Farmer-Labor Party

 

in U.S. history, political organization composed of agrarian and organized labor interests. Formed in 1919 as the National Labor party, it changed its name at its 1920 presidential nominating convention in order to appeal to farmers. The party's platform called for the public ownership of railroads, utilities, and natural resources; an end to private banking; and the nationalization of unused land. The convention resisted the efforts of former Progressives to nominate Robert La Follette and instead chose as its candidate Parley P. Christensen. The party made a poor showing in the 1920 election; its main strength lay in the states of Washington, Montana, and South Dakota. In 1923, Communists gained control of the party, and in the following year it joined other dissident groups in the Conference for Progressive Political Action, which supported the presidential candidacy of La Follette. After the 1924 election, the party passed out of existence. Meanwhile, representatives of the Nonpartisan League in Minnesota, along with various labor unions, had entered a slate of candidates for state elections in 1918 and 1920 under the name of Farmer-Labor party. Remaining aloof from the national party of the same name, it established a permanent party structure in 1922. It quickly became a powerful political force in Minnesota, electing Henrik Shipstead and Magnus Johnson to the U.S. Senate and Floyd B. Olson to the governorship. It also won many local elections. At first the party agitated for government ownership of industry, but in the 1930s it came to support Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal programs. In 1944 it merged with the Minnesota Democratic party, where it remains a part of the official party name.

Bibliography

See S. A. Rice, Farmers and Workers in American Politics (1924, repr. 1969).

The Farmer-Labor Party was a political party of Minnesota. It was founded in 1918 and merged with the Minnesota Democratic Party in 1944.^[1]

The party had a good deal of success in Minnesota as a statewide third party, with three governors and four U.S. senators serving during the 1920s and 1930s. The party platform called for protection for farmers and labor union members, government ownership of some industries, and social security laws. There were attempts to develop the party into a national Farmer-Labor Party in the early 1920's.

The Minnesota Democratic Party, led by Hubert Humphrey, was able to merge the Farmer-Labor party with the Minnesota Democratic Party on April 15, 1944. Since 1944, the two parties together make up the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

• Minnesota Governors who were Farmer-Labor
  • Floyd B. Olson (1931–1936)
  • Hjalmar Petersen (1936–1937)
  • Elmer Austin Benson (1937–1939)

• United States Senators from Minnesota who were Farmer-Labor
  • Henrik Shipstead (1923–1941) later became a Republican
  • Magnus Johnson (1923–1925)
  • Elmer Austin Benson (1935–1937)
  • Ernest Lundeen (1937–1940)

References

External links

• Minnesota Farmer-Labor
• Farmer-Labor information page
• The Farmer Labor Party 1918 – 1924 Organizational history of attempts to form a national Farmer-Labor Party. Marxist Internet Archive. Retrieved May 26, 2006.
• TOWARD THE COOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH: AN INTRODUCTORY HISTORY OF THE FARMER-LABOR MOVEMENT IN MINNESOTA (1917-1948). 232 page online copy of Thomas Gerald O'Connell's 1979 Phd thesis from The Union Institute.

Further reading

• Berman, Hyman. Political Antisemitism in Minnesota During the Great Depression. Jewish Social Studies 38, no. 3-4 (Summer-Fall 1976).
• Cecil, Elmer J. The Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota: Reasons for Its Short Duration. Master’s thesis. University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1960.
• Delton, Jennifer. Labor, Politics, and African American Identity in Minneapolis, 1930-1950. Minnesota History 57, no. 8 (2001).
• Dobbs, Farrell. Teamster Politics. New York: Monad Press, 1975.
• Gieske, Millard L. Minnesota Farmer-Laborism: The Third-Party Alternative. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1979.
• Haynes, John Earl. Liberals, Communists, and the Popular Front in Minnesota: The Struggle to Control the Political Direction of the Labor Movement and Organized Liberalism, 1936-1950. Ph.D. diss. University of Minnesota, 1979.
• Haynes, John Earl. Myth and Reality in the Image of Minnesota Politics. Paper presented at Minnesota Historical Society Conference. Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1984. .
• Haynes, John Earl. Reformers, Radicals, Conservatives. in Minnesota in a Century of Change: The State and Its People Since 1900, edited by Clifford E. Clark. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1989.
• Haynes, John Earl, and Harvey Klehr. Researching Minnesota History in Moscow. Minnesota History 54, no. 1 (Spring 1994).
• Holbo, Paul Sothe. 'The Politics of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party. Master’s thesis. University of Chicago, 1955.
• Humola, Hulda F. 'The Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota, 1930-38. Master’s thesis. University of Chicago, 1944. N
• Johnson, Frederick L. From Leavenworth to Congress: The Improbable Journey of Francis H. Shoemaker. Minnesota History 51, no. 5 (Spring 1989).
• Krause, Fayette F. A Study of Left Wing Politics in the Roosevelt Era. Master’s thesis. University of Minnesota, 1966.
• Mayer, George H. The Political Career of Floyd B. Olson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1951. .
• Millikan, William. Maintaining "Law and Order": The Minneapolis Citizen’s Alliance in the 1920s. Minnesota History 51, no. 6 (Summer 1989).
• Millikan, William. The Red-Baiting of Kenneth C. Haycraft. Minnesota History 54, no. 4 (Winter 1994).
• Montgomery, David. The Farmer-Labor Party in Working for Democracy: American Workers from the Revolution to the Present, edited by Paul Buhle and Alan Dawley. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985.
• Naftalin, Arthur A. A History of the Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota. Ph.D. diss. University of Minnesota, 1948.
• O’Connell, Thomas Gerald. Toward the Cooperative Commonwealth: An Introductory History of the Farmer-Labor Movement in Minnesota (1917-1948). Ph.D. diss. New York, NY: Union Graduate School [Union Institute], 1979. [August, 2002].
• Schultz, Robert Troger. Beyond the Fall: Class Conflict and Social, Cultural, and Political Change, Minnesota, 1916-1935. Ph.D. diss. University of Minnesota, 1991.
• Sezun, Sonya. The Impact of the Cold War on Iron Range Politics. Paper presented at Minnesota Historical Society conference, 1990.
• Shields, James M. Mr. Progressive: A Biography of Elmer Austin Benson. Minneapolis, MN: Denison, 1971.
• Stuhler, Barbara. The One Man Who Voted ‘Nay,’ The Story of John T. Bernard’s Quarrel With American Foreign Policy 1937-1939. Minnesota History 43, no. 3 (Fall 1972).
• Tselos, George. The Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota: 1918-1944. International Socialist Review 32, no. 5 (1971).
• Valelly, Richard M. State-Level Radicalism and the Nationalization of American Politics: The Case of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party. Ph.D. diss. Harvard University, 1984.
• Valelly, Richard M. Radicalism in the States: The Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party and the American Political Economy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.
• Woodbury, Marda. Stopping the Presses the Murder of Walter W. Liggett. Master’s thesis. University of California, Berkeley, 1995.
• Woodbury, Marda. Researching an Assassination. IRE Journal 19, no. 1 (January-February 1996).
• Woodbury, Marda. Stopping the Presses: The Murder of Walter W. Liggett. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998.

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