The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1922-09-21
LENKE ACCEPTS.
~ IN NOMINATION


deserve more than mere formal
statement from me, such as candi
date, seeking an office, makes. The
situation in our state has gone be-
yond point where the usual plati
tudes and formalities of public life
can 60. Besides, I have not nor am
I now in the accepted sense Of words,
a candidate for office" Enemies of
mine, and yours, say am ambitious
and desire power for mere power S
sake. On this occasion that accusa-
tion falls flat. I have not sought this
office, nor do seek it now.
You have invited me to become
candidate for governor because the
man who is a candidate is neither
Republican nor representative of
your interests, and because, due to
corrupt collusion, now existing be-
tween the reactionary elements of
the two old parties, you are deprived
of the right to register your senti-
ments and desires at the polls.
Campaign Griefs and False Imputa-
VI CAS hltOWh ~
Be Inevitable
Being so asked, I have considered.
Peace, quiet, content, reasonably
good living at my own profession
also invites me. They invite me away
from the scenes of acrimony, Of strife
and from fields where rancor and pas
sion stir up the basest thoughts of
men. Who among you would willingly
undergo the grief and false imputa-
ton that are inevitable in a cam
paign, and after it, for the 'honor"
of being governor and for the stipend
connected with that office? I am
not disillusioned.
have seen how uneasy lies the
head that has the weight of honor
upon it. Only the unknowing or un-
thinking grasp at an office whose
responsibilities and care weigh heav-
lily upon the holder.
There is but one motive that could
prompt me and does prompt me to
consider favorably your invitation.
It is the desire to HELP the farmers
and workers of the state. have in
times past tried to help and with
what success, l shall let others say.
For those efforts have been be-
labored with abuse, calumny and ev-
cry manner of SANDER, until, in the
eyes of those who know no better, /
became a pariah among men. 1t was
a harsh price to pay for trying to
help those who were tied down by
evil laws and were made helpless by
cruel customs.
Such has been the nature and
spread of this detraction that in some
rare instance it had deceived the
very elect" and left few of the
greatest souls among us, warriors for
liberty, tossed by doubt and insure
as to the motive behind my acts. MY
acts they cannot doubt, but made
certain by a deluge of imputation,
they grope to find the sinister motive
that actuates me. They search in vain'
for I have had but one single motive
that of serving them truly and ef-
fectively in the march of industrial
freedom.
The same motive now actuates me
to accept the invitation unanimously
extended by the Republican state
central committee, and I do accept. 1t
is only that, having put my hand to
the plow I cannot turn back. l see
our great state prostrated, as hot
even in the most cruel days OF the
great war, by a public calamity in the
destruction of the value of everything
we produce and threatened by another
almost as great, in the collapse OF oui
business interests. I see another tha'
NAV easily prove more horrible, II
the death of our people from lack OF
fuel this winter. I see the program
Of the farmers built at such cost OF
time and effort made the victim OF
cunning erosion, which if long con
tinued will wipe out and leave III
where we were at the beginning
and what is worse, without hope.
These are things that prompt me
to say eyes" to your invitation.
believe I can help, not through an!
great wisdom Of power of my own
but because I shall have the principles
of progress to guide me and the sup
mort of the vast majority Of the mel
and women of this state to sustain
me. That will give me some soiac'
for the buffetings l must undergo II
leading the way toward economic JUS
tice for all.
If you elect me, l shall enter TN
office without malice or any unchar
itableness toward any person and un
pledged to drive from the borders o
our state any person or faction.
make no apologies for any act o
mine as a state officer or in connec
ton, with the progressive movemen
for T stand today where I have stoo
since 1915, and neither regret no
. have I found occasion to regret tn
stand I have taken in the years sine
then in our little sector of the grea
battle-line of freedom that stretche
over the known world today.
Unfolding time may reveal m
frailties and weaknesses, to whic
humanity is prone, but in this on
thing, I can humbly repeat the word
of liberty's greatest protagonist an
say: II have fought the good fight
- rr~,,4 +lo fos+I - 7 daro not sa