Founded in 1915 in North Dakota, the Non-Partisan League (NPL) became a leading force in state and regional politics for the next decade and the sponsor of experiments in public ownership and socialist governance. Dedicated to a non-partisan strategy and the Populist tradition of agrarian radicalism, the league sought to create a future of cooperative production within a state-controlled economy that favored small farms and small firms. NPL adherents organized not as a third party but as a political force that could support and influence progressive factions of the two major parties. It backed candidates who supported its progressive program and sought to work as-a balance of power in both state and, eventually, national politics.
Situated in a largely rural state, the Non-Partisan League’s program promoted an agenda of a “New Day” for North Dakota. It directed its efforts at revitalizing the rural economy and protecting ordinary people from the power of corporations. It flourished in the context of a political culture that provided its members with public education, social and political events, and material symbolism. Under the leadership of league president Arthur C. Townley, Socialist Party organizers and members of the Equity Society, an organization for farm cooperatives, spread the word of the Non-Partisan League. They supported league efforts to take control of the North Dakota state government in 1916. By 1918, the NPL had defeated most of its rivals in new elections and proceeded to enact its program in the state legislature, seeking to establish a state bank to provide rural credit and state-owned grain mills and grain elevators, state-funded crop and farm insurance, workers’ compensation, and subsidized housing for workers, as well as greater state regulation of transportation.
Tapping into a regional political culture, the Non-Partisan League spread through the Midwest and the northern plains. As a social movement rooted in rural life with its dependence on the labor of women as well as men, the NPL recruited large numbers of women into its ranks and supported women’s right to vote and participate. The league had its greatest success in Minnesota, where a state Non-Partisan League joined farmers and workers in new political efforts and laid the groundwork for the founding of the Farmer-Labor Party in 1922. The league also had influence on the politics in Montana, Idaho, Wisconsin, and Colorado as well as supporters in 13 other states.
Opposition to the league from North Dakota’s small urban population, middle-class farmers, and business came together in the Independent Voters’ Association, which openly challenged the NPL through investigation of league finances, accusations of corruption, and charges of anti-Americanism. The NPL’s opposition to the U. S. entry into World War I also cost the league supporters and brought with it government surveillance. Before the war, many German-American farmers held aloof from the NonPartisan League, in large part due to its rhetorical support of temperance. Now, however, the NPL’s position against the war attracted the support of German-Americans who felt embattled. Their growing support added weight to the charge that the NPL was pro-German and anti-American. By 1919, these charges had eroded league support and cost it political office. By 1925, factionalism within the league, its declining membership, and government prosecution effectively destroyed the NPL as a mass organization. It lingered on as a force in North Dakota politics for another two decades, reviving itself under a more conservative banner in the 1930s. In contrast, its heir, the Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota, grew to become a major state power in the same decade.
See also Farmer-Labor Party; radicalism;
Socialism.
Further reading: Robert L. Morlan, Political Prairie Fire: The Non-Partisan League, 1915-1922 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1955).
World History
