MR. CHRISLOCK, who is associate professor of history in Augsburg College at Minneapolis, was the winner of the Minnesota Historical Society's Solon J. Buck Award in 19-57, given for the best article published in this magazine. Like that below, his prize-winning contribution dealt with the politics of protest in Minnesota during the 1890s. SIDNEY M. OWEN An Editor in Politics CARL H. CHRISLOCK IN 1910, when Sidney Mark Owen died, he have not completely ignored him, but most seemed to have a secure place in Minnesota of their attention has been reserved for history. Ex-governor John Lind, who was Ignatius Donnelly. In the long run, Don­ not by habit an effusive man, said he re­ nelly's pre-eminence can no doubt be de­ garded "Mr. Owen ... as the one man fended. But this much can be claimed for who has contributed more to the uplifting Owen: within Minnesota he successfully of the people's ideals than any other man" challenged Donnelly's leadership of Alliance- he had encountered in public life. The first Populism. In the 1890s many who adhered of the famous Wallaces of Iowa attributed to this movement regarded Owen rather the strength of progressivism in Minnesota than his more famous rival as their authen­ "largely" to the "seed sown by Mr. Owen" tic leader. in the 1890s. The Minneota Mascot praised Thus justice, if there is such a thing in Owen's capabflities as editor of Farm, Stock the historiographic sense, would seem to re­ and Home in exalted terms, describing that quire a re-evaluation of Owen's significance. periodical as "easfly the foremost agricul­ But this is not the only consideration. The tural journal of the Northwest, if not in Owen-Donnefly clash was more than a per­ America." '^ sonal struggle for power. While Donnelly's These generous panegyrics notwithstand­ record for consistency on public policy ing, Owen is virtuafly forgotten in 1958. His questions was not remarkable, he was by name is not among those receiving praise virtue of authorship inseparably identified in connection with the statehood centennial with the 1892 platform of the national Peo­ commemoration. Democratic-Farmer-Labor ple's party, better known as the Omaha orators who sometimes refer to the past platform. Among the things this manifesto fafl to mention him. Historians of Populism endorsed, though in qualified, equivocal lan­ guage, was the Alliance subtreasury plan which called upon the federal government ^Minneapolis Tribune, February 3, 1910; Wallace's to build warehouses for the storage of non- Farmer, February 11, 1910; Minneota Mascot, Febru­ ary 18, 1910. perishable farm crops and to lend legal- December 1958 109 tender treasury notes on the crops stored — was born in Ohio in 1838, reared on a farm, the so-called ^lacune plan. The Omaha plat­ educated in the public schools and at Ober­ form also characterized tariff agitation as a lin Coflege, and served as a first lieutenant "sham" designed "to drown the outcries of in the 55th Ohio Volunteer Infantry dur­ a plundered people"; and it proclaimed that ing the Civil War. After the war he entered "the powers of government . should be the wholesale mercantile business, first in expanded ... as rapidly and as far as the Toledo and later in Chicago. Apparently good sense of an intelligent people and the commerce did not suit his inclinations, for teachings of experience shall justify." - in 1885 he abandoned its pursuit to accept On the record Owen accepted the Omaha the editorship of Farm, Stock and Home, platform; he even lauded it. But he vigor­ which had been founded at Minneapolis ously rejected the subtreasury plan, which by his brother, Horatio R. Owen, in 1884.^ Donnefly's partisans in 1892 were not only At this point the obscurity surrounding accepting, but attempting to make the Owen is to some extent lifted, but by no mark of Populist orthodoxy. While he did means dispelled. His Farm, Stock and not say so, Owen probably also was un­ Home editorials, as wefl as surviving texts willing to regard his own lifelong crusade of his public utterances, explicate in detail for tariff reform as a "sham." It is to be his political and socioeconomic views with­ suspected, too, that he would have pre­ out, however, getting into the realm of di­ ferred omission of the demand for more rect self-revelation. Perhaps on the basis of government, for this would have made the what is known, a few inferences are war­ platform's commitment to the "equal rights ranted. For example, it was not strange for to afl, special privfleges to none" principle a man reared in Ohio in the 1840s and 1850s stand out in bolder relief. to employ an idiom suggestive of locofoco- These issues are of more than incidental ism; and it was not incongruous for an importance. They go to the heart of a moot alumnus of Oberlin to be deeply concerned question: As a movement did Populism about the rights of man. Beyond this, it is have more in common with Jacksonian De­ impossible to go, for Owen was not in the mocracy than with the New Deal? Perhaps habit of writing or talking publicly about some light is thrown on this question by his childhood, his student days, or the frus­ Owen's firm commitment to traditional trations he may have encountered as a agrarian radicalism, which seemed to com­ soldier and businessman. mand more acceptance within Minnesota If it is impossible to be definite about than Donnelly's temporary espousal of a the influences which made Owen what he program which did, indeed, anticipate some was, it is not too difficult to recapture the features of the "managed economy" of the popular image of the middle-aged agricul­ future, but which appeared to many Popu­ tural editor who became a leader in the lists as a dangerous leap into a dark and turbulent reform movement of the 1890s. uncertain unknown. Among his traits was an austere reserve which did not preclude warm relationships OWEN'S EARLY LIFE is to a consider­ with close friends, but which did prevent exposure of his inner being to public view. able extent a closed book. This is due, at least in part, to a lack of basic sources — there are no personal papers available for " For the text of the Omaha platform, see John D. examination, and he did not pen his mem­ Hicks, The Populist Revolt: A History of the Farm­ ers' Alliance and the People's Party, 439-444 (Minne­ oirs for posterity. He was forty-seven years apolis, 1931). The subtreasury plan is discussed on of age when he went to Minnesota, and the pages 186-204. established facts about his life up to that •'Farm, Stoctc and Home, 26:135 (February 15, 1910); Minneapolis Journal, February 2, 1910; St. time are known only in barest outline. He Paul Dispatch, February 2, 1910. 110 MINNESOTA IHstory The privflege he claimed for himself in this quate and perhaps effective. The revival respect was accorded to others. Although techniques of many third-party orators there was ample provocation to act other­ were not for him. Passion there was in the wise, he usually avoided the personal attack content of his speeches and, it can be as­ and confined his appeal to issues. Accepted sumed, in the delivery; but his was a con­ versions of his personal habits reinforced trolled passion which was subordinated to the impression of austerity. He was known the marshaling of facts and statistics to sup­ to abstain from both tobacco and liquor, port conclusions. His style was at times and intimate friends testified that he never heavy, almost ponderous, and not calcu­ resorted to profanity in private conversa­ lated to arouse audiences to the ecstatic tion. Needless to say, such a reputation heights to which Donnelly's efforts lifted endeared him to the many Populists and them. But if the immediate response fell quasi-Populists among the Scandinavians short of that produced by Donnefly, the who, generafly speaking, assigned high pri­ permanent impression was apparently more ority to "demon rum" as a source of evil.* rewarding. In some respects Owen did not conform to the "reformer" stereotype, for he es­ UNDER OWEN'S EDITORSHIP, Farm, chewed personal attacks in political debate, Stock and Home was soon established as a deplored reformist dogmatism, which he successful enterprise, and its influence ex­ distinguished from devotion to principle, panded with the passing years. By 1894, and opened the pages of Farm, Stock and when the paper was ten years old, a circu­ Home to more than one reform cause. But lation of forty thousand was claimed for it. this forbearance and flexibility had definite Like other "progressive' farm journals, it limits. To him the function of politics was laid heavy stress on scientific husbandry not so much the reconciliation of diverse and business management as aids to better interests as the promotion of righteousness. rural living. It advocated diversification of "When a thing appeared wrong to Mr. crops, the use of soil-building techniques, Owen," editorialized the Minneota Mascot, and the systematic breeding and improved "it was wrong afl through and he would feeding of livestock, and sought the assist­ have nothing of it."" Like most Midwest­ ance of a growing corps of experts employed ern radicals, he was inclined to attribute the in Midwestern agricultural colleges." nation's difficulties to a conscious conspir­ But Owen rejected the counsel of those acy on the part of big business "plutocrats." who asserted that agricultural journalism Without apparent difficulty, he accepted should confine itself to the gospel of better the "Crime of '73" thesis which held that farming and avoid entanglement in public the demonetization of silver in that year policy issues.