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Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for

Fall 1983

Willa Cather And The Populists

Robert W. Cherny San Francisco State University

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Cherny, Robert W., "Willa Cather And The Populists" (1983). Great Plains Quarterly. 1694. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1694

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. WILLA CATHER AND THE POPULISTS

ROBERT W. CHERNY

Despite the wealth of critical and analytical of Reform, the 1956 winner of the Pulitzer treatments of the life and work of Willa Cather, Prize for history. Unfortunately, the definitions few have noted the relationship between her of Populism that Randall adapts from Hof­ writing and the Populist movement of the stadter were neither unique to Populist thought early 1890s. Some have specifically described nor central to Populist political rhetoric. Fur­ Cather as nonpolitical or even antipolitica1.1 thermore, Hofstadter's views on Populism have The two exceptions, John H. Randall III and not been shared by any recent student of the Evelyn J. Hinz, base their conclusions on movement. In an article published in 1972, sources other than the Populist movement in Evelyn J. Hinz also describes a relationship Nebraska. Cather's writings, nonetheless, exhi­ between Cather's work and Populism.2 Like bit clear evidence of the impact of both Popu­ Randall, she relies on Hofstadter to define lism and its ideological successor, Bryanism. Populism, even while acknowledging the sig­ Cather did not like either variant of agrarian nificance of the work of Norman Pollack, one radicalism, and she expressed her distaste both . of Hofstadter's earliest and most severe critics. explicitly and implicitly. Her essay is a rewarding exercise in Cather's John H. Randall III was the first major use of the yeoman-in-the-garden metaphor, but critic to discern extensive Populist influence in the provenance of that metaphor owes at least Cather's work. In its treatment of Populism, as much to Jefferson and Rousseau as to The Landscape and the Looking Glass (1960) Populism.3 The logical place to begin to under­ draws heavily on Richard Hofstadter's The Age stand the influence of Populist thought on Cather is not with Hofstadter but with a survey of Populism as it existed in Webster County, Nebraska, and in Lincoln, the two places where A professor of history at San Francisco State Cather lived when Populism was most promi­ University, Robert W. Cherny has written several books and articles on the Populist nent. movement, including Populism, Progressivism, Nebraska Populism emerged out of more and the Transformation of Nebraska Politics, than a decade of agitation by such groups as 1885-1915 (1981). the Farmers' Alliance, the Greenback party,

206 WILLA CATHER AND THE POPULISTS 207

and the Knights of Labor. A state party was in the breeze." On election day, Webster Coun­ formed in Nebraska in late July 1890, taking ty voted 53 percent Populist for governor, and the name Independent party and dominated gave only 35 percent to the Republican candi­ by leaders of the Farmers' Alliance. Similar date. In rural Catherton township, where organizations also formed in nearby states. The Cather had lived for a time and still the home Nebraska and Kansas parties had the greatest of her Uncle George, the Populists got 81 per­ electoral success that fall, spurring formation of cent of the vote.5 a national third party. Calling themselves the By election day, however, Cather had been People's party-or Populists-this new organi­ living in Lincoln for two months. Lincoln was zation met in Omaha in July 1892 to nominate not only the state capital and the fourth largest candidates for president and vice-president. In city west of the Missouri River, but also a city 1894, Nebraska Democrats forced themselves seething with political excitement. On Labor into a coalition with the new party when the Day, Lincoln witnessed a Populist rally that young Democratic congressman from Lincoln, attracted twenty thousand participants, pre­ William Jennings Bryan, led his party to en­ ceded by a five-mile-Iong parade of Alliance dorse a number of the candidates who had been groups and labor unions. One participant in nominated by the Populist state convention that parade later concluded, "I have lived in some time before. In 1896, the Populists re­ Lincoln most of my adult life, and I have never turned the favor when Bryan won the Demo­ seen anything that could remotely compare cratic nomination for president and the Popu­ with it, even including the Armistice Day list national convention tendered Bryan their parade of 1918 and the wild jubilation of V-J nomination as well. Thereafter, the Populist Day in 1945. ,,6 and Democratic parties in Nebraska and sur­ Throughout September and October, Lin­ rounding states became a permanent coalition coln newspapers carried lengthy accounts of until the Populist party finally withered away campaign speeches and rallies, and during in the early years of the twentieth century.4 Cather's years at the university, the attention Willa Cather graduated from high school in of Lincoln newspapers and many Lincoln resi­ June 1890 and spent most of that hot, dry dents continued to focus on Populism. In 1892, summer in Red Cloud. While she left no record the Populist national convention took place of attendance at the various political meetings just fifty miles to the north, in Omaha. De­ that summer, she would have had great diffi­ bates that fall attracted large crowds to hear culty avoiding politics entirely, for Webster candidates for governor and Congress. All County was part of a broad band of Populist three of the state's major political parties held counties stretching through central Nebraska. conventions in Lincoln in late 1893, to nomi­ By May 1890, nineteen Alliance lodges had nate candidates for that year's statewide elec­ been organized in Webster County, with a mem­ tion. In 1894, coalition between Democrats bership of some seven hundred. On 4 July, the and Populists elected Nebraska's first Populist Alliance and Knights of Labor sponsored a governor, Silas A. Holcomb. Cather remained picnic and political rally near Cowles, a short in Lincoln through the first six months of distance north of Red Cloud; three thousand Holcomb's administration, then returned to people attended, the largest gathering ever Red Cloud after graduating from the university. held in Cowles. Labor Day, 1 September, In mid-1896, Lincoln vaulted to national was marked by Independent party political prominence when William Jennings Bryan be­ rallies across the state. According to the Red came the presidential candidate of the Demo­ Cloud Chief, "farmers, laborers, mechanics, crats, Populists, and Silver Republicans. By and hundreds of others" filled the streets and then, however, Cather had moved to Pitts­ sidewalks of Red Cloud, "in countless numbers burgh.7 almost, with banners flying and mottos floating Throughout the years from 1890 to 1896, 208 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1983

when Cather was in closest contact with Popu­ 1893, she took a class in journalism from the lism, the movement maintained a focus on managing editor of the Journal, will Owen three major issues: land, money, and transpor­ J ones, and soon became a regular writer for the tation. Populists' analysis of the political econ­ paper. Cather's friendship with the Gere daugh­ omy convinced them that the misfortunes of ters meant that she was a regular guest in the the farmer were due to the concentration of Gere home.9 Because of these many relation­ economic power in the hands of a few: bankers ships, the attitude of Gere and the Journal and moneylenders, land speculators and absen­ toward Populism is important to an under­ tee landlords, grain and stock buyers, and the standing of Cather's opinions. railroads. The leading Populist newspaper of The Journal, throughout the last third of the the state described Nebraska's economy in nineteenth century, was one of the two leading 1890: Republican newspapers in Nebraska, sharing There are three great crops raised in Ne­ that distinction with the Omaha Bee. The Bee's braska. One is a crop of corn, one a crop of editor, Edward Rosewater, usually aligned freight rates, and one a crop of interest. himself with the reform or antimonopoly wing One is produced by farmers who by sweat of the GOP and sometimes bolted party candi­ and toil farm the land. The other two are dates not to his liking. By contrast, Gere and produced by men who sit in their offices the Journal were scrupulously regular in their and behind their bank counters and farm the Republicanism, accepting party candidates un­ farmers. questioningly.10 Throughout the early 1890s, Populists feared this concentration of power in when Cather regularly encountered both the the hands of those who "farmed the farmers," Journal and the opinions of C. H. Gere in his and they found such concentration dangerous own home, the Journal stood adamantly against not just to the prosperity of the farmer but the Populist movement. One of Gere's most also to opportunity and to individual rights famous characterizations of the Populists more generally. Their solution to these con­ fully matched the most hyperbolic outbursts of centrations of power was collective action: their campaign orators: "They [Populists 1 are government ownership and operation of the to Nebraska what a herd of hogs would be in railroads, a government alternative to private the parlor of a careful housekeeper, and how­ banking systems, government prohibitions ever completely they are kicked out in Novem­ against absentee landlords, and cooperative ber the filth they have scattered broadcast grain elevators and stockyards. Populists also will leave its traces on our housekeeping for advocated reforms to increase the people's many months to come." control of their government. As the injunction Gere and the Journal also described the to "raise less corn and more hell" was repeated Populists as "the sore head insurrection," by more than one speaker in the fall of 1890, "demagogues and shysters," and "arrant hypo­ Populist campaigners quickly gained a repu­ crites." Populist leaders, according to the tation as intemperate.8 Although Populist Journal, "represent the shiftless lazy and im­ orators may sometimes have made arguments provident among the homesteaders whose sole using the metaphors outlined by Hofstadter, object in availing themselves of Uncle Sam's their issues and solutions were usually far more gift of farms to all settlers who would promise specific. to cultivate them, appears to be to mortgage During her years in Lincoln, Willa Cather the property and live off the loan until they was closely associated with the Nebraska State are foreclosed." Further, Populists were "ca­ Journal and with the family of its editor and lamity howlers" who besmirched the good publisher, Charles H. Gere. The Journal pub­ name of the state by blaming others for mis­ lished her first work, an essay on Thomas fortunes that actually derived from their own Carlyle, in the spring of 1891. In the fall of shortcomings. The Journal put much of its WILLA CATHER AND THE POPULISTS 209

feelings about Populism into a description of Lincoln, certainly in the circles in which Willa one candidate on the "calamity ticket": Cather moved, her writing for the Journal was almost entirely apolitical. One exception was a Always seeking an office he has neglected character sketch that appeared very soon after his duties in the corn field, and his field and she began contributing to the paper, on 19 heart has [sic 1 grown up to pigeon grass. He attributes his poverty to the robber tariff, November 1893. She did not identify the the robber money system, the robber rail­ subject of the sketch by name, only as a "public roads and the plundering land monopolies. official" who "cursed wealth and monopoly, To him every man who succeeds is a thief he cursed money makers and money hoarders." and those who fail are martyrs to an unjust "Upon the finger he shook at the crowd," government. His neighbors have prospered, Cather continued, "there glittered a diamond but it recks not to him.... If Mr. Stewart that represented more money than any man will study the economics of agriculture, and there would ever make or spend in all his life­ profit by it, in the same measure that he time." The general treatment suggests Charles has wracked his brain over political economy Van Wyck, the Populist candidate for gover­ and lost by it, the world at large will be as nor in 1892, a man of considerable personal well off and he a great deal better.ll wealth who was attacked by the Republican Characterization of Populists as lazy ne'er­ press as "sinister" and "insincere" on the do-wells prone to blame others for their mis­ grounds that no person of wealth could possi­ fortunes was by no means limited to the bly subscribe to Populist dogma. A year later, Journal. Similar descriptions can be found in Cather published a highly complimentary the Bee, in most other Republican newspapers, sketch of William McKinley, already nationally and in the rhetoric of Republican campaign prominent as a Republican. In January 1895, orators. If politics was discussed in the Gere while arguing that art ought not to carry a household in Cather's presence, this stereotype sermon in political economy, she took a direct of the Populist must surely have been part of dig at Populist sympathizer Hamlin Garland, such discussions. The same held true of another who had read one of his short stories at the home frequented by Cather during her univer­ Omaha Populist convention in 1892.13 sity years, that of Robert E. Moore, the Lincoln Not until September 1896, after moving to banker with whom Cather's father was affIl­ Pittsburgh, did Cather write at any length on a iated in business. An arch-conservative within Nebraska political figure. In an essay entitled the Republican party, Moore was elected "Two Women the World is Watching," she pre­ lieutenant governor at the same time Silas Hol­ sented sketches of the wives of the two presi­ comb, the Populist, won the governorship. dential candidates. Her treatment was complex, Cather's own family in Red Cloud probably and by no means one-sided. She described Mary shared similar political views. Her father, Baird Bryan as "a student and a thinker, a Charles F. Cather,· was in a business-farm woman burning with enthusiasm, the votaress, loans-that made him a special object of hatred perhaps the victim, of great ideals which she by the Populists. He served the Republican believes practicable." Noting that eastern news­ party in a variety of ways in the early 1890s: papers had criticized Mrs. Bryan for her dress, he was a delegate to a number of party conven­ Cather continued: "It is doubtful if she ever tions, ran for county supervisor on the Repub­ spent ten minutes planning the construction of lican ticket and then put in four years in that a gown. But many and many an hour have she office, and-for a short time-contributed to and her husband spent by their library fire the ownership and management of the Red talking over the future of the West and those Cloud Republican. 12 political beliefs which may call in question their Although it must have been nearly impos­ judgment, but never their sincerity.,,14 Cather's sible to escape from politics or Populism in complimentary comments on McKinley, and 210 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1983 also her family and personal background, a political discussion: "'We gave Wall Street a clearly show that she includes herself among scare in ninety-six, all right, and we're fixing those questioning the Bryans' judgment. another to hand them.... The West is going to The same attitude, and some of the same make itself heard. '" Carl first responds jocular­ prose, appears in Cather's next-and last-poli­ ly, but that produces anger on Lou's part, so tical essay, "The Personal Side of William Carl replies rationally, only to provoke a threat­ Jennings Bryan." Appearing in 1900, when ening response from Lou. The arrival of Lou's Bryan and McKinley were engaged in a rematch wife cuts off further conversation. The other of their 1896 contest, the essay was one of Bryan supporter can be identified only by several published under the pseudonym Henry implication. Frank Shabata was "always reading Nicklemann. Cather draws Bryan's portrait about the doings of rich people and feeling out­ with a good deal of wit but little admiration. raged. . . . Frank and Lou Bergson had very She describes his library in detail and takes similar ideas, and they were two of the political care to point out that the "works on political agitators of the county.,,16 economy were mostly by quacks." Bryan's Neither Lou Bergson nor Frank Shabata is smile, Cather notes, "won him more votes than responsible for his own material success. Early his logic ever did." She describes his "dynamic in the novel, after the death of Lou's father, magnetism" as overwhelming: "Living near him when hard times come to the Divide, Lou and is like living near Niagara. The almighty, ever­ his brother Oscar want to move to Chicago. renewed force of the man drives one to dis­ "They were meant to follow in paths already traction, his everlasting high seriousness makes marked out for them, not to break trails in a one want to play marbles." In Bryan, Cather new country." Their sister Alexandra prevails, pe~ceived "neither an invincible principle nor however, and by her planning and love for the an unassailable logic, only melodious phrases, a land she succeeds in acquiring extensive hold­ convincing voice, and a hypnotic sincerity." ings for the family. Once Alexandra's planning Describing his book on the 1896 campaign as has resulted in material success for the family, "an almost unparalleled instance of bad taste," Lou behaves in exactly the way the Journal she was quick to add that "his honesty is un­ accused Populists of acting: "He neglects his questionable." Bryan, she concludes, "synthe­ farm to attend conventions and to run for sizes the entire Middle West; all its newness county offices." Lou is not a good farmer; he and vigor, its magnitude and monotony, its "always planned to get through two days' richness and lack of variety, its inflammability work in one, and often got only the least im­ and volubility, its strength and its crudeness, portant things done." Frank Shabata, like Lou its high seriousness and self-confidence, its Bergson, experiences material success without' egotism and its nobility.,,15 These traits would, having to work for it. Albert Tovesky, Frank's in later years, appear in several of Cather's father-in-law, buys a farm for Frank, so that his fictional works, as would her uncomplimentary daughter Marie may have a decent life. Accord­ view of Bryan. ing to Alexandra, Frank is "one of these wild Characters identified as Populists or Bryan fellows .... Frank thinks we don't appreciate supporters appear in only three of Cather's him." "Jealous about everything," Frank is fictional works. In all three, Populism or "rash and violent" and frequently "outraged." Bryanism is presented in a negative light. The Marie's father, when he first meets Frank, first to appear, in 1913, 0 Pioneers!, included thinks him a stuffed shirt and considers it im­ two characters identified as Bryanites. One is proper that he won't work on his mother's Lou Bergson, who always blusters when he farm.17 Neither Frank nor Lou is responsible talks about politics. When Carl Linstrum re­ for his own success, both are jealous of the turns to the Divide after an absence of many good fortune of others, both blame others for years, Lou immediately tries to draw him into misfortunes, neither exercises judgment or WILLA CATHER AND THE POPULISTS 211 reason, and Lou neglects his farm for politics. a sting of come-back in it. His new character In all these ways, both reflect many of the char­ made him more like other people and took actenstlcs of the stereotypical Populist pre­ away from his special personal quality." J. H. s!!nted by the Republican press in the early Trueman, cattleman, tolerates this change in 1890s. his friend's personality for a time, but when The next Cather character to be explicitly it appears that the change is permanent, he identified with Populism or Bryanism did not comments "that a banker had no business to appear for nearly twenty years after 0 Pioneers!. commit himself to a scatter-brained financial Not until "Two Friends," published in 1932 as policy which would destroy credit," and with­ the concluding segment of Obscure Destinies, draws his money from Dillon's bank. Bryanism did Cather again deal explicitly with agrarian has severed the friendship, and the damage politics. Bryanism is central to "Two Friends." spreads outward in concentric rings. "After The two friends of the title are "the two most that rupture nothing went well with either of prosperous and influential men in our com­ my two great men. Things were out of true, the munity, the two men whose affairs took them equilibrium was gone." Bryanism, in "Two out into the world of big cities.... They were Friends," is not just an irrational force but also secure and established.... They were the only "senselessly" and "accidentally" destructive, men in Singleton who wore silk shirts." The just as Frank Shabata had been both irrational friendship of these "aristocrats," in the eyes of and destructive in 0 Pioneers!. 19 the narrator, is special. They customarily spend Cather's final characterization of a Populist their evenings in conversation on the street came in "The Best Years," published in 1948 outside the store owned by one. "Theirs was as part of The old Beauty and Others. The the only 'conversation' one could hear about story concerns the family of James Grahame the streets." They talk about visits to cities, of Ferguesson, a devout Populist and Bryanite, plays and concerts; they "made some of the "a ready speaker" and the butt of humor for rest of us feel less shut away and small-townish." much of the county: "Alf Delaney declared: 'I Neither takes politics very seriously. They like to see anything done well-even talking. If "sometimes discussed politics, and joked each old Ferg could shuck corn as fast as he can rustle other about the policies and pretentions of the dictionary, I'd hire him, even if he is a their respective parties. . . . Bu t each man Pop.'" Ferguesson draws the disdain and pro­ seemed to enjoy hearing his party ridiculed, vokes the laughter of the community by took it as a compliment.,,18 taking a nap every afternoon, a habit his hard­ All this changes, however, when one of the working neighbors can not understand. Fer­ friends, Robert Emmet Dillon, banker and guesson, however, justifies the habit as impor­ storekeeper, attends the Democratic conven­ tant to his thinking, necessary for "working tion that nominated Bryan for president in out in his head something that would benefit 1896. Dillon is converted. He returns to Single­ the farmers of the country more than all the ton and holds forth at length "that gold had corn and wheat they could raise even in a good been responsible for most of the miseries and year." Much to the amusement of the country­ inequalities of the world; that it has always side, he names his farm "Wide Awake Farm," been the club the rich and cunning held over and proclaims that the title is appropriate the poor; and that 'the free and unlimited because "the important crop on that farm was coinage of silver' would remedy all this." Dil­ an idea." Cather's account precisely parallels lon becomes not just a convert but a prosely­ the Journal's description of a Populist in 1892: tizer, donating funds, organizing clubs, driving "He is confronted with theories, not condi­ about the countryside to convince farmers. His tions. He lives in the realm of speculation, and conversion changes his whole personality. for every misfortune obtains recompense by "Even his voice became unnatural; there was cursing the government.,,20 212 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1983

Like the stereotype of a Populist in the fiscal honor by maintaining the gold standard Republican press of the 1890s, like Dillon after and condemned Bryan for proposing to reduce his conversion, like Lou Bergson and Frank the value of the dollar by silver coinage. The Shabata, Ferguesson cannot talk, even with Journal, in 1894, insisted that Nebraska "can­ his own family, without relating everything to not secure . . . respect more easily than by politics. "Sometimes he told them what a showing the whole country that the people grasping, selfish country England was. Very here stand for the payment of honest debts in often he explained to them how the gold honest money.,,22 standard had kept the poor man down." Be­ of all Cather's works, My Antonia shows the cause "experimental farming wasn't immediate­ most extensive, albeit implicit, influence of her ly remunerative," and because Ferguesson's anti-Populist attitudes. My Antonia clearly children believe that the community misunder­ operates at many levels of understanding, and stands their father, they feel "they must do to suggest the importance of Cather's anti­ better than other children; better in school, Populist views is not to detract from other in­ and better on the playground. They must turn fluences on her in its writing. Cather was ex­ in a quarter of a dollar to help their mother plicitly anti-Populist in 0 Pioneers!, which out whenever they could." Cather presents us preceded My Antonia by a few years, and she one picture of the family in the 1890s, and was implicitly anti-Populist in "Nebraska: The another twenty years later. By then, Fergues­ End of the First Cycle," an essay written short­ son has prospered, not because of any work he ly after My Antonia. It is therefore reasonable has done, but because Woodrow Wilson is in to search in My Antonia for indications linking the White House and "the Democrats are sure the attitudes of 0 Pioneers! with those in gra~d job-givers.,,21 Although Ferguesson is "Nebraska: The End of the First Cycle." When still a stereotyped Populist-a lazy ne'er-do­ examined in this light, many of Antonia's ex­ well, blaming others for his own misfortunes­ periences fall into a pattern suggesting anti­ the poison is not so damaging as in the case of Populist influence. Dillon and Trueman, and Ferguesson's family Throughout the novel, Antonia is identified emerges with more of a commitment to hard both with the land itself and with the pioneer work because of his behavior. farmer who transformed the land. It is in the While Cather's explicit use of Populism or latter capacity that Antonia encounters the Bryanism is limited to these three instances, chief figures of Populist complaint: the land the influence of the political battles of the speculator, the grain buyer, the moneylender, 1890s may be traced implicitly in other of her and the railroad. All bring her misfortune. works. In A Lost Lady, for example, Captain Some are portrayed as hyperbolically as in Daniel Forrester comes to financial grief be­ Populist rhetoric, others are developed with cause of his integrity. When a Denver bank greater complexity of character. Some are fails, Captain Forrester insists that the deposi­ purely evil, others have their positive attributes tors be paid in full. "The other directors ... as well as being the cause of Antonia'S distress. claimed that the bank was insolvent ... because A cursory reading might suggest that Cather is of a nation-wide financial panic, a shrinking in acknowledging the legitimacy of the Populists' values that no one could have foreseen. They complaints, but a more careful study shows argued that the fair thing was to share the loss that, at each juncture, Antonia (or her family) with the depositors; to pay them fifty cents on has options and that she (or they) chooses an the dollar." Forrester refuses and pays the option that brings misfortune. Furthermore, a depositors' claims in full from his own securi­ close reading shows that Cather denies not only ties. The affair contains echoes of the debate the legitimacy of the Populists' complaints, but over silver in the 1890s, when Republican ora­ also the efficacy of their solutions. Antonia'S tors argued that the nation must maintain its misfortunes do not radicalize her (cf. the WILLA CATHER AND THE POPULISTS 213

impact of a similar series of misfortunes on belongs to a group who were of great concern Jurgis Rudkus in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle), to the Populists. The Alliance, and later the but instead serve as a series of tests through Populists, charged that grain buyers and cattle which she develops character. Her misfortunes buyers did not give full price for the quality are a winnowing process that only the fittest of grain or stock being sold, and one common could survive. activity of Farmers' Alliance groups was the Antonia and her family first encounter the establishment of cooperative grain elevators land speculator, Peter Krajiek. Krajiek, de­ and stock pens, as a means of avoiding the grain scribed as "a fellow countryman" of the and stock buyers.24 Shimerda family, sells the family their farm and After Antonia'S mistreatment by the grain charges them more than it is worth. They are buyer, she turns to the moneylender. She takes dependent upon him as their interpreter, and he a position with Wick Cutter, as purely villain­ "could tell them anything he chose." Krajiek ous as any character in Cather's works. "When a is like the rattlesnake in the prairie dog town­ farmer once got into the habit of going to the Shimerdas "kept him in their hole and fed Cutter," according to Cather, "it was like him . . . because they did not know how to gambling or the lottery; in an hour of discour­ get rid of him." They dislike him, "but they agement he went back." Cutter makes a show clung to him because he was the only human of his piety but is a gambler; fond of moral being with whom they could talk or from maxims, he is "notoriously dissolute with whom they could get information." The Popu­ women." "It was a peculiar combination of lists, like the Shimerdas, disliked land specu­ old-maidish ness and licentiousness that made lators; the Omaha platform of 1892 declared: Cutter seem so despicable." Cutter lays elabor­ "The land, including all the natural resources ate plans to be alone in the house with Antonia of wealth, is the heritage of the people, and and to seduce-or rape-her, but is thwarted should not be monopolized for speculative by even more careful plans made by Grand­ purposes.,,23 mother Burden, Jim, and Antonia. Populists Antonia, sometime later, becomes the "hired focused their antagonism on moneylenders girl" in the home of the town's leading grain (like Cutter), as well as on high interest rates buyer, Christian Harling. Harling is "a grain and monetary policy, and proposed that the merchant and cattle-buyer, ... generally con­ government should provide credit facilities to sidered the most enterprising business man allow farmers to forego reliance on money­ in our county. He controlled a line of grain lenders.25 elevators in the little towns along the railroad After Antonia leaves the Cutters, she takes a to the west of us." He casts "an arrogant position at the hotel but suffers no misfortune shadow" and is "autocratic and imperial in at the hands of the hotel keeper. Instead, she his ways. He walked, talked, put on his gloves, becomes involved with Larry Donovan, a con­ shook hands, like a man who felt that he had ductor on the railroad about whom Antonia power." Jim Burden, the narrator, compares speaks "like he was president of the railroad." Harling to the Austrian nobles of whom An­ Donovan holds a high opinion of himself, tonia talks. Antonia is very happy employed in thinks himself one of the "train-crew aristo­ the Harling household, loves the Harling chil­ crats," and is aloof, cold, and distant toward dren, and learns a great deal from Mrs. Harling. other men. Antonia and Donovan plan to Ultimately, however, Mr. Harling discharges marry and she spends an entire summer sewing Antonia, after she slaps a young man who tries and buying silverware in preparation. When to kiss her after walking her home one evening. Donovan's route is changed, he writes her to Given the choice of foregoing future evening meet him in Denver. In Denver, Donovan dances or leaving the Harlings, Antonia chooses takes advantage of Antonia. He has been fired to leave. Harling, a grain buyer and cattle buyer, and blacklisted for manipulating fares; he 214 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1983 refuses to marry Antonia and leaves her preg­ speculation. Both Alexandra Bergson and Peter nant. Populists attacked the railroad companies Krajiek are speculators, but Cather treats the for discriminating in their rates and for their former sympathetically for having faith in the political activities, often picturing the latter land and in the future and she portrays the lat­ as defiling the purity of the political process. ter as a villain for cheating the Shimerdas. Their solution was government ownership.26 A similar pattern of complexity can be Antonia is thus mistreated or victimized, in found in Cather's attitude toward the railroad. turn, by characters representing the four most Larry Donovan is drawn without sympathy, but prominent objects of the Populists' anger: land in A Lost Lady Cather presents a most attrac­ speculators, grain buyers, moneylenders, and tive railroad magnate. Daniel Forrester builds the railroads. Did Cather construct this sequence the railroad and hobnobs with "the railroad purposefully? Although a definite answer is aristocracy," including even the president of impossible, it is relevant to consider the real the railroad. Forrester also figuratively builds people Cather used as models for these char­ the West, bringing culture and gaiety to Sweet acters. Christian Harling was based on James Water in the form of his wife Marian. Cather Miner, who was not a grain buyer but a mer­ presents this railroad man and bank investor chant and cattleman (and who was incidentally as one of the "dreamers" and "great-hearted also the model for Dillon in "Two Friends"). adventurers" who had settled the West and The model for Donovan was James W. Murphy, created there "the great brooding spirit of a brakeman, who would have had no oppor­ freedom, the generous easy life of the great tunities for fare manipulation. The model for land-holders." The first few pages of My An­ Wick Cutter was M. R. Bentley, who was in tonia include a similar characterization of a real life a moneylender with a reputation as railroad executive, for Jim Burden is first extreme as that of Cutter in the novel. There is introduced as "legal counsel for one of the no indication that Cather based the character great Western railways," who "loves with a of Krajiek on a real person.27 In selecting and personal passion the great country through molding characters for the novel, Cather made which his railway runs and branches. His faith conscious choices about the sort of people in it and his knowledge of it have played an who would mistreat Antonia and developed important part in its development."29 In Song characters representative of each of the major of the Lark, it is a simple and generous railroad Populist complaints. employee, Ray Kennedy, who makes it possible Although Cather represents these characters for Thea Kronborg to escape Moonstone and unsympathetically in My Antonia, this attitude take music lessons in Chicago. does not carryover to her other works. Her In My Antonia, the characters who mistreat treatment of Krajiek is wholly negative, but her Antonia or her family represent the major handling of another land speculator is quite objects of the Populists' wrath, but Cather does the opposite. In 0 Pioneers!, when hard times not portray these antagonists as a Populist come to the Divide, Alexandra convinces her campaigner would have done. A Populist would brothers to mortgage their farm and buyout have seen in each representative a vast concen­ their less farsighted neighbors. When Oscar tration of power, before which the individual moans that he wouldn't be able to work that could only stand helpless. Cather draws each much land, Alexandra reassures him: "The men as merely one person, moved by human emo­ in town who are buying up other people's land tions such as greed (Krajiek, Donovan), lust don't try to farm it.... Let's try to do like (Cutter), or simply a desire to maintain deco­ the shrewd ones, and not like these stupid rum (Harling). Their behavior derives not from fellows.,,28 Alexandra understands that one flaws in the political economy (d., again, The need not personally work the land, that land Jungle, or Garland's "Under the Lion's Paw") can be bought on faith, as an investment-as a but from flaws in human nature.30 At crucial WILLA CATHER AND THE POPULISTS 215 junctures, Cather makes clear that Antonia or and who succeed in converting it into produc­ her family have choices. They could have tive farm land. The struggle is difficult and the evicted Krajiek from their home, but did not obstacles significant. But for Cather, those because they were dependent upon him. An­ who succeed are those like Alexandra, who sets tonia would not have been discharged from the to the task with "love and yearning," or Mrs. Harling household had she been willing to limit Ferguesson, who feels that "our best years are her social life. She chooses to work for Cutter when we're working hardest," or Antonia. In knowing full well his licentious reputation. She 1923 Cather described the same process in recognizes the dangers involved in her liaison an essay, "Nebraska: The End of the First with Donovan, but continues it until he leaves Cycle": her. While Antonia is mistreated and victimized, The rapid industrial development of Ne­ and suffers misfortune, it is not because of con­ braska, which began in the latter eighties, centrations of power over which she has no was arrested in the years 1893-97 by a suc­ control. To be sure, her family is taken advan­ cession of crop failures and by the financial tage of by Krajiek because of their innocence, depression which spread over the whole and Antonia is similarly "innocent" in her rela­ country at that time-the depression which tionship with Donovan.31 But she nonetheless produced the People's Party and the Free has the option, each time, of rejecting the rela­ Silver agitation. These years of trial, as tionship that causes misfortune. everyone now realizes, had a salutary effect Nor does Cather suggest that the Populist upon the new State. They winnowed out the settlers with a purpose from the drifting answer to misfortune was appropriate. The malcontents who are ever seeking a land Populist solution to the problems posed by the were man does not live by the sweat of the land speculator, the grain buyer, the money­ brow. The slack farmers moved on. Super­ lender, and the railroad was collective action, fluous banks failed and money lenders who through government ownership or cooperatives. drove hard bargains with desperate men No such collective response is suggested in My came to grief. The strongest stock survived, Antonia. Redemption is achieved, not through and within ten years those who had weath­ collective action, but through individual hard ered the storm came into their reward. work. All summer during her pregnancy, An­ o Pioneers! and My Antonia portray the tonia "did the work of a man on the farm." strongest stock, who weathered the storm. The By being "quiet and steady" she regains some "malcontents" and "slack farmers" are clearly of the respect she has lost. By her willingness related to the Journal's description of Populists to work, her acceptance of her lot, and her in 1890: "soreheads" and "the shiftless lazy refusal to indulge in "calamity howling," and improvident.,,33 For Willa Cather, the Antonia is able to overcome her misfortunes Populists and Bryanites were the losers in the and to build a life that-while short on lux­ struggle for the survival of the fittest. uries-is nonetheless far more productive than Jim Burden could have imagined. Like the land itself, like the pioneer generation, Antonia NOTES undergoes harsh tests. Through hard work, she not only recovers from her misfortunes, but 1. For Cather's apolitical attitude, see James Woodress, Het (New also fulfills her early promise to become "a Willa Cather: Life and Art York: Pegasus, 1970). rich mine of life, like the founders of early 2. John H. Randall III, The Landscape and races.,,32 the Looking Glass: Willa Cather's Search for Both 0 Pioneers! and My Antonia present Value (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1960), pp. central female characters who struggle with 6-12, 75, 150, 207, 234, 274-76; Evelyn J. the prairie land-"not a country at all, but the Hinz, "Willa Cather's Technique and the material out of which countries are made"- Ideology of Populism," Western American 216 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1983

Literature 7 (Spring 1972): 45-61; see also ber 1890, p. 1; Mary Louise Jeffery, "Young Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform (New Radicals of the Nineties," Nebraska History 38 York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955). (March 1957): 25-43, esp. 39-40. 3. Among the many works that have treated 7. For political events in Lincoln, see Ne­ Hofstadter's thesis are C. Vann Woodward, braska State Journal (Lincoln), passim, and the "The Populist Heritage and the Intellectual," sources cited in note 5; for Cather's activities, American Scholar 29 (1959-60); Walter T. K. see Brown and Edel, chap. 3, especially pp. 54- Nugent, The Tolerant Populists: Kansas Popu­ 56. See also James R. Shively, ed., Writings lism and Nativism (Chicago: University of from Willa Cather's Campus Years (Lincoln: Chicago Press, 1963); Norman Pollack, "Intro­ University of Nebraska Press, 1950), especially duction," The Populist Mind (Indianapolis: p. 94 (Mary Elizabeth Lease, a Populist from Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1967); Stanley Kansas), p. 127 (Cather's Union literary society B. Parsons, The Populist Context: Rural versus associates), and p. 133 (Cather and campus Urban Power on a Great Plains Frontier (West­ politics). port, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1973); Law­ 8. Farmers' Alliance, 23 August 1890, p. 2. rence Goodwyn, Democratic Promise: The This summary is based on the sources cited in Populist Movement in America (New York: note 5, plus Nebraska Party Platforms: 1858- Oxford University Press, 1976); and Robert W. 1940 (Lincoln: n.p., 1940) and Farmers' Al­ Cherny, Populism, Progressivism, and the Trans­ liance (Lincoln), later Alliance-Independent, formation of Nebraska Politics: 1885-1915 later Wealth-Makers, later Nebraska Indepen­ (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1981). dent (the major organ of the Populist party in See also the bibliographies in the various Nebraska) for the period between the conven­ works, especially the list of articles by Pollack tion and the election each year. See Cherny, in the bibliography of The Populist Mind. Populism, Progressivism, and the Transforma­ Probably the most complete treatment of tion of Nebraska Politics for other sources too Populism is still John D. Hicks, The Populist numerous to cite. Revolt: A History of the Farmers' Alliance 9. Brown and Edel, Willa Cather, pp. 39, and the People's Party (Minneapolis: Univer­ 48, 50; Woodress, Willa Cather, pp. 62-65; sity of Minnesota Press, 1931). William M. Curtin, ed., The World and the 4. For information on Nebraska Populism, Parish: Willa Cather's Articles and Reviews, see the works by Cherny, Parsons, and Hicks 1893-1902, 2 vols. (Lincoln: University of already cited. See also John D. Barnhart, "The Nebraska Press, 1970), 1: 3, 103. History of the Farmers' Alliance and of the 10. Robert W. Furnas, "Brief Biography of People's Party in Nebraska" (Ph.D. diss., Har­ and Tribute to the Memory of the Late Charles vard University, 1931); J. Sterling Morton and H. Gere," Proceedings and Collections of the Albert Watkins, Illustrated History of Nebraska, Nebraska State Historical Society 15 (1907): 3 vols. (Lincoln: Jacob North, 1905, 1907; 158-61; Wayne A. Alvord, "The Nebraska State Lincoln: Western Publishing and Engraving Journal, 1867-1904" (M.A. thesis, University Company, 1913), vol. 3, chaps. 9-10; and of Nebraska, 1934); Victor Rosewater, "The Addison E. Sheldon, Nebraska: The Land and Life and Times of Edward Rosewater," manu­ the People, 3 vols. (Chicago: Lewis Publishing script, Nebraska State Historical Society; Company, 1931), vol. 1, chaps. 29-31. Dale J. Hart, "Edward Rosewater and the 5. Edward K. Brown and Leon Edel, Willa Omaha Bee in Nebraska Politics" (M.A. thesis, Cather: A Critical Biography (New York: Alfred University of Nebraska, 1938). A. Knopf, 1953), pp. 33-37; Red cloud Re­ 11. Journal, 14 September 1890, p. 4; 31 publican, 30 May 1890, p. 1; Red Cloud Repub­ July 1890, p. 4; 21 August 1890, p. 4; 26 lican, 11 July 1890, p. 8; Red Cloud Chief, September 1892, p. 4; and passim, 1890-96. 5 September 1890, p. 4; Webster County Argus 12. Curtin, World and Parish, 1: 98-99; (Red Cloud), 6 November 1890, p. 1. See all Brown and Edel, Willa Cather, p. 55; C. F. three newspapers from January through elec­ Cather and George P. Cather, Willa's uncle, tion day 1890, passim. were both elected county supervisors as Repub­ 6. Farmers' Alliance (Lincoln), 6 Septem- licans in 1891. Webster County Argus, 5 WItLA CATHER AND THE POPULISTS 217

November 1891; p. 5. C. F. Cather was a delegate 21. "The Best Years," pp. 104, 105, 127. to the county and state Republican conven­ 22. A Lost Lady (1932; reprint, New York: tions in 1890 and a member of the Republican Vintage Books, 1972), 90; Journal, 26 August central committee for the twenty-sixth senato­ 1894, p. 1. rial district. Webster County Argus, 24 July 23. My Antonia (1918; reprint, Boston: 1890, p. 8, and 14 August 1890, p. 8. He was a Houghton Mifflin, Sentry, 1961), pp. 20, 32; delegate to the Republican county convention Hicks, The Populist Revolt, p. 443. in 1891. Red Cloud Chief, 25 September 1891, 24. My Antonia, pp. 148, 157; Hicks, The p. 1. George P. Cather had been a supervisor Populist Revolt, pp. 74-78; Parsons, The Popu­ before 1890 and, unlike C. F., was renominated, list Context, pp. 68-71; Barnhart, "History of but defeated, in 1895. Red cloud Chief, 23 the Farmers' Alliance," pp. 37, 100, 139-46. August 1895, p. 2. He was active in local No cooperative enterprises were undertaken in Republican politics in 1896. Red cloud Chief, Webster County; Red Cloud Republican, 30 18 September 1896, p. 4. The Cather family May 1890, p. 1. physician and friend of the family, G. E. 25. My Antonia, pp. 209-11; Hicks, The McKeeby, who served as model for Dr. Archie Populist Revolt, pp. 20-24, 81-85. The Popu­ in Song of the Lark, was also active in Republi­ list alternative to private banking may be found can politics throughout the early 1890s, Red in the various state platforms calling for postal Cloud Chief, 29 July 1892, p. 5; 10 August savings banks, the replacement of national 1894, p. 4; and 23 August 1895, p. 2. bank notes with treasury notes, government 13. Curtin, World and Parish, 1: 17-19,99, loans at 4 percent interest, and "a system of 125-26, 155; compare the treatment of Van government banks." Nebraska Party Platforms, Wyck in the Journal, 29 September 1892, pp. 165-66, !74, 191. p. 4, and 25 October 1892, p. 4, or in the 26. My Antonia, pp. 268, 304; Hicks, The Omaha Bee, 6 August 1892, p. 2; for Van Populist Revolt, pp. 60-74. Jim Burden feels an Wyck, see Marie U. Harmer and James L. obligation to "go home and look after Antonia" Sellers, "Charles H. Van Wyck-Soldier and (p. 268) when she takes up with Donovan, just Statesman," Nebraska History 23 (1929): as his family had looked after the Shimerdas 81-128,190-246,322-73. since they first came. But instead he goes to 14. Curtin, World and Parish, 1: 308-13. Harvard (located in the heart of the region most 15. Ibid., 2: 782-89. Bernice Slote has sug­ Populists saw as the enemy's country), studies gested that Henry Nicklemann may be a pre­ law (a parasitic occupation in Populists' eyes), cursor of such later characters as Jim Burden; and becomes "legal counsel for one of the great ibid., 2: 722. Note 34, ibid., 2: 782, is obvious­ Western railways" (viii). He has put down his ly in error in suggesting that Cather was refer­ family's burden and left Antonia on her own. ring to Morton's 1892 gubernatorial campaign, The real James Burden, from whom Cather for Bryan's first campaign was in 1890. The borrowed only his name, was elected Clerk of reference should be to Morton's 1888 congres­ the District Court as a Republican in 1895; sional campaign. Red Cloud Chief, 23 August 1895, p. 2, and 8 16. 0 Pioneers! (1913; reprint, Boston: November 1895, p. 4. Houghton Mifflin, Sentry, 1962), pp. 111-13, 27. Mildred R. Bennett, The World of Willa 149. Cather (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 17. Ibid., pp. 47-48, 56, 98,119-20,140, 1951), pp. 48-49, 66, 82; Brown and Edel, 144-45. willa Cather, p. 27; Woodress, Willa Cather, 18. "Two Friends," Obscure Destinies (1932; p. 240. For additional information on Murphy, reprint, New York: Vintage Books, 1974), I am indebted to Viola S. Borton of the Willa pp. 197,202, 207, 208. Cather Pioneer Memorial, Red Cloud, Nebraska. 19. Ibid., pp. 222-24, 226-27. 28. 0 Pioneers!, p. 68. 20. "The Best Years," The old Beauty and 29. A Lost Lady, p.106; My Antonia, p. viii. Others (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1948), 30. It is tempting to suggest that Cather's pp. 100, 102, 103; Journal, 26 September view is closer to that of muckrakers such as 1892, p. 4. Lincoln Steffens, who left McClure's shortly 218 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1983 before Cather was hired there. Steffen's view, 31. My Antonia, p. 268. in Shame of the Cities (New York: McClure, 32. Ibid., pp. 314, 353. Phillips & Company, 1904), was that graft and 33. Ibid., p. 7; 0 Pioneers!, p. 65; "The Best corruption flourished only where good citizens Years," p. 136; "Nebraska: The End of the refused to involve themselves, i.e., that the First Cycle," The Nation 117 (5 September problem was in human nature, not in the poli­ 1923): 236-38; Journal, 31 July 1890, p. 4, tical economy. 14 September 1890, p. 4.