AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



illusory. In point of fact these two remaining segments of Equity strength 

 were soon to founder on the rocks of disaster. 



In Wisconsin, the demand for direct political action surpassed the 

 earlier enthusiasm for cooperatives. Early in 1917 the Nonpartisan League 

 had attracted the attention of some of the politically minded members of 

 the Wisconsin Society of Equity. On March 22 about two hundred farm- 

 ers representing eighteen counties assembled in Marshfield and, after 

 marked differences over the best methods of organization, finally decided 

 to demand immediate affiliation of the Equity with the League. Another 

 meeting held in Wausau the same year indicated that a well-groomed 

 political machine would be ready for the elections of ipiS. 72 



Chief aspirant for the leadership of the political movement was James 

 N. Tittemore, already three times an unsuccessful candidate for Congress. 

 Despite the avocational character of his farming activities, he spoke elo- 

 quently and profusely of the need for "farmers to represent farmers," 

 and presented himself as one ideally qualified to lead the "soil-tilling 

 fraternity" to victory. Tittemore set for himself the task of getting 50,000 

 members for the Wisconsin Equity, and by combining rhetoric, politics, 

 religion, and sophistry, he came close to attaining his goal. He spoke of 

 Lincoln and his efforts to preserve the American homestead, of his own 

 birth in a log cabin, of his rise from telegraph boy to traffic manager of 

 a railroad, of how the farmers were being "skinned" by the railroads, and 

 of the hope for emancipating the farmers by taking to direct political ac- 

 tion. This ushered in one of the most uproarious periods in the history of 

 the organization. 73 



Rumors of a farmer-labor alignment assumed new proportions in 1918 

 after an announcement to the effect that the Nonpartisan League would 

 not present a slate until two years later. An organization, temporarily 

 known as the Wisconsin Farmers' Progressive League, called a meeting 

 for May i to decide on the platform, the candidates, and the party through 

 which the new political alliance was to function. Enthusiasts sought to 



72. Wisconsin Leader (Madison), September n, 1920; Equity News, March i, 



1917, pp. 720, 726; Organized Farmer (Milwaukee), April 26, 1917, p. 5. 



73. Evening Wisconsin (Milwaukee), May 2, 1918; Equity News, January i, 



1918, p. 259. 



