Part 8

Out of 215 staff officers named among the personnel of the new general staff of the army, announced October 3, 1918, only nine bore German names. Of the service men aboard an American ship destroyed in action during the war, 36 per cent. bore German names. The highest distinction conferred on any American aviator during the active fighting was given to Capt. Edward V. Rickenbacker, popularly called “the American Ace of Aces,” of Columbus, Ohio.

Any one resisting the current of hatred and abuse, as Henry Ford, whose contribution to the success of the American army is certainly incontestible, was exposed to the same attacks as those directly of German descent who were everywhere summoned before boards of inquisition; a headline in the “Evening Sun” of July 2, 1919, runs like this: “Ford Kept 500 Pro-Germans--Staff Men Say They Worked at Plant During the War--Motor Defects Were Passed--Didn’t Try to Correct Errors.”

That citizens of German origin were assigned a status independent of other citizens is apparent from a statement filed with the United States Senate by Mr. George A. Schreiner, the war correspondent of the Associated Press, who, upon his return here for a visit, was refused a passport for two years to go back to his post of duty. He writes:

I will terminate my report with a few remarks that seem greatly in order. These remarks concern the status of the naturalized citizen. On the very report issued to me on August 30, 1919, there appears personal data denouncing me which was formerly not placed on passports, =and which during the last two years has done much injury to naturalized citizens=. I refer to the fact that in the lower left-hand corner of the passport is noted the citizen’s place of birth and former nationality. As things are constituted and as they have been for some time, the notice referred to constitutes a discrimination against citizens of the United States of immigrant origin. The passport is given to the citizen as a means to identify himself as a citizen of the United States, =not as signal to those hostile to his racials elsewhere, that the Government of the United States sees a distinction between native and those of foreign birth=.... The elimination of all personal data from the passport would be the first step on the part of the Government in serving notice upon foreign governments that there is but one class of citizens in the United States, and that all of them are equally entitled to protection, as was the stand taken by the Senate when some years ago it abrogated the commercial treaty with the Imperial Russian Government, because that government had refused to recognize fully the American passports given to citizens of the United States of Jewish origin.

Men in the Department of State have thought it presumptuous on my part that I should claim the rights of a native-born citizen, and do that in the manner in which I was forced to do it. To that I will reply that no other avenue was open. In the first place, =I am either a citizen of the United States in every sense of the word, and in every duty and right, or I am not=. So long as there is not set up, let me say, immigrant citizens, or whatever designation may be deemed proper, which class a person can join, fully cognizant of what he or she is doing, the citizen admitted on the basis of full citizenship, the reservation of the presidency duly considered, would show his utter unfitness for his national status did he relinquish, in the least degree, his rights and guarantees, as constitutionally fixed and legally defined.

One German American army officer was sentenced to 25 years at hard labor at Leavenworth for having written a letter to the War Department, declaring that as his sympathies for Germany did not fit him to act a soldier in the fighting line, he desired to resign. He was nevertheless sent to France in the hope that it “would cause his sense of propriety to reassert itself.” Later, when Pershing reported that there had been no change, he was sent back to the United States for trial, with the above result. The “Times” said the papers and documents seized in his home would not be published. “These papers are said to show that the convicted man was an active friend of Germany in this country (his wife was born there), and that in the early part of the war he subscribed to one of the German war loans, paying his subscription in installments.” This was the extent of the proof, so far as known. Another officer of German descent could not be confirmed when his name was sent in for promotion to brigadier general.

One of the most sensational trials was that against Albert Paul Fricke, in New York, charged with high treason. Delancey Nicol, a famous attorney, was specially engaged to prosecute the case. Fricke was acquitted by a jury. This result was noticed in an obscure part of the papers, whereas Fricke’s arrest, indictment and the details of the case at many stages was spread under screaming headlines invariably. Paul C. H. Hennig, holding a responsible position as superintendent in the E. W. Bliss Co. plant in Brooklyn, was announced to have been caught red-handed tampering with the gyroscopes for torpedoes manufactured by the company for the Government. It was described as a plot so to manipulate the gyroscope as to reverse the course of the torpedo and discharge it against the vessel from which it was released, thus blowing the ship out of the water. At the trial it was testified that Hennig could not have accomplished any such purpose had he desired, as the torpedoes passed through numerous other hands after leaving his and were carefully inspected at every stage of their manufacture. He was acquitted by a jury, but the trial had ruined him financially.

Two years before the war, a Lutheran minister, Rev. Jaeger, was assassinated in his home in Indiana for being pro-German. On April 5, 1918, Robert B. Prager was lynched by a mob of boys and drunken men at Collinsville, Illinois, for being a German. The acquittal of the men was received with public jubilation, bon fires and concert by a Naval Reserve band. At West Frankfort, Ill., according to a press dispatch of March 25, 1918, “500 men seized Mrs. Frances Bergen, a woman of Bohemian birth, from municipal officers, rode her on a rail through the main street of the town, and compelled her to wave the American flag throughout the demonstration. At frequent intervals the procession paused while Mrs. Bergen was compelled to shout praise for President Wilson.”

A law evidently designed to hurt citizens of German descent was passed in Chicago, and a dispatch of March 26, 1918, gleefully announced that “six thousand aliens will lose their rights to conduct business in Chicago, May 1, when the ordinance passed by the City Council refusing licenses to all persons not United States citizens takes effect. Brewers, saloon keepers, restaurant keepers, tailors, bakers, junk dealers and others for whom a license from the city is required will be affected by the new law.” In this manner judges were forced from the bench and even compelled to fly for their lives, teachers were ousted out of their places, and professors frozen out of their professorships in universities. Citizens to the number of thousands were made outcasts in the country of their birth or adoption, and they were asking themselves “why?” without getting an answer. The German plotters spoken of by leading officials of the government as menacing the safety of the government, had not materialized; the danger of the “hyphen” had been exaggerated.

Under the extraordinary power given to irresponsible organizations and individuals by the repressive legislation enacted by Congress, the abuses which ensued were harrowing to any one with the least conscious regard for the institutions of his country. In New York a boy was sentenced to three months in jail for circulating a leaflet containing extracts from the Declaration of Independence, emphasis being laid on the fact by the court that certain passages, construed to be an incitement to sedition, were printed in black type. An appeal to a higher court fortunately nullified the verdict. A woman was knocked down in the streets of New York by a man for speaking German, and the court discharged the brute without a reprimand. From all parts of the country reports of outrages against citizens with German names were of daily occurrence. Men were carried off by groups of hooligans, stripped and whipped, or tarred and feathered. The same individuals who had themselves expressed sympathy for the cause of the Central Powers in conversations with their neighbors, suddenly turned informers, and professed to be proud of their betrayal of confidence. Everywhere men were indicted for treason who on trial were acquitted by the juries who heard their cases.

Not until the mob spirit everywhere assumed such a menacing aspect that no citizen dared trust his own friend, and bloodshed and violence began to run rampant, came any utterance from administration sources designed to check the reign of terror, and then the warnings were couched in such conservative language that they could be applied as a rebuke only to extreme cases of fanatical madness.

Not only was the press doing yeoman’s duty in the suppression of human rights, but the pulpit, the bar and the theaters and film companies combined to lash the ignorant into a state of maniacal fury and incited them to further outrages. A few judges, here and there, stood out in bold relief for their attitude in defense of constitutional government and the right of the individual under the same.

One of the most dastardly outrages was enacted near Florence, Ky., October 28, 1917, when a masked mob seized Prof. Herbert S. Bigelow, a prominent citizen of Cincinnati, Ohio, tied him to a tree in the woods and horse-whipped him for advocating the constitutional rights of American citizens.

The manner in which terrorism was carried out is well illustrated by events in New York City. Bazaars were everywhere held in aid of the cause of army and navy and the associated governments, and committees scoured the city for subscriptions and support. Among the events organized for this ostensible purpose was the Army and Navy Bazaar. The sum of $72,000 was taken in, but only $700 went to Uncle Sam’s soldiers and sailors. The rest went for commissions and expenses. This affair was used to terrorize German Americans on a large scale in order to press money out of them. An investigation brought out evidence, supplied by William S. Moore, secretary of the Guaranty Trust Company, who was treasurer of the bazaar, that “German citizens and citizens of German descent had been threatened with accusations of disloyalty by collectors of the bazaar.” An evening paper stated: “He admitted to the prosecutor that during the preparations for the bazaar several complaints that New Yorkers of German blood had been solicited, with the threat that they would be reported for internment if they refused to contribute, had been made to the bazaar officials.”

Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor, during the war declared that 600 liberal periodicals had been interfered with by the Post Office Department under the power given the Postmaster General to censor the American press. A large number of papers were harrassed, their editors arrested, some charged with treason or other high crime; and a few--a very few--were indicted. One effectual way of putting a stop to a publication which, though no grounds existed for its suppression, yet proved offensive by its outspoken defense of American principles, was to cancel its second-class mailing privilege. Under this privilege a paper enjoys a pound-rate postage, instead of being obliged to pay one cent or more for every copy mailed.

This was the course pursued toward the weekly, “Issues and Events,” which, with “The Fatherland” (now Viereck’s “American Monthly”), was started in 1914 to combat the pro-Ally campaign under Lord Northcliffe. After some five or six issues were stopped from going through the mails, the paper taking steps to reincorporate, became “The American Liberal,” but after only four issues was denied the second-class mailing privilege, and was forced to suspend.

The issue of March 23, 1918, was stopped for printing Theodore Sutro’s plea before the Senate Committee as attorney for the German-American Alliance, which was having its charter canceled by a bill introduced by Senator King, of Utah. The issue of April 6, 1918, was stopped. It contained a compilation of the outrages against German Americans in all parts of the country under the heading, “A Reign of Terror.” The issue of April 13 was stopped. It contained a quotation from Carl Schurz on the freedom of speech and press, and a statement of Abraham Lincoln on reverence for the law; also an article on the seizure of a list of 40,000 subscribers to the German war bonds by the then attorney general of New York.

The next number to be stopped was the issue of May 11, containing an article, “The Right of Free Speech Defined by a Distinguished Federal Judge to Roosevelt and by Judge Hand to the Jury Trying ‘The Masses’ Case,” and an article showing that the Germans had subscribed a larger amount to the Liberty Loan than any other group of foreign-born citizens.

The June 1 issue was next stopped. It contained the address of Melville E. Stone, general manager of the Associated Press, before the St. Louis Commercial Club, in which he denied the truth of the stories of Belgian atrocities after a personal investigation of numerous cases in France and Belgium. The June 8 issue also was stopped. The offensive material obviously consisted of extracts from a pamphlet issued by the National Civil Liberties Bureau, “The Truth About the I. W. W.” It presented a compilation of extracts from the works of industrial investigators and noted economists, and was printed as a matter of news with no idea of propagandizing the cause of the I. W. W.

The paper was rapidly losing its footing under this heroic treatment of the Post Office censorship, although no notoriety was attached to the course. On June 22 the first issue of “The American Liberal” appeared, in which an attempt was made to avoid anything that could give excuse for interference, the chief desire being to protect the stockholders and creditors. But after the fourth issue a peremptory order canceling the second-class mailing privilege put an effectual stop to further efforts to continue the uneven struggle.

Immediately after, the affairs of the paper became a subject of serious concern in various secret service branches of the government. A raid was made on a prominent citizen in the town of Reading and letters were found showing that he had at one time aided the paper in the sum of $100. This was heralded as evidence of some sinister conspiracy to destroy the government. A raid was made on the office of the paper and every letter on file was seized to discover proof of fraud and bad faith on the part of certain employes of the office, and to establish some connection with German plotters. Investigations were instituted; the daily papers were supplied with information that contained one part fact and nine parts suggestion, innuendoes and insinuations. Lawyers who examined the reports said they were vicious, but just within the law--that action for libel would probably not stick. And that was obviously the purpose of the raids. The prominent citizen of Reading was allowed to go the even tenor of his ways, and the seized documents in the office of the paper were returned in due season and pronounced harmless. The public had been lashed into a feverish state of indignation against some imaginary plotters, a legitimate enterprise had been ruined, all the employes of the paper had been turned into the street, some filth had been flung at the head of the editor, and the country was saved!

The paper was instrumental, after its suspension, in raising sufficient money to satisfy an indebtedness of more than $600 due a private benevolent institution in which it had placed a large number of children of distressed aliens affected by the rigorous legislation of Congress against alien enemies, and the Mount Plaza Home, which it had started for the same purpose, took care of between 800 and 900 children during the season of 1918 with its own resources. This charity had formed a special object of attack and suspicion.

Even more drastic was the treatment accorded Viereck’s “American Monthly,” though for reasons which need not be detailed here, it was not interfered with by the Post Office Department. The principal cause for the inquisition, which kept the daily press well supplied with Monday morning articles of sensational interest, was Mr. Viereck’s connection with German propaganda before our entrance in the war. The inquisition was conducted by Assistant State’s Attorney Alfred Becker, then a candidate for Attorney General, who was apparently making political capital for himself out of the investigation. Later Senator Reed showed that Becker’s associate in the investigation was an individual named Musica, an ex-convict, who with a number of associates had, also under Mr. Becker’s auspices, sought to “frame up” William Randolph Hearst with Bolo Pasha, the press being furnished with statements that Mr. Hearst, Bolo Pasha, Capt. Boy-Ed and Capt. von Papen had foregathered over a supper at a prominent New York hotel for some undefined evil purpose. The whole story was shown to be a fabrication.

The daily press teemed with headlines like this: “Letters Seized by Millions in Raid--Alleged Seditious Matter Taken After Over 300 Search Warrants Are Issued Secretly--Anti-War Bodies on List.” (New York “Times,” August 30, 1918.) “Teuton Propaganda Board Now Known--Attorney General Promises that Names of Americans Involved Will be Made Public--Kaiser’s Machine Worked Under the Cloak of the German Red Cross;” “Teuton Propaganda Paid for by Rumely--Gave Hammerling $205,000 in Cash for Space in Foreign Language Newspapers--Germans Planned $1,500,000 Good Will Campaign, Expecting U-Boats to End War in June, 1917;” “‘Charity’ Millions a Propaganda Fund--Becker Exposes Fraud of German Agents Here--Deputy Attorney General Says He Expects to Implicate ‘Journalists’ Among Others;” (New York “Evening Post,” August 19, 1918); “Propaganda Hunt by Federal Agents--Homes and Offices Searched in Cities Wide Apart Under Government Warrants--Visit Plants in Reading--Correspondence and Documents of Dr. Michael Singer Seized in Chicago,” etc.

All books bearing on the European struggle, written long before our entrance into the war, many of them of a sociological character, others dealing with historical subjects, were placed in an index expurgatorious. Books discontinued the day we entered the war were sent for by reputable persons in the hope of obtaining evidence of violation of law against those issuing them. Indiscriminately, everywhere, names of well-known citizens of German descent, many of them native-born, were bandied about in the newspapers as spies and plotters, their homes and offices were raided, their papers seized--and there matters ended. Among the books described as seditious were works by Prof. John W. Burgess, Frank Harris, Prof. Scott Nearing, Frederic C. Howe, W. S. Leake, Sven Hadin, Theodore Wilson Wilson, Arthur Daniels, E. G. Balch, Capshaw Carson, E. F. Henderson, Roland Hugins.

The reaction came when before the Overman Senate Committee a list of “suspects” was given out by an agent of the Department of Justice. It was headed by Miss Jane Addams. People began to realize that if the efforts of this great American woman, actuated in her philanthropic work by the most impartial and benevolent motives, could be impudently pronounced those of a German plotter and propagandist, the indictment against every other person on the list must be of uncertain consistency. By slow degrees it became apparent that certain officials had blundered. When “The Nation” had an issue held up for criticizing Samuel Gompers, the zealous Solicitor for the Post Office Department, William H. Lamar, was suddenly overruled by the President. In addition, Lamar made a bad impression by excluding “The World Tomorrow,” representing the Fellowship of Reconciliation, of which Jane Addams is president. It was practically ordered to cease publication. By the President’s order it was restored to its rights.

DeWoody, in charge of the Federal investigations in New York, resigned and disappeared from public notice. Bielaski, head of the secret service at Washington, resigned. Many of the officials had been handsomely advertised but had failed to effect convictions. They had been principally occupied in loading odium on American citizens who had acted wholly within their rights.

Much blame fell to them that attaches legitimately to the American Protective League, the National Security League and other voluntary spy organizations, whose members did not know the difference between testimony and evidence and were continually embarrassing the federal officers with over-zealous efforts to convict people, so that ultimately Attorney General Palmer, on succeeding Gregory, issued notice repudiating these private organizations.

A fatal blunder was made on a certain day in New York; thousands of young men were halted on the streets by men in khaki and publicly dragged to a station as “slackers.” Attorney General Gregory repudiated all responsibility and soon after retired from office.

The principal agent in keeping the excitement at fever heat in New York City was Deputy Attorney General Alfred L. Becker, and much of his activity was due to his candidacy for the position of Attorney General of the State. His “revelations” were all timed with his eye on the primary election, to take place September 3, 1918. When the United States entered the war he helped to draft the radical “Peace and Safety Act,” and took charge of investigations under its authority. A campaign pamphlet issued by him, entitled “A Brief Account of the Exposure of German Propaganda and Intrigue by Deputy Attorney General Alfred L. Becker, Candidate for Attorney General at the Republican Primary,” cites the following cases having come under his investigations: Bolo Pasha, Joseph Caillaux, former Premier of France; Adolf Pavenstedt, Hugo Schmidt, Eugen Schwerdt, German ownership or affiliation of two great woolen mills placed under control of the Alien Property Custodian; German secret codes, Dr. Edward A. Rumely’s ownership of the New York “Mail;” German and Austria-Hungarian war loan subscribers, George S. Viereck, Dr. William Bayard Hale and Louis Hammerling, and he dwelt on his efforts toward “fearlessly exposing the activities of the above and many others =who sought to keep the United States out of the war=.” Among the subjects investigated by him were enumerated the following offenses: “Praising German ‘kultur’;” “defending Germany against the charge of instigating the war;” “cursing England and Japan and sneering at Italy;” “advocating war with Mexico;” “whining that France was ‘bled white’;” “hypocritical appeals for German peace;” “preaching that Germany was sure to win.” The pamphlet carried the endorsement of Col. Roosevelt: “I am heartily in favor of the nomination of Mr. Becker because as Deputy Attorney General in charge of investigating war conspiracies, he has done more to expose and stamp out German propaganda than any other city, state or federal official.”