CHAPTER XV 



THE FARMERS IN COMPLETE CONTROL 



THOUGHT at every step relentlessly and by 

 JL methods such as these, the League through- 

 out 1916, 1917, 1918, continued to make pro- 

 gress in the Northwestern States. For the 

 election of 1918, Governor Frazier was re- 

 nominated with great acclaim; even the ene- 

 mies of the League admitted that his ad- 

 ministration had been clean and able. In 

 picking some of the other candidates for 

 state officers, the League, as subsequently ap- 

 peared, blundered seriously so far as its own 

 interests were concerned. No one has yet 

 suggested a way by which these errors can be 

 avoided under the operations of democracy. 

 Perhaps an autocrat on his throne, if he have 

 wit enough, can find infallible assistants or 

 get rid quickly of any that turn in his hand. 

 Under democracy the door is open to personal 

 popularity on one side and personal ambition 

 on the other, and a host of troubles often 

 comes trooping in with both. 



In the election the opponents of the League 



249 



