The collection consists of two parts: an oral history interview and one folder of related correspondence and other papers.
Interview
The one and one-half hour interview was conducted at Mr. Marshall's law offices in downtown Milwaukee. Unfortunately, it was not discovered until after completion of the taping that interference from a local radio station had created an annoying buzz and occasional strains of pop music on the tape. In at least one place on the tape this interference drowned out the conversation for nearly a full minute. Nevertheless, Mr. Marshall provided a very candid interview, well worth putting up with the interference annoyance.
The value of the interview lies mainly in the way it fills many gaps in the current literature on the history of the Wisconsin Democratic Party and particularly the Democratic Organizing Committee. While the literature usually focuses on the glamour figures who were later to experience electoral and appointive successes within the Party, Mr. Marshall points out the crucial roles of people like Viola Lomoe and Julia Boegholt, who did yeomen organizing jobs in Milwaukee and Dane Counties respectively, and Jim Corcoran who bankrolled the DOC. While his views on the timing and motivations for this effort to liberalize and activate the Democratic Party in Wisconsin are fairly standard, he does offer additional evidence for these standard views as well as some still debatable theses, such as the role of the Democrats in Joe McCarthy's primary election victory over Robert La Follette, Jr., in 1946. He offers candid and highly personal opinions of many leading Democratic figures in Wisconsin from the Depression forward. His anecdote about the behind-the-scenes decision by leading Milwaukee County Democrats to dump the Democratic candidate for Congress in the safely-Democratic Fourth District in 1946 graphically portrays several leading Democrats, their motivations and machinations, and clearly shows that FBI “subversive files” and their misuse were not a creation of the 1960s.
Abstract to the Interview
The tapes for this interview have two tracks: a voice track containing the discussion and a time track containing time announcements at intervals of approximately five seconds. The abstract below lists, in order of discussion, the topics covered on each tape, and indicates the time-signal at which point the beginning of the particular discussion appears.
Thus, the researcher by using a tape recorder's fast-forward button may find expeditiously and listen to discrete segments without listening to all of the taped discussion. For instance, the user who wishes to listen to the topic on “Andrew Biemiller and the Decision to Join the Democratic Party” should locate the place on the second track of tape one, side one, where the voice announces the 06:50 time-signal (the voice says at this point, “six minutes, fifty seconds”), and at this point switch to the first track to hear the discussion. The discussion on “Andrew Biemiller and the Decision to Join the Democratic Party” continues until approximately 09:00 at which point discussion of the next topic (“Robert Tehan”) begins.
Notice that in most cases sentences beneath each headline explain more about the contents of the topic. For example, the sentences underneath “Andrew Biemiller and the Decision to Join the Democratic Party” give further details on what appears on the tape between 06:50 and 09:00.
The abstract is designed to provide only a brief outline of the contents of the tapes and cannot serve as a substitute for listening to them. However, the abstract will help the researcher easily locate distinct topics and discussions among the many minutes of commentary.
Correspondence and Other Papers
Prior to this taped interview session, Mr. Marshall had donated to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin a small (approximately two linear inches) but rich folder of materials pertaining to the Democratic Organizing Committee and the Democratic Party in Milwaukee County and in the State of Wisconsin. These materials, consisting mainly of correspondence, span the years 1947-1961, but are particularly rich for the period surrounding the formal founding of the DOC. These papers provide insights into DOC organizing and personalities and offer written support for many of Mr. Marshall's taped recollections.
