In June, 1917, the Todd County Public Safety Commission was organized. The loyalist element began to assert itself. A system of education was inaugurated to offset the propaganda of the Bolshevists. The better newspapers lent their aid, and the Red Cross and other war activities were pushed. Many public meetings were held, and many outside speakers assisted in the work. The Public Safety Commission made itself felt by many arrests. Some were fined for seditious utterances, and some were held to the Grand Jury. Conditions in the county were such that, while indictments were preferred by the Grand Jury in the state courts, it was impossible in some flagrant cases to secure a conviction by the petit jury. Such relief as was secured was through the state courts. So far as this county was concerned, the federal courts were useless.
Just how far the war is going to affect American politics in the future is something that many a politician in America would be exceedingly glad to know. It may be that there will be some public men, unworthy to be called representatives of the American people, who will cater now, as before the war, to the German vote. We should beware of such men, for all they can do will be to advocate that very propaganda which to-day is matter of execration all over the country.
There have not lacked men, who, more especially before we declared war, have boasted of their German birth and openly made that their main argument for office. In a large Ohio city such a man ran for the mayoralty and polled a very considerable vote. He said many times publicly that he would not subscribe to any Liberty Loans and was not in accord with our government. He was very bitter in his denunciation of all who did not side with him. He proclaimed himself a hyphenated German proud of his native origin. He spoke before the German Sängerbund of his city and before delegates of the German-American Alliance—and he spoke in German—a democratic candidate for mayor in an American city of the second class! He uttered that old and familiar and useless plea—dangerous in America to-day—“One can’t forget the blood that flows in one’s veins.” Part of his campaign argument was this: “I personally hope that the war in Europe will be a draw; but if there must be a victory, if I must choose between intelligent Germany and ignorant Russia, there is but one place for me to cast my lot, and that is with the Kaiser. If I felt otherwise, I would not be human.” What he should have said was, if he had felt otherwise, he would not have been German. He concluded his remarks with the statement that if he became mayor, “Whatever interference there has been in the past with such an organization as I am now addressing, there will be no such interference when I become mayor.” But he did not become mayor.
It is only of late that we have heard much of the Non-Partisan League in America, even in this day of leagues, societies and alliances, but it has had growth and political significance in certain of the Northwestern States. It would not be true to charge the Non-Partisan League with disloyalty as a body, but certainly it would be yet more foolish to say that all its members, in the North-European part of the United States, had been loyal to America in this war, or free of sympathy with Germany. Read the A. P. L. reports—they are not all shown in these pages—of its manifold activities in sections where the Non-Partisan League is strongest. Draw your own inferences then, for then you will have certain premises and need not jump at any conclusion not based on premises.
We may take its reports from Dakota and Iowa as fairly good proof of the accuracy of the foregoing statements. Let us, for instance, examine as a concrete proposition the report from Mason City, Iowa. It is done simply; yet it leads us directly into the heart of the problem of America’s future and face to face with the basic questions of courage in business and social life which must underlie the future growth of our country. A story? It is all the story of America.
This report, quite normal in all ways, would represent the usual type of report from a nice, average agricultural city, were it not for certain phases of the work it represents. There were 24 alien enemy cases; 97 disloyalty and sedition cases; 21 cases of propaganda, and eleven I. W. W. cases and other forms of radicalism. The state of society reflected by these figures is best covered in the words of the report itself:
In ante-bellum times there existed a more or less well-grounded opinion that in this vast western farming region the melting pot had most nearly accomplished its task and that here, if anywhere, was a truly American community. The citizen might be of English, Irish, Scotch, Scandinavian, German or French birth or ancestry, but he was primarily an American. This belief was based upon the fact that here all American institutions and customs received hearty support, that the people encouraged to the limit the American liberty of thought and action. American politics in our region was relatively free from the corruption encouraged by a large percentage of ignorant or apathetic voters. In fact, the population of this region is enlightened, temperate, and prosperous—a condition most favorable if not essential to the proper and full development of a real Americanism.
What did the war bring out? Previous to the advent of America into the war there was, on the whole, a true neutrality. There were sympathizers and partisans of both sides and there was an even greater class of interested spectators who marveled at the stupendous feats of the armies of both sides. The American declaration of war was gladly acclaimed by the pro-Allies, cheerfully accepted as a call to duty by the great mass of interested spectators. It immediately engaged the support of the majority of those previously pro-German, leaving a very small minority of pro-Germans to carry on the propaganda against the American and Allied cause.
It was to deal with this small minority that we organized in May, 1917, and began to select and swear in A. P. L. operatives.
Among matters which called for constant vigilance, the Non-Partisan League came in for a share of our attention. At the time of the entry of the United States into the war, Iowa was being covered with literature for and against this movement, the leading force against the Non-Partisan League being the Greater Iowa Association. The State Council for National Defense considered that it was not for the good of Iowa for this fight to continue, and passed resolutions asking both factions to discontinue their efforts until after the war. The Greater Iowa Association readily acceded to the request, but the Non-Partisan League persisted in its propaganda, and the Council for Defense deemed it wise to take a hand in fairness to the Greater Iowa Association.