%22.6 NOT %8//(76 $&20081,67&$03$,*1)257+(0,11($32/,638%/,&/,%5$5<%2$5'

:$<1($:,(*$1' attention. Among four people run- thousand Minneapolis people voted ning for two spots on the Minneapo- to put an avowed and active Com- n June 12, 1941, Minneapolis lis Public Library’s board of directors, munist into public office. . . . It is 2voters went to the polls to elect Communist Party candidate Helen unbelievable that any such number candidates for municipal offices. This Allison Winter placed third with of Minneapolis voters want a Com- was not a routine election. In previ- 35,108 votes. Her total, an FBI agent munist on any city board, especially ous months, the contest for a nor- later reported, “staggered the popu- in times like these.” 1 mally obscure and uncontroversial lation of Minneapolis.” The Minne- The hardships experienced by office had drawn local and national apolis Times agonized: “Thirty-five millions in the Great Depression had

Busy circulation desk at the Minneapolis Public Library, 1942

148 Minnesota History led many Americans to question the Their common interests included Earl Haynes. In the 1940 gubernato- viability of capitalism. Among the an active anti-Fascist foreign policy rial race, Republican Harold Stassen groups that benefited most from this and support for much of Franklin resoundingly defeated the Farmer- unease was the Communist Party D. Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation. Labor candidate, Hjalmar Petersen, of the United States of America By the late 1930s, Communists had and Communist Party power and (CPUSA), born in September 1919. integrated into mainstream state influence in state politics waned sub- To gain recognition in 1933, the politics through the Farmer-Labor stantially.5 Soviet Union promised the United Party. Minnesota had one of the larg- Despite these reverses, the Min- States that it would not agitate est state CPUSA units in the coun- nesota CPUSA consistently parroted against the American government or try (2,100 members in 1938), with Moscow’s opposition to U.S. involve- engage in propaganda campaigns. particular strength among Finnish ment in the European war. When It kept neither promise but only immigrants in the north and CIO the Minnesota Young Communist chose its moments to increase or workers in Minneapolis and St. Paul. League issued a leaflet in late 1939 decrease the intensity of its efforts. Between 1936 and 1938, argues his- announcing a St. Paul rally support- Although recognition added political torian Harvey Klehr, “In no other ing the nonaggression pact and So- legitimacy to the CPUSA, on foreign state in the Union did the Commu- viet invasion of Finland (“Prolonged policy it followed Moscow dictates nists have so intimate a relationship fascist Finnish provocations on the precisely.2 with the executive branch and the Soviet frontier . . . compelled the During the depression, the political party that controlled it.” 4 Soviet government to take protective CPUSA portrayed itself with some success and sincerity as defender of the unemployed, champion of the racially oppressed, and opponent of &20081,6760$'($6,*1,),&$17,035(66,21 Fascism. In 1935 Moscow directed Communist parties around the world 210,11(627$32/,7,&6'85,1*7+(6 to adopt a “Popular Front” policy and cooperate more with other left-wing politicians. In the United States, this On August 23, 1939, however, measures against the war schemes meant establishing alliances with the Moscow’s foreign policy became of Finland’s imperialist masters”), newly formed Congress of Industrial paramount for American Commu- the Republican-leaning, pro-Stassen Organizations (CIO) and infiltrating nists. On that day, the Soviet Union Minneapolis Times criticized this existing left-leaning groups or orga- and Nazi Germany signed a nonag- “generously distributed colored nizing new ones.3 gression pact, promising not to at- handbill” for its hypocrisy. Such spin, Communists made a significant tack each other. In its wake, Hitler the Times concluded, only recon- impression on Minnesota politics invaded Poland, and within weeks firmed what many Minnesotans per- during the 1930s. In mid-decade, France and England joined the war ceived as the party’s basic dishonesty: the Popular Front connected Com- against Germany while Russia at- “It’s all clear now.” 6 munists to union movements and tacked Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Still, the CPUSA’s position on the the Farmer-Labor Party, the state’s and Finland. Events in Europe forced war resonated with many in a state leading liberal political institution. Americans of all political persuasions having a strong tradition of isolation- to respond. For U.S. conservatives, ism. From 1906 to 1946, according to

Wayne A. Wiegand, F. William Stalin’s willingness to ally with Hitler historian Barbara Stuhler, “isolation- Summers Professor of library and proved that the Soviet Union was ism was a dominant strain in Minne- information studies at Florida State as totalitarian as Germany. In Min- sota foreign policy thought.” Until the University, is also director of the nesota, Popular Front alliances were U.S. entered World War II, this stance Florida Book Awards and president of the Friends of Florida State Uni- tested. Most held, although Finns was pontificated most effectively in versity Libraries. abandoned the Communist Party “in Minnesota by Charles Lindbergh Sr. droves,” according to historian John and Jr., both of whom believed only

Winter 2010–11 149 eastern bankers and munitions mak- during World War I for resisting Winter was named the Communist ers had anything to gain from waging conscription, Helen was expelled Party candidate for one of the two war outside U.S. borders.7 from school for wearing a Eugene open positions on the Minneapolis Debs campaign button. She married Public Library board. The primary Carl in 1927, and by the middle of the election would narrow the field to n Minneapolis, these forces 1930s both were active in Cleveland, four candidates. That primary would ,played out in ways unique to city where Helen ran on the party ticket also witness a fierce battle between politics during the spring and sum- for secretary of state in 1937. A year Popular Front and anti-Communist mer of 1941. At the time, Communist later they moved to Minneapolis forces within the Farmer-Labor Party headquarters was at 10 Tenth to open the bookstore. For a while Party. The battle, which effectively Street South, across from the Min- they resided at 3803 Fourth Avenue ended party unity and eventually neapolis Public Library and one floor South—“the colored district,” noted drove many Farmer-Laborites to above the party-run Library Book an FBI agent monitoring their activi- the Democrats, was most obvious Shop. Like other CPUSA-sponsored ties. Helen Winter became the party’s in the mayoral race. On the left, the bookstores in the 1930s, the Min- secretary for both Hennepin County Hennepin Farmer-Labor Associa- neapolis shop sold leftist books and and the Young Communist League. tion (a Popular Front organization) pamphlets not likely to be found in FBI files describe her as a “plain” endorsed Al Hansen, while the Min- public libraries. And tacked up inside dressing, “large boned” woman with neapolis Central Labor Union (an the front window for passersby to “big features”; she stood five-and-a- American Federation of Labor affili- read was the front page of the party’s half feet tall, weighed 140 pounds, ate strongly influenced by the Team- -based .8 and had “mouse colored, stringy” sters Local 544, host to a cadre of The secretary of the Communist hair. In the summer of 1940 she and virulently anti-Communist Trotsky- Party of Minnesota was Carl Winter, her husband worked the streets of ites), backed Torauf Eide. In the a Pittsburgh native who spent his Minneapolis-St. Paul, the towns of campaign, Hansen largely ignored youth in Cleveland and there joined the Iron Range, and many places in municipal issues, attacked Eide and the party in 1925. His wife, Helen, between to secure more than 20,000 the Central Labor Union as capitalist was born in Seattle in 1908, daughter signatures on a petition naming stooges, and spun the election as a of Alfred Wagenknecht and Hortense jailed CPUSA leader as “Vote Against the War.” 10 Allison, both activist party function- candidate for U.S. president.9 In accepting the nomination for aries. While her father was in prison Then, on March 26, 1941, Helen the library board, Winter immedi- ately accused Hansen’s mayoral op- ponents of bringing war industries to Minneapolis, a tactic she described as an attempt to “sell the war to the citizens.” The war, she said, “is the main issue in the election, since it endangers economic security, civil liberties, and right to free speech and press.” Exactly how a library board position would play into this scenario she did not say, and the local press did not ask. Her opponents gener- ally ignored the war as an issue for a library post. But the FBI imme- diately took notice and filed a sum- mary report of her life gathered from Left: Carl Winter, pictured in the Communist Party’s newspaper The Campaigner, information agents had been docu- October 1940. Right: Helen Allison Winter, from her leaflet “For Peace and Progress.” menting for more than a decade.11

150 Minnesota History Several pressing matters made for fought back, but to no avail. “We re- obvious campaign issues. In 1941 the ally are indignant at the thought of library was still suffering the vicis- losing something which rightfully situdes of the depression, when bud- should be ours,” Sheridan School gets were greatly reduced at the same Parent-Teachers Association officers time that demand for books and wrote Vitz in March 1941. When the services increased significantly. In library board announced that fund- addition, in March it was still reeling ing would be discontinued in June, from the loss of 131 workers funded citizens publicly protested. by the federal Work Projects Admin- Helen Winter thus had plenty istration. The library had also just ex- of issues on which to base her cam- perienced a change of leadership. To paign. The day after announcing her replace the beloved Gratia Country- candidacy, she toured the central man, director from 1904 to 1937 who library “from basement to attic, and Bookstore and banner, from a front-page had made the library into a dynamic with pointed questions determined Minneapolis Times article headlined civic institution, trustees had chosen for herself what the library needed,” “Library Battle Centers Here,” June 3, 1941 Carl Vitz from the Toledo Public the Daily Worker later reported. Library, in part because he had ex- “The librarians were most coopera- services—including the library’s—to support “our government’s participa- tion in the imperialist war abroad.” She also opposed “monopoly interfer- ª,,17(1'72),*+7$*$,167(9(5<$77(037 ence with our library bookshelves and 7268%25',1$7(38%/,&:(/)$5(727+( public forum, or their misuse for re- actionary purposes.” She then intro- :$5352*5$02):$//675((7« duced a new twist: “I shall work for the employment by our library and other public institutions of Negro and perience constructing libraries. A tive and obviously impressed.” On other minority people without dis- new building was bound to become the next three mornings she visited crimination.” Left unsaid was the fact a campaign issue, as the 50-year- library branches, at each talking to that the library employed no African old structure had become seriously librarians about problems they were Americans at that time.14 overcrowded. Yet, Vitz’s selection experiencing. About that time, a ban- Inside the leaflet, readers saw showed that the board was politi- ner went up over the Library Book another headline—“Which Shall It cally split. Its four Farmer-Laborites Shop: “Helen Allison Winter for Li- Be? Books or Bullets”—sandwiched had favored an internal candidate, brary Director: Peace, Security, Civil between a photo of the aging library and when the five Republicans chose Rights.” 13 (“Built 1889. Cost $325,000”) and Vitz instead, the Hennepin County a photo of the new Minneapolis Ar- Veterans Farmer-Labor Club quickly mory (“Built 1935. Cost $930,000”). passed a resolution condemning the hortly thereafter, Winter’s Other statements—“Minneapolis board for choosing an outsider.12 6campaign issued a trifold leaflet will spend less than 90¢ per person Another contentious issue pitted laden with themes she intended to for our library this year”; “Keep the library board against the school address. Under the headline “For our library free of war-hysteria and board. Twenty years earlier, Coun- Peace and Progress,” Winter outlined censorship”; and “A new Public Li- tryman had brought library services her position. “As a candidate for brary and expanded facilities”—were to the city’s junior-high schools. In the Library Board, I intend to fight juxtaposed against statements such 1941, however, the library board ar- against every attempt to subordinate as “City government pays bankers gued that it could no longer afford to public welfare to the war program of over $2,000,000 yearly in inter- fund these services. The school board Wall Street.” She decried cuts in local est”; “Republican and Democratic

Winter 2010–11 151 parties propose to tax wages for war If you wish to express your pro- . . . is for getting out and staying out billions”; and “Public utilities pay test against all policies that are of the war. She is for jobs, education no tax for use of our streets, while dragging us farther into the war and recreational opportunities for making millions.” Winter made no [one of mayoral candidate Han- youth. She believes that establish- secret of her politics, promising, “As sen’s talking points]; if you wish ing Socialism is the only method by a representative of the Communist to speak for increased and not which we can assure real equality of Party, I pledge all efforts to help get restricted public services; if you opportunity for youth to develop and our government out and keep it out wish to be heard for education lead a happy normal life.” 16 of the imperialist war.” Minneapolis and culture for the people, for Although Winter’s candidacy Communists quickly began to hand books—not bullets—I ask you to picked up support from fellow Com- out these leafl ets on city streets and vote on May 12th for Helen Allison munists, it failed to attract other en- deliver them door-to-door. Winter for Library Director. dorsements. The Farmer-Labor Party In a May 1 radio speech on had its own slate of candidates from WLOL, Winter elaborated her plat- Within a week, her campaign had the Central Labor Union; neither its form: “Each day we fi nd that new adopted its slogan—“Books Not Bul- offi cial newspaper, the Minneapolis commitments have been made by our lets”—and she added more detail to Labor Review, nor the Teamsters administration that endanger our her plans for library reform. In a leaf- Union’s Northwest Organizer ever very lives. We raise our voices today let announcing a May 9 rally, she ar- mentioned Winter. In an article, against any participation in the im- gued for a new library and branches, “Library Candidate Advocates Equal perialist war—to stop the war mak- as well as unionization and improved Opportunity for All,” the African ers, and to demand useful jobs over working conditions for its employees. American Minneapolis Spokesman here—not useless death over there.” She advocated establishing “neigh- noted her NAACP membership but Although she made no mention of borhood centers for youth” within endorsed no candidates for the li- her opponents, she argued against library buildings to provide them brary board.17 mayoral candidates “trying to sell the with “improved recreational and But thousands of people had war to the people of Minneapolis.” 15 educational facilities.” Obviously, she heard her on the radio and in person Not until halfway through her had seen the public reaction to the and had read her campaign litera- speech did Winter address library cessation of library services to junior- ture. On May 12, in primary election issues. “Our Public Library, built 52 high schools and sought to exploit results an FBI agent called “stagger- years ago, is inadequate to meet the it. “Who is Youth’s Candidate?” the ing,” Winter received 24,830 votes, increasing population and needs of leafl et asked. “Helen Allison Winter placing her fourth behind a “Con- Minneapolis.” She complimented the staff for “unstinting work” but lamented, “There are not suffi cient funds made available to buy the nec- essary books and expand library fa- cilities.” She argued against any “wage cuts,” “reduced book budgets,” or “less service” and repeated her pledge to hire African Americans, fi ght censor- ship, and make the library an “arsenal of facts for peace, economic security, and civil rights.” Concluding, “I have tried tonight to give you a frank pre- sentation of my views as a Commu- nist upon the vital problems affecting our city,” she framed her candidacy in broader terms.

152 Minnesota History servative” (Republican) and the two called them “the best guarantees munist Party” from getting control of Central Labor Union candidates, but that citizens will continue to obtain the library. Several days later, he told ahead of another Republican (by 496 full use of the libraries of the city.” a Fourth Ward Republican club that votes) and a Farmer-Labor candidate In their general-election campaigns, he would increase efforts “to obtain who got only 18,996. (For mayor, both worked to distance themselves endowments and contributions for Eide placed first; Hansen, a distant from Winter. Blanchard told an au- book collections of private citizens fourth.) And, surprisingly, she drew support across the city, including the Eighth and Thirteenth wards—“silk- stocking wards,” local newspapers 210$<,135,0$5<(/(&7,215(68/76 called them—where she received one $1)%,$*(17&$//('ª67$**(5,1*« in four votes cast. “The library board race furnished the freak of the day, :,17(55(&(,9('927(6 when Helen Allison Winter, avowed Communist, won nomination,” noted the Times.18 dience on June 5 not to be worried for the public library to offset short- Asked about her showing, Winter by talk of Communism. “It’s a long age of funds.” 21 said it was “a mandate to continue way to Moscow,” he said, “and I don’t While the Times worried about the fight in the final election for a believe this election will determine Winter, the Minneapolis Star Jour- program of peace and social welfare.” whether we’ll pull down Old Glory nal, which generally supported the Four days after the primary, she pub- from the city hall and run up the Roosevelt administration, was more lished a letter in the Spokesman. hammer and sickle.” 20 balanced. On June 2 it acknowledged “I want to thank the hundreds of Harlan B. Strong, the “Conserva- the “good deal of attention” that Negro people who supported my tive” candidate, was more forthright. Winter was getting in Minneapolis candidacy. . . . Between now and Campaigning on a ticket “for Ameri- and around the country. “Commu- the time of the general elections I canism” (“We are opposed to radical- nists outside this city are saying that pledge to bring the question of dis- ism and foreign isms,” his posters if Mrs. Winter can be elected it will crimination against Negroes before read), he urged Tenth Ward Repub- give Communism a success to boast thousands of Minneapolis citizens.” lican clubwomen to keep “certain about nationally.” The Star Journal During the primary campaign, no political factions such as the Com- saw no problem with Winter’s can- other candidate had referred to Af- didacy: “This is a free country—the rican Americans. On May 19, FBI kind of a country in which a Com- Director J. Edgar Hoover recom- munist has as much right as any- mended that Winter “be considered body else to run for office, and to be for custodial detention in the event elected if he can get enough votes”; of a national emergency.” 19 furthermore, it acknowledged that Few people had expected Winter Winter identified herself as a Com- to poll so well. The Daily Worker munist, and so voters had no excuse later quoted “a number of librarians” for not knowing. Nonetheless, it pre- as saying, “We voted for Helen Al- dicted she would be defeated.22 lison Winter because we would like to see what a real liberal would do on the Library Board.” The Minne- n May 25, Mac Martin, the Re- apolis Labor Review and Northwest 2publican candidate whom Win- Organizer, meanwhile, continued to ter had barely outpolled, climbed the promote the Central Labor Union stairs leading to Communist Party candidates, incumbent Myrtle Harris Republican candidate offices and, according to the Daily and Cliff Blanchard. The Organizer Harlan B. Strong, 1941 Worker, asked to see his opponent

Winter 2010–11 153 before she was scheduled to give a Why are the Communists and speech. “He faced a tall, cheerful their fellow travelers so anxious woman who reflected strength of to get their representatives on the character and purpose, neatly attired school and library boards? Is it in and crowned with a mass of golden order to have radicalism taught hair. Easy on the eye. ‘I campaigned in our public schools and to fill against you,’” the Daily Worker re- the shelves of our libraries with ported Martin as saying. “‘I know,’ the pernicious and revolutionary came the smiling reply. ‘I’d be in- mouthings of the Marxists? We terested in knowing what you said are a tolerant people, but there about me.’” During her speech, Mar- is such a thing as carrying toler- tin heard Winter state: “Some say my ance too far with elements that victory was because I am a woman, threaten the very life of our gov- some say it was because voters like ernment, the stability of its most my name.” With that last phrase, Alice Ames Winter, no relation cherished institutions and the Martin thought he understood yet to the Communist candidate American way of life. another reason Helen Winter had polled so many primary votes.23 to tolerate any Communist penetra- Newspapers printed many letters On June 2, Martin cabled Alice tion. I wish all Communists could go against Winter; the Daily Worker Ames Winter, then living in Califor- to Russia and get a taste of what lack complained that they refused to print nia. The 76-year-old had been the of freedom means.” favorable ones.25 founder and first president of the Once Martin released this cable By this time, African Americans Minneapolis Woman’s Club and, to the newspapers, “the business of in Minneapolis had become more during World War I, head of the picking members for the Minneapo- receptive. On June 6 the Spokesman Council of National Defense Min- lis public library board roared into a endorsed candidates for municipal nesota Women’s Committee and red hot political battle,” as the Times offices. For library director, the the Woman’s Auxiliary of the super- reported. On June 3, it reprinted the Spokesman said, “Vote for Helen patriotic Minnesota Commission of cable verbatim and featured a photo Allison Winter and Myrtle Harris. Public Safety. of the Library Book Shop festooned . . . Mrs. Winter is the only candidate with the banner for Winter’s candi- who has asked why there is not a Your friends here think many vot- dacy. One paper carried pictures of single colored person employed in ers were confused by name think- both Helen Winter (“Communist, the Minneapolis library system.” In ing her [Helen Winter] some library candidate”) and Alice Winter the same issue, her campaign chair relative of yours. Please wire me (“Clubwoman, no Communist”).24 thanked “the Negro and white cam- collect . . . statement I can give to Shortly thereafter, local news- paign workers who have worked so newspapers saying if true that you papers began publishing letters to splendidly in her behalf. . . . Every are not a relative and are not in the editor about Winter’s candidacy. vote for Mrs. Winter on June 9 will favor of Communism, therefore “I want to ask all voters to be good speak out loudly against the discrim- wish to do everything in your Americans and keep Helen Allison ination shown to Negroes. . . . The power to help Minneapolitans Winter off our library board,” wrote larger the vote for Mrs. Winter the proper selection of Library Direc- one to the Star Journal on June 5. louder will the demand be heard that tors at June 9 election. “Like the worm in the apple, fifth col- our city institutions set an example umnists get into positions of trust and in employment of Negroes in every Alice Winter’s response was imme- soften our morale.” Another wrote: position without discrimination.” diate and unequivocal: “Certainly “Undoubtedly this is the first time in Two columns over, the Spokesman Helen Winter is no connection of the history of Minneapolis that this ran an ad: “Vote Against Discrimina- mine, and I love both American ide- obscure office has received the careful tion. Elect Helen Allison Winter.” 26 als of life and Minneapolis too much notice it has.” A third was less kind. The week before the election,

154 Minnesota History Winter hosted daily two-hour the Worker quoted the Spokesman open-house discussion sessions at directly. And in “Helen Allison Win- campaign headquarters for parents, ter—Champion of the People,” the teachers, and librarians. That same Worker spun the meeting between week, she said, other board candi- Winter and Mac Martin in a way dates refused to attend a meeting Martin would not have recognized.28 of the American Peace Mobilization Committee (a lobbying group of the Communist Party and Popular Front) n June 12, 1941, Torauf Eide lost because, they claimed, “the war has 2to Republican candidate Marvin nothing to do with municipal poli- Kline by 6,000 out of 150,000 votes tics.” Winter noted: “The war is strik- cast. Winning library board candi- ing at every family in Minneapolis dates were Cliff Blanchard (78,946 through rising food prices, conscrip- votes) and Harlan Strong (77,672). tion and in a hundred and one other Myrtle Harris received 63,792 votes, ways. . . . I am the only candidate and Winter, 35,108. But by polling taking a forthright stand on the some 10,000 more than her primary question.” At a meeting of Board of total, Winter bucked the trend ex- Education employees, organized by perienced by other Popular Front the local CIO chapter, she denounced candidates, drawing many more wage cuts and salary adjustments for votes than most people expected. Myrtle Harris with Minneapolis’s Farmer- library and other city workers. On “The explanation would seem to be Labor mayor, Thomas Latimer, 1937 June 6 she gave her final campaign that thousands voted in ignorance radio talk on WLOL.27 of the candidates,” the Times edito- radio, Star Journal writer Mike Hal- loran called the library board race “one of the principal contests” be- cause “a strong campaign was made 7+('$,/<:25.(5 1(('/('7+( for Mrs. Winter by the Communist 0,11($32/,635(66)25,76,1$%,/,7< Party.” Most radio stations described Strong and Blanchard not as “having (;3/$,1:,17(5­6ª%,*927(« been elected to the library board,” said the Worker, “but for having de- feated Mrs. Winter.” 30 No medium waxed more effusive rialized the following day. The Star Four days later, the Daily Worker about Winter’s candidacy than the Journal was more tempered. It called needled the Minneapolis press for its nationally circulated Daily Worker. Winter’s showing “a poor fourth,” but inability explain Winter’s “big vote,” Its June 5 issue contained five articles noted it was “a gain of 10,278 over crowing that “The spectre of 35,000 about her and a lengthy editorial. her primary vote.29 votes is haunting the capitalists and “Her catchy and realistic campaign Again the Daily Worker was effu- their editorial stooges.” Winter’s tally slogan ‘Books—not Bullets,’ placed sive. “Mrs. Winter Gets 35,000 Votes showed significant African American squarely the issue of war or peace,” in Minneapolis—40% Over Pri- support. “I don’t think there are two the Worker noted. “Her library pri- maries,” ran the headline. “The ten Negro people in town who didn’t vote mary vote, in the midst of terrific thousand vote increase was polled in for Mrs. Winter,” said “one leading red-baiting, indicates that the people the face of unanimous effort on the member of the Negro community” prefer social welfare and demo- part of reactionaries and the press to to the Daily Worker. “The attack of cratic liberties to involvement in this drive her vote down below primary the red-baiters has fallen. . . . The slaughter for empire.” In “Mrs. Win- results.” The Worker also noted that, progressives have been encouraged ter Gets Biggest Bloc of Negro Votes,” in covering the election for local to resume and increase the struggle

Winter 2010–11 155 for peace against the war policies of eanwhile, Minnesota Commu- the political landscape for all Ameri- monopoly.” 31 0nists continued their campaign cans—Communists, in particular. Although both the Minneapolis against the war. On June 20, detec- Suddenly, the Russians were fi ghting and Communist Party press focused tives arrested Carl Winter on disor- the same evil as Great Britain and much attention on Winter between derly conduct charges for addressing its allies. The Roosevelt administra- March and June, the American li- 150 listeners on a downtown street tion quickly began sending aid to brary press had ignored her candi- corner. In reporting the incident, the the Soviets. But the shift in thinking dacy, even though Minneapolis was Times referred to him as “husband occasioned by this watershed event home to a major public library sys- of Helen Allison Winter, unsuccess- was perhaps most transparent in the tem. Library Literature, the periodi- ful candidate for the library board CPUSA’s leadership. Before June 22, cal indexing service, has no entry for in the last election.” Nor was Helen it was against the “imperialist” war; “Helen Winter,” which means that Li- Winter ready to leave the public eye. after that date, it pushed for U.S. brary Journal and the Bulletin of the On June 27 she wrote the Times, entry into the confl ict. In the follow- American Library Association—both complaining about teachers being ing weeks, party leaders admonished high-profi le professional journals threatened with dismissal for “advo- loyalists to follow the party line. Sev- that purported to serve the public li- cating change in the existing form of eral subsequent public events dem- brary community—never mentioned government.” This, she said, “is an as- onstrated that, like other Minnesota her. It also means that none of the sault not only upon free speech” but Communists, Carl and Helen Winter scores of municipal library clubs or also upon free thought. “It opens the quickly abandoned their opposition state library journals, including Min- way for a free-for-all witch hunt.” 33 to the war.34 nesota Libraries, reported on the On June 22, 1941, Hitler invaded The Winters did not remain in election.32 the Soviet Union and radically altered Minneapolis after the U.S. entered World War II in December. By the summer of 1942 they had moved to Los Angeles, where Carl became ex- ecutive secretary of the Los Angeles County Communist Party and Helen took charge of membership registra- tion. The FBI continued to monitor their activities and usually referred to Helen as “once a Communist Party candidate receiving over thirty-fi ve thousand votes for the Library Board in Minneapolis.” On March 24, 1942, Hoover placed her FBI fi le in Group A—“Individuals believed to be the most dangerous and who in all prob- ability should be interned in the event of War.” 35 In the late 1940s, the Winters moved to Michigan, where Carl quickly became one of eleven Com- munists (including William Z. Foster, Ben Davis, , and ) to undergo a nine-month trial in New York on charges of conspir- ing to “teach and advocate” the forc- ible overthrow of the government.

156 Minnesota History All were convicted in October 1949 and sentenced to five years in prison. ª%22.6127%8//(76«&(57$,1/< In October 1953, Helen Winter was 3529('())(&7,9()250,11($32/,6 indicted in Detroit with five other Communists on similar charges. All $1'0,11(627$&20081,676 six were convicted in February 1954; because of illness, however, Helen never served her sentence. Carl Win- from local supporters of isolation- schools across the city. By bringing ter died in Detroit on November 18, ism (which Charles Lindbergh Jr. attention to each of these issues 1991; Helen died there on December was promoting at the time), or voter and introducing another—a lack of 13, 2001.36 ignorance (as the Minneapolis Times minority employees—Helen Winter surmised), or her advocacy for Afri- performed a valuable civic service. can Americans and opposition to rac- Still, none of these issues were the ª ooks Not Bullets,” the slogan ism (as the Minneapolis Spokesman primary focus of her campaign, and %Helen Winter rode to 35,108 and Daily Worker argued), or linger- all were diminished when she at- votes in her 1941 campaign, certainly ing confusion over her name (as Mac tempted to locate the Minneapolis proved effective for Minneapolis and Martin argued)—or a combination Public Library at the center of the Minnesota Communists, although of all of these factors. While we will major foreign-policy debate preoccu- it did not test fundamental Popu- never know exactly why Helen Win- pying the United States. By making lar Front alignments for the city’s ter received these votes, we can offer the war the litmus test of her can- radicals. How she got those votes, several observations about the issues didacy and then abandoning what however, will always be a matter of on which she campaigned. looked like a very principled posi- speculation. It could have been her In 1941 the Minneapolis Public tion for political expediency so soon views on library issues or her attrac- Library was underfunded, under- thereafter, Helen Winter showed tiveness to members of local Popular staffed, and suffering from over- that loyalty to the Communist Party Front organizations. Perhaps she crowding in a 50-year-old building. was more important to her than the picked up votes from the defeated It had recently abandoned fund- immediate needs of the Minneapolis Farmer-Labor primary candidate, or ing library services to junior-high Public Library. a

Notes 1. Report, June 14, 1942, File 100- can Communism: The Depression Decade For evidence of Communist Party activities 423449, Helen Allison Winter Freedom of (New York: Basic Books, 1984), 261. As in the state, see Minnesota Radicalism Information Act File, Federal Bureau of early as 1923, Minnesota Communists had Pamphlet Collection, nos. 93, 97, 119, 176, Investigation, Department of Justice (here- seen value in working through Farmer- 180, and 183 (fascist quote), Minnesota inafter cited as Winter FOIA); Minneapolis Laborites; John Earl Haynes, Dubious Alli- Historical Society (MHS), also described in Times, June 10, 11, 1941. ance: The Making of Minnesota’s DFL Carl Ross, ed., Radicalism in Minnesota, 2. For summaries, see Theodore Draper, Party (Minneapolis: University of Minne- 1900–1960: A Survey of Selected Sources American Communism and Soviet Russia: sota Press, 1984), 3–8, 71–88; John Earl (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society The Formative Period (New York: Viking Haynes and Harvey Klehr, In Denial: His- Press, 1994). Press, 1957); Michael J. Ybarra, Washing- torians, Communism & Espionage (San 7. Barbara Stuhler, Ten Men of Minne- ton Gone Crazy: Senator Pat McCarran Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003), 28; sota and American Foreign Policy, 1898– and the Great American Communist Hunt Millard L. Gieske, Minnesota Farmer- 1968 (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical (Hanover, NH: Steerforth Press, 2004), Laborism: The Third-Party Alternative Society, 1973), 6 (quote), 32–53; Walter L. especially 131–229; Ted Morgan, Reds: Mc- (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Hixson, Charles A. Lindbergh: Lone Eagle Carthyism in the Twentieth Century (New Press, 1979), 202–304. (New York: Harper Collins, 1995). York: Random House, 2003), 140–65. 5. Samuel Walker, In Defense of Ameri- 8. On the literature these bookstores 3. Morgan, Reds, 133–43, 168–69. See can Liberties: A History of the ACLU (New sold, see Michael Denning, Cultural Front: also Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and York: Oxford University Press, 1990), espe- The Laboring of American Culture in the Kyrill M. Anderson, The Soviet World of cially 115–73. See also Klehr, Heyday, 264– Twentieth Century (New York: Verso, 1998), American Communism (New Haven: Yale 65; Gieske, Minnesota Farmer-Laborism, 226; Douglas Warren, “Red Pens from the University Press, 1998). 298–301; Haynes, Dubious Alliance, 51–54. Village: The Anvil and The Left, Midwest- 4. Harvey Klehr, The Heyday of Ameri- 6. Minneapolis Times, Dec. 8, 9, 1939. ern Little Magazines of the Early 1930s,”

Winter 2010–11 157 Mid-America: An Historical Review 11 (1984): 49. For analysis of what happened to a Communist Party bookstore in Okla- homa City at about this time, see Shirley A. and Wayne A. Wiegand, Books on Trial: Red Scare in the Heartland (Norman: Uni- versity of Oklahoma Press, 2007). 9. Reports: Nov. 4, 1940, File No. 100-62; Mar. 18, 1943, June 6, 1944, and Nov. 28, 1944, all File No. 100-17170, Win- ter FOIA. See also Daily Worker, June 5, 1941. Carl Winter was the party’s write-in candidate for U.S. Senate in 1940; The Campaigner, Oct. 1940, no. 182, Minnesota Radicalism Pamphlet Collection. 10. Haynes, Dubious Alliance, 79–81. 11. See Minneapolis Times, Mar. 26, 27, 1941; Report, Mar. 26, 1941, File No. 100-423449-X3, Winter FOIA. 12. Here and below, for information on the library between 1936 and 1941, see Bruce Benidt, The Library Book: A Centen- nial History of the Minneapolis Public Library (Minneapolis: Minneapolis Public Library and Information Center, 1984), 129–40 (quote, p. 140). See also John Franklin White, “The Minneapolis Public Library and the W.P.A. Experience: Collab- oration for Community Need,” in Studies in Creative Partnership: Federal Aid to Public The new Minneapolis Public Library, 1890s Libraries During the New Deal, ed. Daniel F. Ring (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1980), 105–24. 20. Daily Worker, June 5, 1941; North- 1941. See also Haynes, Dubious Alliance, 51. 13. Daily Worker, June 5, 1941. west Organizer, May 29, 1941; Minneapolis 28. Daily Worker, June 5, 1941. 14. Here and below, “For Peace and Tribune, June 6, 1941. 29. Report, June 14, 1942, File No. 100- Prosperity,” no. 196, Minnesota Radicalism 21. Minneapolis Star Journal, June 2, 3, 423449, Winter FOIA; Times, June 13, Pamphlet Collection, MHS. and 7, 1941. 1941; Star Journal, June 13, 1941. 15. Here and below, see copy of this 22. Minneapolis Star Journal, June 2, 30. Daily Worker, June 11, 1941. speech in “Winter, Carl & Helen” file, Min- 1941. The Daily Worker, June 15, 1941, 31. Daily Worker, June 15, 1941. neapolis Collection, Minneapolis Central criticized Times coverage of Winter’s candi- 32. Winter merits no mention in Benidt, Library (hereinafter cited as Winter file, dacy “on behalf of the press monopoly of Library Book, either; see especially 129–40. Mpls.). Minneapolis.” 33. Times, June 21, 23, 27, 1941, clip- 16. “Books Not Bullets,” no. 195, Minne- 23. Here and two paragraphs below, pings, Winter file, Mpls. sota Radicalism Pamphlet Collection, MHS. Daily Worker, June 5, 1941, differing consid- 34. Times, July 23, 1941, Sept. 9, 1941, 17. Northwest Organizer, May 8, 1941; erably from the FBI’s description of Winter; clippings, Winter file, Mpls.; Maurice Isser- Minneapolis Spokesman, May 9, 1941. A Martin to A. A. Winter, cable and exchange man, Which Side Were You On? The Ameri- search of the Minneapolis Labor Review’s of correspondence, transcription, Winter file, can Communist Party During the Second online archive turned up much information Mpls.; Barbara Stuhler and Gretchen World War (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan on the library board election but no Kreuter, eds., Women of Minnesota: Bio- University Press, 1982), 103–26. mention of either Carl or Helen Winter; graphical Essays, rev. ed. (St. Paul: Minne- 35. Report, Mar. 18, 1943, File No. 100- www.minneapolisunions.org. sota Historical Society Press, 1998), 376. 17170; J. Edgar Hoover to “Special Agent in 18. Report, June 14, 1942, File 100- 24. Times, June 3 [?], 1941, clipping, Charge, St. Paul, Minnesota,” Mar. 24, 1942, 423449, Winter FOIA; Times, May 13, 1941. Winter file, Mpls. both File No. 100-402449, Winter FOIA. 19. Minneapolis Tribune, May 14, 1941; 25. Star Journal, June 5, 7, 1941; Daily 36. New York Times, Oct. 15, 1949, Feb. Spokesman, May 16, 1941; Hoover to L. M. Worker, June 5, 1941. 17, 1954, Jan. 26, 1966, Nov. 20, 1991; Social C. Smith (chief, Special Defense Unit, FBI), 26. Spokesman, June 6, 1941. Security Death Index, www.ancestry.com. May 19, 1941, File No. 100-423449-X, 27. Spokesman, June 6, 1941; Star Jour- Winter FOIA. nal, June 4, 1941; Daily Worker, June 5,

The photos on p. 153, 155, and 158 are courtesy the Minneapolis Collection, Minneapolis Central Library. All other images are in MHS collections, including p. 148, from the Minneapolis Star Journal, p. 150 and 152 from the Minnesota Radicalism Pamphlet Collection, and p. 154 by Jessie Tarbox Beals.

158 Minnesota History

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