THE STORY OF THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 



the same road into the same pit. It seemed 

 clear to Townley and to A. E. Bowen, a 

 friend of his who shared his views, that there 

 would never be a \vay for the farmer to 

 win clear and have a chance at a fair re- 

 turn for his labor until he had put forth his 

 power politically and obtained control of the 

 machinery of the state government. The 

 state was able to prevent most of the pilfering 

 that kept the farmer poor; able to, and bound 

 thereto, if laws and the American theory of 

 government amounted to anything. He saw 

 very plainly that most of the impositions 

 practised upon the farmer existed only be- 

 cause the state protected them. It was, for 

 instance, perfectly easy to remedy the crying 

 evil of false grades if the state honestly set 

 forth to remedy them. The state could put 

 a stop to extortionate money rates, false scales, 

 the tyranny of the railroads, the lawless com- 

 binations that fixed prices. The state could 

 come to the relief of the roped man of the 

 favorite illustration. Instead, it only held the 

 door shut against any one that wanted to 

 help him. 



Every year the same influences nominated 

 the same kind of men to office; every year 

 the voters had the same choice of these or 

 nothing. All the world knew well enough 

 what were the influences and what the men 

 represented. In office they were bound ab- 



104 



