The Washington times., 1922-10-19
TAXCUTT|NG|S
BIC CONCERN IN
THE DAKOTAS
Nonpartisan League Hustling
G. O. p. for First Place
in Two States.
By WILLIAM HARD,
Cosmopolitan News Service Staff
rarraanauAant

l<SdBu uc at lts WOTbt. lOin Ayicb, WIN
manages the Non-P Partisan League in
South Dakota. lives here. I found
Ayres sweeping out the headquarters
Of the league and preparing to write
some editorials for the league news
paper after having made up his bed.
which he keeps in a side room Of the
headquarters. These Non.Partisan
League agitators lose no time be-
tween bed and work.
I asked Ayres what was the worst
he was doing at present and how he
was getting along at electing Alice
Lorraine DAILY to be governor of
South Dakota this fall. In South
Dakota the Non-Partisan League is
worse than in North Dakota, be.
cause In North Dakota the Non
Partisan League has gone and fused
itself into the Republican organiZa.
ton, whereas in South Dakota 1t has
made itself into a totally separate
independent political party and has
thus remained totally uncontami.
mated and unterrified and radically
pure.
While I was talking with Ayres q
banker came in from a nearby little
town. He drove UP in a very large
and beautiful car. His name is
Rempfer. / commend him to fame
or to infamy as the only Non.Parti-
san League banker / ever met. He
and Ayres told me the paramount
Issue In the effort now being made
by the Non-Partisan League in
South Dakota Is to rise from being
the second party in South Dakota to
being the first party in South
Dakota.
This paramount issue is printed
In fact at the head Of Non-Partisan
League party platform in South
Dakota. listened to II and read
IT with deep feeling. The paramount
issue OF this supreme radical or
ganlzation In the turbulent rural
Northwest is as follows:
Sweeping reduction of taxation."
l felt like wiring to Senator Pom
creme In Ohio and saying stop! You
are running on the Nonpartisan
League platform" I welcome the
League u IHt
sional political parties. With the
candidates of the Nonpartisan League
running for office on a promise to
reduce taxes, my friend Mayor
Couzens Of Detroit, remains Just
about the only politician who ever
proceeded into office on a silent
assumption that he would not re-
duce them.
But I would not have It thought
that the Nonpartisan League party
OF South Dakota has abandoned its
radicalism. Not at all. 1t Is in favor
OF lower taxes-tust like any respect
able party; and then II goes on in
favor OF two star propositions in this
falls crop OF initiated laws on the
referendum ballot which will 60 be-
for the South Dakota voters on
election day.
These two star propositions are
for a State-owned bank and for q
State-owned hydro-electric plant on
the Missouri river. These farm
ers out here are overwhelmingly
either Republicans or non-partisan
leaguers and in either case they
seem to have much less fear Of
putting government" into "busi-
ness than Is prevalent in the East.
find that nothing could be
falser than the idea that the Re
publican party in the Northwest Ia
standing like motionless cliff
sive and radical innovations. The
txr ta yIx,
conceding to those waves. In South
Dakota. for instance, a State gov.
ernment, without being captured by
the Non-partisan league. has gone
into the coal mining business and
into the cement manufacturing
business and into the agricultural
loan business.
1t has lent some $40 loot. 900,
believe, to farmers. But II Is run
ming it's coal mines on an open
shop non-union basis. This enraget
the non.partisan league. The non
partisan league wants that mine
unionized. I observe here that the
very same labor organizations and
periodicals which worked Iowa fol
Brookhart and Michigan for Baker
and Wisconsin for LaFollette are
working South Dakota for Mis-,
Daily. They are also working Min
nesota for Shipstead and think they
will elect him against Senator Kel
logg. One Of the most amazingly
active of these agenHes is the
weekly periodical called Labor"
Seventy thousand copies Of g
special issue of "Labor"-from' 'tht
city Of Washington-will be dis
tributed in South Dakota in behalf
| OF Miss DAILY. Three hundred
thousand copies Of another specia
issue Of 1t are being distributed In
Minnesota on behalf Of Shipstead
Labor" is owned by the railroad
trade unions. Every time they dis
tribute a copy OF It they say, "tha,
for Attorney General Daugherty.'
The situation here is really quite
similar to the situation in Minnesota
professional political observers in
habiting newspapers and other points
from which the looking is good are
fairly united In believing that IN
each State the Republican party will
this fall run first and the Demo
cratic party third. Second place is
left in the case OF Minnesota for the
farmer.labor party and In the case
I