In Wisconsin for quite some time the GOP dominated, but it wasn’t always the conservative party you’re thinking of today. Robert La Follette made being a left-wing Republican a thing in the state, and numerous others followed in his stead, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s. Throughout the 1920s, Wisconsin’s GOP was essentially in a state of rebellion against the national GOP, and the state voted not for Coolidge in 1924, but La Follette. Other rural areas were also inclined to vote La Follette, and he had strong performances in some other states, including coming close to winning North Dakota. One significant figure who had gone in this direction was Congressman Henry Cooper of the 1st district, who represented the district from 1893 to 1931 with one interruption in the 66th Congress, as he had lost renomination due to his vote against US participation in World War I. Although he had been reelected in 1930, he died two days before the next Congress, and Thomas Ryum Amlie (1897-1973) was elected to succeed him.
Amlie was hardly your typical Republican in his first term in Congress, and he voted for aid to agriculture, public works spending, for public ownership of Muscle Shoals (a proposal which would eventually become the Tennessee Valley Authority), veterans’ bonuses, and tariff reduction. His record displeased numerous Republicans, and he lost renomination in 1932 to the more conservative George W. Blanchard. However, Blanchard’s election was a bit of a fluke.
In 1934, inspired by Robert La Follette’s 1924 run as well as dissatisfaction with the GOP’s policy of opposition to FDR’s New Deal, the Progressive Party was formed out of the progressive wing of Wisconsin’s GOP in alliance with certain radical factions and had resounding successes that year. Any Republican who was reelected that year to Congress from Wisconsin was reelected as a Progressive, and Amlie won back the seat.
On his return to Congress, Amlie was one of the strongest non-Democratic supporters of the New Deal. He held regarding taxation for the New Deal, “I am with it a hundred percent. When 4 percent of the people own 80 percent of the wealth, how are you going to take care of the other 96 percent, or at least 70 percent, who haven’t anything? You can only get it by taxing and taking from those who have” (U.S. Government Printing Office, 227). Amlie even in 1938 voted to keep FDR’s reorganization plan, which was opposed by all Republicans and all other serving Wisconsin Progressives. Critics of this plan, most notably progressive activist turned New Deal enemy Amos Pinchot, condemned it as an effort by FDR to make himself a dictator (The New York Times). Amlie would frequently introduce legislation that would greatly strengthen government control over the economy. In 1937 and 1938 he sponsored with Reps. Jerry Voorhis (D-Calif.) and Robert Allen (D-Penn.) the Industrial Expansion bill, which if enacted would have moved the U.S. to a planned economy and this was par usual for him per a Wall Street Journal article of January 25, 1939, which observed that his bills “put the federal government in control of all industry by practical socialization” (Wisconsin Historical Society). In 1938, Amlie ran for the Senate on the Progressive Party ticket, but he lost the primary and the seat was won by Republican Alexander Wiley in a conservative wave year, for the nation and quite strongly for Wisconsin itself, putting an end to the progressive wing’s domination of the party.
Amlie for the Interstate Commerce Commission
In 1939, FDR nominated him to be a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission, but he faced great opposition from conservative forces in Congress. This included Senator Warren Austin (R-Vt.), who asked him about being introduced as “Comrade Amlie” in a 1934 Chicago meeting, with the built-in implication that this was connected to communism (Library of Congress). Although Amlie countered that many organizations referred to members as “comrade”, numerous accusations arose about his sympathies. In a letter to Senator Clyde Reed (R-Kan.), E.E. Cahoon of Racine Confectioners’ Machinery Co. stated his belief that Amlie should be disqualified due to “His expressed antagonism toward private enterprise and belief that the Government should acquire and operate all railroads, utilities, and industry” and Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Vernon W. Thomson, who would later serve as Governor and in Congress, got a resolution passed against Amlie’s nomination, arguing that he “has by his public utterances and other expressions of policy aligned himself with the Communist movement in this country”, that he sympathized with “a foreign element which has been promiscuous in its slaughter of Christians and their apostles”, and that he “advocated scrapping of our Federal Constitution, a completely new social order, creating of a great central authority, without checks or balances, to run our industry and placing all men in equal economic status” (US Government Printing Office, 256). The Wisconsin State Legislature wasn’t the only political force he faced opposition from. He was also condemned by his successor to his Congressional seat, conservative Republican Stephen Bolles, who called him a “radical” (US Government Printing Office, 232). However, Amlie had his defenders in Congress including Senator Elbert Thomas (D-Utah) and Representative Jerry Voorhis (D-Calif.), both staunch New Dealers. He was defended in testimony by economist John Bauer, director of American Public Utilities Bureau, who held that he “Has a greater grasp of detail and general knowledge for the position of Commissioner than the great majority of appointees I have known” and that he “will be most fair and reasonable to investors and to the rights of railroad companies. He would perform the duties in connection with railroad reorganization and readjustments in the light of the public interest” (US Government Printing Office, 241).
Amlie ultimately decided that a drawn-out fight was not worth it and withdrew his nomination. Roosevelt was disappointed by this development, and in writing to Amlie regarding the withdrawal of his nomination, he condemned his opposition. He wrote, “A quarter of a century ago I, too, was called a Communist and a wild-eyed radical because I fought for factory inspection, for a fifty-four-hour-a-week bill for women and children in industry and similar measures. You are still young and I hope that you will continue to work for the improvement of social and economic legislation under our framework of Government” (Roosevelt).
Amlie would switch his party affiliation to Democrat in 1941 and would be a founding member of the Union for Democratic Action, an organization that was formed to support the New Deal and FDR’s interventionist foreign policy, the latter a break from the Progressive Party itself, which opposed intervention in World War II until Pearl Harbor. The following year, Amlie was made director of Union for Democratic Action and conducted research into the voting records of members of Congress to ascertain liberalism and published scorecards, a practice that would be used to great effect by its successor organization, Americans for Democratic Action, which would be founded in response to the 1946 midterms. Both organizations, contrary to those who thought Amlie a communist, barred communists from joining. He also worked for the CIO in 1944 and conducted similar legislative research for them (Wisconsin Historical Society). However, Amlie’s subsequent efforts at securing elected or government roles would be repeatedly hampered. His unsuccessful efforts to secure federal positions over the years led him to believe that he was unofficially blacklisted over his staunchly left-wing views (Wisconsin Historical Society). Amlie also ran for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1949 and for Congress in 1958. He would thereafter focus instead on practicing law and after having to drop his practice for health reasons in 1962, he owned and maintained several properties until his death on August 22, 1973 (Wisconsin Historical Society).
Amlie’s DW-Nominate score, available on the Voteview website, is a -0.322, very low for a non-Democrat by that scale, and extremely so for anyone who ever was elected as a Republican. He was without doubt one of the most radical people to ever serve in Congress and call himself a Republican, second possibly only to Vito Marcantonio of East Harlem, who was outspokenly pro-communist.
References
“Comrade Amlie” question refuted by ICC Nominee. Library of Congress.
Retrieved from
https://www.loc.gov/item/2016874979/
Dictatorship Step Laid to Roosevelt; Amos Pinchot Says His Bill for Reorganization Would Strip Congress of All Power. (1938, January 31). The New York Times.
Retrieved from
Nomination of Thomas R. Amlie. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office.
Retrieved from
Roosevelt, F.D. (1939, April 17). Withdrawal of the Nomination of Thomas R. Amlie for the Interstate Commerce Commission. The American Presidency Project.
Retrieved from
Thomas Ryum Amlie Papers, 1888-1967. Wisconsin Historical Society.
Retrieved from
To Aid Agriculture and Relieve Its Ever Existing National Emergency. Govtrack.
Retrieved from
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/72-2/h96
To Pass H.R. 7726 [Veterans’ Bonuses]. Govtrack.
Retrieved from
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/72-1/h64
To Pass H.R. 9642, Authorizing Supplemental Appropriations for Emergency Highway Construction with a View to Increasing Employment. Govtrack.
Retrieved from
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/72-1/h17
To Pass Over the Veto of the President H.R. 6662, Amending the Tariff Act of 1930. Govtrack.
Retrieved from
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/72-1/h49
To Recommit S. 3331 to Select Committee on Government Reorganization [Defeat FDR’s reorganization plan]. Govtrack.
Retrieved from
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/75-3/h125
To Recommit to Committee on Military Affairs, H.R. 11051, Providing for the Leasing and Other Utilization of the Muscle Shoals Property in the Interest of National Defense and of Agriculture, with Instructions to Strike Out the Section Providing for Operation of the Plant by the Government if it is not Leased within 18 Months from the Approval Date. Govtrack.
Retrieved from
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/72-1/h47
Mad Politics: The Bizarre, Fascinating, and Unknown of American Political History 