144 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



internecine warfare. The year 1919 found the state and national organiza- 

 tions embroiled in controversies over postwar issues, politics, and finances. 

 The Red issue also was injected into the struggles and dissensions. 78 De- 

 spite the numerous factions, however, the aggressive Tittemore prepared to 

 seek the Republican nomination for governor again in 1920. But this time 

 the Nonpartisan League entered the campaign with a ticket of its own, 

 in reality a La Follette progressive slate under new political clothing. 

 The League lost no time in exposing the political machinations of Titte- 

 more, who had urged it to organize in Wisconsin and had then turned 

 against it to satisfy his own interests. The League ticket, incidentally, was 

 headed by John J. Elaine, who had been elected attorney general on the 

 Tittemore ticket in I9i8. 79 



Once again Tittemore waged an aggressive campaign, and once again 

 he was defeated. This time he received only a little more than half as 

 many votes as in 1918, while of the six candidates for the nomination, he 

 received the fewest votes. He failed even to secure the votes of the Equity 

 members and their families, upon which he had so greatly relied. From 

 this time on his activities in the Equity became negligible; in fact, his 

 exit was about as hurried as was his entrance. 80 



The successor of Tittemore to the state presidency of the Wisconsin 

 Society of Equity was E. C. Pommerening, Tittemore's first lieutenant. 

 Functioning after the fashion of his master, this youthful would-be ad- 

 ministrator supplanted the Tittemore mania for politics with his own 

 mania for cooperatives, setting up enterprises with a fantastic swiftness 

 that sapped the organization of its remaining strength. Placing a ranking 

 official on a political ticket and using Equity resources to promote his 

 candidacy was bad enough, but the promotion of a succession of coopera- 

 tive failures was even worse. Pommerening's policy brought down upon 

 the society the rising wrath of the older members and furnished the op- 

 position with a much-appreciated opportunity to denounce it as a racket. 81 



78. Wisconsin Equity News, November 27, 1919, p. 9. 



79. Wisconsin Leader, November 6, 1920; Organized Farmer, September 15, 

 1920, p. 20. 



80. Ibid., p. 2. 



81. Equity News, December 15, 1920, p. 8; December 22, 1920, p. 3; Wisconsin 

 Leader, January 29, 1921; Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), October 21, Novem- 

 ber 29, 1921; Capital Times (Madison), November 4, 1921. 



