r 4 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



the legislature and delegates to a state convention which met at Fargo on 

 March 29 and 30. The League candidates were as follows: for governor, 

 Lynn J. Frazier of Hoople, graduate of the University of North Dakota, 

 to run in the Republican primary; for lieutenant-governor, Albert Stenmo 

 of Merrifield, Grand Forks County, graduate of the University of North 

 Dakota, to run in the Republican primary; for secretary of state, Thomas 

 Hall, the incumbent, to run as a Republican; for auditor, Carl R. Kositsky 

 of Bismarck, secretary of the state tax commission and a Burleigh County 

 commissioner, to run as a Republican; for treasurer, P. M. Casey, vice- 

 president of the North Dakota Society of Equity, to run as a Democrat; 

 for attorney-general, William A. Langer of Mandan, state attorney for 

 Morton County, to run as a Republican ; for superintendent of public in- 

 struction, N. C. MacDonald of Valley City, graduate of the University 

 of North Dakota and state inspector of consolidated schools, to run on 

 the nonpartisan school ballot; for commissioner of insurance, S. A. Ols- 

 ness, a farmer at Cheyenne in Eddy County, to run as a Republican; for 

 commissioner of agriculture, John Hagan of Deering in McHenry County, 

 a graduate of Valparaiso University in Indiana, town supervisor for eleven 

 years and a farmer, running on the Republican ticket. Candidates for 

 railroad commissioners were Charles Bleick of Elgin, Morton County, an 

 active Equity and Farmers' Union man and a graduate of the Nebraska 

 School of Agriculture; M. P. Johnson of Tolley, Renville County, president 

 of the North Dakota Society of Equity; and Sam Aandal, a farmer from 

 Litchville, Barnes County all running on the Republican ticket. Those 

 running for the bench of the supreme court were Luther Birdzell, former 

 state tax commissioner and professor of law in the University of North 

 Dakota; J. E. Robinson, a Fargo lawyer; and R. H. Grace, lawyer from 

 Mohall all three running on the nonpartisan ballot in the primaries. 48 

 As announced, League officials and organizers were not permitted to 

 accept a nomination for state office, the theory being that the office should 

 seek the man and not the man the office. 49 Furthermore, only farmer 

 members had seats in the convention in which candidates for posts rang- 

 ing from representatives in the state legislature to governor were endorsed. 

 County politics were of no concern to the League. 



48. Ibid., April 6, 1916, p. 3. 



49. Nonpartisan League Methods and Principles, p. 12. 



