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 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 
 HD1485.N4 G25 
 
 Nonpartisan league by Herbert E. Gaston 
 
 3 1924 032 398 046 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924032398046 
 
THE 
 
 NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 BY 
 
 HERBERT E. GASTON 
 
 M 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE 
 
 1920 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY 
 HAKCOUKT, BKACK AND HOWE, INC. 
 
 X 
 
 THE QUiNN a BODEN COMPANY 
 RAHWAY N J 
 
 U 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The Xational Xonpartisan League, the organiza- 
 tion of western farmers of wMch A. C. Townley 
 is the founder, has Kved long enongh and has 
 accomplished enongh so that its career will form 
 a genuine historic episode, the record of which, no 
 matter what may he its future, wiU. find a place 
 in the permanent records of the nation. The 
 League and its leader have attained some promi- 
 nence throughout the nation and a respectable 
 quantity of pnhlicitv. Some of this has been 
 propaganda, with a tendency to be eulogistic, but 
 far more has been written from a standpoint of 
 sneering cynicism or sharp hostility. Most of the 
 material so published has been hastily prepared 
 and vague, particularly from the historical point 
 of view. There have been a number of "books" 
 on the Xonpartisan League, all of which, so far 
 as they have come to the present writer's atten- 
 tion, have been works of mere counter-propa- 
 ganda, circulated at the expense of political or 
 other organizations opposing the League. 
 
 It is the intention of this volume in the main 
 merely to tell the story of the foundation and 
 growth of this extraordinary political organiza- 
 tion, and in so doing to give the reader a basis 
 upon which he may construct his own estimate of 
 
iv PREFACE 
 
 the importance of the organization as a political 
 and social movement ; may form his own judgment 
 as to whether it is a ** menace" or a "hope," and 
 may make his own predictions as to its future. 
 
 Three years' employment on the publications 
 controlled by the League have kept the writer in 
 close touch with the main events of the organiza- 
 tion's life, and enable him to write from a sym- 
 pathetic standpoint. The organization — any 
 organization or institution, in fact — to be under- 
 stood must be seen, to a certain extent from the 
 inside ; and it is useless and foolish to form judg- 
 ments without understanding. With this warning 
 the reader may be on his guard, if he wishes, and 
 detach himself from the author's viewpoint from 
 the start, but he may be assured of a conscien- 
 tious effort to make a faithful report of facts of 
 essential interest. 
 
 H.E.G. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGB 
 
 L — The NosPABTisAif League — What It Is . . 1 
 
 Where and how it came into being: its present ex- 
 tent and "program." 
 
 n. — ^NoBTH Dakota .... .... 8 
 
 The soil in vhich the movement grew; its back- 
 ground and political antecedents. 
 
 m. — Seeds of Sebellion 15 
 
 The farmers' grievances; obstacles to co-operation; 
 the remedy proposed. 
 
 IV. — ^Bbeaetkg GEOtntJB . . .... 24 
 
 "Agitators" at work; "better farming" and the 
 fifty-five millions; the Equity and Loftus; farmers 
 on the warpath. 
 
 V. — ^TERMESAI. EtEVATOES .... . . 36 
 
 Miracles in grain mixing; a socialistic bankers' asso- 
 ciation; the legislature disobeys. 
 
 VI. ^THE l£ADEB FOE THE OCCASIOIT 45 
 
 Introducing A. C. Townley, farm boy and dreamer; 
 flax adventures; bankruptcy and a mission. 
 
 Vll. — Applied Pstchologt 55 
 
 The great idea and how it was put to work; a 
 program, a committee and a financial plan; psy- 
 chology in action. 
 
 Vni. — ^"Six-DoLLAB Suckers" . . ... 65 
 
 Setting the "prairie fire"; the press discerns a 
 menace; postdated checks. 
 
 IX. — Publicity ... 73 
 
 Early days of the Nonpartisan Leader and its part 
 in the scheme of action. 
 
 X. — TwR Enemy Opeus Fire .... 81 
 
 The daily press and the League; how the critics 
 were answered; poUtieal revivals. 
 
 T 
 
vi CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER rAQB 
 
 XI. — Choosing the Candidates 93 
 
 Farmers try a new game; county and state con- 
 ventions and "a real farmer for governor." 
 
 XII. — The Fibst Campaign 110 
 
 Oil poured on the fire; picnics and politics; the 
 country comes through; the court makes an issue; 
 the first great victory. 
 
 XIII. — Leaquebs in Poweb 129 
 
 Hayseeds at the capital ; the caucus, House Bill 44 
 and the obstructive "Old Gang"; some farmers' 
 legislation. 
 
 XIV. — The League Becomes " National " . . 156 
 
 Programs and propaganda in a dozen states; a 
 national headquarters and a huge job ahead. 
 
 XV.— Wab Issues 173 
 
 The farmer and war's burdens; Townley on 
 " Conscription of Wealth " ; new arguments for 
 the opposition; the League's stand on the secret 
 treaties. 
 
 XVI. — ^Producers and Consumebs 197 
 
 A memorable conference and what came of it; 
 "Why not fix some other prices?"; the perils of 
 protest in wartime. 
 
 XVII.— " Patbioteerinq " 217 
 
 The League's enemies rally behind the flag; pub- 
 licity gives way to violence; some specific in- 
 stances. 
 
 XVIII. — Growth and Power 237 
 
 Kapid increase in numbers; some League enter- 
 prises; Townley and his big job; diplomatic rela- 
 tions. 
 
 XIX. — ^The Second Big Battle 252 
 
 Preparations for the campaign of 1918; the "loy- 
 alty " issue ; campaign experiences and election 
 results. 
 
 XX. — League Democracy at Work 269 
 
 North Dakota's farmer administration and its war 
 record ; going ahead with the " program " ; victory 
 again. 
 
CONTENTS vii 
 
 CHAPTBK PAGE 
 
 XXI.—" The New Dat in North Dakota '' . . . 284 
 Legislation enacted at the 1919 North Dakota ses- 
 sion; a plan for making a legislature operate; the 
 farmers' own laws in effect; state mills and ele- 
 vators, a state bank, homes for workers. 
 
 XXII. — AiroTHEB Cbisis Passed 303 
 
 Deserters make trouble; a "League bank" is 
 closed and re-opens — Governor Frazier keeps the 
 coal mines open. 
 
 XXIII. — Oegaotzation Changes 313 
 
 The League acquires wider notice; greater re- 
 sponsibility is transferred to membership. 
 
 XXIV. — StlBVEY AHD FOBECAST 319 
 
THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 CHAPTEE I 
 
 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE— WHAT IT IS 
 
 The National Nonpartisan League is an organiza-< 
 tion claiming a membersliip of approximately 
 200,000 persons in thirteen western states. With 
 the exception of "Wisconsin all of these states 
 lie -west of the Mississippi river. They are: 
 North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Mon- 
 tana, Idaho, Washington, Colorado, Nebraska, 
 Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and Wisconsin. 
 It is entirely and exclusively a farmers' organi- 
 zation. It is, moreover, an organization of work- 
 ing farmers. Its entire membership, with very 
 few exceptions, consists of men who are them- 
 selves living on and operating their own or rented 
 farms. It is not a landlords' organization, but an 
 organization of men working their living out of 
 the soil, usually by the labor of their own hands. 
 In its membership are a few owners of fairly ex- 
 tensive acreage, but these are the exception. 
 Mostly it consists of the average working farmer 
 on land on which he and his family do the bulk 
 of the work. In the small grain growing states in 
 
 1 
 
2 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 which the League is most active, this generally 
 means a farm from a quarter section of 160 acres 
 to a full section. 
 
 The order in which the states making up the 
 League membership are given above pictures ap- 
 proximately its progress. But in the considera- 
 tion of the League as a political phenomenon 
 North Dakota is more important than all of the 
 others together. 
 
 It was in North Dakota that the League was 
 conceived and brought to life. It is in North Da- 
 kota that the League's political "program" is 
 being enacted into law. North Dakota conditions 
 and North Dakota psychology are in large part 
 responsible for the League's existence. It was 
 in North Dakota that Arthur C. Townley, 
 founder, builder and directing genius, had the ex- 
 periences and matured the philosophy that started 
 him on this adventure. 
 
 Townley himself is a driving force — a motive 
 power. One cannot speak of him accurately as 
 merely a "pilot" or a "guide"; nor can one un- 
 derstand the League and its growth merely by 
 an investigation of the conditions under which it 
 was bom and grew, without taking the person- 
 ality of Townley fully into account. The League's 
 philosophy is in the main his philosophy; the 
 League's "program" is in the main his program. 
 Yet both philosophy and concrete political pro- 
 gram none the less faithfully represent the atti- 
 tude of mind and reflect the aims and the hopes 
 
THE LEAGUE— WHAT IT IS 3 
 
 of the great body of farmers making up the 
 League. 
 
 This is because Townley himself is the product 
 of the conditions and the atmosphere in which the 
 body of the membership dwell. K he has had a 
 large part in directing the current of their po- 
 litical thinking it is due mainly to his more in- 
 tense meditation on the same pictures of Hfe and 
 the same conceptions. And with him action to give 
 expression and momentum to his opinions was 
 more urgent. 
 
 Thus it happens that the story of the League 
 must be in part a picture of political and social 
 conditions in North Dakota — as typical, probably, 
 of the conditions in rural sections of many west- 
 ern states, and in part also a biography of the 
 man who is the unquestioned leader of the move- 
 ment. 
 
 In its early days in North Dakota the League 
 was known as "TEe Farmers' Nonpartisan Po- 
 litical League." Later the words "Farmers" 
 and "Political" were dropped from the title and 
 it became simply "The Nonpartisan League," 
 which expanded into "National Nonpartisan 
 League" early in 1917, when the organization be- 
 came openly active in states outside North 
 Dakota. 
 
 In spite of the modifications of its name, how- 
 ever, the League has remained purely a political 
 organization and purely an organization of 
 farmers. Its expressed objects are to make gov- 
 
4 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 ernment actually and fully responsive to the 
 wishes of the "common people" and to secure 
 economic relief for exploited and oppressed 
 classes — primarily the farmers — through political 
 action. 
 
 It has been freely and frequently charged that 
 the League is "Socialistic," that it is an orgamza- 
 tion manned and led by Socialists, that Townley 
 himself is a socialist, and that the whole move- 
 ment is a plan to foist disguised Socialism onto 
 the states and the nation. The League has never 
 concerned itself to any extent with combatting 
 these charges, nor has it sought to deny that 
 among its organizers and speakers there have 
 been at various times men who at one time or an- 
 other had enrolled themselves in the Socialist 
 movement. It has had also in responsible posi- 
 tions men who have never subscribed to the So- 
 cialist theories. Obviously, the League leaders' 
 reason for ignoring the charge of Socialism lies 
 in the fact that there have been no hidden mys- 
 teries in the League's program of action, and it 
 has been their boast that the western American 
 farmer is a hard-headed individual, confident of 
 his own ability to value the particular thing that 
 is presented to him and not likely to be frightened 
 by names. 
 
 Actually, of course, it is apparent that there is 
 a gulf wide and deep between Socialism as it mani- 
 fests itself in America and the Nonpartisan 
 League. Socialism is a propagandum of protest 
 
THE LEAGUE— WHAT IT IS 5 
 
 and a theory of a future state. Admitting the 
 truth of a considerable part of the Socialists' in- 
 dictment of our industrial system, the League has 
 proposed orderly, progressive steps to remove the 
 grounds of protest. It presents no wide and all- 
 embracing scheme of philosophy with which to 
 divide even advanced theorists. It merely sug- 
 gests that a few simple things be done now. The 
 "program" of the League takes it out of the 
 arena of theory into the fields of fact and action. 
 
 Like many other people, but to a greater degree 
 than most, the farmer is little interested in ab- 
 stract theory and in general campaigns of pro- 
 test. He is intensely interested in action. He is 
 willing to spend money and to exert himself to 
 improve his lot, and he is capable of not a little 
 expenditure of wealth and ejffort to improve the 
 lot of others. 
 
 The League has presented from the start a 
 program of action. It has held always before its 
 members and those whom it has solicited for 
 membership the prospect of definite, practicable 
 accomplishment. It has asked men to get together 
 and to contribute for a particular purpose. If 
 it stirred protest against existing conditions, it 
 was always with the prospect held out and the 
 road shown — as the League promoters viewed it — 
 of how conditions could be improved and evils 
 banished. 
 
 The " program" of the League in North Dakota 
 dealt in the main with proposals for state owner- 
 
6 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 ship of industrial enterprises. These included 
 state-owned "terminal" grain elevators, flour 
 mills, packing houses and cold storage plants. 
 There was a proposal for a new system of grain 
 grading to be controlled by the state, a proposal 
 for state hail insurance on an^ acreage tax basis, a 
 proposal to exempt farm improvements from tax- 
 ation — an approach to the single tax theory — and 
 a proposal for "rural credit banks" operated at 
 cost. 
 
 It will be difficult to discern in these simple and 
 not entirely novel proposals an explanation of the 
 sudden rise and rapid sweep into a power of a 
 great new popular movement. The proposals 
 themselves do not, in fact, explain the movement. 
 
 These are but necessary items in a program of 
 proposed accomplishment by a newly built or- 
 ganization. The vital thing was the creation and 
 the existence of the organization itself. That was, 
 in fact, something new, and built upon new lines. 
 
 Regarded as a political party, the League is one 
 in which every member is a contributor and to 
 which all contribute equally. It is a party which, 
 foregoing the conventional methods of levying 
 large contributions on those wealthy individuals 
 and corporations wishing to court the favor of the 
 party and the officials whom it may select, and of 
 making candidates pay for the offices to which 
 they may be elected, goes directly to its ordinary 
 membership for all its budget of expenses. 
 
 It is the only strictly political organization ever 
 
THE LEAGUE— WHAT IT IS 7 
 
 formed in the United States, it would appear, 
 which has adopted the principle of uniform dues 
 and paid memberships as a means of financing 
 political activity. It is probably the only political 
 organization which ever adopted commercial 
 methods of salesmanship by solicitors working on 
 salary and commissions, for enrolling its mem- 
 bership. 
 
 The League idea has not been merely "taken 
 up" by the northwestern farmers. It has been 
 "sold" to them. Practical salesmanship, a pro- 
 gram of immediate and forceful action and the 
 use of the Ford automobile are the factors prin- 
 cipally explaining the rise of the Nonpartisan 
 League. "An idea, a Ford and sixteen dollars" 
 built the Nonpartisan League, Townley himself 
 'has said. 
 
CHAPTER n 
 NORTH DAKOTA 
 
 NoBTH Dakota for years had been n tight little 
 commonwealth, neatly controlled by men whose 
 business was politics. It took some pride in the 
 fact that it had a "boss" whose name was cele- 
 brated from coast to coast. His name was Alex- 
 ander McKenzie. He was a young man in the 
 frontier days when Bismarck was the western ter- 
 minus of the Northern Pacific railroad and the 
 gateway to the riches of Montana. From Bis- 
 marck, the rails' end, the argonauts embarked on a 
 river steamer, which labored up the broad waters 
 of the Missouri to Fort Benton, in the shadow of 
 the great mountains. 
 
 McKenzie was among the adventurers, handy 
 men of many trades, who pre-empted townsites in 
 the path of empire and gathered toll of the ridies 
 that poured in and out. Those pioneer days are 
 recent in North Dakota ; so recent that many par- 
 ticipants live to tell of them. McKenzie himself, 
 first and only undisputed "boss," is still active 
 in the Northwest as a railroad contractor. It 
 was to the railroads that McKenzie was supposed 
 to owe the larger portion of the power which he 
 exercised over legislatures and public officials; 
 
NORTH DAKOTA 9 
 
 and they, in turn, no doubt found the simplicity of 
 government in North Dakota a convenience in 
 dealing with the state. 
 
 Agrarian political movements had never made 
 great headway in North Dakota. This can be 
 most easily explained by the composite character 
 of the population. North Dakota's first settle- 
 ments were in the lower Red River valley, at the 
 extreme northeastern corner of the state. Into 
 this section came men of Scotch, English and Irish 
 birth or descent from Canada. The reversal of 
 this current of immigration has come only in very 
 recent years. Adventurous farmers of American 
 birth followed the Northern Pacific railroad into 
 the state, partially settled the Red River valley 
 and followed the line of the railroad across the 
 broad prairies to the Missouri. The biggest single 
 element of the population, however, were the Nor- 
 wegians, some of whom were among the first per- 
 manent farming settlers in the fertile Red River 
 valley, to be followed quickly by large numbers 
 of their fellow-countrymen, many coming directly 
 from the old country and others after short so- 
 journs in more thickly settled states further east. 
 Minnesota had been heavily colonized by Swedes. 
 The Norwegians, by common consent, seemed to 
 choose North Dakota for their own. 
 
 They were a race peculiarly fit to win the really 
 heroic struggle to open up a state in which the 
 natural obstacles to success were so strong. It 
 needed tough and hardy men and sturdy women 
 
10 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 to meet the great demands for physical strength 
 and endurance in breaking sod and sowing and 
 reaping crops through the short and intense grow- 
 ing season. It needed people accustomed to pri- 
 vation to exist in a country whose revenue must 
 come from small grains exclusively, and where 
 the food must be both slender and simple. To 
 face the long, severe winter in a sod shelter or 
 flimsy board shack was a test of hardihood and 
 endurance that only the real pioneering spirit, 
 reinforced by physiques accustomed to rigorous 
 climates, could survive. The men of the north 
 were physically fitted to meet the test. It is a 
 high compliment to the spirit of the native 
 Americans that so many of them also were 
 able to triumph over the difficulties of pioneer 
 days. 
 
 Settlement and development of the state has 
 robbed the long winter of many of its terrors, so 
 that it is easy to forget what it meant to the pio- 
 neers to be prisoners in a shanty many miles from 
 the nearest neighbor, perhaps fifty miles from the 
 nearest trading point, with no swifter means of 
 travel than horses and a rude sleigh, and with 
 food supplies reduced sometimes to a sack of 
 wheat to be ground in a hand mill and made into 
 "mush" or a coarse bread. A blizzard which 
 would make travel on the prairie roads as im- 
 possible as navigating the ocean in storm in a 
 small boat, was always an impending danger, 
 while candles, oil lamps and crude stoves and 
 
NORTH DAKOTA 11 
 
 chimneys made the prospect of fire a constant 
 terror. 
 
 A picture of these conditions is worth while as 
 a light on the character of the population that has 
 developed and as a guide to their psychology. 
 One effect was to generate a common sympathy 
 between £dl elements of the population. Facing 
 these common perils, neighbors — even if twenty 
 to thirty miles apart — took far more thought of 
 character than of nativity. Nowhere in the na- 
 tion will one find today less of the tendency for 
 men to draw apart because one speaks in broken 
 Enghsh with fantastic mispronunciations, while 
 the other is a descendant of a long line of native 
 Americans. Courage, honesty, industry and 
 ability earned dignity and respect; among pio- 
 neers nativity and past social standing counted 
 for little. 
 
 Possibly it could well be argued that in such 
 conditions men came closer to the traditional spirit 
 of Americanism than in any community in which 
 growth in population and industry, immigration 
 and unequal material prosperity have built layer 
 upon layer of social strata, and where an aristoc- 
 racy develops that bases its claims upon wealth 
 or the achievements of past generations. 
 
 Though racial barriers are soon leveled in the 
 neighborly relations of pioneers, political com- 
 munity of interest does not so quickly develop. 
 This is certain to be true in any state in which 
 settlement is rapid and all but a few feel them- 
 
12 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 selves, for many years, to be newcomers. Nor 
 can men all of whose physical and mental re- 
 sources are used in the struggle for existence give 
 much thought to the problems of politics. It "was 
 not in reason for them to see in the political ma- 
 nipulations of pioneer days any very close rela- 
 tion to their own welfare. They were intent upon 
 their own problem of living. It was naturally 
 true, also, that the foreign-born element felt a 
 justifiable diffidence about asserting themselves 
 politically, a feeling akin to the natural modesty 
 of a newcomer in any organization, who thinks it 
 'a matter of propriety to get acquainted with his 
 fellows and with conditions before asserting him- 
 self. 
 
 It was natural that the native American stodc 
 held office and dictated political affairs to an ex- 
 tent out of proportion to their numbers, and it 
 was also natural that the office-holders and those 
 politically active — the latter more than, the for- 
 mer — were from the towns of the state in a much 
 higher relative proportion than from the farms. 
 This development has an intimate relation to the 
 "histoiy of the League and requires discussion 
 later. 
 
 The Germans and "German-Kussians" later 
 formed a considerable fourth clement in the popu- 
 lation. It consisted mainly of a peasant class 
 from western Eussia, speaking mostly the Ger- 
 man language, and a considerable number of East 
 Prussian Germans. They settled largely in the 
 
NORTH DAKOTA 13 
 
 south-oentral and >outliwesteni parts of the state. 
 near the Mi$jo\iri rivtr. Their tendency ha? been 
 to settle in e>>]onies and to keep rather closely to 
 themselves, -with their own churehes. priests of 
 their own nationality, their own bsiiks and their 
 own merchants. Siioi connnnnities lend them- 
 selves very readily to the boss systfSQ in polities 
 wiih very little active political interest on the part 
 of voters themselves. The influence of tieir 
 dmrdies has always been freely exercised in po- 
 litical matters. 
 
 It is tims easily seen how Xorih Pakota 's farm 
 poptilsnon. comprising two-thirds the entire 
 population of the state, was not deeply stirred by 
 ••granirer" political movements in its pioneer 
 days, and how the consciousness of ticir political 
 power did not d:i'sirn upon tlie farmers, or at least 
 did not express itself in effective political action 
 nnnl a jreneration had passed after sratehood. 
 
 It was no: in reason for any state :o be entirely 
 complaceni under the mle of a political K^ss snch 
 as "Alex"' McKenrie. particnlarly when it was 
 a matter of conrmcn leliei that Le wss dosely 
 allied with tie railroads in politics. The state 
 was mildly infected by various epidemics of "re- 
 foim" lecisiation. These occasioned a displiiy 
 of active rivalry between ••proirressives" and 
 "Stalwarts." and the claioL, on -Jie part of the 
 •*prcirressives," iha: the power of the boss had 
 been overthrown. The state achieved the pass.'^.ge 
 of dire'Ct primary l.^ws. Inclndinir a device by 
 
14 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 which election of United States senators was 
 made direct, the creation of a state railroad com- 
 mission, and finally the passage of certain de- 
 natured "direct legislation" amendments to the 
 constitution. These at length led to the more im- 
 portant fight on economic issues, in the heat of 
 which the Nonpartisan League was born. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 SEEDS OF REBELLION 
 
 The awakening of the farmers of North Dakota 
 to a group interest in polities was the outcome of 
 their efforts at economic co-operation. Beginning 
 with the country elevator and the country store, 
 where he sells and buys, the farmer by co-operat- 
 ive organization has progressively brought him- 
 self into contact with one factor in commerce 
 after another, and his interest in trade processes 
 and his desire to improve upon them have quick- 
 ened with each step in the journey. 
 
 In North Dakota, even before the coming of the 
 League, the more active-minded farmers were 
 convinced that political action promised the most 
 effective relief from the economic abuses to which 
 the farmers were subject. These abuses go back 
 almost to the earliest days of settlement of the 
 state. Helplessness in the face of conditions 
 which they felt powerless to control or correct had 
 built up a profound and general resentment. This 
 furnished the motive force, first, for aggressive 
 co-operative organization, and finally for political 
 action through the League, 
 
 In all the cloud of accusation, denial and coun- 
 tercharge growing out of the intensity of the po- 
 
 15 
 
16 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 litical fight in North Dakota tboro has boon little 
 effort to deny that the farmers in the sprinsy-whont 
 country of the Northwost havo boon nioroilessly 
 oxploilod. An oxamination of campaign stato- 
 ments in tJio newspapers shows the opposition to 
 the League universally admitting that the farmers 
 had suffered many griovances which ought to be 
 remedied. The League's obvious rejoinder to 
 much criticism has been that no earlier political 
 organization had come forward with a positive 
 and definite program intended to bring relief, and 
 that criticism of the leadership and plans of tlie 
 League came with poor grace from those who 
 themselves never had anything to propose in aid 
 of the farmers. 
 
 A man, a product of pioneer days in North 
 Dakota, who achieved university degrees and high 
 official position, though a successful man himself 
 in other than a farming career, had, as ho said, 
 "bred in his bones" the resentments which havo 
 furnished fuel for the flames of "the fanners' 
 revolt" in North Dakota. lie tells how his own 
 father, a cripple with a largo family to support, 
 fought the battle against I'ust and drouth, intense 
 cold and isolation and how his other burdens were 
 multiplied by a burden of usury and extortion. 
 
 One bitter winter, he says, with his mother lying 
 sick at home, their chief food had been meal, home 
 ground, of rust(>d wheat. A country missionary- 
 doctor, providentially happening along, urged a 
 different diet, and the father struck out at risk 
 
SEEDS OF REBELLION 17 
 
 of his life in a storm to go to the distant village 
 for supplies — ^without money to buy them. 
 
 There the merchant, who was also banker, in 
 his capacity as banker, caused the farmer to sign 
 a $50 note at 10 per cent, interest, and in return 
 gave him credit in his own store for, not $50, but 
 $10 worth of supplies, with which he struggled 
 back in the storm to the sick wife and the family. 
 
 "Father died a few years after that," said the 
 man who told the story. "But for the hardships 
 he had undergone he should have lived many years 
 longer. The thing that really killed him was 
 usury." 
 
 He continued: 
 
 "The banker is still living. He piefers now to be 
 known as a farmer. He owns several farms and collects 
 rent and interest money enough to give his family the 
 luxuries of life. He is one of the pioneers who won out, 
 one of the successful men who have built North Dakota, 
 as they say at the pioneers' meetings. 
 
 "I often think when I see these gatherings of pioneers 
 — ^many of them the men who merely lent money or sold 
 goods at exorbitant prices, while others lived in sod 
 houses and fought to make the land produce wealth, — 
 that the real pioneers are not among them." 
 
 The "real pioneers," he went on to say, are 
 sleeping in the little country churchyards and for- 
 lorn prairie cemeteries, men and women who gave 
 way to hardships when 50 years old or less. 
 
 The banker and the merchant in North Dakota 
 
18 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 will say that incidents of this sort, if they ever 
 occurred, could not have been typical. Yet prob- 
 ably all would admit that in any new country 
 sharp dealing has been practised. Farmers tell 
 many stories of "shark contracts" saddled upon 
 them by bankers or lawyers or other townsmen, 
 of the swindling of the unsuspecting countryman 
 out of his land and the work of years; of mort- 
 gages at 12 and 15 per cent.; of "bonuses" and 
 "premiums" added; of extortionate prices for 
 merchandise sold on credit. 
 
 The wrath of a helpless victim — or one who 
 imagines himself a helpless victim — burns deep 
 and long; and the wrath of a trustful man who 
 sees his trust betrayed will last and grow. 
 
 These things constitute some of the local factors 
 that add impetus and strength to any movement 
 of farmers alone. They and some other circum- 
 stances tend to make the farmer look askance 
 when the town "booster" says the interests of 
 town and country are identical. They know and 
 appreciate that one function of the town is to 
 serve their needs, but they have found that, in the 
 •past, another activity of some of the townsmen 
 has been to rob them. 
 
 Today they see their own industry in a purely 
 agricultural state as essential, while all the activi- 
 ties of the towns and cities which depend upon 
 them are merely a service of supply. They have 
 seen for years the townspeople concerning them- 
 selves with making production more efiBcient by 
 
SEEDS OF REBELLION 19 
 
 giving advice to the farmer. Now the farmer be- 
 lieves himself legitimately interested in making 
 the service of supply more efficient. 
 
 Resentment of the things some townsmen had 
 done to them; distrust of the political and com- 
 mercial leadership of the banker, the lawyer and 
 the merchant, helped to build up the League move- 
 ment. But it was not the prime cause. The cause 
 relates to the farmer's selling market, in which 
 his interest has always been more keen than in 
 his buying market. 
 
 The "farmers' elevator" is an old institution. 
 There are many of them in North Dakota, of 
 many kinds. At an early day in the history of 
 the western grain-growing states farmers in many 
 communities decided it was folly for them to de- 
 pend upon a single grain-buying warehouse at a 
 single country crossroads to fix the selling price 
 of their grain. They became even more dissatis- 
 fied when they found that most of these grain 
 elevators were linked together in large "chains" 
 having their headquarters in the big terminal 
 grain markets, each with hundreds of branch ele- 
 vators throughout the grain-growing districts. 
 
 An early development was to form a local com- 
 pany to build a storage elevator, buy the grain 
 from the farmers or receive it on consignment, 
 and sell it at the distant terminal. 
 
 This primary step toward bettering market con- 
 ditions undoubtedly has been a profitable one for 
 the farmer. It introduced an element of compe- 
 
20 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 tition that has made the worst of local thieveries 
 in price and grading impossible. Where he has a 
 local co-operative elevator in operation the farmer 
 is fairly well assured that he can get for his grain 
 the going quotation in the big terminal market, 
 less the handling and shipping costs. 
 
 But the little country co-operative elevator 
 brought the farmer face to face with new prob- 
 lems. 
 
 There were problems connected with the exist- 
 ence of the elevator itself. The trade policy which 
 at different times has commended itself to the oil 
 trust and the big packers was not unknown to the 
 line elevator companies. It consists in paying 
 more at places where an independent buying 
 agency exists than the independent agency can 
 afford to pay. In the case of the farmers' ele- 
 vators it meant the "top of the market" for grain 
 where there was farmers' elevator competition — 
 and less elsewhere. 
 
 This, one would say, would be convincing argu- 
 ment for the usefulness of the farmers' elevator. 
 The argument itself is without a flaw, but it would 
 not save from bankruptcy a co-operative elevator 
 forced to pay for grain more than it could be sold 
 for, nor would it always persuade to loyalty far- 
 mers to whom a cent or two more a bushel meant 
 warm clothing for the children or a menacing debt 
 satisfied. 
 
 The co-operators frequently found, also, unex- 
 plainable lack of sympathy on the part of the 
 
SEEDS OF REBELLION 21 
 
 local banker, a disposition to look coldly on what 
 looked to be sound applications for loans and 
 even a marked preference for the business of the 
 old line house. The bankers were "used to doing 
 business" with the old line houses. They had 
 formed trade connections and understood each 
 other. 
 
 ' Stock in farmers' elevators, too, had a way of 
 gravitating into a few hands. Men who go with 
 enthusiasm into a new venture — especially if it is 
 a co-operative community venture — ^frequently 
 find they haven't money enough to carry it on. 
 They get hard up; things are not being run to 
 suit them at the elevator or the store, anyway, and 
 some more hopeful individual with a little cash 
 can quickly buy them out. Soon it develops that 
 what started as a "farmers' elevator" is no 
 longer a farmers' elevator at all. Others have 
 bought it, probably for less than it cost. 
 
 There are all kinds and varieties of "farmers' 
 elevators" scattered throughout North Dakota. 
 The sign frequently masks a house owned by one 
 of the big line elevator companies or by one of 
 the many grain exchange firms; sometimes the 
 enterprise of a local capitalist. The least likely 
 case is that it is actually owned by a farmers' 
 co-operative company. 
 
 Another group of problems was not concerned 
 with the existence of the local elevator itself. In 
 their adventure into commerce the farmers began 
 to find out things about the big game of the mar- 
 
22 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 ket-place. They began to find that the science of 
 "handling" the product of the farm was more 
 intricate and made fortunes much more quickly 
 than the simple task of growing the grain and 
 turning it over to the mill or the elevator. 
 
 In their simplicity they had at the beginning 
 looked upon the terminal markets as places of free 
 trading in the essentials of life, open markets 
 where the full market price of their commodity 
 could be had and where all sellers would be treated 
 alike, where information of the world's needs and 
 the world's supply brought a balance in prices 
 which was fair alike to buyer and seller. They 
 found that the market was in fact in the hands of 
 an association which in many aspects was a close 
 corporation; that "outsiders" who sought to up- 
 set the currents of trade were treated as the com- 
 mon enemy ; that out of the speculative dealings in 
 their grain great individual fortunes were being 
 built up and had been built up ; that many persons 
 lived in luxury off the business of dealing in grain, 
 without, as the farmers believed, performing any 
 useful service; and they became impressed with 
 the fact that when the farmer had grain to sell the 
 market was glutted and the price low, while cor- 
 ners and "bull markets," based on stories and 
 figures showing world scarcity, prevailed only 
 when the bulk of the grain was in the hands of big 
 dealers. 
 
 Gradually there began to grow among the 
 farmers of North Dakota — as well as other states 
 
SEEDS OF REBELLION 23 
 
 —a strong hope and a strong sentiment for a 
 public regulation of the market which would elimi- 
 nate some of the "handlers' " profits and specu- 
 lative wealth gathered without toil and which 
 would enable the grain grower and the consumer 
 of flour and bread to share in the saving. 
 
 In some states agitation began against dealing 
 in grain "futures." A congressman from Min- 
 nesota made an attack on the system on the floor 
 of the national house of representatives. The in- 
 fluence of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, 
 the grain board which controls the principal mar- 
 ket for the northwestern spring wheat, began to 
 be opposed in the Minnesota legislature; but in 
 North Dakota a dozen years ago there began to 
 develop a widespread agitation for the ownership 
 by the state of "terminal" grain elevators. 
 
 Feeling themselves the victims of many eco- 
 nomic grievances, smarting under many instances 
 of exploitation, growing impatient Avith the kind 
 of state government they were receiving at the 
 hands of bankers, lawyers, merchants and profes- 
 sional politicians, and with rising resentment at 
 the continued assumption of the right to leader- 
 ship in public matters and a general attitude of 
 guardianship over the farmer by influential towns- 
 men, the farmers found a focus for their rebellion 
 in a demand for state-owned * ' terminal elevators. ' ' 
 
 They were guided toward this goal partly by 
 the outcome of their own co-operative marketing 
 efforts and partly by other influences. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 BREAKING GROUND 
 
 Distinct signs of unrest in North Dakota, devel- 
 oping into class consciousness and an organized 
 movement among the farmers, became evident 
 ten years before the birth of the Nonpartisan 
 League. The League should be given neither the 
 full credit nor all the blame for stirring the farm- 
 ers to revolt. Nor did it create the issues which 
 defined the line of battle. 
 
 When the League first came into existence, "Big 
 Business," — concentrated capital and commercial 
 power as evidenced in the big grain and flour com- 
 panies, the banks through which they operated 
 and the "beef trust" — ^had already been discerned 
 as the common enemy. 
 
 Already "agitators" had been at work in the 
 state and already the town papers were indig- 
 nantly and virtuously deprecating movements to 
 "set class against class." The newspapers, as 
 well as the Chamber of Commerce, the banks and 
 others who felt that they had no complaint to 
 make against existing conditions, were strong for 
 harmony and the kind and degree of "co- 
 operation" that already existed. To combat the 
 growing spirit of protest and resentment among 
 
 24 
 
BREAKING GROUND 25 
 
 the farmers the more progressive among the news- 
 papers and the leading spirits of the towns went 
 so far as to suggest "community gatherings," 
 "getting acquainted with the farmer," and other 
 good-will efforts. 
 
 Men who went among the farmers urging them 
 to "fight for their rights" were called public ene- 
 mies. Into this category quickly fell two classes 
 of men. The first, whose treachery to the orderly 
 prosperity of the state was conceived to be the 
 most flagrant, were a group of college professors. 
 Conspicuous among them were John H. Worst, 
 president of the state agricultural college at 
 Fargo, and Edwin F. Ladd, head of the chemistry 
 department of the same institution and also state 
 food commissioner. Others of the same faculty 
 were also known to be highly sympathetic with the 
 views of these leaders. Throughout the whole 
 history of farmers' movements in the state for 
 economic reform the farmers have, in fact, de- 
 pended much upon information and advice fur- 
 nished by the agricultural college faculty. Indeed, 
 the fight to retain the "progressive" staff of the 
 college has been one phase of the movement. 
 
 The college staff maintained a constant contact 
 with the farmers. Farmers' sons came to them 
 for education; the summer courses brought in 
 some of the older generation, and, in addition to 
 extension work, the instructors, in the regular line 
 of their duty, made many investigations and re- 
 ceived many reports from farmers as to seed. 
 
26 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 methods and crops. Naturally, also, they were in 
 demand for addresses at farmers' meetings. 
 
 An annual gathering that came to have im- 
 portance in the farmers ' struggle was that of the 
 Tri-State Grain Growers' Conference, which met 
 in midwinter at Fargo. It had received the en- 
 couragement of commercial organizations in 
 North Dakota and drew attendance from Minne- 
 sota and South Dakota, the chief spring-wheat 
 producing states. 
 
 It was at these conventions of the grain growers 
 that President Worst, Dr. Ladd and others mod- 
 estly launched ideas that furnished material later 
 for much League propaganda. 
 
 The situation that faced the college professors 
 was this : Primarily they were interested in pro- 
 duction. They were interested in stabilizing farm 
 production, increasing it, making it more regular 
 and more profitable. They could not well avoid 
 an interest in prices, for they must counsel the 
 lines of production which would yield the best liv- 
 ing to the farmers. 
 
 In North Dakota they had what they conceived 
 to be an unnatural and impermanent agricultural 
 condition. Small graius alone — wheat, oats, bar- 
 ley, rye and flax — ^were the "money" crops. The 
 great bulk of this grain — wheat, fifty to a hundred 
 million bushels a year, by far the most important 
 crop — was shipped out of the state almost imme- 
 diately after being harvested. It went to Minne- 
 apolis and St. Paul, Duluth and Buffalo for miU- 
 
BREAKING GROUND 27 
 
 ing or export. The stock-raising industry in the 
 state was small. "Finishing" butcher stock by- 
 feeding grains and mill feed was practically un- 
 known. To do this, screenings and mill feeds, 
 to be obtained in any quantity, had to be shipped 
 back from Minneapolis or a more distant point. 
 In any event, the price of these mill feeds and 
 screenings was fixed in North Dakota by their 
 price at the terminal markets, plus the freight. 
 
 It was argued that under existing conditions the 
 price of mill feeds and flour in North Dakota in- 
 cluded a double hauling charge at high freight 
 rates — ^the cost of freight on the original grain to 
 the terminals, and the cost of the return haul. In 
 these conditions and the location of the big pack- 
 ing houses in St. Paul and Chicago, adding further 
 difficulties besides the freight co^t to the problem 
 of feeding meat animals for the market, the col- 
 lege professors discerned a great economic waste 
 which was a bar to well-balanced production and 
 even to the protection of the soil of the state 
 against impoverishment. They saw with alarm 
 that millions of dollars' worth of soil values, in 
 the shape of natural fertility, was shipped out of 
 the state every year, never to return. They saw 
 also an ill-balanced type of production, a huge 
 gamble with the elements and the market, fre- 
 quently resulting in ruin for the farmer. And 
 they saw discomforts and privations which formed 
 an almost insuperable bar to a healthy, natural, 
 pleasant and permanent rural life, 
 
28 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 They sought a solution of this unnatural condi- 
 tion, and they came to the matured conviction that 
 some power other than the normal trend of trade 
 must intervene if North Dakota was to be made to 
 stand on its own legs economically and turn to 
 diversified and therefore stabilized production. 
 
 Nor were they slow to bring to the attention of 
 farmers other evils in the market situation. They 
 pointed out how the "docking" of grain resulted 
 in double profit to the big terminal elevator com- 
 panies ; how grain mixing, as there practised, re- 
 sulted in an output of the higher grades far in 
 excess of the purchases by the elevators of those 
 grades. Finally, they openly decried the evils of 
 grain speculation and the manipulation of the 
 market so that the price was low in the fall, when 
 the farmers' maturing obligations forced them to 
 sell quickly, and high only when the grain all had 
 passed into the hands of the speculators. 
 
 Dr. Worst delivered an address before the grain 
 growers early in 1916, which was a summary of 
 much that he. Dr. Ladd and Professors BoUey and 
 Waldron had said before. He grouped estimates 
 compiled by Dr. Ladd to make the rather surpris- 
 ing total of fifty-five million dollars, which he said 
 represented the soil fertility losses and other per- 
 manent annual losses to the state due to the 
 system of shipping the grain out, rather than 
 milhng and feeding the by-products within the 
 state. 
 
 Seeking what they conceived to be a better- 
 
BREAKING GROUND 29 
 
 ordered production regime in North Dakota, the 
 agricultural college leaders thus became open ad- 
 vocates of the "Socialistic" projects of state 
 ownership of terminal elevators. And later they 
 looked with sympathy on the added proposal for 
 state ownership of packing houses and cold stor- 
 age plants, which became part of the League pro- 
 gram. 
 
 ., Bankers, leading merchants, prominent lawyers 
 and other leaders in town life in the state eventu- 
 ally were led to fight these proposals. The rea- 
 sons are fairly obvious. Besides the fact of the 
 close relations existing between the merchant and 
 his banker, between the small town banker and 
 the big city banker and between the big city banker 
 and big capital in the city, there is the natural 
 opposition of the man engaged in business to any 
 project which will greatly alter existing business 
 channels, for "you never can tell where it will 
 end." Along with such "Socialistic" proposals 
 also went general propaganda in favor of co- 
 operation, which would mean co-operative shops 
 and stores and enterprises of all kinds, which 
 might put the towns and their merchants out of 
 business. 
 
 The college professor conspirators against 
 things as they were found among the "co- 
 operators" willing workers to take up their 
 propaganda. Great headway had been made by 
 an organization known as the Equity Society. In 
 North Dakota this operated as the North Dakota 
 
30 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 Union of the American Society of Equity. The 
 organization had been born among the tobacco 
 growers of Kentucky, had spread thence to the 
 tobacco districts of Wisconsin, whence its develop- 
 ment was mainly in the line of co-operative or- 
 ganization among grain growers in the North- 
 western states. 
 
 The object of the organization was to promote 
 co-operative effort among farmers, both in buying 
 and selling. The society itself did not engage in 
 business, but it lent its encouragement to the for- 
 mation of co-operative buying and selling corpo- 
 rations. The basis of the "Equity plan," by 
 which alone co-operative organizations could have 
 the good will and support of the society, was that 
 each member or stockholder was to have one vote, 
 regardless of the extent of his stockholding. 
 Concentration of control thus became impos- 
 sible and true co-operation was conceived to be 
 assured. 
 
 With a large number of local elevators formed 
 under this plan in North Dakota and with sym- 
 pathy and support for the movement among 
 farmers generally in all parts of the state, leaders 
 in the Equity movement believed the time ripe for 
 co-operation in the central market itself and or- 
 ganized a corporation known as the Equity Co- 
 operative Exchange. This is today successful, 
 and one of the largest co-operative farmers ' sell- 
 ing organizations in the country. 
 
 But the formation and successful operation of 
 
BREAKING GROUND 31 
 
 tMs enterprise were not accomplished without a 
 struggle. This struggle was bitter, and at its 
 height the Nonpartisan League was born. 
 
 Townspeople generally frowned on the Equity 
 Co-Operative Exchange, which started a general 
 share-selling campaign throughout the state, 
 opened an office in St. Paul, and began to solicit 
 shipments of grain. 
 
 The influence of the Equity Exchange on the po- 
 litical adventures of the farmers of the state was 
 due in large part to the activity of one fiery per- 
 sonality. This was George S. Loftus, who had the 
 title of general manager of the exchange. Loftus 
 had been in the grain and commission business in 
 Minneapolis as an "independent" and had come 
 into contact with the operations of the Minneapo- 
 lis Chamber of Commerce houses. A fighter by 
 nature, his passion seemed to be to wage war 
 against intrenched monopoly. One of his achieve- 
 ments before he became connected with the farm- 
 ers' co-operative movement, was a complaint 
 against the Pullman Company before the Inter- 
 state Commerce Commission which resulted in the 
 order of the commission reducing the price of 
 upper berths. 
 
 Though employed by the co-operative marketing 
 organization for his business experience as a prac- 
 tical executive head, it soon became apparent that 
 Loftus' unique ability lay in another line. It be- 
 came necessary to hold meetings of farmers to 
 appeal for support, in the shipment of grain, in 
 
32 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 the purchase of stock, and even in lending money 
 or credit to tide the enterprise over emergencies. 
 Loftus had great success in these meetings. He 
 was able to stir his hearers to great enthusiasm, 
 which was not lessened by the fact that town 
 leaders at once began to oppose him as an "agi- 
 tator." Soon he began to have the experience, 
 so common later in the case of League speakers 
 and organizers, of having town halls and even 
 streets barred to him. 
 
 Loftus arrived one winter day at a town of a 
 thousand or more persons in central North Da- 
 kota to find that every available hall in the place 
 had been closed to him. Their proprietors made 
 various evasive excuses, but the hostility to 
 Loftus and his efforts on behalf of co-operative 
 selling was made plain. Finally a grain ware- 
 house on the outskirts of the town was opened to 
 the meeting and thither marched Loftus in high 
 dignity, followed by nearly a hundred farmers in 
 their huge sheepskin coats, their wrath smoldering 
 at being refused a warm and comfortable hall in 
 which to hold their meeting. 
 
 Loftus began his talk with a recital of the 
 various means by which the farmer was 
 "trimmed" by the old system of selling his grain, 
 proceeded to tell of the iniquities chargeable to the 
 Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, and finally 
 got down to the case of the local bankers and mer- 
 chants who, owing their business existence to the 
 farmers, yet refused them a meeting place when 
 
BREAKING GROUND 33 
 
 they gathered to talk of plans for co-operative 
 selling. 
 
 Loftus' talk suited the farmers. They ap- 
 proved with loud cheers, shouts of "You bet!" 
 and other expressions, blunt but pithy. Loftus 
 might express his indignation in words, of which 
 he had adequate command; but they, not having 
 his fluency of speech, sought appropriate outlet 
 for their feelings in action. Their action was to 
 agree, until appropriate amends had been made, 
 not to buy goods in this particular town. 
 
 It is worth recording that they kept their word. 
 Not only they, but their neighbors, remained away 
 from this town for more than a month. In the 
 meantime their local grain elevator organization 
 bought a carload of merchandise, had it unloaded 
 at a siding on the open prairie and distributed it 
 to those in need. 
 
 The town eventually sent a committee to in- 
 terview the farmers, acknowledged the mistake of 
 the forbidden meeting and promised to "co- 
 operate" in the future. As a matter of fact, two 
 years afterward, during aU the heat of the fight 
 against the League, this same town showed out- 
 wardly a spirit of generous tolerance toward this 
 and other farmers' organizations, even permitting 
 leading citizens to welcome League meetings. 
 
 Not many towns and cities in North Dakota, 
 however, followed this example. Loftus and the 
 Equity Exchange were denounced in many news- 
 papers as agitators and sharpers, and they found 
 
34 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 their presence made plainly unwelcome in many 
 towns. 
 
 In Fargo, in January of 1915, there was held 
 the annual session of the Tri-State Grain Grow- 
 ers' Conference. An afternoon at the conclusion 
 of the conference was designated as "Equity 
 day," and a program of speeches in support of 
 the organization was arranged. The Equity 
 speakers planned to extend their addresses into 
 the evening, but while their meeting was in prog- 
 ress a number of prominent Fargo citizens 
 marched into the haU, accompanied by the secre- 
 tary of the commercial club, who informed the 
 speakers that the hall had been rented for the 
 evening to another gathering (no previous an- 
 nouncement of which had been made). 
 
 Among those contesting for the use of the hall 
 was the publisher of a grain trade publication 
 known as a Chamber of Commerce organ. They 
 proposed to discuss marketing issues for the bene- 
 fit of the farmers. 
 
 A sharp altercation and a scuffle for the pos- 
 session of the platform ensued. It was settled by 
 the appearance of the chief of police, who placed 
 himself on the side of the town business men and 
 the Chamber of Commerce speaker, and the 
 Equity speakers were ejected from the hall. 
 Practically the entire farmer audience followed 
 them. 
 
 Equity leaders later made an effort to cause 
 Governor L. B. Hanna to remove the chief of 
 
BREAKING GROUND 35 
 
 police for his part in the affair. A hearing was 
 held and evidence taken, but there was no action. 
 This event added to a long list of grievances. 
 The fighting spirit of a large portion of the 
 farmers was under a pressure which demanded an 
 outlet in action. The feeling that the towns were 
 in a business conspiracy against them was well 
 developed. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 TERMINAL ELEVATORS 
 
 Agitation for either co-operative or state-owned 
 "terminal" or large central storage elevators had 
 been under way in North Dakota for ten years 
 before the Nonpartisan League was bom. The 
 injustice of the Minnesota and Wisconsin grading 
 and the many extortionate practices in these mar- 
 kets had been recognized by others than the farm- 
 ers. Bankers, merchants and newspaper editors 
 had joined in demanding a remedy. It was only 
 when the farmers had ceased to beg for relief, but 
 through their own organizations were pressing 
 toward what they believed to be an actual solution 
 of their difficulties, that they began to meet with 
 town hostility. 
 
 F. W. Cathro is a former president of the North 
 Dakota Bankers' Association and one of a very 
 few bankers who have been throughout sympa- 
 thetic with the farmers' co-operative movements 
 in the state and with the Nonpartisan League. 
 He has been named as a director of the Bank of 
 North Dakota, the state reserve bank created by 
 the farmer legislature of 1919. Mr. Cathro claims 
 for the North Dakota State Bankers' Association 
 the credit of the first suggestion for a terminal 
 elevator to be owned by the farmers themselves. 
 
 36 
 
TERMINAL ELEVATORS 37 
 
 The suggestion was made in a set of resolutions 
 passed by the bankers' association in 1906, nine 
 years before the Nonpartisan League came into 
 existence. These resolutions embrace demands 
 upon the legislatures of Wisconsin and Minnesota 
 to amend their grain grading laws and practices 
 so as to remedy injustices to North Dakota farm- 
 ers, and conclude: "Resolved, that should we fail 
 through these channels to receive our redress we 
 recommend the grain growers of this state to 
 co-operate for the purpose of building home and 
 terminal elevators." 
 
 Mr. Cathro cites also the report of a committee 
 of the bankers' association made in the same year. 
 This report gave figures showing receipts and 
 shipments from one large Minnesota storage ele- 
 vator during three months. The report showed 
 that while the elevator received 99,711 bushels of 
 No. 1 Northern wheat during the season it was able 
 to ship out 196,288 bushels of the same grade of 
 grain, and while it received 141,455 bushels of No. 
 2 Northern its shipments of this grade were 467,- 
 764 bushels. Where this wheat came from is 
 shown by the reports on the lower grades, which 
 reveal that of No. 3 wheat there was a shortage 
 in shipments of nearly 60,000 bushels, while of 
 No. 4, "no grade" and "rejected" wheat, 
 although the elevator had purchased and stored 
 a total of 367,000 bushels, it had shipped out none 
 at all, nor had it any of these descriptions on 
 hand. 
 
38 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 "It is apparent from the foregoing figures," 
 writes Mr. Cathro, "that the farmers should have 
 received better grades for their wheat and a cor- 
 responding increase in price, inasmuch as the ter- 
 minal elevators have found it possible to buy 
 100,000 bushels of so-called No. 2 and No. 3 wheat 
 and mix it with No. 1 Northern and sell the whole 
 mixture for No. 1 Northern and mix all of the 
 so-called No. 4 and lower grades with what is 
 left of the No. 2 and No. 3 wheat and sell the mix- 
 ture as No. 2 and No. 3 wheat." 
 
 The farmers had excellent authority for their 
 belief that as long as they shipped their grain to 
 a market and to storage elevators outside of the 
 state of North Dakota and as long as they were 
 at the mercy of the Minnesota grades and the 
 Minnesota grading system they would be robbed 
 both in grades and in weights. The defense of the 
 elevator operators was that it was quite possible 
 and fair to mix, for instance. No. 1 Northern hav- 
 ing a surplus over the required weight per bushel 
 with grain just a little under the required weight 
 and to make the whole mixture No. 1, and also 
 that by cleaning, evaporation of moisture and 
 other means known to the large elevators they 
 could improve the grade, quaUty and salability 
 of grain. 
 
 This is an explanation that only partly ex- 
 plains. It did not satisfy the farmer in the face 
 of such huge discrepancies as those quoted above. 
 He was convinced, and other investigators of the 
 
TERMINAL ELEVATORS 39 
 
 situation were convinced, that the grades were 
 manipulated in the interest of the big buyers and 
 that the farmer was cheated in a majority of cases. 
 Discussing these discrepancies, Dr. E. F. Ladd 
 said in an interview in 1916, shortly after he had 
 succeeded J. H. Worst as president of the North 
 Dakota Agricultural College: 
 
 "There is no doubt at all that a great injustice is done 
 the fanners of North Dakota through the system of 
 grades in force at the Minnesota terminals and in the 
 prices established by the big grain dealers for the various 
 grades of grain. If there is a certain price established 
 for No. 1 Northern wheat which itself may be a fair 
 price, but if for the lower grades down to the 'no grade' 
 and 'rejected' wheat the producer must accept a price 
 much lower than the difference in milling value justifies, 
 a serious injustice is done to the producers of the lower 
 grades of wheat." 
 
 Under Dr. Ladd's direction was an experi- 
 mental flour mill at the agricultural college, op- 
 erated jointly by the state and the federal gov- 
 ernment. As a result of experiments conducted 
 at the mill, Dr. Ladd became a strong advocate of 
 reformed wheat grades which would more accu- 
 rately take account of the flour-making value. 
 His researches along this line strengthened the 
 demand for state-owned mills to be coupled with 
 state-owned grain elevators. It was pertinently 
 pointed out that, with nearly all the wheat crop 
 selling in the Minnesota market, no regulation of 
 
40 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 grades in North Dakota would be effective ; while 
 it was believed that the building of large state- 
 owned elevators and possibly flour mills would 
 bring buyers into the state of North Dakota for 
 grain. This would make it possible for the state 
 to regulate the grades. At the same time, it was 
 thought, the ownership of flour mills by the state 
 would serve to furnish honest tests of the com- 
 parative milling value of various descriptions of 
 grain and would help to equalize arbitrary and 
 unjust differences in grades. 
 
 The argument that first impressed the people 
 of the state of North Dakota, however, was the 
 argument in favor of state-owned "terminal" 
 elevators, at the so-called terminal markets ; that 
 is, Minneapolis, St. Paul or Duluth. An amend- 
 ment to the state constitution permitting the state 
 to build or buy a "terminal" elevator and to ac- 
 quire property outside of the state for that pur- 
 pose, was proposed in the legislature of 1909 and 
 adopted by that body. It was again passed upon 
 favorably by the succeeding legislature and in 
 1912 was ratified by popular vote. 
 
 In the meantime there had been agitation in 
 favor of creating a market within the state for 
 grain, and a second constitutional amendment 
 making it possible for the state to build its "ter- 
 minal" elevator, not at the terminal markets, but 
 within the state of North Dakota, went through 
 the processes of ratification, becoming a part of 
 the constitution on popular vote in 1914. The con- 
 
TERMINAL ELEVATORS 41 
 
 stitution at that time required a favorable vote by- 
 two successive legislatures and subsequent ratifi- 
 cation by tbe people — a process requiring nearly 
 five years' time— to amend the constitution. This 
 has since been changed so that without action by 
 the legislature the constitution may be amended 
 by popular petition and a majority popular vote. 
 How this was accomplished belongs to a later 
 chapter in the»story of the League and its activity. 
 
 The proposal for state-owned elevators, having 
 the backing of some bankers and many merchants, 
 and not complicated with any of the class issues 
 which later arose, met no very active opposition. 
 The two proposals, — for state-owned elevators 
 outside and inside the state — ^were adopted by 
 large majorities. They had, it is true, the active 
 backing of such farmers' organizations as existed 
 at that time, but not even the Equity in the zenith 
 of its power attained more than a fraction of the 
 membership that the League later attained. It 
 was, however, a minority that was active and that 
 had the attributes of leadership. 
 
 The legislature of 1913, with the mandate of a 
 popular vote overwhelmingly approving the 
 project, commissioned members of the state board 
 of control to make an investigation and to report 
 plans and recommendations for the construction 
 of a state-owned elevator or state-owned ele- 
 vators. 
 
 The board spent several months in its investiga- 
 tion and brought in its report. Instead of being 
 
42 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 a plan of procedure for tlie acquirement of a ter- 
 minal elevator or terminal elevators, it was an 
 exhaustive argument agamst the entire project. 
 
 The prior legislature had shown its good will 
 toward the terminal elevator, not only by the ap- 
 pointment of the commission to investigate, but 
 by the imposition of a tax to create a terminal 
 elevator fund. After the receipt of the adverse 
 report, a bill was introduced to repeal this tax 
 law, and it was in fact repealed, while a bill to 
 appropriate funds for the construction of an 
 elevator met defeat. 
 
 The politicians of the state administration and 
 the legislature had proved in all respects true to 
 type. After nearly ten years of agitation of a 
 project conceived by the people of the state to be 
 of huge importance to them and to the growth and 
 prosperity of the state, and after a great show of 
 activity on the part of the political leaders, the net 
 result of their efforts was nothing at all. They 
 had achieved the "statesman "-like swing around 
 the circle, ending just where they began. 
 
 In the meantime, popular sentiment had not 
 been stationary. The farmer mind was not so 
 facile as to turn right-about-face on a project in a 
 day. The farmer did not regard the thefts and 
 the injustices of the grain market as mere illu- 
 sions, nor did he think that a project seemingly 
 so reasonable and one so widely advocated ought 
 to be dropped without a trial, simply because two 
 or three state officials had been convinced, by the 
 
TERMINAL ELEVATORS 43 
 
 princes of the grain trade, that the state could 
 never succeed in the grain business. 
 
 The North Dakota Union of the American So- 
 ciety of Equity was holding an annual convention 
 in Bismarck while the legislature was in session. 
 There was deliberate purpose in the time and 
 place of holding the convention. It was the old 
 theory of exerting a "wholesome influence" on 
 lawmakers by conventions and lobbies. This 
 theory the League threw overboard, to start its 
 political action from the ground instead of at- 
 tempting to build on an existing structure built 
 for other purposes. 
 
 The Equity convention quickly turned itself 
 into an indignation meeting at the report of the 
 investigating board. It determined to force the 
 legislature, if possible, to enact a terminal ele- 
 vator law in spite of the report. 
 
 Delegations visited the legislature and de- 
 manded hearings before committees. These hear- 
 ings developed hot arguments, during one of 
 which an angry legislator is reported to have de- 
 manded by what right a "bunch of farmers come 
 down here to browbeat the legislature," and ended 
 by advising them to "Go home and slop the 
 hogs!" 
 
 This remark was attributed to Treadwell 
 Twichell, owner of a big farm in Cass county, a 
 man of wealth and active in partisan politics for 
 a number of years. Twichell himself denies using 
 this pairticular language, but the phrase was 
 
44 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 quickly reported back by the farmers' committee 
 and became a slogan in the fight of the farmers 
 against the ruling political group. Twichell was 
 admittedly an opponent of the elevator project. 
 He has been a leader in opposition to the League 
 organization. 
 
 Whether in these exact words or not, the farm- 
 ers who visited the legislature, believing them- 
 selves to represent the majority sentiment of the 
 whole state, had in effect been curtly told to mind 
 their own business. They had been informed that 
 the lawyers and other townsmen, with a small 
 sprinkling of farmers, who made up the legisla- 
 ture, considered themselves above advice or orders 
 from their farmer constituents. They had been 
 shown that legislators resented the attempt of a 
 co-operative organization of farmers to get re- 
 sults by lobbying, however they might regard simi- 
 lar activities by railroad or other corporation 
 representatives. 
 
 The farmers, in turn, had become a little 
 familiar with the atmosphere of the legislative 
 community and they were not filled with great 
 respect for it. They had found, also, that lobby- 
 ing was a failure, even when backed by an ex- 
 pression of the will of the majority of the people 
 of the state. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE LEADER FOR THE OCCASION 
 
 When the farmers in convention and delegation 
 were receiving their rebuffs at the hands of the 
 legislature of 1915 and there was rising in them a 
 spirit of rebellion which cried out for action, the 
 man who was to lead them to the effective expres- 
 sion of their spirit of revolt was among their 
 number. 
 
 He was not one of the leaders of their organi- 
 zation. He was not even a member. He was a 
 mere hanger-on at Bismarck — an observer, watch- 
 ing events with a speculative and calculating eye. 
 
 As a farmer under North Dakota conditions he 
 had proved himself a failure. He was, in fact, 
 "broke." He was indeed more than broke. He 
 was in debt for more than one hundred thousand 
 dollars, with scarcely an asset but the shabby 
 clothes which covered his lean figure. 
 
 If any one had considered Arthur C. Townley 
 at that time a person of distinction it would have 
 been "the young fellow that had all that flax out 
 in the Golden Valley and busted when the bottom 
 fell out of the market." His wife and child had 
 been sent away to relatives. He owed banker, 
 merchant and implement man. 
 
 Yet Townley himself knew that he was destined 
 
 45 
 
46 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 for leadership. A true adventurer, a crusader in 
 spirit, lie was preparing himself for a great task. 
 He had dealt at one time in theories; he had 
 grappled later with facts and materials. Now he 
 was preparing himself for the great adventure. 
 He had experimented a little in attempts to per- 
 suade others, and he was almost ready to become 
 a leader of men. 
 
 In 1915 Townley was 35 years old. He was a 
 western farm boy, born in northwestern Minne- 
 sota of native American parents. His parents 
 still live on the farm. 
 
 He had gone to the country school as a small 
 boy and later to high school in Alexandria, Minn., 
 where he was a classmate of the late Carl C. Van 
 Dyke, who at the time of his death was congress- 
 man from the state of Minnesota. 
 
 "I was a Sunday school boy," says Townley, 
 describing his interests in his high school period. 
 He was an industrious and tractable pupil, taking 
 enjoyment in the debates and other forensic ac- 
 tivities which teachers dutifully encourage. 
 
 An event happened to shape his later life. He 
 became acquainted with a philosopher, and 
 through him with two others — ^three wise men. 
 
 The first was a tailor. The youth, * ' Art' ' Town- 
 ley, went to him to have a suit mended and pressed 
 for an occasion. Young Townley was to deliver 
 an oration on prohibition. The tailor showed a 
 friendly interest. He asked questions that drew 
 out the boy's views on economics and swung to- 
 
THE LEADER FOR THE OCCASION 47 
 
 ward religion. The graybearded tailor was 
 Socratie in his method. Townley began to argue. 
 
 "He was a shrewd old fellow," said Townley 
 in speaking of it. "He didn't press his point. 
 When he found he was up against one of my 
 convictions he gave way quickly and led off in 
 another direction." 
 
 This wise man was a ' 'mystic. ' ' He had studied 
 strange and pagan religions. He had two old 
 friends, one a carpenter and another a jeweler. 
 All were philosophers, given to long evenings of 
 reading and discussion of economics, religion and 
 other abstract matters. One was a confirmed 
 materialist, especially a devotee of Spencer's 
 philosophy. Most admired by Townley was the 
 old carpenter, who liked to have Townley read to 
 him from Emerson, both to admire and to dis- 
 agree. He enjoyed argument both with the mystic, 
 questioning the logic of his mysticism, and with 
 the materialist, doubting the soundness of his 
 materialism. The latter was a native American, a 
 veteran of the Civil War. 
 
 These men were Townley 's university. Under 
 their tutelage he left the paths of conventional 
 learning for excursions with the apostles of pro- 
 test and revolt. He, too, began to be a critic of 
 the existing order, but with ambitions. 
 
 For two seasons after his high school gradua- 
 tion Townley taught school in the neighborhood of 
 his parents' home. In that period he read 
 voraciously. 
 
48 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 "Finally," he says, "I grew sick of books. I 
 had read until I felt that I never wanted to see 
 another book. I was tired of writing and theory. 
 I wanted action, 
 
 "I was then as impractical as a man could be. 
 I didn't know anything about business. I didn't 
 laiow anything about dealing with men. I was a 
 helpless bookworm." 
 
 It was then he decided to go further west 
 and "do things." He chose the extreme west- 
 ern county of North Dakota, near the Mon- 
 tana border. He tried farming in the Golden 
 Valley. 
 
 Though he pictures himself as a rather diffident, 
 incapable sort of person at this time, it is evident 
 that he then had the same disposition to lead that 
 is now his chief characteristic. Working with 
 horses was too slow for him. He persuaded other 
 farmers to pool with him in the purchase of a 
 steam tractor and plows. Later he added another 
 and by running the engines — then a novelty in 
 that country — from early daylight until far into 
 the night, he set a plowing record that would be 
 hard to equal. Then, as later, he was impatient 
 with small operations. His passion was to do 
 things in a big way. 
 
 The season was dry and the prospects for a crop 
 began to look slim. He had formed a sort of 
 farming syndicate, with his neighbor farmers 
 working as a crew on one place after the other. 
 A council of desperation was held, with the result 
 
THE LEADER FOR THE OCCASION 49 
 
 that To-wnley witMrew and allowed the others to 
 parcel out what was left of the seed, to divide their 
 equipment and take their own individual chances. 
 As it happened, heavy rains fell shortly after 
 Townley had left the state, and those who had 
 been with him prospered. The following winter 
 ToAWiley spent as a plasterer's helper, wandering 
 over all the northwest from North Dakota to the 
 coast with another young plasterer with the 
 traveling itch in his feet. His companion later 
 became famous as a "big league" professional 
 baseball pitcher. 
 
 Anxious to try again Townley returned to the 
 Golden Valley, where money then was being made 
 in flax. Professor H. L. BoUey of the North Da- 
 kota Agricultural College had developed a wilt- 
 resistant strain of flax which brought about a 
 great boom in the linseed oil industry. Townley 
 had two fairly successful seasons. With each he 
 expanded his holdings to the limit of his ability, 
 reaching out to get more land, until he began to 
 be spoken of as a "flax king," and land agents 
 began to point him out as an example of a highly 
 successful farmer. 
 
 His third season was the disastrous one of 1912, 
 when he had made contracts to purchase a huge 
 acreage of land, had rented other acres and had 
 acquired a large amount of machinery to be paid 
 for out of the crop. 
 
 The season was dry and the crop short, but, 
 worse than that, the price broke sharply under a 
 
50 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 market drive by speculators, and Townley's brief 
 prosperity came down in ruin. 
 
 "A few months before I bad been a good fellow 
 and an able farmer," says Townley, "but after the 
 failure nobody in town wanted to speak to me or 
 to see me. I was a fool, a dub and a crook, and 
 everybody had always known that I was going to 
 blow up sooner or later. All because somebody 
 in Chicago or Minneapolis sought to break some- 
 body else who was buying flax." 
 
 With time on his hands, Townley began to relate 
 his troubles and those of his brother farmers to 
 his economic studies. He found the most sym- 
 pathy for his ambitious desires for reform among 
 the Socialists, and he became active in the Socia- 
 list party movement, though he was then and 
 always has been impatient with much of the 
 Socialist theory and especially impatient with 
 their tendency to extreme theory rather than to- 
 ward action. Accepting most of their criticisms 
 against the existing economic and political order, 
 he achieved the philosophy that the thing to do 
 was to organize on the basis of a simple and prac- 
 ticable program of changes which would be put 
 into execution and tested by experience before 
 proceeding to other, more revolutionary, things. 
 
 The various issues and proposed reforms that 
 had been before the people of North Dakota 
 seemed to him to furnish the basis for a new 
 political alignment that might result in a new 
 economic order. Among these was the state- 
 
THE LEADER FOR THE OCCASION 51 
 
 owned elevator, coupled with the project for state- 
 owned flour mills. The single tax theory, in so far 
 as it applied merely to exemption of farm im- 
 provements, was being discussed and was widely 
 favored. Eural credits on a new basis to reduce 
 exorbitant interest charges were being nationally 
 discussed, and were a particularly live topic in 
 North Dakota, where the farmers had been for 
 years the prey of conscienceless usurers and mort- 
 gage sharks. Over across the line in Canada they 
 had achieved crop insurance on a general taxation 
 basis, and big co-operative organizations had com- 
 pelled the government to assist them by financing 
 elevators and storage warehouses at railroad ter- 
 minal and central points. 
 
 Here were issues made to hand, with a politician 
 class, acting to prove the Socialists' contention 
 that the main province of government is to pro- 
 tect the wealth of the wealthy. 
 
 After more than a year's absence, Townley re- 
 turned to the state and became an organizer for 
 the Socialist party. Shortly after his failure he 
 had once engaged in a series of debates on the 
 subject of Socialism with a lawyer at Beach. He 
 hired the lawyer to debate with him. The debates 
 drew crowds and the verdict of the judges and the 
 audience was in Townley 's favor. He became 
 something of a figure with the local Socialists. It 
 was his first contact with Socialists. He had in 
 his mind, at the time, he confesses, the idea of a 
 new form of organization. 
 
52 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 "At that time I knew little about the Socialists 
 except from reading some Socialist literature," 
 says Townley. "I had never met any of the 
 Socialists at Beach until after I went broke. I 
 .went to the Socialists because I knew there was 
 no hope of getting anything for the farmers from 
 either of the old parties. There seemed to be 
 some sincere men among the Socialists. So I tried 
 to find out what could be accomplished by being 
 a Socialist." 
 
 Townley began to "organize" farmers into the 
 Socialist party. They looked askance at it at first, 
 but as Townley told of the complete failure of the 
 other parties in North Dakota and outlined what 
 could be done through the Socialist organization 
 if it could get control they decided that a man 
 with his enthusiasm deserved to be helped out. 
 
 They were used to being sold things by glib 
 agents and to finding that they had been cheated, 
 but they never had heard a man talk as interest- 
 ingly as this intense young man talked. They 
 wouldn't lose much if nothing came of it; and, be- 
 sides, it was an alluring vision. 
 
 So Republicans and Democrats in numbers be- 
 gan to hand over dues and to find themselves 
 enrolleci in the Socialist party. Townley was 
 tramping from place to place, occasionally getting 
 a "lift," seeing as many farmers as he could in 
 a day. 
 
 Then a new idea evolved. The Ford car was 
 rapidly becoming standard farm equipment. 
 
THE LEADER FOR THE OCCASION 53 
 
 Many of the farmers had them. Others were get- 
 ting them. Gasoline was cheaper than horsefeed 
 and much time was saved. Townley rode with 
 farmers and decided that if he had a Ford he 
 could sign many more members, and pay for the 
 Ford. 
 
 He went to a farmer Socialist of some means. 
 This farmer could not lend him the cash, but he 
 could get it for him. He signed a note and with 
 the note Townley was able to get enough cash to 
 buy the car. 
 
 So Townley worked with the Ford and got many 
 more members. But if one man could do all this, 
 why could not other men? If one Ford car, why 
 not a hundred? 
 
 Townley went to the Socialist state committee 
 at Minot with the problem. 
 
 The state committee had been getting nervous 
 about the extraordinary things this man Townley 
 had been doing. His actions were not conven- 
 tional; they were not regular. Socialists never 
 had done things that way. 
 
 They discussed the matter with many shakings 
 of the head, much as a group of conservative old- 
 fashioned heads of the church might discuss the 
 methods and the doings of some noisy, unconven- 
 tional evangelist. 
 
 The matter was discussed before a state conven- 
 tion of the party, with the result that Townley and 
 the Socialist party mutually agreed to part com- 
 pany. 
 
54 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 "I had enougli support in the convention to 
 have had my plan adopted," said Townley, "but 
 it didn't seem to me there was any use going on. 
 Too many of them didn't want to get anywhere, it 
 seemed to me. In method they were as conserva- 
 tive as the old parties. Offer them a plan by 
 which they could really accomplish something in- 
 stead of merely talking, and they were afraid 
 of it." 
 
 The orthodox among the Socialists, especially 
 the wheel horses of the party, on the other hand, 
 were suspicious of Townley and his methods. 
 They feared — and apparently with good reason, — 
 that it wasn't dyed-in-the-wool Socialism that 
 Townley was spreading among the farmers. They 
 were inclined to believe his converts weren't really 
 Socialists at all. This man Townley with his talk 
 of a "state program" evidently was only an op- 
 portunist, a "yellow-belly," a hated "reformer." 
 
 Thus it happened that Townley was experi- 
 mentally a Socialist, and thus he ceased to be a 
 Socialist. Later efforts to prove that the League 
 was a Socialist enterprise in disguise convinced 
 many, but they never convinced the old-line 
 Socialists in North Dakota. They knew better. 
 
 Having washed his hands of the Socialist party 
 and with a new and totally different plan of action 
 beginning to develop in his mind, Townley went 
 to Bismarck to observe the farmers and the legis- 
 lature. 
 
CHAPTER Vn 
 
 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 Townlet's " hunch" had developed into a definite 
 plan before he quit Bismarck. "What he saw and 
 heard convinced him that the farmers were ready 
 for a new form of organization. They had fol- 
 lowed the trail of their grievances from the farm 
 to the town with its small elevator, its group of 
 little shacks, its marble bank and its country store, 
 and on to the city with its huge grain storage 
 tanks, its Chamber of Commerce or Board of 
 Trade, its big banks and its princes of industry. 
 
 They had seen the missionaries of the bankers 
 and the big businessmen of the cities visiting their 
 local towns and had seen the views of big business 
 in the big town reflected in the actions of little 
 business in the little town. They had been told, 
 ^nd they had become convinced, that political 
 power held their hope of substantial relief. They 
 had attempted to use political power, and they had 
 been put off with promises, finally to be cheated 
 of performance; to be told that a few weeks of 
 "investigation" by a political commission proved 
 faulty the reasoning which had been worked out 
 in more than a decade of discussion. 
 
 They were suspicious of the sincerity and f air- 
 
 55 
 
56 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 ness of the men who now turned against the proj- 
 ect of state ownership. They were more than sus- 
 picious when they found townsmen and a few big 
 farmers in their own state echoing the statements 
 and the opinions of the big operators in the grain 
 market and of the publications which were known 
 to express their views. 
 
 Townley quietly sounded farmer after farmer 
 and he found this attitude of mind firmly fixed in 
 them all. The farmers were ready to desert the 
 old parties and the old political leadership. They 
 were ready to do so with enthusiasm, if anything 
 were offered which held hope of being better. 
 
 Townley was determined to offer them some- 
 thing better. The Nonpartisan League was bom 
 in his brain at the city of Bismarck in February 
 of 1915. 
 
 Among the farmers who gathered at Bismarck 
 at this Equity meeting of 1915 was Fred B. "Wood 
 of Deering, McHenry county, in the north-central 
 part of the state. Wood, a man of about 50 with 
 two grown sons, was prominent in the Equity 
 movement. He was a successful farmer, a man of 
 ability and substance, genial by nature and widely 
 respected; and, moreover, a man who could be 
 trusted to stick to any cause in which he en- 
 rolled. 
 
 Townley had met Wood in the course of his 
 Socialistic organizing. He renewed the acquaint- 
 ance at Bismarck and it was to Wood that he first 
 imparted the outlines of the plan he had in mind. 
 
APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 57 
 
 They had long conferences and Wood at length 
 agreed that he would lend the support of his name 
 and Tyhat influence he had to make the scheme a 
 success, 
 
 "I had told Townley that he could come to our 
 farm when spring broke and I would help him get 
 started," said Wood in one of his very few plat- 
 form speeches. "But the snow wasn't off the 
 ground when one day he showed up. He told me 
 he couldn't wait." 
 
 Another conference ensued, in the Wood farm 
 home. This time Wood's two sons, Howard and 
 Edwin, joined in the talk. Howard is now lieu- 
 tenant governor of North Dakota. Edwin was a 
 speaker and organizer for the League until his 
 death of influenza in 1918, 
 
 The talk, says Wood, senior, lasted most of the 
 night. Early the next day Howard Wood and 
 Townley started out with a team and bobsled 
 to call on the neighbors. The Farmers' Non- 
 partisan Political League of North Dakota had 
 begun organization. 
 
 The day's results were to be a test of the theory. 
 Howard Wood furnished the introductions. 
 Townley did the talking. It was an arrangement 
 that later became a standard of methods in the 
 League organization work. An early convert be- 
 comes a "booster" in his township. He is per- 
 suaded to accompany the organizer and break the 
 ice with his neighbors. Sometimes organizers 
 during the busy seasons of farm work have been 
 
68 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 known to hire a capable farm hand and take him 
 along. The farm hand takes his place on the plow 
 or the hay wagon so that the farmer may have 
 time to hear the organizer talk. Sometimes the 
 farm hand fills in while the farmer goes on a 
 "boosting" excursion with the organizer. 
 
 Townley was a good organizer and Howard 
 Wood a good booster. The League had a dozen 
 members before the day was done. 
 
 And Townley didn't merely talk of what he 
 might do or of what the farmers could do. It 
 wasn't a proposal to join an organization later 
 to be created. 
 
 By no means. The League already existed. 
 Townley had written the program on a piece of 
 paper. He had named himself president and 
 Wood, senior, was vice-president. 
 
 He collected the money. He collected it on the 
 spot. The dues were small at first — $2.50 a year. 
 Later as he began to get an idea of what organi- 
 zation work would cost and found it necessary to 
 fix a schedule of compensation to organizers, 
 Townley changed this to $6 a year, within a year 
 to $9 ; and after the first successful campaign the 
 fee was put on a biennial basis to correspond with 
 the term of state ofiice-b.olding, the amount being 
 made $16 for two years. 
 
 The first day's work was a success. Townley 
 had his League started. There were more en- 
 thusiastic conferences at the Wood home and 
 within a few days a few of the ilrst converts 
 
APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 59 
 
 signed notes to enable Townley to get another car. 
 The car he had used in his Socialist organization 
 days had been sold and the note-givers repaid. 
 
 The books of the League were still in Town- 
 ley's pockets and he was the sole organization 
 force. Soon he decided his idea was a winner, 
 and he began to create his force of organizers. 
 They came from two sources. Some were farmers 
 who were enthusiastic for the scheme and showed 
 ability to talk well. A number were formerly 
 Socialist speakers, organizers or writers. 
 
 The experience in Socialistic proselytizing was 
 an admirable basis for League organization work. 
 The premises, of attack upon existing political 
 parties as useless for the farmers' purpose and of 
 the need of an alliance to grapple with organized 
 "big business" greed, were the same. 
 
 Townley was easily able to convert the "live 
 wires" in the Socialist movement to a belief in a 
 gospel of action and to a tentative political pro- 
 gram which might from one aspect be regarded 
 as only a slight concession to Socialism, but from 
 any other might be viewed as a start in the right 
 direction. He found that Socialists, like other 
 folk, were willing to abandon much theory in the 
 hope of getting some practical result. 
 
 With the first organizer in addition to Townley 
 himself at work, Townley became a man of many 
 affairs. He raised the dues to $6 a year, had 
 receipt blanks and report forms printed, employed 
 ofi&ce help in a temporary office at Minot, in the 
 
60 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 northwestern part of the state, the third city in 
 the state in population. 
 
 An "executive committee" was selected. It 
 was a simple process. Townley selected from 
 among the men he had "organized" five who ap- 
 peared to him suitable and whom Wood and the 
 small force of organizers approved. The names 
 of a score of other farmers who had joined the 
 enterprise were printed on the "program" leaflet 
 as "references." The program, which was prac- 
 tically unchanged from the time of Townley 's 
 first conference with Wood, appeared in printed 
 form. It was as follows : 
 
 State ownership of terminal elevators, flour mills, 
 packing houses and cold storage plants. 
 
 State inspection of grain and grain dockage. 
 Exemption of farm improvements from taxation. 
 State hail insurance on the acreage tax basis. 
 Eural credit banks operated at cost. 
 
 These met the main complaints of the farmers 
 in a simple and succinct way. 
 
 To make the speculator with his thousands of 
 idle acres pay a fair proportion of tax, remove the 
 tax on land improvements, so that the unimproved 
 land would be taxed equally with the improved. 
 To give protection against the most exasperating 
 and unpredictable of natural hazards — hail de- 
 struction of crops — by state insurance which 
 would replace private insurance costing as much 
 
APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 61 
 
 for commissions and "overhead" as it paid out in 
 losses. To meet the demand for farm loans on a 
 reasonable basis by a system of credits like the 
 European plans, under which farmers, having the 
 benefit of lower rates, would in addition be pro- 
 tected against seizures which would rob them of 
 all the fruit of years of effort. Finally, to pro- 
 vide a new system of marketing which would give 
 the state control over grades, insure fair grading 
 and weighing, to guarantee to the farmer the full 
 milling value of his grain, to enable him to hold 
 for higher prices and still, by borrowing on ware- 
 house receipts get the bulk of his money out of 
 the crop, and to create within the state a market 
 for its own products which would build up diversi- 
 fied farming to replace the one-crop system. 
 
 All of these things were certain to "look good" 
 to the farmers. As has been seen, they were not 
 original with Townley. They were the accrued 
 product of several years of discussion. They 
 were the accepted platform of leaders in the 
 farmers' co-operative organizations, and they 
 were approved by learned and scientific authority. 
 
 Yet, even these items were not the central 
 thought in the League's propaganda. With keen 
 foresight, Townley saw that the most important 
 fact about his organization was the fact of organi- 
 zation itself. A political program, lasting for a 
 campaign or two, may win a man's approval and 
 possibly his support ; but it takes an organization 
 of deep common purpose to win his allegiance. 
 
62 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 So, first and last, the organizers talked "organi- 
 zation" to the farmers. 
 
 "We farmers can't get what we want, hecause 
 we are not organized as farmers," they told the 
 men to whom they talked. "The business men 
 have their organizations; the union workingmen 
 have theirs ; the doctors, the lawyers, the editors, 
 all have their organizations, to whi«h they pay 
 dues. The farmers have a common object and a 
 common interest in politics in this state. They 
 never can get what they want from the state 
 government unless they organize as farmers to 
 get it." 
 
 It was an appealing and convincing argument. 
 It might not have been convincing if the politicians 
 had not proved its truth. But they had given 
 dramatic evidence of it. They had shown how an 
 overwhelming demand of the people of the state 
 could be scouted and defied. They had given 
 evidence that they did not fear conventions and 
 lobbies, because they were secure in the belief that 
 the resentment of one year would not be translated 
 into effective action at the polls the next. 
 
 Townley proposed with his Nonpartisan League 
 to translate this resentment into effective action, 
 so by every means possible he kept the issues of 
 the legislative session of 1915 alive. 
 
 Organization work progressed., Names and 
 checks and cash began to roll into the head- 
 quarters at Minot. Townley's organizers, several 
 of them effective platform speakers, held public 
 
APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 63 
 
 meetings. Townley spoke to groups and crowds 
 of farmers whenever they could be gotten to- 
 gether. But, more important still, Townley fre- 
 quently called in his organizers for consultations. 
 At these sessions, methods and arguments were 
 exhaustively discussed. The organizers' meetings 
 became schools of salesmanship. 
 
 "Psychology" is a favored word in League 
 circles. "I don't think it would be good psychol- 
 ogy," is the most frequent objection to an argu- 
 ment or a method of approach. The word was not 
 ignorantly used. The organization methods were 
 and are scientifically practical. They are studied 
 and deliberate. No sales organization ever 
 worked more carefully and intensively with its 
 men than Townley worked with his crew of 
 organizers. 
 
 They tell a story of one of the Minnesota organ- 
 izers. He had been tarred and feathered in one 
 of the communities where, under the guise of 
 patriotic effort, lawless demonstrations against 
 the League had been encouraged in the towns by 
 officials. 
 
 In company with two speakers of the League he 
 was making a trip to a town some distance away. 
 Suddenly he turned to his companions and said : 
 
 "I don't think I'd better go back to W . I 
 
 don't think it would be good psychology." 
 
 His wonder at their shouts of laughter was per- 
 fectly innocent. He was not the only organizer 
 thoroughly willing, in those strenuous Minnesota 
 
64. THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 days, to go boldly back into a town where a vicious 
 mob, posing as a "loyalty" or a "vigilance" com- 
 mittee, bad beaten or tarred and feathered him 
 and threatened him with death if he returned. 
 
 The early days in North Dakota, however, were 
 free of physical danger. The movement grew rap- 
 idly and quietly. Before midsummer there were 
 10,000 names enrolled. When snow flew there 
 were 26,000. 
 
CHAPTER Vin 
 
 " SIX-DOLLAR SUCKERS " 
 
 TowNiiEY and his organizers worked swiftly. It 
 was the task of "headquarters" to increase the 
 force of organizers as rapidly as reliable men 
 conld be had. They were not the sort of men 
 whom the head of an ordinary sales crew would 
 have picked to sell his goods to farmers. They 
 were preferably men who had farmed in North 
 Dakota — and in a majority of cases they were 
 farmers or the sons of farmers. But the indis- 
 pensable requisite was enthusiasm for the work. 
 They must be men willing to fight and to sacrifice 
 for a cause. The devotion and the loyalty they 
 gave to the work could not have been bought for 
 money. It was unpurchasable, as men's best 
 work everywhere is unpurchasable. 
 
 It was work for the common good, as these men 
 saw it, and as they see it today. As they met in- 
 creasing opposition, as they met more and more 
 the hostility which is the lot of every agitator, 
 their work required more and more the courage 
 which is essential to being different and to fighting 
 existing and conventional conditions. Their path 
 became the path of the prophets of new things in 
 all ages, who always have been stoned by their 
 own generation. 
 
 65 
 
66 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUK 
 
 At the start the work of organization was car- 
 ried on as quietly as possible. Townley didn't 
 seek interviews. In fact, he never has been 
 trained to give interviews. He has been fre- 
 quently enough misquoted even in his speeches. 
 In the early months he and his workers intention- 
 ally avoided attracting the attention of a press 
 which they knew would sooner or later attack 
 them. 
 
 This avoidance of publicity, of course, later fur- 
 nished grounds for attack. It was charged that a 
 swindle was being perpetrated on the farmers. 
 Small-town weeklies were the first to discover the 
 movement. How it was received by them may be 
 learned by the following extract from a small-town 
 paper in an issue late in the summer of 1915 : 
 
 "Recently the Ozone referred to the presence in the 
 state of a number of solicitors for membership in some 
 kind of a 'party' which was to be of special advantage 
 to farmers, and who also offered a year's subscription to 
 some paper or magazine as material inducement for join- 
 ing. A fee of $6 was collected from each subscriber. 
 Since then we have learned that two men have been busy 
 around Tuttle and in Wells county, with the scheme, and 
 from the statements of some who paid in cheeks, cash or 
 note, it is more than ever evident that the farmers who 
 took stock in the smooth strangers were too easy victims 
 to a confidence game. In no cage have the strangers 
 sought to interest anybody in towns where they stopped, 
 and it has been noticed that in making even a trifling 
 purchase they always tender $6 checks, cashing them in 
 
" SIX-DOLLAR SUCKERS » 67 
 
 that way. They never go to a bank. Two of their victims 
 have said they had no magazine yet, though a month has 
 elapsed. Neither had any idea of what new 'privileges' 
 they were to gain. Both said they guessed most who 
 paid the $6 did so to 'get rid of the solicitor,' as had been 
 the case with themselves. In one small town one of the 
 strangers was overheard to say to the other: 'We'll get 
 out early in the morning, drive down among those 
 farmers south of here and get their fat.' Only they put 
 it a little stronger. In Wells county a couple of the 
 'six-dollar gang,' as they are called, said that $5 of the 
 $6 would go into a fund for supporting a daily paper in 
 the interests of the new party. The paper was to be at 
 Fargo, and was to come to signers for a year, and to 
 Start in a few days. No one has received a copy. Those 
 who gave notes are now wondering if these will be traded 
 into the hands of innocent purchasers. As before stated, 
 the Ozone believes, with the Fargo papers, that this is 
 only a game for fleecing the unwary, and a possibly bona- 
 fide subscription to a magazine used as a safeguard by 
 the operators. Our belief is that they are operating a 
 questionable scheme, as there is no public knowledge of 
 such a farmers' protective party as they affect to repre- 
 sent, and their avoidance of association or contact with 
 townspeople, and advance dating of receipts are sus- 
 picious." 
 
 This view of the League is typical of the atti- 
 tude taken by many of the weekly newspapers at 
 that time. Their lack of information as to the real 
 purposes of the organization was perhaps excus- 
 able. It was noticeable, however, that the papers 
 which lacked information and were disposed to 
 
68 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 regard the doings of Townley and his men as just 
 another swindle being practised on the farmers 
 were usually those which had been actively hostile 
 to such organizations as the Equity Society and 
 Equity Exchange. There were a number of excep- 
 tions to this attitude. A clipping from the Car- 
 rington Record of September, 1915, reads : 
 
 "Every daily paper in the state with one or two excep- 
 tions is shedding crocodile tears over the fact that the 
 farmers are being 'grafted' for $6 by a group of organ- 
 izers. These same papers are all feeling bad to think 
 that the Equity lets such a 'bad' man as Loftus manage 
 its affairs. But the farmers are taking the position that 
 they are able to manage their own affairs. These papers 
 would feel that the Equity was a delightful little, harm- 
 less pink tea affair if it would but let the Chamber of 
 Commerce and its allies name its officers and conduct its 
 affairs for it. But, thank God, the farmers, as has often 
 been stated, have no intentions of doing anything of the 
 sort. If the farmers get one-fourth value for the $6 they 
 have put in the nonpartisan organization it will be the 
 most profitable $6 they have ever invested." 
 
 As indicated by these clippings, the principal 
 daily papers in the state had by this time begun 
 to "expose" the organization. It was attacked at 
 this time as a swindle being practised upon the 
 farmers, and little credence was given to the 
 theory that it might actually be what its pro- 
 moters were representing to the farmers that it 
 was to be. 
 
"SIX-DOLLAR SUCKERS" 69 
 
 The attacks upon the League preceded any 
 effort to get from its founder or those connected 
 with it a plain statement of the League's plan and 
 purposes. It was regarded with suspicion pri- 
 marily, it appears, because, as expressed by the 
 Steele Ozone in the first paragraph quoted above, 
 "In no case have the strangers sought to interest 
 anybody in towns where they stopped." The 
 small-town editor who maintains a properly re- 
 spectful attitude toward the town banker and the 
 town merchant is counted upon, as a faithful 
 watchdog, to bark when a "stranger," not prop- 
 erly accredited from the town, invades the trade 
 field of which he is guardian. 
 
 The financial methods of the League, adopted 
 early in the game, were an interesting feature of 
 its operation. Eieference is made, in one of the 
 extracts quoted above, to the advanced dating of 
 receipts. This was slightly inaccurate. It was 
 not the receipts given for membership dues which 
 were advanced, or post-dated, but in many cases 
 the checks given in payment of dues. 
 
 It is a condition in the grain districts that the 
 farmer, unless he is unusually weU off, does busi- 
 ness on credit most of the year. In the fall, when 
 his grain goes on the market, he pays his debts or 
 renews his notes when necessary. It was soon 
 found by Townley that farmers were not able to 
 pay out in cash even so small a sum as $6. Some 
 might have balances of a few hundred dollars in 
 the bank, which were offset by notes in round 
 
70 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 sums, and farmers in this situation frequently 
 were unwilling to face the questioning of the small- 
 town banker regarding a check given for political 
 organization purposes. That this apprehension 
 was well grounded was shown by the fact that in 
 many cases North Dakota bankers refused to 
 honor currently dated checks of men having funds 
 in the bank, even in many cases where the maker 
 of the check was in no way indebted to the banker. 
 
 In more than one instance, wealthy farmers 
 withdrew, or threatened to withdraw, their entire 
 balances from the bank before the banker would 
 give in and cash checks given for League mem- 
 berships. 
 
 The post-dated check was an outgrowth of the 
 condition mentioned above. The larger part of the 
 organization work was done in the spring and 
 summer months, during the most stringent part of 
 the credit period, at the time when the farmer had 
 continual demands for money for subsistence, for 
 seed, for machinery, for feed for his stock and for 
 wages for his hired help, with no revenue coming 
 in to meet the demands. The bankers who were 
 his creditors until the harvesting of the crop were 
 thus in a position to supervise his expenditures 
 rather effectively. 
 
 So the League adopted the plan of permitting 
 the farmers to give for membership dues checks 
 whose dating was advanced to a time in the fall 
 when the farmer again would be on a cash basis. 
 These checks formed a large proportion of the 
 
" SIX-DOLLAR SUCKERS " 71 
 
 League's revenue, and it became necessary, in 
 order that operations should continue, to provide 
 means for realizing on them in advance of the date 
 of payment. 
 
 The means were found, though not without 
 some difficulties. The post-dated chtecks were put 
 up as collateral for loans, but it was not found 
 possible to do this until personal notes had been 
 obtained from influential farmers, and these notes 
 became a principal obligation covering the loans 
 thus made. It is obvious that any set of checks 
 thus post-dated would be likely to have a consider- 
 able proportion of defaults. In the case of the 
 League membership checks in North Dakota these 
 defaults ran to approximately 15 per cent. 
 
 Later events showed the sound logic of the plan 
 of the paid-in-advance membership as the basis of 
 building a political organization and also the wis- 
 dom of resorting to these promises to pay — ^which 
 the post-dated checks were — ^in settlement of mem- 
 bership dues. Some months later the hostile press 
 discovered what Townley had reasoned out in ad- 
 vance : that a man with $6 or $9 or $16 at stake, 
 would stand by a political organization, if only 
 to "get the worth of his money" or to convince 
 himself and his neighbors that he had not been 
 cheated. 
 
 What the newspapers quoted had learned in 
 regard to a magazine and a newspaper subscrip- 
 tion embraced in the membership dues was in part 
 correct. An arrangement had, in fact, been made 
 
72 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 with Pearson's magazine to supply all League 
 members with that magazine. In return Pearson's 
 printed a series of articles on the League which 
 were supplied by Charles Edward Russell, In 
 the course of preparation of these articles Rus- 
 sell came into contact with the League and was 
 for some months a valued adviser. He was in 
 North Dakota at the time of the launching of the 
 League's first and "official" publication, the Non- 
 partisan Leader. The arrangement with Pear- 
 son's lasted for a year. 
 
 Included in the membership dues, it was stated 
 in the original receipts, was subscription to an 
 "oflfieial paper" of the League later to be estab- 
 lished. This was the Nonpartisan Leader, which 
 was in fact established in September of 1915. 
 
 The beginning of the publication of the Leader 
 may be said to have marked the end of the first 
 period in the League's history and the beginning 
 of the second. The first was the period of birth 
 and youth, the period of the swift and secret 
 growth of a potent idea and a great movement 
 which burst upon North Dakota and the North- 
 west almost with the effect of having risen over- 
 night. 
 
CHAPTER IS 
 
 PUBLICITY 
 
 The publication of an "official organ" of the Non- 
 partisan League was not an afterthought, but an 
 essential part of Townley's original plans. Its 
 beginning waited only on the gathering of re- 
 sources which would make its continued publica- 
 tion possible. With its appearance the machinery 
 of the organization, as Townley had conceived it, 
 became complete and he had the satisfaction of 
 seeing his scheme in actual operation and making 
 progress fully as rapidly as he could have con- 
 ceived possible. 
 
 He had appropriated to himself a platform of 
 political reforms and of economic reform by politi- 
 cal action which had grown out of the experience 
 of the state, and for which there was a definite 
 public demand. At the moment when public senti- 
 ment found itself foiled by the existing political 
 machinery he had come forward with his new form 
 of political organization to achieve the objects the 
 people had set before themselves. He built upon 
 a class consciousness becoming acute — in a class 
 which constituted a majority of the voting popu- 
 lation. Because his political program dealt with 
 dollars and cents reforms which, it could be 
 
 73 
 
74 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 argued, would mean the prospect of speedy finan- 
 cial profit — his appeal for cash contributions as the 
 basis of membership appeared reasonable and was 
 persuasive. The farmers were used to gambles 
 with the elements and with the market, sometimes 
 waiting for several years to "cash in" on a heavy 
 investment; an investment of $6 to $16, with 
 "economic liberty" at stake, was an attractive 
 proposition. 
 
 With a membership enrolled and the checks or 
 cash in hand it became necessary to provide both 
 active expression of the function of membership 
 and a means of frequent report of the doings of 
 the organization. 
 
 Until the political campaign should open these 
 two needs could be met only by the publication of 
 a League "organ." By it the members of the 
 League could be put in touch with each other, the 
 purposes of the organization could be explained 
 further, and, in short, the membership could be 
 "kept sold on the proposition." 
 
 With these purposes the Nonpartisan Leader 
 made its appearance on September 23, 1915. It 
 was on newsprint paper, but of half newspaper 
 size, with sixteen pages. Its more noticeable fea- 
 tures were three cartoons, including a large cover 
 page cartoon, by John M. Baer, a North Dakota 
 artist, more than a dozen half-tone pictures of the 
 earliest League members, and a noticeable prefer- 
 ence for large type and plain, crisp statement. 
 These features reflected the influence of Charles 
 
PUBLICITY 75 
 
 Edward Russell, who prepared much of the matter 
 for the early editions, as well as the preferences 
 of Townley himself. With the first publication of 
 the Leader, the organizer and president of the 
 League began a close study of publicity methods, 
 which has made him one of the most searching 
 critics, from the standpoint of publicity effective- 
 ness, of the Leader and other publications affili- 
 ated with the League. 
 
 The first page cartoon of the first issue of the 
 Leader was a telling representation of the 
 League's attitude and purposes. It showed "Big 
 Biz," a fat plutocrat, standing at a work bench 
 with draw-shave in hand, modeling out wooden 
 figures labeled ' * Governor, " " Judge, " " Senator ' ' 
 and "Legislator." A stalwart individual in 
 farmers' dress is laying his hand on the shoulder 
 of ' ' Big Biz ' ' with the words, ' ' You 're fired ! I '11 
 do this job myself!" The latter character is 
 labeled "Nonpartisan League." 
 
 The foreword of the publication was printed 
 under this cartoon. It read : 
 
 THE THINGS THIS JOURNAL STANDS FOR 
 
 This journal belongs to the farmers of the Northwest. 
 
 It is founded by them to voice their protest against 
 unjust and unrighteous conditions — ^to voice that protest 
 and make it count. 
 
 The farming class does the hardest work and gets pro- 
 portionately the smallest return. 
 
 This is the result of conditions that will never be 
 
76 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 changed or bettered until farmers, organized for their 
 own protection, make their power and numbers felt at 
 the polls and in government. 
 
 That is why the Farmers' Nonpartisan Organization 
 League came into being. It has no idea of starting a new 
 party ; it seeks only to secure union and organized effort 
 that the farmers may secure their just share of repre- 
 sentation in the affairs of government. 
 
 The League is publishing The Leader to help that 
 cause. 
 
 If you believe in justice and true democracy, come and 
 join hands with us. We start the Leader with the 
 largest subscription list any journal ever began with in 
 this state. We have gone far enough to see opening be- 
 fore us an inspiring prospect of achievement and use- 
 fulness. If all the friends of fair play will unite with 
 us we shall surely make a new day in the history of 
 agriculture in the Northwest. 
 
 Read this paper from week to week. You will see in 
 it how great is the opportunity to turn injustice into 
 justice that shall endure for us and our children. 
 
 This first number of the Leader reviewed the 
 story of the previous legislative session and of the 
 refusal of the legislature to comply with the de- 
 mands of the farmer delegations for the terminal 
 elevator and other projects, and it outlined the 
 purposes of the League, It contained also re- 
 prints of dispatches and comment showing huge 
 profits made by railroad promoters, grain market 
 speculators and others, and comparing their deal- 
 ings with the dealings of the farmer. One article 
 points out that "practically all" of the 35 men in 
 
PUBLICITY 11 
 
 the lower house of the legislature who favored the 
 measures asked by the farmers' organizations 
 were themselves farmers, and dwells on the mis- 
 take of electing to office men who are ^he "friends 
 of the farmers" only while they are candidates. 
 It outlines a better way : 
 
 "Instead of several hundred farmers spending their 
 time and money petitioning friends of the corporations 
 after election to do something for them, it would be much 
 more effective for all the farmers to spend a little time 
 and money before election investigating the business con- 
 nections and records of the men who want to be elected. 
 They have determined to organize and make a united 
 effort to find out who are their friends before they send 
 them to Bismarck." 
 
 There were in this issue the pictures of four- 
 teen men who were among the first members of the 
 League. All were residents of McHenry county 
 in the vicinity of Deering, the home of the Wood 
 family and the birthplace of the League. Among 
 them is John N. Hagan, a native American of 
 Irish descent, who came to North Dakota to visit 
 relatives while in the midst of a college course 
 and stayed to become a school teacher and later a 
 farmer. Hagan was one of the League's first 
 candidates for state office. He was commissioner 
 of agriculture in 1916 and was re-elected to that 
 office in 1918. Of the fourteen whose pictures 
 and brief biographies are printed, three are 
 natives of Norway, while all the others are Ameri- 
 
78 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 can born. Their names are Morrison, Thomas, 
 Linbo, Trudell, Johnston, McDonald, Barnes, 
 Fast, Olson, Hagan, Hoff, Erickson, Livingston 
 and McCoy. 
 
 In fact, the names and nativity of those most 
 active and enthusiastic in the League at this time, 
 as well as later, furnish small ground for the ac- 
 cusation that the League carried on its propa- 
 ganda among aliens and the alien-bom, and that 
 those whom it incited to political action had no 
 real sympathy with nor understanding of Ameri- 
 can institutions. 
 
 The native American of farmer forebears 
 greeted the League plan with enthusiasm. An 
 organization to make the ballot more effective in 
 the interests of the majority class seemed to him 
 reasonable and proper. The foreign-bom were 
 far harder to convince. 
 
 Another interesting feature of the first number 
 of the Leader was the reply to the attacks of the 
 press of North Dakota. This was in the form of 
 an editorial article signed by Charles Edward 
 Eussell. Pointing to instances of the use by great 
 corporations of their power over publications to 
 cause matter to be printed which would favorably 
 affect their cause or which would destroy a popu- 
 lar movement, Russell warned the farmers that 
 they could expect the same weapon to be used 
 against them. 
 
 "Look out for it," he warned. "You have 
 launched in a just and honest way a just and 
 
PUBLICITY 79 
 
 honest cause. Do not believe anything you read 
 about it unless you read it in your own journal or 
 in journals that you know are absolutely with 
 you." 
 
 Townley and his associates were wise enough to 
 feel sure that their opponents would be able to 
 muster the strength of the greater part of the 
 influential press and they prepared to discount the 
 attack. 
 
 They knew that even the so-called "country 
 paper" is, in fact, a small-town paper ; that it lives 
 on the sufferance of the small-town banker and 
 business man. This is especially ttue in a state 
 like North Dakota, where the newspapers had 
 been "helped" by laws fixing high rates for legal 
 printing and multiplying the number of journals 
 in which "official publication" must be made. 
 The effect of these laws was to breed a swarm of 
 insignificant and needless publications which 
 quarreled over the crumbs of support which the 
 small town and even crossroads community could 
 eke out to keep them alive. A "country paper" 
 of large circulation can exist with very little ad- 
 vertising. Those with very small circulations are 
 almost wholly dependent on the sale of space to 
 advertisers to take care of their proportionately 
 larger "overhead." The laws in "aid" of the 
 press reduced the press, in fact, to a condition of 
 beggarly subserviency. Here and there a few 
 dared to refuse chains. 
 
 Knowing these things, Townley had no illusions 
 
80 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 of insuring himself against press attack. He knew 
 the leading citizens of the towns would fight him 
 and that their papers would do the same. So he 
 prepared a backfire. "Tainted news" and "the 
 kept press" have become familiar terms in North 
 Dakota. 
 
 The first issue of the Leader also printed a num- 
 ber of letters from farmer members of the League. 
 This practice was continued in later numbers. 
 The letters showed a spirit of real enthusiasm. It 
 was soon found that they were even more effective 
 than the most eloquent editorial in developing the 
 same spirit in other farmers. During the succeed- 
 ing winter there was such a flood of letters that 
 it became impossible to print even extracts from 
 all of them, though pages were devoted to that 
 purpose. 
 
 The Leader was thus fulfilling its mission. It 
 was showing the farmers that their League was a 
 reality; it was educating them in the League pur- 
 poses ; it was reminding them of the ills they had 
 suffered ; it was keeping up contact between them, 
 and developing a reliable and speedy means of 
 communication. 
 
 The farmers were highly appreciative. Few 
 publications anywhere have been so thoroughly 
 ajid completely read from cover to cover by so 
 large a proportion of their subscribers as the Non- 
 partisan Leader. In that respect it has been 
 unique among "official organs." 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE ENEMY OPENS FIRE 
 
 It is not necessary to make an apology for the use 
 of war terms in a description of the political battle 
 wMcli the Nonpartisan League has waged and 
 which has been waged against it. They have 
 abounded in the League's publicity matter at a 
 time when they were naturally expressive. The 
 farmers, also, liked the simile of battle. 
 
 It was in the winter of 1915-16, then, that the 
 troops of the enemy were sighted and the first 
 skirmish began. There had been some desultory 
 sniping on the part of the weekly press in the 
 state and a round or two fired by the daily papers, 
 but the concentrated attack did not develop until 
 the first season's organization work had been 
 done. 
 
 The Grand ForJcs Herald, published at Grand 
 Forks, the second city in the state — (it has a popu- 
 lation of about 15,000 and would scarcely be called 
 a "city" in any but a sparsely populated state) 
 was one of the first active enemies of the League 
 and has been a consistent fighter of the organiza- 
 tion. It is published by "Jerry" (J. D.) Bacon, a 
 man of intense convictions and a violent partisan. 
 Early in the history of the League he conceived a 
 
 81 
 
82 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 strong antagonism toward the plan and toward 
 its leaders. He has been active in the organiza- 
 tion of various "Good Government Leagues," 
 "voters' associations" and other organizations to 
 combat the League, has published at least two 
 pamphlets containing compilations from his news- 
 papers of his attacks on the League, and is known 
 to have conferred with many men from other 
 states into which the League later spread, giving 
 them advice and information with which to combat 
 the farmers' movement in their states. Concern- 
 ing this activity. League publicity men have been 
 disposed to be facetious. They point to the degree 
 of success the Grand Forks publisher has had in 
 his own state as evidence of how far his efforts 
 will go in other states. 
 
 The Grank Forks publisher was aided in the 
 attack by L. T. Guild, a retired Methodist minister 
 who was the editor and principal owner of the 
 Courier-News, a morning paper published at 
 Fargo. This paper continued a rather venomous 
 campaign against the League for a year. In Sep- 
 tember of 1916, Rev. Mr. Guild, in the face of 
 heavy loss in circulation, tired of the battle and 
 sold his interest to two young newspaper men 
 from another state. They, in turn, within two 
 months sold their control of the property to the 
 Nonpartisan Publishing Company, the partner- 
 ship which represented the League in the publi- 
 cation of the Nonpartisan Leader. 
 
 The League thus came into control of a daily 
 
THE ENEMY OPENS FIRE 83 
 
 newspaper of considerable circulation. In spite 
 of rather determined efforts on the part of in- 
 fluential Fargo men to deprive it of business, it 
 remains in the possession of the League publish- 
 ing concern, has a much larger circulation than it 
 had during the former regime, and is successfully 
 and profitably operated. 
 
 A third daily newspaper opponent of the 
 League in the early days and later, as well, was 
 the Bismarck Tribune, the one daily newspaper 
 published at the state capital. This paper nomi- 
 nally has been under various ownerships in four 
 years, but generally has been controlled by a 
 Bismarck banker and his associates. 
 
 A fourth newspaper foe of some importance has 
 been Normanden, a paper published at Grand 
 Forks in the Norwegian language and appearing 
 twice weekly. 
 
 This battery of newspaper opposition began a 
 steady fire of attack in the winter of 1915-16, 
 which has continued practically without cessation 
 or intermission for four years. In that time it has 
 taken a shot at every man and every measure pro- 
 posed by the farmers' organization. Their attack 
 has been marked by a bitterness seldom witnessed 
 in a political campaign. 
 
 The first line of attack was to warn the farmers 
 against the "smooth strangers" who were getting 
 their money, telling them that they were not likely 
 to see again either it or the individuals who were 
 holding out to them such rosy hopes of political 
 
84 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 control through a fanners' organization. As the 
 League gathered greater headway and informa- 
 tion began to drift in as to the personnel of the 
 organizing force, it was recognized that several 
 had formerly been active in the Socialist party of 
 the state. Then the attack began to center upon 
 advertising the movement as "Socialism." The 
 anti-religious aspects of much of the genuine 
 Socialist propaganda were emphasized. League 
 organizers, Townley 's associates, were referred to 
 as "atheists," "freelovers" and anarchists. 
 
 It was not long before open public speaking be- 
 came one of the League's devices for winning 
 members. Some of the ablest speakers were men 
 with whom Townley had come into touch in his 
 work with the Socialist party and whom he had 
 persuaded to desert Socialism for the promise of 
 speedier action in the League. 
 
 Among these men was A. E. Bowen, a young 
 man of about Townley 's age, who, like Townley, 
 had spent several years teaching school before he 
 had drifted into political agitation. He had been 
 a candidate for governor on the Socialist ticket. 
 Bowen was a remarkably able platform speaker, 
 and among the most effective of the organizers. 
 He had come into touch with Townley early in the 
 movement ; and he is given credit by Townley for 
 many suggestions influencing the plans of the 
 organization. Others who had been identified with 
 the Socialists included J. Arthur Williams of 
 Grand Forks and 0. M. Thomason, who had been 
 
THE ENEMY OPENS FIRE 85 
 
 editor for a time of a Socialist paper at Minot. 
 These two and Bowen were among the effective 
 platform force of the League in its early days; 
 their presence threw Townley's previous Socia- 
 listic affiliations into the foreground. 
 
 Later other men, whose dreams of a different 
 —and, to their minds, a better— social order had 
 taken them first into and then out of the Socialist 
 party, were recruits to the movement. Their 
 former Socialistic afQliation furnished support to 
 the charge that the League was "disguised 
 Socialism." 
 
 Fault was found by the newspaper critics of the 
 League with its form of organization. "It is not 
 democratic," said Normanden, and "Who elected 
 Townley president?" inquired the Grand Forks 
 Herald. All wanted to know what was being done 
 with the money, the farmers' money collected for 
 dues. All wanted to know by whom the accounts 
 were to be audited and who was to control the 
 expenditures. 
 
 It must be admitted that the whole form of 
 organization of the League, while having its 
 peculiar elements of strength, was left open to this 
 line of attack. It had been foreseen by Townley 
 and his associates, and preparation had been made 
 to answer it. 
 
 It was Townley's fixed determination, made 
 after mature deliberation, to keep the organiza- 
 tion strictly in his own hands and the hands of the 
 men whom he should select as his advisers, until 
 
86 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 the "idea" had been proved a success or a failure. 
 It was his plan to have the control at the start as 
 well-centered, and the organization as flexible as 
 that commanded by the chairman of a great 
 national campaign for one of the old established 
 parties, who is not hampered by directors' meet- 
 ings while he is carrying on a campaign. He in- 
 tended that affairs should move and move swiftly. 
 He did not intend to waste time with formalities, 
 with parliamentary meetings and the machinery 
 of conventional organization, little understood by 
 the farmers, but suited to the purposes of the am- 
 bitious small politician who might attach himself 
 to the movement. 
 
 Townley intended that his own position, and 
 that of his own executive committee, should be 
 well safeguarded while he was attempting to 
 prove what could be done with his plan. 
 
 "Suppose I should call for an election now," 
 said Townley when the League was less than a 
 year old. "What would be the result? Some op- 
 posing candidate for president would rise within 
 the organization. Newspapers would advertise 
 his candidacy. They would do their best to build 
 up a faction supporting him. We should have 
 polities within the League and the League's state 
 campaign would be stopped before we could get 
 to first base." 
 
 In a speech at Grand Forks in 1917 Townley 
 devoted a few words to answering the question of 
 who elected him president. The speech itself af- 
 
THE ENEMY OPENS FIRE 87 
 
 fords an excellent example of Townley's platform 
 style. The following extract is given as reported 
 by a stenographer employed by the League: 
 
 "By the way, I want to be very frank with you this 
 afternoon. The Grand Forks Hemld, and the gang in 
 the senate that killed 44 (House Bill 44 of the 1917 ses- 
 sion, one of the important League measures) , and Ever- 
 son down here, and all the fellows that oppose this 
 organization, say that I was not elected president of the 
 League. 
 
 "They want to know what right I have got to call 
 myself president of the Nonpartisan League. I am going 
 to be very frank with you and explain what right I have. 
 "When Howard and his father and two or three more of 
 us found that this thing would go, after I had been 
 organizing for four or five days and put on everybody 
 we saw during that time ; we saw that it would be neces- 
 sary to have some kind of committee to take care of it. 
 
 "We didn't have automobiles and gasoline enough to 
 go to all the farmers in the state, and to Jerry Bacon 
 and the Grand ForJcs Herald, to ask them who this com- 
 mittee should be. 
 
 "So we got busy and picked out a committee. The 
 old gentleman named five men that we knew, and asked 
 this little group of farmers if they thought these men 
 would be aU right. By the way, Howard was to be a 
 member of that committee to begin with, because at 
 first, the old gentleman did not know whether he wanted 
 to or not, so Howard was proposed as such a member 
 of the committee. Mr. "Wood was suggested as treasurer 
 and vice-president. So we took a piece of paper and 
 wrote the League program on it; and wrote the names 
 of this committee here up at the top ; and because I had 
 
88 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 the idea they named me as chairman of the committee 
 and -wrote my name on there as president. 
 
 "And then when we went to the farmers we showed 
 them these names and said the League would be carried 
 on under the direction of this committee. And there 
 was a clause there that said in so many words that the 
 management of the funds was to be in the hands of that 
 committee. 
 
 "And this fellow, and this fellow (pointing to men in 
 the audience) and every one who joined the League, read 
 the program and those names and signed up and paid 
 his money. And I have got a kind of a foolish idea that 
 all of those men who signed that paper voted for me at 
 that time. I don't know of any one that voted against 
 me. 
 
 "And we have got the names of 40,000 farmers, in 
 their own handwriting, on this paper, subscribing to this 
 program and to those men to carry out that program. I 
 think that was a pretty fair election." 
 
 A voice: "Yes." 
 
 "About as good as we could accomplish at that time, 
 with the machinery we had. Of course, it might have 
 been better to have got 4,000 or 5,000 farmers to come 
 down to Grand Forks and hold a convention; but we 
 could not have convinced them at that time that they 
 ought to come. 
 
 "I will tell you who would have been here if we had 
 tried to do that. There would have been about half a 
 dozen politicians and corporation lawyers, and a news- 
 paper man or two. But you farmers would not have 
 come. We had to show you first that something should 
 be done, before you would come. Now that is how I 
 came to be president of the committee and how these 
 other men came to be members of the committee. 
 
THE ENEMY OPENS FIRE 89 
 
 "Last winter when we had a convention down in 
 Fargo, there were a great many ambitious people outside 
 of the organization who wanted an election of officers. 
 And most prominent among the men that wanted an 
 election were Dr. Guild of the Courier-News and Jerry 
 Bacon of the Grand Forks UercUd,. 
 
 "And they have been wanting an election ever since. 
 They want one today." 
 
 This speech, in 1917, when the League was two 
 years old, was the first complete reply made by 
 Townley on this point. The League's defense in 
 general against all charges was to attack. Town- 
 ley was never a believer in being on the defensive. 
 The Nonpartiscm Leader wasted little space in 
 replying to the charges of Socialism and boss con- 
 trol of the League. It did devote considerable 
 space to the motives of the newspapers and men 
 who made the attacks. It wanted to know what 
 the publishers who were attacking the League had 
 ever done to remedy the abuses from which the 
 farmers suffered. It asked why it should be neces- 
 sary for the farmers to get instructions from 
 bankers or publishers on how to organize. To the 
 complaint of some critics that their quarrel was 
 not with the farmers nor their organization but 
 with the character of the leadership the reply was 
 made that these were the tactics of the enemies of 
 any cause. 
 
 The League had an advantage in the fact that 
 its principal opponents had been in the forefront 
 of battles against other farmers' organizations. 
 
90 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 Just a few months before suit had been brought in 
 the endeavor to force the Equity Exchange into 
 bankruptcy. 
 
 During the trial the connection between the at- 
 tack on the co-operative company, ostensibly 
 brought in the interest of stockholders, and the 
 Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce was made 
 plain. The same newspapers which had exploited 
 the troubles of the Equity were in full cry after 
 the League. Loftus had been attacked in almost 
 the identical language with which Townley was at- 
 tacked. Farmers who had joined the League 
 were, in a large percentage of cases, also members 
 of the Equity Society and stockholders in the 
 Equity Exchange, They found the same persons 
 fighting the League as had fought the Equity. 
 They recognized them as enemies not to be be- 
 lieved, but to be fought. 
 
 So the farmers began writing letters to the pub- 
 lishers of the opposition papers. They sent copies 
 of the letters to the Nonpartisan Leader and some 
 were published. The circulations of the daily 
 papers fighting the League began to fall off amaz- 
 ingly in the rural districts. Some indignant and 
 energetic farmers seem to have gone about get- 
 ting signatures to letters of protest and ap- 
 parently canvassing readers to stop their sub- 
 scriptions to the "Old Gang" papers. 
 
 It is certain that in the first winter of the 
 League's existence, when it was a new thing and 
 so of absorbing interest to the farmers, the at- 
 
THE ENEMY OPENS FIRE 91 
 
 tacks of the opposition press served to keep wide 
 awake the spirit of loyalty to the organization, 
 served to stimulate a fighting temper, and did 
 more than any other influence to weld the mem- 
 bers into a genuine organization, with a feeling of 
 comradeship and allegiance. Reading the attacks 
 upon the League, writing letters in reply, discuss- 
 ing them with neighbors, supplied the proper ac- 
 tivity to make membership in the League seem an 
 active function. 
 
 The members of the League were further ac- 
 quainted with their duties and responsibilities 
 and the purpose of their organization by a compre- 
 hensive series of meetings during this first winter. 
 
 These meetings were held at town halls, in dis- 
 trict schoolhouses, sometimes in bams — anywhere 
 farmers could come by sleigh or wagon for a 
 gathering in midwinter. The meetings were ad- 
 dressed by Townley and members of his force of 
 organizers, the subjects always being various 
 aspects of the League's program and the League's 
 plan to put the government in the hands of the 
 people. 
 
 Many of the men who were thus sent out to hold 
 meetings had been totally inexperienced in public 
 speaking until they became organizers for the 
 League. Several were farmers' boys with only a 
 scant common school education. To a newcomer 
 the development of natural oratory in these 
 speakers was one of the most interesting features 
 of the whole movement. 
 
92 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 These men faced audiences which were often 
 in considerable part hostile. Townspeople had 
 already heard through the newspapers of this 
 "radical" movement among the farmers, and 
 were prepared to frown upon it as a rude, rebel- 
 lious manifestation. The farmers who came to 
 hear were often suspicious. The meetings were 
 in many instances a break into new territory. 
 
 Under such conditions, a man, though he might 
 not have grace of manner nor fluency of language, 
 must have an interesting story to tell and he must 
 speak to the point. 
 
 The story was an interesting one, and the men 
 were themselves so interested in it and so ab- 
 sorbed in its advocacy, that they often were as 
 convincing as the most eloquent of evangelists. 
 The winter's series of meetings resulted in a con- 
 siderable increase in League memberships and, 
 more important, maintained the morale of the 
 organization. They prepared for the big job of 
 the year, the capture of the state in the general 
 elections of 1916. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 CHOOSING THE CANDIDATES 
 
 The League plan of action for the capture of the 
 state on behalf of the farmers began to develop 
 early in 1916. The first step was the holding of 
 township or election precinct caucuses. These 
 were held throughout the state on February 22 — 
 Washington's birthday. 
 
 For several issues before this date the Non- 
 partisan Leader carried notices of the caucuses 
 and a general appeal to all members of the League 
 to attend them. 
 
 These furnished the first occasion for direct 
 exercise by the League members of the privilege 
 of membership, and were, in fact, the one occasion 
 when League membership constituted the power 
 to act. Li these caucuses the individual member 
 was given his representation in the selection of 
 candidates. While the promotion or "organiza- 
 tion" end of the League activity was concentrated 
 in the hands of Townley and his executive com- 
 mittee, every member had a vote. in. the process by 
 which candidates were chosen. 
 
 In the Leader, and through letters, great stress 
 was laid on the precinct meetings and the im- 
 portance of the action to be taken there. Townley 
 
 93 
 
94. THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 himself very carefully drafted a series of letters 
 to the members which were printed in the Leader 
 and which sought to make plain the spirit in which 
 the caucuses were to be approached. Townley 
 felt that in a large measure the attendance at these 
 caucuses and their results would show the success 
 or failure of the League in its first campaign. 
 General participation of the membership and an 
 amicable series of meetings, and the selection of 
 men without political ambitions of their own, 
 would mean that the League was in a fair way to 
 attain its purposes, A small attendance, manipu- 
 lation of the meetings by the friends of candi- 
 dates, and other symptoms of orthodox political 
 party caucuses, would mean that the League held 
 no new and unique significance for the farmer, and 
 that it could never hope to gain what it had set 
 out to gain. 
 
 Very strongly the League president warned the 
 members against permitting politicians to worm 
 their way into the caucuses. He instructed the 
 members to defeat any man who sought to get 
 himself elected a delegate to the legislative dis- 
 trict convention. The election of the one delegate 
 from each voting precinct to the district conven- 
 tion which was to be held in each of the forty-nine 
 legislative districts in the state was the single duty 
 to be performed by the precinct caucus. 
 
 "Avoid the politician who seeks office, for he usually, 
 though he may not admit it, seeks it for himself and not 
 
CHOOSING THE CANDIDATES 95 
 
 for the good that he may do for all the people. Avoid 
 also the men who may be too friendly with bankers, 
 middlemen and big business, for they may betray you." 
 
 So wrote Townley, in his "Call to Patriotic 
 Action" published in the Leader of February 10, 
 1916. Further, he explained the responsibility 
 that would devolve upon the delegates : 
 
 "A heavy and sacred duty will rest upon these dele- 
 gates. Heretofore, when you went to the polls you have 
 had no way of knowing about the fitness of the candi- 
 dates for the different offices. Usually they were all 
 politicians seeking office for the benefit the office would 
 bring to them, and if two or three good men were candi- 
 dates the farmer vote would be split between them and 
 some smooth grafter would be elected. 
 
 "Now these delegates, from each precinct, will act as 
 a committee to investigate the fitness of the candidates 
 for office. They will learn which of the men who want 
 your votes are sincere in their professions of friendship 
 for the farmers and the people of the state, and if none 
 for any given office, in the judgment of these delegates, 
 are sincere they will fltnd some one who is and recom- 
 mend that you support him at the polls. 
 
 "So if you select for precinct delegates, strong, level- 
 headed men — ^men who geek nothing for themselves, but 
 only the good that they may do for you — then will the 
 men whom they indorse to make your laws be men upon 
 whom you can depend, and when these men take up the 
 affairs of this state they will have only one purpose— the 
 greatest good for the greatest number." 
 
 It is obvious that upon the character of the men 
 selected at these precinct meetings was dependent 
 
96 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 the spirit and attitude of the conventions them- 
 selves, what sort of reports of these conventions 
 would go back to the membership, and the hearti- 
 ness of the support to be given to the candidates 
 for oflSce selected. There are more than 1,800 
 voting precincts in North Dakota, and Townley 
 could not hope to control the precinct meetings in 
 selecting delegates. He could do no more than 
 give the farmers his point of view on what he 
 expected them to do. 
 
 The reports that began to come into League 
 headquarters at Fargo a few days after Wash- 
 ington's birthday were one of the first great 
 causes for jubilation in the League camp. Every 
 precinct in the state where there were Leagnie 
 members reported, through the secretary elected 
 at the caucus, the results of the meeting. The 
 reports, usually laboriously written by fingers un- 
 used to holding a pencil, were that nearly all the 
 League members in the precinct — in a great many 
 cases every one of them — were present at the 
 caucus. Many wrote letters telling how men who 
 appeared to be seeking the honor of election as 
 delegate were rejected because the members 
 realized the importance of keeping the "self- 
 seekers" out. 
 
 In a very large percentage of cases the farmers 
 chosen for delegates were men who had protested 
 vigorously that they knew nothing about polities 
 and they thought some man of more experience 
 ought to be chosen. There were many letters 
 
CHOOSING THE CANDIDATES 97 
 
 showing how the members had labored with the 
 man elected to convince him that it was his duty 
 to the cause to overcome his modesty and act. 
 
 These meetings were a noteworthy experience 
 to the men who attended them. For most of them 
 it was their first participation in the preliminaries 
 of a political campaign, their first adventure in 
 the actual selection of candidates. Before they 
 had gone no deeper than the vote in the general 
 election; or, at the most, the vote in the direct 
 primary. Native Americans were actually tak- 
 ing part, often for the first time, in the really 
 significant steps of democratic, representative 
 government. Foreign-born Americans for the 
 first time were realizing the power which the 
 American citizen could exercise under the law 
 in the choice of the men who were to make his 
 laws and assist in shaping his government. 
 
 There was truth in the League's claim that for 
 the first time in the history of the state, at least, 
 representative government was being taken out 
 of the hands of a politician class to be put directly 
 Snto the hands of the voter. "With all the criti- 
 cism of "autocracy" in this new farmers' move- 
 ment, its enemies failed to point out any state in 
 the Union where so large a percentage of voters 
 was taking part in a representative political con- 
 vention. 
 
 By March 1 the reports were in from all the 
 precinct caucuses. There was then a complete 
 record at League headquarters of the men who 
 
98 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 were considered by their fellow-members to be 
 the trusted leaders in their communities. This 
 was also a list of the men who would choose the 
 candidates for the legislature and the members 
 of the state convention who, in turn, were to 
 choose the candidates for state oflSce. 
 
 The League had no state ticket. Neither Town- 
 ley, the members of the state committee, nor any 
 of Townley's advisers at state headquarters had 
 men in mind for the important state nominations. 
 Newspapers were busily guessing the men to be 
 indorsed by the League. 
 
 One candidate for governor had already run 
 afoul of the League machine, and had been badly 
 bumped. He was the publisher of a string of four 
 weekly newspapers in the western part of the 
 state. He had written a letter to a farmer in 
 Minot prominent in the Equity movement and 
 known to be a member of the League asking him 
 to "try and get on the delegation to the county 
 convention and also to the state convention." He 
 added that he was "very anxious to secure the 
 indorsement of the League." 
 
 The League member promptly sent the letter 
 in to headquarters; It was prominently repro- 
 duced in the Leader with the comment that this 
 was an example of the very effort on the part of 
 the politician class against which they were being 
 warned. The publication of the letter ended this 
 man's hope of becoming governor. His newspa- 
 pers immediately turned from a friendly attitude 
 
CHOOSING THE CANDIDATES 99 
 
 toward tlie League to one of active opposition, 
 thus enabling the Nonpartisan League to point a 
 further moral. 
 
 The legislative district conventions, which fol- 
 lowed the precinct caucuses, furnished material 
 for further criticism of the League. These con- 
 ventions were not all held on one day, hut at dif- 
 ferent dates in the month of March. One of the 
 purposes of this was, as charged by the opposition 
 press, that Townley might have a representative 
 from headquarters, one of his organization and 
 speaMng force, at each of the meetings. 
 
 This, said the opposition, was so arranged that 
 Townley might dominate and "hand pick" his 
 state convention. The delegates themselves did 
 not so regard it. They were ignorant of the pro- 
 cedure to be followed and they were green in poli- 
 tics. They wanted education in how they were to 
 act to confound their political enemies, and they 
 welcomed and approved the addresses and instruc- 
 tions which Bowen and the other trusted League 
 lieutenants gave them. 
 
 One delegate, however, among all the 1,500 or 
 more who attended the conventions, was violently 
 displeased at the arrangement and at the actions 
 of Bowen, who was the League representative at 
 the Traill county convention. This man was a 
 small-town storekeeper as well as a farmer. He 
 hjiid been active in politics as a member of the 
 Progressive party in past campaigns. He wanted 
 to go to the legislature again as a League repre- 
 
100 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 sentative. According to Bowen's story of the 
 affair, he discovered that this man was actively 
 canvassing the delegates to land the job for him- 
 self. Bowen promptly engaged in coimter- 
 propaganda, and in his address to the convention, 
 without naming the man, but leaving none in doubt 
 as to whom he meant, denounced this sort of ac- 
 tivity as foreign to the spirit of the League. 
 
 This man on one ballot got one vote and on the 
 second two. He left the convention and there- 
 after joined the ranks of the League's opponents 
 and became another "object lesson" for the use 
 of League speakers. His story of the "domina- 
 tion" of the League district conventions by 
 Townley was widely published by the opposition 
 press. 
 
 With the holding of the last of these conven- 
 tions, all occurring within the first three weeks of 
 March, the greater part of the work of selecting 
 candidates was accomplished. There had been 
 chosen the candidates for the lower house of the 
 state legislature, from one to four in number, de- 
 pending on the population of the legislative dis- 
 trict, and one candidate for the state senate in 
 each of the odd-numbered districts. The latter 
 were twenty-five in number, senators being 
 elected for four years, and half of the forty-nine 
 members holding over each term. 
 
 It would require the election of a majority of 
 the candidates for the lower house to dominate 
 that chamber, and the election of all of the can- 
 
CHOOSING THE CANDIDATES 101 
 
 dictates for the senate to control that body, unless 
 support for the League measures should be ob- 
 tained from some of the "holdover" senators. 
 
 The plan of action presented by League head- 
 quarters to the district conventions was that there 
 should be one delegate from each district to the 
 state convention. The rule generally followed 
 was that the legislative candidate having received 
 the highest vote at the district convention should 
 be the state delegate. This, said enemies of the 
 League, was to make it easier for Townley to 
 control. 
 
 There were other arguments, however, in favor 
 of the plan. It created a nominating chamber 
 made up of men who were to have an active part 
 in shaping the program of legislation, the men 
 who would have to come into contact with the 
 state officers. It created a new relation between 
 the legislative and the executive branches by mak- 
 ing the leaders of the legislature feel that the gov- 
 ernor was their man — a man of their choice and 
 selection. It also put the framing of the cam- 
 paign program into the hands of the men who 
 were to be charged with enacting it into law. 
 And in addition, it gave novices in politics their 
 first opportunity, in many cases, for parliamen- 
 tary action, and that in association with men with 
 whom they would have to be associated in the 
 legislature itself, if they were elected. From the 
 standpoint of strength and efficiency it was, all in 
 all, a thoroughly good plan. 
 
102 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 Early in March the Nonpartisan Leader an- 
 nounced that on March 31 and April 1 there would 
 be held "Grand State Convention Mass Meet- 
 ings," which would be addressed by the League's 
 candidates for governor and the various state 
 offices. These candidates had not yet been 
 selected. 
 
 Townley's attitude toward the problem of the 
 personnel of the state ticket, as might be ex- 
 pected, was one of active interest. He spent 
 many days of anxious consultation with his most 
 trusted advisers and he sought in every way to 
 canvass the possibilities by consultation with men 
 in whom he had confidence. He made a number 
 of trips to talk to League members whom he had 
 heard mentioned as possible material for the gov- 
 ernorship. He visited men who had been chosen 
 as state delegates to get their views. 
 
 His attitude in this respect was probably not 
 different from that of many political "bosses," 
 with the great exceptions that Townley was bend- 
 ing every effort to the enactment of a program of 
 laws conceived to be for the benefit of the people 
 of the state, and he had no clubs nor bribes to 
 enforce his will except the weight of his own 
 judgment, the logic of his own argument and the 
 force of his own personality. 
 
 One of the men whose name, Townley felt, was 
 certain to come before the convention was already 
 openly a candidate for the office. This was one 
 count against him, but as he had a record for hav- 
 
CHOOSING THE CANDIDATES 103 
 
 ing been a "progressive" and as he seemed in- 
 clined to be sincerely friendly toward the farmers' 
 movement, Townley sent men to sound Usher L. 
 Burdick of Williston to find out what might be 
 expected of him if elected. 
 
 The resulting impressions were not favorable. 
 Burdick was not willing to support so compre- 
 hensive a scheme of state ownership as the League 
 proposed. Townley decided to look further. 
 
 Those at League headquarters, including Town- 
 ley, influential farmers who occasionally would 
 drop in, and organizers, were agreed that if a 
 farmer of standing and ability who had never 
 been active in politics and was not a candidate for 
 office could be nominated and persuaded to run 
 he would make the most fitting candidate for gov- 
 ernor. There was debate, however, as to whether 
 such a man could be nominated and elected, as, 
 of course, he would have to rely wholly on the 
 League's support. 
 
 Was it better to take such a man and stake all 
 on the possibility of lining up a majority of 
 voters for a strictly farmer candidate, or to get 
 behind the most progressive of the candidates 
 with an assured political following, providing, of 
 course, such a candidate would accept and indorse 
 the League program, with its state ownership 
 features? 
 
 These were the alternatives of the governorship 
 question which Townley had to present to the 
 state delegates when they assembled. The ques- 
 
104 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 tions affecting the other state offices were similar. 
 Some preliminary scouting had been done so that 
 the names of alternative candidates were ready 
 for presentation to the convention. 
 
 While "convention mass meetings" were 
 scheduled for March 31 and April 1, having been 
 publicly advertised, the actual convention of state 
 delegates was held on the two days preceding and 
 the nominations had been completed when the 
 first day of the mass meetings arrived. The dele- 
 gates had been notified by letter of the time and 
 place of holding the convention, to which none but 
 the delegates, the officers and executive committee 
 of the League and a few persons connected with 
 League headquarters were admitted. 
 
 The result of that convention was a ticket 
 headed by Lynn J. Frazier as candidate for gov- 
 ernor, a farmer of Pembina county, son of a 
 pioneer homesteader, of native American stock 
 for generations back. Frazier was 41 years old, 
 a graduate of the state university of North Da- 
 kota, practically unknown outside of his own 
 community, where he was respected as a success- 
 ful farmer, a good neighbor, an honest and gen- 
 erous man, a person of some public spirit, and a 
 very earnest prohibitionist. He had voted the 
 Eepublican ticket all his life and his father, who 
 had also been known as a "temperance crank," 
 had also been a Republican. 
 
 Here was a man fitted to remove part of the 
 curse of "Socialism" from the League ticket, but 
 
CHOOSING THE CANDIDATES 105 
 
 otherwise Ms equipment certainly was unusual 
 for a man selected to make tlie race for governor 
 of the state. He had never held office beyond 
 that of township supervisor and school director, 
 to which he had been named because of his col- 
 lege education; two years' experience as a school 
 teacher, and the further qualification of four chil- 
 dren of school age. He had never been a candi- 
 date for any office in his life ; had never asked a 
 man for his vote for anything. He had never 
 made a public speech since his college days ; nor 
 had he any ambition to do so. 
 
 Frazier was a farmer, as fully occupied about 
 the business of farming as any merchant with his 
 store. Yet he was a Leaguer. He could express 
 in short and simple words his disgust with the 
 past trend of politics in North Dakota. He be- 
 lieved in the League plan and the League pro- 
 gram. 
 
 How did it happen that Frazier was selected? 
 His name had been given to Townley by the or- 
 ganizer who had ''signed him up" as that of a 
 man of influence and ability, with a high standing 
 in his neighborhood. William Lemke, the Fargo 
 lawyer who was counsel for the League, had been 
 his classmate in the state university and men- 
 tioned him as a man fit for a responsible state 
 office. He seemed to fill the bill of the qualifica- 
 tions desired if the delegates were to choose in 
 favor of a farmer "unknown." 
 
 Townley himself was in favor of that choice. 
 
106 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 He so expressed himself before the convention. 
 The names of seven candidates were placed on a 
 blackboard at the state convention as they were 
 nominated by delegates. Of those nominated all 
 but Prazier and one other were known to be active 
 candidates for the office. There was a long dis- 
 cussion in which nearly every delegate partici- 
 pated. No vote was taken until all agreed they 
 were ready for it. Frazier, the unknown Leaguer, 
 the strictly farmer candidate without office ex- 
 perience or ambition, received every vote but one. 
 
 The delegates were as happy as schoolboys over 
 the selection. To elect such a man, to put a plain 
 farmer in the executive offices at the state capi- 
 tal — a farmer straight from the farm, and not 
 a "city farmer" — epitomized the spirit of the 
 whole movement. 
 
 They were all anxious to see Frazier right 
 away, to slap him on the back and to wish him 
 luck. They called him on the long-distance tele- 
 phone and told him to hurry down to Fargo to 
 make a speech as candidate for governor. The 
 telephone message found him with his "gum" 
 boots on "messing around the barn." He was 
 willing to come to Fargo, but he couldn't make a 
 speech, he said. 
 
 He did, however. At the last of the mass meet- 
 ings he appeared and was cheered long and en- 
 thusiastically. When he spoke it was in rather 
 hesitating fashion and diffidently. It was not 
 strange. A man used to speaking mostly to three 
 
CHOOSING THE CANDIDATES 107 
 
 big farm horses hitched to a sulky plow found 
 himself facing 2,000 persons in the big, barn- 
 ,like Fargo auditorium. He told his farmer 
 hearers in straightforward language, however, 
 that he believed in the League program; that he 
 had had no thought of being nominated for gov- 
 ernor or for any other office; that he would feel 
 far more at home driving a plow than campaign- 
 ing, but that he was willing to do his best. 
 
 For twelve state positions, aside from the su- 
 preme court, to be filled at the election, the League 
 convention indorsed four who were recognized 
 candidates for office. The remainder indorsed by 
 the convention were League farmers, unknown to 
 office. The four office-holders were Thomas Hall, 
 then secretary of state, named for the same po- 
 sition; William Langer, then state's attorney of 
 Morton county, named for attorney general ; Carl 
 E. Kositzky, then secretary of the state tax com- 
 mission and commissioner of Burleigh county, 
 named for state auditor ; Neil C. Macdonald, rural 
 school inspector in the state superintendent's of- 
 fice, named for state superintendent. 
 
 All of these men were opponents of the men in 
 state office and had been generally classed as 
 political "insurgents." All had expressed their 
 support of the League's program. 
 
 The farmer candidates included P. M. Casey, 
 an Equity leader, for state treasurer; S. A. 01s- 
 ness, an Eddy county farmer who had been secre- 
 tary of a co-operative fire insurance company, for 
 
108 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 state insurance commissioner ; Jolin N, Hagan of 
 Deering, a farmer wlio was a graduate of an In- 
 diana college, for commissioner of agriculture; 
 and for railroad commissioners three more 
 farmers, M. P. Johnson, state president of the 
 Equity ; Charles Bleick, a young farmer from the 
 southwest who was an agricultural college gradu- 
 ate, and Sam Aandahl, a Barnes county farmer of 
 wide acquaintance. None of the candidates 
 selected was a Socialist. All but Casey were Re- 
 publicans. 
 
 The story has been circulated in print that for 
 members of the supreme court this first League 
 convention named farmers who were not even 
 admitted to the bar. 
 
 It is a picturesque tale, but not in accord with 
 the facts. Three vacancies were to occur in the 
 supreme court and the League convention named 
 three men to fill these vacancies. One of the three 
 was Luther Birdzell, a member of the faculty of 
 the state university school of law and generally 
 recognized as one of the most brilliant lawyers in 
 the state. A second was Richard H. Grace, for 
 many years a practising lawyer at Mohall in Ren- 
 ville county, and the owner of a farm, as well. 
 The third was J. E. Robinson of Fargo, law part- 
 ner of William Lemke, attorney for the League. 
 
 Robinson was known as an eccentric character. 
 He had once campaigned for congress and gone 
 about the streets ringing a cowbell to attract a 
 crowd. He was an old man and wore a flowing 
 
CHOOSING THE CANDIDATES 109 
 
 gray beard. He had been one of the first lawyers 
 in the state, had decided ideas about judicial re- 
 form and was able to write in very concise, almost 
 masterly English, which was probably his best 
 attainment, aside from a very strong preference 
 for the substance of justice as against legal tech- 
 nicality. 
 
 This was the makeup of the ticket that on the 
 last day of March, 1916, agitated the office-holders, 
 perplexed the politicians and set the whole state 
 to wondering whether they were witnessing a huge 
 joke or a revolutionary political movement. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 
 
 The attacks against the League steadily carried 
 on by the leading newspapers had as their basis, 
 as has been seen, a general policy of opposition to 
 any movement which tended to cultivate protest 
 against existing conditions on the part of the 
 farmers or to cause them to form organizations 
 independent of, and perhaps hostile to, their 
 "natural guardians ' ' of the towns and cities. The 
 staid citizens who made it their duty to protect 
 the "best interests of the state" also saw in men 
 of former Socialist party connections the worst 
 possible leadership for the farmers. 
 
 Then and later they moaned because their 
 alarmist stories were not taken seriously enough, 
 because they could not waken the business men 
 to active enough steps to meet the "menace." 
 
 In Fargo, for instance, at the time of the state 
 convention and mass meetings, the League's ac- 
 tivities met with a considerable degree of toler- 
 ance, if not approval. 
 
 D. C. Coates, a former city commissioner of 
 Spokane, Washington, once a Socialist, but out 
 of the Socialist party because he refused to ag^ee 
 to the Socialist policy of putting control of his 
 
 110 
 
THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 111 
 
 official acts into the hands of the party, had joined 
 Townley's staff of advisers in the early part of 
 the winter. 
 
 Coates was made manager and was for a time 
 editor of the Nonpartisan Leader. He was a man 
 of experience in public affairs and a "good 
 mixer," with a natural tendency toward concilia- 
 tion and compromise. In Spokane he had made an 
 efficient record as an administrator under the first 
 commission plan city goverimient, and had given 
 a strong impulse to the policy of public ownership. 
 He had failed of re-election through opposition 
 by the chamber of commerce element, coupled 
 with desertion by the extreme radicals. 
 
 Coates, urbane, good-natured and conciliatory, 
 made a valiant effort to neutralize town opposi- 
 tion and to make friends among the town liberals. 
 He made the arrangements for the first conven- 
 tion mass meetings, induced the city council to 
 tender the use of the public auditorium, a big 
 brick and concrete structure built a year or two 
 previously by public subscription, got the mayor 
 to welcome the farmers, arranged for street pa- 
 rades, and accepted free entertainment for the 
 visiting farmers at the hands of the Commercial 
 Club. 
 
 The mass meetings themselves were a novel, 
 impressive and, to some, a disturbing demonstra- 
 tion. It was said that never before had there been 
 at one time so large a gathering of farmers in 
 Fargo. Long sessions, beginning at 10 in the 
 
112 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 morning and lasting until late at night, were held 
 in the auditorium. A great part of the time the 
 hall, seating nearly three thousand persons, was 
 filled to the doors. The farmers paraded on foot 
 on the streets, with three bands among them, car- 
 rying banners inscribed: "Everybody's organ- 
 ized; why not the farmer?"; "On to Bismarck, 
 50,000 strong"; "Privilege knows no party; why 
 should the people be fooled?"; "Who are they 
 who fear the people? Think it over; there's a 
 reason"; "Political bosses don't like us; we 
 should worry," and "What have partisan politics 
 done for you!" 
 
 The throng, massed in the street in front of the 
 Fargo auditorium, was the first of the big as- 
 semblages of people which later became charac- 
 teristic of the League's campaign gatherings. 
 They awoke the state to a realization of a new 
 situation in poHtics and government. It was not 
 the largest company which Townley has ad- 
 dressed. Since that time he has spoken to open- 
 air throngs estimated to number at least 8,000 
 people — not a huge gathering for a big city, but 
 at least remarkable in a prairie state four hundred 
 miles wide with a population of only 700,000. 
 Some of these later gatherings were held on the 
 open prairie in summer, and it was not at all 
 unusual for farmers to come fifty miles to attend. 
 
 Men are gravely stirred when they make such 
 efforts to attend a political meeting and listen 
 attentively to hours of speechmaking. 
 
THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 113 
 
 The speeches at the Fargo mass meetings were 
 not especially conciliatory. 
 
 "I regret to say," said Townley, responding 
 to the welcome uttered by Mayor Emery, "that 
 not all the business men here in the past have 
 been willing to work with the farmers for the com- 
 mon good. Some have been willing to exploit the 
 farmer and to pass their profits on to their mas- 
 ters in other states. 
 
 "Yes, the farmers are willing to co-operate 
 with the business man. They have been co- 
 operating in the past and they are not happy over 
 the result. They are willing to go on co-operating 
 in the future, but they want a little different plan 
 of co-operation." 
 
 Townley advised the farmers to resolve to "take 
 better care of these business men than they have 
 been taking care of you." 
 
 Little was said, however, of high prices, of ex- 
 tortionate interest or of any of the other direct 
 grievances of the farmer against the town mer- 
 chant. The burden of complaint was that the 
 town business man had taken sides with the Cham- 
 ber of Commerce monopolists and speculators and 
 was helping them to loot the farmers through the 
 sale of their products. The farmers were told 
 that it had been definitely proved that there was 
 no help for them except through their own effort ; 
 and that the thing to do was to take control of the 
 government of the state. 
 
 John H. Worst, for years president of the North 
 
114 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 Dakota Agricultural College at Fargo, had been 
 forced out of office just a few weeks before by the 
 board of regents. The altercation which led to 
 his dismissal was due to the usurpation of his 
 powers, as he felt, by Thomas Cooper, who had 
 been placed in charge of the experiment station 
 and extension work by the regents. Cooper had 
 been director of the efforts of an organization 
 known as the "Better Farming Association," 
 which had been backed heavily by the big grain 
 and lumber interests, the banks and the business 
 men. Farmers generally resented the activities 
 of the "Better Farming" association. The dis- 
 placement of Worst, whom they felt to be their 
 friend, aroused their indignation. The resent- 
 ment was the more acute because President 
 Worst, just a short time before his dismissal, had 
 addressed the Tri-State Grain Growers in the 
 speech in which he said that, through the shipping 
 of all the grain out of the state to be milled, the 
 farmers annually were losing fifty-five million 
 dollars by misgrading, in loss of by-products and 
 impoverishment of the soil. The farmers gen- 
 erally felt that Worst's dismissal was due to his 
 fidelity to their interests, and to his refusal to 
 serve "big business." 
 Worst again addressed this Fargo convention. 
 
 " I am sorry you are here, ' ' he said to the audience of 
 farmers. "I am sorry so many farmers of North 
 Dakota find it necessary to come down here to a meeting 
 
THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 115 
 
 like this. I am sorry conditions are such you find it 
 necessary to have this League through which to make 
 this protest and seek your rights. 
 
 "There never can be a genuine spirit of patriotism 
 in a country not worth loving, and a country is not 
 worth loving if it does not yield a reasonable remunera- 
 tion to the tillers of the soil. Your great end is to help 
 North Dakota to come into its own. She has not come 
 into it yet or you would not be here today at this 
 meeting. We have worked along the 'more production' 
 line long enough and let the profit and business end 
 go — ^we must now work for a fairer share of the wealth 
 we produce. That, I understand, is the ultimate end of 
 this organization and it is a worthy one." 
 
 The farmers had heard these things from the 
 lips of the organizer and they had read them in 
 the Nonpartisan Leader, but in these big meetings 
 they heard them in a far more impressive way. 
 Investing their money in the League as a gamble, 
 in part, half doubting that it would ever accom- 
 plish anything, they now were impressed by the 
 fact that they were members of a big and power- 
 ful organization, that thousands of farmers all 
 over the state had enlisted with them, and they 
 caught a glimpse of political power which could 
 confound the men who had held the upper hand 
 over them. 
 
 The effect of the Fargo convention mass meet- 
 ings was extended the following week in seven 
 other meetings in the other big towns of the state. 
 In the meantime the series of schooUiouse and 
 
116 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 town-hall meetings that had continued through 
 the late winter was brought to a close. 
 
 The stir that these mass meetings created 
 helped awaken the state to the fact that the 
 League was a really formidable movement. Those 
 who had observed it closely began to see it was 
 fully possible that the League could capture the 
 primary elections, as it had set out to do. 
 
 For the first time the League's plan of opera- 
 tion began to be generally understood. The Ee- 
 publican party, except in occasional off elections, 
 had been the dominant party in the state. The 
 League, it was noticed, had given it out that its 
 state candidates, with the exception of Casey, the 
 candidate for state treasurer, would file for Re- 
 publican nominations. Casey, it seems, did not 
 think his name would look well on the Republican 
 ballot. 
 
 The supreme court candidates and the candidate 
 for state superintendent of education were elected 
 by a nonpartisan primary ballot voted by all 
 parties. 
 
 The League began to be spoken of, therefore, 
 as an effort to "capture the machinery of the 
 Republican party. ' ' There were voluble protests : 
 it was a "violation of the spirit of the direct pri- 
 mary law," thus to superimpose another organiza- 
 tion on the regular political organizations con- 
 templated in the primary law. 
 
 The campaign, thenceforth, waged hotly in the 
 press. The attacks, as before, continued to be 
 
THE FIRST CAMPAIGN IIT 
 
 directed principally against the League as an or- 
 ganization, against its process of selection of can- 
 didates and against its organization leaders. 
 
 It was charged that Townley had "hand 
 picked" the entire state ticket and even the legis- 
 lative ticket of approximately 120 names. To 
 answer this charge the League obtained letters, 
 one by one, from all of the men who had attended 
 the state convention. They emphatically testified 
 that they had exercised their own free will in the 
 state convention ; that they had had ample oppor- 
 tunity to name candidates and to speak in their 
 favor, and that they were well satisfied with the 
 result. 
 
 "I think there were forty or fifty delegates at 
 this convention and I think they will all agree 
 with me that this was the fairest convention ever 
 held in this state," wrote C H. Noltimier of 
 "Valley City. "We were not dictated to; we did 
 our best, and this ticket is going to win. They 
 can't beat it." 
 
 Others of the best known and most influential 
 farmers in the state wrote similar letters. They 
 were difficult to attack, because to do so would 
 impeach either the truthfulness or the intelligence 
 of these prominent farmers; and the opposition 
 press was not ready to do that. The Grand Forks 
 Herald did complain plaintively that "Whenever 
 Townley is accused of anything he passes the 
 buck to the farmer and says we are attacking the 
 farmers," which was certainly eloquent testi- 
 
118 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 mony to the shrewdness of the League's "auto- 
 crat." 
 
 North Dakota operated under a direct primary- 
 law which required candidates to be nominated 
 by petitions of voters, and League headquarters 
 at once began to use its lists of the precinct and 
 district officers elected at the caucuses and conven- 
 tions to send out copies of petitions for the nomi- 
 nation both of the state candidates and of the local 
 candidates for the legislature. League organizers 
 assisted in this detailed work, which kept a large 
 force busy at state headquarters. 
 
 The League officials did not content themselves 
 with the minimum number of signatures required 
 by law to petitions in the case of the candidates 
 for state office. In the process of gathering names 
 in each legislative district for the district nomi- 
 nees they obtained signatures to the state candi- 
 dates' petitions amounting, in the case of Frazier, 
 to more than 20,000. 
 
 "The League candidates now are not only 
 the candidates of the League," said Townley, 
 after the petitions had been filed. "They are 
 not only the candidates of the farmers. They 
 are the candidates of the people of the whole 
 state." 
 
 Obtaining this large number of signatures was 
 intended, in part, as an answer to the charge of 
 "hand picking" the state candidates by Townley 
 and his close advisers. 
 
 While the League was at work with its petitions 
 
THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 119 
 
 there was some stir of an effort to create an or- 
 ganization to oppose the League. The difficulty 
 which its promoters faced, apparently, was to 
 induce men who might have supported the move- 
 ment to appear in it publicly. Publicity, of a sort, 
 was an easier matter. The farmers were indig- 
 nant to discover in their mail one day a pamphlet 
 in the form of a single sheet of newspaper size, 
 carrjnbig the large heading, "North Dakota Faces 
 a Crisis," and containing fourteen columns of 
 argument against the League, largely reprinted 
 from the Grand Forks Herald, the Fargo Courier- 
 News and other papers. Simultaneously the same 
 effort made its appearance as page advertisements 
 in the newspapers. Li the columns of the Courier- 
 News, a signature was aflBxed, though the adver- 
 tising had appeared anonymously on the other 
 newspapers and the circular had been unsigned. 
 The signature in the Courier-News was "North 
 Dakota Good Government League." 
 
 In the same issue the Courier-News printed an 
 account of a meeting of "prominent citizens" 
 and of the formation of the North Dakota Good 
 Government League, which had been made re- 
 sponsible for the advertising. 
 
 It developed that the circular had been printed 
 in the plant of the Grand Forks Herald; its dis- 
 tribution had been under the supervision of Nor- 
 man Black, formerly the business manager of that 
 newspaper. Soon afterward it was announced, 
 that Norman Black had been retained as secretary 
 
120 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 of the Good Govemment League ; and he opened 
 offices in Fargo. 
 
 Two names alone, besides that of Mr. Black, 
 were given out as those of persons connected with 
 the organization. It was stated that Morton Page, 
 a Fargo insurance man, was president, and an 
 employe of another Fargo business house was 
 named as secretary. 
 
 The Nonpartisan Leader gave liberal space to 
 this organization and interviewed both Black and 
 Page in an effort to get the names of other mem- 
 bers. Both declined to give them out. Later it 
 developed that the names of six Fargo men, the 
 attorney for the Northern Pacific railroad, one 
 other attorney who had been active in politics, 
 two bankers and two wholesale merchants — ^had 
 been used by Secretary Black in correspondence 
 as those of the "executive committee" of the or- 
 ganization. From his Fargo office. Black sent out 
 a considerable volume of campaign "literature," 
 but the organization showed no other evidences 
 of being, and the offices were closed before the 
 end of the year. A few weeks later it was an- 
 nounced that Black "and associates" had pur- 
 chased the Fargo Forwm, which until then had 
 generally been neutral toward the League. The 
 Forum at once began uncompromising antagonism 
 toward the League and those connected with it. 
 
 While opponents of the League were thus care- 
 ful to keep their identity hid, its friends were 
 somewhat bolder. Coates and others who had 
 
THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 121 
 
 been active in union labor before their connection 
 with the League made friendly advances toward 
 organized labor, with the result that the Fargo 
 Trades and Labor Assembly and the North Da- 
 kota State Federation of Labor in turn made 
 known their indorsement of the League platform 
 and candidates. 
 
 North Dakota has a short and late growing 
 season, and all its crops are spring sown. There 
 is a time of great activity between the day in 
 spring when the ground becomes dry enough to 
 work after the spring thaw and the dead line in 
 June after which it is too late to sow grains. Be- 
 tween the convention mass meetings, therefore, 
 and June 1 the League attempted no public meet- 
 ings, but with the primaries to be held on June 
 28 a whirlwind canvass in that month was neces- 
 sary. 
 
 This canvass was made by a series of "picnics," 
 all-day meetings to which the farmers came for 
 many miles in their wagons or automobiles and 
 which were, to strangers, the most interesting 
 feature of a campaign unique in several respects. 
 The League speakers, including President Town- 
 ley himself, Frazier, the candidate for governor, 
 and the other League candidates were scheduled 
 for these meetings. 
 
 The candidate for governor was received with 
 abounding enthusiasm. The farmers did not ex- 
 pect polished eloquence from him; they were de- 
 lighted by his apparent sincerity and his few, 
 
122 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 straightforward words. Prazier is of medium 
 height and of powerful frame, cahn in his man- 
 ner, naturally reticent, but of decisive words and 
 actions. He developed into a rough and ready 
 talker, admirably suited to campaigning among 
 farmers. They were overjoyed at the absence in 
 him of every quality that they associated with the 
 political orator. They delighted to honor him as 
 being one of them. The fact that so plain and 
 "common" a farmer could be governor of the 
 state filled them with confidence in their own 
 power to make laws and to conduct public affairs. 
 
 Never was a decision more amply vindicated 
 than the decision that Frazier, from the stand- 
 point of campaigning power, would make a good 
 candidate. 
 
 In the final week before the primaries a special 
 train was chartered and with banners proclaiming 
 it to be the "Frazier Special" it made the round 
 trip of the state, north to Grand Forks, west to 
 Williston on the Great Northern, by a connecting 
 line in Montana south to the Northern Pacific, 
 entering the state at Beach, scene of Townley's 
 flax disaster, and back to Fargo over the North- 
 ern Pacific. On the trip Frazier spoke from many 
 stands and frequently from the car platform, and 
 at every stop there was a large proportion of 
 farmers come from many miles in his audience. 
 
 The year 1916 was one of frequent rains and 
 intense heat. Primary day, June 28, saw one of 
 the most violent and long-continued thunder- 
 
THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 123 
 
 storms in the history of the state. It was a day 
 of gloom around League headquarters and at the 
 office of the Nonpartisan Leader. The rain came 
 down in torrents. A car could not possibly travel 
 the drenched and slippery "gumbo" roads of the 
 Red River valley. It seemed impossible that with 
 similar conditions elsewhere in the state there 
 could be much of a farmer vote. 
 
 The returns of the early evening were not in 
 the least reassuring. Huge majorities for Bur- 
 dick, the leading opposition candidate, were re- 
 ported. But here and there came a ray of hope 
 for Townley and his companions in this political 
 adventure. Country precinct returns would drift 
 in, with such reports as "Frazier 27, Burdick 11, 
 Fraine 3." The newspaper offices announced con- 
 fidently that Burdick was nominated, but along 
 about midnight some hopeful ones got busy with 
 their pencils in analyzing the vote. Separating 
 as near as could be done the "country" from the 
 city vote, it became apparent that if the country 
 vote were only big enough, it would bring Frazier, 
 at least, out a winner. 
 
 With that small consolation, the Leaguers gave 
 it up for the night. 
 
 The next day dawned bright and cheerful. The 
 returns, to the political experimenters, were 
 equally so. The morning paper, the Courier- 
 News, had announced the probable nomination of 
 Burdick. Before noon, it was apparent that Fra- 
 zier had won, and when the day was over it was 
 
124 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 known that every man on the state ticket indorsed 
 by the League had been nominated, that nearly 
 all of the legislative candidates had won, and that 
 the supreme court candidates were leading their 
 opponents. The country had completely over- 
 turned the town vote. 
 
 The final tabulation of the results on the pri- 
 maries showed that, out of a total Republican vote 
 of approximately 75,000 Frazier had 40,000, a 
 clean majority over all, with the other farmer 
 candidates running close to him. 
 
 This was the great victory of the year and the 
 first an.d most important of the League's triumphs 
 at the polls. Frazier was assured enough votes 
 to win in the fall elections. His opponent was a 
 "progressive" Democrat who had little desire to 
 make an active campaign. 
 
 The League had been helped in the campaign 
 by many of the tactics of its opponents, and it 
 had the support of other farm organizations, the 
 Equity, the Farmers' Union and the Grange. The 
 state master of the Grange, Ray McKaig, a former 
 preacher, had taken the stump for the League and 
 had been a delegate to the state convention. 
 
 The issues of the Nonpartisan Leader during 
 the ensuing months of summer and early fall 
 showed the League had passed through the most 
 severe storm for the present and into quieter 
 waters. Time was found for articles promoting 
 the general program and policies of the League. 
 There were further studies of grain grading, ar- 
 
THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 125 
 
 tides showing how the Minnesota mills were mak- 
 ing huge profits out of the milling of low-grade 
 wheat, studies of organization and its services to 
 other classes than farmers, stories of the success 
 of public ownership and even articles on blooded 
 cattle and farm problems. 
 
 An incident of the summer was the capture of 
 the Eepublican state committee meeting at Bis- 
 marck by League representatives. No special 
 effort had been made to obtain the election at the 
 primaries of League precinct committeemen, but 
 in a majority of cases the farmers had thought- 
 fully attended to this matter themselves. As a 
 result League headquarters were interested to 
 discover that they held a majority of the men who 
 were to make up the state committee. There was 
 some skirmishing when the time came for the con- 
 vention, and some effort to bar enough League 
 committeemen to swing the convention to the 
 League's opponents. But a truce was reached, 
 and a platform generally resembling that of the 
 League, though slightly equivocal in places, was 
 agreed to. Previously Frazier, in reply to an 
 effort to "put him in a hole," had announced that 
 he was for the League program, no matter what 
 platform might be agreed to at Bismarck. 
 
 Campaign efforts during the summer were con- 
 centrated by the League on the election of mem- 
 bers of the state supreme court. Here events 
 played somewhat into their hands. In 1914, the 
 people of the state had adopted an amendment to 
 
126 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 the state constitution which provided that the con- 
 stitution itself might be amended through the ini- 
 tiatory process. If signatures of "at least 25 per 
 cent, of the voters in each of not less than one- 
 half of the counties of the state" were obtained 
 to a petition calling for a constitutional amend- 
 ment, it became the duty of the secretary of state 
 to have the proposed amendment placed upon the 
 ballot for approval or rejection by the voters. If 
 thus approved it would go before the subsequent 
 legislature for ratification, and if not ratified it 
 would again come before the people at the ensuing 
 election, when, if approved again, it would become 
 a part of the constitution. 
 
 New Bockford entered upon a campaign for 
 removal of the capital to that city from Bismarck. 
 Petitions were circulated and were said to con- 
 tain signatures of more than 25 per cent, of the 
 voters in more than one-half the counties of the 
 state. Citizens of Bismarck obtained a court 
 order restraining the secretary of state from put- 
 ting the amendment on the ballot, under the claim 
 that the constitutional amendment providing the 
 initiative process was not "self -executing" and 
 could not be effective until made so by the legis- 
 lature. The supreme court upheld this conten- 
 tion, and in doing so appeared to uphold the con- 
 tention that, in spite of the constitutional amend- 
 ment, the legislature could delay granting the 
 initiative process for amendment of the consti- 
 tution as long as it wished and could limit the 
 
THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 127 
 
 amendment itself so as to call for any percentages 
 of signatures in excess of those specified in the 
 amendment. 
 
 This decision was savagely attacked in the Non- 
 partisan Leader. Cartoons were drawn showing 
 in one case the supreme court as a club in the 
 hands of "Big Business" slaying the people's 
 laws, and in another the court tearing in pieces a 
 document labeled "People's Legislation." 
 
 The candidates engaged in another speaking 
 tour after harvest and before the fall election, 
 during which much attention was devoted to the 
 supreme court candidates, and a strong effort was 
 made to direct the farmers' attention to Casey, 
 candidate for state treasurer, who was in the 
 Democratic column. It was feared not enough 
 voters would have the forethought to "scratch" 
 the ticket so as to include Casey. 
 
 This fear was well grounded, for Casey was, in 
 fact, beaten by a few votes. The League candi- 
 dates for the court won by large majorities; all 
 the men iadorsed by the League for state office 
 were elected. Control had been obtained of the 
 lower house of the legislature by the election of 
 81 Leaguers out of a total of 113 seats. For 
 the senate twenty-two had been indorsed, there 
 being twenty-five vacancies. Eighteen were elec- 
 ted. This left control of the senate an open ques- 
 tion, depending on how many converts the League 
 could expect among the "holdovers." 
 
 The presidential and senatorial campaigns ab- 
 
128 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 sorbed a great deal of interest in the fall and 
 somewhat softened the asperity of the campaign 
 against the League. Both Senator McCumber, the 
 Eepublican incumbent, and United States Treas- 
 urer John Burke, Democratic nominee, were anx- 
 ious for the League's indorsement, which was 
 withheld from both. McCumber, however, had 
 the benefit of the fact that the League candidates 
 were on the Eepublican ticket and that William 
 Lemke, attorney and campaign adviser of the 
 League, had been named by a League-controlled 
 convention as Eepublican state chairman and was 
 therefore bound to work in McCumber 's interest. 
 A very strong effort was made by the League offi- 
 cers to make the neutrality of the League's posi- 
 tion plain, but McCumber won heavily, though 
 President Wilson captured the state, overcoming 
 the great Eepublican lead in other offices by a 
 very narrow margin. 
 
CHAPTER Xm 
 
 LEAGUERS IN POWER 
 
 BisMABCK sits on rolling, treeless Mils overlook- 
 ing the Missouri. Geographically it is central in 
 North Dakota, but the rich valleys of the Ked 
 Eiver of the North, the Sheyenne and the James, 
 sometimes called the Dakota river, are to the east 
 of it. It was once a gateway to a wild land of 
 treasure, a metropolis for the cowmen of the range 
 days. The hills and valleys which surround it 
 were not so long ago black with buffalo, and Sioux 
 hunting bands roamed among them. 
 
 The country west of the Missouri is scarcely 
 tamed yet to the spirit of peaceful agriculture. 
 It has been a land of plungers, of adventure, 
 gambling and easy money. Farmers who enter it 
 share its adventurous ways. It is too bleak a 
 country to be fancied by many for the site of a 
 farm home. They are attracted by cheap acreage 
 to huge adventures in wheat and flax, gambles 
 with nature and the grain market that may make 
 a snug little fortune in a year — or lose one — as 
 Townley lost his. 
 
 Bismarck is proud of its history as a frontier 
 town, proud of its reputation as an up-to-date 
 "big little city." It remembers many flush days; 
 
 129 
 
130 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 it has entertained lobbyists of distinction and a 
 band of politicians as crafty and unscrupulous as 
 any little state capital has seen. In the midst of 
 a dry state it has had the duty of providing the 
 attractions which free spenders and capable "en- 
 tertainers" demand. Open saloons long oper- 
 ated in defiance of constitutional prohibition ; and 
 its chief tavern keeper likes on occasion to tell 
 stories of the roistering nights of the past and 
 how cranks who sought to enforce the law were 
 outwitted. 
 
 Bismarck, with its young old-timers and their 
 memories of hectic days, was capable, more than 
 any other town in the state, of feeling a large con- 
 tempt for the rustic strangers, diffident and 
 abashed, who came trooping in that January of 
 1917 to tread the halls made famous by Alex 
 McKenzie and his satellites, to sit in council in 
 the rooms where big deals once were hatched, and 
 to encumber the hotel lobbies once graced by men 
 of millions. Even the street urchins appreciated 
 the ludicrous comparison and expressed the deri- 
 sion older observers felt. 
 
 There came to sit in the executive office in place 
 of the millionaire, L. B. Hanna, banker of Fargo, 
 a man who hadn't been off the farm in twenty 
 years, who had never dictated a letter to a stenog- 
 rapher and who was used to wearing a white col- 
 lar only to church. Three men right off the farm 
 were to take their places in the railroad commis- 
 sion offices, where they would have to deal with 
 
LEAGUERS IN POWER 131 
 
 men who are big figures in the business world, and 
 a man who had come to America from Norway to 
 handle a pick and shovel in building Jim Hill's 
 Great Northern railroad was to occupy the insur- 
 ance commissioner's office. 
 
 The disgrace of the situation was expressed in 
 print by the newspapers which had been opposing 
 the Nonpartisan League, but covertly, because, 
 after all, most of the citizens of the state were 
 farmers and might understand the sneers if they 
 were made too plain. 
 
 Bnt though they acted with modesty proper 
 under the circumstances, the farmer legislators 
 were resolved to "put through the program" and 
 to show the state and the world that possibly 
 farmers could make laws as weU as city folks. 
 There was just a handful of League legislators in 
 each house who had been there before. They were 
 expected by their colleagues to act as leaders and 
 to show them the ropes. 
 
 The members of the opposition to the League 
 in the legislature laid their plans with some glee- 
 ful anticipations. They had all the freedom from 
 responsibility of the ordinary minority, and, be- 
 sides, there were wonderful opportunities for mis- 
 chief in the unsophisticated character of the mem- 
 bers of the majority. 
 
 There was speculation, of course, as to whom 
 the Leaguers would elect for speaker, and opposi- 
 tion newspapers kindly supplied several candi- 
 dates and started "booms" for them. They sup- 
 
132 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 plied, also, helpful suggestions and opened up 
 promising lines of controversy on how the "pro- 
 gram" measures should be framed and how the 
 constitution should be amended. It seemed ap- 
 parent that under a properly democratic proce- 
 dure the rule of the farmers would strike serious 
 snags at the outset. 
 
 Then Townley, a day before the opening of the 
 session, played another of the cards which so fre- 
 quently he has been found to have up his sleeve 
 or concealed elsewhere about him. The League 
 members of the legislature, of senate and of house, 
 met in secret caucus for organization. Howard 
 Wood of Deering, son of the vice-president of the 
 League, was chosen as the League candidate for 
 speaker, and it was announced that the action was 
 unanimous. Wood had not been mentioned by the 
 opposition press as a candidate. Also it was given 
 out that the League caucus would consider meas- 
 ures both before and after their introduction in 
 the legislature; that all the League "program" 
 bills would be the product of the caucus, and that 
 every measure reported out on the floor of either 
 house or likely to be reported out, would come 
 before the caucus before League legislators voted 
 on it. 
 
 Another development augmented the storm of 
 criticism that followed. It was made known that 
 the League had "legislative experts" at Bis- 
 marck ; that they would assist in drafting legisla- 
 tion and would even make suggestions to the cau- 
 
LEAGUERS IN POWER 133 
 
 cus, and it also became known that Townley, 
 Bowen, Lemke, Coates and others would "advise 
 with" the caucus. 
 
 The Courier-News, the morning paper pub- 
 lished at Fargo, had passed from the control of its 
 former owner into that of the League and was 
 being edited by the former editor of the Nonpar- 
 tiscm Leader. It came stoutly to the defense of 
 Townley 's plans, including the secret caucus, 
 which was justified as the only means by which 
 the farmers could properly frame legislation, 
 could inform themselves on legislative procedure 
 and could mature their methods of meeting the 
 attack of the opposition ; all of which was neces- 
 sary in order that they might keep faith with the 
 people who elected them. 
 
 The caucus was, in fact, an efficient school in 
 legislation. In it the failures in tactics of the day 
 in house or in senate were discussed; members, 
 free of the restraint of the legislative chamber 
 and the presence of hostile critics, spoke their 
 minds before their brother farmers and differ- 
 ences of opinion were "ironed out." 
 
 The sessions were held nightly in the assembly 
 hall of the Northwest hotel. This entire structure 
 had been leased by the League for the session and 
 was run as a League hotel. A large number of the 
 League members roomed there. It was an old 
 building and had once been the chief hotel of 
 Bismarck. 
 
 Whatever may have been the justice of the 
 
134. THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 criticisms it is certain that these caucus sessions 
 promoted a feeling of comradeship among the 
 League legislators and state officers, developed at 
 a rapid rate their understanding of legislative 
 affairs and disarmed the plans of the opposition 
 to confuse and divide them. 
 
 In the organization of the house A. E. Bowen, 
 League organizer and speaker, was made chief 
 clerk, and Edwin Wood, brother of the speaker, 
 was made his assistant. Naturally, parliamentary- 
 tactics sometimes proved confusing to new mem- 
 bers, and one of the stories gleefully told by news- 
 paper men of the opposition press was that the in- 
 structions to League members in the house were 
 to vote "Aye" on all measures read by the black- 
 haired clerk and "No" on all measures read by 
 the red-headed one. Probably the foundation for 
 the story was that Bowen, who is dark haired, did 
 not miss an opportunity to read the League "pro- 
 gram" measures. He enjoyed them and was an 
 able elocutionist. And, often, he passed off the 
 onerous duty of reading a measure framed by one 
 of the hated opposition to his assistant. Wood, 
 who had red hair. At any rate, the story of the 
 red-headed clerk and the black-haired one made a 
 good "feature yam" to portray the ignorance of 
 the farmer legislators as picturesquely as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 The complexion of the senate had been the sub- 
 ject of interesting speculation. The League had 
 elected eighteen out of a total of twenty-five mem- 
 
LEAGUERS IN POWER 135 
 
 bers chosen at the 1916 elections. Twenty-five 
 were required for a majority. It developed that 
 of the eighteen, one, Stenmo of Grand Forks 
 county, was no more than lukewarm in his attitude 
 toward the "program." The League's expecta- 
 tions of winning over enough of the holdovers to 
 make up a majority soon were seen to have been 
 premature. Possibly the compactness with which 
 the League had organized contributed to driving 
 the so-called "progressives" into union with the 
 "stalwarts" of former sessions. The League also 
 suffered the defection of Kraabel, the lieutenant 
 governor, who appointed senate committees hav- 
 ing, in the case of all important conmiittees, a 
 minority of League members. 
 
 It seemed to be apparent that the opposition 
 had forestalled the League and lined up the sen- 
 ate against the farmer machine. 
 
 The important issue was seen to be the amend- 
 ment of the state constitution so as to make pos- 
 sible the enactment of all the items of the League 
 program into law. Authority was needed to per- 
 mit the state to engage in other industries thsm 
 the operation of a "terminal elevator," to au- 
 thorize the issuance of bonds to finance such in- 
 dustries, to permit the exemption of farm im- 
 provements from taxation and to make possible 
 taxation to provide for hail insurance. 
 
 The methods provided for changing the con- 
 stitution were slow. One process was a favorable 
 vote on a proposed amendment by two successive 
 
136 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 legislatures and its subsequent adoption by the 
 people. It was seen that by that method amend- 
 ments proposed in the 1917 session could not go 
 before the people until the general election of 
 1920 and laws pursuant to them could not be 
 enacted until 1921. The supreme court had just 
 rendered a decision that the direct initiative proc- 
 ess for amendment of the constitution was not in 
 operation and would not be until made operative 
 by the legislature. But even under this process 
 amendments could not be proposed until 1918 and 
 could not be made part of the constitution until 
 the 1919 session. 
 
 The League wanted speedy action. The farmers 
 demanded it, after so many years of delay, and 
 Townley and his advisers feared the effect of 
 several years of waiting on the program of legis- 
 lation. Besides, could the League's machine be 
 kept going for the length of time necessary to get 
 its ideas into operation by this slow process? 
 And, if it could, would jiot the expense of the re- 
 peated campaigns be a tremendous strain on the 
 patience of the farmers? 
 
 Another process for changing the constitution 
 was known to precedent. In the history of the 
 nation there had been more than one constitu- 
 tional convention called to revise a constitution 
 and to present a new constitution to the people for 
 their adoption or rejection. There had been for 
 some time something of an agitation in the state 
 for such a convention. 
 
LEAGUERS IN POWER 137 
 
 This process would entail, first, a legislative 
 enactment calling for such a convention; second, 
 a possible referendum vote on this act; third, an 
 election of members of the constitutional conven- 
 tion ; fourth, the sessions of the convention itself, 
 with all the influence that might be brought to 
 bear to neutralize its purpose, and, fifth, the elec- 
 tion for approval of the new constitution, possibly- 
 after the state was thoroughly tired of the whole 
 subject of constitutional revision. 
 
 All these appeared rough and tortuous roads to 
 travel for the simple object of clearing away 
 technical obstacles to the enactment into law of a 
 program already "overwhelmingly," as the 
 League papers said, approved by the vote of the 
 people in electing the League state ticket and a 
 strong majority of League legislators. 
 
 The League's advisers had another plan. It 
 was simple — startlingly so, to the opposition. 
 
 It was that the legislature, regardless of the 
 provisions in the constitution itself for its 
 amendment, should frame a new constitution and 
 present it to the people, the new constitution to 
 replace the old as soon as it had been adopted by 
 a majority popular vote. 
 
 "It is impossible," "It is a lawless proposal," 
 "It is anarchistic," "No court would dare to sanc- 
 tion such a procedure," "The supreme court of 
 the United States would overrule it," were some 
 of the characterizations of the plan. It was de- 
 nounced as the climax of effrontery and disregard 
 
138 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 of fundamental law and orderly procedure on the 
 part of the "Socialist boss." 
 
 The League had its defense to these charges. 
 "You say that the constitution does not sanction 
 any such method of amendment," said the 
 League's spokesmen; "show us where the consti- 
 tution of North Dakota or any other state consti- 
 tution says anything about the calling of a con- 
 stitutional convention to frame a new constitution. 
 We do not propose to amend the constitution. We 
 propose to make a new one. Such a procedure 
 always has been extra-constitutional. But it is 
 not unconstitutional. All power in our form of 
 government comes from the people. Whatever 
 they adopt as their constitution in an election for- 
 mally called for that purpose is thenceforth the 
 constitution. A new constitution does not need 
 the sanction of words written in the old one." 
 
 There were lawyers enough found to support 
 this view so that the farmer members saw no rea- 
 son why it should not be acted upon. Accordingly 
 the proposed new constitution made its appear- 
 ance in the lower house. It appeared as House 
 Bill 44, and was introduced by A. M. Hagan, a 
 farmer of Bottineau county. 
 
 House Bill 44, in the form of a concurrent reso- 
 lution, cited the results of the 1916 election as 
 evidence of the will of the people to enter into cer- 
 tain state enterprises, stated the fact that the 
 existing constitution presented obstacles to the 
 course desired by the people, and added that the 
 
LEAGUERS IN POWER 139 
 
 legislature had prepared a new constitution, 
 "reading as follows." The resolution, after set- 
 ting forth the new constitution entire, then pro- 
 vided for a special election at which the proposed 
 constitution should he presented to the people. 
 
 The proposed new constitution was, in fact, the 
 existing constitution of the state with a number 
 of changes highly important in their subject mat- 
 ter. The first of these was a substitute section 
 providing that "The right of the state, or any- 
 political subdivision thereof, to engage in any oc- 
 cupation or business for public purposes shall not 
 be denied or prohibited." 
 
 This section, removing the constitutional ob- 
 stacles to state ownership, was supplemented by 
 another section, equally simple and comprehensive 
 in its wording, permitting the issuance of bonds 
 to finance state-owned industries. This latter sec- 
 tion read: "The state or any political subdivision 
 thereof may issue or guarantee the payment of 
 bonds in excess of the debt limit specified in this 
 article, provided such bonds are secured by first 
 mortgages upon real estate, or upon property of 
 public utilities, enterprises or industries." 
 
 This obviously opened the way, not only for 
 state ownership of elevators and flour mills, pack- 
 ing houses and cold storage plants as advocated 
 by the League, but permitted counties, cities and 
 school districts to enter any business which could 
 be shown to be "for public purposes" and pro- 
 vided a means of financing such enterprises by 
 
140 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 the sale of bonds. Tlie proposed constitution con- 
 tained also specific authorization of an acreage 
 tax to provide funds for indemnifying owners of 
 crops damaged by hail and a provision that the 
 legislature might, by law, "exempt any or all 
 classes of personal property from taxation, and 
 within the meaning of this section, all fixtures, 
 buildings and improvements of every character 
 whatsoever upon land shall be deemed personal 
 property and all exemptions under this section 
 shall be uniform in their operations." 
 
 Embraced in these sections was the power to 
 carry out all of the pledges implied in the 
 League's program, including, through the power 
 to issue bonds secured by real estate first mort- 
 gages, means for refunding loans made direct to 
 the farmers by the state on first mortgages. 
 
 Other innovations, however, were inserted. 
 They included a revision of the direct legislation 
 provisions, inserted in the constitution by amend- 
 ment a few years before. The percentage of 
 voters required to initiate laws was reduced to 
 10 per cent, of the number voting for governor at 
 the last previous election, and the same percent- 
 age was made to apply to initiating constitutional 
 amendments or causing to be referred to popular 
 vote laws passed by the legislature. Amendments 
 to the constitution were to become law after ap- 
 proval by the people without action by the legis- 
 lature and laws passed by the people were not to 
 be repealed or annulled except by a vote of the 
 
LEAGUERS IN POWER 141 
 
 people, nor could the courts declare such laws 
 unconstitutional. 
 
 The constitutional revisionists of the League 
 faction in the legislature also undertook to make 
 possible the application of the "short ballot" 
 theory to the affairs of the state. It was placed 
 within the power of the legislature to provide for 
 the appointment instead of election of the secre- 
 tary of state, state auditor, state treasurer, super- 
 intendent of public instruction, commissioner of 
 insurance, commissioner of agriculture and at- 
 torney general. 
 
 This would have left the governor and the lieu- 
 tenant governor the only administrative oflBcers 
 to be elected, virtually applying the federal gov- 
 ernment's system to the state. The same course 
 was taken with respect to all elective county 
 offices, excepting those of judges, which would 
 have made it possible to bring county administra- 
 tive offices directly under the control of the state 
 government. 
 
 The elective term of administrative officers and 
 legislators was made four years instead of two. 
 
 The result of the introduction of House Bill 44 
 was to galvanize into new activity the faction op- 
 posing the farmer majority. The Republican 
 state platform, which only slightly altered the 
 League program and which had been the result of 
 a compromise, had declared for amendment of 
 the constitution to make possible the enactment 
 of the League program into law, and this was now 
 
142 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 quoted as a pledge by the League to proceed 
 toward its innovations in "orderly" and "con- 
 stitutional" manner. It was declared that Gov- 
 ernor Frazier, before his election, had declared 
 that the regular process of amendment of the con- 
 stitution would be followed. 
 
 The bill showed that the policy of the League 
 in the legislature was not to be a half-loaf, com- 
 promising one, as had been predicted, but that 
 the fuU measure of the "program" declarations 
 was to be demanded. 
 
 The counter effort of the holdover opposition in 
 the senate was the introduction of a bill calling 
 for a special election for delegates to a constitu- 
 tional convention. 
 
 Efforts were made by both sides to sway public 
 sentiment to exert pressure on the legislature. 
 Townley held a series of meetings in several towns 
 in the state, and at these meetings had the satis- 
 faction of obtaining practically unanimous ap- 
 proval of the proposed constitution. The "old 
 gang" of holdover senators were pictured as con- 
 spiring to defeat the will of the people and to 
 obstruct the enactment into law of the League 
 program. 
 
 Li the meantime the opposition, while less suc- 
 cessful in getting expressions of popular opinion, 
 were not idle. Newspaper correspondents repre- 
 senting the opposition newspapers were commis- 
 sioned to issue a pamphlet attacking the new con- 
 stitution, which was issued under the title of "A 
 
LEAGUERS IN POWER 143 
 
 Socialist Constitution for North Dakota" and was 
 distributed through much the same channels as 
 the earlier "Good Government League" circulars. 
 The lawyer who led the house opposition to the 
 farmer contingent held a few meetings with town 
 business men and endeavored to stir sentiment 
 against the bill. 
 
 In debate on the floor of the house an opposi- 
 tion member asserted that the proposed consti- 
 tution removed all limits on the freedom of the 
 state to incur indebtedness, and one of the League 
 representatives is said to have made the jocose 
 remark, "The sky's the limit." The phrase be- 
 came a slogan for the League's opponents, used to 
 indicate a reckless disregard for financial conse- 
 quences. 
 
 The features of House Bill 44 which were chosen 
 for concentrated attack were not, strangely, the 
 vital features from the League standpoint. Op- 
 ponents found in the draft of a proposed consti- 
 tution features which they claimed showed the 
 socialistic and unpatriotic tendencies of the 
 League movement and the desire of the leaders 
 to build up a strong political machine. The short- 
 ballot provisions were, it was said, solely to give 
 Townley power over a large number of political 
 appointments, while of the direct legislation pro- 
 visions it was said: "These are so loose in their 
 character that if they become the basic law the 
 state would be involved in a constant turmoil of 
 freak laws and constitutional amendments being 
 
144 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 promoted. It would be so easy to secure the neces- 
 sary petitions to initiate or refer a measure that 
 the farmers, business men, bankers, teachers, 
 preachers, lawyers, wets and drys, suffragists and 
 all other classes would be seeking new laws, or 
 relief from new laws, all the time. Surely we 
 have enough laws already without opening the 
 floodgates to let forth streams of new proposals 
 every few minutes, whenever any one had a griev- 
 ance or a dream of something that ought to be 
 fixed up." 
 
 The League's legislators and publications an- 
 swered that this criticism merely pictured a con- 
 dition in which the people would be taking an 
 active interest in their government, and they 
 pointed out that the new and more liberal form 
 of the referendum offset any danger that might 
 exist in unlimited power of contracting debt, since 
 any measure to issue bonds or to enlarge upon the 
 program of state industries could easily be 
 brought before the people for a vote. "Our op- 
 ponents," said the League speakers, "do not fear 
 the League so much as they fear government by 
 the people." 
 
 Oratory in the house when the bill was pre- 
 sented for passage was of an impassioned char- 
 acter and there was little friendly feeling evi- 
 denced between the small coterie of lawyers and 
 city business men who headed the opposition and 
 the farmers of the League majority. The climax 
 of strong statement came from the lips of A. G. 
 
LEAGUERS IN POWER 145 
 
 Divet, a Wahpeton attorney and leader of the 
 house opposition, over the revision of a paragraph 
 relating to the schools. This paragraph in the 
 old constitution read: "A high degree of intelli- 
 gence, patriotism, integrity and morality on the 
 part of every voter in a government by the people 
 being necessary to insure the continuance of that 
 government and the prosperity and happiness of 
 the people, the legislative assembly shall make 
 provision for the establishment and maintenance 
 of a system of public schools which shall be open 
 to all the people of North Dakota and free from 
 sectarian control. This legislative requirement 
 shall be irrevocable without the consent of the 
 United States and the people of North Dakota." 
 
 As changed, the section read: "The legislative 
 assembly shall make provision for the establish- 
 ment and maintenance of a system of public 
 schools which shall be open to all children of the 
 state of North Dakota and free from sectarian 
 control." 
 
 One might take the view of this change that to 
 eliminate two-thirds of the language from a para- 
 graph without eliminating any of its purpose or 
 legal force, reducing it to an unadorned statement 
 of law, would be a gain and a proper act in con- 
 stitutional revision ; and it might be added that if 
 it were necessary in a constitution to furnish a 
 defense of education, the language in the original 
 constitution was scarcely adequate to the purpose. 
 
 But the League's critics brushed such a weak 
 
146 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 defense aside. Obviously, the Socialist revisionist 
 had intended nothing less than an assault upon 
 education, patriotism, morality and even integrity. 
 Representative Divet expressed this view on the 
 floor of the house in the words : 
 
 "I say this change in this section was made designedly, 
 and I cannot pass it by without making the statement 
 that to my mind those changes represent the malicious 
 cut of a poisoned dagger of treason and licentiousness 
 held in the secret hand of disloyalty and hate ; that the 
 hand that penned those lines and deliberately made that 
 change would put poison in the wells in front of the 
 country's armies, or would lead a little sister to the 
 brothel." 
 
 When Bill 44 came to a vote in the house eighty- 
 one were found to favor and twenty-eight voted 
 against it. Six non-Leaguers voted with the 
 League members and five men elected on League 
 indorsement voted against it. 
 
 The bill came up in the senate three days later 
 and was indefinitely postponed by a vote of 29 
 to 20. One senator elected on League indorse- 
 ment voted against the bill, while four non- 
 League senators voted for it. 
 
 The action of the holdover majority in the 
 senate was regarded by League members and was 
 pictured by the League's publications as a be- 
 trayal of the farmers' interests and a defiance of 
 the mandate of the people of the state, who had 
 twice specifically voted in favor of state-owned 
 
LEAGUERS IN POWER 147 
 
 terminal elevators and had given the League can- 
 didates huge majorities in the 1916 elections. The 
 defense of the senate majority against this charge 
 was that nothing had been said in the League pro- 
 gram about any such revolutionary procedure as 
 House Bill 44 contemplated, nor had it been an 
 issue in the election. They claimed that they 
 stood ready to grant constitutional revision by 
 * ' constitutional ' ' means. 
 
 The League program had called for state own- 
 ership of elevators, flour mills, packing houses and 
 cold storage plants ; state hail insurance ; exemp- 
 tion of farm improvements from taxation; rural 
 credit banks operated at cost and state inspection 
 of grain. The constitution imposed insurmount- 
 able obstacles to every item except a terminal 
 elevator, for which the constitution had been 
 specifically amended, and state grain grading. 
 
 To the terminal elevator project a serious ob- 
 stacle also existed in the lack of means to finance 
 it except by taxation, although there was in the 
 state treasury some $70,000 raised by tax for that 
 purpose. To inaugurate state ownership of eleva- 
 tors on the plan wanted by the farmers — on any 
 plan that would have any appreciable effect on ex- 
 isting conditions — ^meant the use of not less than a 
 million dollars, in the opinion of League advisers, 
 and it was desired to have about five million dol- 
 lars for the joint miU and elevator projects which 
 were deemed most desirable. Advisers of the 
 Leagnie, notably President Ladd of the Agricul- 
 
148 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 tural College, believed that a flour mill and ele- 
 vator should be started together and as one unit. 
 
 The state constitution had a debt limit of $200,- 
 000 in addition to the debt at the time of the 
 adoption of the constitution, and this could be 
 incurred only as an emergency measure to meet 
 failure of revenue. It was clearly out of the ques- 
 tion to issue bonds even for a terminal elevator. 
 
 Nevertheless there was some slight difference 
 of opinion even among the League farmers as to 
 whether it would not be best to provide a start 
 toward a terminal elevator as authorized by the 
 constitution with what sums were available in the 
 terminal elevator fund and what could be added 
 by taxation. Some were fearful of their ability 
 to explain clearly to their fellow members of the 
 League their refusal to enact a "terminal ele- 
 vator" law when a previous legislature had been 
 roundly censured for its refusal to enact such a 
 law. 
 
 The opposition shrewdly saw in this situation 
 an opportunity to divide the League members, 
 and it was given out that members of the senate 
 were preparing a terminal elevator law to "carry 
 out the instructions of the people." 
 
 Such a bill was framed by League opponents 
 and passed the senate. It carried an appropria- 
 tion of $300,000, to be made up out of the amount 
 in the special terminal elevator fund, the balance 
 to come from the general fund. This bill was 
 before the house in the final day of the session 
 
LEAGUERS IN POWER 149 
 
 and, after some changes in conference, was passed 
 by the house, League members dividing on the 
 question. 
 
 The bill was promptly vetoed by Governor Fra- 
 zier, who gave as his grounds objection to the 
 principle of taxation to build state industries, 
 which should return earnings to pay interest on 
 the investment; his belief that a state-owned ele- 
 vator should not be built without a state-owned 
 flour mill ; that any bill for a state-owned elevator 
 should specifically provide that it should be within 
 the state, and that there were not sufl&cient avail- 
 able funds to meet the appropriation. 
 
 President Townley held meetings throughout 
 the state explaining the bill and the veto of it, 
 and he found little disposition among the League 
 members to question the wisdom of the action. 
 The Co-Operators' Herald, organ of the Equity 
 in the state, in an editorial attacked the Gov- 
 ernor's action, and M. P. Johnson, state president 
 of the Equity and railroad commissioner elected 
 by the League, made known his dissatisfaction. 
 The rank and file of the Equity, practically all 
 members of the League, did not support the posi- 
 tion of these leaders. The Equity paper did not 
 pursue its course of opposition, but later returned 
 to warmer support than ever of the League ; and 
 Johnson was not joined by other Equity leaders. 
 Both he and Bleick were dropped from the state 
 railroad commission in the election of 1918. 
 
 During the legislative session the League's po- 
 
150 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 sition had been unequivocally supported by two 
 big organizations of farmers in their annual con- 
 ventions. The Tri-State Grain Growers' confer- 
 ence in Fargo in January and the later session 
 of the North Dakota Union of the American So- 
 ciety of Equity at Bismarck both went on record 
 as unanimously indorsing House Bill 44, the 
 League's proposed new constitution. 
 
 The League legislators did not devote their 
 whole attention to the constitution. The legis- 
 lature passed a resolution of amendment to the 
 constitution to give votes for women (requiring 
 action by a subsequent legislature and by the peo- 
 ple), extended suffrage to women on all offices 
 and all questions where there was no constitu- 
 tional bar, passed a state grain grading act, a 
 Torrens title registration law, a law guaranteeing 
 deposits ia state banks, reduced the rate of assess- 
 ment on farm improvements to 5 per cent, of their 
 true value, passed two freight rate laws intended 
 to reduce freights, and created a state highway 
 commission with additional appropriations for 
 good roads. 
 
 The attitude of the League legislature toward 
 the schools was significant and interesting. 
 While granting the institutions of higher learning 
 undiminished appropriations, the Leaguers virtu- 
 ally trebled the appropriations for state aid to 
 rural schools, which had in the past proved a 
 powerful stimulus in raising the standards of the 
 schools. 
 
LEAGUERS IN POWER 161 
 
 The superintendent of public instruction, elected 
 on League indorsement, had been an inspector of 
 rural graded and consolidated schools and a 
 strong advocate of better rural education. He 
 received warm support from the governor and the 
 legislature for his program of rural school better- 
 ment. The League propaganda from the start, in 
 fact, has embraced strong advocacy of better edu- 
 cation of farmers' sons and daughters and un- 
 sparing criticism of the backwardness of the 
 country school as compared with the city school. 
 The grain grading act of the 1917 legislature 
 deserves especial mention as probably the most 
 important single enactment. In the past an effec- 
 tive system of grain gradiag had been denied the 
 farmers of North Dakota under the theory that 
 since all or virtually all the grain sold on the 
 Minnesota market, and that since the state of 
 Minnesota had a very elaborate system of 
 grades and a large organization to administer 
 them, it would be folly for North Dakota to 
 waste its time and energy with its own grad- 
 ing. 
 
 This was seen by the League's advisers, notably 
 the Agricultural College staff and Commissioner 
 of Agriculture Hagan, to be a fallacy. What was 
 wanted was honest enforcement of whatever 
 grades were used at the primary markets, to- 
 gether with honest weights and honest accounting. 
 A bill for which the League senator, Charles E. 
 Drown, was sponsor, largely developed in the 
 
152 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 League caucus, created two departments, one of 
 warehouse accounting and supervision, and an- 
 other of grain inspection and grading under Pres- 
 ident E. F. Ladd of the Agricultural College as 
 food commissioner. This League bill abandoned 
 the old plan of a multitude of salaried inspectors 
 with the resultant heavy drain on the resources of 
 the state. Instead buyers of grain were them- 
 selves compelled to procure licenses as grain in- 
 spectors. A license thus secured could be revoked 
 for violation of the state's rules or for any mis- 
 grading or short weighing. The elevator or ware- 
 house employing him could not buy grain until 
 the buyer regained his standing as an inspector 
 or another properly recommended and qualified 
 had been licensed in his stead. 
 
 A few months of operation of this law showed 
 a wonderful effect not only in the more uniform 
 and generally higher grading of grain, together 
 with less deduction for dockage, but it also indi- 
 rectly improved the prices paid for the various 
 grades. It was administered through a chief 
 deputy inspector appointed by President Ladd. 
 This was James A. McGovem, a veteran farmers' 
 elevator superintendent and farmer, who at the 
 time of his appointment was chief grain grader 
 for the Equity Exchange at St. Paul. McGovem 
 encouraged farmers to send samples of all their 
 grain to him at Fargo for analysis, where he sub- 
 jected it to baking tests as well as the ordinary 
 weighing and grading. Where the grain had been 
 
LEAGUERS IN POWER 153 
 
 misgraded by the buyer lie was promptly notified 
 and asked to correct the error. 
 
 The state railroad commission, acting as a grain 
 board of appeals, was authorized to adopt state 
 standard grades. This function was performed 
 by making the newly adopted federal grain stand- 
 ards the state grades. This was necessary in 
 order to prevent confusion in selling and shipping, 
 but it gave the state grain inspection department 
 the power to compel honest application of the 
 standards, which was found to be fully as im- 
 portant as the fixing of standards just in them- 
 selves. 
 
 Thus the conclusion of the 1917 legislative ses- 
 sion found but one of the planks in the League's 
 platform actually accomplished and written into 
 law. The League had been balked in its attempt 
 to clear away the constitutional barriers to the 
 enactment of the main features of the "program." 
 It had been balked, its leaders asserted, by the 
 perverse opposition of an "old gang" of holdover 
 state senators. It faced the period between the 
 adjournment of the legislature and the next gen- 
 eral election in 1918 with the firm determination 
 to do two things: to provide other means for 
 amending the constitution to make enactment of 
 its program possible, and to clear away opposi- 
 tion in the legislature by winning enough more 
 senate votes to give control over that body, while 
 holding its strength in the lower house. 
 
 Before the legislature adjourned the League's 
 
164 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 plan with respect to the constitution was openly 
 announced. It was to frame constitutional amend- 
 ments covering the main changes desired and to 
 cause these to be placed on the ballot in the 1918 
 election. It is true that there was a supreme 
 court decision (in the New Rockford capital re- 
 moval case) that the constitution could not thus 
 be amended until the legislature had passed sup- 
 plementary legislation. "Surely," said the Ncm- 
 partiscm Leader after the defeat of House BiU 
 44, "the senate will not defy the people by refus- 
 ing to pass this legislation ; but if it does, the mat- 
 ter will go before the supreme court again and the 
 reactionary judges of the old court will be re- 
 versed." (Three judges indorsed by the League 
 had been chosen and had taken office since the 
 decision.) 
 
 Knowing that to pass a law removing the tech- 
 nical obstacles to invoking the initiative process 
 for amending the constitution would enable the 
 League more speedily to put its program into 
 effect, the opposition majority in the senate ac- 
 cepted the challenge and defeated a League bill 
 to make the provision of the constitution effective. 
 The same senate majority, now acting as a unit 
 against all proposals labeled "League," also de- 
 feated a bill for non-partisan primary elections. 
 Two years later they saw their mistake, having 
 discovered that the League could operate more 
 effectively within the Republican primaries than 
 outside of them, but in the legislative session of 
 
LEAGUERS IN POWER 155 
 
 1917 partisan bitterness blinded them to the 
 course dictated by wise political strategy. 
 
 Citing the defeat of House Bill 44, citing also 
 the refusal to enable the voters to initiate amend- 
 ments to the constitution, the Nonpartiscm Leader 
 affirmed, iu summary of the result of the 1917 
 session : ' ' The motto of the Old Gang is : We don't 
 trust the people." 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE LEAGUE BECOMES "NATIONAL" 
 
 In January of 1917, shortly after the legislature 
 began its sessions, announcement was made that 
 the League had already begun to operate in other 
 states, and that national headquarters had been 
 opened in St, Paul, Minnesota. 
 
 Organizers at that time, it was stated, were at 
 work in Minnesota, South Dakota and Montana, 
 and their work would soon be extended into other 
 states. An entire floor of an office building in St. 
 Paul had been leased for the "national" and Min- 
 nesota state headquarters, and the League's of- 
 fices in Fargo, center of operations for the most 
 interesting political campaign the state ever had 
 seen, were to become state branch offices for an 
 inter-state organization. 
 
 For the first time it was revealed that, for sev- 
 eral months, the League had men in the three 
 states bordering on North Dakota testing the re- 
 ception the League plan would meet there, and the 
 verdict had been favorable. The organizers, as 
 a matter of fact, started work in western Minne- 
 sota in July, 1916, immediately after the League's 
 success in the North Dakota primaries. Soon 
 others were busy in the northern tier of counties 
 of South Dakota and in eastern Montana. 
 
 156 
 
THE LEAGUE BECOMES " NATIONAL " 157 
 
 The plan of operation in each of these neigh- 
 boring states was practically identical with that 
 followed in North Dakota, except that Townley 
 now had at his command both the men and the 
 methods necessary to more rapid work. The form 
 of organization was the same. The preliminary 
 work consisted of visits to the homes of influential 
 farmers, sounding them on their attitude toward 
 the League, and finally the selection of a state 
 committee. In the place of a "president," the 
 office Townley held in North Dakota, a "state 
 chairman" for each of the other states was chosen. 
 
 The "program" was about the same as that in 
 North Dakota, but in Minnesota there was added 
 a demand for the tonnage tax on iron ore. This 
 proposal for several years past had found favor 
 with progressives in the state. Northern Minne- 
 sota is the nation's greatest storehouse of iron, 
 and it was thought that this huge resource should 
 yield a revenue proportionate to the amount of 
 the treasure taken out, a procedure which would 
 bring a higher tax return than a tax based upon 
 the wealth estimated to lie in the ground. 
 
 The state ownership of elevators, flour mills, 
 packing houses and cold storage plants, the cen- 
 tral equipment concerned with the marketing of 
 the farmers' products, continued to be the cardi- 
 nal point in the League's program as it spread. 
 Along with that, of course, went the more im- 
 portant feature of the plan of political action by 
 which the farmers were to place into state office, 
 
158 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 through the machinery of the primaries and by 
 capturing control of existing political parties, 
 only men pledged to enact their wishes into law 
 and to administer those laws. 
 
 The farmers in these adjacent states had read 
 both evil and good of the "farmers' revolt" in 
 North Dakota. The daily newspapers of St. Paul 
 and Minneapolis had said something about it. 
 One newspaper, the St. Paul Daily News, had been 
 friendly in its attitude, while the Trihmie and 
 Journal, the chief newspapers of Minneapolis, had 
 shown undisguised hostility. These newspapers 
 had been recognized by the League publicity agen- 
 cies as "organs of the Chamber of Conl^lerce." 
 
 Pubhcations of national circulation had begun 
 to recognize the League, After the North Dakota 
 legislative session, a farm journal of prominence 
 sent a correspondent to get the story of North 
 Dakota's insurgency against conventional politics, 
 and he treated it in a way that gave no comfort 
 to the opposition; though a number of the most 
 active antagonists of the League had been seen 
 and were quoted. Correspondents of eastern 
 daily newspapers, of press syndicates and of other 
 magazines began dropping in at League headquar- 
 ters at Fargo and at St. Paul to learn more about 
 the farmers' uprising, and to write of its pictur- 
 esque features. Business interests in the North- 
 west had not yet succeeded in arousing a proper 
 antagonism toward the League among their big- 
 ger fellows in the eastern business world. "Big 
 
THE LEAGUE BECOMES " NATIONAL " 159 
 
 Business" had not yet taken the League entirely 
 seriously, but regarded it as a local affair — some- 
 thing of a joke on the politicians in North Dakota. 
 
 In January of 1917 there were approximately 
 ten thousand members of the new organizations 
 outside of North Dakota. All memberships in the 
 North Dakota League itself theoretically expired 
 with the close of 1916. Reorganization was neces- 
 sary. This might, in the case of another organiza- 
 tion, have taken the form of sending notices to 
 all members asking them to pay their dues. But 
 the League used a different method. It was not 
 content to wait for the members automatically to 
 re-enroll themselves. The same principles of 
 salesmanship used in the original canvass were 
 applied to the re-enrollment. But, whereas the 
 dues collected from members in the initial period 
 had been at first $6 and later $9 for one year, the 
 new schedule was $16 for a term of two years, 
 from election to election. 
 
 Enrolling membership by personal canvass, the 
 fundamental working plan on which the League 
 was built, is an expensive process, as any man 
 who directs a crew of agents in the field realizes. 
 Consequently the work must not be done oftener 
 than once in a two-year term. This gave one year 
 solely for organizing and another for campaign- 
 ing. 
 
 In addition to the three states outside of North 
 Dakota in which active organization work was 
 already in progress, campaigns were opened in. 
 
160 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 Idaho, "Washington, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, 
 Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa and Wisconsin. 
 
 The difficulties of handling and directing such 
 an organization were of course multiplied out of 
 proportion to the number of states. It was no 
 longer possible for Townley to control all the de- 
 tails of the situation, and he began to trust far 
 more to the judgment of lieutenants and leading 
 members in the various states. 
 
 The most trusted and able among Townley's 
 lieutenants in North Dakota were sent to the new 
 states as managers of organization. They took 
 with them men of experience as organizers in 
 North Dakota, and later developed local men to 
 do the work. This was advisable to avoid the 
 charge of "carpet-bagging." 
 
 The states which the League chose for its op- 
 erations were mainly agricultural ; some of them, 
 as North Dakota, almost wholly so. The majority 
 of farmers reached by the organizers showed 
 strong sympathy with the idea of the organization. 
 They felt that it would bring about the election 
 of men to office who would follow their wishes in 
 matters relating to the farming business, and who, 
 particularly, would pledge themselves to a pro- 
 gram by which the state would assert control of 
 the conditions under which the farmers were com- 
 pelled to market their products. 
 
 In none of the states, however, did the work 
 move so swiftly as it had moved in North Dakota. 
 This was not wholly due to the fact that the na- 
 
THE LEAGUE BECOMES " NATIONAL " 161 
 
 tional organization, with its scattered territory 
 and enlarged problems of administration, could 
 not put shrewd attention and hard work into each 
 individual state. In North Dakota, as has been 
 seen, the conditions had been particularly oppor- 
 tune. These conditions had created the League's 
 program and its plan of action. It was the psycho- 
 logical effect of having been foiled in what they 
 had set out to do by right of their power as a 
 majority in the state ; foiled through the failure 
 of the pohtical machinery to function in a demo- 
 cratic way. The farmers had rushed to Townley 's 
 League as the happy solution of the problem — a 
 solution particularly appropriate because it prom- 
 ised the end toward which they had be6n traveling 
 in their prior experiments in politics. 
 
 It was not quite so easy to convince the farmers 
 of other states that what was a panacea in North 
 Dakota was good medicine Elsewhere. North Da- 
 kota had been notorious as a boss-ridden state ; it 
 had been a laggard in the farmer movements of 
 insurgency and progressivism. Should Kansas 
 and South Dakota and Iowa, birthplaces of Popu- 
 lism, incubators of government control of rail- 
 roads, direct legislation and assaults upon in- 
 trenched privilege, take lessons from the state that 
 had been Alex McKenzie's own empire? And 
 Minnesota, that had looked on North Dakota as 
 the forlorn wild prairie — ^was it to seek instruc- 
 tion from this modern Nazareth? 
 
 Organization, therefore, could not go so fast in 
 
162 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 these states. But it moved. The extension of the 
 League seemed sure to succeed. South Dakota, 
 Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Idaho, Wisconsin 
 and still others would eventually yield to the 
 power of organization if the work among the 
 farmers continued. 
 
 Minnesota drew the most concentrated atten- 
 tion. It is closely related to North Dakota, as 
 closely related as landlord and tenant, as em- 
 ployer and employee. North Dakota grew the 
 wheat; Minnesota received it and "handled" it — 
 mixed it, cleaned it, speculated in it, profited from 
 it, ground it and profited again. Minnesota banks 
 "financed" North Dakota — drew in the golden 
 fl.ood of gold as they drew in the golden flood of 
 wheat, and doled it out again with cautious be- 
 nevolence on proper security. North Dakota was 
 "dependent" on Minnesota, just as the farmers 
 of North Dakota were dependent on the town 
 bankers and merchants ; just as the horse is de- 
 pendent on the plow and the blossoms on the bees 
 that gather their honey. 
 
 The farmers of Minnesota knew more of the 
 League movement than farmers of other states 
 and were even more favorably impressed by it. 
 With North Dakota farmers declaring their inde- 
 pendence of big grain dealing, and milling in- 
 terests, they saw no reason why they should not 
 do the same. But in Minnesota farmers were not 
 in majority. There were big cities to reckon with, 
 a much higher proportion of urban population, 
 
THE LEAGUE BECOMES " NATIONAL " 163 
 
 and therefore impossibility qf_ political domina- 
 "T;ioii, except by alliaiice witb other factions 01" in- 
 _terests. That interest, as the philosophy of the 
 League plainly pointed out, was with the other 
 branches of essential producers, with manual 
 workmen, in other words. And it was the natural 
 and logical thing that the alliance should be with 
 union labor, the one big class organized to combat 
 aggressions by capital, by "profiteers," by "ex- 
 ploiters of labor," by "big business." 
 
 The League, early in its career in Minnesota, 
 began pointing out the essential community of 
 interest between the workingman and the farmer, 
 and to lay its plans for a close alliance with or- 
 ganized labor in the state. The advances to union 
 labor, however, did not represent a new idea, for 
 it was a policy inherent in the general philosophy 
 of the League. In North Dakota the unions, in- 
 significant in point of numbers, already were be- 
 ginning to reap the benefit of the unsolicited sup- 
 port of the League, in spite of the earnest at- 
 tempts of the city press to point out that the 
 interests of farmers and laborers necessarily were 
 in opposition. 
 
 It was not difficult to persuade the unions of the 
 advantages of the alliance. In every state their 
 own efforts to influence legislation had been puny. 
 They had found other elements in politics com- 
 bined against them and they had been betrayed by 
 the men they had supported more often than they 
 had been served. The rank and file of union mem- 
 
164. THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 bers were and are strong believers in the theory 
 that all who work with their hands and brains in 
 actual production of commodities could share a 
 much larger profit if "parasites" and "prof- 
 iteers" were eliminated. Almost without excep- 
 tion they are strong supporters of municipal 
 ownership of utilities, of government ownership, 
 or control, of great natural monopolies. Their 
 convictions, as a rule, are not less "socialistic" 
 than those of the organized farmers of North Da- 
 kota, with their plan of state operation of ele- 
 vators, mills, packing houses and cold sterage 
 plants. 
 
 The alliance with the unions became important 
 in Montana as well as in Minnesota. That state 
 not only furnished a ground highly favorable for 
 the League's propaganda, but offered organized 
 opposition as well, 
 
 Montana, more than any other state in which 
 the League operates, is cursed with the political 
 influence of capital. For the most part it comes 
 from a single great corporation, together with its 
 allied companies and related interests. The Ana- 
 conda Copper Mining Company is a monopoly 
 whose ruthless domination of a state — control 
 over business, the press and politics — furnishes a 
 story too intricate and too extensive to be re- 
 viewed here. The League soon found natural 
 alUes there in farmers' organizations, in unions, 
 in college professors, and in independent men and 
 women of all walks of life who had been injured 
 
THE LEAGUE BECOMES " NATIONAL " 165 
 
 by the great trust or who had chosen to fight it 
 rather than bow. 
 
 In Idaho there were special conditions that 
 favored the League movement, W. G. Scholtz, 
 who had come out from Minnesota, giving up a 
 position as clerk in a railroad office to take up 
 fruit farming for his health, discovered, like 
 Townley in North Dakota, that farmers and fruit 
 growers in Idaho were injured by the control of 
 "trusts" and monopolies over the market. He 
 believed that unfair advantage was being taken 
 of the farmers' ignorance of market conditions. 
 
 Scholtz began the publication of a farmers' 
 weekly journal which devoted its attention to the 
 problems. It found a ready response among the 
 farmers and built a large circulation. In his pub- 
 lication Scholtz contended for state laws creating 
 the office of State Market Commissioner, giving 
 authority to collect and publish information on 
 prices and market conditions. This mild measure 
 of reform was unanimously backed by the farm 
 organizations then existing, with the result that 
 the legislature found it unwise to disregard their 
 demand. Immediately after the passage of the 
 law creating the office, Governor Moses Alexander 
 asked the farmers' organizations to recommend a 
 candidate or candidates for the position. To 
 Scholtz 's surprise, the farmers recommended him 
 and declined to make any other recommendation. 
 
 Governor Alexander gave Scholtz the appoint- 
 ment, and tied a string to it. The appointment 
 
166 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 ■was by law for a definite term, but the governor 
 argued that he would be responsible for the record 
 of the office, and he wanted the power to remove 
 at will. So he asked Seholtz's resignation, un- ^ 
 dated and to be used when desired, as a condition 
 of the appointment. 
 
 Scholtz soon found himself involved in a battle 
 with organizations of cream buyers, grain dealers 
 and fruit handlers. He desired more power to 
 cope with their practices, and went before the next 
 session of the legislature with proposed laws ex- 
 tending his powers, after Governor Alexander had 
 declined to be sponsor for the changes. The legis- 
 lature accepted his ideas and the governor 
 promptly accepted his resignation. 
 
 The dismissal of Scholtz roused a tumult of 
 protest among the farmers and it was at this op- 
 portune juncture Scholtz learned of the extension 
 operations of the Nonpartisan League. He wel- 
 comed it with open arms, joined forees with the 
 state organizer sent out from St. Paul headquar- 
 ters, and converted his own magazine into the 
 Idaho Nonpartisan Leader. 
 
 In the state of Washington co-operation was 
 extended to the League by groups of party-less 
 ' ' radicals ' ' both in Spokane and Seattle. Spokane 
 was the home of David C. Coates. Coates had left 
 the League work in North Dakota shortly after 
 the 1917 session to return to his private interests 
 in Spokane. A few months later he became man- 
 ager of the national headquarters of the newly 
 
THE LEAGUE BECOMES " NATIONAL " 167 
 
 formed National party, which was largely an at- 
 tempt to build a new liberal political party out of 
 the ruins of the Progressive party, deserted by 
 Eoosevelt. 
 
 The political wiseacres, whose guess is always 
 worth much more than any amount of informa- 
 tion, knew at once that the Nonpartisan League 
 had been only the curtain-raiser for a deep-laid 
 political plot now more fully revealed in the for- 
 mation of the National party, of which Coates, so 
 the story ran in the state of Washington, was the 
 real Machiavelli. 
 
 This guess was too complimentary to the men 
 who formed the national party. Their political 
 ideals were much the same as those of the League 
 and Townley welcomed their co-operation, but he 
 had no thought of turning the League machinery 
 over to the use of a group of political idealists 
 who had not yet shown practical ability. 
 
 In the campaign of 1918 the League did, how- 
 ever, indorse several candidates running on the 
 National party ticket. The more notable were 
 Jeanette Eankin, of Montana, for the United 
 States senate, and W. G. Calderwood for the sen- 
 ate in Minnesota. 
 
 In spite of the friendship of a few city liberals 
 in the state of Washington, organization made 
 rather slow progress, largely because of the very 
 diverse character of agricultural production in the 
 state and an overbalance of urban and industrial 
 population. Here, as in every other state, the 
 
168 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 entiy of the United States into the war and the 
 absorption of general interest in war activities 
 acted as a serious brake on League progress. 
 
 The League's entry into Texas and Oklahoma 
 was in response to general appeals from fanners 
 and political progressives in those states, where 
 usurious interest rates and other oppressive con- 
 ditions were rapidly increasing tenantry and 
 where there was a class of farmers probably the 
 most miserable of any in the Union. The very 
 conditions which persuaded the League to enter 
 these states made it difficult for the League to 
 thrive. A year of organization work resulted in 
 a severe drain on the League's treasury; it was 
 due to a well-organized persecution of League 
 representatives by the dominant elements in the 
 state; persecution which included beatings, tar 
 and feathers for League organizers — notably in 
 Texas — and the inability of the farmers to give 
 their support. The great majority were ready to 
 wish the League godspeed, but they were unable 
 to pay dues to meet the expenses of organizing 
 effort. 
 
 The stories of opposition journals created the 
 fiction of a huge cash fund in the hands of the 
 League from its dues collections, a fund from 
 which the officers of the League could pay them- 
 selves huge salaries and live in luxury. The fact 
 was that there had never been a day since the 
 start of the League when it was not burdened with 
 debts secured by the voluntary notes of farmers 
 
THE LEAGUE BECOMES " NATIONAL " 169 
 
 and the post-dated dues checks ; when its resources 
 were not strained to the utmost to keep the stream 
 of ready money flowing to meet the huge expenses 
 of the organization. 
 
 The executive committee of the League, begin- 
 ning with the first state convention in Fargo in 
 1916, has presented annual audit reports both of 
 state and national affairs to state and national 
 conventions. At all times Townley has been re- 
 strained by the cashier's department of the 
 League. The audit reports and the testimony in 
 Townley 's proceedings in bankruptcy, which came 
 to a hearing in 1918 (the outcome of his failure 
 at Beach in 1912), show that Townley 's own earn- 
 ings from the League were less than was paid to 
 heads of departments under him, where the work 
 required special training and ability. 
 
 In granting Townley 's petition for discharge 
 from bankruptcy, Federal Judge C. F, Amidon 
 said: 
 
 "The trustee (representing the creditors in the bank- 
 ruptcy proceedings) has been permitted to go through 
 the record of all these concerns (the League and its 
 affiliated organizations) as with a lighted candle. He 
 has found no trace of any grant of any of the funds or 
 property of the Nonpartisan League or its subordinate 
 agencies to Mr. Townley, except a salary of $300 per 
 month. On the contrary, the record shows clearly and 
 affirmatively that the Nonpartisan League and its sub- 
 ordinate agencies have never granted to Mr. Townley 
 any part of their funds or property as his personal 
 
170 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 estate and he has never tised them for any purpose 
 except that of a political leader, devoting them honestly 
 to the achievement of the objects of his party. The 
 record is full and has been honestly kept and it shows 
 an honest purpose to give an account of an honest 
 stewardship. ' ' 
 
 Midsummer of 1917, in spite of all the difficul- 
 ties faced, saw organization work proceeding 
 under Townley's direction in the thirteen western 
 states named. In each state there were from half 
 a dozen to one hundred organizers, a state office 
 and its corps of workers, and at national head- 
 quarters a staff of accountants, library experts, 
 a book department for the sale of progressive 
 literature, a correspondence school for organizers, 
 a staff of regular lecturers. Always, in some part 
 of the territory, one or two men of national promi- 
 nence were temporarily engaged, at the League's 
 expense, in propaganda. 
 
 The first criticism on the finances of the League 
 was that the huge fund being collected from mem- 
 berships was to be used for the private enrichment 
 of Townley and his associates; the second, made 
 by innuendo during the war, that the League was 
 receiving money from German sources. The ar- 
 gument in the first case was that the League 
 could not possibly be using honestly all the money 
 collected; the second, that its legitimate collections 
 certainly couldn't equal all it was spending. 
 Either line of attack could be used, depending 
 upon the purpose, and, ludicrously enough, the 
 
THE LEAGUE BECOMES " NATIONAL " 171 
 
 same critics used both in turn. In North. Dakota 
 the leading newspaper opponent at one time pre- 
 sented estimates to show that only a fraction of 
 the League's collections were being expended in 
 League activity, while, not long afterward, it esti- 
 mated that so rapidly was Townley spending the 
 money he could have nothing left for campaigning 
 in North Dakota, which was really what the 
 farmers had paid for; 
 
 With all the stir in other states, activity in 
 North Dakota was not lessened. One of the chief 
 events was the League's first participation in an 
 election for a national office. The death of Con- 
 gressman H. T. Helgesen in the spring of 1917 
 made it necessary for the League to decide 
 whether or not to take the plunge into national 
 affairs at that time. 
 
 Grovemor Frazier called a special election for 
 June 10. The district, the First North Dakota, 
 comprised the counties of the eastern border and 
 some adjacent — ^the most thickly populated area 
 in the state, embracing the two chief cities, Fargo 
 and Grand Forks. 
 
 The League decided to participate, and Townley 
 called all the League members of the legislature 
 in session as a convention to choose their candi- 
 date. The result was the selection of John M. 
 Baer, cartoonist for the Nonpartisan Leader from 
 its beginning. Baer was scarcely thirty years old, 
 younger than any member of congress at that 
 time. After being graduated from a small college 
 
172 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 in Wisconsin, he had come to North Dakota as a 
 civil engineer. He settled in Beach, the scene of 
 Tovmley's North Dakota farming experience. He 
 used cartooning, a talent he had practised on a 
 college paper, as a diversion, and he had done an 
 occasional political cartoon for campaign use be- 
 fore the League was bom. He was popular in 
 Beach and had married the daughter of a pros- 
 perous farmer. Baer was a Democrat and had 
 been appointed postmaster by President Wilson. 
 He resigned in 1916 to come to Fargo to devote 
 all his time to cartooning for the League's official 
 paper. 
 
 Baer is a man of winning personality and had 
 no enemies. The League farmers considered his 
 drawings depicting "Big Business," the "Old 
 Gang" and the farmer as the very heart of the 
 Leader. His nonaination struck a very popular 
 chord with them. Baer in his campaign developed 
 the ability to speak effectively. Running as an 
 independent, having been nominated by petition, 
 he defeated the "regular" candidates by a close 
 vote and took his seat in congress. 
 
 By this time antagonism to the League, based on 
 issues relating to the war, had become acute. 
 
CHAPTEE XV 
 
 WAR ISSUES 
 
 WooDEOw Wilson was elected in 1916 on the anti- 
 militaristic issue and by an anti-war vote. North 
 Dakota, by the narrowest of margins, gave its 
 electoral vote to Wilson, though McCumber, Re- 
 publican, was re-elected to the United States 
 senate. The vote for Wilson was undoubtedly 
 heavily reduced by the fact that the League nomi- 
 nees were in the Republican column, also the Re- 
 publican state committee, headed by William 
 Lemke, one of the League 's campaign committee, 
 had coupled, in its advertising, publicity favorable 
 to Hughes and McCumber with arguments for the 
 support of the League Republican nominees. 
 
 In spite of many corrections and warnings 
 against this association of candidates in the edi- 
 torial columns of the Nonpartisan Leader, a large 
 proportion of the League members apparently ac- 
 cepted the pages of paid advertising of the Re- 
 publican State Committee, appearing in the 
 Leader (and marked as "paid advertising") as 
 a true statement of the League 's position. This 
 probably explains why Wilson did not poll 
 a heavier vote in North Dakota. The Hughes 
 advertising contained the warning that ''Wilson's 
 
 173 
 
174 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 vacillating policy is leading the country straight 
 toward war." 
 
 If there had been a clear-cut issue in North 
 Dakota between one candidate favoring imme- 
 diate war with Germany and another favoring the 
 avoidance of war there is no room for doubt that 
 the vote would have been overwhelmingly in favor 
 of peace. 
 
 The sentiment of North Dakota and of prac- 
 tically all the states west of the Mississippi was 
 decidedly pacifistic. It was as true in other west- 
 ern states as it was in North Dakota. The ex- 
 planation for it must be sought in other directions 
 than in the propaganda of the Nonpartisan 
 League. The fact is that the League, up until the 
 declaration of war by our government, had stu- 
 diously and carefully refrained from any expres- 
 sion of opinion or policy on war and peace ques- 
 tions, the Allies or Germany. 
 
 There was political strategy in this. To intro- 
 duce war questions, as to introduce religious ques- 
 tions, would inevitably divide opinion and beget 
 strife within the League. It was the invariable 
 rule that subjects likely to arouse heated differ- 
 ences of opinion were to be avoided. The League 
 was neither for war nor against it. It sought to 
 pursue its own political way without attention to 
 so troublesome a subject. 
 
 It is probably fair to say ' that, generally, 
 farmers and all others who toil at hard physical 
 labor for long hours were far less concerned with 
 
WAR ISSUES 175 
 
 the troubles of Europe, far less likely to be stirred 
 by indignities and outrages conunitted abroad 
 against American citizens, were far less jealous of 
 American rights and were mucb less thrilled at 
 the prospect of war than other classes with more 
 leisure. 
 
 It is easier for the real toiler to see war in 
 terms of toil and suffering than to see in it ab- 
 stract rights and glorious adventure. He is more 
 slowly affected by tales of distant suffering than 
 the man of ease and leisure. The energies and 
 the compassions of the laborer — and the farmer is 
 one of the hardest worked of all laborers — are 
 otherwise occupied. This is not a question of 
 morals. It is merely a physiological and psycho- 
 logical fact. 
 
 If the North Dakota vote had been poUed on 
 the subject of war or peace in April of 1917, it 
 would have gone against war. No one who ob- 
 served conditions and sentiment in the state could 
 honestly say otherwise. The vote that would have 
 decided it would have been a farmer vote against 
 war. Yet even then scores of North Dakota boys, 
 many of them farm boys, were serving in the ar- 
 mies of the Allies. They had slipped across the 
 line to Winnipeg and other Canadian towns and 
 volunteered with the Canadians. Scores of North 
 Dakota League farmers had relatives in the Cana- 
 dian and English forces. The state was largely 
 pro- Ally. The son of one of the League's candi- 
 dates, a Fargo high school graduate, was killed in 
 
176 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 battle in 1916, as a member of the Canadian forces. 
 
 To say that the people of the state went unwill- 
 ingly to war would be untrue and an injustice. 
 They went willingly, recognizing the justice of the 
 cause, recognizing the abundance of the provoca- 
 tion; against what certainly would have been their 
 own judgment if they had been asked to express it, 
 but with faith in the judgment of those they be- 
 lieved to be in a position to know. 
 
 But they did not propose to forego any of their 
 rights as citizens. Among those was the right to 
 protest against building up riches for the "prof- 
 iteers" in war, as they had been protesting 
 against building up profits for the "profiteers" 
 in peace. 
 
 With war declared the League could not, in all 
 the excitement of a country at war, hope to exist 
 and make progress without making itself a part 
 of the changed conditions. The League's natural 
 preference would have been to ignore the war 
 question. From the organization standpoint the 
 war was a calamity. It detracted men's attention 
 from domestic questions. 
 
 To the farmer — especially the middle-aged 
 farmer toiling for a living and facing debts — war 
 meant more taxes, harder work, when he thought 
 he was working as hard as any man deserved to 
 work for a living. War, waste, work — the three 
 concepts went together in the farmer's mind as 
 quickly as in the mind of an economist ; far more 
 quickly than in the mind of a politician. 
 
WAR ISSUES 177 
 
 "Yes; we'll go to war, but how shall we pay 
 for it?" 
 
 Such was the natural thought of the farmer. 
 He was used to reckoning waste and expense in 
 terms of toil. 
 
 Townley understood the farmer's mind. He 
 understood the struggle that the financing of the 
 war meant. He was aware of the millions that 
 had been made by Americans out of the war in 
 Europe. All reading Americans knew of them. 
 Every worker knew some were reaping huge for- 
 tunes while to others the prices of the necessities 
 of life were becoming more and more difficult to 
 meet. Farmers' costs had risen tremendously. 
 "What was to be the story of American participa- 
 tion in the war? How was the load to be dis- 
 tributed? 
 
 Finally, the question came, was there room for 
 a campaign of protest against profiteering, for a 
 demand that the load of war should be more 
 equitably borne? And could the League survive, 
 carrying such a message of protest? And if it 
 could, was there the courage to carry it on? 
 Townley knew what it would mean and he decided 
 to make the fight. 
 
 Before the legislature adjourned the League- 
 controlled house had adopted a resolution de- 
 nounced by the League's enemies as "unpatri- 
 otic." It called upon congress, in case war should 
 be declared upon Germany, to make the first levy 
 to meet the expenses of war upon the "swollen 
 
178 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 fortunes" created by war profits in the United 
 States. 
 
 After the legislative session Townley held a 
 series of North Dakota meetings attended by large 
 crowds of farmers coming from great distances. 
 At these he explained and justified the action of 
 the legislature and of Governor Frazier in vetoing 
 the terminal elevator bill. He also, more frankly 
 than ever before, had gone into the League's his- 
 tory, and he had asked for support of a new plan 
 of financing through the sale of stock in an or- 
 ganization to be known as the League Exchange. 
 This organization was formed to hold post-dated 
 membership checks and to advance the League 
 cash or lend its credit against them. He and other 
 League speakers had also been active in North 
 Dakota in the campaign for the election of Baer 
 to congress. 
 
 The authorization of the First Liberty Loan 
 seemed to be warrant for the belief that congress 
 was likely to evade the duty, as it was conceived 
 by League leaders, of a drastic plan of taxation 
 for the war. In June Townley took the stump in 
 North Dakota, holding a series of meetings to 
 demand "conscription of wealth" as a war 
 policy. 
 
 The opposition newspapers declared that these 
 meetings, held in all the more important towns of 
 the state, were in opposition to the Liberty Loan 
 and to the war. The Grcmd ForJcs Herald quoted 
 Townley as having declared * ' This is a war of the 
 
WAR ISSUES 179 
 
 rotten rich," and charged him with other "trea- 
 sonable utterances." It published a cartoon de- 
 picting the imprisonment or hanging of "trait- 
 ors" in other American wars and in another draw- 
 ing represented Townley as advocating sedition, 
 unhindered. 
 
 A tense feeling was created throughout the 
 state. It increased as Townley proceeded from 
 the smaller cities and towns of the western part 
 of the state to Grand Forks and Fargo. Townley 
 was booked for a speech in Fargo on Saturday, 
 June 16. The Fargo Forum, which had been pur- 
 chased a few months before by interests hostile to 
 the League, asserting its position as chief press 
 opponent, published an editorial in its issue of 
 June 9 which seemed an invitation to violence 
 against the League president. It read : 
 
 "The Forum hopes that when Mr. Townley comes to 
 Fargo the members of the Home Defense League, 100 
 or 150 strong, will march into the hall, stand at attention 
 during his address and give him a chance to repeat those 
 remarks or make others in the same vein. 
 
 "If there isn't a public officer in the state with back- 
 bone enough to put the speaker behind the bars, there is 
 enough spirit in the Home Defense League to prevent 
 him from repeating the offense." 
 
 Townley accepted the challenge, came to Fargo 
 and delivered his speech on "Conscription of 
 Wealth" in much the same terms as he had deliv- 
 ered it elsewhere. There was no show of violence 
 
180 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 against him by members of tbe Home Defense 
 League, some of whom were present. The speech 
 was, in part and in tone, highly objectionable to 
 some; it increased the wrath of foes of the League 
 against Townley and the organization. 
 
 A stenographer's transcript of Townley's 
 speech at Jamestown just before he came to Fargo 
 fails to show the "quotations" charging the 
 most extreme statements. Of Townley's earliest 
 speeches in the state no stenographic report was 
 made, and so no material was at hand to contra- 
 dict newspaper reports which the Nonpartisan 
 Leader asserted were garbled. 
 
 The Fargo Forum and other newspapers, how- 
 ever, did ostensibly print what Townley said at 
 Jamestown. This report was not only in different 
 language from Townley's speech as shown in the 
 stenographic record, but contained statements not 
 at all like any made in the actual speech, either in 
 words or meaning. This misquotation, which ap- 
 peared to be deliberate, furnished support for the 
 contention of the Nonpartisa/n Leader and the 
 Courier-News that the "seditious" statements 
 credited to Townley and all charges of opposing 
 the war and the sale of Liberty Bonds, were per- 
 versions of the truth. 
 
 The anti-League papers, on the other hand, 
 maintained that Townley actually had been en- 
 gaged in stirring up sentiment against the war, 
 but that later he grew more cautious. It may be 
 said, however, that these papers continued to re- 
 
WAR ISSUES 181 
 
 gard what Townley actually said in the authorized 
 quotations in print as "seditious." 
 
 Quotations from one of Townley 's recorded 
 speeches of this period will not be out of place, as 
 showing just what was the course he was advo- 
 cating. 
 
 Townley read figures, which he said were from 
 reports in the hands of the federal government, 
 showing the net profits made by various firms dur- 
 ing the war as compared with profits in the pre- 
 war period. Instances were : Swift & Co., $9,000,- 
 000 in 1913 and $20,000,000 in 1916; Cuban- 
 American Sugar Co., $356,000 in 1913, $8,235,000 
 in 1916; Armour & Co., $6,800,000 in 1913, $20,- 
 100,000 in 1916; Dupont Powder Co., $4,500,000 
 in 1913, $82,000,000 in 1916; United States Steel 
 Corporation, $81,000,000 in 1913, $271,500,000 in 
 1916. 
 
 "Now do you begin to understand the high cost of 
 living?" asked Townley. "You have been told it was 
 necessary because of the war. The facts are that it is 
 nee^sary because during war times they use the war as 
 an excuse to raise the prices on everything you buy. 
 
 "Oh, this power! This power of the industrial mon- 
 archs of this nation — ^this power to fix the price of every, 
 thing you have to sell and of everything you have to 
 buy! The governor said your political power was tre- 
 mendous. Well, the next thing to it is the power of the 
 trust to fix prices." 
 
182 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 "I want to say to you that this nation can never suc- 
 ceed in war unless this, your government, instead of 
 serving the interests of the United States Steel Corpora- 
 tion and the sugar trust and the beef trust — this nation 
 can never succeed in war until it governs the business of 
 transporting your products and wipes off the face of the 
 earth the gamblers in food products and the necessaries 
 of life. 
 
 "It is absolute insanity for us to lead ourselves or 
 anybody else to believe that this nation can succeed in 
 war when hundreds of thousands of parasites, the 
 gamblers in the necessities of life, use the war only for 
 the purpose of extracting exorbitant profits. We are 
 working, not to beat the enemy, but to make more multi- 
 millionaires. That is what we are working for. 
 
 "Now here is the seditious and treasonable and un- 
 patriotic part of my discussion. We respectfully sug- 
 gest, and then we demand, that this nation, instead of 
 serving the interests of the gentlemen it must be serving 
 now, or it would not permit those gigantic corporations 
 to rob you of so many millions a year — I am afraid this 
 government must be serving them, because I can't figure 
 out from those reports how they are serving us — and so 
 we respectfully suggest and we demand that as a war 
 measure this United States government shall do the one 
 thing first of all that is necessary, and take over, before 
 they send one single boy to Europe, take over the rail- 
 roads and the distribution of food into their hands, and 
 kick the gamblers into the sea or send them to war." 
 
 ' ' Well, they have charged us with treason, but I want 
 to say to you that this nation of farmers are so patriotic 
 that even though the government today may be in the 
 hands and the absolute control of'the steel trust and the 
 
WAR ISSUES 183 
 
 sugar trust and the maeliiae trust; even though it is 
 we are going to do our best by producing all we can. 
 All as it is, if we can't do better, we will do that." 
 
 "Now the question is how best to raise the money that 
 is needed to fight our battles and win this war. I want 
 you to listen now carefully — ^very carefully. 
 
 "If this nation borrows twenty billion dollars during 
 this war; if it goes in debt twenty biUion doUars, that 
 debt is going to have to be paid after the war. All debts 
 are paid by the people that work, that produce. It 
 means that your boys that go across the sea to fight these 
 battles, when they come home will have to labor years 
 and years and years to pay off the debt; labor to pay 
 for every pound of shot and shell and food and clothing 
 that you ship across the sea — and interest upon the debt. 
 
 "And if the war lasts long the burden will be so heavy 
 that maybe they can never pay even all the interest on 
 this war debt. That is not a pleasant prospect for men 
 that are to go across the water fighting for the honor of 
 this country. 
 
 "Last Tuesday about ten million young men — ^I see 
 them in the crowd here, and here, and here — about ten 
 million young men went to the registration booths and 
 there pledged their lives in the defense of their coun- 
 try's honor, went to the registration booths and there said 
 in effect: 'I will serve my country in any capacity that 
 she may demand. I pledge you here my life. Take it 
 and use it as you will. It is all that I have. My life is 
 everything to me. It is everything to my father and my 
 mother and my sister and my brother, and my wife and 
 my children — or my sweetheart. It is all I have. It is 
 aU they have. In this world crisis you, my country, 
 
184 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 take this, all I have, and as much as you need for the 
 defense of our homes and our country.* 
 
 "This is what these young men said in effect. 
 
 "This is the acme of patriotism. No blatant dema- 
 gogue approaches within a million miles of the sacrifice 
 these men made last Tuesday when they went to the 
 registration booths. And it is right that they should 
 have done it. I believe in the conscription of life in time 
 of war, because it is not right that the burden should be 
 shouldered upon those few who have the courage in their 
 blood to go and fight. ' ' 
 
 "There is a way to pay today. This nation is worth 
 some two hundred billions of dollars, and the f a+hers 
 and the mothers and the grandfathers and the grand- 
 mothers of these ten millions of young men that are 
 going to war, they produced that two hundred billions' 
 worth of wealth. They produced it, and they piled it in 
 heaps so large and so magnificent that they themselves 
 dare not approach the wealth they have produced. They 
 would stand in awe of the mighty institutions that their 
 industry has reared. 
 
 "And I propose that first of all we apply some of the 
 proceeds of the years gone by to the payment of the war 
 debt, and pay it as we go." 
 
 "They used this war as an excuse to pull into the 
 coffers of the already rotten rich ten millions where 
 before they could only rob you of one million. In the 
 heat and haste and confusion of war they multiply their 
 millions many times at your expense. You now sending 
 your boys across the water must pay the steel trust 
 added, ever-increasing millions of profit to keep your 
 boy from being destroyed after he gets over there. 
 
WAR ISSUES 185 
 
 "That is the way it appears to be going now — and we 
 have a different way. 
 
 "The steel trust here makes two or three hundred 
 million dollars of profit; the sugar trust makes profits; 
 the harvester trust makes profits; the railroad trust 
 makes profits; the lumber trust makes profits; the shoe 
 trust — ^the whisky trust — the grain trust — the beef trust 
 — every trust makes an enormous war profit. 
 
 "Today and tomorrow and every day, they are sap- 
 ping — these vultures upon the industrial life of this 
 nation — are sapping the life blood not only of your 
 allies but of you, a thousand times more than ever! 
 When you need that blood most they sap it most. Now 
 in this world crisis they pile up during the war more 
 than it would take to pay the expense of the war 
 
 "And I say to you that the first thing this govern- 
 ment should do is to take the profits they are making 
 today to pay the expense of the war. 
 
 "Is this treason ? 
 
 "Is this anarchy? 
 
 "More than that, if, by the duration of this war, 
 those war profits are not enough to pay the cost of the 
 war; if by their management we are so far led into war 
 — and we wiU go as far as is necessaiy to defend this 
 nation — if we must go so far as to exhaust those profits, 
 and need more money, there is still another reservoir; 
 and that is the millions that they piled up before the 
 war. We will take that, too. " 
 
 Tliese are significant extracts from the speech, 
 that, with only minor variations of theme and 
 order, Townley delivered from one corner of 
 North Dakota to another in this memorahle two 
 weeks ia June. 
 
186 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 The first Liberty Loan was pending. It was 
 declared that Townley was speaking against the 
 loan; that he was obstructing the loan; that he 
 was obstructing enlistments ; that he was opposing 
 the war. 
 
 Judgment upon these matters will depend 
 greatly upon the point of view of the hearer. 
 There was sharp division of sentiment in North 
 Dakota, as everywhere in the nation. There was 
 division even in the ranks of those who had been 
 preaching protest against existing conditions. 
 Some believed their duty lay in counseling sub- 
 mission for the time and a "moratorium" for 
 political demands. It seemed to be generally ac- 
 cepted as the only truly patriotic course to obey 
 orders and leave decisions to "constituted au- 
 thority." 
 
 I If a people were on the brink of rebellion 
 against the whole business of the war, then any 
 form of agitation on the subject of war policies 
 might be dangerous to government. 
 
 Was Townley handUng firebrands in a powder 
 magazine? Was the state of North Dakota likely 
 to spring into the flame of revolt against the gov- 
 ernment of the United States? Was the state in 
 fact honeycombed with rebellion and infested with 
 disloyalty ? There were those who said it was. 
 
 One will look in vain in Townley 's speeches for 
 any indication that such was the case. One will 
 look in vain in the records of .the state's part in the 
 war for evidences of any such condition at any 
 
WAR ISSUES 187 
 
 time. And if one were present at one of those big 
 meetings of these slow-moving, patient, earnest 
 farmer folk he would have seen no signs of menace 
 to order or to law. 
 
 Not in them. There were lawless, fanatical 
 groups organizing. These were men filled with 
 the fire and zeal of a spirit they themselves called 
 "patriotism." It led them to declare that they 
 would "put down disloyalty and pro-German- 
 ism"; that they would "teach these foreigners 
 who didn't understand their advantages to go 
 back where they came from if they didn't like out 
 country." 
 
 These farmers had thought they understood 
 America and its spirit. They thought it was a 
 country where men could speak as they thought 
 about what ought to be done by the government. 
 
 They approved Townley's doctrine that "we," 
 the people of the nation, ought to direct that the 
 government should control the industries neces- 
 sary to the war and that the profits due to the 
 war should be taken to pay its expenses. They 
 are a simple, direct-minded folk. In a great meet- 
 ing where a speaker asks a question of them they 
 will answer. So they answered Townley, when he 
 cried, "Is this treason?" "Is this anarchy?" 
 
 "No! No! No!" they shouted in chorus. "It 
 is right!" "You are right!" 
 
 It might not be fair to judge Townley by the 
 outcome of events. If it is true that no fortunes 
 were made by the war ; if it is true that nothing 
 
188 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 was added to the burden of taxes and debt to 
 build needless profits for some; if it is true that 
 aU that could have been taken out of war earnings 
 was taken to meet war's expenses — if all these 
 things were attended to and would have been at- 
 tended to without any agitation of the matter — 
 then Townley's speeches were needless «nd, 
 judged by results, at least, purely demagogic. 
 But, to be fair to Townley, he could not have 
 known that this would be the case. 
 
 The powder trust and the steel trust and the 
 beef trust and the sugar trust and the inter- 
 national bankers had, as he said, been making 
 hugely increased profits out of the war before 
 America's entry, and it seemed reasonable to him 
 — if we were to have a concentration of all 
 energies in the war — to cause them to forego 
 further increased profits. He could not know that 
 it would be done without any agitation of the 
 subject. 
 
 Townley had seized an issue — a group of issues 
 — that gave the opposition much material on 
 which to work. They were better equipped to 
 make use of the material than before. 
 
 The war had given the ordinary recognized 
 leaders of communities — the banker, the lawyer, 
 the commercial club member — a new field in which 
 to exercise leadership. They were called upon to 
 perform patriotic duties, to organize Liberty 
 Loan teams, to direct Bed Cross drives and other 
 campaigns for war charities and war efforts. 
 
WAR ISSUES 189 
 
 It was but natural that ii} some of these groups 
 there should be men who had been actively oppos- 
 ing the Nonpartisan League. It was inevitable, 
 possibly even without the prejudice they may have 
 had, to regard Townley's attitude as subversive of 
 the public good, and even "treasonable." 
 
 Liberty loan campaigns were in charge of 
 bankers who were sworn enemies of the League. 
 The state chairman of the Eed Cross in North 
 Dakota was one of the leaders of the anti-League 
 forces. He employed as secretary a man who, as 
 secretary of an insurance federation, had been 
 carrying on an active campaign against the 
 League. This secretary sent out a letter on Red 
 Cross stationery saying that "Here in North 
 Dakota we consider the League thoroughly dis- 
 loyal." Thinly veiled attacks on Townley, on 
 Governor Frazier and upon others of the state 
 administration and of the League forces, were 
 made in the course of "patriotic" addresses. 
 Seldom did any man connected with the League 
 or in any way sympathetic toward it get the op- 
 portunity to make a loyalty address under the 
 direction of any recognized patriotic organization. 
 
 The co-operation of the League was not sought 
 for any patriotic effort ; nor was its participation 
 permitted. Collections taken up for the Eed Cross 
 at League meetings were refused by local officials, 
 and the League, both in North Dakota and Miime- 
 sota, was warned not to take up collections for this 
 purpose. 
 
190 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 In North Dakota, however, farmers continued 
 to hold their League membership and dared to 
 attend League meetings. In one case a rather 
 open threat of violence was met by action of the 
 state council of defense, appointed by Governor 
 Frazier. This body held powers equivalent to 
 those of the sheriff in any county and at one meet- 
 ing where a local "safety" committee had warned 
 Townley not to hold a meeting for fear of "vio- 
 lence" the secretary of the state council of de- 
 fense, sent by the governor, swore in the entire 
 audience as "deputies," charging them with the 
 duty of preserving order. 
 
 On several occasions League speakers were 
 barred from holding meetings because of the re- 
 fusal of owners of halls, under pressure from town 
 interests, to permit the use of their auditoriums. 
 These situations were met by holding outdoor 
 meetings. In one case an entire League audience 
 marched to the prairie just outside the town limits 
 to hold a meeting. 
 
 The nearest approach to violence or disorder in 
 connection with League meetings in North 
 Dakota came at a League campaign meeting at 
 Dickinson in 1918, where a group of young men 
 standing outside open windows threw missiles, 
 including eggs, into the room. The audience of 
 more than a thousand farmers rose as one man 
 as if to wreak punishment on the offenders. They 
 were calmed by President J'ownley, but there was 
 a tense situation for some moments, while a group 
 
WAR ISSUES 191 
 
 of town hecklers well inside the hall sat pale and 
 quiet, apparently in great anxiety. 
 
 Townley's solution of the affair was to praise 
 the farmers for their self-restraint, to remind 
 them that because they were "right" and 
 "patriotic" they did not need to practise violence, 
 and to class the leading citizens who opposed the 
 League with the small boys who threw eggs and 
 stones "because they don't know any better." 
 
 "We must teach them," said Townley, "how 
 good and patriotic and peaceful citizens conduct 
 themselves." 
 
 So far as League headquarters knew, there was 
 no case of League farmers offering violence to 
 any opponent or heckler at a League meeting. It 
 was a settled maxim to League policy to be peace- 
 ful and to put "the other fellow" in the wrong. 
 
 In June, 1917, Theodore Wold, governor of the 
 Minneapolis federal reserve bank, was quoted as 
 having said that he had evidence that the Non- 
 partisan League was working against the sale of 
 bonds of the first Liberty Loan issue. Townley 
 issued a statement denying this and stating that 
 the League had not opposed any step taken by the 
 government to win the war, nor would it oppose 
 any steps to be taken. He said that League 
 speakers had "reserved the right and considered 
 it their patriotic duty publicly to urge the adop- 
 tion of a policy which will better serve to concen- 
 trate the full resources of the nation on the task 
 of bringing the war to a successful conclusion." 
 
192 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 A small quota had been set for North Dakota in 
 the First Liberty Loan. This was done because 
 of the fact that at this season of the year (early 
 summer) the state was a borrower and no large in- 
 vestment could be expected. There was, in fact, 
 no general campaign for subscriptions such as was 
 employed in the later loans. In most communities 
 the banks themselves subscribed the allotted 
 quotas and the only canvass was made through 
 newspaper space. But in this and in all subse- 
 quent loans the state quickly made up its quota 
 and far exceeded it. There were few instances 
 of refusal to subscribe. 
 
 Opponents of the League, however, found in 
 Townley's speeches a fruitful opportunity to raise 
 outcry against him and against the League. Re- 
 peated efforts were made to cause his arrest or 
 indictment under federal laws, none of which ever 
 materialized. In the summer of 1918 they did suc- 
 ceed in bringing about federal charges against 
 three men rather prominently connected with the 
 League in North Dakota. Leo Horst, a young 
 school teacher and League organizer, was arrested 
 on a federal warrant charging him with obstruct- 
 ing enlistments by a speech in which he said that 
 while farmers were patriotically laboring to raise 
 as large a crop as possible, "food speculators" 
 were holding up prices and allowing large quan- 
 tities of food to go to waste. A federal grand jury 
 heard the charges and refused to return an indict- 
 ment. An indictment on similar charges was re- 
 
WAR ISSUES 193 
 
 turned against J. W. Brinton, one of the League's 
 speakers, and he was acquitted. Walter Thomas 
 Mills of California, who delivered "lectures" for 
 the League, was arrested and indicted as the 
 result of a speech delivered in Fargo. A steno- 
 graphic report of his address was produced by 
 the defense at his trial and the case was taken 
 from the jury and a verdict of acquittal directed 
 by Federal Judge C. F. Amidon. 
 
 Horst declared that prior to his arrest he had 
 made repeated efforts to enter the army but had 
 failed on account of physical disqualification. 
 After his dismissal he enlisted and was assigned 
 to duty with the spruce-production force in the 
 Northwest. Later he was transferred to educa- 
 tional work among the foreign-born recruits and 
 was given a place in the faculty of a military 
 school co-operating with the army. 
 
 But besides Townley's speeches and the League's 
 pronouncements on "conscription of wealth" and 
 the taking over of essential industries during the 
 war there soon came forth a new issue and a new 
 plank in the League's national platform that did 
 even more to arouse the storm of criticism against 
 the League and to furnish a basis for the charges 
 of "disloyalty." 
 
 John Baer was elected to congress on July 10, 
 receiving a majority of all the votes cast in the 
 First district. He appeared in "Washington in 
 mid- August to take the oath of office. Before he 
 did so the League publications had printed edi- 
 
194 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 torials calling upon the national government to 
 issue a statement of the war aims of the nation 
 and the terms upon which peace would be con- 
 cluded with Germany, these terms to be in general 
 harmony with the President's statements up to 
 that time, to declare against annexations and 
 "punitive indemnities" and to denounce secret 
 territorial agreements. 
 
 Baer, on his arrival in Washington, gave out a 
 statement which he said reflected his own views 
 and those of the League. In part it read: 
 
 "Even now the German people are demanding of 
 their government that it declare specifically the terms 
 upon which it will make peace. In our country the 
 National Nonpartisan League stands without reserve 
 upon a demand that our government make specific dec- 
 laration of its terms of peace, so that we, as a people, 
 may know that the ideal for which we war is an ex- 
 pression of true Americanism. To continue war when 
 the peoples of the nations engaged are at agreement, is 
 an international crime. . . . Today our people do not 
 know what are the demands or what the reparation 
 which we require of the German people to restore the 
 conditions of amity existing prior to the war. The 
 practice of secret diplomacy, utterly repugnant to the 
 principles of democracy, keeps us in ignorance. I 
 cannot improve on the platform of the League covering 
 this feature of our national duty and our national 
 needs. I therefore quote : 
 
 " 'We demand of no nation any concession which 
 should be hid from the world ; we concede to no nation 
 
WAR ISSUES 195 
 
 any right of which we are ashamed. Therefore we de- 
 mand the abolition of secret diplomacy. The secret 
 agreements of Mngs, presidents and other rulers, made, 
 broken or kept, without the knowledge of the people, 
 constitute a continual menace to peaceful relations.' " 
 
 The League subsequently sent telegrams of con- 
 gratulation to President Wilson upon his further 
 public statement of American war aims and as- 
 sured him that the League would support him in 
 helping to create a public sentiment which would 
 reinforce demands he might make upon the allies 
 of the United States to make public statements of 
 war aims in harmony with those of this nation. 
 
 The secret treaties whose terms and binding 
 force were revealed to President Wilson on his 
 arrival in Paris for the peace conference more 
 than a year later formed at this time (August, 
 1917) an object of concern on the part of the 
 executive committee of the Nonpartisan League. 
 The League leaders, in harmony with a few others 
 in America, were fearful that in. the absence of an 
 explicit agreement and public statement by all the 
 Allies these secret treaties, instead of the broad 
 and generous principles of humanity and democ- 
 racy expressed by President Wilson, might form 
 the real basis of the peace which ultimately would 
 be arranged. 
 
 The League agreed with those who were of the 
 opinion that if the war aims of the United States, 
 as expressed by President Wilson, were put into 
 explicit terms and agreed upon by the Allies their 
 
196 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 statement would hasten the coming of peace and 
 would be an aid to a military victory. 
 
 Eesolutions of the purport of that quoted above 
 were read to League farmers at meetings ad- 
 dressed by Townley and others and were approved 
 without dissent. Thus they were made the "war 
 platform" of the League. 
 
 To many, however, this sort of teaching ap- 
 peared only as quibbling over going to war, as 
 questioning loyalty, as "stabbing the soldier in 
 the back." 
 
 It was the cause of turning opposition to the 
 League in states other than North Dakota from 
 mere political jealousy into a crusade of suppres- 
 sion having all the fervor and bitterness of a 
 religious persecution. 
 
CHAPTEE XVI 
 
 PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS 
 
 To offset the slowing up of organization by the 
 war, League leaders expected some gain for the 
 movement. War Ih a highly socialized enterprise. 
 In the case of all the European countries engaged 
 it had meant ruthless overriding of ordinary trade 
 practic(!H and the substitution of government 
 operation and government control. League mem- 
 bers and League leaders were ready to welcome 
 the efforts of th*; federal government in this direc- 
 tion, offorts which they felt would help to show 
 some of the wastes of the existing system and 
 pave the way for such measures of reform as the 
 League was advocating. 
 
 One of the two chief items of war-time League 
 policy as enunciated by Townley was that the gov- 
 ernment should take over the operation of essen- 
 tial war industries to stop "profiteering," to re- 
 duce the high cost of living and so to contribute 
 to greater efficiency in the war. 
 
 When Herbert Hoover returned from Europe to 
 take charge of the food situation in the United 
 States, the League was prepared to support and 
 to demand a thoroughgoing policy of government 
 control, one which would eliminate the gathering 
 
 107 
 
198 THE NONPARTISAN" LEAGUE 
 
 of speculative and moi;iopoly p/5i0**. by the big 
 grain, flour and meat coj-ipofatiQfc+' "^ iv 
 
 Between the harvesting ^bf tjpk 195>''crop and the 
 arrival of the first 1917 grain on the market there 
 had been more than a dollar's raise in cash grain 
 at Minneapolis. In midsummer of 1917 No. 1 
 Northern was selling between $2.60 and $2.80. By- 
 September 1, when trading was stopped by order 
 of the food administration, cash grain had gone 
 above $3. Most of the 1916 crop had passed out 
 of the farmers' hands at between $1.60 and $2.00. 
 It was pointed to as only another instance of how 
 the big dealers in wheat, millers, elevator com- 
 panies and speculators, reaped tremendous profits 
 which came out of the pockets both of producers 
 and consumers. Stop the trading in wheat 
 futures; let the government take over the grain 
 markets and limit the millers to a fair profit, and 
 consumers could get cheaper bread while at the 
 same time the farmer would receive a higher 
 price. This was the reasoning of the farmers' 
 leaders. 
 
 It was the Equity organization, not the League, 
 which took the initiative in demanding a "fair" 
 wheat price guarantee. A meeting of representa- 
 tives of farmers' organizations, called by the 
 Equity Exchange, was held in Fargo in May. The 
 result of the conference was resolutions suggest- 
 ing that the government take over and operate 
 terminal grain warehouses during the war and 
 that a guaranteed price of $2.50 a bushel be fixed 
 
PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS 199 
 
 for No. 1 Northern or equivalent grades of wheat 
 at terminal markets. 
 
 The action of this conference was criticized by a 
 Fargo attorney. He declared the farmers were 
 "setting a price on their patriotism." Cash 
 wheat in that week was quoted at from $2.67% to 
 $3.06, while the September future had dropped 
 from $2.10 to $1.80. 
 
 The farmers' conference decided to send a com- 
 mittee to Washington to ask congress and execu- 
 tive officers to fix a $2.50 guarantee and that the 
 government take control of the grain market. The 
 committee which went to Washington included two 
 State senators, Charles E. Drown of Cass county, 
 and Thomas Pendray of Stutsman county, both of 
 whom were members of the League, and the author 
 of this volume. Members of other organizations, 
 including President J. M. Anderson of the Equity 
 Co-Operative Exchange, made up a total of seven 
 members of the delegation. 
 
 They appeared before the house committee on 
 agriculture. Audiences were arranged for them 
 with the President and with Herbert Hoover, who 
 was awaiting passage of the food control act to 
 receive appointment as food administrator. 
 
 Before the house committee the members of the 
 delegation all supported the bill under considera- 
 tion, the Lever act, creating the office of food con- 
 troller and giving him wide powers. Much of 
 their addresses was devoted to presenting to the 
 committee data on the cost of raising wheat in 
 
200 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 the hope of having a guaranteed price fixed by 
 the statute. Congressman Young of Texas, op- 
 posing the bill, warned the farmers that they were 
 making a mistake. 
 
 "You don't realize what you are doing here," 
 he told them. "You think this bill will be used to 
 give you a better price for wheat. If I thought 
 that, I'd be for it. But it will not. It is going to 
 be used to give you a lower price." 
 
 The answer of the delegation was that the 
 farmers wanted to have the "robbery" in the 
 grain markets stopped during the war; that it 
 could be stopped only by the control of the market 
 by the federal government and that they did not 
 ask an opportunity for excessive war profits, but 
 only a fair price based on the cost of production. 
 They were willing, they said, to accept regulation 
 and they asked that other factors in production 
 take the same stand. 
 
 To the president the farmers said that they were 
 supporting the food control bill, that they had 
 given evidence regarding the cost of production of 
 wheat and hoped for a fair price, but that they 
 were far more interested in the savings that could 
 be made both to producer and consumer by gov- 
 ernment control of the markets. 
 
 Grain exchanges, they said, ought not to be left 
 in private hands; the federal government ought 
 to control them. And they hoped that the ad- 
 ministration would lay plans to use the informa- 
 tion and knowledge of marketing conditions 
 
PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS 201 
 
 gained during the war as the basis for permanent 
 regulation of the markets in peace time. They 
 told the President that the farmers of the North- 
 west would "stand by the government" and do 
 their best to help in winning the war. 
 
 In response to a similar appeal, Herbert Hoover 
 told the farmers that if the government found it 
 necessary to fix a price at which grain would be 
 bought by the government to "stabilize the 
 market," he thought that it ought to be a price 
 which would "stimulate production." 
 
 Mr. Hoover said in this interview : 
 
 "If we come to fixing a price for grain, we must 
 establish as a minimum a price which will assure a large 
 production. We must have not merely a reasonable 
 level, but one which will stimulate production. That 
 means a higher comparative level of prices than we have 
 had in the past. There is a social and economic problem 
 here far deeper even than the mere matter of a tempo- 
 rary stimulus to production. There is no panacea for 
 food deficiency short of making the farm profitable. 
 There is no use of talking about getting people back on 
 the land unless we adopt this method. ' ' 
 
 These statements of Mr, Hoover were taken by 
 the farmers as encouragement of the hope that 
 they would be well treated by the food adminis- 
 tration. 
 
 In August the "fair price" commission, sum- 
 moned by the food administration, began its ses- 
 sions to fix a price for wheat. In his letter to the 
 
202 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 President asking for the appointment of this com- 
 mission, the food administrator said: "The pro- 
 ducer received an average of $1.51 per bushel for 
 the 1916 wheat harvest, yet wheat has been as high 
 as $3.25 at Chicago. Through one evil cause or 
 another the consumer has suffered from 50 to 100 
 per cent, and the producer gained nothing. This 
 unbearable increase in the margin between pro- 
 ducer and consumer is due not only to rank specu- 
 lation, but more largely to the wide margin of 
 profit demanded by every link in the chain." 
 
 Mr. Hoover said that some "producers" in 
 allied countries thought that the American fixed 
 price should be such that American wheat could 
 be delivered abroad at the amount of their guar- 
 anteed price, which, he said, would mean $1.50 
 per bushel at Chicago. He did not agree to this, 
 he said, because a price which would stimulate 
 production would be "in the long run in the in- 
 terest of the AlHes." The farmers, he said, must 
 be protected from a slump in price. 
 
 President Ladd of the North Dakota Agricul- 
 tural College, recognized by the North Dakota 
 farmers and by the League members as their 
 friend, became one of the price-fixing commissions. 
 While the commission was in session, word came 
 out that there was danger of a price which the 
 farmers would consider ruinous, and it was said 
 that members of the food administration were con- 
 tending for a price under two dollars. 
 
 The League publications called upon farmers to 
 
PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS 203 
 
 wire appeals for a better price to Waslaingtoii and 
 an editorial in the Courier-News calling for "fair 
 treatment" for the farmer was wired to Washing- 
 ton and printed in one of the daily papers there. 
 The League also sent a delegation to Washington 
 to make an appeal. A large number of telegrams 
 was sent insisting that any price under $3.00 
 would be a reduction from what the market, un- 
 regulated, had offered. 
 
 The price fixed by the commission was $2.20, 
 Chicago, for No. 1 Northern and equivalent 
 grades. Dr. Ladd and President H. J. Waters of 
 Kansas Agricultural College were credited with 
 an heroic fight in preventing a price under $2.00 
 being fixed. Disappointment with the price fixed 
 was general in the spring wheat district and was 
 expressed by the Nonpartiscm Leader. 
 
 "President Wilson and Food Administrator Hoover 
 promised the farmers a liberal price this year, one that 
 would stimulate production," said the Leader. "On 
 this promise the farmers sowed extra acreage. They 
 gave up big money-making non-food crops like flax in 
 order to sow more wheat. The government's promise 
 meant farmers would get more than the cost of produc- 
 tion. It meant that they would get a 'liberal' margin 
 above cost, a margin that would 'stimulate production.' 
 In actual fact they get far from a liberal price. Two- 
 twenty at Chicago for No. 1 means a fair return for 
 farmers who got big crops of good grade wheat. But 
 in some states, like North and South Dakota and Mon- 
 tana and parts of Minnesota, crops were poor — ^below the 
 
204 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 average in yield — and some farmers got little or no 
 crop. The government's price for these farmers is a 
 severe blow. The cash price for wheat on the day the 
 government announced it would fix a price was $3.06, 
 and September wheat was then quoted at $2.50. ' ' 
 
 The farmers saw that, instead of the govern- 
 ment's "guarantee" price operating to give them 
 a higher return for their wheat, it would actually 
 operate to reduce their revenue by at least a 
 fourth and probably a third. The first step in 
 government cohtrol of the markets had been to 
 hit the primary producer, the farmer. 
 
 Regulation of the profits of the millers, they 
 were told by the food administration, was to be 
 left to "patriotic co-operation" between the 
 millers and the food administration. There was 
 to be no fixing of flour prices nor bread prices by 
 a commission. It is true, the food commission had 
 announced that millers would be permitted to 
 make only 25 cents a barrel above the cost of pro- 
 duction on flour and 50 cents a ton on feed, but the 
 farmers knew there were plenty of ways by which 
 "cost of production" in the milling business could 
 be inflated and expenses go from one pocket into 
 another. Besides, this was an arrangement be- 
 tween the millers and the food administration of 
 whose operation the public, it appeared, was not 
 to have any details. 
 
 One of the League's most active enemies in 
 North Dakota was quoted on the subject in a 
 hostile newspaper : 
 
PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS 205 
 
 "Well, the fanners wanted Socialism. Now 
 they've got it, I hope they like it." 
 
 Promptly after the report of the price-fixing 
 commission was announced the League called a 
 series of meetings of farmers and other citizens, 
 the first to be held in Fargo on Monday, Septem- 
 ber 17, and others to be held on Tuesday, Wednes- 
 day and Thursday at St. Paul, Minnesota. These 
 meetings were called to consider the price of 
 wheat fixed by the government. "The crop situ- 
 ation and the financial condition of farmers will 
 be discussed and an effort very likely will be made 
 to influence the government to reopen the price 
 matter," said the Nonpartisan Leader. It added 
 that "prices and price-fixing on all kinds of prod- 
 ucts will be considered." 
 
 As the plans took shape, however, the character 
 of the proposed meetings was altered and their 
 scope enlarged. The meetings were to be a "pro- 
 ducers' and consumers' conference." 
 
 "It is evident," said an announcement in the Leader, 
 "that the government has not had the necessary sup^ 
 port in its intention to deal fairly with all who produce 
 and sell the necessaries of life. The big manufacturers 
 and the big middlemen are fighting desperately to pre^ 
 vent the government from reducing their profits. They 
 are resisting the taking of their profits and heavy taxa- 
 tion of incomes to pay for the war. The farmer has 
 been hit first of all. He has been taxed first and most 
 severely to carry the expenses of the war. 
 
 "It is evident that the support of a stronger public 
 
206 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 sentiment is needed so that the government can carry 
 through a successful policy of regulation and limitation 
 of profits. The convention to be held in St. Paul is 
 expected to solidify a strong public sentiment which will 
 make it possible for the government to do what is 
 needed to protect the consumers from war exploitation." 
 
 Telegrams were sent out to leaders of labor or- 
 ganizations asking their co-operation and invita- 
 tions were conveyed to notable speakers. Among 
 these were Senators Borah, Johnson, LaFoUette, 
 Gronna of North Dakota, and Gore, all of whom 
 were felt to be "progressive" in their attitude 
 and in sjrmpathy with the League's aims. An in- 
 vitation also was sent to Food Administrator 
 Hoover and to Congressman Claude Kitchin, head 
 of the ways and means committee, and to Con- 
 gresswoman Jeanette Eankin of Montana. Ef- 
 forts also were made to get into touch with or- 
 ganizations of consumers and others who would be 
 interested in the general regulation of prices by 
 the government. 
 
 President Ladd of the North Dakota Agricul- 
 tural College agreed to tell of the work of the 
 price-fixing commission. President Waters of 
 Kansas also accepted the invitation. Congress- 
 man Baer, newly elected from North Dakota, and 
 Congressman George M. Young, who was openly 
 a League sympathizer, were on the program, 
 Eobert Bridges, chairman of the Seattle Port 
 Commission, came to tell of the success of public 
 ownership on the Pacific coast in reducing the cost 
 
PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS 207 
 
 of living and increasing profits to producers. 
 Former Senator Jolin L. McLaurin came from 
 South Carolina to tell of the farmers' struggle 
 with market conditions in that state. Carl Thomp- 
 son of Chicago, secretary of the Public Ownership 
 League, agreed to talk on the line of the propa- 
 ganda of his own organization. The federal de- 
 partment of agriculture sent a speaker. 
 
 To one who understood the League's purposes 
 the objects of the meeting were entirely plain and 
 altogether legitimate. The first announcements 
 led to the supposition in Washington that protest 
 against the fixed price of wheat was to be drawn 
 up, and possibly rebellion against its enforcement. 
 Events proved that nothing of the kind need have 
 been feared. In fact, the tone of the publicity 
 prior to the meetings showed that resentment 
 against a price that represented a sacrifice to the 
 farmer was being directed into the channel of 
 demanding merely that a similar regulation be im- 
 posed on other factors in production ; that the gov- 
 ernment take over essential industries and that 
 heavier taxes be imposed on war profits. 
 
 Obviously, the meetings had another object. It 
 was not to foment discontent. It was nothing else 
 than an assertion of the League's place as an or- 
 ganization of national scope and interests, intent 
 on fighting the battle of the common man, alert 
 that his interests should be safeguarded in the 
 war. 
 
 An incident happened at the St. Paul meeting 
 
208 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 which gave a form of publicity not at all desired 
 and put into the hands of their opponents a heavy 
 weapon. 
 
 Senator Robert M, LaFoUette of Wisconsin was 
 among those invited to speak. He had been chosen 
 chiefly because of his great popularity in the "pro- 
 gressive" Northwest, but also because of his fight 
 for higher taxation of war profits. He was the 
 author of the bill for war taxation nearest in line 
 with the League's policy. He was expected to 
 speak on some phase of his fight against ' * special 
 privilege." 
 
 LaFoUette was on hand for the final night of the 
 convention. 
 
 Borah had given an address on war taxation; 
 Colver of the Federal Trade Commission, whose 
 home was in St. Paul, had spoken; Waters and 
 Ladd had explained the work of the price-fixing 
 commission; Governor Frazier, Senator Mc- 
 Laurin, Bridges of Seattle, officials of organized 
 labor from several sections of the country, in- 
 cluding officers of the Minnesota State Federation, 
 had made addresses. President Townley had 
 spoken before a large city audience and had been 
 cheered uproariously. Officers of other farmers' 
 organizations from Nebraska, Kansas, New York 
 and other states had joined in the testimony that 
 the farmer was ready all the time to do his patri- 
 otic duty and he asked only that efforts be made to 
 distribute equally the burden. 
 
 These and others had made addresses. Eeso- 
 
PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS 209 
 
 lutions signed by representatives of a dozen or- 
 ganizations had been prepared and were passed 
 by a vote and signed. The "conference" was de- 
 clared to have adjourned. LaFoUette dramati- 
 cally held himself away until a night meeting ar- 
 ranged for the last day. He arrived in St. Paul 
 in the morning and was in session all day with 
 men representing the League. The report was 
 circulated in League circles that LaFoUette was 
 insisting on delivering an address defending his 
 own record as one of the " wilful twelve" in vot- 
 ing against the declaration of war. It was said 
 that League headquarters was laboring to dis- 
 suade him. 
 
 The evening meeting was set for 8 o 'clock and 
 LaFoUette was to be introduced immediately. It 
 was after 10 o'clock before he made his appear- 
 ance. Ten thousand persons awaited him. The 
 news that LaFoUette was to speak had brought 
 out a great crowd, including many who had 
 been against the declaration of war and were 
 ready to cheer LaFoUette for his course in op- 
 posing it. They were from both ^ St. Paul and 
 Minneapolis. Newspaper reports had created a 
 high degree of interest and a tense state of mind 
 by reports that LaFoUette was likely to make 
 sensational statements and to stir seditious senti- 
 ments. 
 
 Eeceived with tumultuous applause by thou- 
 sands who had been awaiting his appearance, La- 
 FoUette talked briefly on the rise of the League as 
 
210 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 evidence of the failure of political parties. Ee- 
 ferring to the war, he launched into a defense of 
 his conduct in voting against it. "We had griev- 
 ances," he said. "Germany had interfered with 
 the rights of our citizens to sail the high seas — 
 on ships loaded with ammunition for Great 
 Britain." 
 
 LaFoUette's speech, whose salient feature, ac- 
 cording to the newspaper reports, was opposition 
 to the war, was the one event of the conference 
 that attracted the attention of the whole nation 
 and completely diverted attention from the real 
 purposes and actions of the meetings. 
 
 The audience which applauded was five times 
 the size of the afternoon audience which had at- 
 tended the last sessions of the "conference." In 
 that proportion it consisted of St. Paul and Min- 
 neapolis people, who were in sympathy with 
 LaFoUette's position or came out of curiosity to 
 hear him. 
 
 Seeking to create a union of producers and con- 
 sumers, to become known as a national organiza- 
 tion working to promote market efficiency and po- 
 litical co-operation of the workers, the League, 
 instead, achieved the reputation of having called 
 a meeting to enable a senator who had opposed the 
 war to enunciate views in opposition to the gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 One newspaper referred to the final sessions 
 of the conference as "a war dance of disloyalty." 
 Another accused Townley of having, at the height 
 
PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS 211 
 
 of LaFoUette's criticism of the war, risen to "pat 
 Mm on the back and to tell him to 'go to it.' " A 
 much more obvious and reasonable explanation 
 was that the League president rose, when the high 
 state of feeling of the audience was apparent, to 
 advise the speaker to change the current of his 
 address. 
 
 As a result of the address, charges were made 
 against LaFollette in the senate. After a careful 
 reading of the stenographic report of the speech 
 the senate committee decided that there was no 
 justification of further proceedings. Much of the 
 criticism of LaFollette had been based on the re- 
 port that he had said: "We had no grievance 
 against Germany." The press association which 
 sent out this report after the senate investigation 
 sent out a correction stating that the inclusion of 
 the word "no" had been an unfortunate error by 
 an employee. 
 
 Two other incidents of the summer, both in 
 North Dakota, helped to build up a reputation for 
 the League which was difficult to overcome. 
 
 Trouble with transient labor at harvest time 
 had been frequent. Disorders were blamed to the 
 I. W. W. organization, which included in its mem- 
 bership a large proportion, probably a majority, 
 of the skilled migratory harvest labor. A League 
 farmer in western North Dakota, E. J. J. Mont- 
 gomery of Tappen, president of the Farmers' 
 Union in the state, had for several seasons em- 
 ployed "red card" men by preference, claiming 
 
212 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 that he could in this way get better crews. He 
 suggested to the League headquarters that an 
 effort be made to reach a wage scale agreement 
 with the I. W. W. to prevent labor shortage and 
 harvest disorder. i 
 
 Negotiations were opened with the I. W. W., 
 with the result that they presented a scale of 
 wages for harvest work. President Townley ad- 
 dressed several meetings in the state asking 
 farmers to vote on the question. As a result he 
 notified the "wobblies" that the farmers could not 
 agree to their scale. The fact was that a majority 
 at all but one of the meetings at which Townley 
 had presented the agreement was in favor of it 
 after he had explained it. He caused them to re- 
 ject it, because there were many who opposed the 
 plan and he did not want the responsibility of 
 having urged it upon the farmers. 
 
 At about the time the farmers were considering 
 this proposal, Governor Frazier issued a procla- 
 mation covering the subject of harvest disorder. 
 He told officers of the law that they must be on 
 the alert to apprehend criminals at this time, but 
 that the state would not tolerate persecution of 
 transients nor the arrest or searching of men with- 
 out cause or without proper legal authority. The 
 reason for this proclamation was the practice in 
 many communities of "shaking down" strangers, 
 who in many cases were merely migratory la- 
 borers, by arrests and fines on "vagrancy" 
 charges, and general persecution of the wanderers, 
 
PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS 213 
 
 which, particularly centered itself against the 
 I. W. W. 
 
 There had been proposals in the legislative ses- 
 sion for more stringent laws to guard against the 
 "menace" of the I. W. W. — plans to swear in 
 extra officers of the law and to arm posses to fight 
 them. The League resolutely defeated these 
 schemes, advancing instead a plan for a labor 
 bureau in the department of the commissioner of 
 agriculture and labor, with arrangements to care 
 for the regular distribution of harvest help. The 
 farmer legislators took the position that a ' ' square 
 deal" would work better with the I. W. W. and 
 other seasonal labor than persecution. 
 
 The year's experience seemed to uphold this 
 contention. There was much less harvest disorder 
 in North Dakota than in adjoining states. One 
 opposition newspaper complained, saying that the 
 I. W. W. had been told "not to pull anything in 
 North Dakota because the governor was their 
 friend. ' ' 
 
 The other incident was the appearance of the 
 People's Council in the Northwest, seeking an 
 asylum where they could hold their meetings. 
 This was the organization named the "People's 
 Council for Democracy and Terms of Peace," 
 which was demanding early settlement of the war, 
 but which was being generally denounced by the 
 press as an unpatriotic enterprise. Denied the 
 opportunity of meeting in Minnesota, the secre- 
 tary wired Governor Frazier of North Dakota 
 
214. THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 whether they would be given "the protection of 
 the law and the constitution" if they should decide 
 to hold their meetings in that state, Gov- 
 ernor Frazier replied that he would uphold the 
 law and protect any citizens holding a lawful 
 meeting, but that no seditious statements would 
 be permitted in North Dakota. Newspapers both 
 in North Dakota and Minnesota at once announced 
 that Governor Frazier had "invited" the Peo- 
 ple's Council to come to North Dakota. They 
 went instead to Chicago. 
 
 Thus the League had experienced a stormy year 
 in making itself known in national affairs and had 
 come out with a reputation which did not agree 
 with the principles it was seeking or the manner 
 in which it was seeking them. 
 
 These principles primarily were contained in 
 the plan of organization Avithin the several states 
 and the written "programs" which the League 
 was seeking to put into effect. These were sup- 
 plemented in the national and international fields 
 by the resolutions adopted at the "Producers' and 
 Consumers' Conference," which may be consid- 
 ered as representing a "war program" of the 
 League. 
 
 Among the proposals contained in these resolu- 
 tions were the following : 
 
 "Cheerfully acquiescing" in the fixing of the price 
 of wheat, the fanners ask that prices on other necessities 
 be regulated to eliminate exorbitant profits. 
 
PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS 215 
 
 That the reduction in the price of wheat be passed 
 along to the consumer in cheaper flour and bread, failing 
 which the government should seize mills and bakeries 
 and turn out flour and bread at cost. 
 
 That the government make low-interest loans to 
 farmers whose crops failed. 
 
 That the food administration cease paying commission 
 to grain buyers, and instead buy direct. 
 
 That a zone system of wheat buying be adopted to 
 correct inequalities and injustices due to freight difEer- 
 entials. 
 
 That mOling value of grain be made the basis of 
 grade and price. 
 
 That income and excess profits taxes be increased. 
 
 That a federal tax be levied upon unused land. 
 
 That in case of failure of the plan to tax away excess 
 profits in war industries "through lack of co-operation" 
 the government commandeer all such industries neces- 
 sary to the conduct of the war. 
 
 That the government operate the copper mines during 
 the war, as requested by Butte miners' organizations. 
 
 That co-operative buying be encouraged. 
 
 That in all cases during the war in which strikes in 
 war industries are not speedily adjusted the government 
 take over the industries. 
 
 That soldiers' pay be fixed at $50 a month. 
 
 That the government furnish cheap insurance to 
 soldiers. 
 
 The President had sent his reply to the Pope's 
 peace proposal aiid the conference passed a res- 
 olution commending the reply and stating that 
 "we pledge our support and approval to all 
 
216 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 further efforts to unite our government and its 
 allies behind this clear statement of our pur- 
 poses." 
 
 The preamble to the resolutions contains lan- 
 guage which became of some importance to the 
 League, because President Townley and one other 
 officer were twice indicted because of this lan- 
 guage — not in the federal courts, however, but in 
 local courts in Minnesota. The preamble con- 
 tained the following: 
 
 "The moving cause of this world war was and is politi- 
 cal autocracy used to perpetuate and extend indus- 
 trial autocracy. It is the struggle of political overlords 
 to extend and perpetuate their power to rob and exploit 
 their fellow men. Autocratic rulers who have robbed 
 and exploited the fathers and mothers, now slaughter 
 the children for the single purpose of further intrench- 
 ing themselves in their infamous position, and securing 
 and legalizing their possession of the fruits of others' 
 toil and thrusting the world under the yoke of political 
 autocracy, which is ever the shield and mask of indus- 
 trial autocracy. 
 
 ' ' Our war is to extend the political democracy which 
 we in the United States enjoy, in order that political 
 democracy may be safe in our own land and that it may 
 be used to accomplish its historic purpose — industrial 
 democracy." 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 " PATRIOTEERING » 
 
 The League had met concentrated opposition 
 before; it had met charges of "socialism" and 
 "disloyalty;" it had met refusal of meeting- 
 places in towns, and even threats of violence 
 against its organizers, but the real era of persecu- 
 tion may be said to have dated from the "Pro- 
 ducers' and Consumers' Conference" in St. Paul 
 in September of 1917. 
 
 The LaFoUette episode at that conference was 
 given far wider publicity than any other incident. 
 To a very large proportion of the general public 
 in many states it was the one incident which they 
 could associate with the name of the Nonpartisan 
 League. Together with what could be told, truly 
 or untruly, of Townley's speeches against con- 
 scription of wealth and of the League's attitude 
 toward the government wheat price and all the 
 variety of biased constructions that could be put 
 on the history of the League in North Dakota, it 
 furnished the grounds on which to build up a 
 pseudo-patriotic campaign aimed at the suppres- 
 sion and extermination of the League in all of the 
 states, except North Dakota, in which it was op- 
 erating, 
 
 217 
 
218 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 To say that it furnished the grounds of this at- 
 tack is not to say that it furnished the motive. A 
 candid examination of the record of the opposi- 
 tion to the League reveals that it was being fought 
 on the charge of disloyalty and in the name of 
 patriotism by exactly the same elements as fought 
 it on other grounds when this question did not 
 enter. 
 
 The opposition to the League continued to be 
 stimulated and abetted by the larger commercial 
 interests of each state and in the small communi- 
 ties the head and front of the opposition usually 
 consisted of the banker and the lawyer or business 
 man who had been most actively interested in 
 politics. 
 
 In Minnesota men prominent in financial and 
 commercial circles secretly formed an organiza- 
 tion to combat the League. Their activities were 
 carried on principally through publicity bureaus 
 whose origin and financial backing were not volun- 
 tarily made public. Two different magazines, one 
 called On the Square, and another The Pcm- 
 American Anti^Socialist, had brief careers devot- 
 ing themselves almost exclusively to attack on the 
 League, and were known to have cost their 
 backers several hundred thousand dollars. Quiet 
 efforts were made to form local organizations 
 against the League and to cause attack on the 
 League by existing organizations. 
 
 Several months after the close of the 1918 cam- 
 paigns the Nonpartiscm Leader obtained posses- 
 
" PATRIOTEERING " 219 
 
 sion of correspondence whicli had passed between 
 the backers of the anti-League effort and their 
 hired publicity agents. This revealed the exist- 
 ence of an executive committee numbering in its 
 membership leading bankers, an official of a 
 public utility corporation, the head of a large 
 lumber company, the manager of a printing con- 
 cern who had long been active in politics and 
 others prominent in commercial life. Among the 
 active leaders were shown to be Eome G. Brown, 
 an attorney and political agent for large corpora- 
 tions, Charles S. Patterson, a wholesale shoe 
 dealer and municipal lighting contractor, and F. 
 H. Carpenter, of the Carpenter- She vlin Lumber 
 Company. The League publications, in seeking 
 to counteract the publicity campaigns carried on 
 by this group, did not fail to point out that the 
 foes of the League seldom willingly made their 
 identity or their methods of operation public. 
 
 During the war also there was organized in 
 Minnesota an "America First Association," 
 whose purposes were stated to be to combat un- 
 patriotic sentiments and actions. A newspaper 
 thought to be within the councils of those who 
 took the lead in organizing the Association, rep- 
 resented it to be a political organization formed 
 to combat the Nonpartisan League. This pur- 
 pose, however, was denied and repudiated by the 
 Association after it had been organized and many 
 Nonpartisan League members became members 
 of it, taking its program of patriotic principles at 
 
220 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 face value. In other states the plan of forming 
 such an organization was recommended as a 
 means for combating the League. 
 
 Other states fell into line with plans and or- 
 ganizations for fighting the League, frequently 
 in the guise of patriotic effort. In Iowa the 
 Greater Iowa Association, an alliance of commer- 
 cial interests, made opposition to the League a 
 part of its patriotic wartime activity ; in the state 
 of Washington the Employers' Association 
 charged itself with this duty, while in Montana a 
 "Loyalty League" was especially organized for 
 this purpose by a newspaper man generally fcQown 
 as the chief publicity representative of the Ana- 
 conda Copper Mining Company, Montana's super- 
 trust. 
 
 There was friendly co-operation between^ states 
 in the campaign. A series of interviews was pub- 
 lished at different points in the country with a 
 traveling "North Dakota farmer" who revealed 
 that the League was in fact a pro-German or- 
 ganization. The "North Dakota farmer" turned 
 out to have been a real estate and insurance man 
 in a North Dakota town. Another insurance agent 
 made the circuit of the west speaking before com- 
 mercial clubs and rotary clubs, pointing out the 
 "menace" which the League held for "legitimate 
 business," showing how it could be opposed on 
 patriotic grounds and outlinijig the form of a 
 patriotic organization to do the work. 
 
 There was singular lack of success in enlisting 
 
« PATRIOTEERING " 221 
 
 any actual farmer or farmers' organization in 
 such an enterprise. Where farmers' organiza- 
 tions did not actually indorse the work of the 
 League, they could not be persuaded into any form 
 of active opposition to it, "patriotic" or other- 
 wise. The Farmers' Union, the Grange (Patrons 
 of Husbandry), three different organizations 
 using the name Equity, and local farmers' organi- 
 zations of different parts of the country as well 
 as farmers' organizations in Canada, looked 
 with friendly regard on the League. Many of 
 the leaders and officers of these organizations 
 became members of the state committees of the 
 League. 
 
 This division of friends and foes of the League, 
 in the midst of the disloyalty fight against the 
 organization, seemed to indicate either that the 
 real motive behind the struggle was the clash of 
 interests and desires of two industrial classes, or 
 that the farmers were totally lacking in the patri- 
 otic sentiments held by insurance men, bankers 
 and grain brokers. 
 
 The persecution was directed first against or- 
 ganizers and agents of the League, but later 
 against farmer members of the League also, when 
 the "pro-German" cry had waxed strong enough 
 and official curbs on the mob spirit had been re- 
 laxed as they were in Minnesota under the policy 
 of Governor J. A. A. Burnquist. Organizations 
 masquerading — perhaps also in their own eyes — 
 as "patriotic" leagues, or "home guards," be- 
 
222 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 came emboldened to exercise of assumed author- 
 ity or even to violence whicli could have had no 
 popular sanction under ordinary conditions. 
 
 Individuals and organizations progressed from 
 refusal of quarters for meetings or quasi-official 
 orders against holding meetings to the next step 
 of open threats of punishment or physical vio- 
 lence, and from this to mob violence itself was but 
 another step. Minnesota, South Dakota, Ne- 
 braskaj Colorado, Texas, Montana and Washing- 
 ton all furnished instances of the same feeling and 
 the same activity against the League. Organizers 
 were ordered out of town, were beaten or were 
 tarred and feathered, as happened in at least a 
 dozen cases. Farmers were driven out of the 
 places in which they sought to hold meetings, in 
 a number of cases where no agent of the organiza- 
 tion department of the League was present. One 
 organizer who attempted to hold a meeting in a 
 Minnesota town was knocked down, trampled and 
 beaten and led out of town at the end of a rope 
 with the announcement that he was about to be 
 hanged, but was finally liberated after more kicks 
 and beatings and apparently a disagreement 
 among his captors as to what ought to be done 
 with him. 
 
 In the spring of 1918 the League was undertak- 
 ing an active campaign in all of the thirteen 
 states on its rolls. In Texas a crew of organizers 
 worked undey the direction of M. M. Offut, a 
 farmer and stockman resident in that state for 
 
" PATRIOTEERING " 223 
 
 thirty-five years and a "lay preacher" of the 
 Methodist church. 
 
 On Thursday, April 4, two organizers for the 
 League drove into the town of Quitman, Wood 
 county, Texas. Their names were H. L. Higdon 
 and A. A. Cother, and they were both citizens of 
 Texas. At Quitman they were accosted by a 
 deputy sheriff, a man named Apel, who led them 
 to the courthouse, where they were cross- 
 questioned by the deputy and by a lawyer, An- 
 drew J. Brinton, and by a merchant, Charles Mc- 
 Cain. They were asked whether the League was 
 not a pro-German organization, and denied it. 
 McCain said to Cother (according to Cother 's 
 statement) : "You are a German spy," and struck 
 him in the face, drawing blood. They were 
 warned by the men present to get out of town. 
 
 The narrative of the organizers proceeds to 
 relate as follows : 
 
 They went to Mineola, in which town were also 
 H. F. Hoover, another League organizer whose 
 home state was Arizona, and Offut, the aged state 
 manager. There Hoover, Cother and Higdon 
 were all arrested on charges of "vagrancy" and 
 taken to jail. Offut, the state manager, was seized, 
 dragged into a room and his flowing whiskers and 
 gray hair hacked off with a pair of sheep shears. 
 He was beaten and afterward put on a train and 
 sent out of town. Offut said that his purpose in 
 being in Mineola was to visit Reverend Charles 
 Hughes, pastor of the Methodist church, who had 
 
224 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 been attacking the League from the pulpit. Offut 
 said he wished, as a brother Methodist, to lay the 
 facts before Hughes and to convince him that he 
 was mistaken. He says the Mineola preacher, 
 with insulting language, ordered him out of his 
 house. 
 
 At 10 : 30 that night a crowd including well- 
 known men of Mineola broke into the jail without 
 interference by any officer, took Higdon, Cother 
 and Hoover outside of town in automobiles, amid 
 much cursing and threatening, including the bran- 
 dishing of firearms. The men were told they were 
 to be hanged, but instead they were stripped, 
 thrown face down on the ground and beaten with 
 horsewhips. Salt water was then poured into the 
 open cuts on their bodies and they were turned 
 loose and told to run, while shots were fired after 
 them to hasten them. 
 
 These organizers not only denied that they had 
 done anything to interfere with the war or to stir 
 up anti-war sentiment, but offered to prove that 
 they had been actually urging the purchase of 
 Liberty bonds. None was a Socialist. They as- 
 sert that the sentiment against them had been 
 actively propagated by the local banker and by 
 Dabney White, proprietor of the Tyler Trihime 
 and a member of the Ginners' Association, who 
 had been active in opposing a law requiring a 
 different method of sampling cotton and was a 
 rabid opponent of farmers' associations. 
 
 The Greenville Banner, a newspaper in a nearby 
 
" PATRIOTEERING " 225 
 
 town, published a lurid and gloating account of the 
 affair. "The three organizers," it said, "learned 
 by bitter experience and to an extremely painful 
 degree that pro-German propaganda will not go 
 in Texas." 
 
 At Winlock, in the state of Washington, Alfred 
 Knutson and M. L. Edwards, organizers of the 
 League, were taken out of hotel rooms late at 
 night, led some distance from the town and after 
 rough handling and beating Knutson was covered 
 with hot tar and cotton, while Edwards was re- 
 leased with a warning. Three days later Edwards 
 resumed his organizing effort. He was taken 
 from the home of a farmer at midnight, beaten 
 and tarred and feathered with a further warning 
 to leave the vicinity. As in the Texas case, he 
 named prominent citizens of the towns of Toledo 
 and Winlock as his assailants. He went to the 
 prosecuting attorney of Lewis county, who refused 
 to issue a warrant, but promised to tell the ring- 
 leader, a well-known politician, to "lay off." 
 
 In Minnesota N. S. Eandall, a speaker for the 
 League, was assaulted and beaten by a mob at 
 Grlencoe, and was carried out into the country by 
 an armed mob, members of which told him that 
 they were about to hang him. He was later 
 "rescued" by another party, who ordered him to 
 leave the county. 
 
 In October, 1917, an organizer who had obtained 
 40 members for the League in Pine county, Minne- 
 sota, was driven out of the county by a mob. 
 
226 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 Other workers were sent in, with the result that by 
 May 1 there were 600 members in the county. On 
 May 2, Nels Hokstad, a farmer of Norwegian 
 birth, owning a farm in the county but engaged in 
 organization work, was making a speech at Turp- 
 ville schoolhouse, near Hinckley. An armed and 
 drunken mob came to the schoolhouse, took Hok- 
 stad a prisoner and, after carrying him a distance 
 of some miles, stripped and beat him and covered 
 his body with hot tar and chicken feathers. 
 
 "If you want to stop me from organizing, you'd 
 better swing me," said Hokstad while the tar was 
 being poured on him; "tar and feathers won't 
 stop me," 
 
 The men who attacked Hokstad wore well-made 
 black sack masks covering their entire heads ex- 
 cept for eye slits. One of the masks was put over 
 Hokstad 's head. 
 
 Two days later Hokstad spoke from a platform 
 in Pine county to a crowd of 750 farmers and told 
 them of the threat made by the mobbing party 
 that the first League organizer or speaker who 
 came back into the county would be killed. 
 
 At New Eichland, Minnesota, League farmers 
 attempted to hold a meeting on March 26, 1918. 
 Just before the meeting and when a large crowd 
 of farmers had assembled the town marshal 
 served an order signed by a "war board" forbid- 
 ding the meeting. On the invitation of E. E. Ver- 
 plank, a Civil War veteran and a farmer, 84 years 
 old, the audience moved to his place, where they 
 
" PATRIOTEERING " 227 
 
 were pursued by the sheriff, who again ordered 
 them not to meet. 
 
 In Montana, W. H. Brownell and B. H. Brinton, 
 League organizers, were taken prisoners and 
 roughly handled by an organization calling them- 
 selves the "Musselshell Hundred." At Columbus 
 Organizer Thomas Bradley was taken prisoner 
 by a mob armed with shotguns, but was taken in 
 charge by the sheriff, who later released him. 
 There were no arrests. At Miles City on April 8 
 Organizer J. A. McGlynn was seized and taken 
 into the basement of the Commercial Club build- 
 ing, where he was told that "decision had been 
 reached in his case" and he was held until train 
 time and then placed on a train and sent out of 
 the city. Attorney General S. C. Ford of Mon- 
 tana caused the arrest of several citizens of Miles 
 City as a result of this case. When the case came 
 to trial a mob in court hooted Ford, tickets to the 
 courtroom were sold by men in Red Cross nurses' 
 uniforms and the newspapers treated the affair as 
 a joke. 
 
 R. B. Martin, chief speaker of the League in 
 Montana, was ordered not to speak in Big Timber 
 and was similarly treated at Columbus, but after 
 he had spoken in Billings a number of influential 
 men sent him a letter of congratulation on his 
 speech and invited him to speak there again soon, 
 which he did. 
 
 In Nebraska the State Council of Defense re- 
 fused the aid of the Nonpartisan League in pa- 
 
228 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 triotic fund campaigns and sent a letter in reply- 
 to the state manager charging that the pamphlet 
 on "war aims" being circulated by the League 
 was unpatriotic. Various local authorities and 
 volunteer organizations took measures to stop 
 League organization and League speaking. Or- 
 ganizers were arrested on charges of sedition, but 
 the charges in each case later were dismissed. 
 Pursuant to an order of the state council of de- 
 fense referring to men "not engaged in useful oc- 
 cupations," half a dozen organizers were arrested 
 on that account. One of them, Kinney Yenawine, 
 was a naval veteran who was with Dewey at 
 Manila, who had attempted to enlist, but had been 
 rejected as physically unfit. County Attorney J. 
 C. Cook of Dodge county, who had been stirred to 
 opposition against the League on the representa- 
 tion that it was a disloyal organization, was pre- 
 vailed upon to make an investigation on his own 
 account and he made public announcement that 
 he believed these charges to be without founda- 
 tion. 
 
 The Saunders county, Nebraska, Council of De- 
 fense issued a letter to League members ordering 
 them to fill out requests for withdrawal of their 
 names from the League rolls and asked them to 
 place their membership receipts in the hands of 
 the council in order that suit might be started to 
 recover them, promising that the proceeds would 
 be given to the Red Cross. 
 
 On July 6 an agreement was reached between 
 
« PATRIOTEERING " 229 
 
 the Nebraska State Council of Defense and the 
 Nonpartisan League in that state. The agreement 
 was entered into in settlement of a suit brought 
 in the Lancaster county court at Lincoln to re- 
 strain the state council from interfering with 
 League meetings and organization and to restrain 
 it from enforcing an interpretation of the "work 
 or fight" order which would prevent all organiza- 
 tion work for the League. 
 
 The state council agreed to permit the League 
 to continue its work and not to interfere with its 
 meetings or its organizers, and the League agreed 
 to employ none but citizens of Nebraska in the 
 organization work and to discontinue circulation 
 of the "war aims" pamphlet. The state manager 
 of the League explained that the "war aims" 
 pamphlet, containing the resolutions of the St. 
 Paul conference and the statement of Congress- 
 man Baer, had not been circulated for some time, 
 due to President Wilson's having made sufficiently 
 explicit statement of America's war aims since the 
 pamphlet was issued. 
 
 In Iowa the Greater Iowa Association, an or- 
 ganization of commercial clubs, was carrying on 
 an active campaign against the League and suc- 
 ceeded in a number of instances in causing League 
 meetings to be stopped under patriotic pretext. 
 Lafayette Young, a newspaper publisher and poli- 
 tician, as chairman of the state council of defense, 
 sent a letter to one editor who had printed an 
 article favorable to the League, warning him 
 
230 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 against repeating the offense and telling him that 
 "the State Council of Defense would like to hear 
 from him." The secretary of the Oskaloosa Com- 
 mercial Club caused the arrest of a League or- 
 ganizer on the charge of sedition. The organizer 
 was taken btffore a United States commissioner, 
 who refused to issue a warrant on the evidence 
 presented and dismissed the prisoner. 
 
 In South Dakota, Idaho and Colorado League 
 meetings were stopped and League organizers 
 warned. Threats were made to lynch an organizer 
 at Holly, Colorado, and at Haxtun the editor of 
 the local paper, who had supported the League, 
 was warned that if he did not leave town he would 
 meet with violence. 
 
 In Minnesota conditions were aggravated by the 
 attitude of Governor J. A. A. Burnquist, who 
 knew that the political success of the League 
 meant defeat for his own political hopes. Burn- 
 quist scornfully refused an invitation to address 
 the 1918 convention rallies, replying in a letter 
 which charged that the League was attracting to 
 itself the support of the pro-German elements in 
 the state and charging it with close relations with 
 the I. W. W. The executive secretary of the 
 League, said Burnquist in this letter, was the man 
 who "defended the I. W. W. murderers on the 
 Iron Range." 
 
 This reference was to Arthur LeSueur, one of 
 the League's staff of legal advisers. LeSueur 
 had, indeed, defended members of the I. W. W. 
 
" PATRIOTEERING " 231 
 
 charged with, murder as the outcome of a strike 
 on the "iron range," but the men whom he de- 
 fended were acquitted, a fact which did not ap- 
 pear material to the governor. 
 
 Bumquist's own known position toward the 
 League and the attitude of the state PubHc Safety 
 Commission, which had been given wide war 
 powers by the legislature, together with an appro- 
 priation of one million dollars, undoubtedly en- 
 couraged those officers of the law and quasi- 
 public war bodies in the various counties who 
 were making use of war conditions and war senti- 
 ment to prevent League meetings and to sup- 
 press further organization of the League if 
 possible. 
 
 So successful were they that in 19 out of 87 
 counties the League had been defeated in mid- 
 summer of 1918 in its attempts peacefully to hold 
 meetings, and organization work practically was 
 impossible in those counties. 
 
 The state-wide direct primary elections in Min- 
 nesota were held in June and for several days 
 before the League caused to be held a series of 
 automobile parades of farmers. There were as 
 many as, in one case, seven hundred automobile 
 loads of farmers and their families in these pa- 
 rades. As an exhibition of solidarity the parades 
 were routed to pass through towns, many of which 
 were hotbeds of opposition to the League. In 
 several cases these parades were stopped by town 
 peace officers, while in many others stones were 
 
232 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 thrown at them, banners torn from ears and other 
 acts of disorder permitted. 
 
 Delegations of farmers were sent to wait on 
 Governor Burnquist and Attorney General Hilton 
 of Minnesota asking them to take action to pro- 
 tect League farmers and League meetings from 
 molestation. Both the governor and the attorney 
 general disclaimed responsibility for the attacks, 
 but no active steps were taken to prevent their 
 recurrence. 
 
 The League in Minnesota had scheduled 250 
 meetings in the winter and early spring of 1918. 
 Of these forty had to be abandoned. As a test of 
 the authority of Jackson county officials who had 
 ordered that no League meeting should be held 
 in that county Joseph Gilbert, at that time ''or- 
 ganization manager" of the League, went to 
 Lakefield and after a conference with local men 
 who warned him not to attempt to hold a meeting 
 he went out on the street and started a speech to 
 a group of farmers. He was promptly arrested 
 on a warrant charging "unlawful assemblage." 
 Later another charge, that of "discouraging en- 
 listments" was preferred against him under a 
 state law. Gilbert was convicted under this state 
 law on both charges amid circumstances which led 
 the Nonpartisan Leader to charge that this and a 
 later conviction of N. S. Randall, another League 
 speaker, in another county, were "travesties on 
 justice." 
 
 At the trial of Gilbert in Lakefield on the charge 
 
" PATRIOTEERING » 233 
 
 of "unlawful assemblage" the courtroom was 
 crowded with highly excited opponents of the 
 League and strong feeling was manifested against 
 James Manahan, former congressman from Min- 
 nesota, attorney for Gilbert. As Manahan left 
 the courtroom he was surrounded by a threatening 
 crowd and was told that if he did not immediately 
 leave the town he would be tarred and feathered. 
 The intervention of the sheriff, who was present, 
 was confined to offering Manahan "safe conduct" 
 to an adjoining town. Manahan reported that a 
 man in the courtroom, unknown to him, who had 
 applauded his statement that the most recent Lib- 
 erty Loan in North Dakota had been oversub- 
 scribed by 73 per, cent., was struck in the jaw and 
 knocked down and afterwards chased out of town 
 by a mob. 
 
 On February 28, 1918, President Townley and 
 Joseph Gilbert both were arrested on indictments 
 procured by a district attorney in Martin county, 
 Minnesota, another of the southern Minnesota 
 counties only sparsely organized by the League. 
 This warrant charged him under the state law 
 with "discouraging enlistments" through the cir- 
 culation of the pamphlet entitled "The Nonpar- 
 tisan League, Its Origin, Purposes and Methods 
 of Organization." The charge was based on the 
 language in the resolutions adopted at the "Pro- 
 ducers' and Consumers' Conference" quoted in 
 the preceding chapter. The case came before the 
 supreme court of Minnesota on an appeal from a 
 
234 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 ruling of the lower court overruling demurrers to 
 the two indictments. The indictments were re- 
 turned in February, but the supreme court did 
 not hand down its opinion until after the prima- 
 ries in June. It reversed the case, ruling that 
 the lower court should have sustained the demur- 
 rers. The court analyzed in great detail the docu- 
 ments on which the League oflScials were accused 
 and found that in no respect did they conflict with 
 the law. 
 
 "The resolutions taken as a whole," said the court, 
 "appear to be nothing more serious than a rhetorical 
 and somewhat flamboyant platform upon which a certain 
 class of citizens are solicited to join an organization 
 whose avowed purpose is the amelioration of the alleged 
 evUs of present economic conditions, and to bring about 
 a more equal distribution of the wealth of the world 
 among all classes of mankind. The pursuit of this 
 object does not violate the statute in question. ... It 
 is perhaps not out of place to say that the resolutions 
 have not yet attracted the attention of the federal 
 authorities." 
 
 The acquittal of Townley and Gilbert on these 
 charges was hailed as a great victory by the 
 League's publications, but in the time interven- 
 ing between the accusation and the court's deci- 
 sion much use had been made of the case in agita- 
 tion against the organization. 
 
 An incident of the year which illustrated the 
 extent of the antagonism which had been stirred 
 
" PATRIOTEERING " 235 
 
 up against the League occurred in Walla Walla, 
 where the Washington State Grange held its an- 
 nual sessions early in June. 
 
 William Bouck, state master of the Grange, in 
 his annual address made reference to the League 
 in a favorable way, recommending that Grange 
 members unite with it. As a result, one of the 
 local papers made an attack on him and, following 
 a meeting in the Commercial Club, the Grange was 
 served with a demand that Bouck 's position be 
 repudiated. The Grangers almost unanimously 
 voted to stand by Bouck, whereupon they were 
 ordered to vacate the high school building, in 
 which they were holding their meetings, and they 
 found every hall in town closed against them. A 
 culminating incident occurred at a church where 
 visiting Grangers had been invited to attend a 
 prayer meeting in their honor. Arriving at the 
 church, members of the Grange and their wives 
 were told that they were not wanted there. Mrs. 
 Bouck, wife of the master of the Grange, asked 
 that they be permitted to hold a prayer service in 
 the church yard, but was met with the request that 
 they leave the premises entirely. She stood her 
 ground, however, long enough to mount the church 
 steps and utter a prayer concluding with the quo- 
 tation: "Father, forgive them, for they know not 
 what they do." 
 
 President A. C. Townley and Joseph Gilbert, 
 former organization manager, were brought to 
 trial in Jackson county, Minnesota, in the sum- 
 
236 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 mer of 1919, on a state charge of "conspiracy to 
 discourage enlistments," based on the pamphlet 
 previously referred to and on utterances of both 
 men. Both were convicted after a trial in which 
 the judge was accused of open hostility to the de- 
 fense and in which Townley was denied the privi- 
 lege of addressing the jury in his own behalf. A 
 new trial was asked aiid the case was appealed to 
 the supreme court. 
 
 It was widely advertised that Townley was 
 ' ' convicted by a jury of farmers. ' ' There were no 
 League members in the jury nor on the jury panel, 
 though there are many in the county. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 GROWTH AND POWER 
 
 The condemnation and the persecution wMch the 
 League met ahnost as soon as it had started to 
 become a movement of more than state-wide scope 
 and interest might have appeared to the outsider 
 to be strangling the enterprise and ending forever 
 its hopes of capturing other states. But this was 
 far from true. The League continued to grow and 
 to grow rapidly. What it might have accom- 
 plished if the war, war issues and war hostility- 
 had not intervened cannot, of course, be told. 
 But it made progress through the period from the 
 declaration of war against Germany in April, 
 1917, until the armistice in November, 1918, and 
 the end of the war found it still going ahead and 
 maldng new plans. 
 
 The League made its first tentative excursion 
 outside North Dakota in July of 1916, but it was 
 done without publicity and so quietly that it was 
 not known generally even in North Dakota until 
 six months later. When the outside organization 
 work was started, there were less than 40,000 
 names on the North Dakota rolls, constituting the 
 whole membership of the organization. A year 
 later ther,e were approximately 100,000, and when 
 
 237 
 
238 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 the Nonpartisan Leader was moved to St. Paul on 
 January 1, 1918, the total was around 150,000. 
 The close of organization work that year found 
 just about an even 200,000 names on the lists. 
 
 North Dakota and Minnesota together ac- 
 counted for nearly half of that number. South 
 Dakota and Montana made up almost half of the 
 remainder, with Nebraska, Idaho and Colorado 
 next in line. Wisconsin, Texas, Iowa, Kansas and 
 Oklahoma completed the total. 
 
 It is easy to compute that if 200,000 members 
 pay $8.00 each a year there is an annual revenue of 
 $1,600,000, and it has been a favorite question to 
 demand "what becomes of the money?" Audit 
 reports presented regularly at annual state and 
 national meetings and an examination of the books 
 by committees chosen at these meetings of League 
 delegates have always satisfied the members and 
 their representatives. 
 
 The revenues of the League, however, have been 
 nowhere near as large a sum as this estimate 
 would indicate. The defaults in the membership 
 checks, even in the older states, always has been 
 considerable, while in such states as Texas and 
 Oklahoma the League encountered conditions 
 where it became impossible to collect more than a 
 small proportion, due mainly to poverty and the 
 failure of crops. 
 
 The League, regarded as a business enterprise, 
 has had a respectably large organization. Its 
 corps of organizers and speakers in the summer 
 
GROWTH AND POWER 239 
 
 of 1918 exceeded 500 men. Such a force of field 
 men requires a large office and accounting staff. 
 There were the organization manager and his as- 
 sistants, the head of the speakers' bureau, charged 
 with arranging meetings and routing speakers, the 
 various members of the campaign department, 
 engaged in consulting on and directing the cam- 
 paigns of candidates, the publicity staff, the 
 librarian (not only caring for a reference library, 
 but handling the sale of books bearing on the 
 League's program and propaganda), the head of 
 the educational department, engaged in instruct- 
 ing organizers by correspondence, and the ac- 
 counting department, having charge both of the 
 finances and the membership records. 
 
 Early in 1918 the League national headquarters 
 moved from a floor in a smaller building to oc- 
 cupy almost an entire floor in one of the largest 
 office buildings in St. Paul, which was no more 
 than sufficient to accommodate its various depart- 
 ments. At that time funds were required, not 
 merely to meet the headquarters expenses and 
 payroll, but to supply operating funds for all the 
 "official publications," to issue League pam- 
 phlets and other literature, to pay commissions 
 sufficient to provide earnings and expenses for a 
 crew of 500 or more organizers constantly in the 
 field, to furnish support of twelve outside state 
 offices, with their managers and accountants, to 
 provide salaries and traveling expenses for a 
 score of speakers who did no organizing, and to 
 
240 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 build up funds in each state to meet campaign ex- 
 penses and provide campaign literature. 
 
 The publication ventures of the League at the 
 close of 1918 had reached rather wide scope. 
 There were, first, the "oflScial publications." 
 These included the Nonpartisan Leader, a weekly 
 magazine of farm journal proportions, and weekly 
 state "Leaders," published in newspaper form 
 in each of the following states : Minnesota, North 
 Dakota, Montana, Idaho, South Dakota and Colo- 
 rado. (Nebraska was added to the list early in 
 1919.) The publication plant of the Nonpartisan 
 Leader in St. Paul consisted of a completely 
 equipped composing room and job printing office, 
 the presswork being let by contract, but arrange- 
 ments were being made for the purchase and in- 
 stallation of a large magazine press. 
 
 The Nonpartisan Publishing Company also held 
 the controlling interest in the Courier-News, a 
 daily newspaper published at Fargo, N. D. A 
 second daily newspaper, the Grand Forks Ameri- 
 can, launched under direction of the League's 
 publication manager, was owned by a farmers' 
 stock company. In addition approximately one 
 hundred weekly newspapers in Minnesota and 
 North Dakota, owned by stock companies of 
 farmers, were under the direction of a "service 
 bureau" maintained by the League. 
 
 These activities were all supplementary to the 
 political and organization work of the League. 
 Less directly connected were the string of farm- 
 
GROWTH AND POWER 241 
 
 ers' banks in North Dakota which grew out of the 
 necessity of having institutions through which to 
 borrow against the large amounts of notes and 
 post-dated checks given for League membership 
 and not payable until some months later. With 
 no ostensible connection with the League, never- 
 theless a score or more of these banks were pro- 
 moted with the assistance of League representa- 
 tives, their stockholders were League farmers and 
 they handled considerable amounts of notes se- 
 cured by post-dated checks given for League mem- 
 berships, enabling the League to carry on its pub- 
 licity campaigns. 
 
 Quite another sort of venture, however, is that 
 of the Consumers' United Stores Company, 
 launched in 1917 with the active backing and as- 
 sistance of President Townley of the League. 
 This company undertook to distribute merchan- 
 dise to farmers at its wholesale cost, to which was 
 added ten per cent, for operating expenses. The 
 company formed local buying associations in one 
 community after another by the sale of "buyers' 
 certificates" good for ten years at $100 each 
 (usually paid by note). With the proceeds of 
 these notes stores were established and stocks of 
 goods put in. 
 
 The Consumers' Stores Company became an- 
 other item in the indictment against the League 
 in North Dakota, being used to frighten mer- 
 chants into opposition. The company now oper- 
 ates general offices and a warehouse in Fargo and 
 
242 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 sells staple groceries, a limited variety of cloth- 
 ing, shoes, hardware, furniture and farm imple- 
 ments. It has thirty local stores in operation and 
 is declared by its managers to be proving a great 
 success. In the autumn of 1919 the Consumers' 
 Stores Company, under the management of H. A. 
 Paddock, a young attorney who had become one of 
 Townley's ablest and most trusted advisers, be- 
 gan reorganization on a strictly co-operative 
 basis, exchanging shares of stock for buyers' cer- 
 tificates and adopting the patronage dividend plan 
 of trading. 
 
 Directing the most interesting and sensational 
 political movement of his day, with policies to 
 form and defend, with publishing and business 
 ventures claiming his attention, with campaigns 
 in thirteen states to be planned and directed and 
 with an organization numbering more than 200,- 
 000 persons operating under his direction, Town- 
 ley, it may well be understood, was a fairly busy 
 man. 
 
 The League was not merely his sole business. 
 It was his sole occupation, virtually, and his sole 
 thought. Unused to any personal indulgences, un- 
 acquainted with luxury, accustomed to the hard 
 life of the western ranch, Townley worked as the 
 farmer worked, which means that he worked dur- 
 ing all his waking hours. He never had the slight- 
 est regard for the clock, and he slept and ate when 
 it was convenient. 
 
 Men do not take Townley out to luxurious 
 
GROWTH AND POWER 243 
 
 luncheons or dinners. He lias no time for that. 
 When he is in his office at St. Paul he makes his 
 excuses to all such forms of entertainment and 
 hurries out to a rushing "eat shop" where he 
 quickly gathers a simple meal on a tray, eats it 
 and is hack in the office in twenty minutes. When 
 on the road speaking frequently he eats nothing at 
 all until after his main address, if it is in the after- 
 noon. If it is in the evening he is likely to eat no 
 dinner, but midnight may find him comfortably 
 relaxing over a steak, if he can find one. 
 
 He has had no time for amusements. The 
 theater does not interest him. He plays no games 
 except an occasional game of cards to while away 
 a long railroad journey. He does not gamble ; he 
 does not use intoxicants ; he does not use tobacco. 
 
 Ever since the day in 1915 when he began the 
 work of promoting the League Townley has been 
 a man of single purpose and he has moved with 
 unremitting persistency and tremendous vital 
 energy toward its accomplishment. 
 
 Physically, Townley is slender and not at aU 
 rugged. He has confided to friends that he can 
 not stand exposure and hardship as he used to 
 stand them in his younger days on the windswept 
 prairie in a shack through which the snow would 
 filter. As is the case with any man of emotional, 
 high-keyed temperament, speaking, or any other 
 intense mental effort, burns up his energy rapidly 
 and exhausts him. He plans most carefully and 
 frugally to be ready for every emergency. He is 
 
244 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 not of the stolid, comfortable type which does not 
 get tired except from physical exertion. His 
 strength has been sufficient to do several men's 
 work because he has not wasted it. 
 
 Townley is similar, probably, to many other 
 capable executives, in his disposition to give wide 
 latitude and authority to those to whom he has 
 intrusted work, and to demand only satisfactory 
 results. He is generous in his trustfulness and in 
 his treatment of the employees in his organization. 
 
 He has the peculiarity, perhaps the western cus- 
 tom, of raising his voice to a high pitch in argu- 
 ment over some point of policy or strategy. Over- 
 hearing such a discussion in progress between 
 Townley and one or more of his associates one 
 is apt to get the impression that here is a man of 
 overbearing, tyrannical disposition. This is far 
 from the case. His violence is entirely imper- 
 sonal, and reserved for impersonal discussion. 
 His convictions, after he has given thought to a 
 matter, are likely to be decisive and positive and 
 to demand forceful statement. But the reason he 
 gives them this statement is to find out what peo- 
 ple in whose judgment he has confidence think of 
 them. He distrusts persons who always agree 
 with him — a highly valuable quality in an execu- 
 tive. 
 
 If there was at all a serious weakness in Town- 
 ley's system of promotion and government for his 
 organization it was that there was too much 
 Townley and not enough of division of authority 
 
GRO^VTH AND POWER 245 
 
 in the affair. That might be, as one looked at it, 
 an element either of strength or of weakness. 
 This centralization in the League — the opponents 
 and the two or three deserters who attempted to 
 make themselves heard called it "autocracy" — 
 promoted the swiftness and the efficiency with 
 which the organization was able to move. It got 
 results. "That is why our enemies criticize it," 
 said Townley through his publications and his 
 speakers. 
 
 But it was the machine with which the fight was 
 being waged, not the political ideas nor the selec- 
 tion of candidates, which was of Townley 's mak- 
 ing. He was not "telling people how to vote." 
 He was telling them how to make their votes 
 count. He was fighting for the vei-y things which 
 the judgment of the farmers themselves had ap- 
 proved. 
 
 If Townley 's system of organization was open 
 to serious criticism it was not on the score of 
 "autocracy," in the sense in which the critics 
 meant the word, but that of dangerous centraliza- 
 tion. This centralization was dangerous to the 
 peace of mind of practical politicians, but it might 
 prove dangerous to Townley "s whole enterprise 
 if he himself should fail in his energy or the 
 machine itself should grow so great that he 
 simply could not spread himself over the func- 
 tions his plan of organization demanded that 
 he fill. 
 
 But the thing had not been done before, and 
 
246 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 Townley no doubt was right in being impatient 
 with people who were anxious to turn the League 
 forthwith into an aggregation of debating so- 
 cieties. The thing had to move from a single 
 center outward. It had to get its initial vitality 
 from that center. It might engraft that form of 
 life onto other roots and they might, in the end, 
 make it part of themselves. It would have been 
 fatal to the League to have said to other states 
 simply: "Organize yourselves as we have done 
 and join with us in trying to get national as weU 
 as state reforms which will help the real pro- 
 ducers and cut off the support of some of the 
 parasites of agriculture and industry." They 
 couldn't have done it. They didn't know how, 
 
 Townley was not an office man. He wrote few 
 letters and spent little time in his office at League 
 headquarters. He dealt face to face by personal 
 suggestion, advice or order with the members of 
 his organization. In North Dakota he had met 
 with the organizers regularly, had traveled about 
 making speeches, had gone into localities where 
 there were difficulties in organization to give the 
 organizers help on the ground, had kept a close 
 watch on the finances, had given much attention to 
 guiding and criticizing, the editorial makeup of 
 the Nonpartisan Leader, had made the acquaint- 
 ance of the candidates alid watched them closely, 
 had studied issues and proposed legislation and 
 had advised with the legislative caucus in its ses- 
 sions. It was obviously impossible to do this in 
 
GROWTH AND POWER 247 
 
 the national field. He must reorganize and gen- 
 eralize his work. He must train new helpers and 
 trust others for much of the detail he himself had 
 formerly supervised. 
 
 Townley's greatest special ability lay in his 
 power as a platform speaker and his personality 
 in meeting men, coupled with his intimate knowl- 
 edge of the farmer's psychology. Since the time 
 when the League first began to be known as an 
 active organization in North Dakota, he has been 
 a man whom many people wanted to hear. In 
 North Dakota he can draw a crowd at any place 
 and at any time and there is probably none of 
 the states in which the League has operated 
 and possibly no agricultural state in the Union 
 where a throng would not turn out to hear him 
 speak. 
 
 The year 1919 brought a lull in this respect, 
 caused mainly by Townley's own fatigue at the 
 continuous session of arduous campaigns he had 
 been through, but prior to this year scarcely more 
 than a week or two ever went by at a time that 
 Townley was not upon the platform touring North 
 Dakota or Minnesota or venturing into other 
 Northwestern states. His first speaking trips out- 
 side of North Dakota were in 1917 to Montana, 
 South Dakota, Minnesota and Idaho. In all of 
 them, and later in Nebraska and Colorado, large 
 throngs came to hear, farmers traveling for long 
 distances and devoting several days' time to listen 
 to his words. In every state he has received tes- 
 
248 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 timonials of interest such as men pay only to a 
 popular hero, seldom to a mere politician. 
 
 The winter of 1917-1918, following the Pro- 
 ducers' and Consumers' Conference of Septem- 
 ber and the LaFoUette speech, was marked by 
 Townley's first visit to the east. He was accom- 
 panied by Arthur LeSueur, an attorney for the 
 League and political adviser, and by John Thomp- 
 son, former editor and manager of Pearson's 
 Magazine, who joined the organization late in 
 1916 as manager of publications and afterward 
 occupied the position of confidential adviser and 
 assistant to President Townley. 
 
 Matters were so arranged that in the national 
 capital Townley had an audience with President 
 Wilson and also met Herbert Hoover, the food 
 administrator, besides making the acquaintance of 
 other men of distinction and prominence in public 
 life. 
 
 In New York city Townley spoke from the plat- 
 form of historic Cooper Union, in company with 
 Food Commissioner Dillon of New York state. 
 The event gave "radicals" and liberals of the 
 metropolis an opportunity to get in touch with 
 the new "Socialistic" movement of the western 
 farmers and to estimate Townley at close range. 
 The New York newspapers all gave some space 
 to the affair, one or two treating it in rather 
 friendly vein, but the more powerful and conser- 
 vative papers sent men to Townley to inquire if 
 the League were not, as a matter of fact, "pro- 
 
GROWTH AND POWER 249 
 
 German," or, at the best, a "Socialist scheme." 
 One great newspaper sent a staff man to hear 
 Townley speak, but printed nothing at all of his 
 speech. 
 
 It was known that, beginning late in 1917 and 
 continuing through 1918, the national capital and 
 especially the offices of the department of justice, 
 were being besieged by men in various western 
 states who thought that some of Townley's utter- 
 ances could be used against him in the federal 
 courts as being obstructive of war effort, and who 
 were anxious to have the great political weapon 
 of a prosecution of the League or men prominent 
 in the League by the federal government. Steps 
 were taken to counteract this by laying before the 
 interested officials facts regarding the League's 
 actual activity and its purposes. 
 
 Whether this diplomatic effort had any effect 
 on the result or not, it is at least true that no 
 federal prosecution was ever brought against 
 President Townley, and the only cases against 
 men prominent in the League work brought 
 in the federal courts resulted in dismissal or 
 acquittal. 
 
 The failure of the federal administration to 
 co-operate with business men's patriotic organiza- 
 tions in the Northwest in their war against the 
 /Nonpartisan League, which they declared their 
 purpose to smash as being "damnable Hun propa- 
 ganda," did not enhance the administration's 
 popularity among this class. Administration 
 
250 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 leaders, however, probably bore this with the 
 more equanimity inasmuch as the leaders in 
 these organizations had been, for the most part, 
 Hughes men in the most recent presidential 
 campaign. 
 
 The "patriotic conference" which gave rise to 
 the "America First" association in Minnesota 
 was held in St. Paul in November, 1917. One of 
 the newspapers which approved the project an- 
 nounced that the association was formed "to com- 
 bat the influence of the Nonpartisan League." 
 Subsequently, in addressing a meeting of bankers 
 in Michigan, an officer of one of the larger banks 
 of Minneapolis complained that when a committee 
 formed at this conference sent word to Washing- 
 ton asking the administration to send a member 
 of the cabinet to address a patriotic rally in St. 
 Paul, the reply came that the invitation could not 
 be accepted unless President Townley of the Non- 
 partisan League were asked to speak from the 
 same platform. 
 
 The administration appears to have taken the 
 view at that time that it would be a mistake to 
 recognize that any faction held a monopoly of 
 patriotic spirit. George Creel, chairman of the 
 Committee on Public Information, the war pub- 
 licity service of the government, incurred the 
 wrath of the anti-League forces in the early sum- 
 mer of 1918 when a letter he had addressed to an 
 officer of a farmers' organization in Oklahoma was 
 made public. The letter read as follows : 
 
GROWTH AND POWER 251 
 
 COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INFORMATION 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 Mwy 13, 1918. 
 Mk. John A. Simpson, Weatherford, Okla. 
 
 Dear Sir: It is not true that the federal government 
 is pressing the Nonpartisan League in any manner, or 
 that the federal government considers it an act of dis- 
 loyalty to be a member of this League. 
 
 The federal government is not concerned with the 
 political, economic or industrial beliefs of any organiza- 
 tion at a time like this, insisting only that every indi- 
 vidual stand behind this war, believing absolutely in the 
 justice of America's position. 
 
 The Nonpartisan League, by resolution and organized 
 effort, has given this pledge of loyalty. North Dakota, 
 controlled by this organization politically, has as fine a 
 record of war support as any other commonwealth in the 
 union. Mr. Baer, its representative in the lower house, 
 has never even been criticized for a single utterance that 
 might be termed disloyal. 
 
 Mr. Townley is under indictment in Minnesota, and 
 there is a very bitter fight being made on the League in 
 that state by certain groups. With this the government 
 has nothing to do, refusing absolutely to take part in 
 these local differences. 
 
 Very sincerely, 
 
 George Creel, 
 Chairman. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE SECOND BIG BATTLE 
 
 In two states as the campaigns of 1918 ap- 
 proached the League had the strength to challenge 
 the power of the "old line" politicians. These 
 states were North Dakota, where another victory- 
 was essential to the good name of the League and 
 its success in other states, and Minnesota, loca- 
 tion of national headquarters of the League and 
 scene of its most concentrated efforts. 
 
 The membership was close to 50,000 in each of 
 these states by midsummer, the time of the pri- 
 mary election. Minnesota, however, had a popu- 
 lation of two million persons, more than three 
 times the population of North Dakota, in which 
 the vote of the League membership alone was suf- 
 ficient to swing a primary election. In Minnesota 
 it was necessary that combination should be 
 reached with other elements of the population. 
 
 The League hoped to be able to rally enough 
 sympathetic votes to win in the primaries and in 
 the general election. Burnquist, the governor, was 
 known as a "reactionary," a man who stood well 
 in the esteem of the railroads, the big timber cor- 
 porations, the steel trust, the grain and flour com- 
 panies and the public utility corporations. He 
 
 252 
 
THE SECOND BIG BATTLE 253 
 
 had been repeatedly attacked by liberal political 
 groups. His appointees, especially those to the 
 powerful Public Safety Commission, were, in a 
 safe majority, men known by organized labor as 
 its enemies. He had the support of the news- 
 papers which were constant in their defense of 
 the powerful vested interests of the state and 
 nation. 
 
 Resolved to make a clean sweep in Minnesota, 
 as it had in North Dakota, the League went about 
 holding its series of caucuses and conventions in 
 the same way. Precinct caucuses were held in 
 February in every voting precinct in the state 
 where the League had membership. These were 
 followed by conventions in the senatorial districts 
 at which candidates for the legislature were nomi- 
 nated and delegates chosen to attend a state con- 
 vention. 
 
 These delegates met in St. Paul on Tuesday, 
 March 19, and indorsed a ticket of candidates for 
 state offices. As in North Dakota, the League pub- 
 licity carefully refrained from calHng these selec- 
 tions "nominations." Technically, nominations 
 were to be made at the direct primary. The 
 LeEigue was merely "indorsing" men to be can- 
 didates for "nomination" at the hands of the 
 voters in the party or parties in which they were 
 nominated. 
 
 For the head of the Minnesota ticket the dele- 
 gates chose Charles A. Lindbergh, of Little 
 Falls. Lindbergh was a former congressman 
 
254 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 from Minnesota and a Republican. In congress 
 he had been of the progressive group and a fighter 
 of "trusts" and monopolies. His companions on 
 the ticket were all Republicans but one, the candi- 
 date for state treasurer, a Democratic banker 
 known to be friendly to the League, 
 
 Victor Power, labor union mayor of Hib- 
 bing, was indorsed for attorney general. Power 
 was a receptive candidate for the governorship 
 and the indorsement for the post of attorney gen- 
 eral did not please him. He declined to make the 
 race and there was for a time the rumor that he 
 would declare himself independently for governor. 
 Besides Power, there was a labor union candidate 
 on the ticket in the person of F. E. Tillquist, a 
 railroad engineer, candidate for a position on the 
 state railroad and warehouse commission. 
 
 As had been the case ia North Dakota, there 
 were held in St. Paul three days of "convention 
 rallies." The League sent invitations to a num- 
 ber of notable people to attend or send messages 
 to these meetings. Among them was an invita- 
 tion to Governor Burnquist to welcome the vis- 
 itors to the city and an invitation to Mayor Irvin 
 to do the same honors on behalf of the city. The 
 mayor politely excused himself, but Governor 
 Burnquist sent a letter to the League flatly refus- 
 ing to have any part and accusing the League of 
 being a "party of discontent" and of being "pro- 
 German" and accusing the League officials of 
 openly seeking an alliance with "that element 
 
THE SECOND BIG BATTLE 255 
 
 which has been opposed to compliance with just 
 orders of duly constituted authority." Already 
 antagonistic to Governor Burnquist, organized 
 labor in general took the language of parts of the 
 governor 's letter to be a pointed insult to its mem- 
 bership. 
 
 The convention rallies were welcomed to St. 
 Paul by City Commissioner Oscar Keller, who was 
 being opposed for re-election by the interests 
 friendly to Burnquist. Keller was the champion 
 of organized labor, a strong advocate of municipal 
 ownership and friendly to the League. His ap- 
 pearance before the Nonpartisan League rallies 
 was used as a campaign issue before the city elec- 
 tion, which occurred a few weeks later, and in 
 which Keller was re-elected by a much higher vote 
 than any other commissioner. A year later, in 
 1919, he was elected to congress as an independent, 
 defeating Democratic and Eepublican nominees 
 and having the indorsement of organized labor 
 and the League. 
 
 The national administration sent representa- 
 tives to the convention rallies in St. Paul. Just 
 before they were held the League had sent a dele- 
 gation to Washington to ask the house and senate 
 committees for heavier excess profits taxes than 
 seemed likely to be enacted. 
 
 The representatives of government departments 
 included Tariff Commissioner William Kent and 
 Gilbert Hyatt, representing the department of 
 labor. Judson King, secretary of the National 
 
266 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 Popular Government League, and Governor Fra- 
 zier of North Dakota were other speakers from 
 outside Minnesota. 
 
 The rallies drew attendance from a number of 
 League states, including Idaho, Montana, North 
 Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, and there 
 were throngs of from two thousand to five thou- 
 sand persons present. Labor unions of the Twin 
 Cities had charge of the program on the second 
 night and brought out a large attendance, em- 
 phasizing the danger to other political groups 
 through the possibility of an effective alliance be- 
 tween labor and the farmers. 
 
 Candidate Lindbergh, in his brief address to 
 the mass meeting, made a dignified statement of 
 the issues. 
 
 "The governor of the great state of Minnesota 
 has said that there is but one issue, loyalty, and 
 proceeded to divide the people into two classes," 
 said Lindbergh. "It is observable that a few per- 
 sons do that. "What is the difference between the 
 two? The difference is that a few would destroy 
 democracy to win the war, and the rest of us would 
 win the war to establish democracy." 
 
 The governor of Minnesota, he said, had failed 
 to grasp the point that it was democracy we were 
 fighting to establish. ' ' For months democracy has 
 not existed in our state," he added. 
 
 "All the people are loyal," he said, except in 
 "isolated instances," and these should be "ar- 
 rested and dealt with by law, and no false issue 
 
THE SECOND BIG BATTLE 257 
 
 of loyalty should stalk over the country to create 
 prejudice and riots." 
 
 It is not the Nonpartisans, he said, who were 
 disloyal, but the profiteers, "who subvert their 
 loyalty to selfish action, and since the Nonparti- 
 sans advocate an economy that would destroy 
 monopoly, the subterfuge of the profiteers is an 
 attempt to deceive the people as to what your 
 League stands for." 
 
 This was all good and effective, from the 
 League's standpoint, but it happened that some 
 months previously Lindbergh had written a book. 
 It was a mere pamphlet which he had caused to 
 be printed immediately after the declaration of 
 war. It was enough, however, in the hands of the 
 daily newspapers, all of them hostile, and of the 
 publicity agencies which devoted themselves to 
 attacking the League candidate, seriously to em- 
 barrass his campaign. It was portrayed as an 
 "anti-war" book, a few favorite passages being 
 frequently quoted for that purpose. 
 
 Lindbergh's book was entitled: Why Is Tour 
 Cotmtry at War, and What Happens to You After 
 the War, amd Related Subjects. It was a random 
 series of chapters on various subjects suggested 
 by the declaration of war by the United States, 
 but in the main it constituted a continuation of 
 the theme of a previous work, published while the 
 author was in congress, entitled Bcmkvng and Cur- 
 rency and the Money Trust, the title of which re- 
 veals its point of view. In his introductory chap- 
 
258 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 ter the former congressman, stating his own posi- 
 tion on the war at that time, said : 
 
 "Trespass upon our rights on the high seas makes 
 our cause just; still I do not claim that it was wise to 
 enter the war. I believe the problem could have been 
 settled without war or sacrifice of national honor, the 
 same as we expect to adjust the trespass upon our rights 
 on the high seas by other nations. Our purpose is 
 humane, nevertheless I believe that I have proved that 
 a certain ' inner circle, ' without official authority and for 
 selfish purposes, adroitly manoeuvered things to bring 
 about conditions that would make it practically certain 
 that some of the belligerents would violate our inter- 
 national rights and bring us to war with them. ' ' 
 
 This paragraph furnished the text for the dec- 
 laration that Candidate Lindbergh was another of 
 those who declared the war to be a "rich man's 
 war," and his selection to be further proof that 
 Townley was covertly carrying on an anti-war 
 propaganda. 
 
 In the campaign Lindbergh's book was misused 
 in exactly the way one would expect a candidate's 
 statements to be treated by partisan bias and the 
 unscrupulous practices of partisan politics where 
 the battle is keenly waged. His question, "To 
 what extent shall we prosecute the war?" was 
 spread on billboards and printed in newspapers 
 without the accompanying answer, which was: 
 
 "Our highest representative is congress and the Presi- 
 dent. Whether we believe their official acts right or not 
 
THE SECOND BIG BATTLE 259 
 
 in this matter, we must support them with all our power. 
 There are two sides involved internationally, and we are 
 for America. Whether in battle, in industry or else- 
 where — everywhere and wherever really needed or re- 
 quired, we will respond patriotically." 
 
 The opposition press also made mucli of the 
 quotation from Lindbergh of the words: "We 
 should spurn as contemptible to the idea of democ- 
 racy the oft-heralded statement of * Stand by the 
 President'." As Lindbergh used it in his book, 
 ,the full statement was: "We should never sur- 
 render our sovereign right to petition or other- 
 wise properly influence congress or the President. 
 We should spurn as contemptible to the idea of 
 democracy the oft-heralded statement of stand by 
 the President, in the sense of its frequent use, be- 
 cause it is too often used as a guise to deceive." 
 
 In a footnote to the fifth chapter of his book 
 Lindbergh complained that "finance speculators" 
 were seizing control of important war activities 
 and were not giving "plain toilers" their proper 
 place. He quoted the words of a Minneapolis 
 banker regarding the use of the "big stick" in 
 the Liberty Loans and added : 
 
 "It has iadeed been humiliating to the American 
 people to see how the wealth grabbers, owners of the big 
 press, actually attempt by scurrilous editorials and spe- 
 cially prepared articles to drive the people, as if we 
 were a lot of cattle, to buy bonds, subscribe to the Red 
 
260 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 Cross, to register for conscription and all the other 
 things. The people will do their duty without being 
 hectored in advance by the big interest press. What 
 right, anyway, has the big press to heckle the people as 
 if we really belonged to the wealth grabbers and were 
 their chattel property?" 
 
 The campaign and the candidacy of Lindbergh 
 did not abate the activity or the bitterness of the 
 measures being taken to make it difficult for the 
 League to operate. Lindbergh and other League 
 speakers in Minnesota were repeatedly denied the 
 use of halls, and gatherings of farmers who came 
 to hear them were dispersed. In some counties 
 this operated to arouse the resentment of the 
 farmers and probably increased the vote for 
 League candidates, but in other counties where 
 organization had made little progress — ^notably in 
 the southern portion of the state — the hostile acts 
 and suppression of meetings had their intended 
 object of preventing presentation of the League's 
 side of the case. 
 
 The result of the primary election in Minnesota 
 was the defeat of the League's candidate for gov- 
 ernoi- by Governor Burnquist in the Eepublican 
 primaries, which was hailed by the city press as 
 a victory for "loyalty." The result was also 
 highly pleasing to the representatives of mining 
 interests, who felt that, with a weak Democratic 
 candidate in opposition, Burnquist 's victory was 
 practically assured and a serious obstacle placed 
 
THE SECOND BIG BATTLE 261 
 
 in the path of enactment of a tonnage tax or other 
 form of heavier taxation on iron ore. 
 
 Burnquist's majority over Lindbergh was ap- 
 proximately 50,000 votes, but the League had 
 polled for its candidate 150,000, which was just 
 three times the League membership in the state 
 at the time of the primaries. In addition the 
 League carried thirty out of the eighty-nine coun- 
 ties for its legislative candidates and was given a 
 strong representation in the legislature, though 
 not the control. The results showed that a very 
 high proportion of the union labor vote had gone 
 to the League and that the League had held its 
 own membership intact. 
 
 The League, however, did not give up its effort 
 to elect a governor because of the defeat of Lind- 
 bergh. Early in September a joint convention 
 of the League and organized labor met in St. Paul 
 and nominated as an independent candidate for 
 governor David Evans of Tracy. Evans was a 
 hardware dealer who had shown sympathy with 
 the League and at one time had invited a League 
 crowd to hold a meeting on his farm when they 
 had been denied a meeting-place in his town. Al- 
 though he had been active in the local war loan and 
 other patriotic enterprises, his championship of 
 the League set many in the town of Tracy, where 
 he had lived for forty years, against him, and the 
 front of his hardware store was painted yellow on 
 one occasion. 
 
 Evans was a Democrat and had been a sup- 
 
262 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 porter, before the primaries, of Judge Comstock, 
 the "progressive" Democratic candidate, who was 
 defeated. 
 
 The result in the fall was a second defeat for 
 the governorship hopes. Evans polled a slightly- 
 lower vote than had Lindbergh. The Democratic 
 candidate, Wheaton, divided the anti-Burnquist 
 vote — aside from the League membership — with 
 Evans, and Governor Burnquist was re-elected, 
 but with a minority of the votes cast. 
 
 The League elected 11 senators and 26 members 
 of the lower house. Together with the men known 
 as labor candidates in the cities, apparently this 
 gave a working force of 30 League-labor votes out 
 of 67 in the senate and 60 out of 131 in the house 
 of the Minnesota legislature. Puttiag the best 
 construction on the situation with respect to the 
 probable faithfulness of the labor members, the 
 League was still in the minority in both houses. 
 Defections on various measures during the ses- 
 sion materially reduced this apparent strength. 
 
 WhUe the intense Minnesota campaigns were 
 being waged contests nearly as interesting in 
 which the League played the central part were in 
 progress in other states. 
 
 In North Dakota, South Dakota and Idaho com- 
 plete state tickets were placed in nomination, while 
 in Colorado, Montana and Nebraska state con- 
 ventions were held and candidates nominated for 
 the legislature in as many districts as there 
 seemed prospect, near or remote, of victory. 
 
THE SECOND BIG BATTLE 263 
 
 In Nebraska seven members of tbe lower house 
 and one senator indorsed by the League in con- 
 vention were elected. In addition to these there 
 were several others who ran without League in- 
 dorsement and were elected, and who were open 
 advocates of the League's principles. 
 
 In Colorado, where organization had been able 
 to proceed in only a small fraction of the state's 
 whole agricultural territory, two state senators 
 and two representatives in the legislature were 
 elected. 
 
 Montana had a better proportion of League 
 membership with respect to the population of the 
 state than Colorado or Nebraska, but organization 
 had not proceeded far enough for the League to 
 make any serious bid for control. The best that 
 could be hoped was to elect a fairly strong minor- 
 ity in the legislature. In that state also there 
 was a considerable industrial population, largely 
 of miners, and approaches therefore were made to 
 organized labor. The bitterness of the campaign 
 against the League, which was something of a 
 novelty in the politics of the purely agricultural 
 states, was less strange to Montana, scene of many 
 armed conflicts and acts of violence between 
 miners and armed company guards. 
 
 Butte, metropolis of the state and the largest 
 city between Minneapolis and Spokane, was the 
 scene of the unpunished lynching of Frank Little, 
 the crippled organizer of the I. W. W., which, 
 throughout the war, operated one of the two rival 
 
264 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 miners' unions in the copper mining district. 
 There had been repeated murders laid by union 
 miners to "gunmen" employed by the Anaconda 
 Copper Mining Company. 
 
 Undeterred by these conditions and by the open 
 hostility of the "A. C. M.," expressed through all 
 its recognized mouthpieces, the state manager of 
 the League proceeded with his plans for getting 
 as large a representation as possible in the legis- 
 lature. He had the advantage of the sympathy of 
 a large number of citizens ready to welcome any 
 movement which promised to loosen the hold of 
 "the company" on state, county and city govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Jeanette Eankin, congresswoman from Mon- 
 tana, had made a fight for reform in mining con- 
 ditions, had endeavored to get federal investiga- 
 tion of the labor practices of the mining company 
 and had openly advocated the seizure and opera- 
 tion of the copper mines by the federal govern- 
 ment during the war as a better policy than one of 
 attempting to coerce labor in the interests of 
 profits for the mining companies. Miss Rankin 
 became a candidate for the United States senate 
 on the Eepublican ticket, but was defeated by a 
 Helena physician known as a "company man." 
 She then became a candidate on the National party 
 ticket for the same office. She had openly been a 
 friend of the League's cause and had the support 
 of organized labor. A League state convention 
 was called and Miss Rankin was indorsed. Sena- 
 
THE SECOND BIG BATTLE 265 
 
 tor Walsli was re-elected, however, in the three- 
 cornered contest. The League obtained a substan- 
 tial representation in both houses of the legis- 
 lature. 
 
 In South Dakota Mark Pomeroy Bates, a farmer 
 and, like Governor Frazier, a man unknown in 
 politics, was indorsed by the League for governor. 
 A full state ticket was indorsed with him. With 
 a state population slightly larger the League had 
 less than half as many members in South Dakota 
 as it had in North Dakota. Its hope of victory lay 
 in winning almost the solid farmer vote to support 
 of the League ticket, regardless of membership 
 in the League. If the war issues had not inter- 
 vened, with the acrimony they engendered and the 
 impossibility of counteracting the effect of the dis- 
 loyalty propaganda except through 'the official 
 newspapers of the League, which went to few be- 
 sides League members, the result might have been 
 far different in this state. As it was, the League's 
 state ticket and its nominees for congress were 
 defeated. As in every other state, the League's 
 vote was far iu excess of its actual membership. 
 A nucleus of five senators and eight representa- 
 tives in the legislature was obtained. 
 
 One of the factors in the result of the campaign 
 here, as well as in other states, was the difficulty, 
 caused by war conditions, of getting League "lit- 
 erature" to all voters. The League's state week- 
 lies, one of which was being pubUshed in South 
 Dakota, were limited by the rules laid down for 
 
266 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGlTB 
 
 all publications and designed to conservg* paper. 
 League papers were expressly forbidden tbg privi- 
 lege of mailing out copies of tbe papers to voters 
 generally during the campaigns. In states "wbere 
 the newspapers of large circulation were prac- 
 tically all hostile or, at the best, neutral, the at- 
 tacks upofl ithe League went unanswered so far as 
 the average Sioter was concerned. 
 
 In all of the states in which the League operated 
 the influenza epidemic also was a serious blow to 
 campaigning efforts. It prevented public gather- 
 ings in many places, in many others served as a 
 pretext for preventing them, and it put a damper 
 on interest in and attention to new political issues. 
 
 In Idaho high hopes had been entertained by 
 State Manager W. Gr. Scholtz and his aides. Pri- 
 mary elections were held early in September and 
 in these the League made a clean sweep, nonainat- 
 ing all of its state candidates on the Democratic 
 ticket. For governor the Leaguers chose H. F. 
 Samuels, a farmer who had reaped an independent 
 fortune in other enterprises and was able to de- 
 vote a large part of his time to political reform. 
 United States Senator J. F. Nugent, a Democrat 
 who had been appointed to fill out the unexpired 
 term of the late Senator Heybum, was indorsed 
 by the League as candidate to succeed himself for 
 the short term, after he had made a statement 
 supporting the League. United States Senator 
 Borah, Republican, was also indorsed by the 
 Leaguers to succeed himself. Nugent won with 
 
THE SECOND BIG BATTLE 267 
 
 the League's help, the nomination having been 
 sought also by James H. Hawley, declared by 
 League spokesmen to be the "power trust can- 
 didate." Borah and Nugent both won also in the 
 fall elections, but the League's state ticket met 
 defeat, some part of the result undoubtedly being 
 due to the general swing toward the Republican 
 party in the western states. 
 
 An incident in the campaign was a speech deliv- 
 ered by President Townley of the League in Boise 
 a few days before the primaries. Townley had 
 been scheduled to speak earlier in the year, at the 
 time of the League's state convention. At that 
 time it was announced that ' ' authorities" had pre- 
 vented him from speaking. It was supposed that 
 he was in Boise waiting to speak, but failed to 
 do so in the face of notification that his speaking 
 was not to be permitted. 
 
 State Manager Scholtz allowed this impression 
 to stand. Townley, however, was busy at head- 
 quarters in St. Paul and did not go to Idaho at 
 that time. 
 
 In September the same efforts were made to 
 prevent his speaking. The Ada county council of 
 defense issued an order forbidding his speaking, 
 and halls were closed against him. He spoke from 
 the steps of the state capitol, but not until the 
 .sheriff of the county, favorable to the League, had 
 deputized a large number in the crowd to protect 
 him. A crowd led by prominent and influential 
 ;men of Boise attempted to seize him and prevent 
 
268 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 his speaking. They came to blows with farmers 
 who surrounded the League leader and were held 
 at bay. Townley adopted the tactics of ridiculing 
 his opponents and made them the butt of laughter 
 of the crowd. Opposition newspapers found noth- 
 ing to which to take exception in Townley 's ad- 
 dress and the event made a favorable impression 
 for the League. 
 
 The net results of the fall election, however, 
 were to give the League only an active minority in 
 the Idaho legislature and the honor of having 
 helped two United States senators to victory on 
 opposing party tickets. 
 
 The results of the 1918 elections would not have 
 been such as to give great encouragement to mem- 
 bers of the League and to those who saw in it the 
 hope of a regeneration of state government which 
 would make it more responsive to the needs of 
 the people had not North Dakota remained stead- 
 fast. 
 
 The League again triumphed in North Dakota. 
 Its members and friends in that state showed 
 their faith in the movement by again electing an 
 entire state administration named by the League, 
 by giving the League complete control over both 
 houses of the Legislature, by passing aU amend- 
 ments to the state constitution proposed by the 
 League to make its program effective and by elect- 
 ing a complete congressional delegation of League 
 men. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 LEAGUE DEMOCRACY AT WORK 
 
 A PROMINENT educator who had held posts under 
 the national administration in war service lectured 
 in North Dakota during the early autumn of 1918 
 in the interests of the proposal for a League of 
 Nations. In opening an address ^t Steele he said: 
 
 "I am glad to speak here in North Dakota, because 
 here I seem to breathe the pure air of democracy. I 
 feel that here in North Dakota you have something 
 nearer to real democratic government than we have any- 
 where else in the union." 
 
 Friends of the Nonpartisan League adminis- 
 tration in North Dakota wiU affirm that there has 
 been much in the record of the farmers' govern- 
 ment in that state to justify the speaker's state- 
 ment. Certainly North Dakota under its farmer 
 governor and directed by its farmer legislature 
 had no such disgraceful scenes of turbulence and 
 disorder as other states had in the same period. 
 The charge of the opponents of the League within 
 the state was that this was because the governor 
 of North Dakota was "protecting seditionists." 
 
 Yet there is nothing in the state's record in 
 patriotic effort and enterprise to justify that 
 
 269 
 
270 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 charge. The state made highly creditable con- 
 tributions to the Eed Cross and all the other war 
 funds. It quickly oversubscribed in each case its 
 quota of the government loans, amounts fixed by 
 committees of bankers opposed to the League. 
 Its agricultural production was kept up to as high 
 a level as natural conditions permitted. The 
 criminal and civil law were enforced just as 
 strictly and in many particulars with more zeal 
 than ever before. There were no scandals of em- 
 bezzlement of public funds or breach of trust. 
 Life, person and property were protected better 
 than ever before in the state's history. 
 
 These things can be said without entering into 
 controversial ground. Controversy in North Da- 
 kota over the Nonpartisan League related only to 
 the "seditious" utterances alleged to have been 
 made by persons representing the League and to 
 the damage to the state which it was said would 
 be done when finally "these Socialists" worked 
 out their full intent in law. 
 
 The administrative changes resulting from the 
 first session of the farmer legislature were a new 
 system of grain grading which made the farmers 
 more content with the dealings they had with 
 grain dealers; a reduction in the taxes on farm 
 homes; an increase in the funds available for 
 rural schools; an increased security in bank de- 
 posits, and added revenues from new corporation 
 taxes. 
 
 The state board of equalization, in its first meet- 
 
LEAGUE DEMOCRACY AT WORK 271 
 
 ing after the farmers' victory, materially in- 
 creased the assessments of railroads, private car 
 lines and public utilities, none of which acts 
 brought complaint from any considerable number 
 of citizens. 
 
 The attorney general's office began energetic 
 proceedings before the state railroad commission 
 which resulted in new and lower rates on cream 
 shipments. The same office entered on a cam- 
 paign of law enforcement which resulted in whole- 
 sale arrests at Minot, where "blind-pigging" and 
 other disorderly practices had thrived, and in the 
 closing of a brewery just across the Minnesota 
 line from Grand Forks, brought about by joint 
 action with the Minnesota and federal authorities. 
 The Minot proceedings aroused the ire of many 
 people in that city, but were heartily approved by 
 law enforcement organizations throughout the 
 state. 
 
 Disorders caused by transient harvest labor be- 
 came fewer, though it had been declared that there 
 were "gigantic" plots to destroy grain being 
 hatched and that Governor Frazier's proclamation 
 protecting casual laborers against unauthorized 
 arrest was an invitation to acts of wholesale crime 
 by the I. W. W. 
 
 One of Governor Frazier's first acts in office 
 was the issuance of a request that there be no 
 inaugural ball. The governor wanted no pre- 
 tense of social frills not in keeping with the 
 spirit of a farmers' administration. Besides, 
 
272 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 he is one of those people of old-fashioned 
 Methodist training who don't believe in danc- 
 ing. 
 
 This might have been said to have furnished a 
 keynote to one phase of his administration. There 
 is no "social life" in the "capitol set" at Bis- 
 marck under the farmers' administration, except 
 for friendly visiting between families. 
 
 Not long after the first legislature adjourned 
 the governor instituted the custom of having the 
 state officers gather in his office once a week to 
 eat their noon lunch about his big table. The 
 lunch usually consists of sandwiches, coffee and 
 doughnuts sent up from the lunchroom in the base- 
 ment. There are no ' ' toasts, ' ' but some talk about 
 state affairs. 
 
 Throughout the state there was no truce in poli- 
 tics, however, because of the war. The partisan 
 battle against the farmers in power was kept up 
 bitterly and unceasingly. It was not confined 
 wholly to an unceasing fire of attack in the opposi- 
 tion newspapers. One of its phases was a quite 
 general boycott of members of the farmers' ad- 
 ministration in arrangements for speaking and 
 other public functions. The League, even through 
 the person of the governor, was not to be permit- 
 ted to make capital out of its hold on power. Ex- 
 cept for the unfailing enthusiasm with which he 
 was always greeted at farmers' meetings, Gov- 
 ernor Frazier was less honored within the state 
 of which he was governor and in which he had 
 
LEAGUE DEMOCRACY AT WORK 273 
 
 lived an honored and respected life for forty 
 years, than outside it. 
 
 There is no event so important in any year in 
 North Dakota as harvest. The outcome of the 
 crop determines business and political affairs. 
 
 The crop in 1915 had been a huge one, the 
 largest ever grown in the state. Prices had been 
 low when the farmers sold in the fall and winter. 
 The year 1916 was a season of excessive rains and 
 heat. The wheat was struck by rust and blight. 
 A light and shriveled crop was the result. It gave 
 impetus to the demand for state-owned mills, for 
 much of the wheat sold on "feed" grades, and it 
 developed that this "feed*' wheat, bought by the 
 millers for less than half the price of No. 1, ac- 
 tually was milled into a rich and nourishing flour, 
 the extra profit going to the millers. 
 
 But the farmers were heavy debtors in 1917 in 
 order to get means to put in their crops. The fol- 
 lowing year, the first of the guaranteed war prices, 
 was another bad year. This was a year of drouth 
 and the failure was total in many parts of the 
 state. All the time the government was urging 
 increased acreage in wheat and greater produc- 
 tion. In the fall of 1917 it became evident that 
 without extraordinary assistance many North 
 Dakota, South Dakota and Montana farmers of 
 experience and ability could not put in grain crops 
 in 1918. Congressman Baer introduced a bill for 
 government seed and feed loans. It was sup- 
 ported by Food Administrator Hoover and passed 
 
274 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 the house. Secretary of Agriculture Houston, 
 perhaps resenting the fact that the proposal did 
 not originate in his department, caused the bill 
 to be killed in the senate. 
 
 Governor Frazier, after consultation with lead- 
 ing farmers and with League leaders, caused the 
 legislature to meet in special session in January, 
 1918, for the purpose of enacting a seed and feed 
 loan law. The legislature met and in a very brief 
 session passed such a law, providing the issuance 
 of special county bonds for this purpose. The 
 legislature also passed laws enacting a morato- 
 rium on the debts of men in the national service, 
 a law creating a State Council of Defense and a 
 law providing for the organization of a state 
 guard to replace the many volunteer home guard 
 units being formed throughout the state. This 
 law permitted such units to be formed under the 
 direction of the adjutant general of the state and 
 subject to his authority. 
 
 It had been rumored that the home guard units 
 then organizing planned hostile acts against the 
 League. In fact, an effort had been made to em- 
 ploy the Fargo home guard for that purpose. The 
 new law permitted all such organizations to sub- 
 ject themselves to the authority of the state, to 
 be controlled by the prescribed military regula- 
 tions and to be subject to the orders of the gov- 
 ernor through the adjutant general. This oflScial, 
 Adjutant General Angus Fraser, occupied a neu- 
 tral position. He had been a member of the po- 
 
LEAGUE DEMOCRACY AT WORK 275 
 
 litical faction opposed to the League, but from the 
 time of assumption of his office devoted himself 
 whole-heartedly to the duties of his office, co- 
 operating in admirable spirit with his new supe- 
 rior. His record in the operation of the draft 
 machinery won him high commendation from of- 
 ficers of the regular army and he was appointed 
 to rank as major in the federal service in his ca- 
 pacity as draft officer. Under his direction North 
 Dakota became one of the leading states in the 
 Union in the efficient operation of its draft ma- 
 chinery, having fewer rejections of men sent from 
 the state and a lower per capita cost than in any 
 other state. 
 
 The operation of the state feed and seed loan 
 law gave an opportunity for further criticism of 
 the League administration of which opponents 
 made the most. It was said that because the seed 
 bonds were made a first lien on the- land it would 
 be impossible to obtain federal land bank first 
 mortgage loans, and the story was printed that 
 the federal land bank would withdraw from the 
 state. A deputy of the state attorney general's 
 office visited the national capital and it was ar- 
 ranged that in any case where a fanner having the 
 federal loan sought the state loan a special in- 
 demnity bond could be issued, giving the federal 
 bank full protection. This difficulty was thus sur- 
 mounted and, as a result of the law, more than 
 $3,000,000 was advanced to farmers who had no 
 other means of putting in crops. The state 's acre- 
 
276 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 age for the year thus was materially increased. 
 
 The State Council of Defense, created by the 
 special session, took further steps to increase the 
 crop acreage. An order was issued by the Council 
 permitting farmers to take possession of idle land 
 not their own and to put it into crop, paying a 
 percentage of the crop receipts to the owner of 
 the land. This order was resisted by several large 
 owners of idle land, at least one, a wealthy non- 
 resident. The landlords, however, changed their 
 minds after a consultation with a representative 
 of the attorney general's office, and the power of 
 the Council of Defense was upheld. It was stated 
 by officers of the Council of Defense that as a 
 result of this order more than 50,000 acres of land 
 which otherwise would have remained idle were 
 put into crop. 
 
 The Council of Defense summoned before it two 
 bankers, both accused of having, in violation of 
 the new law, foreclosed on the property of sol- 
 diers' or sailors' dependents. One of the offend- 
 ing bankers was a man who had been prominent in 
 public patriotic enterprises. Both made restitu- 
 tion as directed by the State Council. 
 
 The year 1918 in North Dakota brought the old 
 issues to the front again in new form. "While op- 
 ponents made an effort to invoke the loyalty issue, 
 it was not materially effective in North Dakota, 
 where the League was known. Its use was re- 
 garded in North Dakota, more than in other states, 
 as an attempt to cloud the real issues, and the 
 
LEAGUE DEMOCRACY AT WORK 277 
 
 opposition was not able to evade discussion of the 
 League's actual purposes and proposals. Little 
 was found in tlie record of the League's adminis- 
 tration in North Dakota to invite attack, but the 
 campaign centered mainly about ten amendments 
 to the state constitution proposed by the League 
 through the initiative process. These ten amend- 
 ments were designed to enable the League to put 
 its political-economic program into effect. They 
 dealt solely with two subjects, which were the 
 removal of obstacles to enacting the League's 
 "program" proposals into law and the liberaliz- 
 ing of the direct legislation features of the con- 
 stitution. 
 
 The amendments intended to facilitate enact- 
 ment of the League program, summarized, were : 
 
 Giving the legislature the right to exempt all 
 personal property from taxation. 
 
 Authorizing an acreage tax on land for the pur- 
 pose of providing state hail insurance funds. 
 
 Authorizing the issuance of bonds in excess of 
 the constitutional debt limit of $200,000 when the 
 bonds are secured by first mortgages on real estate 
 not exceeding one-half the value of the property. 
 
 Authorizing the further issue of state bonds up 
 to a limit of ten million dollars when secured by 
 the property of state-owned industries. 
 
 Giving the state, counties and cities the power 
 to make internal improvements or to engage in 
 any industry, enterprise or business except the 
 liquor business. 
 
278 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 The amendments modifying the "direct legisla- 
 tion" provisions of the constitution provided as 
 follows : 
 
 Petitions initiating laws to be valid when signed 
 by 10,000 electors. 
 
 Petitions referring laws passed by the legisla- 
 ture to be valid when signed by 7,000 electors. 
 
 Petitions initiating amendments to the consti- 
 tution to be valid when signed by 20,000. 
 
 Proposed amendments to the constitution to 
 become effective when approved by majority vote 
 of the people without subsequent ratification by 
 the legislature. 
 
 These proposals were in many respects less far- 
 reaching than those contained in the former 
 House Bill 44. In adopting the expensive and 
 cumbersome process of amending the constitution 
 by the initiative process the League leaders aban- 
 doned the "short ballot" proposals which had 
 been contained in the bill in the legislature. They 
 abandoned also the proposal for four-year terms 
 of office in place of two-year, and discarded the 
 effort to make the minor textual changes in the 
 constitution called for in House Bill 44. At the 
 same time a definite limit was set on the amount 
 of bonds to be issued for the use of state-owned 
 utilities, the amount being fixed at ten mil- 
 lions. 
 
 To meet the argument that too much power 
 would be placed in the hands of the legislature and 
 state officials, the League advocates could point 
 
LEAGUE DEMOCRACY AT WORK 279 
 
 to the liberal referendum proposal, permitting any 
 group of 7,000 voters to cause a law to be re- 
 ferred to the people for their approval. 
 
 Petitions for these amendments were circulated 
 by League members in nearly every voting pre- 
 cinct in the state in the spring of 1918. Signa- 
 tures far more than 25 per cent, in "each of not 
 less than one-half the counties in the state," as 
 specified in the existing constitution, were ob- 
 tained and the petitions were filed with the sec- 
 retary of state. But there still existed the ob- 
 stacle of a decision of the former supreme court 
 (in the New Eockford capital removal case) that 
 this constitutional provision was not operative 
 until reinforced by a legislative enactment which 
 the senate had refused to pass. An injunction re- 
 straining the secretary of state from causing the 
 measures to be printed on the ballot was sought 
 by opponents of the League. The case was quickly 
 taken to the supreme court and there the former 
 decision was reversed by what might be called a 
 "strict party vote," the three justices elected on 
 League indorsement holding that the legislature 
 had no power to block the operation of a consti- 
 tutional amendment in which the people of the 
 state had reserved to themselves a certain right 
 in legislation. 
 
 This was no small triumph for the League. It 
 meant the possibility of enactment of the complete 
 program at the ensuing session, instead of a wait 
 of further years. The hope of the opposition all 
 
280 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 along had been to wear down the force of the 
 farmers' purpose by long delay. 
 
 With this decision on record the opponents of 
 the League set to work with greater energy than 
 ever before shown in any of their campaigns to 
 prevent the passage of these amendments. A 
 man formerly connected with farmers' organiza- 
 tions who had recently turned to opposition to the 
 League was employed as secretary of a campaign 
 committee operating under the name of "Inde- 
 pendent Voters' Association." This organiza- 
 tion obtained large campaign funds and carried 
 on an extensive campaign of circularizing and the 
 use of newspaper advertising space. 
 
 The attack centered about the debt-limit fea- 
 tures of the amendments and the effort was made 
 to show that the passage of the amendments 
 meant a greatly increased burden of taxation and 
 debt. It was asserted that the amendments as 
 proposed actually would remove all limits to the 
 amount of indebtedness which the legislature and 
 administrative officers could fasten upon the state. 
 This assertion was true only in so far as first- 
 mortgage real estate loans were concerned. The 
 intent of this amendment was to permit the re- 
 funding by bond issues of first-mortgage loans to 
 farmers. Loans of this sort were already being 
 made from school funds in the state treasury, but 
 the state had no power to negotiate the mortgages. 
 It coijld only hold them in its vaults and no more 
 could be lent to farmers than the amount of cash 
 
LEAGUE DEMOCRACY AT WORK 281 
 
 in these funds, derived from the sale of school 
 lands, and, by constitutional provision, a perpet- 
 ual school endowment fund. With the passage of 
 the proposed amendment the amount available in 
 this fund would become circulating capital and 
 would permit direct first-mortgage loans to 
 farmers in as great an amount as farm loan bonds, 
 issued and guaranteed by the state, could be mar- 
 keted. 
 
 It was natural that this provision should meet 
 the intense opposition of aU those profiting from 
 the handling of farm loans, including bankers a^d 
 mortgage brokers. 
 
 There was also some argument against the pro- 
 visions which made it much easier to amend the 
 constitution and not a little newspaper space de- 
 voted to the "wisdom and foresight" of the mak- 
 ers of the constitution who had placed "safe- 
 guards" in the shape of difficulty of amendment 
 about it. 
 
 There was good reason for League leaders to 
 be apprehensive and the opposition to be hopeful. 
 It is far easier to carry a ticket and elect candi- 
 dates than to cause voters to vote favorably on 
 ten constitutional amendments affixed to the bal- 
 lot. Their passage requires not only a favorable 
 sentiment, but an unusual degree of public in- 
 terest, an unusual state of public enlightenment 
 or a campaign of unusual thoroughness ; perhaps 
 a combination of all three. Experience in many 
 states has shown that the fate of initiative or re- 
 
282 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 ferred proposals attached to a general election 
 ballot, especially when there are more than one or 
 two of them, is very uncertain and that the nega- 
 tive usually has the advantage, since, as a rule, no 
 man assents to anything he does not understand. 
 
 Thus when the election returns showed that 
 every one of the amendments proposed by the 
 League had a majority of all the votes cast for 
 and against it, the result was a greater triumph 
 than the re-election of Governor Frazier and 
 others on the League state ticket and the election 
 of a legislature in which the League had more than 
 a two-thirds majority in both chambers. 
 
 In the Republican primaries Frazier, the League 
 governor, defeated John Steen, the state treas- 
 urer and candidate of the anti-League forces, by 
 a larger majority than he had received two years 
 before. The same forces joined to support Doyle, 
 the Democratic candidate, in the fall election, but 
 Governor Frazier again increased his majority. 
 The League lost one state office in the fall and 
 gained one. It elected a state treasurer, but Neil 
 Macdonald, superintendent of public instruction, 
 indorsed by the League, was defeated by Miss 
 Minnie Neilsen, of Valley City, who had been su- 
 perintendent of the Barnes county schools. The 
 election of Miss Neilsen was due to the support 
 of the anti-League forces and of women's or- 
 ganizations in which she had been active, women 
 having the vote for that office. 
 
 The result of the elections in North Dakota indi- 
 
LEAGUE DEMOCRACY AT WORK 283 
 
 cated that while the League had been meeting with 
 difficulties and had been making progress in out- 
 side states it had lost no strength in North Da- 
 kota. Its opponents there, however, believed that 
 the close vote on several of the constitutional 
 amendments showed that when specific measures 
 of law were presented for approval of the people, 
 they might be able to muster votes to defeat them. 
 They were encouraged to continue to battle, being 
 armed with the new weapon put into their hands 
 by the League in the shape of the liberal referen- 
 dum provision now made a part of the constitu- 
 tion. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 « THE NEW DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA " 
 
 The legislature of 1919 met in Bismarck to make 
 of North Dakota a veritable Utopia or to wreak 
 dire ruin on the state. 
 
 1^ These were prophecies. The accomplishment is 
 perhaps neither. If Utopia is not yet completely 
 perfect, it is certainly true that ruin has not ar- 
 rived. Business goes on in the state as usual. 
 Those whose prophecies were most dire have not 
 yet moved out. Farm lands and business property 
 are still worth as much as before the League came 
 into being. Indeed, the normal increases in value 
 have taken place. 
 
 The League legislature met in Bismarck in 
 January with the full obligation of being true to 
 its pledges and enacting the League program into 
 law. They interpreted the pledge as binding upon 
 them at least to make a fair start. Few will criti- 
 cize them for not having performed enough. 
 
 It is probable that in no state in the Union has 
 any such large and novel body of epochal legis- 
 lation been passed at any one session. It is worth 
 noting, also, that the legislative session of 1919 
 was the shortest regular session in the state's 
 history and one of the least expensive. The 
 
 284 
 
" THE NEW DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA " 285 
 
 farmer legislature knew what it was going to do 
 or, at least, knew how to find out. It completed 
 its job of enacting into law more than a dozen 
 revolutionary measures and adjourned two days 
 before the expiration of the statutory sixty-day 
 limit of the session, whereas turning back the clock 
 in past years has been a fixed custom. 
 
 But before it enacted these measures into law it 
 formally ratified, as required by the old constitu- 
 tion, the ten constitutional amendments passed at 
 the general election of the preceding fall. 
 
 The principal bills which became law and 
 which form a measure of the extent of the "men- 
 ace to American principles of government" (quot- 
 ing from enemies of the League) inherent in the 
 League plan and program are, briefly, as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 1. Creating an "Industrial Commission," to be 
 composed of the governor, the secretary of agri- 
 culture and the attorney general ; this commission 
 to have control of state-owned financial and com- 
 mercial industries. 
 
 2. Providing for the operation by the Industrial 
 Commission through a "mill and elevator associa- 
 tion" of state-owned g.ain warehouses and ele- 
 vators and state-owner" flour mills, and providing 
 a state bond issue of $5,000,000 as working capital 
 for this purpose. 
 
 3. Creating the Bank of North Dakota, provided 
 with an initial capital of $2,000,000, to be supplied 
 by a state bond issue, this bank to be the sole de- 
 
286 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 pository of public funds and to act as a rediscount 
 and reserve bank for all state banks desiring to 
 become member banks. (The Bank of North Da- 
 kota is placed under the control of the Industrial 
 Commission.) 
 
 4. Creating the Home Building Association of 
 North Dakota, also an activity of the Industrial 
 Commission, operating through a building asso- 
 ciation manager. This bureau of the state gov- 
 ernment receives deposits for home buying and 
 building purposes and lends funds for the same 
 on low interest rates and the amortization schema 
 of payments. 
 
 5. Levying a graduated tax upon incomes, to be 
 based upon the data in the possession of the fed- 
 eral government, which by law is made available 
 to the states. This tax distinguishes between 
 "earned" and "unearned" incomes — that is, in- 
 comes from personal effort and incomes from in- 
 vested capital, — taxing the latter more heavily 
 than the former. 
 
 6. Creating a hail insurance fund, providing for 
 an acreage tax on all tillable land in the state and 
 further assessments on all land, owners of which 
 desire the benefit of hail insurance thereon. 
 
 7. Exempting all farm improvements from tax- 
 ation and granting in towns exemption of homes 
 to the value of $1,000, furniture in the sum of $300 
 and additional personal property to the value of 
 $300. 
 
 8. Classifying for taxation purposes all land, 
 
« THE NEW DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA " 287 
 
 exclusive of improvements, at 100 per cent, of true 
 value, tangible property of public utilities, bank 
 stock and other income-producing properties at 
 100 per cent., and livestock, merchandise and other 
 personal property, including farm equipment, at 
 50 per cent, of true value. 
 
 9. Creating a workmen's compensation commis- 
 sion and providing assessments against all em- 
 ployers to provide sickness and accident compen- 
 sation for all workers. 
 
 10. Regulating the hours and conditions of 
 labor of employed women. (A women's eight- 
 hour law.) 
 
 11. Providing mine inspection and regulating 
 conditions of work in mines. 
 
 12. Levying a half -mill tax to provide a fund 
 for the buying of homes for returned soldiers or 
 assisting in their education, each returned soldier 
 being permitted to draw $25 for every month spent 
 in the national service. 
 
 13. Establishing a single "official newspaper" 
 in each county, this newspaper to be the recipient 
 of all legal and public printing, the newspapers to 
 be selected in each county biennially by popular 
 vote, but until the first general election to be 
 selected by the state printing commission. 
 
 14. Putting into effect in North Dakota the Min- 
 nesota scheme of distance tariffs on railroads, a 
 bill designed to remove discrimination against 
 North Dakota in railway freight rates. 
 
 This great bulk of legislation was all the prod- 
 
288 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 uct of the League legislative caucus, sessions of 
 which were held daily while the legislature was in 
 action. It would not fairly represent the facts 
 to say that the bills originally were evolved in 
 the caucus. Any observer of the system of legis- 
 lation in any of the states notes that its prime 
 weakness everywhere is failure to provide for the 
 drafting of legislation by experts and the shaping 
 of laws to meet the needs of the state or the de- 
 sires of the people in advance of the legislative 
 session. 
 
 The League set about its lawmaking in a busi- 
 nesslike way. There being no drafting clerk or 
 law-making consultant and the administrative au- 
 thorities having no authority to frame concrete 
 legislation for proposal to the legislature, as is 
 the case in Canadian provinces, the League under- 
 took to supply the defect. Skeleton legislation 
 on all the subjects embraced in the League pro- 
 gram was framed by attorneys and others in the 
 employ of national headquarters of the League, 
 these men acting in precisely the same capacity 
 as the government's legislative experts in some 
 of fhe Canadian provinces. The men thus em- 
 ployed included W. G. Eoylance, a former college 
 professor who for some months had been in the 
 employ of the League, and William Lemke and 
 V. A. Day of the League's legal staff. 
 
 These men, President Townley himself and 
 Walter Thomas Mills of California, who had been 
 lecturing and speaking for the League, constantly 
 
" THE NEW DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA " 289 
 
 conferred with the members of the caucus in the 
 shaping of the legislation. 
 
 It was the charge of the opponents of the 
 League that the League's "carpet-baggers and 
 so-called experts" actually framed all the bills 
 and forced, the legislators to accept them. This is 
 quite far from the truth. There was genuine con- 
 sideration of an the bills submitted and all of them 
 were changed in important features as a result of 
 the views developed in the caucus sessions. 
 
 Several features of the legislation as perfected 
 and passed were calculated to arouse great inter- 
 est and comment even on the part of those who had 
 followed the operations and proposals of the 
 League very caref uUy. 
 
 The first of these novel and interesting features 
 was the development, out of the "rural credits at 
 cost" plank in the League's platform, of the plan 
 of a state baiik, similar in its character and func- 
 tions to the federal reserve district banks and 
 occupying a relation to its state member banks 
 similar to that occupied by the federal reserve 
 banks toward their member banks. 
 
 With the plan of refunding the school fund 
 mortgage loans by means of state bonds this func- 
 tion of the state government promised to take on 
 great importance and it became necessary to pro- 
 vide a new administrative branch to care for it. 
 In view of the success of the federal reserve 
 system the League's advisers saw no reason why 
 the state could not erect a reserve and rediscount 
 
290 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 bank on a similar plan which, would answer the 
 need of "keeping the money in the state," so long 
 a slogan of the campaign carried on by local mer- 
 chants against mail-order buying. It was an un- 
 disputed fact that the big banks of the Minnesota 
 cities and even of Chicago acted in the capacity of 
 reserve and rediscount banks for North Dakota, 
 and profited accordingly. 
 Says a booklet published by the League : 
 
 "On August 31, 1918, the North Dakota banks had 
 reserve fund deposits with other banks amounting to 
 $9,342,413.93. Of these deposits in banks outside of the 
 state there were $6,463,057.48, but with other banks in- 
 side the state only $2,879,086.45. On the same date, 
 when North Dakota banks were more in need of money 
 than at any other time in recent years, they had bor- 
 rowed from banks outside the state $7,378,474, or only 
 $915,416.52 more than they had at the same time on 
 deposit out of their own resources. The Bank of North 
 Dakota ought all the time to have at least $5,000,000 of 
 the bank reserves of other North Dakota banks." 
 
 In sunmaing up the benefits of the state bank, 
 the League's pamphlet says : 
 
 "From the foregoing it may be said that the Bank of 
 North Dakota will save the people of North Dakota say 
 $10,000,000 a year of interest payments on farm mort- 
 gages. It will save about $4,000,000 on interest rates 
 on the personal loans of merchants and others. It will 
 save great sums in the services it will render for the local 
 banks. It will make available for use in North Dakota 
 
« THE NEW DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA » 291 
 
 all the public funds from the date of their collection in 
 taxes to the hour of their final expenditure for the public 
 purposes for which they are collected. It will provide 
 funds for home building at the lowest possible interest 
 rate. It is not an unreasonable estimate that in interest 
 rates and in increased funds available for business within 
 the state it will be worth $20,000,000 a year to the people 
 of North Dakota." 
 
 The other most noteworthy feature of the new 
 North Dakota enactments is the Home Building 
 Association law. One of the arguments used 
 against the League in connection with the charge 
 of Socialism was that Socialists believed in the 
 appropriation of all the land and that when the 
 League's program was in full flower means would 
 be found practically to abolish private ownership 
 in land and make all farmers tenants of the state. 
 On the contrary, one of the first acts of the League 
 on coming into power was the passage of legisla- 
 tion making it easier for farmers to acquire land, 
 enabling renters and farm hands to become owners 
 on small capital and providing mortgage loans on 
 a simpler and easier plan than any in effect at the 
 time. 
 
 Little serious fault could be found with a pro- 
 posal that was intended to make it possible for 
 city dwellers also to acquire their homes on long 
 time and easy payments, without any profits 
 accruing to real estate agents or building com- 
 panies. 
 
 The home building law gives the state depart- 
 
292 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 ment -wide authority to purchase land in large 
 blocks, whether in city limits or outside of them, 
 and to make all necessary subdivisions and im- 
 provements. 
 
 The credit plan is co-operative. It requires the 
 formation of local groups or buyers' clubs, in each 
 of which the members guarantee the credit of all 
 others of their group to the extent of 15 per cent, 
 of their own purchases. Deposits are required of 
 20 per cent, of the amount it is desired to with- 
 draw before withdrawal for home buying or build- 
 ing purposes is permitted. The state thus gives 
 credit equal to four-fifths the entire investment 
 and limits are set of $5,000 investment in town 
 property and $10,000 for a farm. It thus becomes 
 a working people's and farmers' co-operative 
 home buying plan operated under the protec- 
 tion and with the assistance of the state govern- 
 ment. 
 
 It has been declared frankly that the policy of 
 the state administration will be to buy acreage 
 property for these city groups of buyers and for 
 the Home Building Association to plat it and put 
 in the necessary improvements and in every way 
 possible to avoid yielding profits to real estate 
 speculators or building companies. Under the 
 law the state may itself build the houses to be 
 sold. 
 
 The criticism has been made that this plan 
 offers nothing more than has been offered by 
 building and loan companies or associations under 
 
" THE NEW DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA " 293 
 
 private ownership and direction. Experience 
 alone can make full and complete answer to that 
 criticism. 
 
 The workmen's compensation act, the women's 
 eight-honr law and the mine inspection law are 
 tokens of the friendship of the farmers for organ- 
 ized labor and city working people in general. 
 The membership of trades and labor unions in 
 North Dakota is insignificant. The state is almost 
 wholly agricultural. There were two union labor 
 members of the legislature. One of them, a union 
 printer of Minot, opposed the League program 
 throughout, but his course was denounced by the 
 State Federation and by local trades and labor 
 assemblies. The president of the State Federation 
 of Labor, affiliated with the American Federation 
 of Labor, has been warmly friendly to the League 
 and has spoken in behalf of the League in labor 
 gatherings in the state and in other states. Other 
 leading officers of organized labor in North 
 Dakota are similarly friendly to the League. The 
 second union member of the legislature was a lig- 
 nite coal miner. He sat continuously in the 
 League caucus, voted with the League members 
 and was largely responsible for the mine inspecf- 
 tion bill passed. 
 
 The more important of the League bills were 
 passed with the "emergency clause" attached. 
 Under this clause, as revised by the League 
 amendments to the constitution, the bills became 
 law immediately but their defeat in a referendum 
 
294 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 election would act as a repeal. In the case of 
 emergency measures it required 30,000 signatures 
 to cause a special election to be called, though. 
 7,000 signatures were sufficient to refer any meas- 
 ure to the next ensuing election, whether general 
 or special. 
 
 Governor Frazier, however, made a public state- 
 ment announcing that, as lay within his power, 
 he would call a special referendum election on all 
 the League measures if half the required number 
 of voters signed petitions calling for such election. 
 Petitions were turned in, through the activity of 
 the Independent Voters' Association, said to con- 
 tain more than the required 30,000 signatures. A 
 large number of canvassers had been employed on 
 salary and at a price per name to obtain these 
 signatures. Many of these canvassers were re- 
 turned soldiers lacking employment and it was 
 charged by the League publications that highly 
 irregular methods were employed to procure these 
 signatures and that many of them would not stand 
 inspection. 
 
 Together with these referendum petitions, which 
 specified a day when the special election should 
 be held, petitions for initiative measures alterna- 
 tive to the laws passed by the legislature were 
 circulated. It was evidently part of the object of 
 the opposition to present a confusing array of 
 measures on one ballot, which would mislead many 
 League voters. Governor Frazier checkmated 
 this move by calling the special referendum elec- 
 
" THE NEW DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA " 295 
 
 tion at a date too early to permit the initia- 
 tive measures to qualify for a place on the 
 ballot. 
 
 The legal point had not been foreseen by the 
 opposition, but they found the governor's position 
 flawless andjwere unable to contest the point. The 
 special election, held June 26, resulted in victory 
 for every one of the League measures by majori- 
 ties ranging from 6,914 in the ease of the printing 
 commission bill to 13,256 in the case of the Bank 
 of North Dakota bill. 
 
 An event of some interest in North Dakota 
 which occurred between the legislative session and 
 the special election was the defection of the attor- 
 ney general, William Langer, and the state audi- 
 tor, Carl E. Kositzky. Both were office-holders 
 who before their indorsement by the League, had 
 been candidates for the positions to which they 
 were elected. Langer issued an interview oppos- 
 ing certain of the League measures and it was 
 declared by President Townley that for some time 
 he had been working secretly in opposition to the 
 policy of the League legislative caucus. In a 
 public statement Townley denounced Langer, op- 
 position journals began quoting him and the 
 League publications printed a story of a secret 
 meeting he had held with the manager of the 
 Independent Voters Association publicity bureau. 
 
 Langer, who had been made a member of the 
 highly important and powerful Industrial Com- 
 mission of three members, placed himself in op- 
 
296 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 position to the Governor and Secretary of Agri- 
 culture Hagan from the start, and the commission 
 soon after its organization employed another law- 
 yer as special counsel. 
 
 The rehellion of these members of the state ad- 
 ministration was widely advertised as a sign of 
 the breaking up of the League in North Dakota, 
 but neither official had ever been prominent in the 
 League itself and they were not able to take with 
 them any considerable support from among the 
 League members themselves. Indeed, the defec- 
 tion of these officers, together with the brass band 
 tactics of the so-called voters' association, served 
 to awaken the interest among the farmers neces- 
 sary to secure the success of the League laws in 
 the referendum election. 
 
 The main argument used against the League 
 measures and the record of the League legislature 
 was the charge that taxes would be very greatly 
 increased. It was said by opposition newspapers 
 that they would be two or three times greater be- 
 cause of the acts passed by the Nonpartisan 
 League legislature. The League publications ad- 
 mitted that taxes would necessarily be higher for 
 state purposes because of the increases in appro- 
 priations made for educational institutions, these 
 being the largest in the state's history, for re- 
 turned soldiers' bonuses and for interest on the 
 amount of bonds actually to be issued within the 
 year for the new state industries. The League 
 papers, however, accused the opposition of mak- 
 
" THE NEW DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA " 297 
 
 ing estimates of tax increases far in excess of 
 probability. 
 
 The levy and assessments announced Septem- 
 ber 23 and later by the State Board of Equaliza- 
 tion and the State Tax Commissioner, did, in 
 fact, show material increases in the tax for state 
 purposes. The levy was of 2.48 mills for state 
 purposes, contrasting with a previous annual levy 
 of 4 mills, theretofore the legal limit. This was 
 offset by the increases in the valuations. Figures 
 compiled by the Tax Commissioner showed that 
 the total of the tax to be raised for state purposes 
 exceeded by 120 per cent, the amount levied for 
 the preceding year, exclusive of the half -mill levy 
 for soldiers' bonuses. This state levy was ap- 
 proximately 15 per cent, of the whole amount to 
 be raised for public purposes by taxation. 
 
 The increase, however, was reduced by an act 
 of the special session of the legislature early in 
 December, which ordered a rebate of 25 per cent, 
 of the general state taxes because of discovery 
 that budget allowances exceeded requirements. 
 
 Of the whole state levy, only 5.96 per cent, 
 was for the use of state industries launched 
 by the League and this was made up mainly of 
 advances, which later were to be returned. 
 
 The substantial increases in the tax were 
 caused by liberal budgets for the state institu- 
 tions, largely for carrying on a building program 
 interrupted by the war. The amounts levied for 
 the educational institutions of the state alone 
 
298 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 were 40.5 per cent, of the total state levy, more 
 than half of which was for new buildings, and the 
 other state institutions (penal, charitable and re- 
 form) were to receive 22.35 per cent, of the total 
 state levy. 
 
 Defenders of the League took comfort from the 
 fact that neighboring states showed similar in- 
 creases in taxes without the adoption of "radi- 
 cal" programs and without such liberal provisions 
 for aid to returned soldiers. 
 
 The special referendum election put the final 
 stamp and seal of approval of the majority of 
 voters of North Dakota on the League program, 
 not only as originally promulgated, but as enacted 
 into statute law. It put the approval of the people 
 of the state upon a plan embracing certain in- 
 creases in taxation and benefits later to be proved. 
 It was not the least of the League's triumphs in 
 that state that it was able to rally a majority of 
 votes behind concrete measures designed to 
 remedy the abuses from which the farmers be- 
 lieved themselves to be suffering. 
 
 It is a well-known experience in politics to 
 rally a great force behind a movement of pro- 
 test, only to find the popular backing dwindling 
 away when protest gives way to the obligation of 
 constructive effort. It is much easier to get a 
 majority to disapprove the way affairs are han- 
 dled than to get a majority to approve a new way 
 of handling them. The League in North Dakota 
 was able to make the transition from destructive 
 
" THE NEW DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA » 299 
 
 criticism to constructive effort without loss of 
 support. "Whether the patience of the North 
 Dakota farmers will be sufficient for the period of 
 waiting and fair trial of the new state enterprises 
 and whether or no these enterprises will commend 
 themselves to others of the population as sound 
 and wise ventures remain to be seen. 
 
 Of the group of state enterprises the state bank, 
 last conceived, springing up incidentally to the 
 development of the plan of rural credits, is now 
 first in rank. It was the first to get into active 
 operation and, strangely enough, it commends it- 
 self to a wider group of the population than any 
 of the other ventures. 
 
 The bank was placed nominally under the man- 
 agement of J. R. Waters, former state examiner, 
 but the control of its affairs has been directly in 
 the hands of F. W. Cathro, who holds the title of 
 director general. Mr. Cathro is a pioneer banker 
 of North Dakota, one of the few who has consis- 
 tently supported the League in spite of the 
 charges of Socialism and the extent of its Social- 
 istic trend. Cathro is a former president of the 
 State Bankers' Association and a man personally 
 respected and popular among them. It was due 
 almost solely to his influence that the State Bank- 
 ers' Association, nearly ten years before the com- 
 ing of the League, declared in formal resolutions 
 that if conditions in the wheat market were not 
 remedied the farmers should build their own ter- 
 minal elevators. 
 
300 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 Shortly after the organization of the Industrial 
 Commission, with great energy Cathro took con- 
 trol of the project of organizing the Bank of North 
 Dakota. At an early stage he disarmed criticism 
 by calling on the principal bankers of the state 
 and seeking their advice and their help in the 
 work. He arranged with many banks that they 
 should take the capital stock bonds of the bank 
 at par or better and thus planned without a pub- 
 lic sale to provide the initial capital necessary to 
 get the bank into operation. 
 
 The deposit of aU public funds to the credit of 
 the Bank of North Dakota and the desire of state 
 banks to become member banks in order to parti- 
 cipate in the redeposit of these funds at once gave 
 to the new state institution a large volume of im- 
 portant transactions, aside from the sale of the 
 bonds of state industries, of which the new public 
 bank was made agent. 
 
 A building in Bismarck was rented, a staff of 
 bank clerks assembled and the state bank became, 
 almost overnight, the most important financial 
 institution in the state, having a heavy volume 
 of daily transactions. It is, of course, premature 
 to express an opinion on the probability of suc- 
 cess or the degree of success of the institution, 
 but it has been a matter for self-congratulation 
 to members of the state administration that there 
 is probably less hostility to the bank than to any 
 other of the innovations of the farmers' program, 
 and many bankers have openly given their ap- 
 
" THE NEW DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA " 301 
 
 proval to the venture, while others accept it with 
 good grace and have little to say against it. 
 
 Not so great progress, but nevertheless impor- 
 tant activity has been shown in other ventures. 
 Local buying leagues of the Home Building As- 
 sociation have been formed, the workmen's com- 
 pensation law is in process of administration, the 
 women's eight-hour law is being enforced, and 
 first steps toward the building up of the string of 
 state-owned industries authorized by the constitu- 
 tional amendments and the law have been taken. 
 
 The Industrial Commission appointed as man- 
 ager of the mill and elevator division James A. 
 McGovem, the veteran elevator man and wheat 
 grader who had been Dr. Ladd's chief deputy in 
 the administration of the grain grading law, which 
 had been found to be a great boon to the farmers. 
 
 One of the first steps of this division was to pur- 
 chase a small interior mill at Drake, in the north- 
 ern central part of the state, the purpose of this 
 purchase being largely experimental. The 1919 
 wheat crop, like that of 1916, ran strongly to 
 light, shriveled grain, grading low on the market, 
 and it is the purpose of the state administration 
 to demonstrate the value of this kind of wheat for 
 milling purposes. 
 
 The Industrial Commission made public a state- 
 ment that communities wishing the location of 
 the larger terminal elevators and mills could af- 
 fect the decision by buying liberally of the mill 
 and elevator bonds, principal and interest of which 
 
302 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 are guaranteed by the state. The Courier-News 
 and the Grcmd Forks American, both recognized 
 as League papers, thereupon began campaigns to 
 awaken interest in their respective communities 
 in favor of locating the mills there. Both are im- 
 portant railroad junction points and are the two 
 largest towns in the state, but Fargo has the 
 advantage in respect both to railroad lines' and 
 population. Commercial clubs of both cities and 
 influential men who have opposed the League 
 have become interested in endeavoring to cause 
 the industries to be located in their communities. 
 In November, 1919, the selection of Grand 
 Forks as the site of the first large state-owned 
 mill and elevator was announced, together with 
 details of the plans for the construction of a 
 three-unit mill of the most modern details, having 
 a daily grinding capacity of 3,000 barrels of flour. 
 The selection of Grand Forks was admitted to be 
 due in part to the apathy shown by Fargo busi- 
 ness men, while Grand Forks men agreed to do- 
 nate a site and to purchase a million dollars* 
 worth of the mill and elevator state bonds. There 
 was a certain degree of satisfaction among mem- 
 bers of the farmers' administration at these signs 
 of co-operation from a community of which one of 
 the leaders had been the publisher of the news- 
 paper most active in its antagonism toward the 
 League. 
 
CHAPTER XXn 
 
 ANOTHER CRISIS PASSED 
 
 The League was not to be permitted peaceful 
 development of its administrative plans in North 
 Dakota. Another of the storm clouds of its tem- 
 pestuous career was developing in the summer 
 of 1919 and soon broke. 
 
 The trouble came from the office-holders at 
 Bismarck whose defection has been mentioned 
 hitherto and its point of attack was the financial 
 structure which enabled the League to carry out 
 its campaigns of education and propaganda. 
 
 Thp income of the League itself comes from 
 paid memberships at $16 each for a two-year 
 period, but a large percentage of the payments 
 have been in the form of post-dated checks, and 
 the League has lived and operated so closely up 
 to its income that the hypothecation of these 
 checks in large amounts was early conceived to be 
 a necessity and has been practised continuously. 
 One of the early devices to further this plan was 
 the creation of the League Exchange, but its capi- 
 tal stock was subscribed largely in notes, and 
 these were but another form of security which 
 had to be negotiated in place of the post-dated 
 checks. 
 
 303 
 
304. THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 The Consumers' Stores Company, whose store 
 capital also took the form largely of notes given 
 for "buyers' certificates," later translated into 
 shares of stock, became also a heavy borrower. 
 To meet this situation individuals having close 
 relations with the League obtained control of a 
 number of banks in North Dakota and other banks 
 were formed, farmer members of the League be- 
 ing subscribers to their capital stock. 
 
 The most important of the banks with which the 
 League thus acquired a connection was the 
 Scandinavian- American at Fargo and this institu- 
 tion occupied somewhat the position of a parent 
 bank to a number of others later acquired or pro- 
 moted. 
 
 John J. Hastings, formerly financial agent of 
 the League, became the vice-president of the 
 Scandinavian- American and an officer in a number 
 of others. Hastings was active in the promotion 
 and acquirement of banks intended to furnish 
 banking facilities for farmers who found their 
 own bankers taking a hostile attitude toward them 
 because of their connection with the League and, 
 incidentally, to furnish channels for negotiating 
 the farmers' paper held by the League enter- 
 prises. 
 
 Prior to the legislative session of 1919 Hastings 
 and one of his associates had been accused by 
 Attorney General Langer, as a member of the 
 state banking board, of attempting in the consoli- 
 dation of two existing banks at Valley City to 
 
ANOTHER CRISIS PASSED 305 
 
 make profit for themselves by a secret contract 
 through which they were to buy the assets of 
 one of the banks and turn them over to the con- 
 solidated bank at an enhanced price. 
 
 Langer was not at the time openly hostile to 
 the League organization, but it was thought by 
 some connected with the League that he employed 
 an unnecessary amount of publicity in the affair 
 and gave an unnecessary amount of comfort to 
 the opposition. 
 
 The outcome of the affair was that Hastings 
 retired from connection with the so-called 
 "League" banks, and later, when he was attempt- 
 ing the formation of a "banking syndicate" with 
 ambitious plans, his activity caused President 
 Townley to give out an interview warning League 
 farmers that Hastings no longer had any rela- 
 tions with any of the League enterprises. 
 
 The so-called League banks were carrying a 
 large amount of paper of enterprises connected 
 with the League, consisting of post-dated checks 
 payable to the League, notes for Consumers' 
 Stores Company shares, and notes given for the 
 purchase of stock in weekly newspapers promoted 
 by the Publishers' National Service Bureau, a 
 League auxiliary. 
 
 This paper was not confined, however, to 
 League banks. Bankers in many towns in North 
 Dakota had acquired experience in the handling 
 of the membership post-dated checks. They were 
 accompanied generally by personal notes of 
 
306 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 farmers as principal security and the post-dated 
 checks were furnished as collateral, usually in the 
 ratio of two for one. The League regularly had 
 met its loans thus secured and experience had 
 shown that the checks themselves paid out in the 
 ratio of approximately 85 per cent. Bankers who 
 had handled this paper had found it a profitable 
 business. The notes given for stock generally 
 were held by bankers to be a bankable security. 
 
 October, 1919, found the Scandinavian- Ameri- 
 can bank at Fargo holding loans amounting to 
 $143,148.55 listed as to various individuals upon 
 their notes, but secured by League membership 
 post-dated checks, the face value of these checks 
 thus held as collateral being $270,000; loans 
 amounting to $170,000 which were secured by 
 Consumers' Stores Company paper and loans on 
 Publishers' Service Bureau notes of nearly 
 $50,000. 
 
 This was the situation when Attorney General 
 Langer sprang a coup that caused it to be heralded 
 throughout the nation that the League's final 
 downfall was near at hand, and in fact created a 
 serious crisis in the affairs of the organization. 
 Langer and Secretary of State Thomas Hall were 
 ^ majority on the State Banking Board, the gov- 
 ernor being the other member. At a regular meet- 
 ing of the board it was arranged to send Bank 
 Examiner 0. E. Lofthus to Florida to investigate 
 the affairs of a corporation seeking the privilege 
 of selling stock in the state. At the same time, on 
 
ANOTHER CRISIS PASSED 307 
 
 a showing that a stockholder in a trust company 
 at Fargo was complaining at the acts of the ma- 
 jority stockholders, the attorney general was 
 authorized to send an assistant to accompany a 
 deputy bank examiner to Fargo to investigate. 
 Langer drew the resolution, which gave the two 
 state employees wide latitude to investigate the af- 
 fairs of other institutions, "if deemed advisable." 
 This was done without exciting the suspicion of 
 the governor that the real object of the errand 
 was not what appeared on the surface. 
 
 The two deputies went at once to the Scandi- 
 navian-American, made a hasty and apparently 
 perfunctory examination and submitted a report. 
 This report declared the Scandinavian- American 
 bank to be insolvent, classed the League securities 
 as "worthless, ' ' and asked that the bank be closed. 
 Immediate action was taken by the banking board, 
 ordering the bank closed, although Governor 
 Frazier voted "No," demanding time for consid- 
 eration and further examination and asking that 
 the state examiner's advice be sought before such 
 action was taken. 
 
 The deputies at Fargo, however, at once took 
 possession of the bank in the name of the State 
 Banking Board, posted a notice of the bank's clos- 
 ing and began action for a receivership. It was 
 charged by officers of the Scandinavian- American 
 that other bankers and other individuals in Fargo 
 and elsewhere had been apprised of the decision 
 to close the bank before the bank's own officers 
 
308 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 knew of it and, indeed, before the state board had 
 acted. There was, they said, something approach- 
 ing a run on the day of closing prior to the closing 
 order. Other banks demanded and received set- 
 tlements from the Scandinavian- American in cash 
 that day, though the customary method of clear- 
 ing was by check. 
 
 Attorneys representing the bank took the 
 matter direct to the supreme court and obtained 
 an order divesting the Banking Board of control 
 over the bank and appointing the state examiner, 
 0, E. Lofthus, as temporary receiver, Lofthus 
 at once began a re-examination of the bank to de- 
 termine its status and submitted a report contra- 
 dicting in essential details the report of his deputy 
 and the attorney general's deputy. Directors of 
 the bank had been active since its closing and 
 many of the loans marked "bad" and "worth- 
 less" by the deputies had been paid in full. In 
 other cases it was shown that the deputy exam- 
 iner had listed the full original amount of certain 
 loans where in fact there had been substantial 
 payments made and indorsed on the notes. 
 
 One of the counts against the bank had been the 
 making of excessive loans. The bank, under the 
 law, was barred from lending more than $9,000 
 to any one individual or firm, a limitation based 
 on the amount of capital and reserve. In the 
 case of the loans whose product admittedly had 
 been enjoyed by the League and the Stores Com- 
 pany, the loans were shown on the books to have 
 
ANOTHER CRISIS PASSED 309 
 
 been made in amounts not exceeding $9,000 to indi- 
 viduals whose notes were held. This had been con- 
 sidered by the bank's officials as compliance with 
 the law. Lofthus recommended that the bank be 
 permitted to reopen, and in fact it was reopened. 
 
 The League organization was not idle. A mass 
 meeting of farmers was called and was held in 
 Fargo on October 21. More than 5,000 farmers 
 came to Fargo for the meeting. The Fargo audi- 
 torium was filled at afternoon and evening meet- 
 ings with not fewer than 3,000 persons and there 
 were overflow meetings in the street outside 
 almost as large. 
 
 The speakers charged that the attack on the 
 bank was purely political, that the institution was 
 sound, asked the farmers what they thought of the 
 attorney general's assertion that farmers' checks 
 were "worthless" and urged deposits in the bank 
 and subscriptions to increase its capital stock. 
 
 That evening witnessed the unusual spectacle of 
 hundreds of persons crowding into the doors of 
 an institution officially pronounced "insolvent" 
 to leave with the Bank Examiner funds to be 
 placed on deposit when the bank should open. 
 The bank was reopened within a month of its clos- 
 ing, and this particular crisis in the League's af- 
 fairs was past. 
 
 Governor Frazier called the state legislature 
 into extraordinary session on November 25, 1919. 
 He asked that the State Eailroad Commission be 
 given powers as a trade commission, to co-operate 
 
310 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 with the Federal Trade Commission and to inves- 
 tigate and punish "profiteering"; that the money 
 and credit tax act be repealled; that the federal 
 woman suffrage amendment be ratified; that 
 further provisions be made for seed and feed 
 loans to drouth-stricken farmers; that the ofl&ce 
 of state sheriff be created ; that a resolution should 
 be passed memorializing the United States su- 
 preme court to advance on its calendar the case 
 involving the validity of bonds of the State of 
 North Dakota for state industries. This case had 
 been appealed after a decision favorable to the 
 bonds in the federal district court. 
 
 The session took action to restrict the powers 
 and the duties of the attorney general and the 
 secretary of the state, two of the oflScials who had 
 turned against the League. The measures failed 
 to receive the two-thirds vote needed to make them 
 effective immediately. 
 
 The suffrage amendment was promptly ratified 
 by the special session. At previous sessions the 
 League members had shown their friendship for 
 voting by women. 
 
 Governor Frazier came into some prominence 
 nationally by his handling of the coal strike situa- 
 tion. There are large resources of lignite coal in 
 the state and the mining industry is of growing 
 importance. When the national coal strike was 
 ordered on November 1 Governor Frazier tele- 
 graphed to the district president of the miners' 
 union and caused him to countermand the strike 
 
ANOTHER CRISIS PASSED 311 
 
 order as it applied to North Dakota until a con- 
 ference with the operators could be held. The 
 miners remained at work while their officers met 
 Representatives of the North Dakota producers in 
 conference at the state executive's offices. The 
 conference resulted in a deadlock and Governor 
 Frazier thereupon issued a proclamation taking 
 over the mines in the name of the state. The 
 miners, while demanding a 60 per cent, increase 
 from the operators, agreed during the emergency 
 to work for the state at their former rate of pay 
 and a schedule of compensation to the operators, 
 based on testimony as to their former profits, was 
 put into effect. 
 
 The Governor declared "martial law" for the 
 purpose of carrying out his order. A moving pic- 
 ture company enterprisingly sent a camera man 
 to Bismarck to photograph the mobilization of 
 the troops. The photographer found that the 
 "troops" consisted of Adjutant General Angus 
 Fraser and one non-commissioned officer for each 
 mine, nine men in all. The mines were reopened 
 and operated without sign of disorder, but two of 
 the operators began proceedings in the courts to 
 recover their property and to restrain the state 
 from operating it. 
 
 The state in answering the suits asserted that 
 many towns in North Dakota, with winter already 
 upon the state, were entirely out of fuel and that 
 great suffering would result if the mines did not 
 continue to operate. By a decision in the state 
 
312 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 district court at Bismarck Governor Frazier was 
 ordered to relinquish possession of one mine. 
 Federal Judge Amidon at Fargo, however, held 
 in a similar case invoking the federal authority 
 that the Governor and the Adjutant General were 
 within their rights as conscientious public serv- 
 ants in view of the emergency existing. 
 
 North Dakota for weeks enjoyed the distinction 
 of being the only state whose mines were in opera- 
 tion during the nation-wide coal strike. 
 
 The farmers' administration in North Dakota, 
 brought into being by the League, thus continues 
 against unremitting opposition a struggle in good 
 faith to put into execution and to protect against 
 attacks a program of legislation and administra- 
 tion which was designed — ^whether wisely or not — 
 to serve the interests of all the people of the state. 
 It is being fought, no doubt, by many who do not 
 agree with its conclusions and do not deem it to be 
 a beneficial program nor the League to be a bene- 
 ficial movement. But unquestionably it is being 
 more energetically fought by those who have a 
 
CHAPTER XXni 
 
 ORGANIZATION CHANGES 
 
 While North Dakota thus again was the center of 
 interest during all of the year following the ter- 
 mination of the war noteworthy progress yet was 
 made in other states. In all of these states the 
 Leaguers have been laying a groundwork. The 
 tactics of the opposition cannot be said to have 
 been wise from their own point of view. 
 
 The League, it will be remembered, had a 
 nucleus of legislative representation in Idaho, in 
 South Dakota, in Nebraska and in Montana, and 
 a strong working group in Miimesota. In each 
 of these states representatives of the old parties 
 in the legislatures recognized in the League a com- 
 mon enemy. In none did they do more to meet 
 the challenge of the League than to reject its pro- 
 posals and to scorn the suggestion of themselves 
 moving to remedy the conditions complained of 
 by the farmers. 
 
 The result of each one of these legislative ses- 
 sions undoubtedly was to give impetus to the be- 
 lief among the farmers that only by a new political 
 alignment could they get real representation in 
 lawmaking. 
 
 In the Minnesota legislature the League 
 
 313 
 
314. THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 centered its fight on the effort to obtain the pas- 
 sage of a bill for a tonnage tax on iron ore. The 
 measure was rejected in the regular session. In 
 September, 1919, Governor Burnquist called a 
 special session for the purpose of obtaining 
 amendments to the direct primary law which 
 would prevent the League from seizing control of 
 the Republican primaries. The legislature failed 
 to enact such a law, but instead showed a remark- 
 able conversion of sentiment with respect to the 
 tonnage tax. It passed a bill containing the es- 
 sential provisions of a bill introduced through 
 League channels. Governor Burnquist vetoed the 
 bill. 
 
 Newspapers which had been supporting Gover- 
 nor Burnquist and opposing the League expressed 
 the opinion that by this act he had "turned the 
 state over to the Nonpartisan League." A polit- 
 ical party backed by organized labor and in fiffil- 
 iation with the League is in process of organiza- 
 tion in Minnesota. A daily newspaper having the 
 backing of organized labor and the League farm- 
 ers is being promoted and is soon to start publica- 
 tion in Minneapolis. Co-operative weekly news- 
 papers owned by farmers and favorable to the 
 League have been launched in nearly every county 
 in the state. It appears not at all improbable 
 that the League and organized labor will assert 
 control of the state politically. 
 
 Elsewhere in the nation, more especially per- 
 haps in the states east of the Mississippi, from 
 
ORGANIZATION CHANGES 315 
 
 niinois to New York, in which the League has not 
 attempted to operate, there has been an increas- 
 ing disposition among " liberal" political groups 
 to regard the rising farmers' political organiza- 
 tion as the possible instrument of the realization 
 of their hopes. Unmistakable friendship has 
 been shown by such large groups as the newly 
 formed National Labor party and the groups who 
 have associated themselves in the Committee of 
 Forty-eight. 
 
 Governor Frazier has been spoken of as pos- 
 sible material for the presidency, or at least as 
 an available candidate for an association of liberal 
 groups throughout the country. 
 
 Within the League important steps have been 
 taken which have received little outside notice. 
 They were not so much in the direction of change 
 as in substituting for permanent use more formal 
 machinery of government. 
 
 An annual meeting of delegates from all states 
 was held in St. Paul in December, 1918. At that 
 time formal "articles of association" were 
 adopted on behalf of the members of all the states. 
 These articles of association provide for a series 
 of League business meetings each two years in 
 each state, beginning with precinct meetings and 
 election of representatives to county or legisla- 
 tive precinct conventions, which elect members of 
 a state committee. These state committees elect 
 state executive committees, the chairmen of these 
 committees making up the national committee, 
 
316 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 which holds annual meetings or otherwise meets 
 at the call of the national executive committee. 
 This last committee, the final governing body of 
 the League, is chosen upon nomination by its own 
 members, whose choice must be ratified by the rep- 
 resentative national committee. 
 
 At the annual meeting in St. Paul in December, 
 1918, President Townley offered his resignation 
 and announced that he would act no longer as 
 head of the League except on an unquestionable 
 mandate from the entire membership. The result 
 was the submission of his re-election by the na- 
 tional committee to a referendum vote of all the 
 members. The result of the vote — conducted 
 through the columns of the League publications — 
 was announced to have been approximately ten to 
 one in his favor. 
 
 A year later, in December, 1919, the national 
 committee again met and adopted further plans 
 for a more comprehensive organization scheme, 
 changing vitally the general plan of local proce- 
 dure and giving the League much more of the 
 character of a locally autonomous organization. 
 The changes were made through the adoption of 
 by-laws, which fix upon county organizations in 
 each of the states a greater degree of power and 
 responsibility. They provide for a county com- 
 mittee consisting of elective delegates from each 
 voting precinct and this county committee is made 
 responsible for membership enrollments within 
 its jurisdiction. The county organization is to 
 
ORGANIZATION CHANGES 317 
 
 receive $7 of the biennial membership fee (which 
 is raised to $18) and is to employ a salaried 
 county organization manager, who works under 
 the direction of the state organization manager 
 (chosen by the national executive committee). 
 Outside organizers are not to be sent into any 
 county except on request of the county committee. 
 The expenses of organization work are borne by 
 the county organization. The membership in each 
 county may enter into county and local politics 
 if they wish to do so. (The rule of the League 
 hitherto had been to take no part in county or 
 other local affairs.) The county organization is, 
 in general, given a free hand to develop such 
 activities as the members of the organization in 
 the county may favor, if they are not in conflict 
 with the general government and program of the 
 League. 
 
 The new plan of operation, though outlined in 
 the League's publications, received little attention 
 from the opposition press, which only a few 
 weeks before had been printing rumors of revolts 
 and demands for "greater democracy" in the 
 League's plan of organization. It was regarded 
 with not a little enthusiasm by members of the 
 national committee, who saw in it the possibili- 
 ties of increased interest in League affairs and 
 strengthened unity among the membership. 
 
 The gradual transference of control and respon- 
 sibility for the activities of the League from the 
 national headquarters to local organizations and 
 
318 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 the membership at large is in fulfillment of plans 
 carefully considered by President Townley. He 
 is trying to convert a following into a self- 
 governing, self-actuating organization. He is 
 willing to efface himself in the process if that 
 should seem desirable. 
 
 He did, in fact, again at the 1919 meeting, seri- 
 ously propose to influential members of the na- 
 tional committee that he should retire from the 
 presidency of the organization and become merely 
 an "organizer at large," and that an actual, 
 working farmer — one in whom the membership 
 would have confidence, — should take his place as 
 president. 
 
 The verdict against this plan was unanimous on 
 the part of his advisers. They felt that too much 
 of the success of the movement still depended on 
 his personality and the confidence the farmers 
 have in him. 
 
CHAPTEE XXIV 
 
 SURVEY AND FORECAST 
 
 The short span of the Nonpartisan League's life 
 to date has been packed with interesting incidents 
 in a dozen states. It has not been possible in 
 this volume to do more than to select such as may 
 give a better understanding than many possess 
 of what has been sought and what has been 
 done. 
 
 It has not been the purpose here to make an 
 economic or political study of the great agricul- 
 tural west, though all of the facts of economic con- 
 ditions and political history not only in the west, 
 but in the nation at large, have their bearing on 
 the League as a political phenomenon, on its short 
 past history and its probable future. 
 
 The League promoters rightly reasoned that 
 North Dakota was not an isolated instance and 
 that the conditions there were not peculiar to 
 that state. What they are seeking to do in North 
 Dakota will be sought in many states. 
 
 The conditions of production and distribution 
 of the things people want to consume must inevit- 
 ably shape political history and political institu- 
 tions. The war certainly will accelerate the move- 
 ment to impose by force of the majority wiU new 
 
 319 
 
320 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 regulations upon trade, industry and transporta- 
 tion, with, the ohject of increasing productive 
 service and distributing it more equitably. 
 
 Some picture a condition of increasing wealth 
 in the hands of a narrowing few, and as another 
 symptom of the same tendency an increasing pres- 
 sure of poverty upon a widening circle of the 
 many. They see production restricted by the ex- 
 cessive tax of trade upon industry until want be- 
 gets rebellion and the whole structure goes down, 
 under a great conflagration of revolt. 
 
 Others see a picture of organization of the vot- 
 ing power of the people of America to smash down 
 and to clear away one after another of the ob- 
 stacles to a generous and equitable sharing of 
 the fruits of production. They see the possibility 
 of such success in this as will throw a larger pro- 
 portion of the people into genuine productive ef- 
 fort, increase the comfort and contentment of 
 all citizens and will for many generations make 
 impossible the great rebellion that the first class 
 visualize. 
 
 If such is to be the course of our economic and 
 political history it seems reasonable to suppose 
 that such movements as the Nonpartisan League, 
 attacking a rather narrow group of problems of a 
 particular class, will constitute a real step for- 
 ward if only one or two of the measures attempted 
 crystallize into real and lasting benefits. If we 
 anticipate, proximately or remotely, the dangers 
 of destructive revolution and anarchy, we should 
 
SURVEY AND FORECAST 321 
 
 certainly welcome measures of progress — and they 
 should not be too moderate. 
 
 Courage and boldness in reform beyond that 
 ordinarily shown by political parties will be 
 needed. Motives different from those which coun- 
 sel only personal advantage and personal gain will 
 have to be invoked. 
 
 Those who see fundamental fallacies in the 
 propaganda of communism and of Socialism will 
 need to bestir themselves to find other remedies 
 for poverty and riches, idleness and underpro- 
 duction, destruction of food and starvation. 
 
 One of the great problems of the day is and 
 for some time has been an unsatisfactory and un- 
 profitable rural economy, coupled with a decreas- 
 ing per capita production of food. The League is 
 seeking to make conditions more comfortable and 
 more profitable for the farmer, primarily, but 
 in its political manceuvering it has formed an 
 alliance with organized labor, which fin.ds itself 
 delving deeper and deeper into all the problems 
 of production and distribution of the things men 
 need for their life and comfort — dealing with the 
 fierce desire for a freer and more comfortable 
 life. 
 
 The doctrine that through political government 
 much can be achieved toward this end — the doc- 
 trine that those who exploit and profit have been 
 using political government freely for their ends 
 — ^is making progress and leading to a new asser- 
 tion of power. 
 
322 THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 The progress that the League has made in North 
 Dakota may easily be duplicated in other states, 
 though no such rapid strides have yet been made. 
 The movement still has vitality, however, in all 
 of the states where it has been promoted. 
 
 The League's plan of organization surely has 
 something in it for the consideration if not for 
 the adoption of the American people. It furnishes 
 a plan of counteracting the evil of the backing of 
 political parties and factions by selfish interests 
 which seek to dominate and usually do dominate. 
 It makes the politician independent of the power 
 of wealth if he wishes. Certajnly it must be con- 
 sidered that there is more democracy in a political 
 faction of which all members are equally assessed 
 to carry on its organization and propaganda than 
 one which derives its revenue from business in- 
 terests which plan to profit by the enactment of 
 laws, or which elects candidates who themselves 
 make heavy investments in campaigns which they 
 must in some way recoup. 
 
 In the light of the accomplishments in North 
 Dakota the sincerity and honesty of the purposes 
 of the men in charge of the League movement can 
 scarcely be disputed. Their aim plainly has been 
 to free the market from abuses, to liberate the 
 state from thralldom to great market and financial 
 centers, to stimulate agriculture, to make rural 
 life more agreeable and socially endurable, to 
 make it easier to acquire and to retain home 
 ownership and productive independence and to 
 
SURVEY AND FORECAST 323 
 
 conserve so far as possible the wealth and pro- 
 duction of the state for the people who live 
 in it. 
 
 These are its objects and these the purposes 
 which it has held steadily in view. "With every- 
 day of the League's progress it has become more 
 difficult for its enemies to attack its fundamental 
 worthiness as a political movement. Attack on 
 its methods and criticism of the sufficiency of its 
 proposals to accomplish these things have not suc- 
 ceeded in destroying faith in the purposes them- 
 selves nor in the honesty of the effort to achieve 
 those purposes. 
 
 Nor do many now question the existence of the 
 evils which gave birth to the League and furnished 
 the basis of its propaganda. It has attacked great 
 issues which must be faced by all Americans and 
 by all mankind. It has suggested a remedy. Its 
 suggestions were not new, nor could their method 
 of accomplishment be considered whoUy new. 
 
 The League merely found a way to tap a fund 
 of energy and to give it direction. Energy is the 
 prime essential to progress in social and political 
 affairs as well as to mechanical action. Progress 
 cannot be made merely by talking, nor can great 
 movements of human progress be halted by calling 
 them names. 
 
 Any cult or propaganda becomes dangerous if it 
 comes close to the truth. "Menaces" to the exist- 
 ing order of society are born of the evils of exist- 
 ing society in conflict with human needs and 
 
324. THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 
 
 natural human desires. To brand a group, a cult, 
 a society, a religion, as disloyal or disreputable is 
 one way of fighting it, but it need not forever 
 danm it. 
 
 Those who expect measures of reform to be 
 handed down generously from above are of a 
 hopeful temperament that disregards the teach- 
 ings of history, and as vainly hopeful are those 
 who have confidence that if a reform movement 
 is politic and righteous it wiU have the prompt 
 commendation and approval of the thriving and 
 the contented. 
 
 We recognize the heroes and the martyrs of 
 another age. We have hard work seeing our- 
 selves in the company of the Pharisees and the 
 money changers in the temple. 
 
 They stoned the prophets and they crucified 
 Christ. Human nature does not change much. 
 
 This is not to say that all who are stoned are 
 true prophets, but the true prophets are fairly 
 certain to be stoned. 
 
 The application of this to the League is that the 
 things that it has suffered are a hopeful augury 
 that it has in it the germ of real virtue and a pos- 
 sible great benefaction to mankind. 
 
 We shall probably, like other peoples, make 
 progress from the ground up and the men who are 
 to lead us must of necessity have their day of 
 being hooted and despised. If we search dili- 
 gently among the outcasts we may perchance find 
 a real leader who may pass on his great idea or 
 
SURVEY AND FORECAST 325 
 
 ids great spirit before we crucify him or send Mm 
 to jail to die of disease. We shall not find him. 
 in an easy chair or behind a mahogany table. 
 He will be consorting with the riffraff or toiling 
 with the laborer. 
 
 THE END 
 
r.