THE STORY OF THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 



publication the interview was invariably first 

 distorted and then adorned with fabrications; 

 if any meeting of the League was reported, 

 the report was always untruthful and to the 

 League's discredit. To get the League's cause 

 fairly before the public it was, these officers 

 said, driven to establish its own press. 



After the founding of the League at Fargo 

 it bought or started daily and weekly journals 

 in scattered communities. In at least one of 

 these cases, that of The Courier-News of 

 Fargo, the League's purchase was assailed in 

 court and must be fought for with counsel 

 and arguments, while in other instances 

 attempts were made to keep the League 

 newspapers from obtaining a news service. 



At the time that the flood of injunctions, of 

 which I have just cited instances, descended 

 upon it the League was exposed to a new 

 and still more threatening assault. It will 

 be remembered that its simple but effective 

 plan of operation was to capture the primary 

 elections. In this it was favored by the fact 

 that the Northwestern States generally had 

 broad and liberal primary systems, secured 

 after years of agitation by progressive men 

 sick and weary of the scandals of the old 

 convention regime. Originally all these states 

 had been cursed with political bossism, of 

 which the chief strength lay in the conven- 

 tion, delegates to which were easily chosen 



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