RAMSEY COUNTY Long-Ago Snapshots When Sitting Bull Was Photographed in St. Paul HıstoryA Publication of the Ramsey County Historical Society Leo J. Harris Summer 2015 Volume 50, Number 2 —Page 13

When Ramsey County Politics Had an Edge Maas vs. Williams Paul D. Nelson, page 3

A 1934 campaign poster calling for voters to reelect Congressman . Maas, a Republican, won this election, defeating four other candidates who split the votes in ’s Fourth Congressional District, which included Ramsey County. Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY RAMSEY COUNTY President Chad Roberts Founding Editor (1964–2006) Virginia Brainard Kunz Editor Hıstory John M. Lindley Volume 50, Number 2 Summer 2015 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY the mission statement of the ramsey county historical society BOARD OF DIRECTORS adopted by the board of directors on december 20, 2007: William B. Frels The Ramsey County Historical Society inspires current and future generations Chair to learn from and value their history by engaging in a diverse program Cheryl Dickson of presenting, publishing and preserving. First Vice Chair Elizabeth M. Kiernat Second Vice Chair James Miller C O N T E N T S Secretary Kenneth H. Johnson 3 When Ramsey County Politics Had an Edge Treasurer Mass vs. Williams Julie Brady, Anne Cowie, Jo Anne Driscoll, Mari Oyanagi Eggum, Thomas Fabel, Paul D. Nelson John Guthmann, Richard B. Heydinger, Jr., David Kristal, Carl Kuhrmeyer, 13 Long-Ago Snapshots Father Kevin M. McDonough, When Sitting Bull Was Photographed in St. Paul Nancy W. McKillips, Susan McNeely, Robert Muschewske, James A. Stolpestad, Leo J. Harris Ralph Thrane, Susan Vento, Jerry Woefel. 19 Carnies and Calamities EDITORIAL BOARD A Carnival Midway on the Island at Phalen Park, 1903–1908 Anne Cowie, chair, James B. Bell, Thomas H. Boyd, John Diers, Thomas Fabel, Janice R. Quick William Frels, John Guthmann, Douglas Heidenreich, James Miller, 24 Book Reviews John Milton, Laurie M. Murphy, Robert Muschewske, Paul D. Nelson, 27 Letters to the Editor Richard H. Nicholson, Jay Pfaender, David Riehle, Chad Roberts, Steve Trimble, Publication of Ramsey County History is supported in part by a gift from Mary Lethert Wingerd. Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen in memory of Henry H. Cowie Jr. HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD and by a contribution from the late Reuel D. Harmon William Fallon, William Finney, George Latimer, Joseph S. Micallef, Marvin J. Pertzik, James Reagan. RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Commissioner Jim McDonough, chair Commissioner Toni Carter A Message from the Editorial Board Commissioner Blake Huffman Commissioner Mary Jo McGuire Commissioner Rafael Ortega njoy fun summer reading with this issue. The political landscape in Ramsey Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt ECounty in the 1920s and ’30s was not dull. Paul Nelson has written a lively account Commissioner Janice Rettman of the rivalry between Melvin Maas, a colorful Republican congressman, and his left- Julie Kleinschmidt, manager, leaning and equally passionate challenger, Howard Williams. It’s a great read. Leo J. Ramsey County Harris explores the world of professional photography in St. Paul in the 1880s. In par- Ramsey County History is published quarterly ticular, portraits of Sitting Bull illustrate an up-and-coming technology, used to record by the Ramsey County Historical Society, 323 Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, St. Paul, MN the poignancy of a defeated warrior. And Janice Quick reveals the brief but sparkling 55102 (651-222-0701). Printed in U.S.A. Copy- existence of a midway carnival on the island in Lake Phalen in the early 1900s. Until right © 2015, Ram sey County His torical So ciety. ISSN Number 0485-9758. All rights reserved. concerns about water pollution shut it down, it hosted many festive family outings. No part of this publication may be reprinted We have a few interesting book reviews, too, and updates from readers. We are always or otherwise reproduced without written interested in what you think. permission from the publisher. The Society assumes no responsibility for statements made by contributors. Fax 651-223-8539; e-mail address: Anne Cowie [email protected]; web site address: www.rchs.com Chair, Editorial Board

2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY When Ramsey County Politics Had an Edge Maas vs. Williams

Paul D. Nelson o one under 90 years of age can remember a time when the voters in St. Paul, after experimenting with the of Ramsey County consistently sent a Republican to Congress. But it public speaking circuit and Texas oil, he happened. From 1927 into early 1945 the only politician to represent did well in the insurance and surety bond N business.3 Minnesota’s Fourth Congressional District was the very conservative Melvin J. In 1926, at age 27, he challenged in- Maas. He kept the seat through tumult: the stock market crash and the fall of cumbent congressman Oscar Keller in Hoover; Roosevelt’s rise and the Republican Party’s deep decline; the long and the Republican primary. Melvin Maas dispiriting ; and the radical challenge of Minnesota’s Farmer- proved to be a skillful politician. Smart Labor movement. and gregarious, he also enjoyed the perfect ethnic and religious heritage Until his ultimate defeat in 1944, only one for St. Paul—Catholic, German father, politician seriously challenged Maas’s Irish mother. He saw Prohibition as a hold on this congressional seat—the left- scourge, turning law-abiding citizens leaning clergyman, political organizer, into enablers, even criminals. He called and serial candidate Howard Y. Williams. for amending Prohibition to allow sell- This is the story of their parallel and in- ing beer and wine, and presented this as tersecting careers, and their unfriendly an anti-crime measure. It probably did confrontations. not hurt that before Prohibition, St. Paul They could not have been more differ- had been a regional brewing center, and ent. Melvin Maas was short and round, the law had cost many jobs.4 Maas made a lifelong Marine and successful insur- Prohibition the issue of the campaign. ance man, an opponent of Prohibition Keller, meanwhile, had been ideo- who smoked twenty cigars a day. He logically and personally erratic: he had considered American pacifists and inter- been pro-labor, then announced he would nationalists deluded and disloyal. The become a “regular” Republican, cost- Washington Daily News once called him ing him labor support; he had started “a chunky bit of belligerency.”1 impeachment proceedings against U.S. Howard Williams, slim, elegant, and Melvin Joseph Maas, age 17 or 18, in his St. Paul Central High School senior photo. Photo Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty, deeply affected by his Union Theological from the 1916 Central High School Yearbook, then walked out of the hearings when Seminary education, approached politics Minnesota Historical Society. they did not go his way; he had supported with a moral idealism—or maybe he was, Prohibition, but now wavered and lost as the St. Paul Daily News once put it, the support of the Anti-Saloon League. “prone to half-baked ideas.”2 He leaned their similarities fed the rancor between Keller returned to St. Paul only ten days toward pacifism and believed good poli- them as much as their differences. before the primary, expecting victory. tics could make the world better. On Maas beat him by 10,000 votes. Maas Melvin J. Maas (1898–1964) Prohibition he supported more vigorous won easily in November and when he enforcement. Unlike Maas, Williams had Maas came to St. Paul from Duluth as took his seat became the youngest mem- no idea how to make money. an infant, graduated from Central High ber of Congress.5 The two also had plenty in common. School, and began at the College of St. Both had volunteered for service in World Thomas. Then intervened. Howard Y. Williams War I and been changed by the experi- At age nineteen he joined the Marines and (1889–1973) ence. Both had attended the University learned to fly. Stationed in the Azores, he Born in San Francisco in 1889, son of of Minnesota, started in electoral poli- searched the Atlantic for German ves- a Welsh father and Welsh-American tics in 1926 and finished in the early to sels. Flying became Maas’s passion, and mother, Williams came to mid-1940s. Both were family men and he never really left the military; he kept as a young boy, graduated from South upright, immune from corruption. Maybe his Marine Reserve commission. Back High School and from the University

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 3 and called for the socialization of all gation centered on a U.S. Post Office mines, railroads, and utilities: “We must lease in downtown St. Paul. As far back confiscate property rather than allow prop- as 1922 the local postmaster, with ap- erty to confiscate life.” People’s Church proval in Washington, had negotiated a grew and prospered.9 twenty-year lease on a privately owned Williams got noticed. In 1926 St. Paul package shipping facility. Maas learned, labor leaders searched for a candidate to and revealed, that the building was sub- Howard Y. Williams in his senior year in run for mayor against city comptroller standard and overvalued, the lease rates the 1910 Gopher, Minnesota Historical Society. and former mayor, the Democrat Larry, absurdly high—at over $120,000 per “Larry Ho,” Hodgson. After two experi- year, equal to more than one-third the enced politicians said no, Williams said value of the building—and non-cancel- of Minnesota in 1910. At the U. he ran yes. He lost by plenty, but his political lable. An inspector had called the place track, wrote for its newspaper, the Daily, career had begun.10 unfit for human occupation. Bonds of and did four years of (compulsory) mili- Williams and Maas faced each other $850,000 had been sold on a building tary training. To pay for college, he took for the first time in the congressional worth less than $300,000. The clear im- a year to work in a hard-rock mine in election of 1928. Maas had no need to plication was that only payoffs could Washington. take much notice of, or aim at, Williams explain this arrangement. His inquiry Religion grabbed him at a youth re- in this one. St. Paul had always been a spread far beyond St. Paul. vival meeting in 1909. After graduation he Democratic town in a Republican state. worked four years as general secretary of Williams represented the brand new the University of Iowa YMCA. At Union Farmer-Labor Party, which never got Theological Seminary (1914–1917) he particularly strong in the city. In a four- fell under the influence of the “modernist” way race Williams finished third, with Christianity of Harry Emerson Fosdick, 21% of the vote, 13,000 behind Maas which among other things promoted and 8,000 behind Democrat John Dolan. bringing Gospel teachings into social and Republican Herbert Hoover, meanwhile, political issues such as poverty.6 took Minnesota in a landslide in the Soon after the U.S. entered World presidential vote.11 By the time Maas and War I in April 1917, Williams shipped to Williams met again, in 1936, Minnesota France as a lieutenant and chaplain to the politics had been scrambled. Tenth U.S. Army Engineers, a unit that Oscar Keller was the incumbent Republican spent the war turning French forests into In the Meantime: Maas Congressman in Minne sota’s Fourth District lumber for the trenches. Williams saw no who lost to newcomer Melvin Maas in In Congress defense issues always ani- the 1926 election. Photo courtesy of the combat but, promoted to captain as a su- mated Melvin Maas. For him, the best Minnesota Historical Society. pervising chaplain, traveled a lot and wit- way to protect the U.S. from another war nessed plenty of destruction, human and was a much bigger and stronger navy. He material. His younger brother, Lester, had no use for pacifists and “internation- This was not a party thing: Repub- was injured by poison gas. He would not alists.” “When those people say our mod- licans had controlled the Post Office forget what he saw.7 est demands for an increased navy are the since Harding took office in 1921. Mustered out of the army in 1919, beginnings of a great military machine, Maas’s investigation led to the calling of Williams took the pulpit at St. Paul’s in- threatening the peace of the world . . . I a grand jury, but no indictments resulted. dependent People’s Church. Upset by the tell you, that is lying propaganda for the Maas claimed political pressure scuttled influence of youth gangs in the river flats purpose of destroying the confidence of the case, but Maas’s work did result in neighborhoods nearby, Williams turned the American people in their own institu- cancellation of the lease. It also irritated the People’s Church, Monday through tions.” The “depraved” internationalists party leaders.13 Friday, into what he called the Fifth Ward “are doing everything possible to ren- In 1932 a quirk interrupted Maas’s Neighborhood House, busy with youth der America defenseless, so that it can career. Due to Minnesota’s failure to sports, classes, clubs, and Boy Scouts.8 be destroyed.” In 1930 he pressed for a redistrict after the 1930 census the Sunday sermons sometimes turned Congressional investigation of any group Congressional primaries of 1932 were political. He preached against the Klu “protesting or organizing and leading pro- held on a statewide, at-large basis, with Klux Klan, for Prohibition enforcement tests against the military and naval defense the top nine finishers for each of the three (notoriously lax in St. Paul), against a programs of the .” Ramsey parties moving on to the general election literal interpretation of the Bible, against County voters rewarded him with 66% of (regardless of district). Maas finished excessive income inequality. On Sunday, the vote in the 1930 election.12 eleventh out of thirty-two Republican November 13, 1924, he condemned the From 1928 and into 1931 Maas pur- candidates and came back to his insur- disparities in wealth in the United States, sued a spectacular corruption investi- ance business in St. Paul.14

4 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY That quirk might have saved Maas’s politicalThat quirkcareer. might In thehave 1932 saved elections Maas’s Franklinpolitical career.Roosevelt In thecrushed 1932 electionsHoover inFranklin Ramsey Roosevelt County, withcrushed 63% Hooverof the vote,in Ramsey and Farmer-LaborCounty, with candidate63% of thefor Governorvote, and FloydFarmer-Labor Olson got 54%candidate in Maas’s for districtGovernor in Floyda three-way Olson gotrace. 54% Maas in Maas’s was a gooddistrict candidate, in a three-way but probably race. Maas not strongwas a enoughgood candidate, to withstand but probablythe liberal not tsunami strong ofenough 1932. to Not withstand being in the Congress liberal tsunamiin 1933 andof 1932. ’34 also Not savedbeing Maasin Congress from having in 1933 to voteand ’34on alsoRoosevelt’s saved Maas most from radical having New to Dealvote measures.on Roosevelt’s15 most radical New DealMaas measures. responded15 politically to the DepressionMaas responded and Roosevelt. politically As earlyto theas 1930Depression he had and been Roosevelt. part of anAs indepenearly as- dent1930 “progressive”he had been partcaucus of inan Congressindepen- thatdent criticized“progressive” Republican caucus leadership. in Congress In athat chance criticized on-the-street Republican interview leadership. in 1933 In hea chance told aon-the-street St. Paul Dispatch interview reporter,in 1933 “Roosevelthe told a St.has Paulcourage. Dispatch He’s showingreporter, the“Roosevelt first leadership has courage. the country He’s showinghas seen inthe more first than leadership a decade.” the countryHe attended has seenthe Republicanin more than National a decade.” Committee He attended meet the- MelvinThe (then) Maas new was downtown an outspoken St. Paul criticPost Officeof the in lease the early arrangements 1930s, which for Maasthe U.S. pushed Post for Office in inCongress. downtown Photo St. courtesyPaul, which of the was Minnesota known asHistorical the Commercial Society. Station, seen here in 1921 ingRepublican in Chicago National in 1934, Committee accused meetparty- atThe 190 (then) East new Third downtown Street (nowSt. Paul Kellogg Post Office Boulevard).in the early Photo 1930s, courtesy which of Maas the Minnesota pushed for in leadershiping in Chicago of being in 1934, “servants accused of partyWall HistoricalCongress. Society.Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society. Street,”leadership and of threatened being “servants to leave theof party.Wall (CongressmanStreet,” and threatened Magnus to Johnson leave the of party. the Maas’s campaign flier ended with, “Maas In the Meantime: Williams 17 Minnesota(Congressman Farmer-Labor Party invitedof the isMaas’s Soundly campaign and Squarely flier ended Liberal.” with, “Maas WhileIn the Melvin Meantime: Maas managed Williams his po- 17 himMinnesota to join thatFarmer-Labor party, but heParty declined.) invited16 is SoundlyIt is impossible and Squarely to know Liberal.” how much liticalWhile career,Melvin Howard Maas managedWilliams flewhis po off- himWhen to join Maas that firstparty, ran but for he declined.)Congress, 16in thisIt program is impossible represented to know a change how ofmuch be- inlitical a new career, direction Howard and Williams eventually flew into off 1926,When he Maaswarned first against ran forany Congress,expansion in liefsthis program and how representedmuch an accommodation a change of be to- controversy.in a new direction He left and People’s eventually Church into of1926, federal he warned power asagainst a surrender any expansion of state aliefs new and reality. how much What an is accommodation certain is that heto incontroversy. 1929 to go Heto Newleft YorkPeople’s as executive Church andof federal local sovereignty,power as a surrendersteps on theof stateroad wanteda new reality. to go backWhat tois Congress.certain is thatHe ache- directorin 1929 toof gothe to League New York for asIndependent executive toand tyranny. local sovereignty, The national steps economic on the roadcri- commodatedwanted to go enough,back to orCongress. got lucky, He or ac a- Politicaldirector Actionof the (LIPA).League for Independent sis—and,to tyranny. presumably, The national Roosevelt’s economic 1932 cri- combinationcommodated ofenough, the two. or gotIn 1930lucky, Maas or a PoliticalLIPA Actionwas the (LIPA). brainchild of the great- landslide—changedsis—and, presumably, his Roosevelt’s approach. When 1932 hadcombination gotten over of the48,000 two. votes—hisIn 1930 Maas two est LIPAAmerican was the philosopher brainchild ofof the greattwen- helandslide—changed ran again in 1934 his he approach.promised Whencoop- adversarieshad gotten overtogether 48,000 a little votes—his over 23,000. two tiethest American century, philosopherJohn Dewey. of Capitalismthe twen- erationhe ran againwith Presidentin 1934 he Roosevelt promised (imag coop- Hereadversaries is the 1934together tally: a little over 23,000. hadtieth failed,century, but John both Dewey. Republicans Capitalism and ineeration a Republican with President doing Roosevelt that today!) (imag and- Here is the 1934 tally: Democratshad failed, remainedbut both itsRepublicans handmaidens. and advocated,ine a Republican by federal doing action: that today!) and RepublicansDemocrats remainedwere dug its in handmaidens.to defend it; advocated, by federal action: Melvin Maas (Republican) 37,933 DemocratsRepublicans wanted were todug tinker; in to neither defend faced it; • Unemployment insurance and old Melvin Maas (Republican) 37,933 theDemocrats reality of wanted replacing to tinker; it with neither something faced • Unemployment insurance and old A.E. Smith (Farmer-Labor) 30,354 age pensions; better.the reality “Not of the replacing slightest it hopewith remainssomething of age pensions; A.E. Smith (Farmer-Labor) 30,354 • A comprehensive plan of public John McDonough (Democrat) 24,122 accomplishingbetter. “Not the anyslightest fundamental hope remains change of • works;A comprehensive plan of public CharlesJohn McDonough Andre (Independent) (Democrat) 24,122 10,180 throughaccomplishing either anyof the fundamental old parties. change Both works; Charles Andre (Independent) 10,180 arethrough dominated either byof corrupt the old political parties. bosses Both • Food, clothing, medical care, and Thomas Tracy (Communist) 497 andare dominated selfish bybusiness corrupt interests.” political bosses Only a • housingFood, clothing, for all needy; medical care, and Thomas Tracy (Communist) 497 new,and selfishthird party business could do interests.” this democrati Only- a housing for all needy; • Shorter working hours (a 30-hour Maas won, but his opponents outpolled cally,new, third and now party was could the dotime. this LIPA democrati did not- • week);Shorter working hours (a 30-hour himMaas by won, over but 27,000 his opponents votes.18 Hisoutpolled share proposecally, and to now be the was party, the time. only LIPAto bring did that not week); himof votes by overfell from 27,000 66% votes. to 36%—in18 His sharemost partypropose into to being. be the19 party, only to bring that • Generous aid to state and local years,of votes a catastrophe,fell from 66% but to his 36%—in multiple most op- partyThe into quantity being. 19and variety of hotel sta- • education;Generous aid to state and local ponentsyears, a catastrophe,split the vote. but In his the multiple next elec op- tioneryThe inquantity Howard and Williams’s variety ofpapers hotel testi sta- education; • A constitutional amendment barring tion,ponents a splitpresidential the vote. year, In the the next Fourth elec- fiestionery to thein Howard killing regimenWilliams’s of paperstravel hetesti put- • tax-exemptA constitutional securities. amendment barring Congressionaltion, a presidential District year,might bethe in Fourthplay. himselffies to the through killing over regimen the next of traveleight years.he put tax-exempt securities. Congressional District might be in play. himself through over the next eight years. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 5 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 5 Capitol Exploits In her 1967 biography of Melvin Maas, Gladys Zehrpfennig Time magazine took note of Maas as early as 1926 and reports two stories of Melvin Maas’s physical courage, or printed stories about him several times, into the mid-1940s, daring, in Congress. On December 13, 1932, a young man but the magazine said nothing about this incident. In 1933 the named Martin Kemmerer appeared in the House gallery St. Paul Daily News published an admiring profile of Maas; it waving a gun and demanding to speak. While most mem- included the story of the gunman, but not the other one. bers and spectators ran away, Congressman Melvin Maas, The St. Paul Central Library holds an amazing collec- on the House floor, approached the elevated gallery and en- tion of biographical clippings, including over 300 about gaged the man in conversation. If he wanted to speak, fine, Melvin Maas, from 1925 into the 1940s: not one about but the House had a rule, no guns while speaking. The gun- buzzing the Capitol. But one clipping found there clears up man, apparently persuaded, dropped his pistol into the wait- the mystery. ing hands of Melvin Maas below. Then, of Melvin Maas buzzed D.C. in an air- course, he was arrested. But not hustled off plane, all right, but not for any political pur- right away—photographers posed a shot pose. According to the St. Paul Dispatch, of Maas and Kemmerer together with the on June 1, 1929, p. 1 (also reported in the weapon! New York Times), Maas was reprimanded The other story is that one day in 1929 for flying too low over the city, including Maas, alarmed by the lack of defense the Mall, and disturbing people with the of Washington, D.C., decided to make noise. He admitted it and apologized; he a point. He was a licensed pilot and re- had been practicing takeoffs and landings serve officer in the Marines; so he had ac- without thinking about the noise factor. cess to Bolling Field, a military airbase in That’s all there was to it, but over the the city. He often borrowed planes there years the story grew (at least in his mind) to practice flying. To dramatize the ab- into something spectacular. Thirty years sence of defenses, Maas chose a day that later this is what he told the Saturday President Herbert Hoover was to address Evening Post: a joint session of Congress and, precisely That was back in 1931 when some of my col- at noon, flew his plane so close to the halls leagues in the House of Representatives scoffed of Congress that the House vibrated with at my notion that an enemy plane could get close the sound. Message received: a determined enough to bomb the capitol. To show them, I enemy could wipe out big part of the gov- borrowed an old pursuit plane from Bolling ernment with a single strike. Field and made three screaming runs at the sky- The first of these stories is true. Maas Melvin Maas in 1929 in his pilot’s light of the House while it was in session. received a medal from the Carnegie Hero flightsuit. Photo courtesy of Paul D. Nelson. Fund Commission for his cool-headed re- Maas should have consulted his daily diary; sponse. And Kemmerer could truly have he recorded every flight he made, but there been dangerous: his gun was loaded and he knew how to use it. is nothing in 1931 (or 1929) about buzzing the Capitol. By The second story, alas, is a fabrication. It has been re- 1959 Maas himself may have come to believe the tale, but it counted, in varying versions, in the Saturday Evening Post, in never happened. a 2014 Boise State University master’s thesis, in the newsletter of the Carnegie Hero Fund, and recently in both Minnesota Sources Monthly magazine and MinnPost. But it can’t be true. Gladys Zehrpfenning, Melvin Maas: Gallant Man of Action (Minneapolis: T.S. Here’s the evidence against it. Maas employed clipping Dennison, 1967. services to document his career, and extensive clippings files Albert Eisele, “Melvin Maas: A Hero in Congress from Minnesota,” MinnPost, remain in his papers. No such story appears there or anywhere December 20, 2011. in his papers. Though one of his signature campaign issues Jack El-Hai, “A Disarming Congressman,” Minne sota Monthly (March 2006). was defense, the story does not show up in his surviving cam- Melvin Maas, as told to P.F. Healy, “Don’t Pity Us Handicapped.” Saturday Evening paign materials. The spectacular tale of a Congressman buzz- Post, 252 no. 50 (September 5, 1959): 30. ing the capitol while Congress was in session would have Timothy A. Guill, A Leatherneck in Congress: Melvin Maas’s Fight for a Modern been newsworthy. No such story appears in either the New Marine Corps Reserve, M.A. thesis, Boise State University, May 2014. York Times or the Washington Post. Melvin Maas diaries, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, Minn.

6 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Atlanta, Toledo, Little Rock, Dayton, • A minimum income for farmers Buffalo, Los Angeles, all forty-eight based on cost of production. states. His job was to roam the country en- listing allies and looking for a local party These palliatives will precede national- or movement that might go national.20 ization of banks and munitions industries, For a thousand reasons, he never found public ownership of natural resources it (nor has anyone since). Meanwhile, the and utilities, and public or cooperative election of third-party candidate Floyd B. ownership of packing plants, steel, and Olson as , in other monopolized industries.22 1930, pointed back to Williams’s home For all its reputation of radicalism, the state. Minnesota’s Farmer-Labor Party Minnesota Farmer-Labor party platform had taken a big share of political power; then in effect (adopted 1932) looks mild: it might prove to be the national model unemployment insurance, old-age pen- LIPA had been looking for. sions, a state income tax, and, the most radical, public ownership of water and By sometime in 1932 Williams had 23 returned to St. Paul and his LIPA organiz- electric power. This reticence was about ing work now also bore the name of the to be exploded, and Howard Williams built the bomb. Farmer-Labor Political Federation. He re- The bomb went off at the Farmer- connected with the Farmer-Labor Party Labor party’s 1934 convention in St. (which had no formal connection to the Paul. There the party’s unchallenged Farmer-Labor Political Federation), ran leader, popular two-term governor and in the oddball primary of 1932, and took likely future U.S. Senator, Floyd B. a beating similar to Melvin Maas’s—he Congressman Maas, right, poses with a Olson, made a memorable speech. “I am finished fifteenth of thirty-two Farmer- symbolic forget-me-not flower from a dis- a radical,” he proclaimed, to cheers. Labor candidates, out of contention.21 abled veteran in 1930. Photo courtesy of the In early 1934 Williams published, under Minnesota Historical Society. Our ultimate goal is a cooperative com- his name as author, a detailed program monwealth, wherein government will stifle of LIPA and the Farmer-Labor Political and rebate this wealth back into the hands of as much as possible the greed and avarice Federation. This document probably rep- the producers and consumers. . . . of the private profit system, and will bring resents his personal political beliefs. “We about a more equitable distribution of The people, though, are not yet ready for are standing,” he wrote, “on the thresh- wealth produced by the hands and minds of this. For the next several years, while old of a new economic era.” Capitalism the people. their minds and hearts are being prepared could collapse at any moment. “If we do [T]he eyes of the liberals throughout the for “cooperative democracy,” interim have another banking crisis within the next nation, yes, throughout the world are fo- measures must be taken: two years we will wake up some morn- cused upon us. We are the answer to those who contend that government cannot be ing to find that America has gone Fascist.” • Confiscatory income and inheri- truly representative of the common man and Our country’s economic potentates would tance taxes, “to skim off these huge woman. If we fail them we fail humanity, “crush out all rank and file organizations sums of unearned wealth at the top;” but we cannot fail—not so long as we are of the masses that might serve to check the • A job for every worker; worthy of the ideals we profess.24 dictatorship.” The mild-looking clergyman, who not • Adequate old age pensions; Stifle the avarice of capitalism and bring long before had presided over a middle- about a more equitable distribution of • Maternity leave for women work- class St. Paul non-denominational church, wealth—the cooperative commonwealth. ers and state-provided “adequate raised a clenched fist: For Olson this was careless rhetoric, as medical care to insure the safety of Williams should have (and may have) We will either go forward to the next stage mother and child;” known. But recalling the speech more of capitalism, state capitalism, collective • A 30-hour work week and $30 than thirty years later, he said, “We were capitalism, Fascism, the way Europe has 25 weekly minimum wage; so moved, we spoke in tongues.” gone; or we will go forward to the coop- He may have felt, in his thralldom, erative democracy proposed by the Farmer • Elimination of sales taxes; that the words were aimed at him. He was Labor party in which we push these exploit- • A moratorium on “unjust fore- chairman of the convention’s platform ers off our backs, extend the American prin- closures;” committee, which went to work soon ciple of public and cooperative ownership after Olson concluded the speech (and to natural resources, public utilities, banks, • Elimination of tax-exempt securi- left town without giving the committee packing plants and monopolized industries ties; and any guidance).26

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 7 Presiding over the committee, Williams ing Olson, feared that selling economic (and with his party) thirteen times.32 told the members that they had a choice, revolution to Minnesota farmers (who Roosevelt remained tremendously popu- go along with trying to repair the current had mostly been voting Republican for lar in Minnesota, 1936 would be a presi- system or “step out and declare for a new decades) was not going to work. Four dential election year, and the Depression social order.” Three platform propos- weeks later party leaders appointed a had gone on, with the Republican Party als were offered: one from the Ramsey committee (not including Williams) to offering no persuasive way out. And County Farmer-Labor group, one from revise the program. The party settled Maas had gotten only 36% of the vote in Hennepin County, and Williams’s own. on a rather elegant solution: Candidates 1934; he was vulnerable. The platform that came back at about would run on the “interim” recommenda- Howard Williams, on the other hand, 2 a.m., and enthusiastically endorsed by tions of the platform—the enhanced New had no official record to defend, as he had the delegates, has been called the most Deal part—and remind voters that imple- never won an election, but his role in the extreme ever endorsed by an American menting the visionary features would 1934 Farmer-Labor platform was well political party holding a share of power. require national legislation, national con- known—in normal times, too radical to “We . . . declare that capitalism has sensus, and in some cases constitutional be elected. And so they squared off, two failed and immediate steps must be amendment.30 able and eager heavyweights. Williams taken by the people to abolish capi- attacked and never stopped. He made talism in a peaceful and lawful man- two fundamental charges: (1) Maas was ner. . . .” Whew! It called for nationaliza- dangerously right wing: “Melvin Maas tion of all banks, mines, public utilities, is the full time servant of the big banks, transportation, and factories. “[O]nly public utilities, and munitions interests” a complete reorganization of the social and on civil liberties, he “shows a dan- structure into a cooperative common- gerous tendency toward fascism;”33 and wealth will bring economic security and (2) Mass opposed the New Deal. prevent a prolonged period of further suf- A campaign flyerfor Howard Williams. Photo These charges had just enough to them fering.” The convention had adopted the from the Melvin Maas Papers, courtesy of the to fall within capacious boundaries of Williams platform.27 Minnesota Historical Society. campaign truth. It was true, as Williams Olson biographer George Mayer called repeated (and repeated and repeated), that this platform an “extraordinary attempt at most of Maas’s legislative achievements According to both George Mayer and political suicide,” and Howard Williams had been in promoting defense; this was Millard Gieske, the radical platform did has taken a lot of blame for it. Historian his area of specialty. But there was noth- enormous damage. It split the party on Millard Gieske portrayed his perfor- ing to suggest any motivation other than urban/rural lines and cost it many votes, mance as reckless.28 That is one way of sincere belief. “Militarist” was just name- and Gieske says it cost St. Paul’s social- looking at it. Another is that Williams calling, without real content. In Congress listened to Floyd Olson’s speech, with ist mayor, William Mahoney, re-election. Maas belonged to a tiny minority of 103 its magic words, “cooperative common- Olson himself won reelection fairly eas- out of 435; only by developing expertise wealth,” and took it seriously, or at least ily, but by a much smaller margin than in an area of possible bipartisanship—in seriously as an opportunity. “If we fail before. Conservatives, already in firm his case, defense—could he hope to get them [the common man and woman] control of the state Senate, took the anything done. we fail humanity,” Olson had said. Was House also. By adopting the radical plat- And Maas had never opposed the New this not an invitation, a challenge, to form, the party lost all chance of turning Deal. He had voted against certain mea- 31 seize the moment? As Brutus said in its provisions into law. sures, yes; but not the program on the Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, “there is a whole. Given the tiny Republican mi- The 1936 Election tide in the affairs of men, which taken at nority, his votes mattered not at all. He the flood leads to fortune. . . .” Both Melvin Maas and Howard Williams had taken a “loyal opposition” stance, just That is how Williams saw it. Four aimed for Congress in the elections of as his campaign literature had obliquely weeks after the convention he told St. 1936. Both had strengths and both (un- suggested, giving his independent judg- Paul Daily News reporter Leif Gilstad like their meeting in 1928) now had pub- ment on Roosevelt Administration that “the response in the convention to lic records to defend. The Pioneer Press proposals. He had voted for big mea- such speeches as the governor’s indicated newspaper had been a strong early sup- sures like the Social Security Act and to me that the rank and file were ready to porter of Maas’s, going back to 1926. But the Emergency Relief Appropriation go along with a real program.” He agreed in September of 1935, it featured him in Act of 1935. Still, he had voted against that it was too radical for many, but that a Sunday article about anti-New Deal such pro-labor measures as the National was good: “It will drive out the hangers- voting. It reported that he had voted for Labor Relations Act (protecting col- on and make a real party out of it.”29 the Social Security Act, been absent from lective bargaining), the Walsh-Healey It took a few days for the reaction several other important votes, and voted Public Contracts Act, guaranteeing over- to crystallize. Party moderates, includ- against Roosevelt-endorsed measures time pay, and the Robinson-Patman Act,

8 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY protecting independent merchants from the American people to be unable to record-distorting rhetoric lay fundamen- chain stores. Maas defended himself ably, defend themselves against a com- tal ideological differences. Melvin Maas but Williams put him on the defensive.34 munist uprising or an invasion by was willing to put up with the New Deal Williams drove him crazy. Maas’s Russia?” as a temporary response to the crisis— speeches from that campaign shake with upon the end of the crisis, however, he exasperation: • “Mr. Williams denies that he is a desired a return to a lightly regulated Communist . . . yet I hold in my market capitalism. As early as 1934 he • “Again, the Rev. Mr. Williams re- hand a Communist pamphlet . . . lamented that people were becoming de- sorts to cheap trickery in his cam- which endorses Earl Browder for pendent on government to meet all their paign of misrepresentation.” President and H.Y. Williams for needs. Williams, by contrast, believed • “He resorts to half-truths, which are Congress. . . .”36 in the use of state power to make per- more despicable than out and out manent change in economic and social lies. One hardly expects a clergy- relations. In this debate, not much has man to stoop to such tactics.” changed in the last eighty years. It was a three-way election race; the strength • “You asked me [addressing of the Democratic candidate, a railroad Williams, rhetorically] why I ad- clerk named A.B.C. Doherty, would be vocated relief then voted against it. important. How would the pro-FDR vote You know that is a damnable lie.” be split? • “Williams, stick to the issues and St. Paul those days was divided into facts!”35 twelve wards, some tiny, some huge. Williams whipped Maas in nine of them, Candidate Williams wrapped himself in by substantial pluralities. The East Side, the cozy blanket of Roosevelt and the North End, West Side, and Frogtown all New Deal. There was no talk of over- went solidly for Williams. So far, so good. throwing capitalism, or the cooperative Maas’s strength lay in just three wards: commonwealth. He called for a more Ward Seven, south of Marshall from muscular New Deal and promised to op- Cathedral Hill on the east and Lexington pose any American involvement in for- on the west; Ward Ten, St. Anthony Park eign wars. A caricature of Maas that appeared in the St. and the city’s northwest corner; and It is impossible to know whether Paul Daily News. Clipping from the Melvin Ward Eleven, Highland Park. These were Williams’s more moderate program re- Maas Papers, courtesy of the Minnesota also the city’s largest by population. He Historical Society. flected a change in his beliefs or atac- crushed Williams in all three, by five tical retreat. His 1934 Farmer Labor thousand in Ward Eleven alone. Maas Association manifesto acknowledged Today the accusation “Communist” looks also enjoyed extraordinary ticket-split- that the people were not ready for the co- a little comical, but in 1936 it still carried ting: nearly 20,000 St. Paul voters chose operative commonwealth just yet—they plenty of heft. With capitalism stricken Roosevelt for president (he easily carried would need some years of an enhanced and failing in the eyes of many voters, all twelve wards) and Maas for Congress. Maybe Maas’s Red-bashing worked, just New Deal to get ready. His 1936 program Communism looked like a real threat, looked like just that. enough, after all. and American Communists were plenty Maas attacked Williams as a hypocrite The final tally of votes: active, including in Minnesota. (all-Roosevelt, yet he had spent most of Williams was no Communist (he was Maas 48,399 (38.27%) a decade promoting a third party to com- probably a socialist, in something like pete with Roosevelt’s Democrats; true), 37 Williams 48,039 (37.99%) a dirty campaigner (true), and, well, a the European social democratic line) Doherty (D) 28,957 (22.89%) Communist: but certainly far, far out of the Minnesota mainstream. In today’s attack ads he Otis Luce (I) 952 • “Williams was the proud author of would have been clubbed to death with the 1934 Communist Farm-Labor his own words. You can hear the tag line: Melvin Maas did well in an anti-Repub- platform. . . . This platform an- “Howard Williams—far left . . . and not lican landslide, but the voters did reject nounced that Capitalism had failed right for Minnesota.” But this was a dif- him by a margin of nearly 30,000 (7,000 and proposed . . . a soviet system in ferent time and it would have been hard more than in 1934); and so he was re- Minnesota.” for anyone to see the handsome and per- turned to Congress.38 Doherty, an un- • “Explain why you oppose every sonable clergyman—a World War I army known, did surprisingly well and therein from of national defense in this chaplain no less—as an agent of Stalin’s. lay Maas’s electoral success and long country. Isn’t it because you want Beneath all the name-calling and the career—divided opposition. In the eight

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 9 times he won election to Congress, Maas Browder. The author, said Williams, was Action—in the mid-1940s, then the got majorities only twice. Williams Congressman Melvin J. Maas. League for a Free (meaning free made noises about a recount, but noises Williams’s papers contain a surpris- from British control) Palestine, then only. He would never come close to ingly cheery seventeen-page reply to the Independent Voters of Illinois, and public office again. charges, addressed to the Civil Service then the Minnesota DFL in the early Commission. It admitted the photo on the 1950s. In 1955, after twenty-six years Coda wall, with one correction; the man with out of the pulpit, he became pastor Governor Elmer Benson, the Farmer- him was not Earl Browder but another of a Congregational church in Butte, Labor successor to Floyd Olson, who public figure who must have been well Montana. That job turned political too; died in 1936, gave Howard Williams a known to Maas—the “father of the Air he led a successful effort to defeat anti- job at the state capitol as Director of the Force,” General Billy Mitchell. The com- union legislation in the Montana leg- Minnesota Division of Soldier Welfare. plaint was dismissed but Williams did not islature. In 1965 Williams returned to Melvin Maas went back to Washington. get his job back.40 St. Paul as local organizer of United The Depression continued; war threat- The surviving Civil Service Commis- World Federalists until his retirement, ened more ominously in Europe and sion file neither confirms nor disproves at age 80, in 1969. He died in St. Paul Asia. Williams’s suspicion about Maas; no in 1973.43 Williams and Maas matched up again seven-point complaint or long answer Melvin Maas won reelection in 1940 in 1938, and fought the contest on the by Williams appears in it. The record and 1942. While in office in 1942 he same grounds, with the same accusations has an odd American Legion (a veterans’ used his Marine aviator’s commission to back and forth, even more bitterness organization) focus that points plausibly join—on his own—combat operations in this time. Maas should have been just as at Maas. He was a prominent Minnesota the South Pacific, and won a vulnerable as ever. Instead, he won eas- Legionnaire, and he was interviewed for volunteering on a perilous air recon- ily. State politics had been transformed in the investigation. The two written naissance and combat mission out of Port by divisions within the Farmer-Labor complaints in the record came from Moresby, New Guinea. Party and by the arrival of a new star, Minnesota American Legion officials, Running for a ninth term in 1944, Republican . St. Paul lawyer William Fallon, and Maas had to deal with something com- Minneapolis Republican Congressman mon for most politicians but new to In 1936 Governor Benson had beaten Oscar Youngdahl. They claimed that him: a single opponent. The Democratic Republican candidate Martin Nelson in Williams—another Legionnaire, but and Farmer-Labor parties, now merged, Ramsey County by 85,134 to 42,947—a not active—was a Marxist. Their com- sent the veteran Farmer-Labor man two to one margin. In 1938 Benson’s plaints were addressed to Paul McNutt, (and Williams’s first campaign manager votes fell by 37,000—over 43%—and head of the Civil Service Commission in 1926), Frank Starkey, against him. Stassen won there 64,293 to 48,174. and past national president of the Maas was a war hero but probably did Williams fell by only 16% in his rematch American Legion. Melvin Maas met not help himself by accusing—just be- with Maas; in defeat, he far outpolled his 39 with McNutt privately within one week fore election day—President Roosevelt party. In 1940 Maas won re-election of the announcement of Williams’s of allowing the Japanese attack on Pearl with a 58% majority, while Williams lost appointment.41 Harbor in order to draw the country into again, this time as Farmer-Labor candi- Williams got good performance re- war. Starkey beat Maas in the general date for lieutenant governor. From there views in Louisiana, and the Commission election by 4,040 votes.44 Though only he moved temporarily to north central dismissed the complaints, but no mat- forty-six years old, Maas never ran for Louisiana, where he had gotten a federal ter—he never got his job back. If Maas office again. job. And there he learned that Melvin was behind all this, as seems likely, it was After leaving Congress in 1945, Maas Maas could hold a grudge. not his finest hour. went back on active combat duty. He Williams’s job was an unglamorous Howard Williams came back to won a Legion of Merit for his service one, morale officer for new army re- Minnesota and made one more election an airbase commander during combat cruits. In the summer of 1941 the U.S. foray. In 1942 he got the Farmer-Labor on Okinawa and was promoted to major Civil Service Commission suspended endorsement for lieutenant governor general. On Okinawa he suffered facial him upon the receipt of a complaint (though he had run for governor), but wounds from Japanese bombs. that he was too radical to be allowed to lost the nomination in the primary.42 He remained on duty after the war. influence young soldiers. According to Now, at last, he was done. But not done Over the course of a few weeks in Williams, the complaint listed seven with politics. August 1951, possibly deriving from points, the crucial one this: That while Howard Williams continued to his Okinawa injuries, Melvin Maas serving as Director of Soldier Welfare scramble for work as a political orga- went completely blind. But rather than Williams kept on his office wall a photo nizer. He worked as Midwest organizer retiring, he learned to navigate the of himself shaking hands with the chair- for Union for Democratic Action—pre- world anew, usually without a cane or man of the Communist Party USA, Earl decessor of Americans for Democratic an attendant. In April 1954 President

10 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Maas as a Marine major general, now blind, in 1952 flanked by his daughter, Patricia, left, who is also wearing the uniform of a woman Marine, and his wife, Katherine. Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society.

Eisenhower appointed him chairman of , , and Betty Paul D. Nelson is a member of the the Commission on Employment of the McCollum—have represented the dis- Ramsey County Historical Society’s Edi- Physically Handicapped, where his work trict without interruption for nearly sev- torial Board, the author of Fredrick L. 45 won him countless awards and certifi- enty years. McGhee: A Life on the Color Line, 1861– cates of appreciation. He died on the job One-party politics pleases those in 1912 (2002), and a frequent contributor in 1964. control, dispirits the minority, and bores to this magazine. He owes many thanks Frank Starkey represented the Fourth almost everyone. The Melvin Maas era in to Tom O’Connell and the Farmer Labor Congressional District for just one term. Ramsey County bored no one: the para- Republican (later and for dox of a pugnacious conservative repre- Education Committee for directing his at- many years a federal judge) defeated senting a liberal district gave every elec- tention to Howard Williams; to those at and followed him for one term. Eugene tion an edge—this cannot be!—and made the St. Paul Public Library responsible McCarthy crushed Devitt in 1948 (by for far more compelling politics than for its amazing collection of newspaper 25,000 votes and Democrats—McCarthy, what has ensued. clippings; and to Steve Trimble.

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 11 Notes 1. Philadelphia Inquirer, April 30, 1928; Washington Papers, p. 6; St. Paul Dispatch, March 22, 1928, Duluth Labor Leader, April 7, 1934, p. 6 (complete plat- (D.C.) Daily News, June 4, 1934, unpaginated clippings p. 13; and 1931 Legislative Manual p. 366. form text). in Melvin Maas Papers, Minnesota Historical Society 13. St. Paul Dispatch, March 8, 1928, p. 1 (grand jury 28. Millard Gieske, Minnesota Farmer-Laborism: The (MHS), St. Paul, Minn. report); Melvin J. Maas, “Facts About the St. Paul Post Third Party Alternative (Minneapolis: University of 2. St. Paul Daily News, May 2, 1926 p. 1. Office Lease,” Congressional Record, 71st Congress, Minnesota, 1979), 192–93. Second Session, in the House of Representatives, 3. There is one published biography of Maas: Gladys 29. St. Paul Daily News, April 22, 1934, p. 1. February 24, 1930; St. Paul Pioneer Press, February 25, Zehnpfennig, Melvin J. Maas: Gallant Man of Action 1930, p. 1 and February 26, 1930, pp. 1 and 8 (editorial); 30. St. Paul Pioneer Press, April 22, 1934, p. 1. (Minneapolis: T. S. Dennison 1967). It must be used Time, April 22, 1930. 31. Mayer, 223–72. These two chapters, “The 1934 with caution, as it is uncritical, lacks any identification Election,” and “Deadlock,” describe the events in detail, of sources, written for a high-school audience, and con- 14. St. Paul Dispatch, November 7, 1933, sec. 2, with Mayer’s analysis; Gieske, 192–93. tains one enormous fabrication (see sidebar). Still it is p. 1; 1933 Legislative Manual, 201. accurate on the whole and has been the source of much 15. Minnesota Secretary of State, Abstract of Votes, 32. St. Paul Pioneer Press, September 8, 1935, section writing about Maas since 1967. Election November 8, 1932, Ramsey County. Tally: 3, p. 3. 4. In 1932, citing a study by the International Union of Roosevelt 66,128, Hoover 38,589. For governor: Floyd 33. Williams for Congress Press Release, Septem- Brewery, Flour, Cereal, and Soft Drink Workers, Maas B. Olson 59,206, Republican Earle Brown 35,960, and ber 28, 1936; undated Williams 1936 press release or estimated that Prohibition had cost St. Paul over 1,500 Democrat John Regan 14,137. radio address, Maas Papers. jobs (St. Paul Dispatch, January 14, 1932, p. 1). 16. St. Paul Pioneer Press, October 4, 1931, p. 9; St. 34. Williams’s last newspaper ad, published the day before the election, leads with the headline, “Stand By 5. St. Paul Dispatch, December 15, 1922, p. 1 Paul Dispatch, July 26, 1933 pp.1, and 7 November Roosevelt.” The text: “Elect Howard Y. Williams to (Daugherty hearings); November 21, 1927, p. 1 (obitu- 1933, p. 1; Christian Science Monitor June 8, 1934; Washington Daily News June 4, 1934, clippings with no Congress. He is the ONLY candidate for Congress in ary); Minnesota Secretary of State, 1927 Legislative page identified, Maas Papers. this District who is campaigning for Roosevelt and his Manual of the State of Minnesota, compiled for the policies,” St. Paul Daily News, November 2, 1936 p. 2; Legislature of 1927 (Minneapolis: Harris & Smith Co., 17. “Maas and Progress, a Constructive Program,” 1934 St. Paul Pioneer Press, November 2, 1936, p. 3. 1927), 350 (hereinafter Legislative Manual). Soon after campaign pamphlet, Maas Papers. Keller left office in 1927, his wife, Alice, died of pneu- 18. 1935 Legislative Manual, 378. 35. Quotations from two 1936 radio campaign speeches, monia at age 48; Keller died, also of pneumonia, seven Maas Papers. 19. League for Independent Political Action, “Wanted, months later. They left three young children. A New Political Alignment,” and “League for 36. Ibid. 6. Robert Moats Miller, Harry Emerson Fosdick: Independent Political Action Endorses B.C. Vladeck,” 37. There were plenty of socialists in the League for Preacher, Pastor, Prophet (New York: Oxford University (quotation); undated fliers in Williams Papers. Independent Political Action, and Williams’s 1934 Press, 1985), 464–89. 20. Howard Y. Williams Papers. Farmer-Labor Political Federation platform closely re- sembles the American Socialist Party platform of 1932. 7. No biography of Howard Williams has ever been 21. Williams’s movements, in residence and employ- published. The most complete treatment available is a ment, during this period are hard to pin down. In a resume 38. Minnesota Secretary of State, Abstract of Votes, sketch that accompanies the guide to his papers in note- done later, found in his papers, he wrote that he worked Election November 3, 1936, Ramsey County. book M441 of the manuscript collection at MHS. It is for LIPA until 1935, then the Farmer-Labor Political 39. 1939 Legislative Manual, 390. Here are the vote useful, though it contains one spectacular error—the as- Federation 1935–1937. But he was in St. Paul long totals: Maas: 60,252 (53%); Williams: 40,588; A.B.C. sertion that Williams received a Congressional Medal of enough to run for Congress in 1932 and to participate in Doherty: 12,619. Maas did remarkably well. Though Honor; he did not. The best source for his early life is the Farmer-Labor Convention of 1934, and some 1934 turnout fell by 13,000, he increased his votes by over “Autobiography of Howard Y. Williams,” a typescript in FLPF documents, bearing his name give its address as the 11,000. Stassen carried five of St. Paul’s twelve wards, his papers, at MHS. This is, alas, incomplete; it breaks off Hotel Frederic, St. Paul. Some also show him employed one of them by over 10,000. Minnesota Secretary of in the late 1920s. His “Reflections on 74 Years,” a sermon simultaneously by both organizations. His Civil Service State, Abstract of Votes, Election November 8, 1938, he prepared for United Congregational Church, Butte, file shows him employed by LIPA from September 1929 Ramsey County Montana, January 27, 1963, covers more ground but is to November 1937. Howard Y. Williams Civil Service 40. Draft letter from Howard Y. Williams to U.S. Civil short. Also useful is a short resume, all in the Howard Y. file, National Archives and Records Administration, St. Service Commission, dated July 5, 1941, Williams Williams papers at MHS. Some facts printed here were Louis, copy in author’s possession, 1933 Legislative Papers. gathered from his papers in general. Manual, 342 (primary election results.) 41. Undated Maas newspaper obituary, biography clip- 8. “Uses Boy ‘Gangs’ in Church Work,” St. Paul Daily 22. Farmer-Labor Political Federation and League for pings collection, St. Paul Central Library; Howard Y. News, undated clipping marked 1921, Williams Papers. Independent Political Action, “America’s Future, The Williams Civil Service file; Melvin Maas diary, March 9. St. Paul Pioneer Press, April 20, 1925, p. 1 (death Farmer-Labor Party Program,” a four-page broadside, 18, 1941, MHS. Williams Papers. Though undated, this appears to come penalty); September 29, 1924, p. 1 (the Klan); May 18, 42. Gieske, 309–11; St. Paul Pioneer Press, September from early 1934. 1925, p. 16 (against literal interpretation of Genesis); 11, 1942, p. 1. Williams lost by about 3,000 votes out of November 14, 1924, p. 4 (quotation); undated clipping 23. George H. Mayer, The Political Career of Floyd B. 98,000 cast. in Williams Papers, People’s Church budget tripled dur- Olson (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1987), 43. Howard Williams, “Reflections on 74 Years,” ing his first five years as pastor. 95–96. January 27, 1963, Howard Y. Williams Papers; 10. St. Paul Daily News, May 5, 1926 p. 1 (election 24. St. Paul Daily News, March 28, 1934, pp. 1–2 Biographical Sketch, Manuscript Notebook 441, MHS. results.) 25. James Shields, Mr. Progressive: A Biography of 44. Zehrpfennig; St. Paul Pioneer Press, January 29, 11. 1929 Legislative Manual, 86. Hoover beat Al Smith Elmer Austin Benson (Minneapolis: T.S. Dennison Co., 1946, p. 9; Legislative Manual, Maas Papers; Albert in Minnesota by 560,977 to 396,451. 1971), 46. This is from an interview Williams gave Eisele, “Melvin Maas: A Hero in Congress from Shields in 1967. 12. Philadelphia Inquirer, April 30, 1928, clipping Minnesota,” MinnPost, December 20, 2011. with no page identified in Melvin Maas Papers; “The 26. Mayer, 171. 45. 1945 Legislative Manual, 358; 1947 Legislative Age of Propagandists,” 1928 pamphlet in the Maas 27. St. Paul Daily News, March 28, 1934, pp. 1–2; Manual, 359; 1949 Legislative Manual, 355.

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This photograph of Chief Sitting Bull was made at the photography studio of Alfred Palmquist and Peder T. Jurgens in St. Paul in 1884. The signature at the bottom of the cabinet card adds to the value and importance of the photo. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress. For more on Sitting Bull and Palmquist and Jurgens, see page 13.