THE STORY OF THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 



send speakers into the Northwest — men and women 

 able to talk of the war as they had seen it, or else able 

 to discuss America's aims from every point of view. 



It was what we were doing in every state in the 

 Union in our effort to remove misunderstanding, to 

 promote unity, and to kindle enthusiasm. 



It was such speakers that the state administration 

 of Minnesota barred absolutely. It was not that they 

 questioned the loyalty of the speakers; in fact, they 

 asked for the use of them in their own campaigns. It 

 was simply the case that they did not mean to let the 

 Nonpartisan League hold meetings of any kind, even 

 loyalty meetings. What stood clear in my mind then, 

 as it stands clear to-day, is that Democrats and Re- 

 pubhcans aUke feared the pohtical power of the Non- 

 partisan League and did not want it to be given any 

 reputation for loyalty. In plain words, they preferred 

 that the Nonpartisan League should be disloyal rather 

 than loyal, in order that they might be provided with 

 a campaign weapon. 



I am not famihar with the purposes or principles of 

 the Nonpartisan League. For all I know, they may 

 be good or they may be bad, but what I do know is 

 that the League itself had a better war record than that 

 of many organizations operating in the name of a 100- 

 per-cent. patriotism. In the Committee's fight for 

 world opinion, waged in every foreign country, I never 

 found the Germans using the utterances of the Non- 

 partisan League or any of its members, but in Mexico, 

 South America, Scandinavia, and the Orient I did find 

 the Germans employing constantly the reflections upon 

 America that were printed in partisan papers Hke The 

 Chicago Tribune, The Kansas City Star, and The Phila- 

 delphia North American, 



BeHeve me, Very truly, 



George Creel 



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