Evening star., 1925-07-16
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE,
staH Correspondent OF The sta


BISMARCK, N. Oak. July 16.-
North Dakota, despite the majority it
rolled up for Coolidge and Dawes last
November, is still honeycombed with
radical sentiment. The Non-Partisan
League, which sent the late Edwin
Fremont Ladd and Lynn j. Frazier
TO the United States Senate, holds the
fort. Only a prophet highly charged
with optimism would risk the pre-
diction that the fort can be easily
stormed by conservative forces and
Will speedily surrender. Neither the
passing of La Toilette nor the disap-
pearance of Ladd has undermined it.
The movement" survives. Time and
the election to fill Senator Ladd's seat,
whether at a special polling this year
or at the general election of 1926,
Will show just how much Virility it
retains All that can be said at this
writing is that radicalism is alive and
kicking, especially kicking, which is
one of the things Northwestern rad
icalS do best.
1t was the writer's good fortune to
he in Bismarck the day the Non-Par-
tisan Leaguers We're in convention to
consider the state of their union as
affected by the Ladd vacancy. 1t was
something of rump convention, for
TWO Of the three members of the Non
Partisan League executive board op-
posed the call. While only about so
delegates were present, they came
from % different counties in the
State, and so considered themselves
representative gathering 1t was
the original intention of the minority
board member who called the conven-
tlon, two-tisted, broncho-busting rad
lcaI named Roy Frazier-not a kins-
man OF Senator F'razier-to have it
lndorse an unCOmpromising league
candidate to succeed Ladd
Session Opposes SorIie.
The Endorsement was to have the
erect OF nomination in case Gov.
Sorle should call special election,
and the effect of forcing his hand in
case he decided to appoint Ladd's
successor. The convention was
avoWedly anti Sorlie. Before it was
over the governor received at Roy
FraZler's hands a tongue -lashing of
the unambiGuOuS kind only Western
politics knows. Frazier, who is chair
man Of the Republican State central
committee practically Nom
Partisan League machine), hates the
very breath that Sorlie draws. There
were epithets like traitor" Seller
to-the-highest bidder and political
trickster" hurled in the governors
direction before Frazier shot his vari-
Gus Spellbinding bolts
The meeting finally voted to de
mand' that the Non Partisan League
executive board should call a CON
vention TO meet in Bismarck not
later than July "a to consider the
name of a successor for Senator
Ladd, and such other business as
may properly come before it," The
sting is in the tail of that resolution
The most conspicuous other busi-
ness To be brought forward will be
an attempt TO recall" the recreant
majority members of the league ex-
ecutive.
These are denounced by extremists
as CO-Conspirators of Gov. Sorlie in an
effort to deradicalize the Non-Parti-
san movement.
Gov. SorIie makes few bones of his
desire to do this very thing. Though
the creation of the league and elected
governor by il in 1924, Sorlie's ambi-
tion is to take North Dakota out of
what he calls the realm of dreams"
and the mire of disharmony' and
get it back to political normalcy. The
dyedi -the-woOl leaguers say these
phrases merely cloak Gov. Sorlie's
heresy. They assert he is veering
steadily and reasonably in the direc-
tion of conservative reaction" and is
talking harmony" solely because he
aspires to hand over the radical cause
to its CapitaliStiC foes-the Republican
party, the banking interests and the