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Factional Conflict in Indiana Politics During the Later New Deal Years, 1936-1940

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Factional Conflict in Indiana Politics During the Later New Deal Years, 1936-1940 Factional Conflict in Indiana Politics During The Later New Deal Years, 1936-1940 Iwan Morgan* Factional conflicts within both the Republican and Demo- cratic parties rocked Indiana politics to its very foundations during the late 1930s. The quarrel between the Paul V. McNutt organization and Senator Frederick Van Nuys nearly rent the Hoosier Democracy asunder. Indeed, at one stage it seemed as if Van Nuys would make common cause with the Republicans in the 1938 midterm elections. The GOP, however, had its own problems. Republican moderates and the strongly conservative Old Guard were locked in mortal combat for control of the party. Factional disputes were nothing new in Indiana; yet, the battles of the Depression era were unusually bitter because they were linked with the political controversies generated by the New Deal. In recent years historians have manifested keen interest in the relationship between the New Deal and the states, but their interpretations of certain issues have differed markedly, while some problems still await full investigation. A study of the Hoosier factional conflicts of the late 1930s can offer some valuable contributions to this debate. Two issues are particularly important with regard to the state Democratic parties in the 1930s. James MacGregor Burns has argued that Franklin D. Roosevelt missed an excellent opportunity to liberalize his party during the Depression be- cause he generally remained neutral in state factional disputes. According to this eminent political scientist, bold executive action, capitalizing on the president’s immense popularity and * Iwan Morgan is senior lecturer in the Department of Politics and Gov- ernment, City of London Polytechnic, London, England. He was an exchange teacher at Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne in 1979-1980. The research and writing of this essay were undertaken prior to the publication of James H. Madison’s study, Zndiana through Tradition and Change: A History of the Hoosier State and Its People, 1920-1945 (Indianapolis, 1982). 30 Indiana Magazine of History his control of federal patronage, would have enabled liberal factions to defeat conservative opponents and so placed the New Deal on secure foundations. In contrast, historians such as James T. Patterson contend that the very nature and organiza- tion of most state parties made them resistant to the liberaliz- ing influence of presidential interventi0n.l Since Roosevelt de- viated from his customary neutrality to side openly with McNutt, Indiana offers a particularly interesting test case for these conflicting hypotheses. Inextricably linked with the debate concerning possible lib- eralization of the Democratic party is the general question of what impact the New Deal made on state politics. In his classic study of the New Deal, William Leuchtenburg argued that Roosevelt revolutionized the agenda of American politics in the 1930s, when political emphasis shifted to socioeconomic issues that generated partisan divisions of a more ideological nature than had been the case for many years past. Nevertheless, many historians doubt that the change was profound at the state level. In their view patronage and personality politics continued to be more important than ideological issues, particu- larly when Roosevelt’s star appeared to wane in the late 1930~.~An examination of the way in which the Hoosier De- mocracy made peace in 1939-1940 and the attitude it thereafter adopted toward the New Deal can test the validity of this viewpoint. The state Republican parties have attracted less attention from historians than have the Democrats. Given the predomi- nance of the Democratic party on the federal level, this is understandable, but the 1930s still constituted a significant era for the GOP. Several national leaders, notably Arthur H. Van- denburg and Alfred M. Landon, hoped that Republican state parties could forge alliances with conservative Democrats to fight the New Deal on a bipartisan basis.3 Nowhere did this James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (New York, 19561, 376-80; James T. Patterson, Congressional Conservatism and the New Deal: The Growth of the Conservative Coalition in Congress, 1933-1939 (Lexington, Ky., 1967), 261-87. William E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1940 (New York, 1963), 326; James T. Patterson, The New Deal and the States: Federalism in Transition (Princeton, 1969); John Braeman, Robert Bremner, and David Brody, eds., The New Deal: The State and Local Levels (2 vols., Columbus, 1975), 11; James L. Sundquist, Dynamics of the Party System: Alignment and Realignment of Political Parties in the United States (Washing- ton, 19731, 183-244. Patterson, Congressional Conservatism, 258-59, 274-75. Indiana Politics during the New Deal Years 31 seem more likely to happen than in Indiana, where one Repub- lican faction wanted the party to run Van Nuys as its senato- rial candidate in 1938. An investigation of why this move failed can provide important clues to explain the general lack of party realignment in American politics during the Depression. Most Republican leaders at national and state levels were also aware that the party had to make concessions toward reformism if it was to offset the immense electoral popularity of the New Deal during the mid-1930s. Even the Indiana GOP, one of the most conservative of all state parties in the 1920s, finally acknowl- edged the wisdom of this viewpoint. The Hoosier example therefore makes a good case study of the changes that occurred in state Republicanism during the 1930s. Further study of the Indiana political scene during the decade of the 1930s reveals some possible influences that the factional struggles had on the reemergence of the GOP as the dominant party in Indiana. The Democratic factional conflict of 1937-1938 was the culmination of a struggle for the leadership of the Hoosier Democracy. The struggle had commenced when the party had won power in 1932 and at various times had involved four different groups, the strongest of which was led by Governor McNutt. McNutt’s overriding ambition was to become presi- dent, and his rising star attracted support from younger Demo- crats, certain business interests, and the American Legion, an organization that he had once served as national commander. McNutt also had many allies in the legal profession, an impor- tant force in state politics, since he had formerly been dean of Indiana University’s Law Scho01.~Older Democrats tended to support either Van Nuys, who had made many allies during his thirty years of party service, or R. Earl Peters, the state chair- man who had done much to revive the party’s fortunes follow- ing the electoral disasters of the mid-1920~.~Another group emerged in 1935 when McNutt’s patronage secretary, Pleas Greenlee, launched an independent campaign after the state- house refused to endorse his ambitions of obtaining the guber- Robert R. Neff, “The Early Career and Governorship of Paul V. McNutt” (Ph.D. dissertation, Department of History, Indiana University, 19631, 36, 75; I. George Blake, Paul V. McNuttc Portrait of a Hoosier Statesman (Indianapolis, 1966), 107. Indianapolis News, December 8, 1933; Lebanon, Indiana, Reporter, Au- gust 16, 1935. 32 Indiana Magazine of History natorial nomination. His rebellion gained support from many disappointed office seekers and defectors from the other groups.6 Outsiders found it difficult to comprehend the patterns of this factional mosaic partly because so many groups were in- volved and partly because the internal divisions were not the product of ideological, social, cultural, or regional factors. Even a veteran politician such as the president’s aide, Louis M. Howe, had to confess: “I do not pretend to keep track of what goes on about the Indiana mess!”7 Nonetheless, Hoosier fac- tional conflict had a clear logic insofar as its participants were concerned since it centered upon patronage issues. During the late nineteenth century when the Indiana parties had battled to retain their traditional constituencies and corral the floating vote in a series of closely fought elections, they had found it expedient to build well-organized machines that were adept at mobilizing electoral support. As a result, patronage-oriented politics gained primacy over issue-oriented politics in the Hoosier party system since party workers expected to be re- warded from the spoils of office for their expertise at getting out the vote. Factionalism proved to be an inherent feature of patronage politics, which continued to be the principal concern of the parties even in the twentieth century, because the victors inevitably squabbled over the division of spoils after elections. The power of state party leaders depended greatly on their ability to reward their personal followers, and, therefore, struggles between rivals tended to center upon questions of patronage control rather than political principles.6 Because of the state Democratic party’s weakness in the 1920s no faction had established undisputed leadership; it was hardly surprising, therefore, that quarrels about the distribu- tion of spoils flared up almost immediately after the Democrats gained office in 1933. By 1936, however, McNutt had done much to establish his dominance within the Indiana party, a vital step in his quest for the presidency, by increasing his Indianapolis Star, April 7, 1935; R. Earl Peters to James A. Farley, October 17, 1935, Box 2, R. Earl Peters Papers (Fort Wayne-Allen County Historical Society, Fort Wayne). ‘Louis M. Howe to Farley, April 11, 1934, Official File 300, Box 18, Franklin D. Roosevelt Papers (Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York). Frank 0. Munger, “Two Party Politics in the State of Indiana” (Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Political Science, Harvard University, 19551, 122- 26. Indiana Politics during the New Deal Years 33 control over state patronage. His government reorganization act of 1933, which reduced the number of state departments from 169 to eight, gave the governor’s office unprecedented control over appointments.
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