HOW ONE FARMER WAS RUINED 



North Dakota without accumulatmg a reser- 

 voir of facts and pungent arguments. He had 

 decided upon what was necessary to be done, 

 and clenched his long, lean jaws on the task 

 of winning F. B. Wood to it. There were two 

 sons in the family— fine, intelligent, upstanding 

 youths — and when the father seemed loaded 

 with about all of Townley he could digest, the 

 tireless enthusiast turned to the sons. I tell 

 5^ou the thing as it happened without trying 

 to dramatize a homely but critical incident. 

 At the end of two days' siege the family sur- 

 rendered. Mr. Wood fired up, and the sons 

 were electrified. The next morning Howard 

 Wood, the elder of the sons, loaded Townley 

 into the family Ford and went up the road 

 with him to talk to another farmer. They had 

 formulated a pledge or promise that all the 

 Woods had signed, and they now offered it 

 to the neighbors. The first day, thanks to the 

 Ford, they were able to see nine men, and got 

 them all. In six days they got seventy-nine, 

 and had not a refusal. If any tiller of the soil 

 seemed hostile or unapproachable, they took 

 him in the automobile for a spin down the 

 road, and both talked to him until they won 

 him over and he signed. 



They went on thus until they had three 

 townships in that county organized. Every 

 man that signed had to contribute his dues, 

 and I give it as an illustration of the financial 



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