The next number to be stopped was the issue of May 11, containing an article, “The Right of Free Speech Defined by a DistinguishedFederal 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 privatebenevolent 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.