Title: William Osborne Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1943-1989

Creator:

• Hart, William Osborne

Call Number: Mss 893; Micro 2069; Tape 1327A; PH Mss 893

Quantity: 1.4 c.f. (4 archives boxes and 1 oversize folder), 1 reel of microfilm (35mm), 1 tape recording, and 17 photographs

Repository:

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

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

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

Abstract:

Papers of William Osborne Hart, a prominent Wisconsin socialist known for his numerous campaigns for elective office. Included are correspondence; biographical clippings; records from thirteen of his 25 unsuccessful election campaigns and the 1976 Presidential campaign of Frank Zeidler; subject files; photographs; transcripts of radio commentaries broadcast by WHA and WBOO and other speeches and writings; and records about Hart's leadership of the Socialist Party of Wisconsin and the Labor and Farm Party. Records of the LFP include minutes, platforms, and correspondence. Socialist records include correspondence and incidental administrative documents, with the majority dating from 1978, the year in which Hart resigned from the Socialist Party-USA. Prominent correspondents include Dennis Boyer, Virgil Vogel, and Frank Zeidler. Correspondence from Norman Thomas includes a recording of a 1964 greeting to Wisconsin socialists.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00893

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Perennial Wisconsin political candidate William Osborne Hart was horn in Chicago on May 15, 1912. Although never successful as a political candidate, Hart was highly regarded for his dedication to Socialist principles and for the civility and intelligence he brought to political discourse in Wisconsin.

Hart attended public schools in Chicago, withdrawing at age 15 to become an apprentice printer for the Chicago Daily News. After completing his high school education by attending evening school, Hart attended St. Olaf's College for two years.

Although his boyhood home was apolitical, Hart himself stated that he could not recall a time when he had not been a socialist. Hart's adult life reflects both the trade union and religious sources of American socialism. In addition to his work as a printer, he was employed as a lithographer and a metal worker for the Pullman Company. In these capacities Hart was active in the Metal Polishers, Buffers, and Platers Union, the International Web Printing Pressmen, the United Typographical Workers, the United Steelworkers, and the Amalgamated Lithographers unions, and he was a delegate to the Chicago Federation of Labor. Later Hart was active in organizing drives for the Boot and Shoe Workers in Maine, and he served as president of Typographical Union Local #197 in Janesville, Wisconsin (circa 1960).

While living in Chicago, Hart attended the Chicago Training School for Missions (later the Garrett Biblical Institute). Subsequently he worked at the Marcy Center Settlement House in Chicago and served Episcopal missions in Minnesota, South Dakota, and North Carolina. During World War II Hart gave up his religious draft exemption to become an American Field Service ambulance driver with the 8th British Army in Africa. After several bouts of malaria Hart returned to Wisconsin in 1943. During the 1950s Hart continued his religious education at Bangor Theological Seminary. In the early 1970s he served as a lay minister to the First Congregational Church in Baraboo.

During the course of his missionary studies Hart met Ruth Haseltine. They married in 1932, and in 1933 they settled in Sauk County, Wisconsin, where Hart worked as a printer. The Harts were the parents of three children: Romella, Pierre, and Holbert.

Hart was a leader of the Farm Holiday in Sauk County, and in 1934 he began his long electoral career when he declared his candidacy for Sauk County clerk of court. In 1935 he ran for the county board on the Socialist ticket. After returning from World War II he ran for sheriff in 1944 and for the Wisconsin Assembly in 1946. After advancing to a position of leadership in the state party, Hart became the socialists' candidate for lieutenant governor in 1948. In 1949 he ran for the Wisconsin Supreme Court despite the fact that he was not an attorney. In 1950 Hart was the socialists' gubernatorial candidate. During this campaign he circulated the Baraboo Petition, which called on the Soviet Union to oust the Stalinist regime. However, Hart's total in this election was so low that the Socialist Party lost its ballot status. As a result, until 1982 Hart's name appeared on the Wisconsin ballot as an independent candidate.

During the 1950s the Harts moved to Maine. After returning to Wisconsin and settling in Madison in 1958 he resumed his political activity, running for the Madison City Council in 1961 and the school board in 1962. In 1965 he was a candidate for mayor. During this period Hart was also chairman of the Socialist Party of Wisconsin, and he frequently represented the party at legislative hearings on issues such as civil rights, civil liberties, and the Vietnam War. In 1962 Hart ran for the U.S. Senate on a peace platform. In 1970 he was the socialists' candidate for governor, and four years later he ran again. The League of Women Voters initially excluded Hart from participation in their candidate forums in 1974, but his insistence on equal time in the televised debates eventually brought Hart to the attention of a large statewide audience. In 1975 he ran in a special election for the Assembly. In 1976 he ran for both the U.S. Senate and the Sauk Prairie School Board.

During the 1970s Hart was affiliated with the wing of the Socialist Party known as Socialist Party-USA (SPUSA). But when radical leftists took control of the party's Wisconsin convention in 1978 Hart resigned. In an attempt to reorient socialism to his belief in social change through the electoral ballot Hart organized the Wisconsin Democratic Socialists. In 1982 Hart became involved with a group of Wisconsin political activists interested in forming a new political party. The new Labor and Farm Party selected him as its first chairman, and he ran as its candidate for the U.S. Senate in the 1982 election. In this campaign Hart received endorsements from three labor unions and over 21,000 votes. As a result, Hart gained ballot status for the LFP in the 1984 election. The party selected Hart to head their slate in the 1984 Presidential primary, but when the Election Board ruled that he was not a widely recognized candidate, the party had to go to court in order to secure this position. Ultimately, Hart broke with the LFP leadership and did not appear on the general election ballot. The last of Hart's 25 campaigns was a special election for the Assembly in 1992.

In 1980 Hart was selected as a member of the board of the Citizens Utility Board and in 1981 he was designated as a Wisconsin representative to the White House Conference on Aging. Other organizations with which he was affiliated included the American League for Free Palestine (for which he was the Midwest director), the American Veterans League, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Negro American Labor Council (of which he was a founder), the Wisconsin Committee Against Peacetime Conscription, and the Workers Defense League.

William Osborne Hart died at age 85 on August 22, 1997.

The Hart Papers outline the general nature of his long political career and document many of the issues that he advanced as a political candidate. Overall, however, coverage is disappointing and quite incomplete. Entire periods, particularly the 1930s and 1950s, are unrepresented and several spheres of activity such as leadership in the Wisconsin Socialist Party during the 1960s and active involvement in trade unionism are underrepresented. Most complete in this small collection is coverage of his Wisconsin political campaigns and activities during the 1970s and early 1980s. There are virtually no true personal papers in the collection.

The Hart Papers are arranged as GENERAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL, POLITICAL PAPERS, SPEECHES AND WRITINGS, and SUBJECT FILES.

The GENERAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL consists of general correspondence, biographical clippings, and photographs. The correspondence is spotty, almost entirely incoming, and primarily from the 1970s and 1980s. Substantial exchanges with individual correspondents are filed in the SUBJECT FILES rather than in this series. Invitations and letters of appreciation for various public speaking engagements dominate the general correspondence, but isolated items of interest include two letters from Robert Kastenmeier pertaining to Hart's 1983 testimony on the federal budget, a lengthy letter from Paul Gilk of Merrill from whom Hart had solicited advice on agricultural policy in 1982, and a 1976 letter from LeRoy Gore (addressed to Fred Dahir) about his “Joe Must Go” Campaign and the recent death of Gore's son. The general clippings span the years from 1943 to 1989, with most of the stories focusing on Hart's electoral campaigns. Three scrapbooks about the 1948, 1949, and 1950 elections have been incorporated with the clippings. Because they could not be accurately placed, undated items and fragments are filed with the paper files and have not been filmed. The photographs, which are similarly spotty in nature, primarily consist of candid portraits. Notable are snapshots of the 1961—1962 civil rights sit-in in the Capitol which Hart helped to organize, views of Badger Village where the Harts resided during the 1940s, and images of a press conference by Hart at the Capitol in 1976.

The POLITICAL PAPERS are arranged as campaign files and party files. The chronological campaign files date from 1949 to 1984 and include correspondence, position papers, publicity, speeches, and financial records, with the quantity and distribution of the documentation varying for each election. Several campaigns represented in the collection are documented only by the microfilmed clippings in the GENERAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL PAPERS. The best documented races include Senate campaigns in 1962, 1976, and 1982, the 1974 gubernatorial campaign, and the 1984 Presidential primary.

Hart's 1962 Senate campaign received national attention because of the prominence of the peace issue in his platform. Correspondence about this includes contacts with the Student Peace Union and the Chicago-area Voters for Peace and two letters from Frank Zeidler describing the Wisconsin socialists' position. A brief letter from Miles McMillin conveys his own strategic disagreement with the campaign, as well as the position of William T. Evjue. This file includes several national analyses of the 1962 peace candidacies. This election is also documented by the most complete file of campaign speeches in the collection. Highlights of the documentation about the 1974 gubernatorial election are campaign literature, form letters, press releases, position papers on energy and the environment, remarks delivered at an August 21, 1974 press conference, copies of Election Board financial reports, and contracts for television ads indicating the length and frequency of broadcasts. Correspondence for this race is limited, but it includes letters from Miles McMillin and others about their financial contributions.

The 1976 Senate campaign is documented by campaign literature; a ledger of contributions and expenditures; and exchanges with the Federal Election Board, sponsors of campaign forums, and publishers of candidate questionnaires. Also present is an interesting letter from William Proxmire clarifying a statement he had made on estate taxes at a candidate forum and letters of friendship and support from Mrs. Richard Bardwell, Bettie Eisendrath, and David Obey.

Hart's 1982 Senate race as the candidate of the Labor and Farm Party is documented by several outgoing letters, the occurrence of which is unusual in the collection. Notable among these is one to the League of Women Voters about his exclusion from their campaign forums, an expression of his views on the arms race, a letter to Mayor Henry Meier about revenue sharing, and an exchange with Milwaukee socialist James Ingbretson about Hart's resignation from the party. Other prominent correspondents in this file include campaign coordinator Dennis Boyer, Leon Varjian (who contributed a campaign song), and conservative Madison minister Richard E. Pritchard. A letter from an unidentified correspondent contains interesting comments about Communist Peggy Dennis. The remainder of the documentation consists of arrangements for public appearances, letters of support, and press releases, posters, scripts for radio spots, and other campaign literature.

The 1984 Presidential primary file primarily consists of correspondence and legal papers about the suit brought by the LFP in order to place Hart's name on the primary ballot. This file also contains Hart's resignation from the party and reactions from party leaders.

The party files in the Political Papers series document the Labor and Farm Party and the Wisconsin Socialist Party. Although limited in quantity, the material on the LFP represents the only known party records in archival hands. Here, Hart's incoming and outgoing correspondence as party chair, 1983-1984, contains numerous letters to the editor and state legislators expressing his own and the party's positions on various public policy issues. Also included are memoranda authored by Dennis Boyer and exchanges with party activists such as Conrad Amenhauser (on Dennis Serrette's presidential campaign for the Consumer Party), Mary K. Baum, and Leonard H. Cizewski. Position statements, minutes, and rules document the LFP's founding convention on November 4, 1983. In addition, small files of minutes document the functioning of the party's Steering and the 2nd Congressional District committees. Party literature in the collection includes “Ethical Responses to Economic Problems,” a discussion paper by Hart and Boyer; “A Nuclear Free Wisconsin,” another Hart paper; and a manual on lobbying for progressives.

Files of the Socialist Party of Wisconsin contain no similar organic records deriving from Hart's years of administrative leadership. Instead, the collection consists of a chronological file of correspondence and incidental party documents, together with information on Hart's management of Zeidler's 1976 Presidential campaign. State party items include party platforms (1958, 1960, and 1966), membership lists for Madison (circa 1960) and the at-large state membership (1964), programs for party picnics (1947 and 1967), minutes of the 1976 state convention, and a constitution. Even after leaving the party in 1978 Hart continued to receive some information about SPUSA. For example, there are several 1984 mailings from Abraham Bassford and reports on party activities in Milwaukee in 1984 and 1985 communicated by James Ingbretson. The most important socialist material dates from 1978, the year in which Hart resigned. From this year Hart retained mimeographed central committee and convention minutes and other mailings from SPUSA and the Wisconsin Socialist Party. Also included are meeting flyers and a constitution for the Wisconsin Democratic Socialists, Hart's attempt to realign Wisconsin socialists on democratic lines. Of special interest is the party referendum spelling out the reasons for and against a proposed Hart gubernatorial candidacy in 1978.

When Hart withdrew his management of Zeidler's Presidential campaign in March 1976 he reportedly sent all of his records to Zeidler. Nevertheless, the collection contains some interesting documentation such as detailed reports of a national organizing trip by political consultant/campaign director Robert E. Schlichter, a lengthy explanation of Hart's resignation from the campaign committee, campaign literature and press releases, advice on federal campaign regulations from attorney Harold Langhammer, and income and expenditure information for Wisconsin Citizens for Zeidler.

The SPEECHES AND WRITINGS series primarily consists of commentaries Hart delivered over WHA and WBOO radio during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The radio talks express Hart's views on a wide range of public policy issues, but their utility is limited by the fact that only about half are dated. The series also includes two microfilmed scrapbooks; one consists of published letters to the editor, 1946-1985, and the second consists of columns written for the MESA Educator, an aspect of Hart's labor career that is otherwise undocumented in the collection. Several other Hart publications are available in the Historical Society Library: an incomplete run of his mimeographed newspaper, the Narrows Tribune, 1949-1950, and the Wisconsin's Democratic Socialist, a journal of opinion briefly issued in 1978.

The alphabetical SUBJECT FILES contain information on civic activities that were inappropriate in other series, together with correspondence not filed with the GENERAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL series. Included is information about Hart's appointment to the 1981 White House Conference on Aging and minutes and correspondence about his appointment to the Citizens Utility Board in 1980. The American Field Service file contains miscellaneous material about his World War II service and several 1946 mailings to AFS veterans. This file also contains a 1943 V-mail letter from Ruth Hart, the only true personal item in the collection, and an undated letter from a fellow volunteer after Hart had returned home. The “police surveillance” file includes clippings and a single letter from Police Chief Wilbur H. Emery retained as evidence of Hart's concern about this issue. The “Rock Spring Story,” a scrapbook available only on microfilm, documents the controversy that surrounded Hart's publication of the mimeographed Narrows Tribune. The WHA file contains broadcast arrangement with the station and a folder of listener responses, 1977 to 1981. Although the listener letters are often just brief requests for transcripts, others, such as the letters from William Kraus and Meg Skinner, are lengthy and reflective.

Important correspondence files in the series concern Norman Thomas, Virgil Vogel, and Frank Zeidler. Although Thomas and Hart had an acquaintance dating to the Presidential campaign of 1932, this file consists only of incoming letters for the years 1959 to 1965. These letters are primarily acknowledgements and references to Thomas' appearances in Wisconsin. Of special note is a tape Thomas recorded for the Wisconsin socialists' 1964 picnic. The correspondence from historian Virgil Vogel complements separately catalogued Vogel Papers held by the Historical Society. During the early 1970s Vogel sent Hart carbons of many letters that he wrote or received from SPUSA leaders. While many no doubt duplicate items in the Vogel collection, coverage of the Vogel Papers ends in 1979 while the Hart collection contains a substantial number of Vogel letters dating from the 1980s. The Zeidler file, which is entirely incoming, contains many handwritten letters not included in Zeidler's own papers at the Milwaukee Public Library. Unfortunately the majority are short and routine in content. A notable exception is Zeidler's mimeographed report on the feminist presence at the 1985 SPUSA convention.

Less extensive subject files include a folder on Wayne Morse. It contains a frank letter about campaign fundraising in 1962 to Hart who had written as president of Local 191 of the ITU to invite the senator. The Oliver Steinberg correspondence also demands comment. Steinberg was a St. Paul, Minnesota printer who purchased Hart's press in 1980. From Minnesota, he continued to be very involved in Hart's career, often designing and printing campaign literature and bumper stickers, and his letters to Hart document his personal involvement.

Several additional Hart publications are available in the Wisconsin Historical Society library.

Acquisition Information

Presented by William and Ruth Hart, Baraboo and North Freedom, Wisconsin, 1990-1998. Accession Number: M90-373, M98-134

Processing Information

Processed by Carolyn J. Mattern, 1998.

	Series: General and Biographical Material
Mss 893 Box   1 Folder   1	General correspondence, 1950-1985, undated
	General clippings
Micro 2069 Reel   1 Frame   1	1943-1988
Mss 893 Box   1 Folder   2	Undated clippings and fragments
PH Mss 893	Photographs
	Series: Political Papers	⇧
Mss 893	Campaign files
Box   1 Folder   3	, 1949 Wisconsin Supreme Court
Box   1 Folder   4	, 1961 Madison City Council
Box   1 Folder   5	, 1962 Madison Board of Education
	, 1962 U.S. Senate
Box   1 Folder   6	General
Box   1 Folder   7	Speeches
	, 1965 Madison Mayor
Box   1 Folder   8	General
Box   1 Folder   9	Speech and speech notes
Box   1 Folder   10	, 1970 Wisconsin Senate
	, 1974 Wisconsin Governor
Box   1 Folder   11	General
Box   1 Folder   12	Financial papers
Box   1 Folder   13	Press conference remarks, August 21
Box   1 Folder   14	Press and publicity material
Oversize Folder   1	Oversize materials
Box   1 Folder   15	, 1975 Wisconsin Assembly
	, 1976 U.S. Senate
Box   1 Folder   16	General
Box   1 Folder   17	Financial papers
Box   1 Folder   18	Miscellany
Box   1 Folder   19	Position statements and candidate forums
Box   1 Folder   20	Press conference, April 13
Box   1 Folder   21	Press and publicity material
Oversize Folder   1	Oversize materials
Box   1 Folder   22	, 1976 Sauk Prairie School Board
	, 1982 U.S. Senate
Box   1 Folder   23	Correspondence
Box   1 Folder   24	Miscellany
Box   1 Folder   25	Press and publicity material
Oversize Folder   1	Oversize materials
Box   1 Folder   26	Speeches
	, 1984 U.S. President
Box   2 Folder   1	General
Box   2 Folder   2	Wisconsin Supreme Court case
	Political parties
	Labor and Farm Party
Box   2 Folder   3	Candidates, 1984
Box   2 Folder   4	Constitution, 1983, undated
Box   2 Folder   5	Convention, 1983
Box   2 Folder   6	Correspondence, 1983-1984
Box   2 Folder   7	Ethical responses discussion paper, undated
Box   2 Folder   8	Mailings
Box   2 Folder   9	Second District meetings
Box   2 Folder   10	Steering Committee, 1983-1984
	Socialist Party
Box   2 Folder   11-13	General, 1947-1985, undated
	Zeidler Presidential campaign
Box   2 Folder   14	General material
Box   2 Folder   15	Press material
Box   2 Folder   16	Financial papers
	Series: Speeches and Writings	⇧
Micro 2069 Reel   1 Frame   257	Letters to the editor, 1946-1985
Reel   1 Frame   321	MESA Educator (Mechanical Education Society of America), 1953-1954
Mss 893	Radio commentaries and general material
Box   2 Folder   17-19	1977-1980
Box   3 Folder   1-3	1981-1985
Box   3 Folder   4-8	, Undated radio commentaries
	Series: Subject Files	⇧
Box   3 Folder   9	Aging, 1980-1988
Box   4 Folder   1	American Field Service, 1951, 1940
Box   4 Folder   2	Awards and testimonials, 1977, 1984
Box   4 Folder   3	Baraboo Petition, 1950
Box   4 Folder   4	Citizens Utility Board, 1980-1981
Box   4 Folder   4A	Hoagland, Robert, 1977-1978
Box   4 Folder   5	Morse, Wayne, 1959-1961
Box   4 Folder   6	Police surveillance, undated
Micro 2069 Reel   1 Frame   346	“Rock Springs Story,” 1949-1950
Mss 893 Box   4 Folder   7	Steinberg, Oliver, 1965, 1980-1987
	Thomas, Norman
Box   4 Folder   8	Correspondence, 1959-1965
Tape 1234A	Recorded greetings to Wisconsin socialists, 1964
Mss 893 Box   4 Folder   9	Van Handel, Corky, 1978-1984
Box   4 Folder   10	Vogel, Virgil, 1976-1989
	WHA
Box   4 Folder   11	General, 1977-1985
Box   4 Folder   12	Listener correspondence, 1977-1981
Box   4 Folder   13	Zeidler, Frank, 1961-1985