and
that men know as the Nonpartisan
League.
Men who know the history of the
state and of the times previous to the
rising of the farmers, know that tnis
is true and acknowledge it privately.
They mourn that concessions were not
made the farmers, that a spirit of
compromise did not exist and that lack
OF consideration marked the treatment
OF the farmer, until he rose in anger
and o those who should have been
his servants and who would have been
his masters out of power and took the
reins himself.
Governor Nestos must have known
this. But he did not choose to tell it
to our neighbors. Instead he chose to
heap shame upon his state and it's
people, even if he had to depart from
the truth to do so.
There a be but one answer and
what ne said in Fairibault, Mimi, on
May 10, must be answered by North
Dakota farmers June 18th.
What will that answer b e?-Cour-
Ter News. ~
Testing the Hairdressef'ss Touch.
In Berlin there is q school" where
It Is the aim NOT merely to teach the