at its second conference in june 1912, held at perth technical school, the fsa decided to adopt a political platform and elect members to parliament who were pledged to support it. the fsa's leadership at this time was dominated by conservative established farmers, and particularly by its founding president alexander monger, a former member of the liberal party. however, the association had also been highly successful in attracting labor supporters, so the entire question of the platform was referred to a special conference held in march 1913. strongly influenced by eastern wheatbelt representatives, the conference was militant in tone and decided by a vote of 103 to 17 to form a country party in both state and federal parliaments. by early 1914, the emergent country party of western australia had adopted some elements of labor's political structure such as preselection ballots, a local branch structure, annual conferences and the observance of a pledge by party members, and saw their role as a balance of power capable of bargaining for concessions from the government of the day, clearly influenced by labor's past practice before emerging as a major party in 1904.