Thomas E. Latimer
Encyclopedia
Thomas E. Latimer was an American
lawyer who served as the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party
mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota
from 1935 to 1937. His mayoral term coincided with a period of labor unrest in the city. Prior to that, Latimer worked as a lawyer on the freedom of the press
dispute that ultimately resulted in the Supreme Court
's decision in Near v. Minnesota
. Latimer is of no direct relation to former St. Paul
mayor George Latimer.
. He attended Ohio State University
and played football
there until his father's death led him to return to the family farm. He taught school briefly and eventually joined the Klondike Gold Rush
at the age of 20 before moving on to work in silver
and lead
mines in Idaho
and gold mines in Mexico
.
Latimer returned to Ohio in 1905 and married a woman from Hilliard named May Helser. The couple separated three months later and quickly divorced, after which May bore a son in 1906. Latimer lost touch with his former wife but heard that a son had been born and died soon after. That was not true, though Latimer apparently would not know otherwise for nearly 30 years. As Time
magazine reported in 1935, Latimer's son, Ira - at that time a Chicago
radio news commentator who had suspected that Thomas was his father and had been brought up as Ira Jenkins by his mother and her second husband - read of Latimer's election as Minneapolis mayor and became convinced of his paternity upon learning that Thomas had been born in Hilliard. As the brief Time write-up noted, when confronted with his son Ira, Thomas Latimer "demanded proof, got it" and thus among the "chief guests at his inauguration...were his son, daughter-in-law, [and] two-year-old grandson."
After breaking with May Helser, Latimer had continued his education. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees and served as school superintendent in Juneau, Alaska
. Latimer eventually left Alaska and returned to the United States in 1912 (the same year Alaska was granted territorial
status) where he would embark on a career in law.
. It was there that he met his second wife, Elsie Henry. They graduated law school, took the bar exam together, and then opened the law firm of Latimer & Latimer. They apparently did not have any children. Elsie would die five years before Thomas in 1932.
By the 1920s Latimer was "a prominent Minneapolis attorney." Arguably his most important work came in a years-long freedom of the press dispute that culminated in the critical Supreme Court
ruling in Near v. Minnesota
. The case stemmed from an attempt by then-Hennepin County
Attorney Floyd B. Olson
(later the Governor of Minnesota
and leading light of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party
) to place an injunction against a Minneapolis newspaper, The Saturday Press. Published by Jay M. Near and Howard A. Guilford and known for its anti-Semitism
, anti-Communism
and propensity to attack supposedly corrupt local officials such as mayor George E. Leach
and police chief
Frank W. Brunskill, The Saturday Press was a ripe target for Minnesota's new Public Nuisance Law of 1925. Also known as the "Minnesota Gag Law," the statute provided permanent injunctions against those who published, sold, distributed, or had in their possession any "malicious, scandalous and defamatory newspaper." A temporary injunction was granted against The Saturday Press and it was forced to cease publication pending further legal proceedings.
While Latimer was hardly a partisan of The Saturday Press, he did sympathize with their cause and was - as Near v. Minnesota chronicler Fred Friendly would later put it - "a kind of self-appointed Legal Aid Society
." Under Latimer's advice, publishers Near and Guilford demurred in reply to the restraining order. While still abiding by that order in that they ceased publication, they argued that the temporary injunction was unconstitutional and did "not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action" on the part of the court.
In the hearing over the demurrer on December 1, 1927, Latimer argued that the Public Nuisance Law was "a subterfuge voted by the 1925 Legislature to get away from the state's constitution and libel laws..." He pointed out that "There are only two other countries in the world today with a statute similar to the one at issue...Italy
and Russia
." The latter comment was an ironic reference to a recent editorial in the influential Minneapolis Tribune, which had railed against the lack of press freedom in Benito Mussolini
's Italy yet supported the Public Nuisance Law.
Judge Mathias Baldwin rejected the demurrer two weeks after the hearing. However he certified the case to the Minnesota Supreme Court
, leaving it to that body to decide the question of the law's constitutionality. As Friendly would later note, "By demurring, Latimer had opened the door for appeal, and by certifying the case, Judge Baldwin had kept the litigation alive..." The case came before the Minnesota Supreme Court on April 28, 1928, at which time Latimer argued that the Public Nuisance Law violated the Minnesota constitution and was "null, void, and invalid, being in contravention of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States." The Minnesota court rejected this argument and affirmed the constitutionality of the law. However more powerful forces would soon pick up the fight against Minnesota's Public Nuisance Law (including the American Civil Liberties Union
and the publisher of the Chicago Tribune
) and take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. It marked the first time that a freedom of the press case involving prior restraint
s had made it to the high court. The Supreme Court, in what is widely hailed as a critical victory for freedom of the press, ultimately ruled that the Public Nuisance Law was unconstitutional. Though Latimer did not argue the case before the Court, it was the original demurrer he filed early in the case that created the basis on which the successful constitutional challenge would proceed.
(making it somewhat ironic that he did legal battle with party leader Floyd B. Olson
in the Near v. Minnesota case) and successfully ran for mayor of Minneapolis in 1935. Though more liberal than his Republican
predecessor A. G. Bainbridge, Latimer partially continued the antilabor policies of the city police and also adopted a more restrictive approach toward welfare spending. These actions alienated labor groups and some traditional liberals. Minneapolis Communists
in the Popular Front
- a not insignificant component of the Farmer-Labor movement - also found themselves in opposition to Latimer after he joined the Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky
- the exiled Soviet politician and staunch opponent of Stalin
and the Comintern
.
During Latimer's first months in office, Minneapolis was wracked by labor unrest. Workers at the Flour City Ornamental Iron Works went on strike in July 1935, and when the company refused to arbitrate and brought in scab workers
, the situation quickly became violent. To the surprise of some, given that he was a member of the Farmer-Labor Party, Latimer granted a request by the company for police protection. Soon there were complaints that the police were dealing with striking workers far too violently, and after police fired into a crowd and killed two bystanders Latimer withdrew the police protection and closed the plant. His political future had been endangered as a result of the police actions, and Latimer "dared not offend labor further," as Floyd B. Olson's biographer George Mayer noted.
A second strike began soon after at the Strutwear Knitting Mills. This time Latimer refused the owner's request for police protection and spoke against the refusal of Strutwear officials to negotiate. Latimer attempted to broker a resumption of negotiations, but the unwillingness of company officials to compromise (combined with the unified front put up by labor in the city) made that impossible. Ultimately the Strutwear strike was resolved in favor of the workers, as was the dispute at the Flour City Ornamental Iron Works. These were key victories for the Minneapolis labor movement at the time, though Latimer played a somewhat conflicted role which may have cost him labor support.
Latimer sought re-election, but more left-wing elements of the party associated with the Popular Front
had gained control of the Hennepin County Farmer Labor Alliance. Displeased with Latimer's administration, this group sought to deny him the support necessary to secure re-nomination as the Farmer-Labor candidate for mayor. Popular Front supporters backed Kenneth Haycraft for the nomination, while other elements of the party sided with Latimer. As a result two separate nominating conventions were held which both claimed legitimacy. In arguments before the Farmer-Labor Association State Committee over which convention would be recognized, Latimer supporters "attempted to discredit the Haycraft convention by citing the presence of delegates who had signed petitions to put Communist candidates on the Minnesota ballot in 1936." This tactic
would prove unsuccessful as the State Committee supported the Haycraft convention and Latimer ultimately lost the primary. Haycraft was roundly defeated by the Republican candidate (former mayor George E. Leach
) in the general election.
Having failed in his bid for re-election, Latimer left office in July 1937. At the time he was living with his third wife, Mildred Unger, whom he had married two years after Elsie Henry's death in 1932 (they had met when Latimer worked as Unger's attorney in her divorce with her previous husband). Four months after leaving office, at the age of 58, Latimer died suddenly of sleeping sickness. According to his obituary, "So deceptive was the illness that he attended the Minnesota-Notre Dame football game a week ago in Memorial stadium."
alley). The woman, Teri Norton-Feaser, spent some time trying to track down a relative who would want the Bible, saying she had "called every Latimer in the Minneapolis phone book and e-mailed everybody I could" but had not located anyone directly related to Thomas. Former St. Paul mayor George Latimer was among the Latimers contacted. He had researched his genealogy and was sure that "[Thomas Latimer] and I are not from the same line, but I suppose we could be 15th cousins."
After the Minneapolis Star Tribune
ran a story about the Latimer family Bible, two women contacted the paper to claim it: Dorothy Unger Hesli, 85, who was 15 years old when her mother Mildred Unger married Thomas, and Eloise White Saslaw, 83, who was a distant relative - perhaps a great niece of Latimer. Because she had actually known Latimer and was quite fond of him, Hesli was ultimately given the Bible. Hesli noted that she thought she could remember the Bible from her teenage years living with her sister, mother, and Latimer in Minneapolis, however she had no idea how it ended up in a pile of old books in California.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
lawyer who served as the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party
Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party
The Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party was a political party in the United States state of Minnesota, the most successful and longest-lasting of the constituent elements of the national Farmer–Labor Party movement, which had a presence in other states...
mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
from 1935 to 1937. His mayoral term coincided with a period of labor unrest in the city. Prior to that, Latimer worked as a lawyer on the freedom of the press
Freedom of the press
Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials...
dispute that ultimately resulted in the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
's decision in Near v. Minnesota
Near v. Minnesota
Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697 , was a United States Supreme Court decision that recognized the freedom of the press by roundly rejecting prior restraints on publication, a principle that was applied to free speech generally in subsequent jurisprudence...
. Latimer is of no direct relation to former St. Paul
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
mayor George Latimer.
Early life
Latimer was born in 1879 on a farm in Hilliard, OhioHilliard, Ohio
Hilliard is a city in Franklin County, Ohio, United States. The population was 28,435 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Hilliard is located at . It is bordered on the east by Upper Arlington, on the north by Dublin, on the south by Galloway and Columbus, and to the west lies open farmland...
. He attended Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
and played football
Ohio State Buckeyes football
The Ohio State Buckeyes football team is an intercollegiate varsity sports team of The Ohio State University. The team is a member of the Big Ten Conference of the NCAA, playing at the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly Division I-A, level. The team nickname is derived from the state...
there until his father's death led him to return to the family farm. He taught school briefly and eventually joined the Klondike Gold Rush
Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush, was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold...
at the age of 20 before moving on to work in silver
Silver mining in the United States
Silver mining in the United States began on a major scale with the discovery of the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1858. The industry suffered greatly from the demonetization of silver in 1873 by the "Crime of 73," but silver mining continues today....
and lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
mines in Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
and gold mines in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
.
Latimer returned to Ohio in 1905 and married a woman from Hilliard named May Helser. The couple separated three months later and quickly divorced, after which May bore a son in 1906. Latimer lost touch with his former wife but heard that a son had been born and died soon after. That was not true, though Latimer apparently would not know otherwise for nearly 30 years. As Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine reported in 1935, Latimer's son, Ira - at that time a Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
radio news commentator who had suspected that Thomas was his father and had been brought up as Ira Jenkins by his mother and her second husband - read of Latimer's election as Minneapolis mayor and became convinced of his paternity upon learning that Thomas had been born in Hilliard. As the brief Time write-up noted, when confronted with his son Ira, Thomas Latimer "demanded proof, got it" and thus among the "chief guests at his inauguration...were his son, daughter-in-law, [and] two-year-old grandson."
After breaking with May Helser, Latimer had continued his education. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees and served as school superintendent in Juneau, Alaska
Juneau, Alaska
The City and Borough of Juneau is a unified municipality located on the Gastineau Channel in the panhandle of the U.S. state of Alaska. It has been the capital of Alaska since 1906, when the government of the then-District of Alaska was moved from Sitka as dictated by the U.S. Congress in 1900...
. Latimer eventually left Alaska and returned to the United States in 1912 (the same year Alaska was granted territorial
Alaska Territory
The Territory of Alaska was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 24, 1912, until January 3, 1959, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Alaska...
status) where he would embark on a career in law.
Legal career and Near v. Minnesota
Latimer studied law at the University of MinnesotaUniversity of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
. It was there that he met his second wife, Elsie Henry. They graduated law school, took the bar exam together, and then opened the law firm of Latimer & Latimer. They apparently did not have any children. Elsie would die five years before Thomas in 1932.
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
ruling in Near v. Minnesota
Near v. Minnesota
Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697 , was a United States Supreme Court decision that recognized the freedom of the press by roundly rejecting prior restraints on publication, a principle that was applied to free speech generally in subsequent jurisprudence...
. The case stemmed from an attempt by then-Hennepin County
Hennepin County, Minnesota
Hennepin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Minnesota, named in honor of the 17th-century explorer Father Louis Hennepin. As of 2010 the population was 1,152,425. Its county seat is Minneapolis. It is by far the most populous county in Minnesota; more than one in five Minnesotans live...
Attorney Floyd B. Olson
Floyd B. Olson
Floyd Bjørnstjerne Olson was an American politician. He served as the 22nd Governor of Minnesota from January 6, 1931 to August 22, 1936. He died in office from stomach cancer. He was a member of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, and was the first member of the Farmer-Labor Party to win the...
(later the Governor of Minnesota
Governor of Minnesota
The Governor of Minnesota is the chief executive of the U.S. state of Minnesota, leading the state's executive branch. Forty different people have been governors of the state, though historically there were also three governors of Minnesota Territory. Alexander Ramsey, the first territorial...
and leading light of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party
Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party
The Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party was a political party in the United States state of Minnesota, the most successful and longest-lasting of the constituent elements of the national Farmer–Labor Party movement, which had a presence in other states...
) to place an injunction against a Minneapolis newspaper, The Saturday Press. Published by Jay M. Near and Howard A. Guilford and known for its anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
, anti-Communism
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
and propensity to attack supposedly corrupt local officials such as mayor George E. Leach
George E. Leach
Major General George E. Leach was an American military officer and two-time Republican mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota.He was commissioned a second lieutenant, Field Artillery on April 15, 1905 in the Minnesota National Guard....
and police chief
Minneapolis Chief of Police
There have been 49 police chiefs of the Minneapolis Police Department in the history of Minneapolis, Minnesota.-List of police chiefs:-List of city marshals:There were constables appointed as city marshals of Saint Anthony before it was joined to Minneapolis....
Frank W. Brunskill, The Saturday Press was a ripe target for Minnesota's new Public Nuisance Law of 1925. Also known as the "Minnesota Gag Law," the statute provided permanent injunctions against those who published, sold, distributed, or had in their possession any "malicious, scandalous and defamatory newspaper." A temporary injunction was granted against The Saturday Press and it was forced to cease publication pending further legal proceedings.
While Latimer was hardly a partisan of The Saturday Press, he did sympathize with their cause and was - as Near v. Minnesota chronicler Fred Friendly would later put it - "a kind of self-appointed Legal Aid Society
Legal Aid Society
The Legal Aid Society in New York City is the United States' oldest and largest provider of legal services to the indigent. It operates both traditional civil and criminal law cases.-History:...
." Under Latimer's advice, publishers Near and Guilford demurred in reply to the restraining order. While still abiding by that order in that they ceased publication, they argued that the temporary injunction was unconstitutional and did "not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action" on the part of the court.
In the hearing over the demurrer on December 1, 1927, Latimer argued that the Public Nuisance Law was "a subterfuge voted by the 1925 Legislature to get away from the state's constitution and libel laws..." He pointed out that "There are only two other countries in the world today with a statute similar to the one at issue...Italy
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
and Russia
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
." The latter comment was an ironic reference to a recent editorial in the influential Minneapolis Tribune, which had railed against the lack of press freedom in Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
's Italy yet supported the Public Nuisance Law.
Judge Mathias Baldwin rejected the demurrer two weeks after the hearing. However he certified the case to the Minnesota Supreme Court
Minnesota Supreme Court
The Minnesota Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Minnesota and consists of seven members. The court was first assembled as a three-judge panel in 1849 when Minnesota was still a territory. The first members were lawyers from outside of the region who were appointed by...
, leaving it to that body to decide the question of the law's constitutionality. As Friendly would later note, "By demurring, Latimer had opened the door for appeal, and by certifying the case, Judge Baldwin had kept the litigation alive..." The case came before the Minnesota Supreme Court on April 28, 1928, at which time Latimer argued that the Public Nuisance Law violated the Minnesota constitution and was "null, void, and invalid, being in contravention of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States." The Minnesota court rejected this argument and affirmed the constitutionality of the law. However more powerful forces would soon pick up the fight against Minnesota's Public Nuisance Law (including the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
and the publisher of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
) and take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. It marked the first time that a freedom of the press case involving prior restraint
Prior restraint
Prior restraint or prior censorship is censorship in which certain material may not be published or communicated, rather than not prohibiting publication but making the publisher answerable for what is made known...
s had made it to the high court. The Supreme Court, in what is widely hailed as a critical victory for freedom of the press, ultimately ruled that the Public Nuisance Law was unconstitutional. Though Latimer did not argue the case before the Court, it was the original demurrer he filed early in the case that created the basis on which the successful constitutional challenge would proceed.
Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, mayoralty, and later life
By the mid-1930s Latimer was a veteran politician of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor PartyMinnesota Farmer-Labor Party
The Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party was a political party in the United States state of Minnesota, the most successful and longest-lasting of the constituent elements of the national Farmer–Labor Party movement, which had a presence in other states...
(making it somewhat ironic that he did legal battle with party leader Floyd B. Olson
Floyd B. Olson
Floyd Bjørnstjerne Olson was an American politician. He served as the 22nd Governor of Minnesota from January 6, 1931 to August 22, 1936. He died in office from stomach cancer. He was a member of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, and was the first member of the Farmer-Labor Party to win the...
in the Near v. Minnesota case) and successfully ran for mayor of Minneapolis in 1935. Though more liberal than his Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
predecessor A. G. Bainbridge, Latimer partially continued the antilabor policies of the city police and also adopted a more restrictive approach toward welfare spending. These actions alienated labor groups and some traditional liberals. Minneapolis Communists
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
in the Popular Front
Popular front
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
- a not insignificant component of the Farmer-Labor movement - also found themselves in opposition to Latimer after he joined the Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
- the exiled Soviet politician and staunch opponent of Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
and the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
.
During Latimer's first months in office, Minneapolis was wracked by labor unrest. Workers at the Flour City Ornamental Iron Works went on strike in July 1935, and when the company refused to arbitrate and brought in scab workers
Strikebreaker
A strikebreaker is a person who works despite an ongoing strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who are not employed by the company prior to the trade union dispute, but rather hired prior to or during the strike to keep the organisation running...
, the situation quickly became violent. To the surprise of some, given that he was a member of the Farmer-Labor Party, Latimer granted a request by the company for police protection. Soon there were complaints that the police were dealing with striking workers far too violently, and after police fired into a crowd and killed two bystanders Latimer withdrew the police protection and closed the plant. His political future had been endangered as a result of the police actions, and Latimer "dared not offend labor further," as Floyd B. Olson's biographer George Mayer noted.
A second strike began soon after at the Strutwear Knitting Mills. This time Latimer refused the owner's request for police protection and spoke against the refusal of Strutwear officials to negotiate. Latimer attempted to broker a resumption of negotiations, but the unwillingness of company officials to compromise (combined with the unified front put up by labor in the city) made that impossible. Ultimately the Strutwear strike was resolved in favor of the workers, as was the dispute at the Flour City Ornamental Iron Works. These were key victories for the Minneapolis labor movement at the time, though Latimer played a somewhat conflicted role which may have cost him labor support.
Latimer sought re-election, but more left-wing elements of the party associated with the Popular Front
Popular front
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
had gained control of the Hennepin County Farmer Labor Alliance. Displeased with Latimer's administration, this group sought to deny him the support necessary to secure re-nomination as the Farmer-Labor candidate for mayor. Popular Front supporters backed Kenneth Haycraft for the nomination, while other elements of the party sided with Latimer. As a result two separate nominating conventions were held which both claimed legitimacy. In arguments before the Farmer-Labor Association State Committee over which convention would be recognized, Latimer supporters "attempted to discredit the Haycraft convention by citing the presence of delegates who had signed petitions to put Communist candidates on the Minnesota ballot in 1936." This tactic
Red-baiting
Red-baiting is the act of accusing, denouncing, attacking or persecuting an individual or group as communist, socialist, or anarchist, or sympathetic toward communism, socialism, or anarchism. The word "red" in "red-baiting" is derived from the red flag signifying radical left-wing politics. In the...
would prove unsuccessful as the State Committee supported the Haycraft convention and Latimer ultimately lost the primary. Haycraft was roundly defeated by the Republican candidate (former mayor George E. Leach
George E. Leach
Major General George E. Leach was an American military officer and two-time Republican mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota.He was commissioned a second lieutenant, Field Artillery on April 15, 1905 in the Minnesota National Guard....
) in the general election.
Having failed in his bid for re-election, Latimer left office in July 1937. At the time he was living with his third wife, Mildred Unger, whom he had married two years after Elsie Henry's death in 1932 (they had met when Latimer worked as Unger's attorney in her divorce with her previous husband). Four months after leaving office, at the age of 58, Latimer died suddenly of sleeping sickness. According to his obituary, "So deceptive was the illness that he attended the Minnesota-Notre Dame football game a week ago in Memorial stadium."
Latimer family Bible
Nearly 70 years after his death, Latimer's name was once again briefly in the Minneapolis press. In 2004 a woman from Arkansas had in her possession an ornate, leather-bound Bible that once belonged to Latimer (her husband had found the Bible ten years earlier in a pile of discarded books in a San DiegoSan Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
alley). The woman, Teri Norton-Feaser, spent some time trying to track down a relative who would want the Bible, saying she had "called every Latimer in the Minneapolis phone book and e-mailed everybody I could" but had not located anyone directly related to Thomas. Former St. Paul mayor George Latimer was among the Latimers contacted. He had researched his genealogy and was sure that "[Thomas Latimer] and I are not from the same line, but I suppose we could be 15th cousins."
After the Minneapolis Star Tribune
Star Tribune
The Star Tribune is the largest newspaper in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is published seven days each week in an edition for the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area. A statewide version is also available across Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota. The...
ran a story about the Latimer family Bible, two women contacted the paper to claim it: Dorothy Unger Hesli, 85, who was 15 years old when her mother Mildred Unger married Thomas, and Eloise White Saslaw, 83, who was a distant relative - perhaps a great niece of Latimer. Because she had actually known Latimer and was quite fond of him, Hesli was ultimately given the Bible. Hesli noted that she thought she could remember the Bible from her teenage years living with her sister, mother, and Latimer in Minneapolis, however she had no idea how it ended up in a pile of old books in California.
See also
- List of mayors of Minneapolis
- Floyd B. OlsonFloyd B. OlsonFloyd Bjørnstjerne Olson was an American politician. He served as the 22nd Governor of Minnesota from January 6, 1931 to August 22, 1936. He died in office from stomach cancer. He was a member of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, and was the first member of the Farmer-Labor Party to win the...