Origins By the 1910s, the growth of left-wing sympathies was on the rise in North Dakota. The
Socialist Party of North Dakota had considerable success. They brought in many outside speakers, including
Eugene V. Debs, who spoke at a large
antiwar rally at
Garrison in 1915. By 1912, there were 175 Socialist politicians in the state.
Rugby and
Hillsboro elected Socialist mayors. The party had also established a weekly newspaper, the
Iconoclast, in Minot. In 1914,
Arthur C. Townley, a
flax farmer from
Beach, North Dakota, and
organizer for the
Socialist Party of America, attended a meeting of the
American Society of Equity. Afterwards, Townley and a friend, Frank B. Wood, drew up a radical political platform that addressed many of the farmers' concerns, and created the Farmers Non-Party League Organization, which later evolved into the Nonpartisan League. Soon, Townley was traveling the state in a borrowed
Ford Model T, signing up members for a payment of $6 in dues. Farmers were receptive to Townley's ideas and joined in droves. However, Townley was soon expelled from the Socialist Party due to this method of rogue operating. Rumors spread at a Society of Equity meeting in
Bismarck that a
state representative named
Treadwell Twichell had told a group of farmers to "go home and slop the hogs." Twichell later said that his statement was misinterpreted. He had been instrumental in previous legislative reforms to rescue the state from boss rule by McKenzie and the
Northern Pacific Railroad around the start of the 20th century.
Rise to power in North Dakota Proposing that the state of North Dakota create its own bank, warehouses, and factories, the League was supported by a populist groundswell. It ran its slate as
Republican Party candidates in the 1916 elections. In the
gubernatorial election, farmer
Lynn Frazier won with 79% of the vote. In 1917,
John Miller Baer won a
special election for the
United States House of Representatives. In the 1918 elections, the NPL won full control of both houses of the
state legislature. The League politicians enacted a significant portion of its previous election platform. It established state-run agricultural enterprises such as the
North Dakota Mill and Elevator, the
Bank of North Dakota, and a
state-owned railroad. The legislature also passed a statewide
graduated income tax, which distinguished between earned and
unearned income, authorized a state hail insurance fund, and established a
workmen's compensation fund that assessed employers. The NPL also set up a Home Building Association, to aid people in financing and building houses. During
World War I, Townley demanded the "conscription of wealth", blaming "big-bellied, red-necked
plutocrats" for the war. He and fellow party leader
William Lemke received support for the League from
isolationist German-Americans.
Depression and decline The NPL's success was short-lived. After the war ended, commodity prices dropped and the West was struck by a
drought. This caused an agricultural depression. As a result of the depression, the new state-owned industries ran into financial trouble, and the private banking industry, smarting from the loss of its influence in Bismarck, rebuffed the NPL when it tried to raise money through state-issued bonds. The industry said that the state bank and elevator were "theoretical experiments" that might easily fail. Moreover, the NPL's lack of governing experience led to perceived infighting and corruption. Newspapers and business groups portrayed the NPL as inept and disastrous for the state's future. In 1918, opponents of the NPL formed the
Independent Voters Association (IVA). In 1921, the IVA organized a
recall election which successfully recalled Frazier as governor. Frazier lost the recall election by a margin of 1.8%, becoming the first U.S. state governor to be recalled. However, a year later he was elected in the
1922 United States Senate election in North Dakota, serving until 1940. The 1920s were economically difficult for farmers, and the NPL's popularity receded. By 1922, the NPL had retreated from all other states to just North Dakota.
Electoral survival and fusion with Democratic party However, the populist undercurrent that fueled the NPL's meteoric growth revived with the coming of the
Great Depression and
Dust Bowl conditions of the 1930s. The NPL's
William "Wild Bill" Langer was elected to the governorship in
1932 and
1936. Langer was later elected to the U.S. Senate, serving from
1940 until his death in 1959. By 1950, two factions divided the traditionally left-wing NPL; on one side were the Insurgents, and on the other were the Old Guard. The Insurgents aligned
liberally with pro-farmers' union,
organized labor, and
Democratic Party groups. The Insurgents wanted to merge the NPL with the
North Dakota Democratic Party. In
1952, the Insurgents formed the Volunteers for Stevenson Committee, to help elect
Adlai Stevenson II, the
governor of
Illinois and Democratic nominee for
president. The Old Guard, also known as the
Capitol Crowd, were more
conservative, anti-farmers' union, anti-labor, and pro-Republican segment of the league, these members wanted to keep the Nonpartisan League aligned with the Republican Party; they supported General
Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1952 presidential race. Over the following four years, legislative polarization grew and the Nonpartisan League eventually split in two. In 1956, the Nonpartisan League formally merged with the state Democratic Party, creating the
North Dakota Democratic-Nonpartisan League Party, while much of the League's base joined the
North Dakota Republican Party. The Democratic-Nonpartisan League Party introduced a unified slate of candidates for statewide offices and adopted a liberal platform that included the repeal of the
Taft–Hartley Act, creation of a
minimum wage of $1.25 an hour, and a graduated land tax on property worth $20,000 or more. In May 1956, the Democratic Convention accepted the Nonpartisan League's candidates and adopted its platform, fully unifying the two parties into one. Although the Democrats were still in the minority in the state government, the number of Democrats in the state legislature increased greatly. Before the league moved into the Democratic Party, there were only five Democrats among the 162 members of both houses of the legislature in 1955. By 1957, the number grew to 28, and in 1959 the numbers continued to grow, reaching 67. == Notable members ==