Thomas Ryum Amlie

Thomas Ryum Amlie (April 17, 1897 – August 22, 1973) was an American politician who served as a two-time U.S. representative from Wisconsin's 1st congressional district. Ryum first served as a Republican, from 1931 until 1933, being defeated for re-election in 1932. He later served as a Progressive, from 1935 until his retirement in 1939.

Early life and career

Amlie was born on a farm near Binford, North Dakota. During his youth, Amlie went to the high school in Cooperstown, North Dakota. Following his graduation he then went on to attend and then to the University of North Dakota from 1916-1918, after which he spent a short period of time in the United States Army. Following his return, he then attended the University of Minnesota for a year, but became disinterested in pursuing a career in teaching sociology and economics and began organizing for the Nonpartisan League.

After a short period of organizing for the League in Wisconsin, Amlie then enrolled in the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he received his law degree in 1923, being admitted to the bar that same year. After receiving his degree, Amlie began practicing law in Beloit, Wisconsin, where he helped established the firm 'Wisconsin Blue Book 1937, Biographical Sketch of Thomas Ryum Amlie, pg. 19 Three years later, he moved to Elkhorn, Wisconsin, which became his permanent residence.

Political career

Congress (1931–1933)

In October 1931, Amlie was elected as a Republican to represent Wisconsin's 1st congressional district in the 72nd United States Congress, replacing Henry A. Cooper who had died in office, and served until March 1933. He then switched to the Wisconsin Progressive Party, an alliance established in 1934 between the longstanding "Progressive" faction of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, led by the La Follette family and their political allies, and certain radical farm and labor groups active in Wisconsin at the time. He was reelected on the party ticket to the 74th and 75th United States Congresses and served from January 3, 1935, until January 3, 1939.

Amlie made his first run for U.S. House of Representatives in the 1931 special election, called following the death of long-time representative Henry Allen Cooper, who had represented his district nearly continuously from 1893 until his death. Cooper had represented Wisconsin's 1st congressional district, comprising roughly the southeast corner of the state. Amlie faced a crowded primary against state senators George W. Blanchard and Edward F. Hilker, and two other candidates. Amlie ultimately came out on top, defeating Blanchard by a margin of 1,332 votes.

In the lead up to the 1932 primary election, Amlie and Blanchard had garnered the backing of the progressives and stalwarts of the Republican Party respectively, with Blanchard even gaining the backing of the 1st district Republicans at their convention. In the primary election, Amlie and Blanchard were the only two Republicans to run. Blanchard won a narrow victory, defeating Amlie with 51.75% of the vote.

Progressive Party politics (1933–1934)

In 1933, Amlie helped form the Farmer-Labor-Progressive League.

In the Spring of 1934, the progressive faction split off from the Republican Party of Wisconsin and started the Wisconsin Progressive Party on the left, dramatically altering the politics of the state.

By 1934, the Great Depression had caused a sharp decline of conditions in Wisconsin, and this decline, alongside a resurgence of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, forced Progressive Republicans to seek new avenues to power. The first major figure calling for progressives to split from the Republican Party was Amlie. He was one of the most radical Republicans to have prominence within the party, and he "firmly believed that capitalism itself was dying and that Roosevelt could at most postpone the inevitable." Amlie was also a proponent of the Frontier Thesis and believed that the existence of the Frontier allowed Americans to escape hard times by escaping to available lands.

One of Amlie's major goals was the formation of a regional left wing third party, a party that would unite rural and urban producers that could influence national policy. To this end, he began working with former governor Philip La Follette on forming a third party, and believed that under La Follette's leadership, the new party would take a leftward direction. Despite supporting these efforts, Amlie and his radical allies were blocked by Phil and William T. Evjue, the editor of the Madison-based Capital Times.

Separately from the La Follette led party, Amlie, alongside Appleton attorney Sam Sigman, former U.S. representative George Schneider, and former state senator Anton M. Miller, established the Farmer-Labor-Progressive League (FLPL), which would develop a platform and endorse candidates in elections, all of which the Progressive Party had yet done. Unintentionally, this new organization had the potential to upset the plans La Follette had been creating for the party. Fortunately, after La Follette spoke at the F.L.P.L. convention, the League decided to support his party.

By the end of July, 1934, Amlie had declined to seek a gubernatorial bid both for financial reasons,but also because he felt La Follette would be the best candidate to lead the Progressive ticket. While he would not run for governor, Amlie began a run for his old congressional seat.

Return to Congress (1935–1939)

From 1936, Amlie and other Progressives were informally allied with the New Deal coalition and supported the reelection of President Franklin Roosevelt. Amlie had abandoned his hopes for a third party around this time for a similar reason that other progressives had, as he realized that "liberal reform would have to come via a Roosevelt-led Democratic Party."

In 1938, Amlie joined Democrats Jerry Voorhis and Robert Allen in sponsoring the Industrial Expansion Bill, which would have created a planned economy in the United States.

In 1938, Amlie served on a committee for the defense of Fred Beal. Returned from the Soviet Union, Beal was facing recommittal in North Carolina where in 1929 as a union organiser he had been convicted in a conspiracy trial. He had been deserted by the Communist-controlled International Labour Defense because of the witness he was now bearing to the realities of Soviet collectivization. Serving with Amlie on the committee were Homer Martin of the UAW, Democrat Jerry Voorhis; the sociologist and pacifist Emily Greene Balch, the New York attorney and feminist Dorothy Kenyon and the poet Sara Bard Field. The Committee reported hostile pressure from members of the ILD and numerous anonymous threats.

In 1938, Amlie declined to run for re-election, instead seeking to challenge Senator F. Ryan Duffy in the senate election that year, but was defeated in the Progressive primary by Herman Ekern, the incumbent lieutenant governor, by 7 points. The primary would prove to be a bitter contest, as it reopened old divides in the Progressive Party between allies of La Follette and younger radicals. The divide also symbolized a split between the supporters of Robert M. La Follette and younger progressives who had emerged from the various farmer-labor organizations. During the primary, Ekern had garnered the private support of Philip and Robert La Follette Jr., while Amlie had gained the endorsement of Milwakee Mayor Daniel Hoan. Amlie would later blame his defeat on Evjue, The Capital Times, and even the Wisconsin Progressive Party itself.

After Congress

After Amlie left Congress in 1939, Roosevelt nominated him to the Interstate Commerce Commission, but Amlie asked that the nomination be withdrawn.

Roosevelt eventually appointed Amlie as special assistant United States attorney in the Federal Land Commission office in Milwaukee. He eventually resigned this position to run for congress once again in 1941.

By 1940, Amlie had joined the Democratic Party as a "Roosevelt Democrat". Additionally, he supported other progressives leaving the third party and joining him within the Democratic Party. It was under this party that he ran in a special election that year for his old seat. He defeated Bernard Magruder by a wide margin in the primary election. In the general election, Amlie ran on supporting Roosevelt's domestic and foreign policy. He was defeated by a wide margin by Lawrence H. Smith.

Amlie later would run for the Wisconsin Supreme Court and U.S. House, from Wisconsin's 2nd district, but would never again hold elected office.

Returning from Washington DC, Amlie resumed the practice of law in Madison, Wisconsin, where he resided until his death.

Personal life and family

Amlie in 1925 was married to Marian Caldwell Strong, who died in 1930. Two years later, he married Gehrta Farkasch Beyer, who survived him. Amlie had 5 children, four sons and one daughter. He died on August 22, 1973, his remains were cremated and interred at the Sunset Memory Gardens, In the Forest Hill Cemetery in Madison, Wisconsin.

Amlie's brother, Hansford "Hans" Amlie, was a member of the XV International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War and fought on the side of the Spanish Republicans. Through his brother Hans, he was the brother-in-law of Milly Bennett.

Electoral history

U.S. House, Wisconsin's 1st district (1931–1936)

U.S. Senate (1938)

U.S. House, Wisconsin's 1st district (1941)

Wisconsin Supreme Court (1949)

U.S. House, Wisconsin's 2nd district (1958)

Notes

Further reading

* Rosenof, Theodore. "The Political Education of an American Radical: Thomas R. Amlie in the 1930's." ''Wisconsin Magazine of History'' (1974) 56#1: 19–3
online

* Weiss, Stuart L. "Thomas Amlie and the New Deal." ''Mid-America'' 59 (1977): 19–38.

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Amlie, Thomas Ryum
1897 births
1973 deaths
People from Griggs County, North Dakota
University of Wisconsin Law School alumni
Wisconsin lawyers
Wisconsin Progressives (1924)
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Wisconsin
Progressive Party (1924) members of the United States House of Representatives
People from Elkhorn, Wisconsin
20th-century American lawyers
20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives