The Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party (FLP), officially known as the Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota, was a

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

American

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

between 1918 and 1944. The FLP largely dominated Minnesota politics during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. It was one of the most successful statewide third party movements in United States history and the longest-lasting and most fruitful affiliate of the national Farmer–Labor movement. At its height in the 1920s and 1930s, FLP members included three Minnesota governors, four United States senators, eight United States representatives and a

majority A majority is more than half of a total; however, the term is commonly used with other meanings, as explained in the "#Related terms, Related terms" section below. It is a subset of a Set (mathematics), set consisting of more than half of the se ...

in the

Minnesota legislature The Minnesota Legislature is the bicameral legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota consisting of two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Senators are elected from 67 single-member districts. In order to account for decenn ...

. In 1944, Hubert H. Humphrey and Elmer Benson worked to merge the party with the state's Democratic Party, forming the contemporary

Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) is a political party in the U.S. state of Minnesota affiliated with the national Democratic Party. The party was formed by a merger between the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Minneso ...

History

Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party political banner

The Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party emerged from the Non-Partisan League (NPL), which had expanded from

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

into Minnesota in 1918, and the Union Labor Party (ULP) of

Duluth, Minnesota Duluth ( ) is a Port, port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County, Minnesota, St. Louis County. Located on Lake Superior in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, the city is a hub for cargo shipping. The population ...

, which was founded in February 1918. In 1919, the NPL reorganized as the Working People's Non-Partisan League (WPNPL). In February 1920, the ULP joined the WPNPL. The FLP ran on a platform of

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer ...

and

labor union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

protection, government ownership of certain industries, and social security laws. In 1936, the FLP was informally allied with the

New Deal coalition The New Deal coalition was an American political coalition that supported the Democratic Party beginning in 1932. The coalition is named after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs, and the follow-up Democratic presidents. It was ...

and supported the reelection of President Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt was building a national coalition and wanted a solid base in Minnesota, where the Democrats were a weak third party. Roosevelt had a deal with Governor Olson whereby the FLP would get federal patronage, and in turn the FLP would work to block a third-party ticket against Roosevelt in 1936. One of the primary obstacles of the party, besides constant vilification on the pages of local and state newspapers, was the difficulty of uniting the party's divergent base and maintaining political union between rural farmers and urban laborers who often had little in common other than the

populist Populism is a contested concept used to refer to a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the " common people" and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently associated with anti-establis ...

perception that they were an oppressed class of hardworking producers exploited by a small elite. A powerful pro-Communist element wanted fusion during World War II to ensure solidarity between the USSR and the USA, as partners against the Nazis. According to political scientist George Mayer:

The farmer approached problems as a proprietor or petty capitalist. Relief to him meant a mitigation of conditions that interfered with successful farming. It involved such things as tax reduction, easier access to credit, and a floor under farm prices. His individualist psychology did not create scruples against government aid, but he welcomed it only as long as it improved agricultural conditions. When official paternalism took the form of public works or the dole, he openly opposed it because assistance on such terms forced him to abandon his chosen profession, to submerge his individuality in the labor crew, and to suffer the humiliation of the bread line. Besides, a public works program required increased revenue, and since the state relied heavily on the property tax, the cost of the program seemed likely to fall primarily on him.

At the opposite end of the seesaw sat the city worker, who sought relief from the hunger, exposure, and disease that followed the wake of unemployment. Dependent on an impersonal industrial machine, he had sloughed off the frontier tradition of individualism for the more serviceable doctrine of cooperation through trade unionism. Unlike the depressed farmer, the unemployed worker often had no property or economic stake to protect. He was largely immune to taxation and had nothing to lose by backing proposals to dilute property rights or redistribute the wealth. Driven by the primitive instinct to survive, the worker demanded financial relief measures from the state.

The New Deal farm programs made the

American Farm Bureau Federation The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), more informally called the American Farm Bureau (AFB) or simply the Farm Bureau, is a United States–based 501(c)(5) tax-exempt agricultural organization and lobbying group. Headquartered in Was ...

the main organization for farmers. It was hostile to the FLP, leaving the FLP without power regarding farm economics. The Minnesota Democratic Party, led by Hubert Humphrey, was able to absorb the Farmer–Labor Party on April 15, 1944, creating the

. Humphrey and his team expelled the Communist element from the new organization.Hubert H. Humphrey, ''The Education of a Public Man. My Life and Politics'' (1976) pp 84-85.

Notable members

Governors of Minnesota

* Floyd B. Olson (1931–1936) * Hjalmar Petersen (1936–1937) * Elmer Austin Benson (1937–1939)

Lieutenant Governors of Minnesota

* Henry M. Arens (1931–1933) * Konrad K. Solberg (1933–1935) * Hjalmar Petersen (1935–1936) * Gottfrid Lindsten (1937–1939)

Attorneys General of Minnesota

* Harry H. Peterson (1933–1936) * William S. Ervin (1936–1939)

Minnesota State Treasurers

* C. A. Halverson (1937–1939)

United States Senators

* Henrik Shipstead (1923–1941); later became a Republican *

Magnus Johnson Magnus Johnson (September 19, 1871September 13, 1936) was an American politician. He served in the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives from Minnesota as a member of the Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party, Farmer–Labor P ...

(1923–1925) * Elmer Austin Benson (1935–1937) * Ernest Lundeen (1937–1940)

United States Representatives

* Charles August Lindbergh (1907–1917) (elected as a Republican) * William Leighton Carss (1919–1921, 1925–1929) * Ole J. Kvale (1923–1929) * Knud Wefald (1923–1927) * Paul John Kvale (1929–1939) * Henry M. Arens (1933–1935) *

(1933–1935) * Ernest Lundeen (1933–1937); had previously served as a Republican Representative (1915–1917), also served in the Senate * Francis Shoemaker (1933–1935) * Rich T. Buckler (1935–1943) * John T. Bernard (1937–1939) * Dewey Johnson (1937–1939) * Henry Teigan (1937–1939) * Harold Hagen (1943–1955); served as a Republican after 1945

Speakers of the Minnesota House of Representatives

* Charles Munn (1933–1935) * Harold H. Barker (1937–1939)

Minnesota State Legislators

* Samuel H. Bellman (1935–1938) * Willard F. Bennett (1933–1943) * Myrtle Cain (1923–1924) * John W. Cox (1935–1938) * Andrew Olaf Devold (1915–1918, 1919–1926, 1931–1939)

Local Politicians

* William A. Anderson, Mayor of Minneapolis (1931–1933) * Thomas E. Latimer, Mayor of Minneapolis (1935–1937) * William Mahoney, Mayor of St. Paul (1932–1934)

Other members

* Nellie Stone Johnson, civil rights activist * Thomas Van Lear, former mayor of Minneapolis * Walter Liggett, journalist * Willard Munger, future state legislator * Susie Williamson Stageberg, called the "Mother of Farmer-Labor"

Electoral history

Federal offices

Minnesota state offices

References

External links

* ttp://www.minnesotafl.blogspot.com/ Minnesota Farmer–Labor
Farmer–Labor information page

Organizational history of attempts to form a national Farmer–Labor Party
Marxist Internet Archive
Retrieved May 26, 2006.

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 fro
The Union Institute
* Luoma, Everett E.
Farmer Takes A Holiday.''
Exposition Press, 1967. {{DEFAULTSORT:Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party Agrarian parties in the United States Defunct progressive parties in the United States History of Minnesota Labor parties in the United States Political parties established in 1918 Political parties disestablished in 1944 Political parties in Minnesota 1918 establishments in Minnesota

Socialism in Minnesota