The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 15, 1920, Page 4

. | LEAGUERS GAIN IN ELECTION | \ 5 ! { 5 Elect Governors in Two States—ILadd Wins for U. S. Senate— - %1 w|Y, SAYING a great deal about the states in which the League lost and practically nothing about the states in which the League won, daily news- papers have been attempting to make out that the organized farmers suffer- ed a crushing defeat at the general election Novem- ber 2. This is far from the truth. Here are the facts: The League has retained control of the govern- ment of North Dakota. 4 Governor Lynn J. Frazier has been re-elected for a third term with a larger majority than he got at the primary. The League has for the first time elected a gover- nor in a state aside from North Dakéta, John J. Blaine being elected governor of Wisconsin by a plurality that will exceed 100,000: . The League has for the first time elected a United States senator, electing Doctor E. F. Ladd of ‘North Dakota by an overwhelming vote. The League has, in co-operation with organized labor and other progressive forces, increased its representation in the lower house of congress. The League has gained an increased support - everywhere and the total vote of its candidates for governor in the nine states in which there were state tickets will pass the million mark. : While big gains were thus registered for the League the farmers’ candidates did mnot, in many cases, do as well as had been expected. A combi- nation of circumstances proved almost impossible to overcome. These were the principal reasons for League defeat, where defeats occurred: REPUBLICAN LANDSLIDE GREATEST "IN HISTORY OF THE COUNTRY First, the Republican landslide and straight ticket - voting made it next to impossible for independent candidates or League candidates on the Democratic . ticket to make any headway. In both Montana and Colorado League candidates for governor and other state offices were nominated on the Democratic ticket and would have won easily in an ordinary year. In Minnesota, Washington, Idaho, Nebraska .and South Dakota League candidates; running inde- pendently or as Farmer-Labor candidates, also suf- fered from the Republiean landslide. League candidates suffered much less from the Republican landslide’; however, than did the I\)emo- I RE-ELECTED I Governor Lynn J. Frazier of North hakota. More Congressmen and State Legislators Chosen et I FIRST LEAGUE SENATOR I Doctor E. F. Ladd of North Dakota. cratic party generally. - Nearly everywhere League candidates on the Democratic ticket ran ahead of the Democratic candidate for president. Independ- ent candidates—indorsed by the League also ran ahead of Democratic candidates in many cases. Second, weather conditions made it next to impos- sible for the League to cast its full strength in many states. A storm from the southwest, two days before election, swept over practically the entire League territory in the Middle West. Roads were made impassable in South Dakota, in the southern part of North Dakota and in many sections of Min- . nesota and Wisconsin. Weather conditions, of course, did not interfere with the town and city vote, which is anti-League, but in each of the four states named thousands of League farmers. and their wives were prevented from making the long _journey to the polls by the fact that roads were either made impassable by heavy snowfall or be- cause they were like-swamps with two days of steady rain. MORE DRGANIZATION: WORK AMONG WOMEN IS NEEDED Third, woman suffrage increased the.town and city vote out of proportion to the country vote. ' The census shows that throughout the League states there is g larger proportion of women in the cities and towns than in the country. It is also much easier for the city and town women to vote than it is for the country women. When the bad weather conditions complicated the situation, as they did, it made it next to impossible for the Leagué women to get to the polls in number sufficient to counter- balance the vote cast by anti-League women. - It is also true that in some sections women are not as well informed in regard to the League as the men. In Minnesota; North Dakota, Wisconsin and other states anti-League organizations hired wom- en workers who made house-to-house canvasses to influence women voters against the League. These workers in many instances told outrageous false- #hoods in regard to the League, stating that it stood for free love, atheism and breaking up the home..- ~and family. While labor women in many city pre- cincts volunteered for precinct work to overcome these falsehoods the women are so generally em- ployed in the labor districts, either at wage work or at housework, that it was impossible to meet this i . PAGE FOUR : 2 e campaign of lies and calumny successfully in the short time allowed. . R The election just past showed that the organized farmers and organized labor, working together, can win every state in League territory undéer normal 2 conditions. 4 Big victories were won this year in spite of the 28 & greatest Republican landslide that the country has - ever seen, in spite of bad weather and in spite of the . 4. fact that millions of new voters, only recently en- franchised by the suffrage amendment, were added to the voting population that the League had to " reach with its message. _ : LEAGUE OPPOSITION REACHED B HIGHEST POSSIBLE POINT" The League opposition, it is admitted, got the largest vote at the last election that can ever be expected. There has never been a Republican land- 1 slide like the one this year, and it probably will be ~ 100 years before there is another like it. " The largest majority against the League in any state was approximately 100,000 in Minnesota. : i I In Minnesota the League candidate for goverhor B in 1918 got 110,000 votes. This year the League 78 candidate for governor got more than 260,000 votes, - a gain of more than 150,000 votes. Fifty thousand -more votes, taken away from Preus, Republican candidate for governor, would have given Shipstead, the League candidate, the election. 3 The League gained 150,000 votes in Minnesota in the last two years. Surely the organized farmersL f can gain another 50,000 votes in the next two years. ~~ If they can do that in Minnesota they can do it in every other state in which the League is organ- s/ized and make a clean sweep two years hence. Detailed reports of the election by states will be 1! found on the next page. : In the next issue of the Leader full reports will be given of the outcome in doubtful contests and the outcome of legislative elections.. _ Indications: are that the League will have legis- \ lators in nine states during the coming sessions and } that in a number of states these legislators, work- 4 ing in co-operation with progressives elected on “other party tickets, will have a marked influence on Lot S legislation. Sessions of the legistature in all League states will begin next January and the League r members will put up a solid front, fighting in be- half of laws in the interest of the farmers and city workers. : : 5 - NEW LEAGUE GOVERNOR John J, Blaine of Wisconsin, ~