EXPANSION AND DECLINE 209 



The Socialist Party . . . has not been particularly friendly to our movement 

 although it is more so now than was the case some years ago. The good work 

 done by the League in North Dakota and which was attempted by our legisla- 

 tors in other states had a rather convincing influence upon the Socialists as to 

 the honest intentions, at least, of the League and its leaders. 58 



Although the opposition of the Socialist party to the "opportunistic" 

 program of the League was well known, the position of Senator Robert 

 M. La Follette was not exactly clear. La Follette never had issued a clear- 

 cut statement concerning where he stood with respect to the League, yet 

 his attitude toward the organization was all-important. The La Follette 

 movement was a psychological counterpart of the same forces that were 

 crystallized into the organization of the League; furthermore, some of 

 his most enthusiastic supporters were in the states in which the League 

 had its largest membership. La Follette's stand on the war at the con- 

 ference of producers and consumers in St. Paul in September had en- 

 deared him to the most ardent League admirers. Still, his pronounce- 

 ments there and elsewhere could not be considered ipso facto evidence 

 that he had become an integral part of the movement. W. C. Zumach, 

 who had become the office manager of the Wisconsin branch of the 

 League, probably had the La Follette camp in mind when he wrote to 

 Teigan: "Various forces whom we have counted upon as our friends are 

 becoming fearful of League power, and are interested in seeing the League 

 relegated to a position of impotency." 5 



The Progressive forces in the fall of 1920, according to Zumach, "were 

 under the impression that the League was plentifully supplied with 

 money, and that we were in a position to put up a big campaign." Such, 

 however, was not the case. "The League financially and otherwise was 

 in a most deplorable position." 60 In the Wisconsin senatorial race, certain 

 Socialists and Leaguers tried to obtain La Follette's support for Frank 

 Weber, a Milwaukee Socialist leader and labor organizer, but with little 

 success. The Socialist sympathies of La Follette were too well known. 

 James Thompson, the La Crosse Progressive, was his choice. 61 In October, 



58. Teigan to F. Thoeneman, December 6, 1921. 



59. Zumach to Teigan, January 5, 1920. 



60. Zumach to Teigan, September 27, 1920. 



61. Teigan to Zumach, September 30, 1920. Bitter feelings existed among Progres- 



