Frederick Erastus Murphy

Background

Frederick E. Murphy was born on December 5, 1872, near Troy, Wisconsin, the sixth in a family of eight children of James Murphy and Mary Ellen McGraw. His middle name, which he never used, was Erastus.

Education

He attended the public schools in his community and then enrolled at Notre Dame University, graduating in 1893.

Career

After leaving college he joined the staff of the Minneapolis Tribune, of which an older brother, William J. Murphy, was publisher, and advanced rapidly, becoming successively head of its circulation, mechanical, and advertising departments.

From the start Murphy combined a concern for scientific farming with his newspaper career. Convinced that agriculture was basic in the American economy, he feared that farm prosperity was endangered in the upper Middle West by overspecialization in wheat growing. Following the ideas of his father, who had been a pioneer in crop rotation and scientific dairying, Murphy argued that farmers should raise less wheat and more livestock, especially dairy cattle. His own experience in practical farming served to reinforce these ideas.

Forced by ill health to take a respite from newspaper life, he left the Tribune in 1918 for a farm in the Red River Valley of western Minnesota, where he concentrated on improving dairying and livestock production. Throughout his later career "Femco Farms" continued to prosper, ultimately reaching a size of six thousand acres.

In 1921, however, Murphy gave up active management and returned to Minneapolis to succeed his brother as president and publisher of the Tribune. His return to the newspaper business coincided with the agricultural depression of 1920 - 1921, and Murphy's message of crop diversification and better livestock, urged through his editorial columns and in speeches throughout the North Central States, began to win national attention.

Recognizing that lack of capital was for many farmers a major deterrent to such steps, he helped to organize in 1924 the Agricultural Credit Corporation, a private agency closely backed by the federal government, for the purpose of making loans to farmers in the Northwest and strengthening local banks which were financing farm operations. Believing that farmers could solve their own problems by diversifying their operations, Murphy was at first a strong opponent of government action designed to raise farm prices. Thus he opposed, during the 1920's, the McNary-Haugen farm relief bills which had so much support in his section.

But when the depression struck in 1929 and farm income dropped to disastrous levels, Murphy's attitude changed. While still believing that diversification was one means of cutting surpluses of staple crops like wheat, he advocated farm acreage reduction as a basic remedy.

More than ever, in the early 1930's, he emphasized the importance of restoring farm prosperity as a means of lifting the country out of the depression. Although not a formal economist, Murphy was by this time recognized as one of the outstanding authorities on agriculture in the United States.

President Roosevelt appointed him a delegate to the World Wheat Conference which met at Geneva and London in 1933, and the next year he became one of the four permanent American representatives on the International Wheat Advisory Committee. At these conferences Murphy sought an international agreement on the part of the main wheat-exporting countries to cut production. He was not, however, successful in achieving any permanent results in this field. A Republican in politics, Murphy supported Alfred M. Landon in the 1936 presidential campaign, although he admitted that many farmers favored the New Deal farm program.

Besides his two main interests, journalism and farming, Murphy engaged in several businesses, serving as president of the Mutual Holding Company, the Manistique Pulp and Paper Company, the Manistique Light and Power Company, and the Red River Farm and Land Company. He died on February 14, 1940, of a coronary occlusion at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City while on a business trip there. He was buried in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Achievements

• Frederick Erastus Murphy was a well-known publisher of The Minneapolis Times Tribune, a director of The Associated Press, and a leading advocate of the diversification of crops as an aid to agriculture.

Politics

A Republican in politics, Murphy supported Alfred M. Landon in the 1936 presidential campaign, although he admitted that many farmers favored the New Deal farm program.

Connections

On January 16, 1901, Frederick E. Murphy married Katharine Connolly of Minneapolis. They had no children.

Father:

James Murphy

Mother:

Mary Ellen Murphy (McGraw)

Wife:

Katharine Murphy (Connolly)

Brother:

William J. Murphy