Thomas Ryum Amlie

Thomas Ryum Amlie (April 17, 1897 – August 22, 1973) was an American lawyer and progressive politician from Wisconsin. He served six years in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Wisconsin's 1st congressional district; he was first elected to 72nd Congress (1931–1933) as a progressive Republican, but was defeated in the 1932 Republican primary; he then returned to Congress running on the Wisconsin Progressive Party ticket, and served from 1935 to 1939. He helped established the Farmer-Labor-Progressive League and later the Farmer-Labor Progressive Federation. Inspired by the progressive policies of the Roosevelt administration, Amlie joined the Democratic Party in the 1940s and made two more unsuccessful bids for Congress.

He was an elder brother of Hans Amlie, the socialist activist who served as a leader of American volunteers fighting for the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War.

Early life and career

Amlie was born on a farm near Binford, North Dakota. During his youth, Amlie went to the high school in Cooperstown, North Dakota, Following his graduation he then went on to attend and then to the University of North Dakota from 1916-1918, after which he spent a short period of time in the United States Army. Following his return, he then attended the University of Minnesota for a year, but became disinterested in pursuing a career in teaching sociology and economics and began organizing for the Nonpartisan League. After receiving his degree, Amlie served two years as assistant clerk to the Dane County Superior Court and one year as legal examiner for the State Department of Markets. During the 1924 presidential election, he was district chairman for Robert M. La Follette's campaign and ran unsuccessfully for Eau Claire County District Attorney. Three years later, he moved to Elkhorn, Wisconsin, which became his permanent residence. He was reelected on the party ticket to the 74th and 75th United States Congresses and served from January 3, 1935, until January 3, 1939. In the primary election, Amlie and Blanchard were the only two Republicans to run. Blanchard won a narrow victory, defeating Amlie with 51.75% of the vote.

Progressive Party politics (1933–1934) In 1933, Amlie helped form the Farmer-Labor-Progressive League.

In the Spring of 1934, the progressive faction split off from the Republican Party of Wisconsin and started the Wisconsin Progressive Party on the left, dramatically altering the politics of the state.

By 1934, the Great Depression had caused a sharp decline of conditions in Wisconsin, and this decline, alongside a resurgence of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, forced Progressive Republicans to seek new avenues to power. The first major figure calling for progressives to split from the Republican Party was Amlie. He was one of the most radical Republicans to have prominence within the party, and he "firmly believed that capitalism itself was dying and that Roosevelt could at most postpone the inevitable."

Return to Congress (1935–1939)

From 1936, Amlie and other Progressives were informally allied with the New Deal coalition and supported the reelection of President Franklin Roosevelt. Amlie had abandoned his hopes for a third party around this time for a similar reason that other progressives had, as he realized that "liberal reform would have to come via a Roosevelt-led Democratic Party." Just two days after the vote, his brother Hans was reported to have volunteered for the pro-Republican International Brigades. Amlie later supported a fundraising drive sponsored by the Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to bring wounded Americans home.

In 1938, Amlie joined Democrats Jerry Voorhis and Robert Allen in sponsoring the Industrial Expansion Bill, which would have created a planned economy in the United States. Democrat Jerry Voorhis, the sociologist and pacifist Emily Greene Balch, the New York attorney and feminist Dorothy Kenyon and the poet Sara Bard Field. The Committee reported hostile pressure from members of the ILD and numerous anonymous threats.

In 1938, Amlie declined to run for re-election, instead seeking to challenge Senator F. Ryan Duffy in the senate election that year, but was defeated in the Progressive primary by Herman Ekern, the incumbent lieutenant governor, by 7 points. The primary would prove to be a bitter contest, as it reopened old divides in the Progressive Party between allies of La Follette and younger radicals. The divide also symbolized a split between the supporters of Robert M. La Follette and younger progressives who had emerged from the various farmer-labor organizations.

Roosevelt eventually appointed Amlie as special assistant United States attorney in the Federal Land Commission office in Milwaukee. He eventually resigned this position to run for congress once again in 1941.

Personal life and family

Amlie in 1925 was married to Marian Caldwell Strong, who died in 1930. Two years later, he married Gehrta Farkasch Beyer, who survived him. Amlie had 5 children, four sons and one daughter. Through his brother Hans, he was the brother-in-law of Milly Bennett.

Electoral history

U.S. House, Wisconsin's 1st district (1931–1936)

U.S. Senate (1938)

U.S. House, Wisconsin's 1st district (1941) Year Election Date

Total Plurality

U.S. House, Wisconsin's 2nd district (1958)