This week in 1956, prominent Democrat Bill Lanier sent a letter by air mail to Senator William \“Wild Bill\” Langer. He wrote: \“Just a short note to straighten out some of the habitual garbled reporting of the Fargo Forum.
On this date in 1954, Agnes Geelan, Secretary and Treasurer of the North Dakota Nonpartisan League, sent a letter on the official letterhead of the NPL's Executive Committee to P. W. Lanier, Jr., a prominent Democratic Party activist. He had invited her to the inaugural meeting of the Democratic Farmer-Labor Association, the day before on November 22. He had become chairman of this organization, which sought to include \“progressive Democrats and Leaguers, farmers and organized Labor.\”
On this date in 1954, Byron G. Allen, Democratic National Committeeman for Minnesota, sent a letter to P. W. Lanier, Sr. Lanier was an ardent Democratic Party activist who had come to Jamestown from Memphis, Tennessee, during the early 1920s.
InForum history columnist Curt Eriksmoen explains how losing an election to the U.S. House of Representatives helped launch North Dakotan Milton Young's decades-long run in the U.S. Senate instead.