Wallace G. Nye
Encyclopedia
Wallace George Nye was the mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota
from 1913 to 1917.
Charles Gould and Socialist Thomas Van Lear
. During his tenure, he was involved in a controversy over the exhibition of the film Birth of a Nation in Minneapolis. Nye opposed the showing of the film, but was enjoined by a district court judge. When that injunction was overruled, Nye barred further exhibitions of the film until an ad hoc board of censors reviewed and approved the film.
Nye was defeated by Van Lear in the 1916 mayoral election, mainly on the strength of two issues:
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
from 1913 to 1917.
Career
Nye worked in Minneapolis as a pharmacist. In 1905, Nye was a leading member of the Minneapolis Public Affairs Committee, a non-governmental organization dedicated to the business and municipal affairs of the city. He was elected mayor in 1912, defeating DemocrateDemocratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Charles Gould and Socialist Thomas Van Lear
Thomas Van Lear
Thomas Van Lear was the Socialist mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota, serving from January 1, 1917 to January 6, 1919. A leader of the local machinists union, he led two unsuccessful campaigns for the mayoralty before he was elected on November 7, 1916, with over 33,000 votes...
. During his tenure, he was involved in a controversy over the exhibition of the film Birth of a Nation in Minneapolis. Nye opposed the showing of the film, but was enjoined by a district court judge. When that injunction was overruled, Nye barred further exhibitions of the film until an ad hoc board of censors reviewed and approved the film.
Nye was defeated by Van Lear in the 1916 mayoral election, mainly on the strength of two issues:
- Nye's administration had been involved in a financial scandal involving financing of the city's streetcar system. Business leaders involved in the street car company donated heavily to Nye's campaign, and the voters of the city looked for any alternative.
- Nye had supplied police protection to scab workers during a general Teamsters strike.