The Milton E. Schneider Papers consist primarily of documentation about his political activities during the early 1950's. Supplementing the correspondence in this collection is a brief 1986 interview conducted as part of the separately-catalogued Wisconsin Democratic Party Oral History Project. Most of the biographical information included above was extracted from that interview. In addition, Schneider's wife Gloria also appears on the tape, recounting the effort that she headed with Jane Nash in 1952 to organize local community opposition to a visit by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. (Unfortunately only a few items in the collection refer to her activities in this incident which is thought to be the first instance of local organizing against McCarthy in Wisconsin.) This oral history recording also includes information about Schneider's twelve-year tenure on the University of Wisconsin Board of Visitors and his unsuccessful efforts to bring a University of Wisconsin two-year campus to Wisconsin Rapids. For this work Schneider was named citizen-of-the-year by the Wisconsin Rapids Chamber of Commerce.
The papers found here consist primarily of correspondence, together with occasional minutes, press releases, and clippings. Minutes of the Administrative Committee which filled gaps in the coverage of the official Democratic Party of Wisconsin Records have been separated to that collection.
The chronologically-arranged correspondence chiefly dates from the period 1952 through 1956. There is nothing here about Schneider's early role in reviving the local party organization or his tenure as county chairman. His relation with the 7th congressional district organization, however, is represented in frequent correspondence with Betty Graichen.
The strength of this small collection is the correspondence it contains with leaders such as James E. Doyle, Thomas Fairchild, Philleo Nash, William Proxmire, and Henry S. Reuss, and the insights it provides on a number of the key leadership and strategic issues of the period. For example, the 1952 documentation is highlighted by information on Schneider's unsuccessful effort to reconcile the rival electoral ambitions of Reuss, Fairchild, and Gaylord Nelson during the important senatorial primary. In 1955 Schneider ran unsuccessfully for state vice-chairman as a sort of electoral slate with Horace Wilkie, and there is useful correspondence on this important rivalry in early Democratic Party history. The following year Schneider headed the Wisconsin Proxmire for Governor Clubs, which was an organization of voluntary campaign committees around the state. This part of the collection contains extensive correspondence with William Foster of Wisconsin's Proxmire for Governor Committee, the state organization responsible for fundraising, as well as numerous personally-typed letters from Proxmire himself. The documentation about the 1953 party convention which was held in Wisconsin Rapids and which Schneider chaired, contains extensive correspondence with Frances Rose from the party office in Madison that deal with the details of arranging the event.
Letters dating from 1959 to 1961 consist of occasional exchanges with politicians such as William Proxmire and Gaylord Nelson. The correspondence with Nelson contains some comments about elections, information on the University of Wisconsin Board of Visitors (to which Schneider had been appointed by Nelson), and endorsements of others for various appointive positions.
A final folder contains campaign literature and an annotated speech by Kenneth E. Anderson, who ran unsuccessfully for the congressional seat held by Melvin Laird; it is likely that Schneider was actively involved in that campaign.
