Brown-Shirts in America: Part I

Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in January 30, 1933. Less than 2 years later Hitler had been given dictatorial powers by the German Reichstag and it was no longer safe to be a Jew; a communist, a socialist, or a member of anything that was not "true, loyal, and German."

Despite the loathsomeness of their beliefs, one must admit that the Nazis were very efficient in purging Germany of "bad ideas" and "disloyal citizens." But, since such a dramatic policy had never been implemented in what was at least a titular democracy, where did the Nazis look for a model of such a program?

Although never cited as such, the Woodrow Wilson Administration's policies during the period following American entry into World War I could very easily have been the example followed by the German Nazis.

Even though he had campaigned for re-election in 1916 under the slogan "He kept us out of war," Wilson's commitment to his version of international idealism had led him to the conclusion that American intervention was inevitable if the world at large was to be "safe for democracy."

Hidden within the Army Appropriations Act of August 22, 1916 was a provision establishing the Council of National Defense. This organization lay dormant until Congress declared war with Germany on April 6, 1917. Once war was declared, Wilson used executive orders to establish a number of agencies that would operate under the authority of the Council. Among these, the most powerful was the War Industries Board.

For all practical purposes the War Industries Board nationalized every industry and business that could be even remotely connected to the "war effort." It controlled the allocation of raw materials such as coal, iron ore, or even sugar; it ordered changes in labor conditions by suspending existing laws such as those regarding overtime wages; it set rates charged by the railroads for shipment of both raw materials and completed products, and even created government-financed corporations that controlled barge traffic on the Mississippi River and even a shipbuilding operation that directly competed with the private sector.

On April 13, 1917 Wilson used another executive order to establish the Committee on Public Information (CPI) to act as, for lack of a better description, the official propaganda agency of the United States.

To head this agency Wilson appointed a newspaperman, George Creel, whose only apparent qualification for the position was that he was a staunch Wilson loyalist and had, in fact, published several books praising Wilson's policies. Creel, as it is often said, "hit the ground running" as soon as he accepted the job.

The CPI became the only source of information available to the American press regarding anything, no matter how tenuous the connection may have been, relating to the progress of the war. The CPI was, within a few months of its creation, sending our weekly dispatches to newspaper and magazine editors "suggesting" topics that would meet with the Committee's approval and editorial cartoonists were given their own versions of these "suggestions." Even the motion picture industry, then in its infancy, complied with the agenda of the CPI by producing such films as Claws of the Hun, To Hell with the Kaiser, and The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin.

Not content with controlling what the public read or saw, the CPI even invaded public gatherings such as sporting events, motion picture screenings, and even church services with "voluntary" talks given before each gathering by individuals known as "Four Minute Men."

At their peak, the Four Minute Men numbered some 75,000 "patriots" whose job was to "inform" the public by reading statements prepared or approved by the CPI. Needless to say, these statements were essentially nothing more than "good American" propaganda as opposed to the "bad German" variety.

Perhaps the worst abuse of constitutional power during the second Wilson Administration was its "turning of a blind eye" regarding the tactics used against anyone remotely suspected of being less than a fanatical "patriot."

On June 15, 1917 Congress passed what became known as the Espionage Act, which was later amended as the Sedition Act of 1918. Under these acts one could be arrested for any number of crimes such as making false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military; promoting pacifist sentiments; making statements that could interpreted as "supportive" of Germany, and encouraging refusal to register for the draft. Conviction on a violation of these acts was punishable by a maximum $10,000 fine and 20 years in prison. As Michael Linfield notes in Freedom Under Fire (South End Press, 1990) "there were some 2,000 prosecutions under the Espionage Act ..." with a conviction rate of 45% ... Although the purported rationale for the Espionage and Sedition Acts was to protect the nation from enemies and foreign agents, not a single person was convicted of spying."

An additional provision of the Espionage Act allowed the Postmaster General to refuse to deliver any publication that he, at his personal discretion, deemed to be "treasonous" or "unpatriotic." Some have estimated that over 100 periodicals, many of them socialist or communist-oriented newspapers but some of a purely religious nature were shut down by the Postal Service. The power granted to the Postmaster-General was, of course, overkill since anything that failed to meet his approval was automatically subject to prosecution under the Espionage and Sedition Acts.

As radical as the actions of the federal authorities might seem, they pale in comparison to "vigilante" organizations such as the American Protective League.

Founded in Chicago by a group of businessmen during the early days of the war as an auxiliary-type organization to provide transportation for agents of what was then the Federal Investigative Bureau, the American Protective league (APL) quickly spread to other cities and, by the end of the war, boasted some 250,000 members. Although not commissioned law enforcement officers, APL "agents" routinely filed reports with the Justice Department concerning overhead "seditious" conversations; "failure to buy (or in the opinion of the APL, to buy enough) 'Liberty Bonds,' and to identifying young men suspected of not having registered for the draft or anyone suspected to belonging to an organization promoting "pacifism."

Some examples of the APL's actions include 1) staging "slacker raids" against any gathering that they suspected might contain "slackers" (those who had failed to register for the draft); 2) holding "citizens tribunals" to try those that they had "arrested" on charges as diverse as failure to display the American flag at their homes or accused of being members of "subversive" labor unions (particularly the I.W.W.), or 3) not "respecting" the flag or the national anthem.

At the state level the federal government-inspired paranoia led to even more disregard for civil liberties.

Oklahoma, as did several other states, enacted legislation that made it a crime to speak German. Non-citizens were denied business licenses in Cleveland, Ohio. The Los Angeles City Board of Education forbade the discussion of "peace" in the classroom. The playing of music composed by Ludwig von Beethoven was prohibited within the city of Pittsburg, PA

To be a Conscientious Objector was to be branded as a coward and traitor. On orders of the Secretary of the Army hundreds of objectors were given courts martial. Of the 450 men who were convicted of this crime 17 were sentenced to death (although all these sentences were commuted to prison terms); 142 were given life sentences, and 73 more were given terms of 20 years (See Linfield, p. 42).

The Armistice of November 11, 1918 had the almost magical effect of bringing these proto-fascist, pro-military excesses to an end. It did not, however, prevent the next great "witch hunt" of the era: the "First Red Scare." This topic will be addressed in Part II of this posting.