Reviews & Short Features: Vol. 41/ 6 (1969)

The 21st Ballot: A Political Party Struggle in and saying comprises perhaps the most fasci Minnesota. By DAvro LEBEDOFF. (Minne nating part of the work. apolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1969. The lieutenant governor's wresting of the ix, 218 p. Illustrations. $5.95.) endorsement from Karl Rolvaag on the twentieth ballot, followed by the post-conven Reviewed by James Pederson tion period with its divisive primary campaign, the Republican success in capitalizing on the "I THINK of my book as simply a story," says DFL bloodletting, and the fiuctuating mood David Lebedoff in his preface. He also claims of the voters (indicated by both the Minnesota there that all reports used are factual, that Poll and the increase of visible support for "This is an account of what did take place," the incumbent after the televised convention and "That which could not be verified was ex proceedings) are vividly recounted. According cluded." The result of this incongruity is to Mr. Lebedoff, "fiasco" might best sum neither a novel nor a historical record, al marize Mr. Keith's primary efforts. Retro though the author's effort to make his version spectively, at least, mistake after mistake made of the 1966 upheaval in the Democratic- the lieutenant governor's abortive attempt look Farmer-Labor party readable brings the book almost comical. close to the novel form. The book ends rather abruptly with an ac The volume chronicles the turbulent events count of the election eve mood in the Rolvaag at the late summer conference in 1965 when headquarters as returns began to indicate the the DFL executive committee concluded al totality of the DFL defeat. most unanimously that incumbent Governor It may seem unfair nit-picking for this re Karl F. Rolvaag was in critical pofitical diffi viewer (who also participated in and observed culty, with slim chance for re-election in 1966. most of these events) to point out the author's The author continues with the formal chal errors, omissions, and overgeneralized judg lenge of the governor by the then lieutenant ments, but they should be noted lest this book governor, A. M. "Sandy" Keith, at the June, be regarded as an accurate source for future 1966, convention; the struggle for endorse historians. While space limitations, an imper ment from that eleven-hundred-delegate fect memory, and differing interpretation make gathering; the seemingly hopeless impasse and it impossible to fist all — or even many — of Mr. Keith's determination — as well as that these defects, a few are cited as examples. of the majority of the delegates — to break In the first chapter, the role ascribed to the deadlock. The drama of what the partici David Graven on the Friday afternoon of the pants — a govemor, a challenger, two senators, so-called Sugar Hfils conference could not have congressmen, representatives of the vice-presi occurred as Mr. Lebedoff states, for the simple dent, and coundess party officers — were doing reason that Mr. Graven arrived late. At the last minute he had to drive the roughly 120 Mr. Pederson, assistant to the society's director, miles because bad weather prevented his is the former executive secretary of the state planned fiight. Contrary to the author's asser Democratic-Farmer-Labor central committee. tion that only the Saturday evening session was Summer 1969 295 held in a building away from the main lodge, state of affairs in the late I930's. card- the first meeting convened on Friday was in the carrying members of the Communist party . separate cottage called the "meetin' house." very nearly succeeded in gaining control of But more serious is the over-all impression the largest pofitical party in the state." given the casual reader that the compefiing This reviewer is famifiar with existing, de reason for the conference was the question of tailed documents on the subject and has Mr. Rolvaag's popularity. Such is not the truth. heard the story told countless times. A serious The need for a leadership retreat to discuss injustice is done the genuine liberals and non- the party's long-range plans had been felt by communist radicals of Democratic, Farmer- many officers even before the governor was Labor, and even Repubfican bent who saw in first elected. the Farmer-Labor movement a legitimate way Mr. Lebedoff categorically states in the third to correct and overcome inequities in a de chapter that through the presidential primary pression-ridden economic system. This is not in 1956 the voters "directed that every dele to say there were no Communists in the old gate to the [national Democratic] convention Farmer-Labor group. Indeed, its staunchest defenders admit there were some. What is be a Kefauver supporter." The fact is that objectionable is the sweeping generalizations two congressional districts elected delegates that imply most of the party to be either committed to Adlai Stevenson so that four Communists or dupes. Such patent nonsense delegates to the national convention were not does disservice both to the persons involved backers of the Tennessee senator. and to the cause of history. This criticism The author's failure to interview certain key could have been minimized had the author people must be mentioned. Richard Moe, cited his sources, allowing the reader to reach Keith's campaign aide who was perhaps his own conclusions. more than anyone but the candidate himself privy to the delegate assessments and moods, These flaws, while serious, do not discredit will serve as an example of omission. Simi The 21st Ballot as a well-written work with larly, two gatherings to decide on Keith's run some positive uses. This reviewer, aware of ning mates — one held the night before the his parochial prejudices, would compare the convention was reconvened in July, the other on book favorably with Convention (1964) by the following day at the Waverly home of Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bafiey. Mr. Hubert H. Humphrey — are neglected. These Lebedoff skillfully captures the emotion, ex meetings are vital to understanding the reasons citement, and drama that the political events for the development of the "Rolvaag Team" and of 1966 held for most Minnesotans. the resulting polarization of the DFL into two camps. FATHER OF WATERS The use of footnotes or a bibliography would obviously have strengthened the work. In Before Mark Twain: A Sampler of Old, Old chapter two, particularly, a quick biographical Times on the Mississippi. Edited by JOHN sketch of Rolvaag, a refresher course in state FRANCIS MCDERMOTT. (Carbondale and Ed- pofitical history, an account of the genesis of wardsvfile, Southern Illinois University Press, the DFT, and the 1962 campaign and recount 1968. xxxiU, 298 p. Illustrations. $15.00) are covered in a scant twenty-five pages. For this background the author has relied on both Reviewed by Martha C. Bray pubfished and unpubfished writings but cites no sources. He contributes to the growing THIS VOLUME, according to its distinguished tendency to brand all radicals and protesters editor, is "not a source book but a reader for of the 1930s and 1940s as Communists or those who love the river." As such, a re fellow travelers, ascribing some blame for the viewer cannot do more than introduce it to its demise of the Farmer-Labor party "to that un rightful audience who, as scholars or "buffs," likely peril. Communist subversion. In this case, the threat was genuine. While it mav be difficult to think of rural Minnesota as a center Mrs. Bray, who summers on the banks of the of Communist intrigue, such was precisely the Mississippi, is at work on a full-length biog raphy of Joseph N. Nicollet. 296 MINNESOTA History wifi judge it according to their pleasure in it. duce as wefi as to read. Its editor unpreten Here it is — a cofiection of thirty-seven un tiously makes no other claim for it. annotated sketches chosen from the great Sixteen full pages of contemporary sketches variety of descriptions of the throbbing fife and cartoons add to the attractiveness of the of the river pubfished before Mark Twain's volume, and an index makes it valuable to "Old Times on the Mississippi" appeared in the researcher. 1874 in Harper's Magazine. (The Mississippi, the editor emphasizes, is not Mark Twain's INDIAN PANORAMA literary property.) This "sampler" sets the stage for the forthcoming series of docu The Indian Heritage of America. By ALVIN M. mentary volumes, "Travelers on the Western JosEPHY, JR. (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, Waters," to be published under Mr. McDer- 1968. xiii, xiv, 384 p. Illustrations, maps. mott's general editorship. The project will $10.00.) make avaflable to the reader many works which are now more or less inaccessible to him. Reviewed by James C. Olson In his lively introduction, Mr. McDermott does not interpret any of the sketches which INDIAN STUDIES have become so specialized follow. Rather, leaving the authors to speak that most people working in the field confine for themselves, he draws on other sources — themselves to a fairly limited topic. In this am newspapers, periodicals, diaries, and JOLU- bitious book, Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., well known nals — which suggest the great conglomeration for The Patriot Chiefs (1961) and The Nez of river scenes, events, pleasures, trials, and Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest tragedies which cordd not be crowded into (1965), attempts to encompass in fewer than this volume. In the 1840s from the levee in four hundred pages the whole range of Indian St. Louis to the waterfront of New Orleans Iffe in North, Central, and South America from "anything may happen" and, says the editor, prehistoric times to the present.

Load more