Any story of Thomas R. Amlie that chronicles simply his training, legal practice, and elected offices falls far short of picturing the influence that this liberal--by his own description, radical--wielded during the depression years.
The grandson of Norwegian immigrants, and the son of a conservative but “free thinking” farmer, Thomas Amlie was born in Griggs County, North Dakota on April 17, 1897. After studying at the University of North Dakota from 1916 to 1918 he spent a short period of time in the army, and upon his release entered the University of Minnesota. There, in 1919, he abandoned his intention of becoming a sociology and economics teacher, and turned to the Nonpartisan League. After spending a season as an organizer for the League in Wisconsin, he enrolled in the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he received his degree and was admitted to the bar in 1923.
After receiving his law degree, Amlie went to work for the Wisconsin Department of Markets (later part of the Agriculture Department). Living in Eau Claire in 1924, he was district chairman for Robert M. La Follette's presidential campaign and also ran unsuccessfully for district attorney. Late in that year he moved to Beloit and established a practice in the firm of Fiedler, Garrigan, and Amlie. Three years later Amlie moved his office to Elkhorn, and was a resident of that city throughout his congressional career.
A Progressive Republican, he was elected first district congressman in 1931, and as the Depression deepened the state and nation heard increasingly from Thomas R. Amlie. Defeated for reelection in 1932, in 1934 he helped plan the campaign of the newly-formed Progressive party of Wisconsin. Victory in that campaign swept Philip F. La Follette back into the governor's chair and returned Amlie to Congress.
According to the Wall Street Journal, January 25, 1939, the kinds of bills Amlie introduced into Congress were the type that would have “put the federal government in control of all industry by practical socialization.” He became widely known as a member of the so-called “liberal bloc” in Congress and joined with other liberals there and throughout the country in trying to form a third party. Believing that production for profit should be replaced with a planned economy of “production for use,” the movement sought to bring about a political realignment in the country. The League for Independent Political Action, with John Dewey at its head, issued a call for a conference in Chicago September 3, 1933, at which meeting the national Farmer-Labor Political Federation was formed, with Thomas R. Amlie as chairman. Since it functioned chiefly as a middle-western liaison between various liberal and radical groups, means were sought to give the movement more effective national scope.
After a series of preliminary meetings early in 1935, leaders met in Chicago July 5 and 6 and organized the American Commonwealth Political Federation (ACPF). In a nationally broadcast speech August 22, Amlie called for the support of a genuine American radical movement, saying “there is... nothing in the Roosevelt program save charity capitalism.” The Federation maintained a national office, appointed a national organizer, published a pamphlet called Toward a New Party, and in the fall of 1935 sent its chairman, Amlie, on a speaking tour of the western states. It struggled to unite liberal, progressive, and radical groups into an effective national organization. It appealed to labor for support, but adopted a policy of excluding communist groups.
The ACPF hoped to influence the 1936 elections, and Amlie himself was mentioned as a possible presidential candidate on a Federation ticket; but Amlie again ran as a Progressive to recapture his congressional seat, and the influence of the Federation waned following the fall elections. The Amlie Papers reveal many reasons for its failure; important among them may have been the reason expressed by Amlie in a letter to James H. Hart, October 5, 1943, “These movements disappeared when Roosevelt moved far enough to the Left to receive the political support of organized labor.”
In 1937, and again in 1938, Amlie joined with Representative Jerry Voorhis of California and Robert Allen of Pennsylvania in sponsoring the Industrial Expansion Bill, a legislative attempt to provide for a planned economy. In 1938 he made the race for senator on the Progressive ticket in Wisconsin and was defeated in the primary by Herman Ekern, a defeat he blamed on William T. Evjue of the Madison Capital Times and on the Progressive party itself.
In January, 1939, President Roosevelt appointed Amlie to the Interstate Commerce Commission, but widespread opposition to the appointment compelled him to request that Roosevelt withdraw his nomination. The President later appointed him as special assistant United States attorney in the Federal Land Commission office in Milwaukee, a position he resigned in 1941 to run once more, unsuccessfully, for Congress in his old first district, this time as a Democrat. In 1940 he had disagreed with Philip F. La Follette on the foreign issue, supported Roosevelt, and favored a combination of Progressives and liberal Democrats.
In 1942 he was back in Washington, as Washington director of the newly formed Union for Democratic Action (UDA), forerunner of the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA). The following year and periodically thereafter he tried, but failed, to secure various appointments in government agencies. His failure to obtain government posts led him to conclude that he had been virtually black-listed because of his reputation as a radical.
As a member of the executive committee of the National Political Action Committee he became involved with the CIO Political Action Committee (CIO-PAC), and in 1944 spent some months in New York as staff member of that organization. He served as their legislative research man, examining and reporting on the records of congressmen as to their votes on labor questions, and their liberal or conservative viewpoints.
By 1946 Amlie was back in Madison (where he had moved his family in 1942) more or less full time. In that year he was elected a member of the Wisconsin Democratic State Central Committee, but although he ran for the state Supreme Court in 1949 and for congressman from the second district in 1958, he never again held public office. He maintained a somewhat limited legal practice until 1962 when ill health forced him to curtail his activities. He also owned and managed several rooming houses in the university area. Amlie died on August 22, 1973.
Amlie's first wife, Marian Caldwell Strong, whom he married in 1925, died in 1930; two years later he married Gehrta Farkasch Beyer. He had four sons, Thomas, Robert, Paul, and Frederick Hans, and one daughter, Marian.
