THE FIRST VICTORY 



You will find to this day, in every city of the 

 Northwest, a certain element that opposes 

 the League on exactly this impulse. The 

 farmers always had submitted to the guidance 

 of those that knew what was best for the 

 state. Were they going now to upset this 

 pleasant arrangement like a bull thrusting a 

 horn under a parterre? 



For these causes and others, like the dis- 

 solving of the chances of personal ambition 

 before the eyes of many a politician of the old 

 school, the League, from the moment it re- 

 vealed its strength, was fought with a relent- 

 less energy that often amazed the onlookers, 

 and with a variety of skill and resource that 

 in a long experience I have not known to be 

 surpassed anywhere. 



At this first state convention, for instance, 

 no time was wasted by the opposition upon 

 ancient and familiar tactics. No attempt was 

 made to convince the farmer that all was 

 really well with him, and he had no just cause 

 of complaint. Instead, the assembly was 

 swept with a succession of rumors cleverly 

 designed to awaken alarm or to cause distrust 

 of the League. The most of these related to 

 the legal aspects of the case. Good lawyers 

 were said to have declared that the League 

 was wholly unlawful and its candidates could 

 not be admitted to the official ballot. An 

 action was about to be begun against Town- 



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