Floyd Olson
Olsonc. 1931
22ndGovernor of Minnesota
In office January 6, 1931 – August 22, 1936
Lieutenant	Henry M. Arens Konrad K. Solberg Hjalmar Petersen
Preceded by	Theodore Christianson
Succeeded by	Hjalmar Petersen
County Attorney ofHennepin County
In office September 13, 1920 – January 6, 1931
Personal details
Born	Floyd Bjørnstjerne Olson (1891-11-13)November 13, 1891 Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Died	August 22, 1936(1936-08-22) (aged 44) Rochester, Minnesota, U.S.
Resting place	Lakewood Cemetery
Political party	Farmer–Labor (after 1924)
Other political affiliations	Democratic (before 1924)
Spouse	Ada Krejci
Children	Patricia Olson
Education	Northwestern College of Law

Floyd Bjørnstjerne "Skipper" Olson (November 13, 1891 – August 22, 1936) was an American politician and lawyer who served three-terms as the22nd Governor of Minnesota from January 6, 1931 until his death in office at the age of forty-four on August 22, 1936. Aleft-wing populist,^[1][2] Olson was a member of theMinnesota Farmer–Labor Party, and the first member of the party to win the office of governor. He was a prominent governor ofMinnesota and an influential American politician.^[3]

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Floyd B. Olson was born on the north side ofMinneapolis, Minnesota, the only child of aNorwegian father, Paul Olsen, and aSwedish mother, Ida Maria (Nilsdotter).^{[4][citation needed]} The North Side neighborhood where Olson grew up was the home of a sizableOrthodox Jewish community, and Olson's friendships with some of the local Jewish families led him to serve as ashabbos goy, assisting Jews on the Sabbath by performing actions they were not permitted to do. Olson picked upYiddish from his childhood associations with his Jewish neighbors and years later spoke the language fluently while campaigning in Jewish communities, in addition to having several Jews serve him in advisory roles while in elected office.^[5][6]

After graduating fromNorth High School in Minneapolis in 1909, Olson went to work for theNorthern Pacific Railway. The next year, he enrolled at theUniversity of Minnesota, but he left after only a year, during which he was always in trouble for wearing aderby in violation of school rules and for refusing to participate in requiredROTC drills.

Heading west, Olson worked a series of odd jobs in Canada andAlaska before settling briefly inSeattle, Washington, where he became astevedore and joined theIndustrial Workers of the World. During this time, Olson read widely and began to adopt apopulist, semi-socialist philosophy he would retain for the rest of his life.

Returning to Minnesota in 1913, Olson enrolled atWilliam Mitchell College of Law (then the Northwestern College of Law), earning his degree in 1915. That same year, he met and married Ada Krejci inNew Prague, Minnesota, and became a practicing lawyer.

In 1919, Olson was hired as an AssistantHennepin County Attorney and by the following year had himself become the Hennepin County Attorney after the previous attorney was fired for acceptingbribes.

During that period, he made his first foray into politics when he helped form theCommittee of 48, an organization that attempted todraft SenatorRobert M. La Follette to run forpresident on athird-party ticket. The effort proved unsuccessful, but La Follette would later run on theProgressive Party ticket in 1924. That same year, Olson ran in theDemocraticprimary for the local seat in theHouse of Representatives but lost.

As Hennepin County Attorney, Olson quickly earned a name for himself as a sternprosecutor who relished going after crooked businessmen. He took on theKu Klux Klan in a well-publicized case that brought both respect anddeath threats and was reelected to the position in 1922 and 1926.

In 1923, Olson brought a case against the leaders of the Minnesota Citizens Alliance, a conservative business organization dedicated to preservingright-to-work laws, after they hired a hitman to dynamite the home of aunion leader. Olson's vigorous pursuit of the Citizens Alliance made him a hero to the local labor movement, which encouraged him to run for theMinnesota Farmer-Labor Party's gubernatorial nomination in 1924.

Having secured theendorsement of the Hennepin County Farmer-Labor Central Committee, Olson narrowly won the nomination in a bitterly fought primary. Buoyed by La Follette's presidential campaign (La Follette endorsed Olson and vice versa), he received 43% of the vote toRepublican candidateTheodore Christianson's 48%. Democratic candidateCarlos Avery came in a distant third with 6%.

Four years later, in 1928, the new "Farmer-Labor Association" (which had changed its name to avoid being linked with local communists) attempted to draft Olson to run for governor again. Although the party committee once again endorsed him and this time guaranteed that he would not face a primary battle, Olson declined to run. In theU.S. presidential election, 1928, the Farmer-Labor candidate lost in the Republican landslide that accompaniedHerbert Hoover's election.

By 1930, however, thestock market had crashed, and theGreat Depression had begun. After the party's newspaper urged that Olson be drafted, he easily won the nomination. Forming a coalition of farmers,organized labor, and small businessmen, Olson swept to a landslide victory in theelection, receiving 59% of the vote in a four-way race and winning 82 of the state's 87counties.

At the time Olson assumed his office,Minnesota's legislature was officially non-partisan but was in reality dominated by conservative Republicans who opposed most of what Olson stood for.^{[citation needed]}

Nevertheless, Olson soon proved himself skilled at the art of politics and managed to fulfill the vast majority of his campaign promises. During his three terms as governor, Olson proposed, and the legislature passed, bills that instituted aprogressive income tax, created asocial security program for the elderly, expanded the state'senvironmental conservation programs, guaranteedequal pay for women and the right tocollective bargaining, and instituted aminimum wage and a system ofunemployment insurance.

Despite these changes, the thing Olson wanted the most, a bill that would have put Minnesota's electric utilities, iron mines, oil fields, grain elevators, andmeatpacking plants understate ownership, never saw the light of day, as the legislature balked at what they saw as socialism and Olson insisted was "cooperativism".

As theplatform of his party grew successively more radical, Olson's support amongst the middle class gradually began to erode. His vigorous support from labor and agriculture, however, remained undiminished and he was easily reelected in1932 and1934.

In 1933,Time magazine quoted Olson speaking from the steps of the state capitol:

I am making a last appeal to the Legislature. If the Senate does not make provision for the sufferers in the State and the Federal Government refuses to aid, I shall invoke the powers I hold and shall declare martial law. ... A lot of people who are now fighting [relief] measures because they happen to possess considerable wealth will be brought in by provost guard and be obliged to give up more than they would now. There is not going to be misery in this State if I can humanly prevent it. ... Unless the Federal and State governments act to insure against recurrence of the present situation, I hope the present system of government goes right down to hell.^[7]

On May 16, 1934, the trucker's union in Minneapolis started a strike (Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934) that quickly resulted in open violence. The violence ebbed and flowed for the next two months until Governor Olson declared martial law on July 26, and mobilized 4,000 National Guardsmen under the command of Adjutant General Ellard A. Walsh. Walsh used a combination of checkpoints, security patrols, and curfews to restore order. As the violence subsided, negotiations resumed, and an agreement was reached to end the labor dispute.^[8]

Despite considerable achievements and widespread support, Olson's administration was marred by allegations made by crusading newspaper editorWalter Liggett that there were links between some members of his administration and organized crime. No evidence ever implicated Olson personally, however. Liggett was gunned down in front of his family in 1935.Kid Cann, a Minnesota gangster, was charged with but not convicted of the killing.

Olson and his Farmer-Labor Party made an informal alliance with PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt and supported him in 1936. Roosevelt was building theNew Deal coalition and wanted the solid base Olson could promise in Minnesota, where the Democrats were a weak third party.^[9] Roosevelt had a deal with Olson whereby the FLP would get federal patronage, and in turn the FLP would work to block a third-party ticket against Roosevelt in 1936.^[10]

In 1935, Olson ruled out the possibility of running for president in the1936 election, as a third-party candidate. Instead, on November 18, 1935, he announced his intention to run against longtime incumbentThomas Schall for one of Minnesota'sU.S. Senate seats.^[11] His chances improved the next month when Senator Schall died in office following a road accident, andElmer Benson, the interim successor to Schall chosen by Olson, promised not to run for the seat in the 1936 election.

However, Olson's own health was beginning to fail. Having suffered from severeulcers ever since his election, Olson went to theMayo Clinic in December 1935 and was diagnosed with stomach cancer (although sources differ on what type of cancer it was, stomach cancer is the most likely candidate). The cancer would eventually prove fatal, though Olson was not told of the seriousness of his condition until near the end of his life.^[12]

Thus reassured of his "good health", Olson proceeded to further weaken himself by not only resuming his duties as governor but also beginning to organize his party'sstate convention and returning to his senatorial campaign. As he stumped across the state, promising to support federal ownership ofmonopolies, his cancermetastasized.

Olson last made a public appearance on June 29, 1936, giving a stump speech inMinnehaha Park in Minneapolis. The next day, he returned to the Mayo Clinic for treatment, but it was too late. He died there on August 22 at the age of 44.^{[citation needed]} He was buried inLakewood Cemetery.^[13]

Olson has gone on to inspire generations of activists and politicians in Minnesota. He was easily one of the state's most influential politicians.

Since his death, dozens ofstatues of Olson have been constructed throughout the state, many of which declare him to be the state's "greatest governor".

Shortly after Olson died,Minnesota State Highway 55 (a highway that was then being constructed) was renamed the "Floyd B. Olson Memorial Highway" in his honor. A proposal by theTaxpayers League in late 2004 to rename the highway after the recently deceased PresidentRonald Reagan met with widespread public condemnation and was soon abandoned.^[14]

In 1974,Olson's home at 1914 West 49th Street inMinneapolis was listed on theNational Register of Historic Places.

• Floyd of Rosedale, a sculpture of a pig that Governor Olson won in a football bet.

Specific

General

• Biographical informationArchived March 1, 2007, at theWayback Machine and hisgubernatorial records are available for research use at theMinnesota Historical Society.

Wikiquote has quotations related toFloyd B. Olson.

• Floyd B. Olson in MNopedia, the Minnesota Encyclopedia

• Clark, Clifford Edward.Minnesota in a Century of Change: The State and its People since 1900 (1989).ISBN 978-0873512343
• Gieske, Millard L.Minnesota farmer-laborism: the third-party alternative (U of Minnesota Press, 1979).ISBN 978-0816657735
• Holbo, Paul S. "The Farmer-Labor Association: Minnesota's Party within a Party."Minnesota History 38.7 (1963): 301–309.online
• Lovin, Hugh T. "The Fall of Farmer-Labor Parties, 1936-1938."Pacific Northwest Quarterly 62.1 (1971): 16–26.
• Mayer, George H.The Political Career of Floyd B. Olson (The University of Minnesota Press, 1951)ISBN 978-0873512060
• Palmer, Bryan D.Revolutionary teamsters: The Minneapolis truckers’ strikes of 1934 (Brill, 2013).ISBN 978-9004254206
• Valelly, Richard M.Radicalism in the States: The Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party and the American Political Economy (U of Chicago Press, 1989)onlineISBN 978-0226845357

• Delegard, Kirsten (September 1, 2015)."Who was Floyd Olson?".Historyapolis.Augsburg College. Archived fromthe original on March 4, 2016. RetrievedSeptember 3, 2015.

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