This depression era Governor is regarded by some as Minnesota's most beloved leader. Others see him as a political opportunist who sold out his political ideals, while others brand him as a dangerous socialist and demagogue.
Tall and handsome, his intelligence and charm made him a fine speaker and a charismatic populist. Olson was the first Minnesota politician to rely on the directness of the radio airwaves rather than the partisan written press. When he died suddenly of pancreatic cancer at 44 in 1936, a multitude of Minnesotans openly mourned their fallen leader. A rising national political star, many saw him a natural to one day occupy the White House.
Olson, a product of a mixed marriage, his father was Norwegian and his mother Swedish, was born on Minneapolis' heavily Jewish north side. While his childhood was not as hardscrabble as he may have let on, he grew up appreciating the difficulties suffered by the poorest members of society. Friendly with all, young Olson spoke Yiddish and was sensitive to the anti-semitism that Minneapolis was then famous for.
Olson dropped out of the University of Minnesota where he got in trouble for his defiance. His two main infractions were his bristling at mandatory military drills and for wearing a derby hat. He traveled throughout the midwest and pacific northwest, working as a farm hand, miner, and stevedore. In Seattle he joined the I.W.W..
Returning to Minnesota he became a law clerk and took night classes at St. Paul's Northwestern law school (William Mitchell), commuting by bicycle. By 1920 he was working for the Hennepin County attorney and shortly assumed that position when the counties lead attorney was finished by scandal.
Olson distinguished himself as a competent and fearless prosecutor. He took on corrupt Minneapolis politicians, crooked businessmen and the Ku Klux Klan, A Democrat, he supported Robert LaFollete for president. He joined the Farmer Labor party and lost his bid for the Governorship in 1924.
He was eventually elected in 1930 and began his 6 year run in Minnesota's highest office. At the time of his election one in four Minnesotans were out of work, farmers were struggling, many losing their farms to foreclosure, banks were failing, the state coffers were broke, and violent forces, such as the Citizens Alliance, were using strong arm tactics to suppress the rising labor movement.
During his tenure his enacted an array of bold legislative measures. He instituted a state income tax to save failing schools districts, he ordered a bank holiday, created an old age pension program, enacted legislation to limit child labor, passed laws to encourage business cooperatives, instituted a moratorium on farm foreclosures, brought measures of relief to the unemployed, created 13 state parks, and set aside some of the land that became the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. He helped settle two major strikes, the Hormel workers strike of 1933, and the Teamsters strike of 1934.
He was not beloved by all. Conservatives and business leaders saw him as a communist, others saw him as dictator, unafraid to use martial law. And while he encouraged workers to organize and strike, labor leaders thought he was slow to act in their favor when Teamster
strike turned bloody. Others thought his connections to organized crime compromised his message of fairness. He liked to drink, and his womanizing was a poorly kept secret.Still, he remains a hero to progressives. His compassion for others was genuine. He is remembered by these words from the 1934 Farmer Labor convention:"
I am not a liberal. I am what I want to be — a radical."
