Title: Miles J. McMillin Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1938-1959

Creator:

• McMillin, Miles J., 1913-1982

Call Number: U.S. Mss 129AF; PH 4555

Quantity: 1.2 c.f. (3 archives boxes) and 6 photographs

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Subject files of an editor and publisher of the Madison, Wisconsin, Capital Times, primarily consisting of correspondence, telegrams, draft articles and speeches, notes, clippings, and court documents. Several files concern his investigations of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and Congressman Alvin O'Konski and the articles he wrote on Wisconsin politics for other papers such as the New York Times. Prominent correspondents include August Derleth, Ruben Levin, William Proxmire, and James Wechsler.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0129af

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Miles James McMillin, editor and publisher of the Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin, was born in Crandon, Wisconsin on March 12, 1913. He studied political science and languages at the University of Wisconsin and received a law degree in 1941.

In 1945, following a four-year stint as assistant editor of the Progressive, McMillin joined the Capital Times as editorial writer and political columnist. He also covered Wisconsin politics for several other publications including the New York Times, the New York Post, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Nation, and The New Republic. Frequently criticized for his liberal editorial stance, McMillin was an early critic of Joseph R. McCarthy and the Vietnam War.

In 1955, McMillin married Elsie Rockefeller, former wife of Senator William Proxmire. They were the parents of two children, Nancy and Miles James, and two stepchildren, Teddy and Elsie (Cici) Proxmire.

By 1967, McMillin had become executive publisher of the Capital Times. He rose to editor and publisher in 1970, and eventually became chairman of the board of Madison Newspapers Inc., the corporation which owned the Capital Times and the Wisconsin State Journal.

During his early career McMillin travelled throughout Wisconsin speaking before labor unions and rural cooperatives about the cooperative movement, freedom of the press, Wisconsin politics, and related topics. In addition to his political activities McMillin was active in state and local civic and professional organizations such as the Madison Consumer's Cooperative, Madison Kiddie Camp, and the Wisconsin Bar Association. He was vice president of the William T. Evjue Foundation and trustee of the William T. Evjue Charitable Trust.

McMillin retired in 1978, and suffering from terminal cancer, committed suicide in 1982.

Taken as a whole, the McMillin Papers are somewhat disappointing in that they fail to document the extent of his journalistic career or to reflect his importance as one of the leaders of the modern Democratic Party in Wisconsin. Instead, the papers are a fragmentary assortment of alphabetical subject files touching on a wide variety of topics including politics, organizations, court cases, and issues of public interest. The papers primarily document the 1940's and 1950's and variously include correspondence, telegrams, draft articles (presumed to have been written by McMillin although generally unidentified) and speeches, notes, newspaper clippings, court documents, and six photographs.

One set of files that does reveal McMillin's contribution to Wisconsin politics are those concerning Republican Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. As early as 1947, McMillin began an editorial and investigative crusade against McCarthy. The papers suggest McMillin's efforts to expose McCarthy's financial misdeeds and unethical activities. McMillin contended that McCarthy lied about contributions, falsified his income tax returns, and granted “quickie” divorces to political supporters while serving as a circuit judge in Milwaukee. He attempted to have McCarthy disbarred for refusing to relinquish his judgeship while campaigning for public office. Although McMillin was unsuccessful, he was later recognized as one of the first to oppose McCarthy and received much credit for the Senator's downfall.

Related to the McCarthy files are several folders concerning the newspapers for which McMillin was a stringer from 1951 to 1957. The New York Times file is especially rich, as it documents precisely what information the editor wanted McMillin to provide about McCarthy and Wisconsin politics together with McMillin's replies.

Also of interest is the correspondence with August Derleth concerning the book reviews he wrote for the Capital Times the files on William Proxmire, who also wrote some articles for the paper and whom McMillin supported in his editorials. It is possible that the 1952 speeches in these files may have been written for Proxmire by McMillin. The files on Libby Donohue and Rubin Levin, both stringers for the Capital Times, likewise document McMillin's work as editor.

The photographs are images probably related to the use of chemical fertilizer in agriculture in the projects of the Tennessee Valley Authority, including images of fields that used phosphates and plant foods compared to the fields that did not, circa 1938. The reason for McMillin's interest in these photographs is unknown.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Miles J. McMillin, September 1974. Accession Number: MCHC74-95

Processing Information

Processed by Susan Sharlin and Cindy Knight, 1989.

U.S. Mss 129AF Box   1 Folder   1	Altmeyer, Arthur, n.d.
Box   1 Folder   1A	American Overseas Aid, 1948
Box   1 Folder   1B	Amlie, Thomas, 1949
Box   1 Folder   2	Athletic racket, 1948, 1949, 1952, n.d.
Box   1 Folder   2A	Biemiller, Andrew, 1945-1959, n.d.
Box   1 Folder   3	Campaign expenditures, 1938-1948
Box   1 Folder   3A	Catlin, Mark, 1950-1958
Box   1 Folder   4	Coleman, Thomas E., 1943-1954
Box   1 Folder   5	Cooperatives, 1945-1951
Box   1 Folder   6	J.R. Cotton case, 1941-1945
Box   1 Folder   7	Derleth, August, 1945-1946
Box   1 Folder   8	Displaced persons, 1948
Box   1 Folder   9	Donohue, Libby, 1948-1949
Box   1 Folder   10	Douglas, William O. Douglas, 1948
Box   1 Folder   11	Drotning, Philip T., 1949
Box   1 Folder   12	Education, 1949-1951
Box   1 Folder   13	Evans, Judge Fred M. case, 1943-1949
Box   1 Folder   14	Evjue, William T., Correspondence to, 1945-1949
Box   1 Folder   15	Farm Bureau, 1949-1951
Box   1 Folder   16	Fluoride, 1945, 1946, n.d.
Box   1 Folder   17	Free press, 1947, 1953, n.d.
Box   1 Folder   17A	Frey, Elmer, 1953
Box   1 Folder   18	General correspondence, 1946-1952
Box   1 Folder   19	Goodland, Walter S., 1946
Box   1 Folder   20	Hartford (WI) utility, 1945
Box   1 Folder   21	Health insurance, 1949, 1950
Box   1 Folder   22	Highway Fund segregation, 1945
Box   1 Folder   23	Housing, 1945-1948
Box   1 Folder   24	Immell, Ralph, 1940, 1948
Box   1 Folder   25	Insurance, 1948, 1949
Box   1 Folder   26	Kefauver, Estes, 1952
Box   1 Folder   27	Kersten, Charles J., 1951, n.d.
Box   2 Folder   1	Kohler, Walter J., 1950-1954
Box   2 Folder   2	La Follette, Robert M., Jr., 1946
Box   2 Folder   3	Levin, Ruben, 1945
Box   2 Folder   4	Lobbying, 1948-1949
Box   2 Folder   5	Madison Gas and Electric, 1942-1943, 1945
Box   2 Folder   6-7	McCarthy, Joseph R., 1945-1953
Box   2 Folder   7A	McMurray, Edward J., 1946-1947
Box   2 Folder   8	The Nation, 1949-1950
Box   2 Folder   9	National Tax Equity Association, 1947
Box   2 Folder   10	The New Republic, 1948-1954
Box   2 Folder   11	New York Post, 1951-1954
Box   2 Folder   12	New York Times, 1952-1957
Box   3 Folder   1	O'Konski, Alvin E., 1948-1949
Box   3 Folder   2	Olson, John, 1949
PH 4555	Photographs
U.S. Mss 129AF Box   3 Folder   3	Pollution, 1949
Box   3 Folder   4	Power, 1946-1947
Box   3 Folder   5	Proxmire, William, 1948-1958
Box   3 Folder   6	Prudent Man Bill, 1949
Box   3 Folder   7	Public power, 1943, 1947
Box   3 Folder   8	Pure food laws, 1949
Box   3 Folder   9	Reapportionment, 1946, 1953
Box   3 Folder   10	The Reporter, 1950-1952
Box   3 Folder   11	Republican state platform, 1952, 1958, 1960
Box   3 Folder   12	Rural Electrification Administration, 1945, 1946
Box   3 Folder   13	St. Croix River, 1945, 1946
Box   3 Folder   14	St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 1952
Box   3 Folder   15	Speeches, 1949-1956
Box   3 Folder   16	Stassen, Harold, 1947-1952
Box   3 Folder   17	Taft, Robert, 1948-1952
Box   3 Folder   18	Tennessee Valley Authority, 1945-1948
Box   3 Folder   19	Uihlein, August E., case, 1945
Box   3 Folder   20	United Nations, 1946
Box   3 Folder   21	Thomson, Vernon, n.d.
Box   3 Folder   22	Wiley, Alexander, 1949-1953
Box   3 Folder   22A	Wilkie, Horace, 1952, n.d.
Box   3 Folder   23	Wisconsin Association of Cooperatives, 1947-1948
Box   3 Folder   24	Wisconsin Communists, 1948
Box   3 Folder   25	Wisconsin Electric Cooperative, 1945-1946
Box   3 Folder   26	Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association, 1946
Box   3 Folder   27	Wisconsin Legislature, 1947
Box   3 Folder   28	Wisconsin School for the Visually Handicapped, n.d.