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1995

"WHO'S GOING TO DANCE WITH SOMEBODY WHO CALLS YOU A MAIN STREETER" COMMUNISM, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY IN SHERIDAN COUNTY, MONTANA, 1918,1934

Gerald Zahavi University of Albany

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Zahavi, Gerald, ""WHO'S GOING TO DANCE WITH SOMEBODY WHO CALLS YOU A MAIN STREETER" COMMUNISM, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY IN SHERIDAN COUNTY, MONTANA, 1918,1934" (1995). Great Plains Quarterly. 1083. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1083

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. "WHO'S GOING TO DANCE WITH SOMEBODY WHO CALLS YOU A MAIN STREETER" COMMUNISM, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY IN SHERIDAN COUNTY, MONTANA, 1918,1934

GERALD ZAHAVI

""'1: 1 he Catholics and the Lutherans met the So began Logan's long career in Sheridan train," recalled Bernadine Logan, a former County. The year was 1930, and she had just schoolteacher in Plentywood, Montana, "to arrived from North Dakota, a fresh Cum Laude get the nab on the new teachers, any crop graduate of Jamestown College.2 The social that would come in. Did they take care of and cultural walls that divided the commu­ us women teachers! We had a list of the nity were at once unambiguously defined for people with whom we were not to associ­ her-with a simple list. The good Catholics ate; the school board gave that to us .... and Lutherans of Plentywood made sure that Anybody that was connected with liquor­ the custodians of their children's minds would and then there were some of these people be well insulated from the riffraff of the that we weren't supposed to have dates with town-the liquor distillers, the bootleggers, either."l and, of course, the reds. The social center of the community, the Farmer-Labor Temple­ the "Red Temple" to local conservatives-was generally off limits to Logan and her fellow teachers. The countless parties, dances, and celebrations held there were not to be part of their social life; that list guaranteed it. Embla­ zoned with hammers and sickles, the red flags Gerald Zahavi, associate professor of history at the that occasionally adorned the Temple marked University of Albany (12222), is the author of many for Plentywood's teachers and their middle­ articles and of Workers, Managers, & Welfare class guardians-contemptuously referred to Capitalism: The Shoemakers & Tanners of as "mainstreeters" by local left-wing critics­ Endicott-Johnson, 1890-1950. an ideological divide so immense as to be un­ bridgeable. Local communists were "socially [GPQ 16 (Fall 1996}: 251-861 unacceptable," Bernadine Logan concluded,

251 252 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1996 and anyway, "who's going to dance with some­ the east and Saskatchewan to the north. In body who calls you a mainstreeter!"3 the nineteenth century it had been a battle­ Whether one is an "old" or "new" historian ground upon which local Assiniboines beat of American communism-to use historian back repeated incursions by adjacent North­ Theodore Draper's terms-it should be evi­ ern Cheyennes and Sioux; now they share res­ dent by now that there are several levels on ervations with them. In 1920, the county had which twentieth-century communist move­ a population of 13,847; around a thousand ments played out. The first and most obvious lived in Plentywood, the county seat. Lying at is the one that predominates in the literature: the eastern edge of America's northern short­ the institutional hierarchical web of authority grass prairie, at around two thousand feet of that constricted American communism in the elevation, it was a gently rolling land, with twentieth century to develop along Soviet flat breaks and occasional ravines. In the lines.4 Bernadine Logan's encounter with 1920s the land appeared as a patchwork quilt Sheridan County communism, however, sug­ of grazing land and farm fields on which gests a more subtle cultural and contextual wheat, flax, oats, rye, barley, corn, and hay approach to the study of the subject, one that grew. Few of Sheridan's farmers irrigated their recognizes that the history of American com­ lands. They relied instead on the natural rain­ munism is not only Party and institutional fall and on the Big Muddy River, which flowed history but also community and regional his­ down from Canada and through the county, tory.5 Certainly, the local history of the Com­ finally emptying into the Missouri River to munist Party (CP) was linked to national and the south. Along with good crop soil, Sheridan international party institutions and agendas. county was also blessed with an abundance of Yet sympathizers and allies, right-wing adver­ lignite-a brown, low-carbon coal. Small saries, local political antagonists, community mines were scattered along the Big Muddy, and church leaders, teachers and school boards, where the coal came close to the surface. Lo­ bankers and merchants, and thousands of male cal farmers "stripped" surface outcroppings for and female farmers and farm workers all shaped cheap fuel or readily obtained the lignite from the evolution of Sheridan County communism. local miners.6 All were likewise influenced by it. Though a Rising grain elevators and flour mills broke local study, the following pages serve a broader the vast open landscape of the county, mark­ agenda-one that aims to situate an interna­ ing the presence of its nearly two dozen towns. tional radical movement within the social and Before the coming of farmers to the region, cultural horizons of an American prairie re­ the area was entirely the domain of ranchers gion, more specifically, within a single county who were first drawn to the northeastern edge in eastern Montana. Exploring how such a of the "High Line" (the plains region north of movement saturated local political, social, and the Missouri River) by the Big Muddy River cultural life-education, youth culture, town­ and the lush grasslands that surrounded it. country antagonisms, religion, prohibition, Homesteading farmers soon discovered the and crime, as well as personal and political potential of this land. During the first and conflicts-reveals both hitherto hidden and second decades of the century, they arrived in complex dimensions of American Communism waves-from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and the important role that cultural conflicts Denmark, Norway, Sweden, England, Ger­ played in limiting its expansion. many, and Ireland. Many were second genera­ tion ethnics who moved to the region from SHERIDAN COUNTY the upper Midwest. They came for jobs, for adventure, but most of all they came for the Sheridan County lies in the northeast cor­ land. Scandinavians came in droves. By 1920, ner of Montana, bordered by North Dakota to 560 Danes and 698 Norwegians had settled in COMMUNISM, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY IN MONTANA 253

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FIG.!' Sheridan County. Source: Sheridan's Daybreak {with additions by author}.

Sheridan County alone. Danish and Nor­ Northern or the Soo Line; both offered re­ wegian colonists were recruited by land com­ duced fares to prospective settlers. A few, panies, Lutheran ministers, and cultural trying to save as much of their meager sav­ nationalists like Emil Ferdinand Madsen, the ings as possible, stowed their children away founder of the Dagmar Danish colony in east­ on the immigrant cars. Homesteaders like Jens ern Sheridan County.7 and N ielsine Brinkman were typical of the Migrants made their way to this northern first generation of migrants, though in ad­ prairie frontier on wagons, on model Ts, and, vance preparation they were much luckier most commonly, on trains. Oscar Eklund, a than others. They had "read in the Danish second generation Swede, recalled: "We came paper about Dagmar and the homesteads and out in 1917, by rail. We shipped an emigrant had corresponded with E. F. Madsen. Madsen car out. That was the way most of the home­ chose a homestead for them and had a shack steaders came." They took passage on the Great built for them before they came." Others read 254 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1996 promotional pamphlets like" 'The Call of the Farmers clubs, the Farmers National Holiday West': Some Solid Facts About Sheridan Association, and in Sheridan County, it also County Montana," put out by "the Pioneer came with the Communist Party and its agrar­ Land man of Sheridan County," L. S. Olsen, ian arm, the United Farmers League (UFL).l0 with the support of numerous local merchants. "Sheridan county presents the last opportu­ FROM SOCIALISM TO COMMUNISM nity to the landless to receive a donation at the hands of the munificent nation," Olsen Decades of political agitation had preceded declared, and proceeded to describe the county the planting of the hammer and sickle in the in romantic terms to prospective homestead­ county. The region had long been a center of ers. For the landless, it was convincing. Un­ Montana socialism and progressive thinking fortunately, however, Sheridan County's in general. A 1936 Works Progress Adminis­ ranching and farming fortunes were controlled tration (WPA) history noted that "the county by the weather. The limits of prairie ranching has always been moderately leftist. In 1912, and western dry wheat farming, with periodic while still a part of Valley County, it voted for droughts, grass fires, wind storms, and grass­ the Bull Moose, and soon after its creation it hopper plagues, insured that the pastoral began to have active socialist groups among beauty of the region would not be disturbed by its citizens. During the trying years of war and over-development or over-population. Sheri­ drought the tendency grew until it became dan County remained a sparsely populated the outstanding characteristic of the county's land.8 social development."!! Another source, an FBI Some of the migrants who made their way general intelligence report on Communist ac­ to Sheridan County were Wobblies-mem­ tivities in the area, noted that "almost since bers of the radical Industrial Workers of the the time this county was organized there has World-rough, well-weathered men looking been some type of Marxist movement in it. In for threshing or ranching jobs or a little char­ the early days old time Socialists, many of them ity. As one resident recalled, "Some of those members of the first international came and guys had razors in their shirts, and they had settled in this district. As time went on and pistols in their pockets and they were pretty the second international was formed the ide­ damn tough. We knew that." For the most ology of the county was Socialist of perhaps part, if the recollections of old timers can be the Kautsky School."!2 trusted, Wobblies received a tolerant recep­ There were around four or five Socialist tion; their labor was crucial in bringing in the locals in Sheridan County in 1918, stretch­ crops during harvest seasons. Not all of them ing from Outlook, northwest of Plentywood, were transients; a few settled in the region and the county seat, down to the Danish colony helped shape its political temper for years to in Dagmar, to the southeast. From 1918 to come.9 1920 the Socialists gained strength in the Political radicalism had always been some­ county, electing one of their number, Oscar thing that desperate rural Montanans took up Collins (running with Nonpartisan League when all else failed: when their crops with­ backing on the Republican ticket), sheriff in ered, when the banks or implement compa­ 1920. This growing socialist influence in the nies breathed down their backs, when the region triggered a successful secessionist move railroads overcharged them, when the tax col­ by the more conservative southern tier of the lectors came calling. It came naturally through county (leading to the creation of Roosevelt moderate organizations like the Grange, the County in February of 1919). The Nonpar­ Farmers Union, and the Equity Cooperative tisan League (NPL), in which Collins was Exchange, through the more militant Social­ "quite prominent" was a radical farmers orga­ ist Party, Nonpartisan League, Progressive nization that had emerged in North Dakota in COMMUNISM, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY IN MONTANA 255

1915, advocating the establishment of state "They probably would have mobbed me but banks and the nationalization of grain eleva­ they were afraid of the country. We had a lot tors, packing plants, and railroads. Sheridan of young pretty husky guys that would do County socialists had been very much in­ things out there. They were rough."14 As spired by the League's growing success in strong as socialism was in Sheridan County by North Dakota. They, and their non-Socialist 1918, it was also true that its greatest strength allies, followed the lead of the North Dakota came from the countryside. Plentywood was organization; they established a county NPL generally hostile to it. That would not change. and pursued a vigorous electoral and grass­ The left-wing turn of the county continued roots political strategy. When the North Da­ through 1919 and into the early years of the kota organization successfully swept its new decade, as the impact of the Russian candidates into office in 1918 and took over revolution reverberated through the region's the state government, Sheridan county radi­ radical communities. Communism came early cals followed suit 10cally.13 to the region and spread rapidly into small The growing Socialist and Nonpartisan enclaves of left-wing socialism. To the west, League movement in the area gave birth to Bill Dunne, head of the Butte Socialist Party, two left-wing papers, both apparently finan­ moved his followers into the Communist La­ cially unstable and of poor quality. That was bor Party in 1919. To the east, across the bor­ probably why, in 1918, local radicals asked der in North Dakota, 200 farmers, by one the national office of the Nonpartisan League estimate, joined the new Bolshevik party by in Minneapolis to provide them with an expe­ 1924. Sympathetic allies undoubtedly in­ rienced editor. Charles E. Taylor, a Wiscon­ creased the Party's strength there. In Will­ sin-born socialist who had edited a Socialist iams County, North Dakota, adjacent to paper in International Falls, Minnesota (Bor­ Sheridan County, the Party elected a promi­ der Call), a Democratic paper in Buffalo, Wyo­ nent Communist to the state legislature in ming, from 1914 to 1918 (the Buffalo Voice), 1924. Between 1919 and 1923, as left-wing and several of his own "little papers," had re­ socialists abandoned the Socialist Party and cently volunteered his services to the NPL. established what came to be known as the Taylor's radical roots extended to his grand­ Workers (Communist) Party, Sheridan County father, an abolitionist and follower of Horace socialists went through similar turns, though Greeley (who had published Karl Marx's writ­ apparently not without some controversy. As ings in his New York Tribune), and his father, an FBI report noted, "During the split in the an active and prominent member of the Farm­ Socialist Party in 1919 and the forming of ers Alliance and the Populist Party in Minne­ the Communist Party in the United States, sota. As Taylor recalled, "The Non-Partisan there were heated arguments in Plentywood, League was organizing papers, county papers. and naturally enough some of the people went They'd get farmers together and raise the Communist while others stayed with the sec­ money. I knew the plight of the farmers, how ond international." Just after the election of they were exploited by bankers and elevator 1920, a local Communist Party organization companies .... I became very captivated with was established in Sheridan County. Ap­ what they were trying to do out there and the parently, not until after the Palmer Raids way they did it .... So I offered my services and the repression of the early 1920s did the to the Non-Partisan League." Taking com­ local organization experience substantial mand of the new paper, the Producers News, growth. IS from veteran local socialist Ira Worley, Tay­ In its early years, the Sheridan County CP, lor thus began his long and controversial ca­ like other local party organizations active reer in Plentywood and in Montana. "The among farmers, was a neglected waif. The na­ town was hostile as hell to us," he recalled. tional party organization seemed to care little 256 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1996 about what it contemptuously termed "bour­ lature from 1924 to 1928. Born in Denmark in geois" farmers. But by 1922-23, it began to 1871, Larsen had come to the Volmer com­ change course and sought to build bridges with munity, southeast of Dagmar, in 1910 to home­ them. 16 Throughout the country-in Wash­ stead. "He was a Communist," recalled Taylor, ington, the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Mon­ but recognizing the ideological syncretism that tana-it took advantage of already established characterized many of the county's radicals, movements of farmer activism. In northeast­ added, "His turn of mind was largely Wob­ ern Montana, it tapped the talents of Charles bly ..." There were also more obscure Party Taylor. According to an FBI interview con­ members, like Charles Lundeen, a Swede who ducted with him in 1953, Taylor joined the had emigrated to North Dakota in 1902, where Party in 1922.'7 he worked in a tailor shop before moving on The full story of Charles E. Taylor, or "Red to a homestead near Outlook, Sheridan Flag" Taylor as he soon came to be known, is County in 1908. In the early 1920s, there were an engaging tale in itself. His record as a Mon­ around twenty or so core Communist Party tana state senator and an active and vitriolic activists in the Plentywood area; more were participant in Farmer-Labor and CP politics active in the outlying county hamlets. IS remains a fascinating chapter in the history of With Rodney Salisbury, Robert Larsen, agrarian radicalism in America. My aim here, Charles Lundeen, Arthur Reuber, Hans however, is to explore the community of radi­ Rasmussen, Peter Gallagher, John Boulds, Pat cals and non-radicals around him and to situ­ Wallace, and dozens of sympathetic radical ate the ideological and political dramas that Danish and Norwegian farmers, the editor of Taylor and others were a part of within the the Producers News helped establish the early local conflicts that transfigured them and that foundations of Sheridan County communism. were in turn transfigured by them. Taylor joined As Taylor recalled years later: "We did it our­ an established socialist community, one with selves, from communications with them [the a conjoined Wobbly and Scandinavian lin­ CPl. The fact is, I would bring in some promi­ eage. It included, among others, Rodney nent Communist. We used to have picnics .... Salisbury. Born in Brinsmade, North Dakota, five and six and seven thousand people there, on 2 May 1888, Salisbury was lured to Mon­ at [Brush] Lake. All that area around there we tana by the promise of cheap land and a home­ used to organize some time in the summer."19 stead. He settled near the small community of (Fig. 2) The radicals' growing prestige and Raymond, just north of Plentywood. Working political success in subsequent elections helped as a grain elevator operator-and apparently a shape the social and ideological relationships very honest one-he soon earned the respect of the region for years to come. of the farmers of the region. He first attained In their early years, local CP members gen­ public prominence by serving as undersheriff erally kept their party affiliation secret. But of Sheridan County from 1920 to 1922. In few who paid attention could mistake their 1922 he became county sheriff and remained ideological fealty. In 1920 and 1922, they in that post for six years, one of the few Com­ utilized the Nonpartisan League to run candi­ munist sheriffs in the nation. Taylor later de­ dates on existing party organizations-Demo­ scribed him as "an extremist and kind of a cratic and Republican. In 1924 and 1926, they Wobbly type," but also a "good lieutenant" ran their candidates under the banner of the who traveled all over the state and aggres­ Farmer-Labor Party, and in 1928, they ran as sively distributed copies of the Worker (the independents. As late as 1930, the first year Communist Party's paper) wherever he went. that the Communist Party appeared on Along with Salisbury was Robert Larsen, who Sheridan County ballots, they still avoided had been "one of the founding members of the the label and returned to the Farmer-Labor Wobblies," and served in the Montana legis- fold. In 1932 and 1934, however, adopting a COMMUNISM, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY IN MONTANA 257

FIG. 2. Brush Lake, 1919. Site of many radical rallies, and of the Communist-run Pioneer Camp in 1932. Courtesy of Sheridan County Museum.

more militant separatist strategy, they ran tions, like the Farmer-Labor Party (FLP) and openly as Communists. zo the Western Progressive Farmers (WPF)-later Progressive Farmers of America (PFA)-a COMMUNIST ASCENDANCY more politically aggressive alternative to the Grange from which it had split. The WPF, set Throughout the 1920s, Sheridan County up by former Washington state Grange leader Communists built widespread support in the William Bouch, came to Sheridan County in countryside, but it is hard to measure the late 1925 and immediately drew the attention depth of that support. Undoubtedly, there and support of local Communists. Working were plenty of rural folk who joined the Party within the WPF and other such groups, party for its social and cultural life, not because they activists tried to align them more closely with concurred with its vision or programmatic national CP agendas and priorities. Organiza­ stances. Who can say how many joined for tions like the Sheridan County Progressive reasons that one farmer admitted to: "Because Farmers represented an arena of struggle for they always had such good food at their pic­ Communists, one in which they were con­ nics. I never missed one."Zl Certainly, the or­ tinually forced to compromise. Culturally and ganizational strategies employed by the Party politically they were confronted with hun­ suggest less than widespread ideological con­ dreds of farmers whose religious, ideological, sonance between Party and following. and cultural traditions fell outside the radical Until the end of the decade and the coming heritage of Marxism, particularly as defined of "Third Period" Communism (encompass­ by New York or Moscow party leaders. The ing the years 1928-35, characterized by radical Progressive Farmers, for example, operated separatism and a sense of imminent economic more or less like a fraternal lodge, and local crisis) the local CP operated through a variety meetings "opened with some religious song, of existing non-communist agrarian organiza- had a prayer, and they had a chaplain." As 258 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1996

Taylor recalled, "it went over good with a lot 1928, radical candidates consistently won of the farmers that had a lot of religion."22 county and town elections. As one FBI report Naturally enough, few militant secularists noted, by 1927 the Communist Party con­ could gain much support within such a group trolled a "majority of officers in Sheridan by openly challenging religious faith or tradi­ County, including Sheriff, [State] Senator, tions. Few even considered it. While local Clerk of District Court, Treasurer, etc." (Fig. 3) conservatives might mine Marxist texts for Salisbury's pluralities from 1922 to 1928 were dogmatic atheist tracts with which to discredit truly impressive. He consistently swamped his and isolate radicals, tolerance of religious and opposition in some communities. In 1922, for cultural diversity was the rule among the example, he received 181 out of the 213 votes county's party members. This is hardly sur­ cast in Raymond. A similar pattern was also prising, since even within the local party or­ true for other candidates, such as Hans ganization, cultural and ideological diversity Rasmussen, who ran for County Assessor. Not (within limits) was a given. until 1928, did the political influence of the Most local Communists recognized, as Tay­ "red machine" begin to wane.24 lor did, that "the United States wasn't Rus­ sia," and that they could not take "arbitrary CULTURE, COMMUNITY, AND positions" but needed to develop an ideologi­ COMMUNISM cal and social constituency. Within most of the mass organizations in which they were Sheridan County Communists and their active, Communists were a minority. Even allies molded a powerful counterculture within though they could draw popular support, there the greater society around them. Though the were limits to where they could steer non­ nature of that oppositional culture changed Communists, and there were explicit ground dramatically and significantly over time, and­ rules for shaping organizational policies and as we shall see-was influenced by party "colo­ members' opinions. Within the Sheridan nizers" from the East, some elements remained County Progressive Farmers organization, constant. Like the socialist movement that Charles Taylor recalled, party activists be­ preceded it, the growth of the communist tween 1925 and 1927 "worked on a policy of movement paralleled the geographical class making it appear that everything came from divisions that defined townspeople ("main­ the farmers." He continued, "And we used a streeters") and rural folk as separate. Accord­ lot of farmers. Instead of our men doing so ing to Roy Rue, a resident who recalled the much talking, they'd talk to some farmer, win era, although many of the Party's leaders re­ him over-and lots of them liked it. Then he sided in town, "the Communist Party was re­ goes to present a resolution or take a position ally more the rural area .... The townspeople on the floor. ... If we made a decision, we had very little to do with it." Large pockets of worked out among them by ideological work strong CP support emerged in the farming and so that we had most of it come from them."Z3 lignite-mining area just west of the North Though it may appear cynical and self-serv­ Dakota border, in Comertown, west of Westby, ing, such a strategy was forged in the era of the and south toward Coalridge and Dagmar. That Palmer raids and with a recognition that po­ region's reputation as a "red" enclave was litical repression was a given in American firmly established, surviving well into the political life. To be too open, many Party 1980s; former residents of a conservative bent members argued, was to leave oneself vulner­ referred to the eastern edge of the county as able to social and political ostracism. "Communistic country" and "Mother Bloor Whatever one might think of the local country." Especially radical was the rural cres­ Party's tactics, they didn't harm its political cent that circled Plentywood roughly from the fortunes. On the contrary, between 1922 and southeast to the northwest, starting around COMMUNISM, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY IN MONTANA 259

Fig. 3. Sheridan County Courthouse personnel during the "red" years , in the mid to late 1920s . Back row: Ralph Hare, Hans Rasmussen, Pete Gallagher, James Ostby , George Wheeler , C . F. Christensen, Clair Stoner , Lois Aspeland, Nicoli Slettebak , Dan Olson , Rodney Salisbury, Ed Koser, Neils Madsen, Bert Thorstenson, and George Bantz. Front row: Linda Hall, Alice Redmond, Lillian Paske, Ethel Holmquist, Emma Crohn, A.C. Erikson, S. E. Paul, Anna Hovet, Helga Hanisch, Ann Hanson, Erna Timmermann, and Ellen Pierce. Courtesy of Sheridan County Clerk and Recorder's Office.

Dagmar up toward Coalridge and Comertown windows. Every window was full of farmers. and west to Raymond and Outlook. Heavy After the meeting many new members joined concentrations of radical Danish and Norwe­ the Comertown U.F.L. A big supper was gian farmers in the northeastern quadrant of served." Another report on the Comertown the county gave that region a reputation as local referred to a "packed house of four hun­ unsafe territory. "They were up against it, down dred people." Similarly, a report on a meeting and out .... Really, it was dangerous," Anna at Westby, thirty miles to the northeast of Dahl recalled. 25 Plentywood, read as follows: "There was a re­ The large concentration of radical farmers markable meeting at Westby last Saturday in the region is confirmed in accounts of local when the farmers packed the theater to hear meetings of the Communist-led United Farm­ editor Taylor and Hans Rasmussen speak. ers League that appeared in the county press, Many farmers joined after the meeting." The in the concentration of subscriptions to the Producers News explained in November 1931 left-wing Producers News, in rural precinct that a shipment of papers destined for Westby election results, and in FBI reports. For ex­ was delayed for several days for unknown rea­ ample, one account of a meeting of the United sons by the mail clerks, and that it was diffi­ Farmers League in Comertown described the cult to send a replacement shipment since "the crowd that attended as follows: "On Tuesday Westby list is a large one." Consistent with evening, Oct. 20, the Comertown members the aforementioned impressionistic evidence covered themselves with glory by filling the were the vote tallies published in local papers big consolidated high school to the doors and in the 1920s and early 1930s. The largest CP 260 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1996 pluralities came from communities in the re­ Farmers League held there. Another coopera­ gion previously described. FBI reports obtained tive, the Acme Coal Mine in Coalridge, with under the Freedom of Information Act further 80 acres of "excellent lignite," was incorpo­ confirm the concentration of party members rated in 1918 to "furnish coal cheaply to people in sections of the county where Danes and in its immediate vicinity"; it issued stock to Norwegians predominated.26 local residents, and paid regular dividends. Not surprisingly, Danish radicals, like Niels Additional cooperatives included a phone C. Jessen, who came to the Dagmar area and company, fire insurance company, and a burial settled in the Volmer community in 1909, association. Not surprisingly, when the FBI came to the region for the same reasons that surveyed the area's left-wing movements, an others did: to take advantage of free or inex­ agent's report noted "the Danes and Norwe­ pensive land. He and his brother-in-law Jans gians are, by their very birthright, inclined to Brinkman were part of a rural, ethnically­ be Socialistic, since they have always favored defined, and ideologically radical subculture. a system of cooperation and a community Jessen's world partook of Grundtvigian Lu­ spirit."28 theranism-with its powerful nationalistic FBI reports, such as the one cited above, strains and equally firm belief in a broad en­ suggest an exaggerated level of ideological lightenment-based education appealing to homogeneity within the Scandinavian com­ both "hearts and minds"-and Marxism. His munity. Extensive evidence, particularly re­ neighbor, Hans Rasmussen, a local architect, lated to the region's Danish colonies, reveals bricklayer, outspoken Communist, and busi­ significant divisions reflected in differing ness manager of the Producers News, designed opinions about religion and religious institu­ the community's first Lutheran Church, built tions, as well as disagreements over individ­ on "Himmelbjerget" ("Sky Hill"). There, the ual involvement in secular fraternalism and love of Danish culture was reflected in the Communist activities. Sheridan County's decision of local residents to hire a Danish Danes were denominationally divided, with teacher from Tyler, Minnesota, to teach Dan­ two Danish Lutheran churches coexisting in ish Summer School. Services at the local the region: the Danish Evangelical Lutheran church, the Volmer Lutheran Congregation Church (the "Happy Danes"), heavily influ­ Church, were in Danish until the 1930s. enced by the populist Reverend Frederick Volmer and the other Danish enclaves were Lange Grundtvig, and the United Evangelical also very convivial communities-with dances, Lutheran Church (the "Holy Danes"), a more picnics, meetings, Fifth of June celebrations legalistic and formalistic theological body. (Danish Constitution Oay), Fastelavns (pre­ The "Happy Danes," with their folk schools Lent carnivals), and Fourth of July festivities and singing societies, concentrated around that engaged all.27 Dagmar. Those who settled further north, near The Dagmar-Coalridge region was well Westby and McElroy, were members of the known for its extensive cooperatives, mani­ United Lutheran Church.29 festations of both Danish institutional tradi­ Within the churches, differing views on the tions and Montana economic realities. A propriety of participation in fraternal and po­ cooperative store in Dagmar was incorporated litical organizations divided congregations. in 1916 as the Equity Cooperative Associa­ Obviously, not all Danes were radical; many tion of Dagmar. Though it encountered hos­ were more deeply anchored in the various tility from wholesalers in its early years, it was strains of conservative Lutheranism. Some able to establish a solid reputation and "won were Marxist but were also drawn to secular acceptance as a thoroughly trustworthy orga­ fraternalism; others were anti-Marxist, and nization." It was a center of radical activi­ equally attracted to the social and cultural life ties-with regular meetings of the United that ethnic clubs and associations offered COMMUNISM, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY IN MONTANA 261 them. All of these conflicting loyalties caused tion, was by far the largest community. (Fig. 4) inner turmoil within the community and oc­ Its food and provision stores, Ford dealership, casionally led to painful periods of intra­ and farm machinery suppliers drew farmers in community conflict. The early history of the from the countryside, as did its modest though relationship of Dagmar's Nathanael Lutheran important social life. The Kitzenberg store Church (a Danish Evangelical congregation) brought in working girls off the farms-girls to the local lodge of the Danish Brotherhood who worked as servants for neighbors, or cooks (Lodge 283) is merely one illustration of this. on the cooking cars that accompanied the The Danish Brotherhood, a fraternal and harvesters. The store was a meeting place for sick relief organization founded in 1882 in local women, a place to "get out of the weather Omaha, met a mixed reception in the Dagmar and wait" for husbands, brothers, or fathers to area in 1910. When a group of men requested collect provisions. There, they could catch permission from the local church to use its up on the latest clothing styles. 31 meeting house to organize a branch of the Saturday night was dance night. "Everyone Brotherhood, the conservative pastor fought went to the dance. Old men and young girls hard to deny them access. Viewing the orga­ danced together," recalled one resident of nization with the contempt that many the town. The local Farmer-Labor Temple Grundtvigian ministers had for secret frater­ (Fig. 5), built in 1924, was the center of the nal societies, he no doubt argued to his community's social life-and also the center flock-as Frederick Grundtvig had done years of community tensions. It was where local earlier-that the organization was "the lap children went roller skating and where the dog of the devil." His arguments swayed the town's Saturday night dances took place. It congregation, but its denial of church access was also where the Plentywood unit of the to the Brotherhood precipitated an internal Communist Party met, where county-wide fissure and many years of ill will; a number of Party meetings were held, where CP leader church members withdrew from the congrega­ Ella Reeve ("Mother") Bloor spoke, and where, tion. Ultimately, the pastor resigned. 30 Simi­ in the early 1930s, the local Young Commu­ lar conflicts emerged over Communism in the nist League (YCL) school conducted its 1920s and early 1930s. Ministers came and classes. 32 went; some were conservative, others, like Plentywood was a community of social con­ Marius Larsen who arrived in Dagmar in 1930, trasts and political divisions; in addition to were more radical, and quite willing to work the left-wing organizations that periodically with Communists. Nonetheless, throughout met at the Farmer-Labor Temple, it had a lo­ the 1920s and early 1930s, the Danish com­ cal Ku Klux Klan that occasionally burned munity was hardly unanimous or consistent in crosses on vacant lots, a popular baseball team its support of political radicalism. (and a long-standing rivalry with nearby The Scandinavian community, especially Scobey in Daniels County), a branch of the the Danish enclaves, was merely one part of Women of the Eastern Star, a Masonic lodge, the region's complex cultural and ideological a Legion Post, and a handful of mainstream fabric. There were many other communities political associations. Yet, two easily discern­ that defined Communism's local possibilities ible ideological and cultural communities ex­ and limits. Most of the towns in Sheridan isted in the diminutive city throughout the County were quite small, with only a few hun­ 1920s and 1930s. While Saturday night dances dred residents. Only Medicine Lake, in the at the Temple and the dance culture of the south, and Plentywood had sizable populations, Blue Moon night club may have represented a which explained why they so assiduously com­ common experience to local residents (with peted for the designation of county seat in the exceptions of the rigidly controlled teach­ 1913. Plentywood, which won the designa- ers and their moral guardians), there were 262 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1996

FIG. 4. View of Plentywood, Montana, c. 1930. Courtesy of Sheridan County Museum.

plenty of institutional and social events that cal radicals is suggested by several sources. FBI defined their separateness and plenty of mo­ reports from the 1920s, during the prohibi­ ments when these divisions surfaced. Take for tion era, indicate that at the very least, radical example those Saturday evening dances. As county and town officials "tolerated" the sale Einar Klofstad, an old-time resident recalled, of liquor and other such crimes, reaching an "Even at dances, sometimes, they would get accommodation of some sort with those who this bunch together and they would sing these operated outside the law. 35 A summary report, Russian songs - the International, they called written in the early 1940s, noted that Sheridan it." Another noted, "You never knew if you County had been a "radical melting pot" in were talking to friend or foe."33 the 1920s and that "With this melting pot came a criminal element, who, while not RADICALS, RIFFRAFF, AND CRIMINALS members of any school of Marxist thought, stayed very close to the radical movement Throughout the 1920s and into the early and used it for protection when time needed. 1930s, many in the local community associ­ This criminal element survived by running ated local murders, robberies, and assorted whisky over the Canadian line, running houses other criminal activities, including bootleg­ of ill-repute and robbery."36 Plentywood's con­ ging, with the local Communist Party organi­ servative press exploited and overstated the zation. Many still do. While the exaggerated connections between criminal activities and connections that local citizens made and make the local radical community in order to dis­ between criminality and radicalism can natu­ credit the social and economic activism of rally be questioned on the basis of distortions local reds. Take, for example, the case of Rob­ of memory serving an ideologically-based my­ ert Stephen, a Plentywood distiller who was thology, there is sufficient evidence to give arrested by federal agents for "transporting, some credibility to them.34 possession and manufacturing of intoxicating That Plentywood's "criminal element" may liquors" in late 1931. Stephen was beaten by have developed working connections with 10- two local men, but the Plentywood Herald COMMUNISM, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY IN MONTANA 263

FIG. 5. Farmer Labor Temple, Plentywood, Montana. Courtesy of Sheridan County Museum.

hardly expressed much sympathy for him. It Christmas time, right after Christmas. That instead pointed out that he was the same man was always a big lull, and in order to satisfy who had recently participated in a local Com­ the Prohibitionists in the state group and munist-led anti-hunger demonstration: "At a the teetotalers, that had to be pacified, be­ recent demonstration or parade staged in cause they always wanted somebody ar­ Plentywood this distiller carried a banner read­ rested ... . Rodney [Salisbury] would pull ing 'We want shoes.' "37 them all in just after Christmas, the whole In his selective interpretation and applica­ damn bunch, and have the whole jail packed tion of the law, local Communist sheriff full of them, and then they'd slip away Sat­ Rodney Salisbury undoubtedly demonstrated urday night and go home .... Then the a certain sympathy for Plentywood's under­ district judge would slap a big fine on them. world, at least its bootlegging element. A simi­ Were-elected him, too, so he knew how lar sympathy was reflected in the Producers much-we'd kind of assess them according News, when it attacked federal prohibition to their trades, you know. So they got $500 agents, calling them "stoolpigeons" and more fine and $250 fine. On top of it they got a colorful pejoratives.38 In fact, Charles Taylor 30 day sentence in jail. That's the easiest confirmed that an "accommodation" of sorts time to be in. And all the money went into was reached between local radical officials and the school fund, you know, and that satis­ individuals involved in the illegal liquor trade, fied all these church-going people. And of though one with a particular twist that was course I played that in big headlines in the absent from FBI reports or conservative press paper, big raid and how they were all dragged headlines: in and thrown in jail and what fines they got and things like that, in the paper. That We used to haul them all in, when business was duck soup for them. They didn't pay was the lowest, on the state law [... ] at high for their license, you see. They didn't 264 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1996

pay anything to us at all. So they paid that movement's initial base of support. Take, for to the school fund and everybody was satis­ example, the events surrounding the arrival of fied. 39 Walter Currie, an itinerant Wobblie who drifted into town in the summer of 1928 and Taylor and his supporters got far more than was arrested for vagrancy and drunkenness. contributions to the school fund out of this Upon his arrest he "requested to be taken to arrangement. The left-wing Producers News the office of the clerk and recorder in order and the Communist Daily Worker were readily that he could register to vote in the coming available at local "blind pigs," and no doubt, election" that fall. Currie stated that he wanted when legal fines were imposed, it was more to register so he "could vote for Salisbury for than the individual's trade that was considered. Sheriff."41 Salisbury's reputation as a left-wing Naturally, the local "whites," as anti-Com­ sheriff had spread through the national radi­ munists were called by the left, condemned cal grapevine, but Currie's publicly expressed the selective enforcement of the law. The Re­ desire to help reelect the sheriff was the last publican editor of the Plentywood Herald, for thing that Salisbury could wantY He was al­ example, a critic of Taylor and the local ready being severely excoriated by the Plenty­ Farmer-Laborites, sarcastically referred to a wood Herald, which had recently passed from series of police sweeps in late summer of 1926 the hands of editor Burley Bowler to an even as "Reform Sweeps Sheridan County." He more aggressively anti-red publisher, Henry wrote, "All these disturbances coming up just E. Polk. The opposition Republican press se­ at this time, and all in a heap, has a tendency verely criticized Salisbury for allegedly pad­ to make the casual observer wonder whether ding his expense bills and took on the entire or not this has any political significance-or if Taylor machine in town, particularly target­ it is just a general round up before the Harvest ing the Producers News's "irresponsible" policy Festival." Yet the selective toleration of li­ of encouraging economic boycotts against spe­ quor or prostitution and the practice of col­ cific merchants.43 lecting "virtual"-and idiosyncratically There was also the matter of the late No­ imposed-license fees were not novel behav­ vember 1926 robbery of the county treasury iors introduced by Communists. They were that many Plentywood residents associated practices with a long history-earlier adopted with the work of local reds. Though there was by Republicans as well as Democrats in other little hard evidence to suggest his involve­ midwestern and western communities. This ment, rumors implicating Salisbury in the fact was conveniently ignored by the conser­ crime circulated widely through the county in vative press. In 1928, in the midst of a highly the years that followed. (Fig. 6) On top of this, contested election, the Plentywood Herald factional struggles within the Farmer-Labor charged Taylor and the local Left with cod­ party were taking their toll; like the other left­ dling the criminal element: "your friends, the wing candidates that year, Salisbury ran as an gun toters, the tinhorns and honky-tonk own­ independent. In a move that anticipated the ers, car thieves, store robbers and thugs."4o anti-red fusion politics of the early 1930s, the The growing reputation of the county as a local Plentywood Herald had called on moder­ center of radicalism was a source of pride as ates and conservatives to join together in 1928 well as embarrassment for local reds. Less-than­ to defeat their common foe and used the Currie reputable individuals were sometimes drawn incident to galvanize public opinion against to the community, seeking a permanent ha­ the reds. Salisbury, recognizing that any sug­ ven from an exploitive and harsh capitalist gestion that outsiders were coming in to vote world or merely looking for a comfortable and for him threatened to undermine his support, safe temporary way-station. Ironically, this may convinced Currie to sign an affidavit stating have contributed to the erosion of the he did not know the sheriff and had not made COMMUNISM, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY IN MONT ANA 265

} ,- ;. \ , i DATI: WHD4 MADEl NftIOD JP'Q" WHICH MADE: "1P01In' ..... 14.0« .YI 12-23-27. 12/e-22/27 . D. R. Diokason

<:HAAACTDI OF.".., tis ce 11 ane OUII Tio. Var10ull Laws Probabl1 Through Conllpiraol.Sher1dan Count , l.{onts.na .

".. . ' .. ':.:" ~ . ~~¥ .: ••••• ~.''- • -', ~> •• ' ..... ~:: ..." ...••. t:. " SYNOPSIS OF FAc::rs1 . '. ' . ...: ..... ,.J . , .. " -". .. 1 ::~: \_~. ::.~,~.'~;~.: .. j ._: .; , ·c· .' .. ' ". . 62-12D "':.' - :... co~~st Party las maJ ori t;r of of~1oer8 in Si. .eridan County. inoluding Sheri!f. senator. Clerk of Distriot Court, Treasurer, eto.; &1so Party. through WTh. Produoer. Bew.,- their paper, whioh runs in the fora of a blaokmailing proposition. 1s reported to have tormed & oonspiraoy with Federal proh~bitlon o!fioer • . and to be interested 1n oar. thefts and the looting of . bank. 1n Sheridan County and adJaoent thereto. ·OFFICE OF ORIGII • PEBDIBG ,"L'. . .~~". • . :' ". .;.

~eferenoel BEGINNIBG (Letter from DireotOr)

DIET...... At So obey , Plentywood, Montana. FUrsuant to information tranemi tted by Direotor. investigation was made as to some of the alleged '1'iolations .o"! law in Sheridan CountT through the Communist offioials there, whioh inolude the Sheriff, Senator, Clerk of Distriot Court, Treasurer, .to. • . DO NOT W .. "" IN "?,,ES"I! SPACD

BURCAU 01" IHVUTIQATIO CHECKED 0"", WASHINGTON COPIa 0 ... THrs LIUEPORT I"UlIHlatm 1'Ot "UEftDOcao DEC 29 19~ 'I A.M I-:-L..-=;·E'="; S=c-' U_l j_i.7_. -l ~~tta.-1-3 JACKIn'Uh .-H-r .. 7-U"

FIG. 6. Cover sheet from a 1927 FBI file on Charles Taylor, Rodney Salisbury, and P.]. Wallace. Courtesy of Gerald Zahavi (Freedom of Information Act). 266 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1996 the statement ascribed to him by the conser­ embarrassing stories printed in the Producers vative press. But all of this was to no avail; News. The Elgin Cafe, and its owner Jim Salisbury was defeated 1154 to 1879. All of Popesku, were prime-and often recalled­ the local left-wing candidates met similar fates. targets.46 Still, in spite of their defeat, many radical can­ Similarly, bankers or implement dealers didates received substantial voter support; the who tried to repossess property or machinery reds remained a significant threat to conser­ were blocked by radical farmers acting under vatives and local defenders of Montana capi­ the banner of the Nonpartisan League, or in talism.44 the early 1930s, more aggressively by mem­ bers of the Communist-led United Farmers RADICALS AND "MAINSTREETERS" League and the local CP-dominated Sheridan County Farm Holiday Association. Andrew The growing animosities and constant ac­ Michels, born south of Archer (west of cusations and counter-accusations between the Plentywood), typified a generation of farmers radical Producers News and more conservative who found a real resource in the CP: "We were regional papers, such as the Daniels County in favor of it. God, you don't like to see your Leader, the Plentywood Pioneer Press, and the neighbor or anybody have their combine or Plentywood Herald were noted by an FBI agent tractor taken away from them. And Charlie in 192 7: "The feeling in this section is very Taylor psyched his people up. We were known bitter." Conflicts between farmers and banks, at one time as the red capital of the United land sharks, grain elevator operators, and rail­ States."47 roads had long defined rural politics in the In early 1929 Hans Madsen became plains and western states. Yet, in the confined Sheridan County's new sheriff. The Plenty­ and intimate world of Plentywood, such con­ wood Herald celebrated his rise to power; when flicts took on a personal edge as the local Pro­ Madsen and three federal agents raided three ducers News actively defined the class struggle local "blind pigs" in town, it declared, "Sheri­ as one between Main Street and local farmers. dan County has a sheriff. There is nothing Businessmen and merchants, and those socially extraordinary about that. Most communities identified with them, were called "main­ have sheriffs. But, somehow or other, since streeters." They were lumped together and that six-foot, square jawed farmer from down condemned as creditors and controllers of capi­ in the Archer Country took charge of the tal to whom everybody was beholden, and as Sheriff's office-just three days ago-there has such they were continually lambasted by Tay­ been a change which one cannot help but lor and his supporters. Roy Rue recalled dur­ notice." Madsen's deeds, however, were con­ ing an interview how Taylor and his associates tinually criticized by local radicals. When, in rewarded their friends and punished their en­ 1931, Madsen illegally seized steers not cov­ emies. "When they were adding on to the ered by a foreclosure order, he-along with school," Rue recalled, "one of the bricklayers County Attorney Grant Bakewell-was se­ . . . very active in the Communist Party was verely reprimanded by the Producers News . laid off by the contractor. And he [Taylor] Meanwhile, the county UFL stepped in, re­ really wrote an article, 'what a horrible build­ covered the steers and initiated a boycott of ing the school was putting up,' and [con­ the Dooley Implement Company, the holder demned] the way it was being built."45 of the original note.48 Merchants who "boycotted" the Producers Political factionalism was rampant in Plen­ News and refused to carry advertisements in tywood and throughout the county, becoming the paper, or who engaged in what local activ­ especially acute in the early 1930s. An active ists felt were exploitive practices, were occa­ but small Ku Klux Klan organization operated sionally the victims of boycotts themselves-or in the town and regularly clashed with local COMMUNISM, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY IN MONTANA 267

Communists. As one resident recalled: "They created throughout Montana, the Dakotas, used to burn crosses on top of a hill, in back of and Minnesota.5o Along with the formation the schoolhouse-the Ku Klux Klan-and I of the UFL came the Party's more open elec­ know of two places in town ... [where] they toral presence. In 1930, the CP first appeared burned crosses on their front lawn[s] because on Sheridan County ballots. Thus, not sur­ they figured they were leaning too much to prisingly, local factional conflict, and espe­ the Communist Party." Political and ideologi­ cially conflict over the hearts and minds of cal conflicts spread into social life, across gen­ children, became especially acerbic then. erations, and especially into the schools. Elderly residents of Sheridan County still Andrew Michels recalled: "The more stable recall Communist attempts to "recruit the element were repulsed by the communistic young folks." The established middle class of trends." Children of "mainstreeters" regularly Plentywood aggressively sought to protect its taunted the sons and daughters of local left­ children, defending them against both Com­ wingers. The token signs and symbols of radi­ munists and sellers ofliquor, the "devils' brew." calism were enough to invite abuse, and One need only recall the list handed to children's cruelty knew few bounds. The Bernadine Logan. Hence, when the Producers nephew of one non-Communist local resident, News announced on 13 November 1931 that who wore a red tie to his own birthday party at a regional "School for Young Farmers and school, was ridiculed by his classmates. He Workers" would start classes on 22 November came home and told his mother, "Mama, I in the Farmer-Labor Temple, the moral and ain't gonna wear a red tie anymore. They called ideological guardians of the community were me Taylor." The daughter of Marie Hansen, a up in arms.5! Here was an ideological and in­ local radical, recalled young children yelling stitutional challenge to their authority. at her, "You dirty red! You dirty red!"49 With pride, the student council of the new Young Communist League Training School, CHILDREN'S WORLDS representing "31 sons and daughters of poor and middle farmers from North Dakota, South Ideological differences clearly defined the Dakota and Montana," sent its greetings to social and cultural worlds of children as well the local radical community. The students as adults. At no time was this more true than extended their "revolutionary appreciation to in the early 1930s, when local Communists the farmers" of the region for their economic -consistent with "Third Period" thinking­ and moral support. "The students have, with­ openly and vocally identified themselves with out exception, found in the school the great­ the CPUSA. Since 1923, agrarian Communists est spur to further activity in the struggle of had organized a number of groups, including the oppressed masses," they wrote in a letter the North Dakota-based United Farmers Edu­ that appeared in the Producers News. "The cational League. Though the League was mar­ theoretical training has opened to them a ginally active in the 1920s, when it was led by world view of the struggle of the oppressed Harold Ware and Alfred Knutson, in 1930 it against the exploiters. It is providing them was transformed into the more militant and with a very sound understanding of their place visible United Farmers' League. The UFL came in the vanguard of the exploited masses and into existence as a result of a shift in Commu­ particularly in the struggle of the farm youth nist Party strategy-away from working within against the misery and exploitation of this existing farmer organizations and toward es­ robber system." The Producers News had ear­ tablishing autonomous agrarian Communist lier sent its own cheerful greeting to the "sons institutions. Under the leadership of Charles and daughters of poor farmers who have shown Taylor, Ella Reeve ("Mother") Bloor, Harold by their enthusiasm and activity that they Ware, and Lem Harris, UFL locals were swiftly were all leaders ... in the struggles ... against 268 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1996 the present system of exploitation, hunger and ties, the four students were told to stay after brutality."52 school by Doris Granger, their teacher. All The panicked citizens of the community four, including Janis who had not gone to the acted swiftly. The Plentywood school board Temple, but instead had stayed home to help passed a resolution "that any pupil taking part her ill mother, Emma Salisbury, were told to in the activities sponsored by the so-called stay until 6 P.M. Pete Stoyanoff (or Steinoff­ Young Communist school at the Farmer-Labor his last name appears in various spellings), a Temple will not be permitted to participate in Bulgarian immigrant working on the Salisbury any extra-curricular activities during the bal­ farm as a hired hand, was sent to the school ance of the school year." The resolution was by Mrs. Salisbury to pick up her daughter announced to all pupils on 3 December. Al­ Janis. According to the Plentywood Herald, most immediately, the local YCL lashed out Stoyanoff "came to the eighth grade school at the Board; it issued a circular "denouncing room," and when the teacher hesitated to let the Board and faculty as hypocrites." The Pro­ the young girl go, "allegedly brandished a stick ducers News pointedly announced that "after at the teacher, used threatening and profane the board had made the order, the number of language towards her," and finally left with children visiting the Temple trebled." At the Janis. 54 Plentywood public school, trouble immedi­ After a joint meeting of the school board ately broke out. According to the Plentywood and teachers, a member of the board, Walter Herald, "four pupils absented themselves and Raess, signed a legal complaint against attended classes at the Farmer-Labor Temple. Stoyanoff; as suggested by the Producers News On Friday morning three had admitted they (alluding to its ability to initiate economic had played 'hooky' and were asked to bring boycotts oflocal merchants), "other members written excuses after lunch"; the fourth of the board did not care to for business rea­ claimed she had not gone to the Temple but sons, and Raess did not know any better." A had been at home. When all of the children warrant was issued against Stoyanoff and brought in parental excuses, the school fac­ Sheriff Madsen was notified that "Rodney ulty ruled them unacceptable and the pupils Salisbury was harboring this man." Madsen were "penalized by having to make up this lost went out to the Salisbury farm to arrest the time after school."53 The four students, Jardis hired hand. There are various versions of what Salisbury and her twin sister Janis (daughters transpired next, but the detailed account in of former sheriff Rodney Salisbury), Ellen T ay­ the Plentywood Herald best captures the tenor lor (Charles Taylor's daughter) and Josephine of the confrontation that took place on the Walkowski were all quite active in the local Salisbury ranch. Pioneers, a communist youth group. Mrs. Salisbury called to Steinoff. "Don't A DEFINING TRIAL accept service Pete." The sheriff again told Steinoff that he was under arrest and to This minor event in the lives of these chil­ come along with him. Noting that Steinoff dren and in the lives of their teachers might hesitated to come with him, and having have gone unnoticed-if it had not been for been told that he carried a dagger, sheriff the actions of Janis Salisbury's mother and [sic] Madsen kept his right hand on his gun the Salisburys' hired hand. Their actions pre­ in his overcoat pocket and took Steinoffby cipitated one of the most fascinating chapters the shoulder with the other hand. At this in the history of Sheridan County Commu­ point when the sheriff was thus handi­ nism. On the day after they had absented them­ capped, Mrs. Salisbury sprang between the selves from school, and after their parents' two men and began to beat the sheriff on excuses had been rejected by school authori- the face. Steinhoff made a lunge, tore his COMMUNISM, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY IN MONT ANA 269

clothes loose from the grasp of the sheriff show or a dance or for some respectable pur­ and ran back into the house. pose, but for all things, to play 'hooky' to at­ tend a 'red' school, that just simply should not Apparently, according to the Plentywood be allowed to run in the town, especially when Herald's account, Emma Salisbury continued all the prune peddlers, nickel chasers, and to strike the sheriff. Not wishing to hurt her, money changers don't like to have it here." Madsen retreated to seek assistance. He re­ The editor concluded: "In fact, the United turned with deputies and found the doors Farmers League, the Communist activities, the locked with Emma Salisbury inside announc­ school, the demonstrations, the farmers them­ ing she had three loaded guns; again he re­ selves are on trial in this ridiculous, farcical treated. 55 prosecution, and not Pete Steinoff."57 The following week, Rodney Salisbury, not The two-day trial was local high drama­ wishing to make things worse for his wife and from the picking of the jury ("most of the busi­ his family, brought Stoyanoff to the sheriff. ness men are said to be catching cold feet," The hired hand pled "not guilty," and a $200 declared the Producers News) to the final ti­ bond was set. The trial was scheduled for the rade issued by Rodney Salisbury. "The court following Monday. Attempts by Salisbury to house was packed from the moment the case convince the school's board of trustees to drop opened until it closed, some even taking their their proceedings against Stoyanoff failed. lunches, so as not to miss a word of the farce­ Consistent with Charles Taylor's description it was so good," the Producers News also ob­ of the former sheriff's personality, Salisbury served. The jury, composed of only six jurors, probably did, as the Plentywood Herald claimed, required but four votes for a conviction. With threaten to "make things interesting for the "Mainstreet tool" Judge Edgar Belanski pre­ school officials." The school board was ready siding, and an assortment oflocal shopkeepers for a legal fight. 56 and businessmen sitting on the jury, including The conflict that ensued, and that culmi­ one "Ku Klux Krost," known for his participa­ nated in a jury trial, was obviously not really tion in the local Klan, and with Doris Granger about what Stoyanoff said or did not say, did testifying first, "daintily attired, eyebrows or did not do. Nor, notwithstanding the plucked, face tinted, and in her most exclu­ Plentywood Herald's suggestion, was it an indi­ sive society poses," the courtroom was trans­ rect act of revenge for the loss of the use of the formed into a microcosm of local conflicts. Farmer-Labor Temple for school athletic func­ On the stand, Granger said that "SHE had tions. An arrangement with A. C. ("Red") been TOLD to go TO HELL by the defen­ Erikson, secretary of the Temple and former dant" and that he had held a stick in a threat­ county attorney, that permitted the school to ening fashion. Miss Nordgren, another teacher, use the Temple for basketball practice, had was called forward to corroborate some of been rescinded by Erikson when he learned Granger's assertions, and the prosecution that the school's practice schedule conflicted rested.58 with the planned activities of the Commu­ The defense began with Janis Salisbury, who nist-led United Farmers League. That was a claimed the two teachers lied about Stoyanoff's peripheral issue. The trial that began in mid­ words; he had not sworn at Granger. Ellen December was not specifically about broken Taylor followed Janis to the stand, as did Emma promises, or truant children, or the actions of Salisbury, who testified that she was ill and a hired hand, and everybody knew it. It was worried that her daughter had not arrived about two cultures coming to blows-both home in time. As the Producers News com­ figuratively and physically. As the Producers mented, "She was worried about Janice Danis] News put it, "It would not have been so bad if because of the brutality of the teachers: how the girls had played 'hooky' to visit a picture they had scratched and struck other children 270 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1996 in the nose." Janis's twin sister Jardis had tele­ Rodney Salisbury mounted a table in the phoned her mother to tell her that two teach­ court room, denounced the trial as a kanga­ ers, Nordgren and Granger, had locked Janis roo affair, from start to finish, and called in the classroom. Furthermore, the angry attention of the audience of the trial as an mother testified, Janis had not played 'hooky' exhibition of capitalist justice: that the on the previous day, and she had taken a whole case was a fight on the workers and proper excuse to her teachers. The Producers farmers and those working for the overthrow News, in its vituperative tradition, added: "In of capitalism; that the school system was a fact, Miss Granger is reputed to have a very part of the support of capitalism, and the violent temper and a tongue like a wasp .... trial was a proof of it-there was nothing to She is said to just hate the reds, and never the case but a premeditated effort ro put a missed a chance to 'smart crack' about them." working man in jail. Stoyanoff took the stand last, and confirmed to the jury how concerned Mrs. Salisbury had If anyone had missed what the trial was really been, and that he did not tell Granger to "Go all about, the News's rival paper, the Plenty­ to Hell," nor had he threatened her with a wood Herald, put the whole matter in its own stick. The defense rested. Rebuttal witnesses, perspective when it emphasized: "This verdict including once again Granger, were brought will have a wholesome affect [sic] on the mo­ forward to support the prosecution's case, rality of Plentywood schools. It also is approval though the defense was partially effective in of the policy of the school board in their de­ discrediting them. It was all a field day for termined attitude towards an organization the local papers. As Bernadine Logan recalled which has recently attempted to inculcate dis­ of the Producers' News coverage of the trial, respect in the minds of a few pupils for their "They called our superintendent a 'three thou­ teachers."61 sand dollar a year janitor' and a few other The Producers News, too, spelled out the things."59 The Plentywood Herald, though em­ issues boldly: it was all a conflict between ploying fewer hyperboles, nonetheless demon­ mainstreeters and reds. Erik Bert (actually ized Stoyanoff and his supporters just as "Herbert Joseph Putz"), a New York CP op­ effectively. erative trained at Columbia University in ag­ The trial ended with a guilty verdict and a ricultural economics and statistics, had recommended fine of $10. It was not surpris­ recently taken over the left-wing paper and ing that the only vote for acquittal came from transformed it into the official national organ Anton Solberg-according to the Producers of the United Farmers League. 62 The more vis­ News "the only man in overalls in the bunch."60 ible presence of the Communist Party and its The rest of the jury were "mainstreeters," the farmer front organization, the UFL, and a se­ paper had repeatedly pointed out, and what ries of militant actions by the two, had stimu­ could you expect from them? Apparently, the lated forceful responses from local moderates jury of six were convinced of the prosecution's and conservatives. The trial of Pete Stoyanoff case, but perhaps tempered the sentence in was merely another manifestation of right-wing consideration of the potentially explosive out­ reaction. As Bert noted: come of the verdict. The basis of the fuss is the hatred of SCHOOL BOARD POLITICS AND DEFEAT Mainstreet for the United Farmers League, which has not yet forgotten the big pa­ The outcome of the Stoyanoff trial was ex­ rade of October 16th and the anti-red plosive indeed. "After the jury came in with activities of a number of local nit-wits. its verdict," the Producers News went on in While Pete Steieoff [Stoyanoff] has been vivid detail, arrested and an effort made to convict him COMMUNISM, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY IN MONTANA 271

as a basis for deportation, the animus be­ making progress. To the established middle hind it is the fact that Pete marched in the class, it was a momentous achievement; it sig­ parade. It is the fight against the farmers, nified the community's rejection of those "who pure and simple. The mainstreeters are mad ridicule our schools, defy the administration, because the farmers fight for Red Cross and hold in derision the very ideals for which relief, and government feed loans for their those institutions stand." The good citizens of starving cattle, and demand money for new Plentywood had declared that they would not clothes .... Teachers and school boards can "sacrifice our religion, the sacredness of the always be relied on to assist in any dirty home, or the advantages to our children in work directed at the workers and farmers, public schools for Utopian promises from Com­ from insulting, abusing, and discriminating munists who are seeking to overthrow the gov­ against children of red farmers as has been ernment." The conservative editor of the the practice on the part of several ignorant Plentywood Herald praised them for choosing and snobbish teachers in the Plentywood "sane, constructive thinking" over radicalism.66 schools for some time, to arresting Pete Yet local Communists did not give up. In Steieoff [Stoyanoffl.63 the November 1932 general election, they ran Anna Lutness for county school commissioner. The events of early December spilled into Lutness, who had come to the Outlook area to the following year as local Communists and homestead in 1910 (as Anna Ueland), won their supporters challenged School Superin­ her first political election in 1914, when she tendent W. E. Stegner and the school trustees was elected postmistress of the town. She and in the local board elections. The firing of two her husband, Odin Lutness, were both well teachers and the strict social control imposed educated and active in local left-wing causes. by Plentywood "mainstreeters" were directly Odin Lutness had helped organize the Co-op challenged by left-wing candidates and the Equity Elevator at McElroy (in northeastern local radical press: "Here in Plentywood, strict Sheridan County). Having spent many years rules are laid down for the teacher's behavior. as a teacher in country schools, Anna Lutness They are told when and where they can sleep, obtained a position as school clerk and trustee the proper places for them to eat, and what in McElroy. In spite of her fine reputation, she kind of people they can associate with, even attracted only 736 votes in the November 1932 what kind of clothes they can wear. Teachers election. The victorious Republican candidate have been here for years and are known by and came in with 1067 votes. Still, Lutness' show­ associate with only an exclusive few."64 Emma ing was not a bad one for an openly Commu­ Salisbury and Anna Herron ran as a progres­ nist candidateY sive block but lost easily to Dean Moore and Again, in early 1933, the Communists Mrs. Oscar Opgrande. Opgrande was a local shifted focus to the city level and challenged English and Speech teacher and a devout the Plentywood school board, this time run­ Lutheran. She and Moore were both active in ning Hans Rasmussen for school trustee. local church choirs. The Plentywood Herald Rasmussen attacked not only the content of chortled, "Communist aspirants for berths on the local school curriculum-its deference to the board of trustees of the Plentywood school elite occupations, its celebration of militarism board went down to complete and ignomini­ and capitalist leaders, and its neglect of work­ ous defeat at the election held Saturday. They ing-class heroes-but also class and structural were snowed under to the tune of about six to inequities. He advocated taxing those who one."65 could most afford school taxes, while reliev­ The victory of conservatives in the school ing the burden on "people who can not pay board election was yet another confirmation taxes." He called for free milk for the under­ that the struggle against local Communists was nourished, free medical and dental care for all 272 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1996 pupils, free school supplies and the elimina­ Pioneer," and "The Producers News". We tion of fees for those unable to afford them. are collecting books, magazines and pam­ Anna Herron, who had unsuccessfully run for phlets pertaining to the class struggle. the school board earlier that year, ran for coun­ These include stories by Jack London, cilwoman of Plentywood's first election ward. Upton Sinclair, Sam Darcy, etc .... Either She, Rasmussen, Communist mayoralty can­ a Young Pioneer or a Y. C. L. member gives didate John Boulds, and all other Party candi­ a short talk each meeting. We have a wall dates lost. Rasmussen polled only 45 votes to newspaper .... We endeavor to learn some­ his opponent's 316. Similar tallies came in thing concerning the working class every from Outlook, Raymond, and Dooley. Clearly, meeting.69 electoral support for radicals was declining, but rather than wallow in discouragement, Raymond, just north of Plentywood, also local Communists continued their campaign had an active youth group-a Young Commu­ for school reform through petition drives and nist League branch-that organized a study public demonstrations.68 group and periodically passed political resolu­ tions. Like left-wing youth organizations BEYOND ELECTORAL POLITICS throughout the country during this period, it took up anti-war and anti-imperialism causes. Shut out of political power, Sheridan Ervin Nelson, Harry Juul, and Henry Umback, County Communists sought to carve out more members of the Raymond YCL Resolutions aggressively alternate social, intellectual, and Committee, issued a condemnation of Japa­ psychological spaces within the greater soci­ nese imperialism in late February 1932. Young ety around them-spaces that embraced fra­ Pioneer youth groups and Young Communist ternal organizations, schools, camps, social and League organizations self-consciously differ­ athletic activities, and a wide-ranging musi­ entiated themselves from the politically main­ cal, theatrical, and literary culture. An increas­ stream or reactionary youth organizations with ingly significant part of that space was devoted which they competed. The Boy Scouts, for to youth. While the school board and local example, were continually condemned as an conservatives retained control of the county's instrument of capital and militarism. When public educational institutions, outside their the Douglas County Republican of Lawrence, dominion a left-wing youth culture was grow­ Kansas, printed a story about a practice "emer­ ing, with Emma Salisbury, Anna Lutness, Ruth gency mobilization" of Lawrence Boy Scout Bert, Anna Herron, and many adolescents and troops, the "Pioneer Corner" of the Producers teenagers taking a lead in building it. Jardis News, a regular youth news section of the Salisbury, for example, was one of the more paper appearing in the early 1930s, criticized prominent young firebrands. She, along with the action and argued that the mobilization sixteen other youngsters, organized a "Red was part of preparations for crushing "the Spark" troop, a rival to conventional youth demonstrations of the workers and farmers in scout clubs. Utilizing the kitchen of the the coming months of misery and oppression. "70 Plentywood Farmer-Labor Temple as their club Likewise, youth sections throughout the room, the young people met regularly on Sat­ upper Midwest and West criticized the domi­ urdays. Jardis described their activities in the nation of athletics and mainstream athletic Producers News: organizations by capital and the rich. Hence, an International Workers Athletic Meet was We are decorating our walls with pictures organized in Chicago from 29 July to 1 Au­ of Revolutionary leaders and labor cartoons. gust as an alternative to the 1932 Los Angeles We have a reading table on which we dis­ Olympics, and farmers and students were en­ play "The Daily Worker" and "The New couraged to join the Labor Sports Union. COMMUNISM, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY IN MONTANA 273

"Demand the building of sports facilities in strident the movement became through the each township with no raising of taxes for the early 1930s, the fewer supporters it retained poor farmers; demand that the government and the more marginalized it became. Elec­ turn over the funds that are now given to the tion after election demonstrated this. By 1933 4-H clubs for sports facilities for the youth. the political star oflocal Communists was rap­ Organize sports among the young farmers and idly descending, and the vindictiveness of the in the youth branches of the UFL," one writer ever-more confident anti-Communist estab­ in the Producers News exhorted. Locally, the lishment began to show itself. Direct action county's most popular sport, baseball, took by Communists or the Farm Holiday Associa­ on an ideological edge when Raymond radi­ tion, locally dominated by Communists, in­ cals organized a team and named it the creasingly faced effective mass opposition. "Reds."7l The growing impotence of the movement Theater, summer camps, UFL organizing is best illustrated by its desperate and ineffec­ schools, picnics, and musical events were also tive use of direct action tactics, tactics which part of the counter-culture of radical farm had proven successful in the past when politi­ youth-and their parents. The community of cal power was in the hands of radicals. On 3 Navajo in adjacent Daniels County had a UFL May 1934, around 200 militant farmers from youth section which, in April 1932, came into rural Sheridan County-Communists and Plentywood to put on a "home talent" play Holiday Association members-converged on titled, "Farmer's Problem and the Remedy." Plentywood, where the auction of an Ander­ The play followed the plight of a debt-ridden son combine was scheduled. The county sher­ farmer through two seasons of debt and recov­ iff, Hans Madsen, had placed the required ery and debt again, culminating in his joining notices in the local papers. The group of farm­ the UFL and achieving solidarity with other ers, led by a stalwart group of Communists, farmers in similar straits. 72 surrounded the combine and confronted sher­ Out on the shores of Brush Lake, a local iff Madsen. Local Dagmar Communist Chris resort area east of Dagmar, summer dances and Heiberg, the son of Danish immigrants, musical concerts were regularly scheduled by climbed onto a truck and declared that he the United Farmers League and by local radi­ would challenge Madsen in the next election cal youth groups. A Pioneer camp for eastern (he did, and lost). The farmers made the an­ Montana and North Dakota was held at Brush ticipated first bid of 50 cents, but it was unsuc­ Lake in the summer of 1932 for children be­ cessful. The winning bid came from the Rumley tween the ages of ten and sixteen-all with Company, holders of the mortgage on the com­ support from regional farmers. Ruth Bert, sent bine; it was for $200. A near riot erupted and to Plentywood by the Communist Party with the local fire department, which on previous Erik Bert in 1931, took charge of the camp. occasions had stood by passively, was called Emma Salisbury, James Ostby and his wife, into action. According to one account of the Sigfrid, of McCabe, Martin Homme of Out­ event: "One person attempted to cut the fire look, Mrs. William Herron of Outlook, Anna hose, but was sent sprawling behind the fist of Herron, and Hans Rasmussen's wife were all one of the deputies. Another went down un­ active in the camp.73 der a heavy blow from the city policeman's billy. Aside from a few swollen jaws and water MARGINALIZATION AND CULTURAL soaked clothing, no serious damage resulted. "74 WARS Unlike in former years, when farm and implement sales were successfully blocked or Still, the cultural efflorescence of the Left when the bidding was rigged to benefit the in 1932 corresponded to its decline, not its bereft farmers, the twenty to thirty deputies rebirth. The louder, more militant, and more recruited by the sheriff insured that the sale 274 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1996 would take place-and that aggressive bidders munity. Rhoda Marie Hansen (Fig. 7) had would be protected. The Plentywood Herald, come to Montana with her parents while still always concerned about the reputation of the a baby. Her youth and young adulthood in the community, noted: "To find it necessary to community suggest that she fit into the mold arm officers with loaded guns in order for them of what Jacqueline Dowd Hall has termed the to carry out the mandates of the law and to "disorderly woman." Her daughter recalled her turn water streams from fire hose[s] on an an­ as an "advocate for the 'underdog' .... One gry mob in order to prevent open riot, is noth­ day I came into the room where she was talk­ ing any law-abiding citizen will care to point ing on the telephone. It was strange, because to with pride." It warned the citizens of it was her, but it didn't sound like her. When Plentywood that the actions of the Commu­ I looked more closely, I discovered that she nists demonstrated that "Communism in had inserted a short pencil in her mouth, hori­ Sheridan County is not dead" and beseeched zontally, so it pushed her cheeks out and its readers to form "a united front against Com­ changed the tone of her voice. I found out munism" and fight "it out to the finish" at the later that she was telling the owner of a bakery next election.75 in town that she wasn't paying her employees Personal conflicts accompanied political enough."77 backlash. Key leaders were targeted by local From being one of the first young women in anti-Communist officials. Rodney Salisbury, the town to get her hair "bobbed" and to smoke for example, who was experiencing exception­ in public, to taking up a career as a printer and ally hard times, was denied economic relief. then reporter on the Producers News, and fi­ Local UFL farmers had to help him and his nally to becoming mistress to Rodney Salisbury family plant their land. Occasionally, too, ideo­ (whom she met while working on the Produc­ logical and personal conflicts exploded into ers News), Marie Hansen's life was filled with fisticuffs. But the failure of direct action and unconventional behavior and scandal. Her the bitter personal antagonisms that erupted affair with Salisbury may have played a part in in the early 1930s were only some manifesta­ ending the sheriffs political career back in tions of an eroding mass base. The disturbing 1928, when their liaison apparently began. All and growing potency of cultural war was an­ sorts of gossip spread through the community other. The UFL was "anti-religious," conserva­ concerning Salisbury and Hansen's relation­ tives declared: Communists were un-Christian; ship-and especially about Marie's two chil­ their ideology, secular rituals, and behaviors dren fathered by Salisbury. According to all demonstrated that; the loose morals of Rhoda Marie's niece, "It was public knowledge Communist organizers threatened to corrupt that Marie and Rodney were 'together,' and adults and youths alike. All of these accusa­ he spent his time between the two homes." tions appeared in the local anti-Communist (Fig. 8) By 1933 the two had begun to travel press. Ruth Bert was apparently hounded out and live together, taking along their two chil­ of the community because, according to one dren. A third child was born to them in 1935, FBI report, "at a big meeting of farmers, a in Billings, Montana, where they had settled. farmer's wife got up and made a speech that Some time in late 1934, Marie and Andy they [she and Erik Bert] were not married, were Hansen were legally divorced. 78 just living together and were advising other Open challenges to accepted community local young couples to do the same."76 mores weakened the credibility of reds and Similarly, Rodney Salisbury's affair with undermined the movement for economic jus­ Rhoda Marie Hansen, a fellow local Commu­ tice they led; so did the Communists' reputa­ nist who was then married to a Plentywood tion for being antireligious. A former resident miller, Andrew Hansen, may have further iso­ recalled going roller skating at the Farmer­ lated the radicals from the mainstream com- Labor Temple, overhearing a group of young COMMUNISM, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY IN MONTANA 275

Pioneers singing and joining in: "Of course, we knew it was terrible, because they were anti-religious, weren't they? We didn't dare tell our folks that we had anything to do with them." Likewise, both Carl Hansen, a Com­ munist elected in 1930 as County Commis­ sioner (though not under the Communist party ticket) and Magnus Danielson, who unsuc­ cessfully ran as the Communist candidate for County Commissioner in 1932, were con­ demned by conservatives as "men who would overthrow the Christian religion and substi­ tute in its stead the practice of 'free love' and paganism."79 Still, religion and Marxism could coexist on friendly terms in northeastern Montana. Regardless of the critical anti-religious writ­ ings of Marxist theoreticians or the exploita­ tion of such writings by local conservative FIG. 7. Rhoda Marie[Chapman] Hansen, with her editors, Sheridan County socialism and com­ first child, Jim, born 1924. Courtesy of Toni munism had long been syncretic movements Martinazzi. that effectively blended Lutheranism, Catholi­ cism, Congregationalism and other Christian religious faiths with anti-capitalism. Religious idioms were regularly employed by local farm­ 1932, that Communists fought "those who rob ers in their condemnation of mainstreeters and the starving people while wallowing in luxury. distant capitalists. As one Raymond farmer, We fight those and the profit system, and not Otto Grantham, wrote to the Producers News, God .... We fight for justice, opportunity, and "The capitalists are coming out with all the life, liberty and the pursuits of happiness, for dirty lies they can think of against the Com­ believer and unbeliever alike." A few local munist Party, but the truth will prevail. The ministers listened and agreed. In Dagmar, Pas­ Communist Party stands for humanity, truth tor Marius Larsen was active in a number of and hard-boiled facts. In that they are closer left-led organizations, including serving as first to God Jehovah than the capitalists, whose vice-president of the first Sheridan County God is money, power and greed." The merging Branch of the American League Against War of religious and radical secular idioms was not and Fascism.S! unusual and characterized radical movements throughout the country.so Local radical lead­ A DEFINING FUNERAL ers demonstrated in their own behaviors that religion and radicalism could coexist. Charles Nonetheless, radically unconventional Taylor's children, for example, regularly at­ secular rituals introduced during the sepa­ tended Sunday school, as their former Sunday ratist "Third Period" suggested that something school teacher recalled. The Salisbury chil­ entirely new and potentially challenging to dren, recalled Jardis Hughes [Salisbury], at­ sacred beliefs had come into the county. No­ tended Lutheran services (though their mother where was this tension more evident than dur­ was a Catholic). Again and again, local radi­ ing and after Janis Salisbury's funeral. On 1 cals answered conservatives by declaring, as March 1932, Janis Salisbury died following Taylor did during the election campaign of an operation for appendicitis. She was only 276 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1996

FIG. 8. 1934 photo of Rhoda Marie [Chapman] Hansen, (left, back) and Rodney Salisbury (right, back) visiting Rhoda's brother in Dayton, Wyoming. Courtesy of Toni Martinazzi.

fourteen years old. The Producers News noted rated with hammer and sickle emblems, and her passing with a detailed account of her the draping of a red flag over the young girl's funeral. "BOLSHEVIK FUNERAL FOR V AL­ coffin. Harold DeSilva, a classmate of Janis, IANT YOUNG PIONEER, JANIS SALIS­ recalled the event more than fifty years later: BURY" read the headline. Hundreds of local "I remember their funeral was communis­ citizens, of various political persuasions, at­ tic. ... Everybody sang and made a big whoop­ tended the event-and witnessed the proces­ dee-doo out of it and I thought that was sion of Young Pioneers, the singing of the terrible." Another local resident, a friend of Internationale, the windows and stage deco- the Salisburys, also recollected the funeral: COMMUNISM, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY IN MONTANA 277

They had this big Communistic funeral at real purpose for the spread of such ridiculous the Farmer-Labor Temple here in town. rumors was to discredit the United Farmers The father gave a long sermon at that fu­ League, since Salisbury was the State Orga­ neral about how the daughter said she was nizer of the UFL at that time.84 dying. "I could see the workers coming, and everything is going to be saved for the work­ THE DEMISE OF SHERIDAN COUNTY ing class of Sheridan County." Then COMMUNISM Charley T ay lor . . . got up and gave a talk .... And then the first sister played Cultural wars clearly weakened Sheridan the piano at this funeral, and all the broth­ County communism; the New Deal, fusion ers and sisters danced and sang during the politics, and internal factional struggles be­ funeral. Then the father got up and the tween Stalinists and Trotskyists did it in. As twin daughter played some music, and he wheat prices began to revive in April of 1933 did the shake. He was quite a jigger. Then and Sheridan farmers began to recover from they took her. They buried her in what they several years of devastating drought, the New called the Rose Garden out north of town Deal optimism of the new administration in here, out near the Salisbury place. This was Washington began to sweep through the a Communistic funeral.82 county. From March 1933 until 1939, Mon­ tana received more than 380 million dollars The events recalled so many years later re­ in federal relief funds and an additional 142 flected some of the cultural barriers that local million in loans; it was second in the nation in anti-Communists began to exploit so effec­ per capita New Deal investment. A substan­ tively in the early 1930s. It was not surprising tial part of federal aid made its way to Sheridan that the Plentywood Herald alluded to Janis's County. With economic aid and reform com­ funeral in July of 1932 when it attacked the ing out of Washington, local Communist sym­ United Farmers League for being a tool of the pathizers undoubtedly reevaluated their Communist Party, an organization that failed commitment to radical politics.85 "to preserve and hold sacred the institutions At the same time, effective local opposi­ and rituals of the Christian church."83 tion developed as a result of a united strategy The secular ritual and the burial of Janis by Democrats and Republicans. In 1932, the Salisbury outside of the town's official cem­ anti-Communist Taxpayers Economy League etery represented yet another assertion of was formed; it supported a fusion ticket run­ separateness between local Communists and ning on the Republican line. The League's mainstreet culture, one that conservatives tactics worked. In 1932, fusionists drew a began to exploit to further isolate radicals. record vote and swept into office everyone of "As soon as the funeral was over," wrote Hans their endorsed candidates. Two years later, a Rasmussen more than a month after Janis' fusion ticket running under the Democratic burial, some of those who attended the event Party heading repeated the performance of "got busy telling everybody who would listen, 1932-in spite of the fact that non-fusion that Rodney Salisbury was a member of the Republicans ran a separate ticket.86 United Farmers League, and from now on ev­ Radical electoral support declined dramati­ erybody who belonged to the United Farmers cally from 1930 to 1934. For example, in 1930, League would have to bury their dead exactly the total left-wing vote for county sheriff (run­ the same way as he did." Rasmussen lectured ning under the Farmer-Labor party ticket) his readers on the diversity of burial customs, amounted to 1332 votes, or approximately and argued that "no concrete rule has ever 44% of all ballots cast. In 1932, the left-wing been laid down saying just how we should be candidate, now running under the Commu­ buried after we die." He concluded that the nist banner, had dropped to 1037, or 32% of 278 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1996 the vote. By 1934, the Communists were only to organize various local organizations, ten­ able to draw a vote of 437, or 14% of the total. sions naturally built up. Erik Bert, one of the Separatist Trotskyists attracted only 123 votes most prominent "colonizers" and an avid for their candidate, Rodney Salisbury. To­ Stalinist, was not well liked locally. In con­ gether, Stalinists and Trotskyists realized only verting the Producers News into a mouthpiece 19% of the vote in 1934 in this highly con­ of the UFL, the Party, and of Third Period tested race-a truly dramatic decline from separatism, he had undermined its local con­ their performance in previous elections.s7 stituency. There is considerable evidence of The disunity of the left in 1934 was clearly this in the columns of the newspaper and in also a factor in its decline. The formerly united the recollections of activists. In late 1931 and radicals split in that year. Stalinist stalwarts, early 1932, letters streamed into the editor of like Hans Hardersen and Hans Rasmussen, the Producers News bemoaning the loss of the defended the Third Period party line, and con­ paper's local focus. Hans Rasmussen, the busi­ fronted a rebellion led by Trotskyists who had ness manager of the paper, noted in early 1932 broken away from the CPo The insurgent group that "Some of our old subscribers have com­ included Rodney Salisbury, Art Wankel, John plained about the Producers News not being Boulds, Peter Gallagher, and many others­ what it used to be. What they are missing is most of them active in the local Farmers Holi­ some of the local country stuff." Taylor him­ day Association of Sheridan County. The two self recalled: "The paper not only lost kick factions now competed for votes. It was an and zest but had lost local interest, because unseemly divorce, with slanderous accusations actually we were running a county paper and and vicious personal attacks on all sides. Rob­ you had to understand that you see, and they ert F. Hall, a Mississippi-born Columbia Uni­ couldn't make it the mouthpiece of the Com­ versity graduate who had been sent into munist Party-although they could have sup­ Plentywood in the winter of 1933-34 to re­ ported the Communist Party, but they didn't place Erik Bert as editor of the Producers News do it correctly. They didn't know how to do for the CP, recalled just how vicious the split it."89 was: "There was this Danish guy who was our Likewise, outsider Ruth Bert's control of business manager [Hans Rasmussen]. So I was the local Communist youth school and her editing the paper, writing the stuff, and so controversial leadership roles in various county forth, and Salisbury came in and started beat­ left-wing children's organizations also fed ten­ ing up on this little Danish business manager, sions within the movement; certainly it was so I picked up a piece of lead pipe. I didn't the basis of a mutual animosity between her know what to do. I didn't really hit him hard, and Taylor. Even Robert Hall, a premature I just put it on Salisbury's head lightly and it Popular Fronter who sought a broad left unity scared him to death, he jumped up and ran and was philosophically closer to Taylor than away."88 to Bert, was viewed as an arrogant Party hack The division among local reds was not some­ by Taylor-and ideologically linked to Bert. thing that arose suddenly. Many local radical Though he maintained a cordial relationship leaders, including Charles E. Taylor, had long with Taylor, Hall recalled: "I think he re­ resented the dominating hand of a capricious sented me a little bit. I was smart and prob­ and authoritarian Stalinist party machine. ably presumptuous and probably didn't treat They equated the New York-led American him with as much respect as he expected from party organization with its Russian taskmas­ a young [man]. After all he had done all these ter. The imposition of outside CP control from years in struggle and so forth-and there was 1931 through 1934 angered local radicals. As this young punk who could write and edit, the New York organization sent in various and I knew what I was doing, or thought I did, Party operatives to edit the Producers News or and I think he resented me a little bit."9o The COMMUNISM, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY IN MONTANA 279

. ·11iEPRODUCERS· NEWS. , ..... , •• 5 ···.·.·8' " "::,..- '!FlRE DES ~·'fj~[t:;lfimectiOl"Rlallomt. R. ~ ~ Fir·ShetidifiX. ··Countf, .;::MUijtina ~ . . . '., ., . . ,.::'..' .the building .u.en-., b ... (. . i . tlamea 1ftte aDd frlende Ad~pt~ .Ui1anl~.... Y.att"ctCon~.,ntlp~.ot the :rerem;~,t:! "~OVde'1 ~"~"·~mManl.t'PW'l';"'.lttP.II"IY~.. . path o,e~the. &.,m"'cmcL .... TU'.):·~~a-.·y·: "ruly""12 . ,. , bOle_Tela ~. .u. , . .. under conn. Whlt1ab and ';,.. bOWIe ..aa B ~Co'W!!l The f&nlle.. 'aDd worbr. of ...... ~ 1Ilt.enata 01 tile "Ia.. OlIforcemen'~ tor th.· capltal- ~yR::i.m ~ co""t'1 IN ao1tarinc "'-l~~" !bta, fM the b.&Dbn, tha maclIina ..eek previo. trema p. rlvatlon aUhe. pruen\ time n..:.:..:. ~ n-,--,,_ L. 1M companl. ea. an.d the rich 11!. ceUraI In Hlnneaot Junior ball .. a reauit of the economic criai.o ~I "'- - oar aberltt will do· all jn bia power one ..u In rve Tueada'1 ..b1ch w\ penetraW",ibe 'fO)iDda- I -,.-'... , . S,l;rqp ,to P"'Y.. t the. foredNure of an'1 fire .t.art-ed. , \eam from tio.,. of the capltal1ati'1nem thru- TlHi candIdai* of u.. COmm.... - 'farmar'. or worbraproperty. aome moure · The boy.' out the worfel. TU. contiJlued deep- I in; PartY cho .... by the Commun- We will do ev...,tlilnlr In our In ex.... c . eniDlr of the crioIa Meana that we 'I¢ party' aDd ·tile 1ar1Dera and &be pow.. to prevent any aberlff ulea atrIkea the · • ohalJhe. 1Ior.ed to 'ao1ter even lworbra of. the county, .,will bold and any erlc:tlon ot a poor farmer bard at thla · dropl!ed In wone iIlI.ae.., unIea. we organize offl.. .. fiIrb\ara tor the I.mme- or. worbr; , ~~~~::; for strunle ";&aI.,.t the ..pltall~;! d1a\e and bui. -!nweau of the P ...... l ErictItoa Jobn Lad e a" Y • claaa which 1& reaponalble for thiS, .. orkiDlr cl.... The&4l cand1dew of Outlook · A 8OC&l. .rIa1a. . . ..m rull the county offloe8 110101, W. will prevent the county froID da'1 for bin TbIa fall the II'OvemlDalt and Iin the !nuresta of the farmen and takin&, o ...r the land Df an'1 Im­ pal and Hra. other coUec:tqra will ccune to take workera and are prepared. to ...... poverlal\ed fanner o~ worbr, and ned early In eve.., cent the'1 "":" out of lbe crop riflee their own _ual !nllere.u will tab over ,th~ land owned by HARRIED ,th·s vacation which we are IfOlng to get. The and the county oUi... when that bank.. ~. landcompall.iea. or any W part of Hon- agenu of the banker. and other Ibecome. n..,....,.., !n it.. .our.e of rich abaen\ee, o~. as lOOn as ta. eapltall.u will lOon atart a cam- the .truggle. Th.... oUioe. wlll dollnquolI.y In taxe. by ItLem make Reno. N. pallfD ot aelsurea and forced salea, be held as an outpost (n tho atrug- thl. po.&&ible. Thla land will be tiled her. and Lauri. l" ord.r to make u. pay for the, I(le .gain.t the cI... eneml.. ot sold to the farmera ot the """"ty kina and ; 1teTl. made a Cri.I.thru tbe lo.~ of our land jthe: fa"""r.. The candldatea wlli on wbatev~r terms are pooalble tor water. Hln raday of thl. and. chattel.. It," only by 0'" condu.t the offl... under the dI- them to purchase It. .t Outl.., nted a couple lran.~ ma.. ~.tlon that thla can reet guidan.e. of the Communat We will foroe the machine com- 1917. The of the to-wru. be p~ven\ed ••t I. ~nly b, m ... ; party. The party unbesitatingly paniea to PMY the .am. taxes on hWJband .~ action that ....an Win relief from I deelare. that it will direct the run- machine.., owned by them In the _ iasionera are the .apluilit .1.... The po ..er of ninl( of th.,e offl .... The ·interests .ounty .. the farmer. are now L= '. week. They the tolUnI( farmers. in the county of the toiling rna .... of tho .0Ul1- forced to pay. O. )Ii •rd of equall­ ha•. been •. and I. being furthfr. Dr- ty will be served by theae offlclala. a.... ce • 'n tbe levle. gan.oed In the United F.rme.. under the direction of the Com- Acainal .Capltallat 'l'enw. rn.. at o"t! oominK yt'ar. Lea~ whi.h haa the lea~er.hip munist party.' AlraiDot Deport~t1..... Raymond.: and support of the Commun •• t par-I We wlll Ught the persecution of The Don: eturned Wed­ ty. During tbe pa.t year It was Fake ~ any farmer or worker b'1 .tbe cap- John Newt in the west the .Unlted Fanner.. League 01 The local eapltallat ..ndldate •• ltallat cI .... and eapeclally the at- pU~~~":"~' miles in nine Sbendan county carried on Republican and Deuwcrati •• In full tempt to deport any formlfD born ,"" month l)as been gone ~hlracU •• d by h.m a~d Iby Wall Stre~t, .t)Dle to the farm- .ufficient funda to enable the rt'sldenta mo­ h", main street tool. In the d,s- era with a .oUectlon of bypocritic- school district. to .ondu.t schools d,_, to take in ~ributlon I of the federal feed al issu., and pianka. Thoy ,talk of for th. full term. We will filrn ••n R:h.; ~~~ ameli. Ceylon and seed oans. \ Ueconomy" and ··law enforcement." every attempt of the eapitaUata to 8 p. m. II: . second, and U. F. L. W_ R

FIG. 9. News of Sheridan County CP convention held in Plentywood in July 1932. From The Producers News, 22 July 1932. 280 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1996 conflict between local farmer-based radical­ yourself from them. Such a statement is nec­ ism and imported Stalinism no doubt played essary and will have a great political effect in an important role in fueling rifts within the this section."93 movement. Taylor responded to Browder with a letter Finally, political and intellectual debates from Grand Island, Nebraska, that was printed over international Marxism remained impor­ in the Producers News, calling on the Trotskyist tant to many local Party leaders in the early rebels to return to the fold: "Comrades, back 1930s and disagreements over them festered into the ranks of the Communist Party, where during the Third Period even as Taylor, Ras­ you belong. Back into the Plentywood section mussen, and others remained within the Com­ and District Committees. Back behind the munist Party fold. "I was always sympathetic Communist candidates in the Sheridan elec­ with Trotsky," recalled Charles Taylor, who tion campaign." This was the last token of since 1928 had tried to disguise his true ideo­ loyalty Taylor would ever show the CPo By logical leanings. Many central Party leaders early 1935 he was already on his way out of the had already recognized Taylor's potential for Party. Stalinist agrarian leaders, like Henry ideological apostasy, and in fact generally dis­ Puro, continued to accuse him of deviating trusted many of the Sheridan County reds. In from the party line. Rather than face a Party 1930, a year in which ties between local reds trial, in the summer of 1935 Taylor made his and the national CP were severely strained, break with the CP officia1. 94 Taylor and fellow Sheridan County radicals Much of this, of course, is somewhat pe­ were even denounced as "social fascists" by ripheral to what was going on in Sheridan the Party leadership. Local visits from CP na­ County. By 1935, Taylor was no longer a ma­ tional officers had only increased the Party's jor player in county politics. He had already doubts that radical Montana farmers could be been on the road for several years, in Minne­ relied upon to be loyal and disciplined Com­ sota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Washington, munist troops. Ella Bloor, for example, who and points east, speaking and organizing for was soon destined to join the powerful Cen­ the United Farmers League and for a number tral Committee of the Party, had come to Plen­ of regional radical and reformist organizations. tywood in 1930 and reputedly told Taylor and By 1935, when he returned to the county to John Boulds that "you two aren't really Com­ take back his paper from the Communists, the munists. You are Leftists and I am going to see region was solidly Democratic and the move­ that you are both thrown out of the Commu­ ment of the 1920s had been significantly ab­ nist Party."91 sorbed by the New Deal coalition.95 Sheridan In 1934 Taylor's fealty was again openly County's radical era had come to an end. challenged by Party dogmatists.92 Although Stalinists and Trotskyists continued to fight it exonerated in the summer of 1934 by national out, but their battles were increasingly periph­ Party head Earl Browder, Taylor continued to eral to the everyday lives of mainstreeters and buck the Party's sectarian leaders by promot­ farmers. ing the creation of a broad Popular Front Still, the reputation of the county and the Farmer-Labor party. In August of 1934, after memories of those who lived through the de­ Sheridan County Trotskyists had already split cade of radical rule recall an era when Marxist with the Stalinists, running their own United radicalism took on a significant place in the Front Party, Browder wrote to Taylor demand­ lives of everyday people, and when it satu­ ing that he renounce the Trotskyist move­ rated various aspects of their social, cultural, ment within his ranks: "In view of the situation political, and economic lives. The interpen­ in Plentywood, we are asking that you send etration of radicalism into daily life, into so­ to us at once a statement denouncing the cial and cultural struggles as well as overtly Trotskyite renegades there and disassociating political competitions, discloses a hidden world COMMUNISM, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY IN MONTANA 281 of conflict over community mores, religion, Finally, my thanks to Anneva Jensen (Rhoda children, gender roles, and much more-a Marie Hansen's daughter), Toni Martinazzi world of conflict all too evident today in the (Marie Hansen's niece), Jardis Hughes struggle between liberal and conservative ide­ [Salisbury], and Ruth Putz for kindly sharing ologies. While it has recently become the fash­ some of their recollections of Sheridan County ion to delve into newly opened Russian in the 1920s and 1930s. archives, looking for those unequivocal links between American Communism and the NOTES former Soviet state, it is nonetheless equally l. Bernadine Prader Logan, interviewed by important for scholars to seek out the hidden Jackie Day, 14 May 1985, tape recording, Small American history of American Communism. It Town Montana Oral History Project (Montana lies buried close at hand, in local and regional Historical Society [MHS], Helena). archives and in the memories of thousands of 2. Magnus Aasheim, compiler, Sheridan's Day­ people. It lies buried, among other places, in break II (Aberdeen, South Dakota: North Plains Press, 1984), p. 636. Sheridan County's past. 3. Logan interview (note 1 above). 4. For an introduction to divisions between ACKNOWLEDGMENTS "old" and "new" historians of American Commu­ nism, see Michael E. Brown, "Introduction: The An earlier version of this article was deliv­ History of the History of U.S. Communism," in New Studies in the Politics and Culture of U.S. Com­ ered at the 1995 Annual Meeting of the Orga­ munism, ed. Michael E. Brown et al. (New York: nization of American Historians. A National Monthly Review Press, 1993) and Theodore Endowment for the Humanities fellowship Draper, "American Communism Revisited," New helped fund my research. I would like to ac­ York Review of Books 32 (9 May 1985): 32-37; knowledge the assistance and advice I received Theodore Draper, "The Popular Front Revisited," ibid. 32 (30 May 1985): 44-50; and Theodore from a number of individuals: Bernice Van Draper, "The Life of the Party," ibid. 41 (13 Janu­ Curen (of the Sheridan County Clerk and ary 1994): 45-5l. Recorder's office), Lowell Dyson, David M. 5. Some recent works devoted to analysis of Emmons, Richard Hamm, H. Duane Hamp­ communism in a local and regional context in­ ton, Ronald Helfrich, Deborah Maxwell, clude Mark Naison, Communists in Harlem during the Depression (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, Laurie Mercier, and William C. Pratt either 1983); Robin D. G. Kelley, Hammer and Hoe: Ala­ pointed me in fruitful directions, identified bama Communists During the Great Depression errors in early drafts, or, in some cases, loaned (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, me crucial documents. Jackie Day revealed the 1990); Michael Keith Honey, Labor and Civil Rights existence of her Montana interviews back in in the South: The Industrial Labor Movement and Black Workers in Memphis, 1929-1945 (Urbana: 1988 when I first told her about my interest in University of Illinois Press, 1993). Sheridan County. Dave Walter, John Terreo, 6. Michael P. Malone, Richard B. Roeder, and and Ellie Arguimbau of the Montana Histori­ William L. Lang, Montana: A History of Two Cen­ cal Society graciously welcomed me to the turies, rev. ed. (Seattle: University of Washington Society's archives back in 1991 when I visited Press, 1991), pp. 114-44; Tom Stout, Montana: Its Story and Biography, vol. 1 (Chicago: American Helena. Several individuals in and around Historical Society, 1921): 824-25; Producers News, Plentywood have also aided me in locating 3 November 1922; Plentywood Herald, 13 February essential sources and contacts: Sheila Lee of 1925; Walter and Leona Parkhurst Yaeger, inter­ the Plentywood Library; Leora Johansen, viewed by Laurie Mercier, 22 October 1982, tape Dagmar church historian; Chet Holje, former recording, Montanans at Work Oral History Project (MHS). Sheridan County Commissioner, and a mem­ 7. Stout, Montana (note 6 above) 1: 825; a first­ ber of the board of the local historical mu­ hand account can be found in the "Reminiscence" seum; Helen Stoner, of Outlook, Montana, of Henry B. Syverud, folder 1/5, Henry B. Syverud and her daughter, Verlaine Stoner McDonald. Papers, SC 1504 (MHS); Malone, Montana (note 282 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1996

6 above) pp. 145-71; United States, Department Magazine of Western History 42 (Winter 1992): of Commerce, Fourteenth Census of the United States 42-55. Taken in the Year 1920, Vol. 3: Population 1920 11. Plentywood Herald, 27 August 1936. The (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, Herald ran installments ofJohn A. Stahlberg's WPA 1992), p. 586; Virgil Andreasen, interviewed by Sheridan County history in 1936. Rex C. Myers, 27 May 1984, tape recording, Dan­ 12. "Communist Activities in the State of Mon­ ish Oral History Project (MHS); Mette B. Peterson, tana," 16June 1941, FBI Butte File 100-721-50, p. interviewed by Rex C. Myers, 28 May 1984, tape 81 (FBI-FOIA). This characterization suggests the recording, Danish Oral History Project (MHS); heavy influence of German Marxist ideology. Thomas Peter Christensen, A History of the Danes 13. Charles E. Taylor, interview by Lowell K. in Iowa (Solvang, California: Dansk Folkesamfund, Dyson, 2-3 August 1965, transcript, p. 32, Colum­ 1952), p. 37; Stephen Thernstrom, ed., Harvard bia Oral History Collection, Oral History Research Encyclopedia of Ethnic Groups (Cambridge: Harvard Office (Columbia University, New York); Merrill University Press, 1980), pp. 276, 280; Producers G. -Burlingame and K. Ross Toole, A History of News, 9 October 1931; Magnus Aasheim, com­ Montana, vol. 2 (New York: Lewis Historical Pub­ piler, Sheridan's Daybreak: A Story of Sheridan lishing Company, Inc., 1957): 102; Sheridan's Day­ County and Its Pioneers (Great Falls: Blue Print & break II (note 2 above), p. 10; Taylor interview Letter Company, 1970), pp. 237-41. (above), pp. 40, 34; Montana Socialist, 30 Decem­ 8. Malone, Montana (note 6 above), pp. 232- ber 1916, 28 July 1917; Morlan, Political Prairie 53; Sheridan's Daybreak (note 7 above), p. 8; Mette Fire (note 10 above), p. 225; see also "The Non­ B. Peterson interview (note 7 above); William partisan League" (typescript), Alfred Knutson file, Haas, "Stouthearts of the West: Toil, Sweat and Lowell Dyson Research Files (in Dyson's posses­ Heartaches!" Farms Illustrated (May 1946), pp. 21, sion). 24; Oscar Eklund, interviewed by Bob Lettinga, 26 14. Charles E. Taylor to Lewis J. Duncan, 29 September 1979, transcript, p. 1, Montana Farm­ April 1911, folder 83, Socialist Party of Montana ers Union Interviews (MHS); Sheridan's Daybreak Collection (microfilm edition: reel 2), MF 425 (note 7 above), p. 914; for another tale of Danish (MHS); "Charles Edwin Taylor, wit}l aliases, 'Red migration, see J orgen Jorgensen, "Autobiography," Flag Taylor, Carl Snyder,'" FBI Seattle File 100- translated by Henry W. Jorgensen, 1958, Folder 55987-21, 1 May 1944, p. 3 (FBI-FOIA); Taylor 1/1, Jorgen Jorgensen Family Papers, SC178 interview (note 13 above), pp. 12-17; 24-26; 30- (MHS); L. S. Olsen," 'The Call of the West' Some 31; 34. Solid Facts About Sheridan County, Montana." 15. Theodore Draper, The Roots of American Pamphlet [1915], Pamphlet Collection (MHS). Communism (New York: Viking Press, 1963), pp. 9. Andreasen interview (note 7 above); Mette 316-17. On socialism in Butte, see Jerry W. Calvert, B. Peterson interview (note 7 above); Sheridan's The Gibralter: Socialism and Labor in Butte, Mon­ Daybreak (note 7 above), p. 8; Clarence Onstad, tana, 1895-1920 (Helena: Montana Historical So­ interviewed by Laurie Mercier, 20 October 1982, ciety Press, 1988), and David M. Emmons, The tape recording; Anna Boe Dahl, interviewed by Butte Irish: Class and Ethnicity in an American Min­ Laurie Mercier, 20 October 1982, tape recording, ing Town, 1875-1925 (Urbana: University of Illi­ both Montanans at Work Oral History Project, nois Press, 1989); Pratt, "Rural Radicalism" (note MHS. 10 above), p. 45; Taylor interview (note 13 above), 10. On these movements, see Robert M. Morlan, pp. 43, 45; "Communist Activities in the State of Political Prairie Fire: The Nonpartisan League, 1915- Montana,"16 June 1941, FBI Butte File 100-721- 1922 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 50, 82-83 (FBI-FOIA). 1955); Lowell K. Dyson, Red Harvest: The Commu­ 16. On the Party's early attitude toward farmers nist Party and American Farmers (Lincoln: Univer­ and farmer organizations, see Dyson, Red Harvest sity of Nebraska Press, 1982), pp. 1-50, 67-82, (note 10 above), pp. 1-5. 99-122; "Agrarian Radicalism," in Encyclopedia of 17. "Charles Taylor," FBI Minneapolis File 100- the American Left, ed. Mari Jo Buhle, et al. (New 55987-38,28 May 1953, 3 (FBI-FOIA). York: Garland Publishing, 1990), pp. 7-13. For a 18. For Taylor's political career, see: Dyson, Red good overview of the historiography of the region's Harvest (note 10 above), pp. 1-26 and passim, and agrarian movements, see William C. Pratt, "Radi­ Harvey Klehr, The Heydey of American Commu­ cals, Farmers, and Historians: Some Recent Schol­ nism, (New York: Basic Books, 1984), pp. 139, 143- arship about Agrarian Radicalism in the Upper 44; Plentywood Diamond Jubilee Corporation, Midwest," North Dakota History 52 (Fall 1985): 12- Plentywood Portrait: Toil Soil Oil (Plentywood: 24, and William C. Pratt, "Rural Radicalism on Herald Printing, 1987), p. 37; Taylor interview the Northern Plains, 1912-1950," Montana: The (note 13 above), pp. 83, 97, 89; United Farmer, COMMUNISM, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY IN MONT ANA 283

1 March 1926; Sheridan's Daybreak (note 7 above), on life in Dagmar in the pre-1920 era, see Henry p. 925. Larsen died in 1940 in Volmer; "Charles Jorgensen, The Way it Was: The Childhood of One Taylor," FBI Minneapolis File 100-55987-38, 28 Boy and One Montana Danish Community (Helena: May 1953,4 (FBI-FOIA). Falcon Press Publishing, 1989). 19. Taylor interview (note 13 above), p. 42; 28. The Dagmar ECA was a member of the Mon­ Charles E. Taylor to Lowell K. Dyson, 7 May tana Equity Cooperative Association, organized in 1964, Charles E. Taylor file, Lowell Dyson Re­ 1915 to establish cooperative grain elevators, stores, search Files. and warehouses. The state-wide organization de­ 20. See late October and early November edi­ clined after WWI, and the Dagmar Association tions of local papers for party affiliations. severed its tie to Equity and reorganized itself as 21. Plentywood Portrait: Toil Soil Oil (note 18 the Farmers Cooperative Association. Dyson, Farm­ above), p. 33. ers' Organizations (note 22 above), p. 77; An­ 22. Dyson, Red Harvest (note 10 above), pp. 34- dreasen, ed., The First 50 Years (note 27 above), 41; Lowell K. Dyson, Farmers' Organizations pp. 38, 57, 90-92; Plentywood Herald, 24 Septem­ (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1986), ber 1936; "Communist Activities in the State of pp. 290-95; Producers News, 4, 11, 18, 25 Decem­ Montana," Butte FBI File 100-721-50, 16 June ber 1925; 1, 15 January 1926. John G. Soltis and 1941, p. 88 (FBI-FOIA); on local cooperatives, see Hans Rasmussen, both in the CP, were active orga­ also Jorgen Jorgensen, "Autobiography," (note 8 nizers for the Progressive Farmers in 1926, with above), p. 49. the former taking a more prominent role in orga­ 29. Andreasen interview (note 7 above); E. nizing the region; Taylor interview (note 13 above), Clifford Nelson, ed., The Lutherans in North America p. 93, see also pp. 93, 109-11 for more on the (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980), pp. 267-72; Progressive Farmers. Christensen, A History of the Danes in Iowa (note 7 23. Taylor interview (note 13 above), p. 94. above), pp. 39-54. 24. "Charles Taylor, Rodney Salisbury, P.J. 30. Sheridan's Daybreak II (note 2 above), p. 193; Wallace," FBI Report 62-15962-9, 23 December JorgenJorgensen, "Autobiography," (note 8 above), 1927 (FBI-FOIA); See Dyson, Red Harvest (note pp. 46-47; Joan Miller, ed., There is a Way: History 10 above), pp. 10,31-32; Charles Vindex, "Radi­ of the Nathanael and Volmer Lutheran Churches of cal Rule in Montana," Montana: The Magazine of Dagmar, Montana 1907-1975 (Billings: Western Western History 18 (January 1968): 2-18; Encyclo­ Printing, 1975), p. 148; on the anti-fraternalist pedia of the American Left (note 10 above), p. 217; arguments of Danish Evangelical Lutherans, see Butte FBI File 100-506,7 April 1943 (FBI-FOIA); Christensen, A History of the Danes in Iowa (note 7 Producers News, 17 November 1922. above), pp. 131-34. 25. Roy Rue and Helen Dahl Rue (with Anna 31. Vindex, "Radical Rule in Montana" (note Dahl, Helen's mother), interviewed by Laurie 24 above), p. 3; Lillian Nelson Kitzenberg, inter­ Mercier, 23 October 1982, tape recording, Mon­ viewed by Laurie Mercier, 24 October 1982, tape tanans at Work Oral History Project (MHS); see recording, Montanans at Work Oral History Project also Anna Boe Dahl interview (note 9 above) for (MHS); Logan interview (note 1 above). more on the "communistic" regions of the country. 32. Kitzenberg interview (note 31 above); Fay 26. Producers News, 30 October, 20 November, and Violet Chandler, interviewed by Jackie Day, 21 August, 6 November 1931. The best FBI report 15 May 1985, tape recording, Small Town Mon­ for a general historical overview ofCP activities in tana Oral History Project (MHS); Producers News, Montana is "Communist Activities in the State of 14, 21 November 1924; Plentywood Herald, 29 Montana," 16 June 1941, FBI File 100-3-51-16 October 1936. (FBI-FOIA). See post-election vote counts printed 33. Ella Sunsted, interviewed by Rex C. Myers, in local papers for vote breakdowns by towns and 28 May 1984, tape recording, Danish Oral History election districts. Project (MHS); Einar Klofstad, interviewed by 27. Christensen, A History of the Danes in Iowa Jackie Day, 13 May 1985, tape recording, Small (note 7 above), pp. 37, 237; Produceers News, 11 Town Montana Oral History Project (MHS); March, 23 September 1932; Sheridan's Daybreak Plentywood Herald, 27 August 1936. The KKK was (note 7 above), pp. 237-42,913. Rasmussen had apparently most active in 1923; Klofstad interview; been active in the local Socialist party in the 191 Os Logan interview (note 1 above). then switched over to the Communist Party in the 34. Rue interview (note 25 above); Charles 1920s. For more on the Dagmar colony, see Irving Carbone, interviewed by Laurie Mercier, 21 Octo­ Andreasen, ed., The First 50 Years: Glimpses from ber 1982, tape recording; Nancy Marron, inter­ the Dagmar Community, Dagmar, Montana, 1906- viewed by Jackie Day, 16 May 1985, tape recording; 1956 (Cedar Falls, Iowa: Holst Printing Co., 1956); Clifford Peterson, interviewed by Jackie Day, 284 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1996

13 May 1985, tape recording, all Small Town Mon­ cording, Small Town Montana Oral History Project tana Oral History Project (MHS). (MHS); Anneva Jensen [Hansen], phone conver­ 35. [Agent] D.H. Dickason to J. Edgar Hoover, sation with Gerald Zahavi, 11 October 1995. 23 December 1927, in "Charles E. Taylor, Rodney 50. On the shift in CP policies in the 1920s, see Salisbury, P.J. Wallace" file, FBI Butte file, 62- Theodore Draper, Heyday of American Communism 15962-11 (FBI-FOIA). and Soviet Russia (New York: Viking Press, 1960), 36. "Communist Activities in the State ofMon­ pp. 282-441; Klehr, Heyday of American Commu­ tana," FBI Butte File 100-721-50, 16 June 1941, p. nism (note 18 above), pp. 3-27; Harvey Klehr and 82 (FBI-FOIA). John Earl Haynes, The American Communist Move­ 37. Plentywood Herald, 31 December 1931. ment: Storming Heaven Itself (New York: Twayne 38. See, for example, Producers News, 4 January Publishers, 1992), pp. 8-58; Dyson, Farmers' Orga­ 1929. nizations (note 22 above), pp. 338-43; on "Third 39. Taylor interview (note 13 above), pp. 53-54. Period Communism" and U.S. agrarian movements, 40. Plentywood Herald, 27 August 1926; Robert the UFEL, and the UFL, see Dyson, Red Harvest Smith Bader, Prohibition in Kansas: A History (note 10 above), pp. 27-50, 99-122; Pratt, "Rural (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1986), p. Radicalism" (note 10 above), p. 48. 119; Barbara Neil Hobson, The Politics of Prostitu­ 51. Kloftstad interview (note 33 above); Pro­ tion and the American Reform Tradition (New York: ducers News, 13 November 1931. Some of the stu­ Basic Books, 1987), p. 47; Plentywood Herald, 25 dents in the Communist school were sent to New August 1928. York City for "further training." Plentywood Her­ 41. Plentywood Herald, 16 August 1928. ald, 8 October 1936. 42. Plentywood Herald, 1 November 1928. Ac­ 52. Producers News, 20, 27 November 1931. cording to the Herald, "one of the LW.W.'s that 53. Producers News, 11 December 1931; Plenty­ came here to Plentywood informed one of the citi­ wood Herald, 10 December 1931. zens of Plentywood that he had visited practically 54. Plentywood Herald, 10 December 1931. every LW.W. jungles (sic) from Texas to the Ca­ 55. Producers News, 11 December 1931, Plenty­ nadian boundary, and as far east as the state of wood Herald, 10 December 1931. Virginia; and in everyone of these jungles he heard 56. Producers News, 18 December 1931; Plenty­ Rodney Salisbury's name and he was extolled and wood Herald, 10 December 1931. Lord Anton praised as the best Sheriff in the United States ... " Nelson, Ernie Helgeson, WaIter Raess, J. G. Debing, 43. Plentywood Herald, 23 August, 25 October and Mrs. Oscar Opgrande were members of the 1928. school board. 44. Vindex, "Radical Rule in Montana" (note 57. Producers News, 11 December 1931. 24 above), pp. 12, 17; hearings on the robbery-to 58. Producers News, 11, 18 December 1931. determine if the insurance company were obligated 59. Producers News, 11 December 1931. The to pay the county's claim-were reprinted in the judge, Edgar Bt;Janski, was a second generation Plentywood Herald just before the November elec­ Polish-American who had migrated to Montana in tion. See Plentywood Herald, 16 August, 4, 18, 25 1909. His civic and club activities suggest the va­ October, 8 November 1928. lidity of the "mainstreeter" appellation. Belanski 45. Dickason to Hoover, 23 December 1927 was also a "Royal Arch Mason, a charter member (note 35 above), Rue interview (note 25 above). of the LO.O.F., a member of the Knights ofPhythias 46. Vindex, "Radical Rule in Montana" (note and a charter member of the Modern Woodmen of 24 above), p. 11. Producers News 19,26 August, America." Sheridan's Daybreak (note 7 above), p. 2, 16,30, September, 1927. In earlier years, the 602; Logan interview (note 1 above). Elgin Cafe had regularly placed advertisements in 60. Anton Solberg [occasionally spelled "Stol­ the Producers News; a typical one read "Elgin Cafe, berg" in the paper) had come to the area from Min­ A Good Clean Place to Eat." Producers News, nesota in 1908. Until the last few years of his life, 3 November 1922; Rue interview (note 25 above); when he moved to Plentywood and took up the Chandler interview (note 32 above). carpentry trade, he homesteaded on his farm south­ 47. Andrew Michels, interviewed by Laurie east of Outlook. He died in 1945. Sheridan's Day­ Mercier, 21 October 1982, tape recording, Mon­ break (note 7 above), p. 545. The paper's tanans at Work Oral History Project (MHS). characterization seems to have been correct. 48. Plentywood Herald, 10 January 1929,13 No­ 61. Producers News, 18 December 1931. The vember 1931. Plentywood Herald reported somewhat differently: 49. Roy Rue, Rue interview (note 25 above); "Immediately after the court adjourned, Rodney Michels interview (note 47 above); Louis Kavon, Salisbury crowded his way into the courtroom and interviewed by Jackie Day, 16 May 1985, tape re- jumped onto a table and commenced to harrangue COMMUNISM, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY IN MONT ANA 285 the crowd about Plentywood justice, government 66. Plentywood Herald, 7 April 1932. gunmen, jury bought, starving populace and a lot 67. Producers News, 2 November 1932; Sheridan's of other nonsense." Plentywood Herald, 17 Decem­ Daybreak (note 7 above), p. 950; Plentywood Her­ ber 1931. ald, 10 November 1932. 62. Vindex, "Radical Rule in Montana" (note 68. Plentywood Herald, 30 March, 6 April, 24 24 above), pp. 12-13; Encyclopedia of the American March, 31 March, 28 July, 1933. Left (note 10 above), p. 11; Dyson, Red Harvest 69. Producers News, 19 February 1932; Jardis (note 10 above), p. 70; Allan Mathews, "The His­ Salisbury turned away from left-wing politics in tory of the United Farmers League of South Da­ her post-adolescent years and recalls little about kota," (master's thesis, University of South Dakota, her CP youth activities. In the late 1930s, she at­ 1972), p. 8. Herbert Joseph Putz was born in 1904 tended the University of Montana, graduating in in the Bronx, the son of a machinist. His family 1940. In 1945 she moved to Seattle and later was deeply enmeshed in the German socialist sub­ worked for Boeing and the Port of Embarkation. culture of New York. He attended a German so­ Her memories of Plentywood are filled with bitter­ cialist Sunday school, later Stuyvesant High ness and regret, mainly due to the separation of her School, Columbia University, and the University mother and father some time around 1930, but also of Berlin. Around 1929 or 1930, he joined the because of the town's treatment of her family. Jardis CPUSA and adopted the name Erik Bert. He died Hughes [Salisbury], phone interview by Gerald in 1981. His papers, which in any case have little Zahavi, 16 February 1995; Plentywood Portrait: Toil material before the 1940s, are in two locations. Soil Oil (note 18 above), p. 390. See Ruth Putz [Bert], phone interview by Gerald 70. The best source on the youth anti-war and Zahavi, 15 June 1995, tape recording (in Zahavi's anti-imperialism movement in the early 1930s is possession); Erik Bert Papers (Special Collections Robert Cohen, When the Old Left Was Young: Stu­ Department, University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa dent Radicals and America's First Mass Student Move­ City, Iowa); Erik Bert [Herbert Joseph Putz] Pa­ ment, 1929-1941 (New York: Oxford University pers, (Columbia University Rare Book and Manu­ Press, 1993); Producers News, 26 February 1932. script Library, Butler Library, Columbia University, 71. Producers News, 4 March 1932; Leora New York). Johansen, interviewed by Rex C. Myers, 30 May 63. Producers News, 11 December 1931. The 1984, tape recording, Danish Oral History Project parade mentioned took place on 15 October in (MHS). Plentywood, following a large meeting of the newly 72. Producers News, 3 March 1933; 29 April organized county UFL organization. See Producers 1932. News, 11 September, 16 October, 1931. The most 73. Lement Harris, My Tale of Two Worlds (New detailed (and inflated) account of the school board York: International Publishers, 1986), 137 -38; Pro­ fiasco-including a summary of the trial proceed­ ducers News, 27 May, 17 June, 1932; Putz [Bert] ings-appears in the Producers News of 11 and 18 interview (note 62 above). December 1931. The school's principal, Professor 74. Plentywood Herald, 3 May 1934. Stegner, later apologized to Janis Salisbury for un­ 75. Plentywood Herald, 10 May 1934. justly punishing her. "In a conversation with 76. Producers News, 1 July 1932, 14 April 1933; Rodney Salisbury, Professor Stegner admitted that Vindex, "Radical Rule in Montana" (note 24 the prosecution was based on politics and said that above), p. 14; "Communist Activities in the State he just had to get along with the mainstreeters." of Montana," FBI Butte File 100-721-50, 16 June Producers News, 11 December 1931. Claims about 1941, p. 83 (FBI-FOIA); Putz [Bert] interview (note teacher abuse of children are partially corrobo­ 62 above). Ruth Putz [Bert] did not recall the cir­ rated by an account of Anneva Jensen [Hansen]. cumstances of her departure nor the events de­ According to Jensen, her brother was once badly scribed in the FBI report; Charles Taylor's account beaten by a teacher after running in the hall of of Ruth Putz's activities and demeanor in Sheridan the local school. The teacher [one Miss Ander­ County suggests that she did not develop a good son?] came out of the room and asked Anneva for rapport with local farmers: "She was a very severe a handkerchief to "mop up the blood." She gave it type; she knew more than anybody else." Taylor to her, Anneva recalled. "I was such a good little interview (note 13 above), p. 151. Former CP or­ girl!" Anneva Jensen [Hansen], phone conversa­ ganizer and editor Robert F. Hall, in several infor­ tion (note 49 above). mal conversations with me during the summer of 64. Producers News, 27 May 1932. 1991, vaguely recalled that Ruth and Erik Bert 65. Sheridan's Daybreak II (note 2 above), pp. were not formally married at the time. 663-64; Producers News, 27 May 1932; Plentywood 77. Jacqueline Dowd Hall, "Disorderly Women: Herald, 7 April 1932. Gender and Labor Militancy in the Appalachian 286 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 1996

South," Journal of American History 73 (September per accounts of the funeral, see Producers News, 4, 1986); Anneva Grace Hansen to Toni Martinazzi, 11 March 1932 and Plentywood Herald, 10 March 8 June 1993, printed in Toni Martinazzi, Albert 1932. Rice Chapman 1866-1948 and his Descendants 83. Plentywood Herald, 14 April 1932. (Glenview, Illinois: self published, 1993), p. 153. 84. Producers News, 15 April 1932; Marron in­ 78. Anneva Jensen [Hansen] told me that terview (note 34 above). See also Logan interview Rodney and Emma Salisbury were actually never (note 1 above) for another account of the funeral. divorced because Emma refused to agree to it. A 85. Plentywood Herald, 20, 27 April 1933; few years after Sheriff Salisbury's death (14 June Malone, et aI., Montana: A History of Two Centu­ 1938), an FBI report noted that "the belief is preva­ ries (note 6 above), p. 296. lent that he [Salisbury] was poisoned by Marie 86. Producers News, 22 July 1932; Plentywood Hanson (sic)." An obituary in the Plentywood Her­ Herald, 5 May, 10 November, 1932; 8 November ald stated that he died of a "brain hemorrhage" 1934. following "a three day illness." Marie Hansen's niece 87. Producers News, 14 November 1930; Plenty­ claims that he was in a fight and died as a result of wood Herald, 10 November 1932, 15 November the fight. Jardis Hughes [Salisbury], however, claims 1934. that Salisbury probably died of a stroke, and his 88. Plentywood Herald, 11 October 1934; Pro­ death certificate lists "cerebral hemorrhage." ducers News, 12 July 1934; Robert F. Hall, inter­ "Communist Activities in the State of Montana," viewed by Gerald Zahavi, 13 February 1990, tape FBI Butte File 100-721-50, 16 June 1941, p. 83 recording (in Zahavi's possession). This story was (FBI-FOIA); Plentywood Herald, 16June 1938; Toni also told to William C. Pratt by Rob Hall. In that Martinazzi, phone conversation with Gerald version, Hall recalled that Salisbury had come in Zahavi, 15 February 1995; Martinazzi, Albert Rice with Pete Gallagher. See Rob Hall, interview Chapman (note 77 above), pp. 134-37; Toni (notes) by William C. Pratt, July 1988 (in Pratt's Martinazzi to Bernice Van Curen, 8 December 1989 possession) . (in Van Curen's possession); Hughes [Salisbury] 89. Producers News, 22 January 1932; see also phone interview (note 69 above); FBI Butte File Vindex, "Radical Rule in Montana" (note 24 above), 100-113096 (FBI-FOIA). p. 13; Taylor interview (note 13 above), p. 234. 79. Chandler interview (note 32 above); Plenty­ 90. Taylor interview (note 13 above), pp. 146- wood Herald, 6 October 1932. 47; Robert F. Hall, interviewed by Gerald Zahavi, 80. Sheridan's Daybreak (note 7 above), p. 625; 19 July 1991, tape recording (in Zahavi's posses­ Sheridan's Daybreak II (note 2 above), pp. 451-52; sion). Producers News, 27 May 1932; on the merging of 91. "Communist Activities in the State ofMon­ religious and radical cultural symbols, see Kelley, tana," FBI Butte File 100-721-50, 16 June 1941, p. Hammer and Hoe (note 5 above), pp. 92-116, and 91 (FBI-FOIA). An FBI informant, "Ll2," re­ Gavin Burbank, When Farmers Voted Red: The Gos­ counted the conversation during which Bloor re­ pel of Socialism in the Oklahoma Countryside, 1910- portedly said this. 1924 (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 92. Dyson, Red Harvest (note 10 above), pp. 1976); for a specific discussion of the language of 118-21. radicalism in Sheridan County, see Verlaine Stoner 93. Transcription of Earl Browder to Charles E. McDonald, "Red Waves of Grain: An Analysis of Taylor, 17 August 1934 in "Charles E. Taylor with Radical Farm Movement Rhetoric in Montana, aliases, 'Red Flag' Taylor," FBI Seattle File 100- 1918-1937," (Ph.D. diss., University of Southern 55987-10,22 September 1942, 5 (FBI-FOIA). Ex­ California, 1994), pp. 82-212. tensive correspondence between Taylor and various 81. Yaeger interview (note 6 above); Hughes members of the CPUSA was obtained by the Se­ [Salisbury] phone interview (note 69 above); attle FBI, but later apparently destroyed. Miller, ed., There is a Way (note 30 above), p. 5; 94. Producers News, 27 September 1934; Dyson, Producers News, 2 November 1932, 16 November Red Harvest (note 10 above), p. 127. 1934. 95. Producers News, 19, 26 July 1935; Daily 82. Harold DeSilva, interviewed by Jackie Day, Worker, 17 September 1935; Taylor interview (note 15 May 1985, tape recording, Small Town Mon­ 13 above), pp. 233-34; Dyson, Red Harvest (note tana Oral History Project (MHS); Rue interview, 10 above), p. 127; Vindex, "Radical Rule in Mon­ Roy speaking, (note 25 above); for local newspa- tana" (note 24 above), p. 15.