NONPARTISAN LEAGUE! BEGINNINGS I? 1 



Frazier, in his inaugural address, besides recommending the adoption 

 of the League's industrial program, advocated reduction of the legal in- 

 terest rate, minimum wages for workmen, better roads, civil service for 

 state employees, development of the local coal beds, better rural schools, 

 state aid for rural education, and a nonpartisan ballot. 80 Most of the bills 

 embodying these proposals were freely discussed in League caucuses held 

 nightly at the Northwestern Hotel, and the men who were best qualified 

 to introduce the bills in the legislature were selected. The legal committee 

 of the League assisted in framing the bills. 81 



The first major task was to amend the constitution in order to provide 

 a legal basis for state-owned utilities and for their financing. The issuance 

 of bonds for such purposes was blocked by the constitution. 82 Several 

 ways were open for constitutional changes. The 1917 legislature could 

 have submitted proposed amendments to the 1919 legislature which, if 

 passed, would then go to the people for a referendum vote. The main 

 objection to this method was that it would take three or four years. The 

 legislature could also have called a constitutional convention an expen- 

 sive process to frame a new constitution and then submit it to the people 

 for approval. A third means was the submission of a constitution by the 

 legislature, or by a representative body elected by the legislature to do so, 

 to the people to accept or reject. This last method called for only one elec- 

 tion. Since the constitution was silent on the matter, it remained for the 

 legislature to determine the best and most efficient procedure. 



The hostility of the senate to any constitutional changes was shown 

 immediately. Few League supporters were given important committee 

 assignments. Of the forty committees appointed, the League held the 

 majority in only six, an arrangement that was totally out of proportion 

 to its actual strength in the senate. 83 The major committees, including 

 those concerned with banks and banking, education, insurance, the judi- 



80. Ibid., January n, 1917, p. 5. 



81. Ibid., January 18, 1917, p. 9. 



82. Ibid., January n, 1917, p. 7. The following comment was a typical League 

 explanation for the constitutional amendment: "It was adopted when North Dakota 

 was a frontier settlement and long before its position as the greatest granary of the 

 country was ever suspected. The state was like a man trying to get around in a suit 

 of clothes made for him when he was a boy." Charles Edward Russell, In and 

 Out of the Yofe (n.p., n.d.), p. 28. 



83. Non-partisan Leader, January n, 1917, p. 10. 



