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AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



Wisconsin. They know the principles and issues involved in this fight and they 

 are behind Berger. 



My God! how could these men vote to unseat Berger? Is not Townley in 

 the same fix? Has he not been several times indicted? Has he not been found 

 guilty of sedition and sentenced? Has not the League itself been branded by 

 these same powers as disloyal, seditious, and everything else that is bad? I my- 

 self saw Congressman Baer driven from Rice County, Minnesota because he 

 was branded as disloyal. Do these men hold these seats in Congress because 

 they are considered safe by Big-Biz while Berger is driven out? 



Zumach pleaded with Teigan to see to it that the League took a stand 

 on this matter, if the Socialists and the League were to get along. "You 

 simply must clean your house of this stain." 55 



Teigan replied that he did "not believe that we should conclude that 

 a combination of forces in Wisconsin is impossible. After all the League 

 organization in Wisconsin does not belong to us here at the National 

 office, neither is it in any way responsible for the acts of a North Dakota 

 congressman. All that we have done in Wisconsin, as in other states, is to 

 build the organization. The farmers who have enlisted in the movement 

 there own the organization after it has been built." 5 



The action of League congressmen in helping to unseat Berger was 

 perhaps explained in a letter by Teigan to an inquirer concerning the 

 League's position on national issues: 



The National Nonpartisan League has not concerned itself very much with 

 National matters. In fact its concern with these things has been so small that 

 at times we have forgotten about having representatives at the national capitol. 

 As a consequence these men were never advised as to what was the desire of 

 the organized farmer in the Berger matter. Thus, both Baer and Sinclair were 

 left to act on their own initiative as is the case with them, on most other proposi- 

 tions that have come before Congress. 57 



Later Teigan summarized the League relationship with the Socialist Party 

 of America in a letter to F. Thoeneman of Kiel, Germany, in December, 

 1921: 



55. Zumach to H. G. Teigan, November 14, 1919. 



56. Teigan to Zumach, November 18, 1919. 



57. Teigan to O. E. Smith, July 7, 1920. 



