EXPANSION AND DECLINE 199 



mainder of his ticket in that state was more of a Progressive victory than 

 a League triumph. 



In North Dakota, particularly stiff opposition was met in returning 

 Lynn J. Frazier to the governor's office. The regular Republicans had 

 agreed to support the Democratic candidate, J. F. T. O'Connor, who 

 came within 4,630 votes of defeating Frazier. The opposition was success- 

 ful in electing its candidates for superintendent of public instruction, sec- 

 retary of state, state treasurer, a justice of the supreme court, four out of 

 six district judges, two members of Congress, and enough members in 

 the lower house of the legislature to control it. Control of the upper 

 house by the conservatives was lost by one vote. Important to the League, 

 however, was its success in securing the passage of ten measures brought 

 up by initiative which it had sponsored. The triumph of E. F. Ladd, 

 League candidate for United States senator, was attributed chiefly to his 

 personal popularity and to the fact that he was running as a Republican 

 in a Republican presidential year. 37 



By and large, the position of the League was becoming more and more 

 insecure. The strong reactionary feeling that set in with the close of the 

 World War unquestionably was one reason for the League defeats, and 

 bipartisan combinations against the League furnished another. The failure 

 of women to vote in sufficient numbers in rural areas and other places 

 where League sympathy existed also cost the League votes. Also, the 

 desire of the people to rebuke the Democratic party was detrimental to 

 the League where its candidates ran as Democrats. Nevertheless, in 

 several states the League supplanted the Democratic party as the chief 

 rival of the Republicans. Republican candidates in all states where they 

 were opposed by the League got smaller majorities and pluralities than 

 did the remainder of the Republican ticket. On the basis of the guber- 

 natorial vote, the League candidates in 1920 received more than 1,200,000 

 votes, compared with 230,000 in ipiS. 38 



Meanwhile, a powerful new opposition force known as the Independent 

 Voters' Association had been making its strength felt against the Non- 

 37. Ibid., pp. 216-24. 



38. C. R. Johnson, "The Nonpartisan League Defeated," The Nation, CXI (De- 

 cember i, 1920), p. 614; Oliver S. Morris, "The Nonpartisan League," ibid. (De- 

 cember 22, 1920), p. 733. 



