THE STORY OF THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 



struction from a common source, and the 

 nature of that source could easily be guessed 

 by any farmer that would glance at the In- 

 terests that were supporting the movement. 

 Clearly enough, then, some banks were nerve 

 centers of influence controlled by a gigantic 

 and secret power concerned in maintaining 

 the existing system intact; maintaining all of 

 it, no matter how dishonest and vicious, the 

 false grading of grain, the defective scales, the 

 various pickers and stealers ranged in a long 

 line between the producer and the consumer, 

 all were supported by the average country 

 bank acting on instructions from bigger banks 

 that in turn were instructed by some con- 

 centrated authority representing an appalling 

 power of heaped-up wealth. They recalled 

 how often the same institutions had used the 

 like influence to encourage the sending of 

 grain to Chamber of Commerce firms, how it 

 had discouraged co-operative and farmer 

 movements, how it had often exerted a quiet 

 but sure influence in politics. They reflected 

 also that over the average farmer the average 

 country bank held the pistol because it could 

 at any time for any reason or no reason refuse 

 to make to him the money advances by which 

 he was able to carry on his business, and be- 

 cause behind all this still was the shadow of 

 the mortgage, which the bank controlled. 

 These lessons went home, and it may be well 



178 



