212 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



League in going into new territory will study the conditions that prevail 

 there and combine its efforts with the progressive forces there, rather 

 than to supplant or antagonize them." 69 La Follette was reportedly much 

 offended by the defeat of Senator Gronna by E. F. Ladd. 70 Teigan in- 

 formed Sinclair that he would "like to see some move made to adjust 

 matters in North Dakota with Senator Gronna. It is a lead pipe cinch 

 that if things were fixed up with Gronna, the League would have easy 

 sledding in the Flickertail State." 71 Gronna had been a faithful follower 

 of La Follette during the war, and La Follette felt very grateful for his 

 aid. 72 



It would be difficult to assess accurately the effects on the League of 

 the growing coolness of the La Follette forces and the open hostility of 

 the Socialists. These developments, particularly the Progressive stand, 

 helped divide and confuse the farmers, who had come to look upon the 

 League and the Progressives as being pretty much the same thing. Yet a 

 couple of years later, when La Follette made his bid for the Presidency, 

 these elements and numerous others united behind the Progressive banner. 



More tangible in its effect on the League were the rival farm organiza- 

 tions which appeared and threatened its position not only in North Dakota 

 but also in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and many other states where 

 the League had displayed some semblance of vote-getting power. The 

 organization most powerful in the early twenties was the American Farm 

 Bureau Federation, which was born in Chicago in the fall of 1919. It 

 made a tremendous appeal to the farmers of the Middle West. Generally 

 speaking, the federation appealed to the more conservative elements, 

 which were opposed to the League. Its real display of power was in states 

 in which the League failed to obtain a strong membership. 



County agent work in Iowa, the forerunner of the Farm Bureau move- 

 ment there, had started in 1912, when the first farm bureau was organized 

 in Iowa County. When the United States entered the war, the number of 

 counties in which county agents were at work had increased to twenty- 

 four, largely as a result of the attempt to stimulate food production. 73 In 



69. J. H. Sinclair to Teigan, July 15, 1921; Teigan to Sinclair, July 20, 1921. 



70. Sinclair to Teigan, July 13, 1921; July 21, 1921. 



71. Teigan to Sinclair, July 20, 1921. 



72. Sinclair to Teigan, July 13, 1921. 



73. Iowa Farm Bureau Messenger (Waterloo), November 5, 1919; Barton Mor- 



