AMERICAN SOCIETY OF EQUITY 143 



allay the fears of the apprehensive by the argument that "conditions are 

 now different." 74 



On May i approximately five hundred delegates representing Equity, 

 the Nonpartisan League, and organized labor met in Madison to nomi- 

 nate a slate headed by Tittemore. Merlin Hull and John J. Elaine, both 

 prominent in progressive circles, were nominated for secretary of state 

 and attorney general, respectively. These endorsements were made with- 

 out party designation. 75 



The Milwaukee Leader, the daily Socialist publication, suspicious of the 

 Madison gathering, sent a special representative to determine the motives 

 behind the meeting. According to his report, certain prominent Equity 

 men were the "guiding spirits" in the movement, and the meeting was 

 merely the beginning of a drive to place Tittemore in the governor's chair. 

 Tittemore was accused of willingness to use any party to satisfy his am- 

 bitions and even of appropriating his platform from the "immediate de- 

 mands" of the Socialist party in order to bait it with "a program, luscious 

 and appetizing." 76 



Like the La Follette reformers before them, the Tittemore supporters 

 decided to cast their lot with the Republican party. But they pushed their 

 program and their candidates in every part of the state. The National 

 Equity News helped the cause along by filling its pages with campaign 

 promises. Whether Tittemore had completely alienated himself from the 

 political afTections of the Nonpartisan League is uncertain, but he did 

 try to capitalize on what League sentiment existed in the state. But all 

 this was in vain. Tittemore was defeated in the Republican primaries by 

 the incumbent, Emanuel Philipp, who got 72,000 votes against 45,000 

 for the "ambitious Equitarian." In the general elections, only John J. 

 Blaine, the nominee for attorney general, was elected. 77 



Shortly after this election, the Wisconsin Equity became involved in 



74. Milwaukee Daily News, April 6, 1918; National Equity News (Madison, 

 Wis.), April 18, 1918, pp. i, 7. 



75. Organized Farmer, May 30, 1918, p. 9; National Equity News, May 2, 1918, 

 p. 4. 



76. Milwaukee Leader, May 3, 1918. 



77. National Equity News, September 12, 1918, pp. 6-7; Blue Eoo\ of the State 

 of Wisconsin, 1919, p. 93. 



