Ernest Lundeen

Ernest Lundeen (August 4, 1878 – August 31, 1940) was an American lawyer and politician.

Ernest Lundeen
United States Senator from Minnesota
In office January 3, 1937 – August 31, 1940
Preceded by	Guy V. Howard
Succeeded by	Joseph H. Ball
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota's 5th district
In office March 4, 1917 – March 3, 1919
Preceded by	George Ross Smith
Succeeded by	Walter Newton
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota General Ticket Seat Eight
In office March 4, 1933 – January 3, 1935
Preceded by	General Ticket Adopted
Succeeded by	General Ticket Abolished
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota's 3rd district
In office January 3, 1935 – January 3, 1937
Preceded by	General Ticket Abolished
Succeeded by	Henry Teigan
Member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from the 42nd district
In office January 3, 1911 – January 4, 1915
Preceded by	William Campbell and John Godspeed
Succeeded by	John Sanborn Jr. and George Sudheimer
Personal details
Born	(1878-08-04)August 4, 1878 Beresford, Dakota Territory (now South Dakota)
Died	August 31, 1940(1940-08-31) (aged 62) Lovettsville, Virginia
Political party	Republican Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party
Alma mater	Carleton College University of Minnesota Law School
Military service
Branch/service	United States Army
Unit	Company B-12th Minnesota Volunteer Regiment
Battles/wars	Spanish–American War

Lundeen was born and raised on his father's homestead in Brooklyn Township of Lincoln County near Beresford in the Dakota Territory. His father, C. H. Lundeen, was an early pioneer who was credited with the naming of Brooklyn Township as well as with helping to establish the school and other institutions located there. Most of Ernest Lundeen's brothers and sisters died during a diphtheria epidemic during the 1880s. In 1896, Lundeen and his family moved to Harcourt, Iowa and then to Minnesota. He graduated from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1901 and then studied law at the University of Minnesota Law School. In 1906, he was admitted to the bar.

Lundeen served in the United States Army during the Spanish–American War. He served in the Minnesota House of Representatives 1911–14.[1] He then served as a Republican from Minnesota in the United States House of Representatives, from March 4, 1917, to March 3, 1919, in the 65th congress. He was one of 50 Representative to vote against the declaration of war against Germany on April 6, 1917.[2] Due to the vote, he would lose renomination for the Republican primary in 1918 to the eventual winner, Walter Newton. He served as a Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party member in the House from March 4, 1933, to January 3, 1937, in the 73rd and 74th Congresses.

In 1934, during the 73rd Congress, Lundeen sponsored the Workers' Unemployment Insurance Bill. The bill embodied a far-reaching unemployment insurance and social insurance program formulated by the Communist Party in 1930 and openly and vigorously advocated by the Party for the next several years. Despite the bill's Communist origins, the Party mustered considerable support for it, including union locals, international unions, and state labor federations. The bill attracted support from liberals dissatisfied with the less generous and much less radical Wagner-Lewis bill (which became the Social Security Act). With Lundeen's help, a subcommittee of the Labor Committee heard testimony from 80 witnesses on the benefits of the bill and the suffering of the unemployed. Many were Communists, including Party chairman Earl Browder. The bill was narrowly voted out of the Labor Committee, but was killed by House leadership, which wanted no competition for Wagner-Lewis.[3]

Lundeen was elected to the United States Senate in 1936 as a member of the Farmer-Labor Party. He served from January 3, 1937, in the 75th and 76th Congresses, until his death. Initially, his Communist sympathies remained strong: in 1936, then Senator-elect Lundeen addressed a meeting of the "Friends of the Soviet Union" at Madison Square Garden as "Tovarishchi" ("Comrades"). But he remained isolationist, and was later denounced by the Party as a reactionary.[4]

His isolationist views led him to be sympathetic to Nazi Germany. He had close ties to George Sylvester Viereck, a leading German sympathizer. Viereck often used Lundeen's office, and "sometimes dictated speeches for Lundeen, openly using the Senator's telephones to obtain material from Hans Thomsen at the [German] embassy."[5]

On June 14, 1939, Lundeen joined a civilian and press delegation aboard USS Hammann for its sea trials off Fire Island. The ship reached a maximum speed of 40 knots, came to a complete stop in 58 seconds, and then travelled in reverse at 20 knots.[6] Lundeen said the experience was "astounding" and that the test showed that American ship designers "need bow to none."

On the afternoon of August 31, 1940, Lundeen was a passenger on Flight 19 of Pennsylvania Central Airlines, flying from Washington, D.C. to Detroit. The plane, a Douglas DC-3, flew into turbulence from a thunderstorm. The plane crashed near Lovettsville, Virginia, and all 25 persons on board were killed, including Senator Lundeen.[7]