Nonpartisan League

Political organization in North Dakota

This article is about the former North Dakota political party. For the former Alberta political party, see Alberta Non-Partisan League. For other uses, see Nonpartisan.

North Dakota Nonpartisan League

Leader| Arthur C. Townley
Founded| 1915 (1915)
Dissolved| 1956 (1956)
Preceded by| Socialist Party of North Dakota
Merged into| North Dakota Democratic–Nonpartisan League Party
Headquarters| Patterson Hotel, Bismarck
Ideology| Left-wing populism[1]
Social democracy[3]
Socialism[8]
Agrarian socialism[10]
Laborism[13]
Agrarianism[17]
Localism
Progressivism[20]
State ownership[21]
Women's suffrage[23]
Political position| Left-wing[24]
National affiliation| Socialist Party of America

* Politics of the United States
* Political parties
* Elections

The Nonpartisan League (NPL) was a left-wing political party founded in 1915 in North Dakota by Arthur C. Townley, a former organizer for the Socialist Party of America. On behalf of small farmers and merchants, the Nonpartisan League advocated state control of mills, grain elevators, banks, and other farm-related industries in order to reduce the power of corporate and political interests from Minneapolis and Chicago.[25]

The League adopted the goat as a mascot; it was known as "The Goat that Can't be Got".[26]

## History

[edit]

1919 cover of the League's newspaper, The Nonpartisan Leader, portraying organized farmers and workers standing tall against big business interests This article is part of a series on

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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.[27]

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.[citation needed] However, Townley was soon expelled from the Socialist Party due to this method of rogue operating.[27]

The League grew in 1915. At that time, small farmers in North Dakota felt exploited by out-of-state companies. One author later described the wheat-growing state as "a tributary province of Minneapolis-St. Paul." Minnesota banks made its loans, Minnesota millers handled its grain, and Alexander McKenzie, North Dakota's political boss, lived in Saint Paul, Minnesota.[28] 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

[edit]

Proposing that the state of North Dakota create its own bank, warehouses, and factories,[28] 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.[29]

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.[28]

However, the NPL's success was short-lived, as a drop in commodity prices at the close of the war, together with a drought, caused an agricultural depression.

### Decline

[edit]

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. 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. However, the populist undercurrent that fueled its 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.[27] 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.[27]

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.[27]

## Notable members

[edit]

Nonpartisan League meeting at Brush Lake, Montana.

### United States Senators

[edit]

* Edwin F. Ladd (1921–1925)
* Lynn Frazier (1923–1941)
* Gerald Nye (1925–1945)
* William Langer (1941–1959)

### United States Representatives

[edit]

* George M. Young[a] (1913–1924)
* John M. Baer (1917–1921)
* James H. Sinclair (1919–1933)
* Thomas Hall (1924–1933)
* William Lemke (1933–1941, 1943–1950)
* Usher L. Burdick (1935–1945, 1949–1959)

### Governors of North Dakota

[edit]

* Lynn Frazier (1917–1921)
* Arthur G. Sorlie (1925–1928)
* Walter Maddock (1928–1929)
* William Langer (1933–1934, 1937–1939)
* Ole H. Olson (1934–1935)
* Walter Welford (1935–1937)

### Lieutenant Governors of North Dakota

[edit]

* Howard R. Wood (1919–1923)
* Walter Maddock (1925–1928)
* Ole H. Olson (1933–1934)
* Walter Welford (1935)
* Thorstein H. H. Thoresen (1937–1939)
* Jack A. Patterson (1939–1941)
* Oscar W. Hagen (1941–1943)

### North Dakota Attorneys General

[edit]

* William Langer (1917–1920)
* William Lemke (1921)
* Arthur J. Gronna (1933)
* Peter O. Sathre (1933–1937)
* Alvin C. Strutz (1937–1944)

### North Dakota Secretaries of State

[edit]

* Thomas Hall (1913–1924, 1943–1954)
* James D. Gronna (1935–1940)

### North Dakota Public Service Commissioner

[edit]

* Ben C. Larkin (1941–1949)

### North Dakota State Treasurers

[edit]

* Obert A. Olson (1919–1920)
* Berta E. Baker (1929–1932)
* Alfred S. Dale (1933–1934)
* John R. Omland (1939–1940)

### North Dakota State Auditors

[edit]

* Carl R. Kositzky (1917–1920)
* David C. Poindexter (1921–1924)
* Berta E. Baker (1935–1956)

### North Dakota Superintendent of Public Instruction

[edit]

* Neil C. Macdonald (1917–1918)

### North Dakota Insurance Commissioners

[edit]

* Sveinung A. Olsness (1917–1934)
* Harold Hopton (1935–1936)
* Oscar E. Erickson (1937–1945)

### North Dakota Commissioners of Agriculture and Labor

[edit]

* John N. Hagan (1917–1921, 1937–1938)
* Theodore Martell (1935–1936)
* Math Dahl (1939–1964)

### North Dakota Tax Commissioners

[edit]

* George E. Wallace (1919–1921)
* Thorstein H. H. Thoresen (1925–1929)
* Frank A. Vogel (1933)
* J J. Weeks (1933–1935)
* John Kenneth Murray (1937)
* Owen T. Owen (1937–1938)
* Claude P. Stone (1938–1939)

## Representation in other media

[edit]

* Northern Lights (1978), a feature film starring Joe Spano, portrayed early 20th century conditions in North Dakota and the rise of the NPL among immigrant farmers. The film won the 1980 Camera d'Or award for best first film at the Cannes Film Festival.
* The didactic historical novel Harangue (The Trees Said to the Bramble Come Reign Over Us) (1926) by Garet Garrett tells the story of the Non-Partisan League and its various supporters after the league took control of the North Dakota government in 1919.[30][31]

## Legacy

[edit]

* The NPL arose as a faction within the Republican Party in 1915. By the 1950s, its members felt more affiliation with the Democratic Party and merged with the North Dakota Democrats. The North Dakota branch of the Democratic Party is therefore known as the North Dakota Democratic-Nonpartisan League Party to this day. The Executive Committee of the NPL still formally exists within the party structure of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL. It was at one point headed by former State Senator Buckshot Hoffner (D-NPL, Esmond), chairman, and former Lt. Governor Lloyd B. Omdahl, Secretary.
* The Nonpartisan League laid a foundation of enriched public ownership and responsibility in such institutions as a state bank. One study has drawn conclusions that publicly operated institutions such as the state bank have helped North Dakota weather these economic storms.[32]
* The Bank of North Dakota was created to address market failures associated with monopoly power among large financial and business institutions in the early twentieth century. This market power meant that small farming operations had inadequate access to credit. One of the goals of the Nonpartisan League was to remedy limited access to credit by establishing this institution. A measure of the public good brought about by the Bank's establishment that still stands today is what some have identified as the Bank's role in reducing the impact of economic recession. The public-private relationship establishes roles assigned according to what each sector does best, allowing the mutual benefit of public and private banks balancing out inequality and building equality, thus creating an economic safety net for North Dakota citizens. These early roots of the Democratic-Nonpartisan League party have been celebrated for establishing a foundation that rights the state in times of national crisis and provides economic security to generations of the state's farmers.
* The early success of the party in North Dakota spawned Nonpartisan League branches on the Canadian prairies, including the Alberta Non-Partisan League and another in Saskatchewan.[33] Two Alberta NPL members were elected in the 1917 provincial election; the party was absorbed in 1919 by the United Farmers of Alberta, who would form government from 1921 until 1935. No NPL candidates were elected in Saskatchewan, but the party boasted the first woman—Zoa Haight—to run for office in the province.[33]
* As of May 2021, both the North Dakota Mill and Elevator and the Bank of North Dakota continue to operate. The legislature in 1932 prohibited corporate farming and corporate ownership of farmland.
* The Fred and Gladys Grady House and the Oliver and Gertrude Lundquist House, both in Bismarck, North Dakota, are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places as examples of the work of the Nonpartisan League's Home Building Association.[34]

## See also

[edit]

* Agricultural Workers Organization
* Granger movement
* Boll weevil (politics)
* Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party
* Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party
* Socialist Party of North Dakota
* North Dakota Democratic–Nonpartisan League Party
* United Farmers of Canada
* Alice Lorraine Daly

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Endorsed, but not a member.

## References

[edit]

1. ^

*       * "La Follette lost 100 years ago, but his progressivism lives on". The Cap Times. 2024-11-05. Archived from the original on 11 December 2024. Retrieved 2025-01-14. "In fact, the program that La Follette ran on — taxing the rich, cracking down on Wall Street abuses, empowering workers to organize unions, defending small farmers, breaking up corporate trusts, strengthening public utilities — fueled a resurgence of left-wing populist movements across the upper Midwest: the Non-Partisan League of North Dakota, the Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota and the Progressive Party of Wisconsin."
* Lansing, Michael J. (2023-03-28). "North Dakota Has the Country's Oldest Public Bank. We Should Look to It as a Model". Jacobin.com. US: Jacobin. Retrieved 2025-04-15.
* Greeley, Patrick (2024-11-11). "The Rise and Fall of Midwest Populism". Jacobin.com. Jacobin. Retrieved 2025-04-15.
* Savicki, Drew (2020-08-10). "The Road to 270: Minnesota". 270towin.com. Minnesota. Retrieved 2025-04-16. "In the 1920s, members of the national left-wing populist movement called the Nonpartisan League stood for election under a new banner, the Farmer Labor Party."
* Fairchild, Jonathan (2023). "Planted in the Soil": The Homestead Act, Women Homesteaders, and the Nineteenth Amendment (PDF). Homestead National Historical Park Beatrice, Nebraska: U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service. p. 109. Retrieved 2025-04-28. "In 1919, the Nonpartisan League (NPL) took power in the state. The Nonpartisan League was newly formed left-wing populist political party in North Dakota created by A.C. Townley in 1915."

2. ^ Evans, Bryan; Schmidt, Ingo, eds. (2012). Social democracy after the cold war. Edmonton: AU Press. p. 103\. ISBN 978-1-926836-88-1. OCLC 1015535562. "In addition, some notable examples of social democratic third-party success at the subnational level are the Socialist Party in Oklahoma in the 1920s and 1930s, the Non-Partisan League in North Dakota, the Washington Co-operative Commonwealth in Washington State, the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, and the current Vermont Progressive Party, which has relationship with the Democratic Party."
3. ^ [2]
4. ^ DeCarlo, Peter J. "Nonpartisan League". Mnopedia.org. Minnesota: MNOPEDIA. Retrieved 2025-03-21. "In addition, those opposed to the NPL used its socialist principles against it, labeling all members "Bolsheviks.""
5. ^ Erlandson, Henry (2020-01-25). "Why is Minnesota's Democratic Party called the DFL?". Startribune.com. Minnesota, US: Star Tribune. Retrieved 2025-03-21. "[…], while North Dakotans started a socialist political organization called the Non-Partisan League."
6. ^ a b Meduri, Matt (2023-11-25). "America the Beautiful: How History Shapes Our Electorate". Messengerpapers.com. New York, US: Messenger Papers. Retrieved 2025-04-28. "The creation of the Nonpartisan League (NPL) in 1915 advocated for progressive and socialist policies, chief among them being the government control of farming-adjacent industries, such as mills, banks, and railroads."
7. ^ Mayer, George H. (1987). The Political Career of Floyd B. Olson. St. Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Press (published 1951). p. 19\. ISBN 0873512065. Retrieved 2025-05-12. "Its extraordinary appeal lay in the ability of the drafters to camouflage socialistic principles while playing up the orthodox features of agrarian reform. The organizational structure of the Nonpartisan League did not conceal its socialistic features so well."
8. ^ [4][5][6][7]
9. ^ Mayer, George H. (1987). The Political Career of Floyd B. Olson. St. Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Press (published 1951). p. 18\. ISBN 0873512065. Retrieved 2025-02-23. "[…] the Nonpartisan League, a new protest movement containing strong elements of agrarian socialism."
10. ^ [9]
11. ^ Lansing, Michael J. (2023-03-28). "North Dakota Has the Country's Oldest Public Bank. We Should Look to It as a Model". Jacobin.com. US: Jacobin. Retrieved 2025-04-15.
12. ^ Mayer, George H. (1987). The Political Career of Floyd B. Olson. St. Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Press (published 1951). p. 22\. ISBN 0873512065. Retrieved 2025-05-12.
13. ^ [11][12]
14. ^ "The Birth of the Nonpartisan League". Thebndsotry.nd.gov. The BND Story. Retrieved 2025-02-26.
15. ^ Saloutos, Theodore (1946). "The Rise of the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota, 1915-1917". Agricultural History. 20 (1). JSTOR: 43–61\. ISSN 0002-1482. JSTOR 3739348. Retrieved 2025-02-26.
16. ^ Delton, Jennifer Alice (2002). Making Minnesota Liberal: Civil Rights and the Transformation of the Democratic Party. MN: University of Minnesota Press. p. 2\. ISBN 0816639221. Retrieved 2025-05-14. "[…] great agrarian, anti-party protest movements of the late-nineteenth century. Townley's Nonpartisan League was one such movement."
17. ^ [14][15][16]
18. ^ Rossi, Marco Rosaire (2022). Municipal Governments and the Nonoccurrence of an American Socialist Party (Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science thesis). Chicago, Illinois: University of Illinois at Chicago. p. 255. Retrieved 2025-05-14. "With its highly representative state government, it is unsurprising that North Dakota also has a history of left-wing third parties. However, unlike Vermont, the state has certain characteristics that discourage third parties. The most significant progressive third party in North Dakota's history was the Nonpartisan League, and before its fusion with the state Democratic Party in 1956, it was the last example of third-party progressivism in the state."
19. ^ Dreier, Peter (2011-04-11). "La Follette's Wisconsin Idea". Dissent. University of Pennsylvania Press. Retrieved 2025-04-16. "Though he died of a heart attack less than a year after the election, La Follette's success inspired other progressive movements and campaigns around the country, including farmer-labor parties in Minnesota and North Dakota, the Progressive Party in Wisconsin, and the American Labor Party in New York City."
20. ^ [18][6][19]
21. ^

*       * Lansing, Michael J. (2023-03-28). "North Dakota Has the Country's Oldest Public Bank. We Should Look to It as a Model". Jacobin.com. US: Jacobin. Retrieved 2025-04-15.
* Greeley, Patrick (2024-11-11). "The Rise and Fall of Midwest Populism". Jacobin.com. Jacobin. Retrieved 2025-04-15.
* Meduri, Matt (2023-11-25). "America the Beautiful: How History Shapes Our Electorate". Messengerpapers.com. New York, US: Messenger Papers. Retrieved 2025-04-28. "The creation of the Nonpartisan League (NPL) in 1915 advocated for progressive and socialist policies, chief among them being the government control of farming-adjacent industries, such as mills, banks, and railroads."
* Mayer, George H. (1987). The Political Career of Floyd B. Olson. St. Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Press (published 1951). p. 19\. ISBN 0873512065. Retrieved 2025-05-12. "Specifically the 1916 League platform in North Dakota proposed: (1) state ownership of terminal elevators, flour mills, packing houses and cold storage plants […] This was an amazing frank public ownership program […]"
* DeCarlo, Peter J. "Nonpartisan League". Mnopedia.org. Minnesota: MNOPEDIA. Retrieved 2025-03-21. "The NPL advocated state-run mills, grain elevators, stockyards, and warehouses. In order to protect farmers further, it fought for state insurance programs, pensions, and employment bureaus."

22. ^ Greeley, Patrick (2024-11-11). "The Rise and Fall of Midwest Populism". Jacobin.com. Jacobin. Retrieved 2025-04-15.
23. ^ [22]
24. ^ Attributed to multiple sources:

*       * Lansing, Michael J. (2023-03-28). "North Dakota Has the Country's Oldest Public Bank. We Should Look to It as a Model". Jacobin.com. US: Jacobin. Retrieved 2025-04-15.
* Olson, Daron William (1993). Norwegians, Socialism and the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota, 1904-1920: How Red was their Protest? (Master of Arts (MA) thesis). University of North Dakota. Retrieved 2025-04-15. "Although its history has been largely ignored by scholars, North Dakota's radical period, the socialist and Nonpartisan League years between 1904 and 1920, has been the exception. To explain the success of these left-wing movements, scholars have developed a number of theories. One of the most popular theories attributes the success of leftist political movements to the large number of Norwegians who resided in the state."
* Greeley, Patrick (2024-11-11). "The Rise and Fall of Midwest Populism". Jacobin.com. Jacobin. Retrieved 2025-04-15.
* Megan Torgerson (2022-10-26). ""Groundwork" Episode 1: An interview with the "farmer's lawyer," Sarah Vogel" (Podcast). Reframing Rural. Event occurs at 2:30-2:40. Retrieved 2025-04-16. "[...] beginning with a history of the Nonpartisan League, the left-wing political party founded by North Dakota socialist Arthur C. Townley to protect farmers during the Great Depression."
* Haala, Cory (2020). The Progressive Center: Midwestern Liberalism in the Age of Reagan, 1978-1992 (Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) thesis). Wisconsin: Marquette University. Retrieved 2025-04-16. "In the majority of these states, during either the 1890s or interwar years, left-wing third-party movements—the Populist Party, Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, North Dakota Nonpartisan League, and Wisconsin Progressive Party"
* Scher, Abby (2015-01-14). "This Rust-Belt Town's Survival Strategy Is All About Giving Workers Control". YES!. YES!. Retrieved 2025-05-14. "[…] like the state bank in North Dakota, which began in 1919 as a project of the left-wing Nonpartisan League."
* Rossi, Marco Rosaire (2022). Municipal Governments and the Nonoccurrence of an American Socialist Party (Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science thesis). Chicago, Illinois: University of Illinois at Chicago. p. 255. Retrieved 2025-05-14. "With its highly representative state government, it is unsurprising that North Dakota also has a history of left-wing third parties. However, unlike Vermont, the state has certain characteristics that discourage third parties. The most significant progressive third party in North Dakota's history was the Nonpartisan League, and before its fusion with the state Democratic Party in 1956, it was the last example of third-party progressivism in the state."

25. ^ Goldstein, Robert Justin (2001). Political Repression in Modern America. University of Illinois Press. p. 99\. ISBN 0-252-06964-1.
26. ^ Vogel, Robert (2004). Unequal Contest: Bill Langer and His Political Enemies. Crain Grosinger Publishing. p. 2\. ISBN 0-9720054-3-9.
27. ^ a b c d e Robinson, Elwyn (1966). History of North Dakota. University of Nebraska Press.
28. ^ a b c Lubell, Samuel (1956). The Future of American Politics (2nd ed.). Anchor Press. pp. 145–147\. OL 6193934M.
29. ^ General election 11-05-1918 ip.sos.nd.gov/pdfs/Abstracts by Year/1910 through 1919 Statewide Election Results/1918/General Election 11-05-1918.pdf accessed May 16, 2025
30. ^ Garet Garrett (1927). "Harangue (The Trees Said to the Bramble Come Reign Over Us)" (PDF).
31. ^ Ryant, Carl (1989). Profit's Prophet: Garet Garrett (1878–1954). Selinsgrove: Susquehanna University Press. pp. 56–59\. ISBN 0-945636-04-0.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
32. ^ Kodrzycki, Yolanda K; Elmatad, Tal (May 2011). The Bank of North Dakota: A model for Massachusetts and other states? (PDF) (Report). New England Public Policy Center. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
33. ^ a b Waiser, Bill (2005). Saskatchewan: A New History. Calgary: Fifth House. p. 223\. ISBN 9781894856492.
34. ^ Michelle L. Dennis (February 2006). "National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation: Nonpartisan League's Home Building Association Resources in North Dakota" (PDF).

## Further reading

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* Ellsworth, Scott. Origins of the Nonpartisan League. PhD dissertation. Duke University, 1982.
* Gaston, Herbert E. The Nonpartisan League. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920.
* Huntington, Samuel P. "The Election Tactics of the Nonpartisan League, Mississippi Valley Historical Review, vol. 36, no. 4 (March 1950), pp. 613–632. in JSTOR
* Lansing, Michael. Insurgent democracy: the Nonpartisan League in North American politics (University of Chicago Press, 2015)
* Lipset, Seymour M. (1971) Agrarian Socialism, (University of California Press, Berkeley)
* Morlan, Robert L. Political Prairie Fire: The Nonpartisan League 1915–1922. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1955.
* Morlan, Robert L. "The Nonpartisan League and the Minnesota Campaign of 1918," Minnesota History, vol. 34, no. 6 (Summer 1955), pp. 221–232. In JSTOR
* Moum, Kathleen. "The Social Origins of the Nonpartisan League." North Dakota History 53 (Spring 1986): 18–22.
* Moum, Kathleen Diane. Harvest of Discontent: The Social Origins of the Nonpartisan League, 1880–1922. PhD Dissertation. University of California, Irvine, 1986.
* Nielsen, Kim E. "'We All Leaguers by Our House': Women, Suffrage, and Red-Baiting in the National Nonpartisan League." Journal of Women's History, vol. 6, no. 1 (1994), pp. 31–50.
* Reid, Bill G. "John Miller Baer: Nonpartisan League Cartoonist and Congressman," North Dakota History, vol. 44, no. 1 (1977), pp. 4–13.
* Remele, Larry. "Power to the People: The Nonpartisan League," in Thomas W. Howard, ed. The North Dakota Political Tradition. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1981.
* Remele, Larry R. "The Lost Years of A.C. Townley (after the Nonpartisan League)." ND Humanities Council Occasional Paper, (1988) no. 1, pages 1–27
* Rude, Leslie G. "The Rhetoric of Farmer‐Labor Agitators." Communication Studies 20.4 (1969): 280–285.
* Saloutos, Theodore. "The Expansion and Decline of the Nonpartisan League in the Western Middle West, 1917–1921," Agricultural History, vol. 20, no. 4 (Oct. 1946), pp. 235–252. In JSTOR
* Saloutos, Theodore. "The Rise of the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota, 1915–1917," Agricultural History, vol. 20, no. 1 (Jan. 1946), pp. 43–61. In JSTOR
* Schoeder, Lavern.Women in the Nonpartisan League in Adams and Hettinger Counties. (In "Women on the Move", edited by Pearl Andre, 47–50: Book produced for the International Women's Year for North Dakota Democratic-NPL Women, 1975).
* Starr, Karen. "Fighting for a Future: Farm Women of the Nonpartisan League," Minnesota History, (Summer 1983), pp. 255–262.
* Vivian, James F. "The Last Round-Up: Theodore Roosevelt Confronts the Nonpartisan League, October 1918," Montana: The Magazine of Western History, vol. 36, no. 1 (Winter 1986), pp. 36–49. in JSTOR
* Wasson, Stanley Philip. The Nonpartisan League in Minnesota: 1916–1924. (PhD Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1955).
* Wilkins, Robert P. "The Nonpartisan League and Upper Midwest Isolationism, Agricultural History, vol. 39, no. 2 (April 1965), pp. 102–109. In JSTOR

## External links

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* Nonpartisan League in MNopedia, the Minnesota Encyclopedia
* North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party Website
* North Dakota State University Institute for Regional Studies Nonpartisan League Collection
* Article on the NPL from the Progressive Populist
* Northern Lights – docudrama of the forming of the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota
* The Nonpartisan Leader. The NPL's official organization
* Socialist Herald/The Herald (1915–1916). Seattle newspaper associated with the NPL.
* The Rise and Fall of the Non-Partisan League \- PBS Documentary

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Political parties of North Dakota

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* Democratic–NPL
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* Democratic
* Democratic-Independent
* Independent Voters Association
* Nonpartisan League
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Political party strength in North Dakota
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