The Red Corner: The Rise and Fall of Communism in Northeastern Montana by Verlaine Stoner McDonald

Author:Verlaine Stoner McDonald
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Montana Historical Society Press

“Tuesday was a big day in Plentywood as the Elephant and the Mule sat peaceably side by side and saved the county from the horrible ‘reds. ’” [Producers News, May 16, 1924]

Polk's remark about staying out of local politics surely was not the result of political naïveté. He knew full well that he had landed in a hornet's nest of radicalism. In an editorial that was an interesting mix of self-aggrandizement and flattery of the people of Sheridan County, he described an article that had run in a small-town newspaper just across the North Dakota border. According to Polk, the item had been headlined, “Polk Invades Little Russia.” The article under the headline referred to Plentywood as “Little Moscow.” Polk went on to comment that “anyone who talks about Plentywood in that kind of language has something decidedly wrong with their head…. We have found just as good people in this little county seat city of Sheridan County as are to be found anywhere we have ever lived.”34

Initially, Polk may have been trying to emulate the Herald's long-standing tradition of staying above the fray when it came to county politics. As a relative newcomer, he needed time to assess the community's sensibilities and avoid offending prospective advertisers. The Producers News was, after all, a popular paper. Soon enough, though, Polk had a great deal to say about local affairs. Within a month, the Herald and the Producers News were at war, with the radical newspaper accusing the Herald of having always fought the farmers’ movement and the Herald responding that it supported the “Progressive Farmers movement” as long as it was “kept in control by sound thinking men who will not permit it to become a political football to be kicked about by unprincipled politicians.”35

Earlier in the summer, the Producers News had reported that Rodney Salisbury remained undecided about running for reelection as sheriff. But the paper also noted that most of the farmers in the county were demanding that Salisbury put his hat in the ring and that they planned to draft him if necessary. Whether Salisbury ever seriously considered sitting out the race is unclear because he ultimately filed his papers. The Herald feigned surprise to learn that he would stand for reelection since “it had been generally believed that Salisbury had made himself so unpopular in the county that it would be possible to select a stronger candidate.” A week later, the Herald extended this line of argument, marveling that the Farmer-Laborers would select Salisbury as their candidate for sheriff in spite of his “poorest kind of pretense at being an enforcement officer” and his “waning popularity.”36

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.