The Antiwar Dilemma of the Farmer-Labor Party

Mr. Garlid is assistant professor of history at Wisconsin State University — River Falls. This article is from his doctoral dissertation on "Politics in Minnesota and American Foreign Relations: 1921-1941." The ANTIWAR DILEMMA of the FARMER-LABOR PARTY GEORGE W. GARLID WRITING IN 1946, Eric Sevareid recap often were, in the words of Reinhold Nie tured the atmosphere of his years as a stu buhr, complacent "about evils, remote from dent at the University of Minnesota. He our lives."- Finally, they were years when described the world view that he had shared the revisionist thesis won its widest accept with other liberals during the middle thir ance. ties. Most revealing is his profound sense of Sevareid and his fellow students were having been caught up in a historical per ashamed that their fathers and uncles had spective which later he could neither accept accepted the official propaganda during nor explain.^ World War I. Many took the Oxford oath; For many Minnesotans the 1930s were still others agitated to end compulsory mili years when convictions concerning world af tary drill at the university. Sevareid recalled fairs were held dogmatically. They were a campus meeting at which the antiwar oath years when occasionally these convictions was debated wildly by two or three hundred were undermined and gradually altered. students. A vote of those assembled indi They were years when the all-pervasive cated nearly unanimous approval. In 1934, commitment to peace made impermanent after a week of antiwar agitation at Carle allies of individuals clinging to disparate ton College, four hundred students voted views. They were years when Americans neither to fight in nor to support any aggres sive war. The Optional Drill League at the ^ See Eric Sevareid, Not So Wild A Dream, 59- University of Minnesota was organized as 65 (New York, 1946). ^ Reinhold Niebuhr, "Some Things I Have early as 1926 and received consistent sup Learned," in Saturday Review, 48:23 (November 6, port from the Minnesota Daily. Two weeks 1965). before the regents moved to make drill op ''Sevareid, Not So Wild A Dream, 60; James Gray, The University of Minnesota, 1851-1951, 368 tional, a large antiwar meeting was held on (Minneapolis, 1951). See Committee on Militarism the campus to coincide with the annual in Education, Breaking the War Habit (October 1, R.O.T.C. parade. Fifteen organizations and 1934), a pamphlet in the Brin (Fanny FUgelman) Papers, Box 12. AU manuscripts cited in this article 1,500 students took part.^ are in the Minnesota Historical Society. See also Sevareid believed that "war came from Farmer-Labor Leader (St. Paul), March 15, 1934, the economic system, from the conspira p. ]; Minnesota Daily (Minneapolis), May 19, May 24, 1934, both on p. 1. torial efforts of a few occult groups, and Winter 1967 365 from ignorant distrust and fear between revisionist position, but it is reasonably cer peoples." The sole corrective lay in exposure, tain that large numbers fell under its influ in changing the system, and in creating trust ence. When Eric Sevareid recalled that he among nations. Liberals were intensely and his friends had plowed through Sidney suspicious of the military. They believed the R. Fay's Origins of the World War (1928) professional soldiers "wanted war, enjoyed and were convinced that there were no war."* The military establishment was the basic issues underlying the conflict and that most hated pillar of the existing order. with a little intelligence and forbearance the Niebuhr, writing in 1965, described this war could have been averted, he spoke for response, which he had shared, as "an al thousands in the state who were certain that most neurotic neutralism."" the war had been a mistake.* Nor was this view confined to a small group of students. The leaders of the THE FARMER-LABOR party, having had Farmer-Labor party held similar sentiments. its genesis in the climate of fear and ultra- It was Governor Floyd R. Olson and Mrs. patriotism which marked the war years, long Anna O. Determan, an Olson appointee to had viewed the struggle as an egregious de the board of regents, who succeeded ulti parture from the American tradition. Since mately in ending compulsory military train the early twenties the party had been ing at the University of Minnesota.^ As a steeped in revisionism. Its representatives in depression governor, Olson naturally ex Congress had opposed the mildest efforts in hibited little interest in foreign policy. When the direction of internationalism. They had he did express opinions on the subject, his fought for reduced military expenditures. position was typical of that held by other lib erals in the state. He assailed the munitions •'Sevareid, Not So Wild A Dream, 63. makers and alleged that the profit motive ^Niebuhr, in Saturday Review, 48:23. was behind all propaganda for war. Shortly " The campaign against compulsory military drill before his death in 1936 he wrote Senator was initiated in 1925 by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. A Minnesota Com Elmer A. fienson praising the latter's efforts mittee on Militarism in Education was organized in the struggle for rigid neutrality legisla in 1926. The original committee of twenty-four was tion. Olson told Renson that he "wouldn't composed largely of prominent Twin Cities clergy men and included several women active in the trade the life of one youth for the whole peace movement. In the late twenties and early damned 'freedom of the seas.'"'^ He sug thirties attempts to eliminate compulsory drill at the gested that peace would be well worth the university were blocked by the state legislature, but on June 18, 1934, the board of regents, acting price of subsidizing any American business upon a resolution introduced by Mrs. Determan, adversely affected by a rigid embargo. He voted 6 to 5 in favor of optional drill. The National advised Renson that he believed in absolute Committee on Militarism in Education gave signifi cant credit to Governor Olson and Mrs. Determan neutrality decreed by Congress with the but noted that the persistent efforts of Minne president having no discretionary powers. It sota's numerous opponents of compulsory drill is of course impossible to tell what Olson's should not be overlooked. See Breaking the War Habit. position might have been had he lived. His ' See George H. Mayer, The Political Career of pragmatic approach to politics suggests that Floyd B. Olson, 272 (Minneapolis, 1951); Floyd he never would have clung to the isolationist B. Olson to Elmer A. Benson, February 4, 1936, position as tenaciously as did Senator Hen- Benson Papers. ° It is significant that Governor Olson's close rik Shipstead or Senator Ernest Lundeen.^ friend and personal secretary, Vince A. Day, later Speculation aside, Olson's position in the played an active role in the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the AUies. Howard Y. Williams, thirties was consonant with the intensifica who was very active in the Farmer-Labor party in tion of isolationist sentiment in Minnesota. the 1930s, has expressed his belief that Olson would It is impossible to assess accurately the ex have abandoned the isolationist position. Interview tent to which Minnesotans accepted the with Williams, November 9, 1965. ° Sevareid, Not So Wild A Dream, 62. 366 MINNESOTA History EXTRA! Thcl21ttim$ota flailu She tOortdi targmat Cottage Newspaper MONDAY, JUNE 18, IM'f. AJ Ko«clc, Amc Sevnrcid, CditoTC COMPULSORY DRILL KILLED BY REGENTS B7 AraoU Scrania iBui iifnlAcsMt atMii** in til* ps -r/ .-r Vh( culho i^nn IM Klator M*t«li>, tnit Ik* rvrnw U tW« tiM Uâ.-.. M (a^ M tfcmiMnil« of lU II c[Ud thii m<i>rkw TVw bnirtf of ru«iU k|Hc4 tt ( oniBuiaory drill !• *1 |r*«r( M, «ith • .JU a; eta 1 -•• .-a u tK» ttu»»«4lj llM^r— , Tb* nMtluuai •\n kboluh Manpul- ) r*C»&i U and uri,l t»Ur • •otr drill UHI te cmitflr** ft •> ur t»an a rrack bi Jta Uv-vr^rr, it Um tminl>w of kaae •tujj-.'j dr-<;i> t» T.ia. b, tonM af tha nfTi^f an thr tnavnt alalT nt lun IK* only wiwtMi Mwbn s at tk« Jii—ry e«>n> "te, LVVBJ r*«r, *hich «air Mv« had aoinv- '.r.iTK U 4a *iU tnkr'* <aclalaH. dsuM «m ba trartftrrvd ts aliTa rkatr >u-i Iît faJl. a yvtiaf frvikmajt K*J bf Ck* war daparLuienl at t* Oaiacn •/ MlnD**Mtt>, vai «•- cdawl frwra eoi»tMii«orT Aill bj rVMld'ttt CotTman b«q*BM W ou • reVartwtUous "b)wtM'. 7^« ^H- for/ drill, W'âcpfji.t W aanral . 'UHiviMlc* of >t wool 1^4*1, hjwcovr, HtfiiUd Uat tkM raan agu and Ih* bajiit aarDilmât mts4an InU-rutwJ 1 } Wfct MfklMt Aria for tht U^ > 414 < bTB kai ilTvpptd »'iy murK iMiirat-Ffiial ûf^sa ?au» I'al rc>o1uiu>a. it I* UAI Twter^ ttM-a« a« tin r*U C«BM' krMr«l otbw CUM of nnMim- *M W.*MamriBad, bat OB ite •«• i (bv* rhat UD.4 <->>« 'r>a).i^ n^ I'M* bb>MTtlqn hB*« bM« haB«lT-.| Man lut CaH. lA* b^M *«r« <• fot- lRiar« rdl aq kiw ihat iha r4. %r% UU f.ar bat D^M of UnrU*: t.a e/ Uw icHô) -û ro' a«k*4 rieit>iia actloa W iba aJiatritiaa. ih* War 4*parUMnl U cnmptaUlv UM «h* aatoWbly ft*Ta wattinc fanuâ IM aailiUry in>:i frofo ite —JT-poa.* And audi a pf«ilbllHr Im Mt»- -«ti I *hkh fte»<iU t* bkal ylij b^snn* iha nart •Hih balrtf aba-ai (*>»rtl»» or Wi» jrmip of atadMito •ltd nthrra vb'i hata fa-jsht af^LÎ A special issue of the Daily ii/tw published dril.

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