NONPARTISAN LEAGUE: BEGINNINGS 163 



"poisonous news," and the "poisoned special article." An early issue of 

 the Non-partisan Leader cautioned : "The greatest advantage the interests 

 and corporations have is their control over the press. That is where the 

 first great danger lies before your organization. Beware of it; it is the 

 greatest power in the world, the most subtle, insidious, poisonous, the 

 hardest to detect and the hardest to defeat." 41 When the opposition press 

 unleashed its attack upon the League, the skill and ingenuity of its jour- 

 nalists were well demonstrated in the retaliatory tactics. Little time was 

 lost in portraying big business as the mortal enemy of the farmer in both 

 cartoons and articles. 42 Feature articles were written in praise of govern- 

 ment ownership, particularly in Australia and New Zealand. Editorials 

 were written simply; they were graphic and presented to attract attention. 

 Cartoons generally carried the point across. 43 



The organization work was in high gear by the close of 1915, and it 

 is estimated that the League conducted five to six hundred meetings dur- 

 ing the winter of 1915-16. By February, 1917, some 30,000 members were 

 reported enrolled, and about three-fourths of the state was organized. 44 

 Shortly after the organization work of 1915, preparations were made for 

 the 1916 election by calling precinct meetings to assemble on February 

 22, 1916, and elect delegates to a state convention. 45 These meetings were 

 to be held at the regular polling places in each precinct, unless other ar- 

 rangements already had been made. Parallels were drawn between the 

 acts of the North Dakota farmers of February, 1916, and the American 

 Revolution of 1776. "The conditions under which the people ... in 1776 

 suffered ... are only unlike in degree to the present conditions which the 

 farmers are suffering in North Dakota." ' 



The meetings were well attended in each of the 2,000 precincts of North 

 Dakota, and delegates were elected to legislative and district conven- 

 tions. 47 The district conventions nominated candidates for both houses of 



41. Non-partisan Leader, September 23, 1915, p. 7; October 21, 1915, p. 4. 



42. F. A. Teigen, The Nonpartisan League (St. Paul, 1918), p. 45. 



43. Gillette, in Survey, XLI (March, 1919), pp. 759-60. 



44. Literary Digest, LIV (January 20, 1917), p. 115. 



45. Non-partisan Leader, January 27, 1916, p. 5. 



46. Ibid., February 10, 1916, p. 6. 



47. Literary Digest, LIV (January 20, 1917), p. 115; Non-partisan Leader, March 

 2, 1916, p. 3. 



