National Progressives of America

National Progressives of America
National Progressives of America
	Emblem of the National Progressives of America
Abbreviation	NPA
Leader	Philip La Follette; Ralph Immell
Founded	1938
Dissolved	1946
Ideology	Progressivism; Non-interventionism
Regional affiliation	Wisconsin Progressive Party
Colors	Green
	Politics of United States; Political parties; Elections;

The National Progressives of America (NPA) also referred to as the National Progressives was a Progressive political party in the United States which existed from 1938 to 1946.^[1] The organization was closely associated with the agenda of Wisconsin governor Philip La Follette.

History

Background

The Wisconsin Progressive Party emerged out of the Republican Party of Wisconsin and was established in 1934 by Philip La Follette and Robert La Follette, Jr. — the sons of Robert M. La Follette Sr., who ran for President of the United States a decade earlier.

The new Progressive Party was successful in subsequent elections and the party surpassed the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, relegating the Democrats once again to effective third party status in the state.^[2] The National Progressives of America was an attempt to take this state-level success and replicate it on the national stage.

First elected governor of Wisconsin in the fall of 1930 as a Republican, Philip La Follette won re-election in 1934 on the ticket of the Wisconsin Progressive Party and looked askance at both of the "old parties" as inadequate to meet the extraordinary economic situation of the Great Depression. While he was generally supportive of the New Deal legislation of President Franklin D. Roosevelt throughout the middle years of the 1930s, he became disillusioned after the election of 1936, with the large scale dismissal of Works Progress Administration personnel in 1937 marking a particular tipping point in his perspective.^[3]

Governor Phil La Follette announces formation of the National Progressives of America, April 28, 1938.

Beginning in the spring of 1937, La Follette began to look around the country for prospective allies in construction of a new political party to challenge the hegemony of the Democrats and Republicans.^[4] At a May 1937 celebration of the third anniversary of the Wisconsin Progressive Party, La Follette made a public call for liberals around the country to cooperate with the Wisconsin Progressives in establishing a new third party.^[4]

"The time is close at hand for the formation of a new political realignment in the nation which will defeat the reactionary forces in the nation just as the Progressive Party has defeated the reactionary forces in Wisconsin," he declared.^[4]

He spent the following summer networking with like-minded political figures around the country, making the acquaintance of Raymond Haight, leader of the California Progressive Party and recipient of more than 300,000 votes in the 1934 California gubernatorial election, as well as Mayor Fiorello La Guardia of New York City and various leaders of the Midwestern farmer-labor movement.^[5]

Formation

The National Progressives of America was established on April 28, 1938, at a rally in Madison, Wisconsin convened and addressed by Governor La Follette. The organization was inseparably bound with the personality of the charismatic governor — no figure of national prominence sat with him on the platform, with assistant secretary of state Adolf Berle and Minnesota budget director Paul Rasmussen, acting as a representative of Governor Elmer A. Benson, seated as the top dignitaries in attendance to the side of the platform.^[6] Berle, who appeared as the representative of New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia, received the advance permission of President Roosevelt to attend the gathering.^[7]

In preparation for a grand political event, the University of Wisconsin stock pavilion was decorated in red, white, and blue, with a military band playing marching music and other patriotic songs^[8] and players for the Wisconsin Badgers football team acting as ushers. An overflow crowd estimated at 7,500 people assembled to hear the Governor's 90 minute speech at the pavilion, with thousands milling outside listening to loudspeakers after all the seats in the 3,500 seat hall were taken.^[6] Representative Alvin C. Reis had been tasked with leading the meeting as its chairman.

Governor La Follette spoke with "evangelical fervor," one journalist in attendance noted, striking "a nationalistic note in the sense that he was primarily, and almost exclusively concerned with America.^[8] The country remained mired in an economic depression that had lasted nearly a decade, La Follette said, with liberty itself endangered by disrupted production and a low standard of living for a major part of the country.^[9] The nation had become mired in attempt to maintain prices, profits, and wages by combating what La Follette considered the mythical notion of "overproduction" by restricting agricultural and industrial output — all the while millions of Americans remained without adequate food, shelter, or clothing.^[9]

Text of a leaflet enumerating principles of the new party distributed to those attending the April 28, 1938, foundation meeting in Madison.

Both the Republican and Democratic parties were to blame for the decade of malaise, La Follette declared, with the nation waiting hopelessly for "prosperity which was just around the corner" for four years under Herbert Hoover before six unsatisfactory years of the Roosevelt administration that only "transferred red ink from the books of private enterprise to the bookkeeping of our local, state, and national government."^[9] This attempt to maintain living standards through private and public borrowing had been a costly and futile exercise, albeit "well-meant," La Follette asserted.^[9]

La Follette sought a return to the policy of the "old days" in which

"our country did not pay people to remain idle or to do unproductive work. We gave everyone an opportunity to do wealth-creating work. If they did not take that offer, they could sink or swim as they pleased. Today we have idle resources, and also idle people.... Again we must provide every able-bodied man and woman with a real opportunity for wealth-creating work at decent hours and at decent pay. Then, let us return to the principle that he who is able and does not work — well, then, at least he shall not live at the expense of his neighbor."^[9]

With enthusiasm among the attendees duly escalated, La Follette unveiled a set of principles for the new National Progressives of America (NPA).^[10]^{: 214–215}

The organization's six principles were very general in tone, affirming the freedoms of religion, press, and assembly and adding the right of Americans "to have effective voice in...political and economic life"; the right of citizens to earn a living through useful work; the right of youth to adequately funded public education; the right of the elderly to a "self-respecting system of old-age pensions"; the right of workers to organize and collectively bargain; and a vague right of all to live under a government that was both strong and just.^[11]

Response

Reaction to the formation of the new national political party was tepid, with various national liberal figures, allies of Roosevelt, organized labor, and even allies of La Follette declining to join the new party.

Minnesota Farmer–Labor Senator Ernest Lundeen said of the new organization, "I am very glad to see my third or first or any other new party formed. I predict that all such parties which we may form will eventually drift into a great national labor party as it did in England."^[12] For his own part, however, Lunden said, "we in Minnesota like the name farmer–labor. I do not think we shall want to change the name of our party or merge in this new party, but I think we shall want to cooperate with it."^[12]

Others, like liberal Democratic Senator Sherman Minton of Indiana, saw the new party as a potential threat to the unity of liberal forces which would result in the election of reactionaries.^[12] Independent Senator George W. Norris of Nebraska, took a wait-and-see approach, indicating that such a national organization of progressive people would be a good thing, while offering that a third party campaign would split liberal forces, resulting in election of a right wing president.^[12] "I do not know whether it is Phil's intent to have a presidential ticket in 1940," Norris said.^[12]

Additionally, Mayor La Guardia and John L. Lewis, then president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), refused to associate themselves with the NPA. Robert Jr. himself seemed skeptical of his brother's efforts, as he gave half-hearted statements of support for the party.^[10]^: 215

Journalist Walter Lippmann was skeptical of La Follette's efforts, believing that a national coalition of liberals would need the support of both the American Federation of Labor and the CIO. He believed that such support would be unlikely due to La Follette's leadership and due to his formation of the NPA as separate from the farmer-labor movement.^[10]^: 215 This criticism was similar to those expressed by members of Roosevelt's cabinet, such as Harold L. Ickes, who felt La Follette was trying to seize the moment and be the center of attention.^[10]^: 215 Heywood Broun, another prominent journalist, criticized the event for its attempts at appealing to the middle class, claiming that "the most formidable fascist movement which has yet arisen in America is being nurtured in Madison, Wisconsin by Phil La Follette".^[10]^: 216

The media offered criticism of the party platform, with many media outlets calling it vague and lacking in definite proposals, with the party itself described as having fascist overtones.^[13] The party's official emblem, using the national colors of red-white-and-blue and an X containing stars, also received criticism, as some compared it to a swastika Some compared it to a mix of the Confederate battle flag and the flag of Nazi Germany, while it was cast by liberals in the Eastern United States as a "circumcised swastika".^[8]^[14] Supporters of the party disagreed with criticisms of the emblem, claiming that the x represented a marked ballot, a symbol of democracy.^[15]

Development

After its formation, La Follette traveled the country in an attempt to recruit allies to his cause and build up the party. In response, various progressive and liberal figures declined to affiliate and expressed disinterest in the party.^[10]^: 217

While La Follette was absent from Wisconsin, the state progressive party began to collapse, as factionalism and intraparty bickering began to take hold. Additionally, many of his old allies, such as Paul Alfonsi, felt sidelined by La Follette, as many of them did not agree with the formation of the NPA.. Due to his prolonged absences, La Follette appointed Ralph Immell as the National Progressive's National Director, Immell would go on to state:

"The next decade holds the most critical chapter of American history. it will unfold the story of the eclipse of the two major political parties in America in the struggle of our people to beat off the unwanted European doctrines of Communism, Fascism, and Nazism, and the unworkable European doctrine of pure socialism. We all should be too concerned with the insecurity and want amid plenty to smugly stand by and not play what part we can in the drive of the National Progressives of America to make America once again the land of opportunity and security for every child and man."^[16]

References

^ McCoy, Donald R. (1957). "The National Progressives of America, 1938". The Mississippi Valley Historical Review. 44 (1): 75–93. doi:10.2307/1898669. ISSN 0161-391X.
^ Donald R. McCoy, "The Formation of the Wisconsin Progressive Party in 1934," The Historian, vol. 14, no. 1 (1951), pp. 70–90.
^ Donald R. McCoy, Angry Voices: Left-of-Center Politics in the New Deal Era. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 1958; pp. 162–163.
^ ^a ^b ^c McCoy, Angry Voices, p. 164.
^ McCoy, Angry Voices, p. 165.
^ ^a ^b Aldric Revell, "Governor Fails to Announce He Will Run for Re-election: LaFollette Starts Organizing Immediately with Speech at Des Moines; 3,500 Stand Outside Building," [Madison] Capital Times,vol. 41, no. 137 (April 29, 1938), pp. 1–8.
^ "National Progressives of America," Escanaba [MI] Daily Press, May 1, 1938, p. 1.
^ ^a ^b ^c Morris H. Rubin, "Governor Keeps Silent on Own Plans," Wisconsin State Journal, April 29, 1938, pp. 1–2.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Philip La Follette, "La Follette Launches THE Party: National Progressives of America: Turns Back on Parties that Brought 'Plague,'" Wisconsin State Journal, April 29, 1938, p. 8.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Kasparek, Jonathan (2006). Fighting Son: A Biography of Philip F. La Follette. Wisconsin Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-87020-353-4.
^ "National Progressives of America: Our Principles," [Madison] Capital Times, April 29, 1938, p. 6.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Ruby Black, "Liberals Reluctant to Join," Wisconsin State Journal, April 29, 1938, p. 1.
^ John E. Miller, "Philip La Follette: Rhetoric and Reality," The Historian, vol. 45, no. 1 (Nov. 1982), pp. 65–83.
^ Jay Franklin, "We, The People: Wisconsin and the New Deal," Burlington Free Press, Sept. 5, 1938, p. 4.
^ "Announcing Advent of His New Party," Wisconsin State Journal," April 29, 1938, p. 2.
^ Gen. Ralph Immell Named Director of New National Party," The Capital Times, May 16, 1938, p. 1.

v t e Wisconsin political parties
Major	Democratic Republican
Minor	Green Libertarian Socialist Progressive Dane
Inactive	Labor–Farm NPA (Progressive) People's Reform Social-Democratic
Political party strength in Wisconsin