Farmer-Labor Movement History

TOWARD THE COOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH:
AN INTRODUCTORY HISTORY OF THE
FARMER-LABOR MOVEMENT IN
MINNESOTA (1917-1948)

A THESIS
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY
OF THE UNION GRADUATE SCHOOL
which is now called The Union Institute ( www.tui.edu )

By
Thomas Gerald O'Connell

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

February 1979

The URL (address) of this WWW version is (currently - Mar 2005) http://justcomm.org/fla-hist.htm
This one file can be downloaded (as html, 232 printed pages, 340K bytes ) and read offline with
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TABLE OF CONTENTS. page

(Select the "Contents" link near each page number to return here)

Chapter 0 Introduction. 1
Chapter 1 Roots of the Movement. 13
1.1 Non Partisan League 15
1.2 Labor Forges a Political Movement 27
1.3 Birth of the Farmer Labor Movement 34
1.4 Footnotes to Chapter 1 43

Chapter 2 Charisma and Class Conflict. 46
2.1 Floyd B Olson - the Early Years 49
2.2 A Farmer-Laborite in the Governor's Mansion 55
2.3 The Great Teamster Strike 67
2.4 Footnotes to Chapter 2 77
Chapter 3 The Benson Years. 80
3.1 The Education of a Radical 81
3.2 Tough Times in the State House 85
3.3 The Communist Party Joins
the Farmer-Labor Association 95
3.4 Defeat! 110
3.5 Footnotes to Chapter 3 127

Chapter 4 The Farmer-Labor Association:
Education for Rank and File Democracy. 131
4.1 The Strength of Thousands 133
4.2 Education, Farmer-Labor Style 138
4.3 The Women's Federation 144
4.4 The Party Press 149
4.5 The Legacy of Hope 154
4.6 Footnotes to Chapter 4 161

Chapter 5 The Farmers Take a Holiday-
Mass Protest and the Farmer-Labor Alliance. 163
5.1 Stay Home! Sell Nothing! 166
5.2 The War on Mortgage Foreclosures 178
5.3 A New Deal/ A Stacked Deck 184
5.4 Footnotes to Chapter 5 192

Chapter 6 The Rise of the C.I.O, 194
6.1 {Needs section heading} 197
6.2 {Needs section heading} 206
6.3 Footnotes to Chapter 6 224

Chapter 7 Epilogue 227

Chapter: 0 INTRODUCTION Page: 1

One Saturday afternoon, not long ago, 700 Contents
people gathered in St. Paul's Prom Ballroom to pay
tribute to Elmer Benson, Farmer-Labor governor from
1936-38. The gathering was sponsored by the Farmer-
Labor Association, an organization of new generation
activists who are reviving the Farmer-Labor Tradition
in Minnesota's Democratic Farmer-Labor Party. Seated
together at the tables were the men and women who
organized the C.I.O., built the Farm Holiday Movement,
fought the battles for women's rights in the _first_ half
of this century, and held elective office in the state
government as Farmer-Laborites. Sitting alongside were
veterans of the anti-war movement, organizers of today's
rank and file union groups, neighborhood associations,
and women's organizations. Elmer's son, Tom, leader of
the American Agriculture Movement was in the audience.
So was Alice Tripp, protest leader from Polk County and
the new Association's candidate for governor.

Pete Seeger did the singing--just as he had done
thirty years earlier when he and Elmer Benson shared the
podium at the founding convention of the brand new
Progressive Party of America. When it was finally his

turn to speak, Elmer pulled out his F.B.I. file. It was Page: 2
twelve inches thick; larger, by double, than even the
most active 60s activist's present. The gathering howled Contents
in delight. The F.B.I. file was a common bond. We
were all Farmer-Laborites.

The history of the Farmer-Labor Movement can
best be understood in four stages. In the first stage,
EMERGENCE (1917-24), two broad based organizations, the
Farmer's Non-Partisan League, and the Working People's
Non-Partisan League joined forces to challenge
Minnesota's ruling Republicans by taking them on in the
primaries. Though their immediate aims were different,
the two movements found little trouble agreeing on a
political program. Both opposed the state's business
and political elites who controlled the agricultural
markets, and viciously fought workers' attempts to
organize unions. Both favored programs to curb corporate
powers through state regulations and public ownership.

In the Fall of 1917, organizers from the Farmer's
Non-Partisan League crisscrossed the state, signing up
50,000 farmers on an anti-monopoly program patterned
after the successful effort of North Dakota farmers the
year before. From the beginning, opposition was intense.
League organizing took place during the heat of U.S.
involvement in World War I. Main Street "patriots"

busted up meetings and ran organizers out of town. The Page: 3
Republican administration carried on a campaign of
harassment, branding both farm and labor militants as Contents
disloyal, and jailing leaders for sedition.

Still, the organizing continued. In 1918,
Congressman Charles Lindbergh, father of the famous
aviator, came within 50,000 votes of defeating Governor
J. A. A. Burnquist in the primary. The Farmer-Labor
coalition elected a respectable number of state
legislators and firmly established itself as the second
most powerful political force in the state--well ahead
of the hapless Democrats.

In 1920 and '22, the two leagues continued their
coalition with even better results, strengthening the
hands of those who favored merger of the two leagues
into a genuine third party. In 1924 the two
organizations rounded the Farmer-Labor Federation-
renamed the "Association" the following year. This
event marked the beginning of the second stage of
Farmer-Labor history, CONSOLIDATION (1924-30).

The development of a genuine Farmer-Labor Party
did not result in any dramatic improvement in Farmer-
Labor fortunes--at first. In 1924, the charismatic
Hennepin County Attorney, Floyd Olson fell short in
his bid to win the governorship. Throughout the rest

of the decade the Association found itself swimming Page: 4
upstream, keeping its "loyal opposition" status in the
legislature, but unable to catchup with the Republicans. Contents

Unlike many third party efforts, however, the
organization held together, less a "movement" now with
all the unfettered energy and participation the term
implies, but a viable organization--nonetheless. The
continued support of the AFL and the widespread network
of ideologically committed Farmer-Laborites from both
city and country kept the program and spirit alive.

In 1930 the steady work payed off. Floyd Olson
was elected governor, beginning the third and most
successful period of Farmer-Labor history, the HIGHTIDE
(1930-38). The immensely popular Olson was elected
governor three times and was a shoe-in for senator
before he died of a stomach tumor in 1936. Olson's
success was paralleled throughout the organization.
Dues paying membership in the Association rose to almost
40,000 as organizers setup clubs across the state.
Hundreds of Farmer-Laborites held elected offices at
all levels of government--from city council to U.S.
Senate. In 1936 Farmer-Laborites captured five of
eight Congressional seats, the governorship, and a solid
majority in the Minnesota House of Representatives.

Political success was buoyed by the spectacular Page: 5
re-emergence of mass movements. The Farm Holiday
Movement revived the dormant populist spirit of Contents
Minnesota farmers as thousands participated in strikes
and direct action tactics to resist foreclosures. In
Minneapolis the Teamsters faced down the Citizens
Alliance, the country's most notorious anti-labor
organization and won an epic strike battle that opened
up the state's largest city to the labor movement. In
1936-38 the newly organized C.I.O. set the Iron Range
on fire with militant campaigns among the lumberjacks
and iron ore miners.

Labor and farm organizing was complemented by
other efforts as well. The Workers Alliance set up
councils of the unemployed across the state, leading
the fight for adequate relief and modern social security
programs. Coops of all kinds sprung up in town and
country alike: electric power coops, food coops,
marketing coops, hardware stores, gas stations, grain
elevators, . . . . All of these movements allied
themselves with the Association, often times formally,
as affiliated organizations. The Association became
the political extension of the great social movements
of the '30s.

But, the '30s ended, and with them, the glory Page: 6
days of the Farmer-Labor Movement. In 1938, Floyd
Olson's successor, Elmer Benson, was overwhelmingly Contents
defeated by a reform Republican named Harold Stassen.
The inability of successive Farmer-Labor administrations
to solve the economic problems of the Great Depression;
the people's weariness of class confrontation politics;
a systematic anti-Semitic and anti-Communist campaign
from both within and outside the Association; and
serious divisions within the Association itself, were
all factors in the overwhelming Farmer-Labor defeat.
The period of DECLINE (1938-48) set in.

With the U.S. entry into World War II the
economy improved and most Farmer-Laborites joined
enthusiastically in support of the war effort. There
was little inclination--and less of a constituency--for
vintage Farmer-Labor anti-monopoly politics while the
war continued. In 1944 the Association merged with the
Democrats to become the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
(D.F.L.). Unity prevailed until the war's end.

In 1946 the struggle for the political direction
of the new party began. Farmer-Labor opposition to the
consolidation of corporate power and the cold war
politics of the Truman administration met head-on with
the corporate liberalism of the Democrats. When the

Farmer-Laborites moved to endorse the Independent Page: 7
presidential candidacy of Henry Wallace in 1948, the
Democrats, led by young Hubert Humphrey united behind Contents
Harry Truman. In a bloody six month battle fought in
precinct and district caucuses across the state, the
Democrats soundly defeated their opposition. The
Farmer-Labor wing never recovered its influence. After
1948, the DFL became "Farmer-Labor" in name only.

As the preceding summary shows, the Farmer-Labor
Movement did pretty well in conventional political terms.
Not only did it elect hundreds to public office, keep
Minnesota's uninspiring Democrats in their place, and
challenge the dominant Republican Party for the top
rung, it produced in Floyd Olson a political leader of
national stature--"presidential timber" according to
the era's pundits and prognosticators. But the Farmer-
Labor Movement was far more than an electoral party.
It was a genuine social movement with its own educational
and cultural supports. It was _participatory_, the
collective expression of thousands: farmers, workers,
professionals, small business people. Many had
inherited their outlook from parents, participants in
earlier populist movements and labor struggles.

Thousands more came to the Association through their Page: 8
own experiences.
Contents
In short, the Farmer-Labor Movement encompassed but
extended beyond the Association itself. The movement
included the Farm Holiday, the C.I.O., the
cooperatives. In an organizational sense these
movements often connected directly to the Association
as affiliate organizations. But even when they didn't,
the collective energy of popular protest in Minnesota
formed the social soil in which the Farmer-Labor
Association could take root and grow. Root and soil,
the two aspects of the Farmer-Labor Movement were
interdependent and inter- twined. Their history cannot
be understood in isolation.

As participants in a progressive social movement
Farmer-Laborites developed a political viewpoint and
program that was far to the left of either the New Deal
of the '30s or the Democratic Party today. The
Farmer-Labor program contained "socialistic" proposals
(public ownership of utilities, banks, parking houses,
the railroads) without advocating socialism as a total
system. Farmer-Laborites believed that economic
democracy was a necessary component of political
democracy, that the unchecked power of monopolies was
the greatest threat to both economic security and
individual freedom, that workers and farmers had the
courage and intelligence to reshape society.

To be sure, some Farmer-Laborites were Page: 9
socialists. Veterans of the Socialist Party formed
the nucleus of the Non-Partisan League organizing efforts Contents
among farmers in both North Dakota and Minnesota.
Socialists were prominent in the Twin Cities labor
movement as well. They provided much of the ideological
leaven for the foundation of the Farmer-Labor Federation
in 1924.

The fullest expression of the Farmer-Labor
socialist current was the famous "Cooperative
Commonwealth" platform of 1934. Its preamble intoned:

We declare that capitalism has failed and
that immediate steps must be taken by the
people to abolish capitalism in a peaceful and
lawful manner, and that a new, sane, and just
society must be established, a system in which
all the natural resources, machinery of
production, transportation, and communication
shall be owned by the government and operated
democratically for the benefit of all the
people, and not for the benefit of the few.

The term itself, "Cooperative Commonwealth" was
vintage American socialism. It symbolized an economic-
political system based on individual freedom and the
common good. It countered the dominant cultural image
of a free individual in a free market with a vision of
a free _people_ controlling both their political and
economic institutions. The program itself with its
emphasis on grassroots economic organization through

producer and consumer coops, as well as state ownership, Page: 10
further reinforced this image. The "Cooperative
Commonwealth" would mean _more_ freedom for the worker and Contents
farmer. Its brand of collectivism promised community
participation, rather than bureaucratic control.

But the imagery and poetry of the '34 platform,
though a reflection of a continuous current within the
Association, went well beyond the center position as it
was expressed over the years. More typical was the
platform of the Working People's Non-Partisan League
in 1919. It would serve as a prototype for Farmer-
Labor platforms throughout the 20s and 30s. It called
for: the eight hour day and forty-four hour week;
the establishment of cooperatives; state compensation
for injured workers; equality of men and women and
equal pay; abolition of unemployment; public ownership
of railroads, banks, terminal grain elevators, and
public utilities.

The Farmer-Labor Movement was nourished by
diverse social traditions: the radicalism of the Iron
Range Finns, the reform tradition of the Norwegians;
the moral fervor of the social gospel; the crusading
spirit of the temperance and suffrage movements; the
populism of the Red River Valley wheat farmers; the
democratic dream of the Jeffersonian tradition itself.

The politics of the Association was a conver- Page: 11
gence of tradition, the ever shifting intersect between
practical program, ideology, and the membership's own Contents
reflection on the experience of the system they lived in.
The process was both top down and bottom up: an
amalgamation of tradition, rather than an "ism" strictly
defined.

In writing this work, I have tried to ask the
questions that would be most helpful to people who are
itching to put into practice the lessons we can learn
from the Farmer-Labor experience. What happened to
Association meetings? Who ran the party press? How
did the CIO go about organizing the lumberjacks? What
was the secret of farmer-labor cooperatives? How did
business elites fight farmer-labor initiatives? What
were the provisions for membership education?

I have combined broad themes with nuts-and-
bolts descriptions, emphasizing processes over
personalities, movement building over legislative
initiatives.

The first three chapters provide an overall
summary of the movement with a focus on the relationship
between the political history (elections, platforms,

laws) and movement history. The last three chapters Page: 12
focus more closely on specific organizations: The
Farmer-Labor Association itself, the Farm Holiday Contents
Movement, and the C.I.O. The approach is suggestive
rather than exhaustive. In an ever more real sense
than usual, this is a "work in progress."

Forty years have passed since the great
movements of Depression Era America. My generation
has experienced great social movements of its own.
Yet, despite the mass radicalization that accompanied
the civil rights, women's and anti-war movements of
this generation, we still have no "Party of the Left"
in this country. I believe we need one, and I
recommend the work of our Farmer-Labor forbearers as
a strong foundation.

Chapter: 1 Page: 13

ROOTS OF THE MOVEMENT Contents

One morning in March 1924, the _Minneapolis
Journal_ greeted its readers with news that 32 people were
jailed in a four-day crime drive that one enthusiastic
cop called the "greatest police coup" in years. Chris
Cacca was shot dead trying to hold up Hohn's drug store
on 24th and Nicollet. In an unusual display of zeal,
a coordinated Twin City effort at criminal round up
followed. Highway robbers, burglars, and grand
larceners, were hauled in before the tribunal of
justice.

Meanwhile, justice of another sort was taking
place in Washington, D.C. The congressional investiga-
tions of the Teapot Dome continued to expose cozy
relationships between high officials in the Harding
administration and assorted tycoons of what has since
become known as the "private sector." Harding was gone
now. His successor, Calvin Coolidge, was busy picking
up overwhelming delegate support in Kansas, New
Hampshire, and Colorado, on his march to his first
full term as president.

Whitney's Department Store in downtown Page: 14
Minneapolis was having specials:
Contents
- Chocolate Peppermints, 1 lb. at $ .29

- Spring dresses ("you'11 be surprised at the
wonderful styles") for $5.00

- Coconut oil shampoo and cucumber astringent
cream, $.50

And Jack Dempsey stopped off en route to the West Coast
to announce that he would indeed give Louis Firpo another
shot at the heavyweight title. Firpo had knocked him
right out of the ring in their first encounter. #1.1

Inside Richmond Hall on South 5th Street, the
Farmer-Labor Federation was getting itself organized. As
usual. the Farm and Labor contingents began their
deliberations in separate hotels. In all, there were
over 200 delegates present. They represented 20,000
members of the farmers Non-Partisan League, central
labor bodies of the states' nine largest cities, 116
local unions, 15 cooperative societies, eight
"progressive clubs" (mostly middle class and professional
people), two socialist groups, and 29 district organi-
zations of the Farmer-Labor electoral alliance. #1.2

In the morning, the labor contingent voted
overwhelmingly to abandon its separate status as the
Working People's Non-Partisan League and create the
Farmer-Labor Federation. The farmers were more

hesitant. Only after five hours of debate did they Page: 15
accept the Federation plan by a vote of 84 to 79. A new
organization was born. It would serve Minnesota Contents
workers and farmers for the next twenty years, carrying
on the work of the organizations which had given birth
to it.

Section: 1.1 The Non-Partisan League

In 1916, an outgrowth of the old Midwest populism
called the Non-Partisan League swept into power in
North Dakota. The League, rounded by a busted flax
farmer, A. C. Townley, took the novel approach of
winning control of the Republican Party to elect
candidates pledged to a tough platform designed to bring
immediate relief to beleaguered North Dakota farmers.

The platform was simple and direct. It called
for:

- State ownership of terminal grain elevators, flour
mills, packing houses, and cold storage plants

- Exemption of farm improvements from taxation

- State inspection of grain and grain dockage

- State hail insurance

- Rural credit banks operated at cost. #1.3

This platform, with its emphasis on state ownership and
regulation, was no socialist pipe dream. It had

powerful appeal for the North Dakota farmers, as similar Page: 16
programs would for Minnesota farmers. Since the
rounding of the Grange in the 1870s, and on through the Contents
Farmers Alliance in the '80s, and Populist Party in the
'90s, farmers throughout the Midwest had organized
political movements aimed at curbing the power of the
trusts and monopolies. The grain and railroad companies
were favorite targets because they were directly
responsible for making things rough for the farmers.

Though the farmer grew his grain, he had no
control over the prices he received, the rates charged
by the railroads, or the rating system that determined
the grade of his wheat. He had no control of the
interest rates charged by banks (often downright
usurious) and couldn't afford hail insurance. As a
result, thousands of farmers went broke every year. #1.4

The creation of the League was a masterpiece
of organizing by a master organizer. Townley himself
described the beginning:

I roamed around the prairies of North Dakota
for a year and a half talking to farmers. I
used to walk thirty miles a day sometimes
and talk to different farmers as I came to
them. I thought I understood the matter and
I went from one to another, and I talked to
them in rounds and discussed things to see
whether or not there was something that could
be done. #1.5

What Townley neglected to describe was his short- Page: 17
lived career as a member of the Socialist Party, where
he picked up organizing skills. There he learned the Contents
importance of giving organizers a Model-T Ford that
could help them cover huge distances in one day,
accepting postdated checks from farmers who couldn't
pay their bills on the spot, and most importantly,
promoting an effective, easily understood program.

Townley didn't reminisce much about his stint
in the Socialist Party. Like many agrarian reformers,
he took issue with the Party's "socialist everything"
approach. Apparently "socialist" measures like state
ownership of grain elevators, a state bank, or
nationalization of railroads were popular measures
precisely because they were a means to protect the
independent status of the family farmer. When pushed
by the Non-Partisan League on that basis, these
measures were accepted by thousands. When advocated by
the Socialist Party as a means to socialism, the same
measures failed miserably.

Many Socialist Party members agreed with
Townley's approach and joined the League. They formed
an elite corps of organizers that Townley sent combing
the wheat belt of North Dakota. They staffed the
League's newspapers, provided some of its best stump

speakers, and kept the League looking outward for new Page: 18
alliances.. It was Socialists like Joe Gilbert and
Henry Teigen who would nurture the League's tender Contents
alliance with Labor in Minnesota, and play a leading
role in the formation of the Farmer-Labor Association
itself. #1.7

Townley ran a tight ship. His recruitment
methods featured a brand of psychology worthy of the
most aggressive sales organization. A correspondence
course for League organizers carried these instructions:

Arouse interest with your very first statement.
Your first statements are like headlines in a
newspaper. Make this sentence for the interest
of the man to whom you are talking. Then keep
control of the interview. Discuss those
things upon which we all agree, and do not
waste time arguing other questions . . . .
Remember that you cannot force him to join by
physical force and force of argument. You
must persuade him as well as convince him.
It is not altogether a matter of satisfying
his reason. It is a matter of appealing
to his emotions as well. We do not always
do the things we know should be done. We
do the things we want to do .... Remember
that back of every act is both a thought and
feeling. You must make him think, and you
must make him feel. You must appeal to his
emotions as well as to reason. #1.8

In 1916, the hard sell paid off. Having captured
control of North Dakota's Republican Party, the League
farmers went on to win the governorship and House of
Representatives in the general election. Then they
turned their attention to neighboring Minnesota where

many farmers were equally hard up, the Republican Party Page: 19
equally in control--and, as events would prove,
moving fast to become equally conservative. Contents

By the Fall of 1917, the League's challenge to
the Minnesota's Republican Party began in earnest.
Two-hundred-sixty Fords were purchased, 150 organizers
and speakers were added to those already in the field.
Meetings were scheduled in towns throughout rural
Minnesota. They served as pep rallies for those
already signed up, and recruiting sessions for the
uninitiated.

The format was simple. A League speaker, often
Townley himself, would explain the organization's
program, and end for good measure with pleas for
donations to the Red Cross, and purchase of Liberty
Bonds (the U.S. had entered World War I). At the end
of the meeting farmers would be asked to sign up, often
underscoring their commitment by chanting the Non-
Partisan League pledge: "We'11 Stick!"

The selling of Liberty Bonds, and spoken
support for the war effort were critical parts of the
League presentations. The leadership knew that their
opponents would seek to avoid the economic issues by
branding Leaguers as disloyal. Leaguers tried to work
out a middle ground in which the organization both

supported the war effort and demanded measures to insure Page: 20
that monopolies didn't get away with enriching them-
selves further at the expense of the people. The Contents
League's war program denounced German militarism
and demanded that:

- wealth be conscripted as well as boys
(a catchy if imprecise demand)
- war be financed from corporate profits
- civil liberties, usually imperiled during
war, be honored
- the food distribution system be nationalized. #1.9

The distinction between this program and
outright opposition to the war was real enough, but the
League's enemies were hardly willing to accept the
subtleties involved in a program that was critical and
supportive of the war effort at the same time. The
opposition determined to isolate the League through the
time-tested techniques of wartime chauvinism and red
baiting. The League was "yellow" and it was "red."
The only way it could avoid these charges was to abandon
the field entirely.

The opening meeting of the Minnesota campaign
was scheduled for Lake City in Wabasha County. After
pressure from the town's Commercial Club, the owner of
the hall cancelled the agreement for use of the building.

Townley urged 250 farmers to reconvene in Dumfries, 20 Page: 21
miles away, where they were joined by another 150 and
held a successful meeting. #1.10
Contents
Following uneventful sessions in Wabasha and
Litchfield, the League ran into trouble in Mankato where
once again they were denied meeting space. They
reconvened in Nicollet, where 1,000 farmers stood out
in the bitter cold to hear the League's message.
"What's a matter," asked one disgruntled recruit,
"Ain't farmers legal?" #1.11

As the Fall progressed, small-town "patriots"
broke up League meetings on a regular basis. Organizers
and speakers were beaten, tarred and feathered,
threatened with lynching. Hobs attacked sympathetic
merchants, painting their storefronts yellow and
smashing windows. The suppression was worst where the
League was weakest. By 1918, 19 counties had barred
all meetings of the League.

Small-town businessmen, and their fellow towns-
people, were often the shock troops of the anti-League
crusade. The League's Minnesota program emphasized
organizing cooperatives, and that threatened commercial
traders where it hurt the most--in the pocketbook. The
League's emphasis on developing independent newspapers
in places where the local press was hostile did not

endear them to small-town opinion-makers. Nor were Page: 22
bankers kindly disposed to their proposals for banking
reform. More generally, the League's emphasis on Contents
organizing dirt farmers was a direct challenge to an
established rural hierarchy in which small-town
professionals and merchants outranked the farmers
living in the surrounding fields. #1.12

Though much of the battle was fought out in and
around the small towns of Minnesota, the state's Main
Street patriots had support from more prestigious
quarters as well: the captains of the milling industry,
other corporate leaders, the Republican administration,
and the big city press of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
The most visible opposition of all, however, came from
Minnesota's own experiment in political repression,
the Public Safety Commission.

The bill establishing the Commission was rushed
through the legislature in April 1917, less than two
weeks after war was declared on Germany. It was
empowered to "do and perform all acts and things
necessary or proper so that the resources of the state
may most efficiently be applied toward the successful
prosecution of such war"--and provided with a one
million dollar budget to undertake its sweeping charge.
As peppery old historian William Folwell put it: "If a

large and hostile army had already landed at Duluth, Page: 23
and was to march on the capitol of the state, a more
liberal dictatorship could hardly have been conceded Contents
to the Commission." #1.13

Whatever the intent of the legislature, the
aspirations of the Commission's Chairman, John McGee,
were clear. On accepting his new post he declared:

If the Governor appoints men who have backbone,
treason will not be taught on the streets of
the city, and the street corner orators who
denounce the government, advocate revolution,
denounce the army, and advise against
enlistments, will be looking through the
barbed fences of an internment camp out on
the prairie somewhere. #1.14

McGee was chairman of the Grain Exchange in
Minneapolis, a veteran of many heated wars with farmers,
and militant foe of labor unions to boot. For him,
the Commission was the perfect weapon to club old
antagonists into submission.

For his part, Governor Burnquist was only too
pleased to oblige his new chairman. He appointed four
men with "backbone." The fifth, a representative of
organized labor, had neither "backbone," nor stomach.
He resigned in disgust.

Burnquist had risen in the ranks of the
Republican Party as something of a progressive. By
1917, however, he had thrown in his lot with reaction.

With his unqualified support, the Commission lost no Page: 24
time in saving Minnesota from its citizens. His view
of the situation in those early months was summarized Contents
in a retrospective report issued in 1919.

We had a population of about two million by the
1910 census. More than 70 percent of these
were either foreign born or of foreign parentage
on one or both sides. Out of the two million
people, nearly 500,000 were either born in
Germany or Austria or of German or Austrian
parentage. There were many sections where the
English language was not spoken. Part of these
had personal associations with Germans before
the United States entered the war and for this
reason, wanted Germany to win.

The public danger came when the anti-war feeling
assumed the shape of concerted and public
propaganda, and it assumed this shape here in
the Spring and Summer of 1917. The Minnesota
men who were disloyal formed a constituency of
considerable size. And there appeared leaders
and spokesmen to organize them. Misinterpreting
the conditional guarantee of freedom of speech,
these leaders thought they could properly oppose
the government policies in speech and in writing.
These leaders were of three classes: (1) pro-
fessional and theoretical pacifists, (2) men of
pro-German traditions and sympathies and
traditions, (3) professional politicians of the
Socialist or Non-Partisan League stamp . . . .
The commission undertook to kindle the back
fires of patriotism among the rank and file of
this ilk. With the leaders, it used the mail
fist. #1.15

An inventory of just a few of the Commission's
valiant strokes in defense of patriotism includes:

o The investigation and ultimate suspension
of the mayor and city attorney of New Ulm
for participating in a rally attended by
10,000 German-Americans. The rally was
held to plead that Germans be allowed the
option of not fighting on German soil.

o The enforcement of the dubious sedition and Page: 25
criminal syndicalism laws around the state.
The Sedition Act made it unlawful to Contents
advocate in a public place or meeting that
people should not enlist in military service.
The criminal syndicalism law simply outlawed
the Wobblies.

o The prohibition of the People's Peace Council
Convention. Mayor Van Lear of Minneapolis
had assured this group of peace advocates
from around the country the hospitality of
the city. Upon the recommendation of the
Commission, Burnquist overruled his political
enemy and declared Minnesota off limits to
the convention.

o The petition to the United States Senate to
expel Wisconsin Senator Robert LaFollette on
the grounds that he was a "teacher of
disloyalty and dissent." The Commission had
found some remarks he had made at a Non-
Partisan League meeting in St. Paul, to be
of a "disloyal and seditious nature."

o The dismissal of William Schaper, a professor
at the University of Minnesota. The Commission
had sent a letter to the Board of Regents
charging that the German Department in
particular, and others as well, were infected
with disloyalty. Needing a victim, the Regents
settled on Prof. Schaper. The victim would
become something of a hero in Farmer-Labor
quarters. He ran for the Party's nomination
for governor in 1924 (unsuccessfully), and
was reinstated at the University a decade later
through the intervention of Governor Elmer Benson.

o The wholesale indictment of Bill Haywood and
165 additional members of the International
Workers of the World (IWW), in what was surely
the Commission's "finest hour." Through
persistent badgering, the Commission managed
to enlist the cooperation of the U.S. Attorney
General's office in a raid on IWW headquarters,
located in Minneapolis. The raid yielded so
many documents that a house had to be rented
to hold them all. On the basis of this

evidence, 101 "Wobblies" were convicted of Page: 26
various violations and received sentences
ranging from three months to twenty years. #1.16
Contents
The most consistent application of the "mail
fist" was reserved for Burnquist and McGee's most
potent enemy; the Non-Partisan League. Beyond the legal
weapons employed, measures that resulted in the jailing
of Townley and Joe Gilbert, were the tacit approval and
occasional overt support for the terror directed at the
League. The May 1917 issue of the Commission's bulletin,
for example, carried enthusiastic comments on the
beating of a League organizer: "This (the beating) had
a very salutary effect on the balance of the disloyal
element, and they began to seek information on the war
and its causes in a conscientious manner." #1.17

In another bulletin, the Commission editorialized
in an even more enthusiastic fashion.

It is hard to conceive of a more contemptible
coward than the near traitor and seditionist
who makes every effort to discourage
patriotism of the more militant sort. When the
patience of the loyalists is thus tried to the
breaking point, and drastic action is taken
by the citizens themselves, he is the first
to emit a squeal of mortal terror, and rush
the protection of the very law he has scorned
and defied. . .

The ever increasing number of cases where mob
law is used on pro-Germans should at least
indicate to the near traitor that he is surely
and certainly bringing the day of reckoning
nearer every hour. The time to "get right"

is NOW, and in a manner that will leave no Page: 27
doubt of sincerity. Noses are sure to be
counted in every community. #1.18
Contents
Chairman McGee, no slouch at agitation
himself even went so far as to attack one of the
dominant ethnic groups in Minnesota. Declared McGee:

The Non-Partisan League lecturer is a traitor
every time. In other words, no matter what he
says or does, the League worker is a traitor.
Where we made our mistake is in not establishing
a firing squad in the first days of the war.
We should now get busy and have that firing
squad working overtime. The disloyal element
in Minnesota is largely among the German and
Swedish people. The nation blundered at the
start of the war in not dealing severely with
those vipers. #1.19

Even Governor Burnquist found this brew a bit strong.
Attacking Germans might be good politics, but taking on
the Swedes as well certainly wasn't clever. A few days
after his propaganda chief's statement, the Governor
"clarified" McGee's remarks, insisting that no one
intended to impugn the loyalty of the state's wonderful
Swedish citizens.

Section: 1.2 Labor Forges a Political Movement

While Non-Partisan League organizers were
stumping rural communities around the state, gathering
strength for the challenge in the Republican primaries
of Spring 1918, events propelled much of organized
labor into an alliance with their militant country
cousins.

Minnesota's labor movement was considerably Page: 28
more progressive than the national norm. The American
Federation of Labor, under Sam Gompers, was dead set Contents
against risky coalitions with agrarian crusaders, and,
in fact, preferred to stay out of independent politics
altogether. The Minnesota A.F.L., however, was more
flexible on the subject. The councils of Minneapolis
Labor, in particular, strongly supported a direct
role in politics. The sentiment grew from experience.

Minneapolis was one of the most notorious open
shop cities in America during the first three decades of
the twentieth century. A semi-secret employers'
organization called the Citizens Alliance effectively
provided support to fellow businessmen beleaguered by
the scourge of unionism. The Alliance responded to
requests for assistance in a truly fraternal spirit by
providing employees with top-flight legal assistance
and loyal substitute workers (less generously referred
to as "scabs"). If necessary--and it often was--the
Alliance even furnished guards for the protection of
company property. #1.20

Some of the leading corporate citizens of
Minneapolis blessed the Alliance. But the bluebloods
seldom carried on the frontline work. Established
money rarely descended to the dirty work of spying and

espionage that kept the Alliance in the know. That was Page: 29
left to the merchants and medium-sized manufacturers
whose zeal for the open shop, and 100 percent Contents
Americanism was of the "born-again variety that
everywhere distinguishes the marginal convert from the
established and powerful.

It was only natural that the highly organized
and continuous opposition to unionism would be met by a
vigorous but extremely vulnerable labor movement in
Minneapolis. And this process was encouraged by the
development of an unusually strong Socialist presence in
both the union movement itself, and the city as a whole.

Thomas Van Lear led the Socialist Party in
Minneapolis. He was the city's most popular trade
unionist, a former officer and business agent of the
International Association of Machinists, and board
member of the _Minnesota Labor Review_, the official and
staunchly left wing voice of the Minneapolis labor
movement. #1.21

Van Lear and the machinists had entered the
world of Socialist Party politics in 1910. Until that
time the Party had been dismally weak in Minneapolis.
But in 1910, Van Lear polled 11,601 votes for mayor and
came within one-thousand votes of carrying the day in a
close three-way race.

From 1910 through 1918 Socialist politics Page: 30
flowered in Minneapolis. Clubs, set up around the city,
featured lecturers, dances, picnics, and rallies. The Contents
movement's newspaper, _The New Times_, was full of
announcements of Socialist events: a masquerade ball
with "something for everybody, from the hungry wage
slave to the fashionable young lady"; a talent show
featuring a Mr. F. W. Adams, a local talent that class-
conscious Socialists assured their constituents "rivaled
Caruso." On a more serious note, the 12th Ward Club
featured an open forum on economic and social issues
at which anyone could talk. Another Socialist Club
sponsored a lecture on the "sexual origin of beauty--
sex and the cause of the fine in life." #1.22

Foreign language clubs--Finnish, Scandi-
navian, German, Jewish, and Lettish--complemented the
work of the ward organizations. The Norwegians even
had their own paper, _Gag Paa_ (_Forward_). The newspapers,
the clubs, the lectures and debates, typified the
passion for education that illuminated so many of the
social movements of the age before mass media and mass
institutions of schoolings. Farm hands, plumbers, mine
workers, professionals--people of all backgrounds who
joined the great movements for change--understood the
importance of _knowledge_, the simple idea that the

common people could learn the essentials of science and Page: 31
society and thereby direct their own political affairs.
Contents
Meridel LeSeuer writes of the debates within
the Socialist Party at this time:

It was the time of the mind's forging. It was
the time of the great gathering on the prairie,
of the picnic with the Socialist speakers and
the arguments in the bunkhouse of the right
and left of political and economic power, of
the fronts to fight on and the way to do it,
of how the worker and farmer might secure the
land and the machine be operated to get back
at least some of the products of his labor.
It was the time of the heated argument in
the schoolhouse, of the speakers in the rear
of the wagon who talked against the wind .... #1.23

Van Lear was a pragmatic leader. His emphasis
on achieving concrete reforms made it possible to win
the support of the decidedly _non_-Socialist majority of
citizens who were fed up with the shenanigans of
successive Democratic and Republican city administra-
tions. Still, Socialists kept their ideology out of
the closet. Each municipal platform combined a
practical reform pro,ram with the commitment to class
struggle and socialism.

The 1912 platform declared, "We wish it
distinctly understood that we advocate these remedial
measures only as a means to the one great end of the
Cooperative Commonwealth." #1.24 And Van Lear, himself,
declared:

Socialism cannot be put into effect in any Page: 32
one city. But we know that every Socialist
elected will use all the power of the office Contents
he is elected to in combating the evils of the
present day, and the final disappearance of
those evils of capitalism will be hastened by the
introduction of social, political, and economic
measures which will have the effect of bettering
the lives of workers and strengthening their
positions in society. #1.25

In 1916, the voters of Minneapolis chose Van
Lear as their mayor. Two issues converged to provide
him with a solid majority. The first was a business
scandal. Citizens of all political persuasions were
upset when the incumbent mayor and Council approved the
streetcar company's bid to renegotiate a franchise
agreement for $15,000,000 more than the actual worth of
the company. Prominent leaders of the Minneapolis
financial community close to the streetcar company
contributed heavily to Van Lear's opponent's campaign
kitty. The voters turned in disgust to the only reform
candidate available, Van Lear.

The second issue was specifically a working
class concern. A conflict between the Teamsters Union
and employers in a handful of shops had escalated into
a general strike. The Citizens Alliance brought in
strikebreakers, many of them armed, and Mayor Wallace
Nye supplied scabs with police protection. Mayor Nye
had been-a public official the conservative A.F.L.

leaders thought they could trust. But his performance Page: 33
"fawning and grovelling at the feet of the master
class," convinced even the most reluctant business Contents
unionist that labor _must_ have its own people running
the city. #1.26

For both the Citizens Alliance and the labor
movement in Minneapolis, an offense against one became
an offense against all--a condition that strengthened
the hand of Socialists who preached class solidarity
over narrow business unionism, and independent political
action over "reward your friends and punish your
enemies." In 1917, Governor Burnquist and the Safety
Commission helped forge the statewide expression of the
Minneapolis solidarity when they intervened in a labor
conflict between the Teamsters and the Twin Cities Rapid
Transit Company. The Safety Commission took the view
that loyalty demanded nothing short of complete
abstinence from organizing new unions. There were two
honorable options available to able-bodied men during
the war: "Either go to the firing line and fight as no
man ever fought before, or stay at home and work as no
man ever worked before." #1.27

The state A.F.L. did not agree. While the war
issue had created a serious rift in the organization
(100 Socialists had walked out of the state convention

in protest over prowar resolutions), and conservative Page: 34
labor leadership had been prepared to go along with
Burnquist, the administration's heavy-handed strike- Contents
breaking was too much.

Non-Partisan Leaguers were quick to exploit the
situation. They went out of their way to support the
carmen, and arranged a conference to coordinate farm
and union political efforts. Although no formal
farmer-labor coalition was established until after the
challenge in the Republican primary that Summer, the
foundation was laid for the alliance that would soon
spawn the Farmer-Labor Party.

Section: 1.3 Birth of the Farmer-Labor Movement

Events had brought both the Non-Partisan
League and a large segment of the Minnesota Labor
Movement into coalition. On March 19, 1917 Non-Partisan
League members representing 48 of the state's 67
senatorial districts nominated the progressive congress-
man from Little Falls, Charles A. Lindbergh for
governor. In the joint two-day rally that followed,
7,000 farmers and workers celebrated.

The occasion was a dramatic one. Townley
himself addressed the final session. In the middle of

his speech, he paused and asked: "Farmers of Minnesota, Page: 35
is there any hatred in your heart toward organized
labor?" Contents

The farmers shouted out, No!" and Townley
responded: "Those of you who pledge allegiance to the
workers of the city will stand." Thousands of Minnesota
farmers jumped to their feet. #1.28

"Workers of the city, if you likewise pledge
your allegiance to the farmers of Minnesota, please
stand." Immediately the rest of the auditorium was on
its feet. Hats sailed through the air, men and women
cried. The cheers were tumultuous.

The Farmer's Non-Partisan League had done its
work well. Despite intimidation, despite legal attacks
that resulted in the jailing of Minnesota leaders, the
League had signed up 50,000 farmers--mostly wheat
farmers from the Red River Valley and the southwestern
counties, sod-busters from the poorer agricultural
regions of central Minnesota, and German-Americans who
were fed up with the wartime persecution suffered at
the hands of the Burnquist administration.

Opposition to the League in the upcoming
election was led by a Twin Cities group comprised of
top executives of banking, milling, mining, lumbering,
and utilities. They weren't alone, of course. The more

prosperous farmers of the southeast had little taste Page: 36
for the Non-Partisan brand of radicalism. Small-town
professionals had their own economic and political Contents
reasons for opposition. Much of the Catholic hierarchy
treated Lindbergh cooly, as they treated anything even
faintly smelling of socialism. They no doubt
influenced at least some of the faithful. And thousands
of Minnesotans, regardless of economic position or
religious persuasion, were mesmerized by the persistent
charges of disloyalty that formed the basis of
Republican strategy.

The Twin Cities group bankrolled its own campaign
of clever stratagems and dirty tricks. Bribes were
offered League organizers to write "inside stories"
denouncing the League. A news service was created to
keep the loyal small-town press well stocked with anti-
League news and editorials. A new magazine was created
for the occasion and sent out free to over 200,000
"potential subscribers." _Called, On the Square--A
Magazine for Farm and Home_, the journal combined
propaganda with helpful articles on farming and healthy
living. #1.29

The campaign was the most violent in Minnesota
history. Several times mobs dragged Lindbergh off the
speaker's platform. Once he was shot at while

escaping. In Red Wing, citizens hung him in effigy. Page: 37
In Duluth, the City Council simply banned him from
speaking. Anoka patriots attacked a parade of 1,500 Contents
Leaguers, beating up men, women, and children, while
Madison loyalists confined themselves to using a fire
hose to break up a rally--evidently their way of
dousing the flames of Kaiserism.

Throughout the ordeal, Lindbergh conducted
himself with courage. Country philosopher and anti-
monopolist, ex-Congressman and reform Republican,
Lindbergh was a man of stature--a genuine hero to
Minnesota farmers. And if his speeches were a little
long and a little pedantic, that was all right with
them.

As the weeks went by, the League campaign
gained momentum. Giant car caravans paraded through
the countryside, stopping in the towns for mobile
campaign meetings. The _Non-Partisan Leader_ provided
an alternative source of news for League readers and
potential League voters.

On June 17, the results came in. Lindbergh
polled 150,000 votes--three times the League membership
but 48,000 less than Burnquist. The Republicans had
received large Democratic Party switchover, as
newspapers encouraged Democrats to vote for Burnquist

and "save the state from Socialism." In all, 168,000 Page: 38
more citizens had voted in the Republican primary than
in the previous election. Contents

Lindbergh carried the working class wards of
St. Paul and Minneapolis, the Non-Partisan strongholds
of the Red River Valley and adjacent counties, and
German-American territory like Brown and Stearns
Counties. In all the League carried 32 counties and
nominated 42 senators and 80 representatives.

The Loyalty Campaign had checked the League, but
it gave birth to a political coalition even more
powerful. The new farmer-labor alliance was just
beginning. In August, the Farmers Non-Partisan League
and a committee from the A.F.L. met in separate hotels
and negotiated a partial ticket for the general
elections. A progressive Democrat named David Evans
was the new choice for governor, and Tom Davis, a
favorite of the farmers, was nominated for Attorney
General. Minnesota election laws precluded their running
as Independents, so the name "Farmer-Labor" was used
on the ballot. #1.30

The final elections in November generally
paralleled the Non-Partisan results in the June primary,
though the campaign itself was less dramatic. Violence
subsided as Burnquist began to perceive that the

loyalty issue carried to excess could backfire. When Page: 39
a Finn from Duluth was found hanging from a tree after
being attacked by an organization called the Knights Contents
of Liberty and a number of Rock County farmers who
refused to sign a "loyalty oath" were "deported" to
South Dakota, public reaction against the Governor
began to mount.

In the end Burnquist won easily. The Farmer-
Laborites, however, kept their coalition together,
won a strong foothold in the legislature, and
established themselves as the second party in the state.

A precedent for farmer-labor cooperation had
been set. But the formation of a single, unified,
organization was not easy. The fire of attack that
characterized the great struggles of 1917-18 was
replaced by the tedious necessity of keeping a shaky
coalition together in hard times. There were major
disagreements on the question of merging the separate
farmer and labor organizations. Townley and many of
his supporters favored continued efforts to work through
the Republican Party primaries. William Mahoney,
editor of the _St. Paul Union Advocate_, was the main
leader for the majority of Labor who favored the
formation of an independent political party. Mahoney
could count on a solid minority of left wing

Non-Partisan Leaguers like Joe Gilbert and Henry Page: 40
Teigen for support. #1.31
Contents
The Farmers Non-Partisan League slowly lost
ground as the major force in the farmer-labor coalition
after 1918, heightening the fears of some farmers that-
merger would mean loss of influence. In 1919, the
state Federation of Labor voted to form its own working
people's Non-Partisan League. Within a year, 300 unions
had joined, and its paid up membership reached 45,000.
In the elections that year, the farmer-labor coalition
won victories in 46 legislative districts, though
failing once again to win statewide office. #1.32

In 1922, the two leagues (still over the
objection of Townley) stayed out of the Republican
primary for the first time. They won their first
statewide office with the election of Henrik Shipsread,
a dentist from Glenwood, to the post of U.S. Senator.
Shipstead was a tall, distinguished-looking Scandinavian
who had supported the Non-Partisan League during the war
and got his house painted yellow for his trouble.
Shipstead appealed to farmers. In fact, his fortunate
ethnic background, and comfortably grave, substantial
demeanor, made him an attractive candidate for all
sorts of Minnesotans. In the great political wars of

the next 20 years, he would fare better than many more Page: 41
capable and committed Farmer-Laborites. #1.33
Contents
One of those, a dirt farmer named Magnus
Johnson, became the second Farmer-Labor senator a year
later when he won a special election held to fill the
vacancy of Republican Knute Rockne, who had died in
office. As it turned out, Magnus's victory was short-
lived. In the regular election the following year, 1924,
he was defeated. But the two senatorial victories,
coming as they did in the wake of another one of
capitalism's periodic recessions, strengthened the
hands of those who favored a permanent organizational
structure. A conference between the two leagues took
place in September 1923, and recommended formation of
the Farmer-Labor Federation. The joint convention held
the following March ratified the proposal. In 1925, the
Federation made a few minor changes and renamed the
organization the Farmer-Labor Association.

An organization unique in the history of
American political parties had been created. In fact,
the Farmer-Labor Association was not a party at all. It
was an independent political and educational organiza-
tion resting firmly on the organizational base of the
two great producing classes; the farmers and the
workers. Education was seen as primary. Experience had

taught that only an alert and educated constituency Page: 42
could protect itself from the power and tactics of
monopoly. The Association, through its farm and labor Contents
organizations and local clubs, would develop platforms
reflecting farmer-labor interests, and then see that
their elected officials honored those platforms.

The Farmer-Labor Party was simply the election-
year vehicle for carrying on the campaigns of the
Association's designated candidates. It terminated
itself every year after the election results were in.

The 1920s would yield no further statewide
victories for Farmer-Laborites. Yet the new organiza-
tion held its own against the Republican ascendency,
electing a solid corps of opposition legislators to
fight the reform battles of the period. And when the
"Coolidge Prosperity" turned into the "Hoover Nightmare"
of 1929, the party was prepared to move fast. While
the rest of the country was spinning in confusion,
Minnesota was ready with an organization, a program, and
tested leadership to respond to the crisis of the
Great Depression. #1.34

Section: 1.4 Footnotes: to Chapter 1 Page: 43

1.1 Stories from the _Minneapolis Journal_, March Contents
12, 1924.

1.2 Arthur Naftalin, "A History of the Farmer-
Labor Party," (unpublished doctoral dissertation,
University of Minnesota, 1948) pp. 47-58.

1.3 Robert Morlan, _Political Prairie Fire_
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1955) p. 26.
1.4 Ibid., pp. 3-21.

1.5 _St. Paul Union Advocate_, April, 3, 1927.
1.6 Ibid.

1.7 James Youngdale, Populism, _A Psychohistorical
Perspective_ (Port Washington: Kennikat Press, 1975)
p. 47.
1.8 Morlan, p. 29.

1.9 Carl H. Chrislock, _The Progressive Era in
Minnesota_ (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society
Press, 1971) pp. 147-48.

1.10 For an account of the League's organizing
campaigns see \Morlan, pp. 150-155.
1.11 Chrislock, p. 146.

1.12 Morlan, p. 159. See #1.3

1.13 William Folwell, _A History of Minnesota_, Volume
III (St. Paul: The Minnesota Historical Society, 1969)
p. 556.
1.14 Chrislock, p. 121.
1.15 Folwell, p. 558.

1.16 Ibid., pp. 556-572. Page: 44
1.17 Chrislock, p. 129
1.18 Ibid., p. 131. Contents
1.19 Ibid., p. 195.

1.20 Charles Walker, _American City_ (New York:
Farrar and Rhinehart, 1938) pp. 48-61.

1.21 For an excellent account of Van Lear's career
see David Paul Nord, "Minneapolis and the Pragmatic
Socialism of Thomas Van Lear," Spring 1976, 45:1,3-10.

1.22 See New Times, the Socialist Party newspaper.
The 1916 newspapers are available at the Minnesota
Historical Society.

1.23 Meridel LeSeuer, _The Crusaders_ (Minneapolis:
People's Press, 1954) p. 29.

1.24 Nord, p. 6.
1.25 Ibid., p. 8.
1.26 Ibid., p. 9.

1.27 Chrislock, p. 150. See #1.9

1.28 Morlan, p, 191. See #1.3

1.29 For accounts of the campaign see Morlan, pp. 187 See #1.3
-201, and Carol Jensen, "Loyalty As a Political Weapon,"
_Minnesota History_, 43:2 (Summer 1972) pp. 48-57.

1.30 Naftalin, p. 73. See #1.2

1.31 For an account of the diverse ideological cur-
rents within the early Farmer-Labor Party see #1.7 Youngdale's
_Populism_, pp. 155-174. For a documentary account of the
running battle between Townley and Mahoney see _Non-
Partisan Leader_, April 28, June 11, and August 15, 1924.

1.32 See Henry Teigens series on the history of the
Farmer-Labor Party in the _St. Paul Union Advocate_,
June 16, 23, 30 July 7, 14, 21, 28, 1927.

1.33 Ibid., June 23. Page: 45

1.34 Naftalin, pp. 137-149. See #1.2

Chapter: 2 Page: 46

CHARISMA AND CLASS CONFLICT-- Contents
THE OLSON YEARS

On Friday, August 30, 1929, the skies of down-
town Minneapolis lit up with skyrockets. Earlier, John
Phillip Sousa and his 75 piece band, gave the first of
several concerts for the good citizens of the city.
The next day, James Good, Herbert Hoover's Secretary of
War, would deliver an address dedicating the object of
all this civic fuss. He would assure anxious Minnesotans
that Hoover was a firm believer in navigation, and that
plans were indeed in the making for the development of
a government project to dredge the Upper Mississippi.
This and much more accompanied the dedication of Wilbur
Foshay's Tower, the Washington Monument of the Midwest. #2.1

_Minneapolis Journal_ was downright poetic
about Foshay's monument. In fact it worshiped business
monuments in general.

Like veritable temples in business, these
modern towers rise high in the air and house the
thousands. Safe and luxurious elevators lift
one from floor to floor more dexterously than
Jacob's ladder, with angels ascending and
descending upon it. Modern towers unite people
rather than divide them. From their heights

mightly searchlights guide lone pilots on Page: 47
their way to ports and havens safe. #2.2
Contents
In a few short years, Foshay had created a
holding company that owned a phalanx of public utili-
ties, several choice manufacturing ventures, and three
banks. He was in the process of building an ocean
liner, and had nailed down a contract for supplying the
electric power for the construction of the Boulder Dam.
To keep this empire going, Foshay kept selling his paper
to the speculating public. When the stock market began
its decline his only source of capital dried up. Foshay
like so many of his contemporaries, went broke. His
empire crumbled two months after its greatest monument
was dedicated. #2.3

The _Journal_, so proud of the tower two months
earlier, said little about Foshay's downfall. Wilbur's
family had never been well accepted by the old wealth of
Minneapolis. The Foshays did the right things upon
moving to town. They became parishioners at St. Mark's
Episcopal Church. They purchased a three story
colonial on Sheridan Street in the exclusive Kenwood
section of the city, and complemented it with a country
home at Koscoe Point on Lake Minnetonka. But utility
speculation was frowned upon by the old line milling
and banking families and Foshay's use of union labor

didn't sit well with the open shop leadership of the Page: 48
Minneapolis business community. It was with some irony,
then, Foshay's company went into receivership under Contents
George Chapman, the key operator for the Northwest Bank
chain.

If the _Journal_ took a blase attitude toward the
fall of Foshay, many in the labor movement screamed
"foul." In banner headlines, the _Minneapolis Labor
Review_, attacked the chain banks for deliberately doing
in Foshay as a reprisal for his support of organized
labor. Foshay's tower shot up fast while other buildings
far less monumental were stalled with labor trouble. #2.4

A year and a half later, Labor's friend was
convicted of fraud. The jury found that he had falsely
represented his company and the value of shares he had
sold to the investing public. For this he would serve
two years and eleven months in Leavenworth Prison.

Another, more tragic episode, concludes the
Foshay saga. On October 21, 1931, Mrs. Genevieve
Clark, her husband and two children were found dead in
the family car out at Pryor Lake. They hacked a hole
through the side of the car and had run in a rubber hose
from the exhaust pipe. During the trial of Foshay,
Mrs. Clark, a former employee, had perjured herself

in defense of her boss. She was to have begun her Page: 49
prison term on the day of the suicide.
Contents

Section: 2.1 Floyd B. Olson: The Early Years

The fall of Foshay makes a nice story for
Minneapolis residents who remember the Tower as the
city's most notable skyscraper before, of course,
the IDS Building dwarfed it and every other business
monument in the loop. But there are other stories to
tell, as well: farmers driven off their land; thousands
of hungry people crowded into the Gateway district, out
of work, and money for the rent; the growth of great
social movements; and the private, quiet courage that
got people through those years of the Great Depression.

"Hell, those were tough times," said one guy who
lived through them, "but we had our fun too."

Floyd Olson was part of the fun and part of the
great social movements. His rise corresponded with
Foshay's fall. Farmer-Labor governor from 1930 to
1936, he helped build the movement, if only by his
immense popularity. And though great social movements
are built in the basement by thousands of men and women
whose names never get in the history books, Olson
symbolized this movement for thousands of Minnesotans.

Ask anybody who lived in the 30s if they Page: 50
remember Floyd B. Olson, and they'll answer, "Sure I
remember Floyd Olson. He was a great man. He really Contents
cared for the people." #2.5

Floyd Olson, born in 1891, grew up in a working
class neighborhood in North Minneapolis. Tall tales to
the contrary, he did _not_ experience grinding poverty.
His father earned a modest, but adequate living as a
railroad checker, and when Floyd got old enough, he
earned some money on his own doing odd jobs: newspaper
boy, candy peddler at the old Metropolitan Opera House.
In high school he took up debate--though he never
excelled at it, and soon after demonstrated his skills
at salesmanship by hustling religious books in Southern
Minnesota. One biographer notes how Olson used to mount
the pulpit at Sunday services and exhort the faithful--
an obvious parallel to similar, though more secular
activities of later life. #2.6

Olson was never an ideologue, but his experi-
ence growing up in North Minneapolis gave him a first
hand knowledge of and support for working people; his
people: Finns, Norwegians, Jews, and Swedes. In a two-
year swing across the West, he harvested grain in

Alberta, dug gold in Alaska, and worked as a Longshore- Page: 51
man in Seattle where he joined the I.W.W.
Contents
In 1913, Olson returned to Minneapolis for good
and earned his law degree. Following a brief career
with the Democrats, he managed to get appointed County
Attorney by the Republicans in 1920. He proved a
vigorous and able prosecutor, respected by leaders of
all political stripes. Even the _Minneapolis Journal_
had good words for him.

In 1922, he became a hero to the Minneapolis
Labor Movement when he uncovered a frame-up by the
Citizens Alliance. It seems our favorite organization
of Minneapolis businessmen was milled at a Building and
Trades official by the name of Mahady. They hired a
few members of Minneapolis's teaming underground to lure
Mahady into a criminal venture that involved blowing up
a safe. Instead, Mahady blew the whistle. Olson called
a grand jury, and in a public statement filled with
righteous indignation took an unusual step for a public
official of that time: he dressed down the Citizens
Alliance. #2.7

In 1923, Olson consolidated his status with the
labor movement by calling a grand jury investigation of
the rise in coal prices. The investigation revealed
price fixing. R. D. Cramer of the _Minneapolis Labor

Review_ and I. G. Scott, a Farmer-Labor alderman, began Page: 52
to urge his nomination for governor. When Charles
Lindbergh added his endorsement to the Olson candidacy, Contents
the go-ahead decision was made. #2.8

Olson entered a crowded field of candidates for
the Farmer-Labor nomination. The new Federation had
just been formed, and five candidates competed with each
other to be the organization's first candidate for
governor. The battle quickly settled down to a two-way
contest between Tom Davis, veteran Non-Partisan Leaguer
from Marshall, and Olson. Referring to Olson "connec-
tions" with both the Democratic _and_ Republican Parties,
Davis backers wondered pointedly where Olson had been
while Non-Partisan Leaguers were fighting the great
battles of 1918 and '20. At a time when people were
serving jail terms on dubious charges of disloyalty,
Olson was busy being appointed County Attorney by the
Republicans. #2.9

In the end, Olson narrowly won the primary,
going on to lose in the general election to the
Republican candidate, Theodore Christianson, in a
spirited election that established him as the Farmer-
Laborites' outstanding political personality. Prefer-
ring caution to crusading, Olson refused to run for

state office again until 1929 when the onset of the Page: 53
Depression and deep divisions in the Republican Party,
created the opening for Farmer-Labor victory. #2.10
Contents
People who were active in the movement during
the 30s invariably have their favorite Olson stories to
tell. One of the most revealing is a tale told by
Jimmy Flowers. Flowers was an organizer for the United
Farmers League during this period and an active member
of the Communist Party. One day he dropped into Olson's
office to dish out some hell about farm conditions in
rural Minnesota. Olson's schedule was filled up pretty
tight for the day, so he suggested that the two of them
meet at 5:30 and drive to his home and spend the evening
together.

The first thing Jimmy did on reaching the
Governor's home was take a hot bath (a rare luxury for
a travelling farm organizer), and then he joined Olson
and some other guests Floyd had invited over for the
occasion. Not all of them were "good Farmer-Laborites"
by any means. A few hours later, the influentials
departed, and Floyd asked Jimmy what he thought.

Well, Jimmy didn't think much of the affair,
and he said so in his usually blunt way. He doubted
the sincerity of the Governor's friends when it came to
helping the farmers. Olson was equally blunt. He

walked over to his bookshelf, pulled out a volume of Page: 54
Lenin's _Collected Works_, and turned to an essay called
_Left Wing Communism and Infantile Disorder_. "You lousy Contents
Commie son of a bitch," said Olson (with more good nature
than anger), "You're standing here talking to me about
revolution, and you haven't even got the workers and
farmers organized. That has to come first, and then we
can move ahead ...." #2.11

The story is indicative of the Olson approach.
Floyd Olson was a practical politician with a genuine
dedication to the people. He didn't believe in advanc-
ing policies they would refuse to accept. He realized
that the degree of change possible was dependent not
simply on a governor's decrees, or high sounding plat-
forms, but the level of militancy and political
understanding of the people themselves. He would move
left as the people moved left. He would articulate
that leftward progress, even encourage it, but never
at the price of endangering the Farmer-Labor Movement
in the process.

Olson was famous for his speeches. At the 1934
Farmer-Labor Convention he made some remarks that
expressed both his emerging radicalism, and his belief
in the practical, measured way, change must come about.

Now I am frank to say that I am not a liberal. Page: 55
I enjoy working on a common basis with liberals
for their platforms, but I am not a liberal. Contents
I am what I want to be--I am a radical. I am
a radical in the sense that I want a definite
change in the system. I am not satisfied with
tinkering, I am not satisfied with patching, I
am not satisfied with hanging a laurel wreath
upon burglars and thieves and pirates and calling
them code authorities or something else. I am
not satisfied with that.

I want, however, an orderly, a sane, and a con-
structive change. I don't want any visionary
things any more than the hardest Tory or
Conservative wants them. But I know the transi-
tion can take place and that, of course, it must
be gradual. It can't come overnight, but I want
to do all I can to set it in motion and keep it
going steady, not in jerks, or jumps, or in
spurts, but going steadily ahead .... #2.12

Section: 2.2 A Farmer-Laborite in the Governor's Mansion

In 1930, Olson defeated Republican Ray Chase for
governor on a program designed to bring reluctant
constituents into the Farmer-Labor fold. To enroll
town businessmen the party promised action against chain
stores, to good government advocates, an end to the
Republican spoils system, and a pledge to make appoint-
ments based on merit; to farmers, a fair system of
pricing. #2.13

The campaign slogan was simple: "Throw the
rascals out." There was no talk of a cooperative
commonwealth, or cooperative anything for that matter.
The Farmer-Labor _Leader_ assured its readers that their

candidate "is not a bitter radical and theorist, Page: 56
but a well-balanced progressive." #2.14
Contents
The downturn of the economy (most people still
expected it would improve shortly), the sad shape of
the Republican Party, and the help Olson received from
"All Party" volunteer committees of citizens who were
not members of the Association, resulted in a sweeping
victory for Olson, and a general, though less dramatic
rise in overall Farmer-Labor fortunes. Olson carried
82 of 87 counties. Association-endorsed candidates won
40 seats in the House, and 29 in the Senate.

The first administration of Olson reflected the
basis of his victory. No drastic legislation was intro-
duced, or passed. Legislative controversies centered
around such prosaic issues as trucking regulation and
sewage disposal. Olson even refused to call for public
relief for the unemployed. He suggested a private
philanthropic effort instead, reasoning that the public
would support a state effort only after watching pri-
vate efforts fail. #2.15

Labor wasn't happy with Olson's decision, or
the community fund drives that were supposed to sub-
stitute for a public response. The venerable William
Mahoney of St. Paul Trades and Labor refused an Olson

appointment to lead the new philanthropic campaign, and Page: 57
the official labor organizations in both cities attacked
Olson sharply. The Minneapolis _Labor Review_ published Contents
a wry poem that captured the attitude of many workers.

Soon we will have the Community Fund
(The natural result of the Mad Plunderbund)
Exhorting and pleading, demanding we give
That the victims of greed may continue to live.

Ten thousand dollars the salary paid
To the main mogel, and I'm much afraid
By the time his assistants have all had their whack
There's little left in the Community sack.

Charity was once bestowed by the rich--
But now the poor fellow who digs in the ditch
Is made to contribute, or else lose his job
So aggressive has grown the Community mob.

Society's structure contains many flaws
To sincerely remove them let's tackle the cause
To wait til the victims are practically dead
Show something's gone wrong with society's head.

If Community boosters were willing to learn
It pays to pay Labor what they really earn
Attacking the cause--not the consequence
And thereby displaying some genuine sense.

We might find ourselves more in accord with a spirit
That earth's noble natures shall always inherit--
But while workers groan in a thirty-cent hell
Please keep your thumb off of Labor's door-bell.

In a city that's pledged to a starvation wage;
Whose workers are haunted by thoughts of old age;
While policy's ruled by a Mad Plunderbund
You'll need a tremendous Community Fund. #2.16

Labor didn't have to wait long, however, for a
more militant brand of leadership from Olson. In the
Spring of 1932, the farmers of western Minnesota began

another chapter in their long struggle for survival. Page: 58
Their movement, and the growing discontent among all
segments of the population produced the popular base Contents
for a left turn in Farmer-Labor politics. By the last
six months of Olson's first term as governor, thousands
of Minnesotans had realized that prosperity was _not_
"just around the corner."

The Farm Holiday Association was the spiritual
successor of the Non-Partisan League. It was organized
as an offshoot of the Farmers Union, the most progres-
sive of the larger farm organizations. During the
Summer of 1932, speakers crisscrossed the state urging
farmers to "take a holiday" by joining the farm strike
scheduled for the coming September. The Holiday's
plan was simple: force prices up by withholding produce
from the market. #2.17

On September 21 the strike in Minnesota began.
Strikes were taking place on a generally less massive
scale in a dozen states across the Midwest. Particip-
ation, predictably enough, was strongest in the old Non-
Partisan League strongholds of the Southwest; counties
like Laqui Parle, Yellow Medicine, Swift, Chippewa,
Traverse, Big Stone, Rock, Jackson, Willmar, and
Pipestone. Roads were blockaded, and produce trucks

turned back. There were some skirmishes between local Page: 59
law enforcers and farmers, though on the whole the action
was carried out with very little violence. #2.18
Contents
Although the strike itself was unsuccessful in
raising prices, and had to be called off in late October,
the action did dramatize to the state, and nation, the
severity of the farm crisis. The Farmer-Labor Associ-
ation swung solidly behind the Holiday's efforts. Olson
stumped Holiday strongholds in the Fall, and convinced
farmers of his sincerity in hard hitting speeches up-
holding their right to strike, in a style that would
become famous in the months ahead. For its part, the
Holiday rewarded its political allies. Farmer-Labor
candidates did well in all counties with strong Holiday
chapters, and a relationship of mutual support was
established that would continue for the next four
years. #2.19

The tenor of the 1932 campaign, more militant
than two years earlier, and the results, underscored the
changing mood of the electorate in 1932. Olson out-
polled Republican challenger Earle Brown 522,438 to
334,081, while Democrat John Regan tallied 169,859.
Five of nine Congressional seats were captured by the
Party, and enough Farmer-Laborites were elected to the
State House of Representatives to ensure a liberal

majority in that body. However, the State Senate Page: 60
remained in Republican hands--a fact that seriously
blunted Farmer-Labor legislative efforts and prevented Contents
a full test of the movement's reform programs.

Olson's second inaugural address captured the
change in direction.

We are assembled during the most crucial period
in the history of the nation and the state. An
army of unemployed, some 200,000 homeless and
wandering boys, thousands of abandoned farms
are evidence not only of an economic depression,
but of a failure of government and our social
system to function in the interests of the common
people. just beyond the horizon of this scene is
rampant lawlessness and possible revolution. Only
remedial social legislation national and state
can prevent its appearance. #2.20

The remedial legislation Olson had in mind estab-
lished a principle that is largely taken for granted
today: government responsibility for minimum standards
of well being for its citizens. Olson proposed relief
for the unemployed, a moratorium on farm foreclosures,
and a state income tax based on a progressive rate
structure, as well as reorganization of the state's
conservation efforts, and state support for public
utilities.

These measures passed the Minnesota House
easily enough, but ran into a wall of resistance in the
Senate. In radio speeches, at rallies and public events,
Olson attacked the Senate Conservatives in language that

made him a national hero to Progressives--a man many Page: 61
talked and dreamed about as a radical successor to FDR
himself. In April, Olson addressed a rally of the un- Contents
employed at the capital steps and threatened to declare
martial law if the Senate refused to appropriate needed
relief monies to the unemployed. If capitalism
couldn't prevent the occurrence of present conditions,
he declared, "I hope that present system of government
goes right down to hell." #2.21

By May, the Senate capitulated on the big issues,
and Olson was able to sign into law the state's first
relief bill, and a moratorium on farm mortgages--an
action that saved hundreds of farmers' homesteads,
around the state. For both Labor, and the Farm Holiday
Association, a Farmer-Labor government had secured
tangible, even unheard of results.

The tempo of Olson's second term was matched by
the growing strength of the Farmer-Labor Association
itself. The founders of the Association had always
envisioned an active rank and file organization with
year-round education and cultural activities taking
place in Farmer-Labor clubs organized on a ward, town-
ship, or county level. During the 20s, however, few
clubs existed, and the Association functioned more like
a traditional political party than a mass movement. By

1932, however, every country was organized and Farmer- Page: 62
Labor clubs grew in hundreds of communities across the
state. The Association's State Committee sent paid Contents
organizers around the state, and its Education Bureau
assisted local clubs develop their education programs. #2.22

This growth had significance for the ideologi-
cal direction of the Farmer-Labor Movement. The clubs
became classrooms where Farmer-Labor principles were
presented and discussed. The main teachers were
veterans of the movement: people like Henry Teigen,
O. M. Thompson, Suzie Stageberg, Arthur and Mario
Le Seuer, and Howard Y. Williams. Most were of
socialist persuasion. The main text was the _Farmer-
Labor Leader_, the Association's newspaper. Members who
couldn't afford subscriptions could pick them up at
half price, or even free.

At the 1934 State Convention, this grassroots
approach to political education bore fruit. The dele-
gates assembled passed the famous "Cooperative Common-
wealth" platform; a Magna Carta of American left wing
politics that remains to this day the most radical
program ever presented by a major (electorally
successful) political party. It was the clearest
expression of the democratic socialist current within
the Farmer-Labor Movement; the old populist and

antimonopoly ideology for once unharnessed, for once Page: 63
untempered by the cold calculations of winning election
campaigns and increasing political power. Contents

We declare that capitalism has failed and that
immediate steps must be taken by the people to
abolish capitalism in a peaceful and lawful
manner, and that a new, sane, and just society
must be established, a system in which all the
natural resources, machinery of production,
transportation, and communications shall be
owned by the government and operated democrat-
ically for the benefit of all the people, and
not for the benefit of the few. #2.23

It demanded "public ownership of all mines,
water power, transportation and communications systems,
banks, packing plants, factories, and all public
utilities." It called for a state takeover of idle
factories to employ "idle citizens and distribute the
products to the needy." It pledged state support for
consumer cooperatives, state operated insurance programs,
a two-year extension of the mortgage moratorium, free
textbooks to all students (produced by a state owned
publishing operation), and a steep tax on large incomes
and inheritances.

Gene Debs would have been proud.

Despite the initial enthusiasm of the delegates
with the document they had created, the politicians of
the movement were soon gripped by a fear that the plat-
form could well become a last will and testament. Within

days, Farmer-Labor operatives, particularly from rural Page: 64
areas where strong Association organizations did not
exist, were calling in reports of mass disaffection Contents
with the sweeping measures of the program. For many
farmers it simply went too far. Agricultural coops were
one thing, but the state ownership section seemed to
threaten private ownership itself. Businessmen and
professionals had similar reactions. No matter that
the platform was calling for an end to _monopolies_,
not "Ma and Pa stores," the distinction was lost on
thousands of the state's business people. #2.24

The displeasure of at least a section of the
Farmer-Labor constituency was reflected in the
Association itself. Olson carried on a running war--
fare with the ideologically committed left wing of the
Association. He insisted on keeping a base that
extended beyond the Association proper and even went so
far as to appoint Democrats and Republicans to important
state positions.

In this he was backed by the pragmatists who
raised the money and managed the campaigns. Those
"practical people" recognized that the Association's
base _in itself_, was simply too small to capture state
power. The "uncommitted" Minnesotans held the balance
of power in 1934.

Faced with a potential political disaster, Page: 65
Association leadership began a sanitizing operation on
their unwholesome platform. Within a month, a 5,000 Contents
word "analysis" of the platform was distributed to
party workers around the state. The section on state
ownership was separated from the rest of the text and
placed under the subtitle "ultimate aims." Other of the
more controversial planks were "interpreted" in the most
moderate way possible. The "analysis" became the
"de facto" election program of the Association. By
summer, the original document could not be ordered
from state headquarters. #2.25

Olson himself was pleased with the more
moderate tone of the new document. Without repudi-
ating the platform (or any of its sections) he managed
to minimize the more controversial measures advocated,
while pushing hard on the general theme. In one of the
most famous of his 1934 campaign speeches, he defended
the platform with references to the Red Cross, Eleanor
Roosevelt, and the Christian Church. #2.26

In another much-quoted talk, Olson threw back
Republican charges that the Cooperative Commonwealth
program was a threat to individual liberty.

Whose liberty? Liberty for what purpose?
Liberty of the Citizen's Alliance to arm thugs
to shoot defenseless strikers in the back? Liberty

of promoters of spurious bank stocks to fleece Page: 66
widows and orphans? Liberty of the millionaires
to escape all taxation. Liberty to pay lower Contents
wages. Liberty to make peasants out of farmers! #2.27

In the end, Olson won another victory. The
workers of Ramsey, Hennepin, and St. Louis counties
voted more heavily Farmer-Labor than ever before. The
militant farmers in the Red River Valley and North
Central counties held fast. The Association lost the
business vote, however, and some of the more prosperous
farmers from the Southern counties. These defections
cost Olson 50,000 votes from his '32 tally, and more
importantly, the progressive coalitions majority in
the state's House of Representatives. Class lines were
drawn sharply in 1934. #2.28

There are those who like to view the 1934
platform as a temporary aberration; a critical mistake
foisted on an otherwise shrewd political organization by
an overzealous rank and file. Those that hold this
fail to see the '34 platform as part of a rising _class
struggle_, rather than a separate exercise in rhetorical
draftsmanship. The delegates who assembled in St. Paul
to nominate candidates and approve a platform were not
simply ideologues, operating as isolated individuals.
They were often (though not always) members of labor
unions, farm,organizations, and year-round active

Farmer-Labor clubs. The programs they adopted repre- Page: 67
sented the real aspirations of thousands of Minnesotans--
including the most dedicated and active Farmers-Laborites. Contents
The bold statement the "Capitalism has failed," was more
than a visionary prognosis, it was a description of
reality, a statement of the obvious. Capitalism _had_
failed hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans in towns and
cities, in shops and farms around the state. And, no
doubt, _most_ of those it had failed, appreciated a
political party saying so.

There were other factors working both to
strengthen the Farmer-Labor Association and weaken it
in 1934. The implementation of Roosevelt's long-
awaited Agricultural Adjustment Act meant support pay-
ments for holding down production of specified crops,
and a corresponding rise in prices. For farmers lucky
enough to benefit from either of these circumstances,
the return of (slightly) better times meant a return
to the traditional Republican fold--and a corresponding
diminishing of interest in the mass protests of the Farm
Holiday Association. #2.29

Section: 2.3 The Great Teamster Strike

But if sections of the farming classes were
retreating from militance in 1934, their brothers and

sisters in the working class were moving with new Page: 68
force. During the Spring and Summer of 1934, the truck
drivers of Minneapolis fought an epic battle to win Contents
Union recognition and break the stranglehold of the
Citizens Alliance. The trucker's strike was one of the
bloodiest and most far reaching of labor conflicts of
the decade; a shoulder to shoulder clash that in some
way affected the lives of every Minneapolis citizen,
and thousands of people around the state. It was an
event that is well remembered today, as well remembered
as Floyd Olson himself. And it was an event that would
challenge the political survival of Olson, and the
party he represented. #2.30

On May 12, 1934, the workers of Teamster Local
574 voted to strike after failing to negotiate con-
tracts with the trucking firms that served Minneapolis's
industrial and commercial establishments. Large and
small outfits were affected: department stores, facto-
ries, grocery stores, laundries, bakeries, construction
projects, warehouses, breweries. Almost immediately,
the city of Minneapolis was closed down tight.

Local 574 was an exceptional union with excep-
tional leadership. Karl Skoglund, the Dunn brothers
(Vince, Grant, Miles) and Farrel Dobbs were members of
the _Communist League_; the Trotskyst wing of the

Communist movement. They were skilled union orga- Page: 69
nizers, well schooled in both the tactics of conducting
a strike, and the longer range considerations of Contents
building a class conscious trade union movement. They
helped build the Teamsters into the major union in
Minneapolis, and their specific political perspective,
including a general opposition to the Farmer-Labor
Party, and a more vehement enmity toward the Stalinist
Communist Party (a hostility that was thoroughly recip-
rocated) would be a factor in the internal politics of
the farmer labor coalition in the future.

The Union set up headquarters in an old garage
on 19th and Chicago. From here the organization con-
ducted strike activities with military precision.
Flying pickets were dispatched to intercept strike
breaking truckers. An intricate system of surveillance
was set up with picket captains guarding routes and
calling in sightings. Fifty entrances to the city were
covered. The radio in the Union's headquarters
recorded the action.

Trucks attempting to move loads of produce from
Berman Fruit under police convoy. Have
only two pickets, send help.

Successfully turned back five trucks from
entering the city. Am returning cars 40 and
46 to headquarters. #2.31

Headquarters had its own hospital with two Page: 70
doctors on duty at all times. Strike leadership did
not want injured Union 'members detained in the city's Contents
regular medical facilities. The Women's Auxiliary ran
a commissary operation, supplied meals to up to 10,000
workers a day. Regular mass meetings were held in the
lot across from the garage to keep the rank and file
informed and maintain solidarity.

Support for the strike was not confined to the
workers directly involved. Thirty-five thousand con-
struction workers, members of unions that understood
from years of first hand experience, the importance of
defeating the Citizens Alliance, walked off their jobs
in sympathy. Members of the Farm Holiday movement
supplied food for the strikers, and in return, were
allowed to operate their own cooperative marketing
operation in the city. Hundreds of workers and un-
employed showed up at headquarters and volunteered
their help.

On May 21, the battle burst into the open.
The night before a group of picketers had been lured
into a trap by an infiltrator who had used the P.A.
system at strike headquarters to dispatch the workers
into the police ambush. Over a dozen men and women
were beaten badly in a back alley near the Minneapolis

Tribune building. Karl Skoglund was at headquarters Page: 71
when the ambushed workers were brought back.
Contents
I remember the night. They brought the women
in, and the other pickets from the Tribune alley,
and laid them down in rows in strike headquarters.
All the women were mutilated and covered with
blood, two or three with broken legs; several
stayed unconscious for hours. Saps and night
clubs had been used on both the men and women.
When the strikers saw them lying around with
the nurses working over them, they got hold of
clubs and swore they'd go down and wipe up the
police and deputies. We told them no, the alley
was a trap. We'll prepare for a real battle,
and we'll pick our own battle ground next time. #2.32

A large battle was at hand. While Union members
were arming themselves with clubs and planning strategy,
the employers were gathering _their_ forces. They picked
a committee of twenty-five to coordinate efforts with
Minneapolis police to get the trucks moving again. A
citizens army of special deputies had been recruited
and sworn in by Chief Johaness, who interpreted it his
duty, as did most law enforcement officials of the day,
to break the strike.

What followed on Monday and Tuesday, May 21 and
22, has gone down in history as the "Battle of Deputies
Run." On Monday, men, women, and children joined news-
paper reporters and radio announcers as the battle lines
formed. They were there to watch a contest. The ques-
tion at hand was simple: would the Citizen's Alliance

forces (the "deputies" and regular police) move the Page: 72
trucks and thereby break the strike? Or would the
workers hold fast? Contents

The first skirmish went to the strikers.
Fifteen hundred workers soundly thrashed their oppo-
nents in a battle that took place in the marketing
district of downtown Minneapolis. On Tuesday, the
employers were determined to regain the field. They
mobilized 1,700 police and special deputies. Upper
class "gentlemen" showed up battle ready in their
khaki safari outfits. They faced thousands of workers.
A picketer threw a crate of tomatoes through a mer-
chant's window and the battle was on.

Both sides joined in with night stick, sap,
blackjack, and lead pipe. Members of the "citizens
army" were special targets of the striker's anger.
Arthur Lyman, a lawyer for the Citizens Alliance was
killed within minutes. After an hour strikers were in
control of the streets. Cops and citizen deputies alike
went into hiding, and settling of scores went on into
the night.

Class war is not a pretty thing.

The sound drubbing of the alliance at "Deputies
Run" and the intervention of Governor Olson resulted in
an ambiguous settlement that simply delayed further

conflict until July. The employers had no intention Page: 73
of honoring the spirit of the agreement, and used the
time to regroup their forces. Within days after the Contents
new strike was called, police resorted to terror. On
July 20, they ran a truck toward picketers massed in
the downtown area. When the strikers moved in to
intercept, the cops hidden inside opened fire at
point blank range, wounding sixty-seven and killing
two. BLACK FRIDAY!

Both sides could now claim their battle dead,
and both sides were determined to win final victory.
At a mass meeting on the night of the shooting, there
was much sentiment for a march on city hall to lynch
the mayor and police chief. The Union's Trotskyst
leadership knew the difference between a trade union
battle, however violent, and a full scale revolution.
They discouraged any attempt at takeover of the city.

At the Citizens Alliance headquarters, the
sentiment was for more of the same. "Nobody likes to
see bloodshed," said one alliance leader in retro-
spect,

But I tell you after the police had used their
guns on July 20, we felt the strike was broken . . .
There are very few men who will stand up in a
strike when there is a question of their getting
killed. And I say there are very few of us, in

view of what Minneapolis is today, who don't Page: 74
feel the strike would have been better ended
that way. Contents

Three days after "Bloody Friday," the latest
team of federal negotiators presented their proposal
for a settlement: a 2 1/2 cent pay raise, union recognition
for inside workers, and subsequent adjustment of wage
scales. The Union accepted immediately. The employers
refused, and Governor Olson declared marshall law. The
strike had entered its final phase. #2.33

In calling out the National Guard, Olson set a
historic precedent. Never before had the military
power of the state been used to actually protect
strikers. The response of the Minneapolis police force
was much more typical. The equation between crushing
strikes and preservation of "law and order" was almost
uniform across the country. Now Olson was replacing
Teamster pickets with "tin hats," as a way of avoiding
further bloodshed. In so doing, he put himself in the
center of a class conflict that almost brought him down.

To no one's surprise, the employers were out-
raged. They had just sent the governor a memorandum
branding the strike as Communist controlled and demand-
ing he intervene on their side by sending in troops to
reinforce the police force. "We demand to know whether

you will support local authorities with the military aid Page: 74b
in the discharge of their duty, or support the efforts of
the few to obstruct the flow of normal traffic in this Contents
city." #2.34

Olson replied in an equally public fashion
with a letter that set the tone for future Farmer Labor
interventions on behalf of Labor.

. . . I do not agree with you that a plea for a
living wage by a family man receiving only
$12.00 a week is answered by calling that man
a Communist.

Neither am I willing to join in the approval
of shooting unarmed citizens of Minneapolis,
strikers and bystanders alike, in their backs
in order to carry out the wishes of the Citizens
Alliance of Minneapolis.

I have never attended a meeting of Local 574
and am unable to agree or disagree as to your
claim concerning who controls it. However,
I have had numerous opportunities recently
during strike negotiations to attend meetings
of employers an in the past years have had con-
siderable opportunity to observe the action
of this organization known as the Citizens

Alliance of Minneapolis, of which you are Page: 74c
members.
Contents
This organization is controlled and dominated
by a small clique of men who hate all organ-
ized labor and are determined to crush it...
(it) gained its power because of its alliance
with the big financial institutions, which
control the two chain banking institutions of
Minneapolis through the extension of stifling
of credit. These chain institutions are able,
aided by the manipulation of the Citizens
Alliance clique. to dictate the very destinies
of the majority of employers in the city of
Minneapolis. . .

The Agencies of government do not belong to you,
as one would be led to believe from reading your
communication. They belong to all the people,
and I propose to use the governmental agencies
under my jurisdiction, including the National
Guard, for the protection of all the people of
the city of Minneapolis, and all people outside
the city, including farmers, who desire to do
business within the city. #2.35

What caught Olson off guard was the reaction of
the Union. Within two days workers were hopping mad.
The Guardsmen were simply not stopping trucks.
Thousands were getting through the lines with exemptions
and special permits. With the best of intentions a
Farmer Labor governor was _breaking_ the strike. The
Union leadership demanded a moratorium on all truck
traffic for 48 hours, and the right to appoint picket
captains to work with the Guards to overhaul the permit
system. The governor refused, and the Union resumed
picketing _en masse_.

Olson was in a corner. As chief executive

and governor of all the people, he could hardly permit Page: 74d
this open defiance of public order. As Farmer-Labor
governor, however, it was both politically and Contents
personally painful to enforce the ban on union pickets.
But enforce them he did. Improvising as he went along,
Olson ordered the arrest of union leaders (only to have
them released two days later), commanded a raid on the
Citizens Alliance headquarters, and enlisted the
support of the Roosevelt administration behind the
scenes, while union leadership struggled to keep their
people's morale from sagging entirely. Finally on
August 21st, the employers capitulated. The Citizen
Alliance suffered its first defeat. Minneapolis
would never be the same. #2.36

Olson's third and last term as governor reflected
the forces that had been set in motion during his second.
Without a working majority in either House of the Legis-
lature, very little legislation of significance

was passed. The Association continued to grow across Page: 75
the state, and the labor wars in Minneapolis continued
with bitter and ultimately successful strikes at Contents
Flour City Iron Works and Strutwear Knitting Mills.
In the Strutwear Strike, Olson once again called out
the National Guard to prevent the company from using
force to reopen the plant. This time the U.S. Supreme
Court forced him to rescind the order.

Signs of continuing militance were everywhere.
Unemployed workers picketed the legislature. Farmers
set up pens on the capital lawn to display their
emaciated cows. Olson continued his flirtation with
national forces favoring a left wing alternative to
Roosevelt in 1936. A group called the Cooperative
Commonwealth Federation, organized by Minnesota's
Howard Y. Williams (among others) even offered Olson
the Presidential nomination.

In the end, however, Olson urged support of
Roosevelt for a second term, while approving the efforts
of the Commonwealth people to run local candidates
across the country, and build for the long haul. While
officially recognizing the need for a third party "to
preach the gospel of government and collective owner-
ship of the means of production and distribution," Olson
felt that failure to support Roosevelt in '36 could mean

the victory of fascism (read Republicanism). He Page: 76
believed efforts to build a new party would have to
be gradual, and include most of the progressive ele- Contents
ments within the Democratic party. It was a position
most Farmer-Laborites in Minnesota shared. #2.37

Olson himself planned to help this process along
as a United States Senator. At the 1936 State Conven-
tion, he received the party's endorsement. He had
opened the convention with a 2 1/2 hour speech in which
he presented his most comprehensive call for a new
economic order. On August 22, he died at Rochester's
Mayo Clinic of stomach cancer. Two hundred thousand
Minnesotans passed his coffin in tribute. A hero had
passed away.

Section: 2.4 Footnotes: to Chapter 2 Page: 77

2.1 _Minneapolis Journal_, August 30, 1929. Contents
2.2 Ibid.

2.3 For an account of Foshay's life and career
see: Frances McNulty, William Foshay _The Saga of a
Salesman_. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation,
Creighton University, 1964.)

2.4 _Minneapolis Labor Review_, November 8, 1929.

2.5 For the only book length biography of Olson
available see George H. Mayer, The Political Career
of Floyd B. Olson (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1951).
2.6 Mayer, pp. 3-16.
2.7 Ibid., pp. 25-26.
2.8 Ibid., p. 26.
2.9 Ibid., pp. 27-36.
2.10 Ibid., pp. 36-37.

2.11 Personal interview with Jimmy Flowers, Fall
1976.

2.12 Speech to the 1934 Farmer-Labor State Convention
available at Minnesota Historical Society.

2.13 1930 Farmer-Labor Platform available at
Minnesota Historical Society.

2.14 Farmer-Labor Leader, January 24, 1931.

2.15 Mayer, p. 109. See #2.5

2.16 _Minneapolis Labor Review_, March 18, 1932.

2.17 The best book on the Farm Holiday Association Page: 78
is John L. Shover, Cornbelt Rebellion: The Farm
Holiday Association (Urbana; University of Illinois Contents
Press, 1965).

2.18 Personal interview with Holiday leader John
Bosch, Summer 1976.

2.19 Mayer, pp. 102-106. See #2.5

2.20 Floyd Olson's Second Inaugural Address
available at Minnesota Historical Society.

2.21 Mayer, pp. 132-133. See #2.5

2.22 For a description of the Farmer-Labor Associa-
tion see Ralph Humolda, "The Farmer-Labor Association,
Minnesota Party Within a Party," _Minnesota History
Magazine_, 38:7, September 1963, pp. 301-310.

2.23 Preamble 1934 Farmer-Labor Platform, avail-
able at Minnesota Historical Society Library.

2.24 Mayer, pp. 173-177. See #2.5
2.25 Ibid., pp. 178-180.
2.26 Ibid., pp. 176-178.
2.27 Ibid., p. 176.

2.28 Included in Youngdale, p. 225. See #1.7

2.29 Mayer, pp. 250-251. See #2.5

2.30 The best account of the truckers' strike is
Charles Walker, _American City_, (New York: Farfar and
Rhinehart, 1938).

2.31 Jeremy Brecker, _Strike_, (Greenwich: Fawcett
Publications, Inc., 1974) p. 203.
2.32 Walker, p. 153.
2.33 Brecker, pp. 207-208.
2.34 Quoted in Walker, p. 176.
2.35 Youngdale, pp. 265-268. See #1.7

2.36 For two accounts of this period of the strike Page: 79
see Mayer, pp. 153-158 and Walker pp. 191-203. See #2.5
Contents
2.37 For Olson's most famous statement on the need
for a third party see Floyd Olson, "My Political
Creed: Why a New Party Must Challenge Capitalism,"
_Common Sense Magazine_ (April 1935).

Chapter: 3 Page: 80

THE BENSON YEARS Contents

In November 1936, Elmer Benson became the
second, and last Farmer-Labor governor. He won in a
landslide vote; defeating Republican Martin Nelson by
225,000 votes. Two years later, the figures were
reversed. A man who had gained nationwide stature as a
two-listed champion of the people went down in smashing
defeat--and his party went with him. Neither would
gain ascendency again.

There are times when the personalities of great
leaders symbolize the movement of historical events.
Floyd Olson was a wide-open leader. He spoke the
language of thousands, capturing their indignation,
tapping their humor, leading by a slap on the back and
a "how are you, Bjorn? Stop down to my office any time,
and we'll have a chat."

Floyd Olson could thunder--and wink--at the
devil!

Benson knew only thunder. Where Olson was broad,
Benson was narrow. Where Olson was charming, Benson was
blunt. Where Olson did a two-step, Benson charged the
line, four yards and a cloud of dust.

Their styles carried over into the movement both Page: 81
did so much to build. Under Benson the Farmer-Labor
Association gained in members and strength. Loyal Contents
Association men and women were put in charge of the
state's administrative agencies. Efforts at education
on the club level were redoubled. Funds collected by
the Association were scrupulously put into the
organizational set up of the Association itself--rather
than reserved for the independent use of candidates. #3.1

Whereas Olson cultivated an "All Party"
following--welcoming Democrats, independents and
Republicans, into his campaigns, _and_ administration,
Benson saw to it that first priority went to building
up the Association. Leaders were important, but an
educated, righteous, rank and file, believed Benson, was
the first prerequisite for a strong movement.

Veterans of that movement still argue over who
was the better man. They remember the capitalist's
complaint. "Floyd Olson used to say all those things,
but this son of a bitch Benson really means them." #3.2

The Education of a Radical

Elmer Benson grew up on Minnesota's western
prairie in Appleton, Swift County. Like so many

Farmer-Labor activists, he was weaned on the strong brew Page: 82
of Midwest populism. His father, Tom, was an active
Non-Partisan Leaguer who followed Lindbergh from Contents
Lincoln Republicanism to the Farmer-Labor Movement. His
mother was the granddaughter of Talliev Olavsson
Hurstad--one of the original signers of the Norwegian
Declaration of Independence; a woman who was even more
open to new ideas than her husband. 3.3

Elmer spent a lot of time around the stove in
his father's general store listening and eventually
participating in the hot talk of Swift County's
outstanding radicals and progressives--members of the
old Populist Party, supporters of Teddy Roosevelt's
"Bull Moose" progressivism, and even an occasional
socialist or two. The Socialist Party had a chapter in
Appleton. They brought Gene Debs in for a talk one
evening--an event that caused quite a stir in sleepy
Appleton.

Benson wasted little time getting involved in
the political movement. After earning his law degree
(an experience he found extremely distasteful) and a
brief stint in the army, he returned to Appleton in 1919
to combine a career as banker with an avocation for
politics. He was an active supporter of the working
alliance between Labor and the Farmers Non-Partisan

League that resulted in the successful Farmer-Labor Page: 83
campaign in 1922. In 1924 he personally drove Burt
Wheeler, LaFollette's vice presidential candidate around Contents
western Minnesota.

Following the setbacks to LaFollette, Floyd
Olson, and Magnus Johnson in 1924, Elmer dug in to help
build a strong Farmer-Labor organization in Swift
County and throughout his Congressional district. He
did his work well. Though the town of Appleton itself
remained conservative, the county voted Farmer-Labor
in every election between 1924 and 1938. This service
established Benson as a trusted Farmer-Labor leader, one
who could be counted on to stand by the organization in
troubled times.

Benson's political philosophy developed with
experience. He subscribed to the _Nation_, _New Republic_,
and _LaFollette's Magazine_ (today called _The Progressive_).
He was greatly moved by Woodrow Wilson's _New Freedom_,
and managed to read Karl Marx's _Letters_--though he never
read any of Harx's more substantial works.

Labels are imprecise. His political ideology
as it developed during this period was an amalgam of
socialist, populist, and liberal progressive currents.
He occupied the broad middle plane of the Farmer-Labor
ideological spectrum. He believed in public ownership

of monopolies, supported the principle that government Page: 84
had an obligation to guarantee minimum economic security
to all its citizens. He favored the interests of small Contents
business and cooperatives over large corporations,
shared the populist belief in wild and woolly democracy,
and the socialist insistence on an united farmer-labor
coalition. He was a radical democrat who believed
that an educated citizenry, acting through a strong
political organization could win at least a small
measure of economic democracy.

In 1932, Floyd Olson appointed Elmer Benson
Commissioner of Banking. It was a good appointment.
Benson cleaned house on old Republican holdovers, and
put his small-town banking experience to work in setting
new, more liberal guidelines for bank solvency.
Hundreds of small-town banks were saved from shutting
down thanks to Benson. His performance produced wide-
spread good will for the Farmer-Labor administration
from an unlikely source--the usually conservative
small-town banker.

Benson soon became a favorite of those elements
in the Olson administration who ran the _Minnesota
Leader_, and kept the Farmer-Labor Association geared up
and organized. Little stories about Benson's activities
began popping up in the labor and progressive small-town

press. Floyd Olson got him to take speaking lessons-- Page: 85
an obvious preparation for the more public role that
lay ahead. By 1935, the "Association men" had decided Contents
that Elmer would be the best successor to Floyd Olson.
He was principled, absolutely loyal to the Association,
capable, and progressive. Other Farmer-Laborites might
be better known, but none could cement a loyal following
from both urban and rural constituencies as well as
Elmer Benson.

And so Olson appointed Benson to succeed Tom
Schall in the U.S. Senate when Schall died in office in
1935. Olson himself had planned to run against Schall
the following year. The decision was fateful. The
temporary senate seat put Benson in the limelight. He
received the Association's nomination for governor with
little opposition in 1936.

Section: 3.2 Tough Times in the State House

Benson's landslide victory over Nelson repre-
sented the high tide of Farmer-Labor fortunes. Riding
the crest of public appreciation for the fallen Olson,
and enjoying the tacit support of the state's Democrats
who refrained from opposing Benson in return for
Farmer-Labor endorsement of Roosevelt, the Association

tallied victories at all levels of government. Ernest Page: 86
Lundeen was elected senator; John T. Bernard, Henry
Teen, Dewey Johnson, joined Paul Kvale and Knud Contents
Wefald in Congress. Farmer-Laborites regained control
of the Minnesota House. The State Senate however
remained safely--and, as later events would prove,
_significantly_ in Conservative hands. State Senators
were not up for re-election until 1938.

Benson's victory surpassed Olson's margin of
1934 by 150,000 votes. But it did not signify an
increased mandate for the Cooperative Commonwealth
program articulated in the 1934 platform. In fact, the
'35 state convention had returned to its previous custom
of burying most references to public ownership safely in
the preamble. The specific proposals were primarily
bread and butter reform programs: a minimum wage and
workmen compensation for labor; a generous old age
pension; an extension of the mortgage moratorium;
provisions for a more equitable tax structure; and
support for consumer coops, credit unions, health,
housing, and rural electrification coops. #3.4

As an ideological statement, the 1936 platform
put the Farmer-Labor Movement on the left end of the
New Deal rather than totally outside its orbit. There
were other indications of a shift away from a radical,

third party stance. Roosevelt openly endorsed Benson Page: 87
while campaigning in Minnesota--he knew a majority
movement when he saw one. And Benson began what would Contents
become a habit in the same election. He endorsed the
New Deal. Though Farmer-Labor criticism of FDR would
escalate in '37, the leadership quietly abandoned any
lingering consideration of initiating a national
Farmer-Labor Party.

There is an irony here. Under the leadership of
Elmer Benson, the Association reached new heights of
militancy in pursuit of increasingly _reformist_ goals.
While the reforms were critical, _ground breaking_ in
the 1930s, the radical vision of economic democracy, of
the Cooperative Commonwealth, was seldom articulated.
In the heat of battle, immediate needs superseded
ultimate ends. The pragmatic commitment to reform
resulted in the abandonment of efforts to build a
national movement for more basic change. #3.5

On January 5, 1937, Elmer Benson delivered his
inaugural address. It was the longest inaugural ever
delivered in Minnesota, an encyclopedia of reform
proposals carefully spelled out, logically and forcefully
presented. To most Farmer-Laborites it was a symphony.
The Republicans heard it as a declaration of war.

Even a selective accounting shows the breadth Page: 88
of the Farmer-Labor reform program.
Contents
- A two-year extension on the mortgage
moratorium for farmers.

- A technical assistance program to assist and
promote cooperatives.

- Union wages for state employees.

- The creation of a state commission on youth.

- Free transportation for rural high school students.

- Repeal of the criminal syndacalism laws
(remember the Wobblies?)

- Creation of a state housing agency.

- The development of a state owned cement plant.

- Increased benefits for the disabled, people
on relief, and the aged.

- A constitutional amendment enabling the state
to produce and sell electrical power to
municipalities.

- A state liquor dispensary.

- New provisions in the state's unemployment
benefits--including benefits for striking
workers. #3.6

Although more comprehensive than the messages
forwarded by Floyd Olson, the Benson inaugural was cut
from the same cloth. Creativity was the order of the
day. In speeches, party platforms, articles in the
_Leader_, the spirit of "social pioneering" of building
the new day, was evident. It was a time when being a
"liberal" was a good thing; almost a "radical" thing;

when the creation of new government programs represented Page: 89
triumphs rather than intrusions, when organizing
cooperatives was a small, but powerful act of creating Contents
a new economic system; when people's political outlook
changed almost overnight--yesterday a powerless worker,
today a trade unionist and Farmer-Laborite to boot!

Few of Benson's proposals became law, however,
despite their support in the Farmer-Labor controlled
House of Representatives: an extension of the mortgage
moratorium, renewal of decreased interest rates on
rural credit loans, seed loans to farmers, and the
extension of workmen's compensation to state employees
were able to run the gauntlet of the conservative
senate. In his speech to the Association faithful at
the annual Lincoln Day dinner, Benson summed up the
session this way:

The slaughter of liberal measures would have
set a record for the South St. Paul stockyards.
The conservatives can now ask you to return
them to office because they administered fatal
poison to a state labor relations act, the
anti-lobby bill, and measures to prohibit the
importation of thugs and strikebreakers during
labor disputes, permit municipalities owning
power to extend their lines, limit the hours
of work for women in industry to forty-four in
any one week, full transportation of rural
high school pupils, pass state aid to schools
in full, and provide adult education. The
casualty list is a formidable one.

This is a record which should make any
reactionary's bosom swell with pride and I will

aid them in seeing to it that voters Page: 90
are made quite thoroughly acquainted with that
record. #3.7