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KAREN BARTA: Good morning. I'm Karen Barta with news from Minnesota Public Radio. Iowans have a say in the Republican race for the presidential nomination tonight. As Minnesota Public Radio's Cara Hetland reports, one Iowa County has had more attention this year than ever.

CARA HETLAND: Voter turnout is expected to be heavy in the Iowa Republican precinct caucuses. Five of the presidential candidates visited the northwest corner of the state. Lyon County auditor, Ken Mellema, says this is unique because, typically, voters in Rock Rapids, which is about 15 miles south of Luverne, received candidate information from mailings and the media.

KEN MELLEMA: Basically, Lyon County is not all that large. And we're a long ways from everybody else. So it's been quite impressive, the number of candidates that have been through this year, really.

CARA HETLAND: Mellema says the Iowa caucus system is grassroots politics at its finest. He expects about 150 Republicans to turn out tonight. I'm Cara Hetland, Minnesota Public Radio News in Sioux Falls.

KAREN BARTA: DFL senator Paul Wellstone is expected to formally announce his plans to run for re-election this hour. Wellstone enters the race with the biggest campaign war chest in the field. The newest member of the Minnesota Senate will be sworn in this morning. Republican Michelle Fischbach of Paynesville replaces former DFL Senator Joe Bertram, who resigned after a shoplifting arrest.

The state forecast today, some morning flurries. Otherwise, becoming partly sunny, with highs from 20 in the northeast to around 30 degrees in the southwest. For the Twin Cities, partly sunny with a high in the middle to upper 20s.

Tuesday, mostly cloudy, with a high in the lower to middle 30s. Around the region in Duluth, it's sunny and 15 degrees. It's cloudy and 19 in Rochester, cloudy and 18 in St. Cloud. And in the Twin Cities, partly sunny and 21 degrees. That's news from Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Karen Barta.

PAULA SCHROEDER: It's 6 minutes past 10 o'clock. The sun is out in downtown Saint Paul. Nice blue skies here. Hope that we keep that sunshine going today. This is Midmorning on the FM news station.

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The line separating the races in Matthew Little's childhood literally divided his hometown of Washington, North Carolina. The race line was imposed on his all-Black infantry unit in World War II. And the race line was imposed on Matt Little again in Minneapolis when he was rejected as a firefighter because of his skin color.

Today, in a special best of Voices of Minnesota interview, we hear a discussion with Matt Little recorded last August. Our Voices series is a regular feature on Midmorning. Every week at this time, we hear from people with an interesting life story.

Well, 72-year-old Matt Little lives now in Edina. He spent his entire adult life trying to eliminate barriers based on race. Matt Little told the FM news station's Kate Smith, his father told his children they had to leave the south to escape racism.

KATE SMITH: When you say the things that you experienced, that you assumed were the norm, are you talking about things like open segregation and education--

MATTHEW LITTLE: Yes.

KATE SMITH: --in schools that were just openly--

MATTHEW LITTLE: Exactly. Exactly. They're living in two different worlds. One, what I consider now a normal world, and a subnormal world in the same little town in which things were so clearly delineated between the racist per se.

For example, now, a good example of the fact that you could very well tell where the so-called white community ended and the Black community began. There wasn't any question about it. They would not-- because of the fact that the Black community was not paved. It was dust. It was sand and dusty streets.

KATE SMITH: There was a literal line in the road.

MATTHEW LITTLE: That was exactly-- and never the twain shall meet. There was no question about that. And we accepted that as being the way that it should be. Now, as I look back at it now, that's a novel thing, the fact that we accepted that.

You go downtown, when you go downtown on Saturdays to buy things, you could not put on the clothes. You had to hold them up to you because there was some, I guess-- that they would-- the clothes would be contaminated if we were to put them on. We go to the theater and we had to go up a fire escape on the outside--

KATE SMITH: To get in?

MATTHEW LITTLE: --to get in and set up what they call the crow's nest to look at the theater. And we did that. Could hardly wait until Saturday, do after we did our duties, so that we could get our little $0.15 from daddy and go downtown to go to the theater and see the Westerns. All of those things, we accepted.

KATE SMITH: Did it ever seem funny to you that you grew up in a town named for the founding father of our country and experienced such an inequal--

MATTHEW LITTLE: Yes, afterward. But at the time, no. And I think that's one of the novelties of--

KATE SMITH: Washington, North Carolina.

MATTHEW LITTLE: --the whole situation, that we accepted that. Of course, later, after being involved and began-- and realizing that there was another America, that it should not be that way. Then, of course, I became very conscious of all of those things and fought awfully hard to keep from becoming bitter as a result of them, whereas my father, of course, who had lived all of his life under that condition, and he knew that was the way of life that he had to live.

But even so, he wanted it better for his kids. And so that would not have to be the way. And so the thing that was endowed into us from the time that I can remember, that education is the answer, that you-- there are two things that we have to do. You have to get an education, and then you have to leave the south. Those are the two things that we look forward to.

KATE SMITH: So was your father one of the forces in your life that encouraged you to consider college and higher education--

MATTHEW LITTLE: Definitely.

KATE SMITH: --an automatic?

MATTHEW LITTLE: Definitely so. And as a matter of fact, he knew how to play the system, too.

KATE SMITH: How do you mean?

MATTHEW LITTLE: He knew the psychology of handling his bosses, the White man. He know that they would like to see him as some kind of a clown. And he could do it, too, as far as the tap dance and the scratching the head.

KATE SMITH: Willing to play the role?

MATTHEW LITTLE: He played the role terrifically, as a matter of fact. But he was still a very energetic person and very ingenious because he never allowed his boss to know how the things that he was doing on the side. He developed a farm, a nice little farm. And when he had his house built, he would never let his boss downtown to know that that was his house.

KATE SMITH: That he was building a house?

MATTHEW LITTLE: He claimed that it was the-- who actually lived next door, the principal of the school's house.

KATE SMITH: Oh. [CHUCKLES]

MATTHEW LITTLE: And I don't think Mr Moss ever found out that that house was my dad's. And when he was finally able to-- when he bought a car, he always had or did ride his bicycle to work, you know? And so what he would do, he would leave his bike down at my uncle's house, who lives closer to the mill where daddy worked. He'd drive his car there and then pick up his bicycle and drive his bicycle.

KATE SMITH: [CHUCKLES]

MATTHEW LITTLE: [CHUCKLES] Those were the kind of things that he did all of his life in order to-- and he had eight kids, of course-- in order to see that his kids could get the education so that they would not be subject to this kind of indignities for the rest of their lives, too. And so he was certainly, no doubt about it, an inspiration.

KATE SMITH: You mentioned that your dad also said to you and your siblings that education wasn't enough, that you would have to leave the south.

MATTHEW LITTLE: Yes.

KATE SMITH: How did that play into your development as a young man and as an adult? Was that something--

MATTHEW LITTLE: Well, to tell you the truth, that was a kind of disillusionment, too, when I found out, because at my parents', and my dad in particular-- because my mother died very young-- that was a panacea, that that was the promised land and that things would be as they should north of the Mason-Dixon line.

KATE SMITH: That's what your dad thought or what he told you?

MATTHEW LITTLE: That's what I'm sure he felt because he told us that all the time. But that was the disillusionment when I did find the reason out, find out that although it was not as rigid nor lawful, but some of-- many of the same things I found that were happening in the North that were in the South.

KATE SMITH: Are you saying you experienced the same sort of segregation--

MATTHEW LITTLE: Yeah.

KATE SMITH: --in your army years during World War II, right?

MATTHEW LITTLE: Yes. The army, during my stints in World War II, was a completely segregated army. No question about it.

KATE SMITH: So you were in an all-Black infantry?

MATTHEW LITTLE: An all-Black infantry outfits, which was even rare. The psychology of even the army service at that time was that Blacks did not have the intelligence to even be in the kind of-- to be in the infantry-type of organization.

So the majority of them were what they call service units, were in service units. And they only had a very few that were in the infantry. And the unit that I was in happened to be in one of the few infantry outfits. And it was an independent infantry regiment that was attached to various other larger infantry outfits.

And I can remember very distinctly when we were attached to the Third Army prior to its going overseas to Italy. The Third Army was the army that did all the damage in Italy, and we were attached to them and maneuvering in Louisiana. And in maneuvers, of course, you try to break through whenever you can, and we broke through. And for the first time, the army general realized that he had a Black unit, a Black infantry regiment attached to his Third Army.

KATE SMITH: He hadn't known that before?

MATTHEW LITTLE: He hadn't known that. Well, with the size of an army, as many regiments as there are that comprise an army, there was no-- the general, the head general, the four-star general, seldom gets a chance to see all of those. But from his vantage point, during a breakthrough like that, you get a chance to see who the heck they are. And the next day, we got orders to pack up and move to go to Seattle for debarkation overseas to the Aleutian Islands. Won't forget that. And--

KATE SMITH: As a result, do you think, of your performance?

MATTHEW LITTLE: Oh, I think there's no question-- as a result of them, just the discovery that we were a Black organization. And those kind of things, I can-- because this was in-- this is definitely in the South, and we were in basic training in Spartanburg, South Carolina. And at that time, I think Strom Thurmond was governor there.

KATE SMITH: Oh.

MATTHEW LITTLE: And he banned Black newspapers from coming in to the camps because of the fact that the Black newspaper always have been advocacy type. And they were lamenting against the fact that they were not permitting Blacks in to serve in the infantry outfits and so forth.

And he claimed that it was bad for the morale of the soldiers to allow those papers to be there and on the camps. So there are so many of those kind of things that has shaped my determination to do the kind of thing as far as working in civil rights is concerned.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Matthew Little, talking with the FM news station's Kate Smith--

KATE SMITH: You came to Minneapolis--

PAULA SCHROEDER: --in a special rebroadcast of our regular Monday interview series. We're going to continue the interview with Matthew Little in just a few minutes. But first, we're going to take a break for our membership week message for you.

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Oh good. There, now, we got seaweed. We had that beautiful music and go right to the phones that are ringing.

MELANIE SOMMER: Which results a beautiful sound.

PAULA SCHROEDER: That is a beautiful sound as well. I'm Paula Schroeder. It's 19 minutes now past 10 o'clock. And Melanie Sommer is back with me again to talk to you about becoming a member of Minnesota Public Radio so that we can bring you interviews like this one with Matt Little.

This has really been fun for us over the past year or so, Mel, to do these interviews with people that-- we've all heard of them for so long, those of us who've lived in the Twin Cities or in Minnesota for a long time, but haven't really heard their life stories.

MELANIE SOMMER: They're wonderful interviews.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah.

MELANIE SOMMER: They're just wonderful.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Kind of get an understanding of the motivation behind why would somebody like Matthew Little work so hard to break down racial barriers. Well, we're hearing some of that today. And if that's what you like, and that's why you listen, call us at 1-800-227-2811.

MELANIE SOMMER: It is extremely important for you to call us and make a pledge to Minnesota Public Radio right now. Federal funding, as you have been hearing for the last year or so, has been reduced, and we expect it to be eliminated over the course of the next couple of years. Just as an example, our federal funding levels are down $330,000 this year compared to last year. And we need you to call now to support this station.

If you pledged a year ago, it was right around this time last year when we first heard of the news that the members of Congress were interested in reducing or eliminating federal funding for public broadcasting. And if you responded a year ago to the news of that federal funding crisis, it's time to renew now. That's been about a year. It's time for you to re-up your membership in Minnesota Public Radio. We still need your support, and that need is not going to go away. As a matter of fact, it will probably become more necessary for you to help us out this year, and next year, and the year after.

So right now, we need you to call us at 1-800-227-2811 anywhere you're listening to Minnesota Public Radio. 1-800-227-2811. Or if you are in the Twin Cities, call us at 227-2811. Paula, the phone is just ringing, and ringing, and ringing. It's wonderful.

PAULA SCHROEDER: It's great. We have six people on the line right now. We have had 2,771 people call since Saturday morning, when we began our membership week. We've got another 7,229 to go though, and that means that you are needed to make the call to 227-2811 in the Twin Cities or 1-800-227-2811. You can hear-- it was really astonishing to me. I'm always amazed at these membership weeks, Mel, and the show of support that we do get from our listeners and from our volunteers as well.

MELANIE SOMMER: Oh, definitely.

PAULA SCHROEDER: This morning, I was in there at 7:30 in the morning, and our phone room was full of volunteers, people who had gotten up at 5:30 in the morning to come over here and answer your phone calls. And it really is a humbling experience.

MELANIE SOMMER: It is just wonderful. I feel the same way whenever we have a membership week. The depth to which we are supported across the state of Minnesota and across the region I think is just wonderful. It really does show that if you're a listener to Minnesota Public Radio, that you support the service and that you think it's an important part of your life. It's an important part of your daily routine. And if you can't live without it, we would like you to make a pledge of support right now and help us assure that that doesn't happen. 1-800-227-2811 is the telephone number to call.

Particularly during this time, during Midmorning, I was just reading through some of the background information that we have here to talk a little bit more about all the programs, and Midmorning's mission statement says it all about this program, I think. The mission of Midmorning is to address issues, people and events of interest, and concern to residents of the Upper Midwest, with an emphasis on the perspective of people in this region.

And we've got ample evidence of that just this morning. The Matt Little interview, which we will be returning to in just a few minutes, giving us a little bit more insight into a very important personality in the Twin Cities area. And the previous hour, discussion with John Adams about urban issues and the crisis of the inner cities, things that are very important to people of our region.

And later on this week and the week after, we'll be talking about Minnesota politics, and we'll be talking about national politics. We'll be hearing more about the arts in the area. We'll be hearing about education issues, family and children's issues, just a number of things that we think are important issues for you, our listeners across the state of Minnesota.

PAULA SCHROEDER: You know, one of the things I like about that mission statement, Mel, is that it lets us do anything. [CHUCKLES]

MELANIE SOMMER: [CHUCKLES] Pretty much.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah. Issues of concern and interest, and that can be anything.

MELANIE SOMMER: And that's what makes it so great.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah. Last week, we talked to Carl Mully, who is a psychotherapist, about stress. And I learned so much from him. Every Thursday at 10 o'clock, we try to do something on a health or medical issue. And there is an awful lot to be learned. There are people all over our area who are experts in a wide variety of things, and we try to find them, get them on the air so that you can learn something as well.

MELANIE SOMMER: And give you a chance to call in and participate in the discussion, which I think is the most important part of all of this, is that this is one of the very few places where you can hear an intelligent, and thoughtful, and thought-provoking conversation. You can participate in that as well. And it's on an intelligent, and civil, and a thought-provoking level.

PAULA SCHROEDER: And I think that later on this week, hopefully, we will have a thoughtful discussion about teacher tenure.

MELANIE SOMMER: Oh.

PAULA SCHROEDER: They're going to be talking about that. And that is an issue that a lot of people are concerned about. But anyway-- and hopefully, it will be done in such a way that will really get some information out, not just have both sides screaming at each other. 227-2811 is the number to call if you appreciate that kind of programming, or 1-800-227-2811.

Sometimes, what I like to do, Mel, is think about, OK, what would my daily life be like if public radio wasn't here? Well, I don't know what I would listen to, frankly. I really don't, because there is-- I like listening to music, but a lot of times, I like choosing my own music rather than relying on some of the other radio stations to do it for me. And when it comes to conversation, I don't know of anywhere else that you can really get good, thoughtful, intelligent discussion.

MELANIE SOMMER: I think this is the best place for that in the entire state of Minnesota, in the entire region. And I don't know what I would do without it either. If it's an important part of your day as well, you're listening in your car, you're listening at your home, you're listening in your office right now, we need you to call us and make that pledge of support to Minnesota Public Radio. 1-800-227-2811. Anywhere you're listening, 1-800-227-2811. If you are in the Twin Cities area, call us at 227-2811.

PAULA SCHROEDER: And if you're in your car, as I know a lot of you are at this time of day, give us a call on your cellular phone, if you have one, US West providing a special number for you at #669, and that will link you up directly with our volunteers. We were sitting here, patting ourselves on the back pretty much about what a great radio station this is and how much you need us. Well, we need you even more.

MELANIE SOMMER: Definitely.

PAULA SCHROEDER: This would not be the radio station that it is today without membership support. Membership truly is the single most important source of income for Minnesota Public Radio. And you can keep it strong. You can keep bringing lots of new ideas to your airwaves every single day. But we do need you to make that telephone call to 227-2811.

MELANIE SOMMER: And there are people all across the region who have continually supported us when we have asked, and that is the most wonderful thing about all of this. We have lists and lists of people, though, who are current members who are actually challenging you if you have not ever pledged before. They're saying, you step up to the plate and we'll kick in a little bit extra as well.

So anytime a new member of Minnesota Public Radio calls in, if you call in right now and become a new member of Minnesota Public Radio, we will be able to double the pledge that you have made thanks to people like Jody Skolnik of North Saint Paul, and Debbie Fulton of West Saint Paul, who have kicked in a little bit extra money and said, we think this is such an important service that we'll throw in a few extra dollars to encourage other people to become members of Minnesota Public Radio.

So right now is a great time to do that because you can actually double your pledge. If you call in and pledge $66, it'll turn into $132 pledge for us. At the $120 level, it'll turn into a $240 pledge for Minnesota Public Radio. So why don't you take advantage of this twofer deal that's going on right now by calling us at 1-800-227-2811 anywhere in the Minnesota Public Radio listening area?

PAULA SCHROEDER: And thanks to those of you who have called so far, Thanks to all the members who are challenging those of you who are not yet members to become members of Minnesota Public Radio. 227-2811. We're going to go back to our interview now with Matt Little at 28 minutes past 10 o'clock.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Well, Voices of Minnesota is heard every week at this time on Midmorning. I'm Paula Schroeder. Today, we're talking with Matt Little. He's been a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from his days as a child in Washington, North Carolina.

Little is the retired president of the NAACP chapter in Minneapolis. He came to the Twin Cities in 1948. He was bitterly disappointed at not winning a spot in medical school at Howard University and felt he had disappointed his father. He found work as a waiter at a Minneapolis hotel, where Blacks were not allowed to stay. Later, Little was rejected in his bid to become a Minneapolis firefighter. He told the FM news station's Kate Smith, the incident became part of the basis for a federal lawsuit, which led to the desegregation of the Minneapolis Fire Department.

KATE SMITH: You came to Minneapolis and, seems to me, struggled for a time to find a good job, one that--

MATTHEW LITTLE: Oh yeah.

KATE SMITH: --you were accepted into--

MATTHEW LITTLE: Yes, indeed.

KATE SMITH: --battled against the city and the fire department.

MATTHEW LITTLE: That's right.

KATE SMITH: Tell me a little about that.

MATTHEW LITTLE: Minneapolis did not see Blacks in any capacity other than those of servant capacity. For example, when I came here with a BS degree, major in biological science, minor in chemistry and everything, but the only job that I could get was one as a waiter at the then Curtis Hotel. I worked there for a while.

Finally was able to get another. Found out they were hiring veterans at the post office, was able to get on at the post office. Tried as a temporary, of course. Tried for the-- found out that there was a vacancy because by this time, I was married and had kids, and I had put some bread on the table. And so I found out about they were hiring for firemen. I said, that sounds like a pretty good job. So I tried there.

And that's really a classic story about that fire thing because of the fact that-- I had-- of course, was pretty good as far as an athlete. And then I had boxed in college as a flyweight. I had done some track, and I had played basketball and football in high school. So I was pretty good and had been in the service and was pretty good physically. So certainly, I had no problems with passing the physical aspects of the fireman side. As a matter of fact, they did indicate that I--

KATE SMITH: You did well--

MATTHEW LITTLE: Yeah.

KATE SMITH: --on the test, right?

MATTHEW LITTLE: Broke the record--

KATE SMITH: Yeah.

MATTHEW LITTLE: --the whole thing. And also, for the written, I had no problem with that. I was just out of college. But there was one other phase. And of all those phases, of course, you just had-- you were only a number. You did not identify with the--

Then the other part was the oral interview, of which-- the first chance they get to see you in person, who you were in the whole bit. But in all three of the phases, you had to make at least 75.

And so I did the interview, and they gave me only three-- asked me only three questions. And on the basis of my answers to those three simple questions, they gave me a 73.3, which means did not have enough. That did not qualify me to pass. I flunked out because I did not make at least 75 on all the three phases.

So that bittered me, terribly so. And as I tell the story, I-- a matter of fact, I was so bitter that I just insisted on finding out who did that, and why, and what their bases were. And I finally got a hold of a retired captain, fire captain, who told me very bluntly that he just didn't think it would work out.

As a 32-year veteran fireman, he said that the kind of closeness that's required, that mixing the races in that manner could never work out on the fire department. Which was just blatant racism, no question about it. Unfortunately, at that time, we did not have a civil rights department--

KATE SMITH: What'd you do?

MATTHEW LITTLE: --to go to and--

KATE SMITH: What'd you do?

MATTHEW LITTLE: I had no basis but to swallow it, at least temporarily anyway. As we came back later in my involvement with the NAACP and so forth, and then when that was-- and realized, firemen came to me and indicated the same, that they would not-- we filed suit, of course.

KATE SMITH: But not until later?

MATTHEW LITTLE: Yeah, not till now, till considerably later. Fireman has been a lot, and that was as a result of a court order that they had to put-- what was it? I think, what, 10, 20 or so firemen, I think, that the court order required.

And of course, my case was one of the things that led to that decision. And then after that was broken, the next thing, of course, was the one of promoting of the firemen. Was involved again there, and we got a court-- we got a decree from the court. And that has been just a recent happening, just a few years-- just a year or so ago.

KATE SMITH: How do you feel about how we're using school, public school, to help build community and to help integrate and desegregate our community? And tell me a little bit about how you see the Twin Cities working, whether we're doing-- are we doing it the right way? Are we going in the right direction, trying to bring the suburban school districts into some sort of metropolitan desegregation plan? Or is that just not likely to work, and we should be realistic about that, and find a different way?

MATTHEW LITTLE: I feel very strongly that the solution, that the only solution as far as education is desegregated education, is to desegregate and whatever is necessary in order to do that. And I do mean not just race alone, but economic, to concentrate poor people in one area.

And certainly, whenever you talk about poor people, there are going to be-- the majority are always going to-- in America is going to be African-American. There's no doubt about that. And I think to permit that and make no attempt to do anything about it, say, well, that's the way it is, so we'll have to live with that kind of thing, I think that is the worst thing that can happen to our kids.

I see, and I think we can see, plenty good examples of how it had happened in cities like Detroit and so forth. And I think it's ridiculous to think that there is something sacred about the dividing lines that divide Richfield from Minneapolis, whatever street at all divided from Brooklyn Center or what have you. I think those are artificial barriers.

And I think that it is important. I think it's extremely important that we do to the very extent possible. I am not saying that by no means-- it is not practical to bus kids way out to Elk River or someplace of that sort with them. But to the very extent that's possible. But rather than institutionalize the configuration and make it worse and worse, as we have here, we're just asking for another Detroit.

KATE SMITH: Matt Little, in your lifetime, did you expect to see both the creation of and potentially the dismantling of affirmative action laws?

MATTHEW LITTLE: No. I was certainly hopeful that something of that nature would be created. And I felt pretty good after seeing it come to fruition. And I felt pretty good of the feeling, the realization that as an activist, to have taken part, the little part that I had played, in making that come to fruition.

And I am certainly very disheartened to see the fact that we have-- seems to be going backward within that direction. I think that, again, because I think affirmative action, which the detractors try to characterize as being just racial preference, it goes a heck of a lot further than that. It means making America look more like America should in all areas.

KATE SMITH: Matt Little, I recall an announcement that you were retiring.

MATTHEW LITTLE: [CHUCKLES] Yeah.

KATE SMITH: That was, what, five, six years ago?

MATTHEW LITTLE: Well, I was retired as president of the NAACP.

KATE SMITH: Yeah.

MATTHEW LITTLE: Yes, but--

KATE SMITH: [CHUCKLES]

MATTHEW LITTLE: I discovered later that you never, as if you-- once you are in this struggle as a Black person, you never retire.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Matt Little, talking with the FM news station's Kate Smith. Our Voices of Minnesota series is produced by Dan Olson. By the way, at 11 o'clock this morning, as part of Midday, Gary Eichten is going to be talking to Mary Thornton Phillips, the chair of the Saint Paul school board. She's been out visiting schools this morning on African-American parent involvement day, something that I'm sure Matt Little is pleased to see. That's coming up as part of Midday at 11 o'clock.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

It's 20 minutes before 11 o'clock. Well, just as we hear Voices of Minnesota every Monday here on Midmorning, we also find out about an odd job that somebody does around this state. This is Midmorning on the FM news station. I'm Paula Schroeder.

Except for a couple of electric saws in his Northfield workshop, David Folland makes violins, violas, and cellos by hand, sometimes spending months finding just the right piece of imported Yugoslavian maple, American spruce, or mahogany. The 36-year-old craftsman has been making stringed instruments for 15 years, using centuries-old methods, such as making his own varnish and letting wood yellow in the sun. Minnesota Public Radio's Todd Moe prepared this report.

DAVID FOLLAND: I'm David Folland, and I'm in Northfield, Minnesota, and I make violins for a living.

[VIOLIN MELODY]

I did play violin. I started when I was in third grade. But it was really the woodworking more than the violin playing.

I grew up in Owatonna, and Lothar Meisel works there. They're a long generation of German violin makers. And I took lessons from his wife. So I kind of stuck my head in his shop. And it seemed the most fascinating thing. It seemed the most complex and challenging.

The colors go-- I try to be traditional, and I make my colors. And that's another long process. Here, just one way, here's some madder root. It's a root that you get a lot of orange and red from. Here's my saffron. That's yellow. And here's the red.

TODD MOE: Why go to all the trouble to make your varnishes like that?

DAVID FOLLAND: Well, I think one of the most difficult things is varnish. And it's also one of the things that separates instruments the most. And one of the things that the great old Cremonese instruments had is beautiful varnish.

Wood is one of the many variables. When someone calls up and wants a violin or a cello, you start talking to them about what they want and sound. And whenever possible, I have them play two, three, four of my instruments. And I listen to them play and talk to them about what they're hearing. I can start getting an idea of what they want. And according to that, I will choose my wood and choose even the outline of the instrument and then go from there.

TODD MOE: Maybe an obvious question, but is wood the most important variable?

DAVID FOLLAND: I don't think you can say one variable is the most important. They all fit together. A lot of times, making is like trying to fit a puzzle together.

And here's the way it comes-- most of the wood comes out of the tree. The tree is round, and you cut it off, and then you split it out like firewood. And then you open that up and glue it together. And this will be the middle of your instrument. And you've got the arch there. And then you've got it quartered for strength.

I draw my own patterns, but I still am heavily, heavily influenced by Stradivari and Guarneri, and my patterns will tend to follow one of the two. And that's depending on the kind of sound the person wants. But just length and width of the C-bouts, and width of the upper and lower bouts, and even the shape of the bouts can affect the sound.

[VIOLIN MELODY]

Last year, I had a good year, and I made four violins and two cellos. And cellos take a little longer than two violins. So I was really happy with the work that I got done last year. That was really good.

TODD MOE: Are you a woodworker? Are you an artist? How do you classify making violins? It seems almost like a work of art, really.

DAVID FOLLAND: I think of it as a high craft with-- there are artistic aspects to it. You want to bring artistry to it, but I don't call it an art exactly.

[VIOLIN MELODY]

PAULA SCHROEDER: Minnesota Public Radio's Todd Moe prepared that report. What beautiful music. Would be kind of fun to make violins for a living, wouldn't it? Time now is 15 minutes before 11 o'clock.

GARY EICHTEN: Jack Cooper and Al Benson changed the face of radio in this country. Never heard of them? Well, that may be because they were early pioneers on Black radio.

Hi, this is Gary Eichten, inviting you to join us for Midday on the FM news station. We'll continue our series, The History of Black Radio, with a look back to the 1930s and the innovative work of Jack Cooper and Al Benson. I hope you can join us. Midday begins weekday mornings at 11:00 on the FM news station, KNOW-FM 91.1 in the Twin Cities.

PAULA SCHROEDER: And during the 11 o'clock hour, of course, we'll be finding out how voting is likely to go in the Iowa caucuses tonight. We'll also talk to University of Minnesota history professor Hy Berman about the history of the caucus system in Minnesota and how common caucuses are in other states. That's coming up during the 11 o'clock hour of Midday. First, here's Garrison Keillor in The Writer's Almanac.

[PIANO MUSIC]

GARRISON KEILLOR: And here is The Writer's Almanac for Monday, the 12th of February, 1996. It's the birthday of the great Puritan theologian and intellectual, Cotton Mather, born in Boston in 1663, who was blamed more than he should have been for the witchcraft trials at Salem. In fact, he had written to the judges at the trials, urging them to be cautious and saying that he believed that witches might better be treated by prayer and fasting than by punitive legal action.

It's the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, born in a log cabin near Hodgenville, Kentucky, in 1809. An impoverished farming family, his mother died when he was 9 years old. He had little formal education, was not very happy working on his father's farm, struck out on his own when he was young.

When he was 19 years old, he signed on as a deckhand on a flatboat, traveling down river to New Orleans. He spent five years at New Salem, Illinois, near Springfield, working at various jobs, studying law in his spare time, and became a successful lawyer.

In 1860, went off to New York and gave a speech at the Cooper Union that won him the Republican nomination for president. The Democratic vote was split in that year. And Lincoln, while he took no active part in the campaign, was elected president of the United States in 1860.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP, was formed on this day in 1909. It is the birthday of Charles Darwin in Shrewsbury, England, in 1809, a young man who took a long time to find out what it was he wanted to do. He was not very good in school. His father pulled him out of school, said, you care for nothing but shooting dogs and rat-catching, and you'll be a disgrace to yourself and all your family.

They sent him off to study medicine, but he hated it. He couldn't bear to watch operations, which at that time were performed without anesthesia. He was sent off to study for a career in the church. He did not care for that.

But in college, he became acquainted with some scientists who encouraged him to study natural history. Studied botany and, soon after graduation, was sent off an unpaid position of naturalist on the HMS Beagle. Sailed around the world and gathered the data that led to his theory of evolution.

It's the birthday of George Gershwin as well. Born in Brooklyn, new York, on this day in 1898.

Here's a poem for today by William Butler Yeats entitled "When You Are Old."

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true,

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

A poem, "When You Were Old" by William Butler Yeats.

That's The Writer's Almanac for Monday, February the 12th, made possible by Coles magazines, publishers of Horse and Rider and other magazines. Be well. Do good work. And keep in touch.

PAULA SCHROEDER: It's so great having a daily hit of poetry. [CHUCKLES] And where else would you even dream of getting that other than public radio? I'm Paula Schroeder, here once again with Melanie Sommer to remind you that this is membership week here on Minnesota Public Radio. And we have lots of volunteers waiting for you to call 227-2811 in the Twin Cities or 1-800-227-2811 outside the metropolitan area with your pledge of support. Mel, I was just talking to one of the volunteers who moved here from New York City--

MELANIE SOMMER: Oh wow.

PAULA SCHROEDER: --just this past spring. He's been here almost a year now, and he said he absolutely loves it. And guess what? He's a poet.

MELANIE SOMMER: Oh really?

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah.

MELANIE SOMMER: Well, terrific.

PAULA SCHROEDER: And he said that he is actually going to try to publish some of his poetry now because poetry is popular now, and people are starting to buy it somewhat.

MELANIE SOMMER: Well, it certainly is. But you're right, there are people who would not do without Writer's Almanac and Garrison Keillor every day.

PAULA SCHROEDER: That's right.

MELANIE SOMMER: And if we, by chance, need to remove it for some reason, it causes great difficulty. So we're pleased that we can give a little daily dose of Garrison Keillor to you every day in The Writer's Almanac. It's just one small feature, one small regular part of our daily Midmorning broadcast that we bring to you every morning between 9:00 and 11:00, Monday through Friday.

Paula Schroeder, the host, Stephanie Curtis, the producer, do a terrific job of bringing you a wide variety of interesting people, interesting discussions about a variety of topics, things that are in the news, things that are just sort of fun, lots of variety, and just a slice of life of Minnesota, I think, is the best way to describe your program, Paula.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Kind of the stuff that people like to talk about.

MELANIE SOMMER: I think so. I think so. And people like to listen to it as well. And you're listening this morning. So that means that we want you to also take another step of supporting Minnesota Public Radio and supporting Midmorning by calling us at 1-800-227-2811 and making a pledge of support for Minnesota Public Radio. 1-800-227-2811. Or if you're in the Twin Cities area, local call 227-2811. 227-2811.

We only have a couple of callers on the line right now. Lots of room for you. Lots of people waiting, including that poet waiting to take your telephone call right now. So keep them busy back there. 1-800-227-2811.

PAULA SCHROEDER: We've cracked the 2,800 number already on this third day of our membership drive. 2,809 of you have called. And boy, what a terrific show of support that is. It really is. To a lot of other public radio stations around the country, Mel, you know that that would be an astonishing number in and of itself. But here at Minnesota Public Radio, our members have always been so good to us and supported Public Radio so well that now we really need all of you to call in order to maintain the kind of programming that we have grown over the years.

We are shooting for 10,000 calls, either new or renewing members, in this membership week drive, this very important February drive that really sets the tone for the whole year. And we're hoping that you are going to be one of those people-- four on the line right now. And if you've forgotten the phone number since Melanie gave it to you a couple of minutes ago, here it is. 227-2811 in the Twin Cities or 1-800-227-2811.

If you're in your car and you have a cellular phone, US West has provided a service for you. And that is a very simple number for you to call, #669. And I think I'm right in saying that they won't even charge you for that.

MELANIE SOMMER: It's a free call. You betcha. You betcha.

PAULA SCHROEDER: #669.

MELANIE SOMMER: We want to make it as easy as possible for you to make your pledge to Minnesota Public Radio. An easy phone call. A quick minute or a minute and a half on the telephone is all that we'll need. We'll take your name and address. If you prefer to put this on a charge card, we'll take your charge card number. And you get to choose a thank you gift, and that's about it.

I mean, there are some terrific thank you gifts that we have available for you. Just a little token of our appreciation for your continued support of Minnesota Public Radio. At the $66 household membership level, an MPR membership coffee mug, the ubiquitous coffee mug, we have one of those for you, or the Mad about CDs or cassettes that you may have heard about if you also listen to the music service. Mad about American music. Mad about love now that--

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah. Valentine's Day.

MELANIE SOMMER: Valentine's Day, yeah. Two days away. Mad about Mozart and Mad about Vivaldi, you can choose one of those as well.

You might want to consider the $120 a year pledge level, which is $10 a month. And when you think about it, $10 a month doesn't sound like a terrific amount of money. It's less than you pay for your newspaper subscription or your cable TV subscription.

We don't even ask you for a specific amount. We ask you just to pay what you think you can afford, what your circumstances will allow you to do. $10 a month, if you can do that, pledge us-- make a pledge of $120 and receive an MPR tote bag as our thank you gift.

We really appreciate any amount of support that you can provide us. The important thing to us is that you call, that you make that pledge. It's not as important how much money you can afford to give us at this point because there are always going to be people who can give more or give less. But the most important thing to us is that you become a member, that you give us that support in a tangible way by placing a phone call right now at 1-800-227-2811 or, in the Twin Cities area, 227-2811.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Well, I'm going to push that $120 level right now, that $10 a month level, because it is so topical right now, the thank you gift that we have for that. It is a pair of passes to all 12 films during the Library of Congress film festival, which is taking place the first week in March. Now, why is this topical you say? Because--

MELANIE SOMMER: Because--

PAULA SCHROEDER: --the Oscar nominations are coming out tomorrow morning. And of course, we're going to be talking about that on Midmorning tomorrow with film critic, Rob Nelson. But these are some great old films.

I would love to see things like Gigi on the big screen, Dr. Strangelove, one of the all-time great movies, 2001, A Space Odyssey, and City Lights, one of Charlie Chaplin's masterpieces. Those are just a few of the movies that are going to be coming here for that Library of Congress film festival. And you get a pair of passes if you join Minnesota Public Radio at the $120 level. Just one of the things that's available to you for calling 227-2811. Or you can reach us toll-free at 1-800-227-2811.

MELANIE SOMMER: Some of your friends and neighbors have already called this morning. Paul Burke of Saint Paul has called to make a pledge. Thank you very much Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Papke of St. Cloud-- I hope I pronounced that correctly-- Laura Caviani of Saint Paul, Melissa Stewart of Minneapolis-- who's just 9 years old, by the way. She called in her pledge herself. Thank you very much, Melissa, for doing that and also for listening.

Carla Collins of White Bear Lake and James Robinson of Saint Paul, some of the people who have already called and pledged their support to Midmorning in Minnesota Public Radio today. And we want you to call as well at 1-800-227-2811 anywhere you're listening to Minnesota Public Radio. If you're in the Saint Paul area, Minneapolis, Saint Paul area, anywhere in the Twin Cities metro, 227-2811.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Pledging

I'll be pledging

And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak

And the show will find the membership we seek when we're out together pledging

Out together

Out together pledging

Pick up the phone and dial right now

227-2811

Gee, I love that radio station

Gee to gee

PAULA SCHROEDER: Oh, now, is that classy or what? How can you resist that? 1-800-227-2811. Become a member of Minnesota Public Radio today. We'll be back with Midmorning tomorrow at 9:00 AM. Join us then. Midday is coming up next.

ANDREI CODRESCU: I'm Andrei Codrescu. Join me, John Rabe, and the Washington crew for the news and long looks into the human soul.

JOHN RABE: It's All Things Considered everyday at 3:00 on the FM news station, KNOW-FM 91.1.

PAULA SCHROEDER: You're listening to Minnesota Public Radio. It is 19 degrees-- or excuse me, 21 degrees now in the Twin Cities and here at the FM news station, KNOW-FM 91.1, Minneapolis, Saint Paul. It's going to be partly sunny today, looking for a high.