Twentieth Century Radicalism in Minnesota Oral History Project: Interview with Frank P. Blatnik

Titles: Twentieth Century Radicalism in Minnesota Oral History Project: Interview with Frank P. Blatnik (Supplied title)

Description: BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Frank Blatnik was born in Chisholm, Minnesota in 1914 to an immigrant Slovene family. His brother was Congressman John A. Blatnik. As Frank was growing up, his father had a number of different jobs: miner, janitor, delivery truck driver, bartender, policeman. His mother worked in a Slovenian boardinghouse. Frank graduated from Chisholm High School in 1932, and from Winona State Teachers College in 1935. He worked as a teacher first in the Works Progress Administration's Workers' Education Division. In 1941 he became an administrative assistant to Arthur Lampi, the St. Louis County Superintendent of Schools, and during WWII he taught in rural schools in northern St. Louis County. In 1945, he began to work for the county civil service commission, where he remained until his retirement. He was married and had two sons and a daughter. At the time of the interview, he was living in Duluth. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: This wide-ranging and detailed interview covers many subjects including life in Slovene boardinghouses on the Iron Range in the 1910s and 1920s; daily chores and yearly tasks like butchering, hauling wood for heating, and cooking; games played by boys around Chisholm; reflections on ethnic differences among children; athletic clubs and activities among immigrant miners; fraternal organizations, particularly the Slovenska Norodna Podporna Jednota; working conditions in iron mines; political influence of the steel companies in local government and development of opposition to their control; social, political, and religious differences between European immigrants; attitudes towards and personal experiences with the Roman Catholic church and the Kranjsko-Slovenska Katoliska Jednota (fraternal benefit society); political activities of Blatnik's father and uncle, particularly in the United Units of Chisholm; life as a student during the depression (Hibbing and Winona); radicalizing effect of the depression on Blatnik's own political philosophy; the Socialist Labor Party in Winona in the 1930s; teaching parliamentary procedure in the Workers' Education Project of the WPA (Winona and the Iron Range), including organizing those classes; association with Communist Party organizers and members, especially Martin Mackie, Leo Koski, Andrew Tomasich, Andrew Roine; connections between the workers' education classes and the Steel Workers Organizing Committee on the Iron Range; state election campaign of 1938; impressions of the impact of the 1907 and 1916 iron miners' strikes on Slovene miners and the difficulty of organizing them later; the role of the Junior Chamber of Commerce in Chisholm as a think-tank for young liberals in the late 1930s and early 1940s and some of their economic development ideas; recollections of John T Bernard, memories of the Great Depression; role of the South Slavs in the United Steelworkers of America, especially Peter Krompotich; the economic impact of World War II on the Iron Range and Duluth War booster-ism; technological developments within the steel industry, the St. Louis County Civil Service Commission; the changing role of women in society during and after the war; effects of the ethnic conflict in Yugoslavia during World War II on South Slavs in the U.S.; and the congressional career of John A. Blatnik.

Dates

• 06/06/1989 - 06/07/1989 (Interviews conducted 6/6/1989 and 6/7/1989.) (Creation)

Creation

• interviewee: Blatnik, Frank Paul
• interviewer: Ross, Carl

Identifiers

• Library Call Number: OH 30.6
• Accession Number: AV1990.228.2
• Link to Finding Aid

Holding Type: Oral History - Interview

Project

• Oral History - Project, MHS Collection, project: 'Twentieth Century Radicalism in Minnesota Oral History Project' <OH 30>

Quantity: 4 hours sound cassette 63 pages transcript

Format

• Content Category: sound recordings
• Content Category: text

Measurements

• 03:50:20 running time

Subjects

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