The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1923-04-27
ADVISED SALE
OF ORGAN,
T0WNLEY SAYS
Tells People Here That League
Itself Is TO Blame for
COurier-News Going
EXPLAINS NEW PLAN
Holds Cooperative Stores,
State Ownership Will Not
Save the Farmer

I A. c. Townley, speaking here last
| night, told an audience that he had
News, league organ.
IL did not sell the COurier-N News,
hut | did advise the sale" Mr.. Town
! ley said. IL was not a member of
the national executive committee of
, the Nonpartisan league nor direc-
| tor of the publishing company, but
when they wanted money they came
/ to me to get it, and | didn't know
where was going to get any more. -
Responsibility for the Courier
News Slipping from league hands
was placed upon the league itself
| by Towniey. He said the Courier
! News had been before three conven-
tions of the Nonpartisan league, it's
financial straits had been placed be-
fore the delegates and the delegates
had evolved no plan for keeping it.
The delegates, he said, turned the
paper back to the control of the ma
tonal organization after the state
organization was unable to keep it
going, with full knowledge that it
probably would have to be sold.
''lf some of those who now are
crying out so hard against the sale
had done a little more to get sub
scriptiOns and to help out the paper
it would still be in league hands"
he said
Purchase Price Told
Townlcy read the financial state
ment Of H. r. Wood and w. G. john
son stating the Courier-N News was in
debt $55,324 when it was sold, and
had an unpaid payroll and other
bills. He said the purchasers as
sumed the obligations and paid
$1,000 in addition in notes due in
one, two and three years, the notes
to remain in the Courier-News trea-
sury to liquidate Indebtedness to the
publishing company. He declared
the paper was sold to prevent it 60
ing into bankruptcy, as three credi-
tors were suing the paper, and to
make possible men who had signed
notes to advance money, getting it
back.
Townley came here from Steele to
explain the National Producers AL
lance plan he is advocating. There
were about rs people at his meeting.
He remarked it was poorly adver-
tised, so that very few of the town
people knew about it, and added he
didn't expect the farmers to get in
while they were seeding. Hand
bills announcing the meeting had
been distributed late yesterday.
Speaking as he did before some
Nonpartisans who had been active
leaders in the organization, Townley
looked into some hostile faces. His
remarks concerning the Nonpartisan
League efforts, made elsewhere in
the state, had not set we'll.
Turns on Followers
Townley turned upon many of his
former followers who have called
him traitor.
my trouble in this movement
doesn't come from the /. V. A. poll
ticians or the /. v. A." he declared. :
"My biggest trouble is with the !
league politicians. And
politicians are pretty much the same
whether they're I. v. AS or Nonpar-
He told those present he had been !:
assailed all over the state as a !
traitor. |
Il didn't build the Nonpartisan !
league to get Office for somebody in
the past or in the future" he assert :
ed, looking into the faces of some ;
who had held office. 8
He said that he had firmly believ.
ed in the Nonpartisan league but he
didn't accomplish through govern
ment ownership what he expected.
"lve been accused of cooling off !
q lot in the last year and half" he
said, "and have cooled, off a lot"
Townley declared that farmers
were being enrolled in the Produc-
ers National Alliance faster than
hey ever were in the Nonpartisan
league.
The plan of Townley is simple.
He proposes to band farmers in one
big organization, with national, state
md township units. He proposes
hat at regular intervals the farmers
shall get together, figure out the
cost of production and add fair
profit. He then proposes farmers
shall sell at the fixed price.
Farmer Must Fix Price
He argues that the farmer is the
'nly person who can fix the right
,rice on his own products-the fed
.ral government as now constituted
'an't do it, he said. He argues the
.armer is the only producer who
loes not fix the price on what he
sells. He would place the farmer on
he same business basis with the
and the retailer.
"The business man in town here
CONTINUED on page three.)