THE STORY OF THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 



the vicious handmaid of the corporations 

 whose profits made political control a mat- 

 ter of good business. All of these Interests 

 and institutions saw with alarm the rapid 

 advance of the League. On both sides it 

 threatened their partnership. 



This being the case, the old political machine 

 had no difficulty in slipping through the legis- 

 lature of January, 1919, a bill that practically 

 abolished the primary and returned to the 

 old convention plan for the nominating of 

 state candidates. 



Montana has a fairly good referendum law 

 under which, by petition, an ordinary act of 

 the legislature can be referred to the people, 

 pending whose decision it becomes inoperative. 



The League managers, taken off their guard 

 by the politicians' adroit move, made haste 

 to get the requisite number of signers to a 

 petition to submit this particular law to the 

 voters at the next general election. 



But the next general election would not 

 occur until November, 1920, and meantime 

 the League would be gaining daily in strength 

 with always a greater likelihood that in the 

 referendum it would shatter the new law under 

 an overwhelming majority. 



In this emergency the machine achieved a 

 trick of transcendent cunning. The state, in 

 the summer of 1919, was afflicted with a 

 drought likely to be long remembered for its 



S04 



