2I 4 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



organized in February, 1919, at South Dakota State College, and on 

 September 15, 1921, when a paid-up membership of 11,237 was reported, 

 there were thirty-nine county farm bureaus organized. 76 



Equally menacing to the Nonpartisan League was the Farmers' Union, 

 which was making a strong bid to obtain a large membership in the Mid- 

 dle West. The opposition to the League program in Nebraska and Kansas 

 was demonstrated in the latter state by the Kansas Farmers' Union, which 

 campaigned openly against the "subversive doctrines" of the League. The 

 Farmers' Union, however, made greater progress in organizing in even 

 such strongly pro-League states as Montana and North Dakota than did 

 the American Farm Bureau Federation. By the end of the twenties, the 

 Farmers' Union had become the largest farm organization in both of these 

 states. 77 



League leaders who were quick to realize that the League had about 

 run its course and who were eager to capitalize on what remained of the 

 organization had become interested in the formation of a farmer-labor 

 party. Chief advocate of this new movement was H. G. Teigan, secretary 

 of the Nonpartisan League. Opposed to this farmer-labor alignment was 

 the "balance-of-power" formula of A. C. Townley, president of the 

 League, who urged that "support be given to such candidates of any 

 party as were regarded as desirable, thus controlling the balance of 

 power." 78 This was simply the old device of selecting reform candidates 

 through the old parties. 



Teigan had been espousing the third-party move for some time prior 

 to the League defeat in the recall election. On November 10, 1919, he 

 wrote Zumach that he was "going to Chicago for the 22nd to act as a sort 

 of unofficial delegate at the Labor Party convention"; but a week later 

 Teigan wrote to his brother in Chicago that "in as much as the League 



76. Ibid., pp. 29-31; Fargo Forum, December 4, 1922; Early Organization of the 

 South Dakota Farm Bureau Federation (n.p., n.d.), p. i. 



77. For accounts of the Farmers' Union, see the following booklets: Northwest 

 Division, The Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union of America (St. Paul, 

 [1930]); North Dakota Farmers' Union (Centuria, Wis., 1936); Montana Farmers' 

 Union (Jamestown, N. Dak., 1937). 



78. "The Nonpartisan League Fights On," The Nation, CXIV (June 14, 1922), 

 p. 711. See also Minnesota Farmer-Labor Convention, Proceedings, 1923 (St. Paul), 

 p. 24; Minnesota Leader, February 25, 1922. 



