The sun., 1919-10-12

taking their wives and children and
getting all of the fun a picnic offers
while attending simultaneously to the
serious business of political organiza-
tion-for that was exactly what was
going on. A new political party was
being built up, one of the solidest little
parties that ever made its bow on the
American continent. A.
Panacea Is Promised. -
What did Townley and his lieuten-
ants promise? Everything. Every
thing, that is to say. which was in the
minds of the farmers. In the pre.im-
mary days. the early days, of the Non
Partisan League its Socialistic aims
were not so frankly revealed. These
were exposed little later. At first
the cry was for justice. for honest ele-
vators, straightforward marketing,
square system of buying and weighing
grain There was also a desire TO
punish legislators who had not given
heed to the pleas made the year before,
in 1915. Townley pledged the Nom
Partisan League to secure a list or
laws that would make the farmers in
dependent of Big Business, which
would enable them virtually to die
tate terms.
Taking advantage most shrewdly of
the aversion for Big Business that is
found in all rural communities, he
preached holly against robbers and be-
trayers of the poor man. 1t was old
stuff, very old; but one must remem-
Der that the wheat growers were mad
TO their boot soles, past the point of
sober reasoning, angrily determined TO
accomplish something. bang 1t was
left for Mr.. Townley's clever mind to
lay before them just the platform that
so many of them had vaguely and
hazily conceived. The substance of
the whole plea was that the farmers
I must forget that they were Republi-
cans or Democrats, recollect only that
, they were farmers, seize. control of the
Legislature and dictate the precise
laws they believed necessary to pros
perity and a square deal.
And that is exactly what they did
| eventually. At first attempt they
failed to control the State Senate, al
though they captured the House by a
big majority and elected their cam
d.
They missed fire on the Senate be-
cause there were many followers
in that body whom the election
couldn't jar loose that year. These
were marked for slaughter at later
cate and brought down in fiocks. That
1916 election will never be forgotten
in the Northwest, because it had
something to do with the national de-
feat of the Republican party, the Re-
publican farmers of North Dakota be-
ing so upset in habit that thousands
of them voted for Mr.. Wilson while
they were rebuking Republican office
holders in their own State.
Good Americans, but Angry.
1t was a remarkable situation, thai
which enabled $4,000 farmers to ally
in anger for the overthrow of repre-.
sentatives and even policies that haC
been popular for years. AS a whole
these North Dakota farmers are fine
people, men of sterling honesty, Wig.
orous in their dislike for men thai
work in the dark, hating cunning
practices, suspicious of cloaked and
mysterious designs, They are gooo
Americans, though many of them
were slow to comprehend what the
war was about. Perhaps no State in
| the Union can offer a more worthy
body Of plain American folk. Yet they
were literally hypnotized by Townley
and the shrewd fellows that scattered
over the prairies at Townley's orders
to take advantage of the hot headed.
ness into which the farmers hat
worked themselves. The only explana-
ton for their sheeplike attitude is the
rage that colored their reasoning when
ever they thought of the tricks that
had been played on them in the weigh
ing and grading OF the only valuable
thing they had to sell-their wheat.
They were in this condition of minis
when the time came for the new
State government to organize and for
the Legislature to meet. Townley haC
prepared to handle this organiza tioI
for his own purposes, in the interest!
of his Socialistic schemes. He Wen
to Bismarck, the capital a week befor,
the date for the opening of the Legis
lature, and established headquarteri
at the Hotel Mckenzie. Surrounded
by his trusted lieutenants, almos
every man of them a Socialist anC
scarcely one of them a farmer, h,
gathered In the farmer legislators as
they got to town, drew them to hi
rooms and induced them to sign {
compact" a document which pledged
them 10 support measures that Town
ley intended to put before the Legis
lature. Eighty-one members of tn,
House signed this compact and eight
cen members of the Senate, a minor
ity, affixed their signatures. All bill
that originated in the House and al
that were sent to the House from
the Senate were sent to the secret
council to which no one was admitted
excepting signers of the compact, an,
bills that were approved in the secre
council thereafter had the backing OF