Born To Be a Newspaper Man

by Martin J. McGowan Jr.

Elmer A. Benson

Elmer A. Benson, of Appleton, was the last Farmer-Labor governor of Minnesota. My father was his best friend even though they deviated slightly in their political outlook. The Farmer-Labor party was more of a leftist party while my father was an old-line Democrat.

Nevertheless, they got along well. Benson did many favors for our family. When he was banking commissioner before he was elected governor he had Evelyn Kelly, my stepmother's sister, as his secretary. She went with him when he served a brief term in the United States Senate to fill out an unexpired term. She returned to Minnesota when he was elected governor. Benson also appointed my uncle, Pat McGowan, to be State Printer.

Benson was a dry and never drank. Yet one time when he was in Chicago for a meeting he was given two bottles of champagne. He knew what to do with them. He brought them home and gave them to my father. They were saved for a long time and only opened for some special occasion.

Gov. Benson was a graduate of Appleton high school and when the Appleton high school basketball team played in the state tournament in 1938 he invited the team to the state capitol and gave them a meal in the capitol dining room. As reporter for the team I came along.

There was a special reserved box for the governor in Memorial Stadium, the football field for the University of Minnesota. Benson invited my father, Elizabeth and me to watch a game with his wife, Frances, and their children, Lois and Thomas, from that box. We must have gone to the Benson house before the game where we got in a limousine with state highway patrol escort and drove to the stadium, bypassing all the traffic. After the game we returned to the Benson house with the same escort. It was quite a thrill.

Although my early connections with Elmer Benson were through my father, Benson also played a part in my political life. Elsewhere I have mentioned how he came to my defense in a meeting of the Appleton businessmen's association when an attempt was made to bar the press from the meetings. In 1944 I attended my first county convention. At this time the Farmer-Labor party was the strongest party and the Democrats were the weakest third behind the Republicans. They all held separate conventions

The 1944 conventions of the Farmer-Laborites and the Democrats were held in the county courthouse in Benson. The Democrats met in the courtroom and the Farmer-Labor group met in the basement. There must have been some preliminary discussion about this but the first business of the Democrats was to invite the Farmer-Laborites to join them for a united party that could beat the Republicans.

I was named as one of the delegates to go down stairs to the Farmer-Labor group and extend the initiation. The Farmer-Laborites agreed and came upstairs. The first order of business was to elect officers for the new county organization. Benson got up and nominated James Youngdale for chairman and me for secretary.

Youngdale was a progressive farmer from the Benson area. His views on the issues were more to the left, in line with Benson's thinking. With this county convention I began 19 years as county Democratic secretary.

By 1948 it was apparent the merger of the two parties was not working well. Benson resented the role Hubert Humphrey played in the merger. He seemed to be getting all the credit in the headlines for driving the Communists out of the party. Actually, the merger would not have happened if Benson had not agreed. So Benson began working with leftists to start a new national party, the Progressive party. Benson was named national chairman.

The Progressives chose Henry Wallace as their candidate for president. Wallace was originally a Republican from Iowa. He was named Secretary of Agriculture by Roosevelt and was elected vice president in Roosevelt's third term. However, he was dumped as a candidate in Roosevelt's fourth term and Harry Truman was elected vice president in 1944.

At the county level our convention in 1948 became quite a battle. Where we merged in 1944 but we broke up in 1948. Youngdale called the convention to order and he was immediately challenged as not being a member of the party, having gone over to the Progressives. Youngdale tried to continue the meeting but Bill Kavanagh, an old-line Democrat from Murdock, said the regulars would meet in the center of the court room.

I had to make a decision. Where was my loyalty? My Dad and I had discussed what was happening earlier and we decided to stay with the regular Democrats and not follow the Progressives, as much as we admired Elmer Benson. So I took my book of minutes and went over to the regulars. Two meetings were conducted simultaneously with some sniping back and forth across the room.

Benson did not drive a car. He was a miserable driver who speeded up on the curves and slowed down on the straight-away. He had an accident with a borrowed car on a trip to California. That cured him of driving. Frances was his driver.

I heard she was out of town on the day of the convention so I called Elmer to ask if he wanted a ride to the convention at Benson. He said he would like that. However, Frances returned from Minneapolis and she was going to drive. I became a passenger.

After the convention split I returned to a seat near her. She immediately told me to return a typewriter from Elmer's office where we had borrowed it. She ordered it returned the next morning. I could see I was not welcome in their car for the return trip. So I called Joe McGowan to see if he would give me a ride part way home. He agreed and took me to Danvers where Betty picked me up. I went with the typewriter to Elmer's office the following morning as instructed. He said to forget about it.

It was apparent that Benson and Youngdale were trying to take the Democratic party organization into the Progressive party. The delegates they chose at their county convention were not recognized at the district convention. Harry Truman won the national election and the Progressives faded. Youngdale ran for Congress late but with reluctant Democratic support he lost.

Another interesting incident occurred about 1947. It must have been connected to Benson's activity with the Progressive party. I was walking home from the Press office for lunch. As I passed the city hall I noticed a small, black car with two men in the front seat parked on the side street. One of the men got out of the car and called to me. He asked if he could speak with me. He then identified himself as an agent of the FBI. I wondered what business he would have with me or I with him.

I don't recall if I got in the car with the men or he conducted his interview while I stood outside the car. He asked if I knew Elmer Benson. I said I did. He then asked me if I thought Benson was a Communist. I said I didn't think so. He may have been a decided leftist but as a millionaire land owner I thought it would be inconsistent of him to subscribe to Communist philosophy. With that the FBI agents departed.

J. Edgar Hoover was director of the FBI at this time. His job was to find and root our Communists or Communist sympathizers. He worked hard at it but it seemed he went too far at time in making his accusations. What must have brought the questions about Elmer Benson related to his position as national chairman of the new Progressive party that ran Henry Wallace for president in the 1948 national election. The party was leftist and Benson was under suspicion for his beliefs.

As I continued on my way home I wondered how the FBI happened to choose me to ask about Elmer Benson. Did they have a file on me? Undoubtedly, they had a file on Benson. How did they know how I looked? Why were they parked on my way home? Did they know where I lived? All these questions raised the specter of Big Brother government. It was all rather spooky.

After Elmer and Frances took up residence in a retirement home in Bloomington There I had an opportunity to interview him twice. I taped the interviews and the Minnesota Historical Society listened to the tapes and added some details to their record on Benson.

Elmer had been receiving dialysis three times a week. When the doctors said he would have to have daily dialysis he balked. He had enough and stopped receiving it. This brought on his death. A Masonic funeral was held for him in the gymnasium of the Appleton elementary school.

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