DR. MiTAU is professor of political .science and cochairman of his department in Macalester College at St. Paul. He is actively interested in state politics, and he is thus especially well qualified to write about Minnesota's recent political history.

The Democratic-Farmer-Labor

PARTY SCHISM of 1948

G. THEODORE MITAU

BEHIND the lively events of the Demo­ Thus the fervor for social justice and cratic-Farmer-Labor party schism of 1948 a economic opportunity has long had organ­ long and complex background of political izational expression in Minnesota, even protest can be traced. As one writer has put though success in national elections has it, Minnesota "through most of its history been rare and erratic. Along with other has shown symptoms of political schizo­ Midwestern states, Minnesota witnessed the phrenia. On the one hand, it was the staid well-known patterns of protest, genuinely dowager, as reliably Republican as its down- active, rich in condemnation of the rail­ East Yankee sisters; on the other, it had skit­ roads, monopolies, and Wall Street, and tish moments during which it produced a proud of the righteous blasts from such brood of third parties or helped raise the "tribunes of the people" as Ignatius Don­ radical offspring of its neighbors."^ Espe­ nelly, A. C. Townley, Magnus Johnson, and cially in periods of economic depression, Floyd B. Olson. The quest for success at the voices of agrarian and urban protest, often polls, which would translate platform and discordant and intense, have risen from the program into actual pubhc policy, caused mining pits of the Mesabi Range, from the leaders of the Populist movement to experi­ slaughterhouses and railroad shops of the ment with various types of political tactics. cities, and from the debt-ridden farms of At times it led them to support a major the Red River Valley to find expression in party contestant, such as John A. Johnson, the platforms and conventions of Minne­ who ran for governor on the Democratic sota's third and minor parties. Through the ticket in 1904, and Charles A. Lindbergh, Anti-Monopolists and the Greenback party Sr., candidate for the Republican nomina­ of the 1870s, and the Nonpartisan League tion for governor in the primaries of 1918; and the Farmer-Labor party of the present at other times it led them to advocate fusion century, this tradition of protest has con­ with emerging national parties, as in 1912 tinued to exert pressure on state politics. and 1924; and in other campaigns, like that of 1892, all fusion attempts were spurned and Donnelly was called upon to head a ^ Donald F. Warner, "Prelude to Populism," in state Populist ticket as that party's candi- Minnesota History, 32:129 (September, 1951).

Spring 1955 187 date for governor. During the dark, un­ extinction when it was fused with the Dem­ happy days of the depression in the 1930s ocratic party in the Democratic-Farmer- the voices of protest rose to a crescendo. In Labor party"; and he describes "the fusion their commitment to left-wing radicalism, of 1944" as "simply the requiem for a death the Farmer-Labor platforms of that period that had occurred in 1938."* are perhaps unmatched by those of any other American party which has been suc­ WHAT, in retrospect, can be inferred from cessful at the polls.^ Those were, of course, these events? Minnesota's eleven electoral bitter times, and the remedies proposed by votes never have and probably never will the Farmer-Labor administration and party determine the balance of presidential for­ leaders were sharp and dogmatic curatives tunes. Nevertheless, traditions of protest for deeply felt economic ills, offering many politics make Minnesota a most fascinating a strange combination of Marxism, agrarian laboratory for the study of political dy­ egalitarianism, and Utopianism. namics of agrarian and labor discontent. But even in the perilous 1930s, when the Most populist movements have been moti­ party had the popular Governor Olson to vated by an urge to broaden the base of argue on its behalf, Farmer-Labor policies socio-political and economic privilege seemed to have reached the limits of their through such state interventions as a par­ acceptability. Olson's legislative program ticular grievance seemed to demand. What encountered major modification, some fea­ these movements lacked in the doctrinaire tures incurring intense hostility and some qualities of a European pattern of challenge meeting with outright defeat. This hap­ was counterbalanced by the American tra­ pened, moreover, in sessions like those of dition of practical and selective state inter­ 1933 and 1937, when Olson's party had vention.^ control of the lower house of the legisla­ Most of this protest, then, was genuine, ture. Then in 1938 the electoral fortunes necessary, creative. Especially relevant in of Farmer-Labor protest reached a new low. a study of the fortunes of the protest tradi­ Governor Elmer Benson was swept out of tion after the Democratic-Farmer-Labor office by Harold Stassen, the relatively un­ fusion of 1944, however, is the fact that known county attorney from South St. Paul, some of the protest lacked these qualities. after a campaign which stressed charges Largely through union infiltration, the long of administrative incompetence, corruption, arm of the Thffd Internationale seemed at and blindness to Communist infiltration. times to reach all the way to the North Star The wave of popular indignation left Ben­ State when efforts to exploit real grievances son with a mere 387,263 votes to the amaz­ and to confuse, disrupt, and subvert the ing and overwhelming total of 678,839 for the Republican party's nominee.' '' On Governor Johnson's many progressive rec­ The Farmer-Labor party lost its one-time ommendations to the Minnesota legislature during broad popular support, according to one his administration, see WiUiam W. FolweU, A His­ tory of Minnesota, 3:286-289 (St. Paul 1926). scholar, largely because it could not com­ See also Theodore Saloutos and John D. Hicks, bat the undermining tactics used by inter­ Agricultural Discontent in the Middle West, 187 nal quarreling factions, and because it (Madison, 1951); Hicks, The Populist Revolt, 258 (Minneapolis, 1931); and George H. Mayer, The failed to provide necessary policy direction Political Career of Floyd B. Olson, 171 (Minne­ through executive and legislative leader­ apolis, 1951). ship. The same writer concludes his anal­ ' Minnesota, Legislative Manual, 1953, p. 333, 'Arthur Naftafln, "The Farmer Labor Party in ysis of the "great debacle of 1938" with the Minnesota," 382, an unpublished doctor's thesis sub­ observation that "the next six years were to mitted at the University of Minnesota in 1945. see the final disintegration of the Farmer- " Currin V. Shields, "The American Tradition of Labor party, culminating in its vfftual Empirical Collectivism," in American Political Sci­ ence Review, 44:104-121 (March, 1952).

188 MINNESOTA HistOTy WALLACE addressing a meeting in Minneapolis, 1947

COURTESY ST. PAUL DISPATCH democratic processes were made in Minne­ The attitude of the Democratic party — sota. An early example of a truly dramatic and more particularly its so-called liberal clash within the ranks of the Farmer-Labor New Deal wing — toward the political far movement took place between the doc­ left presented a major ideological problem trinaire and highly disciplined forces of left- not only for Minnesotans but for the nation wing Marxism and the indigenous and as a whole. The problem was intensified reformist forces of Midwest progressivism in after the Congressional elections of 1946. 1924. At that time such noted leaders as Two mutually antagonistic groups crystal­ Samuel Gompers and Robert La Follette lized into organizations by the spring of warned theff followers not to attend a con­ 1947. On the left, the Progressive Citizens of vention in St. Paul, predicting political sui­ America emerged from a fusion of the Na­ cide for those who took part in it.^ The tional Citizens Political Action Committee fusion of the Democratic and Farmer-Labor and the Independent Citizens Committee of parties in 1944 did not, and perhaps could the Arts, Sciences and Professions. On the not, eliminate this numerically small, but right appeared the Americans for Demo­ quite vociferous, segment of left-wing Marx­ cratic Action. ist radicals. As a matter of fact, the very With spokesmen like Henry A. Wallace presence of some of these radicals within for the left and such well-known New Deal­ the ranks of the Farmer-Laborites had ers as Leon Henderson, Chester Bowles, caused many old-line Democrats and inde­ Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Franklin pendents to oppose earlier attempts at D. Roosevelt, Jr., on the right, the issues fusion. soon became clearly drawn. The right-wing "non-Communist liberal" Americans for " Mayer, Floyd B. Olson, 184-222; Saloutos and Democratic Action supported the Marshall Hicks, Agricultural Discontent, 358. On left-wing Plan and President Truman's Greco-Turkish radicalism in Minnesota after 1917, see O. A. Hil­ ton, "The Minnesota Commission of Public Safety aid program; the Progressive Citizens of in World War I," in Oklahoma Agricultural and America held these to be unwarranted cir­ Mechanical CoUege, Bulletins, 48:1-44 (Stillwater, cumventions of the United Nations, con­ Oklahoma, 1951). ceived in support of European forces of 'Wifliam B. Hesseltine, The Rise and Fall of Third Parties, 87 (Washington, 1948). reaction and fascism.'' Whereas the Ameri-

Spring 1955 189 the second annual convention of the Pro­ gressive Citizens of America, the former Minnesota governor declared, "if we retain control of the Democratic-Farmer Labor party at the state convention, Wallace wfll be the nominee and we will present him at the national Democratic convention. ... If President Truman runs in Minnesota, he'll have to run as an independent, or however he wants to label it." ^ Thus plans were made to push Wallace in Minnesota not as a third-party candidate, but as a regular Democratic-Farmer-Labor nominee whose name would go on the party ballot after his faction had captured the state party machinery. When the Demo­ cratic-Farmer-Labor state central commit­ tee met on February 20, the battle for control of the precincts began to take shape. The Humphrey-led right wing asserted its three to one lead over the Benson faction by COUBTESY ST. PAUL DISPATCH appointing exclusively from its own ranks HENSON and Wallace, Minneapolis, 1947 the steering committee which was to make arrangements for the precinct caucuses and cans for Democratic Action approved most the county and state conventions.^ of Truman's domestic, security, and defense measures, the Progressive Citizens of Amer­ THE HOSTILITY which the left wing ica considered them entirely inadequate felt for Mayor Humphrey and his followers halfway measures of a party which was is expressed in an editorial in the Minnesota doing little better than the Repubhcans. Leader, then the organ of the pro-Wal­ This clash of ideology and policy, debated lace Democratic-Farmer-Labor Association. at great length throughout the nation and "Your association," it reads, "with the un­ in Congress, was personified locally by savory Americans for Democratic Action, Mayor Hubert Humphrey of Minneapolis, a created nationally to serve as liberal win­ national leader of the Americans for Demo­ dow dressing for the Wall Streeters and cratic Action, Orville Olson, chairman of the militarists behind Truman and created in Independent Voters of Minnesota, and Ex- Minnesota as a heaven for reactionary ele­ governor Elmer Benson, a leading figure in ments in the Democratic and Farmer Labor the Progressive Citizens of America. parties, is another indication of the charac­ Wallace himself left the national Demo­ ter of your associations." It also accused the cratic party after a now famous declaration Minneapolis mayor of "close and friendly on December 29, 1947, in which he de­ relations' with the Cowles press and Gen­ nounced Truman and his program. Never­ eral Mills, and of conducting a "reactionary" theless, Benson and his Minnesota friends administration of city affairs; and it told apparently decided early in 1948 that it the mayor that "by your associations and would be politically wiser to work through the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party than to ° St. Paul Pioneer Press, January 17, February revert to the more traditional pattern of 22, 1948. ' Pioneer Press, January 28, February 8, 20, third-party politics. Speaking in Chicago at 1948.

190 MINNESOTA HtStOTy your record you have ruined any chance group countered this right-wing declaration of your being an acceptable progressive can­ by telling two thousand Wallace fans who didate in the 1948 elections." ^^ In the same met in the St. Paul Auditorium that "regard­ paper the state chairwoman of the Demo­ less of 'talk' about keeping them out," they cratic-Farmer-Labor Association charged were, in fact, "legally entitled to participate Humphrey with the disruption of the Dem­ in all DEL caucuses and should do so en ocratic-Farmer-Labor party in the 1944 and masse." 1946 elections, with disloyalty to the party As the factional fight grew in intensity, chairman, with red-baiting, and with giving charges and countercharges raised Demo­ support to Churchill's foreign policy. cratic-Farmer-Labor tempers to the boiling The leaders of the right wing answered point. Mayor Humphrey was quoted as say­ in the Minnesota Outlook, where they pub­ ing that the third-party movement was part lished this indictment of the Wallace- of a deliberate international pattern to con­ Benson faction: "We are convinced that if fuse honest liberals and to bobble the func­ the DEL is to win support, it must remove tioning of democracy; that it was being from positions of leadership all those who used to serve the purposes of the Russian have represented or who have otherwise police state; and that, although most Min­ aided and abetted the program and tactics nesotans in the Wallace movement were of the Communist party which believes — non-Communist, Communists and party- not in progress towards a free world —but line followers in all states were seeking with in the reaction of totalitarianism and sup­ religious fanaticism to promote a third party pression of individual freedom." i' as part of Moscow's strategy to split Ameri­ cans into ineffectual groups fighting among A BITTERLY contested battle of the two themselves. ^^ factions was to develop in the ranks of the Wallace supporters, in the meantime, Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor party continued to attack the Marshall Plan, Tru­ in the spring of 1948. The party workers man's cold-war strategy, universal military who were preparing for caucuses and con­ training, and the "reactionary nature" of ventions knew that the survival of their domestic legislation passed by the Eightieth respective factions was at stake. The right Congress. Theirs, they claimed, was a fight wing made a strong offensive move on April for peace through supporting Wallace as 18, when its steering committee, under the an independent candidate. Wallace himself leadership of Mayor Humphrey and the was quoted as saying at Albuquerque that present governor, Orville Freeman, an­ the Communists "support me because 1 say nounced that Wallace's third-party support­ we can have peace with Russia." He further ers were disqualified from taking part in the clarified his position by stating: "I will not regular Democratic-Farmer-Labor sessions. repudiate any support which comes to me All county chairmen who identified them­ on the basis of mterest in peace. The Com­ selves with Wallace were asked to turn their munists are interested in peace because they credentials over to the next ranking Demo­ want a successful socialist experiment in cratic-Farmer-Labor leader. In the mean­ Russia." ^^ time the state chairman for the Wallace THE FACTIONAL battle reached ffs first ^° Minnesota Leader, February, 1948. significant parliamentary stage in the pre­ " Minnesota Outlook, February 18, 1948. ^Pioneer Press, April 19, 29, 1948. The latter cinct caucuses of April 30. Aside from the issue quotes Philip Murray of the CIO as stating customary citizenship and residence re­ that "'The Communist party is directly responsible quirements, all that is needed for participa­ for the organization of a third party in the United tion in such a caucus under Minnesota law States." '^ Pioneer Press, June 4, 1948. is the assurance of a past vote (with the

Spring 1955 191 secret ballot precluding any extemal verifi­ character," by asserting that the "Wallace cation) or the promise of future affiliation movement is not a third party in the true with the party which is holding the caucus. American sense [and by] inferring that it When the results of these caucuses were is serving the interests of Moscow." Where­ finally tabulated, the right wing claimed a upon the convention voted "with an almost clear numerical majority throughout the unanimous roar" to seat the right-wingers state. This claim was loudly protested by from Hennepin County. leaders of the Wallace-Benson faction. After The Wallace leaders thereupon held a the county conventions of May 14, the right hasty conference and decided to use the wing claimed still another victory, pointing microphone in calling for a rump conven­ out that only 161 of 402 state convention tion. When they were "greeted by loud delegates had faced any contest at all, and laughter and derisive cries," five of the that out of 76 county delegations, 59 were group gathered on the sidewalk in front definitely anti-Wallace, 5 probably pro- of the convention hall and solemnly held Wallace, 4 uncertain, and 8 contested.^* a meeting, with Francis M. Smith of St. Paul On May 23, members of the Wallace- acting as chairman. He appointed a secre­ Benson faction, which was still very active, tary to keep minutes, declared the meeting telegraphed Harold Barker, state chairman a rump convention of the Democratic- of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, de­ Farmer-Labor party, and then adjourned it manding that its delegates be allowed to to the American Federation of Labor Tem­ participate in the state convention called ple in Minneapolis, where a gathering of for June 12 and 13 at Brainerd. Unless this the left-wing faction was already in ses­ demand was granted, they said, they would sion. ^^ call their own convention in Minneapolis According to leaders of this group, five and would repudiate the Brainerd conven­ hundred delegates from fifty-one counties tion as illegal and irregular. While the assembled for the Minneapolis convention. delegates were assembling at Brainerd, a They listened eagerly as Benson termed the temporary preconvention committee on cre­ "program of Marshall, Forrestal, Dulles, dentials submitted a report giving a clear Vandenberg and Co. the most gigantic in­ majority to the right wing. It showed that of ternational swindle of all time . . . intended 402 authorized delegates, 216 had been un­ to suppress common people in every part contested. Of the latter, 186 actually were of the world." ^^ The convention then or­ present and ready to vote on the seating of ganized itself into the Progressive Demo­ the delegation.^^ The committee arrived at cratic-Farmer-Labor League and endorsed these figures even before contested delega­ James M. Shields of Minneapolis for the tions from Hennepin, Ramsey, St. Louis, United States Senate and Walter Johnson of and other counties were seated. The Brai­ New York Mifls for governor. In addition, nerd convention was to serve as a "political five nominees were named for the national court of last appeal" at which the results of the bitter struggle between the right and " Pioneer Press, May 20, 1948; Minneapolis Star, left wings were finally determined. May 14, 1948. The attitude toward a third party of One left-wing leader, Orville Olson, pro­ national leaders, including Mrs. Roosevelt and J. H. McGrath, Democratic national committee tested the convention's opening proceedings chairman, is expressed in the Pioneer Press for and denounced what he felt to be its unlaw­ April 30. For the law relating to precinct caucuses, ful and arbitrary conduct of business. A see Minnesota, Statutes, 1953, ch. 202.14. ^= Pioneer Press, May 23, 1948; "Brief for Peti­ member of the incoming Hennepin County tioners," in 227 Minnesota, 52. right-wing delegation replied by branding "227 Minnesota, 52, 54; L. D. Parlin, in the the Wallace "fringe" as "the Communist Pioneer Press, June 13, 1948. " See Carl Heimeman, in the Piorxeer Press, party in action, a movement of revolutionary June 13, 14, 1948.

192 MINNESOTA Histoty House of Representatives, eleven presiden­ members to withdraw from a convention, to tial electors pledged to Wallace were agreed terminate its legal life by so doing, and to upon, and delegates were chosen to attend resuscitate in a newly assembled convention the convention of the Progressive party in such former authority as did exist? ^° Phfladelphia in July. As a final offensive On September 2, 1948, the Minnesota stroke, the Minneapolis convention prompt­ supreme court handed down a unanimous ly presented its slate of presidential electors decision in favor of the second slate, the to the Minnesota secretary of state, claiming Brainerd right-wing convention thus receiv­ that since its group represented the true ing negative answers to the three main Democratic-Farmer-Labor ruling body, it questions raised. In support of its decision was entitled to have its name placed on the the court advanced two considerations: ballot pursuant to the provisions of the Min­ First, with regard to judicial review of the nesota election code.'^^ actions of political conventions, "In factional Attorneys for the right-wing Brainerd controversies within a political party where convention then prepared a petition urging there is involved no controlling statute or the Minnesota state supreme court to order clear right based on statute law, the courts the secretary of state, as the respondent, will not assume jurisdiction, but wfll leave to reject the slate of the Minneapolis group the matter for determination within the as false and fraudulent and to substitute party organization." Second, in the absence that of the petitioners as the true and legal of a controlling statute, "a political conven­ one of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party tion is the judge of the election, qualifica­ of Minnesota. The secretary of state, speak­ tions, and returns of its own members." ing through the attorney-general, insisted that he had no facilities or authority to in­ SCENE at Brainerd after Mayor Humphrey's vestigate or determine the truth or falsity of nomination as senatorial candidate, 1948 the conflicting representations, and asked the court to ascertain the facts and deter­ COURTESY MINNEAPOLIS STAR mine what course of action he should take with respect to accepting one or the other of the two certificates.^^

IF CERTAIN factional and legal complexi­ ties which have no direct bearing upon the problem under discussion are overlooked, the case of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor state central committee, right wing, and others v. Mike Holm, secretary of state, raised and answered three fundamental questions: First, are the quafffications of members of a legally called political dele­ gate convention subject to judicial deter­ mination and review? Second, is the legality of such a convention's actions affected by improper floor decisions? Thffd, does such an allegedly illegal action entitle disaffected

" Minneapolis Star, June 14, 1948. "'227 Minnesota, 52. ^ 227 Minnesota, 52; 33 North Western Report­ er, 831 (second series, 1948).

Spring 1955 Such a convention is not a select body re­ sults of the primary election of September, quiring "the presence of a majority of all 1948, when the right-wing nominees were persons entitled to participate in order to victorious in all the important contests ex­ constitute a quorum for the transaction of cept that in the Seventh Congressional Dis­ business and, if that convention is regularly trict. Even more significant were the results called, those who actually assemble consti­ of the final election in November, which tute a 'quorum', and a majority of those saw President Truman, then heading the voting is competent to transact business. . . . Democratic-Farmer-Labor party ticket, gar­ The withdrawal of either a majority or ner 692,966 votes to the mere 27,866 cast in minority from a political convention does Minnesota for the Progressive party's candi­ not affect the right of those remaining to date, Henry A. Wallace.^^ The successful proceed with the business of the conven­ right-wing struggle for control in the pre­ tion, and those withdrawing cannot claim to cincts, and in county, district, and state be the legal party convention." '^'^ conventions provided President Truman The Minnesota court accepted the follow­ with the type of major party instrumentality ing proposition: "As elections belong to the without which Minnesota's eleven electoral political branch of the government, the votes might well have gone to the Republi­ courts will not be astute in seeking to find can nominee. Not only the president's Min­ ground for interference, but will seek rather nesota victory, but Mayor Humphrey's to maintain the integrity and independence election to the Senate and the addition of of the several departments of the govern­ three Democratic-Farmer-Labor representa­ ment by leaving questions as to party policy, tives to Congress, were hailed by right-wing the regularity of conventions, the nomina­ leaders as direct results of the 1948 party tion of candidates, and the constitution, struggle. powers, and proceedings of committees, to The outcome of the Democratic-Farmer- be determined by the tribunals of the party." Labor party schism of 1948 — showing as it This clearly reaffirmed the position that the does that the will of the majority can be Minnesota supreme court had taken earlier made to prevail over the concerted efforts of to the effect that "a political party, absent even a better disciplined, numerically small, statutory restraints, makes its own reason­ but closely knit party segment — serves to able rules for self-government."^^ reaffirm faith in the vitality of the major party system. Most assuredly, lack of vigi­ THE LANGUAGE of the court leaves lfftle lance there as in other political activities doubt that it was the intent of the Minne­ can rob a free people of its treasured politi­ sota judiciary so to construe applicable stat­ cal heritage, should they ever grow weary utes that the affairs of party conventions, if of freedom or supinely take their liberties correctly convened, are to be placed square­ for granted. The intensity of the 1948 fac­ ly in the hands of their duly elected dele­ tional struggle within the Democratic- gates. Theirs, and not the judiciary's, is the Farmer-Labor party and the resulting responsibility for conducting the business of schism well illustrate vigilance and a wfll- the party fairly and soundly. Legal theory ingness to do battle for the sake of political at this point found itself in complete har­ conscience. mony with the well-established democratic principle that political power should always -"33 North Western Reporter, 831. be centered in those whose actions are sub­ °"29 Corpus Juris Secondum, Elections, section 88; case of Emil E. Hohnes v. Mike Hobn, in 217 ject at least theoretically to popular scrutiny Minnesota, 264. and accountability. And this faith in popular '^Legislative Manual, 1953, p. 165, 335. In the sovereignty was destined to be reinforced seventh district, James M. Youngdale, who was and mathematically underscored by the re­ endorsed by the left wing, won by a vote of 6,452 to 5,958 for the right-wing candidate, Roy F. Burt.

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