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Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper The Organized Farmer (Red Wing, Minn.) 1919-1932

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About The Organized Farmer (Red Wing, Minn.) 1919-1932

The Organized Farmer was a weekly newspaper that first appeared on June 12, 1919, in Red Wing, Minnesota. It was founded by Red Wing businessman, progressive activist, and former state legislator Frederick A. Scherf. The first editor was William English, who previously worked for the Grand Forks Herald in North Dakota. With the motto "Watch Us Grow," the paper described itself as the "Official Organ of the MN branch of the Farmer Labor Party of America."

During the 1920s, the Organized Farmer competed with the Red Wing Republican and the Red Wing Daily Eagle for readers. Notably, as the only paper voicing the interests of the Farmer-Labor Party in Goodhue County, it was the main source of regional support for Floyd B. Olson during the 1930 Minnesota gubernatorial election. Olson's win was a great feat for the third-party candidate who represented the Farmer-Labor party against Republican and Democratic nominees.

In 1927, Scherf appointed the "mother" of the Farm-Labor Party, Susie Williamson Stageberg, as editor. Stageberg was a strong advocate for women's suffrage and authored a regular column for the Minnesota Leader (the state's Nonpartisan League newspaper) titled "As a Woman Sees It." As editor, she increased circulation and decreased the newspaper's debt. However, Scherf wanted to see the paper move in a more radical direction, and Stageberg was removed from her position in 1929 and replaced by Francis H. Shoemaker.

As publisher, Shoemaker used the newspaper as a platform to attack political rivals and print disparaging stories about government and business leaders. In an article of November 15, 1929, titled "Chain Banks Ruin Community," Shoemaker argued that chain banks, chain stores, and insurance companies leeched off local communities to the benefit of Wall Street. Shoemaker also served nine months in prison for sending defamatory mail to banker Robert W. Putnam, addressed to "Robber of Widows and Orphans." When Shoemaker decided to run for Congress, he used the newspaper as his personal platform to attack his opponent, August H. Andresen. Shoemaker won election to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served a tumultuous term littered with personal attacks and criminal arrests.

In the final issue of the Organized Farmer, issued on July 15, 1932, Shoemaker published an editorial in which he blamed the newspaper's demise on unpaid subscription dues. Though the article was meant to inspire and unite the readers of the paper against "the thief at the White House," it ultimately failed, and the newspaper ceased publication.

Provided By: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Organized Farmer (Red Wing, Minn.) 1919-1932

Dates of Publication

  • 1919-1932

Created / Published

  • Red Wing, Minn. : Goodhue County Farmers Pub. Co., 1919-1932.

Headings

  • -  Red Wing (Minn.)--Newspapers
  • -  Goodhue County (Minn.)--Newspapers
  • -  Minnesota--Goodhue County
  • -  Minnesota--Red Wing
  • -  United States--Minnesota--Goodhue--Red Wing

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (June 12, 1919)-v. 14, no. 8 (July 15, 1932).
  • -  "Official organ of the Minnesota branch of the Farmer-Labor Party of America."
  • -  Available on microfilm from the Minnesota Historical Society.
  • -  Mid-west American (Red Wing, Minn.). (DLC)sn 89064420

Medium

  • 14 volumes

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn89064422

OCLC Number

  • 1642760

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

The Organized Farmer Red Wing, Minn. -1932. (Red Wing, MN), Jan. 1 1919. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn89064422/.

APA citation style:

(1919, January 1) The Organized Farmer Red Wing, Minn. -1932. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn89064422/.

MLA citation style:

The Organized Farmer Red Wing, Minn. -1932. (Red Wing, MN) 1 Jan. 1919. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn89064422/.