NONPARTISAN LEAGUE! BEGINNINGS 183 



second Liberty Loan bond quotas; and Montana, reported to have had 

 the largest League membership in proportion to its population, was the 

 second state to oversubscribe. It was further claimed that the farmers of 

 Montana, Minnesota, and North and South Dakota the four great spring 

 wheat states had increased their wheat acreage by 52 per cent. "The 

 League farmers do not prove their loyalty by merely waving flags; they 

 do not wear their patriotism just on their coat lapels they carry it in their 

 hearts." Thousands of League farmers were said to have had Red Cross 

 acres; their wives had Red Cross hens and Red Cross circles. More than 

 550 leases were written by the North Dakota Council of Defense, placing 

 some 100,000 acres of idle land under cultivation to produce additional 

 crops valued at $500,000. The council also aided in meeting the serious 

 labor shortage. 111 North Dakota furthermore claimed that its draft costs 

 were among the lowest in the nation. 112 Governor Frazier, since the start 

 of the war, had issued at least twenty-five proclamations urging the people 

 to stand behind their government. "Every state official from the governor 

 down [had] pledged at least 10 days of manual labor in the harvest fields 

 instead of a vacation." The League also had approved Wilson's Fourteen 

 Points. 113 On August 10, 1920, H. G. Teigan, the secretary of the League, 

 had written Upton Sinclair that "on the whole we had very little trouble 

 with the national government." 1 



One of the best means of refuting the arguments of the opposition was 

 to cite what the League had accomplished in North Dakota in a legislative 

 sense. The drought and the black rust in 1916 and 1917 had left the farm- 

 ers in the western and central portions of the state prostrated financially. 

 The increasing demands of the nation for more food production had 

 resulted in the mortgaging of their land, livestock, and heavy machinery. 

 Representatives of the North Dakota Council of Defense and the state 

 bankers' association frankly admitted that the banks were unable to meet 

 the credit needs of the farmers. Thus, when the farmers failed to receive 

 aid from the federal government, Governor Frazier called a special session 

 of the legislature to consider the feed and seed problem and other needs 



in. State of North Dakota Legislative Manual, 1919, p. 433. 



112. The Nonpartisan League, Loyal or Disloyal? (n.p., n.d.) [leaflet]. 



113. Non-partisan Leader, February 17, 1919, p. 5. 



114. H. G. Teigan to Upton Sinclair, August 10, 1920, in the Minnesota Historical 

 Society. 



