THE STORY OF THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 



and the discriminating observer cannot but 

 admire the manner in which this was at- 

 tempted. The reforming element in the state 

 had long felt that the primary law did not 

 go far enough. It provided that candidates 

 should be chosen by primary election, but 

 it allowed conventions, chosen in the old 

 manner, to prepare the party platforms and 

 select the party committee. The result was 

 (said the reformers) that candidates of pro- 

 gressive views found themselves standing on 

 platforms that contradicted their professions, 

 while their campaigns were managed by com- 

 mittees unfriendly to them and often trying 

 to compass their defeat. The legislature, 

 therefore, passed a law extending the primary 

 principle to party conventions and party 

 committees, but the same measure concealed 

 a provision that thereafter all candidates for 

 state offices below that of governor were to 

 be chosen by conventions instead of by pri- 

 maries. This put the legislature back under 

 the control of the machine, which was the 

 thing most desired by the corporations and 

 the reactionary influences, and most to be 

 feared by the League. 



When the reformers awoke to the trick that 

 had been played upon them, they called a 

 conference at Omaha to consider the grave 

 situation thus created. Republicans, Demo- 

 crats, Nonpartisan Leaguers, and others, at- 



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