(ISSN 0043-6534) WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY The State Historical Society of Wisconsin • Vol. 67, No. 2 • Winter, 1983—1984 i-t.^ i'H^^^rJ^ '%.,:*.. •.*• . • _,:..». ^ .* i^/^^"...^&^ .. # t 'li^,,^^ ^*:.*i^.AS^-i. ii£Sli&i •&fti THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN RICHARD A. ERNEY, Director Officers WILLIAM C. KIDD, President WILSON B. THIEDE, Treasurer NEWELL G. MEYER, First Vice-President RICHARD A. ERNEY, Secretary MRS. L. PRENTICE EAGER, JR., Second Vice-President THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN is both a state agency and a private membership organization. Founded in 1846-two years before statehood-and chartered in 1853, it is the oldest American historical society to receive continuous public funding. By statute, it is charged with collecting, advancing, and disseminating knowledge of Wisconsin and of the trans-Allegheny West. The Society serves as the archive of the State of Wisconsin; it collects all manner of books, periodicals, maps, manuscripts, relics, newspapers, and aural and graphic materials as they relate to North America; it maintains a museum, library, and research facility in Madison as well as a statewide system of historic sites, school services, area research centers, and affiliated local societies; it administers a broad program of historic preservation; and publishes a wide variety of historical materials, both scholarly and popular. MEMBERSHIP in the Society is open to the public. Annual membership is |15, or $12.50 for persons over 65 or members of affiliated societies. Family membership is $20, or |15 for persons over 65 or members of affiliated societies. Contributing membership is |50; supporting, $100; sustaining, $200-500; patron, $500 or more. THE SOCIETY is governed by a Board of Curators which includes, ex officio, the Governor (or his designee) and three citizens appointed by the Governor with the approval ofthe Senate; the Speaker ofthe Assembly and the President ofthe Senate, or a member from the majority party and a member from the minority party from each house designated by them; the President of the University of Wisconsin, the President of the Friends of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, the President of the Wisconsin History Foundation, Inc., and the Chairman ofthe Administrative Committee ofthe Wisconsin Council for Local History. The other twenty-four members of the Board of Curators are elected by the membership. A complete listing of the Curators appears inside the back cover. NOTE: The Board of Curators will be reduced from thirty-six to twenty-four members on or before the annual meeting in 1986. The Society is headquartered at 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, at the juncture of State and Park streets on the University of Wisconsin campus. A partial listing of phone numbers (Area Code 608) follows: General Administration 262-3266 Library circulation desk 262-3421 General information 262-3271 Maps 262-5867 Affiliated local societies 262-2316 Membership 262-9613 Archives reading room 262-3338 Microforms reading room 262-9621 Contribution of manuscript materials 262-3248 Museum tours 262-2704 Editorial offices 262-9603 Newspapers reference 262-9584 Film collections 262-058.5 Picture and sound collections 262-9581 (ienealogical and general reference inquiries. .262-9590 Public information office 262-9606 Government publications and reference 262-2781 Sales desk 262-3271 Historic preservation 262-1339 School services 262-9567 Historic sites 262-3271 Speakers bureau 262-2704 ON THE COVER: John Lloyd Jones on his farm near Old Helena, with his wife and two unidentified young women, about 1907. Courtesy the Joseph Regenstein Library, Chicago. Volume 67, Number 2 / Winter, 1983-1984 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY (ISSN 0043-6534) Published quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 816 State Street, Diplomat Among Kings: Madison, Wisconsin 53706. John Cudahy and Leopold III 83 Distributed to members as part oftheir dues. (Annual Timothy P. Maga membership, $15, or $12.50 for those over 65 or members of affiliated societies; family membership, $20, or $15 for Nicholas Murray Butler's those over 65 or members of 99 affiliated societies; contribut­ Crusade for a Warless World ing, $50; supporting, $100; C. F. Howlett sustaining, $200-500; patron, $500 or more.) Single num­ bers from Volume 57 forward are $2. Microhlmed copies Jenkin Lloyd Jones and available through University Microhlms, 300 North Zeeb "The Gospel ofthe Farm" 121 Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan ' Edited by Thomas E. Graham 48106; reprints of Volumes 1 through 20 and most issues of Volumes 21 through 56 are available from Kraus Reprint Company, Route 100, 149 Millwood, New York 10546. Book Reviews Communications should be addressed to the editor. The Book Review Index 154 Society does not assume re­ sponsibility for statements Wisconsin History Checklist 155 made by contributors. Second-class postage paid at Accessions 157 Madison, Wisconsin, and at additional mailing offices. Contributors 160 POSTMA.STER: Send address changes to Wisconsin Maga­ zine of History, Madison, Wis­ consin 53706. Copyright © 1984 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Magazine of His­ tory is indexed annually by the editors; cumulative in­ dexes are assembled decenni­ ally. In addition, articles are abstracted and indexed in America: History and Life, His­ Editor torical Abstracts, Index to Litera­ ture on the American Indian, PAUL fi. LI ASS and the Combined Retrospective Index to Journals m History, Associate Editors 1858-1974. WILLIAM C. MARTEN JOHN O. tioLZHUETER MARILYN GRANT m 3 H. M. King Leopold III, who ruled Belgium from 1934 to 1951. 82 Diplomat Among Kings: John Cudahy and Leopold III By Timothy P. Maga f the many tragic questions Anna Cudahy's eight children to become in­ O raised by the Second World terested in Democratic party politics. War, few have been more discussed and less In 1908, shortly before his twenty-first completely understood than the question of birthday, Cudahy assisted in another of Bry­ whether or not King Leopold III of Belgium an's ill-fated attempts to win the presidency. betrayed his country and the Allies during the He considered it a great honor to work on be­ Nazi blitzkrieg of May, 1940. One Wiscon- half of his childhood hero. While making the sinite, John Cudahy, the American ambassa­ first political speech of his life, Cudahy dor to Belgium at the time of the invasion, stressed the point that Bryan represented a risked his diplomatic career and political fu­ special independent breed of politician, a man ture on the assumption that the Belgian mon­ unafraid "to stand for the principles of right arch was a patriot and innocent of all wrong­ and justice."'^ Independence of mind and de­ doing. Cudahy lost the gamble, fiis role in the votion to noble principles likewise became the surrender of Belgium to the Germans, his re­ legacies of the Cudahy political career. lationship with Leopold III, and his signific­ Whether as the losing candidate for ance in modern Belgian-American diplomacy lieutenant-governor of Wisconsin in 1916 or constitute an interesting and often poignant as ambassador to Poland, Ireland, and finally chapter in the history of that catastrophic Belgium during Franklin D. Roosevelt's ad­ spring of 1940. ministration, John Cudahy maintained his John Cudahy (1887-1943) is a complicated personal approach to politics. figure in both New Deal diplomacy and Wis­ Cudahy's participation in the First World consin Democratic politics. A millionaire War was another element which shaped his member of Milwaukee's famous Cudahy perception of politics as well as diplomacy. meat-packing family, he was also a successful During the war, the Milwaukeean served in lawyer, big-game hunter, explorer, and au­ the army's Eighty-Fifth Division as a first lieu­ thor. Attracted by the populist oratory of Wil­ tenant, and was later promoted to the rank of liam Jennings Bryan during Bryan's unsuc­ captain. The high point of his military service cessful 1896 Democratic presidential came in late 1918 when he became part ofthe campaign, Cudahy liked to tell his friends that American expeditionary force in North Rus­ he had become a E)emocrat at the age of nine.' sia, fighting against the Bolsheviks. America's Indeed, he was the only one of Patrick and presence there was a controversial one. The British and the French had requested the as- '"John Cudahy," in The Magazine of Sigma Chi (Septem­ ber, 1943), 100, box 1 of thejohn Cudahy Papers, State ^Stump speech, summer, 1908, box 2 ofthe John (AI- Historical Society of Wisconsin (hereinafter cited as JCP- dahy Papers, Milwaukee County Historical Society (here­ SHSW). inafter cited as JC;P). Copyright © 1984 by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin 83 All riglits of reproduction in any form reserved WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1983-1984 John Cudahy (light suit) dining aboard ship sistance of the United States to defend their I experiences soured him, and he avoided pol­ interests against the new communist regime. itics. His primary interests became hunting Furthermore, the State Department was con­ and exploring on behalf of the Milwaukee cerned about the growing Japanese presence Public Museum. in the area. For a number of American vet­ Cudahy's interest in Democratic politics erans, the Russian campaign was a waste of made him something of a black sheep in his time and lives. To Cudahy, it symbolized the family. While his brothers remained associ­ recklessness of presidential power, as well as ated with the meat-packing industry, the fu­ the need to stress negotiations and peace over ture ambassador considered himself destined interventionism and war.'^ for greater things. Moreover, he had little in­ Upon returning to what he called his "gen­ terest in the ruthless ethics of big business. Ac­ tleman's estate" in Milwaukee, Cudahy pub­ cording to Cudahy, the educated and wealthy lished a scathing indictment of President elite possessed a certain responsibility to uplift Woodrow Wilson's Russian adventure.