The Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party (FL) was a

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

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

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over t ...

between 1918 and 1944. Largely dominating Minnesota politics during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

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

majority A majority, also called a simple majority or absolute majority to distinguish it from related terms, is more than half of the total.Dictionary definitions of ''majority'' aMerriam-Webster 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 Elmer Austin Benson (September 22, 1895 March 13, 1985) was an American lawyer and politician from Minnesota. In 1935, Benson was appointed to the U.S. Senate following the death of Thomas Schall. He served as the 24th governor of Minnesota, d ...

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 the Minnesota affiliate of the U.S. Democratic Party. As of 2022, it controls four of Minnesota's eight U.S. House seats, both of its U.S. Senate seats, the Minnesota House of Repr ...

History

Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party political banner

The Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party emerged from the

Nonpartisan League The Nonpartisan League (NPL) was a left-wing political party founded in 1915 in North Dakota by Arthur C. Townley, a former organizer for the Socialist Party of America. On behalf of small farmers and merchants, the Nonpartisan League advocat ...

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

and the Union Labor Party in

Duluth, Minnesota , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior, Wisconsin, Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: Downtown Dul ...

, 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 m ...

and

labor union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...

protection, government ownership of certain industries, and social security laws. In 1936 it was informally allied with the New Deal coalition 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 refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term develop ...

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), also known as Farm Bureau Insurance and Farm Bureau Inc. but more commonly just the Farm Bureau (FB), is a United States-based insurance company and lobbying group that represents the American agr ...

the main organization for farmers. It was hostile to the FLP, leaving the FLP without power regarding farm economics. The

Minnesota Democratic Party The Minnesota Democratic Party was a political party in Minnesota that existed from the formation of Minnesota Territory in 1849 until 1944, when the party merged with the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party to form the modern Minnesota Democratic-Far ...

, led by

Hubert Humphrey Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing ...

, 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

Notable politicians elected

Governors of Minnesota The following is a list of governors of the state of Minnesota and Minnesota Territory, United States. The officeholder, who serves as head of government of Minnesota, and is charged with ensuring the faithful execution of the state's laws, is e ...

who were Farmer–Labor: ** Floyd B. Olson (1931–1936) **

Hjalmar Petersen Hjalmar Petersen (January 2, 1890March 29, 1968) was an American politician who served as the 23rd Governor of Minnesota. Background Hjalmar Petersen was born in Eskildstrup, Denmark to Lauritz and Anna Petersen, who moved with Hjalmar to Chi ...

(1936–1937) **

Elmer Austin Benson Elmer Austin Benson (September 22, 1895 March 13, 1985) was an American lawyer and politician from Minnesota. In 1935, Benson was appointed to the U.S. Senate following the death of Thomas Schall. He served as the 24th governor of Minnesota, def ...

(1937–1939) *

United States senators The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and p ...

from Minnesota who were Farmer–Labor: **

Henrik Shipstead Henrik Shipstead (January 8, 1881June 26, 1960) was an American politician. He served in the United States Senate from 1923 to 1947, from the state of Minnesota. He served first as a member of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party from 1923 to 1941 an ...

(1923–1941); later became a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

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

(1923–1925) **

(1935–1937) **

Ernest Lundeen Ernest Lundeen (August 4, 1878August 31, 1940) was an American lawyer and politician. Family and education Lundeen was born and raised on his father's homestead in Brooklyn Township of Lincoln County near Beresford in the Dakota Territory. H ...

(1937–1940) * United States representatives from Minnesota who were Farmer–Labor: **

William Leighton Carss William Leighton Carss, (February 15, 1865 – May 31, 1931) was a U.S. Representative from Minnesota; born in Pella, Marion County, Iowa and subsequently moved with his parents to Des Moines, Iowa, in 1867. There he attended the public sch ...

(1919–1921, 1925–1929) ** Ole J. Kvale (1923–1929) **

Knud Wefald Knud Magnus Wefald (November 3, 1869 – October 25, 1936), was an American Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Minnesota's 9th congressional district from 1923 ...

(1923–1927) **

Paul John Kvale Paul John Kvale (; March 27, 1896 – June 14, 1960) was a U.S. Representative from Minnesota. Early life Kvale who was born in Orfordville, Wisconsin as the son of Ole J. Kvale. He attended the Orfordville school and the University of Ill ...

(1929–1939) **

Henry M. Arens Henry Martin Arens (November 21, 1873 – October 6, 1963) was a politician who served in many offices in Minnesota, including the U.S. House of Representatives. Arens was born as ''Heinrich Martin Arens'' in Bausenrode near Fretter in the ...

(1933–1935) **

(1933–1937); had previously served as a Republican Representative (1915–1917), also served in the Senate **

Francis Shoemaker Francis Henry Shoemaker (April 25, 1889 – July 24, 1958) was a U.S. Representative from Minnesota. Early life Shoemaker was born on a farm in Flora Township, Renville County, Minnesota, and was self-educated with his mother’s assistan ...

(1933–1935) ** John T. Bernard (1937-1939) * Minnesota Legislators who were Farmer-Labor: ** Samuel H. Bellman (1935-1938) ** John W. Cox (1935-1938)

Electoral History

Minnesota State Offices

Minnesota Federal 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