How Floyd B. Olson Betrayed Minnesota Farmer-Laborites
Soto, John Gabriel
By John Gabriel Soto. How Floyd B. Olson Betrayed Minnesota Farmer-Laborites Record of Governor Thai of Careerist—Advocate of Worst Gag Laws in the Country. QOVERNOR OLSON'S betrayal of the...
...meet East 180th Street station at 8 a. m. Fare, 70c...
...How Floyd B. Olson Betrayed Minnesota Farmer-Laborites Record of Governor Thai of Careerist—Advocate of Worst Gag Laws in the Country...
...That bunch lives in luxurious apartments upstairs and we are down in the basement...
...And ttill they tell us there's no class war I Maybe it shouldn't be called a war, considering that the workingclass is merely being mas-sacred...
...always tak-ing the joy out of life by splitting hairs...
...QOVERNOR OLSON'S betrayal of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party to the sinister political forces of the Democratic Party, in the recent campaign, came as a sudden shock to the thousands of class-conscious workers of the state...
...One way to do that ia to raise Income taxes to provide more funds for unemployment relief...
...revolutionaries in the basement would, if In control of the city, encourage their organisation, increase their wages and shorten hours...
...As county attorney Olson was a master political framer, having studied the black art under Bud Nash, who appointed Olson to his job in the county attorney's office...
...Then we can kiss Tammany goodbye...
...asked Bill...
...I I suppose that this sort of sup-port on the part of the Minneapolis1 millionaires makes Olson their enemy 1 In 1928 Olson made a deal with the State Democrats according to which he was to throw the Farmer-1 Labor Party back of their candidate for Governor...
...You're the most aggravating guy I ever met...
...All right, if you don't get insulting," said Joe as he lit a cigarette...
...Hoover said, that he could not be held responsible for a situation that would develop in the next four years...
...see But dont worry...
...Sunday, November 27, hike to Pslissdes Park...
...And he solved a banking problem by organising the Federal Reserve Board...
...Olson went before three grand juries to obtain an indictment for libel against the speaker...
...He led thd convention to believe that he would file for Governor...
...In a sense you are correct We are travelling their road, not our own...
...They had a pre-Thanksgiving bone to pick, but there wasn't much meat on it...
...We may expect Olson to shed his Farmer-Labor cloak and run for the United States Senate on a fnsion ticket, giving the Democrats a free hand for the governorship and the entire state ticket in the next year or so...
...Feature: Association Footbsll Game...
...And now that we have millions of families facing starvation, well allow them to buy beer...
...A few gentlemen want to clean it up and you want us to go up and help them...
...Joe Is a Hopeful Prospect "I'm coming to that," Bill replied...
...Yes, not for the love of McKee, though...
...It's the mounting moral sentiment rising sgainst Tammany that pleases me and if it continues and the reformers get together, Joe McKee will be elected Mayor of New York next year...
...All of his Demo-j cratic henchmen in the Farmer- j Labor Party, who poured a constant fire into the Socialists, such as William McEwen of Duluth and Frank Starkey of St Paul, assured the convention in Olson's name that he would file...
...Joe Wants to Get Somewhere "Joe, you are again straining our beautiful friendship," aaid Bill with impatience, "These respectable reformers are opposed to our supreme aim, they are opposed to our kind of reforms, and they aren't going in our direction...
...Thus they prevented the convention of 1928 from making a nomination...
...Sunday, November 27, hike to Quaker Ridge...
...Lot's tell the coupon-clippers thst any oae who refuses to share his dividends with his own government is unpatriotic • ? ? "Sharing doesn't hurt as much aa suffering...
...Our conception of reforms is working class conquests that eat away capitalist privileges, that strengthens the workers on their march, ard that give them a sense of solidarity and power...
...To those of us, however, who know) the intimate political biography of Governor Olson his espousal of the cause of capitalism in the person of Roosevelt caused no surprise...
...In the march on our road to power our soldiers of the revolution cannot live on the revolutionary aim alone...
...YoungJ workers sbetfj ployers to Mj employed, sewa need their m capital...
...They openly affixed their signatures to large ads in the press calling for his re-election...
...They are where they are because of our ignorance and we are where we are for the same reason...
...Upon the adjournment of that convention, Olson announced that he would not file for Governor...
...more or less than a potential bribe to the people of that community.'* • THE FRIENDS _ OF NATURE...
...What is more, our reforms are not the reforms of the McKee reformers," Bill replied...
...a, e e • Roosevelt talked to a group of self-styled representatives of the unemployed el them that he e» cause, until Us* "just an ordiM after March 4, nary buck-pass* * At any rat* hia Thanksgivk Farley and a f* ward-heelers, si can bet your b» the Forgotten 1 * The bankers held a mass ssc the other day •> Work plan...
...meet Dyckman Street ferry at 8:30 a. m. tars, 20c...
...Roosevelt said, that hs couldn't be held responsible for a situation that httd begun to develop before he became President...
...Ernest Lundeen filed against the protest of the betrayers of the Farmer-Labor Party...
...In return the...
...Although hs was county attorney for some ten years, hs never prosecuted a single corporation...
...When capitalism produced the World War, Woodrow Wilson decided that It was time for the American people to do something in a hurry...
...The reformers would use the police powers against strikers while we would use those powers to protect strikers...
...Is the depression lifting or did you get a job...
...Then you don't like the reformers," said Joe...
...No, the job is still around the comer...
...Neither does Shearing, unless you're the one who's being shorn...
...Whyt Because these same tax-dodgers endorsed him for office and contributed financially to hia campaigns...
...Well, aren't you opposed to Tammany...
...We Socialists have a basic aim and the reformers have not," said Bill...
...It was unexpected...
...Olson cannot even be called that vague and indefinite thing—a "liberal...
...Olson was true to his compact with the Democrats in 1928...
...The reformers upstairs oppose unions of city employes...
...But you said that you also favor reforms snd that brings you back on the road which you say I am travelling...
...Therefore, in 1928, Olson misled the Farmer-Labor convention on the matter of his running: for Governor...
...Democrats were to support Olson for the United States Senate in 1930...
...This was in 1930...
...That aim inspires and keeps our ranks in a disciplined formation...
...A score of millionaires were dodging tales...
...For the love of Mike, back to that class struggle again," said Joe...
...While on the march we need sustenance and we have to take every fortress of the enemy that we can...
...Olson, into his place...
...And the lame duck Congress Is expected to give us beer...
...Jf| k and told m»ikm§ hern would bo mm...
...For Gawd's sake, Joe, let's keep our mind on the job of getting our class out of the basement" ' j "Like that old Methodist hymn, you almost persusde me," said Joe...
...In 1928 he championed the cause of Hoover...
...By this time he was again, ready to run for Governor...
...That's one big difference between us and the reformers, isn't it...
...Now you must admit that these respectable reformers not only do not want power for the working class, but that they will even fight to the last against us getting that power...
...Hs is a political opportunist of the capitalist type, resorting to questionable methods to promote himself politically...
...After his defeat in 1924 he attended to his business as county attorney and headed a campaign of persecution against all political elements hostile to his political friends as well as to himself personally...
...Mr...
...The two classes live in two social worlds...
...The supplies we obtsln snd the fortresses we take are the reforms we want to wrest from the enemy...
...That word POWER is a torch always lighting our way...
...The Gag Law Under the Minnesota gag law, whose passage he favored, and the law whose terms were of a sumptuary character, he prosecuted and suppressed a number of papers, among which was the Saturday Press engaged in unmasking certain of his political allies...
...the very elements that this year, together with Olson, sold the Farmer-Labor Party to Roosevelt Thus we see that Olson this year only followed his regular policy of betrayal...
...i»j the worln«f?| pennies...
...However, Olson's deal of 1928 was frustrated by the fact that Mr...
...We want to climb out snd they do not want to come down...
...And m «« erdi-"SieK spent Pttst ths PPSpttch How about organized labor launching a "Share - Dividend" campaign...
...The upstairs reformers want elsan rule for great property owners and tve want rule for the masses in the basement...
...Extend this idea of workers battering down the thousands of pillars of capitalist dominion while the reformers polish and clean them and yon have the difference between their reforms and ours...
...We are educating, organizing, and fighting for power for the working class...
...His Roosevelt hook-up this year was the successful consummation of his shady politics, pursued in the Farmer-Labor Party since the year 1924, when he first announced himself as a Farmer-Laborite by filing for the gubernatorial nomination...
...His case againat this speaker was so flimsy that it took the genial Mr...
...Olson retreated...
...I'm thinking of our class snd the Socialist aim for power...
...But, as county attorney, he pes blind...
...Aa Opportunist Mr...
...These securities," he said, "are distributed mainly for the purpose of keeping down complaints and keeping up high rates, and where the citizens of the community are required to vote upon these franchises the distribution of this stock Is nothing...
...Don't you favor reform...
...Will you listen, Joe...
...is one of the slogans in the Share-Work drive...
...You babble about the mounting moral sentiment against Tammany and about reformers getting together to do this and to do that, but you do not think of getting your class together to do something for itself...
...Prior to that year he was neither seen nor heard in the various left movements of the state...
...Moreover, it evoked considerable condemnation, as it naturally would, on the part of groups who have been the mainstay of the Farmer-I-abor Party...
...e That makes two Irresponsible presidents...
...Christmas'll be here soon and the unemployed will get another meal...
...Once they get there, you can part with them and keep going on to your destination...
...Leader: Rath Matthes...
...Owe that sny worn willing to share patriotic...
...He could find nothing, apparently, to proceed against them...
...His willingness to reduce the Farmer-Labor Party to a pile of ashes manifested itself several times before the recent campaign...
...He was brutal and aavage in his attacks on free speech...
...Customer Ownership of Stock fax Utilities Before the National Association of Securities Commissioners ion September 26, E. R. Hicks of Little Rock, Arkansas, explained some of the reasons why the public utility companies sell stock to customers...
...Joe inquired with astonishment Bill Takes Joy Out of Life "Sure, I would utterly destroy Tammany and I favor many needed reforms , but Socialists want reforms plus something else...
...Owe* Yi Communist w*« ere ought to* in equal P*** players ought i wealth as thtt Mr...
...e ? e But our Share-Shirk presidenta sare did get excited about the $126,000,000 Europe owes us this year...
...Aw, no wonder you never get anywhere," said Joe with profound disgust "And you've arrived somewhere with no job, no prospect of one, and still following the ideas that have brought you where you are," Bill replied...
...Is that clear...
...No doubt, with a lame kick in it ? A. *1 It's swell thvway capitalism kips us to solve our problems...
...i see Who knowst Some day a first-class earthquake may destroy Tammany HalL r.i...
...Future Fest Ball...
...When Bud Nash was removed as county attorney, as a sequel to the bootlegging scandals of 1920, Nash prevailed upon the Republican Board of County Commissioners to put Us understudy, Mr...
...Floyd B. Olson under it, the publishers of The Nation, under the leadership of the capitalist Chicago Tribune, made a nation-wide issue of it Then Mr...
...Translate your lingo into English...
...Olson several months and three successive grand juries before his frame-up was finally realized...
...Leader: Robert Gayer...
...Edward Marks, Hempstesd, sends hi four subs, secured as a result of the meeting addressed by James Joe Begins to Slip Back Into Hit Old Sin* and Bill Don Hi* Beit To Save Him From the Reformers By Autolycus "IT'S good to be alive these days and I feel like a five-year * old colt when I read a morning paper now," aaid Joe as he and Bill aat down for lunch...
...Now you sit here and munch a hunk of baloney and tell me that the bunch upstairs and out crowd below are travelling the same road...
...That sum represents less than three per cent of this year's federal budget • ' e e Meanwhile, more than 26 per cent of our industrial and farm workers and their families are destitute—but the nation's Chief Huddlers are too busy trying to decide what not to do about the war debts...
...Oh, I know that," Joe replied, "but they're going half way in your direction, so why not travel with them as far as they go...
...With his re-election, and the election of Roosevelt, the Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota will receive a death blow...
...However, when the publishers of The Nation were alarmed over the czaristic nature of the gag law and saw the nefarious results achieved by Mr...
...I'm trying to get you to travel another road that leads to power for our class stnd you become mushy because the apartment upstairs becomes dirty...
...You're slipping again, Joe," said Bill with a gesture of despair...
...What do you mean, anyway...
...These several instances are outstanding samples of his hostility to freedom of speech and press...
...Politically, he was a Democrat, and such he remains to this day...
...No, they cant be reformed, but I still have some hopes |f you," said Bill as they paid their bills and passed out feto the street The Share-Shirking Begins ROOSEVELT and Hoover met at the White House Tuesday to talk turkey on the war debt problem, but got right down to applesauce...
...Bill Handles Joe Gently "Well, here goes," said Bill...
...When, in 1929, a Socialist speaker opposed Olson's political crony for re-election in the 6th Ward of Minneapolis and came within an ace of defeating him,, the "liberal" and "progressive" Mr...
Vol. 14 • November 1932 • No. 22
