article in Minnesota History about Kenneth Haycraft

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THE RED-BAITING OF KENNETH C. HAYCRAFT

A MINNESOTA ALL AMERICAN

WILLIAM MILLIKAN

Published in Minnesota History (MHS Press, St. Paul, Winter 1994)

The extreme economic conditions of the great depression created fertile ground for the

growth of communism in Minneapolis, as in other cities across the United States. In January

1930, a congressional committee reported that Minnesota had become "a center of activity in

the spread of communism." The Communist Party, adopting its Popular Front strategy in the

mid-1930s, gained influence in both the Farmer-Labor party and the state Congress of Industrial

Organizations. In Minneapolis, the Socialist Worker's party emerged during the 1934 trucker's

strike to lead a successful and radical union movement. By 1938 various forms of radicalism

were thriving in factories and in political activities across the state. (1)

The powerful, conservative business interests of Minneapolis rightly perceived such activity

as a direct threat to their financial and industrial empire, built on the wealth of flour mills

and banks. As early as 1903, businessmen had joined forces in the Minneapolis Citizen's

Alliance (CA) in an effort to suppress union activity and other challenges to their dominance.

Minneapolis became a battleground between the entrenched powers of industry and insurgent

radical groups.(2)

The mainstream press, which was closely allied with the Citizen's Alliance, repeatedly

attacked Minneapolis's tradition of radicalism. By the late

1930s

the CAs message was focused on

the allegiance of many leaders in the city's union movement to the Socialist Workers party. Armed

with extensive intelligence gathered by its own investigators, the CA continually reminded the

public that the Communist menace threatened one and all. Gradually, these accusations took

hold of Minnesota's political dialogue. By

1938

even the Farmer-Labor party was split by shrill

denunciations of Communist conspiracy. "The most dangerous, sinister, and unchristian force

threatening democratic government throughout the world" had become one of Minnesota's most

important political issues.(3)

During the

1938

general-election campaign, Governor Elmer A. Benson was labeled the front

man of an invidious Jewish Communist conspiracy to destroy Minnesota. When accused of red

baiting, Republican propagandist Ray P. Chase blandly replied in print, "Why is Red-Baiting

vile[?] Nobody knows. It's one of Life's mysteries." Although Minnesotans might argue about

the positive or negative social impact of the state's heritage of radicalism and red-baiting, there can

be no question that red-baiting wreaked injustice on innocent men and women. The persecution of

Kenneth C. Haycraft, a Minnesota All American football star, is an undeniable example.(4)

Kenneth Clair Haycraft was born in

1907

in a logging camp

miles north of Bemidji

where his father, Isaac G., worked. Times were tough for the lumberjacks of northern

Minnesota and would remain so for the Haycraft family for the next 20 years. Despite a string

of failed attempts at farming and small businesses that bounced his growing family

from Bemidji to Winnie, Texas, and then across northern Minnesota, Isaac Haycraft reportedly

remained a patriotic Republican and a religious man, proud of his family's role in the American

Revolution and the success of his brother, Julius E., a Minnesota state senator and district

court judge. For young Kenneth, however, the family's financial straits meant working in his

father's general store beginning at age 13. (5)

(TO TOP)

Haycraft's high-school years were as transient as his childhood. For his freshman year, Kenneth

and his older brother Sylvester J. (jolly), went to Washington, D.C., to live with their oldest brother,

Everett, a lawyer with the Federal Trade Commission. The next spring, however, the brothers had to

leave Washington to help their father develop an 80-acre farm 10 miles west of Hibbing, clearing land

And building a house and barn. Because of the farm's isolation, Kenneth boarded with a family in Grand

Rapids to continue his high-school education. Then, in the spring of 1923 the Haycrafts left their

Hibbing land to live on a cousin's farm near Erskine, and Kenneth entered his third high school in three

years. He worked on the Erskine farm during the summer of 1923 and then returned to Washington to

stay with his grandmother. When she died that winter, the determined young Minnesotan moved in with

his brother across town, took on a part-time job, and managed to graduate the next spring.(6)

Although Kenneth wanted to follow his brother's career path in government and law, it was

clear that his family would not be able to assist him financially in attaining his lofty goals. That

summer he worked on several threshing crews south of Madelia, near where his grandfather had

homesteaded in 1865, and saved $54, enough for fall-quarter tuition and one month's rent for a

room with his brother jolly in Dinkytown. In September 1924 he enrolled in the prelegal

course of the College of Science, Literature, and Arts at the University of Minnesota, working as a

bus boy in downtown Minneapolis for 60 cents a day plus his only meal. By spring quarter, how-

ever, his money had run out, and Kenneth took out a loan for tuition. A new job at the Campus Club

supplied him three meals a day without pay. Although the two brothers managed to struggle

through their first year of college, graduation remained a distant goal.(7)

Fate intervened for Kenneth that summer when the University of Minnesota hired

Clarence W. Spears, a doctor and All American guard from Dartmouth College, as its new foot

ball coach. "Doc" Spears urged university students to try out for the team; if they did not know

how to play, he would teach them. Although Haycraft had never played varsity football in high

school, he heard that athletes were given well paid jobs. Desperate to stay in school, he joined

the "scrubs" despite the objections of his parents. Thirty years later Spears would remember

Haycraft as "a green, awkward farm boy who had never played football." At 162 pounds, he was also

more than 60 pounds lighter than the team's other tackles. As the season progressed, Haycraft spent

his time learning opponents' plays for use in scrimmages against the varsity

Haycraft's position on the football team was decided in Fall 1926 when he finished fourth in

the squad race. As the team's fastest lineman, he was quickly shifted to end, where he soon attract-

ed notice. After a loss to Notre Dame, St. Paul Dispatch columnist Dick Cullum announced: "If

any new star was set to blazing in Saturday's game it was Kenneth Haycraft.... He was the only man

on the Minnesota squad who succeeded in smashing the Notre Dame attack behind the line, and he

did it more than once." Isaac Haycraft, watching his first football game, cheered wildly and quietly

dropped his opposition to his son's sports career.(9)

By the last game of the 1927 season, the Gophers were undefeated. Haycraft, battling a

case of jaundice, had established himself as one of the best ends in the Midwest. To capture the Big

Ten title, Haycraft and his teammates would have to win on the road against the University of

Michigan, a team that the), had beaten only twice in 18 games. Despite the dominance of Minne-

sota's line, Michigan led 7 to 0 at the half. In the second half, Michigan's offense, buried for losses

again and again by Minnesota ends Bob Tanner and Haycraft, came to a grinding halt. The

Michigan jinx struck again after Minnesota scored a third-quarter touchdown. On the point after

touchdown the snap from center fell short, leaving Minnesota trailing by one point as the fourth

quarter started.(10)
(TO TOP)

The Gophers opened the last quarter of the season with a drive deep into Michigan territory. With a

first down on the eight yard line, Minnesota ran three consecutive plays into the line for little gain.

From fourth and goal on the six-yard line, Shorty Almquist shot a pass toward Haycraft's out

stretched arms. With one lunge and grab of the pigskin, Kenneth Haycraft became a Minnesota foot

ball legend. For only the third time in 35 years, the Little Brown jug would reside in Minnesota.(11)

Although the 1928 Minnesota football team outscored its opponents 182 to 36, the season was

marred by two upset, one point losses to Northwestern and Iowa. Haycraft, however, still underweight

and battling jaundice, had a brilliant year. Playing next to the injured Bronko Nagurski, Haycraft read

plays quickly, raced in to destroy the opponents' interference, and was a deadly tackler. On of-

fense, relentless blocking and spectacular goal-line catches became his trade mark. National football

pundits noticed Minnesota's starting left end, selecting him to be first-team end on the 11-man All

American teams of the New York Sun, the International News Service, Walter Eckersall, and the

Prestigious Grantland Rice. By honoring Minnesota with its sixth All American, the national sports

press had also made Haycraft one of the state's most famous citizens.(12)

Even a legend, however, had to eat and pay the rent and tuition for law school, which

Haycraft had entered in the fall of 1927. Sandwiched between morning classes, football prac-

tices, and evening study, Haycraft continued to work part time. Ironically, he secured a much bet

ter-paying job in the proof department at Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis. Five

years later, as a state investigator, Haycraft would probe the bank's expansion that had occurred dur-

ing his college employment.

(13)

In 1929 Haycraft married Alberta Smith, the sister of one of his school friends. That fall, he

joined a new National Football League team, the Minneapolis Red jackets, at his college position of

left end. Outmanned by powerful veteran teams like the Green Bay Packers, the Red jackets were

both a financial and competitive failure. Although the team folded in its second season, the $125

Haycraft earned per game helped him complete his final year of law school. By the fall of 1930 he

was both a lawyer and a famous football player, attributes that would soon make him a prime

prospect for the state's political arena.(14)

For the first two years of the Great Depression, Haycraft struggled to support his wife and

young daughter as a lawyer in the firm of his father-in-law, Stelle S. Smith. He supplement-

ed his income playing semiprofessional football and, at the urging of his legal associates,

joined the Minnesota National Guard. Although he contemplated the stability that government

work might provide, Minnesota at the time was controlled by the Farmer-Labor party led by

Governor Floyd B. Olson. Haycraft, perhaps influenced by his conservative, Republican family,

had voted for Herbert Hoover in 1928 and later, under the direction of his father-in-law, had joined

the Young Republican League.

(15)

(TO TOP)

By 1932, as the depression deepened its grip on Minnesota, Haycrafts law practice was floun-

dering. Searching for a solution to the dire economic problems Surrounding him, he attended a

speech of Governor Olson's. The charismatic. politician called for employment programs so that

"every able-bodied person who wants to work can find a job," unemployment insurance, and a

State wide old-age pension so that no one would go hungry. To pay for his programs, Olson

Would combine a state income tax with stricter tax collections to make sure the wealthy paid

their fair share. Impressed, Haycraft approached the governor after the speech and was quickly

recruited to play an important role in the 1932 campaign.(16)

To aid his reelection bid, Olson was organizing a Young Voters Liberal League to bring inde-

pendent, Republican, and Democratic voters into the Farmer-Labor camp. Haycraft, with his All

American fame and his legal training, was the perfect man to lead this group. As president of

the newly formed league, he campaigned, on the radio throughout the fall of 1932. Olson,

recognizing his appointee's potential, told Haycraft to come to the capitol after the election to

talk about his future.(17)

Fresh from a decisive electoral victory over Republican Earle Brown, an ex-intelligence oper-

ative for the Citizen's Alliance, Olson opened up a full-scale attack on the banking empires

behind the CA. In 1929 Northwestern National Bank had launched Northwest

Bancorporation, or Banco, a holding company that would control 127 banks two years

later. Built on the region's natural resources, particularly wheat, the industrial capitalism of

the area was gradually shifting to a financial capitalism dominated by Banco and its rival,

First Bank Stock Corporation. The emergence of these two giants also brought about a shift of

power within the Minneapolis business community and the CA.(18)

Olson, who had been a bitter enemy of the Citizen's Alliance since 1923, instructed the

Minnesota Commerce Department to investigate the stock sales of Banco and First Bank Stock

Corporation. On January 1, 1933, the governor appointed Haycraft chief investigator of

the secu rities division of the commerce department and assigned him to the case. Over the

course of the investigation, Haycraft interviewed banking executives regarding Banco's

methods of buying up Minnesota banks and spoke to individuals about their Northwest

Bancorporation stock purchases. He examined records of the corporation's banking

activities and the manipulation of the recently created Minneapolis-St. Paul stock exchange.

The securities division also interrogated Northwest Bancorporation President E. W Decker,

who had played an important role in the Citizen's Alliance's long success. The investigation

concluded that Banco had fraudulently misrepresented its earnings and the value of its stocks

and had manipulated prices in order to sell its stock issues at inflated values, Years later,

Haycraft recalled that Banco was "selling blue sky."(19)

Acting on Haycrafts information, Olson asked the Hennepin County attorney for indictments

against Banco executives. Olson, who had been county attorney a decade earlier, should have

been aware that the Citizen's Alliance dominated the county's grand juries. When the panel

refused to return an indictment, Olson took the evidence to the U.S. district attorney for

prosecution. In September 1934, J. Cameron Thomson, Banco vice-president and general

manager, went on trial in Moorhead, where a stock buyer had charged the corporation with

Fraud.(20)

(TO TOP)

The trial was a publicity disaster for Banco, as Minnesota newspapers reveled in the prosecu-

tion's description of the corporation's scheme to

"obtain complete domination and control of the

financial resources of the state of Minnesota and of the northwest." The defense, perhaps

Realizing that the jury was confused by the complicated financial testimony, rested its case

without calling a witness. The jury agreed with the defense's contention that the prosecution

had failed to prove its case. The second case, against Decker, was dropped after he resigned his

position. The charges against the other 18 defendants were dropped in 1936, and Banco

escaped with its empire unscathed. Haycrafts first battle with the CA, however, would not be

his last.(21)

While Banco and the Citizen's Alliance waited for the Moorhead trial during the summer of

1934, a far more serious threat exploded in the streets of Minneapolis. A small group of

Trotskyite Communists had organized Minneapolis truckers into a radical, fighting force that

demanded union recognition and challenged the Alliance's domination of industry. Relying on

pickets roving the city in automobiles, the Teamsters Union had temporarily paralyzed

business. With Minneapolis on the verge of civil war, Governor Olson declared martial law

and sent in the Minnesota National Guard. The Citizen's Alliance declared over local

radio stations that it would never negotiate with Communists.(22)

Within days, it was clear that the National Guard, whose personnel had been closely associ -

ated with the Citizen's Alliance since World War 1, was issuing enough moving permits to

Employers' trucks to break the strike. When the teamsters gave the governor 48 hours to stop

issuing permits before the picketing would resume in defiance of military authorities, Olson

ordered the National Guard to raid the union's strike headquarters and arrest its leaders. To the

governor's surprise, the union then began picketing all truck movements despite skirmishes

with the National Guard. Faced with the unacceptable choice of using military force to crush

the union, thus assuring the CA of victory, or of releasing all the union leaders, Olson

swallowed his pride and released them. The stage was set for Kenneth Haycrafts second con-

frontation with the Citizen's Alliance.(23)

Lt. Haycraft, in his dual role as state investigator and National Guard officer, had been assigned

to troop headquarters to perform military intelligence duties during the strike. Olson suspected

that the CA was leading the employers' battle with the teamsters and was also sabotaging

settlement of the strike from within the union movement. He detailed the team from the Banco

investigation to uncover any Citizen's Alliance-union connection. To begin, Haycraft and

Robert F. Stebbing, chief accountant at the state securities commission, examined the records

of the Paine-Webber Company, following a money trail from union leader Walter Frank to the

CA. The final proof undoubtedly rested in the files of the Citizen's Alliance, so Olson ordered

the National Guard to raid CA headquarters. A raid might also reestablish Olson's credibility

in Minneapolis' working class neighborhoods.(24)

The governor called in Special Assistant Attorney General William E. ' G. Watson, who was

working on the Banco case, to supervise the raid. Watson requested a trustworthy officer to

lead it. Both men realized that the Guard's officer corps was closely associated with the CA;

someone would warn the employer group of any impending action. Olson and Watson agreed

that Haycraft was the only man for the job. When Haycraft received his assignment, Olson

warned, "You'll be the white-haired boy for all of our people, but I want you to know that you'll

be anathema to the Citizen's Alliance people for a long time." Forty seven years later, Haycraft

remarked softly, "He was so right."(25

(TO TOP)

On August 3, 1934,, Haycraft and a squad of 10 men were detailed to Governor Olson for spe-

cial duty. Their mission was to search the CA offices to secure "information and evidence as to

the identity and activities of paid agents, and those employing them, all of whom are seeking to

incite violence in the city of Minneapolis, for the purpose of impeding the settlement of the

present strike." That afternoon, Haycraft's squad, still ignorant of its assignment, hid in a room

at Olson's strike headquarters while Haycraft and Watson synchronized their watches with the

governor's. At precisely 2:00 P.M. Watson watched Haycraft and his squad enter the Builders

Exchange building on Second Avenue South. Guards were immediately assigned to each door

and telephone. Watson supervised a search of the desks and file cabinets while the CA:s female

employees watched. As the search progressed, Watson intercepted a phone call from a Lt. Col.

Collins who wished to warn CA Secretary Jack Schroeder that a raid was imminent. Watson

immediately notified Olson that the mission's security had been breached. Olson ordered the

squad to evacuate the building immediately and remove all seized materials to Watson's offices.

Olson was later to learn that Schroeder had been warned before the raid, and four suitcases of

files and papers had been taken down the freight elevator.(26)

Although Watson and Haycraft failed to secure a list of CA agents in the Iabor movement,

they did find evidence to corroborate the governor's accusations "that the Citizens Alliance

Clique dominates and controls the actions of the Employers' Advisory Committee; [and] that

it maintains a considerable number of stool pigeons in various labor unions." The documents

also revealed the Citizens Alliance's efforts to discredit President Franklin D. Roosevelt and

undermine federal labor policies, its financial support of efforts to defeat unemployment

insurance legislation, its close relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department, and its

suspicious interest in Hennepin Count), grand jury members hearing state charges against

Banco. Olson vehemently attacked the CA, revealing its activities to the public. Although

embarrassing, these revelations had little effect on the course of the strike. After a

summer of labor strife, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation threatened to call in more

than $23 million in loans to Northwest Bancorporation if the CA did not settle. Under pressure,

the employers agreed to hold federally supervised elections to determine who would represent

workers in each shop.(27)

New Deal legislation and the growth of union activity in Minneapolis after the teamsters' victory,

led to a period of intense industrial strife across the state. While the Citizen's Alliance campaigned

Vigorously against the Communists who "foment strife and discord among our working people in

Furtherance of their revolutionary activities," Haycraft, now a close friend and confidant of Olson, was

dispatched to arbitrate labor disputes in St. Paul and Fargo Moorhead. New Deal and state legislation

also created a Minnesota Old Age, Assistance Program beginning March

1, 1936.

Convinced of

Haycraft's dedication to both the law and social justice, Olson appointed him program director.

The problem facing Haycraft was immense. One-third of Minnesotans over the age of

65 -

some

63,700

citizens-were eligible for assistance. Until federal Social Security began paying monthly

benefits in 1942, only this assistance program stood between many of the state's elderly and des -

titution. Some counties tried to avoid fairly administering the regulations. Haycraft felt that

Minnesota "cannot ignore the needs of those who have given service to the state and nation through

long useful lives and are entitled to receive as their just due a measure of security and peace in their

last years." He quickly acquired a widespread reputation as a sensitive and efficient administrator.

When Governor Harold E. Stassen's administration took office in

1939,

it announced that all of

Haycraft's policies would remain in effect.

(29)

Haycraft's efforts to establish a financial safety net under the state's poor and aged were inter-

rupted in February

1937

when the Farmer-Labor Association's Minneapolis convention became

deadlocked in an attempt to nominate a candidate for mayor. The incumbent, Farmer-Laborite

Thomas E. Latimer, had alienated most of Minneapolis's union movement in the fall of 1935

when he escorted strikebreakers through picketlines at the Flour City Ornamental Iron plant.

The deaths of two union protesters, shot by city policemen, helped create a movement to oust

Latimer from the Farmer-Labor party. With more than half of the 1937 convention violently op-

posed to the mayor and little hope of a successful nomination, the convention adjourned. Latimer's

supporters, led by teamster Miles Dunne, a Trotskyite, then abandoned the regular party

process and held their own convention.(30
(TO TOP)

The local Farmer-Labor Association had been infiltrated to a small degree by both Stalinists and

Trotskyites, factions of the Communist party that were bitter enemies. When Dunne joined with

conservative American Federation of Labor union leaders and some party officials to form a rump

convention, the Stalinist faction stayed behind. Dunne then accused the leaders of the regular

convention of being Communist stooges. With the Latimer forces publicly red-baiting their own

party, Farmer-Labor leaders realized that they had to find a candidate who was clearly not a

Communist, who believed firmly in Farmer Labor principles, and who, because he belonged

to neither faction, might bring the party back together.(31)

Governor Elmer Benson, who had tried unsuccessfully to mediate the dispute, asked

Kenneth Haycraft to run. Although Haycraft had not been at the convention, he was aware of the

accusations and demanded proof that the regular convention was not dominated by Communists.

Convinced by party officials that the great majority of the anti-Communist unions and clubs were

in the regular convention, Haycraft, who had no political experience, agreed to run. The other can-

didates, realizing the need to nominate a "clean" candidate, withdrew.(32)

Despite entreaties for party unity, Latimer's allies at the rump convention simply ignored

Haycraft's nomination, set up their own Farmer Labor headquarters, and proclaimed Latimer the

party's candidate for mayor. The Latimer forces quickly spread the issue of communism into the

ward clubs, effectively paralyzing the party's election apparatus. The Trotskyite teamsters' officials

added the charge of strikebreaker during the 1934 truckers' strike to the false accusations against

Haycraft.(33)

Realizing that his candidacy was doomed without labor support, Haycraft attacked "Lati -

mer's 'Service' to Labor," particularly his approval of strikebreaking at Flour City Ornamental Iron

Works, Strutwear Knitting Mills, and the Archer

Daniels plant, and his use of tear gas an clubs

against protesting unemployed workers. If elected, Haycraft would "prevent the importation of

scabs, thugs, and strikebreakers," "defend the workers in their fundamental right to strike and

picket," and "prevent the use of the National Guard to break strikes." Haycraft attacked the

Citizen's Alliance as the "real energy of organized labor in Minneapolis which attempts to maintain

open shop in the city." He accused the alliance of planting spies inside the union movement and

using its employment bureau to supply strikebreakers. He promised to end the cozy relation

ship between the Citizen's Alliance and city hall.(34)

Haycraft's campaign for the labor vote received an unintended boost when the Teamsters

Union bolted from the Latimer camp and ran Vincent R. Dunne for mayor. Although Dunne

only received 893 votes in the primary on May 10, it was enough to provide Haycraft with a slim,

276-vote victory. He would now face ex-mayor George E. Leach in the general election.(35)

(TO TOP)

Haycraft opened his campaign saying, "The struggle between the economic overlords and the workers is the

fundamental issue in the Minnea-polis city campaign." Leach, who publicly welcomed the CA:s support, made an

easy target. While Leach felt that unemployment insurance was "a scheme plotted in Moscow," Haycraft sup-

ported social programs for higher relief payments, better schools, a living wage, and proper housing.

The Haycraft campaign charged Leach, who had been mayor of Minneapolis from 1921 to 1929,

with personally leading trucks through picket lines at the Northwestern Bank building in 1929 and of

helping break the affiliation of the Minneapolis police union with the AFL. One pamphlet stated,

"The Issue is Clear! Who is Going to Run Minneapolis? Haycraft and the People? Or Leach and

the Citizen's Alliance?" Leach, whose first mayoral victory had been financed by the CA, did not

bother to contradict these charges. As the election approached, Haycraft felt that the "division of

forces which we had in the primary campaign has been well healed." The Latimer people were

working in the campaign, and the Teamsters Union had endorsed him. Ten days before the

election, polls taken by Haycrafts campaign predicted a decisive victory.(36)

To Haycrafts dismay, the issue of communism returned in the final days before the election.

Aware that any affiliation with communism would destroy his candidacy, Haycraft had publicly repu-

diated the support of the Trotskyites of the rump convention and the Stalinists that had backed his

nomination. One of his press releases stated, "The principles of the Farmer-Labor Party are opposed

to Communistic principles.... As for myself, I am an American, a church member and a Farmer

Laborite. I am not now and never have been a Communist. I am not associated with nor influ-

enced by ... Communism."(37)

What public confidence Haycrafts denials had restored was destroyed on June 6 when a special

election paper, the Sunday Worker, was distributed across the city, particularly in the two largest

conservative wards. The Sunday Worker blasted Leach and the CA and praised Haycraft for his

deeply held radicalism, particularly his supposed antiwar stance. The source of this paper is un-

clear. The Leach campaign informed local newspapers two days before publication that it was

forthcoming from the Communist party. The Haycraft campaign attempted unsuccessfully to

determine who published it, at first suggesting that it was Leach's forces and later that it was the

Communists, hoping to destroy Haycrafts candidacy because he had repudiated their support.(38)

Meanwhile, W. J. McGaughran, the Leach campaign's labor chairman, also made every effort

to brand Haycraft a Communist. McGaughren's attacks deepened the erosion in Haycrafts sup-

port. Ironically, Clarence Hathaway, the editor of the bona fide Communist newspaper, the Daily

Worker, stated that Haycraft was not in sympathy with his party, derisively suggesting that the can-

didate would carry out only "a very limited reform within the structure of the capitalist system." Des-

perately attempting to disavow all Communist support, Haycraft went on WGN radio 24 hours

before the election, but it was too late. On election day Leach took only six of the city's 13 wards,

but the turnout in the two wards blanketed by the Sunday Worker helped provide the margin of vic-

tory. It was clear to Haycraft and his campaign managers that the mysterious newspaper had

effectively elected George Leach mayor of Minneapolis. Red-baiting had ended Kenneth

Haycraft's brief political career.(39)

While the Haycraft campaign fought its losing battle, several members of his team

were helping organize a local chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, a new threat

to the Citizen's Alliance. The CA, in conjunction with the Minnesota Employers'

Association at the state legislature and the National Association of Manufacturers in Washing-

ton, D.C., had long maintained a powerful interest in labor and social legislation. The National

Lawyers Guild was, in the words of its first president, Chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme

Court John P. Devaney, "irrevocably committed to the promotion of social legislation intended for

the better protection and preservation of human rights from those who would destroy those

rights ... under the guise of seeking the protection of property," At its first convention in Feb-

ruary 1937, the guild passed resolutions in favor of abolishing child labor, expanding social securi-

ty, extending New Deal relief programs, repealing all legislation restricting freedom of speech and

opinion, restricting the activities of the National Guard, allowing the right to strike,'picket, and

boycott, and forbidding company unions and labor spies. These were all policies that threatened to

weaken the Citizen's Alliance in its struggle against unions. Kenneth Haycraft, like many of his

fellow Farmer-Labor lawyers, joined the guild in its first year. More than a decade later, his mem-

bership would serve as another thread in a web that threatened to entrap him.(40)

(TO TOP)

After his defeat, Haycraft, disillusioned by the political process, worked behind the scenes to

eliminate the Communist influence in the Farmer Labor party. His conflict with the Citizen's

Alliance, however, was far from over. In December 1937, for the third time in as many years, a labor

dispute was brewing at the J. R. Clark Company's wooden-box factory in north Minneapolis. John

Clark, a close friend of Mayor Leach and a major in the Minnesota National Guard, had been a

member of the CA for more than two decades. When Clark refused to negotiate, Furniture

Workers Local 1859 voted unanimously to strike. Two days later, negotiations briefly resumed with

CA field agent Lloyd M. MacAloon representing the company. On the same day that Clark boasted

that Leach would provide police to operate the plant, Sgt. Lucien Houle of the 151st Field

Artillery of the Minnesota National Guard scoured the city, recruiting unemployed guardsmen to

break the Clark strike.(41)

The next day, union representatives called on Governor Benson and asked him to investigate.

The governor wrote Adj. Gen. Ellard A. Walsh, requesting immediate action and recommending,

should the charges substantiated, a "trial and court martial of -all guilty on charges unbecoming

officers with a view to their immediate expulsion from the Guard." Benson, aware of Haycrafts ear-

lier work as a "tough and impartial" investigator and of his position as a National Guard officer,

also directed the adjutant general to appoint Haycraft to investigate the union's charges.(42)

Although Haycrafts inspection of the Clark plant revealed no National Guard equipment, his

interviews of guard personnel and subsequent testimony before a board of inquiry revealed a star-

tling misuse of military authority. The board of inquiry established that Capt. George W Sylvester

(who was the assistant superintendent at the Clark plant) and Sgt. Houle had, with the approval of

Maj. Clark, used National Guard records and facilities to hire 30 men from the Minneapolis

garrison to work at and police the Clark plant. According to testimony, it was common practice

for superior officers to employ guardsmen. In fact, ' Sylvester had worked with the CA's

MacAloon to break an earlier strike at the Northwest Casket Company with the cost paid

out of a secret National Guard fund. Despite Clark's and Sylvester's efforts to conceal their

activities, the board of inquiry found that the two officers had engaged in "conduct to the prejudice

of good order and of a nature to bring discredit to the National Guard." On March 10 Governor

Benson directed the adjutant general to court martial both men. Under pressure, Clark gave in

to the initial union demands for a wage raise and seniority rights and also recognized the union as

the only bargaining agent for the employees. More important, the investigation had revealed

and destroyed an important weapon in the CAs battle against the city's labor unions.(43)

Haycraft's role in investigating and prosecuting his fellow officers created deep animosity

within the National Guard. The officers of the 151st Field Artillery resented Haycrafts affiliation

with the Farmer-Labor party and his active participation in the Olson and Benson administrations'

actions against Minneapolis employers. Haycraft had embarrassed the 151st and damaged the rep-

utations of several popular officers. He had also helped destroy a lucrative system of employment,

The close-knit military community decided to wreak vengeance on the traitor in its ranks.

Haycraft's reputation would be destroyed.(44)

The first accusation appeared on Haycrafts efficiency report for 1938. His battalion comman-

der, Maj. John F Robohm Jr., stated that the officer was "of doubtful value to the service because

of the lack of confidence in him by the majority of the other officers of this regiment, due to their

belief that he has close associations with communistic elements in this city." Haycraft, in an

attempt to save his military career, emphatically denied the charge. The report, which normally

would have been forwarded to the War Department, was invalidated by Joseph E. Nelson, the

state's assistant adjutant general. Stating that the hearsay accusations reported by Robohm violated

"a basic principle of freedom of individual political thought and action which every American citi-

zen inherently possesses," Nelson returned the report to the 151st for modification.(45)

The search for revenge was complicated in the spring of 1939 when Haycraft moved to

Chicago to work for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. There, he joined the

Illinois National Guard. When his unit was called up for active duty in federal service in November

1940, he again became a target. CA agent MacAloon, who had lost a valuable weapon in his

antiunion arsenal thanks to Haycraft, had extensive and regular contacts with U. S. Army Military

Intelligence. Information from MacAloon helped the army establish detailed files on suspected

Minneapolis subversives. Although by 1940 these files included most of Minneapolis's Farmer

Labor and union leaders, Haycraft's name was glaringly absent. When Haycraft entered the U. S.

Army, however, MacAloon's military-intelligence contact in the Minnesota National Guard,

Michael J. Mulcahy, launched another round of accusations. Now the information would flow

through MacAloon's pipeline directly to military intelligence officers in Omaha and on to the War

Department in Washington, D.C.(46)

(TO TOP)

The informants were all inside the Minnesota National Guard: MacAloon's colleague, Lt. Col.

Mulcahy; George Sylvester of the Clark company; John H. Derrick, who had represented Sylvester

and Clark at their board of inquiry; and two other officers. Their accusations were outrageous but

damning, if believed. In 1941 they accused Haycraft of being a Communist party member from

1924 to 1930 at the University of Minnesota; of forming the Young Voters Liberal League, which,

they said, favored the abolition of the U. S. Army and was affiliated with the Communist-inspired

Farmer-Labor party; of dereliction of duty during the 1934 strike, when he supposedly failed to

arrest strikers; of trying to induce perjured testimony at the 1938 Clark company board of inquiry

in an attempt to oust conservative National Guard officers; and of being married until 1938 to a

"known CP member." By 1943 his accusers had added charges of being nominated at the 1937

convention by a closed Communist caucus; of having agreed before the election to cooperate with

the Communists; and of having been supported by a Communist newspaper. Yet the army took no

actions on these serious charges, concluding after a 1941 investigation that "there was nothing ... to

show the slightest inclination toward disloyalty to the Army or the U. S. Government" by this "out

standing officer" deemed to be "of unquestionable loyalty." Although his Minneapolis enemies were

temporarily thwarted, they had planted dangerous seeds in Haycrafts military files.(47)

While accusations of his Communist sympathies festered in mihtary-intelligence files

for the duration of World War 11, Haycraft, totally unaware of their existence,

joined the 104th Infantry for its final push across Europe late in 1944. The unit's bril-

liant night attacks on its drive to the Roer River quickly established the truth of its motto,

"Nothing in Hell can stop the Timberwolf Division." Haycraft received a Bronze Star for his

"courage, superb leadership, and devotion to duty as commanding officer of special troops."(48)

After the war Haycraft left the army, returning to live with his family in Minnetonka and accept

ing a lucrative job as regional counsel for the War Assets Administration. For eight months he was

beyond the reach of MacAloon, Mulcahy, and Sylvester. When the U. S. Army telegrammed to

offer him a regular commission, however, be accepted and once again unknowingly placed his

reputation in jeopardy.(49)

For three years, Haycraft lived in Japan and served with distinction in the Far East Command,

being promoted to lieutenant colonel by 1949. Granted top-secret security clearance in 1947, he

served as a top-secret control officer for two years. Meanwhile, his enemies continued their stream of

accusations against him. Flowing into military intelligence files were charges that Haycraft had

been a member of the National Lawyers Guild in 1938-39 and a member of the Socialist Workers

party. (In 1950 the House Un-American Activities Committee would charge the guild with being the

"foremost legal bulwark of the Communist Party." Haycraft admitted belonging to the Guild during

1937-38 but denied any Communist affiliation.) His raid on the Citizen's Alliance in 1934 was also

called a Subversive act, because it aided the allegedly communist Teamsters Union. Governor

Olson's prediction that the raid would create bitter enemies had come true. Haycraft's accusers

even suggested that his position on the All America Football team was due to Communist

inspired Farmer-Labor political influence. When the army's investigations section reviewed the

postwar allegations in 1949, it concluded that the evidence was "not sufficient to initiate revocation

proceedings" under the Disloyal and Subversive Military Personnel

Haycraft's reprieve, however, was to be short lived. In 1950 Russia announced its A bomb,

North Korea invaded South Korea, China became communist nation, and Senator Joseph R.

McCarthy claimed knowledge of Communists in the U. S. State Department. The hunt for Com-

munists quickly became a national fervor. By the fall of 1953 McCarthy had turned his attention to

the army, where Secretary Robert T. Stevens desperately tried to cooperate. If the army would

clean its own house, perhaps it could appease the senator from Wisconsin.(51)

(TO TOP)

In the fall of 1953, the army reopened its investigation into Haycrafts loyalty. His security

clearance had been lowered to secret the previous year when his bulky file of accusations was reex-

amined. Investigators interviewed 33 military associates of Haycraft from his tour in the Far

East and his three years at Fort Knox, all of whom declared him a fine officer, "honest, trustworthy,

discreet, loyal, an ardent supporter of U.S. Policy." His commanding officer recommended that Hay-

craft's top-secret classification be reinstated. All the allegations involved incidents at least 15 years

old, and Haycraft had served his country with "patriotism and honor" for all those years. Despite

this overwhelmingly favorable testimony, the army recommended on January 11, 1954, that the 46

year-old Haycraft be terminated from service.(52)

The investigation was reviewed by the assistant chief of staff of army security, who outlined

the charges against Haycraft. These were basicall

a rehash of the accusations of Mulcahy and

Sylvester 13 years earlier. Before informing Haycraft of the charges, the security department em-

phasized that "Under no circumstances should Haycraft, or anyone representing him, be allowed

access to the inclosures except for the Summary of Information. (53)

In early March 1954, Haycrafts file reached the desk of Army Counsel John G. Adams.

Adams, who was soon to become the star witness in theMcCarthy army hearings, had little love for

the senator or his vicious red-baiting. Adams had grown up in South Dakota, and Haycraft, the All

American football player, had been one of his high-school heroes. Suspecting that the 4,000

page dossier was a mass of assumptions with very little evidence, Adams assigned one of his assis-

tants to search the file for the original accusations and, if possible, to verify them. When all had

been analyzed, Haycrafts supposed Communist affiliation during the 1937 election was the only

charge remaining

In an attempt to verify the charge, Adams contacted Assistant Attorney General Warren

Burger, a St. Paul native and Republican, who would make an impartial witness. Burger "had no

reason to feel that Haycraft's support of the Farmer-Labor party had anything to do with

Communist affiliations" but suggested that former Governor Stassen might be better informed.

Stassen ridiculed most of the accusations, pointing out that more than half of the adult popula -

tion of Minnesota had.voted Farmer-Labor. Were they all Communists? The Communist party

might have endorsed Haycraft's candidacy, but it had also supported President Roosevelt. Did that

make Roosevelt a Communist? Stassen then explained the political bitterness that existed in

Minneapolis during the1930s between business and labor and suggested that as a motive for the

accusations against Haycraft.(55)

Although Adams was convinced of Haycrafts innocence, there was heavy pressure from the

Department of Defense to terminate Haycraft and several other officers. With the McCarthy

hearings less than six weeks off, the army could not afford any suggestion of being soft on commu-

nism. During June 1954Lt. Col. Haycraft was relieved of command and ordered to show cause

for his retention in the army. The seeds of revenge planted by Mulcahy and Sylvester

decades earlier had finally borne fruit.(56)

(TO TOP)

On October25 an army board of inquiry met at the Pentagon to consider Haycrafts case.

The complete set of charges initially recommended was reinstated, and Haycraft finally

received a summary of information detailing the history of the investigation against him.

Although all the supporting documents and the names of his accusers were withheld, the accused

could finally begin to defend himself His brother Everett, chief trial examiner of the Federal Trade

Commission, acted as his attorney. Together, they demanded the right to face Haycrafts accusers

and began gathering evidence to refute the charges. From December 1954 to February 1955,

fifty-three individuals who had had close contacts with Haycraft

submitted detailed affidavits. The

witnesses included former University of Minnesota football coach

Spears and teammates Herbert

Joesting and George MacKinnon; Haycraft's Minneapolis minister, Frank

Jennings; his brothers

Sylvester and

Glenn; his ex-wife, Alberta Jacoby, and her brother;

Farmer-Labor leaders Elmer

Benson, Congressman Roy Weir, Guy Alexander, and K.

Flakne; Haycrafts

Minnesota National Guard superiors, including Adj. Gen. Nelson; and, finally, his recent army commanders.

In 150 pages, Haycraft's witnesses thoroughly destroyed every charge manufactured against him.

But would the board of inquiry accept this testimony in the midst of the political hysteria of the

Cold War, when loyalty was always suspect?(57)

Aware of the politically sensitive position of the U. S. Army in the McCarthy era, Haycraft

appealed to the one Minnesotan who had both the political power and the anti-Communist

record to counterbalance the fears of the board: Hubert H. Hurnphrey. The Minnesota senator

proudly claimed to have "led a successful effort to clean the Communists and left wingers out of

the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party" Humphrey had no doubt that the Communist party was "a

threat to the safety and even the very existence of this country." With the 1954 elections

approaching, he offered an amendment to the Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950 that

would outlaw the Communist party because, as a "conspiracy, directed by a hostile foreign

power with the objective of destroying our government, it has no right to existence under our

Constitution.

(58)

(TO TOP)

In early December 1954 Haycraft wrote Humphrey, requesting a meeting to explain the

charges relating to "my running for Mayor in 1937 on the Farmer-Labor party ticket which (it is

alleged) was a Communist Front Party." On February 10, 1955, Humphrey wrote Secretary of

the Army Stevens, informing him that "to call the Farmer-Labor Party a Communist front is to

reveal a sense of political immaturity and misunderstanding that is unworthy of responsible offi-

cials." He continued, "To the best of my knowledge, Col. Haycraft was not and is not in any way

a sympathizer of the Communist Party, nor under its control or domination," adding that he had

been fighting the Communist party all of his adult life and "would be the last man on earth to come

to the defense of anyone who I had reason to believe was a Communist sympathizer or member

of the Communist Party." The senator also made his case personally to one of Stevens's top assis-

tants: "To call anybody associated with the Farmer-Labor Party a security risk or a loyalty risk

for that reason alone is an insult to more than

600,000

persons." Humphrey's determined inter-

est in the case finally overcame the board's fear of retribution for reinstating Haycraft. On May 27,

1955, the army advised Lt. Col. Haycraft that it had decided to "terminate the elimination pro-

ceedings and to close the case favorably."(59)

With the cloud of disloyalty finally lifted from his reputation, Haycraft was promoted to colonel

and served out the final six years of his army career as a professor of military science in the

ROTC program at the University of Alaska. On retiring in

1961,

he received a commendation

medal for accomplishments that were "worthy of emulation and reflect credit upon himself, and

the United States Army."(60)

The loyalty of a boy from Bemidji who grew up to be a Minnesota All American had finally

been accepted. Haycraft's years of political commitment to the victims of the depression in

Minnesota would no longer brand him a Communist. In the end, the red-baiting of Kenneth

Haycraft failed.

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