Thomas E. Latimer - Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, Mayoralty, and Later Life

Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, Mayoralty, and Later Life

By the mid-1930s Latimer was a veteran politician of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party (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."