Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-05-10
THE NONPARTISAN
LEAGUE

THE Nonpartisan league IL dead
It has been dead a long time,
Only the name and memory sur.
wives. "A convention or conference
or organization meeting p%urportine
to be the old Nonpartisan league
organization has been meeting in
Great Falls recently, passing reso-
lutions, deciding on principles, TEN.
porary and permanent, and other
wise going through with motions
that predicate life. But n has
only to read the names Of those par.
ticipating and assigned to various
committees to know that this is not
the Nonpartisan league. The names
of the farmers and others who fol-
lowed Mr.. Townley into that or.
~ganization are conspicuous by their
absence. The men who were con-
spicuous by their presence at the
latest Great Falls convention are
not Nonpartisan league men. They
may have acted with that party and
voted with it when it was in the
flush of health, but they were so.
cialists, communists, anarchists. or
advocating some other radical cult:
before they joined the Nonpartisan
league movement. That movement
is dead. It died when 1t succeeded
in realizing its program in North
Dakota. There is one maxim
quoted in the Bible that the farmer
thoroughly believes in. 1t is by
their fruits shall ye know them"
The fruit of the Nonpartisan league
in North Dakota is bitter in the
mouth of the farmers of that state.
They gave that organization full
control of the state. They put on
the statute book every alleged EN-.
edy for social wrongs that the So
cialist leaders suggested. They eat
the fruit grown by these measures
and their verdict is "Never again."
They did not realize their pro-
gram in Montana, but the Montana
farmers read the newspapers. They
know what happened in North Da-
kota. They quit the league IN this
state. The members of the league
have Withdrawn. They have re-
fused to pay their dues. The Non
partisan league in Montana is
busted. That explains the absence
of the old-time leaders OF the
league In this state at the Great
Falls convention. Their place was
largely taken by socialist lecturers
walking delegates, paid organizers
of sorne radical association and men
who have a financial interest in So
cial discomfort. That we have al
ways with US in every class OF So
ciety. 1t can always get an audi
ence and find a speaker.
Added to this element conspicu-
Gus in the new organization OF the
defunct Nonpartisan league is the
INSCRIPTIONS politician who hopes
that he can get enough votes out OF
the social discomfort that is always
present to elect him to office so
that he can get his hands in the tax
PAYERS money, or serve his politi-
cal ambitions, or revenge his polit-
ical sights, or serve some selfish
of his own. There was
plenty of evidence that such politi-
cal interests were fully represented
at the Nonpartisan league. Mostly
they were so disappointed in the
character of the meeting that they
remained under
The meeting decided to organize
by counties or geographical divi-
sions or by numbers. The farmers
are to have so many votes. The
housewives are to have SO many
the workers in factories so many.
and so on. That is the soviet idea
copied from the Russian revolution
lists. 1t is not a matter of any great
importance anyway how this rad
ical movement is organized. The
heads of divisions do no. speak for
any of the classes. Mrs. w. il
Hannah, wife of the ex-clergyman
who was accused of bribe-taking in
the legislature, does not speak with
authority for the housewives of
Montana or any. considerable frac-
ton of them. Neither do the either
heads of vocational divisions in any
way represent those classes ir. the
state.
The meeting of the old Nonpar-
tisan league in Great Falls has
served one purpose. 1t has demon
strated clearly that the league is
I