Copyright © 2011 by University of Nebraska–Lincoln, all rights reserved. Redistribution or republication in any medium, except as allowed under the Fair Use provisions of U.S. copyright law, requires express written consent from the editors and advance notification of the publisher, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Arthur C. Townley, founder of the Nonpartisan League, was born near Browns Valley, Minnesota, on December 30, 1880. After failing three times to make a living by farming (in Cheyenne Wells, Colorado, and Beach and Golden Valley, North Dakota) and alienated by an economy that did not reward his efforts, Townley turned to the Socialist Party. His impressive organizational and oratorical skills quickly propelled him into the party's leadership. Unorthodox methods of recruiting, however, frustrated party leaders and led to his expulsion.
Townley then directed his energies to the
farmers' cause, and in February 1915, along
with A. E. Brown, he founded the Farmers
Nonpartisan Political League of North Dakota,
otherwise known as the Nonpartisan
League (NPL). The NPL platform grew to include
state ownership of terminal elevators,
flour mills, cold storage plants, and packing
plants, as well as a state-sponsored hail insurance
program and state-owned banks. By 1918
the organization claimed 200,000 members
and controlled the state of North Dakota. Accordingly,
the NPL began to implement its
platform. The party, however, came under attack
for malfeasance, socialist inclinations,
and fraud. The NPL fell from power in the
autumn of 1921 when a recall election removed
one of its leading representatives, Gov.
Lynn Frazier, from office. Townley did not
hold elected public office himself, preferring
to remain behind the scenes as president of
the NPL and its master organizer.
Following a ninety-day federal prison sentence
in 1922 for discouraging enlistment during
World War I, Townley resigned his position
as head of the NPL in North Dakota, and
the movement soon collapsed. Townley never
again captured the limelight. He tried and
failed to win political office in North Dakota
and Minnesota on several occasions between
1930 and 1958, dabbled in oil promotion and
itinerant medicine sales, and supported his
stepdaughter's motion picture career. He also
took a virulent anticommunist stance during
the 1950s, targeting leaders of the Farmers
Union. Townley died in a car accident near
Makoti, North Dakota, on November 7, 1959.