NONPARTISAN LEAGUE! BEGINNINGS 173 



sponsible people to seize office, go on a wild spending orgy, and plunge 

 the state into debt. 



When the strength of the opposition was felt, Townley decided to carry 

 the fight directly to the farmers at scheduled meetings, addressing them 

 in a conversational tone, and in many instances appealing to them by 

 name. 87 In one case he asserted: "There is nothing in the federal con- 

 stitution that forbids it, nothing in the state constitution and nothing in 

 your constitution, I am sure. I'll tell you whose constitution it doesn't 

 agree with. It doesn't agree with the constitution of those who have been 

 making this extra dollar a bushel profit out of Feed D wheat. . . . They 

 talk about a debt limit to protect you. There is no limit now to the ability 

 of the trusts to put you into debt. I am for a debt limit. Sure! I am for a 

 limit to the power of the plunderbund to rob you." 8 



In the house the opposition to the bill was led by A. G. Divet, who lost 

 no time in informing League leaders who had challenged him to a debate 

 that he would not humiliate himself by debating the bill with "an 

 anarchist, discredited socialist, or I.W.W. worker, with which you are 

 so richly endowed, seeking only an occasion to rant about his own par- 

 ticular grievances against God and society." John Baer, the League car- 

 toonist, meanwhile had been caricaturing Divet as the "shepherd of the 

 people" with "cramps in the head" and as a "lackey for big interests." 8 



House bill 44 was passed by the house on January 26, after five days of 

 "invective, cajolery, and constitutional arguments. . . ." League leaders 

 charged that the bill was opposed by lawyers, not farmers, who engaged 

 in dilatory tactics by repeating trivial motions, by demanding roll calls 

 on trifling matters, and by offering amendments they knew would be 

 voted down. In the end the bill was passed by a vote of 8 1 to 28, with four 

 not voting; six legislators not endorsed by the League voted for it, and five 

 endorsed voted against it. 90 



It was not until house bill 44 reached the senate that it encountered real 

 opposition. Senate antipathy to the measure was displayed early in the 



87. Bacon, A Warning to the Farmer, p. 19; Non-partisan Leader, January 25, 

 1917, p. 8. 



88. Ibid., February i, 1917, p. 20. 



89. Ibid., February 8, 1917, p. 10; February 15, 1917, p. 5. 



90. Ibid., February i, 1917, pp. 5, 7. 



