The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, January 7, 1918, Page 7

% » . it too strong that the Nonpartisan league is on the right track now, not only in its program but-in- getting up its campaign funds in advance.” The writer asked Mr. Loucks about this point. “Yes, we were always-short of money for campaign funds,” said Loucks. ' “The situation that grew out of our shortage of funds was even worse than the actual shortage. We were compelled, many times, to select men .as candidates” who should not have been on our ticket. They were selected, not because of their fitness, but because of their ability to supply campaign funds. The League system of paying the campaign- expenses of its candidates “is undoubtedly the right one. Then you can get the men you want for candidates, whether they have money or not.” The campaign went on. ' The Republicans, with unlimited 'campaign funds, put -the best speakers available into the field. They reminded the voters that the Republican party had freed the slaves; they said the new Independent party was only organized as a “farmers’i aid” to the Democratic party, which had-been for slavery. They waived the bloody shirt ' of the Civil war. Loucks at this time wore a full beard. It was one of the longest beards worn by any man in the state. The cpposition brought up the whiskers as an issue, They attempted to make a joke of Loucks’candidacy. But this was not all. They attacked the farmers’ ' candidates personally. A story was circulated by word of mouth, and was referred to by innuendo in the newspapers, that Loucks had been a defaulter “in Canada and that he . had to leave that coun- try to keep from going to prison. They charg- ~.ed that he was person- ally making, thousands of dollars from the farmer members of the Alliance. The writer has seen -cartoons of ~ the campaign repre- senting Loucks oper- ating a series of suc- tion pumps that were sucking' all the money out ‘of the pockets of -the farmers and put- -ting it into his own pockets. & EVEN BREAK IN THE HOUSE ° One pump waslabeled “Membership‘ fees”; ‘one was “Campaign funds”; one was “The Ruralist” (official pa- per -of the ' Alliance), and others were “Hail insurance,” ‘“Fire- in- surance,” and- so forth. “The farmers were call- ed “Anarchists,” “So-:~ cialists,” “Agitators,” everything that the ‘organized - farmers are called today, except “Traitors,” and they missed that, apparently, only because there wasn’'t a war on at that time. That was the way the campaign went on—Ilittle or no reference to the issues, 99 per cent.personal abuse and vilification. It was much the same kind of a fight that North Dakota farmers, nearly 30 - years later, were to face when they. organized ‘their Nonpartisan league. But when election returns rolled in it appeared at first that .the farmers were victorious in electing Loucks governor and a majority of the lower house of the legiblature. Then the returns were taken ‘to - Pierre to be counted, and it was announced that Loucks had failed of election, that the Republicans = -had carried the senate and that, not counting con- tests ‘(there were a number of these filed_against JIndependents wherever the vote appeared to ‘be ‘- close) the :Independents and Republicans ‘were an “ exact tie in the lower house.: 2 * The ol lime Republicans were still in“control of * the canvass of the yotes at Plerreand most of the - farmers who: participated in’ the: campaign believed _then ‘and_still’ believe today that Loucks was in ity lected and eounted ‘out: at the capital. _How- -~have hig leg amputated Ao i POPULISTS PUT TICKET ~ You ca.n start thrs great historical series now running in the Leader w1th any installment. plete in itself. The South Dakota historical sketch, the second part of which appears here, is particularly interesting because it tells the story of that powerful old farmer’s political organization, the Farmer’s alliance. It also tells of the “old Popuhst party in South Dakota and how the farmers once captured the state politically and then lost it. - When it came time to organize the house, howev- 3 er, it was found that one of the Republicans, C. X. Seward, was independent of the old gang. By agree- . ing to take up Seward as their candidate for the speakership the Independents got his vote and were able to organize the house, apd after the contested seats were settled, principally in favor of Independ- ent candidates, the farmers had enough of a major- ity in the house to offset/the Republican majority in the senate ‘and to give the farmers a slight lead in the joint "ballot .which was necessary to elect a United States senator. FARMERS SEND SENATOR TO NATIONAL CONGRESS ‘When it came’ to election .of a United States sen- ator the independents picked out the Rev. James H. Kyle. On July 4, 1890, Mr. Kyle had been selected as Independence day orator at Aberdeen. In his speech he said that the farmers of South Dakota were working then toward a new Independence day of their own and that the reforms they demanded were just and should be*granted. So the farmers took up Kyle and elected him. He agreed on some legislation that the Democrats wanted and though they were few in number they voted for him too. He was the first farmers’ candidate to go from South Dakota to the national congress. But Kyle found a few other farmer senators and congressmen at Washington when he got there. Sev-- eral of the other states had taken up with the pro- posal of Loucks for independent political action. Buffaloes of western South Dakota, now almost extinct. The plains still eontained large numbers of these ani- mals when the first farmers’ political organization was formed in South Dakota. Kansas jumped into the front with political success. Nebraska: and Minnesota fell into line, all these states shortly after South Dakota had pointed the way. North Dakota Alliance men decided, instead of organizing an independent party, to capture the ‘Republican party. “And they captured it,” said Mr. Loucks to the writer the other day, “just like the Englishman cap- tured the Tartar. he had captured the Tartar, you know, while the Tartar was carrying him ‘off.” At about this time Mr. Loucks, as president of the National Farmers’ alliance, was working on the plan of reorganization of the Alliance with numerous oth- er farmers and general reform organizations. union, which was referred to in the previous article, was finally. accomplished all the farmers’ organiza-- tions -except the Grange being taken in, and L. L. Polk of North Carolina. was.elected pr sident. Loucks had trouble with an injury 1o his leg at thls ‘time but _‘he was so busy with the reorganization nationally and the: farmers® ‘fight in. South Dakota that he neglected paying attention to it. Flnally l;e had to UpP: FOR THE PRESIDENOY The Englishman called out that . This. i of the prlvate dealers.- e - ance men who had guaranteed the sale of machinery As there wasa Bepublican govemor- and a Repub-, i 'Hean senate the South’ Dakota Tndep dents 4n ‘the # f Each week’s article is com- house were unable to do much. The next year there was a congressional vacancy, due to the death of the incumbent. The Independents nominated Henry W. Smith. But when it came to the campaign the farmers found that they couldn’t count on the sup- - port of the disgruntled Republican politicians who had worn “Independent” buttons the year before. The Republican machine was not quite so high- handed as it had been; it succeeded in satisfying this element. These fair weather friends had de- serted. And Smith was defeated by about 2700 votes. Meanwhile the farmers had linked their state par- ties together in a national organization. In May, 1891, a r.eeting was held at Cincinnati, Ohio, with 1300 delegates present. They organized the new party and called it “The People’s party of the United States.” It was known popularly as the Populist party and its opponents called them the “Pops” and made fun of the whiskers that were in vogue then among the farmers. The Cincinnati meeting was followed by a still larger meeting at St. Louis in February, 1892, at which Frances Willard, the prohibition leader, and the Knights of Labor were represented. Then, July 4, 1892, at Omaha, the new party held its nominating convention. The tacit agreement was reached at St. Louis to nominate L. L. Polk, then president of the Farmers’ Alliance and Industrial Union, for pres- ident of the United States, but Polk had died in the meantime, Loucks succeeding as president of the Alliance. Loucks, born in Canada, was ineligible for the presidency of the TUnited States. The party nominated James B. Weaver of Iowa for president and James G. Field of Virginia for vice-president. ALLIANCE ENTER- PRISES FAIL In the election that ensued the People's party candidates for president and vice-pres- ident received 1,055,424 votes, nearly as many as the 1,341,264 votes that had been received by Republican candi- dates at the first elec< * tion in which the Re- publican party partici- pated in 1856. These votes gave the Popu- . lists 22 electoral votes and they carried a : number of states with their candidates for governor and congress. congressmen actually .~ were sent to Washing-: ton at this time, al-: though many of these, in the Southern states, = ran onthe Democratlc ticket on account of locdl /; conditions. But in South Dakota the Populist candidates lost. There were a number of reasons for this. The farm- ers did not have enough campaign funds. The Re- publicans had succeeded in appeasing the Independ- ents who had broken away in 1890. - Many of the farmers had‘ been discouraged over the failure of their candidate at the special congresslonal election of the previous year. On top of all this some of the Alliance business enterprises were not doing well. This went well for ‘a time but when they went into it on a larger scale and had loaded up with a big -supply of machinery the implement companies put ' in effect-a sudden drop in their prices sc that private - dealers could buy them and'sell to the farmers ata ¢ lower price than the Alliance could. It was a tem- . porary trick to break up the ‘Alliance, but it worked. i The farmers hadn’t been sufficiently drilled in the i “We'll stick” propaganda and a lot of them bought That left many of the Alli- and lmplements already ordered holding the sac : [t created a teeling ot distrust amongm. tew, enou; More than 60 farmers’ ' The farmers had organized a big company inside of the Alliance to ~.buy farm machinery and implements co-operatively.