University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for

Summer 1981

Immigrant Voters And The Nonpartisan League In Nebraska, 1917-1920

Burton W. Folsom Jr. Murray State University

Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly

Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons

Folsom, Burton W. Jr., "Immigrant Voters And The Nonpartisan League In Nebraska, 1917-1920" (1981). Great Plains Quarterly. 1906. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1906

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. IMMIGRANT VOTERS AND THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE IN NEBRASKA, 1917;1920

BURTON W. FOLSOM, JR.

M any people have wondered why socialism The real test of the potency of ethnic and never came to America. Some think that life religious divisions in American politics is to in the factories and on the farms was often so look at their staying power during a time of poor that Americans should have been ripe for economic crisis and class-oriented appeals. Do a socialist government. Political historians have immigrant farmers, for example, respond to the recently shown that radical movements in politics of agricultural unrest more as immi­ America had two insurmountable hurdles: grants or as farmers?2 In this essay I will ex­ strong ethnic loyalties and religious ties. During plore the political reaction of German, Swedish, America's age of capitalist expansion, cultural and Czech immigrants in Nebraska to the divisions prevailed when waves of immigrants Nonpartisan League, a militant farmers' organi­ poured into urban factories and onto mid­ zation that agitated during the World War I western farms. In the late 1800s and early period for increased farm income through 1900s, immigrants and natives fought intense widespread state socialism. local battles over prohibition, woman suffrage, An heir of the Populist party, the Non­ and compulsory school laws. The economic partisan League was founded in North Dakota debates over the tariff, monetary policy, and in 1915. It quickly became a farm lobby eager farm income were also important; but they to improve farm conditions by active state seem to have excited less local interest than intervention in the economy. Arthur C. Town­ did cultural issues, which perhaps impinged ley, a former socialist organizer and the league's more directly on the da,y-to-day lives of immi­ master strategist, campaigned to boost farm grant and native alike. 1 income. To do this he wanted to reduce the farmers' dependence on urban businesses and on those economic forces in Minneapolis that Burton W. Folsom, Jr., is an assistant professor of history at Murray State University, Ken­ determined the pricing of North Dakota grain. tucky. A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, Folsom By flailing against "Big Biz" in the form of is the author of several essays in scholarly bankers, railroad operators, flour millers, and journals and of Urban Capitalists (]ohn Hop­ food processors, Townley soon attracted an kins University Press, 1981). immense rural following-well beyond his

159 160 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 1981 original band of "soap boxers, socialists, IWW, 1917 and immediately began the systematic or other born again radicals." Transforming recruitment of members. Capitalizing on wide­ invective into a political program, the Non­ spread farmer discontent, the Nonpartisan partisan League endorsed the state ownership League secured more than thirteen thousand and operation of terminal elevators, flour mills, memberships for sixteen dollars each and packing houses, and cold-storage plants; a state established a newspaper, the Nebraska Leader, hail insurance plan; the exemption of farm to promote the campaign for state ownership tools from taxation; and cooperative rural of stockyards, packing houses, flour mills, banks. As one author has observed, "Here, terminal elevators, creameries. beet-sugar fac­ with undisguised rancor, was a class organiza­ tories, and the telephone system.5 tion with a class program and a class strategy." The American declaration of war against This "class strategy" was the political takeover Germany in 1917. however, dramatically inter­ of the state government of North Dakota.3 rupted the league's recruitment of Nebraska Refusing to become tainted by a close rela­ farmers. The National Council of Defense, tionship with either major party, since both which President Wilson set up to help prosecute parties associated promiscuously with "Big the war, demanded that Americans drop politi­ Biz," the Nonpartisan League instead em­ cal rivalries and channel their energies and at­ braced only those candidates who were lured tention toward winning the war. To the state by the attraction of state socialism. From 1916 Council of Defense in Nebraska, mobilizing to 1922 it won astonishing' political victories farmers for class-conscious political action was throughout North Dakota, and as a result, not a patriotic contribution to the war effort. much of its political program became state law. A defiant Arthur Townley countered charges Anxious to spread the gospel of socialism, the of political disloyalty by affirming his devotion Nonpartisan Leaguers expanded their opera­ to America and offering the services of the tions to other Great Plains states to forge a league to the government. But he added that regional political alliance. In no state, how­ "we have been dragged into a war we did not ever, did they match their North Dakota suc­ want" and that big business was "ten times cesses. worse than the German autocrats." When the Political enemies impugned its patriotism Nonpartisan Leaguers in Nebraska circulated and common sense, but the Nonpartisan a pamphlet attacking "rival groups of monopo­ League won a few congressional and state elec­ lists" for instigating the war, the state Council tions throughout the Midwest before disap­ of Defense branded them unpatriotic and pearing in the early 1920s when, ironically, forbade them to meet publicly anywhere in farm distress became even more acute. The Nebraska. Even though the state court eventual­ purpose of this essay is not to evaluate the ly restored the league's civil liberties, the league's programs or to assign credit or blame loyalty issue put it on the defensive and proba­ to it for any of its activities. Others have per­ bly slowed down its mqbilizing of disgruntled formed these tasks with remarkable diligence farmers in Nebraska. The Nonpartisan Leaguers and, in some cases, with the intensity and were caught between defending their loyalty vitriol of the leaguers and their opponents.4 and promoting agrarian socialism: they them­ Instead, this essay will focus on the impact of selves had become the political issue. By the the class appeals of the Nonpartisan League early 1920s they had lost momentum, and as candidates on various ethnic groups in Ne­ major parties adopted some of their ideas. the braska. league rapidly disintegrated.6 As one of the larger states in the Great The Nonpartisan League waged its most Plains, Nebraska became an important target crucial campaign in Nebraska in 1920. The war for Nonpartisan League organizers. After care­ had ended, the Council of Defense had dis­ ful planning they arrived in Nebraska in May banded, and the league could focus on its IMMIGRANT VOTERS AND THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 161 program of inciting class consciousness. Its ing yellow paint to the houses of "war slack­ first act was to hold a convention and nominate ers." Sensing a sympathetic constituency, league a third-party ticket to capture the state govern­ organizers published a special edition of their ment. The league's candidate for governor was state newspaper in the German language. 9 Arthur Wray, a lawyer from York, who stumped The close connection of German Americans vigorously for agrarian socialism. Not surpris­ with the Nonpartisan League discredited both ingly, Wray's rural appeals attracted a rural even further in the eyes of the superpatriots. vote; yet it was also concentrated in two immi­ Violence and disruption sometimes followed grant areas, so ethnicity, not class, explains it when speech became too free. One official in best. 7 Minnesota wanted firing squads to remove "the The most conspicuous constituency of the disloyal element." In Nebraska a group of mili­ Nonpartisan League was the state's German tants assaulted and almost hanged an agent of Americans. The gospel of state socialism, how­ the Nonpartisan League for handing out Ger­ ever, would not bring the league and the Ger­ man-language copies of the Nebraska Leader. mans together. Instead, their common struggle A mob in Collinsville, Illinois, actually did hang to preserve civil liberties during World War I a German immigrant-after which the Washing­ united them in a common cause. The Council ton Post philosophized that "enemy propa­ of Defense was as irritated by the German ganda must be stopped, even if a few lynchings Americans' alleged loyalty to the Kaiser as it may occur.,,10 was by the league's socialistic explanation In such a heated environment, Nonpartisan of the origin of the war. The council therefore League rallies in Nebraska's German areas denied both the German Americans and the regularly sparked violence and bloodshed. One Nonpartisan League the rights to free speech such incident happened at a league rally in and assembly; it also removed books on Ger­ August 1919 in Beatrice, the seat of Gage many and on socialism from libraries across the County; many German farmers were in atten- state. As a result, German Americans and Non­ , dance, including some from Hanover township, partisan Leaguers put ideological differences the site of one of the largest German Lutheran aside to wage a campaign to restore their civil rural churches in the Great Plains region. Vio­ liberties. 8 lence resulted when returned soldiers and self­ The attraction of German Americans to the proclaimed patriots hooted down speakers, Nonpartisan League was always peculiar be­ provoked brawls, and started a riot. Mean­ cause state socialism had often been a target while city officials apparently did nothing to of their Catholic priests and Lutheran preach­ restore order. In response, five hundred league ers. Earlier agrarian reform movements such as sympathizers gathered in nearby Pickrell populism had made little headway in German three weeks later under local German leadership immigrant commumties. Furthermore, the to "protest against any interference with league wanted to give to women the right to the rights of peaceable assembly and public vote and take from others the right to drink; discussion." They concluded their meeting with such moralistic tinkering offended the personal a plan to boycott businesses in Beatrice until liberty of immigrants from Germany. In 1914 the governor removed the town's mayor, and 1916, when proposals for woman suf­ chief of police, and sheriff for permitting the frage and prohibition appeared as referenda violence. The editor of the Lincoln Star said on the state ballot, German voters overwhelm­ that "the trouble at Beatrice grew out of ... ingly spurned them both. Yet by 1920 super­ the fact that a certain locality in Gage Coun­ patriots in Nebraska had created greater threats ty which manifested pro-German sympathies to German-American culture by banning the during the war had contributed a large propor­ teaching and speaking of German in the schools, tion of the audience." He had insisted earlier by burning "unpatriotic" books, and by apply- that 162 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 1981

when returned soldiers are aroused to the cincts confirms the close association of German point of interfering with and breaking up Americans with the Nonpartisan League. Saint a meeting of the Townley bund it shows Helena, for example, a rural German-Catholic they have not forgotten the disloyal mouth­ enclave in Cedar County, gave her 70 percent ings of the League's leaders when the coun­ of its vote, her strongest support anywhere in try was in the throes of a death struggle that county.12 with Kaiserism, or the fact that the organi­ The second of Nebraska's ethnic groups to zation got much of its support from disloyal support the Nonpartisan League was the sources. Swedish Americans. Support for farm cooper­ The Star had defined "disloyal sources" earlier atives and state ownership had strong roots in as "pro-Germans, anti-war socialists and other the Scandinavian past. Moreover, the Lutheran disgruntled elements." The feelings evoked by church in Sweden was pietistic and urged the war lingered long after the armistice; in moralistic intervention in public affairs. By the 1920 Nonpartisan Leaguer Arthur Wray re­ 1920s, for example, Sweden had enacted na­ ceived a mere 16 percent of the vote for gov­ tional prohibition and state aid for farmers. ernor in Gage County, but he got almost 80 So in Nebraska, not surprisingly, the Swedes percent of the ballots in Hanover precinct.ll (as well as the Norwegians and Danes) were An even better illustration of the German­ enthusiastic backers of the Populist party in the American alliance with the Nonpartisan League 1890s; when the Nonpartisan League picked up in,1920 was the campaign for the state's third its torch a quarter of a century later, the congressional seat. In this district both major Swedes again supported agrarian reform. The parties chose candidates hostile to the Non­ Nonpartisan League began recruiting Nebraska partisan League. Marie Weekes, the editor of farmers in 1917, and the ubiquity of Swedish the Norfolk Press, was the league's candidate names on the membership rolls illustrates the and one of the first women to run for public recurring connection between the Swedes and office in the state. Weeks believed in prohibi­ agranan. ra d'Ica l'Ism. 13 tion, which was an enathma to Germans, but Germans and Swedes banding together was she also championed freedom of speech and a novelty in Nebraska politics. The Swedes' assembly, a national referendum on future tradition of a strong state and the Germans' American entry into wars, and the League's wish for expanded civil liberties apparently farm program of widespread state ownership. outweighed their past conflicts on the cultural A vigorous campaigner, she toured northeast issue of prohibition. On election day in 1920 Nebraska to spread her ideas. The American the Swedes rivaled the Germans in casting Legion and other restrictionist groups were so ballots for Nonpartisan Leaguers. For example, offended by her "unAmericanism" that they phelps County, which had the largest percent­ used force to keep her from speaking in several age of Swedes in the state, was one of the few Nebraska towns. Giving her a dose of the "war­ counties that Wray carried in his quest for the time terrorism" she attacked, the Legionnaires governorship. Wray held a large and peaceful and others wore military dress to her gatherings, rally in Holdrege, the seat of Phelps County, carried guns, threw eggs, and used physical and on election day he carried fourteen of the violence to stop her speeches. By the end of the county's seventeen precincts, some by more campaign, Weekes was the center of contro­ than 80 percent of the three-party vote. Polk versy. Even though she ran third in the race, County had the second-largest percentage of her unevenly distributed 20 percent of the vote Swedes in the state; many Swedish Lutherans illuminated the contrasting values on agrarian had settled in platte and East pleasant Home radicalism and civil liberties. The overpowering townships, where the town of Swede Home support, usually more than 60 percent, that she centralized local Swedish activity. These two received in German-Catholic and Lutheran pre- precincts gave Wray 54 percent of the vote, IMMIGRANT VOTERS AND THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 163 more than twice that of the rest of Polk Coun­ CZECH AND SWEDISH SETTL EMENT ty." Nearby Howard County, the home of the OF SAUNDERS COUNTY NEBRASKA largest concentration of Danes in the state, B Y PRE CINCT also went for Wray. Dannebrog, the center of this Danish community, gave Wray 45 percent of the three-party vote. Christian A. Sorenson, the state attorney for the Nonpartisan League, was a second-generation Danish immigrant who, like so many Scandinavians, wanted to hring agrarian radicalism to Nebraska. 14 The state's third major ethnic group, immi­ grants from Czechoslovakia, were heavily rural but they were no help for the Nonpartisan League. Their Bohemian heritage did not in­ cline them to favor temperance reform or a strong state. In the 1890s the Populists aroused hostility in Czech communities, where state ownership and moralistic reform repelled these largely Catholic immigrants. In 1914 and 1916 CIE CH S[ ' Tl EM[NT the state's Czech voters emphatically rejected . 5 ...,[ 015" S E TTL EM[NT woman suffrage and prohibition, and the Non­ • 'OUNT' S[4' partisan League's association with this cultural tinkering undoubtedly rankled the skeptical FIG. 1 Czechs even further. In addition the league's criticism of world War I angered those Czechs who favored the defeat of the Central Powers, they were joined by one hundred more Swedish for a breakup of the Austro-Hungarian empire families and together they occupied most of meant independence for the Czechs. Like so the land in South Stocking, Wahoo, Richland, many other Nebraskans, then, the Czechs felt and Green townships. They adjusted to the no urge to defend the civil liberties of German hazards of farming on the Great Plains and Americans or Nonpartisan Leaguers. In Saline built three Lutheran churches and a Lutheran County, for example, which had the largest college. In 1920 many of their descendants percentage of Czechs in the state, a mere 7 per­ occupied these four townships and parts of cent of the voters wanted the Nonpartisan others. 16 " 15 League candidate for governor. Beginning in the 1880s a large group of A study of Saunders County helps to show Czechs settled directly northwest of the Swedes. the immigrant response to the Nonpartisan This mostly Catholic group of Bohemian farm­ League. Nestled between Lincoln and Omaha in ers colonized five townships in the western part the southeastern part of the state (Fig. 1), of Saunders County and several more in adja­ Saunders County was settled by a diverse group cent Butler County. The center for these of immigrant farmers. A colony of thirty fami­ Czechs was the town of Prague, which was lies from Horjo Forsamlay, Kristianstad Lan, built up around a saloon. They soon added a Sweden, were among the county's first inhabi­ parochial school, a large Catholic church, a tants. They had traveled by ship and railroad bank, and a grain mill. By 1920 Prague and to Nebraska and then by wagon and ferry to Swede burg symbolized two different cultures Saunders County. They "settled in the south­ existing uneasily side by side.17 central part" of the county in 1869, and there Farming was the hub of economic life in they built the town of Swedeburg. In 1870 Saunders County. By 1880 corn had become 164 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 1981 the most important export crop and was Council of Defense in 1917. As its spokesman, planted on "all soil types in the county." Placek directly rebuked the Nonpartisan After the turn of the century mixed farming League and indirectly harassed the Swedes in and crop rotation led to the greater production his county. 20 of oats, wheat, alfalfa, and clover. Tilling adja­ The Nonpartisan League and the Saunders cent lands, the Swedes and Czechs shared com­ County Council of Defense had been trading mon economic problems caused by fluctuating insults almost from the outset of the war. The prices, blizzards, and grasshoppers. But they league recruited hundreds of members in did not respond in the same way. When the Saunders County, including some Germans in Nonpartisan League offered agrarian socialism the area and many farmers near Swedeburg. to the Nebraska voters, the Czechs were skepti­ Local superpatriots were aghast and attacked cal and the Swedes were sympathetic. 18 "the aims and purposes of this so-called Non­ The contrasting reactions of the Czechs and partisan League" as "disloyal and pro-German." Swedes to the Nonpartisan League may have In a showdown the league and the Council of originated in the differing attitudes in their Defense debated publicly in Wahoo in early homelands toward the Great War. Sweden was December 1917. Richard Metcalfe, an officer neutral during the war, so Swedish Americans in the state Council of Defense, branded the seem to have felt little need to involve America Nonpartisan League disloyal during this debate; in the conflict. By contrast, many Czechs later Emil Placek published letters from other wanted their homeland to be free from Aus­ leaders of the council, who denounced the trian dominance; America's siding with the ideology and patriotism of the league.21 Allies was essential to achieving this end. Undaunted by criticisms of their loyalty, Whatever the case, the Czechs of Saunders the Nonpartisan Leaguers kept on recruiting County, more than the Swedes, wanted to fight among the heavily Swedish farm population of in the war to vanquish the Austrian empire. Saunders County. They even scheduled a rally Czech names abound on the lists of volunteers in Wahoo on March 30, 1918, to promote in the armed forces and the lists of contrib­ agrarian radicalism. Placek countered by ban­ utors to the Red Cross. Most exuberant of all ning this and all future Nonpartisan League was Emil E. Placek, the leader of the local meetings in the county. The Czech patriarch Czech community and the chairman of the insisted that the scheduled rally "is resented Saunders County Council of Defense.19 by all loyal citizens and if allowed to be held The son of a Bohemian farmer, Emil Placek may incite riot and lawlessness." An indignant grew up in Milligan, Nebraska, a Czech settle­ batch of Nonpartisan League organizers, led by ment located fifty miles southwest of Saunders state Senator W.]. Taylor, came to Wahoo any­ County. He saw the need for education and way and there met Placek and protested this attended Western Normal School near Lincoln denial of civil liberties. A crowd of "patriots" and went to law school at the University of in Wahoo threatened the radicals with bodily Nebraska, where he was graduated in 1897. harm and chased them out of town. Afterward, The next year Placek fought in the Spanish­ one of these patriots immortalized the event American War and shortly afterward moved with the following verse: to Saunders County, where by 1907 he became Over the hills to Placek's town a prominent lawyer and judge. He was elected He and his cohorts came burning down state senator on the Democratic ticket in 1910 Only to meet the patriots true and 1912. A civic leader in the local Czech And Taylor beat it from old Wahoo.22 settlement, Placek founded the only bank in Prague and a manufacturing company in the The leaguers counterattacked: they circu­ county seat of Wahoo. When "duty" called he lated petitions demanding that Placek be re­ assumed the presidency of the Saunders County moved as chairman of the local Council of IMMIGRANT VOTERS AND THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 165

Defense. Then, banned from Wahoo, they held PERCENT OF VOTE RECEIVED BY WRAY a league meeting in more friendly territory-a IN SAUNDERS COUNTY NEBRASKA schoolhouse just outside of Swede burg. A vigi­ B Y ~RECINCT lant Council of Defense heard about the gather­ ing, disrupted it, and arrested organizer W. E. Quigley on charges of vagrancy, violating the state sedition law, and holding a meeting with­ out a permit. John Hanson (a Swede), John O. Schmidt (a German), and C. E. Beadle posted the $1,000 bail bond to free Quigley, whom Placek warned to get out of the county. In the waning days of the war, one of Placek's final schemes was to urge all leaguers in the county to cancel their memberships. If they refused, he warned, "action will be brought against the League (without expense to you) to recover the $16 paid by you, and whatever may be recover­ ed [will] be donated to the Red Cross. ,,23

The feuding in Saunders County over patrio­ SlLO W 20 % tism and civill1berties received state and nation­ 20- S 0% al attention. Since then several writers have o commented on the explicit denial of First Amendment rights to Nonpartisan Leaguers in Saunders County.24 More subtle, but just FIG. 2 as interesting, are the ethnic tensions that kept the county's farmers from uniting. These Nonpartisan League platform advocated low­ tensions had originated in conflicts over cul­ cost farm credit and hail insurance, no taxes on tural values and ethnic traditions; they domi­ farm equipment, and state ownership of stock­ nated Nebraska politics long before the war yards, packing houses, cold-storage plants, and even shaped political responses afterward. terminal elevators, flour mills, creameries, In 1920, when the Nonpartisan League mount­ beet-sugar factories, and the telephone system. ed another crusade to bring agrarian socialism The league's candidates for public office waged to Nebraska, this time unencumbered by the vigorous campaigns and scared major party war, Saunders County again split along ethnic leaders. The agra~ian radicals won no state lines. The cultural differences between the offices, but their 20 to 25 percent of the vote Czechs and the Swedes divided them more than showed acute farm discontent and was respect­ their common economic problems united able .. for a third party. 25 When their vote is them. scrutinized by precinct, however, the rural This ethnic divisiveness might appear start­ ethnic conflict seems to have shattered the ling to some because the Nonpartisan League's agrarian solidarity. quest for a united farmers' party seemed to The information in Figure 2 illustrates the make sense by 1920. The removal of price ethnic response in Saunders County to the supports after World War I drastically slashed Nonpartisan League's third-party challenge in the prices of many farm commodities. The 1920. Arthur Wray, the radical farmers' choice league offered its solutions just as farm income for governor, carved out 24 percent of the was dwindling, land prices were plummeting, state vote. In Saunders County Wray received and foreign markets were restricted by pro­ a 'similar 26 percent of the vote, but as the tective tariffs. In the 1920 campaign the map indicates (Fig. 2), his support was strong 166 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 1981 in some areas and weak in others. Of the seven to agrarian socialism. The Swedes were almost precincts that Wray carried, four were heavily ideal recruits for the Nonpartisan League. Swedish, two were partially Swedish, and the Sweden was neutral during world War I, and other was largely German. In the four heavily the league's radical critique of the war's origins Swedish precincts Wray captured 55 percent of did not violate the Swedish Americans' ethnic the ballots. South Stocking precinct, where loyalties. The Scandinavian tradition of cooper­ Swedeburg was located, became the banner ation and an active state was compatible with Wrap township in the county by giving him the goals of agrarian radicalism. Banning the 71 percent of the total vote.26 saloon, another goal of the Nonpartisan League, The Czechs gave agrarian radicalism a de­ was a popular reform with most of Nebraska's cidedly chillier reception. Nine precincts in Scandinavian voters; in fact, prohibition be­ Saunders County gave Wray less than 20 per­ came law in Sweden, Norway, and Finland cent of the vote, and the county's five heavily almost at the same time as in the United States. Czech precincts were among these nine. More Nebraska's Czechs, by contrast, often viewed specifically, Wray got roughly one-fourth of the the Nonpartisan League with alarm. The vote in the state and in Saunders County, but league's hostile stance toward the war ruffled in the Czech enclaves of Saunders County he those Czechs who perceived an Allied victory as received only 11 percent of the ballots. Whereas the key to liberating the Czech homeland from Swedeburg was in Wray's top precinct in the Austria. Furthermore, the Nonpartisan League's county, Prague was in Wray's next-to-worst endorsement of prohibition and woman suff­ preCinct.27 The astonishing contrast in the vote rage alienated Czech voters who opposed any for Wray in these two ethnic centers-71 per­ kind of temperance reform or equal-suffrage cent in Swedeburg and 9 percent in Prague­ measure. Nebraska's Germans, both Lutheran symbolizes the two contrasting cultures and and Catholic, had yet another point of view on how they clashed over agrarian socialism. agrarian socialism. They shared the Czechs Why did agrarian radicalism fail? Historians animus against prohibition and woman suffrage, who ask that question about the Populists, the but they agreed with the league's advocacy of Nonpartisan League, and the Farm Holiday civil liberties. Recoiling from persecution on movement usually assume that economic issues, the war issue, Nebraska's Germans found in the those impinging on jobs and income, should similarly harassed Nonpartisan League the only shape political behavior.28 Once we recognize political organization that would welcome them the importance of other concerns, especially and support their claims to freedom of speech those touching ethnicity, religion, and cultural and assembly. Apparently groups that are traditions, an answer becomes obvious. Agrar­ maligned together align together, because the ian radicalism failed because it was so often state's German voters rallied behind the Non­ irrelevant or contradictory to cultural values partisan League candidates at election time. and traditions cherished dearly by American Recognizing the cultural bases of support farmers. A better question would be: how for the Nonpartisan League in Nebraska, we could the culturally fragmented and economi­ can better understand the obstacles to agrarian cally stratified farmers of America ever be solidarity. Knowing all this, if we had to devise expected to coalesce behind an experiment in a formula for a Nonpartisan League triumph, agrarian socialism? They didn't for the Popu­ what elements would we include? First, we lists in the 1890s and they didn't for the Non­ would have to contrive a large rural state with partisan League in the 1920s. Self-interest and many farms, no large cities, and few towns. other interests made unity on economic issues Second, we would populate these farms mainly almost impossible. with immigrants from Germany or Scandinavia. Nebraska's three major ethnic groups, then, Third, we would probably want a one--crop provide good illustrations of varied reactions economy, so that fluctuating prices would IMMIGRANT VOTERS AND THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 167 affect most farmers uniformly and unite them Elmo B. Phillips, "The Non-Partisan League in on economic goals more easily. We might also Nebraska" (M.A. thesis, University of Ne­ include a large marketing, financial, and rail­ braska,1931). road center located just outside of the state. 6. Phillips, "Non-Partisan League in Ne­ Then this city and its businessmen could serve braska," p. 11, and passim; Morlan, Political Prairie Fire, p. 140; Douglas A. Bakken, "NPL as a negative reference point during hard times in Nebraska: 1917-20," North Dakota History to rally the entire population. Add to our con­ 39, no. 2 (1972): 26-31; Robert N. Manley, coction strong, innovative leaders to stir up the "The Nebraska State Council of Defense: ingredients and we have a recipe for agrarian Loyalty Programs and Policies during World socialism. As it happened, there actually was a War I" (M.A. thesis, University of Nebraska, state in which all of these elements were pres­ 1959). ent. In that state, North Dakota, the Nonparti­ 7. Addison Sheldon, Nebraska: The Land san League scored a political victory that was and the People, 3 vols. (Chicago: Lewis Publish­ as stunning as it was unique. ing Company, 1931), 1 :931-72; James A. Stone, "Agrarian Ideology and the Farm Problem in Nebraska State Politics with Special NOTES Reference to Northeast Nebraska, 1920- 1933" (Ph.D. diss., University of Nebraska, 1. The trailblazing book in the new poli­ 1960), pp. 22-34, and passim. As the largest tical history is Lee Benson, The Concept of ethnic groups in the state, Germans, Czechs, Jacksonian Democracy: New York as a Test and Swedes accounted for 32.4,13.8, and 13.1 Case (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University percent, respectively, of all Nebraska immi­ Press, 1961). Two helpful articles are Samuel P. grants in 191 O.First- and second-generation Hays, "History as Human Behavior," Iowa Germans, Czechs, and Swedes made up 16.9, Journal of History 58 (July 1960): 193-206; 5.3, and 4.9 percent, respectively, of Nebraska's and Hays, "Social Analysis of American Politi­ total population in 1910. See E. Dana Durand cal History, 1880-1920," Political Science and William J. Harris, directors, Thirteenth OJ,tarterly 80 (September 1965): 373-94. Census of the United States: Population (Wash­ 2. Paul Kleppner, The Cross of Culture: ington, D.C.: GPO, 1913), 3:50; 1 :30, 808, A Social Analysis of Midwestern Politics, 1850- 812,939. 1900 (New York: Free Press, 1970); Richard 8. Frederick C. Luebke, Bonds of Loyalty: J. Jenson, The Winning of the Midwest: Social German Americans and World War I (DeKalb, and Political Conflict, 1888-1896 (Chicago: Ill.: Northern Illinois University Press, 1974); University of Chicago Press, 1971). Manley, "Nebraska State Council of Defense"; 3. Robert L. Morlan, Political Prairie Fire: Carl Wittke, German-Americans and the World The Nonpartisan League, 1915-1922 (Min­ War (Columbus: Ohio State Archaeological neapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1955), and Historical Society, 1936); Clifton J. Child, p. 31; Grant McConnell, The Decline of Agrar­ The German-A mericans in Politics, 1914-191 7 ian Democracy (Berkeley: University of Cali­ (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1939); fornia Press, 1953), p. 41. Philip Gleason, The Conservative Reformers: 4. Andrew A. Bruce, Non-Partisan League German-American Catholics and the Social (New York: Macmillan Company, 1921); Order (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Herbert Gaston, The Nonpartisan League Dame Press, 1968). (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Howe, 1920); 9. Burton W. Folsom, "Tinkerers, Tipplers, William Langer, The Nonpartisan League: Its and Traitors: Ethnicity and Democratic Reform Birth, Activities and Leaders (Mandan, N.D.: in Nebraska during the Progressive Era," Pacific Morton County Farmers Press, 1920); S. R. Historical Review 50 (February 1981): 53-75; Maxwell, The Nonpartisan League from the In­ Gleason, Conservative Reformers; Morlan, Poli­ side ([ St. Paul, Minn. J: Dispatch Printing Co., tical Prairie Fire, p. 73; Frederick C. Luebke, 1918 ). Immigrants and Politics: The Germans of Ne­ 5. Morlan, Political Prairie Fire, p. 277; braska, 1880-1900 (Lincoln: University of 168 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 1981

Nebraska Press, 1969); and phillips, "Non­ ka, 2 vols. (Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Partisan League in Nebraska," p. 7. Company, 1915), 1:44-47, 123-27, 195; 10. Phillips, "Non-Partisan League in Ne­ Albert P. Strom, Swedish Pioneers in Saund­ braska," pp. 39-43; Luebke, Bonds of Loyalty, ers County, Nebraska (n.p., 1972); Swedeburg pp.268-69. Covenant Church: Centennial, 1876-1976 11. Nebraska Leader, September 6, 1919; (n.p., 1976); Louis Adamic, A Nation of Na­ Lincoln Star, August 10, 12, 30, 1919; Beatrice tions (New York and London: Harper and Daily Express, August 9, 11, 30, 1919; Phil­ Brothers, 1944), p. 133. lips, "Non-Partisan League in Nebraska," pp. 17. Perky, Saunders County, 1: 19 5; The 44-46; Election Records, Gage County, Ne­ History of Prague, Saunders County, Nebraska, braska, 1920. 1887-1937 (Prague, Nebr.: Prague Herald, 12. For a description of Mrs. Weekes's 1937), pp. 5, 7, 9-11,21,34-35,47; Gordon campaign, see the Norfolk Press, September M. Riedesel, "The Cultural Geography of Rural 1930, to the date of the election; Nebraska Cemeteries: Saunders County, Nebraska" (M.A. Leader, June 26, 1920; Humphrey Democrat, thesis, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 1979), October 1920; Randolph Times-Enterprise, pp.14-27. November 4, 1920. 18. Perky, Saunders County, 1:199-203. 13. Ingvar Andersson, A History of Sweden 19. Perky, Saunders County, 2:313; Wahoo (New York and Washington, D.C.: Praeger, Democrat, December 6, 1917. For the con­ 1968), especially pp. 363-74; Martin Schnitzer, trasting views of Swedes and Czechs on world The Economy of Sweden: A Study of the War I, see George M. Stephenson, "The Atti­ Modern Welfare State (New York: Praeger, tude of Swedish Americans toward the world 1970), pp. 43-47; Luebke, Immigrants and War," Proceedings of the Mississippi Valley Politics; "Swedish-Americans and the Anti­ Historical Association 10 (July 1920): 79-94; Saloon Movement," Nebraska Issue, November Seton-Watson, Czechs and Slovaks, pp. 250- 12, 1909; for the recruitment of Swedes into 312. the Nonpartisan League, see issues of the 20. Perky, Saunders County, 2:313; History Nebraska Leader. of Prague, pp.10,47. 14. Holdrege Citizen, October 7 and No­ 21. Wahoo Democrat, November 22, 29, vember 4, 1920; Howard County Republican, and December 6, 27, 1917. October 14 and November 11, 1920; Polk 22. Wahoo Democrat, March 28 and April County Democrat, November 11, 1920; Mil­ 4,1918. dred N. Flodman, Early Days in Polk County 23. Wahoo Democrat, June 27, July 4, and (Lincoln, Nebr.: Union College Press, 1966), August 8, 1918; Morlan, Political Prairie Fire, pp.124-34. pp.205-6. 15. Elizabeth Wiskemann, Czechs and Ger­ 24. Morlan, Political Prairie Fire, pp. 205- mans: A Study of the Struggle in the Historic 6; phillips, "Non-Partisan League in Nebraska," Provinces of Bohemia and Moravia (London: pp.22-24. Oxford University Press, 1938), pp. 51-78; 25. Nebraska Leader, July 26, 1919; Phil­ R. W. Seton-Watson, A History of the Czechs lips, "Non-Partisan League in Nebraska," pp. and Slovaks (Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 96-111; Nebraska Blue Book, 1920, Abstract 1965), pp: 250-312; Folsom, "Tinkerers, Tip­ of the Vote. plers, and Traitors." 26. Wahoo Democrat, November 4 and 11, 16. The Swedish emigration is analyzed in 1920; Election Records of Saunders County, John S. Lindberg, The Background of Swedish Nebraska, 1920. Emigration to the United States: An Economic 27. Election Records of Saunders County, and Sociological Study in the Dynamics of Mi­ Nebraska, 1920. gration (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota 28. An example of this is Theodore Sa­ Press, 1930). For a description of the Swedes loutos and John D. Hicks, Agricultural Discon­ in Saunders County, see Charles Perky, ed., tent in the Middle West, 1900-1939 (Madison: Past and Present of Saunders County, Nebras- University of Wisconsin Press, 1951).