Through all this ran the thread of the second political revolution which Burke's election had begun, and which was continued through the Hanna administration. It was directed principally against injustices in the grain trade. Farmers were incapable of developing their own marketing facilities. Millions had been invested in the mills and elevators of St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Duluth, and in the "line" (corporation) elevator companies throughout North Dakota. The farmers complained of unfair methods of grading and docking their grain; they claimed that the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce was a closed corporation, and that its members were identified with the big milling and elevator interests. Even conservative Senator McCumber of North Dakota protested in 1916 before the United States Senate against abuses in the grain trade. The Equity Exchange had been organized in 1909 to act as a farmers' general selling agency in St. Paul, but had been denied membership in the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce. The Society of Equity and the Equity Exchange tried to get a bill through the 1915 legislature for the establishment of a State-owned elevator, but the attempt failed. Indignation at the defeat of the bill resulted in the birth, in February 1915, of a new political party, the Nonpartisan[1] League. [1] The party name was originally spelled "Non-Partisan" but through usage has been changed to its present form. A. C. Townley, a genius in the art of organization, spread the league gospel through the State. Townley had begun life in poverty, had failed in a large-scale flax-growing enterprise, and had for a time been identified with the Socialist Party. A. C. Bowen suggested the formation of the league. Charles Edward Russell was the first editor of the newspaper, the _Non-Partisan Leader_, and Walter Thomas Mills drafted many of its laws. All three of these men were Socialists. After winning the support of a prominent farmer, Fred Wood, and his two sons, the movement spread rapidly. Before the end of the first year the league had 30,000 members. Its platform embodied five planks: 1. State ownership of terminal elevators, flour mills, packing houses, and cold storage plants. 2. State inspection of grain and grain dockage. 3. Exemption of farm improvements from taxation. 4. State hail insurance on the acreage tax basis. 5. Rural credit banks operated at cost. "Practical salesmanship, a program of immediate and forceful action and the use of the Ford automobile are the factors principally explaining the rise of the Non-Partisan League," declares Herbert Gaston in his book _The Non-Partisan League_.