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Time and time again in American history political radicals imagined what would happen if laborers and farmers agreed to work together in the same political party. If this kind of alliance could be realized it would prove unstoppable, since the great majority of Americans were farmers or laborers. The Greenback and Greenback-Labor parties, the related Union Labor party of 1888, and the People's Party all aimed to attract both union members and agrarians. Certainly the Socialist and Communist parties, and a number of other third parties, did likewise.
Such efforts were probably doomed from the start. Labor union members had little to gain from the farmers' sub-treasury scheme, for example, while the use of Pinkerton detectives in the coal fields hardly inconvenienced farmers. On one of the nation's hottest issues, the tariff, farmers and workers tended to divide as well. Farmers saw no need for protectionist tariffs that only made store-bought goods cost more. Workers, on the other hand, were more likely to believe American jobs would be safer if American factories were protected from foreign competition.
The credit for the founding of the modern Farmer-Labor party goes to John Fitzpatrick, leader of the Chicago Federation of Labor in America's second largest city. After several preliminary meetings, Fitzpatrick and his associates invited farmers and laborers from across the country to meet in Chicago in July of 1920. Among the existing political groups that participated were the Non-Partisan League from the northern plains, Utah's Labor party, and some of the remnants of the Bull Moose movement of 1912. The 1920 convention called for an eight-hour day, disarmament, and a nationalization of all basic industries.
The group tried to nominate Senator Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin for president, but LaFollette found the call for nationalized industries too radical and too socialist. The new Farmer-Labor party finally settled on Parley P. Christiansen to be their standard-bearer. While hardly someone with strong name recognition, then or now, Christiansen was a co-founder of the Utah Labor party, and had done yeomen's work in Utah in defending Wobblies and other labor union members from the serious charges brought against them. Christiansen's defense of the Wobblies was so controversial the U.S. Justice Department kept him under surveillance throughout the 1920 campaign.
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The Christiansen campaign was hurt by the fact that the Farmer-Labor party was so new, and had few county or precinct organizations. Christiansen campaigned heavily on the issue of justice for political prisoners like Eugene Debs, but since Debs was a presidential candidate himself, why should civil libertarians not vote for Debs? Those who favored national ownership of industry also came to decide that the Socialist Party sought the same thing and was quite a bit stronger.
Christian must have been disappointed when in November he won only 3 percent of the vote in his home state of Utah, and even less in Illinois, the state that had given birth to the Farmer-Labor party. The only states where the Farmer-Labor party topped 5 percent of the vote were Montana (7 percent), South Dakota (19 percent), and Washington (19 percent). Eugene Debs won more than three times as many votes as Christiansen (915,000 votes versus 302,000). Nationwide, fewer than one in twenty voters voted for one of the leftist presidential candidates.
After this inauspicious beginning, the national Farmer-Labor party began its fatal decline. Although it lived on locally in states such as Washington, its death was only a matter of time. Communists made efforts to take control of the Farmer-Labor movement, giving the party some new members but also driving many away. In 1924 most Farmer-Laborites endorsed the candidacy of Robert LaFollette, running on a Progressive party ticket and endorsed by the Socialist party. In 1928 a few remnant Farmer-Laborites brought out their own presidential candidate, Frank E. Webb, who won recorded votes in four states, totaling 6,390 votes. Similarly in 1932 the party faithful nominated Jacob S. Coxey, but Coxey won about the same number as had Webb. After the 1932 election persons of the Farmer-Labor faith either supported Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidential bids, or joined one of the other third parties of the left.
Complicating the history of the Farmer-Labor party is a party in Minnesota by the same name, which arose about the same time. The Minnesota party held largely aloof from those who supported Christiansen, Webb, and Coxey. The Minnesota Farmer-Labor party was one of the strongest examples of a type of third party that exists entirely in one state (or has its overwhelming strength in only one state). Other examples of such third parties include New York's American Labor, Liberal, and Conservative parties, Pennsylvania's Keystone and Washington parties, and Wisconsin's Progressive party of the 1930s.
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The party ran a number of candidates for state and local offices in the 1920s. The Farmer-Labor gubernatorial candidates of the twenties, including Magnus Johnson, Floyd B. Olson, and Ernest Lundeen, ran ahead of the Democrats but were defeated by their Republican opponents. (Minnesota Democrats won only 6 gubernatorial elections out of the 37 held between 1857 and 1930.) Thus this was a case of a third-party being helped by the weakness of one of the two major parties. All the Farmer-Laborites needed was an issue to help put them over the top.
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That issue came with the great depression. Since the Republicans were in power nationally and in the state when the depression hit, voters turned them out. The first Farmer-Labor governor in Minnesota was Floyd B. Olson. Olson had lost in 1924, but was elected in 1932 and reelected two years later. While governor he was a New Deal ally of the Democrat Roosevelt. He brought the first state income tax to Minnesota (seen as a progressive reform) and he organized the first department of conservation in the state's history.
Meanwhile, the Farmer-Labor party came to control both of the state's Senate seats, at least in an off-and-on way. Among the Farmer-Labor Senators were Henrik Shipstead, Magnus Johnson, Ernest Lundeen, and Elmer Benson.
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The party elected Elmer Benson governor in 1936, even though he had never been elected to any office before. He had served as Bank Commissioner, and had served briefly as an appointed U.S. Senator. Most observers believed Benson was a failure as governor, showing political inexperience and inflexibility. He was defeated for reelection in 1938, then defeated in bids to return to the halls of the U.S. Senate in 1940 and 1942. Harold Stassen, the "boy wonder" of the Minnesota Republicans, won national acclaim for helping turn the Farmer-Laborites out of power, as he won election to the governor's office in 1938. Stassen's career as a perennial Republican presidential hopeful grew out of this acclaim.
By the time of World War II the Farmer-Labor party was growing weak, and in 1944 it merged with the state's Democratic party to form the Democratic Farmer-Labor party. The merger of the two anemic parties helped boost the fortunes of both, and soon the DFL (as it came to be known) was a real power house in the state's politics. Although closely identified with the national Democratic party, the DFL was true to the radical heritage of the Farmer-Labor party. Minnesota produced some of the most liberal Democrats in the national party. Among the DFL victors who won national acclaim were Senators Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, and Walter Mondale. The party is still active in the state today, as the state affiliate of the national Democratic party.
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One last chapter in the DFL's history was especially bitter. Many people who had once supported the Communist party joined the DFL, and many DFL leaders believed the Cold War was a reckless mistake. Many DFL members, including Elmer Benson, wanted the DFL to support Henry Wallace for President in 1948 instead of Harry S. Truman. Benson and his followers believed both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. would benefit from closer relationships between the two countries. "Cold Warriors" led by Hubert Humphrey took solid control of the DFL, however, giving it a stridently anti-Communist tone and helping to launch Humphrey's national career.
For the collector, there are still a number of inexpensive items left from the campaigns of such candidates as Floyd B. Olson and Elmer Benson. Buttons from these candidates are usually in the $10 range. Older, general buttons such as the "Uniting to Form a Farmer-Labor party" like the one that heads this article can often bring $25 to $35 dollars. Buttons for the Washington state Farmer-Labor party surface from time to time as well, and are also valued in the $25 to $35 range.
The only known button from the 1920 Farmer-Labor presidential campaign is the "Christiansen-Hayes" litho illustrated elsewhere in this article. While Hake's price guide lists this button at $125, two of these pins sold recently at auction for considerably more.
Still, collecting Farmer-Labor items is another one of those specialties that will not drive the collector to bankruptcy. All it will take is patience, since many of these buttons (while not expensive) only surface every few years. It pays to keep your eyes open!
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We don't usually associate the name of Jacob S. Coxey with the Farmer-Labor party. Coxey's biggest claim to fame was his 1894 leadership of "Coxey's Army," a march of unemployed persons on Washington, D.C. While in Washington, Coxey was thrown in jail for stepping on the grass on the Capitol grounds. Interestingly, this hero of the downtrodden was actually a wealthy Ohio industrialist.
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Presidential candidate of the Farmer-Labor party? Well, yes, but so much more! Here are some of Coxey's candidacies, as listed in the Cyclopedia of National Biography:
These were his unsuccessful candidacies. On the positive side, he was elected mayor of Massillon, Ohio, serving in 1932 and 1933. He also won a majority in the Ohio Republican presidential primary of 1932, and placed first in the North Dakota primary as well.
There are several interesting Coxey items that surface from time to time. Unfortunately they tend to be expensive.
Jacob S. Coxey must have felt strongly about his economic ideas and the need for inflating the currency. Not only did he devote his life to the subject, he even named his daughter Legal Tender Coxey!
| © 1997 by Stephen Cresswell |
Editor's Note: This addendum to the above article appeared in the following issue, issue 10 of Buttons & Ballots, from August 1997:
The mailbag this month included an interesting letter from Tim Coughlin, researcher par excellence in the political hobby. Tim adds a few interesting facts about Jacob S. Coxey as presidential candidate. First, Tim notes that in preparing for the 1936 election, the national Farmer-Labor party did hold a nominating convention, tapping Coxey again for president. Coxey soon withdrew, however, because of the party's failure to gain ballot positions in states such as Nebraska. Coxey then endorsed William Lemke of the Union party. Tim also made an interesting discovery in an old copy of the Negro Yearbook--a mention of Coxey's nomination for president on the ticket of the "Interracial Independent Political Party" in 1928, together with an African American man for vice-president. The ticket almost certainly fell apart, with Coxey likely declining or ignoring the nomination. There is no evidence of official ballot position or any recorded votes for this interesting 1928 ticket.