NONPARTISAN LEAGUE: BEGINNINGS 157 



In 1914 Townley volunteered to serve as an organizer for the organiza- 

 tion department of the Socialist party to help test out the differences in 

 popularity between the party and its platform. Supplied with plenty of 

 Socialist literature and an automobile with which to travel from place to 

 place, he held meetings arranged for him by headquarters, sold the lit- 

 erature, and took pledges from farmers who joined the organization de- 

 partment, not the Socialist party. When cash was not available, he accepted 

 postdated checks. 2 ' Monthly dues of $1.00 were to be paid, and the plat- 

 form and the candidates of the organization were to be supported. 



Townley's success was almost instantaneous. In less than three months 

 he had four organizers at work men who, it was claimed, were members 

 of the Socialist party. There is still a difference of opinion, however, on 

 whether Townley himself was actually a member. The expenses of the 

 organizers were paid from the receipts for the literature, from contribu- 

 tions, and from the thousands of pledges received. But this experiment, 

 was short-lived, for at the Socialist convention in 1915 the state committee 

 recommended the discontinuance of the work of the organization depart- 

 ment. The committee charged that such a program was inconsistent with 

 the future welfare of the party and the farmers and pointed out that the 

 organization department had as many members as did the party itself, 

 the main difference being that the members of the latter were educated 

 on the subject of socialism, while those of the former were not. 



When the Socialist party refused to permit Townley to continue or- 

 ganizing, he felt that he had been poorly treated. Consequently, when 

 A. E. Bowen, an associate, recommended that they organize a nonpartisan 

 organization having nothing to do with the Socialist party, Townley was 

 immediately impressed with the idea. 28 Townley and Bowen were both 



can Socialism seems ... to have its chief strength, not in the manufacturing centers, 

 but in those Western states where mining and farm tenantry prevail." Ibid., 1917- 

 1 8, p. 338. 



27. Le Sueur, "The Nonpartisan League," p. 4; J. D. Bacon, A Warning to the 

 Farmer against Townleyism as Exploited in North Dakota (Grand Forks, N. Dak., 

 1918), p. ii. 



28. Le Sueur, "The Nonpartisan League," p. 5; Milwaukee Leader, July 29, 1916. 

 One Socialist leader charged: "The Socialist organization of North Dakota is today 

 a travesty and a farce. The red-card organizers of the league are yet 'comrades' and 

 control the Socialist Party." 



