THE LEAGUE AND THE WAR 



bended in tlie East, where the public was 

 undeceived from the first; yet it represents 

 a condition that, but for the innate and un- 

 conquerable patriotism of the people, might 

 have had historic consequences. For it was not 

 until the war was (for us) six months old that 

 the masses of the people in the Northwest had 

 any fair chance to know the facts about it. In 

 plain terms, the people there did not know what 

 the war was about; the most they knew was 

 that day after day they were assured, appar- 

 ently by persons well informed, that it had no 

 significance except as a means to increase the 

 fortunes of men already monstrously rich. 



In these conditions the Nonpartisan lead- 

 ers committed the huge blunder of assuming 

 that the war was of minor importance and of 

 steadfastly urging former issues as still of the 

 first concern. In the early days they made 

 some injudicious speeches in which this view 

 of the case was strongly phrased. It is not true 

 that they uttered any disloyal sentiments; I 

 think it is wholly untrue that they entertained 

 the least disloyal thought. They did no more 

 than to demand that the farmer's case should 

 not be obscured by this war brought on by 

 the exploiters, and that the government should 

 see that the farmer had a good price for his 

 products* 



It is easier to acquit the Nonpartisan lead- 

 ers of disloyalty than of something else. They 



233 



