Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1939-02-09
The FL. Convention

Now that the Farmer-Labor
state convention has come and
gone it might be interesting to
note what the leading labor paper
of the state has to say about it.
The Minnesota Union Advocate
is owned and controlled by the
labor unions of st. Paul, and is
the official organ of the st. Paul
Trades and Labor Assembly. Its
comment on the FL convention
follows:
The conservative element in the
Farmer-Labor Association may well
claim an outstanding victory in the
outcome of the state convention last
week, but it was temporary victory
and nothing more. 1t was a victory
over a noisy minority that sought
to take over the remnants of the
liberal party and make it vehicle
of radicalism. Now that the dele
gates have gone home a sane ap-
praisal of the victory" can be made.
The convention was the most dis
orderly in the history of the associa-
ton A majority of the credentials
committee favored the seating of all
contested delegates, and only for the
militancy of the trade unioniStS from
st. Paul the majority report would
have been accepted as a matter of
course 1t is true that the conven-
ton adopted constitution which
specifically bars from membership in
the association all "adherents of Com
munism, Fascism or Nazism," but
these organizations were definitely
barred from membership under the
previous constitution. Not single
contested delegate admitted he was
a Communist and in some instances
the credentials committee was de-
fled to prove the charges against them.
If the convention had broadened the
eligibility clause to include all SYM
pathizers with the Communists, Fas-
cists and Nazis-then progress would
have been made, and the work of
future credentials committees would
have been considerably lessened. If
anyone doubts that the next conven-
ton of the Farmer-Labor Association
will be any less noisy or unwieldy
they are due for sad awakening
In 1910 the radicals will be back in
full force and the very ones who
led the fight for the seating of Com
munist sympathizers in last weeks
conVention-not one of whom was
challenged or contested-will be on
hand to raise points of special privi-
lege, points of order, parliamentary
procedure and heaven only knows
what not.
The convention failed to offer one
word of censure for the past state
administration; it booed Justify when
through a trick worked by the editor
of the Daily Worker, Communist
newspaper, the name of Senator
vention. Yet every delegate must
have been aware of the fact that il
was largely due to the incorporate
leadership of a handful of politicians
that the Farmer-Labor party went
down to an inglorious defeat on
November 9th. Any attempt to alibi
for that defeat on the grounds that
Phillip LaFollette likewise was re-
tired offers little consolation, nor does
it explain the first Democratic vic
tory in California for 40-odd years.
There is room in Minnesota for a
militant, crusading party and the pio-
neers in the liberal movement be-
lieved they had such party until
it was taken over by carpetbaggers
and strangely complexioned political
opportunists in 1884. 1t began as a
revolt of the farmers and the work.
ers against the iniquities of special
privilege functioning as the Republi-
can party; it ended because small
group of political nitwits, drunk with
a sense of self-importance, failed to
appreciate the niceties of ordinary
common sense. If the labor move
ment can make anything out of the
wreckage left by these incorporate
leaders it will have to take over the
movement and direct it along a few
more constructive lines than were
emphasized in last weeks conven-
ton. But if labor is going to divide
its energy between economic con-
siderations and political strategies
only to perpetuate the stripe of polit-
ical leadership the Farmer-Labol
party has had for the past few years
then labor had better take some SER
ious reckonings before it undertakes
to charter a new course in partisan
politics.