Ole and the Reds: The "Americanism" of Seattle Mayor Ole Hanson
    by Terje I. Leiren (Volume 30: Page 75)

ON JANUARY 21, 1919, a wage dispute in Seattle's shipbuilding industry resulted in a strike by the Metal Trades Union. Two days later, the Central Labor Council of Seattle voted overwhelmingly in favor of a sympathetic general strike by its 130-union mem-bership. On the morning of February 6, the city of Seat-tle came to a virtual standstill. {1} Politicians in the Pacific Northwest and throughout the nation saw the action as the harbinger of a Bolshevik revolution. Newspapers and periodicals echoed their fear, accusing revolutionary elements in the labor movement, especially the International Workers of the World (IWW), of spreading treason and sedition. The "Red Scare," which the strike helped to fuel, also gained impetus from the success of the revolution in Russia in November, 1917, and the new government's perceived international misbehavior. Their separate peace with Germany and an aggressive revolutionary posture, further exaggerated by American radical activity, helped to frighten and bewilder segments of the American public. Immigrants [76] were often the target of neonativist hostility: in the words of one Seattle newspaper, the strike was started by "this riffraff from Europe." {2} Ironically, the man who emerged as a genuine national figure through his actions in defeating the strike was Ole Hanson, mayor of Seattle and himself the son of Norwegian immigrants.

A nowandthen politician, Hanson was a realestate developer in Seattle whose political position changed from being a supporter of the Progressive Republicanism of Theodore Roosevelt to becoming one of the ear-liest and most visible opponents of Bolshevism and the Red Revolution. For much of his career Hanson appeared to fit into Jon Wefald's view in his 1971 study, A Voice of Protest, of Norwegians in America as "consistently progressive, often radical" and generally found to be standing left of center in their support for reform. {3} Whereas Wefald contends that Norwegian immigrants brought class antagonisms with them and translated those into political expression in the Middle West, Hanson's reform philosophy emphasized class cooperation, but was more firmly founded in a strict moral code. American involvement in World War I crystallized his philosophy, but also carried the seeds of a remarkable shift when, as mayor during the General Strike, he became an advocate of limiting immigration while establishing himself as an outspoken proponent of "Americanism."

It is the purpose of this essay, therefore, to examine the career of Ole Hanson by focusing on his political views as expressed in the public record. How did this son of immigrant Norwegian parents come to be acclaimed as "the melting pot's vindication" and "America's first after the war civilian hero"? The Seattle Post Intelligencer noted that although "a native born son of immigrant parents, there is no hyphen attached to this Seattle Mayor's title of American." {4} In his 1964 [77] study of the Seattle General Strike, Robert L. Friedheim claimed that the strike gave Ole Hanson "delusions of grandeur" which eventually led him to declare his candidacy for the presidential nomination in 1920. The validity of Friedheim's assertion will be examined, although there is no doubt that Hanson's battle against the Reds raised him from obscurity to the status of a celebrity featured in publications across the United States. In 1920 he published a compilation of his views in a book titled Americanism versus Bolshevism. {5}

Ole Hanson was born January 6, 1874, to parents who had emigrated from Gudbrandsdalen and settled in Union Grove, Wisconsin. As a young man he was interested in the law, but it was business which seemed to hold the greatest attraction for him. He discovered that he had a talent as a salesman; after he married in 1895, he was frequently on the road selling drug supplies. {6} His legs badly injured in a train wreck which killed one of his children in 1900, Hanson rehabilitated himself largely through his own will after doctors had told him he would likely be permanently paralyzed. Following the example of his hero, Theodore Roosevelt, Hanson later told a friend: "I had the feeling that if I could get out there in the open, with the prairie for a pillow and nothing but the sky above my head, I could beat the doctors and bring back my health." {7}

In 1902, this drive brought Hanson with his growing family to the shores of Puget Sound in the state of Washington. His first night in Seattle he pitched his tent on Beacon Hill, an unsettled, wooded height overlooking the young city. He purchased a grocery store but, dissatisfied, sold it after seven months. He tried selling life insurance until a building boom in Seattle attracted him to real estate. Soon display advertisements for Ole Hanson & Co. became a regular feature in the Seattle press. [78]

Ole Hanson (1874-1940).

[79] In the fall of 1908, with the support of the Seattle Star and its editor, Kenneth Beaton, Hanson ran for the Washington state legislature from the fortythird district, which included Beacon Hill where he bad by that time established his home. Hanson's platform focused on the abolition of racetrack betting in the state, but overall, his campaign issues echoed those of other Progressive Republican politicians. The Manual of the Eleventh Session of the Washington State Legislature noted; "Mr. Hanson became a prominent figure in the House at the very opening of the session through his advocacy of the passage of a bill to prohibit the wagering of bets on horse racing. His bill was the first measure introduced in the 1909 Legislature. He is an able speaker and has taken an active part in the floor work of the House." {8}

There is no record of what impact Robert LaFollette, from Hanson's native state of Wisconsin, may have had on the thirtyfour year-old legislator; if LaFollette, or anyone in the Norwegian-American community of his youth, influenced his political views, Hanson never directly acknowledged the debt. On May 17, 1909, however, Hanson, speaking at the 17th of May celebration in Seattle, showed that he was not totally unaware of his Norwegian background: "I am proud to say that my parents were born in Norway, and that I have never had cause to regret my Norwegian ancestry or hang my head in shame at the acts of any of my countrymen." That he had also romanticized his heritage was evident when he told his Norwegian-American audience: "In the forefront of all human progress the sturdy pioneer blazes the way and in the very vanguard of the pioneers will always be found the sturdy, honest men of Norway accompanied by their handsome fair haired wives." More important was the moral code which Hanson stressed. It would later be his guiding philosophy as [80] mayor, but he had already defined it as a legislator: "There shall be no compromise with wrong and no man shall be allowed to rise in the land proclaiming himself a representative Norwegian unless he at the same time represents all which is best in our American government.'' {9}

Hanson's remarkable activity as a freshman representative extended to a wide variety of issues before the legislature, including support for an eight hour day for women, a minimum wage bill, a direct primary, state industrial insurance, local option for alcohol, and collective bargaining. He achieved something of a reputation for his attacks on the Seattle city government for tolerating the brothels south of Yesler Street in downtown Seattle. He received several endorsements from organized labor for his work on the House Labor Committee. {10}

After serving a single term in the legislature, Hanson did not seek reelection, choosing rather to return to his realestate office. By 1912, however, he was back in politics working in the campaign of Theodore Roosevelt against William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson for the presidency of the United States. His friend Kenneth Beaton, secretary of Roosevelt's State Central Committee, said Hanson was "our most forceful orator." Beaton noted that Hanson went through a remarkable metamorphosis in front of an audience. One on one he was less than inspiring: an audience, however, was "just what an accelerator is to a gas engine. It speeds him up." {11} With Wilson's election, Hanson returned to his realestate interests. He was deeply involved in a major development on the north shore of Lake Washington, where he had earlier bought 2,000 acres of land and was building the city of Forest Lake Park. A financial success, Lake Forest Park was his first venture into developing waterfront property, an experience which a [81] decade later would lead to his development of the California coastal community of San Clemente. {12}

Still infected by the political virus, however, Hanson ran for the United States Senate in 1914. Defeated in his bid, he returned once again to the swivel chair in his realestate office. By then the World War had begun in Europe and new forces served to revive the off and on political career of the realtor-politician.

The tensions surrounding American participation in the war did not escape the Pacific Northwest. Perhaps because of Washington's history of militant unionism, it attracted anti-war advocates and IWW organizers. The prospect of jobs was itself an attraction, as the work force in the shipbuilding industry increased phenomenally from a few hundred prior to the war to more than 20,000 in 1917. {13} Politically and economically, Seattle was a magnet for militant and non-militant labor alike.

By Christmas, 1917, Ole Hanson was once again drawn into the political arena, this time for the office of mayor. No group asked him to run, but he became convinced that the people of Seattle wanted a "war-mayor" and, as he wrote, had grown "tired of the old campaign issues." {14} The old issues, of course, were moral issues -- police corruption and toleration of the red-light district. To these, Hanson added "Americanism." In assessing his chances, he wrote: "The business community, just awakening to the righteousness of the measures for which I had fought, still regarded me as somewhat unsafe. The labor forces had never had any fault to find with my record, and I felt that the 'Reds' and the anti-war faction would just as surely be against me. My hope for election, apparently, depended on the great middle class who had no axes to grind, wanted no special privileges, but simply desired a fair, square, business administration, 100 percent loyal." {15} Loyalty was probably the fundamental issue in Hanson's [82] campaign. He certainly missed no opportunity to emphasize it. In his rallies throughout the city, he issued a card on which was printed: "I stand for construction . . . more factories . . . a square deal for labor as well as capital . . . for a loyal, united Seattle . . . free from turmoil, treason, and IWW control." {16} His appearances throughout the city assembled the largest crowds of any of the candidates and, with his undeniable oratorical skills, seem to have left no doubt that he was an appealing candidate. Perhaps he was too appealing. A not-unfriendly newspaper, The Argus, asked a pointed rhetorical question: "Do we have [ a candidate] who claims to be a Swede when addressing Swedes, a Norwegian when addressing Norwegians, and an American when talking to anybody else?" {17}

If there was a target for Hanson's rhetoric, it was the IWW. The militant labor organization which urged class warfare and supported non-violent direct action proselytized for the expected revolution. Although representatives from both industry and finance saw it as part of a worldwide conspiracy, the movement was more indigenous than Hanson believed. Some contemporaries, like John Spargo, writer for The World's Work, were aware of the American origins of the IWW, but the most visible element in the organization was the immigrant worker. In a remarkable article published in The World's Work, Spargo pointed to the reasons for the success of the "Wobblies." They were, he contended, a product of the needs of the American industrial system, the itinerant lumber industry, and the exploited immigrants. Speaking rhetorically, Spargo asked the question undoubtedly on the lips of many Americans who did not understand why Americans, too, might be attracted to the IWW: "Why should native-born Americans, taught in our schools, nurtured under our traditions, be so hostile to the system we have regarded as nearly ideal, the [83] bulwark of personal freedom and the guarantee of equality before the law? Why should men of our soil and our speech, the soil and speech of Lincoln, be so contemptuous of those ideals, usages, and traditions we seek to summarize in the term 'Americanism'?" {18}

It is difficult to generalize, of course, but much of the misunderstanding and fear of the IWW was probably due to an inability on the part of most people to dean with questions such as those posed by Spargo. Ole Hanson was only one of many who shared this inability, even though he proudly proclaimed his support for unions and the working man. Hanson's own immigrant experience may, ironically, give a clue as to this apparent "blind spot." He was a second generation Norwegian American who undoubtedly grew up hearing his parents tell of the poverty and lack of freedom in Norway. A measure of this attitude toward Norway might be reflected in the Hanson family tradition that they came from "near Oslo" when in fact, according to Washington Posten, Ole Hanson's father, Thorsten, came from Vågå in upper Gudbrandsdalen, far from Oslo. {19} Writing in Americanism versus Bolshevism, Hanson claimed: "My parents had come to this country from Norway. They came here wanting liberty, freedom, and a greater opportunity for themselves and their children. They found this country to be good, and never tired of telling us, in broken English, what a great country this was and how different from any other land in the world." {20}

Having focused on the IWW, Hanson's campaign took on the characteristics of a crusade. He delivered speeches to the "Wobblies" themselves, even entering into the proverbial lion's den, the Labor Temple. Acting as a crusader on a moral mission, Hanson told his listeners that he came not expecting to win their votes or their support, but to tell them the truth. Of his speech, he later wrote: "In closing I denounced the Reds, the [84] IWW's, and their kind, and said, 'If elected I will clean you up, lock, stock and barrel. You do not belong in this country. Your talk of Revolution has no place where the majority can and does govern. You are fighting the best Government yet conceived by man. I shall close every hall where the overthrow of our Government by force and violence is taught. You shall not parade with the Red Flag; you shall obey the law or you shall go to jail. Neither your leaders nor the Chamber of Commerce shall control the City Government. It shall be run for the benefit of all the people, not a particular class." {21}

On March 5, 1918, Ole Hanson was elected mayor of Seattle. In spite of his red-baiting many of his views and policies were progressive and, although they created opposition in conservative circles, they made him a generally effective chief executive. He facilitated the purchase of the Seattle Municipal Street Railway from private interests for $15 million, advocated an end to private utilities, and raised the minimum wage of city workers from $3.50 to $4.00 per day. {22} It was not altogether for altruistic reasons, however, that Hanson concerned himself with worker's wages: "A well paid worker," he reasoned, "is not susceptible to the rainbow-hued promises of the Bolsheviki. I consider it not only good morals, but good business to give men what they are entitled to." {23}

In August, the mayor, wanting "to set a good example," went to work in the shipyards after a full day at City Hall. With his brand new overalls, pea jacket, cloth cap, and dinner pail, Hanson reported for work at the Erikson Shipyards. A Post-Intelligencer reporter was overwhelmed by his patriotism, but an editorial in the same paper, though allowing it as "a matter of patriotic emergency," balked at the precedent it set for other civil servants. {24} The newspaper argued that the business of government was too important to allow government [85] workers to hold extra jobs. The editors clearly recognized Hanson's gesture as symbolic, thereby explaining their tolerance of it. Although earning only $4.00 per day, wages Hanson admitted were inadequate, shipyard workers were considered by many in Seattle to be "spoiled." They were among the better paid and, because of their preference for wearing silk shirts on Sundays, they came to be known as "that silk shirt gang." One of them, a young boxer named Jack Dempsey, had come across the Cascades from his Cle Elum, Washington, training camp when the United States entered the war. {25} Though shipyard workers were exempt from the draft, there is no indication that this may have been Dempsey's motive. Hanson himself admitted that motives for working in the shipyards varied: "Men went to work in the shipyards for different reasons -- some to earn a living, some to assist Uncle Sam, others to escape the Draft, and a considerable number simply to agitate against the Government and bring about chaos in our country." {26}

Whatever the reasons, by November, 1918, the workers were talking strike. The Macy Shipyard Adjustment Board had set a basic national wage for all workers at $6.40 per day, but workers in the Puget Sound shipyards believed that the higher cost of living on the West Coast required higher pay. The Metal Trades Council asked for $8.00 per day. {27} The impasse brought charges and countercharges that inevitably focused on perceived Bolshevik influences in the labor movement. A radical newspaper, the Seattle Union Record, supported by union funds and featuring a young woman writer named Anna Louise Strong, became the media organ for the workers. {28} Strong had been removed from the Seattle School Board on March 5, principally for her outspoken opposition to the draft, and had developed a reputation as a revolutionary [86] radical. {29} As chief editorial writer for the Union Record, Strong exercised considerable influence on the Central Labor Council. On February 4, she wrote the editorial outlining union action to be taken during the general strike which had been set for February 6 at 10 a.m. Strong announced that the unions would feed the people from twelve temporary kitchens; they would care for the sick and babies and preserve law and order. When industries reopened, it would be under labor management. Unclear as to where it would all lead, the editorial, nevertheless, concluded by stating that "we are starting on a road that leads -- NO ONE KNOWS WHERE!" {30}

To say that the editorial challenged the entire city governmental structure is to understate its impact. Although Hanson had no immediate plan of action, he was convinced that municipal services and utilities had to function under the control of the government. That was a principle he had learned in his years of progressive politics. His support for labor in general, however, was waning.

The eve of the strike found Hanson in his bedroom working on "plans for defense including securing cartridges, shotguns, machine guns, drawing up a map showing the places where the men were to be stationed, and massing our forces at what I considered strategic points. " {31} He wired Attorney General Vaugn Tanner and asked for troops to be stationed at nearby Fort Lawton if police were unable to handle the situation. As news of the impending strike spread, there began a rush on stores for oil stoves, candles, lamps, and groceries. Housewives filled their bathtubs, fearing the water might be shut off. {32} At l0 a.m. on February 6 the strike began. Twentyfour hours later, after a day of eerie silence throughout the city, Hanson acted. He issued a proclamation to the people of Seattle guaranteeing [87] protection by civic authorities: "The time has come for every person in Seattle to show his Americanism. Go about your daily duties without fear. We will see to it that you have food, transportation, water, light, gas and all necessities. The anarchists in this community shall not rule its affairs. All persons violating the laws will be dealt with summarily.” {33} The proclamation was printed on the front page of the Seattle Star, which was distributed free in 100,000 copies. The proclamation, in addition to the fact that the streetcars were running on Second Avenue, effectively undermined the strike. The more conservative labor leaders, like young Dave Beck of the Teamsters, began to speak out against the strike. On February 3, The Argus published its fear that "the strike could drag on for weeks," but on the 10th it collapsed. Hanson rode the resulting wave of patriotic hysteria to national prominence.

Around the country, he was lauded for his firmness in dealing with the first general strike in American history: The Portland Oregonian, the Salt Lake City Deseret News, the Mobile Register, and the Lincoln Nebraska State Journal were quoted by the Literary Digest as examples of American newspapers responding with praise to Hanson's actions. {34} A. B. Calder, general purchasing agent for the Canadian Pacific Railway in Seattle, was in New York and wrote back to The Argus on February 10 that the slogan of a noisy, shouting crowd in the lobby of the Pennsylvania Hotel was "Ole Hanson for President." {35} Washington Posten, a Norwegian-American newspaper in Seattle, noting that he had become a "landsfigur," also began touting him for the 1920 Republican nomination. {36} The Town Crier, a weekly publication of the Seattle Fine Arts Society, and never a supporter of Hanson, featured a family portrait on its February 15 cover, but acknowledged it would not be "aroused to a state of enthusiastic hysteria over Mayor Hanson." {37}[88]

Mayor Hanson and Nine Reasons Why He Insisted That Seattle Remain an American City

[89] If The Town Crier would not join in, another former adversary, Edwin Selvin, editor of the conservative Business Chronicle, thought perhaps Hanson had finally joined him: "Ole Hanson, Mayor of Seattle, came through. Why does not matter. He did, that's enough. This newspaper has had occasion several times to speak critically of the mayor. It has called him a trimmer, an opportunist, a political mountebank, a demagogue; and has scathingly pointed out his heretofore dangerous socialistic proclivities. As our criticism was unrestrained, so now is our praise for his Americanism in the crisis. . . . Mayor Hanson and Police Chief Warren saved the city. All honor to them and all credit -- and all good feeling in venturing to express the hope that Ole Hanson has at last become a conservative." {38} With fame came offers for speeches. Possessing the business acumen to take advantage of the situation, Hanson resigned as mayor in August, 1919. His resignation allowed him to carry his message to an even broader constituency. The fight begun in Seattle, he believed, was far from over: "the battle between the decent forces of Labor and the one big union -- IWW element -- has only just begun." {39}

Probably because the foreign element was perceived as being so prominent in the labor movement, immigrants became increasingly the target of attack. In this, the son of Norwegian immigrants showed the way. It may well be that Hanson was the catalyst for the restrictive immigration quotas established in 1923. It is certain that he focused his criticism increasingly on what he called "unassimilated aliens." {40} It is not clear when Hanson became convinced that unrestricted immigration was the major cause of the unrest and anarchy in the United States, but as early as March 1, 1919, a letter he sent to the American Bankers Association's national meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York [90] demonstrates an already established opinion. Quite likely his views reflected the strong feelings aroused by the General Strike. In impassioned terms, he told the bankers that it was "the duty of every patriotic American citizen'' to stop the influx of antagonistic aliens and "to demand passage of a law whereby the aliens now in this country are compelled to register their addresses." {41} By the time he published his Americanism versus Bolshevism, he claimed to have studied the problem and arrived at the conclusion that "the portal has been held too widely open for successful assimilation and digestion of the incoming alien." {42}

Because he believed immigrants could be useful to the country, however, Hanson opposed closing the door altogether. Laws would be enacted, he hoped, which would function as a faucet on the stream of immigrants: "Is there no way that immigrants may be allowed to come when we need them and stopped when we do not need them?" he asked rhetorically. {43} Anxious, especially, to limit immigration from eastern and southern Europe, Hanson viewed "with alarm the decrease in the numbers from Great Britain and Scandinavia." {44} Primary among the new immigrants who were failing to become "real Americans," noted Hanson, were single males living in urban centers. According to Hanson, they lived in crowded tenements, read the foreign press almost exclusively, and retained "foreign modes of life and foreign methods of thinking." {45}

In Hanson's view, it was essential that the United States deal effectively with the aliens. His suggestions for Americanizing them would be neither easy nor inexpensive; some of his ideas would even contradict the American principle of freedom of movement. Included among his proposals were advocacy of dictatorial control over where immigrants could live and what occupations they could follow. He did, however, also make [91] some enlightened proposals suggesting social, if not political, liberalism, such as the establishment of a cabinetlevel Department of Education and a Department of Public Health as ways of mitigating immigrant misery.

"Americanism," Hanson maintained, should become a regular subject in America's schools. The educational process would, naturally, take some time, but the "irreconcilable agitating alien," as Hanson called him, was an immediate threat with which the country had to deal. "The American people want no trifling with these men. If there are not sufficient laws quickly and inexpensively to deport these people, Congress should enact them, and any president who would veto such necessary and just measures would and should be impeached. This matter could easily be handled and no further comment is necessary. The alien who has not taken steps to become a citizen should at once be asked what his intentions are, and if he shows no disposition to Americanize himself, he also should be sent back. Let them either become Americans or go home." {46}

A similar opinion is expressed in an article titled "The New Americanism," published in The American Review of Reviews in June, 1919. Events of the war, according to the anonymous author, have brought about the disturbing realization that "one sixth of our population was foreign, in language and ideals"; as a result "the rest of the hundred million began to wonder whether, after all, America was the meltingpot of the world." He points proudly to the forced instruction in English for draftees, and to the fact that those not already citizens had to prove "their spirit of Americanism by becoming citizens." A three year period in the army, he reasoned, would "teach love of and respect for our flag and our country, its ideals and its institutions." {47}

Rejecting the simplistic analysis in the article in [92] Review of Reviews, Glenn Frank, in The Century, maintained that "Americanization does not mean getting an immigrant ready for his citizenship papers. It means the continuous fostering of the American spirit of liberty, justice, and equal opportunity in every man and woman and institution and policy." {48}

Hanson's sympathy by 1920 was with the author of the article in Review of Reviews, not with Frank. In his lecture tour of America he told his audience what he believed Americanism was. Americanism, he reiterated in his book, meant, among other things, rule of law, democracy, increased production, a strong national government, universal military training, education, morality, and success. {49} The answer for the alien who could not be Americanized was deportation. For those who wished to come to America, it meant a rigorous selection procedure. Businessman that he was, Hanson transferred concepts from his commercial world to the political arena and counted up debits and credits. America was a business enterprise, the people its shareholders. Liabilities were to be cut and losses trimmed. {50}

In the summer of 1920, Hanson appeared on the platform at the Republican National Convention, but his maverick style dashed with the realities of polities in the smoke filled rooms. Although Hanson may have used his speeches to exaggerate his own role in breaking the strike, Friedheim's assessment of him as suffering "delusions of grandeur" lacks credence because it fails to take into account Hanson's immigrant background with its rigid code of moral behavior which was then refined into his peculiar blend of business and progressive politics. His lack of a political organization, something of which he was so proud when he ran for mayor, stopped him on the national level. The nomination went instead to the less strident Warren G. Harding. {51}

Ole Hanson, the Norwegian immigrant's son who [93] sought to restrict immigration, left politics after his failure to gain the Republican nomination. He moved to California, where he resumed his realestate operations. Among his many projects, his favorite and probably his best was the seaside community of San Clemente, which a writer for Sunset magazine in 1929 called "a dream city" on the Pacific. {52} In politics he was a Cincinnatus, coming and going. A moralist in business and polities, he combined the two in a way which showed him to be as imaginative as he was opportunistic.

NOTES

<1> "Paul S. Dunbar Scrapbook," no. 74, Northwest Collection, Suzzallo Library, University of Washington, Seattle; Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 3, 1919.
<2> The Argus (Seattle), February 8, 1919; The Outlook, February 5, 1919; Robert K. Murray, Red Scare: A Study in National Hysteria, 1919-1920 (Minneapolis, 1955), 11-17.
<3> Jon Wefald, A Voice of Protest: Norwegians in American Polities, 1890-1917 (Northfield, Minnesota, 1971), 29. Contrary to Wefald's thesis, Hansen's reformist views appear not to have been linked to the immigrant background of class antagonism. On the contrary, he repeatedly emphasized the necessity for class cooperation. Its views of reform, in fact, were probably rooted in his firmly held moral convictions. Thus, he opposed gambling, alcohol, and corruption for ethical reasons. That, however, is another tradition the Norwegian immigrants brought with them to America.
<4> Ashman Brown, "Papers in East Praise Mayor Hanson for Finn Stand
Taken in Strike," in Seattle Post-lntelligencer, February 11, 1919. An excellent discussion of the background of hyphenated Americanism is Carl H. Chrislock, Ethnicity Challenged: The Upper Midwest Norwegian-American Experience in World War I (Northfield, Minnesota, 1981), 29-55.
<5> Ole Hanson, Americanism versus Bolshevism (Garden City, New York, 1920); Robert L. Friedheim, The Seattle General Strike (Seattle, 1964), 3, 20-22, is a generally unsympathetic account of Hansen's role and motives.
<6> Kenneth C. Beaten, "His Honor the Mayor: What I Know About Ole Hanson," in Hearts, 36 (1919), 14. Sec also Dolores Huteson Hughes, "The Impractical Dreamer," unpublished manuscript by Hanson's granddaughter. Copy, given to the author by Hanson's daughter, Doris Denison, of San Clemente, California, is in the Scandinavian Archives, manuscripts division, University of Washington Libraries.
<7> Beaten, "His Honor the Mayor," 14.
<8> Manual of the Eleventh Session of the Washington State Legislature, 1909: The House of Representatives, copy in the Northwest Collection, University of Washington Libraries.
<9> Speech by Ole Hanson, May 17, 1909, quoted in Washington Posten, May 21, 1909. [94]
<10> See pamphlet, "Unite on Ole Hanson," in Seattle -- Politics and Government, N 979.743, in Northwest Collection, University of Washington Libraries.
<11> Beaton, "His Honor the Mayor," 15.
<12> See Homer Banks, The Story of San Clemente: The Spanish Village (San Clemente, California, 1930).
<13> Literary Digest, 60 (March 8, 1919), 48.
<14> Hanson, Americanism versus Bolshevism, 4.
<15> Ole Hanson, "Why and How I Became Mayor of Seattle," in TheWorld's Work, 39 (December, 1919), 123.
<16> Hanson, "Why and How I Became Mayor," 125.
<17> The Argus, February 23, 1918. See also Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 3, 6, and 7, 1918.
<18> John Spargo, "Why the IWW Flourishes," in The World's Work, 39 (January 1920), 244-246. Spargo's ideas for the reform of the American political system "in order to combat Bolshevism and kindred forms of social unrest" are found in his The Psychology of Bolshevism (New York, 1919),
137-150.
<19> Washington Posten, May 16, 1919. Hanson's daughter, Doris Denison, told the author that she believed her family came from the Oslo region. Personal interview with Doris Denison, December 28, 1981, San Clemente, California.
<20> Hanson, Americanism versus Bolshevism, 5.
<21> Hanson, "Why and How I Became Mayor," 126.
<22> Ole Hanson, "Smashing the Soviet in Seattle," in The World's Work, 39 (January, 1920), 302; Seattle Times, May 6, 1918, and July 7, 1940.
<23> Hanson, "Smashing the Soviet in Seattle," 302.
<24> Seattle Post-lntelligencer, August 16, 1918.
<25> Nard Jones, Seattle (Garden City, New York, 1972), 166.
<26> Hanson, "Smashing the Soviet in Seattle," 303.
<27> Hanson, "Smashing the Soviet in Seattle," 303; "Dunbar Scrapbook," no. 74, Northwest
Collection, University of Washington Libraries.
<28> Jones, Seattle, 166.
<29> See Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 6, 1918, and Seattle Times, March 6, 1918. Hanson, in "Smashing the Soviet in Seattle," 303, accused Strong of being a "Red revolutionist."
<30> Seattle Union Record, February 4, 1919; Ole Hanson, "Seattle's Red Revolution," in The World's Work, 39 (February, 1920), 406.
<31> Hanson, "Seattle's Red Revolution," 407.
<32> Hanson, "Seattle's Red Revolution," 408. See also "Dunbar Scrapbook," no. 74, Northwest Collection, University of Washington Libraries.
<33> "Proclamation to the People of Seattle," quoted in Ole Hanson, "TheVictory Over Seattle's Reds," in The World's Work, 39 (March, 1920), 485.
<34> See Literary Digest, 60 (March 1, 1919), 15.
<35> The Argus, February 22, 1919.
<36> See, for example, Washington Posten, May 16, 1919.
<37> The Town Crier, February 15, 1919.
<38> Edwin Selvin, "Seattle, Stay Awake," in Business Chronicle, February 15, 1919, reprinted as a
paid advertisement in Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 17, 1919.
<39> Hanson, Americanism versus Bolshevism, 96. [95}
<40> Hanson, Americanism versus Bolshevism, 243, 245.
<41> "The Week," in The Nation, March 1, 1919, 31.
<42> Hanson, Americanism versus Bolshevism, 244.
<43> Hanson, Americanism versus Bolshevism, 245.
<44> Hanson, Americanism versus Bolshevism, 246.
<45> Hanson, Americanism versus Bolshevism, 250.
<46> Hanson, Americanism versus Bolshevism, 247-248.
<47> "The New Americanism," in The American Review of Reviews, 59 (June, 1919), 656.
<48> Glenn Frank, "The Tide of Affairs: Comment on the Times," in The Century, 100 (June, 1920), 220-221.
<49> See Hanson, Americanism versus Bolshevism, 282-286, for a remarkable list of differences between Americanism and Bolshevism.
<50> Hanson, Americanism versus Bolshevism, 294-295.
<51> Robert Friedheim implies that the Republicans did not consider Hanson a serious candidate. Clarence Darrow, the wellknown attorney, called Hanson "a cheap vaudeville performer" because of his "red-baiting" speeches. It may well be that Harding's nomination was a signal that the strident tone set by Hanson was no longer favored by the Republican party. See Friedheim, The Seattle General Strike, 174-176.
<52> Neil Stanley, "A Dream City on the Pacific," in Sunset, 62 (May, 1929), 14-15. In addition to San Clemente and Lake Forest Park, Hanson also built extensively in Santa Barbara and along Slauson Boulevard in Los Angeles. He developed the desert community of Twenty Nine Palms, north of Palm Springs. The home of his partner, Hamilton H. Cotton, in San Clemente became Richard Nixon's western White House.