University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for Summer 1981 Immigrant Voters And The Nonpartisan League In Nebraska, 1917-1920 Burton W. Folsom Jr. Murray State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Folsom, Burton W. Jr., "Immigrant Voters And The Nonpartisan League In Nebraska, 1917-1920" (1981). Great Plains Quarterly. 1906. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1906 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. IMMIGRANT VOTERS AND THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE IN NEBRASKA, 1917;1920 BURTON W. FOLSOM, JR. M any people have wondered why socialism The real test of the potency of ethnic and never came to America. Some think that life religious divisions in American politics is to in the factories and on the farms was often so look at their staying power during a time of poor that Americans should have been ripe for economic crisis and class-oriented appeals. Do a socialist government. Political historians have immigrant farmers, for example, respond to the recently shown that radical movements in politics of agricultural unrest more as immi­ America had two insurmountable hurdles: grants or as farmers?2 In this essay I will ex­ strong ethnic loyalties and religious ties. During plore the political reaction of German, Swedish, America's age of capitalist expansion, cultural and Czech immigrants in Nebraska to the divisions prevailed when waves of immigrants Nonpartisan League, a militant farmers' organi­ poured into urban factories and onto mid­ zation that agitated during the World War I western farms. In the late 1800s and early period for increased farm income through 1900s, immigrants and natives fought intense widespread state socialism. local battles over prohibition, woman suffrage, An heir of the Populist party, the Non­ and compulsory school laws. The economic partisan League was founded in North Dakota debates over the tariff, monetary policy, and in 1915. It quickly became a farm lobby eager farm income were also important; but they to improve farm conditions by active state seem to have excited less local interest than intervention in the economy. Arthur C. Town­ did cultural issues, which perhaps impinged ley, a former socialist organizer and the league's more directly on the da,y-to-day lives of immi­ master strategist, campaigned to boost farm grant and native alike. 1 income. To do this he wanted to reduce the farmers' dependence on urban businesses and on those economic forces in Minneapolis that Burton W. Folsom, Jr., is an assistant professor of history at Murray State University, Ken­ determined the pricing of North Dakota grain. tucky. A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, Folsom By flailing against "Big Biz" in the form of is the author of several essays in scholarly bankers, railroad operators, flour millers, and journals and of Urban Capitalists (]ohn Hop­ food processors, Townley soon attracted an kins University Press, 1981). immense rural following-well beyond his 159 160 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 1981 original band of "soap boxers, socialists, IWW, 1917 and immediately began the systematic or other born again radicals." Transforming recruitment of members. Capitalizing on wide­ invective into a political program, the Non­ spread farmer discontent, the Nonpartisan partisan League endorsed the state ownership League secured more than thirteen thousand and operation of terminal elevators, flour mills, memberships for sixteen dollars each and packing houses, and cold-storage plants; a state established a newspaper, the Nebraska Leader, hail insurance plan; the exemption of farm to promote the campaign for state ownership tools from taxation; and cooperative rural of stockyards, packing houses, flour mills, banks. As one author has observed, "Here, terminal elevators, creameries. beet-sugar fac­ with undisguised rancor, was a class organiza­ tories, and the telephone system.5 tion with a class program and a class strategy." The American declaration of war against This "class strategy" was the political takeover Germany in 1917. however, dramatically inter­ of the state government of North Dakota.3 rupted the league's recruitment of Nebraska Refusing to become tainted by a close rela­ farmers. The National Council of Defense, tionship with either major party, since both which President Wilson set up to help prosecute parties associated promiscuously with "Big the war, demanded that Americans drop politi­ Biz," the Nonpartisan League instead em­ cal rivalries and channel their energies and at­ braced only those candidates who were lured tention toward winning the war. To the state by the attraction of state socialism. From 1916 Council of Defense in Nebraska, mobilizing to 1922 it won astonishing' political victories farmers for class-conscious political action was throughout North Dakota, and as a result, not a patriotic contribution to the war effort. much of its political program became state law. A defiant Arthur Townley countered charges Anxious to spread the gospel of socialism, the of political disloyalty by affirming his devotion Nonpartisan Leaguers expanded their opera­ to America and offering the services of the tions to other Great Plains states to forge a league to the government. But he added that regional political alliance. In no state, how­ "we have been dragged into a war we did not ever, did they match their North Dakota suc­ want" and that big business was "ten times cesses. worse than the German autocrats." When the Political enemies impugned its patriotism Nonpartisan Leaguers in Nebraska circulated and common sense, but the Nonpartisan a pamphlet attacking "rival groups of monopo­ League won a few congressional and state elec­ lists" for instigating the war, the state Council tions throughout the Midwest before disap­ of Defense branded them unpatriotic and pearing in the early 1920s when, ironically, forbade them to meet publicly anywhere in farm distress became even more acute. The Nebraska. Even though the state court eventual­ purpose of this essay is not to evaluate the ly restored the league's civil liberties, the league's programs or to assign credit or blame loyalty issue put it on the defensive and proba­ to it for any of its activities. Others have per­ bly slowed down its mqbilizing of disgruntled formed these tasks with remarkable diligence farmers in Nebraska. The Nonpartisan Leaguers and, in some cases, with the intensity and were caught between defending their loyalty vitriol of the leaguers and their opponents.4 and promoting agrarian socialism: they them­ Instead, this essay will focus on the impact of selves had become the political issue. By the the class appeals of the Nonpartisan League early 1920s they had lost momentum, and as candidates on various ethnic groups in Ne­ major parties adopted some of their ideas. the braska. league rapidly disintegrated.6 As one of the larger states in the Great The Nonpartisan League waged its most Plains, Nebraska became an important target crucial campaign in Nebraska in 1920. The war for Nonpartisan League organizers. After care­ had ended, the Council of Defense had dis­ ful planning they arrived in Nebraska in May banded, and the league could focus on its IMMIGRANT VOTERS AND THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 161 program of inciting class consciousness. Its ing yellow paint to the houses of "war slack­ first act was to hold a convention and nominate ers." Sensing a sympathetic constituency, league a third-party ticket to capture the state govern­ organizers published a special edition of their ment. The league's candidate for governor was state newspaper in the German language. 9 Arthur Wray, a lawyer from York, who stumped The close connection of German Americans vigorously for agrarian socialism. Not surpris­ with the Nonpartisan League discredited both ingly, Wray's rural appeals attracted a rural even further in the eyes of the superpatriots. vote; yet it was also concentrated in two immi­ Violence and disruption sometimes followed grant areas, so ethnicity, not class, explains it when speech became too free. One official in best. 7 Minnesota wanted firing squads to remove "the The most conspicuous constituency of the disloyal element." In Nebraska a group of mili­ Nonpartisan League was the state's German tants assaulted and almost hanged an agent of Americans. The gospel of state socialism, how­ the Nonpartisan League for handing out Ger­ ever, would not bring the league and the Ger­ man-language copies of the Nebraska Leader. mans together. Instead, their common struggle A mob in Collinsville, Illinois, actually did hang to preserve civil liberties during World War I a German immigrant-after which the Washing­ united them in a common cause. The Council ton Post philosophized that "enemy propa­ of Defense was as irritated by the German ganda must be stopped, even if a few lynchings Americans' alleged loyalty to the Kaiser as it may occur.,,10 was by the league's socialistic explanation In such a heated environment, Nonpartisan of the origin of the war. The council therefore League rallies in Nebraska's German areas denied both the German Americans and the regularly sparked violence and bloodshed. One Nonpartisan League the rights to free speech such incident happened at a league rally in and assembly; it also removed books on Ger­ August 1919 in Beatrice, the seat of Gage many and on socialism from libraries across the County; many German farmers were in atten- state. As a result, German Americans and Non­ , dance, including some from Hanover township, partisan Leaguers put ideological differences the site of one of the largest German Lutheran aside to wage a campaign to restore their civil rural churches in the Great Plains region.