William Frederick Lemke (August 13, 1878 – May 30, 1950) was an American politician who represented North Dakota in the United States House of Representatives as a member of the Republican Party. He was also the Union Party's presidential candidate in the 1936 presidential election.
William Lemke | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Dakota's at-large district | |
| In office January 3, 1943 – May 30, 1950 | |
| Preceded by | Charles R. Robertson |
| Succeeded by | Fred G. Aandahl |
| In office March 4, 1933 – January 3, 1941 | |
| Preceded by | Olger B. Burtness |
| Succeeded by | Charles R. Robertson |
| 11th Attorney General of North Dakota | |
| In office 1921–1921 | |
| Governor | Lynn Frazier Ragnvald Nestos |
| Preceded by | William Langer |
| Succeeded by | Sveinbjorn Johnson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | William Frederick Lemke August 13, 1878 Albany, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Died | May 30, 1950 (aged 71) Fargo, North Dakota, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican (NPL faction) Independent (1940) Union (1935–1936) Progressive (1912) |
| Spouse | Isabelle McIntyre |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | University of North Dakota (BA) Georgetown University Yale University (LLB) |
Life and career
editHe was born in Albany, Minnesota, and raised in Towner County, North Dakota, the son of Fred Lemke and Julia Anna Kleir, pioneer farmers who had accumulated some 2,700 acres (11 km2) of land. Lemke lost an eye in a boyhood accident.[1] As a boy, Lemke worked long hours on the family farm, attending a common school for only three months in the summers. However, the family did reserve enough money to send him to the University of North Dakota, where he was not only a superior student, but also well known for his ability to impersonate the professors. Graduating in 1902, he stayed at the state university for the first year of law school but moved to Georgetown University, then to Yale Law School, where he finished work on his law degree and won the praise of the dean. He returned to his home state in 1905 to set up practice at Fargo. Lemke was a Freemason.
During the 1910s, the Nonpartisan League (NPL) was formed and quickly gained significant traction in North Dakota.[2] Lemke was heavily involved and quickly became one of its top leaders.[1] He is considered by many to be the brains of the operation, often being called the "bishop" or "political bishop" of the NPL.[3]
Lemke was elected attorney general of North Dakota in 1920,[1] although this violated the rule set by NPL leader A. C. Townley about its leaders running for office.[3] By this time the NPL was plagued with infighting and controversies and public support was declining.[2][4][5] In 1921, a special recall election, initiated by opponents of the NPL (the Independent Voters Association or IVA) successfully removed all three members of the Industrial Commission, all of which were NPL members: John N. Hagan (Commissioner of Agriculture and Labor), Lynn Frazier (Governor), and Lemke (Attorney General). They were replaced with IVA-supported candidates.[2][4][5][6]
However, Lemke remained popular. In 1922, he received the NPL's nomination for governor, but he was defeated by incumbent Ragnvald Nestos. Later, in 1932, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, as a member of the Non-Partisan League (NPL).[1] Also in 1932, William Lemke campaigned for Franklin D Roosevelt for President in North Dakota and other states in the Midwest.
While in Congress, Lemke earned a reputation as a progressive populist and supporter of the New Deal, championing the causes of family farmers and co-sponsoring legislation to protect farmers against foreclosures during the Great Depression.
In 1934, Lemke co-sponsored the Frazier–Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act, restricting the ability of banks to repossess farms. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the act into law on June 28, 1934. The Act was later struck down by the Supreme Court in Louisville Joint Stock Land Bank v. Radford. Lemke tried to get the Act re-passed by Congress, but was stymied by the Roosevelt administration which privately told Congressmen that they would exercise a Presidential veto against the bill. The Act was eventually re-passed and later held constitutional by the Supreme Court. Lemke was a political friend and ally of Louisiana populist Huey Long prior to his assassination in 1935.
In June 1936, Lemke accepted the nomination of the Union Party, a short-lived third party, as its candidate for President of the United States.[7] He received 892,378 votes, or just under two percent nationwide, and no electoral votes in the 1936 election. Lemke did outpoll Alf Landon in six North Dakota counties[8][a] and remained the last third-party presidential candidate to outpoll a major-party nominee in any non-Southern county[b] until George Wallace outpolled Hubert Humphrey in Utah's arch-Republican Kane County in 1968 and his successor John G. Schmitz outpolled George McGovern in four Idaho counties in 1972.[9] Simultaneously, he was reelected to the House of Representatives as a Republican. Many believe Lemke's acceptance of the Union Party nomination in 1936 was out of bitterness toward Roosevelt over the farm mortgage issue. Through the Union Party, Lemke befriended other populists such as Fr. Charles Coughlin.
In 1940, having already received the Republican nomination for a fifth House term, he withdrew from that race to launch an unsuccessful run as an independent for the U.S. Senate. He ran again for the House in 1942 as a Republican and served four more terms, until his death in 1950.
From 1943 to 1948, Lemke was the champion for establishment of the Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park (now Theodore Roosevelt National Park). The National Park Service did not support this proposal, and oddly enough Lemke was no admirer of Theodore Roosevelt, but he seems to have pursued the establishment of a park in anticipation of the economic benefits it might bring to the region. His efforts were ultimately successful, with the park established by act of Congress in June, 1948.[10]
Lemke died of a heart attack in Fargo, North Dakota and is buried in Riverside Cemetery.[11][12] Former Atlanta Braves baseball player Mark Lemke is Lemke's second cousin twice removed.
Bibliography
edit- Edward C. Blackorby. "William Lemke: Agrarian Radical and Union Party Presidential Candidate," The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 49, No. 1. (Jun., 1962), pp. 67–84. in JSTOR
- William Lemke Papers at The University of North Dakota University of North Dakota.
- "Lemke, William" in American National Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, 2000.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections. "William Lemke Papers, 1901-2014". apps.library.und.edu. Archived from the original on 2023-05-19. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
- ^ a b c State Historical Society of North Dakota. "Nonpartisan League - Summary of North Dakota History". www.history.nd.gov. Archived from the original on 2023-03-18. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
- ^ a b Bank of North Dakota. "William Lemke". The BND Story. Archived from the original on 2023-05-06. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
- ^ a b "Section 2: End of the NPL | 8th Grade North Dakota Studies". North Dakota Studies Grade 4 Curriculum. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
- ^ a b "Section 3: Recall | 8th Grade North Dakota Studies". North Dakota Studies Grade 4 Curriculum. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
- ^ North Dakota (1921). "Recall Election October 28, 1921: Votes for Governor, Attorney General and Commissioner of Agriculture and Labor" (PDF). North Dakota Secretary of State. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-11-12. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
- ^ Lubell, Samuel (1956). The Future of American Politics (2nd ed.). Anchor Press. pp. 151–152. OL 6193934M.
- ^ Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; pp. 339, 343 ISBN 0405077114
- ^ Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 100 ISBN 0786422173
- ^ Harmon, David (1986). "The Creation of the Park". At the Open Margin: The NPS's Administration of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Theodore Roosevelt Nature and History Association.
- ^ United Press (May 31, 1950). "William Lemke, 71, Congressman, Dies. North Dakota Republican Was Candidate for President on Union Party Slate in '36". New York Times. Retrieved 2015-01-14.
Representative William Lemke, Republican of North Dakota, died on the way to a hospital tonight soon after he collapsed in the Power Hotel in downtown Fargo. He was 71 years old.
- ^ "Lemke, House Veteran, Dies of Heart Attack" (PDF). Binghamton Press. May 31, 1950.
Notes
edit- ^ These six were Bottineau County, Burke County, Divide County, Mountrail County, Towner County and Williams County.
- ^ During this era, the political impact of Civil Rights Movement meant unpledged and "Dixiecrat" nominees frequently outpolled one or both major-party nominees in the Deep South and occasionally elsewhere in antebellum slave states.
External links
edit
- United States Congress. "William Lemke (id: L000238)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- Dakota Datebook -- August 13, 2004 from North Dakota Public Radio (via PrairiePublic.org) -- article on Lemke
- "Memorial services held in the House of Representatives of the United States, together with remarks presented in eulogy of William Lemke, late a representative from North Dakota frontispiece 1951"