WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

The State Historical Society of Wisconsin • Vol. 57, No. 3 • Spring, 1974

»% Hif 0J^:

"XJBN 'tl ,V A. arw,

^fxfflijpftsBia

V \- V f A.^ ill 1 • f^^J i ^ILI h ^^^ iFv^flMB^^h ^^^^^^^k ^^H^B IM^^Sfl^^^^^ B THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN JAMES MORTON SMITH, Director Officers

HOWARD W. MEAD, President GEORGE BANTA, JR., Honorary Vice-President JOHN C. GEILFUSS, First Vice-President F. HARWOOD ORBISON, Treasurer ROGER E. AXTELL, Second Vice-President JAMES MORTON SMITH, Secretary

Board of Curators Ex Officio PATRICK J. LUCEY, Governor of the State JOHN C. WEAVER, President of the University ROBERT C. ZIMMERMAN, Secretary of State MRS. DAVID S. FRANK, President of the CHARLES P. SMITH, State Treasurer Women's Auxiliary

Term Expires, 1974

ROGER E. AXTELL PAUL E. HASSETT ROBERT B. L. MURPHY MILO K. SWANTON Janesville Madison Madison Madison HORACE M. BENSTEAD WILUAM HUFFMAN MRS. WM. H. L. SMYTHE CEDRIC A. VIG Racine Wisconsin Rapids Milwaukee Rhinelander REED COLEMAN WARREN P. KNOWLES WILUAM F. STARK CLARK WILKINSON Madison Milwaukee Nashotah Baraboo Term Expires, 197S

E. DAVID CRONON JOHN C. GEILFUSS LLOYD HORNBOSTEL, JR. FRANCIS PAUL PRUCHA, S.J. Madison Milwaukee Beloit Milwaukee SCOTT M. CUTUP BEN GUTHRIE ROBERT H. IRRMANN J. WARD RECTOR Madison Lac du Flambeau Beloit Milwaukee ROBERT A. GEHRKE MRS. R. L. HARTZELL JOHN R. PIKE CLIFFORD D. SWANSON Ripon Grantsburg Madison Stevens Point Term Expires, 1976

THOMAS H. BARLAND MRS. EDWARD C. JONES HOWARD W. MEAD DONALD C. SLICHTER Eau Claire Fort Atkinson Madison Milwaukee NATHAN S. HEFFERNAN MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES FREDERICK I. OLSON DR. LOUIS C. SMITH Madison Madison Wauwatosa Lancaster E. E. HOMSTAD CHARLES R. MCCALLUM F. HARWOOD ORBISON ROBERT S. ZIGMAN Black River Falls Hubertus Appleton Milwaukee

Fellows VERNON CARSTENSEN MERLE CURTI ALICE E. SMITH

The Women's Auxiliary MRS. DAVID S. FRANK, Madison, President MRS. L. PRENTICE EAGER, JR., Evansville, Treasurer MRS. CHARLES E. PAIN, JR., Milwaukee, Vice-President MRS. GORDON R. WALKER, Racine, Ex Officio MRS. WADE H. MOSBY, Milwaukee, Secretary

On the Cover: A World War 1 Red Cross unit passing the Siegesallee as it leaves Berlin for active duty. Taken by Ed. Frankl of Berlin, an official war photographer, it is one of 1,702 scenes of life inside wartime Germany donated to the Society in 1965 by World War II war correspondent Sigrid Schultz. In the 1920's Frankl gave the collection to Miss Schultz's father Herman, a Norwegian-born portrait painter who settled in Chicago in the 1890's. Volume 57, Number 3 / Spring, 1974 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Published quarterly by the State Historical Society of Industrial Opportunity on the Urban Frontier: Wisconsin, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. "Rags to Riches" and Milwaukee Clothing Distributed to members as part Manufacturers, 1840-1880 175 of their dues. (Annual member­ ship, $7.50, or 15 for those Margaret Walsh over 65 or members of affiliated societies; family membership, $10, or $7 for those over 65 or Paternalism and Racism: Senator John C. Spooner members of affiliated societies; and American Minorities, 1897-1907 195 contributing, $25; business and professional, $50; sustaining, James R. Parker $100 or more annually; patron, $500 or more annually.) Single numbers $1.75. Microfilmed The General and the Presidency: Douglas MacArthur copies available through and the Election of 1948 201 University Microfilms, 313 North First Street, Ann Arbor, Howard B. Schonberger Michigan; reprint volumes available from Kraus Reprint Corporation, 16 East 46th Street, The Progressive as Conservative: George Creel's New York, New York 10017. Quarrel with New Deal Liberalism 220 Communications should be addressed to the editor. The Frank Annunziata Society does not assume responsibility for statements made by contributors. Second- class postage paid at Madison Book Reviews 234 and Stevens Point, Wis. Copyright © 1974 by the State Book Review Index 246 Historical Society of Wisconsin. Paid for in part by the Maria Wisconsin History Checklist 247 L. and Simeon Mills Editorial Fund and by the George B. Accessions 249 Burrows Fund. Contributors 252

WILLIAM CONVERSE HAYGOOD EDITOR

WILLIAM C. MARTEN ASSOCIATE EDITOR

JOHN O. HOLZHUETER EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Courtesy Mrs. Robert E. Friend Victorian elegance characterizes this three-generation portrait of Elias Friend (seated), his son Jacob Elias (standing), and his grandson, Robert Elias, perched upon a photographer's ornate studio pedestal. 174 Industrial Opportunity on the Urban Frontier: ''Rags to Riches" and Milwaukee Clothing Manufacturers, 1840-1880

By Margaret Walsh

'ROM its inception the American However, the classically successful individ­ P Dream has been that, somehow, ual, either of the fictional Horatio Alger through a combination of luck, pluck, and variety or the historical John D. Rockefeller perseverance, one's lot could be bettered, one's type, rarely progressed from rags to riches. social and economic status could be improved, The Alger heroes were usually either poor and, in short, "upward mobility" could be uneducated waifs who gained a modest com­ achieved. The success story, closely connected petence, or better-endowed middle-class boys to the many opportunities, presented by the who attained their proper station despite sev­ frontier, economic abundance, and an open eral catastrophes.2 The industrialists them­ society, has long been a favorite theme of selves often came from northeastern upper- American historians. Self-improvement, par­ or middle-class socioeconomic backgrounds ticularly that of the spectacular kind in which which provided moderate if not ample advan­ leading industrialists have emerged from the tages in terms of schooling, training, and anonymous ranks, has historically appeared finance. Very few renowned business leaders to exemplify both the virtues and the poten­ in the United States in the late nineteenth tial of the new nation. Not even the appear­ century were ever day laborers or unskilled ance in recent years of a respectable body of literature critical of this view has had any appreciable effect on this article of the na­ of Vertical Mobility," in Historical Methods News­ tional faith.1 letter, 1: 1^13 (1968); Clyde Griffin, "Occupational Mobility in Nineteenth Century America: Problems and Possibilities," in the Journal of Social History, 5: 310-330 (1972); Stephen Thernstrom, "Notes on the AUTHOR'S NOTE: The author ivishes to acknowledge Historical Study of Social Mobility," in D. K. Rowney the financial assistance provided by a joint grant from and J. Q. Graham (eds.), (hiantitative History (Home- the British Social Science Research Council and the wood, Illinois, 1969); Stephen Thernstrom and Richard University of Birmingham Field Expedition Fund Sennett (eds.). Nineteenth Century Cities: Essays in which made possible the completion of the research for the New Urban History (New Haven, 1969); Peter R. this article, and the helpful comments of Kathleen N. Knights, The Plain People of Boston, 1830-1860: A Conzen, Wellcsley College. Study in City Growth (New York, 1971); Howard P. ^ For some general observations on the "success cult," Chudacoff, Mobile Americans: Residential and Social see Irvin G. Wyllie, The Self-Made Man in America: Mobility in Omaha, 1880-1920 (New York, 1972); and The Myth of Rags to Riches (New Brunswick, New- Kathleen N. Conzen, "The German Athens: Milwau­ Jersey, 1954); John G. Cawclti, Apostles of the Self- kee and the .\ccommodation of Its Immigrants, 1830- Made Man (Chicago, 1965); and Richard M. Huber, 1860" (Ph.D. dissertation. University of Wisconsin, The American Idea of Success (New York, 1971). For 1972). some examples of the recent approaches to the study = Cawclti, Apostles of the Self-Made Man, 101-123; of mobility see Stuart Blumin, "The Historical Study Huber, The American Idea of Success, 42-61.

175 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974

workers.^ Success, thus, had moderate dimen­ ahead either in the processing branches, such sions even for nationally known figures; and as flour milling, leather tanning, or meat it was even more modest for those local in­ packing, or in the heavy-goods branches, pro­ dividuals whose names were rarely included ducing iron and machinery, or in the house­ in the Dictionary of American Biography or hold-craft consumer branches making cloth­ the National Cyclopaedia of American Biog­ ing, footwear, or furniture. The problems to raphy. Opportunity for material improve­ be overcome in each type of industry varied ment existed, to be sure, but the more typical slightly, but they all offered occupational entrepreneur was satisfied if he climbed only mobility to those individuals who could com­ several rungs of the ladder to wealth rather bine the traditional virtues of hard work, than the whole way.* perseverance, sobriety, and integrity, with an The new industrial cities of the middle ability to command capital or credit, a previ­ nineteenth century, particularly those in the ous experience in business, and a flexible West like Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleveland, temperament able to cope with change.^ St. Louis, Chicago, and Milwaukee, presented numerous examples of the more limited range ^ If the western states are defined as Ohio, Indiana, of vertical mobility which was possible in the Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Ken­ United States.^ Here on the urban frontier tucky, and Minnesota, then western cities did rank where conditions were still unsettled and among the leading American cities as of 1880: fluid, and in a period—from 1830 to 1880— when the economy was still in the process of City Population Rank; ing industrializing, budding entrepreneurs could Western United States find various avenues of advancement. As Chicago, 111. 503,185 1 4 would-be manufacturers they could push St. Louis, Mo. 350,518 2 6 Cincinnati, 0. 255,139 3 8 Cleveland, O. 160,146 4 11 'William Miller, "American Historians and the Louisville, Ky. 123,758 5 16 Business Elite," in the Journal of Economic History, 9: 184-208 (1949); C. Wright Mills, "The American Detroit, Mich. 116,340 6 18 Business Elite: A Collective Portrait," in Irving Horo­ Milwaukee, Wis. 115,587 7 19 witz (ed.). Power, Politics and People, The Collected Indianapolis, Ind,, 75,056 8 24 Essays of C. Wright Mills (New York, 1962), 110-139; Kansas City, Mo. 55,474 9 30 Reinhard Bendix and Frank W. Howton, "Social Mo­ bility and the American Business Elite," in Reinhard Tenth Census, 1880, Population, Vol. 1. Bendix and Seymour M. Lipset (eds.). Social Mobility in Industrial Society (Berkeley, 1959), 114-143; Frances ° Capital or credit, experience in a trade, whether it W. Gregory and Irene D. Neu, "The American In­ was of the craft or mercantile variety, and an ability dustrial Elite in the 1870's: Their Social Origins," in to adapt to changing production methods and market­ William Miller (ed.). Men in Business: Essays on the ing conditions were the basic ingredients of upward Historical Role of the Entrepreneur (New York, 1962), mobility in the new industrializing western cities. 309-328; and Stephen Thernstrom, Poverty and Prog­ Hard work, ethnic origins, religious affiliation, and ress: Social Mobility in a Nineteenth Century City the time of entry into business were other important (Cambridge, 1964). For a critical appraisal of the variables. Perhaps the easiest type of manufacturing statistical sample used by Miller and by Gregory and in which to "succeed" was the processing branch, Neu see Ralph Andreano, "A Note on the Horatio where manufacturers with a modest capital could use Alger Legend: Statistical Studies of the Nineteenth abundant natural and agricultural resources to cater Century American Business Elite," in L. P. Cain and either to local or to wider markets. It was more diffi­ P. J. Uselding (eds.). Business Enterprise and Eco­ cult to advance in the heavy-goods industries in which nomic Change (Kent, Ohio, 1973), 227-246. it was necessary to command sufficient capital both for • Herbert G. Gutman, "The Reality of the Rags-To- the purchase and transport of raw materials and for Riches Myth: The Case of the Paterson, New Jersey the payment of skilled and unskilled labor. The sales Locomotive, Iron and Machinery Manufacturers, 1830- of finished products also entailed a degree of sophistica­ 1880," in Thernstrom and Sennett (eds.). Nineteenth tion in distribution and financing in a western market Century Cities, found that the rags-to-riches thesis did which was not only dispersed and impecunious, but have a middle-level validity, and he suggested that highly competitive. Entrepreneurs in the craft-con­ other case studies of local entrepreneurs should be sumer branches also had to command considerable carried out, particularly of those in the new industrial capital for the deployment of a large work force, the and western cities like Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, introduction of machinery, and the purchase and and Chicago. sometimes transportation of raw materials. Further- 176 WALSH: MILWAUKEE CLOTHING MANUFACTURERS

Milwaukee in the mid-nineteenth century sured the position of the city as a trading was a new western city where job opportuni­ entrepot and a budding manufacturing cen­ ties abounded, and though commerce was the ter, that figure had more than doubled, to basis for the city's early economic growth, 45,246, making Milwaukee the nation's twen­ manufacturing activities soon came to the tieth largest city. Ten years later, when Mil­ fore.''^ A fur trading post until the 1830's, waukee had taken on wider functions as an Milwaukee quickly attracted the attention of entrepot for the agricultural and lumber pro­ land speculators as a potential harbor and duce of the Northwest, and had definitely millsite when, in 1833, the southeastern parts turned to manufacturing, the city had 71,440 of Wisconsin were opened to American settle­ residents. By 1880 when the population had ment following the Black Hawk War. Though increased to 115,587, Milwaukee's manufactur­ experiencing the usual growing pains of fron­ ing output was clearly recognizable on a na­ tier communities, associated with boosterism, tional level, for the city then ranked four­ credit inflations, and periodic panics and de­ teenth in the country according to its value pressions, Milwaukee nevertheless made con­ of products.^ siderable progress towards economic ado­ The leading branches which had contri­ lescence. From a mere 125 inhabitants in 1835, buted to this industrial achievement in the the population increased to 1,692 by 1840. forty-year period before 1880 included flour During the next decade when Milwaukee en­ milling, clothing, iron goods, construction trepreneurs began to tap the agricultural materials, and liquors (see Table 1). Each hinterland, often by means of plank roads, of these branches had its own business elite growth was more rapid. Both native-born and the patterns of progress into such elites Americans and immigrants swelled the ranks illustrate some of the dimensions and limita­ to give the city a population of 20,061 at tions of occupational mobility in middle midcentury.* A decade later, when the rail­ America.!" Indeed, the experience of a select road had reached the Mississippi and had en- group of clothing manufacturers suggests that the local situation was not likely to portray more, they needed previous mercantile experience in a shadowy image of the spectacular rags-to- the commercial aspects of sales and business risks in riches stereotype, but was more likely to pro­ order to compete effectively with eastern mass-pro­ duce that variety of mobility which was so­ duced goods, which were being distributed over wider cially functional and which only involved areas as a consequence of improvements in transporta­ climbing part of the way up a long and steep­ tion and technology. ' There are at least ten county or city histories which ly angled ladder. ^^ provide information on the progress of Milwaukee and its leading residents. There are also many other popular and semi-popular works as well as boosteristic ' Milwaukee always had a high percentage of foreign- pamphlets. In chronological order of publication the born among its population, especially in the ante­ county histories are Andrew C. Wheeler, The Chron­ bellum years. When statistics of national origin first icles of Milwaukee (Milwaukee, 1861); Rudolph A. became available for the city in 1848, the percentage Koss, Milwaukee (partial trans. Hans Ibsen, Milwau­ of foreign-born was 57.8. Two years later this figure kee, 1871); James S. Buck, Pioneer History of Mil­ had risen to 64.0. From this high point there was a waukee (4 vols., Milwaukee, 1876-1886); [Frank A. steady, if slow, decline to 53.5 per cent in 1855; 50.5 Flower], History of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Chicago, per cent in 1860; 47.3 per cent in 1870; and 39.9 per 1881); Elmer E. Barton, Industrial History of Milwau­ cent in 1880, but there was always a sufficient number kee (Milwaukee, 1886); Howard L. Conrad (ed.). His­ of "aliens" to constitute an immigrant market. Con­ tory of Milwaukee (3 vols., Chicago, 1895); Jerome A. zen, "The German Athens," 24-28, 41-65; Ninth Watrous (ed.). Memoirs of Milwaukee County (2 vols., Census, 1870, Population, vol. 1; Tenth Census, 1880, Madison, 1909); William G. Bruce, History of Mil­ Population, vol. 1. waukee City and County (3 vols., Chicago, 1922); ' Tenth Census, 1880, Manufactures, 2: 379-380. John G. Gregory, History of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (4 ™ Middle has a dual meaning in this context: mod­ vols., Chicago, 1931); Bayrd Still, Milwaukee: The erate in the scope and achievements of vertical mobil­ History of a City (Second edition, Madison, 1965). ity, and neither the top nor the bottom social groups The earlier histories generally provide biographical in the United States. sketches of many prominent contemporary individuals i^This is not a sample in any scientific or statistical and the later volumes tend to repeat this information. sense. It is neither random, systematic, stratified, nor Still provides the best analytical overview of the city's clustered. Particular individuals were chosen primarily growth. because information was available about them. The

177 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974

There was no leading tycoon of the di­ ready-made clothing more cheaply and could mensions of a John D. Rockefeller or an use their connections with the dry-goods trade Andrew Carnegie in the clothing industry. for retailing purposes, their more recently The absence of such a figure, however, does established and generally smaller rivals in the not imply a lack of opportunities for self- West were able to take advantage, at least improvement; it more likely reflects the frag­ initially, of closer proximity to their market mented nature of production and distribution and of an ability to cater to local demand.i* patterns and changing style considerations.^^ Even on the urban frontier of the mid-nine­ The ready-made clothing industry emerged teenth century, the clothing industry offered in the eastern seaboard cities in the 1830's considerable scope to the ambitious and well- both from the earlier slopshops which had endowed entrepreneur. made shore clothes for American sailors, and But this entrepreneur, at least in Milwau­ from the tailoring establishments which were kee, was not an unqualified success. He was anxious to expand their trade in an increas­ not a former unskilled worker; nor was he ingly larger urban market. Exploiting the often a skilled artisan. He was more likely to local and the southern markets for cheap have moved up from the mercantile ranks clothes, these manufactories then turned to and thus his climb was neither very dangerous newly opened western areas in the 1840's. By nor particularly spectacular. Mobility in the this time improvements in transportation and Milwaukee clothing industry was limited in better capital and credit facilities made it scope. The day laborer lacking finance and possible to take greater advantage of both large pools of available labor and new ma­ chinery to produce and distribute standard­ 1942), 3-29; and Harry A. Cobrin, The Men's Clothing Industry: Colonial Through Modern Times (New ized goods for a rising mass market." But York, 1970), 1-59. while the eastern firms cotild manufacture '^ Prior to the 1820's the western market for im­ ported clothing was limited by the high cost of trans­ portation by land across the Alleghenies or by water least common denominator which the entrepreneurs up the Mississippi River. With improvements in west­ share is inclusion in one of the manuscript census ern steamboats, the opening of the Great Lakes route schedules of manufacturing, 1850-1880. As such the via the Erie Canal, and the introduction of the rail­ choice is bia.sed against the small craftsman, who was road, the cost and time differential involved in the not included in these census returns since his shop shipment of goods declined markedly. Better credit did not generally produce goods to the annual value and financing arrangements which were developed in of .S500. Furthermore, it is difficult to state cate­ eastern cities after the depression of the late 1830's gorically how "typical" the behavior of these men aided the growth of manufactories and factories which was. The most that can reasonably be claimed is were increasingly relying on a minute division of labor that in these particular instances certain "success" or the introduction of new machinery to accelerate variables appeared to be more critical than others. the production process. For a useful discussion of Detailed examination of other industrial elites in Mil­ the economic trends from 1830 to 1860, see George R. waukee and in other western cities would provide Taylor, The Transportation Revolution: Industry, better evidence for making general assertions. 1815-1860 (New York, 1951). ""Clothing" at various times in the mid-nineteenth " It is difficult to estimate the length of time during century included the following branches: men's cloth­ which western industries ^vere sheltered from strong ing, men's ftu'nishing goods, women's clothing, dress­ competition by the absence of a good transport link making, gloves and mittens, hats and caps, knitted with older parts of the country. Conditions varied goods, millinery, shirts, and tailoring. Most of the locally and over time. In Cincinnati, for example, large establishments, however, produced men's ready- craftshops, which generally employed two or three made wear. Even within this branch the manufactur­ workmen, advertised custom-made goods on a more ing process was only one facet of a complicated chain extensive level and for a longer period of time than which started with the making of cotton or woolen in Milwaukee. Entrepreneurs could thus maintain cloth and finished in the dry goods or clothing store. their independent status and possibly their opporttniity Style considerations, whether seasonal, fashionable, or for upward mobility tor a considerable span of years. local, further militated against the early development See Charles Cist, Cincinnati in 1841 (Cincinnati, 1841); of large, horizontally combined and vertically inte­ Charles Cist, Sketches and Statistics of Cincinnati in grated units. For more general information on the 1851 (Cincinnati, 1851); Charles Cist, Sketches and structure of the clothing industry see Eighth Census, Statistics of Cincinnati in 1859 (Cincinnati, 1859); 1860, Manufactures, 3: lix-lxxxviii; Jesse E. Pope, Cincinnati City Directories, 1819-1865; M. Joblin 8c The Clothing Industry in New York (New York, 1905), Co., Cincinnati, Past and Present: Its Industrial His­ 1-26; Joel Seidman, The Needle Trades (New York, tory (Cincinnati, 1872).

178 WALSH: MILWAUKEE CLOTHING MANUFACTURERS

TABLE 1: PRINCIPAL INDUSTRIES IN THE CITY OF MILWAUKEE, 1850-1880

1850 1860 1870 1880* Industry No. c / Value No. of Value No. yf Value No. 0 / Value Workers Added Workers Added Work ers A dded Workers A dded Processing Group Flour Milling 35 $ 78,284 92 $ 494,933 158 $ 871,604 265 .? 409,419 Liquors 50 51,527 120 198,443 332 580,747 1,060 1,825,199 Leather 73 43,755 134 100,701 389 232,441 1,236 1,086,539 Construction Materials 173 68,870 424 197,168 960 728,519 1,823 933,652 Meat Packing n.a. n.a. 138 148,262 n.a. n.a. 953 569,868 Household - Consumer Group Boots and Shoes 144 59,230 328 205,575 526 429,379 526 285,109 Clothing 293 76,950 636 293,433 1,114 683,460 5,151 1,635,464 Furniture 123 61,099 149 169,756 352 291,211 587 399,467 Heavy Goods Group Iron and Iron Goods 104 67,652 205 306,219 519 563,894 1,467 1,078,877 Totals 1,466 $812,196 3,492 $2,958,591 6,629 $7,567,792 20,886 .$14,497,940

* As the 1880 figures are computed from the printed census, they are not strictly comparable with the figures for the earlier years. They do, however, indicate the relative status of the different industries in Milwaukee. SOURCE: Manuscript Census for the State of Wisconsin, Milwaukee County, 1850, 1860, and 1870; Tenth Census, 1880, Manufactures, 2: 411-412. For a definition of "value added," see footnote 18.

TABLE 2; LEADING CLOTHING MANUFACTURERS IN THE CITY or MILWAUKEE, 18

Value Added by Name of Type of Capital Motive Power** No of Workers Value of Manu­ Firm Business Invested Used Men Women Youth Product facture Friend Bros. Men's Clothing $450,000 Steam 200 400 $800,000 $300,000 D. Adler & Son Men's Clothing 375,000 Steam 300 200 675,000 275,000 E. Silverman & Co. Men's Clothing 100,000 Not reported 200 150 360,000 135,000 Singer & Benedict Men's Clothing 110,000 Steam 80 320 300,000 100,000 Reichman, Pollack & Co. Men's Clothing 100,000 Not reported 400 300 50 250,000 90,000 L. Newbouer & Sons Men's Clothing 115,000 No power used 100 150 140,000 80,000 Harris & Kalzenstein Men's Clothing 75,000 No power used 75 75 150,000 75,000

* The sjven leading establishments comprise 10 per cent of the clothing establishments listed. ** Power was defined in terms of horse, water, or steam power. SOURCE: Manuscript Census for the State of Wisconsin, Milwaukee County, 1880.

179 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974

TABLE 3 : LEADING CLOTHING MANUFACTURERS IN THE CITY OF MILWAUKEE 1870*

Value Name of Type of Capital Motive Power No. of Workers Value of Added by Firm Business Invested Used Men Women Youth Product Manufacture L. Newbouer & Son. Clothing $100,000 100 Sewing 50 61 $339,456 $239,456 Machines H. Friend & Bros. Clothing 150,000 300 Sewing 100 200 175,000 75,000 Machines Zellner and Bonus** Clothing 30,000 Hand 20 20 90,000 30,000 V. Zimmerman Tailor 10,000 Hand 18 32,000 19,500 D. D. French Tailoring 18,000 Hand 15 23,800 18,100 E. Silverman Clothing 30,000 60 Sewing 35 35 80,000 15,000 Machines L. Harris Clothing 15,000 5 Sewing 7 1 35,000 15,000 Machines

* The seven leading establishments comprise 10 per cent of the clothing establishments listed. **The firm of J. Adler and Bros, reported no value added by manufacture but the other measures suggest that this firm should be ranked third: namely, capital, $75,000; number of hands, 80; value of product, $150,000. SOURCE: Manuscript Census for the State of Wisconsin, Milwaukee County, 1870.

TABLE 4: LEADING CIOTHING MANUFACTURERS IN THE CITY OF MILWAUKEE, 1850*

Motive Value Name of Type of Capital Power No. of Workers Value of Added by Firm Business Invested Used Men Women Product Manufacture Shoyer & Co. Ready-Made Clothing $18,000 Hand 50 20 $65,000 $25,000 P. Yale Merchant Tailor 9,000 Hand 20 5 20,000 9,000 W. S. Wells Ready-Made Clothing 6,000 Hand 30 10 23,000 8,000 S. Adler Clothing 1,000 Hand 20 10 12,000 7,000 J. Steinhurt Clothing 2,000 Hand 10 6,000 4,000 J. Marks Clothing 3,000 Hand 12 10 8,000 3,000 P. J. Barker Hats & Caps 1,000 Hand 1 4 8,000 3,000

* The seven leading establishments comprise 35 per cent of the clothing establishments listed. SOURCE: Manuscript Census for the State of Wisconsin, Milwaukee County, 1850.

TABLE 5: LEADING CLOTHING MANUFACTURERS IN THE CITY OF MILWAUKEE, 1860*

Value Name of Type of Capital Motive Power No. of Workers Value of Added by Firm Business Invested Used Men Women Product Manufacture W. S. Wells & Co. Clothing $75,000 Hand 60 20 $150,000 $83,000 W. Shoyer Clothing 20,000 Sewing Machines 45 25 59,000 29,000 Mullen Bros. Clothing 10,000 Hand 40 20 40,000 22,000 G. Tracy Clothing 15,000 Hand 40 20 40,000 20,000 D. & J. Adler Clothing 6,000 Sewing Machines 45 20 78,000 18,000 Zellner and Bonus Clothing 10,000 Hand 25 20 39,000 16,100 L. Newbouer Clothing 15,000 Hand 30 20 22,500 12,500

* The seven leading establishments comprise 16.3 per cent of the clothing establishments listed. SOURCE: Manuscript Census for the State of Wisconsin, Milwaukee County, 1860. 180 WALSH: MILWAUKEE CLOTHING MANUFACTURERS training was unlikely to make much improve­ status he was well placed to commit himself ment in his position. Indeed with the intro­ fully to industrial activities if the rewards duction of sewing machines in the 1850's and were sufficiently remunerative.^'^ Success, at 1860's and ctitting machines in the 1870's, he least in Milwaukee's early clothing industry, or she might well suffer a loss in socioeco­ should be classified in terms of a middle- nomic status by becoming a factory hand.i^ level range: and even with this redefinition, The skilled tailor, employing one or two as­ some of the so-called failures or artisans were sistants, might become a small-scale manu­ successful within their own and ofttimes more facturer, if he could abandon his traditional realistic context. craft and assume merchandising skills either for himself or through a partner. But neither the desire nor the opportunity may have pre­ N 1880, the city's largest clothing sented itself. He might not wish to learn the rmanufacturin g establishment be­ techniques of management and distribution longed to Friend Brothers, who had a capital which were essential to large-scale enterprises of 1450,000, 600 workers, and clothing valued selling in a regional market. A rejection of at $800,000 (see Table 2). This firm was re­ artisanship might in itself be regarded as sponsible for 18.4 per cent of the value added climbing down rather than up the occupa­ by manufacture in the production of clothing tional ladder. Alternatively the tailor may in Milwaukee.'^ In addition to being one of have found that the small amounts of capital the largest industrial establishments in the which he could command were insufficient to city. Friend Brothers was also one of the provide the momentum to gain a foothold on oldest retail and wholesale clothing firms in a higher rung of business enterprise, and Milwaukee. Its fortunes and misfortunes pro­ that he had to remain a small-scale crafts­ vide a framework for examining some of the man.^^ critical features promoting success on the ur­ The outwardly successful entrepreneur, ban frontier. namely the clothing manufacturer, often had The original shop was opened in 1847 by prior experience as a dry goods or general Henry and Elias Friend. The following year merchant. Thus, he was able, both financial­ they were joined by a third brother, Meyer. ly and mentally, to add manufacturing to his The Friends had emigrated to the United normal activities and to move both laterally States from Antenhausen in Bavaria in 1840. and horizontally in status. Being familiar Remaining in their port of entry. New York with the problems of sales and business risks City, for only a few weeks, they moved to through experience in the retail and wholesale trade and knowing how to obtain capital, or " For general statements about the importance of more likely, credit, he coidd be merchant, merchandising in the growth of manufacturing enter­ manager, and manufacturer at the same time. prises and about the role of the merchant manufactur­ er, see Glen Porter and Harold C. Livesay, Merchants Once he had achieved merchant-manufacturer and Manufacturers: Studies in the Changing Structure of Nineteenth Century Marketing (Baltimore, 1971); Lewis E. Atherton, The Pioneer Merchant in Mid- ^° The employee in the tailor's shop in Milwaukee America (Columbia, 1939); and Fred M. Jones, Middle­ in the 1840's and 1850's may well have had a certain men in the Domestic Trade of the United States, amount of training and could thus perform a variety 1800-1860 (Urbana, 1939). of semiskilled as well as unskilled tasks. But as the " The construct "value added by manufacture" is size of clothing establishments increased, greater use the best indicator of manufacturing performance, be­ of division of labor and then of machinery meant that cause it measures the approximate value created in the worker was given one specific and routine task the process of manufacturing by deducting from the to be performed with the aid of a machine. He be­ gross product the cost of materials consumed, the came a factory hand, or it the work was done at fuel used, and other costs in making a finished product. home, a machine hand, and most definitely an un­ It eliminates the possible duplication of figures in skilled worker. some branches of manufacturing where the raw ma­ ^° For a very useful commentary on the problems of terial of one establishment is the finished product of adjustment faced by artisans in an industrializing another. See Margaret Walsh, "The Manufacturing economy, .see Harvey A. Wooster, "Manufacturer and Frontier: Pioneer Industry in Antebellum Wisconsin, Artisan, 1790-1840," in the Journal of Political Econo­ 1830-1860" (Ph.D. dissertation. University of Wiscon­ my, 34; 61-77 (1926). sin, 1969), 501-502.

181 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974

clothing and to do a jobbing business in cloths and tailoring goods. Relying on the retail side of the business to provide capital as well as sales outlets, they expanded the firm's capacity threefold—from $5,000 to $15,000—in the space of three years. By the mid-1850's Friend Brothers was well estab­ lished in Milwaukee and had opened branch stores in the southeastern Wisconsin towns of Watertown and Jefferson.^^ Though they ran into financial difficulties on account of credit sales during the depressed conditions of the late 1850's, the brothers eventually paid their debts and surmounted the crisis. Indeed, by the outbreak of the Civil War they were in a sound position, with capital of some $20,00O-$25,000. During the early 1860's they grew in standing and made greater profits, and by 1866 they were worth Society's Iconographic Collections over $100,000. The following year they moved Henry Friend, brother of Elias. to larger premises in anticipation of further expansion, and from thence forward their Pennsylvania, where they earned a living ped­ financial records went from strength to dling and merchandising. After two or three strength. By 1870 Friend Brothers employed years, they went to Alabama where they stayed some 300 operatives to produce pants, coats, a similar length of time before settling in and vests worth $175,000 (see Table 3). Three Milwaukee. Here on the urban frontier they years later they were the leading house in again took up merchandising, selling dry their line in Milwaukee, being worth some goods, clothing, and Yankee notions, not only $300,000-$500,000. By the mid-1870's their in Milwaukee, but also farther afield in Wis­ extensive business was valued at $700,000- consin. After gaining considerable experience $800,000, and despite the death of Henry and finance from the retail trade, the brothers Friend in 1875, the firm maintained its repu­ decided in 1850 to start making ready-made tation as one of the best houses in Milwau- kee.2o (Below) Friend Brothers Clothing Store, at the corner of Broadway and Michigan Street in Milwaukee, about 1893. " [Flower], History of Milwaukee, 1241; Buck, Pio­ neer History of Milwaukee, 3: 309-310; John Gregory, Industrial Resources of Wisconsin (Milwaukee, 1870), 1: 280-281; United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men, Wis­ consin Volume (Chicago, 1887), 372, 376; Louis J. Swichkow and Lloyd P. Gartner, The History of the Jews in Milwaukee (Philadelphia, 1963), 14; Dun and Bradstreet Manuscript Mercantile Credit Rating Re­ ports, Wisconsin Volumes, 36: 11, Baker Library, Harvard Business School. ™ Though Friend Bros, was not recorded in the manuscript census schedules for 1860, the capital re­ ported by Dun and Bradstreet, 36: 11, in February, 1861, compares favorably with that of the leading clothing firms in the city (see Table 4). There is little direct evidence that the Friends were among the American clothiers who are commonly reputed to have made huge profits from supplying the Union army with uniforms. Louis J. Swichkow, "The Jewish Com­ munity in Milwaukee, 1860-1870," in American Jew- 182 WALSH: MILWAUKEE CLOTHING MANUFACTURERS

This bare chronicle of rising output and The brothers had several other assets. They capital explains little by itself about the rea­ were well versed in the art of peddling goods, sons for upward mobility, other than that of establishing sales networks, and of clerking money was steadily plowed back into the busi­ in stores. Thus they were able to build a ness. Why should Henry Friend and his market for their own goods and to acquire brothers have been more successful than many much needed capital. They pursued techno­ of their counterparts among the clothiers and logical changes within the clothing industry, merchant tailors? They were Jews, but the quickly adopting the sewing machine and Jewish population was small; they were Ger­ cutting by steam-driven machinery, both of man, but the vagaries of that market were which enabled them to employ unskilled difficult to fathom.21 Their sales were cer­ rather than skilled workers. They employed tainly not limited to these two groups either twice as many women as men.^^ Success may in Milwaukee or in Wisconsin. The Jewish have come with the virtues of thrift and hard connection was probably more important in work, but it was also closely linked to retail establishing and maintaining backward links experience, family connections, adaptability, to wholesalers and jobbers in Pennsylvania and available capital. and New York, particularly when the busi­ The second largest clothing establishment ness started and also in times of financial in Milwaukee in 1880, David Adler and Sons, hardship when payments might have to be was remarkably similar to Friend Brothers. deferred. But whether thrift, acumen, prior The Adlers were also recent immigrants to business connections, and attentive habits the United States, Jewish by religion, and should be considered a prerogative of Jewish among the pioneers in the Milwaukee clothing entrepreneurs—or entrepreneurs in general— industry. Solomon Adler, the founder of the rather than of individual personalities is an firm, had been a glazier in his native Austria, unresolvable problem.^^ and on his arrival in North America in 1843, his first permanent job was in general mer­ chandising in Montgomery, Alabama. In the ish Historical Society, Publications, 47: 36-37 (1957), reports that two firms, S. Adler & Brothers, and mid-1840's he gained some experience oper- Zellner and Bonus were awarded government contracts for the manufacture of army uniforms, but he fails distinguish among the relative merits of these claims. to report such evidence for Friend Brothers. Gregory, However one business phenomenon which might be Industrial Resources (1870), 280-281; [Flower], His­ considered common among Jews is their tendency to tory of Milwaukee, 1241; United States Biographical distribute and draw on monetary sources from among Dictionary, 372-376; Buck, Pioneer History of Mil­ several members of their extended families, although waukee, 3: 309-310; Dun and Bradstreet, 36: 11, 13, a similar tendency exists among other ethnic-American 25; 37: 40, 253, 310, 336, 343; Milwaukee City Direct­ groups. It was thus often difficult to determine the ories, 1865, 1870, and 1875; Manuscript Census for the precise financial standing of a Jewish firm. State of Wisconsin, Milwaukee County, 1870. '^Dun and Bradstreet, 36: 11, noted that the Friends ^ The local Jewish community could only provide were peddling wares in Wisconsin, but it is not clear a very small market. Swichkow, "The Jewish Com­ what percentage of their goods was being sold in this munity," 35, estimates that in 1865 there were about way. Peddling as a means of advancement, particular­ 1,500 Jews in Milwaukee, which was about 21/2 per ly in the clothing industry, has often been associated cent of the city's population. Ten years later the first with Jews. See Lee M. Friedman, "The Problems of authentic census of Milwaukee's Jewish community Nineteenth Century Jewish Peddlers," in American reported a total of 2,068 residents. Swichkow and Jewish Historical Society, Publications, 44: 1-7 (1954); Gartner, History of the Jews, 66. There is little direct Swichkow and Gartner, History of the Jews, 13; and evidence on the way in which the German consumer Alfred R. Schumann, No Peddlers Allowed (Appleton, market was tapped. Special styles may have been Wisconsin, 1948), 38-62. Wages, by sex, were recorded made for immigrants, but it is difficult to know how in the manuscript census schedules for 1850 and 1860. long they would wish to wear clothes which marked Unfortunately these figures were probably the least them as "aliens." More likely they simply preferred reliable in the manufacturing returns. See Walsh, to buy from establishments run by Germans or at "The Manufacturing Frontier," 490-491. For the ante­ least where German was the spoken language. bellum years, women's wages in Wisconsin generally ^^The attributes of hard work, thrift, and business averaged about 40 per cent of male wages, though they acumen have traditionally been associated with the ranged from 13 to 90 per cent. In 1880 unskilled Protestant ethic and the American spirit as well as workers in the clothing industry in Milwaukee re­ with the Jewish entrepreneur and even with Germans ceived from 33 to 75 per cent of the wage paid to and other northern Europeans. It is impossible to skilled workers. Manuscript Census, 1880.

183 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974

Society's Iconographic Collections The Adler brothers, Solomon (left) and David, whose clothing business grew to rival that of the Friend brothers. ating a retail clothing store in New York City. $1,200. On his arrival in Milwaukee he open­ Then in 1848 he headed west in search of ed a small clothing store on East Water Street, greater opportunity, and opened a small re­ then the center of the city's retail trade. tail clothing shop in Milwaukee together with Within a short time he had acquired both a Jacob Steinhart. This partnership was short­ considerable business and a good reputation.^5 lived, and Solomon Adler started retailing This relatively smooth start in Milwaukee and manufacturing clothing on his own. By depended on a variety of assets—namely his midcentury Adler's clothing output had a available, if modest capital; family links in value added of $7,000, in contrast to the Milwaukee; experience in retailing; Jewish $4,000 of his former partner, now also in connections both in Milwaukee and in the business by himself (see Table 4). And by East; and ability to tap the growing German the early 1850's Adler's enterprise was reputed market in Wisconsin, but the relative im­ to be worth $15,00O-$30,O0O per annum.^* portance of these ingredients is uncertain. Solomon Adler was thus well-established Indeed, ambition may have been the main when his younger brother David arrived in driving force. In 1857 David moved into the Milwaukee in 1852. David had learned the bakery trade in Austria before he emigrated "' In the antebellum years East Water Street formed to the United States in 1846. He then spent the major axis of Milwaukee's commercial life, and it five years in New York City as a baker before was here that the best shops paid the highest rents. deciding to change his occupation and resi­ As many clothing manufacturers and tailors were in­ volved in retailing as well as in manufacturing there dence. Milwaukee was an obvious target be­ was a marked concentration of clothing establishments cause of family connections; and the clothing on and around East Water Street. A less noticeable trade seemed to offer a good chance of speedy concentration of establishments was found in footwear, returns on the investment of his savings of but other branches of manufacturing were distributed more widely throughout the city. Manuscript Census, 1850 and 1860; Conzen, "The German Athens," 277- ^'"Solomon Adler," in Works Progress Administra­ 285; Columbian Biographical Dictionary (Chicago, tion, Wisconsin Biographies, Archives-Manuscripts 1895), 854-856; United States Biographical Dictionary, Division, State Historical Society of Wisconsin; Conrad, 294-295; Andrew J. Aitken and Lewis A. Proctor (eds.). History of Milwaukee, 2: 438-439; [Flower], History Men of Progress, Wisconsin . . . (Milwaukee, 1897), of Milwaukee, 1241; Buck, Pioneer History of Mil­ 102-103; Conrad, History of Milwaukee, 2: 430-432; waukee, 3: 146-147. Dun and Bradstreet, 36: 87. 184 WALSH: MILWAUKEE CLOTHING MANUFACTURERS

Society's Iconographic Collections Henry M. Mendel, David Adler's son-in-law, and Emanuel D. Adler, David's son. wholesale trade, taking over his brother Solo­ improved in the early 1860's and by 1863 the mon's business, and he brought into partner­ Adlers were worth some $75,000, a sum which ship his other brother Jacob, formerly Solo­ they more than doubled by 1868. Trade con­ mon's clerk. The partners were then said to tinued to flourish throughout the decade and be worth about $14,000. Their progress was in 1870 the firm made men's clothing valued rapid even during the depressed economic at $150,000 (see Table S).^^ By this time the condidons of 1857-1858, and by 1859 their Adlers' financial status, their connections in notes were taken without endorsement by one the trade, their long standing in Milwaukee, of the city's leading banks, a sure sign of and the ever-increasing costs of entry into an good standing in a frontier community. But industry which was becoming dominated by Jacob Adler's interest in the business was large enterprises were sufficient to maintain short-lived; in 1860 it was taken over by their position among the vanguard of Mil­ Solomon. This new Adler enterprise was out­ waukee clothiers. paced in terms of value added by at least Changes in the organization of the enter­ four other Milwaukee clothing manufacturers prise did not affect its standing. Solomon (see Table 5), but the standing of the Adler Adler retired from active business in 1871, brothers was unquestionably sound.^^ but he became a special partner in the new Business, especially in the jobbing trade. firm, Adler, Mendel and Co., investing $25,000 initially for two years. Two other members of the family were the additional partners: ™ The precise financial standing of the Adlers was David's eldest son Isaac, who had been a clerk difficult to determine, especially as neither brother owned any property which might provide an alterna­ in the store, and David's son-in-law, Henry tive means of identifying his wealth. For these years, M. Mendel, who had experience both in re­ the Adlers' own statements are accepted at face value, tail clothing and in the jobbing trade. Solo­ though the credit rating agent thought they were mon Adler withdrew completely from the rather optimistic. Dun and Bradstreet, 36: 87; Colum­ bian Biographical Dictionary, 854-856; United States Biographical Dictionary, 294-295; Aitken and Proctor (eds.), Men of Progress, 102-103; "Solomon Adler," in '''Dun and Bradstreet, 36: 117; 37: 27; Swichkow Wisconsin Biographies; Conrad, History of Milwaukee, and Gartner, History of the Jews, 14, note that the 2: 438; [Flower], History of Milwaukee, 1241; Dun .'Vdlers did gain from government contracts for army and Bradstreet, 36: 117, 269. uniforms during the Civil War. 185 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974 firm in 1874, followed four years later by remainder of the decade. By 1868 he was Henry Mendel. Emanuel^ another of David's worth some $50,000 and the U.S. Census of sons, who had previously acted as a traveler, 1870 reported that he employed seventy oper­ was admitted to the firm, which now became atives to make clothing valued at $80,000 (see David Adler and Sons. This new house, which Table 3). Such a record placed Emanuel Sil­ had a capital of $375,000 invested in manu­ verman on the threshold of the manufactur­ facturing in 1880 and a clothing trade which ing elite in Milwaukee.^" extended througliout the Northwest and the Throughout the 1870's, a decade which saw Lake Superior region, certainly belonged to a rapid expansion of the men's ready-made Milwaukee's industrial elite.^^ clothing industry in Milwaukee, Silverman Emanuel Silverman, another German Jew, improved his standing both within Milwaukee was not quite as successful as Henry Friend and among the country merchants. By taking or David Adler, but he certainly hovered on his son-in-law Louis Shakman into partner­ the brink of noteworthy achievement in the ship in 1871, he gained the assistance and ex­ 1870's. Silverman, using $5,000 capital ac­ perience of a shrewd and energetic business­ cumulated in peddling in Maine, opened his man who added his own capital and long small tailoring and retail clothing store on standing in the trade. The firm, estimated to East Water Street in 1853. Here he ran a be worth $75,000-$ 100,000 in 1874, moved modest business, relying on his own entrepre­ into large new premises the same year. By neurial ability and possibly on some trade 1877 E. Silverman and Co., which included connection with his brother-in-law Solomon Emanuel's son Edward, was one of the largest Adler. The depressed economic conditions of clothing houses in Milwaukee. The death of the late 1850's impeded progress, but he was Emanuel, the following year, affected the still able to make enough profit to move to financial standing of the firm, and eventually larger premises. With real estate worth $1,000 tlie enterprise was organized on a lesser foot­ in 1860, his status was reported as inferior to ing in 1881, when Louis Shakman assumed the leading houses', but superior to the status sole responsibility.^' Though his firm's rec­ of the many small German tailors then work­ ord was perhaps not as striking as that of the ing in the city.^^ Friends' or the Adlers', Emanuel Silverman As with many Milwaukee clothiers, Silver­ himself illustrated another German-Jewish man increased his output rapidly in the early success story. Those familiar ingredients 1860's. His assets tripled in value, from which seemed conducive to upward mobility $5,000-$6,000 in 1861 to $12,OOO-$20,O0O by were present in his case also—mercantile ex­ late 1865. Possibly this improvement owed perience, trading ability, Jewish and family more to his retailing and merchandising activ­ business connections, the German market, cap­ ities than to his own manufacturing output, ital availability, and a reasonably early start but it is not clear whether Silverman gained in Milwaukee. more from selling to the army during war­ The members of the three leading Milwau­ time or from selling in an expanding western kee clothing manufacturing firms in 1880 fol­ market. Whatever the reason, he made steady lowed similar career patterns and displayed headway, and in 1866 he again moved into like reasons for improving their status. The a larger building. Business thrived for the crucial ingredients in their progress can be analyzed more rigorously by comparing them with other entrepreneurs of similar back­ ''Columbian Biographical Dictionary, 854-856; Mil­ grounds who were not successful, with some waukee Journal, October 31, 1925; "Solomon Adler," of their counterparts who had different back­ in Wisconsin Biographies; United States Biographical Dictionary, 86-87, 294-295; Aitken and Proctor (eds.), grounds but who did rise through the ranks. Men of Progress, 102-103; [Flower], History of Mil­ waukee, 1241; Conrad, History of Milwaukee, 2: 438; Buck, Pioneer History of Milwaukee, 3: 146-147. ""[Flower], History of Milwaukee, 1240; Manuscript ™ [Flower], History of Milwaukee, 1240; Manuscript Census, 1870; Dun and Bradstreet, 36: 133, 309j; Census, 1860; Dun and Bradstreet, 36: 133; Milwaukee Milwaukee City Directories, 1860-61, 1863, and 1865. City Directory, 1860-61; Swichkow and Gartner, His­ '1 [Flower], History of Milwaukee, 1240; Dun and tory of the Jews, 14. Bradstreet, 39: 17, 20, 317, 389.

186 WALSH: MILWAUKEE CLOTHING MANUFACTURERS and with businessmen who were neither pros­ perous nor Austro-German Jews. This third E. M. SHOYER & Go., group remained tailors and stayed on the Removed from 159 to 146 E. 'Water Street, lower rungs of the ladder of occupational mo­ XTnited States Block, bility. •v«ri3:oi:^]E3SjgL3i.E!

'HERE were clothing manufac­ turers who were either German A GESERAL ASSORTMENT OF or Austrian by birth, Jewish by religion, and who came to Milwaukee in the frontier peri­ READY-MADE od, but whose stories were not recorded in the county histories as major successes. The CJLi OT3HC(S. Shoyer family enterprises in Milwaukee were CASSIMEEES, a case in point. The original establishment, SAniHETS. Shoyer and Co., was founded in the mid- VESTINGS, AXI> 1840's by Emanuel Shoyer as a retail clothing store with tailoring done on a custom basis. Summer Goods AT Shoyer, then a man in his late fifties, must WHOLESALE, have brought capital with him from Philadel­ At k«oek-

187 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974

William left Milwaukee for Philadelphia in 1840's. Although he commanded only a small 1856 and was replaced by his brother-in-law. capital and had to make an assignment, New- In the same year, E. S. Burr, a partner in the house still managed to build up a respectable firm, withdrew and was replaced possibly by business on East Water Street. At midcentury Charles Shoyer. Then Emanuel and Gabriel his real estate was valued at $2,000, and his appear to have become sleeping rather than merchant tailor's shop produced clothing active partners. The clothing concern sur­ valued at $5,000. But this activity was short­ vived these family readjustments, though the lived, for in 1853 he sold out, apparently to financial problems posed by the depressed go east to Philadelphia.5^ What little evi­ economic conditions of the late 1850's imposed dence that can be gleaned about Henry New- extra strains.^^ house's stay in Milwaukee indicates that a In 1860, E. M. Shoyer and Co. took over little capital, some retail experience, ethnic the business run by Samuel Shoyer, and the business connections, and a ready market, dry goods store operated by Isadore H. Hock- whether immigrant or native-born, on the stadter. The Shoyer manufacturing output urban frontier were sufficient to ensure at that year was valued at $59,000 (see Table least a modest start. When German-Jewish 5). Appearances were deceptive, however. In entrepreneurs went out of business, personal August, 1861, the Shoyer firm failed and went choice to move elsewhere appeared to be de­ into liquidation, and by 1863 none of this cisive. clothing family remained in Milwaukee.^^ The Milwaukee clothing industry, however, The reasons for the sudden collapse of the was not the sole prerogative of either Jewish enterprise can only be inferred. The Shoyers or German entrepreneurs. Of the fourteen had the same ingredients for success—capital, leading merchant tailors and clothiers in the retail experience, German and Jewish business city in 1862 only five were owned and oper­ connections, and a fairly early start in Mil­ ated by Jews, though some 54 per cent of the waukee—as had the Friends, the Adlers, and clothing establishments in 1860 may have been Emanuel Silverman. The differences appear run by Germans.^^ Thus religious, ethnic, and to lie in family disagreements and the selec­ nationality ties, though very useful, were not tion of Milwaukee as the best location for essential to vertical mobility. their economic endeavors. One non-German-Jewish firm, somewhat Henry Newhouse was another German Jew comparable in stature and longevity to the active in the clothing business in Milwaukee Friends' and the Adlers', belonged to Simonds in the 1840's and 1850's, and he was even less and Brooke in 1880. The business was opened "successful" than the Shoyers. Moving west in 1844 by William S. Wells and A. N. Dick­ from Kentucky, he established himself as a son as a saloon and restaurant, but they soon merchant tailor in Milwaukee in the late turned to retailing clothes, dry goods, and Yankee notions, both in Milwaukee and far­ ther afield. Within a few years the partners ""•Ibid., 36: 8, 66, 112, 171, 178; Buck, Pioneer His­ had acquired a reliable reputation, for the tory of Milwaukee, 4: 115. Reports about William business was valued at $30,000-$40,000 in vary. He appears in the 1860 census. Schedule 1, Mil­ 1849, while the stock-in-trade was worth some waukee County, 1: 78, along with his wife and a daughter, one year old, all born in Pennsylvania. Ap­ $5,000. Manufacturing ready-made clothing parently William had returned to Milwaukee as the was probably ancillary to the retail business, firm began to fail. That same year {ibid., 225) John C. Shoyer, 28, along with his wife Lucy M. Shoyer, who had been born in Vermont, headed the household in ^'Manuscript Census, 1850; Milwaukee City Direct­ which E. M. Shoyer, 36, and a member of the firm, ories, 1847-48 and 1851-52; Dun and Bradstreet, 36: lived. The names John and Lucy indicate that a part 230. of the Shoyer family may not have been practicing ^ Swichkow, "The Jewish Commimity," 36; Conzen, Jews. "The German Athens," 218, suggests that 63 per cent of '"Dun and Bradstreet, 36: 110, 171, 291; Manuscript all tailors in Milwaukee in 1850 were Germans; by Census, 1860; Milwaukee City Directories, 1860-61 and 1860 this percentage had increased to 70. The lower 1863. Louis Shoyer, a shoe manufacturer who may or figure is based on an assessment of the owners of may not have been a relation, continued to live in firms listed in the manufacturing schedules of the Milwaukee. manuscript census. 188 WALSH: MILWAUKEE CLOTHING MANUFACTURERS but this side line quickly developed momen­ tum. By 1850, Wells, who was now on his own, employed forty operatives to make cloth­ ing valued at $23,000 (see Table 4). Business expanded in the early 1850's, and Wells took Dickson back into the firm on his return from California in 1851. Despite a temporary setback in 1854 when the store burned, they continued to improve their standing, and in 1855 capital and stock together were valued at some $80,000.^^ The main criteria in Wells and Dickson's progress up the ladder to wealth appear to have been experience and familiar­ ity with the retail trade, access to capital (either personal or acquired through mer­ chandising), and an ability to tap the fluid markets of both Milwaukee and Wisconsin. Their early success, however, did not guar­ antee continued growth. Despite the appar­ ently strong financial footing and reliable business reputation of Wells in particular, the depressed economic conditions of the late 1850's struck a severe blow to the enterprise. Society's Iconographic Collections In 1858 the partners were in straitened cir­ William S. Wells, younger brother of Daniel Wells, Jr. cumstances, and they had to ask for an exten­ sion of some twelve to eighteen months on organized again the following year as an un­ payments of their notes. Business both in re­ incorporated joint stock company. Dickson tailing and in manufacturing was however retired from the firm and the members of the continued, and it would appear that this new concern of Wells, Simonds and Co., were perseverance even paid large dividends. William S. Wells, Daniel Wells, Jr., Chauncey Though credit and cash difficulties continued Simonds, and William Brooke. Simonds was for the next few years, the firm had the largest a thrifty and prudent middle-aged New output of clothing in Milwaukee in 1860 (see Yorker who had accumulated a few thousand Table 5).« dollars in merchandising and in farming in The insecure economic conditions of the Waukesha County. Brooke was an experi­ late 1850's had more lasting effects than enced artisan, who had been head cutter in temporary instability and credit problems. the original firm of Wells and Dickson. The The organization of the enterprise underwent new company abandoned the retail business change when Daniel Wells, Jr., one of Wis­ in dry goods, clothing and Yankee notions, consin's notable investors and William's older and concentrated on manufacturing clothing brother, joined the firm early in 1860. for the wholesale and retail markets.** Though he was then heavily committed in lumbering operations and could render little immediate financial assistance to the clothing " It is difficult to estimate the financial standing enterprise, he added a large amount of pres­ of Daniel Wells, Jr., for he was involved directly or tige and respectability. The business was re- indirectly in many fields of activity in Wisconsin and the Northwest, including lumbering, land speculation, merchandising, and banking. Dun and Bradstreet, 36: ™ Buck, Pioneer History of Milwaukee, 2: 130; 314, suggested that, at least in 1861, Wells himself did [Flower], History of Milwaukee, 1247; Dun and Brad- not know the extent of his various properties and streeL 36: 47; Milwaukee City Directory, 1847-48. interests. By the mid-1860's, however, he was worth •"Buck, Pioneer History of Milwaukee, 2: 130; at least $20O,000-,$30O,0O0. Dun and Bradstreet, 36: [Flower], History of Milwaukee, 1247; Dun and Brad­ 337. Buck, Pioneer History of Milwaukee, 2: 130; street, 36: 47, 219, 267; Milwaukee City Directory, [Flower], History of Milwaukee, 1247; Dun and Brad- 1860-61; Manuscript Census, 1860. Street, 35: 267, 314; Gertrude W. Wells-Cushing,

189 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974

Initially the venture suffered from debts coming manufacturers, both Americans and inherited from the previous firm, and it strug­ immigrants required a good credit standing gled to maintain a good standing in business and had learned the advisability of having circles. The expanding markets of the early considerable retail knowledge. To enter the 1860's were conducive to growth, however, ranks of the industrial elite through the and by the time William Wells retired in clothing branch, capital was essential. Finan­ 1864, the firm had a solid reputation. The cial vicissitudes struck both William Wells more favorable economic conditions of the and Wells, Simonds and Co., and it took the Civil War years were not solely responsible respectability of Daniel Wells, Jr., to provide for this strengthening. The prestige and fi­ the foundation for the practical expertise of nancial assets of Daniel Wells, Jr., eventually Chauncey Simonds and William Brooke be­ provided means for enlarging business opera­ fore stability could be achieved. Familiarity tions, and the manufacturing expertise of with the retail trade in dry goods and clothing Brooke and the retailing experience of Si­ was very helpful in establishing channels of monds added those practical dimensions need­ distribution and in obtaining supplies of ed for increased activity. By the late 1860's goods and cloth from jobbers and manufactur­ the firm was estimated to be worth $100,000.*^ ers in large eastern cities, but by itself this The retirement of Daniel Wells, Jr., in 1871 training could only ensure a modest degree did not impair the smooth running of the of success. operation. Simonds and Brooke, though not The experience of two other non-German- personally wealthy, were able to command Jewish clothing manufacturers—the Mullen sufficient capital to continue doing an excel­ brothers and Jonathan Magie—substantiates lent business. The new firm did not reach the importance of capital. Andrew Mullen the top of the ladder in terms of financial emigrated from Ireland as a child and went standing, being worth only $60,000 by the to Albany, New York, where he received his late 1870's and having a value of product of elementary education. He moved to Wiscon­ $63,800 in 1880, but it did command a note­ sin in 1842 and settled in Milwaukee in 1849. worthy reputation locally in both the retail What Mullen did for a living in the 1840's and wholesale trades.*^ is uncertain; he may have worked as a day laborer either on a farm or in the lumber camps, or even in a store. On his arrival in 'HE critical features which emerge Milwaukee, however, he attained white-collar from observing the behavior of status, as a clerk employed by William S. the leading "American" clothing firm in Mil­ Wells. Here he gained both practical experi­ waukee's first generation of settlement, as ence in the retail trade and a small compe­ well as from examining the leading German- tence, and then in 1856, together with Wil­ Jewish establishments, were primarily the liam F. Tancre, another of Wells' employees, need to have substantial capital and credit, he set up his own merchant tailoring and and then also to gain some retail experience clothing shop on East Water Street.** before setting up in business. European immi­ The trade of this new enterprise developed grants might often start with less, accumulate slowly. The owners' modest financial re­ experience and capital, and then begin mod­ sources did not augur well for success, espe­ est manufacturing enterprises which some­ cially in the depressed economic conditions times grew larger. But at the point of be- of the late 1850's which struck severely at small- to medium-sized endeavors. The death of Tancre in 1858 was another blow, and Genealogy of the Wells Family and Families Related (Milwaukee, 1903 [?]), 14-16. structural reorganization became inevitable. "Buck, Pioneer History of Milwaukee, 2: 130; Andrew therefore formed a partnership with [Flower], History of Milwaukee, 1247; Dun and Brad­ his brother Michael, an entrepreneur of some street, 36: 314, 337; 37: 92; Manuscript Census, 1870; Milwaukee City Directories, 1863 and 1865. "Buck, Pioneer History of Milwaukee, 2: 130; "Gregory, Industrial Resources (1870), 1: 253-254; [Flower], History of Milwaukee, 1247; Dun and Brad­ [Flower], History of Milwaukee, 1242; Dun and Brad­ street, 37: 92, 93, 98, 101, 193; Manuscript Census, 1880. street, 36: 152, 159.

190 WALSH: MILWAUKEE CLOTHING MANUFACTURERS

standing in Watertown. By 1860 the new firm had invested $10,000 in capital and em­ ployed sixty workers to make clothing valued at $40,000. Indeed, Mullen Bros, then ap­ peared about to join the select circle of the Friend Bros., Shoyer Bros., D. & J. Adler, and W. S. Wells and Co. (see Table 5).*5 Along with most other clothing enterprises in Milwaukee, Mullen Bros, increased its capacity in the early 1860's. By mid-decade it was estimated to be worth over $30,000. In­ deed, in 1866 the brothers, who were now three in number, for James had been admitted as a partner in 1863, provided the financing for another clothing shop, Zimmermann and Co. This was in effect a branch store run by Valentine Zimmermann, a young German, who had a good head for business, but little capital. In order to capture some of the Ger­ Society's Iconographic Collections man market, mutually convenient arrange­ An 1877 photograph by W. H. Sherman of Axtell ments were made whereby Zimmermann took House at Ferry and South Water streets, Milwaukee, charge of the new establishment.*^ and (arrow) a sailors' clothing "slopshop." Both firms thrived in the late 1860's, but as merchant tailors rather than as manufacturers. This entrepreneurial challenge was met in By 1870 the Mullens only had $15,000 in­ two ways. Michael Mullen withdrew from vested in their own establishment and $10,000 the business in 1870 and the two remaining in that of Valentine Zimmermann; and to­ brothers were joined in 1872 by Charles Cat- gether they employed only thirty workers to lin, a wealthy New Yorker. Though they in­ produce clothing valued at $62,206. They creased their capacity through this infusion were falling behind Milwaukee's leading of capital, they stopped manufacturing ready- clothing manufacturers, who, by this time, made clothing and concentrated on jobbing had invested considerable capital in installing in woolen and tailors' trimmings. This spe­ machinery and were employing large numbers cialized line of business proved more profit­ of unskilled laborers (see Table 3).*'' able than a joint retail and manufacturing venture. By the mid-1870's the firm was worth $100,000-$125,000, and in 1880 its sales " Mullen and Tancre had about $2,500 cash when reached $500,000. Furthermore the partners they started in business in the summer of 1856. Dun had established a branch house in Chicago, and Bradstreet, 36: 152, 159. An examination of manu­ facturing establishments in various parts of Wisconsin which also promised to be a success. indicates that medium-sized firms with a few thousand The Zimmermanns, Valentine and brother dollars invested in plant and machinery were those James, pursued a second scheme for gaining most vulnerable to the strains imposed by national upward mobility. In 1875, they assumed in and local economic crises. Margaret Walsh, The Manu­ facturing Frontier, Pioneer Industry in Antebellum Wisconsin, 1830-1860 (Madison, 1972), 10-11. For " The capital invested and the number of hands observations on the average life span of different types employed in the clothing industry increased at a of enterprise, see Ruth G. Hutchinson, Arthur R. higher rate in Milwaukee city than in the United Hutchinson, and Mabel Newcomer, "A Study in Busi­ States between 1860 and 1870. In the country as a ness Mortality, Length of Life of Business Enterprises whole the capital invested in men's and women's in Poughkeepsie, New York, 1843-1936," in the Journal clothing increased by 107 per cent, while the number of Political Economy, 60: 497-514 (1952). Gregory, of workers increased by 15 per cent. In the city of Industrial Resources (1870), 1: 253-254; [Flower], Milwaukee the comparative figures were 283 and 75 History of Milwaukee, 1242; Manuscript Census, 1860. per cent. Most of the increase in Milwaukee appeared "Milwaukee City Directories, 1860-61, 1863, and to stem from greater use of sewing machines, whicn 1865; Dun and Bradstreet, 36: 152, 309z; 37: 84; had been available in the late 1850's, but which were [Flower], History of Milwaukee, 1247. infrequently used. Manuscript Census, 1860 and 1870.

191 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974

their own right the establishment previously profitable market for mass-produced, ready- run by Valentine. The $15,000 of capital in­ made goods. vested in this new house was small by the Magie had been born in New Jersey in standards of the 1870's, and though trade im­ 1824 and had moved west in the 1840's, first proved, the brothers also decided to specialize to Cincinnati, then to Indianapolis, and final­ in order to improve their standing. They ly to Milwaukee in 1848. Here he opened a chose to concentrate on boys and children's dry-goods store on East Water Street in part­ clothing. Though they conducted a thriving nership with a reasonably well-endowed indi­ business worth some $40,000 by 1880, this was vidual from Cincinnati named Ogden. This still insufficient to give them entry into Mil­ joint enterprise lasted only two years. Then waukee's industrial elite.** Magie accepted financial assistance from his In both cases the absence of large amounts father in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, to con­ of capital appears to have relegated the Mul­ tinue the retail business by himself and also lens and the Zimmermanns to comparative to branch out into the manufacture of cloth­ insignificance among leading manufacturers ing. In order to cater to the manufacturing in Milwaukee. Andrew Mullen attained mod­ interest he acquired a new partner, James erate upward mobility, but his progress was Swain, who lacked capital but was a skilled not spectacular, even by Milwaukee standards. tailor.*" Using the mercantile experience gained in Magie and Swain did a safe and lucrative William Wells' employment and aided by his business in the early 1850's, keeping a large brother's financial resources, he managed to stock on hand and supplying custom orders obtain a limited standing. It was not, how­ from the tailoring department. They en­ ever, until he decided to specialize in one countered serious financial difficulties later aspect of the jobbing business, and also ob­ in the decade when speculation in city lots tained additional capital from a new partner, left the partners with mortgages which they that his fortunes rose considerably. Valentine could not meet. Despite efforts to avoid an Zimmermann was still striving in 1880 to internal crisis the firm was dissolved in 1858. gain admission to the small group of manu­ Magie soon resumed business, and by 1860 facturers at the top of the clothing ladder, let he was employing nineteen workers who made alone the top of the more diverse industrial products valued at $14,000. His progress was pyramid. His certainly could be ranked as a still not smooth, however, for in 1863 he was "minor" success story, but here again the ex­ working as a clerk for the merchant tailor tent of his attainment was determined pri­ P. G. Ogden. Magie rose to a partnership marily by financial backing at a crucial time. with Ogden later in the decade, and in 1870 Practical experience in retailing or in manu­ he took over the business. By this time he facturing was insufficient to guarantee rapid was able to draw on both the considerable or marked progress, particularly if entry into financial resources of his wife and his own the industry had come at a time when many growing reputation to run an enterprise which other firms were well established. specialized in quality clothing.^" This deci- Jonathan Magie, another American cloth­ ier, was even less successful materially than Valentine Zimmermann. With $8,000 of cap­ " Buck, Pioneer History of Milwaukee, 3: 134; ital, a work force of twenty men, and a prod­ [Flower], History of Milwaukee, 1250; Dun and Brad­ uct valued at $40,000 in 1880, he only reached street, 36: 72. the top of the artisan's scale. And it was " The articles of clothing made by Magie were there he remained, as a craftsman, for Magie among the most expensive produced in Milwaukee. In 1870 his coats cost $35.00, pants, $13.00, vests, $7.00. preferred to retain a pride in his workman­ Other Milwaukee clothing manufacturers generally ship rather than to exploit the wider and more managed to produce their articles for a third to a quarter of these prices. In 1880 Magie employed only skilled laborers, whom he paid some of the highest "Gregory, Industrial Resources (1870), 1: 253-254; wages in the city's industry. Manuscript Census, 1860, [Flower], History of Milwaukee, 1242, 1247; Milwau­ 1870, and 1880; Milwaukee City Directories, 1860-61, kee City Directories, 1870-71 and 1875-76; Dun and 1863, and 1865; Dun and Bradstreet, 36: 72, 97; 39: Bradstreet, 36: 1; 37: 84, 85, 272, 320; 39: 178, 274, 381. D, 122. 192 WALSH: MILWAUKEE CLOTHING MANUFACTURERS sion to concentrate on high-priced and fashion­ able clothing rather than on medium- or low- priced ready-made goods did not necessarily imply that Magie was an economic failure. His preference for skilled work and first- class customers meant that he would not emerge from the ranks of the small-scale en­ trepreneurs. In order to join the industrialists an individual had to be willing, as well as able, to substitute the complexities of man­ agement and distribution for his craft skills.

ONATHAN Magie's career illus­ J trates some of the definitional problems of analyzing success as well as some of the varieties of enterprise possible in the clothing world. Although he remained a mer­ chant tailor at a time when success was meas­ ured by one's share of an expanding market for mass-produced goods, he was still one of the leading artisans in his line in Milwaukee. He was part of a second tier of "business elites" which was rapidly becoming outmoded in an industrializing economy, but it could still command a relatively comfortable stand­ ard of living. Magie's financial status might be inferior to that of the Adlers and the Friends, but it far surpassed that of the small- scale artisan, who, with a few hundred or perhaps a thousand dollars in capital and a work force of two or three, had to rely heavily on repairing as well as custom orders.^^ These small shop owners were, in turn, higher up the occupational pyramid than either their skilled employees or those unskilled laborers who worked at home or in the Milwaukee factories. These unskilled workers were in­ deed condemned to remain anonymous Amer­ icans. The experiences of clothing manufacturers in Milwaukee in the mid-nineteenth century do not illustrate the traditional rags-to-riches In 1899 David Adler ir Sons featured this thesis. That frame of reference is not suitable "Adler" sack suit with double-breasted vest in an ad in Milwaukee and Its Commercial to an analysis of entrepreneurial activities in Industries Illustrated. parochial America. Vertical mobility, how-

" Manuscript Census, 1870 and 1880, provides some guide to the capacity of these small establishments, though they usually omitted recording those shops with a very small output. However, the city directories of the 1860's and the 1870's provide long lists of dress­ makers, tailors, and repairers.

193 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974 ever, was still possible on the urban frontier, kee and Wisconsin residents of German ori­ where a less diversified economy widened the gin, the entrepreneur who was himself Ger­ base of the occupational hierarchy. Success man, or who at least spoke German, had a of a "middle" or limited level could be greater opportunity to corner this ethnic achieved by entrepreneurs who had certain market than did his native American or Brit­ assets. Hard work and driving ambition by ish counterpart. Once he was secure in this themselves would not guarantee modest, let local base, the manufacturer could look to alone spectacular achievements. Those men- markets farther west. Membership in the on-the-make, at least in the clothing industry, Jewish faith might also ease one's path into had to combine retail experience and capital certain local markets, and it could assist in with diligence. establishing trade links back to wholesalers Retailing experience could be obtained and jobbers in the East. The time of entry either by apprenticeship as a clerk in a dry into business could be very important, if not goods or clothing store or by taking on a critical in some cases. An early start in Mil­ merchant as partner. Capital was more diffi­ waukee might ensure the opening of channels cult to procure. A modest sum might be of distribution before other older western or accumulated from earnings as a clerk or day eastern firms, using railroad transportation, laborer, but these savings usually needed to became effectively competitive. Finally, an be supplemented from additional sources—a ambitious entrepreneur had to be aware of relative, a former employer who might supply the advantages of installing machinery both credit references, or again a partner, either for sewing and cutting. Only by systematic sleeping or active, or very occasionally by the internal organization could he effectively local bank. This ability to command capital compete for the mass market. implied that some status had already been If the elite in the Milwaukee clothing in­ achieved, that the "rags" had been discarded dustry was typical either of other industrial or that they never had been worn. elites in Milwaukee or of other clothing elites Other variables which could aid the Mil­ elsewhere in the United States, then vertical waukee entrepreneur endowed with a mercan­ mobility was possible. But more often than tile background and some capital included his not a foot was already on the second or third ethnic background, his religious affiliation, rung of the ladder and thus the climb was the time at which he started business, and his not so hazardous or even so spectacular. Suc­ awareness of technological changes within the cess was attainable, but it was generally modest industry. With a high percentage of Milwau­ in both its claims and its end results.

I4\i

194 Paternalism and Racism: Senator John C. Spooner and American Minorities, 1897-1907

By James R. Parker

EGISLATIVE ADVOCATES of his desire to take advantage of a weakness in expanded rights for American the Democrats' policy and reinforce his party's minority groups were few and extremely stance as the true defender of black Ameri­ limited in their attitudes at the beginning of cans' rights. Substantive action followed ver­ the twentieth century. Within the United bal exercises only when the Republican party States Congress, one Senator who posed as was the beneficiary. leading spokesman and champion for equal Spooner began his career as a railroad rights was Republican John C. Spooner of lawyer and lobbyist for the West Wisconsin Wisconsin. In fact, however, Spooner's and North Wisconsin railroads, which were achievements fell short of his pretensions. He later absorbed by the Chicago and North usually confined his efforts to the rhetoric of Western Railway. He was elected to the Wis­ expanded political rights for black Ameri­ consin Assembly for one term in the I870's, cans.' While Senator Spooner attempted to and attracted the attention of Senator Philetus reflect the traditional egalitarian principle Sawyer who brought Spooner into his ma­ of the Republican party, which relied for chine. In 1885 Spooner earned the Republi­ electoral support partly on its human rights can caucus nomination, and was elected to record of the Reconstruction era, he and his the United States Senate. During his first party ultimately avoided the execution of the term Spooner developed a close political re­ ideal and substituted empty words and ges­ lationship with the powerful Senate leaders: tures. In most instances his assaults indicated Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island, Orville Platt of Connecticut, and William B. Allison ''• In her biography of Spooner, Dorothy Gantield of Iowa. Spooner's conservative political Fowler attempts to characterize him as an early advo­ pliilosophy, and legal and oratorical talents, cate of expanded civil rights for black Americans. By her careful selection of his statements, omission of his enhanced his value to their group. In 1891 attitudes toward Mexican-Americans and Native Amer­ he lost his Senate seat and became a counselor icans, and superficial treatment of his position on for the Northern Pacific Railroad receivers, the Brownsville incident, Dr. Fowler creates the im­ during which time he cultivated new relation­ pression that Spooner was a precursor of the civil ships with influential New York lawyers and rights movement of the mid-twentieth century. Doro­ thy Gantield Fowler, John Coit Spooner, Defender of investors. Presidents (New York, 1961), 154-158, 360-362. For When the state legislature of Wisconsin re­ the most recent monograph on the Senate leadership's turned Spooner to Washington in 1897, the role in race relations, which offers a different inter­ pretation, see Horace S. Merrill, The Republican Senate's leadership immediately placed him Command, 1897-1913 (Lexington, Kentucky, 1971), 34, on a number of powerful committees, and he 41, 110-112. became one of the dominant policy makers

195 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974 for the Republican command, developing maintaining the right of citizenship, and in close ties to both William McKinley and holding sacred the pledge of Abraham Lin­ Theodore Roosevelt. Between 1897 and 1904 coln's proclamation to the colored men is he exercised important influence in many dead, or in a slumber too deep for us to phases of both domestic and foreign policy. arouse it."^ Through his privileged position on commit­ Upon his return to the Senate in 1897 tees and close relationships with the executive Spooner re-emphasized oratorically the atti­ he, in fact, had abundant opportunity to take tude he had taken in his first term. On numer­ the initiative for positive action on the ques­ ous occasions during Senate debates, particu­ tion of minority rights. larly on the government bills for the Philip>- At best, Spooner was a paternalist who, pines and Puerto Rico, the Wisconsin Senator like most politicians of his time, did not gen­ entered arguments with South Carolina's uinely accept the concept of equality for all Demiocratic Senator Ben Tillman on the racial Americans. He gained his notoriety on the issue. In each instance Spooner posed as the civil liberties issue because he was prepared defender of civil rights for black Americans to argue the case for human rights and to because it was politically expedient to do so. consult, however infrequently, with black During one striking debate Tillman and Americans in his Wisconsin constituency— Spooner accused each other of hypocrisy: this in an era of relatively unrestrained south­ Spooner because the Wisconsinite supported ern racial violence.^ When his party's inter­ black voting guarantees, but denied the same ests required defense, Spooner like other lead­ to Puerto Ricans and Filipinos; Tillman for ers, abandoned the flowery phrases of idealism the exactly opposite position. After Tillman and abetted gross injustices. defended the use of violence against blacks, As early as his first term as Senator, from Spooner declared to the gallery's applause that 1885 to 1891, Spooner began his verbal sup­ the Republicans had enfranchised black port for the principle of equal voting rights. Americans "to maintain in the sight of God "We should not allow ourselves to be deterred and before all the world in good faith, in from a fearless and persistent discharge of letter and in spirit, the proclamation of eman­ duty in this respect," wrote Spooner, "either cipation which had been signed by Abraham by the commercial spirit of some of our own Lincoln; God bless his memory forever."^ people, or by the senseless cry of 'bloody shirt' Such was Spooner's position when an appeal which the Democrats hurl at us. . . ."^ Wheth­ to racial justice paralleled partisan advantage. er the Senator was sincere in his first term is Yet, outside of the arena of debate, Spooner debatable, but many of his party's colleagues made no efforts to redress the overwhelming were obviously opposed to providing sub­ grievances of the black community. stance to the Republican human rights appeal. Moreover the Republican effort to secure a federal elections law in the period 1888-1890 stemmed as much from party thrusts at the Democratic South as from a concern for black jPPORTUNITIES for the Re­ voting rights.* After the failure of the federal 0-publican party to provide sub­ elections bill, Spooner wrote a temporary stance to its human rights appeal emerged epitaph for the principle, although he did not particularly during the Roosevelt years. Black eschew it himself. He stated that the Republi­ Americans received encouragement when can party's interest "in an honest ballot, in Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House and when he ap­ pointed an outstanding black citizen to be ' Leslie Fishel, "The Genesis of the First Wisconsin Civil Rights Act," in the Wisconsin Magazine of His­ tory, 49: 327-328 (Summer, 1966). ' Spooner to Joseph Ulman, December 5, 1887, in " Spooner to James S. Clarkson, April 16, 1893, in the John Coit Spooner Papers, Library of Congress. the Spooner Papers. •* Stanley P. Hirshson, Farewell to the Bloody Shirt " Congressional Record, 56 Congress, 1 session (1900), (Bloomington, Indiana, 1962), 141, 154, 204, 252-253. 3218. See also ibid., 3216-3223, 2243-2244. 196 PARKER: JOHN C. SPOONER

collector of the port of Charleston. The Re­ publican attitude toward Indianola, Missis­ sippi's black postmistress further increased Negro hopes. The woman resigned in early .,.;i^g» lji»|ag-'^ 1903 because of white racial harassment, but the Post Office Department rejected her resig­ nation and closed the office for several months •^>-., before acceding to her white replacement. In •*• t'vBt spite of the anticlimax, black citizens praised «w jjS •BET^S^P! the President for attempting to defend the postmistress.'^ ' 'isk ^Hp^i When the Senate confronted the Indianola Hk^^'' issue, S]X)oner responded to Mississippi Sen­ .// ''^LS ator Hernando Money's accusation that black ^M^^^LC^HII Americans were incapable of being educated. Hl^^' "To those who develop ability, honor, a sense of responsibility and possession of gifts," Spooner responded, "I want to give a chance without regard to the race."^ Spooner's will­ w ^BP^ ingness to address the issue seemed to stem from his desire to attack the Democrats, for no action followed his words. Even Spooner's casual interest in the civil rights issue seemed to decline after 1902, and Society's Iconographic Collections he became even more skeptical of a solution. Senator John Coit Spooner. He thought that southerners had presented the racial question "in a new form, revolu­ leaders, although no one left a record of what tionary, impudent, and impossible."^ "If it occurred at the meeting.^^ were not for the black problem there would The most explosive racial issue of the not be a solid South anymore," he observed Roosevelt years demonstrated the expediency in the spring of 1904, "but the black problem and superficial nature of Spooner's commit­ is there to stay. God only knows if it can be ment to the civil rights issue. When his party's solved. I fear it cannot be."'" By 1904, Spoon­ interests and the principle of equal rights con­ er appeared to abandon the issue: "I took flicted for Senator Spooner, his party came great interest in it [the civil rights issue] for first. The incident at issue was an alleged years, until it seemed hopeless."'' riot in Brownsville, Texas, in August, 1906. His party's lack of commitment did not pre­ Reputedly three companies of black soldiers vent Spooner from continuing to consult with of the Twenty-fifth Regiment participated in Milwaukee's black citizens. He had been in the disturbance in which one citizen of the the practice of discussing issues with them city was killed and two, including the police since the early 1890's.'^ As late as November, chief, were wounded. White racism colored 1905, he agreed to meet with that city's black the report that reached the Capitol contend­ ing that the soldiers had "shot up" the city. Roosevelt dispatched an investigator and on •'John Hope Franklin, From Slavery to Freedom the basis of his report, discharged the entire (New York, 1947), 435. battalion of soldiers without honor, and de- ' Congressional Record, 58 Congress, 1 session (1903), 129-134. See also Spooner to Charles H. Russell, March 29, 1903, Spooner to J. P. Roe, March 27, 1903, both in the Spooner Papers. . " Fishel, "Wisconsin Civil Rights Act," 327; Spooner 'Spooner to Edward C. Porter, March 29, 1903, in to Sheldon Morris Minor, February 3, 1897, in the the Spooner Papers. Spooner Papers. "Spooner to Neal Brown, March 14, 1904, in ibid. " Spooner to Minor, November 15, 1905, in the " Spooner to T. L. Rosser, March 14, 1904, in ibid. Spooner Papers.

197 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974 clared them ineligible for future military or all perinent information on the affair to the civil service.1* Senate. 1* Roosevelt ordered a refusal of the Senator Joseph Foraker attacked the Presi­ request and denied engaging in racial discrim­ dent's actions in a move to redress the in­ ination. Foraker replied that the President justice as well as perhaps build a political had misinterpreted the evidence and argued base for the 1908 nomination. Spooner, Henry that even the military maintained that there Cabot Lodge, Philander Knox, and Aldrich was no precedent for such a sweeping dis­ came less to the President's than to the party's missal.'^ Roosevelt moderated his stand as a defense.'5 Despite the Wisconsinite's aliena­ result of Foraker's assault. He revoked an tion from the President and the deterioration order that barred the soldiers from future of his position in the Senate, Spooner's tradi­ government employment, but placed the bur­ tional values of order and partisanship tri­ den of proof of innocence upon them.2'' umphed. The Senate debated the Foraker resolution From mid-December on the administration, from January 14 to 22, 1907. The contest especially Secretary of War William Howard featured another dramatic exchange between Taft, kept Spooner informed of developments Spooner and Tillman on the issue of racism, pertinent to Brownsville. In December and with Tillman attempting to exploit the inci- early January Spooner also met with the Presi­ dent.2' Spooner maintained that Roosevelt dent on five occasions to discuss the case. had no choice but to protect the community. Before the debate began, then, the Senator The soldiers could not be transferred because, already had the advantage of considerable in­ "What community would be willing to have side information.^^ stationed in its midst a battalion of troops a While only a few of the soldiers had taken portion of whom, undiscovered and undis- part in the disturbance, the President pun­ coverable, had made a midnight attack upon ished all 167 because none of them would a city . . . shooting indiscriminately ... at confess or implicate others. His action vio­ a woman as she stood near her window, shoot­ lated due process and proper judicial proce­ ing into lighted houses where they might kill dure. The President had ignored the guaran­ the mother and her babe as she lay sleeping, tees of the Bill of Rights as well as the military caring nothing for childhood or sex or old code of justice in assuming guilt by associa­ age?" Having used such inflated discourse to tion.^^ support the view that the President had done On December 3, 1906, Foraker, having con­ what was necessary, Spooner proceeded to the ducted his own investigation, offered a resolu­ banal observation that it is "not very easy to tion directing the Secretary of War to transmit identify colored men in the night."^^ When Tillman contended that in American jurisprudence men are presumed innocent un­ ^' Franklin, From Slavery to Freedom, 442; August til proved guilty in a court of law, to avoid an Meier and Elliott M. Rudwick, From Plantation to Ghetto (New York, 1966), 170. For the most recent answer, the Wisconsin Senator resurrected the accounts of the Brownsville incident see Ann J. Lane, South Carolina race issue, and Tillman's The Brownsville Affair: National Crisis and Black earlier defense of lynch law.^^ Although Reaction (New York, 1971), and John D. Weaver, The Spooner spoke in glowing generalities about Brownsville Raid (New York, 1970). the rights of men of all races, he refused to '° Nathaniel W. Stephenson, Nelson W. Aldrich: A Leader in American Politics (New York, 1930), 324; deal with the principle of the presumed in­ Elting E. Morison and John Blum (eds.). The Letters nocence of the accused.^ of Theodore Roosevelt (Cambridge, 1952), V:524, 525. " Moody to Spooner, December 12, 1906, Taft to Spooner, December 22, 1906, with enclosures, Taft to "Everett Walters, Joseph Benson Foraker: An Un­ Spooner, January 4, 1907, with enclosures, Germania, compromising Republican (Columbus, 1948), 235-236. December 28, 1906, in Fink to Spooner, December 31, "/bid., 236-237. 1906, all in the Spooner Papers; Morison and Blum '^Ibid., 238. (eds.). The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, VI: 1604- ^'^ Congressional Record, 59 Congress, 2 session (1907), 1606. 1084-1088. " George Mowry, The Era of Theodore Roosevelt, "^Ihid., 1137. 1900-1912 (New York, 1958), 213; Morison and Blum ^Ibid., 1139. See also ibid., 1130-1142. (eds.). The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, V: 489. ^/bid., 1444-1446.

198 PARKER: JOHN C. SPOONER

On January 21, Foraker accepted an amend­ ment to his resolution which would allow his investigation but prohibit challenges to the President's authority in the affair. On the following day, the Senate unanimously passed the resolution as amended.^' The government never achieved a just resolution of the case which, in spite of other dramatic incidents, finally terminated in March, 1910. An army court of inquiry reinstated only fourteen soldiers at that time, while for no recorded reason they denied relief to 153.^^

IENATOR SPOONER also sub­ s-scribed to the various racial myths about American Indians, which gave comfort to those who exploited them. From colonial times forward, during which the government seized Indian land in spite of treaty guarantees, most Americans took the Chicago Tribune, Jan. 18, 1907 view that they were barbaric savages, an in­ George E. McCutcheon's cartoon applauding Spooner's terpretation which Spooner shared. At the rebuke of Tillman, following one of the numerous turn of the century, after the policy of geno­ verbal clashes between the two. cide had destroyed Indian resistance, the Sen- atof, like many Americans, took a paternalistic Spooner responded to a critic of the govern­ view that assumed that Indians had not the ment's Indian policy, asserting "I am quite intelligence to determine their own futures; certain that your theory that the Government this permitted a subtle and devastating re­ has treated the Indians in any other than a pression of human dignity.^'^ perfectly honorable and just way is incor- During an 1898 congressional debate re­ rect."^^ lating to the restoration of annuities to select­ While Spooner could apologize for the use ed groups of Sioux, which they had lost after of violence against Native Americans as a certain bands had raided Minnesota towns necessity for the growth of civilization, he did in 1862, Spooner used the barbaric myth. recognize the results of the policies with which Senator Richard F. Pettigrew of South Dakota he concurred. "We have pressed the Indians noted that the Indians under discussion had whom Mr. Jefferson said loved independence not been in the raiding party. Spooner replied and liberty," he said in 1902, "until today we that he agreed, but that only thirty-nine of the have nearly all who are left in 'concentration guilty Indians were hanged where "we ought camps' called reservations. "3" to have hung 300."^* On another occasion Essentially, as with black Americans, Spoon­ er was a benevolent paternalist. He refused ^Ibid., 1508-1509; Walters, Foraker, 238; Morison to permit Indians to alienate their land allot­ and Blum (eds.). The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, ments, because he feared that white specu­ V: 560. lators might take the land for much less than ^Walters, Foraker, 239-247; Mowry, The Era of its real value. "You cannot change an Indian Theodore Roosevelt, 213-214. Not until 1972 did the by making him a citizen," Spooner told his army choose to recognize its error and extend an honorable discharge to all members of the regiment. Senate colleagues in 1905. "The Indian never " See Oliver LaFarge, "Myths that Hide the Ameri­ can Indian," in the American Heritage, VII: 5-9, 103- ^Spooner to H. H. Gugel, October n.d., 1898, in 107 (October, 1956). the Spooner Papers. ** Congressional Record, 55 Congress, 2 session (1898), ^ Congressional Record, 57 Congress, 1 session (1902), 4423-4424. 6125. See also ibid., 6125-6144.

199 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974

ceases to need a certain degree of paternalistic way. Early in 1906 when the Senate debated interest and protection." Indians were too statehood proposals for Arizona and New improvident and callous to the needs of their Mexico, Spooner partially based his opposi­ families to use money wisely, he thought.^' tion to Arizona's admittance on the ethnic A declaration of citizenship would not, he background of its residents. "It is nothing believed, "instill into the Indian the prudence against those people that they are Spanish," and care and business judgment of a white declared Spooner, "far from it; it is nothing man. . . ," for they were too childlike.^^ against them that they do not understand The pressure for land alienation mounted English; far from it"; it was that they were in 1906. Although there were undoubtedly so highly illiterate in any language that Spoon­ corrupt land speculators in favor of it, many er opposed Arizona's admission.^^ His 1906 Indians wanted the freedom to decide the speech recalled his racial attitudes of Febru­ issue. One full-blooded Creek lawyer com­ ary, 1905, when he objected to "60,000 Mexi­ plained that while Indians lived under white cans" becoming eligible for citizenship in the laws and paid white taxes, they had no free­ southwest and declared that the census of the dom to grow and learn or determine for area "reads like the muster roll of a Spanish themselves a place in the society.^^ military company."^^ Spooner remained adamant in opposing Thus, Spooner's attitude toward the three land alienation, for fear the railroad com­ largest nonwhite groups in American society, panies might exploit the Indians.^* "He [the blacks, Indians, and Mexican-Americans, was Indian] needs a guardian," the Senator held.^^ consistently paternalistic and sometimes re­ To change him from a dependent status would pressive.*" Outside of the narrow sphere of clothe him with a dignity that he was "not the question of political rights for black fit to appreciate," and would make him "easy Americans, the only area that could prove prey to the white man."^^ In his last month politically productive, Spooner demonstrated in the Senate, Spooner made his most extreme a gross misunderstanding of the problems of statement on the Indians, suggesting that their American minority groups in a white society, intelligence varied in direct proportion to a weakness which he shared with most of his the amount of white blood in their veins.^'^ political associates. Like them, he lacked an Thus, while Spooner thought he was pro­ essential sensitivity to the plight of American tecting American Indians, he provided for minorities. Yet he considered himself a lead­ their continuing dependency, creating a cul­ ing defender of human rights at the turn of ture of despondency, based on an attitude of the century. It was indicative of the tragedy racial discrimination. While it was more pro­ of his era that he gained an unearned reputa­ nounced in this case than others, it was the tion as one of the more enlightened politi­ same basic attitude with which he viewed cians on the issue of civil rights. other American minorities.

IPOONER viewed the Mexican- American population of the "* Congressional Record, 59 Congress, 1 session (1906), s- 2974-2975, 3052, 3062, 3123-3124. southwestern territories in the same distorted '^Ibid., 4389. ^Ibid., 4652. See also ibid., 4394-4395, 4650. ^Ibid. (1905), 3516. "••Ibid., 2 session (1907), 2354. "'Ibid., 3620. ""Ibid., 1 session (1906), 3456-3457. ^"Jackson R. Dunzy to Spooner, April 30, 1906, in the '"Ibid., 58 Congress, 3 session (1905), 1986. Spooner Papers. See also D. M. Martindale to Spooner, " Despite the fact that the immigration issue, par­ April 6, Justin Runyan to Spooner, April 17, Claude ticularly that relating to Chinese and Japanese immi­ Hatchett to Spooner, May 1, C. E. IngersoU to Spooner, grants, excited a major controversy in this period, May 2, Winfield Farmer to Spooner, May 7, 1906, all Spooner made no substantial expression of an opinion in the Spooner Papers. of their ethnic characteristics.

200 The General and the Presidency: Douglas MacArthur and the Election of 1948

By Howard B. Schonberger

PON completion of an inspec­ James Forrestal, Truman quipped that the u-tion trip to Japan in the spring nation's two greatest war heroes seemed to of 1946, Army Chief of Staff Dwight D. suffer from either "Potomac fever" or "brass Eisenhower visited the White House. He infection."' warned President Harry S. Truman that Gen­ Throughout the postwar years General eral Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Command­ MacArthur's public pronouncements often er of Allied Powers in Occupied Japan, would fueled speculation about his interest in the return to the United States before the 1948 Presidency. During the very first months of election to make a presidential bid. A few the Occupation, MacArthur's sharp public months later Republican Senator Owen clashes with the State and War departments Brewster also met with the President. Tru­ over Russian participation in the Allied Coun­ man asked Brewster, who was on his way to cil of Japan and American troop strength led Japan, to relay to MacArthur his personal Lyle Wilson of United Press to predict that gratitude for the excellent work of the Occu­ the General would sooner or later "break pation. Then Truman leaned back and said with the Administration on the Russian issue with a smile, "Tell him I am fed up with and be a logical [Republican] candidate for this job and that he can have it any time he President."2 MacArthur's repeated insistence wants it." When Brewster arrived in Tokyo on a short Occupation encouraged repiorts- of with Truman's barbed offer, MacArthur re­ a triumphal, and necessarily political, return sponded in kind, "Tell President Truman home. Always MacArthur was ambiguous that if a general ever runs against him it will enough about his interest in the Presidency be Eisenhower and not MacArthur." When to encourage his supporters and arouse the relating the amusing story of the warnings of fears of Democratic and Republican rivals. Eisenhower and MacArthur about the other's He was also disingenuous enough that, should political aspirations to Secretary of Defense

^Walter Millis (ed.). The Forrestal Diaries (New AUTHOR'S NOTE: Grateful acknowledgment is given for York, 1951), 325; New York Times, October 19, 1947. financial assistance to the Coe Fund of the University ' Lloyd Lehrbas to Douglas MacArthur, January 4, of Maine at Orono and for editorial assistance to Pro­ 1946, in the Douglas MacArthur Papers, Bureau of fessors David C. Smith and Lawrence S. Wittner. Archives, MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, Virginia. 201 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974

anything go wrong, he could disavow any terest in presidential politics is partly ex­ personal political ambition.^ plained as an attempt to answer the equally Virtually everything did go wrong for Mac- insistent counterclaims of partisans of the Arthur in the 1948 campaign, by far his most Truman Administration. Journalist Richard serious attempt at the Presidency. It is not Rovere and historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., surprising, therefore, that in his Reminiscences produced a biting critique of MacArthur in MacArthur stated unequivocally, "I was not The General and the President, published in a candidate and declined to campaign for the 1951 in the midst of the furor over Truman's office [of the President in 1948]. I had not dismissal of MacArthur from high command the slightest desire to become the head of in Korea. They suggested that MacArthur's state, having had more than enough of such actions were motivated by his presidential as­ an office in the administration of Japan. It pirations. "There are no known limits to his was a great mistake on my part not to have ambitions," they wrote of the seventy-one- been more positive in refusing to enter the year-old war hero. "In 1944 and 1948 he was political picture." In retrospect, MacArthur a figure to be reckoned with in the Republi­ argued, the abortive attempt by his enthusi­ can presidential politics. He did not endorse asts in presidential politics brought upon him the MacArthur candidacy but he did not— only an avalanche of abuse from the Truman except very late in the preconvention cam­ Administration and seriously hampered his paign—discourage MacArthur booms. . . . work as Supreme Commander.* Whether he is now eager is impossible to say. MacArthur admirers also have sought to But there are portents."^ In his own Memoirs diminish reports of the General's interest or Truman, though more guarded than Rovere involvement in presidential politics. Brig­ and Schlesinger, ascribed partisan political adier General Courtney Whitney, MacArthur's motivation to his difficulties with MacArthur most trusted aide, claimed in his memoirs that in Japan, as well as Korea. Likening Mac- MacArthur "never really expected to win" Arthur to General George B. McClellan, Tru­ the Republican nomination and "paid little man stated that half "the country knew that attention" to the presidential race until a McClellan had political ambitions which men curious incident in the spring of 1948. The in opposition to Lincoln sought to use."^ General read the scurrilous attacks made However he gauged MacArthur's own aspira­ against him in the Daily Worker by William tions, Truman always sharply resented how Z. Foster, head of the American Communist powerful Republican politicians vested in party. His initial amusement at the charges MacArthur the shining symbol of their disgust that he was a "man on horseback" and leader with his administration.* of the "most dangerous fascist minded and The highly partisan and bitterly personal war-mongering elements in the United States" context in which discussion of MacArthur's quickly turned to anger. On the morning of presidential ambitions has taken place, and March 9, MacArthur called Whitney into his the lack of any positive evidence that might office and showed him a draft of a statement settle the controversy, has led some historians, announcing his availability for the Republi­ especially those of the Japanese Occupation, can nomination. "Court, please have it pub­ to ignore the issue completely.^ Most students lished," MacArthur is supposed to have said. of MacArthur agree that the General was "That will be my answer to Mr. Foster."^ "always something more than a soldier: a The insistence by MacArthur and his aides that the General had only a superficial in- ' Richard H. Rovere and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The General and the President (New York, 1951), 19- ' United States News and World Report, February 22. 13, 1948. ' Harry S. Truman, Memoirs (New York, 1956), II: * Douglas MacArthur, Reminiscences (McGraw-Hill, 443. New York, 1964), 365. " Cabell Phillips, The Truman Presidency (Mac- ^ Courtney Whitney, MacArthur: His Rendezvous millan. New York, 1966), 316-317. with History (New York, 1956), 516-519. See also " See, for example, the standard work on the Jap­ Frazier Hunt, The Untold Story of Douglas MacArthur anese Occupation by Edwin O. Reischauer, The United (New York, 1954), 443. States and Japan (Cambridge, 1950). 202 SCHONBERGER: DOUGLAS MacARTHUR controversial, ambitious, transcendent figure, precluded waiting until the next election. too able, too assured, too talented to be con­ With the members' own destiny welded to his, fined within the limits of professional func­ the inner circle around MacArthur functioned, tion and responsibility."!" But MacArthur's according to one correspondent, "as a tight real intentions and actual involvement in political machine with a 'favorite son.' "'i promoting his own presidential prospects have The stateside leadership of the MacArthur- remained a matter of speculation. The avail­ for-President movement never really resembled ability of several new archival sources now a political machine. At any time a member provides an accurate answer to numerous of the coterie might, and sometimes did, throw questions about the General and the Presi­ his support to other candidates in the Re­ dency, at least for the 1948 campaign. These publican party. Nevertheless, there was a re­ sources spell out the social and ideological markable similarity in the careers and out­ basis of MacArthur's political support. They look of these men. Typically, the leader of the furnish clues to the failure of the MacArthur- MacArthur presidential drive was a wealthy, for-President movement and help explain midwestern businessman who was also a MacArthur's otherwise anomalous behavior as retired army officer and personally acquainted Supreme Commander. And above all, they with General MacArthur. He had experience establish that MacArthur was so anxious for in a wide variety of conservative and isolation­ the Presidency that he directly participated ist organizations during the 1930's and 1940's. in every major strategy decision of his cam­ To the extent that he was active in partisan paign boosters. politics, he was identified with the orthodox, "isolationist" wing of the GOP led by Sena­ tor Robert A. Taft.12 ^Y the beginning of serious cam­ The most important figure in the nebulous B paigning for the 1948 presiden­ MacArthur-for-President organization was tial nominations. General Douglas MacArthur General Robert E. Wood, chairman of the enjoyed enormous popularity among millions board of directors of Sears, Roebuck and of Americans. Bolstered by the feverish ef­ Company and former head of the America forts of his public relations staff and aided First Committee. Wood had been a close by the Hearst press, the Scripps-Howard pa­ friend of MacArthur's since their cadet days pers, and the Chicago Tribune, MacArthur's together at West Point and had led the abor­ reputation as a superb military commander tive 1944 campaign for MacArthur. His and a statesman who transformed Japan from wealth and prestige were regarded as crucial an aggressor nation into a democracy in less in organizing for the 1948 effort.'' Next in than two years became an important feature importance to Wood was General Hanford of the American political landscape. A fer­ MacNider, a highly decorated hero of both vent corps of MacArthur aides, many with world wars. A wealthy Iowa cement manu­ intimate ties to the conservative wing of the facturer. Assistant Secretary of War in the sharply divided Republican party, determined very soon after the Japanese surrender to pro­ mote their chief's political prospects in 1948. " Lawrence S. Wittner (ed.), MacArthur (Prentice- The inner circle around MacArthur recog­ Hall, Englewood Chffs, New Jersey, 1971), 11; Mark nized that translating the General's popularity Gayn, Japan Diary (New York, 1948), 344-345. " The isolationist and internationalist labels often into the GOP nomination and a successful obscure more than they reveal. The conservative isola­ election would be extremely difficult. But by tionists of the postwar period, among them MacArthur, hard work and avoidance of the mistakes of did not favor withdrawing from foreign involvements. the 1944 effort they believed that MacArthur's Rather they endorsed a foreign policy based on the tenets of anticommunism, the threatened tradition of chances would never be better. In any case, "freedom of action," and America's destined role as the the General's age—he was sixty-eight in 1948— dominant power in the Far East. For more on the problem of defining postwar isolationism, see the in­ troduction and articles in Thomas G. Paterson (ed.). " Samuel P. Huntington, The Soldier and the State: Cold War Critics (Quadrangle, Chicago, 1971). The Theory of Civil-Military Relations (Cambridge, "Wayne S. Cole, America First (Madison, 1953), 1957), 369. 12-32. 179-187. 203 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974

Coolidge Administration, former national commander of the American Legion, and long active in GOP circles, MacNider was best known in 1948, according to his own words, as "a vicious isolationist—an original America Firster."'* Because MacNider had wide con­ tacts in the Republican party and had de­ veloped a close friendship with MacArthur in the Southwest Pacific, MacArthur avidly sought MacNider's political advice. Together MacNider and Wood set basic strategy for the MacArthur forces in 1948 and they were re­ garded by MacArthur himself as "invin<:ibly honest" and the "strongmen" of the cam­ paign.'^ The crucial importance of a victory for MacArthur in the Wisconsin presidential pri­ mary enhanced the status of the only career politician in the small coterie of national leaders of the MacArthur-for-President organ­ ization, Philip La Follette, former governor of Wisconsin. La Follette, whose name was identified with American liberalism, had broken with the Roosevelt Administration in Society's Iconographic Collections 1937 and become a vocal critic of "interna­ Philip La Follette in his uniform as a colonel tionalist" foreign policies thereafter. A close on MacArthur's staff during World War 11. friend of General Wood's while governor, La Follette and Wood worked together in the and La Follette, were Lansing Hoyt, wealthy America First Committee. With Wood's help. lawyer, onetime chairman of the stalwart Mil­ Colonel La Follette secured a post as a public waukee County Republican organization, head relations officer on MacArthur's staff during of America First in Wisconsin, and initiator the war. He quickly developed a profound of the MacArthur primary efforts in Wiscon­ and abiding admiration for the wartime hero sin in 1944 and 1948; Robert M. Harriss, New and became a booster of the MacArthur-for- York City cotton merchant, broker for re­ President effort upon his return to Wiscon- nowned anti-Semite Father Charles E. Cough- sin.'S" lin, and major contributor to America First The remaining leaders of the MacArthur- and the MacArthur presidential movements; for-President movement of 1948 were all busi­ Frank Gannett, millionaire publisher of the ness or political associates of Wood, MacNider, Gannett newspaper chain and vice-chairman and La Follette. In attendance at the major of the Republican National Committee dur­ strategy meeting for the MacArthur drive held ing the war; Edward A. Hayes, successful in November, 1947, besides Wood, MacNider, Chicago lawyer, former national commander of the American Legion and close associate of Colonel Robert McCormick, publisher of the "ATetu York Times, February 18, 1968; Hanford Chicago Tribune; General Thomas S. Ham­ MacNider to Colonel H. E. Eastwood, March 26, 1948, mond, wealthy Chicago industrialist, director in the Hanford MacNider Papers, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, West Branch, Iowa. of American Airlines and other major corpo­ ^'^ Eastwood to MacNider, November 21, 1947, in the rations, veteran of MacArthur's Rainbow Di­ MacNider Papers. vision of World War I, and member of the "Donald Young (ed.). Adventure in Politics: The executive committee of America First; Gen­ Memoirs of Philip La Follette (Holt, Rinehart and eral Bonner Fellers, military secretary to Gen­ Winston, New York, 1970), xiii-xv, 273-280; interview with Gordon Sinykin, August 1, 1973, in Madison, eral MacArthur during the war and first Wisconsin. months of the Japanese Occupation, close

204 SCHONBERGER: DOUGLAS MaCARTHUR friend of Herbert Hoover and Wood, and dur­ lie support. "Everytime I go near the [Na­ ing the 1948 election campaign the co-ordina- tional] Press Club," wrote one of MacArthur's tor of veterans affairs for the Republican Na­ former press aides to his former commander, tional Committee.''' "they are after me with 'when is General Though they were not intimately involved MacArthur coming home.'" General Mac- in the planning of the campaign, many other Arthur "is coming home," New York Times prominent conservative and prewar isolation­ editorialist Arthur Krock asserted confidently ist politicians, publishers, and businessmen in September, 1947, "[and] don't think for backed the MacArthur presidential bid, at a minute every move of that trip isn't being least until the Wisconsin primary. Among carefully planned."2' the most important of this group was Colonel Despite all the public speculation on Mac- Robert R. McCormick, who, though publicly Arthur's return from Japan and his interest supporting Senator Robert A. Taft as his in the Presidency, his chief strategists in the first choice, privately assured General Mac- United States sought private assurances from Arthur himself that in a deadlock at the con­ the General that he would accept the Republi­ vention, he would throw the large Illinois can nomination if offered. At least as early delegation votes to MacArthur.'* Others con­ as mid-October those assurances were forth­ sulted for political advice or dunned for con­ coming. MacArthur told Colonel H. E. East­ tributions included former President Herbert wood (who served as a secret liaison between Hoover, Republican Congressmen Arthur L. the General and Hanford MacNider) that he Miller of Nebraska and James E. Van Zandt was not only willing to accept the nomination of Pennsylvania, Robert B. Choate, publisher but would do so with the full understanding of the Boston Herald, Charles O'Laughlin, of the possibilities of the campaign to follow. editor of the Army and Navy Journal, Julius " [I have] never been known to shy from a Klein, Chicago businessman and public re­ fight," Eastwood quoted MacArthur as say­ lations expert, and Juan Trippe, president of ing. MacArthur wrote MacNider directly that Pan-American airlines.'^ he was watching Wisconsin developments In the summer of 1947 General MacArthur closely, wanted a frank appraisal of the leader­ made the first of a series of public statements ship there, and would not make a public an­ which directly encouraged his political sup­ nouncement of his availability for the nomi­ porters to organize for the 1948 election. He nation until he saw whether the presidential announced he would return to Milwaukee, boom on his behalf "is limited to a few good where he had spent a part of his youth, after friends and well-wishers or has a real sub­ the formal completion of the Occupation. stantial popular basis."^^ The New York Times reported that the an­ With the green light from the candidate nouncement stimulated "zeal and optimisin" for a serious campaign and MacArthur-for- at the just-organized headquarters of the Mac­ President committees springing up across the Arthur-for-President Club of Wisconsin, the nation, MacNider and Wood first privately, first such organization in the country.^" By and then with the rest of the MacArthur-for- fall speculation was rife that MacArthur soon President leadership, developed the broad would be coming home to a hero's welcome outlines of a campaign strategy during No­ and a politically potent ground swell of pub- vember, 1947. There was basic agreement that MacArthur's chances for the nomination "On Hoyt and Harriss, see Cole, America First, 170- hinged on a persistent deadlock at the June, 171, 136. On Gannett and Hayes, see Who Was Who, 1948, convention between the leading con­ 1951-1960, III: 311, 382. On Hammond, see Cole, tenders for the nomination, Governor Thomas America First, 19-20, 91, and Who Was Who, 1951- Dewey and Senator Robert Taft. MacArthur 1960, III: 364. On Fellers, see Gayn, Japan Diary, 345. " Robert L. Eichelberger Diary, December 20, 1947, in the Robert L. Eichelberger Papers, Duke University ^ Lehrbas to MacArthur, October 14, 1947, in the Library (hereinafter cited as Eichelberger Diary). MacArthur Papers; New York Times, September 9, ^'Ibid., October 10, 26, November 19, 1947. See also 1947. Los Angeles Herald Express, March 2, 1948, and Army '^ Eastwood to MacNider, October 14, 1947; Mac- and Navy Journal, January 31, 1948. Arthur to MacNider, October 14, 1947, both in the '^New York Times, July 20, 1947. MacNider Papers.

20£ WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974

'V V

-J^^^l ililDf^ « f ^^^i";; ^^^Fjtj,

1 K^ m Jj

.-•'"'' :0'b**,*^^^

Society's Iconographic Collections General MacArthur, flanked by his illustrious Wisconsin forebears: (left) his grandfather Arthur McArthur, lieutenant governor, briefly governor, and later circuit court judge; and (right) his father, Arthur MacArthur, Jr., who altered the family patronymic. Known as the "boy colonel" of the 24th Wisconsin Volunteers, Arthur, Jr., won the Medal of Honor for Civil War bravery and later became military governor of the Philippines. would have to appear at the convention as guished officer in the 24th Wisconsin Volun­ the strongest compromise candidate, winning teers, rising after the Civil War to a lieu­ delegate support as the balloting proceeded. tenant generalship before he retired to Mil­ Essential to that objective was a clear-cut waukee in 1909. Douglas MacArthur himself victory for MacArthur in the always import­ claimed Milwaukee as his residence, having ant Wisconsin presidential primary of April briefly attended high school in the city and 6, 1948. As a medium-sized state with a sub­ having won appointment to West Point from stantial industrial and farm population, Wis­ Wisconsin's Fourth Congressional District.^* consin would provide the first real indica­ In short, if the MacArthur name was linked tion of MacArthur's popularity in the political to any one state it was certainly Wisconsin. arena.23 A primary victory for Wisconsin's "native To the MacArthur strategists the General son" (regarded as at least a majority of the appeared to hold a significant and exploit­ twenty-seven delegate votes at the conven­ able advantage over Minnesota's ex-Governor tion) would create a bandwagon effect na­ Harold Stassen and Dewey, the two announced tionally and assure MacArthur supporters of contenders in the Wisconsin race. For Mac- access to the floor of the convention. As Arthur would campaign as Wisconsin's "na­ MacArthur himself so accurately put it short­ tive son." The General's grandfather, Arthur ly before the primary, Wisconsin "would be McArthur, had moved to Milwaukee in 1849, the big test."^5 quickly establishing himself in local and state Finally all of MacArthur's key operatives. politics as city attorney, lieutenant governor, governor (for four days), and judge of the second judicial circuit. The General's father, ^ D. Clayton James, The Years of MacArthur: 1880- 1941 (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1970), I: 8-15, 63- Arthur MacArthur, Jr., had been a distin- 66. See also Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography (Madi­ son, 1960). Arthur MacArthur, Jr., changed the pa­ ' MacNider to Eastwood, November 5, 29, 1947, in tronymic from "Mc" to "Mac." ibid. ^Eichelberger Diary, March 20, 1948. 206 SCHONBERGER: DOUGLAS MaCARTHUR

except Philip La Follette, were unanimous in their feeling that there was no chance of the General's securing nomination unless he re­ turned to the United States sometime in March or April, 1948. MacArthur would have to campaign actively for the nomination if his very real national popularity were to be translated into delegate votes at the conven­ tion. Until the General's return from Japan there would not be a great deal of national publicity or radio talks nor any attempt to stampede the convention delegates. The cam­ paign would be limited to contacts with the Republican party leadership and a concentra­ tion of resources on the Wisconsin primary.^^

LENERAL MACARTHUR was in G-complete accord with the cam­ paign strategy of his supporters on everything except the crucial question of his return from Japan. In his earliest speeches in Japan, MacArthur had predicted an occupation of no more than two years and had, to the dis­ Society's Iconographic Collections may of the State and War departments, uni­ General Hanford MacNider, MacArthur's political ad- laterally proposed the terms of a Japanese peace treaty that would have fulfilled that prophecy and sent him home before the 1948 in November, 1947, gave Wood his definitive election as well. But by October, 1947, all answer on the question of his return. negotiations for a peace treaty collapsed. Mac- I feel that it is extremely debatable as to Arthur's retirement from the military became whether I should return to the United a casualty of the Cold War and the Truman States prior to the Republican National Administration's determination to bring the Convention. There is now no likelihood General in line with its new four-year pro­ ... of a peace settlement with Japan by gram for making Japan an anticommunist that time . . . and there are many other economic and military bastion in the Far considerations which point to my earlier East.2'' The General fully understood the return as unwise. . . . The national inter­ profound dilemma he now confronted. By est requires my continued presence in Ja­ accepting the advice of his political supporters pan [until] a peace settlement, and obvi­ ously I could not withdraw actively to for a return home in the spring of 1948 he enter a political campaign without revert­ risked an open breach with the administra­ ing to an inactive military status and yield­ tion and retirement from his post as Supreme ing my responsibility as [Supreme Com­ Commander; but by ignoring their advice he mander]. It has been publicly predicted seriously jeopardized his chances for the GOP ... in many quarters, generally hostile, nomination and a chance at the Presidency. that strategy would dictate my return about MacArthur carefully weighed his options and March or April for the purpose of gaining the political capital inherent in the wel­ come [home]. The idea is repugnant to me. It would subject the culmination of ^ Robert E. Wood to MacArthur, December 4, 1947, my military career to the charge, rightly in the Robert E. Wood Papers, Herbert Hoover Presi­ or wrongly, that my purpose was shrewdly dential Library. " Frederick S. Dunn, Peace-Making and the Settle­ and coldly to turn the symbolic gratitude ment with Japan (Princeton University Press, Prince­ of the American people for our Pacific vic­ ton, 1963), 55-77. tories and post-war occupational accom-

207 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974

plishments to personal political advantage. It would be indulging in the cheapest form i1 of theatricals [and] . . . crystallize bitter­ ness in other Republican camps where, as far as I know, only a friendly feeling to­ ward me now exists.^* i MacArthur did assure the disappointed Wood that, if nominated at the convention as the presidential standard-bearer, he would retire from the military and actively campaign for election "unless the international situation has blown up to so menacing a degree as to m^0^-^mm^ V * render the prospect of field service immi­ •T^^^^PI^ ^r \' nent." In short, the General could hardly have been firmer in his resolve not to return • 4, --J^ W^' > J home before the convention, despite the near­ '4 W ' ly unanimous contrary advice of his political supporters in the States. "f -•'.•? The only major question of strategy left , «»3. .open after November, 1947, was whether Mac- Arthur should make a statement of his avail­ It ^ ability for the nomination and, if so, its tim­ X"- 1 ing. MacArthur received conflicting advice * • on this matter. He sought to obtain several independent sources of information on the viability of his candidacy and to evaluate the impact that an availability announcement Society's Iconographic Collections would have on increasing his chances for the General Robert L. Eichelberger, commander of the nomination. MacArthur held at least fifteen occupying Eighth Army in Japan. lengthy conferences with Colonel Eastwood before the June, 1948, convention, discussing MacArthur believed there would be a dead­ in great detail his political prospects. He met lock between front-runners Dewey and Taft. frequently with Courtney Whitney who han­ The General regarded them as "friends of dled the flood of political correspondence mine" and "fine men." But Dewey "had been crossing the General's desk. He rolled out the licked once and couldn't win. He was just red carpet for a parade of Republican nota­ another W. J. Bryan (i.e. a quadrennial bles, such as Herbert Hoover and Colonel loser)" and the party would not want him McCormick, on their ostensibly nonpolitical as its standard-bearer.^" MacArthur accepted visits to Tokyo. And he sent aides like Gener­ the view propounded vigorously by MacNider al Robert L. Eichelberger, commander of the and Wood that Senator Taft was the most Eighth Army occupying Japan, home to sound out the politicians. In Eichelberger's view, MacArthur was consumed with thoughts of '^ MacArthur to Wood, November 16, 1947, in the Wood Papers. See also Eichelberger Diary, December presidential politics; again and again the 20, 1947. MacArthur felt he would "be attacked on Chief "wanted to talk politics" instead of all sides" if he went home without the nomination, Occupation problems.^^ whereas "out here I have a certain mysticism!" ^ Series 7, MacArthur Candidacy, in the MacNider MacArthur's views of the 1948 election and Papers, and Whitney to William J. Campbell, Decem­ the personalities involved were an interesting ber 3, 1947, in the William J. Campbell Papers, Ar­ composite of those of his supporters and those chives-Manuscripts Division, State Historical Society he had acquired from years of careful atten­ of Wisconsin; Colonel Sidney Huff (with Joe Alex tion to domestic politics and personal knowl­ Morris), My Fifteen Years with General MacArthur (New York, 1951), 125; Eichelberger Diary, September edge of many of the men in the campaign. 5, 1947. Right up through the June GOP convention ^"Eichelberger Diary, September 13, July 4, 1947. 208 SCHONBERGER: DOUGLAS MaCARTHUR ideologically compatible of the potential GOP MacArthur always found fatal weaknesses nominees and that Taft managers, like Colo­ in all the other dark-horse GOP candidates. nel McCormick and Representative Clarence Harold Stassen lacked "a base in office, and Brown of Ohio, should be assiduously wooed was not popular with the politicians or the to throw their strength to MacArthur in the people." In any case, Stassen was "too New eventuality of a persistent convention dead­ Dealish and like [Wendell] Willkie, reversed lock. But Taft's lackluster personality and himself everyday." Governor Earl Warren, his numerous enemies within the party made the favorite-son candidate of California, had him, in the MacArthur view, a "doubtful" no eastern strength in the GOP. Senator candidate.^' Arthur Vandenburg, whose name was men­ Of the dark-horse candidates, announced tioned with increasing frequency during the and unannounced, with whom he was in im­ spring of 1948, had serious heart trouble. As mediate competition for the GOP nomination, General Eichelberger once confided in his MacArthur vented his strongest feelings to­ diary after a political talk with his chief, wards General Eisenhower. Until he put him­ "MacArthur eliminated all the other people self out of contention in late January, 1948, leaving himself as the only one in the field. "^^ Eisenhower was the only Republican in the General MacArthur fully understood that Gallup polls who, in a run-off with Truman, his chances for the Republican nomination was an overwhelming favorite for the Presi­ hinged on more than a deadlock at the con­ dency. Not surprisingly, many prominent Re­ vention between Dewey and Taft or the weak­ publican insiders looked to Eisenhower as nesses of other dark-horse candidates. He the panacea to their political ills.^^ But to carefully followed the fortunes of the Demo­ General MacArthur the Eisenhower presiden­ cratic hopefuls, particularly President Harry tial boom aroused the legendary jealousy and S. Truman. When opinion polls in late 1947 hatred between these military heroes. Ike was showed Truman could defeat any of the de­ nothing but a "good time Charlie and a new clared Republican contenders, MacArthur dealer," MacArthur told General Eichelberger believed that the GOP high command would more than once. "There is no real Eisen­ sacrifice its clear interest in nominating a hower for President movement except as a political insider and turn to the vote-getting move to get rid of me. They are afraid of appeal of a military hero. Eisenhower seemed me."^^ MacArthur's worst fears were realized the obvious choice as the party's standard- when Eisenhower, in withdrawing from the race, emphasized that no military man was »Wood to MacArthur, June 16, 1947, in the Wood qualified to be President under the condi­ Papers; Eastwood to MacNider, December 8, 1947, in tions which prevailed in 1948. "An almost the MacNider Papers; Eichelberger Diary, July 26, 1947. immediate universal reaction to the announce­ "^Richard S. Kirkendall, "The Election of 1948," in ment and its tone," reported the New York Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (ed.). History of American Presidential Elections, 1789-1968 (McGraw-Hill, New Times, "was that the Chief of Staff's phrasing York,' 1971), IV: 3103. had taken General Douglas MacArthur out ^Eichelberger Diary, September 13, 1947. of the campaign almost as effectively as it ^ New York Times, January 24, 1948. In his so- had eliminated himself."3* In fact, through­ called Finder letter Eisenhower said, "nothing in the out the remainder of the campaign, Mac- international or domestic situation especially qualifies for the most important office in the world a man Arthur forces were plagued by Eisenhower's whose adult years have been spent in the country's withdrawal announcement. It reaffirmed military forces." At a press conference two weeks after their strong conviction that the eastern. New the Finder letter Eisenhower said he resented the im­ Dealish, "internationalist" wing of the GOP, plication that it was "intended to discourage General with whom Eisenhower was identified, was Douglas MacArthur." But he then added ironically, "I only hope he feels as great a friendship for me in tacit agreement with the Democrats to un­ as I do for him." See New York Times, February 6, dercut MacArthur's presidential prospects. 1948, and John Gunther, Eisenhower, the Man and Once the initial shock wore off, however, Mac- the Symbol (New York, 1951), 132-137. Arthur actually felt "encouraged" by Eisen­ "^ Eastwood to MacNider, February, 1948, in the hower's withdrawal for it "clear [ed] the way" MacNider Papers. for his own candidacy.^^ ^ Eichelberger Diary, July 4, 1947, January 8, April 30, 1948. 209 Wj^.p'!*'^

,'0-:J • »- •,• =!l

Society's Iconographic Collections Harold Stassen delivering a campaign speech in Milwaukee.

bearer. But MacArthur always assumed that political campaign did MacArthur acquiesce.^* Ike would refuse the nomination in 1948, Paradoxically, when opinion polls in early thereby leaving himself as the only military 1948 registered a sharp decline in Truman's candidate in the field.^'' So, convinced that popularity and indicated that all Republican Truman greatly feared his potential candi­ hopefuls, including MacArthur, would run dacy, MacArthur interpreted Washington's well ahead of the President in a general elec­ policy shift in November, 1947, from emphasis tion, the General worried that his own on reform of Japanese society to economic chances for the GOP nomination were fading. rehabilitation as an attempt by his political In the MacArthur view such polls, and the enemies to undercut his presidential ambi­ general disintegration of the Democratic party tions. For nearly four months MacArthur re­ signaled by the independent presidential bid sisted publicly and privately official directives of Henry Wallace, strengthened the resolve of designed to bring him in line with the Amer­ the GOP leadership to select a party insider ican program for the restoration of Japan. over a military hero for the nomination.^^ Only when it became evident that such re­ Yet MacArthur never gave up all hope. The sistance was both futile and damaging to his very vulnerability of Truman to dramatic shifts in his political prospects led the Gen­ eral to persist in the belief that he might still "'/bid., December 20, 1947. See also Frank E. Gan­ appear at the time of the convention as the nett to Wood, December 10, 1947, in the Philip La only Republican capable of beating Truman Follette Papers, Archives-Manuscripts Division, State Historical Society of Wisconsin. in the November election. In that case, he '* For a discussion of MacArthur's response to the policy shift in Washington see Howard B. Schon­ berger, "Zaibatsu Dissolution and the American Res­ " Eichelberger Diary, January 8, April 30, 1948. toration of Japan," in Bulletin of Concerned Asian See also Eastwood to MacNider, January 18, 1948, in Scholars, 5: 20-28 (September, 1973). the MacNider Papers. 210 SCHONBERGER: DOUGLAS MaCARTHUR would be the strongest dark-horse candidate was both a symbol and the vehicle for the for the nomination. resurgence of a responsible, anticommunist, Asian-oriented postwar foreign policy. He re­ turned to Madison in 1945 a convert to the HATEVER the developments MacArthur crusade, corresponding with the w on the political scene nation­ General, lecturing on his behalf, and fostering ally, MacArthur and his supporters agreed a statesmanlike, liberal image for him in the that the Wisconsin primary was the first and pages of The Progressive, then the political most important hurdle to leap if they were organ of the La Follette family.*' going to go to the convention with any chance Throughout the early postwar years, Philip of winning the nomination. But almost no La Follette, restless with his law practice, also one in the MacArthur camp fully appreciated sought a return to the profession he knew how much a victory in Wisconsin rested on and loved best—politics. But during his war­ the shoulders of Philip La Follette, head of time absence the Progressive party, the vehicle the MacArthur delegate slate in Wisconsin of his success in the 1930's, had utterly col­ and manager of the primary campaign. lapsed. Under prodding from his brother Bob, Youngest son of Senator Robert "Fighting who feared to run for his Senate seat again Bob" La Follette and brother of Senator as a Progressive, Phil resigned himself to the Robert La Follette, Jr., Phil had enjoyed a formal demise of the Progressive party and spectacular early rise in Wisconsin state poli­ the reversion to the pre-1934 progressives' tics. First elected governor in 1930 as a "pro­ strategy of joining the Republican party to gressive" Republican, he led his followers out wrest control of it from the stalwart elements,. of the Republican party after his defeat for In the first and most important test of that re-election in 1932 and organized his own strategy the La Follette brothers were dealt a Progressive party. He was then elected gov­ shattering blow. Backed by "Boss" Thomas ernor again in 1934 and 1936. But in the Coleman and the Republican Voluntary Com­ midst of his third term Governor La Follette's mittee (the inner council of stalwart party political fortunes, and those of his Progressive leaders). Circuit Judge and ex-Marine Joseph party as well, dramatically reversed. With McCarthy eked out a narrow victory over the his own eye on the 1940 presidential election, complacent Senator Robert La Follette in the Phil launched the abortive National Pro­ August, 1946, Republican senatorial primary. gressive Association and became a spokesman The progressives' threat to stalwart control for liberal disenchantment with Franklin D. of the Republican party had been beaten back Roosevelt's New Deal and "internationalist" and Joseph McCarthy had been launched on foreign policies. His increasingly conserva­ his Senate career. Bob La Follette never tive political views and the failure of the again returned to the political wars. But Phil, NPA divided Wisconsin Progres3ives and con­ always the more ambitious of the two brothers, tributed to La Follette's defeat for re-election awaited another opportunity.*^ It came the in 1938. In the next three years Phil practiced very next summer. law, became one of the foremost speakers for In the offer to be a delegate-at-large for the America First Committee, and saw his General Douglas MacArthur in the Wisconsin Progressive party suffer a series of electoral presidential primary, Philip La Follette saw defeats under his lusterless leadership.*" With not only the possibility of campaigning for the outbreak of war. La Follette hurried to join General MacArthur's staff in the Pacific. There he became convinced that MacArthur *^ Alan E. Kent, "Portrait in Isolationism: The La Follettes and Foreign Policy" (Ph.D. dissertation. Uni­ versity of Wisconsin, 1956), 311, 358, 423; Philip La "Young (ed.). Adventure in Politics: The Memoirs Follette to MacArthur, October 15, November 2, 1945, of Philip La Follette, 133-144, 177-183, 204-216, 246- in the Philip La Follette Papers; The Progressive, 256. For the best discussion of La Follette and the September 17, 1945, June 3, 1946, June 23, 1947. Progressive party of Wisconsin see Charles H. Back- " Roger T. Johnson, Robert M. La Follette, Jr., and strom, "The Progressive Party of Wisconsin, 1934-1946" the Decline of the Progressive Party in Wisconsin (Ph.D. dissertation. University of Wisconsin, 1956). (Madison, 1964), 104-129.

211 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974 his political idol but also of making another anti-La Follette Republican Voluntary Com­ attempt at his own political comeback within mittee and an ultra-conservative in national the Wisconsin GOP. As a shrewd and experi­ politics, would be a MacArthur delegate-at- enced politician he knew that MacArthur's large in the April primary. Campbell was prospects for the Republican presidential soon joined by such other well-known stal­ nomination were a long shot at best But the wart Republicans as Lansing Hoyt, Delbert General 'had done very well under adverse J. Kenney, and Harlan Kelley, all prepared to circumstances in the 1944 Wisconsin primary buck the Coleman machine in order to cru­ and La Follette believed his chances for win­ sade for General MacArthur.*^ On the pro­ ning a majority of delegates to the 1948 con­ gressive side of the MacArthur slate. La Fol­ vention were much better than before.*^ lette was especially gratified by the appear­ Moreover, under the rules of the Wisconsin ance of Secretary of State Fred R. Zimmer­ Republican party, convention delegates elect man, onetime governor and with a reputation the two national committeemen who in turn as the largest vote-getter in the state. Though distribute the patronage jobs. In effect, the not on the delegate slate, Gordon Sinykin, La control of the state party organization was Follette's law partner, and Ralph J. Immell, partially at stake in the presidential primary, a La Follette aide and regarded as the pro­ so that MacArthur's victory in Wisconsin, if gressive's choice in the next gubernatorial nothing else, might revive the sagging political primary, were both active in Wisconsin's fortunes of Phil La Follette.** Dotiglas MacArthur Committee.*'' In short, La Follette was cautious about premature by the first week in January, 1948, when involvement in the MacArthur campaign. He Philip La Follette publicly announced he first sought assurances from Robert Wood and would head the list of MacArthur delegates- other national leaders of adequate financial at-large, he was satisfied that there were both backing for the Wisconsin primary effort.*5 the money and the balanced ticket necessary More importantly, he waited to see if the to run a strong campaign for General Mac- MacArthur delegate slate could attract rough­ Arthur. ly an equal number of prominent stalwart The MacArthur campaign in Wisconsin Republicans as well as his friends from the started slowly, constantly bedeviled by rumors defunct Progressive party. Such a slate would and claims that the General would not accept not only draw votes from all factions of the the Republican nomination if offered. The Republican party but would also defuse antici­ Democratic and liberal Republican press pated charges by Tom Coleman's state organ­ charged that the MacArthur delegation was izational machine (already committed to a fraud and a "stalking horse" for Senator Harold Stassen's active campaign in Wiscon­ Robert Taft who had not entered the Wis­ sin) that La Follette and the progressives were consin primary. William J. Campbell re­ attempting to ride MacArthur's coattails back peatedly urged MacArthur to issue a state­ into control of the Republican party in Wis­ ment of his availability or, at the very least, consin. Thus it must have been with great to deny the rumors that he would not accept relief that La Follette heard in September, the nomination. But the answer from Tokyo 1947, the announcement that William J. was always the same. An availability an­ Campbell, a founder of the antiprogressive. nouncement would provoke active opposition from the Democrats, which MacArthur's mili-

*^ Interview with Gordon Sinykin, August 1, 1973. Sinykin disliked the negative connotations of the phrase "political comeback," noting simply that "anyone who « Lansing Hoyt to PhiUp La Follette, July 25, 1947, enters politics goes forward or backward." Neverthe­ in the Philip La Follette Papers; Campbell, "State­ less, Sinykin suggested that Phil La Follette had a very ment Regarding MacArthur Campaign," [n.d.], 1948, difficult time readjusting to law practice after the in the Campbell Papers. Campbell stated that given war and was anxious to return to politics. the abuse he took from the Coleman machine for '^Milwaukee Journal, March 11, 1948. being on the MacArthur delegate slate with Philip La •""Wood to Philip La Follette, November 7, 1947; Follette one "would have thought that I had hooked Robert M. Harriss to Wood, August 7, 1947, both in up with Al Capone." the Philip La Follette Papers. "Milwaukee Journal, March 11, 1948.

212 Society's Iconographic Collections Scene in MacArthur-for-President campaign headquarters in Madison. tary position would preclude answering, and to shirk . . . accepting any public duty to stir opposition amongst Republicans as well. which I might be called by the American peo­ But the assertion in mid-February by David ple." The General had thrown his hat far Lawrence, editor of the United States News, enough into the presidential ring to be help­ that MacArthur was preparing formally to ful in the Wisconsin primary, but not so far withdraw himself from contention for the that he could not pull it out again.^" GOP nomination brought the question of an For the next four weeks General Mac- availability announcement to a head.** The Arthur's campaign in Wisconsin drew the at­ stateside leadership of the MacArthur cam­ tention of the entire nation. It was an odd paign feared that the General would be campaign. Inasmuch as he was on active duty "snowed under" in Wisconsin by the strenuous in Japan, MacArthur was barred from cam­ efforts of Stassen and Dewey unless he repudi­ paigning and in fact issued no further public ated the widely circulated Lawrence state­ statements. His campaign, therefore, largely ment. Robert Wood issued what amounted reflected the often contradictory positions of to an ultimatum to MacArthur. Either he the united front of former Progressives and announce sometime before March 16 that if stalwart Republicans who had enlisted in the tendered the nomination he would accept or MacArthur cause. Both factions acclaimed face the likelihood of defeat in the April pri­ MacArthur as Wisconsin's "native son" candi­ mary in Wisconsin.*^ To headline stories date. But La Follette and the progressives across the nation, MacArthur finally declared his availability on March 9. "In this hour of momentous importance ... I can say, and ^New York Times, March 9, 1948; Wood to Mac- with due humility, that I would be recreant Arthur, March 8, 1948, in the Wood Papers. Only to all my concepts of good citizenship were I minutes after MacArthur made his availability an­ nouncement. Wood's March 8 telegram arrived at head­ quarters: "Do NOT believe announcement necessary." "Campbell to Whitney, February 25, 1948, and Wood later explained that he was under great pressure Whitney to Campbell, October 20, and December 3, to get MacArthur to make a statement because the 1947, all in the Campbell Papers. situation in Wisconsin had deteriorated. By March 8 *" Campbell to Wood, February 20, 1948, Wood to he and La Follette agreed that the outlook had MacArthur, February 28, 1948, both in the Wood brightened and that they could win in Wisconsin with­ Papers. out an announcement.

213 •WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974 pointed to MacArthur's "liberal philosophy crisscrossing Wisconsin for months and was and progressive record." In Japan, according regarded as the front-runner in the race, to La Follette, the General had constructed turned the full might of his campaign against a democracy in which co-operatives "have MacArthur. It was not a one-man effort; he been encouraged, monopolies smashed, labor had the support of the well-financed Coleman unions given new impetus, land reform machine, and his list of delegates was headed launched and civil and religious liberties safe­ by the popular and vigorous Senator Joseph guarded." To the progressives the main McCarthy.** On the ideological level, Stassen theme of the campaign was the need "to trans­ argued that the foreign policy advocated by fer the efficiency and competence of the Jap­ MacArthur would involve America "too deep anese occupation regime to the federal gov­ in Japan, China, and Asia" at a cost of bil­ ernment in Washington."^' The progressives lions of dollars and a large American army were sensitive not only to MacArthur's repu­ in the area. For Stassen the "greatest danger tation as a reactionary but as a militarist as [was] from the Communist menace in Eu­ well. La Follette countered with speeches on rope."^^ Stassen repeatedly challenged the MacArthur as a "pilot of peace" who alone General to make his views on domestic affairs among the Republican contenders for the known, suggesting that an eleven-year absence nomination was so respected by Premier from the United States disqualified him to Joseph Stalin that differences between the be able to deal with these problems. The United States and Russia could be settled Stassen forces also took sharp issue with the without resort to war. "Japan is one strategic "native son" theme of the MacArthur cam­ area on earth where bickering, back-biting and paign. They pointed out that MacArthur was name calling is almost non-existent," La Fol­ born in Arkansas, not Wisconsin, had never lette argued in a radio broadcast. "The Rus­ voted in the state, and had only lived in Mil­ sians are not happy. . . . They have met their waukee a few years as a teen-ager. Stassenites masters."^^ raised the question of MacArthur's physical The stalwart Republicans of the MacArthur fitness for the office of the Presidency. Mac- campaign took their cue from the only news­ Arthur at sixty-eight, asserted Senator Mc­ paper in Wisconsin supporting the General, Carthy, did not have the health or vigor "nec­ William R. Hearst's Mihvaukee Sentinel. The essary if we are to defeat Communism without Sentinel emphasized MacArthur the Warrior, a Third World War." McCarthy also flooded the man best suited by his military record to the state with a letter a week before the pri- handle the world communist threat. Civiliza­ tion itself was at stake and MacArthur alone among American leaders had "met the chal­ lenge of Red Fascism with courage and success. His destined place is no longer in Japan . . . " Irwin Ross, The Loneliest Campaign: The Truman Victory of 1948 (New York, 1968), 41-43. but in Washington as President."^^ Hearst's ^ Harold Stassen to Philip La Follette, March 24, Chicago Herald and Colonel McCormick's 1948, in the Phihp La Follette Papers. As is well Chicago Tribune, both with wide circulation known, Coleman and McCarthy did not remain com­ in southern Wisconsin, also touted MacArthur mitted very long to Stassen's 1948 version of "inter­ as the "Man of the Hour" at a time of genuine nationalism." Both men became convinced that the formula for personal and Republican success lay in a fear of another world war. combination of McCarthyism at home and conserva­ Immediately after MacArthur's availability tive isolationism abroad. McCarthy even backed Mac- announcement, Harold Stassen, who had been Arthur's abortive bid for the GOP nomination in 1952, ^vhile Coleman was a key operative for Senator Taft that year. One must conclude that in Wisconsin in '''^ Philip La Follette to "Dear Friend," March 27, 1948, Coleman and McCarthy used Stassen's "inter­ 1948, and newspaper clipping, February [n.d.], 1948, nationalism" as a weapon in what to them was essen­ both in the Philip La Follette Papers. tially a personality and power struggle with the La ^ Script for radio speech, March 30, 1948, in the Follette forces. Nevertheless, their ideological position Philip La Follette Papers. See also clipping of Chicago coincided with that of the national party leadership in Tribune, January 25, 1948, in the Philip La Follette 1948 and to that extent the Wisconsin primary was Papers. regarded as a referendum on "isolationism" and "in­ ^ Milwaukee Sentinel, March 6, April 2, 1948. ternationalism." 214 SCHONBERGER: DOUGLAS MaCARTHUR mary which alluded to MacArthur's divorce and remarriage.58 The most important issue of the primary to the Stassen forces, however, was not Mac- Arthur at all but Philip La Follette and his delegate slate. The Wisconsin State Journal of Madison, which reflected the thinking of "Boss" Coleman, repeatedly warned that the MacArthur candidacy was another attempt by the "La Follette dynasty" to avenge its defeat in the 1946 senatorial primary. In a typical editorial captioned, "A Fight for Life," the State Journal contended that if MacArthur won a majority of delegate votes in the pri­ mary, stalwart Republicans would stand "com­ pletely in the cold. Phil La Follette, the man they fought and unhorsed years ago will be back in the saddle. He'll call the signals for Wisconsin Republican affairs. The old Pro­ gressive gang will be back in power."^^ Cole­ man just as sharply rebuked those stalwart Republicans like William J. Campbell, who in his view betrayed the state organization to work with former Progressives. He put little credence in Campbell's assertion that only eleven of the twenty-seven MacArthur dele­ gates were former Progressives, or in Camp­ bell's argument that the Progressives had been so weakened in the 1946 primary that they Society's Iconographic CoUectior ought to be welcomed into the Republican General and Mrs. MacArthur pose with an unidentified party rather than viewed as a threat to stal­ man in a campaign picture. wart control. When Campbell publicly sug­ gested that Coleman's work on behalf of Stas­ purposely exaggerated the threat of the Mac- sen violated party rules which forbade en­ Arthur candidacy to the party organization dorsements of candidates before primary elec­ or not, he certainly understood the deep- tions, Coleman virtually read Campbell and seated animosity of party regulars to the Pro­ other maverick stalwarts out of the inner gressives. Coleman played on those fears to councils of the party.^^ Whether Coleman keep his machine working for Stassen around the clock and to consolidate his own control over it. »> McCarthy to "Dear Folks," March 31, 1948, in the Campbell Papers; Wisconsin State Journal, March 25, Once MacArthur announced his availability 1948. and observers gave him a substantial lead " Wisconsin State Journal, March 23, 25, 30, 1948. over Stassen and Dewey, other liberal Repub­ For an excellent summary of Coleman's importance in licans and Democrats unleashed sharp attacks postwar Wisconsin politics, see Alfred Bowman, "The against the General. Senator Ralph Flanders, Man Behind McCarthy, Coleman of Wisconsin," in The Nation, March 20, 1954. liberal Republican from Vermont, thought '^Tom Coleman to Campbell, April 4, 1948; Camp­ MacArthur ought to stay in Japan where he bell to Coleman, April 8, 1948; Campbell to Henry E. Ringling, April 5, 1948; Campbell to Wood, December 17, 1951, all in the Campbell Papers. The bitter legacy I criticized him in 1948," Campbell wrote to Wood, of the Coleman-Campbell tight over the MacArthur "for putting our Voluntary Republican Committee or­ slate carried over to the 1952 election when Coleman ganization back to Stassen which as a member of the backed Taft. Campbell wanted to be a Taft delegate executive committee of that organization he had no but Coleman refused. "He doesn't like the fact that right to do."

215 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974

MacArthur campaign. He was especially irked by Philip La Follette's attempt to portray MacArthur as the candidate of the Wisconsin progressives. There was not a single outstand­ ing progressive supporting MacArthur, Evjue contended in an election day editorial. 'Thil's own brother. Bob, is keeping a signifi­ cant silence. . . . Only the old Tory crowd gathers around this man whom we are asked to believe is divine." Evjue frequently point­ ed out that the MacArthur campaign was financed by big corporate interests, anti-New Dealers, red-baiters, and America Firsters who have "fought every vestige of liberalism . . . for years. "^^ A nonpartisan but highly visible source of opposition to the MacArthur presidential drive was the Veterans-Against-MacArthur groups. Organized mostly by former GIs on college campuses shortly before the Wiscon­ sin primary, these groups appeared in Boston, Denver, Dallas, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Chicago, and Madison. At a rally in Boston, protesters carried such signs as "Don't Return" and "Dug Out Doug" and circulated petitions opposing MacArthur for President. John Patrick Hunter, leader of the Madison vet­ erans, explained that they were "united by a distrust of the role of the military at the helm Society's Iconographic Collections of our country." Unlike veterans of the Euro­ Philip La Follette in 1948. MacArthur's portrait is pean theater under Eisenhower, Hunter spoke next to La Follette's father's. of a "deep and profound hatred" by the GIs for MacArthur because he imposed "caste was doing a good job. Senator George Aiken, lines and social cleavages" far beyond the re­ also of Vermont, doubted the advisability of quirements of normal military discipline. giving the GOP nomination to MacArthur: Hunter also noted that MacArthur placed "I think we can do better." Early in April only general officers in charge of the Japanese Dewey came into Wisconsin for two days of government, economy, and press, and then energetic campaigning and attacked the "dom­ quipped, "Better one Stassen than a thousand ination" of American foreign policy by mili­ Brigadier Generals. "8' tary men. Most Democrats seemed content to let the Stassen and Dewey opposition to MacArthur take its course, though suggesting MacArthur would be doing a service to his ™ Capital Times, April 2, 5, 6, 1948. '^ Ibid., March 11, 1948; Milwaukee Journal, March country by following the advice of General 13, 1948. The MacArthur camp found the veterans Eisenhower in withdrawing his name from movement extremely embarrassing. Campbell, a mem­ consideration.'^^ But William T. Evjue, lib­ ber of the Board of Regents of the University of eral Democratic editor of the Madison Capital Wisconsin, had the Madison group thoroughly investi­ Times and a close associate of the La Follettes gated and wrote Whitney, "These are Communist in­ spired without the slightest question of doubt. Hunter in the 1930's, took an active part in the anti- ... is a dupe." Three students from the University of Chicago, "outright signed up Communists," had picked Hunter to head the Madison organization. See ^New York Times, March 9, April 2, 1948; Milwau­ Campbell to Whitney, March 22, 1948, in the Camp­ kee Journal, March 10, 1948. bell Papers. 216 SCHONBERGER: DOUGLAS MaCARTHUR

Despite the energetic campaigning of the day after the primary. "I'm very disap­ Dewey and Stassen, the meddling of the Demo­ pointed," Philip La Follette told the press. crats, and the opposition of the veterans "Wisconsin voters muffed the ball." Con­ groups, most commentators gave MacArthur gressman Arthur Miller, who was an organizer a substantial lead in the Wisconsin primary. of MacArthur's Nebraska primary campaign "M'Arthur Victory Due in Wisconsin" read scheduled for the next week, saw the Wiscon­ the New York Times headline on March 29. sin results as a "slap in the face" to the Gen­ So certain was MacArthur's victory that the eral and speculated that he might withdraw Times held that the only relevant question from the race.^* was whether Stassen or Dewey would finish The decision whether MacArthur should second. Senator McCarthy was quoted as say­ withdraw his name from the field of Republi­ ing, "I don't think the Presidential hopes of can contenders rested, in part, on the post­ any of the candidates could survive running mortems of the Wisconsin primary. There was a bad third." That included Stassen, he add­ general agreement that the key to Stassen's up­ ed.^^ Virtually every leader of the MacArthur- set victory was the Coleman machine. "The for-President movement shared the same con­ primary very clearly showed me," Wood wrote viction that their campaign would be crowned MacArthur, "that organization is just as im­ with success. "The campaign here in Wiscon­ portant in politics as it is in war or in busi­ sin is really rolling," La Follette wrote Mac- ness. I sent $30,000 into the state, and while Arthur a week before the primary. "I feel it bought us radio time, newspaper ads and great satisfaction with the progress that's been other publicity, it was not enough to create made." Campbell predicted that MacArthur an organization to work in the precincts, would win a minimum of twenty delegates. which is the root of all vote-getting."^^ Others Wood warned MacArthur to be prepared to suggested, though not to MacArthur, that the meet a host of new problems in the wake of nation was not ready for a military man as a sweeping victory in Wisconsin. Only Mac­ President and that the opposition of the GIs Nider sounded cautious, telling the General to MacArthur had been very damaging. None that the politicians were still "uncertain" of the MacArthur backers accepted the view about the outcome of the Wisconsin race.^^ propounded by some in the liberal Republi­ The results astounded everyone. In the can and Democratic press that MacArthur's crucial delegate column, Stassen polled nine­ defeat was a symbolic victory for a bipartisan teen, MacArthur eight, and Dewey none. No "internationalist" foreign policy.^'' MacArthur delegates-at-large won election. MacArthur's chief political operatives could Philip La Follette, at the top of the slate, not bring themselves to act on their own an­ polled fewer votes than the lowest man on alysis of the Wisconsin debacle or to heed the Stassen slate of at-large delegates. Only their prior resolve that MacArthur had no the popular vote—40 per cent for Stassen, 36 chance of winning the nomination without per cent for MacArthur, 24 per cent for at least a majority of the Wisconsin delega­ Dewey—provided any consolation to the Mac- tion. On the contrary, they indulged the Gen­ Arthur camp.^* But it was hardly enough to eral's well-known ego and sensitivity to criti­ offset the knowledge that Wisconsin had cism by placing the best light on the primary punctured, if not totally destroyed, the Mac- results and urging that he remain in the run­ Arthur boom. "The General is low as a rug ning. "I do not think either Taft, Stassen, or and very disappointed," Ambassador William Dewey are going to the convention with Sebald was told by MacArthur's chief of staff

"New York Times, March 29, April 6, 1948. "^William J. Sebald, With MacArthur in Japan (W. •"Philip La Follette to MacArthur, March 27, 1948, W. Norton, New York, 1965), 106; Capital Times, in the Philip La Follette Papers; Campbell to Whit­ April 7, 1948. ney, April 1, 1948, in the Campbell Papers; Wood to "'Wood to MacArthur, April 9, 1948, in the Wood MacArthur, April 5, 1948, in the Wood Papers; Mac­ Papers. Nider to Eastwood, March 26, 1948, in the MacNider "'Sinykin to Wood, April 9, 1948, in the Philip La Papers. Follette Papers; United States News and World Report, "Wisconsin, Blue Book, 1950, pp. 590-596. April 16, 1948.

217 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974 enough votes to win," argued Wood, "and of Wood and La Follette throughout May and that if either Taft or Dewey see they cannot June, MacArthur relied heavily on the guard­ be nominated, they may throw their delegates edly optimistic reports from MacNider and to you." MacNider also recommended that remained in close contact with the small Mac- MacArthur remain in the race. Wisconsin was Arthur delegation from Wisconsin. In what "not a bad showing" and "our cause is not surely stands as the height of MacArthur's in such different shape than it was before."^' indulgence in wishful thinking, a few days Out of such misplaced loyalty and delusions before the convention he outlined for Colonel that the eastern liberal wing of the Republi­ Eastwood a complex scenario by which the can party might still turn to MacArthur as a "big show will have to go about ten ballots compromise candidate, the MacArthur-for- for [me] to have a chance."^" President campaign faltered forward. The work of the MacArthur delegates at the convention in Philadelphia provided a fitting denouement to the disintegration of N Nebraska a week later an even the MacArthur campaign after the Wisconsin I more crushing blow was admin­ primary. The MacArthur floor organizers istered to the MacArthur hopes. With this, planned to get the Alabama delegation to conciliatory editorials appeared in the na­ yield to Wisconsin so that the General's name tional press urging MacArthur to withdraw could be placed in nomination early. Then and give his full attention to Japan.^^ Some Harlan Kelley, a blind war veteran and dele­ of his most prominent supporters deserted gate from Wisconsin, would make the nomi­ the MacArthur campaign. But the General nating speech, followed by a seconding speech adamantly persisted in believing he could still from General Jonathan Wainwright, still sick win the nomination at the "Big Show" in from the ordeal of his long imprisonment by Philadelphia. The situation called for a new the Japanese. The nominating speeches would political strategy, MacArthur told Wood at be preceded by a parade of Philadelphia In­ the end of April, to center "around develop­ quirer newsboys (paid $5 each for their ser­ ing and maintaining a friendly beachhead vices) carrying baskets full of petitions clipped within each of the various delegations to the from daily coupons in the Hearst press. But convention and friendly contacts with the as William Campbell accurately explained to major Republican leaders. Continuance of Courtney Whitney, "the people who ran the the present voluntary Club effort is, of course, convention in its earlier stages . . . played important in its influence upon grass roots every card to keep this nomination from being sentiment which in turn might well have a made until Wisconsin was reached; and that direct bearing upon Convention develop­ was at 4:30 in the morning."''' The impatient ments." But MacArthur rebuffed strong newsboys demanded their money and went pressures from all of his supporters, with the home before parading. Kelley gave a stirring exception of MacNider, that only his return speech to a practically deserted convention to the United States (preferably to appear as hall. Wainwright, whose difficulties in ob­ a witness before congressional committees in­ taining a distinguished guest ticket from the vestigating Far Eastern affairs) held out any GOP high command had infuriated the Mac- hope that he could win the nomination. Ap­ Arthur camp, had to be awakened and rushed parently unshaken by the defeatest attitude to the stage to give an almost inaudible sec­ onding speech. The next day, on the first ballot, MacArthur received eleven of 1,094 ""Wood to MacArthur, April 9, 1948, in the Wood Papers; MacNider to MacArthur, April 9, 1948, in the MacNider Papers. ""New York Times, April 15, 1948. "It may now be presumed," editorialized the Times, ". . . that [Mac- ™ MacArthur to Wood, April 29, 1948, in the Wood Arthur] will withdraw his candidacy. If he does so, Papers; Eastwood to MacNider, June 20, 1948, in the his lack of success in the [Wisconsin and Nebraska] MacNider Papers. primaries will in no way reflect upon his great "" Campbell to Whitney, June 29, 1948, in the Camp­ achievements as a soldier and his never-to-be-forgotten bell Papers; Clark Lee and Richard Henschel, Douglas service to his country." MacArthur (New York, 1951), 106-107. 218 SCHONBERGER; DOUGLAS MaCARTHUR delegate votes; on the second ballot, seven. While MacArthur exaggerated the con­ With the lone exception of Hanford Mac­ spiratorial nature of his failure in partisan Nider's vote for MacArthur, Dewey was unani­ politics, there was some truth to his analysis. mously chosen for the GOP nomination on The dominant liberal wing of the Republi­ the third ballot.'''^ can party, financed and led by prominent Many aspects of Douglas MacArthur's long men from the industrial northeast, saw in career are still controversial and none more MacArthur, as they did in Senator Taft, a so than his presidential ambitions. American possible threat to their control of the party tradition, if not always American historical and their endorsement of the basic approach practice, holds that the soldier functions as a of the Roosevelt-Truman foreign policy. professional in the service of his civilian su­ Throughout the campaign MacArthur over­ periors and outside the partisan political valued his personal aloofness from the war­ arena. But unlike the great majority of his ring factions of the Republican party and, fellow officers, MacArthur was both a political in the Wisconsin primary, he and his aides soldier and a military politician. At least attempted to blur their ideological differ­ from the outbreak of World War II he used ences with both the state and national party his prestige as a soldier to influence, and leadership. Perhaps MacArthur's orthodox even override, civilian policy decisions. Of and "isolationist" views would have been ig­ equal importance, though generally under­ nored if the GOP high command had not stated, he used his prestige as a soldier to been so confident of a return to power in enhance his prospects for the Republican November. But in the context of the early party presidential nomination. MacArthur's primary races, MacArthur's bid for the nomi­ every speech and every action assumed parti­ nation appeared to party workhorses as the san political overtones of which he was fully intrusion of an unreliable outsider trespass­ conscious. A consummate egotist, MacArthur ing on the machine politicians' own turf.'^ remained convinced that his popular follow­ In short, Coleman, Stassen, Dewey, Aiken, ing in the United States could he galvanized and other GOP leaders found MacArthur by a religious, mystical, and emotional ap­ neither useful nor necessary to their own pur­ peal into the instrument for his nomination poses in 1948 and sought to discredit him by and election as President.'^^ publicizing his links to the "isolationist" Yet MacArthur's foray into the political wing of the party and arousing fears of a mili­ arena in 1948 (and 1944 and 1952 as well) tary man in the White House. In the Wis­ met with complete disaster. The General consin and Nebraska primaries and at the tended to blame his difficulties upon the convention they easily brushed aside Mac- handful of men in control of both political Arthur's political bid. parties and the press who were determined to For his part, MacArthur failed to grasp embarrass and humiliate him. The "slight­ the adage that in politics, and particularly est slip" on his part as Supreme Commander, primary politics, organization is decisive. The he once remarked, would be seized upon by General's overwhelming personal vanity, his the Truman Administration to "stage a neck­ belief in Itimself as a man of destiny standing tie party." He repeatedly told his supporters above the political squabbles of his time, that his return home would tmleash "every obscured to him the necessity of winning the hostile agency and paper" anxious to destroy support of existing state and national party his political prospects.''* machinery or, failing in that, creating a viable organization of his own. Douglas MacArthur •"^ Lee and Henschel, Douglas MacArthur, 106-107. paid for his political naivete with the frustra­ See also Twenty-Fourth Republican National Con­ vention, 1948, Proceedings, 248-258. tion of his most profound ambition, the •"Walter Millis, Arms and the State: Civil-Military Presidency of the United States. Elements in National Policy (New York, 1958), 266- 272; Huntington, The Soldier and the State, 369-372; John Gunther, The Riddle of MacArthur: Japan, '"This analysis draws heavily from Barton J. Bern­ Korea and the Far East (New York, 1951), 23-29. stein, "The Election of 1952," in Schlesinger (ed.), " Eastwood to MacNider, December 8, 1947, January History of American Presidential Elections, IV: 3218- 18, 1948, both in the MacNider Papers. 3234.

219 The Progressive as Conservative: George Creel's Quarrel with New Deal Liberalism

By Frank Annunziata

IROGRESSIVISM is a protean ican liberalism illuminate interesting aspects concept suggestive of the social of the relationship between progressivism and change and political reform characterizing the New Deal. pre-World War I America. Historians have George Creel came to the progressive move­ demonstrated an intense and enduring inter­ ment from a poverty-stricken midwestern est in its nature, significance, and, particu­ background. He was born in 1876 in Lafayette larly, its relationship to the New Deal. Did County, Missouri, and was raised in Inde­ progressivism possess an ethos? Did it have pendence and Odessa, Missouri. His father's an individualist base? Did it have a special excessive drinking and chronic unemploy­ appeal to specific groups? What were its ment drove him and three brothers to early achievements? Its weaknesses? Was it pri­ self-reliance. By the age of twenty, Creel, marily cultural, political, or religious? Who who received only a primary school education, were the men and women comprising the had won an impressive reputation as a muck­ diverse progressive movements? Why were raking reporter for the Kansas City World. some attracted by Woodrow Wilson and He then attempted free-lance writing in New others by Theodore Roosevelt? What did they York City but returned to Kansas City in think about Franklin Roosevelt and the New 1899 to edit the Kansas City Independent. Deal? Creel admired the British Fabians and espe­ These themes have animated many histor­ cially the activities of Henry George and ical inquiries in the United States during the Joseph Eels. While anti-Marxist he did de­ last three decades. This essay attempts to sire "the highest degree of socialization." consider certain questions about progressivism After battling the political machines and util­ by examining the response of one very im­ ity companies and agitating for women's rights portant midwestern—and later western—Wil­ and other reforms from 1899 through 1909 sonian progressive to New Deal-Fair Deal in the Independent, he accepted an editorial liberalism. From 1900 through 1940 George position with the Denver Post.^ Creel was a leading progressive reformer. He In Colorado Creel allied with the promi­ served as Woodrow Wilson's chairman of the nent progressive, Judge Ben B. Lindsey, to Committee on Public Information and later participated in Franklin Roosevelt's Admin­ ^ Ivan H. Epperson, "Missourians Abroad: George istration. Creel subsequently renounced the Creel," in Missouri Historical Review, XII: 100-110 New Deal, arguing that it represented a ma­ (January, 1918); Men Who Are Making Kansas City: A Biographical Directory (Kansas City, 1902). See also lign departure from all he cherished in pro­ his autobiography, Rebel at Large: Recollections of gressivism. His career and critique of Amer­ Fifty Crowded Years (New York, 1947), 3-63.

220 ANNUNZIATA: GEORGE CREEL

eradicate child labor and other social prob­ lems.. Lindsey attributed the adoption of Den­ ver's commission form of municipal govern­ ment "almost entirely to Creel's initiative."^ From 1909-1910, Creel edited the Denver Post, and the Rocky Mountain News from 1911- 1913. In 1912, he pubhshed, with Judge Lind­ sey and Edwin Markham, a major substantive analysis of juvenile employment conditions— Children in Bondage.^ By 1913 this work and the reform struggles in Missouri and Colo­ rado had attracted national publicity. Col- lier's, in a feature article, described him as "a fighter, a champion in the lists for the lowly." In 1912 and 1916 Creel worked as a writer for the Democratic National Committee. His spirited defense of Wilson's policies, Wilson and the Issues (1916), reflected his flair for polemic. Suffusing the book was Creel's en­ thusiasm for Wilson's "passionate idealism." Americans had a choice, in his estimate, "be­ tween a proved democrat and the captains who served under Hanna; between equal jus­ tice and special privilege." He equated democ­ racy with spiritual progress and denounced "property rights" as a perversion of "human rights" and a denial of the "Brotherhood of Man." Wilson embodied the authentic re­ form spirit in the national character for he Society's Iconographic Collections knew it inhered in the "idealism of the Decla­ George Creel, at the time of his appointment in 1917 ration of Independence, not in the cautious as chairman of the Committee on Public Information. phrases of the Constitution."* It was during the 1916 election campaign chairman of the Committee on Public In­ that Creel had gained what Kenneth Davis formation, George Creel had already become, has properly described as Woodrow Wilson's according to Arthur Link, a leading figure "rarely bestowed personal affection." When "of the advanced wing of the progressive Wilson selected him, on April 14, 1917, as movement in the United States."^ This agen­ cy was directed to nurture American patriot­ ism, enlist neutral nations in the U.S. cause " Peter Clark MacFarlane, "The Fortunes of Citizen and vitiate Germany's resistance. The New Creel," in Colliers, XLI: 5-6, 26-28 (July 19, 1913). York Times protested Wilson's appointment Creel's close friendship with Lindsey is described by Charles Larsen, The Life and Times of Ben B. Lindsey of Creel to this important position because (Chicago, 1972), 96, 117-118, 140-142. of his "radicalism."" The massive propaganda ' Edwin Markham, Benjamin B. Lindsey, and George Creel, Children in Bondage: A Complete and Careful ° Kenneth Davis, FDR: The Beckoning of Destiny, Presentation of the Anxious Problem of Child Labor- 1882-1928 (New York, 1972), 505; Arthur Link, Wood- its Causes, its Crimes, and its Cure (New York, 1914), row Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917 (New 367 and 401. York, 1963), 239. See also Creel, "The Next Four * Creel, Wilson and the Issues (New York, 1916), 128, Years: An Interview with the President," in Every­ 147, 152-153. An especially virulent attack on Theo­ body's Magazine, XXXVI: 137-138 (February, 191"?), dore Roosevelt can be found on pp. 136-140. For an and "Letters to George Creel by Brand Whitlock," in interesting critique of Creel's argument see Wilson Northwest Ohio Quarterly, XXVIII: 170-180 (Autumn, and the Issues of Today: A Socialist Revision of George 1956). Creel's Famous Book (Seattle, 1918). "New York Times, April 16, 1917.

221 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974 effort directed by Creel during World War I Staff position at Collier's and moved his wife, had significant effects upon the sales of war the prominent actress Blanche Bates, and two bonds, subscriptions to "Liberty Loans," and children to San Francisco. This city repre­ other manifestations of heightened nation­ sented, in his estimation, the best qualities alism. Whatever criticisms Creel's tactics and of American life, and he anticipated a leisure­ style provoked he remained in Wilson's es­ ly, comfortable existence. The stock market teem. "I want to say how much it has grati­ crash destroyed Creel's pattern of life and fied me," wrote Wilson, "and how entirely forced him into frequent writing assignments the work being done by the Committee meets in New York City and Washington. with my approval."'' "The Roosevelt boom is under full steam In 1920 Wilson had Creel ascertain Mexi­ here in New York," he wrote to his friend, can political and diplomatic developments as the progressive Democratic Senator from his "unofficial representative." During the Colorado, Edward Costigan, in 1930. Yet President's retirement years. Creel became an "he'll not have me" for "I have always re­ intimate friend and adviser and was desig­ garded him as a mediocre, and after watching nated to negotiate some of Wilson's literary the way he has handled this Tammany judi­ contracts with publishers. Creel's services led cial scandal, I do not even think him honest."^ Wilson to write in 1923, "I hope I have often When his first choice for the Democratic made you feel how much pride and pleasure presidential nomination, Newton D. Baker, I take in your friendship, and that as the was defeated. Creel converted to an FDR years go by I hope I may more and more often loyalist. His penchant for charismatic leaders have the privilege of close association with surfaced in his exultations over Roosevelt's you."* Creel's dedication to Wilson was so acceptance speech at the 1932 Democratic intense that he regarded the President's re­ Convention. "Every tone of his voice, every versals in 1920 as the "stoning of a prophet." flash of his eye conveyed sincerity. ... I left He also contributed articles to the ephemeral Roosevelt with an enthusiasm I had not 1922 publication, Wilsonian, edited by Rich­ known since the days of Woodrow Wilson.""" ard Linthicum. In that "orgy of negation" Creel campaigned extensively for the Demo­ characterizing Creel's view of the 1920's, he cratic party in 1932, urging that America's worked first as president of the Pelman Insti­ race between "reformation and revolution" tute, a "science of success, mind and mem­ could only be won if the "festering inequali­ ory" correspondence school, and then for ties in American life" were met by the pro­ Everybody's, Saturday Evening Post, and gressivism of Roosevelt rather than "the self­ Collier's. In 1926 he accepted a permanent ish and destructive rule of the privileged classes that control the Republican party."" In July of 1933 Creel officially joined the 'Woodrow Wilson to George Creel, January 14, 1918, New Deal as director of the West Coast Ad­ Container 1, in the George Creel Papers, Library of ministration of the National Industrial Re­ Congress. James R. Mock and C. Larson, Words that covery Act and as chairman of the San Fran­ Won the War: The Story of the Committee on Public cisco regional labor board. The NRA aimed Information, 1917-1919 (Princeton, 1939) is favorable to promote industrial self-government and in toward Creel. See also Walton E. Bean, "George Creel and His Critics: A Study of the Attack on the Com­ section 7a guaranteed the right to organize mittee of Public Information" (Ph.D. dissertation. and bargain collectively. Creel applauded it University of California at Berkeley, 1941). Creel's own account is contained in How We Advertised Amer­ ica (New York, 1920). »Creel to Senator Edward P. Costigan, November 9, ' George Creel to Bainbridge Colby, November 12, 1930, in the Edward P. Costigan Papers, University of 1920, Series 2, Box 199; Woodrow Wilson to Creel, Colorado Library. See also Creel, "Roosevelt on Baker, January 19, 1923, Series 2, Box 219, both in the Wood- By the Gentleman at the Keyhole," in Collier's, row Wilson Papers, Library of Congress. For the LXXXVII: 13, 53 (November 14, 1931), and "Newton extraordinarily interesting relationship between Creel D. Baker's Measure," in Collier's, LXXXIX: 7-8, 51- and Wilson and the Wilson family during the Presi­ 53 (March 19, 1932). dent's retirement years on S Street in Washington, ™ Creel, Rebel at Large, 274. and his involvement in Wilson's literary projects see " Creel speech, September 14, 1932, Container 5, in "Series 2, 3 and 4" of the Wilson Papers. the Creel Papers. 222 ANNUNZIATA: GEORGE CREEL

Creel's wife, the celebrated actress Blanche Bates, with their two children, George Bates and Virginia. (Photo from Wisconsin Center for Theatre Research.)

as "a gigantic effort to reorganize the whole his dissatisfaction merely to broad administra­ industrial structure of the United States on tive problems centering on geographical dis­ higher, finer lines, substituting a cooperative tance. Repudiating neither the NRA nor the order for an unlimited competitive order, a New Deal, Creel pledged Roosevelt his "con­ determined drive for the adoption of a tinued devotion." planned, well-balanced, national economy as By 1933 Creel was, as Charles Larsen notes, opposed to pep talks, high pressure salesman­ "a key figure in the California Democratic ship and other phases of the hit or miss, devil party, having attached himself to that old take the hindmost, dog eat dog plan under Wilsonian William Gibbs McAdoo, son-in- which America has been operating."'^ After law of the late President Wilson and now a a brief six months service, however. Creel re­ United States Senator from California."'* signed the position maintaining that due to When McAdoo and other "regular Demo­ distance from Washington regional admin­ crats" decided to crush Upton Sinclair's "End istrators required greater authority to control Poverty in California" movement they selected affairs. His sense of administrative impotence Creel to challenge him in the 1934 Demo­ fused with a conviction that "the majority of cratic gubernatorial primary. While Creel national codes have had their preparation eagerly accepted the nomination, he explained dominated by Eastern influences, often with­ his decision, even to close friends, as one of out reference to Far Western business or re­ a reluctant but dutiful party man. "Upton lation to it."'3 He refrained from informing Sinclair was running away with the Demo­ the President about this belief and attributed cratic nomination," he confided to Newton

"Creel speech, dated September 22, 1933, in ibid. yourself ran no danger in wishing me well. I am not "Creel to D. C. Roper, September 29, 1933, Con­ in the habit of publicizing private correspondence." tainer 4, in the Creel Papers; Creel to Roosevelt, Sep­ Creel to Mclntyre, June 3, 1934, PPF 2346, in the tember 23, 1933, PPF 2346, in the Franklin D. Roose­ Roosevelt Papers. velt Papers, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, " Larsen, Ben B. Lindsey, 225; Robert E. Burke, New York. Creel was achingly disappointed by Roose­ Olson's New Deal for California (Berkeley, 1953), 2-5. velt's failure to commend his NRA performance. "I Creel had told Arthur Krock, as early as 1922, that am still of the opinion," he wrote Marvin H. Mclntyre, McAdoo was the "greatest administrative genius in FDR's assistant, "that the President could have written public life today." Creel to Krock, November 13, 1922, me a friendly personal word after ten months of in the Arthur Krock Papers, Princeton University sweating service in his behalf, and I also feel that you Library.

223 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 197.4

Baker, "and nothing was more apparent than Despite repeated pleas for assistance and his that his choice by the Democrats would mean prediction of the Democratic party's coming an overwhelming swing to the extreme right, disaster in California, Roosevelt refused to destroying progressivism in California for the endorse him.'^ Sinclair's massive electoral tri­ next thirty years. "'^ umph indicated why Creel's candidacy needed Recognizing the surging popularity of Sin­ something more than a presidential endorse­ clair's reform movement with many suffering ment. families. Creel attempted to blunt this appeal After his political defeat. Creel resumed by appearing as President Roosevelt's personal work in Washington for Collier's. He became choice in the primary. "I consented to be­ one of Franklin Roosevelt's favorite reporters. come a candidate for Governor," he an­ His articles frequently revealed details about nounced, "because I wanted to bring the New coming administrative plans and programs. Deal to California and put the state squarely When the attacks of the Liberty League behind F.D.R. in his fight to reorganize Amer­ mounted, for instance, the President retorted ica on fairer, finer lines."'" The strategy was through Creel that the Constitution was not vitiated by Roosevelt's refusal, despite pres­ intended to be a "dead hand" blocking prog­ sure by James Farley and Raymond Moley, ress. "The New Deal's goal was to continue to intervene in the primary. When Mrs. the Constitution as a truth and a hope, not Roosevelt attempted to win an endorsement as a mere collection of obsolete phrases." In for Sinclair, Stephen Early, the President's 1935, Harry Hopkins offered Creel the chair­ secretary, replied that FDR's instructions on manship of the National Advisory Board to California politics were to "say nothing and the Works Progress Administration. Hopkins do nothing."''' wanted this agency to contribute recommenda­ Creel endeavored to create the image of an tions and "intelligent faultfinding."^" Creel intimate Roosevelt proteg^ whose state ad­ accepted the offer and spent 1935 working ministration would bring California a "new with the WPA, writing for Collier's, and boost­ deal." He espoused a state income tax, in­ ing Franklin Roosevelt for a second term. creased inheritance taxes, and promised sup­ While some progressives were growing in­ port for a farmers' co-operative movement. creasingly apprehensive by 1935-1936 about Sinclair's "socialism," claimed Creel, inhered the President's New Deal, Creel remained a in his "scrip currency" schemes, proposed vehement devotee. "What we call the New bond issues, and intention to grant fifty dol­ Deal," he declared, "as well as all other pro- lars each month to everyone over sixty.'*

" Creel to Baker, May 13, 1934, Container 80, in the "Creel to Baker, June 3, 1934, Container 80, in the Newton D. Baker Papers, Library of Congress. "God Baker Papers; Creel to Sinclair, October 18, 1934, knows I was in no shape to make the race, besides PPF 1165, Creel to James A. Farley, September 21, hating office seeking, but I couldn't get out of it with­ 1934, PPF 2346, "California Democratic National Com­ out looking yellow." Creel to Bernard Baruch, June mittee" file, OF 300, all in the Roosevelt Papers. 3, 1934, in the Bernard Baruch Papers, Princeton Uni­ "Creel to Marvin H. Mclntyre, August 13, 1934, versity Library. PPF 2346, in the Roosevelt Papers. This letter begged " "In my campaign I am going to make no attempt Mclntyre, a presidential assistant, to ask FDR to have to trade on your popularity, but I do intend to make James Farley state that Sinclair's "EPIC" plan "had an ardent advocacy of your administration and its no relation to the New Deal." measures a principle plank in my platform." Creel to ^ His privileged reporter's status with Roosevelt can Roosevelt, April 25, 1934, PPF 2346, in the Roosevelt be seen in articles by Creel in Collier's, XCV: 12, 52 Papers; Creel Speech, July 27, 1934, Container 5, in (May 11, 1935), XCVI: 7-8, 45-46 (September, 1935), the Creel Papers. and XCVIII: 7-9, 39-40 (December 26, 1936). Ray­ " Stephen Early to Eleanor Roosevelt, October 23, mond Moley, Roosevelt's Brains Trust organizer, states 1934, PPF 1165, in the Roosevelt Papers. Sinclair, on that historians "cannot overlook Creel's articles in the other hand, held FDR adviser Raymond Moley Collier's during FDR's first and second terms, for he largely responsible for persuading the President to had easy access to the President and, in many cases. remain neutral during the primary. Upton Sinclair, Creel was writing what the President was thinking. Columbia University Oral History Memoir (1962), p. Some of his pieces were authentic trial balloons." 289; Sinclair to Roosevelt, October 5, 1934, PPF 1165, "Liberal's Odyssey," in Newsweek, XXX: 96 (Decem­ in the Roosevelt Papers. ber 15, 1947). See also Creel, Rebel at Large, 296. 224 ANNUNZIATA: GEORGE CREEL gressive thought, derives from Woodrow Wil­ tinned to abandon the New Deal, Creel, as son's vision of a fairer, finer world." More­ late as 1938-1939, insisted that Roosevelt's over, only the party of Jefferson, Jackson, program merited every progressive's total Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt demonstrated dedication. He displayed special sensitivity any recognition that "what we witnessed in to attacks on the New Deal for being "com­ 1929 was no mere financial panic, but the munist inspired": end of an era, and that what we must have is a brand new economic order." A profound Ask yourselves if it is "red" to say that the burden of industry shall be lifted from the temperamental difference divided Republi­ backs of little children? If it is "red" to cans and Democrats. "With the Republicans insure bank deposits? If it is "red" to out­ politics is a business, with the Democrats it law get-rich-quick scoundrels and fake in­ is an emotional experience. The Republican vestment bankers who made a business of party is an industrial plant, operated for stealing the savings of the poor? If it is revenue only; the Democratic party is based "red" to pass a Social Security Act that on ideals. Never at any time have we been recognizes the obligation of government to practical in the sense of placing profit above care for the aged, the orphaned, the wi­ principle."^' Creel displayed complete satis­ dowed, the cripples and the blind?^^ faction with the New Deal. Roosevelt's re­ Neither Roosevelt's second administration nor forms had his "whole hearted approval," for his desire for a third term alarmed Creel. they represented "a forward step in humanity's And, in 1939, the President rewarded his loyal­ advance." Indeed, no true progressive could ty by appointing him commissioner of the repudiate the New Deal. "I rejoice in the Golden Gate International Exposition. inspiring leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt and love him for the enemies he has made. I believe in the principles of the New Deal 'ERHAPS the very first public with all the force of my being. ..." Creel indication of Creel's disapproval spurned the criticism emanating from disillu­ of New Deal activities came not in any of sioned Democrats. When Bainbridge Colby, his political articles, but rather in an intro­ John W. Davis, and Al Smith deserted Roose­ duction he wrote, on December 12, 1939, for velt in 1936, Creel commented that the Presi­ an edition of the papers of his friend Edward dent's achievements made him the "ardent, P. Costigan. Here he warned that contempo­ uncompromising advocate of every one of rary American liberalism "stands in danger those great principles that are the heart of of being pushed and shoved away from its the Democratic party and the hope of Amer- real meaning."2* During the next eight years, ica."22 however, a series of events caused the tepid Roosevelt's triumph in 1936 vindicated skepticism of December, 1939, to burgeon New Deal policies and indicated an unmis­ into agitated denunciation. When his auto­ takable presidential mandate. Creel support­ biography. Rebel at Large: Recollections of ed reorganization of the federal judiciary, Fifty Crowded Years, appeared in 1947 its maintaining that the "court-packing" plan leitmotif was the perversion of true reform was neither unconstitutional nor a menace to principles. " 'Liberalism'! Not in all history the judiciary's independence. He espied no has a word been so wrenched away from its leftist deviation in tlie New Deal during true meaning and dragged through every Roosevelt's second term, and while many pro­ gutter of defilement."^^ Creel had grown so gressives who were active in the Bull Moose angry with "the New Deal—Fair Deal phil­ and New Freedom reform movements con- osophy of government" that his autobiography

^ Creel speech, December 28, 1935, address to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, August 30, 1935, =^' The Record (Berkeley, California), November 4, speech, August 24, 1935, all in Container 5, in the 1938. Creel Papers. '"Public Ownership of Government: Collected ^'San Francisco Examiner, April 26, 1936; Creel Papers of Edward P. Costigan, with a foreword by speech, January 8, 1936, Container 5, in the Creel Creel (New York, 1940), v. Papers. '^ Creel, Rebel at Large, 370.

225 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974

actually assails programs, policies, and per­ served as ghostwriter for Admiral Ross T. sonnel he supported from 1932 through the Mclntire's reminiscences about FDR in White early 1940's and is now, ironically, cited by House Physician (1946).29 historians as an important source for con­ The sources of Creel's disillusionment with servatism in the 1930's.2^ the New Deal are firmly rooted in the 1940- Rebel at Large is an autobiography riddled 1945 period. After spending part of 1940 with memories distorted by omissions, de­ advising Mexico's President Cardenas on es­ sires, and needs of the moment. Its "fall from tablishing a ministry of public information grace" character depicts American history and propaganda. Creel returned to Washing­ from 1932 on as degeneration. It is a classic ton. His wife's death in 1941 left him shaken example of the ideologically selective char­ and depressed. It was but the first in a series acter of memory. The George Creel who had of profoundly dejecting incidents. After defended Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal "trudging from office to office in Washing­ against the onslaughts of Al Smith and Bain­ ton" offering to serve in a wartime govern­ bridge Colby in 1936 now discovered a new ment post and being politely rebuffed, his pattern. In 1932 Roosevelt "had done no more frustration and resentment augmented.^" It than to promise a proper balance of power confounded him that Franklin Roosevelt ap­ between employer and employed," but by pointed Elmer Davis, rather than the cele­ 1936 "he was committed to courses that gave brated chairman of World War I's Commit­ organized labor the status of a privileged tee on Public Information, to direct the Office class." Roosevelt surrounded himself with of War Information. During the early 1940's "yes men," was essentially an "adolescent," Creel wrote numerous articles describing the and had a "royalty complex." He indulged more sophisticated and efficient procedures the desires of blacks and organized labor. that Woodrow Wilson and he had devised for Creel applauded Donald Richberg's insight— regulating information and espousing Amer­ the President sought "superior rights for in­ ica's cause.^' While being only on the periph- feriors." A coterie of advisers encouraged Roosevelt in extravagant schemes. "The trouble with Harry Hopkins as with so many to FDR, January 8, 1941, all in PPF 2346, in the Roosevelt Papers. The 1945-1946 Truman-Creel cor­ others that Franklin Roosevelt gathered respondence is contained in PPF 1066 and OF 1140 around him, and even with the President him­ files, in the Harry S. Truman Papers, Truman Library, self, was that he had never spent his own Independence, Missouri. money."2'' ® The personal papers of Admiral Mclntire reveal that White House Physician (New York, 1946) was Creel's explosive and startling comments "ghostwritten" by Creel. Box 6, in the Ross T. Mc­ in Rebel at Large were represented as yet an­ lntire Papers, Roosevelt Library. "I want you to other former progressive's disillusionment know," Mclntire wrote Creel on October 30, 1946, with New Deal liberalism, and evidence that "that I appreciate very much the work you did in assembling this book, for your judgment in so doing Roosevelt's policies signified a horrible de­ has stood up extremely well." parture from the American reform tradition. ^ Creel informed Bernard Baruch that "the people The anomaly is that Creel had supported about him [Roosevelt] seem determined to bar any­ FDR's quest for a third term, approved his body and everybody that had anything to do with the foreign policy maneuvers, and remained suffi­ last war." "The thing I want to do, of course," he confided to Baruch, "is to contrast Wilson's whole­ ciently prestigious to receive continued per­ hearted delegation of power with Roosevelt's insistence sonal appointments with Roosevelt. Indeed, on retaining all power in his own hands." Creel to he even enjoyed friendly relationships with Baruch, November 26, 1941, January 5, 1942, in the President Truman in 1945 and 1946^* and Baruch Papers. On this theme see "Dark and Bloody Ground," in Collier's, CXI: 19-20 (March 13, 1943); "What Happened on the Food Front," in Collier's, "" William E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt CXI: 32, 68 (May 8, 1943). and the New Deal (New York, 1963), 356. "'See as examples these Creel articles: "Beware the " Creel, Rebel at Large, 296-297, 332-339. Superpatriots," in American Mercury, LI: 33-41 (Sep­ ^^ Creel to Stephen Eariy, July 20, 1939, PPF 1820; tember, 1940); "Wanted: Opposition," in American Creel to FDR, November 5, 1940; FDR to Creel, No­ Mercury, LIV: 666-671 (June, 1942); "Propaganda vember 8, 1940; FDR "January 3, 1941 memorandum" and Morale," in American Journal of Sociology, XLVII: granting Creel an appointment for January 5; Creel 340-351 (November, 1941). 226 ANNUNZIATA: GEORGE CREEL

ery of power represented an acute personal Creel urged conservatives and liberals to disappointment, he remained prominent as forge separate parties. He wanted to see a Collier's political journalist with access both formal effort to unite Southern Democrats to FDR and later to President Truman. It and "real Republicans" for the 1952 election. was only when the war ended in 1945 that If leading opponents of the welfare state Creel's broader and fundamental criticism of could convene at some central point. Creel Roosevelt and Truman policies began.^^ believed that a new document, rooted in true From that point on, until his death in 1953, progressivism, would emerge. That docu­ Creel relentlessly inveighed against the two ment would surely be "as much of a clarion perils that he believed threatened America— as the Declaration of Independence when it the welfare state and international Com­ was first presented to those patriots who sup­ munism. ported it by pledges of their lives, their for­ Early indications of Creel's dissatisfaction tunes and their sacred honor." Creel hoped with postwar American diplomacy came with to persuade dissident Democrats to support his plea to President Truman in July, 1945, the "proper" Republican in 1952. Some to remember that "lasting peace cannot be Democrats, like James A. Farley and Charles obtained so long as getting along with Russia Edison, former New Jersey governor, rejected means concessions on trivial issues by Soviet Creel's proposal. Edison considered the Dem­ Russia and concessions on basic issues by the ocrats "twelve years late in trying to clean United States." The following year as chair­ up our own house."^^ Others, however, found man of the "Committee for a Fair Trial for Creel's idea stimulating. Louis Bromfield General Draja Mihailovich" he appealed to even suggested a name for the group—"Demo­ Truman for vigorous anticommunist re­ crats for Decency." Senator Harry Byrd pre­ sponses in Yugoslavia. Creel became an early ferred "Constitutional Democrats," while "Cold War warrior" and, in 1949, published Henry Hazlitt offered "New Jeffersonian an account of Communism's protracted geo­ Democrats," "Jeffersonian Democrats," and political striLtegy—Russia's Race for Asia.^^ "States Rights Democrats." Creel used the He denounced Truman for losing crucial term "Anti-Welfare State Democrats." What­ Cold War battles. By August of 1949 it was ever title they chose, advised Henry Hazlitt, evident that the Communists had triumphed "ought to suggest these Democrats represent in China. In September the Soviet Union the true Democratic tradition and are trying acquired atomic bomb capability. And the to preserve it against those who would de­ Alger Hiss case became the provocation to stroy it."2^ On September 15, 1951, conserva­ indict an entire generation of liberals. Creel tives from both parties gathered in Washing­ informed General MacArthur in 1950 that ton to assess a political realignment. This "the shabby performances of public figures conference concluded that to insure America's in this country" responsible for these reversals restoration to constitutional government, con­ signified the aching inadequacies of American servative Democrats should not form a new politics and the necessity to realign political party but rather work for a conservative Re­ forces.^* publican's nomination in 1952. Although some progressives and radicals "^ There is little in Creel's articles during the war ultimately did become right-wing Republi­ which indicates any serious criticism. See "From the cans, Creel's passionate attitude toward the Cradle to the Grave," in Collier's, CXI: 13, 40 (April 10, 1943); "Presidential Predictions for 1944," in Col­ lier's, CXII: 11-12, 57 (July 10, 1943); "Truman of ^ Creel to General Douglas MacArthur, January 22, Missouri," in Collier's, CXIV: 24, 63-64 (September 1950, in the Douglas MacArthur Papers, Bureau of 9, 1944). Archives, MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, Virginia; ^ Creel to Truman, July 10, 1945, OF 463, Creel to Creel to James Farley, August 11, 1952, Container 4, Truman, July 15, 1946, OF 1140, in the Truman Papers; in the Creel Papers. Creel, Russia's Race for Asia (Indianapolis, 1949). An ''^George Creel to "Dear Linn," August 1, 1951, excellent example of Creel's firm anticommunist posi­ Farley to Creel, April 30, 1952, Edison to Creel, Janu­ tion can be seen in his introduction to Anthony T. ary 30, 1952, all in Container 4, in the Creel Papers. Bouscaren's America Faces World Communism (New <» Creel to Adolphe Menjou, March 7, 1952, HazUtt York, 1953). to Creel, in ibid.

227 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974

Democratic party made such a transition be an excellent substitute. Its proximity to agonizing. This is why he originally hoped Monticello would permit them to "make a to gather all of the nation's "Anti-Welfare pilgrimage to the shrine, and offer a prayer State Democrats" into a separate phalanx. to that august shade."*" This romantic idea Conservative Democrats in California, in his captivated many of Creel's correspondents but view, provided the electoral victories of Sena­ never achieved fulfillment. Some smaller con­ tors Richard Nixon and William Knowland ferences were held, but age, health, geography, and the defeats, in congressional races, of and disinterest prevented the assembly of James Roosevelt and Helen Gahagan Douglas. four to five hundred individuals. Conservative Democrats in California had Creel's rising disaffection with Truman Ad­ been antiadministration "ever since Roosevelt ministration policies is especially accentuated broke the third term tradition and commit­ by his activity in the 1952 election. Senator ted himself to the ClO-Collectivist wing. . . ."^y Taft's resistance to the Fair Deal vitiated These accomplishments proved what awesome several legislative proposals submitted to the conservative strength existed and that neither Eightieth Congress. Virtually all conserva­ he nor any other Democrat opposed to the tives regarded him as a potential savior. Yet administration would countenance the nomi­ Creel's antagonism to the welfare state had so nation of a liberal Republican. The "recap­ intensified that even Senator Taft's limited ture and regeneration of the Democratic par­ endorsement of certain social welfare meas­ ty—our declared aim—can only be brought ures rendered him suspect. When Herbert about by a Republican victory in November. Hoover and General MacArthur urged him But again I say, as I have said from the first, to support Taft, Creel obdurately resisted, that it is not a case of any Republican or countering that Taft's "adventures in Me- any sort of platform. To my mind a Me Too Tooism" were reprehensible. "Why in God's jackal is worse than a Welfare Stater."^^ name doesn't he come out for States Rights? A dramatic way to demonstrate the discon­ Does he think for one moment that advocacy tent with New Deal-Fair Deal policies. Creel of FEPC will get one vote from the Demo­ submitted, would be by assembling "four or crats?"*' Creel eventually accepted the advice five hundred outstanding figures in Monti- of Herbert Hoover, General MacArthur, and cello or at the Hermitage, and adopting a Donald Richberg to endorse Taft publicly truly Democratic platform in the sense of for the Republican presidential nomination, being completely repudiative of unconstitu­ and when his close friend. General Albert C. tional government and the promotion of the Wedemeyer, accepted the chairmanship of the Socialistic Welfare State. . . ."^^ This platform National Citizens for Taft Committee, he should denounce the Democratic party for commenced working for the Ohio Senator in relegating "principles to partisanship" and California. But Creel warned that nominating "inform Republicans the price that they must a conservative would be inconsequential un­ pay for our support, thtis strengthening the less a forthright platform asserting states Rightists in their battle against Me-Too fifth rights, diminished government spending, and column." After learning that the Jefferson "some limitations of taxes on incomes" was Memorial barred political meetings. Creel adopted. Republicans also had to denounce suggested that Charlottesville, Virginia, would the Yalta, Teheran, and Potsdam agreements, terminate diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and her satellites, and withdraw Amer­ "Creel to Farley, August 11, 1952, in ibid. ica from the United Nations.*^ "«Creel to Senator Karl Mundt, August 21, 1951, in Animating his hostility to American pro­ ibid. ™ Creel to Oswald West, March 21, 1952, in ibid. gressivism was not only its creation of a wel- Richberg advised Creel to contact his good friend, former Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, who is "as you probably know violently opposed to the administra­ '" Creel, unaddressed letter of April 15, 1952, in ibid. tion on both foreign and domestic policies." Richberg " Creel to Felix Morley, March 13, 1952, in ibid. gave Creel Kennedy's Palm Beach address and said '"Creel to Caret Garrett, March 17, 1952, in ibid. that "some substantial financial support" might be See also John T. Flynn to Creel, February 4, 1952, in forthcoming. Richberg to Creel, March, 1952, in ibid. ibid.

228 ANNUNZIATA: GEORGE CREEL fare state but also his certainty that Franklin welfare state policies and recommended that Roosevelt and Harry Truman were ignorantly he acquire a recently published book contain­ minimizing the Soviet threat to American ing an address by Eisenhower.*^ Creel re­ democracy. The Soviet Union had emerged mained unimpressed and concurred with the victorious from the Second World War, estab­ former progressive Democratic Senator from lished hegemony over eastern Europe, and Montana Burton K. Wheeler, who saw no clearly had influential collaborators in the "reason why a Democrat should vote for United States. The Republican Senator from Eisenhower in preference to Stevenson." Creel Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, deserved every confided to Senator Richard M. Nixon that American's gratitude for his heroic crusade "Senator Taft's record leaves no doubt as to against internal communism. If McCarthy's his stand on Me-Tooism, but where is there manners and methods were offensive, "he has warrant for the belief that General Eisen­ done, and is doing a highly necessary job."*^ hower can be counted on to clean out the McCarthy was, in fact, being persecuted, and New Deal-Fair Deal 'stables.' "*'' He espe­ "when one considers the enormity of his sin­ cially despised those "moderate Republicans" gle-handed crusade against Communists in (Henry Cabot Lodge, Thomas Dewey, and the government, and the hates and hypocrisies Earl Warren) counselling Eisenhower. Al­ that have pursued him at every step, the though Creel had helped to elect Earl Warren wonder is that he has not given even greater governor of California in 1942, Warren had offense to those who hold that a college de­ subsequently "championed a kind of socialized gree is indubitable proof of loyalty." He ad­ medicine" and "has stood out from the first mitted sending so much money to the Wis­ as a believer in the Welfare State."** consin McCarthy Club that "if Ike and Adlai Subordinating ideology to electoral reality, continue their attacks, I am likely to go broke the Republican party in 1952 vigorously ap­ by reason of further donations. More than plauded Senator Robert Taft's speeches on that I may sound the call for a Society for restrained constitutional government, but the Protection and Preservation of McCarthy­ offered its presidential nomination to Dwight ism, pointing out that it stems from the same Eisenhower. This development confounded sturdy Americanism that led plain men to risk Creel. And soon an apocalyptic vision of all at Lexington and Concord while 'loyalists' America haunted him. Friends sought to as­ raced for the Canadian border." When the suage Creel's fears. Donald Richberg con­ Wisconsin Senator became chairman of the tinued praising Eisenhower as "an individual­ Committee on Government Operations, Creel ist and a real libertarian who will exert a suggested that he investigate the Ford Founda­ tremendous influence against the substitution tion.** of a socialistic tyranny for our constitutional Eisenhower's candidacy in 1952 infuriated government." Creel temporized throughout Creel. Finally, when convinced about Taft's the summer of 1952, finally yielding in Sep­ political philosophy, he fought relentlessly to tember to the recognition that "we will be effect his nomination. Eisenhower's presence augured an electoral contest devoid of ideo­ logical meaning. His antagonism to that "five « Creel to Richberg, April 28, March 30, 1952, Con­ star pig in a khaki poke" stemmed from "the tainer 3, in the Donald Richberg Papers, Library of Congress. fact that every 100 percent Me-Too-er in the *" Richberg advised Creel to read The Welfare State Republican party is for 'Ike' and proves to and the National Welfare (Cambridge, 1952) edited me that he is of the New Deal-Fair Deal by Harvard professor Sheldon Glueck. This book con­ faith not only with respect to foreign policies tains speeches and essays opposing the welfare state by Bernard Baruch, Roscoe Pound, Raymond Moley, but also domestically."*^ Donald Richberg Donald Richberg, Dwight Eisenhower, Vannevar Bush, assured him that Eisenhower would reverse and others. Richberg to Creel, April 5, 1952, Con­ tainer 4, in the Creel Papers. •"Wheeler to Creel, August 21, 1952, Creel to Richard ^^ Creel to Herbert Hoover, December 11, 1951, in Nixon, June 27, 1952, both in ibid. ibid. " Creel to General Albert C. Wedemeyer, December "Creel, "Letter to the Editor," 1952, McCarthy to 4, 1951, in ibid. Burke, Olson's New Deal for Cali­ Creel, March 17, 1953, both in ibid. fornia, 222.

229 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974

forced to take Ike, but oh God, what a strain grateful, I think it useless for you to con­ on the gullet."*^ tinue efforts in my behalf as long as John When Taft later thanked Creel for endorse­ Foster Dulles has anything to do with ap­ ment and support, he promised to "talk with pointments. You see, he is the nephew of the General, and I hope very much that be­ Robert Lansing, Woodrow Wilson's Secre­ fore he gets through he may give some assur­ tary of State, and Lansing to the day of his death, looked on me as his hated and ance to Republicans, and to Democrats like implacable enemy. By way of proof, look yourself, that he will not conduct a New Deal on page 322-23-24 of his War Memoirs and administration if he is elected."5" Any linger­ you will find this diatribe.^^ ing anxieties Creel had about Dwight Eisen­ hower were submerged by his conviction that In less than six months Creel determined Adlai Stevenson constituted an overwhelm­ that Eisenhower would not dismantle the wel­ ing menace to American society. fare state or launch a holy war on communism. Eisenhower's massive victory in November "But what's the use of tormenting myself derived not from his personal popularity, in and you!" he wrote to General Wedemeyer. Creel's opinion, but rather from the "out­ "I am sick to death—sick in heart, mind and rage" of millions of Democrats and inde­ body. But, by God, I am not too sick to know pendents. It was "a victory for anti-socialism, that we are in for four of the damnedest years a turning of the road. . . ." Would the Re­ ever suffered by any people." On October 2, publicans now really repudiate the welfare 1953, George Creel died in his San Francisco state? Would they purge inefficient and dis­ hotel room certain of America's imminent loyal bureaucrats from Washington? Would destruction. His dedication to the American proper Cabinet appointments be made? The right from 1947 until 1953 had been so extra­ new President's State of the Union address ordinary that Herbert Hoover respectfully mollified him, but he remained bewildered requested to serve as an honorary pallbearer by Eisenhower's refusal "to realize that the at his funeral.*^ United Nations is history's worst failure and an increasing menace to our country and in­ stitutions."^' S. ELIOT explained the "dog­ Indeed, although seventy-seven years old matism of youth" by noting when Eisenhower became President, Creel its receptivity to dramatic dichotomies. When still thought that his experience and cam­ we age, however, said Eliot, "we tend to make paign assistance merited an appointment in more reservations, to qualify our positive as­ the new administration: sertions, to introduce more parentheses. We see objections to our own views, we regard I still believe that my experience in the the enemy with greater tolerance and even first World War, followed by close and sometimes with sympathy."^* This is, clearly, continuous study of the Voice of America, not the course through which George Creel Radio Free Europe and Free Asia, should have entitled me to some consultative posi­ passed. Man is not, as Karl Jaspers reminds tion, at least, with the President's Commit­ tee for the reorganization of our "psycho­ •^ Lansing's opposition to Creel arose from what he logical warfare" mess. However, while truly considered intrusions of the Committee on Public In­ formation into State Department affairs. Creel's "so­ cialistic tendencies which were well known and which were evidenced by some of the persons whom he em­ *" Richberg to Creel, September 10, 1952, Container ployed in his office," Lansing recalled, "aroused con­ 4, in the Creel Papers; Creel to Richberg, September, siderable criticism, particularly in Washington." War 1952, Container 3, in the Richberg Papers. See also Memoirs of Robert Lansing (Indianapolis, 1935), 322- Creel to Wedemeyer, July 11, 1952, Container 4, in 323. the Creel Papers. ^ Creel to Wedemeyer, June 25, 1953, Container 4, "Taft to Creel, September 5, 1952; Dwight Eisen­ in the Creel Papers: Herbert Hoover to Mr. and Mrs. hower to Creel, October 23, 1952, both in Container 4, Larry W. Harris, October 3, 1953, Post-Presidential in the Creel Papers. File, in the Herbert Hoover Papers, Hoover Presiden­ '^ Creel to Moley, November 10, 1952, Container 3, tial Library, West Branch, Iowa. in the Richberg Papers; Creel, unaddressed letter of "T. S. Eliot, To Criticize the Critic and Other February 6, 1953, Container 4, in the Creel Papers. Essays (New York, 1965), 16. 230 ANNUNZIATA: GEORGE CREEL

National Archives Creel with President Woodrow Wilson leaving Royal Train Station in the Alps en route to Rome, 1919.

US, "what he is simply once and for all, but There is a compelling tendency when exam­ is a process." Yet certain personalities possess ining revisions or reversals in someone's po­ strikingly obdurate temperamental attitudes. litical thought or activities to list authori­ "We have all been taught to regard it as more tatively the "causes" or "influences" which or less 'natural,' " Richard Hofstadter ob­ motivated the behavior. While firm primary served, "for young dissenters to become con­ evidence of past motivation is elusive, tanta­ servatives as they grow older but the phenome­ lizing and seemingly revelatory clues often non I am concerned with is not quite the embolden the observer to suppress tentative same for it involves not so much the pro­ judgments and "explain," with few reserva­ gression from one political position to another tions, the person's life. Why George Creel as the continued coexistence of reformism and renounced New Deal-Fair Deal liberalism is reaction; and when it takes the form of a pro­ no easier to understand than why he original- gression in time, it is a progression very often unattended by any real change in personal ™ Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform (New temper."^'^ York, 1955), 21.

231 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974 ly became a Wilsonian progressive. Creel in­ bill and still be counted a liberal in good sisted that he remained rigorously loyal to standing; by 1945 support for civil rights had vital progressive principles. Is this the self- become an acid test of one's liberal creden- deceptive rationalization of a disappointed dals."57 and angry man? Did advancing age simply The Roosevelt and Truman endeavors to make him what Yeats once called "an old establish economic security, provide federal bellows full of angry wind"? Did he bid fare­ aid to education and medical insurance, and well to reform because something in pro­ to achieve a compensatory fiscal policy re­ gressivism prevented acquiescence to the so­ flected liberalism's enlarged social welfare cial service goals of a new urban liberalism? concerns. When Roosevelt declared, in his Creel's passionate, polemical temperament, State of the Union message on July 11, 1944, his resentment against the status and prestige that all Americans must have of certain New Deal advisers and administra­ tors, his inability to obtain an administrative The right to a useful and remunerative job . . . position during World War II, and the death The right to earn enough . . . of his first wife each shaped the selective ideo­ The right of every farmer to ... a decent logical character of memory displayed in the living autobiography he wrote at the age of seventy- The right of every businessman [to have] one. In 1948 he told Bernard Baruch that freedom from unfair competition the "penalty we pay for living beyond our The right of every family to a decent home allotted span" is seeing loved ones "slip away, The right to adequate medical care . . . leaving a dreadful emptiness. "^^ These events, The right to adequate protection from . . . when fused with the acute upheavals of war fears of old age, sickness, accident and and augmenting governmental power, left a unemployment heavy impress of doubt and apprehension The right to a good education upon him. he signified government's intention to pro­ Progressives had their youth marked by ex­ tect people from market vicissitudes. The citing reform ventures and by the grim impact welfare state would shatter the iron bond be­ of World War I. When the Great Depression tween production and consumption. Individ­ and a new European struggle intruded upon uals, apart from their earnings, would receive their middle years they suffered what few a range of social services to meet social con­ generations ever experience—massive fissures tingencies. These developments led Creel to in institutions and the erosion of certitudes, a position—adopted by other pre-World War values, and precedents. If the "end of inno­ I progressives and even by some former literary cence" theme conveys the disillusioning tran­ radicals of the 1920's and 1930's like John sition of the early 1900's, then, surely, those Chamberlain, Max Eastman, and John Dos anxious decades after World War I which Passos—of equating New Deal liberalism, Brit­ brought rapid, disorienting, incomprehensi­ ish Labour party reforms, and Scandinavian ble changes destroyed order and meaning and social welfare democracies with Nazism and signaled the end of philosophical and insti­ Stalinism.58 Dismissing Creel's judgment as tutional security. Few people emerged from the disruptive decade of the 1940's with an '"'' Richard Polenberg, War and Society: The United ideology or faith intact. The war brought States, 1941-1945 (Philadelphia, 1972), 97-98; Bernard chaos, conscription, censorship, discipline, and Asbell, The F.D.R. Memoirs (New York, 1973), 269- bureaucratization. A new egalitarian spirit 318. threatened the distance between social classes 58 Perhaps the most famous American formulation and commitment to progressive principles of this thesis came from James Burnham: "There is, in truth, not a formal identity uniting Stalinism meant new actions. "In the 1930's a man like (communism), Nazism (fascism) and New Dealisra. George Norris could oppose an antilynching Against differing developmental backgrounds and at different stages of growth, they are all managerial ideologies. They all have the same historical direc­ tion: away from capitalist society and toward mana­ ^ George Creel to Bernard Baruch, January 27, 1948, gerial society. Of the three, New Dealism is the most in the Baruch Papers. primitive and least organized; it retains most from 232 ANNUNZIATA: GEORGE CREEL hyperbolic should not obscure the New Deal's party of genuine reform will be strengthened symbolic significance. If it was not a "third by their departure." Croly provocatively pre­ American revolution," it did create something dicted the division which occurred among new—the welfare state. 'Tor the first time in progressives during the 1930's and the defec­ United States history," C. Wright Mills ob­ tion by so many prominent pre-World War I served, "social legislation and lower class is­ progressives from the New Deal. When the sues became important features of the reform reformers separate, said Croly, "one of these movement."5^ Precisely for this reason Rich­ groups will stick faithfully to the principle of ard Hofstadter believed that "many men who equal rights—to the spirit of the true Jeffer­ had lived through Progressivism and had sonian faith. It will seek still further to un­ thought of its characteristic proposals as be­ dermine the representative character of Amer­ ing in the main line of American tradition, ican institutions, to deprive official leadership even as being restorative of those traditions, of any genuine responsibility and to cultivate found in the New Deal an outrageous depar­ individualism at the expense of individual ture from everything they had known and and national integrity."^' valued, and so could interpret it only as an George Creel's outrage at modern liberal­ effort at subversion or as the result of over­ ism's deviance from authentic Jeffersonian- powering alien influences. Their opposition Wilsonian principles is a provocative remind­ was all too often hysterical, but in their sense er of the progressive predicament Croly an­ that something new had come into American alyzed. It demonstrates again that the New political and economic life they were quite Deal was an uneasy combination of political right."^" and intellectual progressivism. Creel was al­ Herbert Croly's The Promise of American ways closer to the rhetoric and crusades of Life (1909) indicted progressivism as a "spe­ trust-busting and fighting special privileges cies of higher conservatism" and for its re­ than with the innovative manifestations of fusal "to inquire whether the principle of reform thought in philosophy, economics, so­ equal rights in its actual embodiment in ciology, and law. By 1941 a perhaps imper­ American institutional and political practice ceptible but very real reform animus had has not been partly responsible for some of formed. The New Deal's insouciance, its pro­ the existing abuses. . . ." Reformers unwill­ liferating agencies and expanding social wel­ ing to abandon the Jeffersonian principle of fare functions were now perceived as violative restricted governmental intervention, some­ of the neutral regulatory progressive state. thing Croly considered a ritualistic American Roosevelt and Truman were now presiding piety, would be confused by the vortex of so­ over an omnicompetent, centralized, social cial change and "thwarted by the logic of service state that demagogically pandered to events." Unwilling to attempt imperative so­ the lusts of organized interest groups by pro­ cial reconstruction by formulating "a more viding favors to everyone. Welfare sialism responsible and positive conception of de­ became the menacing new leviathan that pro­ mocracy," some reformers would decry the gressives had to protest. Since Creel enjoyed cause of liberal reform, and they "will be that "sumptuosity of security" characterizing forced into the ranks of the supporters and individuals who William James said were beneficiants of the existing system; and the convinced that their original insights retain enduring validity, it is unsurprising that, dur­ ing his last years, the "rebel at large" would the capitalist ideologies. But the direction is what is decry rather than acquiesce to the aspirations all-important; and New Dealism points in the same of a new urban liberalism. direction as the others." The Managerial Revolution (New York, 1941), 196-197. "C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite (New York, 1956), 273. "^Herbert Croly, The Promise of American Life '" Hofstadter, Age of Reform, 302. (New York, 1963), 154.

233 REVIEWS

STATE AND REGIONAL waukee Socialist political machine. He was elected to the House of Representatives in the 1910 Socialist sweep of Milwaukee. As a Victor Berger and the Promise of Constructive first-term Congressman, Berger introduced Socialism, 1910-1920. By SALLY M. MILLER. bills for old-age pensions, a nationally-owned (Greenwood Press, Inc., Westport, Connecti­ railroad network, and home rule for Washing­ cut, 1973. Pp. xii, 275. Illustration, notes, ton, D.C. He opposed prohibition and fa­ bibliography, index. 111.50.) vored immigration restriction. Berger once stated that "... a reformist party would have Author Sally Miller competently tells the a better chance of continued growth and suc­ story of Milwaukee political boss Victor cess in American politics than ... a revolu­ Berger's efforts to make the Socialists nation­ tionary party. . . ." Officeholding itself be­ ally a parliamentary reform party on the came a major issue in the Socialist party na­ Milwaukee pattern rather than a radical revo­ tionally, between Congressman Berger's "re­ lutionary movement. The book is of great formist" (read moderate) wing and the revo­ attraction to both the general reader inter­ lutionary wing. ested in Milwaukee and Wisconsin history Author Miller maintains that the classical and to the professional historian. Except for tragedy of Berger and moderate socialism was the exclusion of the papers of the outspoken due to First World War issues. During the Milwaukee Socialist Mayor Daniel Hoan, the war Berger's loyalties were divided among study is exhaustively researched, even includ­ his Germanic heritage, American democracy, ing the little-used but invaluable Berger col­ socialism, and peace. Consequently he was lections themselves. This readable book in­ prosecuted for violating the Espionage Act, cludes a good personality sketch of Berger, denied a seat he won in Congress, and mis­ details his national political career, profiles trusted by pro-British and neutralist socialists. his Milwaukee political base, and analyzes The author says that Berger's ". . . belief in his World War I dilemmas. The author German superiority" led to sympathy for the has made a solid contribution to the history German cause which alienated neutralist so­ of the period by placing Berger in the context cialists such as Morris Hillquit and pro-Brit­ of his role in American history and avoiding ish socialists such as Wisconsin Loyalty Legion the narrowness of many biographies. leader Algie Simons. As pro-war socialist John At eighteen years of age Victor Berger emi­ Spargo derisively phrased it, "American so­ grated from Austria and eventually became cialism has so often spoken with a German the kingpin of the powerful Germanic Mil- accent." Berger also lost prestige among the 234 BOOK REVIEWS

Milwaukee Leader and other moderate so­ cialist journals because of their Germanic "ac­ cent." Burleson interfered with radical leftist socialist publications less often, because in the wartime context they were either genu­ inely neutral in their antiwar stance or were at least not anti-British or anti-ally. Thus the revolutionary socialists were not anxious to aid the beleaguered moderates except to pay token lip service to the civil liberties question involved. Berger's legal problems with the government during the war hence served to complicate his struggle for power within the Socialist party. His loss of control over the Socialist party during the war, and his subse­ quent opposition to affiliation with the com­ munists, forced him and his reformists into a final dilemma. According to the author, Berger decided against going along with the party-controlling revolutionaries, which would have meant abandoning American democratic parliamentary methods and traditions. In­ stead, he stood by his belief in democratic methods and refused to support the revolu­ tionaries.

Society's Iconographic Collections Sally Miller suggests that the reason the Congressman Victor Berger. United States has no strong Socialist party today, on the pattern of modern western European nations, is because Berger and his militant pro-Germans when he endorsed a reformists lost control of the Socialist party to war bond drive. revolutionaries during World War I. Mil­ Victor Berger's wartime dilemma extended ler concludes that "Berger's failure meant the to his home city and state. Milwaukee had a defeat of his efforts to fit the party to Ameri­ large German population, and Wisconsin was can conditions. Americanizing socialism was bitterly divided over United States participa­ the nucleus of his constructivism. But when tion in the war. The author remarks that Berger agreed that intervention was unjust Milwaukee's mood toward the war against and that the war effort was not supportable, Germany was accurately reflected by Berger's he and his party assumed a posture apart from strong showing as a third party peace candi­ American conditions. . . ." date with pro-German sympathies in a 1918 United States Senate election, and by increased circulation of the Milwaukee Leader, which RICHARD C. HANEY had been charged with disloyalty. Nonethe­ University of Wisconsin — Whitewater less, pro-war Republican Irvine Lenroot won the Senate seat in the special election with the slogan "Lenroot and Loyalty." Wilsonian Democrat Joseph E. Davies also ran ahead of GENERAL HISTORY Berger even though the pro-war vote was di­ vided between the two major-party candidates. Tariff, Politics, and American Foreign Policy, The author also points out that Milwaukee 1874-1901. By TOM E. TERRILL. (Greenwood and Wisconsin ". . . consistently oversub­ Press, Westport, Connecticut, and London, scribed in bond drives and draft quotas, and England, 1973. Pp. ix, 306. Notes, bibhogra- it was the state of Wisconsin that initiated the phy, index, .f 12.00.) practice of meatless and wheatless days. . . ." Victor Berger became politically isolated Tom E. Terrill's new book describes one of due to his First World War views. During the the major political concerns of the late nine­ war. Postmaster General Albert Burleson de­ teenth century, the tariff. That era's news­ nied second class mailing privileges to Berger's papers, journals, and Congressional docu-

235 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974

ments bear testimony to the interest which contended that low tariffs, approaching free many Americans demonstrated in regard to trade, would cure the nation's ills by stimu­ this issue. If for no other reason than that lating exports and profitable foreign trade. the last century's media lavished such great Republicans argued the converse. Protection quantities of newsprint and ink while debat­ for American industry would stimulate U.S. ing the tariff question, a book concentrating industrial growth, and, coupled with recipro­ on these discussions has been long overdue. city agreements, would make American pro­ Terrill's work attempts to clarify the tariff ducts competitive on the world market. Sen­ policies of both Democrats and Republicans ator and two-times Secretary of State, James G. during the Gilded Age. This is no easy task. Blaine, was the architect of the GOP's tariff So involved became the issue, that one editor edifice. commented in 1894, "if anyone says 'tariff to Terrill correctly emphasizes the shared bas­ you, shoot him on the spot." Latter-day his­ ic assumptions of both political parties. Dem­ torians probably have had similar feelings. ocrats and Republicans agreed regarding the Indeed, there have been no studies of tariff necessity of stimulating foreign trade in order legislation since Frank W. Taussig and Ed­ to alleviate depressions and resulting social ward Stanwood treated the topic at the turn tension at home. Differences arose over tac­ of the century. tics, not strategy, as Americans expanded Terrill outlines several important features their interests in Cuba, Mexico, the Carib­ of late nineteenth-century political life. Of bean, Isthmian canal routes, Hawaii, Samoa, greatest importance was the balance of power China, and eventually the Philippines. between Democrats and Republicans. A use­ Terrill outlines the major provisions of the ful chart illustrates this situation. Although various tariff bills up to 1901. He uses a wide Republicans occupied the White House for variety of American archival sources, and the more years than their opponents, they never book reflects this. The author concentrates controlled Congress for more than a year. on what nineteenth-century political leaders When Democrat Grover Cleveland captured thought their taiiffs would accomplish, rather the Presidency, on the other hand, his party than on what were the actual results of their soon lost power in the legislature. In other legislation. This opens the way to criticism. words, there existed a relative political equili­ Although strong on American sources, Ter­ brium between the two major parties. rill examines no foreign archival materials. In an attempt to break this equilibrium, Thus, readers might never consider the direct politicians searched for issues which would effects of U.S. tariff policies on the economies win them new voters on the one hand, with­ of other nations. In countries such as Cuba out alienating their traditional supporters on and Hawaii, for example, American tariffs had the other. Americans of the Gilded Age con­ important consequences, especially in regard tinued voting along religious and ethnic lines. to the sugar trade. Questions of a controversial nature, therefore, Terrill's chapters are imbalanced. Usually, had to be avoided. each chapter deals with one tariff, one ad­ Divisive issues abounded in an age char­ ministration, or one idea. But, by the time acterized by continual economic booms and one reaches the end of the book, Terrill loads busts. Such questions as currency, land, and the reader with two separate tariff bills and civil service reform, railroad regulation, temp­ covers the period from the second Cleveland erance, nativism, and the parochial school to the aborted second McKinley Administra­ controversy, as well as the periodic violent tions. This period, 1892-1901, includes the labor outbursts, were assiduously ignored by Venezuelan crisis, the Spanish-American War, politicians as long as possible. The Bloody and the era of empire building, and merits Shirt remained a safe rallying point for a more space than Terrill allows. while, but political leaders eventually settled The major criticism of the book, however, on the tariff debates as a subject least likely rests upon the author's seeming inability to to trouble the rapidly and agonizingly chang­ synthesize the information which he presents. ing American society. Terrill demonstrates how active a part the Tariff debates, then, provided a convenient governments of the late nineteenth century forum from which Republicans and Democrats played in the nation's economy. Utilizing tar­ might appeal for social harmony during their iff laws to accomplish their respective econom­ various political campaigns. Democratic po- ic policies, both Republicans and Democrats liticos, taking their intellectual and statistical adopted programs which, in effect, regulated arguments from economist David A. Wells, the free market place. Despite the laissez- 236 BOOK REVIEWS faire rhetoric espoused by nineteenth-century medical and pharmaceutical professions. An­ political elites, it is clear that in practice they tinarcotic reformers, however, successfully regarded quite the opposite situation as ac­ brandished a variety of arguments to convince ceptable and even desirable. Terrill never Congress of the need for national controls. makes this active post-laissez-faire governmen­ The reformers exaggerated both the preva­ tal role clear, although he documents its ex­ lence of addiction to, and the psychological istence throughout his book. and physiological effects of, the drugs they In conclusion, Terrill provides students of were attacking. They cited the failure of state American history with much valuable infor­ and local controls and the inability or unwill­ mation. The work attempts to clarify the ingness of the medical and pharmaceutical confusing tariff debates of the Gilded Age. professions to deal with the problem. Treaty The book suffers from one major flaw, but commitments required national legislation, since it provides many of the facts, and uses they argued, and in the absence of interna­ all of the American research sources, it can tional commitments they urged Congress vol­ be considered a useful monograph. untarily to set an example for the rest of the world. RICHARD H. ZEITLIN The antinarcotic movement was immeas­ State Historical Society of Wisconsin urably aided by the association in the public mind of narcotics with feared minority groups or subcultures. Smoking opium was identi­ fied with Chinese, cocaine with blacks, heroin The American Disease: Origins of Narcotic with urban youth gangs, and marijuana with Control. By DAVID F. MUSTO. (Yale Univer­ Mexicans. Narcotics, the argument went, in­ sity Press, New Haven and London, 1973. Pp. clined these groups to violent crime in parti­ xiii, 354. Notes, index. $10.95.) cular and threatened the social order in gen­ eral. The perceived threats to social order, David F. Musto's The American Disease moreover, were overtly sexual—Chinese were stands out as one of the most timely histori­ accused of exploiting opium addiction to gain cal publications in recent years. Not since control over white women; heroin reportedly promoted promiscuity; and dope-crazed black the publication of Charles Terry and Mildred and Chicano rapists lurked behind every shad­ Pellens' The Opium Problem in 1928 has the ow in the public imagination. subject of narcotic control received such thor­ ough examination. As a medical doctor, pro­ Musto also treats several important topics fessor of psychiatry and history, and authori­ related to the history of federal regulation. ty on drug abuse, Musto applies an impres­ He devotes an excellent chapter to the evolu­ sive range of analytical skills to the study. tion of the concept of addiction. He provides His research has drawn upon a wealth of pre­ the first objective evaluation of the World viously unused materials, including records of War I-era maintenance clinics, showing that the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, the so-called "British system" of addict main­ the U.S. Public Health Service, state and lo­ tenance was actually an American innova­ cal government agencies, medical societies tion. And Musto points out that the most ex­ and pharmaceutical associations, private pa­ treme sanctions against addicts have been lev­ pers of leading antinarcotic activists, public ied dming periods of widespread domestic documents, and technical journals. Unfortu­ paranoia, such as the Red Scare of 1919 and nately, the book is so awkwardly written that the McCarthy era of the early 1950's, when is is unlikely to receive the attention it de­ addiction was erroneously associated with in­ serves outside the historical community. ternal subversion. Musto's most significant contribution is a There are a number of weaknesses in this comparative examination of the earliest fed­ study. By concentrating upon the national eral ventures in narcotic control—the Smok­ arena Musto overstates the role of middle- ing Opium Exclusion Act (1909); and the class reformers in antinarcotic movements gen­ Harrison Act (1914), which restricted the use erally. He overlooks the elected representa­ of opiates and cocaine; and the Marijuana tives from working-class areas and members Tax Act of 1937. Federal action in this field of neighborhood associations who frequently was originally hindered by constitutional ob­ initiated or led anticocaine campaigns at the jections against granting broad police powers state and local level. He also pays little at­ to the national government and by organized tention to state prohibition of marijuana. His opposition to government regulation of the interpretation of the Spanish-American War 237 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974 and the subsequent occupation of the Philip­ scholar to produce an assessment of the Okie pine Islands is based on an exaggerated no­ influx into California. tion of American idealism and virtually ig­ The reason for this omission seems clear. nores the economic roots of early twentieth- The booming World War II defense indus­ century American diplomacy. tries lured the Okies out of their unhealthy The major flaw, however, is simply poor shanty towns. Unencumbered by the burden writing. At times Musto's narrative stream of race, which prevented black laborers from meanders aimlessly. The text is cluttered with moving beyond the narrow confines of ship­ tangential biographical information which yard slums, the Okies' assimilation into Cali­ should have been relegated to the footnotes, fornia was stimulated by the war. By 1943, while the eighty-two pages of notes frequent­ Mexican braceros, imported under the emer­ ly reveal information important enough to gency farm labor program, were providing have been included in the text. Given the corporate agriculture with the "cheap labor" book's topical organization, a chronological necessary to harvest crops, and the Dust Bowl introduction and concise chapter summaries refugees, now receiving higher pay in mass- would have greatly clarified the main thrust production industries, had no desire to return of the work. Still, despite stylistic weakness­ to the fields. The Okies thus escaped their es, this is by far the best account of Ameri­ plight as exploited farm workers and in the ca's century-old battle against drug addiction. process became "Californians." The "Okie problem" no longer intruded upon the public ROBERT J. HALSTEAD conscience. University of Wisconsin—Madison The long delay in evaluating the Dust Bowl migration is unfortunate because the Okie exodus—more than any other event- California and the Dust Bowl Migration. By symbolized both the hope and despair of the WALTER STEIN. (Contributions in American depression years. Walter Stein's insightfully History, No. 21. Greenwood Press, Westport, written, thoroughly researched book surveys Connecticut, 1973. Pp. xiv, 302. Illustradons, the Okie migration to California and, much notes, bibliography, index. $12.00.) like Ronald Wolters' Negroes and the Great Depression or Donald Grubbs' Southern Ten­ ant Farmers and the New Deal, paints a re­ Over one million small farm owners, share­ vealing portrait of the experiences of a dis­ croppers and tenant farmers packed up their advantaged group's efforts to survive the lean modest possessions and fled the Great Plains years. region during the 1930's. About one of three headed for California hoping to escape the Stein begins his study with an analysis of cycles of drought and poverty which regu­ the boom-and-bust cycles which swept the larly swept through Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Great Plains states and pushed Americans Texas. Unskilled and largely uneducated, the from that difficult region by the hundreds "Okies" found few permanent jobs and, in of thousands. He then follows the displaced the face of dire circumstances, accepted a mar­ nomads into California. We learn of the new­ ginal existence as migratory farm laborers in comers' impact on the Golden State. Originat­ California's industrialized agriculture. Novel­ ing in traditionally Democratic states and ists like John Steinbeck perceived both the among groups which C. Vann Woodward dramatic and didactic qualities of this migra­ labeled "the left forkers," the Okies played a tion and wrote earthy semifictional accounts major role in transforming California politics largely drawn from personal experience. But and ending the Republican party's thirty-year The Grapes of Wrath and In Dubious Battle reign over the state. The migrants also con­ were not the only descriptions of the Okies' founded the state's racial stereotypes. Prior plight. Carey McWilliams and the La Follette to the Okie migration, race had differentiated Civil Liberties Committee also focused atten­ California's ethnic farm workers from the tion on various aspects of the mass-migration, white population of the Central Valley. But, while Hollywood recorded the story in a movie as the Okies moved into harvest work, they starring the young Henry Fonda. Unfortu­ posed a problem which society failed to re­ nately, during the 1940's, interest in the Dust solve: they were white, old-stock Americans, Bowl migration waned and historians subse­ but also field workers. Rural Californians quently ignored the topic. As a result, we displaced onto the Okies the prejudices that have waited nearly a quarter century for a had been applied to Mexicans and other

238 BOOK REVIEWS minorities which traditionally harvested crops.. they also managed to retain control through­ Stein also describes how local authorities fre­ out its course. For better or for worse, their quently aided corporate farmers by purging influence helped prevent the radical under­ relief rolls in order to force the newcomers currents associated with the Revolution from to accept harvest work. Yet, the significance turning it into a thorough social upheaval. of Stein's work extends beyond its analysis of Ironically, Alexander Hamilton, whose bas­ the Okies' experience in California during the tard birth made him the most humble in ori­ depression years. gins of the Founding Fathers, ultimately California and the Dust Bowl Migration proved to be the staunchest defender of the provides us with a foundation for understand­ established order. ing the United Farm Workers' long and diffi­ The seven revolutionaries differed markedly cult struggle for survival. Once in California, from one another. They spanned two genera­ the Okies' lives were shaped by the prerequi­ tions in age. Franklin in 1776 was seventy- sites of corporate agriculture, and Stein's de­ one, Washington fifty-one, Adams forty-one, scription of the C.I.O.'s unsuccessful efforts Jefferson thirty-three. Jay thirty-one, Madison to organize the Dust Bowl refugees silhouettes twenty-five, and Hamilton twenty-one. Their the immense obstacles which farm workers religious outlooks varied from the Deism of must surmount before collective bargaining Jefferson to the orthodoxy of Jay, who ac­ is established in the agricultural industry. cepted the literal truth of the Bible. Nor were Cesar Chavez's ability to sustain a viable their personalities alike: Franklin's Rabelaisi­ union among previously unorganizable work­ an qualities discomfited the Puritan in Adams, ers can be more fully appreciated after read­ and the pitifully shy Madison must have at ing Stein's volume. times envied the almost regal bearing of Wash­ Too bad the publisher sought to economize ington. and delete the pictoral documentation which Great as the dissimilarities among these would have given this excellent book an add­ men were, the traits which they shared were ed dimension. more important. The seven were men of the eighteenth century, with a deep belief in the RICHARD STREET power of science and the value of education. School for Workers All had a remarkable capacity for personal University of Wisconsin—Madison growth which enabled them to learn from per­ sonal crises and failures. They were devoted to public service and made major personal sacrifice in order to engage in politics. Jeffer­ Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny: The Found­ son, Jay, Adams, and Hamilton, for example, ing Fathers as Revolutionaries. By RICHARD either gave up or frequently interrupted and BRANDON MORRIS. (Harper and Row, New neglected promising legal careers. Most im­ York, 1973. Pp. 334. Illustrations, notes, in­ portant, they shared a belief in republicanism dex. $8.95.) and in the national potential of the United States, and they were willing to be ahead of public opinion to give true leadership in pur­ Richard B. Morris has produced a lively suit of these goals. account of the men who he believes were the most important leaders of the American Morris is most innovative when he attempts Revolutionary movement. Faced with the to explain the psychological factors influenc­ self-imposed task of selecting only seven from ing the actions of the seven. The application that pantheon, Morris demanded of the candi­ of modern analytical conceptions to the dates three special qualities: charismatic careers of subjects who lived 200 years ago leadership, staying power, and constructive is dangerous, and the conclusions drawn must statesmanship. Accepting these criteria, one be classified as speculations. Nevertheless, must respect his choice of Benjamin Franklin, several of Morris' insights are impressive. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Most noteworthy are his evaluations that all, Jefferson, John Jay, James Madison, and except Adams and Jay, had less than idyllic Alexander Hamilton. marriages and that the Jefferson-Hamilton Simply by making these men his focus, feud may have been exacerbated by their Morris presents one of his major points. competition for the approval of George Wash­ America's was a most peculiar revolution; not ington, who provided the strong father figure only did an elite initiate the movement, but desired by both men.

239 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974

Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny is a valu­ ated two inquiries into postwar veteran poli­ able treasury of stories, some familiar and cies. There was a fear that there would be others not so well known, about these famous large scale unemployment and that this, to­ leaders. Morris' description of the confronta­ gether with the withdrawal from a wartime tion between Adams and Franklin when they economy, would lead to trouble both in the had to share a bed in a New Jersey inn humor­ society and the economy. Education benefits ously reveals the characters of both men. Of for veterans, hopefully, would pump federal a sadder quality, is his account of the alleged money into the economy and keep many of relationship of Jefferson with his slave Sally the veterans off unemployment rolls as well Hemmings. as give them time to adjust to civilian life. The Gouverneur Morris Professor Emeritus One of the models considered by Roosevelt's of Columbia University, Richard B. Morris, planners was the Wisconsin Educational Bo­ is one of the foremost historians of the colonial nus Law of 1919. With the backing of the and revolutionary eras. Although scholars American Legion, the Servicemen's Readjust­ will find few surprises in his conclusions about ment Act of 1944 became law. the leaders of our country's struggle for in­ There was little attention given to this dependence, they cannot fail to recognize the legislation by the public at the time. After mastery of the subject which underlies Morris' all, 1944 was the year of D-Day, the dash easy presentation. The general reader will across France, the landings at Saipan and find his book filled with insights, enlivened Leyte, and other campaigns. Besides no one by a puckish wit, and most enjoyable to read. really knew what to expect. The government anticipated that relatively few of the twelve and a half million men in uniform would THOMAS J. ARCHDEACON actually go to college. And those who did University of Wisconsin—Madison presumably would take so-called practical courses rather than liberal arts. Academic spokesmen, particularly the presidents of Harvard and the University of Chicago, feared the effect of flooding the campuses The G.I. Bill, the Veterans, and the Colleges. with unqualified students. "Boondoggle" was By KEITH W. OLSON. (The University Press of a term tossed about at that time. Kentucky, Lexington, 1974. Pp. x, 139. With the end of the war and the discharge Notes, bibliographic essay, tables, photos, in­ of the great bulk of the armed forces, the dex. §9.25.) flood did come. Eventually some two and a quarter millions attended about 2,000 col­ In my home town in the late 1930's, there leges and universities. They were older than was an exceptionally talented musician who the prewar college students; half were mar­ worked on a laundry truck. He had a high ried; and they raised the academic standards school diploma but could not make full use across the nation. They went to the great of his ability because he could not afford universities and a large percentage took liber­ to go to college. The war came; he served, al arts. (At UW, in the Class of 1949, 38.1 and, afterwards, he completed his education per cent of the veterans enrolled were in this under the G.I. Bill. After a short stint as a area in contrast to 27.6 per cent in Engineer­ concert pianist, he is now teaching in a ing and 13.9 per cent in Commerce.) The small college. This is one of several hundred Veterans Administration had its faults, but thousand success stories related to the G.I. was generous in its interpretation of individu­ Bill. Although there is a previous study of al cases. The universities were flexible and politics and veterans during World War II, adjusted to the veterans who in the late forties Keith Olson, a University of Wisconsin alum­ dominated the campuses. While there were nus, is the first to attempt a broader ap­ instances of petty graft—a few institutions proach. In this book he describes and analyzes and bookstores as well as some veterans who the genesis and the administration of the took advantage of benefits—these were min­ World War II bill, and he also provides a case imal relative to the success of this great social study of the interaction of the veterans and experiment. the University of Wisconsin, which originally For those who were on campus, particularly appeared in the winter, 1969-1970, issue of at the University of Wisconsin in the late the Wisconsin Magazine of History. forties, this book provides answers to many During the war. President Roosevelt initi- questions one might have wondered about. 240 Olson also furnishes the middle-aged reader with a nostalgic touch. One of the photos of two quonsets this reviewer walked past almost daily twenty-five years ago had that effect. Then Badger Village and its counter­ parts must evoke memories in hundreds of thousands of families. The Korean War Bill and now the Vietnam Bill were not as generous and, since there were not as many veterans, not as far-reach­ ing as the original bill. The author details in his concluding chapter the specific differ­ ences in these bills. He cannot explore the extent of social change caused by the 1944 bill nor does he expand on the differing at­ titudes .of the latter-day veterans within the boundaries he set for his topic. What he has done is to provide a brief, well-researched, indeed, model monograph on a topic of real importance.

EDWARD M. COFFMAN University of Wisconsin—Madison

University of Wisconsin Archives Southerners and Other Americans. By GRADY A 1947 aerial view of the Camp Randall trailer MCWHINEY. (Basic Books, New York, 1973. camp for married veterans on the Madison campus; Pp. xi, 206. Notes, index. $7.95.) and (below) a veteran buying food in the Camp Randall co-op. Grady McWhiney has assembled his twelve essays (half previously unpublished) in this book around the contention that "myths

241 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974 about ... a host of topics envelop the South" ence" imposed a conformity of sexual mores and thereby obscure the relationship between on the cadets. The author's belief that "the "Southerners" and "Americans" in general. absence of sufficient and reliable evidence Perhaps as a result of this debunking orienta­ precludes a detailed analysis of poor pople tion, McWhiney, while laboring in the rich in the nineteenth-century America" reveals a field of (primarily) Civil War and Recon­ methodological narrow-mindedness and helps struction history, seems preoccupied with to account for his emphasis on middle-class various strawmen and consequently neglects Americans in most of his essays. To the to cultivate the crop itself. In Southerners question "Were the Whigs a Class Party in and Other Americans, the author not only Alabama?" McWhiney answers "no," after falls short of his main purpose—in several examining the background, occupations, re­ cases he manages to substitute new myths for ligion, and education of Whig and Democratic old—but he also unwittingly calls into ques­ leaders in that state. An exposition of issues tion the viability of that purpose as an ap­ and their relevance to different groups in the proach to "Southern" history. state might have yielded a slightly different— With one exception, the articles in this if more complex—answer. collection are disappointing for several rea­ For a volume devoted to exposing and dis­ sons. A few appear almost painfully dated. crediting "myths," Southerners contains some In "The Ghostly Legend of the KKK" (a surprising assertions, including that "there product of McWhiney's graduate school days, was more economic and social opportunity for written in conjunction with Francis B. Sim- whites in the Old South than in the Old kins in 1950), he seriously examines the hy­ North" (pp. 188-189), that tremendous up­ pothesis that the freedmen actually believed ward mobility characterized America in the the hooded terrorists represented supernatural 1850's (pp. 16-17), and that "Americans" dur­ creatures like ghosts, devils, or hobgoblins. ing this period "were in general a friendly and His assertion (in "Reconstruction and Amer­ hospitable people, eager to be loved and ad­ icanism") that "today most Americans are mired, but they were extremely violent" (p. remarkably alike" and that "their values and 24). To this type of nonsense the reader can aspirations are similar" evokes memories of only respond that at least Tocqueville visited the 1950's "consensus" approach to American this country during the early nineteenth cen­ history and society—a popular viewpoint when tury and McWhiney can use no such excuse. McWhiney wrote the essay. And, when check­ Part of the author's difficulty stems from the ing the footnotes for one of the author's argu­ fact that for the most part he insists on a ments supposedly supported by "recent Southerner/American typology. Only in studies" (p. 131), the startled reader finds "Rustic Radicalism" does he refine his concept listed works by Fletcher M. Green and Frank of black-white Southern society and deal with Owsley, written in 1946 and 1949, respective­ different socioeconomic groups and their goals ly. This particular shortcoming—i.e., lack of (in this particular article, factions of Louisi­ timeliness—no doubt plagues many collections ana working-class radicals in the early twen­ of a single historian's writings; however, Mc­ tieth century). Whiney offers the volume not as a contribu­ tion to Southern historiography, but rather Finally, McWhiney's insensitivity to blacks as a corrective to certain "myths" and on that and women merits mention. At one point he basis the reader must evaluate his efforts. suggests that "most Negroes were unprepared for freedom in 1865" and that "few of them The complete lack of documentation in understood its meaning." In another article, the form of footnotes for "Late Ante-bellum "Black History or Propaganda?," he assumes Americans" and "The Meaning of Emancipa­ the lamentable task of arguing that Ameri­ tion" suggests that the serious scholar will can slavery was a benevolent institution; laws devote only passing attention to these two and custom protected the slave, according to essays. Even in the others, McWhiney's meth­ McWhiney, and he includes without qualifi­ odology is often open to serious objections. cation an unfortunate quotation from an an­ His penchant for lengthy quotations from tebellum European visitor who compared the personal letters (see for example "Sex, Wo­ bondsmen with "grown-up children, spoiled men, and the 'Old Army' Officers") might by too much kindness." In this same piece, titillate the reader but it also frequently ob­ written circa 1969, he displays a surprisingly scures the original question—in this case, bitter attitude toward advocates of Black whether the antebellum West Point "experi­ Studies programs.

242 BOOK REVIEWS

His allusions to women throughout the emphasizing foreign affairs, "should be con­ book appear more thoughtless than malicious. sidered in conjunction with the socio-econo­ He quotes (again without comment) an un­ mic interpretation rather than as a substitute identified "contemporary" who impugned the for it." morality of Lowell factory women in general This generosity would be highly becoming (p. 14). Apparently, however, most American had Marks been able to retain his modesty. women during this period engaged constantly But, alas, he does not. Rather, he interprets in either day-long shopping sprees, attending foreign affairs so broadly as to exclude vir­ balls or dances, or compulsive scrubbing tually nothing. And by the end of the book around the house. In "Sex, Women and the it turns out that "the Constitution was large­ 'Old Army' Officers," he fails to examine mid- ly intended to strengthen the national posi­ nineteenth century attitudes toward sex and tion in foreign relations. ..." This is a dis­ merely records the men's gossip about Mexi­ appointment not unexpected, and therefore can women and their colleagues' wives. easily borne. Examined individually or collectively, these Marks arrives at this conclusion by assert­ essays (again, "Rustic Radicalism" remains ing that the nation, under the Articles of Con­ an exception) might anger, irritate, or confuse federation, was on the verge of collapse by some readers, but they will surely disappoint 1787. Congress was utterly impotent: it could nearly everyone. not tax, nor maintain an army, nor enforce treaties. As a result the nation was open to JACQUELINE J. HALSTEAD foreign attack, could not dislodge the British University of Wisconsin—Madison from the frontiers nor protect the navigation of the Mississippi. The Barbary pirates were preying on American commerce in the Medi­ terranean, and the British Orders in Council devastated American trade with the West In­ dies. The foreign debt was left unpaid, in de­ Independence on Trial: Foreign Affairs and fault, and was growing out of control. Simul­ the Making of the Constitution. By FREDERICK taneously, America was developing a fierce W. MARKS III. (Louisiana State University nationalism which made the situation all the Press, Baton Rouge, 1973. Pp. xvi, 256. more painful. This analysis is based largely Notes, bibliography, index. $10.00.) on secondary sources, is not new, has been hot­ ly debated, and is dubious at best. The reasons for the publication of Inde­ To correct these problems Marks maintains pendence on Trial are not readily discernible, that the nationalists ("those who supported since it offers neither insight nor scholarship a limited increase in the powers of Congress, in its attempt to explain the nationalist move­ but more especially . . . those who favored ment which finally produced the Constitu­ drastic constitutional change and later called tion. Instead, Mr. Marks has paraphrased, themselves Federalists"—a definition so broad simplified, and distorted the interpretations as to encompass perhaps 90 per cent of of other historians, has exaggerated the im­ American politicians) sought to grant Con­ portance of foreign affairs as a factor in the gress the power to regulate commerce. The movement, and frequently has misstated the movement began in late 1783 and mush­ facts and has blundered on those rare occa­ roomed into the Annapolis and then finally sions when he has depended upon his own the Philadelphia Convention. The Imposts of scholarship. 1781 and 1783 are mentioned only briefly in The affronts begin instantly, with the in­ passing because they do not conform well with troduction, purportedly an historiographical Marks's thesis that only by early 1785 was essay, but really a restatement of Richard B. there a "remarkable shift in public opinion" Morris' "The Confederation Period and the towards the nationalist position. For some Historian," with a few additions. Those who time there has been a need for substantial re­ were unenthusiastic about Morris' article will search into the subject of nationalist politics be astounded by what Marks has done with in the Confederation Congress. Despite Mr. it. The Progressive interpretation of the Con­ Marks, that need still exists, for he adds little federation and the Constitution becomes a new to what has already been done elsewhere. caricature, although Marks concedes that it The Philadelphia Convention is seen as still must be contended with. Therefore, he marked by a general consensus: the power to modestly suggests that his own interpretation. lay taxes, maintain a standing army and navy. 243 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974 regulate commerce, and enforce treaties would Rank and File: Personal Histories by Work- reside in the federal government. The only ing-Class Organizers. Edited by ALICE and arguments were over the details. STAUGHTON LYND. (Beacon Press, Boston, Marks's account of the ratification debate is 1973. Pp. 296. $12.95.) properly limited to the issues of foreign poli­ cy. But his singular devotion to these issues The Lynds offer readers a fascinating col­ blinds him to the fact that other matters were lection of testimonies by rank-and-file lead­ raised occasionally. Foreign affairs becomes ers involved in organizing during the 1930's the "winning issue" and the "primary theme and 1960's. By revealing a more complex of their [the Federalists] campaign rhetoric." view of workers and their organizations than Apparently, anything goes to prove the point. those found in most accounts of the labor John Jay, although he writes only five arti­ movement, they demonstrate the value of cles of The Federalist, "set the tone for the basing working-class history on a detailed ex­ rest of the series by emphasizing the foreign amination of shop activity. The organizers threat." Marks asserts that "Antifederalists depict the creativity of work groups and dis­ rarely discussed foreign affairs." For instance, cuss issues such as local responsibility in George Mason's Objections "said not a word unions. Most of the activists are radicals who on the subject." Yet James Iredell's pamphlet. relate their political beliefs to experiences on the job and in working-class communities. Answers to Mr. Mason's Objections ... By Their comments provide an effective rebuttal Marcus, which is a point-by-point rebuttal of to those who dismiss radicalism as an alien Mason's tract, is described absurdly as a "pam­ growth which outsiders have tried to graft phlet on national honor and the threat of Eu­ onto the American labor movement. ropean and Indian attack." Marks cannot have it both ways. He also ignores the fact The older organizers and their fellow that major Antifederalists' attacks were made workers used direct action to win improved on just those issues which he has chosen to shop conditions during the 1930's. Their call foreign affairs: on the federal power to accounts emphasize day-to-day struggles but regulate commerce, the power to enforce as the also include descriptions of major strike bat­ supreme law of the land treaties ratified only tles, like the Memorial Day Massacre. Re­ by the Senate, the power to tax, and the power counting the formation of local unions. Un­ to maintain a standing army in peacetime employed Council work, participation in the (which Marks ludicrously asserts to be a pop­ Young Communist League, political activity ular, winning Federalist issue). One must ser­ in immigrant communities, and the struggles iously wonder how thoroughly Marks has read of black and women workers, they provide the ratification propaganda he cites. a wide-ranging discussion of the Depression years. These leaders are proud of their Marks has done much that might have been achievements, for they recognize the impor­ left undone. He need not have disparaged the tance of gains won during the Thirties. They Progressive interpretation of the Constitu­ are critical, however, of subsequent develop­ tion, for he concludes himself that his own ments in the CIO and the AFL-CIO. view complements rather than contradicts it. He need not have sought to demonstrate the The contemporary activists share the De­ pression veterans' conviction in the potential impending collapse of the Confederation, for accomplishments of local action and their he admits that the postwar depression was eas­ concern about the shortcomings of American ing by 1786, and that the rhetoric of deterio­ unions. Their critique focuses on symptoms ration and chaos was perhaps more important of union bureaucratization such as the ero­ than the reality itself. He need not have em­ sion of effective steward systems, the institu­ phasized to the exclusion of all else the in­ tion of dues checkoff, and the neutralization fluence of foreign affairs on the nationalist of local militancy through national bargain­ movement, in the Grand Convention, or in ing and no-strike contracts. If some of their the ratification struggle. But if he had left analyses appear overly simplified, the workers these things undone, and simply placed for­ discuss crucial issues and relate their argu­ eign affairs in its proper context, he would ments to specific conditions in the shops and have produced a nice little article rather than union halls. Focusing on local developments, this atrocious book. they point out the vitality of factory work groups and emphasize the importance of local RICHARD LEFFLER determination of working conditions. Several University of Wisconsin—Madison testimonies also suggest the limits of local

244 BOOK REVIEWS action. While the shops remain the vital its postwar economic power as a diplomatic crucible for worker activism, work groups and weapon in reconstruction negotiations with local organizations can realize their potential the Soviet Union. United States objectives power only if they become the building in these negotiations were in turn based up­ blocks of a broader labor movement. The on an economic, "Open Door" view of the experiences related in Rank and File pose world which equated American economic ex­ important questions concerning the nature pansion and its necessary prerequisite, a of such a movement. stable, economically open (i.e., nonrevolu- Despite this book's many insights, there are tionary and thus noncommunist) world, with certain gaps in its treatment of organizing. international peace and prosperity. Some workers' recollections provide insuf­ Despite Washington's immense economic ficient information concerning relations be­ power, the effort backfired badly. The Sovi­ tween leaders and their shopmates. Such ets, refusing to bow to the American pressure, omissions are especially disappointing when hardened their previously flexible position in the testimonies suggest tensions and divisions order to establish the basis for their own re­ between organizers and their co-workers. The construction program and prevent American Lynds limit their study by focusing on shop penetration of their sphere. Even within the leaders whose experiences lead to radical poli­ emerging American sphere, economic diplo­ tics or participation in rank-and-file caucuses. macy did not succeed in creating peace, pros­ Such an emphasis slights union-builders who perity, or stability. Despite massive aid, that take neither course. There is little considera­ sphere remained unstable and dependent up­ tion of activists who believe the alternative on outside help. Washington's effort, in short, to supporting the existing union is a return created exactly what it had hoped to avoid— to undesirable conditions. Such individuals a divided, hostile world, with a Soviet sphere are often employed in smaller shops where closed to American economic and political worker power is limited. Hopefully, future influence and an American sphere unstable studies will deal with these workers, since a and weak. knowledge of their experiences is important United States policy, even in its failure, for understanding rank-and-file activism. was thus a major cause of the Cold War. Rank and File represents an exciting col­ That failure, Paterson further maintains, lection which offers both information and stemmed in the long run from the entire inspiration. Like so much of Staughton American world view and in the short run Lynd's work, it is valuable not only for the from the use of economic power as a weapon, information it imparts but also for the ques­ rather than as a diplomatic tool, to force the tions it poses and the paths it indicates for Soviets into line. In an interesting reversal future inquiry. The Lynds' work contains of accepted historical dogma, the author thus insights for all trying to understand the his­ shows an American bluntness, refusal to com­ tory of the United States and its working class. promise, and reliance upon force (albeit econ­ omic), as major factors in the ensuing confron­ tation. DEXTER ARNOLD University of Wisconsin—Madison While written from a revisionist point of view, Soviet-American Confrontation contin­ ues the recent trend in Cold War historiog­ raphy to synthesize important facts brought out by the opposing school of thought while Soviet-American Confrontation: Postwar Re­ maintaining the basic position of one's own construction and the Origins of the Cold War. school. In 1972, for example, John L. Gaddis By THOMAS PATERSON. (The John Hopkins revised the traditionalist approach to the University Press, Baltimore, 1973. Pp. xi, 287. Cold War through a combination of original Notes, bibliography, index. $12.00.) research and absorption of key revisionist findings. This year, Paterson has reversed Paterson's work is a full-scale study of the the formula by incorporating traditionalist economic aspects of the origins of the Cold findings into a revisionist framework. War. Based upon massive research in Ameri­ That framework, however, is no longer as can government agency records and private one-dimensional as its critics have claimed it papers from 1945 to 1948, Soviet-American to be. Paterson openly admits in his preface Confrontation maintains that Washington that economic factors, while playing "a con­ consciously and consistently attempted to use spicuous role" in producing friction, do not

245 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974 tell the whole story, and such moderation in but the "will to dominate." Ironically, this interpretation underlines his entire work. In economic history from a school accused of concluding, he bluntly states that "American narrow economic determinism thus concludes diplomacy was not accidental or aimless; that capitalism is too broad, not too narrow rather, it was self-consciously expansionist," an explanation. And in searching for a nar­ and an "essential element" in that expansion rower and more workable interpretation, was economic. But he then points out that Paterson arrives at an approach strikingly such expansionism cannot be explained sim­ similar to that expressed by the Realist school. ply in terms of capitalism, for the United Soviet-American Confrontation is thus an States was also "arrogant. Christian, militarist, extremely important and valuable work for racist, highly technological, chauvinistic, and both its findings and interpretations. Un­ industrialized. To argue that these traits all fortunately, however, it is not very readable; stem from capitalist roots is to make the term the massive documentation in both the text 'capitalist' so elastic and all-encompassing as and the long and numerous footnotes often to be meaningless. It should be kept in mind, overwhelms and/or distracts the reader from truism though it may be, that the United the basic points. It is, nevertheless, an impor­ States had become a world power of uncom­ tant achievement in Cold War historiography. mon dimensions, not just a capitalist power, and behaved like other great powers through history—it exploited opportunities." The key, MARK A. STOLER Paterson continues, is thus not capitalism. University of Vermont

BOOK REVIEWS

Lynd and Lynd, Rank and File: Personal Histories by Working-Class Organ­ izers, reviewed by Dexter Arnold 244 McWhiney, Southerners and Other Americans, reviewed by Jacqueline J. Halstead 241 Marks, Independence on Trial: Foreign Affairs and the Making of the Con­ stitution, reviewed by Richard Leffler 243 Miller, Victor Berger and the Promise of Constructive Socialism, 1910-1920, reviewed by Richard C. Haney 234 Morris, Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny: The Founding Fathers as Revolu­ tionaries, reviewed by Thomas J. Archdeacon 239 Musto, The American Disease: Origins of Narcotic Control, reviewed by Robert J. Halstead 237 Olson, The G. I. Bill, the Veterans, and the Colleges, reviewed by Edward M. Coffman 240 Paterson, Soviet-American Confrontation: Postwar Reconstruction and the Origins of the Cold War, reviewed by Mark A. Stoler 245 Stein, California and the Dust Bowl Migration, reviewed by Richard Street 238 Terrill, Tariff, Politics, and American Foreign Policy, 1874-1901, reviewed by Richard H. Zeitlin 235

246 tor Dietrichson of Old Koshkonong," Wiscon­ Wisconsin sin Magazine of History (29: 301-318). Har­ ris Kaasa and Malcolm Rosholt translated the History Checklist manuscripts and Professor Nelson of St. Olaf Recently published and currently avail­ College has written a lengthy introduction able Wisconsiana added to the Society's Libra­ that places Dietrichson's writings in perspec­ ry is listed below. The compilers, Gerald R. tive. Eggleston, Acquisitions Librarian, and James P. Danky, Order Librarian, are interested in obtaining information on (or copies of) items Gedicks, Al. Kennecott Copper Corporation that are not widely advertised, such as publi­ and Mining Development in Wisconsin. cations of local historical societies, family his­ (Madison, Wisconsin, 1973. Pp. 42. Illus. tories and genealogies, privately printed works, $1.30. Available from Community Action and histories of churches, institutions, or or­ on Latin America, 731 State Street, Madi­ ganizations. Authors and publishers wishing son, WI 53703.) to reach a wider audience and also to perform a valuable bibliographic service are urged to Wisconsin's northern counties, once the lo­ inform the compilers of their publications, cation of large iron ore mines, seem to be on including the following information: author, the verge of major new copper mining opera­ title, location and name of publisher, price, pagination, and address of supplier. Write tions. The economic, social, and environmen­ James P. Danky, Acquisitions Section. tal impact of such exploitation of natural re­ sources would be tremendous. The author discusses this prospective development by Badger Steam and Gas Engine Club. Tenth Kennecott, the most important corporate ex­ Annual Show. (Baraboo, Wisconsin, 1973. plorer, in the context of the company's past Pp. 36, Illus. $ .50. Available from Verne record, at home and abroad. W. Kindschi, Route 1, Prairie du Sac, WI 53578.) Kouba, Theodore F. Wisconsin's Amazing The Club's annual show at the Sauk Coun­ Woods: Then and Now. (Madison, Wis­ ty Fairgrounds includes demonstrations of consin, 1973. Pp. vii, 279. Illus. $8.95. old-time steam and gas engines, particularly Available from Wisconsin House Limited, farm equipment. In addition to engine and 1028 East Washington Avenue, P.O. Box 2118, Madison, WI 53701.) tractor photographs, each yearbook has a brief history of a Wisconsin farm equipment man­ A history of Wisconsin woodlands begin­ ufacturer. The Fairbanks, Morse Company of ning with the entrance of the French explor­ Beloit is featured this year in a two-page ers in the seventeenth century. While the au­ sketch. thor is concerned with animal life, most of the book deals with logging operations from Dietrichson, Johannes Wilhelm Christian. A the mid-nineteenth century, especially the Pioneer Churchman: J. W. C. Dietrichson ecological and economic consequences. Re­ in Wisconsin, 1844-1850, edited by E. Clif­ lated topics such as the Peshtigo fire of 1871 ford Nelson. (New York, published for the and the career of Wisconsin's first state for­ Norwegian-American Historical Association ester, E. M. Griffith, are included in separate by Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1973. Pp. x, chapters. Kouba has an extensive background 265. Illus. $ 7.95. Available from the Nor­ in forestry and conducted his research in the wegian-American Historical Association, St. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Olaf College, Northfield, MN 55057.) and the Society, which provided many of the photographs. Dietrichson was a university-educated min­ ister among Norwegian immigrant commu­ Pierce County's Heritage. Volume Three. nities in northern Illinois and southern Wis­ (River Falls, Wisconsin, 1973. Pp. 70. Illus. consin in the mid-nineteenth century. This S3.16. Available from Mrs. Ursula Peter­ book is composed of his manuscripts, Trav­ son, President, Pierce County Historical As­ el Narrative and Koshkonong Parish Journal, sociation, 936 West Maple, River Falls, WI which reflect the religious, social, economic, 54022.) and racial factors on the American frontier. Einar Haugen originally discovered these ma­ The third volume of Pierce County history terials and utilized them in his article, "Pas­ contains seventeen articles on four topics: 247 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974 churches, schools, towns, and covered wagons. Peter Verhulst and other Dutch immigrants (Volume One, 1971, was composed of six pa­ organized the school in .the basement of the pers by University of Wisconsin-River Falls Christian Reformed Church on November 1, students and Volume Two, 1972, contained 1898. The school occupies its own building five articles by both students and area resi­ today and provides instruction for kindergar­ dents.) All articles in the current volume were ten through ninth grades. Lists of graduates, written by residents of the county, past and school board members, and teachers for the present. A map of the county, historic photo­ last seventy-five years are included. graphs, and a list of recent donations to the Pierce County Historical Association's collec­ Wendt, Alice Schimmelpfennig. The Wendt tions in the Society's Area Research Center in Genealogy. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1973. River Falls are included. Pp. xi, 91. Illus. $12.50. Available from the author, 11852 N. Wausaukee Road 124W, Princeton, Wisconsin. Historical Committee. Mequon, WI 53092.) Quas Qui Centennial (125th Anniversary) July, 19-20-21-22; Princeton, Wisconsin The book lists six generations of this Mil­ 1848-1973. (Princeton, Wisconsin, 19'73. Pp. waukee-area family and has a twenty-four page 120. Illus. §3.50. Available from Prince­ index. ton Times-Republic, 439 West Water Street, Princeton, WI 54968.) White, Bruce James, and White, Audrey Ber- ner. Charles White and His Descendants; This booklet is the first history of Prince­ From Kent County, England, to Dane Coun­ ton, a community of 1,500 residents in central ty, Wisconsin. (Waukesha, Wisconsin, 1972. Wisconsin. The three-column format allows Pp. 71. Illus. No price listed. Available for extremely detailed historical sketches of from the authors, 802 Lemira Avenue, Wau­ service and fraternal organizations, local busi­ kesha, WI 53186.) nesses, and local government. The second half of the pamphlet contains local advertisements. Covering six generations of a branch of the White family, the publication contains histor­ ic photographs and an index. Serling, Robert J. Ceiling Unlimited; The Story of North Central Airlines. (Marceline, Wisconsin. University, Milwaukee. Library. Missouri, 1973. Pp. ix, 245. Illus. $8.50. The Allen M. Slichter Collection of Civil Available from Walsworth Publishing Com­ War Materials, cataloged and edited by pany, 306 N. Kansas Avenue, Marceline, James Strichman. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, MO 64658.) 1973. Pp. 36. No price hsted. Available The year 1944 marked the founding of Wis­ from Rare Books-Special Collections De­ consin Central Airlines as a statewide carrier. partment, Library, University of Wiscon­ After routes to the Twin Cities and Chicago sin—Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201.) were awarded, the company changed its name A catalog of more than 500 titles, arranged to North Central Airlines. In 1972 North Cen­ alphabetically by author, emphasizing the tral completed its first quarter century of ser­ Confederate point of view. vice to the upper Midwest, especially Wiscon­ sin. Serling, an experienced aviation writer, has written an informal history of the airline's Wrone, David R. The Assassination of John growth from one plane and a handful of em­ Fitzgerald Kennedy: An Annotated Biblio­ ployees to an important regional airline. He graphy. (Madison, Wisconsin, 1973. Pp. consulted the company archives at the North- 16. $1.25. Available from the Business Of­ liner Museum in Minneapolis and conducted fice, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, personal interviews. 816 State Street, Madison, WI 53706.) A bibliography, compiled and edited by a Sheboygan Christian School. Diamond Jubi­ professor of history at the University of Wis­ lee, 1898-1973, Sheboygan Christian School, consin-Stevens Point, that originally appeared Sheboygan, Wisconsin. (Sheboygan, Wiscon­ in the Wisconsin Magazine of History (56: 21— sin, 1973. Pp. 40. Illus. $3.00. Available 36). It is divided into bibliographical works, from the school, 418 Geele Avenue, Sheboy­ basic sources, articles, books, and miscellan­ gan, WI 53081.) eous publications.

248 payments, mines, and stocks and bonds, legal documents such as mortgages, contracts, and Accessions wills, and bills and receipts from hotels, dress­ makers, jewelers, and others, transferred from Manuscripts Accessioned for the Villa Louis. Area Research Centers At River Falls. Genealogical notes written Regional research centers are maintained by the in 1968 by John Addington, St. Louis Park, Society in co-operation with twelve non-Madison Minnesota, about his maternal Swedish an­ University of 'Wisconsin campuses and Northland cestors in Trade Lake and his paternal South­ College. For details concerning the use of manu­ script holdings, write the Curator of the appro­ ern ancestors in "Alabama," Polk County, priate local Area Research Center or Dr. Josephine presented by Walker D. Wyman, River Falls; Harper, Manuscripts Curator of the Society. additional Joseph Stannard Baker papers in­ cluding letters he wrote his family, 1886- 1912, a family history including many anec­ At Parkside. "Recollections of Early Days in dotes about Baker's father and his involve­ Racine, Wisconsin, 1883-1917," written by ment in the temperance and anti-Masonic Harvey W. Logan about 1957, presented by movements in New York, and three later Mr. Logan, Milwaukee; records, 1915-1971, of letters between Florence and Ray Stannard St. Luke's School of Nursing, Racine, includ­ Baker, presented by Florence Baker Riegel, ing applications. Alumni Association minutes, St. Croix Falls; scrapbook, 1953-1961, of me­ minutes of the Training School Committee, mentos from Hopyard grade school, Baldwin, of the Nursing Council, and of the Student presented by the St. Croix County Historical Government, and completed questionnaires Society, Hudson; family history written in describing facilities and operations in 1932, 1971 by Ronald Bjerstedt, River Falls, in­ presented by the School via Marion B. Bower; cluding brief information on the Stevenson, record book, 1863-1864, kept by Captain Danielson, and Christianson families of Wis­ Nicholas Smith, Company H, 33rd Wisconsin consin and Minnesota, presented by Walker Volunteer Infantry, containing information D. Wyman, River Falls; records, 1909-1932, on the members of Company H, most of whom of the Citizens State Bank of East Ellsworth, came from the Kenosha area, and listing prices including general correspondence, general of items in a soldier's uniform, presented by ledgers and journals, daily journals, and cash Carol Parkhurst, Moline, 111.; papers, 1829- balance records, plus deposit ledgers, 1899- 1911, of members of the Stevens Family, resi­ 1918, of the Bank of Ellsworth, presented by dents of Bristol, including family correspon­ Larry Traynor, Ellsworth; "Non-Contiguous dence, a diary, teaching certificates, financial Farms of Pierce County, Wisconsin," an essay and legal papers, genealogies, and a literary submitted to the University of Minnesota publication, presented by Helen Sara Unger, Geography Department in 1962 by student Laguna Beach, California; records, 1842-1915, Thomas G. Eighmy, presented by Carol G. 1941-1965, of the Unitarian Universalist Barrett, River Falls; record books, 1923-1924, Church of Racine and Kenosha and its prede­ of .the Ellsworth Cow Testing Association list­ cessors, the Universalist Church of the Good ing for the herd of each participating farmer Shepherd and the First Universalist Society of each cow's milk production, production value, Racine, consisting of secretary's books includ­ butterfat content, and quantity and value of ing minutes, clippings, treasurer's reports, by­ feed used, presented by Larry Traynor, Ells­ laws, and committee reports, presented by the worth; letters, 1861-1866, from Lieutenant Church, Racine; account book, 1843-1859, Jerry E. Flint, Company G, 4th Wisconsin kept by Samuel B. Wood, a farmer in Syra­ Cavalry, to his mother and brother in River cuse, New York, then in Kenosha County, Falls, plus miscellaneous orders, stores lists, Wisconsin, in which he recorded expenses for muster-in rolls, rosters, and similar documents, goods and services, family births, farm rec­ presented by Mary Levings Wygant Deans, ords, and receipts signed by others, source River Falls; records, 1872-1947, of the Free­ unknown. man Drug Company, River Falls, including cashbooks and other financial records, formula At Platteville. Papers, 1830, 1847, 1860-1908, books, biographical information on the own­ of Hercules and Nina Dousman concerning ers, and miscellany, presented by Rosh Free­ their business affairs in the Prairie du Chien man, River Falls; reprint of an article by area, including correspondence on their stock Morris Halvorson on the Ole Halvorson and farm, land purchases and rentals, loans and

249 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1974

Amund Amundson families, their 1868 immi­ dian Leadership Conference, Eau Claire, re­ gration from Christiana, Norway, to Blair, ports and a resource packet, 1962-1965, from Wisconsin, and their pioneer and logging ex­ the Wisconsin Indian Summer Project, a periences in their new home, presented by recreation program, and a 1969 report en­ Eugene Koxlein via Walker D. Wyman, River titled "Attitudes and Characteristics of Se­ Falls; a program and an historical sketch, lected Wisconsin Indians" by Arthur M. Hark- 1948, from the 75th anniversary celebration ins and Richard G. Woods, Training Center of the Bethel Lutheran Church, Hudson, pre­ for Community Programs, University of sented by the St. Croix County Historical So­ Minnesota, presented by Mrs. Stone, River ciety; reminiscences by E. H. Kleinpell, presi­ Falls; a history of Clifton Hollow, a settle­ dent of Wisconsin State University, River ment in northwestern Pierce County, 1849- Falls, in which he recalls his youth in Monona, 1898, written by Mary Bascom Wheelock, who Iowa, his student and early teaching experi­ was born there, mentioning lumber and grist ences, and events from his 1946-1947 presi­ mills, a lime kiln, and a school, church, and dency at River Falls, transcribed by Walker Templar's lodge, presented by Mr. and Mrs. D. Wyman from conversations with Kleinpell, Harry Evart, Prescott; papers, 1911-1958, of presented by Dr. Wyman, River Falls; family Essie W. Williams, a teacher and attorney history written in 1971 by Diane Larson in­ who resided mainly in St. Paul and Hudson, cluding information on the Holstrom and including correspondence, certificates, and Bischoff families who settled in Stillwater legal papers concerning her education and and St. Paul, Minnesota, presented by Walker teaching career, her law practice, an income tax dispute, genealogy, and bird-watching and D. Wyman, River Falls; papers, 1857-1866, horticultural activities, presented by Willis 1880, of Private Edwin D. Levings, Company Miller, Hudson. A, 12th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, in­ cluding letters written by him and his brother Homer to their parents in Pierce County, At Stevens Point. Reproductions of photo­ scattered other family correspondence, and graphs collected by Fred Kremple, Stevens Levings' recollections of Sherman's march Point, including one hundred photographs of logging operations taken ca. 1890-ca. 1910 in through Georgia, presented by Mary Levings Marathon, Portage, and other nearby Wis­ Wygant Deans, River Falls; "Pierce County consin counties, fifteen aerial views of towns Clustered Settlements: A Study of the Human and other scenes taken in 1965 in Waupaca Factor," an essay written about 1962 by geo­ and Portage counties, and three portrait photo­ graphy student James L. Newman, presented graphs of raayors of Stevens Point including by Carol G. Barrett, River Falls.; letter, Leon Pasternachi, Byron B. Parks, and March 3, 1969, from William J. Phillips re­ Thomas Henry Hanna, presented by Mr. peating stories about humorist E. S. "Bill" Kremple; corporation record book and mis­ Nye and his brother Frank, presented by Earl cellaneous loose correspondence and docu­ chapin, Woodville; papers, 1966-1971 (main­ ments, 1914-1947, of the Pine Lake Rural ly 1970), of the St. Croix County Democratic Telephone Company, Oneida County, Wis­ party including minutes, general correspon­ consin, presented by Mrs. Samuel Godfrey, dence, newsletters, press releases, memoranda East Troy. from the state Democratic party, state con­ vention materials, and Tenth District Demo­ At Stout. Campaign materials, 1958, from cratic party materials, presented by John Hill, Howard W. Cameron, Rice Lake, successful River Falls; records, 1902-1934, of the Spring Democratic candidate for state senator from Valley Iron and Ore Company, an iron mining the 23rd District, including press releases, and manufacturing firm in Pierce County, clippings, form letters, and campaign litera­ including correspondence between owner ture, presented by Mr. Cameron; miscellane­ Frederick H. Foote and manager Charles ous materials concerning an Italian settlement Brown, financial records, and miscellaneous established in the early 1880's south of Cum­ legal documents concerning land sales and a berland, Wisconsin, including a chronology of legal suit, presented by Everett Brown, Spring the settlement's Palmer School, biographies Valley; materials, 1962-1969, concerning Wis­ and stories about early residents, and clip­ consin Indians, collected by Veda Stone, pings, presented by John E. Olson, Chetek; director of Indian education at Wisconsin papers, 1941-1967, of John E. Olson, Chetek State University-River Falls., consisting of businessman and state senator, including rec­ programs, 1963-1967, from the Wisconsin In­ ords of several electric power co-operatives in

250 which he was active, campaign materials and constituent correspondence from his 1949- 1950 senate service, and information on the Democratic Organizing Committee of Wiscon­ sin, presented by Mr. Olson; ledger, 1911- 1928, recording dues payments by members of the Scandinavian Sisters of America, Lodge No. 6, Menomonie, presented by the Dunn County Historical Society, Menomonie; min­ ute book, 1915-1935, of the Woman's Chris­ tian Temperance Union, Barron County, pre­ sented by Mrs. Alice Nerlien, Chetek; records, 1907-1961, of the Woman's Christian Tem­ perance Union, Chetek, including minutes, treasurer's books, and miscellaneous materials, including tracts, songs, clippings, and scat­ tered correspondence. Justin M. Schmiedeke Eleanor McKay at work in a section of the Archives- At Superior. Miscellaneous records, 1920- Manuscripts processing rooms. 1921, of the Plaza Amusement Company, Su­ perior, including a certificate of incorpora­ from Archives; papers, 1848-1923, of William tion, list of stockholders, articles, minutes of Fiske Brown, a Presbyterian pastor and his­ the first meeting, and a certificate of dissolu­ torian in Janesville and Beloit, including tion, transferred from Archives; papers, 1900- family correspondence, clippings on Beloit 1933, of the Superior, Wisconsin, Board of history, and a large number of diaries and Underwriters, Inc., an organization of Su­ notebooks kept by Brown and his wife, Hila perior area fire and casualty insurance agents Bennett Brown, presented by Mrs. William established to maintain adequate rates, in­ L. Bachmeyer, Port Washington, New York; cluding proceedings, correspondence, finan­ additional business and personal papers, cial records, and administrative materials, in­ 1849-1887, of Ezra Goodrich, Milton, Wis­ cluding information on rates and insurance consin merchant, including correspondence, law, transferred from Archives; papers, 1894- orders and receipts, and materials concerning 1895, of the Superior Fire Sufferers' Fund, a local politics, Milton College, and School Dis­ citizens' relief committee organized to aid trict {5, plus deeds and other legal documents victims of 1894 forest fires in northern Wis­ belonging to William T. Morgan, Milton, pre­ consin, including proceedings, correspondence, sented by an unknown donor via the White­ financial records, statements by investigators water Area Research Center; papers, 1852- of individual losses and injuries, and clip­ 1939, of James Nelson Humphrey, his family pings, transferred from Archives; "History of and the Century Pen Company, Whitewater, Superior's Electric, Gas and Water Supply which he founded, containing a few private and Superior Water, Light and Power Com­ papers including an 1899 letter from Nica­ pany," prepared by the Superior Water, Light ragua and correspondence concerning the and Power Company about 1962, presented by Whitewater Rifle Club, and company records, Fred E. Stout, Superior; miscellaneous rec­ including minutes and financial reports, pre­ ords, 1896-1906, of the Tidende Company, sented by William W. Humphrey for the publishers of the Superior Tidende, a Nor­ Humphrey Family, Whitewater; records, wegian-Danish newspaper, including articles 1928-1965, of the Jefferson County Farm of incorporation, minutes of stockholders' and Bureau, a farmers' buying and selling co-opera­ directors' meetings, and scattered financial tive, including minutes, financial records, and records and correspondence, transferred from membership cards, also a list of shareholders Archives. of the Jefferson County Cooperative Service Company and minutes of the Concord-Sulli­ At Whitewater. Record book, 1898-1900, of van Farm Bureau Local, presented by the the Bell School Literary Society, formed near Jefferson County Farm Bureau, Jefferson; East Troy and Waterford, including a consti­ diaries, 1905-191'?, kept by C. F. Lester, Janes­ tution, minutes, treasurers' reports, attendance ville, probably a retired man, recording his records, meeting programs, and one poem daily activities, weather, and prices paid for about the Crescent baseball team, transferred minor purchases, source unknown.

251 . • , HOWARD B. SCHONBERGER^ an £ associate professor of history at W|fc<^ the University of Maine at Contributors 3H^ ^ Orono, received his B.A. from ^•^IMH ^^^ University of Chicago and ^•MHI his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1964 and 1968 MARGARET WALSH is a lecturer in the Depart­ respectively. He has published articles in ment of Economic and Social History at the Minnesota History, The History Teacher, and University of Birmingham, England, and has the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars. His also taught in the Department of American book, Transportation to the Seaboard: The Studies at the University of Keele, England. "Communication Revolution" and American She received her Ph.D. from the University Foreign Policy, 1860-1900, was published by of Wisconsin—Madison, and was the first re­ Greenwood Press in 1971. His current re­ cipient, in 1967, of the Alice E. Smith Fellow­ search and writing centers on General Douglas ship for a woman historian. Her first book. MacArthur and the Occupation of Japan. The Manufacturing Frontier: Pioneer Indus­ try in Antebellum Wisconsin, 1830-1860, was JAMES RICHARD PARKER, an as­ published by the Society Press in 1972 and sociate professor of history at won the D. C. Everest Prize in Wisconsin , the University of Wisconsin— Economic History. Miss Walsh plans to re­ -fXf La Crosse where he has been turn to the United States this summer to |k^ teaching Recent American His- study the meatpacking industry in Chicago •HBS^HI tory since 1968, received his as an affiliate of the University of Illinois- B.S. at Western Illinois University in 1963 Chicago Circle and as the recipient of an and both his M.A. (1965) and his Ph.D. (1972) American Council of Learned Societies fel­ at the University of Maryland. His doctoral lowship. dissertation was on Senator John C. Spooner, whose career he is continuing to research. He has published articles on Senator Albert FRANK ANNUNZIATA was born in J. Beveridge in the Indiana Magazine of His­ New York City in 1942. He tory, on the Good Neighbor Policy in the received his B.A. from Man­ Maryland Historian, and has edited collec­ hattan College (1964), his M.A. tions of letters published in Illinois History from City College of New York and Wisconsin, Then and Now. He is cur­ (1965), and his Ph.D. from Ohio rently completing a biography and working State University (1968). From 1965 to 1968 in the area of government racial policies in he was a Teaching Associate at Ohio State, both the Progressive and New Deal eras. and is currently associate professor of history and chairman of the American Studies Pro­ The Alice E. Smith Fellowship, awarded to gram at Eisenhower College. He has had ar­ a woman doing research in American history, ticles accepted for publication on twentieth- preferably graduate research in the history of century intellectual and political history by Wisconsin or the Middle West, will be offered the Journal of the Illinois State Historical again this year. The award carries an out­ Society, South Atlantic Quarterly, and The right grant of $600; the deadline for applica­ Social Studies. Mr. Annunziata also read tions is July 15. Letters of application, de­ a paper on "The Progressive Critique of the scribing in some detail the current research New Deal and the Welfare State" at the 1971 of the applicant, should be addressed to Di­ convention of the Organization of American rector of Research, State Historical Society Historians. of Wisconsin.

252 s^^e&^es^^s^s^^'^^^'ks

/>/ Lake , Superior Superior

Isl Madelitielslajtd M iohi O ^ n

CO .^ .^ S? Ciwus World >t^^r'Ci||^ 9rtenlnaii CBdl ^ mllalioids r^A^jw i:iI51'C)RIG [HI .

^Stonefield

1 he lazy days of summer—the perfect time for a leisurely trip into the past, the living past of the State Histor­ ical Society's six historic sites. 1 he variety is stimulating: the elegance of a fur trade tycoon's mansion—Villa Louis; the bustle of an 1890's village—Stonefield; the durable simplicity of miners' cot­ tages—Pendarvis; the cozy friendliness of a stagecoach inn— Wade House, together with the horse-drawn conveyances of the Wesley W. Jung Carriage Museum; the enduring lure and romance of the big top—the Circus World Museum; the echo of the era of missionaries, voyageurs, and Indian trappers—the Madeline Island Historical Museum. Visit them and sample Wisconsin's rich past.

^n^^iS^^Sl^^ »Jg H

The Purpose of this Society shall be

To promote a wider appreciation of the American heritage with particular emphasis on the collection, advancement, and dissemination of knowledge of the history of Wisconsin and of the Middle West.

State Historical Society of 'Wisconsin Second-class postage paid at 816 State Street Madison, Wisconsin, and at Madison, Wisconsin 53706 additional mailing offices. Return Requested