162 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



"Make the rubes pay their god-damn money to join and they'll stick stick 'til 

 hell freezes over." Organizers were drilled on how to "organize" the farmer in 

 his barn yard; how to "surround the rube," one man in front and one on each 

 side, facing him, and all urging him to join. . . . "Find out the damn fool's 

 hobby," taught Townley, "and then talk it. If he likes religion, talk Jesus Christ; 

 if he is against the government, damn the democrats; if he is afraid of whiskey, 

 preach prohibition; if he wants to talk hogs, talk hogs talk anything he'll listen 

 to, but talk, talk, until you get his god-damn John Hancock to a check for six 

 dollars." 38 



In short, the tricks of the accomplished salesman and the orator were 

 put into full swing by an ably trained group of radicals advocating a 

 Socialist program. Many of the grievances they aired were no doubt 

 highly exaggerated, but they achieved the desired end of increasing mem- 

 bership. In many rural areas strong appeals were made to the antipathies 

 of farmers toward town merchants and business interests. Even national 

 feeling and racial pride were used; organizers were instructed "to put a 

 soft pedal on all the Wilson stuff" when organizing in German commu- 

 nities. 39 Mass meetings and large picnics were arranged to supplement 

 the work of the organizers and sometimes to pave the way for them in 

 new territory. Whether League organizers approached the farmer in his 

 barn or whether they addressed him in public meetings, the expression 

 "Go home and slop the hogs" was used with increasing effectiveness. 



A potent factor in the early successes of the League was the Nonpartisan 

 League press, which, according to one writer, furnished "a significant 

 case study in the use of propaganda by a highly class-conscious pressure 

 group." Nowhere within the organization, with the possible exception 

 of the speaker's platform, were the gifts of expression better demonstrated 

 than in the columns of the League press. 40 League writers warned the 

 members not to trust the existing press; they were skilled in the tech- 

 niques of indoctrination, and "with astute realism they anticipate [d] a 

 wave of opposition from newspapers within and without the state. . . ." 

 Charles Edward Russell, the noted Socialist publicist and editor of the 

 "Non-partisan Leader, the official organ, warned against "tainted news," 



38. Manahan, Trials of a Lawyer, pp. 219-20. 



39. Maxwell, The Nonpartisan League from the Inside, pp. 82-85. 



40. Joseph H. Mader, "The North Dakota Press and the Nonpartisan League," 

 Journalism Quarterly, XIV (December, 1937), pp. 321-23. 



