Wisconsin Magazine of History
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Wisconsin Magazine of History Profiles in Politics: British Embassy Viczvs of Prominent Americans in 1939 Edited by THOMAS E. HACHEY The General and the Senator: Republican Politics and the 1952 Campaign in Wisconsin ROBERT GRIFFITH The South in the Saddle: Racial Politics During the Wilson Years MORTON SOSNA I'redcrick Jackson Turner: A Note on the Intellectual and the Professional BURTON J. BLEDSTEIN l^roceedings of the One Hundred and l\vcnty-fonrlh Annual Meeting Published hf the State Historical Society of Wisconsin / Vol. 54, No. 1 / Autumn, 1970 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN JAMES MORTON SMITH, Director Officers E. DAVID CUONON, President GEORGE BANTA, JR., Honorary Vice-President JOHN C. GEILFUSS, First Vice-President E. E. HOMSTAD, Treasurer HowAiU) W. MEAD, Second Vice-President JAMES MORTON SMITH, Sccretanj Board of Curators Ex-0(ficio WARREN P. KNOWLES, Governor of the State HAROLD \V. CLEMENS, State Treasurer ROBERT C. ZIMMERMAN, Secretary of State JOHN C. WEAVER, President of the Unhersitij MRS. GEORC^E SWART, President of the Wonien's Auxiliary Term Expires, 1971 ROGER E. AXTELL KENNETH W. HAAGENSEN MOWHY SMITH MiLO K. SWANTON Janesville Oconomowoc Neenah Madison MRS. HENRY BALDWIN ROBERT B. L. MURPHY MRS. WM. H. L. SMYTHE CEDRIC A. VIG Wisconsin Rapids Madison Milwaukee Rhinelander HORACE M. BENSTEAD FREDERIC E. RISSER WILLIAM F. STARK CLARK WILKINSON Racine Madi.son Nashotah Baraboo Term Expires, 1972 E. DAVID CRONON MRS. ROBERT E. FRIEND MRS. HOWARD T. GREENE WAYNE J. HOOD Madison Hartland Genesee Depot La Crosse SCOTT M. CUTLIP ROBERT A. GEHRKE BEN GUTHRIE J. WARD RECTOR Madison Ripon Lac du Flambeau Milwaukee W. NORMAN FITZGERALD JOHN C. GEILFUSS MRS. R. L. HARTZELL CLIFFORD D. SWANSON Milwaukee Milwaukee GRANTSBURG Stevens Point Term Expires, 1973 THOMAS H. BARLAND MRS. EDWARD C. JONES HOWARD W. MEAD DONALD C. SLIGHTER Eau Claire Fort Atkinson Madison Milwaukee JIM DAN HILL MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES FREDERICK I. OLSON DR. LOUIS C. SMITH Middleton Madison Wauwatosa Lancaster E. E. HOMSTAD CHARLES R. MCCALLUM F. HARWOOD ORBISON ROBERT S. ZIGMAN Black River Falls Hubertus Appleton Milwaukee Honorary Honorary Life Members WILLIAM ASHBY MCCLOY, New London, Connecticut PRESTON E. MCNALL, Clearwater, Florida JOHN C. JACQUES, Madison DOROTHY L. PARK, Madison BENTON H. WILCOX, Madison Fellows VERNON CARSTENSEN MERLE CURTI ALICE E. SMITH The Women's Auxiliary Officers MRS. GEORGE SWART, Fort Atkinson, President Miss >lAaiE BABKMAN, Sheboygan, Vice-President \() s ROTH DAVIS, Madison, Secretary MRS. RI : u RD G. ZIMMERMANN, Sheboygan, Treasurer MR' ; ) WARD H. RIKKERS, Madison, Ex-Ofjicio VOLUME 54, NUMBER 1 / AUTUMN, 1910 Magazine of History WILLIAM CONVERSE HAYGOOD, Editor WILLIAM C. MARTEN, Associate Editor "The Resolution": An H. T. Webster Cartoon Profiles in Politics: British Embassy Views of Prominent Americans in 1939 Edited by THOMAS E. HACHEY The General and the Senator: Republican Politics and the 1952 Campaign in Wisconsin ROBERT GRIFFITH 23 The South in the Saddle: Racial Politics During the Wilson Years MORTON SOSNA 30 Frederick Jackson Turner: A Note on the Intellectual and the Professional BURTON J. BLEDSTEIN 50 Book Reviews 56 Proceedings of the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Annual Business Meeting of the State Historical Society 69 Contributors 84 Published Quarterly by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY is published by contributors. Second-class postage paid at Madison, quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Wis. Copyright © 1970 by the State Historical Society of 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Distributed Wisconsin. Paid for in part by the Maria L. and Simeon to members as part of their dues (Annual membership, Mills Editorial Fund and by the George B. Burrows Fund. $7.50; Family membership, $10; Contributing, $25; Busi Wisconsin newspapers may reprint any article appearing in ness and Professional, $50; Sustaining, $100 or more an the WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY providing the nually; Patron, $500 or more annually). Single numbers, story carries the following credit line: Reprinted from the $1.75. Microfilmed copies available through University State Historical Society's Wisconsin Magazine of History Microfilms, 313 North First Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan. for [insert the season and year which appear on the Maga Communications should be addressed to the editor. The zine]. Society does not assume responsibility for statements made WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1970 - "T-H6 (Ze^OLO-Tior^ - This 1930 drawing, from the Society's collection of more than 5,000 original H. T. Webster cartoons, strikes an immediately recognizable note to the many who have, or who are struggling to, break the tobacco habit. PROFILES IN POLITICS: British Embassy Views of Prominent Americans in 1939 Edited bv THOMAS E. HACHEY N AUGUST 4, 1939, the British Embassy special attention was given to the pro- or anti- O in Washington, at the direction of Am British sentiments which a number of indi bassador Sir Ronald Lindsay, sent its dispatch viduals were known or suspected to share. No. 857 to Foreign Secretary Viscount Halifax There are no references among the Foreign in London. Designated Confidential, the docu Office or Embassy papers which would indicate ment was inauspiciously entitled Records of what guidelines, if any, were employed in de Leading Personalities in the United States and termining which individuals should be in contained biographical information, together cluded in the report.'* Most of the personalities with some critical opinion, of American lead discussed either held, or had held, positions of ers in a variety of professions.' After a careful political power; others had been drawn into examination by the American Department in that arena by virtue of their friendships or the London Foreign Office, the report was placed in the North American file for refer ence. Access to such a dispatch was thereafter 'Dispatch No. 857, Sir Ronald Lindsay, Wash restricted to selected officials of appropriate ington, to Viscount Halifax, London, 4 August 1939. Cabinet ministries. Foreign Office 371, Vol. 22834. "Access is now governed by the Public Records This and similar documents would have re Act 1967, which introduced from 1 January 1968 mained closed to public view for another two a "thirty-year rule," opening the records then to the end of 1937 and making provisions thereafter decades under the old "fifty-year rule" had not for the annual advancement of the open date on the British Parliament's Public Records Act I January of each year. A few papers are closed for fifty years by Lord Chancellor's instruments of 1967 reduced the waiting period on the use under Section 5 (i) of the 1958 Public Records Act. of government archives to thirty years. In ac •' A considerable part of the original text was cordance with the new ruling, the above- deleted in the editing of the document since no purpose would be served by including biographical mentioned report and virtually all other official sketches of obscure people destined to remain so. records for the year 1939 were made available Other sketches, which included commonly known for the first time in 1970.^ Their value for the information and those without critical opinion of any interest or significance, were likewise deleted. student of Anglo-American relations in the Dispatch No. 857 contained, in varying lengths, ac inter-war years is demonstrated by the number counts of 245 "leading personalities," whose names are included as a matter of record in the Editor's of insights afforded by the edited document note to this article. The vagaries of spelling and which follows. capitalization have been followed exactly as in the Written between the twilight of the New original typed manuscript, and [sic] has been em ployed only in those instances where it seemed es Deal and the dawn of the Second World War, sential. In the interest of space, the original para the report reflected the anxiety of the times as graphing has been altered slightly. WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1970 professions. Few periods in American history ALDRICH, WINTHROP WILLIAMS would yield such a galaxy of prominent stars President of the Chase National Bank. as did 1939. The subjects of dispatch No. 857 is the son of a prominent New York family included Presidents, Cabinet Members and and a brother-in-law of John D. Rockefeller, Congressmen; diplomats and military chiefs; Jnr. His ability and family and business labor leaders and captains of industry; bank connexions make him potentially one of the most important figures in Wall Street, where ers and financiers; publishers and journalists; he represents the powerful Rockefeller inter preachers and clergymen. Their careers ests. His experience, interests and training spanned the full panorama of the American should have equipped him with a sound knowl political scene in the twentieth century. Some edge of foreign affairs. had achieved distinction in the Progressive In the attack on Wall Street, which accom Era; others were products of the Wilsonian panied the triumph of the Democratic party, years; still others were among the late-comers Mr. Aldrich hastened to identify himself with to the New Deal. With such a number and the sheep and to disown the goats. He pro variety of personalities upon the public stage, claimed himself favourable to banking reform, portrayals by even the most skillful observers and to the divorce of security affiliates from were occasionally likely to be somewhat less banking corporations; and during the damn ing investigation of the activities of the Chase than accurate. Bank under Mr. [Albert Henry] Wiggin, he Dispatch No. 857 was almost certainly the ostentatiously held his nose at the revelations, product of a collective effort, representing facts and intimated that the Chase Bank, under his and views gleaned from both direct and in direction, was purer than driven snow.