Around this same time, the state legislature convened for its regular session. The Nonpartisan League (NPL) had their man, Lynn J. Frazier, as governor, and they now had majority control of the House and Senate. The NPL could now pass its programs and legislation virtually unopposed. Out of this session would come the Bank of North Dakota, the Mill and Elevator Association, and the Industrial Commission to oversee these state-run institutions.
On January 8, 1919, Governor Frazier addressed the legislature to start the session. Prior to its start, there had been growing speculation that the NPL would push to overhaul the state's education system, especially since the NPL lost the election for state superintendent. This speculation was essentially confirmed when the governor recommended a new board be created, which would replace the Board of Regents, Board of Control, and the Board of Education. He also recommended the responsibilities of these boards and certain powers from the state superintendent should be transferred to this new board.
When Neil C. Macdonald was being escorted out of the Superintendent of Public Instruction's office, a reporter for the Fargo Forum and Daily Republican asked Minnie J. Nielson for a statement on the governor's recommendation to the legislature to strip away powers from the state superintendent and give them to a new board. She simply replied with:
"My business is education, not politics. I do not care to discuss the situation at this time."
The NPL-controlled legislature heeded the governor's recommendation. Senator Joseph I. Cahill of Leith introduced Senate Bill 134 (or SB 134) to create the Board of Administration. This new board would consist of five members: Commissioner of Agriculture and Labor, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and three members appointed by the governor.
This new board would administer all penal institutions, charitable and educational institutions, and oversee the public and common schools for the state. It would also serve as the oversight board for the State Library (or State Library Commission).
According to William Langer's 1920 "tell-all" book about the NPL (The Nonpartisan League: Its Birth, Activities and Leaders), after Nielson had won the election, A. C. Townley, leader of the NPL, confronted Langer about siding with Nielson in his opinion, and Townley blamed Langer for Macdonald's loss. It was then, according to Langer, that Macdonald, Townley, William Lemke, and Walter Thomas Mills (socialist, lecturer, and NPL advisor) began holding backroom meetings in the McKenzie Hotel in Bismarck and created a draft that would eventually become the Board of Administration bill.
Opposition to the Board of Administration bill was strong, with some members of the NPL speaking out against it. Officeholders like Langer (Attorney General), Thomas Hall (Secretary of State), Carl R. Kositzky (State Auditor), and Obert A. Olson (State Treasurer) were openly opposed to the bill.
To some, like the NPL, the creation of the board was viewed as a way for the state to increase efficiency and save money by consolidation. However, others, like the NPL's opposition, viewed the board as a political power grab, or a way to "clip the wings" of Nielson because the law also stripped away many duties of the state superintendent. To give credit to the latter argument, a majority of the board upon its creation had ties to the NPL.
Despite the opposition, the NPL majority carried the day and SB 134 passed in March 1919 and was signed into law by Governor Frazier. Nielson now had a statewide office but little authority.
A political cartoon depicting A. C. Townley, the leader of the NPL, sitting on a soapbox talking to a voter. Before the election promises to expand the bubble/ the powers of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The voter agrees and holds over his votes. After the election, Townley pops the bubble. The anti-NPL cartoon appeared in the 1919 book "Townleyism's Future in North Dakota." The book was published by the NPL's opposition: the Independent Voters Association (IVA).
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