Farmer-Labor Party: A timeline
Fall, 1917: Organizers for the Farmers Non-Partisan League registered fifty thousand farmers for an anti-monopoly program patterned after the successful effort made by North Dakota Non-Partisan League the year before. Joining the fight, labor unions organized a parallel organization, Labor’s Non-Partisan League. In response, the Minnesota Legislature and Republican Governor J. A. A. Burnquist created a Public Safety Commission which pursued a campaign of harassment, branding both farm and labor participants as unpatriotic.
Summer, 1918: After a campaign marked by violence and charges of disloyalty, the Non-Partisan League candidate for governor, Charles Lindberg, Sr., is defeated by J.A. Burnquist, the Republican incumbent.
Fall, 1918: Farmer-Labor cooperation continues in the general election. Republicans win all state-wide offices, but Farmer-Labor candidates capture eleven Minnesota Senate and twenty-two House seats.
November, 1922: Farmer-Labor candidates elect both U.S. Senators, and a strong minority to the state legislature. The FLP replaces the Democrats as the main challenger to the Republicans in Minnesota.
1924: Farm and Labor allies create an ongoing political organization, the Farmer Labor Federation. Farmer-Labor candidate Floyd Olson loses to Republican Theodore Christenson. The Farmer-Labor Federation is reorganized as the Farmer-Labor Association the following year.
1925-1930: Farmer-Laborites manage to hold together their organization in this politically conservative time but are unable to gain ground on the Republican Party in Minnesota.
November, 1930: With the onset of the Great Depression, the charismatic Hennepin County Attorney Floyd B. Olson is elected the FLP’s first governor, but Republicans still control the legislator and Olson proposes few reforms.
July 29, 1932: John H. Bosch founds the Minnesota branch of the Farm Holiday Association (FHA).
September, 1932: The FHA members strike, dumping milk and withholding produce from the market. Farmer-Labor governor Floyd Olson organizes a coalition of farm state governors to urge President Roosevelt to support the farmers.
November, 1932: Farmer-Labor power dramatically increases as Olson is re-elected by a larger margin and Farmer-Laborites win control of the Minnesota House and five out of nine Congressional seats.
Winter, 1933: Olson rallies strong popular support to win passage of a state income tax, relief for the unemployed, banking reform a moratorium on farm foreclosures.
Summer 1934: With protest by workers, farmers and the unemployed rising, the Farmer-Labor convention adopts its Cooperative Commonwealth platform, outlining a new economic system to replace monopoly capitalism.
Fall, 1934: Olson is reelected but Farmer Laborites fail to win either House of the state legislature. Few laws are passed but Farmer-Labor chapters proliferate, and the movement grows.
August 22, 1936: The much beloved Floyd B. Olson dies of stomach cancer. Lieutenant Governor, Hjalmar Peterson of Askov succeeds Olson.
November, 1936: Farmer-Labor candidate Elmer Benson is elected governor of Minnesota.
January, 1937: In his inaugural message to the Minnesota legislature, Governor Benson proposes the most extensive progressive reform agenda in state history including extensive taxes on large business interests and legislation to benefit the unemployed, labor and farmers.
Winter, 1937: Governor Benson intervenes on the side of northern Minnesota Timber Workers
April 5, 1937: Organizations of workers, farmers and the unemployed form the People’s Lobby and march on the state capital and are welcomed by Governor Benson. Roughly 200 choose to occupy the capital overnight, creating press criticism and a backlash among elements of the public.
November, 1938: Harold Stassen, a reform minded Republican overwhelms Benson in the governor’s election, which leads to a general decline in Farmer-Labor political power.
1940 & 1942: Republicans continue to dominate state politics as the Farmer-Labor Party and Democrats divide the anti-Republican vote.
1944: With the encouragement of President Franklin Roosevelt, the Democrats and Farmer-Laborites merge to create the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
1948: Farmer-Laborites and Democrats split over support of former Vice President Henry Wallace, a critic of the Cold War, and Harry Truman for President. Democrats support the emerging Cold War and Mayor of Minneapolis Hubert Humphrey, a leader of the Democratic faction, is elected United State Senator.
1950: Now just a remnant of its former self, Farmer-Laborites led by Elmer Benson support the Progressive Party, effectively ending their role in the DFL.
1968: The movement against the Vietnam War splits Cold War Liberals and the anti-war and student movements. Although the legacy of the Farmer-Labor movement remains largely forgotten, the door is open for the reconsideration of the DFL’s history that will take place in the following decades