Biography
Orville Anderson, a farmer from Vermillia, South Dakota, was the Socialist Party's candidate for governor of South Dakota in 1918. He was sentenced to four years in prison and served in Leavenworth Penitentiary from October 5, 1918, to December 21, 1921. Anderson was convicted for allegedly making the following statement- President Wilson is a murderer in the first degree. He is murdering, not only Germans but his own people, the American people, as well, and he is violating the Constitution of the U.S. by drafting men and sending them to fight in Europe. Anderson resumed political activities after his release from prison and was the subject of an investigation by the FBI in 1942. According to that investigation Anderson "continually gathered small groups of down and outers " and " exhortedthem to stand up for their rights." During the Great Depression he led marches demandingmore relief for the poor and demonstrations that "forcibly prevented foreclosures on farm mortgages."
