University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for Spring 1997 Cross-Border Ties Among Protest Movements The Great Plains Connection Mildred A. Schwartz University of Illinois at Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Schwartz, Mildred A., "Cross-Border Ties Among Protest Movements The Great Plains Connection" (1997). Great Plains Quarterly. 1943. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1943 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. CROSS .. BORDER TIES AMONG PROTEST MOVEMENTS THE GREAT PLAINS CONNECTION MILDRED A. SCHWARTZ This paper examines the connections among supporters willing to take risks. Thus I hypoth­ political protest movements in twentieth cen­ esize that protest movements, free from con­ tury western Canada and the United States. straints of institutionalization, can readily cross Protest movements are social movements and national boundaries. related organizations, including political pro­ Contacts between protest movements in test parties, with the objective of deliberately Canada and the United States also stem from changing government programs and policies. similarities between the two countries. Shared Those changes may also entail altering the geography, a British heritage, democratic prac­ composition of the government or even its tices, and a multi-ethnic population often give form. Social movements involve collective rise to similar problems. l Similarities in the efforts to bring about change in ways that avoid northern tier of the United States to the ad­ or reject established belief systems or organiza­ joining sections of Canada's western provinces tions. They begin with assessments of what is are especially prominent. People in this area wrong and propose a blueprint for action to have all been relatively dependent on resources, achieve new goals by drawing on committed either for extraction or initial processing. 2 Con­ sequently, they have strong ties to a world economy and strong reactions to the same kinds of economic problems. They also share an im­ migrant heritage that ties them to countries A. is Mildred Schwartz professor of sociology and beyond the British Isles. With the closing of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has published numerous books and articles on the US frontier, population movement into Canadian-American affairs. Her current research Canada, and later, back into the United States, interests concern political parties and movements in enhanced what Marcus Hansen has called "the Canada and the United States. mingling of the Canadian and American peoples."3 All these factors contribute to what some political scientists and geographers be­ [GPQ 17 (Spring 1997):119-301 lieve to be a "borderland"-a geographic area 119 120 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1997 straddling two political jurisdictions that dis­ ate the strength of both the free-flow and con­ plays unique or blended characteristics.4 straining arguments. Blended or not, there is still evidence that these are areas with distinct regional cultures.s One AGRICULTURAL CONCERNS can then expect that common problems will lead to common solutions, regardless of politi­ Uncertainties associated with wheat farm­ cal boundaries. ing in the Great Plains/Prairies region led farm­ I concentrate here on the states of North ers, convinced that they were exploited by Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin and the credit agencies and ignored by government, to provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and find their own solutions. Nineteenth century Alberta. The time frame is virtually all of the farmers' movements in the United States moved twentieth century. Contacts are divided into into Canada shortly after they were founded, three substantive areas. The first deals with with both the Grange and the Patrons ofIndus­ agriculture and the concerns of farmers. The try having their greatest success in Ontario. second focuses on industry and the concerns of When the Canadian Prairies became the major workers. The third raises issues of identity re­ source of spring wheat, the locale of agrarian lating to race, ethnicity, gender, or more gen­ movements shifted as well, as farmers in that eral lifestyle concerns. Although not an region formed cooperatives for its purchase and exhaustive inventory, it highlights prominent marketing. The first of these was the T errito­ events and contacts. Accounts of contact em­ rial Grain Growers' Association (TGGA), phasize chronology and the direction they founded in 1901-02, soon followed by the travel. Because I expect that cross-border con­ Manitoba Grain Growers' Association in 1903. tacts among protest movements will be associ­ The TGGA was reorganized in 1905 when ated with times of shared problems, I do not Alberta and Saskatchewan became separate anticipate that they are any more likely to origi­ provinces.7 nate in one country than in the other. The Society of Equity, a US-based farm Cross-border ties exist within the context of group concerned with the cooperative market­ continuing and far-reaching differences be­ ing of grain, did spread into Alberta, but its tween the two countries, documented in a vig­ organizational impact was limited. Instead, orous literature.6 Even those who downplay Canadian cooperatives were of greater interest differences by depicting Canada in a largely to American farmers, impressed with the abil­ colonial-type of relationship to the United ity of Canadians to get higher grain prices on States must acknowledge that the countries the Winnipeg market. Support for a state-built represent two separate sovereignties. Similarly, grain elevator received majority support in even those with but a rudimentary understand­ North Dakota in both 1912 and 1914 and the ing of politics must recognize the sharp differ­ legislature instructed the State Board of Con­ ences between congressional and parliamentary trol to look at Canadian experiences in state forms of government. In fact, it is possible to control.s The fledgling Nonpartisan League argue that the institutions of government are (NPL) in North Dakota at its inception in 1914 the most distinctive features setting apart adopted existing Prairie policy of giving tax Canada and the United States. As a result, there exemptions for farm improvement as a way to is an alternate argument to the one already pre­ dissuade outsiders from profiting from farm sented. Rather than emphasizing the ease of purchases. 9 An ambitious but unsuccessful plan establishing cross-border ties, it is possible to for cooperative grain marketing by the US argue that contacts between political move­ Grain Grower's Company was modeled on the ments confront the constraining effects of na­ Alberta Grain Growers Association. Canadian tional barriers and consequently are weakened representatives of farm movements were "en­ by them. The following discussion will evalu- thusiastically received" at the 1920 Chicago CROSS-BORDER PROTEST MOVEMENTS 121 convention of the National Board of Farm also had formative impact at the local level Organizations, where a resolution was passed organization of the Social Credit movement in recommending the setup of an international Alberta.ls committee representing farmers in both coun­ The extent to which the principles of the tries. lo NPL were congenial to Canadian farmers, at The rise of the Nonpartisan League in North least when they were living in the United States, Dakota changed the nationality of influential has not gone unquestioned, however. Michael movements. In 1916, the year the NPL suc­ Rogin in an ecological analysis of voting pat­ ceeded in winning its slate for the Republican terns, suggests that Canadians in North Dakota primary, S. E. Haight, a Saskatchewan farmer, were supporters of the Democrats and oppo­ returned from North Dakota and told his neigh­ nents of the NPL, but he has no explanation bors of the exciting new movement that was for his findings, and evidence of political lean­ dedicated to changing the life of farmers. In ings is, in any case, difficult to substantiate for Saskatchewan, however, the NPL ran up against the Canadian-born, who were often not distin­ institutional barriers that made its tactics of guished from native-born residents. 16 entering a major party's primary races and of­ More generally, after the initial enthusiasm fering non-partisan alternatives irrelevant. The for the innovative approaches to farm prob­ NPL contested the Saskatchewan provincial lems advocated by political movements in the election in 1917, but with no success. Yet, Prairies, the United States seems to have as­ moving into Alberta, it did attract enough sup­ serted its stronger appeal. This was reflected in port in 1918 to elect two candidates pledged the US origins of the leader of the UFA, Henry to the NPL agenda. 11 Wise Wood and the argument that Alberta went Even more significant than its own limited Social Credit because of ideas and migrants success in electoral politics was the influence from south of the border. 17 Interest in reformist that the NPL exerted on subsequent Canadian or utopian ideas originating in the