I 5 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



ment, low wages, poor working conditions, and long hours, the North 

 Dakota farmers were moved to adopt similar methods in their struggle 

 against low farm prices, high transportation rates, unfavorable marketing 

 conditions, and monopoly. 



It will be recalled that the burning issue in North Dakota politics by 

 the year 1914 had become the farmers' demand, strongly supported by 

 the Equity Society, for a terminal elevator. In this same year, however, 

 Louis B. Hanna, a conservative, had contrived to win the governorship. 

 Hanna had waged his campaign largely in opposition to extravagance 

 in government, and promptly made it clear that he intended at all costs 

 to prevent the erection of the greatly desired terminal elevator. 3 Equity 

 leaders were certain that the governor would have the support of the 

 state board of control, which was scheduled to make a report on the sub- 

 ject, and they feared the legislature would also be hostile. They therefore 

 called the annual convention of the North Dakota Society of Equity to 

 assemble in Bismarck, the capital, at the time early in February, 1915, 

 when the legislature was expected to have the elevator project under con- 

 sideration. 4 They also extended an invitation to the Farmers' Union, then 

 a comparatively new organization in the state, to take part in the February 

 convention, to fraternize, and to exchange views on questions that con- 

 fronted the farmers. 5 When this convention met, it came out strongly in 

 favor of a terminal elevator, and its representatives drew up a bill to pre- 

 sent to the legislature. 6 Representatives of the city of St. Paul were on hand 

 to inform the farmers that their city would aid them if the elevator were 

 located there. A feature of the convention was the march to the capitol 

 to present the demands of the farmers, most prominent among them being 

 the construction of a state-owned terminal elevator. 7 When the conven- 



3. Andrew A. Bruce, Non-Partisan League (New York, 1921), pp. 57-58. 



4. Herbert E. Gaston, The Nonpartisan League (New York, 1920), p. 43; Bis- 

 marc\ Daily Tribune, January 31, 1915; Pioneer Press (St. Paul), February 3, 4, 

 1915; Non-partisan Leader (Fargo, N. Dak.), September 23, 1915, pp. 5-6. 



5. Cooperators' Herald, January i, 1915, p. 4. The Union reported charters au- 

 thorized for forty-two local chapters in North Dakota in 1914. Farmers' Educa- 

 tional and Cooperative Union of America, Tenth Annual Session, September 1-3, 

 1914, Minutes, pp. 18-19. 



6. Pioneer Press, February 5, 1915. 



7. Cooperators' Herald, February 5, 1915. 



