THE STORY OF THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 



might add to the gaiety of nations, but would 

 never threaten those that had sat so long in 

 the seats of the mighty they had come to 

 believe the seats their own. "With the ap- 

 pearance of the Leader they awoke with a 

 start. Twenty-two thousand members in 

 about seven months were too significant to be 

 ignored. In their own phraseology there was 

 something doing, and from that moment on 

 the League, bursting into sudden publicity, 

 was obliged to fight its way inch by inch. 



The first device was to try to prevent the 

 farther spread of the movement. Newspapers 

 in the state that were owned, controlled, 

 financed, or influenced on the side of the 

 coterie known as the Old Gang, vehemently 

 warned the farmers against what they termed 

 "a band of swindlers now traversing our 

 state and defrauding our farmers through 

 subscriptions to a mythical new political 

 league," and the name of the "Six-dollar 

 Suckers" was invented for those that had 

 already yielded to the siren song of the ad- 

 venturers. All such were daily advised that 

 they had lost their money, and others not yet 

 approached were strongly urged to take down 

 their fowling-pieces if they saw the League 

 canvassers driving into the yard. Under 

 these incitements many canvassers of the 

 League were arrested on charges of conspir- 

 acy to obtain money under false pretenses, 



" 



