Why Voting Is Crucial

Governor Olson with President Roosevelt

                                         
Many Americans don’t vote especially in non-presidential election cycles.  There appears to be a disinterest in the role local politics plays in the quality of our life and the impact local politics can have on the nation as a whole.  Certainly life in Massachusetts and Minnesota, in many respects, is vastly different than life in Mississippi or Nevada.  Yet all these states can play an important role in framing national thought and direction.  Such was the case in 1934.

The streets in Minneapolis became war zones when thousands of transportation workers in the trucking industry went on strike.  Their grievance stemmed from employers refusal to accept the union’s appeal to represent their members under a collective bargaining agreement. 

The strike began on May 16^th.  During that early month of the strike, union members were able to halt virtually all trucking operations.  This was no easy task.  The police along with the employer controlled Citizen Alliance and their deputies (Company Goons) attempted to literally club union members into submission.  The violence was particularly gruesome.

During that gory summer, union members were savagely beaten.  They suffered mutilating and disfiguring injuries mercilessly administered by police and goons wheedling saps and night sticks. 

As union support grew to tens of thousands of sympathizers, police began shooting picketers.  Eyewitness accounts from a July 20^th confrontation described the horrific bloodshed; “as the pickets moved to aid their fallen comrades, they flowed directly into buckshot fire...And the cops let them have it as they picked up their wounded.”  Police; “kicked, beat and shot picketers as they lay wounded…”  “…the cops had gone berserk. They were shooting in all directions, hitting most of their victims in the back as they tried to escape…”  At the end of the carnage two dead strikers along with another sixty-seven of their brethren laid severely wounded in the blood soaked street. 

Minnesota Governor Floyd B. Olson became a ballerina on a tightrope.  He had to balance his labor sympathies with his gubernatorial responsibilities to maintain law and order.

After the companies reneged on an agreement they signed with the union in May and after an overwhelming show of support that shut-down the city during the funeral procession of one of those slain strikers on July 20^th, Olson felt he had no choice but to intervene.  He mobilized the National Guard and declared Marshall Law.  The companies then insisted Olson remove the guard.  Olson refused believing the guard was the only protection the strikers had against a massive public slaughter.

In August Olson met with President Franklin Roosevelt.  He persuaded Roosevelt to apply pressure on the Minneapolis companies through Northwest Bancorporation by threatening their flow of capital and jeopardizing their current wealth.  Roosevelt agreed and cautioned the bank that he would recall a $23 million government loan if tensions weren't quelled.  It worked and forced the companies to finally negotiate in good faith. 

The strike paved the way for the organization of over-the-road drivers which ultimately resulted in the formation of the Teamsters as a national union.  

The deaths and suffering – the many sacrifices - of the brave men and women who fought that war in 1934 along with Floyd B. Olson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt are directly responsible for many of the benefits and freedoms we all enjoy in the workplace today.

We never know when we elect our officials what crisis may be forthcoming which will challenge them in every conceivable manner.  It is crucial we support those with the wisdom and character to lead not just from the oval office but, like Floyd B. Olson, from our state capitol as well. 

Governor Olson had a profound positive impact not just upon life in Minnesota but in enhancing lives nationwide.  If we choose to sit in the comfort of our homes and refuse to vote we could very easily find ourselves living in a vastly different state or country.  We risk sacrificing our liberties and thus potentially enduring untold catastrophes and hardships.

And then there’s the dear, sweet lady whose husband was the mayor of their small town in Iowa.  He lost his bid for reelection by one – ONE - lousy vote.  Upon hearing the news this very dear, sweet lady buried her head in her hands and said; “I knew I should have voted.”  She now never fails to do exactly that.