THE FARMERS IX CONTROL 



So much has been said in the Eastern press 

 about the autocratic or even despotic rule 

 believed to be exercised over the simple- 

 minded farmers composing the League that 

 some of the visiting reporters sought for this 

 manifestation as of unusual interest. They 

 found that the action of the League members 

 of the legislature on matters of importance 

 was decided by a caucus of all the members, 

 in which the pending bill was thoroughly dis- 

 cussed, and anybody was heard on it that 

 wanted to speak. This caucus, it had been 

 asserted, would be found to be secret, sinister, 

 and overawed by the dictatorship that was 

 believed to conduct the League's affairs. 

 They found that it was open, animated, and 

 occasionally vehement. One of the reporters, 

 after describing in detail two of these meet- 

 ings that he attended, wrote this conclusion: 



If this was a fair sample of the League caucus and 

 what I saw that evening and the next would lead one 

 to think it was it appeared, taken by itself, to be a 

 pretty fair prairie replica of the old-fashioned New 

 England town meeting. 



It was all of that. Every proposal was de- 

 bated up and down until all that had either 

 ideas or struggling emotions about it had re- 

 lieved their surcharged feelings. Then it was 

 put to a vote, and as the vote was recorded 

 so the League members of the legislature felt 

 themselves instructed to act. This was the 



253 



