Arthur C. Townley

Released
Full name:Arthur Charles Townley
Date of birth:18. 12. 1880
Date of death:07. 11. 1959
Age:78† Deceased
Gender:Male
Race:White
Era:1910s
State:North Dakota
Support
Socialism
Arthur C. Townley

Biography

Arthur C. Townley was the founder of the Nonpartisan League, the agrarian political movement that swept North Dakota and the upper Midwest during World War I. A former Socialist Party organizer, Townley built the League into a force that captured the North Dakota state government in 1918. Because some League pamphlets questioned the war effort, Townley and League organizer Joseph Gilbert were convicted in Jackson County, Minnesota, in 1919 of conspiracy to discourage enlistments. After the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 1921, Townley served a 90-day sentence in the Jackson County jail. His prosecution is remembered as one of the signature political trials of the wartime hysteria against farm and labor radicals.

Case

Jackson County Jail
Charges: Conspiracy to discourage enlistments (Minnesota wartime sedition prosecution over Nonpartisan League pamphlets)
Sentence: 90 days in the Jackson County jail, served in 1921 after the appeal failed Verdict as recorded: Yes — upheld by the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1921
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: Minnesota

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