The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-01-24
NEW FORCE IN POLITICS.

The old Farmers Alliance. later the
Populist party. apparently has been
reborn in North Dakota. The new or
ganization bears the name of the
Farmers Non-Partizan Political
League. 1t stands for state elevators,
state flour mills, state packing houses,
state hail insurance and a state rural
credit system.
The league at the last election cap
tured every elective state office ex-
cept one, and elected three justices of
the supreme court, who have endorsed
the program of state-owned utilities.
1t controls every branch of the state
government except the senate, where
the conservatives have a majority of
three votes, while IS per cent of the
members of the lower house of the
legislature are committed to the
leagues program.
The league is a secret organization
and only actual tillers of the soil are
eligible for membership. 1t has co.
900 members in North Dakota and is
spreading to South Dakota. Minnesota.
Iowa and Montana. The revolt is
primarily a protest against the Jug
Cling of grain prices and the specula-
ton in food prices by the chambers
of commerce, and the purpose of the
league is to put the speculative mar
kets out of business thru cooperation
of the state and the farmers in the
distribution of land products AS to
ways and means, the farmer-legisla-
tors nIap constitutional
raise the debt limit of the state from
100000 to an amount that will allow
the accomplishments of their aims.
The following history of the organ
ization is found in the Literary Digest:
The Farmers Non-Partizan League
was founded less than two years ago
and dipped into its first political cam
paign before it was a year old.
| Two geniuses named A. c. Townley
and F. B. Wood. both farmers without
former political experience, organized
the campaign. They borrowed money
with which to buy automobiles to
] carry them about from farm to farm.
To each farmer they visited they
showed in black and white the reyo-
lutionary program of the farmers
league calling for state-owned grain
elevators, flour mills and packing
houses. for state hail insurance and a
state-operated rural credit system.
They asked him did he favor it, and.
on getting an affirmative answer, they
said: Nine dollars, please" And
they got it. The first hundred farm
ers they canvassed Joined the league,
involving this fee, to a man. After
that the harvest of members averaged
a little above 90 per cent of a possible
crop.
Toward the last of the canvass the
league was employing 100 organizers
and 100 automobiles. During the win
ter of 1915-1916 it promoted 500 to
500 meetings in every part of the state,
and by last February it had obtained
| $4,000 members and had organized
three-quarters of the state. On Wash
ington's birthday, 1916, a meeting was
called in each of the 1000 voting pre-
clncts of the state simultaneously
The attendance was phenomenal, in
many cases 100 per cent, and in not
one below 80 per cent At these
meetings delegates were elected to
legislative district conventions, and
these district conventions nominated
men for both houses of the legislature
and elected delegates to a state con-
ton which met in Fargo in the latter
part of March. The state convention
nominated Lynn J. Frazier for gov
ernor and named the leagues candi-
dates for other state offices and the
supreme court.