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:
- State ownership of terminal elevators, flour mills, packing houses, and cold storage plants.
- State inspection of grain and grain dockage.
- Exemption of farm improvements from taxation.
- State hail insurance on the acreage tax basis.
- 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.
Most of the league membership was Republican; it was therefore an easy step to the use of the machinery of that party. In the primary election of June 1916 and again in the fall the league was successful. Lynn J. Frazier became the first league-elected Governor, and three league-endorsed candidates, R. H. Grace, James E. Robinson, and L. E. Birdzell, were placed on the supreme court bench.
Three hundred thousand dollars was appropriated by the legislature to carry out the provisions of a Terminal Elevator Commission bill, but Frazier vetoed the act, declaring the appropriation insufficient. Among the progressive legislation enacted at this session were bills providing for the creation of a State highway department, land title registration (never enforced, however), increased funds for rural schools, reduction of rate of assessments on farm improvements to 5 percent of the true value, and guarantee of deposits in State banks.
Entry of the United States into the World War brought new activities to North Dakota in the spring of 1917. National Guard units were sent, a Council of National Defense was created to aid in the work of mobilization, Liberty Bonds were sold, and the State went $200,000 over its quota in the United War Work campaign.
The World War interrupted, but did not deter, the progress of the league program. Governor Frazier was reelected in 1918, and seven initiated amendments were added to the State constitution, forming the basis for the league program. The law for initiated petitions was changed to require only 20,000 signers; the $200,000 debt limit of the State was abolished and the State was allowed to issue or guarantee bonds not to exceed $10,000,000.
The league's industrial program was established at the 1919 legislative session. The industrial commission, composed of the Governor, the attorney general, and the commissioner of agriculture and labor, was to manage the industries and enterprises undertaken by the State. Under authority of the new legislation, the North Dakota Mill and Elevator Association was established. A small mill was purchased at Drake and later a mill and elevator were built at Grand Forks with a capacity of 3,000 barrels per day and a storage capacity of 1,659,500 bushels (see Tour 1).
In the March primary of 1920 an unusual initiated measure was the center of interest. It was the "recall", which provided for the removal of any elective officers, even judges. The measure became Article 33 of the constitution.