In 1921, the Independent Voters Association (IVA) was urging the recall of Governor Lynn Frazier, Attorney General William Lemke, and Commissioner of Agriculture and Labor John Hagen—all Nonpartisan League (NPL) officials – in a vote scheduled for October 28th.
Amidst this turmoil, the self-proclaimed “unbiased” Devils Lake World announced “The greatest monster get-together farmer-labor-businessman picnic of all time in Ramsey County,” scheduled for this date. The article promised fun, “good and clean” politics, athletics, and speakers including the three men facing recall: Frazier, Lemke, and Hagen.
A competing paper, the pro-IVA Devils Lake Daily Journal, cried “deception,” claiming the picnic was “merely a camouflage of Nonpartisan campaigning” with “some interesting attractions to draw the crowd.”
In response, a letter to the editor of the World described the event as a typical Labor Day celebration with “speakers of prominence” who were “well-known champions of the laboring people.” The author criticized the Journal’s article as “an insult to every laboring man or woman in the city.”
The Journal countered by labeling the World a “great little vacillator” and “the weekly Nonpartisan spellbinder,” accusing it of being “up to its old tricks” with its sensational writing.
Devils Lake citizens also organized a second Labor Day celebration that was intended to be “decidedly nonpolitical.” The World assured its readers that this event “will not in any manner conflict” with the Farmer-Labor Picnic, as both event committees were “urging the public to do everything possible to make each affair a huge success.”
The World’s final push asserted that attending the Farmer-Labor picnic would be “proof conclusive of loyalty to the best interests of the state” because it would allow voters to “get facts as facts.”
However, due to weather issues, the picnic attracted only hundreds of attendees instead of the predicted thousands. The famous Devils Lake Boy Scout Band, led by C. B. Weimer, performed; NPL-oriented speeches were given by Frazier, Lemke, and Ina Brickner, the state lecturer for the Nonpartisan Women’s Clubs; and lunch and dinner were served at local hotels, including those hosted by the superintendent of print shops for the World newspaper.
To a mixed NPL and IVA audience, Frazier’s speech was described as “virtually the same” one he had been making throughout the state. Similarly, the other speakers also focused on political issues relating to the recall election.
A month later, voters removed all three men from office.
Dakota Datebook by Cody Goehring
Sources:
- Devils Lake World, August 10, 1921, p1, “Greatest Rally of Farmer-Labor Forces...” and “Labor Day Program Put Over...”
- Devils Lake Daily Journal, August 12, 1921, p2, “A Labor Day Circus”
- Devils Lake World, August 17, 1921, p10, “The Political Arena”
- Devils Lake Daily Journal, August 19, 1921, p2, “Capitalizing Labor Day”
- Devils Lake Daily Journal, August 20, 1921, p1, “Laboring Men Plan Monster Labor Day Celebration in City on Sept. 5”
- Devils Lake Daily Journal, August 22, 1921, p2, “A Real Labor Day Celebration”
- Devils Lake World, August 24, 1921, p1, “Labor In Devils Lake To Come Into Its Own...”
- Devils Lake World, September 7, 1921, p4, “It Is Just and Fair”
- Devils Lake World, September 7, 1921, p11, “Hear Ye All!”
- Devils Lake Daily Journal, September 12, 1921, p1, “Bankers Worse Than I. W. W. Gov. Frazier Tells Hearers”
- Devils Lake World, September 14, 1921, p1, “Bad Weather Falls To Dampen Ardor...”
- History of North Dakota by Elywn B. Robinson, 1995, p327-351
- Political Prairie Fire: The Nonpartisan League 1915-1922 by Robert L. Morlan, 1985
