North Dakota Nonpartisan League

When Arthur C. Townley came to Bismarck, North Dakota in 1915, he saw strife between a conservative legislature and farmers' interest groups. With his background in organizing farmers for the Socialist Party, Socialist activity had begun in North Dakota in 1900 when Arthur Basset organized a socialist club in Fargo.[1] Townley brought his expertise to North Dakota.[2] He knew that with the recent strife in Bismarck between a conservative legislature and the American Society of Equity and its farm following, the time was ripe for a political revolution. Townley resolved to organize the farmers, so that they could control the primaries, whether it be Republicans or Democrats or both. This was the organization of the Farmers Nonpartisan League (later called the National Nonpartisan League). Townley organized the farmers of the state together for united action in nominating at the primaries and electing at the polls the men of their own choosing and men who would carry out their programs.[2]

The Method of Organization was simple, scientific and successful. Organizers carefully went forth in ever increasing numbers to sell the idea to the farmers and to get their support for the new movement. The league grew in leaps and bounds. The first members were pledged in February 1915. Before midsummer, there were 10,000 members, and before winter set-in, there were 26,000 names enrolled.[2]

The Nonpartisan League membership pledge was $2.50 a year, it later rose to nine dollars a year. The goals of the league were to use their collective best efforts to secure the nomination and election of men for office within the state. Men whom the investigations of the League have show by conviction, record and conduct do approve and will support legislation necessary for the purpose of saving millions of dollars each year for the farmer and were to be nominated and elected to carry out the league program.[2]

The League Program was concise and to the point. It consisted of five planks, as follows:

1. State Owned and Operated elevators, flour mills, and packing plants
2. State hail insurance
3. Exemption of farm improvements from taxation
4. Fair grain grades, based upon milling and baking values
5. Rural Credits at cost

Each was designed to remedy what the farmers conceived as an abuse, and each was to lower the cost of producing and marketing grain.[2]

The determination of the league fulfilled their pledge and many of their planks passed legislation. The growth of far left sympathies was on the rise in North Dakota. The Socialists had considerable success. They brought in many outside speakers; Eugene V. Debs spoke at a large antiwar rally at Garrison in 1915. By 1912, there were 175 Socialist locals in the state. Rugby and Hillsboro elected Socialist mayors. The party had even established a weekly paper, the Iconoclast, in Minot, North Dakota.[1]

Throughout the decades, the League pushed for the establishments of State operated mills, elevators, and banks. While the state was not entirely isolationist, just as it was neither entirely liberal nor entirely conservative. By 1952, the Non-partisan league was itself divided.