12/20/78

INTRODUCTION

COMMENTS ON THE FUTURE OF WISCONSIN AGRICULTURE
Scope and Content Note: “I'm afraid the family farm is really in trouble” because big debts encouraged by United States tax system and high land prices and interest rates are the norm. Possible late 1970's trend for “family corporations” to reduce very large dairy herds to more manageable size of 50 to 60 head.

RELATIONSHIP OF REGIONAL COOPERATIVES TO LOCAL COOPERATIVES
Scope and Content Note: Regionals should share locals' responsibility for credit over-extensions because they encourage the practice. Emphasizes that although U.S. cooperatives have grown, they still have only 1-2 percent of total farm business.

BIG BUSINESS FARMING REPLACES FAMILY FARMING
Scope and Content Note: Number of farmers in Bone Lake area decreased from about 120 to 20 as farm size grew and farming increasingly became “big business.” Speculates that in the United States, where “the day of the poor farmer is past,” farm policy may someday emulate that of Scandinavian social democracies. “Farming is cold now.”

TREND TOWARD CAPITAL EXTENSIVE-LABOR INTENSIVE FARMING OPERATIONS
Scope and Content Note: Increasing numbers of farmers made transition from labor extensive farming to large investments in land and equipment after witnessing apparent success of farmers who earlier had switched to capital extensive operations. Dueholm believes father-son friction the “worst” consequence of the trend.

SOCIAL CHANGES IN RURAL SOCIETY
Scope and Content Note: When people worked together, they “were responsible for each other.” Farmers cooperated in filling silos, breeding animals, threshing grain and sawing wood, and “were all part of a neighborhood” until such equipment as silage choppers, combines, chainsaws and oil furnaces signaled a changing rural lifestyle. Now there are few neighborly visits. Social changes began when farmers had money and opportunity to buy more machinery and land after World War II. As urban workers began to buy small farms to live on, but not to work, and numerous retirement lake cottages were constructed, social activities no longer centered around school and church. “We've lost our neighborhood.”

MODERN LABOR-SAVING MACHINERY FAILS TO GIVE FARMERS MORE FREE TIME
Scope and Content Note: “In order to make it easier, we had to work harder.” Questions whether it is actually “easier on a man” to bounce all day on a tractor instead of walking behind a horse-drawn plow.

END OF TAPE 15, SIDE 1

INTRODUCTION

VOTING PATTERNS IN BONE LAKE AREA
Scope and Content Note: Irish-Catholics and Democrats from the Woodrow Wilson era comprised the few Democrats, “post-office Democrats,” in each town. Area “liberals” voted for Progressive Republicans. Area voters strongly supported Republican Herbert Hoover in 1928 and Democrat Franklin Roosevelt in 1932.

COMMENTS ON THE La FOLLETTES
Scope and Content Note: Philip La Follette and Robert La Follette, Jr. both campaigned in Bone Lake area, unlike their father, Robert. Recalls Marius Dueholm heard “Old Bob” speak in St. Paul.

SOCIALIST PARTY SPLITS PROGRESSIVE REPUBLICANS IN
Scope and Content Note: Socialist Party organized separately in 1934; Bone Lake area voted Progressive Republican. Socialists rejoined Progressive Republican Party in 1938; conservative Progressives swelled Republican Party ranks. Dane and Polk counties at one time registered highest Progressive Republican vote in Wisconsin; changed during World War II, because “as people got a little bit more money, they got a little bit more conservative, too.”

LABOR UNIONS SLOW TO ORGANIZE BONE LAKE AREA COOPERATIVES
Scope and Content Note: Recalls union strike at a Turtle Lake cooperative in 1950's, but area not affected by union attempts as elsewhere in Wisconsin in late 1930's.

COMMENTS ON ROBERT LA FOLLETTE, JR.'s CAMPAIGN
Scope and Content Note: Robert La Follette, Jr. rejoined the Republican Party because he believed the Progressives, who had not recovered from Philip La Follette's 1938 gubernatorial defeat, could get control of the Republican Party. “Probably a mistake.” La Follette defeated because of his short campaign and by low voter turnout for August primary election.

EVOLUTION OF WISCONSIN DEMOCRATIC PARTY
Scope and Content Note: Wisconsin Democrats historically conservatives; e.g., a Democratic-Republican coalition helped defeat Progressive Republicans in 1938; most Democrats “hated” FDR and the New Deal; many young Democrats of the 1930's later became Republicans. Democrats of a “liberal philosophy” gained statewide attention in 1948 when Carl Thompson, a “very capable young man,” unsuccessfully ran for Governor and Gaylord Nelson, a former Republican, defeated Progressive Republican state Senator Fred Risser, Sr. Not until after 1954 did Polk County Democrats gain “respectability” as increasing numbers of successful farmers joined the party. Dueholm first elected to Wisconsin Assembly in 1956; Polk County Democrats even better established after William Proxmire won the 1957 special U.S. Senate election.

COMMENTS ON WILLIAM PROXMIRE'S ELECTION
Scope and Content Note: Low voter turnout helped Proxmire win in 1957 just as it had contributed to Robert La Follette, Jr.'s 1946 defeat. Dueholm believed Proxmire “never appreciated as much as he should what the Farmers' Union did for him.”

FURTHER COMMENTS ON THE “NEW” DEMOCRATIC PARTY IN WISCONSIN
Scope and Content Note: Most liberal Democrats were former Progressive Republicans; conversely, Progressives who remained in Republican Party became “ultra-conservatives.”

COMMENTS ON U.S. CONG. LESTER R. JOHNSON
Scope and Content Note: Johnson, first elected in 1953 special election, “not an ultra-liberal” but a “very, very shrewd politician and a hard worker.”

WISCONSIN DEMOCRATIC PARTY LEADERS IN
Scope and Content Note: Party helped and led by such leaders as Lester Johnson, Carl Thompson, Gaylord Nelson and William Proxmire.

COMMENTS ON POLK COUNTY ELECTIONS
Scope and Content Note: Democrats won all political offices except state Assembly seat. Dueholm speculates on why Republican candidate won the Assembly seat.

COMMENTS ON POLITICAL INCLINATION OF VARIOUS FARMERS' ORGANIZATIONS
Scope and Content Note: Farm Bureau members generally Republicans; in Polk County--but not Burnett or Barron counties--Farmers' Union members almost exclusively Democrats; NFO members historically Republican until disagreements with Governor Warren Knowles' Republican administration led to practice of voting according to candidates instead of political party; Associated Milk Producers, Inc. (AMPI) members a mixture of Democrats and Republicans.

END OF INTERVIEW