(ISSN 0043-6534) WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

The State Historical Society of Wisconsin • Vol. 65, No. 2 • Winter, 1981-1982

« • * • * THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN RICHARD A. ERNEY, Director Officers JOHN C. GEILFUSS, President WILSON B. THIEDE, Treasurer MRS. R. L. HARTZELL, First Vice-President RICHARD A. ERNEY, Secretary ROBERT H. IRRMANN, Second Vice-President

THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN is both a state agency and a private membership organization. Founded in 1846-two years before statehood—and char­ tered in 1853, it is the oldest American historical society to receive continuous public funding. By statute, it is charged with collecting, advancing, and disseminating knowl­ edge of Wisconsin and ofthe trans-Mississippi West. The Society serves as the archive of the State of Wisconsin; it collects all manner of books, periodicals, maps, manu­ scripts, relics, newspapers, and aural and graphic materials as they relate to North America; it maintains a museum, library, and research facility in Madison as well as a statewide system of historic sites, school services, area research centers, and affiliated local societies; it administers a broad program of historic preservation; and it publishes a wide variety of historical materials, both scholarly and popular.

MEMBERSHIP in the Society is open to the puhVic. Annual membership is $15, or $12.50 for persons over 65 or members of affiliated societies. Family membership is $20, or $15 for persons over 65 or members of affiliated societies. Contributing membership 'is $50; supporting, $100; sustaining, %200—500; patron, $500 or more. THE SOCIETY is governed by a Board of Curators which includes, ex officio, the Governor, the Secretary of State, the State Treasurer, the President of the University of Wisconsin, the President ofthe Society's Auxiliary, the President of the Wisconsin History Foundation, Inc., and the Chairman ofthe Administrative Committee of the Wisconsin Council for Local History. The other thirty-six members of the Board of Curators are elected by the membership. A complete listing of the Curators appears inside the back cover.

The Society is headquartered at 816 State Street, Madi.son, Wisconsin 53706, at the juncture of State and Park Streets on the University of Wisconsin campus. A partial listing of phone numbers (Area Code 608) follows: General administration 262-3266 Library circulation desk 262-.S421 General information 262-3271 Maps 262-9558 Affiliated local societies 262-2316 Membership 262-9613 Archives reading room 262-3338 Microforms reading room 262-9621 Contribution of manuscripts, materials Museum exhibits and services 262-2704 and ardfacts 262-0629 Museum tours 262-9567 Editorial offices 262-9603 Newspapers reference 262-9584 Film collections 262-0585 Picture and sound collections 262-9581 Genealogical and general reference Publications orders 262-1368 inquiries 262-9590 Public information office 262-9606 Government publications and reference 262-2781 Sales desk 262-3271 Historic preservation 262-1339 School services 262-9567 Historicsites 262-3271 Speakers bureau 262-2704

ON THE COVER: A schoolyard in Richland County on a winter afternoon m 1942. [Library of Congress LC-USF34-64475] Volume 65, Number 2 / Winter, 1981-1982 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF

HISTORY (ISSN 0043-6534)

Published quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Distributed to members as part of their dues. (Annual membership, $15, or $12.50 lor those over 65 or members The Joy of Preaching: ot affiliated socieues; family Madison's George E. Hunt 83 membership, $20, or $ 15 for those over 65 or members of Charles E. Quirk affiliated societies; con­ tributing, $50; supporting, $100; sustaining, $200-500; patron, $500 or more.) Single With the Ambulance Service in France: numbers from Volume 57 forward are $2. Microhlmed The Wartime Letters of William Gorham Rice, Jr. 103 copies available through Edited by George C. Brown University Microhlms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106; reprints of Volumes 1 through 20 and most issues of Domesticating Electricity in Appleton 120 Volumes 21 through 56 are Larry A. Reed available from Kraus Reprint C^ompany, Route 100, Millwood, New York 10546. (Communications should be addressed to the editor. The One More Civil War Memoir 122 Society does not assume Marilyn Grant responsibility for statements made by contributors. Second-class postage paid at Madison, Wisconsin, and at additional mailing offices. Book Reviews 130 POSTMAS'IER: Send address changes to Wisconsin Magazine of History, 816 Book Review Index 149 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Ciopyright Wisconsin History Checklist 150 © 1982 by the State Historical .Society of Wisconsin. Accessions 152

The Wisconsin Magazine of Contributors 156 History is indexed annually by ihe editors; cumulative indexes are assembled decennially. In addition, articles are abstracted and indexed in America: History and Life, Historical Abstracts, Editor Index to Literature on the PAULH. HASS .American Indian, and the C(mibined Retrospective Index to A.ssociale Editors journals in History. 1838-1974. WILLIAM C. MARTEN JC^HN O. HC:)LZIIUETER MARILYN GRANT UHn\i);i76.i:! Neither tree nor shrub softened the visage of this uncomprommng building which housed Christ Presbyterian Church on the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Dayton Street in Madi.son m the lH9(rs.

82 The Joy of Preaching: Madison's George E, Hunt

By Charles E. Quirk

|N April 3, 1904, thirty-eight- In the pulpit. Hunt experienced authentic o year-old George Edwin Hunt joy because he had the freedom to express preached his inaugural sermon as pastor of personal opinions, the opportunity to exploit Christ Presbyterian Church in Wisconsin's the power ofthe spoken word, and the means capital city. It was the start of a forty-year min­ to communicate with idealistic young people.^ istry which signihcantly influenced religious Out of the pulpit, he encouraged promising life in Madison and beyond. Although George students to enter the ministry. Sitting in his Hunt was a man of many talents, his reputa- study or in the furnace room, where he often don was to rest primarily upon his excellence retreated to smoke. Hunt discussed religious in the pulpit. concerns and career plans with young men. Soon large crowds were jamming the audi­ He told University of Wisconsin student Karl torium ofthe Church at the corner of Wiscon­ Menninger, and probably many others, that sin and West Dayton to hear this short, slender preaching has to do with the greatest thing in dynamo. Free from the restraints imposed by the world: "Why, if this gospel we are talking a manuscript. Hunt would pace quickly from about, this message we are proclaiming is true, side to side of the pulpit platform. Gesturing to do anything else than declaring it is just dramatically, the energetic preacher delivered playing marbles."^ provocative sermons in everyday language to Christ Presbyterian's liberal preacher attentive audiences. Some listeners may have shared many ofthe attributes of his father, T. found his ideas unusual or his mannerisms Dwight Hunt: exceptional vigor, enjoyment of theatrical, but few regarded him as dull, and most admired his fearless interpretation of the uted in March and August, 1977, and subsequent corre­ Christian faith.' spondence from three groups: first, members of Hunt's family—Richard Nash ftunt, WiUiam Noble and Marga­ ret (Hunt) Clark, and Mary E. Hunt; second, longtime members of Christ Church—Margaret Cockrell, Engred .'\uTHOR'S NO'IE: A research grant from the University ol Jacobson, L. J. Markwardt, and Arthur F. Wileden; third, Northern Iowa provided assistance for investigadon of perceptive observers of Hunt at various stages in his min­ sources in the Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadel­ istry in Madison—Leslie Bechtel, Vera (Jurz) Campbell, phia, the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and the Me­ Edwin O. Kennedy, Karl .VIenninger, Alfred W. .Swan, morial Library of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Mary Weaver. and for interviews with several Madisonians familiar with Particularly helpful interviews were conducted in Hunt's career. Grateful acknowledgement is clue to many Madison with Engred Jacobson, Alfred W. Swan, and Ar­ readers of the manuscript in its various drafts, especially thur F. Wileden, November 18, 1977; Margaret Cockrell Mary K. Eakin, William C. Lang, Gale (Senty) Quirk, and L. J. Markwardt, November 19, 1977; Mary E. flunt, Thomas G. Ryan, David A. Walker, Donald R. Whitnah, June 7, 1978, and in Seattle, Washington, with William and several ofthe correspondents listed below. Noble Clark, November 1, 1979. Correspondence and discussions elicited valuable '^Capital Times (Madison), May 20, 1924. recollecuons and reflections about Hunt's life and minis­ • Karl Menninger to the author, June 6, 1977, May 20, try. Especially useful are replies to questionnaires distrib- and September 29, 1980. Copyrigtit © 1982 by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin All rights of reproduction in any form reserved 83 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982

ministerial work, and strong commitment to ation, replying that the students lacked missionary activity.^ The elder Hunt had pio­ sufficient maturity to comprehend differ­ neered Protestant evangelistic elforts in the ences. Hunt, commenting on the episode sev­ Hawaiian Islands in the mid-1840's and then eral years before his death, lamented the in San Francisco. From 1856 to 1864 he served teacher's caution, which had thereby raised in pastorates in New York state before moving unnecessary doubts in the minds of youthful, to Niles, a small town in extreme southwestern inquisitive students. Hunt never made the Michigan. There, on March 15, 1866, George same mistake in his pastoral ministry in Madi­ was born, the hrst of four children by T. son; he dealt regularly and candidly with ques­ Dwight's third wife. A devout, hrm-minded tions concerning the Bible and science. woman, Sarah Nash Hunt dedicated George at birth to the Christian ministry, a vocation which he took for granted throughout his long N the spring of 1888 Hunt passed Hfe. I the examinations for his college T. Dwight's influence permeated the early degree and the Saginaw Presbytery (a district period of his son's development. At major governing body within the Presbyterian sys­ junctures the father made decisions which tem) granted him a license to preach. For most shaped George's physical, spiritual, and intel­ ofthe next eighteen months he worked for the lectual development. When George reached American Sunday School Union, an evangeli­ thirteen years of age, T. Dwight removed him cal, nondenominational group organized in from school and sent him to work for two 1824 to assist existing Sunday Schools and to years on the farm of one of the officers of the begin new ones. Niles congregation. The tough outdoor labor Hunt had a variety of valuable experiences. strengthened George's body, and he learned Laboring primarily in Fmmet County in the to plant crops, swing an axe, and care for ani­ northwest corner of the Lower Peninsula, mals, practical skills he would likely not have Hunt carried Bibles and tracts to settlers, or­ acquired living in the manse. ganized several Sunday Schools, and learned In 1881 T. Dwight sent his son to Olivet, a how to endure mosquitos and bedbugs. He small town about eighty-hve miles northeast of also raised funds from established churches in Niles, for preparatory school and college. the cities for missionary causes. Then the Un­ Seven years at Olivet reinforced George's am­ ion sent him into the lumber camps of Fmmet bition to become a Christian minister. Olivet and nearby counties. Among the rugged lum­ offered a cultured faculty who possessed deep berjacks Hunt developed some of the prac­ spiritual convictions. George worked for his tices which persisted during his ministerial ca­ room and board, and still managed to rank in reer. He walked many miles carrying a leather the middle of his class academically. He also knapsack jammed with religious literature seized every opportunity to express himself in and clean clothes, activity which conditioned public: debating societies, prayer meetings, him to exert himself physically for long per­ and preaching engagements in nearby coun­ iods of time. And he quickly learned to use try churches. At Olivet, George met and common language and to shun artihciality in courted Mary Lou Taylor, his future wife. his talks to lumberjacks. The young mission­ An incident in one of his science courses ary also found out how to converse and preach seems to have had a lasting influence on in unconventional surroundings such as George. The instructor dodged a request to bunkhouses reeking with drying socks and reconcile scientihc and biblical accounts of cre- strong tobacco. For a time the tobacco smoke caused Hunt severe headaches. A sympathetic foreman suggested smoking a corncob pipe Unless otherwise indicated the information about with mild tobacco as a cure. His headaches Hunt's family and his lile prior to 1904 is derived from ceased and, as a fringe beneht, he found lum­ pages 1-23 of an "Autobiography," which he wrote in the spring of 1941, at the request of his children and grand­ berjacks more receptive to a preacher who children. His son, R. N. Hunt, provided an abbreviated smoked. At about the same time he grew a version tor my use. R. N. Hunt, daughter Margaret and beard which, in combination with his lighted son-in-law Wm. Noble Clark, and daughter-in-law Marv pipe, made the twenty-two-year-old mission­ E. Hum granted permission to publish material from the "Abridged Autobiography." ary appear more mature.

84 QUIRK: GEORGE E. HUNT

When the academic year ended in 1890, Hunt returned to missionary work in Michi­ gan. James G. Inglis, a close friend from col­ lege days, then pastor of a Presbyterian church in Petoskey, urged him to abandon further theological study in favor of accepting a pastorate. In an event-hlled week. Hunt was ordained by the Petoskey Presbytery on Octo­ ber 20, married to Mary Lou Taylor in Green­ ville, Michigan, on October 22, and three days later preached his first sermon as an ordained minister at Harbor Springs. Hunt served in four different locations in the Midwest before coming to Christ Church: Harbor Springs, a resort village on the north side of Little Traverse Bay; the Seventh Pres­ byterian Church (1892) on Chicago's South Side; Bethany Union Church (1893-1898), also in Chicago; and the First Presbyterian Church of Urbana, Illinois. By the time Hunt moved to Urbana his family included two children, Richard, born in 1893, and Margaret, born the next year, and his expenses were mounting. A good, rent- Courtesy ofthe author free manse and a salary of $1,200 persuaded George E. Hunt about 1889. him to move. Hunt's success was dramatic. Within a few years after his arrival the congre­ gation built and paid for a new building. Both Hunt's work in the lumber camps also ex­ students and faculty from the University of Il­ posed him to human frailty. He watched the linois were drawn to the First Presbyterian men collect their wages in the spring and dash Church. Hunt abandoned his carefully com­ off to saloons and brothels in neighboring posed manuscripts, relying on a few notes in towns. Hunt took their waywardness person­ order to speak more directly to his congrega­ ally and harbored serious doubts about his tion. ability to become a minister. But on his way to study theology at Auburn Seminary in the au­ tumn of 1889, George visited his parents at their home in Westernville, New York. T. Y 1903 Hunt's reputation ex­ Dwight counseled him to await a better under­ B tended to Wisconsin. Unknown standing of the Bible and to spend some time to Hunt, three different committees visited studying at Union Theological Seminary, the Urbana to consider him for the vacancy at preeminent center of liberal Presbyterianism, Christ Church. In November he was invited to in New York City. be a candidate in the Madison church, but he Union Seminary resolved the young man's rejected the offer. doubts. Charles Augustus Briggs, an old Acting through a pulpit committee chaired friend of his father's, and other illustrious fac­ by University of Wisconsin mathematician ulty members instructed Hunt about the as­ Ernest B. Skinner, Christ Church continued sumptions, methods, and results of modern to court Hunt, and early in 1904, more out of biblical criticism. He matured in other ways. courtesy than serious interest, he preached in As a student assistant, he helped conduct wor­ Madison. He met with the elders (ordained, ship for a socially elite Presbyterian congrega­ lay, elected leaders of a local Presbyterian con­ tion, and under the guidance of his older sis­ gregation) to describe his ideas and methods ter, Mary, he explored the cultural life of and so impressed them that they called a con­ late-nineteenth-century New York City. gregational meeting, which voted 275-0 to call

85 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982 the Illinois preacher.'' Hunt accepted the base, he earned a reputation as a superb offer. teacher ofthe Bible and a trusted counselor of Once he was settled in Madison, Hunt students.^ moved rapidly to create Christ Church in his Allison and Hunt worked closely to attract own image. Dismayed at the small attendance talented young people to religious vocations. at Sunday evening services, he introduced into As a result of their preaching, teaching, and the worship setting both the phonograph and counseling activities, students swelled Christ the stereopticon. Soon large throngs were Church's attendance and placed heavy de­ gathering to view slides, listen to recorded mu­ mands upon its facilities until in the early sic, and hear Hunt preach. Some congrega­ 1920's the first Presbyterian Student Center tional leaders balked at these novelties, and came into existence at the corner of State and their opposition caused Hunt to return tem­ Murray streets. Even after the students moved porarily to more conventional practices. But out Hunt continued to be deeply involved in the bulk ofthe membership expressed strong the center, serving as chairman of its founda­ support for his imaginative methods, and for tion for many years.'" the next quarter-century an appreciative con­ Two students in particular exemplify the gregation stood united behind Hunt's innova­ strategies utilized by the Madison pastoral tive ministerial activities inside and outside the team. During a phase of religious skepticism, pulpit.'' Karl Menninger received stimulation from One of Hunt's most significant contribu­ Allison's Bible study classes and Hunt's ser­ tions during his early years in Madison was his mons. The two ministers also arranged for religious work among University of Wisconsin him to preach and conduct worship in nearby students. Although a few leaders of Wisconsin churches." Presbyterian had recognized the need for Whereas Menninger chose the field of such a ministry, it was Hunt who sparked the medicine with the idea of practicing with his successful drive to employ a full-time Presby­ father, Leslie Bechtel responded to the terian pastor on the campus.^ influence of Hunt and Allison by entering the The man Hunt selected for the new posi­ Christian ministry. When Bechtel came to the tion was Matthew G Allison. Allison had University of Wisconsin to study law, he was grown up in Nova Scotia, studied at Dalhauise virtually devoid of knowledge of things reli­ University, received theological training at the gious, but quite familiar with other areas of Presbyterian "odd couple"—conservative life, thanks to growing up in a Butte, Montana, Princeton and liberal Union seminaries—and hotel and saloon owned by his father. Bechtel pursued graduate work with William Rainey worked as ajanitor at Christ Church while go­ Harper, a prestigious biblical scholar at the ing to school. At one point Hunt assigned Bech­ University of Chicago. Allison served the First tel the task of defending the ministry Presbyterian Church in Bloomington, Indi­ against the legal profession in a mock debate, ana, and taught at Indiana University.*^ an undertaking which convinced Bechtel of Allison began his ministry to students in the superiority of the ministerial calling, and Madison in 1907 and continued for about a the student-janitor soon found himself quarter-century. With Christ Church as a preaching in pulpits arranged for by Hunt. Thanks to Allison's teaching and Hunt's •'Christ Presbyterian Church, "(Congregational and Trustees'.Minutes," 1891-1917, volume 3, pp. 118-126; preaching, Bechtel discovered modern bibli­ Christ Presbyterian Church, "Session Minutes," cal criticism and practical Christianity. After 1897-1908, volume 2, p. 181; both are deposited in the following in Hunt's footsteps at Union Theo­ Presbyterian Historical Society. logical Seminary, he compiled an impressive "^Charlotte R. Wood, "Christ Presbyterian (Church, ministerial record in Wisconsin and Michigan, Madison, WLsconsin: A Brief History of her first centurv of service, 1851-1951," p. 17; an undated pamphlet in the during which he proudly regarded himself as Presbyterian Historical Society: "Abridged ."Xutobiogra- phy'"'24-25. ' Karl Menninger to the author. May 20, September ''(ieorge E. Hunt, "A History, 1907-1940, The Pres­ 29, 1980. byterian Student Outer Foundation at the University of '"Hunt, "A History," 14. Wisconsin" (Madison, 1940), 4-5. Karl Menninger to the author, June 6, 1977, May ^Capital Times, October 28. 1919: Wi.sconsin State Jour­ 20, September 29, 1980; W'alker Winslow, The Menninger nal (Mddison), July 26, 1935. Stoiy (Carden City, New York, 1956), 148-150.

86 "f^

Ji 'I f ilil

m ma m WHi(D487)2" Familiarly known as Pres House, the Presbyterian Student Center on the University of Wisconsin campus was a popular gathering spot in 1935 when these students were socializing in the lounge.

Hunt's grateful protege and wholehearted de­ Parkside fellowship also owed a large debt to fender.'^ Hunt's careful supervision and Christ Hunt also fathered two offspring congrega­ Church's generosity.'^ tions during his years in Madison. In Decem­ ber, 1911, he helped organize the Westmin­ ster Union Sunday School, a group which met in a second-floor hall at the corner of Garfield LTHOUGH he worked acdvely and Monroe streets. Under Hunt's guiding A with satellite groups, he did not hand and with financial assistance from Christ neglect Christ Church. In 1914 a committee to Church, the Sunday School became Westmin­ investigate the feasibilty of improving the ster Presbyterian Church five years later. building, which had been appointed at his be- Then, in 1919, Parkside Presbyterian Church came into existence. Beginning as a small Sun­ ' "Abridged Autobiography," 26—27; "Session Min­ day School group a dozen years earlier, the utes," 1917-1927, volume 4, (Congregational .Meeting, May 21, 1923; "Westminster Presbyterian (Church, 50th Anniversary Booklet" (1966); "Parkside Presbyterian ^"^Detroit Free Press. July 6, 1953; Wisconsin Stale four- Church, 40th Anniversary, 1919-1959," both in the Pres- n«/, December 15, 1957: Leslie Bechtel to the aulhor, Jan­ bvterian Historical Society; Wisconsin State fournal, Janu­ uary 27. 1977. ary 27, 1918.

87 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982

In 1914, lightning providentially struck Christ Church and ha.stened the congregation's approval of remodeling the structure which had been built in 1891. best, reported that the cost of remodeling which could seat fifteen hundred worship­ would be $30,000—a figure which threatened pers.'^ to block the project. When lightning struck the During the second decade of the twentieth building several days later, the congregation century Hunt spoke out forcefully on local was forced to rebuild. and national issues. For example, he attacked Enthusiastically, Hunt launched the cam­ the liquor interest and its political allies in paign for funds with the assistance of a former Madison, chastised saloons as the source of ministerial colleague in Wisconsin, Moses ruin for homes, championed prohibition, and Breeze, then employed by the Presbyterian opposed universal military training.'^ Board of Home Missions. Together they can­ Not surprisingly, some citizens of Madison vassed the congregation, quickly raising suspected Hunt of pro-German sympathies. sufficient pledges to ensure reconstruction. Senator Robert M. La Follette's opposition to After a year of worshipping in Central High American participation in World War I gener­ School, the members moved into their remod­ ated intense emotions in Wisconsin, and eled home. In addition to repairing the dam­ Hunt's refusal to sign a petition asking the age wrought by the providential storm, the United States Senate to expel the Progressive congregation made improvements costing about $75,000. The remodeling resulted in a Wisconsin State fournal, .-\pril 25, 1914: ".Abridged building with adequate space for educational Autobiography," 29—33. ''Wisconsin State fournal, January 5. 1914, November and fellowship activities and an auditorium 6. 13. 1916, March 24, 1919, January 22, 1917.

88 QUIRK: t;EORGE E. HUNT lawmaker infuriated Rasmus Anderson, a well-known diplomat, editor, businessman, and professor of Scandanavian studies at the University of Wisconsin. Anderson accused Hunt of disloyalty, urged Christ Church to dismiss him from the pastorate, and pledged to run him out of town. A court official who be­ longed to Christ Church intervened to pre­ vent his pastor from being subpoenaed by a federal grand jury. Hunt's courageous state­ ments in defense of persecuted German- Americans even brought some new members into Christ Church, especially Lutherans of German heritage."' During Hunt's early years at Christ Church Madison's population grew rapidly. In 1900 the town numbered some 19,000 inhabitants, a decade later about 25,500, and then it spurted to a httle over 38,000 by 1920.'^ Christ Church, likewise, expanded. When Hunt came to Madison, the membership stood at 550. Some $4,200 went for operating ex­ penses, and $900 for benevolences. A decade later 1,023 members were on the rolls, operat­ ing funds totaled about $8,900, and contribu­ tions for missions—always a Ujp priority for Hunt—hovered at $4,000.'^^ Although he carried heavy ecclesiastical re- sponsibilites, Hunt allocated energy and time to work for the welfare of the entire commu­ Courtesy ol the author nity. He served on hospital and charity boards and contributed to the smooth functioning of Portrait of George E. Hunt taken about 1904 when he accepted young people's associations. In his relatively the Madison pastorate. scarce time at home. Hunt found happiness in unit composed of several presbyteries) elected a loving family, which was completed in 1907 Hunt its moderator.'^ with the birth of a second son, appropriately From 1918 through 1925 Hunt's ministry named T. Dwight. Recognition from Wiscon­ produced effects felt throughout the state and sin Presbyterians began early and continued. nation. In 1918 he captured the attention of In 1908 Presbyterian-related Carroll College other religious groups with a creative proposal in Waukesha awarded him the doctor of divin­ to achieve an organic union of Protestant ity degree; six years later the Synod (within churches. Working with Allison, Hunt se­ Presbyterian polity, a regional jurisdictional cured endorsement of the unity plan from the Madison Presbytery for an overture (petition) to the General Assembly (the highest judica­ "'Wjicomm State Journal, May 28, 1917, April 15, tory) ofthe Presbyterian Church in the United 1945; Granville Hicks, "The Parsons and the War,"Am('n- States of America. As a representative to the can Mercury, 38:129-142 (February, 1927); Ray 11. General Assembly meeting in Columbus, Abrdms, Preacher Present Arms (New York, 1933), 51—75, 95-124; "Abridged Autobiography," 29, 33-35; Robert Ohio, Hunt witnessed the enthusiastic and C. Nesbit, Wisconsin: A History (Madison, 1973), 440-453; unanimous acceptance of his unity initiative, Wood, "Christ Presbyterian Church," 18. Justus F. and Barbara Dotts Paul, eds., 'The Badger State: A Documentary History of Wisconsin (Craiid Rajjids. '•'j. (C. Schwarz, ed.. Who's Who in the Clergy, Volume I, Michigan, 1979), 440. 1935-1936 (New York, 1936), 56.5-566; Milwaukee Jour- Wisconsin State Journal, April 9.1914: W(KK1. "Christ Hrt/, April 11, 1949; Royanna Benjamin, Registrar, Carroll Presbyterian Church," 27. College, to the author, November 28, 1978.

89 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982 and was placed on the committee charged with He traced all of society's ills to human sin. implementing the plan.^^ He found major alterations in the socioeco­ Initially, the movement for union started nomic sphere somewhat appealing, but they by Allison and Hunt met with success. A gath­ would fail to accomplish the one imperative— ering of representatives from sixteen Protes­ changing the hearts of individuals. Only the tant churches responded warmly to Hunt's power of God could defeat the selfishness presentation in December, 1918. Convening which corrupted individual and corporate in Philadelphia early in 1920, the American life. Thus, the redemption of society waited Council on Organic Union formally adopted a upon the prior spiritual renewal of individ­ plan for the United Churches of Christ in uals. Therefore, Hunt aimed at changing per­ America. The "Philadelphia Plan," though sonal beliefs and actions. The strategy of re­ more moderate than Hunt's, encountered newal which he presented contained strong opposition. From one side, critics ob­ particulars such as respect for law, self- jected to the timidity of the 'Thiladelphia reliance, the shunning of extravagance, and Plan," whereas from the other, opponents treating recent immigrants as sisters and feared the eventual loss of denominational in­ brothers in Christ. Hunt propounded the pro­ dependence and looked with suspicion upon gram of Jesus as the only realistic solution for the broadly-phrased theological foundation. social problems. According to the liberal Within Hunt's own denomination, only about preacher, the application of the Golden Rule one-third of the presbyteries registered ap­ to the wounds caused by social discord had proval for the unity proposal. Although un­ never really been tried.^'^ fruitful in its objective, the movement sparked In his sermons Hunt frequently ex­ by Hunt stands as an important monument in pounded on the nature and authority of the the history of ecumenical Christianity.'-^' Bible. He forthrightly declared that the Bible originated in the same manner as all ancient writings, differing only in that it was written by UNT'S sermons proceeded inspired men and contained the will of God in H from a liberal Protestant theo­ matters of spiritual truth and morality. Re­ logical perspective. He portrayed God as a lov­ peatedly Hunt pressed the point that the Bible ing Father who possessed a benevolent pur­ itself claimed no infallibility in the areas of sci­ pose for the universe and Jesus as the supreme ence and history. He feared that young per­ revelation of God to humanity. The Gospel sons exposed to modern education would be proclaimed by Jesus encountered human be­ troubled unnecessarily by those who asserted ings trapped in sin; Hunt's theological vocabu­ biblical infallibility in all domains and de­ lary employed selfishness as the primary manded a rigid literal interpretation ofthe sa­ definition of sin. But through the atonement cred literature.^"* accomplished by Jesus, new life is possible. In the 1920's, Madison's liberal preacher The spirit of Jesus is communicated to the also offered systematic reflections on the rela­ world through the instrumentality of the tionship between the Bible and modern sci­ Christian church. Unlike many of his theologi­ ence, especially in connection with the contro­ cal adversaries who regarded the world as versy over evolution. Hunt fervently wanted hopeless of improvement. Hunt optimistically to educate his listeners and readers about the anticipated the gradual transformation of hu­ true meaning of evolution and its happy con­ manity into the pattern provided by Jesus.-'*^ cord with the Bible. He wanted to tell them that all things change, grow, evolve; creation '•^"TheMculison Democrat, Apri\ 18, 1918; .Vladison Pres­ continues and is the handiwork of a loving bytery, "Minutes, 1902-1925," pp. 32.5-331, in the Pres­ God. In Hunt's interpretation, science re­ byterian Historical Society: Minutes of the (General A.ssembty vealed the facts ofthe universe; scientists bore of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (Philadelphia, Oliice of the (General Assembly, 1918), 135, 153-154; C«/»m6u,v responsibility for describing the evolutionary aton(Ohio), May21, l'918. '^^The Christian Union Quarterly, VIII: 9-11 (January, Wtscorisin State fournal, February 19, 1923: (Capital 1919); IX: 14-16 (April, 1920); Lefferts A. Loet.scher, 7'/«' Times, Apn\ 9, 1923. Broadening Church (Philadelphia, 1954), 100-101; Samuel ' Wiscomin State Journal, November 16, 1919: Capital McCrea Ca\'ert, Church Cooperation and Unity in America: A Times, February 20, 27, 1922. Historical Review: 1900-1970 (New York, 1970). 325-329. 2**(:n/«>n/77/nn. January 16,23, 1922. 90 V. Mi.,\'. Framed by tinsel-looped wreaths, a living nativity scene was created in the sanctuary of Christ Church sometime before the 1914 fire. process, but not for explaining ultimate nual meeting ofthe Dane County Humane So­ causes. Frequently Hunt asserted the agree­ ciety, the pastor probably surprised the audi­ ment between evolution and the Bible when ence by dwelling upon the cruel treatment both are properly understood. accorded conscientious objectors, a phenome­ The Bible correctly depicted God as the au­ non which he blamed upon the military sys­ thor of life, with human beings developing tem.^'' In sermon after sermon Hunt ex­ from dust into the image of the Creator. Evo­ pressed opposition to rampant militarism, lutionary theory traced the slow process of hu­ blasted the military class along with its political man emergence. For the Madison pastor, nei­ and business allies, promoted disarmament, ther God nor humanity lost dignity because of criticized isolationism, and appealed for scientific conclusions; in truth, the picture oi American participation in international God painted by Jesus—a universal intelligence methods of peaceably settling conflicts. He operating through nature—squared neatly urged citizens of Madison to band together with evolution.^'' into a peace movement aimed at self- Although issues related to science and reli­ education and at providing a mechanism for gion deeply interested Hunt, he also spoke out conveying the sentiments of the community to forcefully on many other topics. Shrewdly public officials. Within his own denomination capitalizing on an invitation to address the an- Hunt led an effort in the Madison Presbytery to request the General Assembly to adopt '^Wisconsin State Journal, October 23, 1921; Irvin G. statements and policies renouncing war. In Wyllie, "Bryan, Birge, and the Wisconsin Evolution Con­ 1924 the General Assembly adopted a declara­ troversy, 1921—1922," in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, tion embodying the spirit of the peace peti­ 35: 294-301 (Summer, 1952); Wisconsin State Journal, Jan­ tion, although it omitted the Madison request uarys, 15, 22, 29, February 5, 1923; Capital Times, May 1, 1922, January 6, February 22, 1923; Milwaukee Journal, July 25, August 4, 8, 15, 1925. '^''Capital Times, October 29, 1919.

91 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTOR\ WINTER, 1981-1982 that a chapter opposing war be added to the the church those who differed with them on Presbyterian Church's primary doctrinal certain doctrines. He articulated alternative statement, the Westminster Confession of views on some of the most discussed points, Faith.2~ then appealed for tolerance, an inclusive Hunt's frankness in treating sensitive issues church, and resolute concentration upon gen­ occasionally produced friction in the commu­ uinely important matters.'"' nity. In an incident in 1922 he charged Roman Fosdick's plea infuriated fundamentalists, Catholics with attempting to pursue self- especially Clarence Edward Macartney, Uni­ serving ends in Madison's political life. From versity of Wisconsin graduate of 1901 and the his perspective. Christians should oppose pastor of Philadelphia's Arch Street Church. selfish professional politics, practicing politics Macartney, not content with issuing a pulpit instead as an avocation directed toward public reply, inaugurated ecclesiastical action against service. Several local Roman Catholics quickly Fosdick.'^' Eor the better part ofthe next three chastised the Presbyterian preacher for stir­ years, the Baptist preacher stood in the fore­ ring up religious emotions. In a front-page ed­ front of church politics as Presbyterians of itorial, the Wisconsin State Journal rejected differing theological and institutional persua­ Hunt's charges, then called for an end to the sions. Hunt included, participated in a compli­ debate.^** cated dispute which threatened to break apart Two years later a similar conflict arose. the denomination. Ironically, Hunt's remarks which offended After a bitter fight the 1924 General As­ some journalists and religious leaders, oc­ sembly offered the New York Baptist two op­ curred in a sermon explicitly directed toward tions: accept the doctrinal position of the Pres­ abolishing prejudice between Roman Catho­ byterian Church and enter into its ministry or lics and Protestants. After defending the right relinquish the pulpit of First Church. Fosdick of Catholics to share in the control of govern­ eventually chose the latter.-^^ ment, he endorsed political activity by priests Hunt's outspoken support of Fosdick led and ministers and mentioned his own prefer­ several disgruntled Wisconsin Presbyterians ence for mayor. Critics lamented the intrusion to lodge heresy charges against the liberal of religious issues in the mayoral election but Madison pastor. Robert J. Aitcheson and Hunt defended his conciliatory, educational Charles L. Richards, pastors of the Poynette motive.^^ and Belleville churches, respectively, and two elders, H. W. Johnson of Poynette and J. W. Caldwell of Lodi, filed charges against Hunt for violation of his ordination vows and re­ RIOR to faU, 1924, significant quested a special meeting of the Madison Pres­ P public opposition to Hunt's bytery to consider their complaint. Newspa­ views stemmed mostly from non-Presbyterian pers throughout the state gave front-page sources. That changed when he entered coverage to the news of an impending heresy boldly into the fundamentalist controversy. As trial of the pastor of Wisconsin's largest Pres­ a result of his intrusion. Hunt became an ac­ byterian congregation."''^ cused heretic. Hunt quickly picked up assistance from The heresy charges germinated from dis­ concerned individuals and organizations. For satisfaction with his public support of a cele­ example, H. M. Noble, pastor of Beloit's First brated liberal, Harry Emerson Fosdick, a Bap­ tist, who occupied the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church in New York City. In a ''"77«' Christian Centun, June 8, 1922, pp. 713-717. '"^^ The Presbyterian, }u(y 13, pp. 8-10, 26,July 20, 1922, sermon of May, 1922, Fosdick had repudiated pp. 8-10; NewYork Times, October 18, 1922. the attempt by fundamentalists to drive out of •'-A'cw York Times, May 18, 23, 24, 25, 1923; GA Min­ utes, 1923, pp. 338-339; GAMmutes, 1924, pp. 194-196: ''Capital Times, June 6. September 24, 1921, Novem­ The Presbyterian, June 26, 1924, pp. 4-5. ber 11, 1924; March 13, 1922; March 5, 1923; Daily Cardi­ ^Wisconsin State Journal, October 9, 1924; Daily Tele­ nal {M'ddison), November 12, 1924; Wisconsin State Jour­ gram (Eau Claire), October 10, 30, 1924; CapitalTimes, Oc­ nal, May 14, 16, 1923; Capital limes, March 28, April 19, tober 28, 1924; Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, October 2S, November 11, 1924; GAMmutes, 1924, 24, 112-113. 1924; Appleton Post-Crescent, October 28, 1924; Evening ^'^Wisconsm State Journal, March 6, 7, 1922. 'Telegram (Superior), October 28, 1924; Milwaukee Sentinel, ^•k:apital Times. March 24. 31, April 2.3.7,9,1924. October 29, 1924.

92 QUIRK: GEORGE E. HUNT

Presbyterian Church, used his November 2 Genesis. Hunt's signing of the "Auburn sermon to explain the Fosdick dispute, and in Affirmation," an expression ofthe liberal posi­ a striking response to the sermon, the Beloit tion in 1923, constituted the final specifi­ congregation unanimously supported Noble cation. Defense counsel Landgraf contended and instructed the pastor to inform the Madi­ that the prosecution failed to comply with the son Presbytery of its sentiments. The govern­ rules of evidence required by Presbyterian ing boards of Christ Church also unanimously law. After defeating one motion to adjourn, accepted a resolution which expressed the Presbytery passed another granting the confidence in Hunt's preaching, called atten­ prosecution additional time to organize its ma­ tion to his leadership of evangelical Christian­ terial in proper form. ity, acknowledged his highly successful pasto­ When the judicatory reconvened a half- rate, and praised Hunt for his tolerance, hour later for the second stage ofthe trial, Ait­ intellectual independence, deep religious con­ cheson presented several documents corrobo­ victions, and dedication to Christ's work.''"* rating the specifications. A motion to dismiss Fittingly, Parkside Presbyterian Church the case because of insufficient evidence en­ hosted the November 3 special meeting ofthe countered opposition from the defense. Madison Presbytery. The Madison jurisdic­ Landgraf argued that this manner of dispos­ tional unit represented some 5,600 communi­ ing of the charge would be unsatisfactory to cant members in thirty-three churches. These his client, who desired a trial on the substan­ congregations were located in eight south­ tive issues raised by the prosecution. After the western Wisconsin counties: Columbia, Dane, Presbytery rejected the motion, Landgraf en­ Grant, Green, Iowa, Richland, Rock, and tered a not-guilty plea. The church court then Sauk."''^ allotted each side forty-five minutes to present Presbyterian delegates who attended the its case. proceedings witnessed a bizarre drama. Fol­ Prosecutor Aitcheson stumbled through lowing preliminary formalities, the Presbytery documentary and oral evidence: a copy of the agreed to open the meeting to the public. "Auburn Affirmation," a letter Hunt wrote to Moderator 11. E. Andrews, a Portage attor­ a Madison newspaper defending Fosdick, and ney, then surprised the judicatory by express­ an article published the previous day in a Mad­ ing his unwillingness to preside over a heresy ison newspaper. The newspaper piece con­ trial and resigning. When the Presbytery ac­ tained citations from a supposed account of cepted the unexpected resignation, Aitche­ one of Hunt's sermons dealing with religion son, speaking for the group which brought and science. The prosecutor also submitted an charges against Hunt, protested. Then two affidavit and took oral testimony from Isaac D. former moderators, including Noble of Be­ Caldwell, an evangelist from Madison who as­ loit, also refused to preside. Finally, James A. serted that he had heard Hunt express disbe­ Melrose of the Kilbourn church accepted the lief in the Virgin Birth of Jesus. responsibility of chairing what promised to be When his turn came, Landgraf skillfully a most difficult meeting. undermined the case of the prosecution. Un­ With Melrose moderating, Aitcheson pros­ der cross-examination, Caldwell acknowl­ ecuting, and Elder G. H. Landgraf of Christ edged visiting Hunt three time to discuss the Church defending Hunt, the first phase ofthe Virgin Birth. Landgraf pointed out that Pres­ trial began. Aitcheson produced five byterian law required more than a single wit­ specifications supportive of the general ness for this type of allegation. He also im­ charge that Hunt had violated the ordination pugned the motives of a witness who vows taken in 1890. The first four alleged approached someone repeatedly with one Hunt's disbelief in the Scriptures as the Word purpose in mind. of God, the Confession of Faith, the Virgin Responding then to the documentary evi­ Birth, and the account of creation recorded in dence, Landgraf dangled suggestive interpre­ tations before the jurors: the letter defending Fosdick seemed quite proper inasmuch as the Beloit Daily News, November 3, 1924; "Session Min­ utes," 1927—1927, volume 4, unpaged copy dated Novem­ General Assembly had extended an invitation ber 3, 1924; Wisconsin State Journal, No\'ember3, 1924. to the preacher to enter the Presbyterian min­ '•'GAMmutes, 1925, pp. 89.5-896. istry; Hunt lacked any responsibility for the

93 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982

contents of unsigned newspaper stories; and, whereas the modernist/religion-of-Jesus pat­ as for his signature on the "Auburn tern emphasized a change of heart and spirit. Affirmation," expressions of differing opin­ Then Hunt commented on the major ions hardly proved disloyalty to the General points raised in the trial. He claimed that he Assembly. The counsel concluded with a posi­ had told Caldwell that while he neither ac­ tive statement about Hunt, emphasizing his cepted nor denied the Virgin Birth, he be­ ability to communicate with young people, the lieved in Jesus Christ, not because ofthe bibli­ absence of any conflict between religion and cal birth narratives, but because of Jesus science in his teaching, and his proclamation himself. Hunt also clearly repudiated newspa­ of a dynamic faith in Jesus Christ. per allegations that he assessed biblical stories Many features ofthe trial pointed to defeat to be ridiculous. He expressed deepest rever­ for the heresy hunters, and they were right. ence for the Bible as the record of God's reve­ With twenty-six ministers and elders voting, lation and as an infallible guide in moral and no less than twenty-two votes were cast against spiritual matters. But once again he firmly re­ sustaining any of the specifications. By a jected the notion that biblical infallibility ex­ twenty-one to four margin, one presbyter ab­ tended to scientific and historical areas. Hunt staining, the church court rejected the general also reiterated his fear that the understanding charge of violation of ordination vows. The of the Bible championed by fundamentalists Madison judicatory explained that the hindered young people from accepting Jesus insufficiency of evidence presented by the Christ. prosecution determined its decision. Unde­ In the same vein he expressed acceptance terred by the one-sided victory for Hunt, Ait­ of the Westminster Confession of Faith as a re­ cheson promptly announced his determina­ pository of great spiritual truths. But he tion to appeal the verdict to the next higher shrewdly noted that some doctrines, double court—the Synod of Wisconsin."' predestination for one, no longer lived in the The Madison Presbytery had cleared its faith by Presbyterians. He looked forward to a most prominent member of heresy withcjut time when a new creed would more ade­ hearing directly from him. But after the trial quately express the faith of the contemporary Hunt announced that he would reply to the church. Hunt concluded his sermon on a accusations in his regular Sunday morning deeply personal note. Expressing apprecia­ sermon.- tion for the opportunity to serve as pastor of Christ Church, he declared his devotion to Jesus Christ and stated his firm intention to continue to be an honest preacher of the gos­ UNT delivered his most widely pel.•« publicized sermon to an H During the opening months of 1925 Hunt overflow audience. Starting with analogy be­ enjoyed a leave of absence with full pay, a tween the current fundamentalist-modernist boon granted by the elders a few days before controversy and the conflict between Jewish the heresy trial so he could accept an invitation traditionalists and first-century followers of to visit his elder son in California. Refreshed Jesus, he used Macartney to exemplify the by days of golfing, mountain climbing, and former type of religion and Fosdick to illus­ swimming. Hunt informed a large, enthusias­ trate the latter. For Madison's liberal evangeli­ tic congregation upon his return to the pulpit cal, the fundamentalists/Pharisaic form that he felt "like a fighting cock." A delegation stressed adherence to a rigid doctrinal system from the First Congregational Church, led by Edward Birge, president of the University of '"'Madison Presbytery, "Minutes, 1902-1925," pp. Wisconsin, attended the welcome-home serv­ 475^79; Capital Times, November 3, 4, 1924: Wisconsin State Journal, November 3, 4, 1924. ice bearing sentiments of friendship and Appleton Post-Crescent, November 4, 1924; Green Buy Press-Gazette, November 4, 1924; Milwaukee Journal, No­ '''^Capital Times. November 10, 1924; Wisconsin State vember 4, 9, 1924; La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press, No­ fournal, November 10, 1924; Green Bay Press-Gazette, No­ vember 4, \92A', Racine Journal-News, November 4, 1924: vember 10, \924; Milwaukee Journal, November 10, 1924; Evening Telegram, November 4, 1924; Beloit Daily Ne-ws, Beloit Daily News, November 10. 1924; Daily News-Times Novembers, 1924; CapitalTimes, November 8. 1924; Wis­ (Neenah and Menasha), November 10. 1924: .Ashland consin State Journal, November 9, 1924. Dally Press, November 13, 1924.

94 \VHi(M491)257 Wisconsin Avenue about 1915, looking northward from the capital dome. The bell tower of Christ Presbyterian Church and the roof line are visible to the left at the first intersection.

goodwill. William T. Evjue, editor of the Capi­ Synod of Wisconsin's decision on Aitcheson's tal Times, also expressed pleasure in having appeal. At a Sunday evening union service at Hunt back in Madison and praised the spirit of Christ Church, the pastor once again tcjok up brotherhood shown by the contingent of Con- the issue of evolution. Advance publicity an­ gregationalists.'*^ nounced the title of Hunt's sermon, "The Not long after Hunt's return, Harry Emer­ Tennessee Attempt to Bar Out Truth by son Fosdick delivered a series of speeches at Law." Several hundred persons drawn from the University of Wisconsin and, quite appro­ many Protestant churches heard Hunt discuss priately, a sermon at Christ Church. Hun­ the Scopes trial and proclaim his own views on dreds of people were unable to find room to evolution and the Bible. Newspaper accounts hear Fosdick herald the reputation ofthe host of Hunt's sermon differed considerably."" congregation throughout the nation and to ac­ Ruben Levin of the Capital Times reported knowledge Hunt's courageous support. To that Hunt reiterated the statements which led the large audience, Fosdick announced the to the heresy charges "with a premeditated re­ advent of a religious reformation which would calcitrance. ..." According to Levin, the pas­ recapture for the contemporary world the au­ tor of Christ Church restated "his absolute be­ thentic religion of Jesus.*" lief in the verity of evolution, his declaration Whether or not Hunt could continue to that the Bible is a bundle of inconsistencies, his preach the genuine religion of Jesus from a denial ofthe scriptures as the word of God and Presbyterian pulpit depended partly upon the the virgin birth of Christ."*^ Hunt responded with a letter to Editor Ev­ '^^"Session Minutes," 1917-1927, volume 4, pp. jue chastising the writer for ecclesiastical igno- 292-293; Wisconsin State Journal, March 9, 1925; Capdcd Times,March9, 14, 1925. WiscoiLsin State Journal, July 17, 1925: Milwaukee "^^Daily Cardinal, March 28, 31, 1925; Capital Times, Journal, Green Bay Press-Gazette, Appleton Post-Daily Tele­ March 28, 30, 1925; Wisconsin State Journal, March 26, 28, gram, Wisconsin State Journal, July 20, 1925. 30, 1925. "^^Capitcd Times, July 20, 1925.

95 WISCONSIN MAC;AZ1NE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982

ranee and misrepresentation and calling evidence of Hunt's doctrinal deviation, Levin "a green young Jewish reporter. . . ." namely, statements about the Virgin Birth After firmly denying both the attitude of made in the widely publicized sermon after defiance and the views attributed to him. Hunt the previous trial. In conversations with re­ inquired if the Madison newspaper were too porters, Aitcheson and his chief aid, Isaac poor to employ honest, intelligent reporters. Caldwell, justified their formal appeal as a de­ Evjue replied in kind, claiming that for many fense of the corpus of Christian teaching. In years Hunt had complained about newspaper their opinion, anyone taking exception to any accounts of his statements. The newsman sug­ portion of the Bible undermined the whole gested that when Hunt's pulpit utterances ap­ structure of Christian faith.*'' peared in print they no longer seemed so wise After a few days of uncertainty about the and that Hunt attempted to extricate himself procedures to be used to hear Aitcheson's ap­ by blaming reporters.*'^ peal, the Synod elected a fifteen-member Ju­ dicial Commission to review the case. Sitting in shirtsleeves in a second-floor room illumi­ EWS stories from the meeting of nated by smoky oil lamps, the Judicial Com­ N'th e Synod of Wisconsin quickly mission carried out its mandate on the evening superseded the Madison dispute. Five presby­ of July 23. In an open meeting the members teries made up the Synod: Chippewa, La examined the case, heard statements, received Crosse, Madison, Milwaukee, and Winne­ briefs, and then decided against accepting any bago. The Synod boasted about 200 congrega­ new evidence. The Commission restricted it­ tions, around 160 ministers, and approxi­ self to considering Hunt's pro-Fosdick letter, mately 31,000 communicants. Christ Church, Caldwell's testimony about Hunt's views on with 1,600 members, far outranked other con­ the Virgin Birth, and Aitcheson's claim of un­ gregations, though Leslie Bechtel's Ham­ fairness on the part of the Madison Presby­ mond Avenue Church in Superior stood only tery. two places behind with about 1,100 members. In defense ofthe Madison church unit. At­ In 1925, for the third consecutive year, the torney Sanderson argued that in a case involv­ Synod convened at Camp Cleghorn, a resort ing a charge of improper conduct, the life of located a few miles outside Waupaca. The the accused bore utmost importance. After 1925 convention drew the smallest attendance detailing Hunt's admirable record as the pas­ in two decades: only twelve churches sent rep­ tor of Christ Church, he concluded that such a resentatives and about 100 ministers failed to person should not be convicted of heresy on appear."** the basis of the flimsy evidence submitted by The relatively small band of Presbyterians Aitcheson. The Judicial Commission then who trekked to Camp Cleghorn in mid-July barred the press from its executive session. participated in an interesting exercise in Early the next morning the Judicial Com­ church politics. Three persons served on the mittee reported two basic decisions and some team defending the Madison Presbytery for its explanatory remarks to the Synod. First, the action clearing Hunt: George Landgraf of Commission rejected each of the grounds of Christ Church, Portage attorney Thomas A. appeal tendered by Aitcheson. Then, in its Sanderson, and pastor Homer Noble of Be­ own review of the specifications and the gen­ loit. An early sign ofthe outcome was the elec­ eral charge, the hearing group sustained the tion of Noble to the moderator's post.*'' action ofthe Madison Presbytery, judging the On the other side, Aitcheson industriously evidence against Hunt insufficient. In its com­ sought to convince reporters that the Hunt mentary the Commission deplored an effort affair rivalled the recently concluded Scopes to inaugurate heresy proceedings without trial in importance. Eagerly, he displayed new complete evidence prepared properly. The commission also underscored the grounds for '^'^Capitcd Times, Ju\\ 21, 1925. **GA Minutes, 1926, pp. 892-899; The Wisconsin Synod ofthe Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., "Minutes '^^Milwaukee Sentinel, July 22, 1925; CapitalTimes, July of the Seventy-Fourth .4nnual Session,"July 20—26, 1925, 22, 1925; Racine Journal-News, July 22, 1925; Waupaca pp. 8, 23, 30-31, in the Presbyterian Historical Society. County Post, July 23, 1925; Milwaukee fournal, July 23, "^^Wcscomin State Journal, July 18,21, 1925. 1925;' The Sheboygan Press. July 23, 1925.'

96 QUIRK: (;EORGE E. HUNT

General Assembly and its adherence to the doctrinal standards of the Presbyterian Church.*^ The most interesting analysis of the event was offered by Ruben Eevin, the reporter for the Capital Times who had aroused Hunt's ire earlier. In an article published in The Christian Century, an influential religious weekly. Levin claimed that the Hunt conflict equalled the Scopes case in importance, since both disputes concerned freedom to proclaim the truth. Levin quite correctly pointed out that the Synod acquitted Hunt not by branding the charges ridiculous or by strongly proclaiming intellectual freedom; instead, the Wisconsin church court acted on the narrow ground of insufficiency of evidence.**^ The actions of the Madison Presbytery and the Synod of Wisconsin appear quite defensi­ ble when viewed from the perspective of the history of Presbyterians. The Presbyterians pride themselves on conducting ecclesiastical business with orderliness and propriety; church law must be observed; precedents, processes, and technicalites loom large in the corporate mentality. Even that powerful state­ ment of liberal Presbyterianism—the "Au­ burn Affirmation"—wisely avoided the temp­ tation to ground its appeal in abstract virtues, preferring instead to expound the intricacies of Presbyterian law and history. Also, Hunt's case occurred in the midst of intense crosscurrents buffeting the Presbyte­ Courtesy of tile ,iuth

*^(;A Minutes, 1925, pp. 87-88, 206-209; New York • "Session Minutes," 1917—1927, volume 4, pp. 320, Times, May 26, 27, 1925; Columbus Citizen, May 27, 1925; 329, 356-357, 370, 1927-1938, volume 5, pp. 87-95, Ceorge E. Hunt to Robert H. Nichols, August 4, 1925, 134-136; Wisconsin State Journal, July 10, 13, 1930. Nichols to Hunt, .August 6, 1925, E. B. Skinner to Nichols, • 'Congregational and Trustees' Minutes, August 3, 1925, Nichols to Skinner, August 5, 1925, all in 1917-1934," volume 4, ca. pp. 202-203: Capital Times, the Robert H. Nichols Papers, Rare Book Department, I ulv 21, 1930; Wisconsin State fournal, July 21, 26, 27, 1930, Union Theological Seminary Library, New York (City. October 19, 22, 1933; "Session Minutes," 1927-1938, vol­ •''^GAMmutes, 1926, pp. 62-87, 1927, pp. 58-86; .Vra- ume 5, pp. 292-294. KoriTmc.?, May 28, 29, June 1, 1926, May 23, 27, 28, 1927; "'"Congregational and Trustees' Minutes, The Christian Centuiy. June 17, 1926. pp. 788-789. 1917-1934," vo'lume 4. pp. 240-244. 98 OUIRK: GEORGE E. HUNT

In conclusion. Hunt expressed pleasure in both the intimate relationship with Christ Church and the prospect of being relieved of the exhausting burden of ministering to a great church. After the sermon, Skinner con­ veyed the appreciation of the congregation and, on behalf of the members and friends of Christ Church, presented a gold watch to the retiring pastor.^* Following a few months rest. Hunt re­ sumed ministerial work. Beginning with the Memorial Presbyterian Church in Appleton, he served interim pastorates in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Minnesota. Some of these appcjintments to churches without a regular pastor lasted a few months, others required close to a year of service. Neither the scars from the conflicts of the mid-1920's and early 1930's nor the toll taken by almost fifty years of strenuous minis­ terial work prevented Hunt from successfully serving these congregations.''" As could be expected, however, the Christ Church connection proved impossible to sever WUi{X3) 37647 completely. Four years after his retirement Edwin 0. Kennedy followed George Hunt as minister to the the congregation showed its continuing congregation of Christ Church and served from 1934 to 1944. affection by dedicating the "George E. Hunt Chapel." Also, during the summer vacations Yet despite the awesome work schedule of his successor, Edwin O. Kennedy, Hunt re­ which he willingly accepted as part ofthe min­ turned frequently to the familiar pulpit. isterial vocation. Hunt savored an abundant Then, when Kennedy relinquished the posi­ family life. Mary Lou Hunt accepted George's tion in 1944, Hunt provided the full range of devotion to the ministry, but wanted to devote pastoral services for the congregation.'''' her time to her family and friends rather than being deeply involved in the busy life of Christ Any narrative of Hunt's life in Madison Church. She bore responsibility for managing must necessarily concentrate on his multi- the family's finances, a difficult task in view of faceted ministerial work. He was an obvious her husband's openhanded dealing with workaholic. For several years Hunt preached money. Mary Lou provided affectionate care at Christ Church in the morning and immedi­ for her active spouse and their children. Each ately after the worship service boarded a train of the Hunt offspring excelled in science dur­ for a neighboring town with a pastorless con­ ing their educations at the University of Wis­ gregation. After devoting the afternoon to consin and each pursued scientific careers: Ri­ calling and conducting worship, he would re­ chard in geology, Margaret in biology, and T. turn to Madison to attend a youth meeting fol­ Dwight in medicine. lowed by an evening service during which he delivered some of his most powerful ser­ Hunt was as active in his leisure time as he mons.^'^ was on the job. He preferred to be outdoors. During his relatively rare off-duty hours he could be found playing golf occasionally with a Wisconsin State Journal, April 16, 1934. local Roman Catholic priest. His summer va­ ''''Appleton Post-Crescent, September 5, 1934; Wisconsin State Journal, April 15, 1945; 'Wm. Noble (Clark to the au- cations were spent hiking in the woods of up­ thor,,May8,Junell,28, 1980. state Wisconsin and Michigan when visiting ''^'Wisconsin State Journal, April 30, May 2, 1938; "Ses­ his daughter and son-in-law, William Noble sion Minutes," 1927-1938, volume 5, pp. 345, 373, 1938-1948, volume 6, pp. 146-150; Wisconsin State Jour­ •''^Wm. Noble and Margaret H. Clark to the author, nal, April 15, 1945. November 13, 1977. 99 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982

Clark, or fishing for muskies with his younger son. About two years before their fiftieth wed­ ding anniversary, Mary Lou died. Hunt then married Sydney Dorman, a nurse and a mem­ ber of Christ Church. She died of cancer less than two years after the marriage. Hunt's third wife was his second wife's sister-in-law, Ida Crowell, who also preceded him in death. During most of the last two years of his life. Hunt was confined to his home by illness. He died on April 11, 1949, at the age of eighty- three. His elder son and only daughter sur­ vived their father, but six years earlier T. Dwight—a member ofthe U.S. Army Medical Corps—had lost his life in the crash of an army bomber."*^ Madison newspapers responded to his death with lightly laudatory and perceptive as­ sessments. The Wisconsin State Journal por­ trayed George E. Hunt as a person in advance of his time, a possessor of a penetrating mind, and an activist whose work extended beyond his chosen vocation. The Capital Times recog­ nized him as the advocate of everyday, practi­ cal Christianity, a promoter of social justice, and a courageous leader in religious thought."''

EVERAL sources contributed to S shaping Hunt's liberal spirit. He certainly benefitted from the wise and loving care of his parents. Unquestionably Hunt's ( ointes\ of the duth solitary academic year at Union Theological For forty-eight years, Mary Lou Hunt was the pastor's Seminary contributed to his intellectual evo­ independent, affectionate, and dedicated helpmate. lution. In his autobiographical appraisal. Hunt gave "thanks to my father for not scold­ share of responsibility for the Kingdom all ing me because of my doubts, his wise counsel over the world."''" He also owed much to a in sending me to Union, and thanks to the group of liberal Chicago pastors and to his fearless love of truth that characterized the reading of books in a variety of fields.''' teaching at Union, I have been able to remove The positions Hunt espoused in his preach­ the doubts of young men who now bear their ing fit in with the ideas shared by liberal Prot­ estants whose world view took shape in the lat­ " Information about Hunt's family lile and leisure ac­ ter part of the nineteenth century. For tivities comes from several sources, especially letters to the example, his statements on biblical criticism author from R. N. Hunt, June 1, September 21, 1977; Al­ and science lacked originality, but his dy­ fred W. Swan, September 10, 1977; Wm. Noble and Mar­ garet H. Clark, November 13, 1977; Mary E. Hunt, June namic, convincing manner of presentation 17, 1978; and interviews with Engred Jacobson, Novem­ soared well above the pedestrian. Hunt un­ ber 18, 1977; Margaret Cockrell, November 19, 1977; derstood the power of human passions and Mary E. Hunt. June 7, 1978; Wm. Noble Clark, Novem­ ber i, 1979: Capital 'Times, April 11, 1949; Milwaukee Jour­ ''""Abridged Autobiography," 9. nal, April 11, 1949; Wisconsin State fourncd, April 12, 1949. '''Vera (Jurz) (Campbell to the author, January 3, ' Wisconsin State Journal, April 12, 1949; CapitalTimes, 1978; Wm. Noble and Margaret H. Clark to the author, April 12, 1949. November 13, 1977.

100 QUIRK: GEORGE E. HUNT self-centeredness. Yet, he usually disclosed an worship services, high quality vocal and in­ optimistic spirit, confident—probably overly strumental music, classes, and clubs. so—of the efficacy of education and exhorta­ Certain features of Hunt's ministry help ex­ tion and the viability of treating diseases in the plain his local, state, and national prominence. social body with individualistic cures. Although known primarily as a stellar The style in which Hunt expressed his lib­ preacher, he also performed superbly in func­ eralism and carried out his ministerial tasks tions ranging from fund raising to counseling. obviously proved congenial to the multitudes Hunt wisely enlisted highly talented people to whom he dispensed spiritual nourishment. for specialized work: Minnie Hastings who Gregarious, an engaging conversationalist, a served as his personal and the church secre­ sympathetic listener. Hunt exuded genuine tary for many years, Moses Breeze who helped affection for others and enjoyed receiving it in raise funds to rebuild the edifice. Vera Jurz return. Throughout his long ministry he prac­ who directed the educational program in the ticed the just-plain-folks manner which he had early 1920's, and, of course, Matthew Allison mastered in the logging camps of Michigan. who pioneered in denominational campus He despised triviality, avoided pomposity, and ministry. scorned formalism, seeking earnestly to re­ Hunt developed strong personal ties with spond to human needs with understanding influential members who, in turn, provided and wit.''^ He was a talented actor, who thrived assistance at critical junctures in Hunt's pasto­ on performing before audiences of one or rate. Hunt's intimate relationships went be­ many. His statements and deeds garnered yond the elite of the congregation. Ordinary considerable publicity, which he probably wel­ members felt that Hunt cared deeply about comed, not only out ofthe need for attention, each one of them. For instance, one ofthe nu­ but as a means of communicating to a larger merous former Roman Catholics who joined constituency. Christ Church found little personal meaning The impact of Hunt's ministry in Madison in Protestant worship, even the creative type may be measured in various ways. By a statisti­ provided in Christ Church. But when her hus­ cal standard, which many used to assess his band died in a tragic accident she wanted to work, Christ Church clearly prospered under see no one outside her immediate family ex­ his leadership: membership jumped from cept Hunt, whom she called first.''* Finally, about 550 to near 1,800; congregational re­ Hunt meshed well with the University of Wis­ ceipts rose from $4,200 to about $18,200. By a consin and the growing city of Madison. He mission or outreach standard, one also used by preached and lived a nonsectarian, inclusive his contemporaries, a similar situation pre­ type of liberal Protestant Christianity—a pat­ vailed: Christ Church spawned three major tern seemingly well-suited to many Madiso­ offspring in Madison and the congregation nians in the opening decades of the twentieth devoted a significant share of its income to be­ century. nevolence, something which Hunt never tired Hunt faced some major adversary situa­ of promoting. The officers sought to contrib­ tions during his long ministry in Madison. He ute one dollar to missions for every two they remained calm during wartime attacks, and he used for local purposes.''^ Hunt's pastorate de­ reacted charitably toward those who accused served a five-star rating for providing a full him of heresy, except for Caldwell.'''' The Ru­ range of activities to a diverse and demanding ben Levin incident seems more the exception membership. Members of Christ Church re­ than the rule. ceived both comfort and challenge, intellec­ Strong leaders often have difficulty relin­ tual stimulation and warm fellowship from the quishing their positions. Hunt probably made statements which encouraged his junior col­ Vera (Jurz) Campbell to the author, January 3, league and some members of the congrega­ 1978; Wm. Noble and Margaret H. Clark to the author, tion to believe that he would retire around the November 13, 1977; R. N. Hunt to the author, June 1, twenty-fifth anniversary of his pastorate. His September 21, 1977; Edwin O. Kennedy to the aulhor, April 19, 1977. ''-^GA Minutes, 1935, p. 828; "Session Minutes," 'Mary H. Weaver to the author, October 30, 1979. 1917-1927, volume 4, p. 115; Margaret Cockrell inter­ Wisconsin State Journal, November 3, 1924, July 24, view, November 19, 1977. 1925. 101 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982 love for pastoral work and for Christ Church a part of the glamorous record compiled by made separation extremely difficult, however, Christ Church suffered during the final seg­ and the ensuing squabble damaged the unity ment of his tenure. But the chapel named in of Christ Church. As Hunt remarked to his his honor and the numerous invitaticons to re­ successor, "I'm handing you a heap of sand."''*' turn to the pulpit during his retirement years Hunt's comment certainly exaggerated the testify to the continuing affection and admira­ condition of Christ Church upon the termina­ tion the congregation felt for its leader of tion of his pastorate. It also failed to take into thirty years. account the effects of both the religious and George E. Hunt was a genuinely human economic depression upon American pastor who served people both within and churches in general.'" Yet, Hunt realized that without his congregation. In particular, he wanted to aid young people in their efforts to combine modern knowledge and (Christian faith. As one way to achieve this goal, he en­ 'Edwin O. Kennedy to the author, April 19, 1977. couraged promising students to enter into the "Robert T. Handy, "The American Religious De­ pression, 1925-1935,"Vc/iurc/i History, 29: .3-16 (March, most useful vocation available, and thereby to 1960). share with him the joy of preaching.

The University of Wisconsin Presbyterian student chapel, 1933.

102 With the Ambulance Service in France: The Wartime Letters of William Gorham Rice, Jr.

Edited by George C. Brown (PART III)

HE Great War was over. Lieu­ half years of service and sacrifice in what had T' tenant Bill Rice of the United been the bloodiest war in history. States Army Ambulance Service was anxious This is the last of a three-part series distilled to return home. He had been in the ambu­ from the wartime correspondence of William lance service for much of the past two and a Gorham Rice, Jr. The first two parts appeared half years. He had not seen home or family in the Summer and Autumn, 1981, issues of since May, 1917, and he was tired. But he was the Wisconsin Magazine of History. also an officer, which entailed certain respon­ sibilities along with its privileges. He would not return to the States until eight months af­ G.C.B. ter the Armistice. Rice wrote the following letters to his par­ ents between January and mid-July, 1919, when he arrived back on American shores. Part of that time he remained with the January 10, 1919 USAAS, and watched his unit embark for Roubaix [France] America while he stayed in France, assigned to the French Press Review of the United States Dear Father and Mother: Army Intelligence Department until the end Here is an envelope full of scraps that you of the Paris Peace Conference. With fifty would like. Conditions in Germany and Russia years' hindsight, we often wonder at the rapid seem to be getting constantly worse and 1 fear demobilization of American forces after the the trouble will spread—unemployment and fighting stopped, but for Bill Rice, and most of famine. his companions, demobbing did not come Here we are well off but material conditions quickly enough. Even after his assignment to for the civilians are generally worse than dur­ the Press Review, when he realized there was ing German occupation. Hoover to the rescue! little hope of returning home until the end of We are quite comfortable and have little to do. the treaty session, his release date was Rice's But we have no "dope" on returning home. greatest concern; he seems to have worried quite as much about that as he had about being shelled during the fighting. We share his an­ January 11, 1919 guish through numerous letters describing Dear Mother and Father: immediate postwar conditions; and we wit­ So far today, I have signed my name be­ ness, as the treaty-making process unfolds, a tween forty and fifty times in the usual course man questioning his reasons for two-and-a- of daily routine, thirty times on outgoing let- Copynght © / 982 by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin All rights of reproduction in any form reserved 103 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982

WHi (\:i)2:i038 President Woodrow Wilson and members of his staff approach Brest, France, on December 13,1918, to begin diplomatic talks following the Armistice. ters, ten times on daily reports (two each sent dict. I'd like best to get out of the Army and in five copies) of which I send you samples— back to you as soon as I can but I sha'n't try inane waste of paper—, and a few times on oc­ (and surely sha'n't succeed) to get out of the casional reports, letters, leave papers, orders, Army till I have some definite other job in returns, endorsements, and entries. Since I sight. That is, I'll come home in the USAAS if have nothing else to complain about, I feel nothing else comes up. bound to begin by "crabbing" about this little Coming home, I'll be mustered out at once; wrist-wearier and so try to excuse the brevity but when? Next best, I'd like to get out of serv­ of this Sunday letter. For, you should know, 1 ice and get a civilian job here for a few have half the day of signatures ahead of me— months—chiefly as a means of getting out of my own and everyone else's Sunday letters to this life of time-wasting, as it is now. I am in­ read and sign my name too. It is not yet noon vestigating this line of action; but there is no and nice dull rainy letter-writing weather. immediate likelihood of my resignation's be­ Moreover this is so British an area that Sunday ing accepted; the "emergency" is not yet over, is rather somber and sedate. and no one is being released from service yet . . . We may be here for months, just as we over in the A.E.F. were in Soissons last winter—the section (623) Thank you for sending me the catalog of from January 8 till the Germans came thru in carillons. As I told you, 1 think 1 shall take my May and, 1 myself for nearly three months. April leave in Belgium (if allowed) and learn However, as everything is in dissolution or what I can learn. By then, travel will be less rather commotion, not violent in France, but difficult and the food situation a little easier, I constant—demobilisation, reconstruction, hope. While here on duty, of course, I am not stimulation—I don't expect to stay here free to go off on pleasure trips, tho I have long—tho what will move me is hard to pre­ time. I may, however, have occasion to go to an

104 BROWN: AMBULANCE SERVICE LETTERS automobile pare at Tirlemont; which will be and I took one pair along with me in case I quite a trip across the southern Netherlands.' should get my feet wet. But meanwhile I used This "agglomeration lilloise" where we are them to carry my provisions—"bully beef in now is quasi-American, a busy, intelligent, one and bread in the other. I ate up all the awkward, growing metropolitan area; with food before I got back, but I have not yet worn many fine buildings, mostly modern, and the socks. Thank you for them; they will surely none of the quaintness and harmony that be useful. characterize most of the provincial cities of I have received the following citations: France and Belgium. The factories are not "Officier plein d'entrain, d'activite, et de cour­ working because the Germans carried off pul­ age. Aussi obtenir de son personnel le maxi­ leys and belts and drive-shafts; but many of mum de rendement lors des evacuations des them will be soon. There is also lack of raw ma­ blesses devant St Quentin en Octobre 1918 et terials, and the difficulties of railway transport lors des operations qui out precede I'armistice, are too slowly removed. But it's not a bad place payant de sa personne pour assurer le bon to be, with beds and gas light and shows every fonctionnement de son service et le evening; hot showers in town, trolley cars and reconnaissance des postes de secours." This everything to buy (tho most food at altitudi- is the preamble: "Apres approbation du Gen­ nous prices), and a roller skating-rink. eral commandant en chef les Forces Expedi- We have four cars on duty away from camp tionnaires americaines en France, le Marechal (three at Lille and one way off at Busnes, de France Commandant en Chef les Armees (south of Hazebrouck, where one of our regi­ Francaises de I'Est cite a I'ordre de la division ments is stationed) and occasional calls for cars (That is, cross with silver star). It is signed "Pe- here. But the hospitals are so near that there is tain," but that does not mean anything special, almost nothing to do. For the present, there is, for all citations of Americans attached by the besides office work, quite a bit of Ford- French Army now go thru the General HQ repairing—if it is worth doing. The poor old and the Grand Quartier General and so get cardboard bodies of the cars and the tacked- both Commanders of Chief into the story. on canvas curtains and window-less windows However I like the text of the citation very need repair, paint, tacks, celluloid, etc. But are much.2 they worth the materials needed to repair I have just received a letter from Paul Cram them? I await advice from the pare, which will that he is endeavoring to get me transferred to perhaps give a hint of the date of our return. the French Press Review, whatever that is. It is some GHQ undertaking that he is in. I have written him that I don't want to postpone my February 3, 1919 release from the Army. But being in it, I may Roubaix get transferred willy nilly. Anyway don't ex­ Dear Mother and Father: pect me home at any time, for I see I may not .... We have a post near Hazebrouck get there when 1 expected, namely in April. where the natural language is Flemish and the secondary language is now English, British On the back of this letter is the following translation: troops have possessed the region so long! The "An officer's hie of energy, activity, and courage. Has Frenchmen say they can talk to no civilians known how to obtain irom his men the maximum service at the time of the evacuations of the wounded before St. and they don't seem to like the French much! Quentin in October 1918 and at the time ofthe operations I have neglected to acknowledge the receipt which camejust before the armistice and who by his per­ of your three fine pairs of heavy socks. They sonal supervision assured the good functioning of his came the day before I started for Tirlemont outht and won the gratitude ofthe hrst aid stations." The preface translates: "After the approbation ofthe (ieneral in (Chief of the A.E.F. in France, the Marshal of France, Rice's interest in carillons stemmed from his lather's Commander in Chief of the French Armies of the East, efforts to publicize them in America, and it remained with cites as receiving an order of the Division." This was Rice's him throughout his life. As a member of the law school third croix de guerre, but the hrst with a silver star. He faculty at the University of Wisconsin, and after his retire­ had received his second croix, with bronze star, for action ment, he helped promote and complete the carillon on the during August, 1918, and his hrst, also with bronze star, in Madison campus. July, 1917.

105 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982

And don't stop writing me until I cable you lieve a course of four months in France (cover­ that I [am] ordered home.'' ing of course very different law study) would be very helpful and the surroundings more ac­ ceptable to my temperament. I note that you February 17,1919 would like me to finish my course at Harvard. Ferrieres en Gatinais I think studying here would be a very helpful Dear Mother and Father: interlude and supplement. Several men that I I cabled you twice last week about my re­ know have applied to stay here for these four turn. I still don't know when I'll be coming; months courses. but I think it will be July.. . . This Base Camp is a hateful place. It is the We came in from Roubaix to Paris comfort­ first time I have been in any camp and I pray ably occupying a whole third class coach for it be the last. Nothing but saluting, and drill our all-night ride. We had two whole days in and crap-shooting. Things are clean and neat Paris (one night) and then came here to the and there is a pretty good crowd of men Base Camp ofthe Ambulance Service, here to here, but it is a hateful life and, I believe, a de­ be deloused and re-equipped and recorded moralizing one except when it is consecrated before sailing. How long the process will take by the spirit of preparation for a great cause. depends on several doubtful quantities. How­ That probably redeemed the training camps ever, the section will probably proceed to St. before the armistice. Nazaire within two weeks. At Headquarters in Paris, I was told that I probably would not go home with my section. March 6, 1919 Col. [Percy L.] Jones, Chief of the Service, said he could not spare officers at present. Some­ Dear Mother and Father: what dejected, I discovered a couple of hours I am pretty "low," out at the "front" again later that the AEF educational scheme had with a new bunch and next to nothing to do. I come thru, with only twenty-four hours for telegraphed you last night to tell you the bad applications. There is small chance of going to news. I don't know at all when I'll be home, so an English university under this arrangement, give up expecting me till I arrive. but it appears that early in March French uni­ All applications of USAAS officers to study versities will take 12,000 American advanced in France were rejected, owing to a shortage of students for four months courses in law, let­ USAAS officers. Half the first section [are] go­ ters, medicine and science. I decided to apply, ing home go without officers. So I got ordered particularly as the alternative was probably go­ out again with 518, a section taking the field ing out again with a new section of draft men for the first time. No one in its speaks French, (like the one that relieved us) that came over in but there is no work to do. So I am the king pin November and have been here since then. of an inane institution. I don't believe the sec­ G.H.Q. English press review has also ap­ tions will remain out but a few weeks and I will plied for men (under some misapprehension be relieved and let go home next month—but as to my knowledge of England and the British not by one who really can have me relieved. So press). But I want to get out of military life as I can only hope to return from Siberia in soon as possible. If I get an appointment to the April. Sorbonne (or elsewhere) to study law, I con­ I have a good bunch of men, but I am some­ tinue to draw my salary but have no military what at a loss to know how to occupy their duties while studying. time. Our cars are in good condition, most of Next day I got your letter in which you sug­ them in perfect condition. We are attached to gest my going to Oxford. I should hate it, I'm the 11th Division and stationed in a very unin­ pretty sure. I have seen enough of Britishers teresting town between Chalous VMarne and in the last month not to wish to live there. I'd Troyes. Everything seems muddier and dirt­ find it most uncongenial, I'm sure. But 1 be- ier and shabbier than I have ever seen it. Roubaix and the North has some Dutch clean­ liness. Ferrieres was very clean—its chief rec­ • Paul P. Cram served with SSU 1 for four months in ommendation—and Paris of course is always 1917, and was at this time a second lieutenant in the United States Intelligence Department. quite trim. 106 BROWN: AMBULANCE SERVICE LETTERS

I had a few hours in Paris and nearly a day March 20,1919 in Chalous in coming out here. In Paris I got Chaumont, Haute Marne several letters and a great many cuttings from you, but I lost them all somewhere. I was so Dear Mother and Father: "blue" that I was hardly conscious of what I I arrived here last Saturday, a beautiful was doing. I can't in the least remember where spring day, and I am very agreeably settled in I left them. I had not read the stories and the same house with Paul P. Cram '15 (Har­ newspaper articles and wanted to save them to vard), who is responsible for my being or­ read on the train. I am delighted that (Father) dered here. The weather has been French the you have been reappointed and glad the news­ last few days; this morning it was freezing and papers are so appreciative.* I am very sorry I we had about four inches of snow on the have lost your several letters and hope I may ground. yet have them returned to me. I am sorry I I shall probably be busy here till the Peace sent that first telegram from Roubaix which Conference ends; I reckon I'll get home to­ brought you deceptive joy. But I then ex­ ward the end of May, tho it may be somewhat pected fully to be on the ocean by now. sooner. The work is very interesting at first, for it puts one into close contact with the mo­ mentous questions ofthe day, particularly the March 14,1919 all-important question of the League of Na­ Paris tions. The three of us working on the French Dear Mother and Father: press (reviewing and clipping everything of I am tossed from pillar to post these days— interest to G.H.Q.) are Paul Cram, [Glenn] ordered to Base Camp with 594, relieved of Davis (who taught French at the Albany High that command, assigned to 518, sent with that School—temporarily working at this) and my­ section to the field, relieved by another lieu­ self. Everyday a "news bulletin" and a "press tenant and ordered to Base Camp for return review" are published here and we contribute to US, stopped in Paris by Special Orders from to both. Other men are engaged on the British G.H.Q. and ordered to report to the Asst press, the Swiss, the Italian, the Netherland­ Chief of Staff G-2, GHQ for duty. So I leave ish, the German, the Scandinavian, the Ameri­ tomorrow morning for Chaumont. I think this can, and the Spanish. So far I have been only is the French Press Review on my trail again. I contributing to the "news bulletin," but tomor­ don't know how long it means I must stay in row I expect to write an article for the "press France nor what the work will be. I'm in the review." There is little originality required— Army (no questions to be asked!). only good translation and arrangement of ma­ terial and proper choice both within the edito­ When I cabled you last, I did not expect to rials of the different papers and of the be moving again. But I begged Steve Galatti to editorials themselves. We have about thirty get me relieved from the stupidity of the Paris papers to go thru every day. There is French front (It's far more interesting the nearly no French press outside of Paris, as you other side ofthe old frontier.)'' Immediately I know. was relieved and given a three-day leave here. When I arrived here yesterday, I at once I see in today's paper that SSU 594 sailed on sought to get in the Sorbonne and was to see March 15—so I ought to be on the sea now. Prof. deLapradelle this afternoon about tak­ Besides the two weeks I was with them at Am­ ing international law with him. But this morn­ bulance Base Camp, they had to wait ten days ing I got this GHQ order and that ends my at the port, a long delay, it seems to me. scholastic dreams, which quite possibly would Since arriving at Chaumont, I have had no not have come true at best. . . . mail. Doubtless it will come soon. Mv present mihtary address is G2A4 GHQ APO 706. That William Gorham Rice, Sr., had been reappointed sounds mysterious! And of course our work is New York State Civil Service Commissioner. part of the "Intelligence Service" which in­ Galatti was an assistant to Lt. Col. A. Piatt Andrew, cludes much secret work. But mine is merely founder of the American Field Service, and Inspector "confidential" and does not lead me afield. General of its military successor, the United States Army Ambulance Service, (ialatti later became director of the However, I am going on a "joy-ride" to Ver­ American Field Service. dun next Saturday and Sunday; I have not 107 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982 seen the place for over two years and a half. menceau]. I enclose parts of the first article I Also I hope to get a trip to Advanced GHQ at compiled for the "Press Review"; it will proba­ Trier some day.. . . bly be printed tomorrow. The "copy" I send Chaumont is beautifully located and not a you is not corrected; so pardon numerous mis­ bad place for its size. American G.H.Q. has not takes. My stenographer does not understand nearly as much style and dignity as 1 expected. my dialect. There is endless saluting, but otherwise it is Last Sunday I started before seven with five not oppressive. I eat breakfast and lunch at the other officers to Verdun (in a large touring officers' hut of the YMCA and have dinner car). The weather has been cold and rainy with Cram and a couple other lieutenants nearly every day; and that morning it was about a kilometer and a half away, at the other freezing, foggy and penetrating. However the end of town. One ofthe lieutenants lives there sun came out by 8 and we had very good and the mistress of the house cooks our din­ luck—some sun and no rain till after dark. We ners for us. I eat too much! went thru Joiuville and St Digier and Bar-le- Today and tomorrow the King and the Duc to Verdun, which has changed little since Queen of the Belgians are in town. They are I was there in the late summer of 1916. We General Pershing's guests. Today has been went all thru the Citadel and visited the Cathe­ given over to civilian formalities. Tomorrow dral and the totally destroyed part of town, all they devote to the AEF. Lieutenant Ilgard of new to me; then after stopping for gasolene at the Dutch and Belgian press review was deco­ some French barracks—"Beevo Barracks," rated today with the Order of Leopold; also the negro traffic cop told us ("Caserne Be- two officers ofthe Belgian Mission at GHQ. vaux," we used to call it)—now occupied by Paul Cram has fathered me in this strange American soliders, where we ate lunch in ten country and has made me quite at home al­ minutes, we went out thru the Faubourg Pave ready. I like to be with him, for he is very en­ to "Caserne Marceau," visited the very dress­ tertaining and well-informed. And he knows ing station from which we SSUl worked in everything about Harvard and Harvard August and September, 1916, and then drove men. . . . on over the then-forbidden crest of the hill It seems to us inconceivable that the League and down between Fleury and Souville (then of Nations can fail in the US, great change of the terrible battle-ground) to below the fort of policy tho it would be. It will have been all in Vaux. The desolation and wrecked hill-sides vain, this War, if it does fail, for the grasping arejust like the Chemin des Dames region; but selfishness of nationalism can not fail to half- they seem more extensive—interminable. prevent and ultimately undo the best possible Climbing to the fort of Vaux (where French peace without the League principle included. soldiers were salving clothing, metal, etc.), we The Monroe Doctrine is only a very poor sub­ would get a fine view, particularly to the stitute for the League, poor because quite un- north-east, and could spot the chief strong- helping of Europe of whose affairs we can not points in the defense of Verdun—Douamont, now remain free. Souville, St. Michel, etc. We then returned to the city and followed the Meuse [River] north as far as Dun, every village wrecked and March 27,1919 scarcely a civilian to be seen. At Dun we Chaumont crossed the river and went into the great American battle-field of the northern Dear Mother and Father: Argonne. The week has passed so fast that I only real­ ized today how long it is since I have written. It It was the first American battle-ground I seems a very exciting work, on account of the had seen. May it be the last there is! The tension at Paris, both in internal and interna­ crosses are different from the French— tional affairs. The Hungarian re-revolution smaller and unpainted, and the dead are bur­ caused an "extra" Daily News Bulletin to be ied in small groups of ten to thirty instead of in published here and tonight we came here hav­ great cemeteries as one sees about Verdun, ing [?] another "extra" because of news from the epitome of severe warfare of position. The the Peace Conference which seems to indicate artillery action was tremendous in that that Wilson is conquering "the Tiger" [Cle­ Argonne advance. Every field and village is

108 i\

A military cemeteiy disinterred by the changing fortunes of World War I. torn up; every road and shelter was shelled changed, it seemed to me. We could not well unlimitedly. We made for Montfaucon, long a go to La Grangeaux Bois, which I should like great German observatory, a war village com­ to have revisited to see acquaintances and visit pletely below the ground for years. Scarcely a Howard Lines's grave, for our trip was very vestige of a wall remains ofthe original village. long as it was. We had dinner at Bar-le-Duc We went on to Varennes, where Louis XVI and reached Chaumont again about 11 was halted in his attempted flight from the P.M. Some trip! This Sunday I hope to be able Bolsheviks of his day. Then we struck the for­ to get away for the day to Laugres, an interest­ ests of the Argonne and followed a deep ra­ ing old walled town. vine to the Four de Paris, a ravine with all the Thank you for sending me several clip­ war-"comforts of home"—fine dugouts and pings. I am returning those you request back. trenches, light railways and paths—where the Did I ever thank you for the New Republic's Germans had enjoyed a quiet sector for four which you had sent to 594? They came rather years. From Four de Paris (the scene of severe irregularly, probably a dozen in all, but they tussles), where we crossed the gabionnade that were much enjoyed. Here of course I have ac­ served as our front line for at least two years, cess to the papers and magazines of all nations we turned down the road I knew so very well, and languages; and it is my chief business to past "Le Chalet," La Chalade, Claon, Le read them. . . . Neufour, Les Islettes, Les Lenades, I shall ask for a two weeks' leave in England Controllerie, Futeau, Brizeau, Triaucourt, all on my way home perhaps. My next leave and familiar spots since September, 1916, and my third service stripe are due on April 13. I reached Bar-le-Due just before dark. The hate the Army; yet the Army has been about as Argonne country is as beautiful—in forest, good to me as it could be. So do I grateless bite and green fields, and healthy friendly the hand that feeds me! I hate uniforms (espe­ dwellers—as I remembered it, and quite un­ cially so unbecoming a uniform) and rank

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and, above all, saluting. Some day I will write a frequently and one feels that they can not be little essay on the viciousness of saluting and, frank. But the censorship is evidently exer­ on the strength of it, request Mr. Lenin to give cised often to prevent the publication of re­ me a pension. marks hostile to America. The result is that How is your Life of Cleveland getting on? I what is published is tacitly endorsed by the wonder if he would have favored a League of Government. One of the peculiarities of the Nations. 1 think he was a pretty strong believer system is that many articles are published de­ in national absolutism; he certainly worked spite their being disapproved by the censor. the Monroe Doctrine very hard.'' This makes the offending paper liable to sus­ If any of my clans, 623 or 594, put in an ap­ pension; suspension is not often ordered, pearance, please be good to them. Some are however. rough diamonds and some too "smooth" to Clemenceau before he became premier was cling to firmly; but all in all, they did good a great shouter against the censorship. Now he work and 1 am fond of everyone and would maintains it after it has been abolished in En­ like to keep in touch with them. gland and America and Germany. Another example of the illiberal tendency of France today is the conviction of Cottier April 1,1919 (who tried to kill Clemenceau last month) and Dear Mother and Father: the acquittal of Villain who killed the great So­ Summer seems to come as slow as peace. cialist [Jean] Jaures at the outbreak ofthe War. This last week we have had snow nearly every Extraordinarily political arguments were day and April came in this morning with the made to the Villain jury and the trial was com­ ground frozen hard and covered with the re­ monly spoken of as the Jaures trial. To those mains of a snowfall of day before yesterday. having English notions of criminal law, the ac­ But today the sun is April-fooling us, giving us quittal is incomprehensible; but none but the the utterly false impression of a "sunny Socialistic papers are shocked.. . . France." The President today says that American The conduct of the French government troops will be withdrawn from Russia as soon since the peace armistice is increasingly dis­ as the weather permits. We may rejoice at this, tressing. It is not surprising that both [Presi­ for military force is not the means to kill the dent] Wilson and [Prime Minister] Lloyd political and social notions that the present George have suggested the advisability of Russian government stands for. moving the Peace Conference to a less imperi­ . . . The weather has been very favorable to alistic country. All the love and admiration we work; but do not worry for my health! I have have had for France is rapidly turning to— to walk about a mile and a half every day for well, almost contempt. And most distressing is my meals and when the sun makes it agreea­ the lack of constructive opposition in France ble, we usually stop work by five thirty and to the government's attitude. Wilson is the take a stroll into the Marne Valley, which is a hope of the World. France seems to be out to fertile spot in this otherwise rather unfertile follow the policy of Germany, which we territory of "la Champagne pouilleuse" thought we were fighting to destroy. Her con­ ("lousy Champagne!"). Chaumont itself is duct regarding Alsace and Lorraine and her prettily situated, as described in the clipping I apparent desire to ruin Germany for the pure sent you, and has some elements of historic in­ joy of vengeance is disgusting. Well, this may terest as well as the more modern seductions. be contrary to the rule ofthe still-existing cen­ Paul and I are dwelling with the Rollett family, sorship; so I'd better not say more. very conservative and phlegmatic and solici­ tous of our comfort. I have an attic room with The censorship itself is a strange anomaly, a comfortable bed and electric lighting and, methinks. The French papers are censored when a colonel soon departs, I shall obtain a more spacious room on the floor below. But Rice's father was then at work on a biography of Pres­ madam still will insist that I must be cold be­ ident Grover Cleveland, whose private secretary he had cause I sleep with my window open. The Roll- been when Cleveland was governor of New York, and etts have two young sons who are beginning who appointed him United States Civil Service Commis­ sioner during his second administration (1893-1897). English and are as suppressed and nonexist- 110 W Hi (X.!) 37133 President Wilson reviewing troops in Langre, France, in December, 1918.

ent as the youth of most French families. We theon de Guerre," a remarkable panorama of have dinner, as I told you, at the far end of the the war and its leading figures, which I saw in town. Mme. Clement, whose husband is chief Paris. It is one huge painting on a cylindrical de gare, cooks deliciously and gives us a very curtain. The upper half of the curtain repre­ fine dinner for four francs a day. The Clement sents the French front and shows all the towns family is socialistically inclined. . . . in the area of fighting, from Calais to Belfort. Trying to get light on the "Jaures" case, I Below are groups for every Allied nation. went down this afternoon to the court-house Every figure in these groups, including the and talked with a few gowned lawyers. Villain huge crowd on the great steps, where France was acquitted as irresponsible—which is a holds sway and before which the victorious milder and more far-reaching term than our troops are passing in review, is a portrait. The insane. He was actuated by a power overpow­ work has been under way for four years. It is ering his will—and so noble a power— now practically complete (tho the Belgian and manslaying patriotism, the very thing that American groups were not finished when the made Germany great. cards were made). One enters in the middle Don't think that I have turned pessimist. (thru a passage-way under the painting) and is I'm sure the League will be adopted and will met by guides, both French and YMCA, who work. I thought the Allies were better than the make a perpetual round of explanation to the Germans, but it now appears that Germany visitors. committed a great crime but seems to be today That same afternoon I revisited Napoleon's noworsethan the rest of the world. I might be­ tomb, certainly an impressive place. Every come quite passionately American, but luckily night, except the one I left Paris, (when I I have the Nation and the New Republic to re­ dined with some section-mates of SSU66 at mind me that lots of things are bad in the USA. Frederick's and had the renowned "pressed However that does somehow seem pretty duck)", I went to the Fheater, and Sunday much like "God's country" after so long an ab­ afternoon to the Opera Comique a splendid sence. performance in every way. I enclose the pro­ gram. I heard fine music too at the Russian April 25,1919 Church Sunday morning. There is one ofthe Chaumont silver-robed priests who sings the most sono­ Dear Mother and Father: rous and magnificent bass I have ever heard. Here is a large letter, mostly enclosures. Tuesday afternoon at Notre Dame there was a I send separately ten cards of the "Pan­ crowded service for the A.E.F. and fine sing- 111 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982 ing by the well-known choir of St. Gervais (the ing you. When shall we three kiss again? It cer­ church was struck a year ago on Good Friday tainly will not be very long now. The papers by a German Bertha shell). An enormous con­ say today that the whole AEF will be home by gregation was present, practically every seat September 1. That's fine. I have fits of feeling taken. I was interested to watch the crowd I'd like to wash my hands forever of these plot­ come in. About one in 10 of those in uniform ting foreign lands. And how so much that is crossed themselves with holy water on enter­ noble can emanate from the stink-hole of ing the church. I think half the congregation French politics and the physical filth of French was primarily spectating. . . . towns is miraculous. The people of the world Two nights ago I went to a splendid movie, have not the least passion for honesty and jus­ "Made in America," the story ofthe draft. The tice. Hence the sad state of peace negotiations. pictures were good and the story well acted; Wilson has done a lot; but he can't swing it all hut best of all were the comments from the alone. "dough-boy" spectators. One ofthe delights of I went to Trier Friday night in the rain— the movie entertainment is the freedom ofthe left here at 9 in the evening and arrived at audience (encouraged by the darkness) to Trier at 7 in the morning—the longest auto make remarks about the pictures. They don't trip I have ever made in one sitting. We disturb the play and make it hugely more stopped at Neuf-chateau and Toul and Metz amusing; in fact they put everyone in a good to register our passage and got a midnight humor and allow everyone to express his sen­ supper at the Toul station at a Red Cross can­ timents and disclose his inmost soul! teen for the benefit of the hundreds of Ameri­ Glenn Davis has been trying to get home for cans going to and from leave areas. They were some time; and it now seems probable that he sleeping on tables and the floor and the pi­ will be released in a couple more weeks. As for ano—just like French permissionnaires. But myself, not having special reasons for return­ what a boon to be able to get hot coffee or ing at once (as he has), 1 suppose I shall be here chocolate and a sandwich at any hour! From for a month more. I hope by then to get leave Toul we went thru Pont-a-Mousson and for England. So I shall probably get home in crossed the lines and the border and then had June. But don't count on it; it is all uncertain a puncture. I had been sleeping peacefully and I doubt if I could spend my time so curled up in the back-seat. Metz at night profitably at home as I can here so long as this seemed more German than French (except work continues. for the signs which were all new, in French), The withdrawal of the Italians from the particularly the huge railway station, hugely Peace Conference of course has made us par­ German and ugly and clean and solid. From ticularly busy the last two days. But it does not Metz we struck north and I slept till daylight, disturb us much; for Wilson is merely sticking about Thionville. Then thru Luxemburg, to his stand, and the erring self-willed will re­ Duchy and city, neither French nor German turn or wander in an outer world of darkness nor Belgian, and a lovely corner of Europe, and sin if they don't. Wilson's statement was then east again to Wasserbillig and Germany. very fair and good-willed and would not have The Mosel Valley was radiant—the green- disturbed the Italian delegates unless they had banked river and neat villages and the vine­ a guilty conscience in their claims.' yards and, above aU, the apple trees in full bloom. It was the first I had seen of spring; May 5, 1919 that valley is two weeks ahead of this region. chaumont Trier itself is a fine town—I think you have Dear Mother and Father: been there—and I enjoyed seeing it again. Bill This is the second anniversary of my leav- Quimby is there; so we had lunch and dinner together. American occupation is mild and the On April 23, Vittorio Orlando and the Italian delega­ civilian population is not oppressed nor de­ tion withdrew from the peace conference as a result of jected. Bill Quimby thinks the Boches are President Wilson's appeal to the Italian people to desert "putting things over" on us, that many Ameri­ their leaders because they continued to press for what can officers are not as severe as they should be Wilson considered unjust territorial concessions from Germany. The Italian delegation returned to the confer­ in getting hold of property stolen from ence on May 6. France, etc. 112 y 'm- [p^ ?' '5Mi| >'.'»".

t^O'

An aviator's view ofthe Western Front, showing the effects of incessant trench-diggmg and artillery bombardment.

It is a strange sensation to meet crippled dustrious; France needs to get to work and German soldiers, under treatment at the Ger­ progress. man hospital there; you wonder what they think of your depriving them of their leg, or On the return trip we left Trier at 9 and arm, or eye. This is a feeling of wonder rather traveling up the Saar Valley to Saarburg, we than pity—for we don't forget the damage wound over a hilly road to Diedenhofen they did without the jusdfication we had. All (Thionville) and back here as we had come. As Germans in uniform (of whom there are now there was only one driver on the return trip rather few) must salute all Allied officers (of (whose eyes were strained from months of course the wounded are excepted from this night driving) I conducted part of the way— duty) which is painful to a high German the first time I had driven a Dodge. They officer. Of course we return these salutes. stand up well. It's not so hard as my old job of "Fraternization" is forbidden; Americans may night-driving without lights, but it certainly is not eat in German restaurants nor walk on the exhausting. . . . street with Germans. But further the rule is The peace setdements are not nearly per­ not carried; nor could it be. I bought pencils fect. We had very heated argument this morn­ and steel goods and postcards anci exercised ing as to whether Wilson would not better my best German with all necessary success. have washed his hands ofthe sins ofthe blind We got paid on May 1 at the rate of 6 fr 05 to nations and withdrawn from the Conference. the dollar. At Treves a franc brought 2 marks The treatment of China is particularly unjust, 22'/2. So now a dollar is worth nearly 13'/2 so far as secrecy permits us to know anything. marks; normally it is 4 marks. But I'm sure The League is not strong in structure or in Germany will come back strong; she is not de­ foundation. But while there's Wilson, there's moralized. The people are intelligent and in­ hope.

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Mother's Day, 1919 to treat friend and despicable with even mili­ Chaumont tary-courtesy?—no, form based on regula­ Dear Mother: tions! The promiscuous perpetual salute is the sign of military bondage. ... I am compiling an article on the pro­ posed Franco-Anglo-American Alliance. Per­ In continuing my compilation about the sonally I heartily disapprove it, unless as a very "alliance", I have become inclined to look on temporary expedient. It is unthinkable that the President's pledge as empty rather than we set ourselves up by the side of France in the dangerous. He is promising to use all our perpetuation of hate and insult of Germany. strength to support the League Council's deci­ Hate is rust and friction in the machinery of sion in case Germany attacks France, no more human happiness; nay, more, it is glue where than we'd do, I hope, if France attacked Ger­ oil is needed, and oil where glue. many or any state became unprovokedly ag­ gressive. I am sorry the US has not publicly shared war expenses in proportion to our wealth. But Really, Mother, I should not think of calling it would be a horrible mistake to abandon the on Mr. Lansing if I had nothing more impor­ Monroe Doctrine of Pan-Americanism in fa­ tant to take his time about than Aunt Kitty's vor of any alliance with continental powers, or chairs.® He has far too much to occupy him in indeed in favor of anything but a League of these days. However it is unlikely 1 shall be in Nations substantially all-embracing. France is Paris again except en route to England or too interested in impeding Germany to be a fit America. Your suggestion about M. de la Pra- partner in any other undertaking—indeed to delle is really—indicative of an exaggerated be fit to rebuild her own economic structure. idea of my importance. He can't become my private tutor! However, about that too, there You will soon be distracted from Paris by is no use talking; for this present job gives the antics of Congress with its manager absent. promises of lasting till the end of June at least. But we really need him more than you. We You are very generous to propose my not hope to send him back in a month's time and to coming back before July; but, as I say, I shall return a few weeks after him. I suppose the hardly have that chance. 1 hope to "give" you Victory Loan campaign is absorbing some of all August and September. . . . your attention now. It certainly seems to be ac­ companied by all the latest turns of American I have just got a letter from Rodney P. Ro­ ingenuity. I hope the parading fad will have binson, SSU 594, (formerly an instructor in cooled by July, for I have no desire to parade the classics at the University of Illinois), who is Fifth Avenue, especially in mid-summer. . . . now studying at the Sorbonne saying that he has bought for me a watch, a gift from the sec­ tion, whose purchase they entrusted to him when the section went home. It was an entire May 12,1919 surprise and will be a precious reminder of Dear Mother and Father: our months together. One of the sergeants . . . Don't expect me till 1 come. When I ar­ here who is going to Paris on three days' leave rived here, it seemed like a month's job; now it is going to bring the watch to me next looks like two months more! And I'm not sure week. . . . I can get to England. However I have still no The thousand petty injustices of the army reason to despair of that. If I do go, I don't sometimes get me mad. But I forget them— want to go calling all the time, but 1 shall be really can't remember what they are, but only glad to arrange to visit the Gladstones, if they that they are—so quickly that I can never ade­ want me. I want particularly to go again to Ox­ quately campaign against them. Most of them ford and Cambridge and then perhaps to Devonshire to wander a little. . . . You don't understand about saluting. I'll Secretary of State Robert Lansing was a member of write you an essay on it some day; also on Ger­ the American Commission to Negotiate Peace. Aunt Kitty man prisoners. My objection to saluting is its was Katharine Pruyn, a Boston-based playwright and sis­ ter to Rice's mother, Harriet Pruyn Rice. The purpose of meaninglessness. Imagine having to bow to the chairs remains a mystery. Genealogical investigations every person you meet (or three-quarters of suggest, but do not substantiate, that Lansing and the them, about y4 of our passers are ofthe AEF), Pruyns were distantly related.

114 BROWN: AMBULANCE SERVICE LEI'TERS

are really faults of autocracy, of the unre­ times in the last three weeks than in the three strained misdeeds and omissions of individ­ preceding years. uals, inherent in the army system. So why I have not drawn my pay for the last two kick? The army did a wonderful job; much months because exchange is getting worse all credit to Pershing and to the American peo­ the time (French money is depreciating, I ple. But the injustice to individuals is some­ mean) and I had over 4,000 francs banked in times shocking. Paris. It is better to draw this out for use and get my pay in dollars later. But even so, I shall The Germans were presented with the Treaty of have some 3,000 francs when I sail. For the Versailles on May 7, 1919; they signed it on June present I intend to leave it (at Morgan Harjes 28. And Bill Rice spent his long-awaited furlough and Equitable Trust Co.) hoping that French in England. money will appreciate in due time. Led by isolationists like Wisconsin Senator Bob Paul and I spent yesterday afternoon at the La Follette, the United States Senate refused to ratify Louvre. None ofthe regular galleries of paint­ a treaty that contained the League of Nations cove­ ing are open. But some poor French work and nant. After much rancor and debate. Congress, by a few good foreign pictures (Mona Lisa, La joint resolution, terminated war with Germany and Sainte Jardiniere, Christ at Emmaus, for in­ Austria-Hungary on July 2,1921, and signed sepa­ stance) are exhibited elsewhere. The whole rate treaties with the three nations on October 18, galleries are overcrowded with exhibits and 1921. The United States never became a member of with people. The National Gallery in London the League of Nations, though it increasingly partic­ was also disappointing (much of it being ipated in League affairs. closed); but what was shown was better ar­ ranged there. This afternoon we intend to meet at the Luxemburg Gallery and then go to June27,1919 the Musee de Cluny. First I will try to get you Paris place cards at Maquet's. Dear Mother and Father: I have not heard from the Eliots for a long I got yesterday your "last letters" on return­ time. I hope Rosamond is well again. Paulding ing to Paris after our delightful trip in En­ appeared quite distressed about her. I must gland. We spent Monday night and Tuesday write her again. morning in Canterbury, which is perfectly This will not be my last letter—in view of lovely. Tuesday evening we went again to the what I hear about delay at Brest. Bill Quimby Harvard's and Wednesday we recrossed to has been there for over two weeks and some France, going to the Comedie in the evening officers still longer. I shall try to return by ("Blanchettes" by Brieux and "Les Perses" of Marseille if that will gain time. Don't expect Aeschylus). We are at the University Union me for nearly a month from now. and are staying over a day or two for the peace . . . Do you really think I should go back to celebration. Paul is going to be demobilized in Law School? I'm nearly sure I don't want to be France, to go into an American business un­ a lawyer. Paul says I ought to teach. But he has dertaking, temporarily. Brest is very con­ a quite unreasonable admiration for my every gested; I am likely to be there over two weeks. gesture and word. But 1 think he is probably So I may get another leave which I think I'll right about this. spend in Brittany quite quietly. I am meeting many Americans that I know. Last night at "Manon" at the Comique we had July 2, 1919 seats {strapontins, for the house was full) next Brest [to] Calvert Smith (Harvard '14) of Pres. Dear Mother and Father: Wilson's suite, and Prof. Taussig of the peace This is my last letter from France, for I shall commission. I met a couple of law school class­ probably sail before the week is out. And so I mates—Walker and Stout—(studying at the expect to be with you by July 20. Sorbonne), and today I fell in with Jimmy I am very glad I staid in Paris for the big cel­ Munn (Harvard '12) on the street. This sound ebration Saturday night. I did not really feel like a gay life; it is about the gayest I've ever very joyful, for the peace is less good than I led. I've been to the theater and opera more had hoped, but that did not interfere with my

115 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982 joining in the celebration. After taking a rocking it till the inhabitants were sea-sick or friend with tonsilitis to the hospital, Paul and I the driver ran over his blockers. The only climbed (were lifted up) the Eiffel Tower and other wheelers in the streets were captured were in it when the guns at the Invalides about cannons from the Champs Elysees and the 5 o'clock began shooting to announce the sig­ Concorde dragged along until a wheel was nature of peace. It is a noble sight to view the busted or the gang deserted. It was funny next city at that height. day to see the half-relics of cannons in various We dined at the Coucou near the Sacre streets. Coeur. The wine was excellent, the food poor. The crowd was very good-natured and Just as we were leaving, a strolling violinist never drunk. I think about 1/8 or 1/6 were of who pretended to be a mulile de guerre (which I the AEF. French soldiers were no more nu­ think he was) got into a violent quarrel with a merous. A few British and others were about. very tall civilian whom he called an embusque. A But more than half the people were civilians third Frenchman rushed upon the latter and and more than half the civilians were women. kicked him down; the musician ffed; the tall Of course they were at all times in danger (or man began seizing the restaurant tables and hopeful) of being kissed. But there was practi­ flinging them at the nearest person, while the cally no roughness and absolutely no injury. crowd got thicker and more perplexed. Even­ Altogether I was delighted to see how fine a tually an American major and 1 led the tall French crowd is when merry, for the ordinary man into the next street, where he was joined French crowd is quite awfully selfish. I was by a painted female whom he called his wife very glad too to see no indications of bad feel­ and who seemed to succeed in calming him ings between French and Americans. They enough to dissuade him from returning for mingled very freely and the Americans vengeance—for the moment. adapted themselves to the ways ofthe French. We walked to the grand boulevards where This too is a pleasant memory, for it counter­ crowds were gathering, small parades form­ balances some of the conflicts between the ing, dancing beginning, and a carnival break­ races which have occurred, particularly at ing loose. Paul and I separated; in fact every­ ports. one lost anyone else in the nature of things. I Sunday night the celebration was re­ was with some of my men of 594 for a while, peated—palely. That evening Paul and I were then with a Red Cross lieutenant whom I had most of the time with a British (Australian) never seen, then with an old Field Service ac­ captain who was captured with us by one ofthe quaintance and most of the time arm in arm rings of rejoicers singing, "Fallait pas, il fallait with some stranger or strangeress. Chenal (?) pas, that the Kaiser should come to Paris," I sang the Marseillaise from the balcony of the think. . . . Opera, but 1 could hear scarcely a sound such We intended to go to Fontainebleau after was the roar; however we all joined heartily in lunch [on Sunday] (which I have never seen) the refrain. There was a roar but not a great but decided to try the Inter-Allied games in­ noise; it was all human—no horns and rattlers stead. The "Stade Pershing" and the field it and shriekers. There was little music except surrounds are a fine monument of the AEF. song-snatches of "Madelon" and other popu­ The crowd was one-third civilian (rather few lar songs. women), one-third horizon-bleu [i.e., French Later at night when the crowd was less soldiers] and one-third khaki—an odd effect. dense, some wandering players would gather Capt. Jim Basey, our chief at Chaumont, in­ groups of dancers about them. There were vited us to sit in the Yugo-Slav box (he is liaison flags and paper parasols and confetti and officer with this delegation of competitors). I coiled paper tubes that you blow out in the was next a Lieutenant Rudovitch (who spoke next person's face. Then there were fireworks French well), a very pleasant chap. But I en­ of a mild variety which were allowed to be joyed seeing the games and the crowd (espe­ thrown quite recklessly and disagreeably any­ cially a splendid soccer game in which the where. Their explosion was nothing, but they Czecho-Slav beat the French 3 to 2) more than could burn. Then there was the brave sport of my immediate company. A French major in taxi-tilting, which consisted in stopping any the next box thought he had met me at the automobile than came into the boulevards and front (which he hadn't); so we talked together.

116 BROWN: AMBULANCE SERVICE LETTERS

On the other side were Secretary [of State] ranged his plans so much that Paul did not feel Lansing and his party, particularly Jim sure he had ajob at all. So he came to Brest and Garfield whom I knew at Law School. I gave we sailed together on July 11. We have had a the Secretary your message (long deferred in thoroly uneventful crossing with the best of transit) about Aunt Kitty's chairs; and we dis­ weather, many physical discomforts (like unto cussed the time of day. Not an interesting per­ those of the lowly enlisted man) and no hard­ sonality, Mr. Lansing; but he seems to know ships. We arrive tomorrow about noon. I shall hisjob. have to stay in New York for a couple of days Monday afternoon we went to Chartres. to get my baggage and to get discharged or But Chartres is not worth seeing in its diluted else two weeks leave which, it appears, is ac­ state of glassjessness. For fear of bombs, all its corded to those who ask it. I shall probably fine windows (like those f the Sainte Chapelle reach Albany Saturday. The Warrior's Re­ and Notre Dame's transepts) were removed turn! Don't kill the fatted calf; I've had and have not yet been replaced. At Chartres enough veal. Paul and I parted, he to be discharged in Au revoir a bientot: with great joy and love, France and I to embark for you. We had been constantly (except for six days) together for WGRjR. three months and a half. He was utterly down­ cast, for he almost worships me. 1 can't under­ stand why he feels so dependent on me; for I EPILOGUE am sure he has the stronger personality and 1 was for a short time afraid of his swallowing me—figuratively. We had had an extremely ILL RICE returned to Harvard happy time together and I miss him heartily. B Law School for the 1919 fall But I think it is good for us to separate for a term. He married Rosamond Eliot the follow­ while. ing June, shortly after receiving his LL.B. A Last night I stopt at St. Brieuc at dinner year later he was awarded the S.J.D. Upon the time and spent the night there arriving here at recommendation of Harvard Eaw professor noon. "Here" is a marvelous place thronging Felix Frankfurter, Rice became law clerk to with thousands, very clean and simple and United States Supreme Court Justice Louis D. well-run. But not at all a place to stay. Many of Brandeis during the 1921 term ofthe Court. the officers that came today sail tomorrow. But (Frankfurter would succeed Brandeis on the I have to get hold of my baggage, forwarded Court in 1939.) Apparently already decided from St. Aignan, first. I have got most of my on a teaching career, but undecided as to loca­ troubles out ofthe way this afternoon. tion. Rice asked Brandeis for advice. Distrust­ Everywhere I meet people I know— ing bigness, Brandeis admonished Rice, Harvard, Field Service, GHQ, etc. But none, I "Don't go to New York." This, in part, led to think, that would be of interest to you. I came the young law clerk's application for a teach­ on John Woodbridge, one ofthe old 66 crowd ing position at the University of Wisconsin today. He is returning to America to see his Law School. family for the first time in six years. They have Refugees from the privileged life, the Rices lived in China. An officer on my left at this ta­ wanted to locate where neither of their promi­ ble (Red Cross hut) is telling of his wild experi­ nent families was well-known, and Wisconsin ences on peace night. He seems to have been seemed attractive. Bill had become familiar pretty well liquored up. A few Americans were with the political reputation of the state too "happy"; but the MP's had an easy time, through the boosterism of his law school class- they all told me. " The informadon in this epilogue may be found in the July 16,1919 following: "In Appreciation," in the Wisconsin Law Review, vol. 1963, May, 1963, frontispiece; "In Memoriam: Wil­ S. S. Northern Pacific liam (iorham Rice, 1892-1979," and companion pieces, Dear Mother and Father: 'dlso in the Wisconsin Law Review, vol. 1980,no. l,pp. 1-23; and "William Gorham Rice, Jr., "University Archives Oral Paul's boss in the job he expected in Europe History Project, University of Wisconsin, interview con­ got laid up in [the] hospital, which disar­ ducted by Donna S. Taylor, 1972 (transcript, 1974).

117 were lifelong civil libertarians, having been re­ cruited in their college days by Roger Baldwin, founder of the American Civil Liberties Un­ ion and a close friend ofthe Eliot family. Rice's concern for the common man sparked an in­ terest in the growing labor movement during the late 1920's and 1930's. He participated in the movement at all levels of involvement—as a local union member and official, as one of the first attorneys general to the Wisconsin La­ bor Relations Board, as counsel to the youth­ ful National Labor Relations Board, and in the international arena, where he combined his unionism with his interest in fostering im­ proved international relations. Thus, Bill Rice developed a multi-faceted career and reputation during the almost six decades that he based his life in Madison. He blended teaching with government service, politics, and public affairs, as well as scholar­ ship and an active social life. Appreciated as a congenial teacher unsurpassed in "his ability to explain the complicated concepts inherent in the study of law," he scorned ordinary lec­ tures for the give-and-take of the Socratic method. He eventually taught almost every type of law course offered by the law school, but he concentrated his scholarship on labor, international, and comparative law.

Courtesy of Hazel Briggs Ric On numerous occasions he was asked to Bill Rice enjoying retirement on the terrace ofthe Alemorial serve the federal government, most fre­ Union at the University of Wisconsin. quently during the administration of an old Rice family friend, Franklin D. Roosevelt. In mate, Alvin Reis, later a leader ofthe Progres­ 1934 he served as general counsel to the first sive Party and a Dane County circuit court National Labor Relations Board, and in 1935 judge. Too, while clerking for Brandeis, he he was recalled by Labor Secretary Frances had met and been impresed by Brandeis' Perkins to represent the United States at the friend, Robert M. La Follette. When Harry S. International Labor Organization in Geneva. Richards, dean of the Wisconsin law school, While there he continued his research on the offered Rice an assistant professorship, he ac­ comparison of international law and Swiss in- cepted. The Rices moved to Madison in 1922. tercantonal law. Rice served as counsel to the For the next forty-one years, until he retired at new Wisconsin Labor Relations Board during age seventy in 1963, Bill Rice taught at the law the summer of 1938. Just prior to America's school. entry into World War II, the Rice family Many of the basic ideas that Rice carried moved to Washington, D.C, where they re­ with him to France remained with him mained on into the Truman administration. throughout his life. He remained an interna­ During this latter period Bill Rice variously tionalist, even though his continued support worked in the Labor Department, on the De­ ofthe League of Nations resulted in denuncia­ fense Mediation Board, on the War Labor tion by isolationists in the state legislature and Board, and as assistant general counsel to the the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Ad­ and heated arguments with his fellow civil lib­ ministration. ertarian, William T. Evjue, publisher of After the war he returned to his teaching Madison's Capital Times. He and Rosamond career in Madison. Rice continued to be active 118 BROWN: AMBULANCE SERVICE LETTERS in public affairs at the state and local levels. He sary. In 1971, just before receiving an honor­ was twice the Democratic candidate for public ary LL.D from the University of Wisconsin- office—in 1948 for the United States House of Milwaukee, Bill Rice married Hazel Farkasch Representatives, in 1958 for the Wisconsin Briggs, former secretary to the labor econ­ state assembly—but each time he was defeated omist John R. Commons and widow of an­ by his Republican opponent. In 1948, and other economics professor, Alfred W. Briggs. again in 1968, he was a state delegate to the Throughout the 1970's, Rice continued to Democratic national convention. Throughout show up for "work days" at Madison's First this period, both he and wife served as a Wis­ Unitarian Society, and he remained a staunch consin member ofthe board of directors ofthe advocate ofthe carillon tower on the Madison American Civil Liberties Union and, in re­ campus—one of his lifelong avocations— sponse to the activities of Senator Joseph Mc­ seeing it through to completion in 1973. Al­ Carthy, he helped found the Wisconsin Civil most until the day of his death in May, 1979, Liberties Union with William T. Evjue and he could be seen pedaling his old bicycle in to­ Morris Rubin of The Progressive. Rice was ward campus—just as he had been doing WCLU chairman from the late 1950's until "nearly every weekday except in midwinter" 1967, and he served on the board of directors since the 1920's. and as chairman of the legislation committee The volunteer aid he gave beleaguered almost until his death. France through the American Field Service Bill Rice retired from teaching in 1963. De­ foreshadowed the rest of Rice's life. Though spite deteriorating eyesight he remained an he was definitely chastened by his experiences active scholar—though he might have ob­ Over There—and especially by the post- jected to such a title, having once claimed that Armistice bickering—he continued to serve "my interests are too diffuse and my devotion both justice and humanity as teacher, civil lib­ to books too meager for me to be eminent in ertarian, lawyer, and volunteer. He remained scholarship"—and he continued his campus an internationahst, just as the American Field and community activities. An early critic of the Service today fosters international under­ American involvement in the Vietnam war, in standing by means of its student exchange 1965 he denounced it "as a violation of inter­ programs. Though a lifelong Democrat, he national law ... an execrable misuse of our was at heart a compassionate populist. Proba­ military power, [and] a bitter shame that will bly Bill Rice could have amassed a good deal of haunt us forever," and participated in the power and wealth—his social connections, his University of Wisconsin teach-in and other education, and his undoubted abilities cer­ demonstrations. tainly suggest that—but instead he devoted Rosamond Ehot Rice died in 1970, shortly himself, as he said, "to improving the human before the couple's fiftieth wedding anniver­ condition."

119 Domesticating Electricity in Appleton H.J. Rogers.

By Larry A. Reed

HEN the handmade brass tog­ W gle switch was turned on and the carbonized bamboo filament glowed into brightness inside the small bulb, history was made in Henry J. Rogers' house at 625 West Prospect Avenue in Appleton. The date was September 30, 1882, and an idea whose time had come was literally illuminated for all to see. On that Saturday night almost a hundred iu\ Histoiic.ll Sotiet\ years ago, Rogers' elegant Victorian home, now named Hearthstone, became the first res­ idence electrified from a centrally located hy­ away, and Rogers' new residence overlooking droelectric generating station. the Fox River were electrically wired to the generator. On Wednesday, September 27, "Verily this is a progressive age, and Apple- 1882, the machinery was tested. No light came ton keeps abreast of the times in everything," on. "Excessive moisture" was thought to be the the local press boasted three weeks before the cause. momentous event. By late summer, 1882, the news was out that Henry Rogers, following a The wires were insulated, other adjust­ fishing trip with a Western Edison Electric ments were made, and, as a local newspaper Company salesman, had become enthused reported, "when the power was again applied about the idea of incandescent electric light— on Saturday night it worked well, the entire even though he was president of the local gas circuit of lights in the mills and residence giv­ company, then the commercial illuminator of ing a constant, clear, intense white light, char­ Appleton. acteristic of the Edison light." For the first time, incandescent electric light glowed in the Rogers persuaded several local business­ Fox River valley—and for the first time any­ men to form the Appleton Edison Light Com­ where, the light emanated from an Edison hy­ pany, Ltd., and to enter into a contract for the droelectric central plant. exclusive use of the Edison system in the Fox River valley. But instead of using steam to "The electric light may entirely supersede power their generator (as Edison did in his the use of gas as an illuminator in our city, but New York plant that went into operation on that remains to be seen hereafter," cautiously September 4, 1882), the Appleton entrepre­ predicted the Appleton newspaper. Soon a neurs were prepared to harness the power of second generator was installed in its own the Fox River itself. building on the other side of town, electrifying several more residences and mills, a blast fur­ An Edison Type "K" dynamo was pur­ nace, and eventually the Waverly Hotel, the chased and installed in the Appleton Pulp and first in the west with electric light. (A replica of Paper Mill by Rogers and his foresighted asso­ this first central hydroelectric Edison station ciates. The generator was connected to a pulp- was erected in Appleton in 1932.) Now the lo­ beating machine operated by the mill's water cal press could brag that "Appleton already wheel, which was in turn powered by the Fox has it [electricity] placed in more buildings River. This mill, a second mill about a mile than any other city in the United States. ..." Whether that was strictly true or not, electricity definitely was in Appleton to LARRY A. REED is local preservation coordinator with the Society's Historic Preservation Division. stay. Copyright © 1982 bs The Stale Hlsloricai Society of Wiscomin 120 AU rights of reproduction In any form resewed The home ofH. J. Rogers on Prospect Aveune in Appleton, taken many years after it was first electrically illuminated in 1882.

HE Queen Anne style house the joists to carry the silk-wrapped copper wir­ T credited with the first residen­ ing. Brass toggle switches, handmade in tial use of hydroelectric incandescent light Edison's laboratory, turned the lights on and took Henry Rogers three years to build. In off, and the elegant brass chandeliers were 1880, the river-bed rock foundation was laid converted from gas to electricity. "The lamps and allowed to cure, and the lumber for the are pear shaped bulbs, not large," a reporter house was dried in the basement by fires kept noted at the time, "containing an ellipse of burning throughout the winter. The second bamboo carbon, the air of the bulb having year, the wooden structure and the exterior been exhausted." On September 30, 1882, brick bearing walls were erected. In the third those bulbs incandesced with a light now fa­ summer all interior plastering and hnishing miliar to the world. was completed, with elaborate use made of The illumination of Henry Rogers' house Wisconsin white oak, cherry, and bird's-eye proved that the domestic use of electricity was maple. A European craftsman brought to Ap­ feasible and economical—as well as won­ pleton by Rogers especially for work on his drous—and that Appleton, Wisconsin, was house did the decorative carving. The carv­ not only abreast of the times but well ahead of ings feature a bird motif and still adorn the them. Many ofthe original brass switches and fireplace mantels and door and window cas­ light fixtures remain in Rogers' house, now ings. Minton tiles depicting scenes from works better known as Hearthstone, a name taken of Shakespeare, Longfellow, Scott, and from the Hearthstone Tea Room that occu­ Dickens embellish the fireplaces. pied the house in the 1930's. In 1974 the Rogers fitted his house with gas piping and house was placed in the National Register of gaslight fixtures. However, before the house Historic Places, both because of its architec­ was completed in mid-1882, Rogers had it tural distinction and the unique historical role wired for electricity. Wooden cleats were it played in bringing Edison's electricity into nailed to the rafters to serve as electrical insu­ the lives of Wisconsin's citizens. lators, and porcelain tubing was run through

121 One More Civil War Memoir

By Marilyn Grant

OME twenty years after the Civil and lecturer. In it, he satirized his war exploits S War, George W. Peck, editor of and reffected on the ludicrous heroics under­ Peck's Sun, a weekly newspaper in Milwaukee, taken by young men barely past adolescence. and a former member of the Fourth Wiscon­ While The Century series emphasized "the sin Cavalry, began publishing his war memoirs benefit as well as the glory of the issues," the from the standpoint of a "private soldier, who reminiscences of Mark Twain and George was afraid of his shadow, and who didn't want Peck pointed up the ignominy of war. Twain to fight unless he had to." The articles. Peck referred to current articles by those who had said, were in response to a suggestion in The done "something in the war," saying that he Century magazine, a high-quality literary thought it only fair that those who had started monthly which was about half-way through a to do something and then quit should also be series of its own about significant episodes that heard. "Thousands entered the war, got just a occurred during the War ofthe Rebellion. taste of it, and then stepped out again perma­ Most ofthe authors in The Century had been nently," he wrote. "These, by their very num­ commanders or prominent men-at-arms from bers, are respectable and are therefore enti­ both sides who wrote about the campaigns tled to a sort of a voice—not a loud one but a they had helped to plan and to execute. Clar­ modest one, not a boastful one but an apolo­ ence Clough Buel, The Century's assistant edi­ getic one.. . . They ought at least to be allowed tor who had proposed the national series, to state why they didn't do anything and also to wrote that, in addition to preserving first- explain the process by which they didn't do person accounts and "of instructing the gener­ anything." ation which has grown up since the War for Twain explained that early in the summer the Union," a major purpose of the articles of 1861 he was visiting his boyhood home of was to interest other veterans in their own Hannibal in Marion County, Missouri, when memories ofthe hostilities and to bring about Union troops invaded the state. A few days a "better understanding between the soldiers later, he and fourteen friends met and formed who were opposed in the conffict." the Marion Rangers in answer to the The Wisconsin editor was not the only sol­ governor's call for 50,000 militia to "repel the dier to write about the war during this period. invader." Twain's account follows the Rangers During the late 1880's and the 1890's, a spate as they trudged across the Missouri country­ of memoirs appeared across the country in side for several weeks until about half of them, newspapers and local histories as well as in na­ including the author, left for less dangerous tional publications. Nor was Peck the only one pursuits. Admitting that he and his buddies to poke fun at his experiences. Among the sev­ had been frightened out, "crippling the eral humorous recollections, perhaps a sketch Southern cause to that extent," by the advance by Mark Twain describing his brief career as a of a then-unknown Union colonel by the name Confederate soldier is the best known and re­ of Ulysses S. Grant, Twain admonished his mains one of Twain's outstanding short readers nonetheless that the "thoughtful will pieces. "The Private History of a Campaign not throw this war paper of mine lightly aside That Failed" was written by Twain in the as being valueless. It has this value: It is a not 1880's at the height of his popularity as author unfair picture of what went on in many and many a militia camp in the first months of the rebellion, when the green recruits were with­ MARILYN GRANT is associate editor of the Wisconsin Maga­ out discipline, without the steadying and zine of History and editor of the Society's newsletter. Columns. heartening inffuence of trained leaders, when Copyright © 1982 by 'The Stale Historical Society of Wisconsin 122 All rights of reproduction in any form reserved GRANT: CIVIL WAR MEMOIR

them spoofs, that he originally had written in serial form for the Sun. A few told of the pa­ thos and tragedy of war—for George Peck had a serious side which he seldom exposed to public view—but the majority of his tales were primarily funny stories. Peck, like Mark Twain, claimed to have written How Private George W. Peck Put Down the Rebellion, or the Funny Experiences of a Raw Recruit for the sake of history. "To read those Century articles," Peck wrote, "it seems strange that the Union generals who won so many de­ cisive battles, should not have ended the war much sooner than they did, and to read the ac­ counts of battles won by the Confederates, and the demoralization that ensued in the ranks of their opponents, it seems marvelous that the Union army was victorious. ..." If such ar­ ticles stood alone in history. Peck feared that they would "mix up generations yet unborn in the most hopeless manner." Therefore, he reasoned, some private soldier should write a description of the decisive battle of the war, and as "I was the private soldier who fought that battle on the Union side, against fearful odds, viz: against a Confederate soldier who was braver than I was, a better horseback WHi (X3) 38018 rider, and a better poker player, I feel it is my Second Lieutenant George W. Peck, Company E, Fourth duty to tell about it." Wisconsin (Mvalry. By the time he wrote The Funny Experiences all their circumstances were new and strange of a Raw Recruit, George Peck was a nationally and charged with exaggerated terrors, and be­ recognized humorist best known for his fore the invaluable experience of actual colli­ sketches about the energetic and precociously sion in the field had turned them from rabbits naughty "Peck's Bad Boy" who plagued his fa­ into soldiers. If this side of the picture of that ther endlessly with practical jokes. Between early day has not before been put into history, 1882 and 1907, the "Bad Boy" articles were then history has been to that degree incom­ published in six volumes that sold over a mil­ plete, for it had and has its rightful place lion copies in this country and abroad. Peck there. There was more Bull Run material scat­ wrote his "Bad Boy" series for the Sun, which tered through the early camps of this country he had establishecl as a medium for jiumor, than exhibited itself at Bull Run. And yet it first in La Crosse where it failed and then in learned its trade presently and helped to fight Milwaukee where it thrived. He was a Demo­ the great battles later. I could have become a crat, and his taunting wit often was aimed at a soldier myself if I had waited. I had got part of Republican target, but he was not an astute po­ it learned, I knew more about retreating than litical satirist, and it was his outlandish humor the man that invented retreating." itself rather then the content that made the newspaper and its pubHsher popular. Unlike Mark Twain, who garbed his deeply American perceptions in timeless imagery, George Peck FORCE Peck's memoir was wrote burlesques of episodes that were mo­ G'different , although he touched mentarily diverting and amusing. on some of the same experiences that Twain He was a slight man with reddish hair, did. Peck's was not a single narrative, but freckles, a self-satisfied half-grin, and, for rather a collection of separate stories, most of much of his life, a stylishly trimmed mustache

123 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTC^RY WINTER, 1981-1982

and Vandyke goatee. He said he quit school at fiery, outspoken editor of the La Crosse Daily fifteen to become a printer's apprentice and, Democrat, who lured Peck onto his staff and though he was to serve two terms as governor then induced him to go to New York to help of Wisconsin and dabbled in state politics for Pomeroy launch the New York Democrat to nearly thirty years, for the rest of his life he tout the political career of William Marcy fancied himself a printer, country editor, and (Boss) Tweed. When the Democrat went under down-home humorist. in the early 1870's, Peck came back to Wiscon­ George Wilbur Peck was born in 1840 in sin, and in 1874 founded Peck's Sun in La Henderson, New York, and came to Jefferson Crosse. After four years of trying, unsuccess­ County, Wisconsin, with his parents in 1843. fully, to generate interest in and financial sup­ The family lived in Walworth and Jefferson port for his paper, he moved his press to Mil­ counties before settling in Whitewater, where waukee. young Peck began his printing career. He held Milwaukeeans appreciated his humor. The various printing and editorial jobs on several Sun flourished, and Peck became a popular or­ newspapers in the state, worked briefly as a ator at public affairs, where he was often asked hotel clerk in Janesville, where he met and to read one of his articles. In 1890, at the married Francena Rowley, and, from 1864 height of the controversy over the Bennett until 1866, he served with the Fourth Wiscon­ Law (which, among other stipulations, re­ sin Cavalry. When he mustered out, he re­ quired that English be taught in all Wisconsin turned to Wisconsin and started the Represen­ grade schools and that children attend school tative, a Republican newspaper, in Ripon. in the district in which they lived), the Milwau­ Within a short time he switched his political al­ kee Democrats offered Peck as a non- legiance, and, as a converted Democrat, Peck controversial candidate for mayor. He won initiated a series of letters lampooning nepo­ handily over Thomas H. Brown, the Republi­ tism in the administration of President Ulysses can incumbent. Peck's acceptance speech S. Grant. The letters were signed by Terence sounded more like a comedian's script than a McGrant, "A brevet Irish cousin of President politician's oration; indeed, he assured his lis­ Ulisses S. Grant. ..." teners, "There is nothing more pleasant in the Peck's McGrant was typical of the distorted world than to have people happy." style of popular nineteenth-century carica­ The popularity ofthe "happy mayor," as he ture. He was doltish and unsavory, but Peck was dubbed, convinced the state Democratic kept him within quasi-respectable bounds—in party that it had a chance to capture the execu­ contrast to the grotesquely despictable Petro­ tive office, and in August, 1890, Peck was leum V. Nasby, created ten years earlier dur­ nominated as the Democratic candidate for ing the war by David John Locke, an Ohio governor. He was introduced at the conven­ newspaperman. The "Civil War Letters of Pe­ tion as the gentleman known to "the people of troleum V. Nasby" became landmarks in the this great nation chiefly as a humorous and annals of war propaganda and launched cheerful writer, as one who tried to throw sun­ Locke on a lucrative national career. Locke's shine and happiness around the path of hard- Nasby stood foursquare for the South, slavery, shipand toil.. . . " His stunning defeat of Gov­ and secession. His purpose was clear: what­ ernor William Dempster Hoard enshrined ever the scurrilous Nasby stood for, decent Peck in political history as the only Democrat people would repudiate. Peck's Terence Mc­ in Wisconsin to sit in the governor's office Grant, on the other hand, was ignorant, and from 1876, when William R. Taylor left office, he twitted the President, but he never sank to until 1933, when Albert G. Schmedeman be­ the vituperative depths of Petroleum V. gan his term. Nasby. In 1871, the McGrant letters were pub­ Peck's electoral success was more directly lished as Peck's first book, The Adventures of attributable to national and state issues than to One Terence McGrant. his political acumen, although his affability did make him a popular candidate. One biog­ rapher summed up Peck's two terms in office HE first McGrant letter in the by describing the brilliant entertainment at T Representative attracted the at­ the executive mansion and commending Peck tention of Marcus M. (Brick) Pomeroy, the as "a man of high integrity who was more 124 GRANT: CIVIL WAR MEMOIR adept as a speaker, writer and companion bounty, and a few months' pay and it would be than as a Governor." A contemporary newspa­ just like finding money. ... I would not assert perman and political observer commented that the recruiting olficer deliberately lied to that Peck had survived the acerbic strife ofthe me, but I was the worst deceived man that ever Bennett Law dispute "without a personal en­ enlisted, and if I ever meet that man, on this emy in the world—a man for whom all who earth, it will go hard with him. . . . know him would, irrespective of political or "As far as the bounty was concerned, I got other considerations which usually engender, that all right, but it was only three-hundred prejudice, go out of their way at any time of dollars. Within twenty-four hours after I had the day or night, to do him a personal favor." been credited to the town from which I en­ During Peck's governorship, the Sun lan­ listed, I heard of a town that was paying as guished and, despite his efforts to revive it, it high as twelve-hundred dollars for recruits. finally died in 1900. In 1904 he ran once ... I think that during two years and a half of again,this time unsuccessfully, for governor. service nothing tended more to dampen my From then until his death in 1916, Peck lived ardor, make me despondent, and hate myself, on returns from his real estate investments than the loss of that nine-hundred dollars and reigned as resident wit in the lobbies of bounty. There was not an hour of the day, in the Plankinton and Pfister hotels in Milwau­ all of my service, that I did not think of what kee. might have been. It was a long time before I Although Peck covered a broad spectrum brought to my aid that passage of scripture, of topics in his writings, he seldom focused on 'There is no use crying for spilled bounty,' but sociopolitical issues of the day. Through ridi­ when I did it helped me some. I thought of the cule, he often exposed the follies of the times, hundreds who didn't get any bounty." but reform was not his primary target. He The bounty furor, precipitated by the fed­ wrote to be funny. In his Civil War satires, he eral Enrollment Act passed by Congress in successfully captured some ofthe absurdity of March, 1863, was at its height when Peck en­ war, but his rollicking style softened the mes­ listed on December 29, 1863. The act estab­ sage and blunted his impact as a social critic. lished military conscription and set up a quota Like many of his peers, his social conscience system based upon congressional districts, did not embrace the Negro, and he wrote deri­ which were further divided into subdistricts sively about the blacks he encountered during consisting of either townships or city wards. his army career. He treated slavery only in the Each subdistrict was assigned a quota of men abstract, and indeed he did not directly ad­ to be provided for the Union Army, and if an dress any of the issues of the Civil War. His insufficient number of men volunteered, a purpose in lampooning The Century's Civil War draft lottery would be held and names selected series was probably twofold: to amuse his at random. However, a draftee who neither readers and to voice his antipathy toward the wanted to serve nor to flee to Canada could witless inequities of war. commute the draft by paying the government $300 or by persuading another man to serve in his stead. The inducement to these "substi­ tutes" was a substantial cash bounty offered by ECK wrote his Civil War satires ward and township committees to men who P four years before he became would volunteer to risk their skins. The system governor and twenty-two years after he had was manifestly inequitable and corrupting; as joined the Fourth Cavalry "as a raw recruit in a cynics then and later said, it was a rich man's veteran regiment." He explained to his war and a poor man's fight. readers that while most soldiers probably had At the time of Peck's enlistment (which was enlisted from patriotic motives, he had not. "1 credited to the draft quota of Delavan, Wis­ enlisted for the bounty," he confided. "1 consin, his wife's home town), veterans re- thought the war was nearly over, and that the enlisting were paid a bounty of $402 and new probabilities were that the regiment I had en­ recruits going into veteran regiments were listed in would be ordered home before 1 paid $302. A few towns and cities were could get to it. In fact the recruiting officer affluent enough to more than double these told me as much, and he said I would get my figures, but not until the commutation clause

125 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982 of the Enrollment Act was repealed in the state rooms, and finally from the bar, where he spring of 1864 did enlistment bounties ap­ was told he could get a drink of whiskey proach the $1,200 mentioned by Peck. The through a window below where the Negro point Peck makes in his memoir, of course, deck hands got theirs. That was the day, he was not the amount of money he was paid to wrote, "that I realized that in becoming a sol­ enlist, but rather the stupidity and injustice of dier I had descended to a level with negro the federal bounty system itself, which led to deck hands and roustabouts, and could not be "bountyjumping" (by men who enlisted in one allowed to associate with gentlemen." regiment after another, collecting the cash bounties but never showing up for military duty), fights between rival "bounty brokers," and angry disillusionment among those who OTH Mark Twain and George loyally served but received nothing. B Peck were town boys, not farm Peck had written about some of his war ex­ boys, and each remembered meeting his army periences before he reworked them for the mount with considerable trepidation. Twain's Sun series. Ten years earlier, while he was on a was a mule, a very small mule, "yet so quick lecture tour of several western cities, he re­ and active that it could throw me without lated another version of the bounty story in difficulty, and it did whenever 1 got on it." He which he took advantage of the financial situa­ never developed a cordial relationship with tion. He told his audiences that when he dis­ the mule but he did learn to make the stub­ covered his name on the list of potential born animal move when it braced for a lengthy draftees, he carried a letter of introduction sit-in: "There was a well by the corn-crib; so 1 from a county politician to Lucius Fairchild, substituted thirty fathom of rope for the Wisconsin's secretary of state, who had re­ bridle, and fetched him home with the cently re-entered civilian life after losing an windlass." arm at the Battle of Gettysburg. Peck said that Peck had never ridden a horse before en­ he begged the "great man" to obtain an ap­ listing in the cavalry and had no notion of how pointment for him as a sutler, and then he de­ to saddle up. "I got a colored man," he wrote, scribed the "startling" reaction "[Fairchild] "to help me, for which I paid him some of the seemed wrought up to a pitch where he felt remains of my bounty. I hired him perma­ that he must do something for his bleeding nently, to take care of my horse, but I soon country. He arose up unanimously, and plac­ learned that each soldier had to take care of ing his remaining hand upon my shoulder, his own horse. ... I led the animal up to a and looking me calmly in the eye, said: 'Young fence to climb on. From the remarks ofthe sol­ man, you go right up to Camp Randall and en­ diers, and the general laugh all around, it was list. Tell them that I sent you.' " Instead of fol­ easy to see that mounting a cavalry horse from lowing Fairchild's suggestion, Peck, resolving off the top of a rail fence was not according to to "sell my life as dearly as possible, I looked tactics." around and found which town was paying the Ill-fitting military clothes, poor food, army highest bounty, and enrolled myself as a sol­ discipline, competent and incompetent dier in the Union Army." officers all were scourged by Peck. He wrote of The sudden transition from patriotic one incident that occurred shortly after he was home-town volunteer to "raw recruit" was promoted to sergeant and, with a detail of chronicled by Peck in a yarn about his journey men, had been sent to build a bridge across a on the City of Memphis, a steamer heading bayou so that Union troops could cross that down the Mississippi River to New Orleans same night. His directions were so misleading. near where Peck's regiment was quartered. Peck said, that he built the bridge in the wrcjng He had never been on a river boat before, and spot. When the Union Army arrived, the gen­ he and several other recruits were innocently eral in command "fairly frothed at the mouth" enjoying the top deck when "I felt something and called Peck a "star idiot" among other strike me on the pantaloons most powerfully, names. To save himself. Peck offered to move and I looked around and a gentleman was just the bridge, board by board, to the correct loca­ removing a large sized boot from my person." tion, where he had the satisfaction of watching Peck told of being ousted from lounges, from the troops cross safely, one day late. Ulti-

126 (;RANT: CIVIL WAR MEMOIR mately, according to Peck's memoirs, the gen­ stayed in the smoldering town and worked eral conceded that the instructions had been most of the afternoon at the press which the vague and recommended Peck for a old man operated from his home. lieutenant's commission. Peck wrote that he Towarcls evening the man and his two asked his colonel how the general could rec­ daughters came around back of the house, ommend a "star idiot" for a commissioned and with open glee told Peck that the Confed­ officer. The colonel replied, "O, that is all erates were returning and that he would be a right, some of the greatest idiots in the army prisoner within minutes. The old man held have received commissions." tight to Peck's horse, refusing to give him up. Peck was a gentle man who preferred "to When shooting sounded. Peck decided "it was spread sunshine," as he once wrote, but the my duty to murder him, and get my horse. So I suffering caused by the war had appalled him rested the revolver across my left forearm, and brought forth a few somber memories in took deliberate aim at his left eye, a beautiful his book. He told about an eighty-year-old large, expressive gray eye, so much like my man in Louisiana whose printing press he had father's at home that I almost imagined I was commandeered to print an issue of the Fourth about to kill the father who loved me." The Wisconsin Badger, the regiment newspaper daughters screamed, and the old man slowly which Peck edited. Only private residences dropped the reins. Peck bolstered his pistol, had escaped the torch in the old man's home grabbed his horse, and raced out of town, back town. Peck probably was recalling the sacking to the regiment—where he learned that the of Clinton, Louisiana, where he did print a "Confederate" troops actually had been an In­ copy of the newspaper, as the basis of his story, diana regiment shooting cattle for food. although the Fourth Cavalry also participated Another time. Peck spent several weeks in in the burning of Tangipahoa, Louisiana. At an Army hospital suffering from pneumonia. Clinton, the Confederate camp was taken by He was cared for by a Southern lady, one of surprise at dawn, and every Rebel soldier was many who tended to sick and wounded North­ killed, captured, or driven from the town. Af­ ern soldiers. While he was in the hospital. Peck ter about three hours of fighting, the Union vowed never to fight again. He would feign ill­ troops pulled back from the flames. Peck ness, or become a conscientious objector, or if

During the Red River campaign in 1864, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Bailey, an engineer with the Fourth Cavalry, constructed a considerably more substantial bridge across the Atchafalaye River than the one built by Peck. WHi(X;!) 12967

127 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982

people: "Presendy the ambulances began to come by us, loaded with wounded, and that settled it. When there was no fighting, and I was half sick, and felt under obligations to a Confederate girl for taking care of me, I didn't want any of her friends hurt, but when her friends forgot themselves, and came to a peaceable place, and began to kill off our boys, friendship ceased, and I wondered why we didn't get orders to saddle up and go in. . . . All idea of being sorry for the enemy, all char­ ity, all hope that the war might close before any more men were killed, was gone. After looking in the upturned faces of our dead and wounded on the field, the more ofthe enemy that were killed the better. It is thus that war makes men brutal, while in active service. They think of things and do things that they regret immediately after the firing ceases. The next ten minutes was the nearest thing to hell that I ever experienced, and it seemed as though my face must look like that of a fiend. I felt like one."

ECK and the Fourth Cavalry saw VVHi(.\3)fa2H7 P condnuous action in the West­ ern Theater until the end ofthe war, when the George Peck tells a big one on northwoods fishing trip, 1898. regiment was sent to Texas. On May 29, 1866, the regiment was mustered out of service, and all else failed, simply defect, but he would on June 17, the Fourth Cavalry—including never again fire at a rebel. Second Lieutenant George W. Peck—were "Being attended to so kindly by a rebel girl welcomed back as they stepped off a train in and getting acquainted with her people, and Madison. hearing her mother pray earnestly that the In 1887, The Century published its war series bloodshed might cease, sort of knocked what as the four-volume Battles and Leaders of the little fight there was in me, out," he wrote, Civil War, a classic among early Civil War liter­ "and I didn't hanker any more for blood. ature. In the preface, the editors noted, "The . . . The idea of respectable men going out to chief motive had been strict fairness to the tes­ hunt each other like game, became ridiculous timony of both sides, and the chief endeavors to me, and 1 wondered why the statesmen of have been to prove every important statement the North and South did not get together and by the 'Official Records' and other trustworthy agree on some sort of a compromise and have documents, and to spare no pains in the inter­ the fighting stop. . . . There was no thought of est of elucidation and accuracy." sneaking out of a fight because of the danger George Peck was not concerned with facts of being killed myself, but 1 just didn't want to in his war stories, and his memoirs were but shoot any friends of that girl who had nursed loosely based upon specific events. He mocked me when I was sick." The Century pieces—"Any man who has fol­ About a week after he was discharged from lowed these generals of both sides, in the the hospital and sent back to his regiment, a pages of that magazine, must conclude that rebel force attacked the Union front line just the war was a draw game, and that both sides over a hill from where the Fourth Cavalry was were whipped"—and he anticipated the irrev­ stationed. During the battle, Peck wrote that erent and sardonic common soldier nearly he discovered how war can twist the gendest of sixty years before Bill Mauldin created Willie

128 c;RANr: CIVIL WAR MEMOIR and Joe in Stars and Stripes during World War SOURCES II. In the rather overtaxed style of nineteenth- Material for this article came primarily from How Pri­ vate George W. Peck Put Down the Rebellion, by George W. century satire. Peck dedicated his book: "To Peck (Chicago, 1890); biographies of George W. Peck; the Boys in Blue and the Boys in Gray, who got Wisconsin in the War of the Rebellion: A History of All Regi­ really spunky at each other, some years ago, ments and Batteries, by William DeLoss Love (Chicago, while playing in their adjoining door-yards, 1866); Military History of Wisconsin, by E. B. Quiner (Chi­ cago, 1866); and The Century war series as published in threw tomato cans and dead cats back and Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (New York, 1887). Peck's forth, called each other names, pulled hair, involvement in the Bennett Law controversy is covered in and snubbed noses until they got into real, ac­ several articles in the Wisconsin Magazine of History and in A tual war, in which such bravery was shown on Political History of Wisconsin by A. M. Thomson (Milwau­ both sides, as the world had never seen before, kee, 1900). Information about the Fourth Wisconsin Cav­ alry is from the Civil War Collection in the Archives Divi­ and who have decided to be neighbors and sion ofthe Society; "The Private History of a Campaign friends again, ready to protect and defend that Failed" is from The Portable Mark Twain edited by each other against all the world; these reminis­ Bernard BeVoto {The Viking Press, New York, 1946); and cences of the ridiculous part taken in the the "Civil War Letters of Petroleum V. Nasby" were com­ struggle, by a raw recruit, who was too scared piled by Harvey S. Ford for the Ohio Civil War Centennial Commission, Number 8 (The Ohio Historical Society, Co­ to fight and too frightened to run, are most re­ lumbus, 1962). spectfully dedicated, with the earnest hope Books written by George Peck are available at the State that no occasion may ever again arise in which Historical Society's Library. A reprint of How Private it shall seem necessary for one American citi­ George W. Peck Put Down the Rebellion may be ordered zen to seek to shed the gore of another Ameri­ through the Society or from Irvington Publishers, Inc., 551 Fifth Avenue, New York City 10176 (list price can citizen." $17.50).

Raw recruits learning the game of war, from a drawing in Volume I of Battles and Leaders ol the Civil War.

129 BOOK REVIEWS

A Closer Look at Beaver Dam: A Guide to Historic discovery of my hometown, its people as well Architecture. By JEAN GOODWIN MESSINGER. as its places. It would be especially gratifying if (Cottonwood Press, Colorado Springs, Colo­ the finished product were to transmit a mea­ rado, 1981. Pp. xi, 84. Illustrations, photo­ sure of that experience to others who have graph acknowledgements. $8.95, paper.) left, who will view these photographs and re­ member many things we took for granted." Mrs. Messinger initially intended this pro­ She need not merely hope. Even readers ject as a textbook for Beaver Dam about archi­ from other Upper Midwestern towns will feel tectural chronology, style, and appreciation— compelled to aod a personal line or two to the especially appreciation. The product fills the poetical "Reminiscence" on the back cover—as bill admirably. But somewhere along the line, will sensiUve Beaver Dam residents who never she added another goal: "One of the many left. pleasures of preparing this volume was the re- Most readers—like most casual visitors to historic sites and museums of all kinds— probably will find the book's educational mes­ Fish-scale shingling, combined with other evidence of late Queen sage less beguiling than the artistic content. Anne style, euioms this home in Beaver Dam. They will pause at each of the book's 120 illus­ trations, and give themselves over to memo­ ries, perhaps regretting that so many older buildings have been demolished or unattrac­ tively altered. Mrs. Messinger's avowed sentimentalism, .cMki; careful photographs, and instructional prose are the book's best features. But it has flaws, ph. too—notably a lack of political, economic, so­ cial, and historical context which might have Image suppressed explained why the buildings were built and pending copyright why Beaver Dam came to be the city it is. Ironi­ cally, in view ofthe fact that memories are de­ clearance liberately evoked of them, the reader will look in vain for examples of industrial structures, drab little houses, and some ordinary non­ commercial places. But despite these short­ comings, the work is solid and one of the best ofthe many such Wisconsin items to have ap­ peared in the last decade.

JOHN O. HOLZHUETER State Historical Society of Wisconsin 130 BOOK REVIEWS

Women and the American Labor Movement: From gence of women in nontraditional jobs since World War I to the Present. By PHILIP S. FONER. World War II. Foner describes the spread of (The Free Press, New York, 1980. Pp. vi, 682. women's auxiliaries in the 1920's in conjunc- Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. don with the "Save-the-Union" program of $22.50.) the United Mine Workers and their important role during the strikes that marked the This volume is the second in a massive, de­ decade's close. Two chapters on the formative tailed survey of women's labor history from years ofthe CIO examine closely the Women's the colonial era to the present. Foner con­ Auxiliary of the United Auto Workers. Like tinues a narrative tracing the growth ofthe fe­ the documentary film "With Babies and Ban­ male labor force and documenting the dis­ ners," Foner underlines women's contribu­ criminatory practices that govern this tions in the Emergency Brigade of the 1937 development. He focuses, however, on sit-down strike at Flint, Michigan. He also fol­ women's participation in the labor movement: lows the movement into the steel industry and the significant but temporary shifts in employ­ relates women's heroic stands at the Republic ment patterns during Worlci War 1, the pain­ Steel plants in Chicago and Youngstown in ful gestation period and violent birth of indus- 1937. By the early 1940's, Foner notes, several trialunionism during the Depression, and the million women had joined the women's auxil­ turning point marked by World War II consti­ iaries of the CIO, AFL, and railroad brother­ tute the framework for this study, while sev­ hoods. The outbreak of World War II and the eral inventive chapters examine recent ad­ rapid employment of wives, mothers, and sis­ vances in unions like the National Union of ters of union men in heavy industry trans­ Hospital and Health Care Employees, District formed these organizations, and the CIO's 1199, and the United Farm Workers, and Congress of Women's Auxiliaries wisely rank-and-file organizations like the Coalition stressed their new role as "schools for unions" of Labor Union Women (CLUW) and where women now learned how to become ac­ Women's Alliance to Gain Equality (WAGE). tive union members themselves. Foner re­ Foner concludes by affirming the opinion of cords the prevailing sentiment that the exi­ Addie Wyatt, described as the nation's leading gencies of wartime labor, rather than black woman trade unionist: "Women have lessening the need for women's auxiliaries, brought very special strengths to every institu­ served to elevate their status within the union tion and organization in which they have been movement at large. Unfortunately, he neither involved. Tnis is a strong tradition, and the la­ pursues this policy nor follows the postwar his­ bor movement has to draw from this tradition. tory of women's auxiliaries. When he returns It's very important that men recognize this to women in heavy industry in the 1970's, the and see the participation of women as a factor legacy of these earlier patterns plays no role in in building a strong labor movement." his analysis. Foner does, however, note the vanguard role of the UAW in supporting the Women and the American Labor Movement is Equal Rights Amendment and in challenging crammed with information on the union struggles of women and leadership responses, negative and positive. Foner has consulted a wide variety of sources and has culled some of his best insights from the unpublished doc­ Special Book Orders toral dissertations of other scholars. To his credit he livens the dense narrative with lyrics The Society will order ony book currently of popular labor songs and summaries of re­ cently produced documentary films like "Un­ offered by any American publisher at a ion Maids" and "Harlan County, USA." And discount of 10 per cent, for both mem­ despite the low participation rates of black bers and non-members. Please supply women in industry (the overwhelming major­ the author's name, the full title, and (if ity are still relegated to largely nonunion do­ known) the publisher. Write to: Special mestic work), Foner gives them a large share Book Orders, 816 State Street, Madison, of most chapters. Throughout this study, rac­ Wisconsin 53706. A special handling ism and sexism emerge as the primary analyti­ charge of $1.50 will be levied on each cal concepts. complete order. Please do not send payment The most engaging sections of Women and with your order; the Society will ship and bill the American Labor Movement concern, in my you when the order if fulfilled. opinion, the formation of women's auxiliaries in heavy industry, 1920-1945, and the emer­

131 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982 the complacency of the AFL-CIO leadership; abnormal. The architects of prohibition, sin­ he shows, too, how women in steel fought dur­ cerely intending to reform America, instead ing this same decade against union leaders created the atmosphere which increased who stubbornly resisted their participation. crime and furthered political corruption. What are we to make of these discontinuities Cashman provides unique and humorous and seeming contradictions? Foner appar­ insights into prohibition. He recognizes that ently found Wyatt's advice (jn the importance prohibition helped Hollywood prosper with of women's traditions more pertinent to the depression-era gangster films which launched techniques of labor organizing than meaning­ the careers of Humphrey Bogart, James Cag- ful to historical analysis. ney, and Edward G. Robinson. Prohibition- The unyielding institutional focus of created court logjams are almost incompre­ Foner's study shows itself most vividly in his hensible to Cashman's English sense of proper treatment of union drives in garments and jurisprudence. He is fascinated by leftover textiles during the 1920's. Here the American prohibition slang: "big shot," "mus­ significance of unionism to a predominantly cle in," ana "bump off." And a depression-era female labor force is lost for a familiar rendi­ Chicago soup kitchen openly run by Al Ca- tion of battles between Socialists and Commu­ pone strikes him as sufficiently bizarre to war­ nists. As expected, Foner wholly vindicates the rant a photograph. Communist leadership. Although sectarian Casnman's observations of prohibition-era factionalism was central to union policy politicians are thought-provoking. Warren throughout the 1920's, the place of women Harding was "a perfect example of the wet among the warring leaders—despite Foner's politician who proposed dry laws" to quiet the determination to highlight the few involved— Anti-Saloon League. Calvin Coolidge demon­ was actually minimal. The potentially interest­ strated "ambivalence" when he ran for mayor ing story of rank-and-file struggles of women of Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1910 as a falls to the wayside. "teetotaler who also happened to be a lawyer Foner's inability to grapple consistently for a brewery," and when as president he spoke with women's special traditions within the for prohibition while cutting enforcement American labor movement will limit the ap­ funds. Al Smith, the great wet hope, met se­ peal of his book to many scholars in the field of cretly in 1924 with Anti-Saloon League capo women's history. While not underestimating Wayne Wheeler and promised to be more "ac­ the need for good empirical studies, most de­ commodating" toward prohibition if elected mand a broader theoretical framework than president. Cashman praises Henry Cabot provided by this well-established authority on Lodge and William Howard Faft for opposing American labor. Women and the American Labor the Eighteenth Amendment on principle movement will serve best as an invaluable refer­ while It was being debated: Lodge for cor­ ence and source book. It will also remind rectly predicting the impossibility of enforce­ scholars of the fundamental differences be­ ment, Taft for maintaining that prohibition tween the Old and New Labor History. would be an unwarranted federal intrusion into peoples' lives. Herbert Hoover tried to en­ MARI Jo BUHLE force prohibition, but he sincerely changed his Brown University mind and advocated repeal in 1932 when he thought that it was causing more problems than it solved. Franklin Roosevelt "made a (political) virtue out of (economic) necessity" in advocating repeal. Teddy Roosevelt is por­ Prohibition: The Lie of the Land. By SEAN DENNIS trayed as benignly following public opinion CASHMAN. (Free Press, New York, 1981. Pp. out of "politicalexpedience" rather than lead­ xiv, 267. Illustrations, index, bibliography, ta­ ing it, and the fundamentalist William Jen­ ble of contents, essay on sources. $17.95.) nings Bryan appears as a late convert to the dry cause. "Amphibious America," "Best Cellars," and While Cashman's foreign perspective al­ similar chapter titles entice a reader intoProhi- lows him more objective insight, it also gives bition: The Lie of the Land. Oxford-educated rise to an occasional misconception. For exam­ English historian Sean Cashman's political ple, when he correctly says there is no sub­ and social overview of prohibition injects a re­ stance to the "myth" that "prohibition was a freshing perspective into a saturated subject. consequence of woman suffrage," he misses He points out the irony that prohibition guar­ the point that there was an undeniable overlap anteed that the age of " normalcy" would be between the prohibitionist and suffragist

132 BOOK REVIEWS movements. And while Cashman capably as­ Boston's economic and social life during a per­ sesses Canada's experiment in temperance (as iod of dramatic growth. distinct from prohibition), he might have in­ Boston's courts heard a variety of causes, cluded a brief discussion of American including debt collection, eviction, personal prohibition's impact upon international liquor injury, bastardy, and divorce. However, in this traffic. It is noteworthy that the world's other period of rapid change, the courts served "dry" nation, Norway, repealed prohibition in largely to settle disputes in areas lacking su­ 1926 after only six years, submitting to French pervision from other private or public institu­ threats to ruin Norway's economy by boycott­ tions. The courts provided stopgap solutions ing Norwegian fish exports unless Norway re­ to problems spawned by urban growth. For in­ sumed purchases of French wine. America's stance, rapidly growing commercial markets size and economic diversity made it immune to and keen competition forced merchants to ex­ similar pressure, ironically prolonging prohi­ tend credit to dubious risks. Merchants called bition and related economic prcjblems for, on the courts to retire outstanding bills, before among others, Milwaukee's brewing industry. adequate credit references were available and Cashman concludes that "Whereas the an­ before collection agencies appeared. More­ swer to the question 'Why was prohibition over, the number of vehicular accidents esca­ passed?' is complex, the answer to tne question lated during the 1880's and 1890's. Eventu­ "Why was prohibition repealed?' is simple. It ally, individuals bought life insurance and was on account of the Wall Street Crash of streetcar lines secured casualty insurance for 1929 and the depression of the 1930's." Re­ protection against sudden accidents. In the peal restored brewery jobs and generated liq­ meantime, injury cases ffooded trial court uor taxes. "Prohibition," says Cashman, "died dockets. Finally, laborers had to sue in court of its own irrelevance." for back wages, until the state legislature en­ acted weekly-wage requirements. RICHARD C. HANEY Court action had limitations. Plaintiffs University of Wisconsin—Whitewater rarely received the full amount of the debt owed. Litigation, especially injury cases, suffered long delays. Court expenses and law­ yers' fees excluded many potential blue-collar litigants from the courtroom. Not until the Law and Urban Growth: Civil Litigation in the Boston Legal Aid Society was founded in 1900 could many poor Bostonians sue for back Boston Trial Courts, 1880-1900. By ROBERT A. wages or nonsupport. The courts' dockets SILVERMAN. (Princeton University Press, Prin­ ceton, New Jersey, 1981. Pp. xiv, 217. Pic­ were so jammed by 1900 that litigants went to tures, maps, tables, appendixes, notes, works court only as a last resort. According to Silver­ cited, index. $16.50.) man, the trial courts worked well enough to prevent chaos, but badly enough to promote alternate solutions for the future. Robert Silverman's book explores a rich vein of source material that legal historians As the author admits, this is an exploratory have rarely exploited in the part. Most studies study. Though it is sensitive to the social con­ of the judiciary dwell on appellate decisions, text of courtroom activity, the book does not prominent judges and commentators, or im­ systematically explore the full dimensions of portant legal principles. But, in order to cap­ urban growth. Thus, the book does not ven­ ture a glimpse of the legal system's day-to-day ture a hypothesis about the trial courts' operation, Silverman consults the voluminous influence on the course of Boston's develop­ dockets and case files produced by Boston's ment, about areas of growth that the courts ac­ trial courts during the late nineteenth century. celerated or impeded, or about the courts' im­ Law and Urban Growth analyzes 1,445 sam­ pact on the distribution of urban growth's ple cases from Boston's Municipal and Supe­ costs and benefits. rior Courts for the years 1880 and 1900. Law and Urban Growth is a valuable work, as These courts were civil tribunals which heard it illuminates heretofore unexamined dimen­ private controversies over debt and injury. sions of legal activity and urban growth. In Silverman supplements the court cases with painstaking detail and thoughtful analysis, the information from manuscript census sched­ book offeis a fresh perspective ofthe interac­ ules, city directories, legal reference books tion of law and social change. and other sources. The book identifies the areas of urban development in which the DONALD W. ROGERS courts were involved, and it sheds light on University of Wisconsin—Madison

133 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982

Bibliography of Master's Theses and Doctoral Dis­ What is really needed is a general bibliography sertations on Milwaukee Topics, 1911—1977. By on Milwaukee history, drawing together all BYRON ANDERSON. (State Historical Society of primary and secondary sources. As Wisconsin, Madison, 1981. Pp. 131. Index. Anderson's preface attests, a substantial bcjdy $5.00, paper.) of historical writing on Milwaukee has accu­ mulated over the last thirty years. Existing bib­ As students of Milwaukee history will read­ liographic sources must be culled from bits ily acknowledge, a wealth of information is and pieces of published and fugitive literature available in the several hundred Master's on the city. theses and doctoral dissertations written on This material should be drawn together for the city and its environs. They will add that sat­ another reason. Milwaukee has a special place isfactory bibliographic information on these in the history of America's cities. The relative materials is hard to come by. In response to homogeneity of its ethnic population set it this gap, Byron Anderson compiled this bibli­ apart from other industrial cities at the end of ography from the subject catalog oi Disserta­ the nineteenth century. No other city was so tion Abstracts and the libraries of graduate de­ thoroughly dominated by a single immigrant gree granting Wisconsin universities. The culture. Its social and political institutions cre­ materials are organized under thirty-seven ated a favorable climate for progressive poli­ headings common in American urban history, tics and an enduring cultural heritage. No as well as some, such as "ethnicity" and "social­ other American city can boast a grassroots so­ ism," which reflect Milwaukee's unique expe­ cialist movement as powerful and influential rience. While the tides are by no means limited as Milwaukee's in the first half of this century. to history, this document should prove a use­ The State Historical Society, or anyone else ful starting point for current and future histo­ for that matter, should consider publishing a rians. comprehensive bibliography on the city's his­ This is, I believe, the best that may be said tory. about Anderson's book: it is good as far as it Other than this, this bibliography is lacking goes. Unfortunately, it doesn't go far enough. in only two respects. First, an introductory es-

The WelLs Street hill between Eighth and Ninth avenues in Milwaukee about 1915. UHnXi) r,(MB

134 BOOK REVIEWS say to acquaint the student with Milwaukee 1968 (and not Eugene McCarthy, who is no­ historiography would have been helpful. Sec­ where mentioned) led Lyndon Johnson to ond, as the author anticipates in his preface, withdraw his candidacy; that Richard Nixon's one title in particular was omitted. Its omission deceptiveness was distinguished from is unfortunate since the piece, "The Social Johnson's by "a quality best described as rage." Democratic Party of Milwaukee, Wisconsin: A It is less clear what these particulars and many Study of Ethnic Composition and Political De­ others had to do with class, race, or ethnicity. velopment" by Robert Mikkelsen (published Elemental though Polenberg believes the lat­ in Oslo in 1976, and filed in the collection of ter, when they do appear he presents them the State Historical Society in Madison) pro­ more as acted upon by events than as determi­ vides a refreshing comparative look at the po­ nants. litical development of the socialist rank-and- Thus war worsened ethnic tensions during file in Milwaukee andtraces the party's origins 1939-1941 but then moderated them, and from Europe and America in the late nine­ class and racial feelings as well, during teenth-century. In contrast, most of the pa­ 1941-1945. The Cold War sdmulated a "plu­ pers on socialism in this bibliography (with the ralist" downplaying of class and race, and even exception of Professor Olson's dissertation) Joseph McCartny accepted the common patri­ focus on party leaders Victor L. Berger and otism of ethnic groups. If the new suburbs Daniel W. Hoan. Mikkelsen brought to his re­ were less homogeneous and conformist than search the perspective of the European Social critics alleged, they locked the cities into racial Democratic tradition, an appropriate back­ segregation just when the courts and the bu­ ground from which to analyze a political cul­ reaucracy were taking up local school integra­ ture which emerged from that same tradition. tion and affirmative action. Vietnam split Even though I raise these criticisms, I ap­ working class from middle class even when plaud Anderson's bibliography as an overdue both finally came to oppose the war; the coin­ contribution to the study of Milwaukee history cidental rise of black nationalism and ethnic and American urban life. The next step is for awareness is less convincingly related to it. someone to compile a general bibliography on The Nixon administration deliberately aggra­ this unique American city. vated all such divisions in order to perpetuate itself in power. Only occasionally does Polen­ WILLIAM CLAUSEN berg find class, race, or ethnicity to have Madison, Wisconsin shaped events, notably in the division of the women's movement over the middle-class Equal Rights Amendment and protective leg­ islation for working women. (Gender as such seems a less fundamental matter than class, One Nation Divisible: Class, Race, and Ethnicity in race, or ethnicity.) the United States Since 1938. By RICHARD POLEN­ BERG. (Viking Press, New York, 1980. Pp. 363. Here and there Polenberg points up Notes, bibliography, index. $12.95. significant ironies. The civil rights movement ofthe 1950's sought anti-Communist respect­ As the preface announces, On^A'^a^zonDwis- ability at the cost of impeding reform of racial ible examines "political, economic, constitu­ caste. Black pride and ethnic consciousness tional, social, and cultural issues" between appeared just when equal rights and assimila­ 1938 and 1978 "through the three-way prism tion seemed assured. His conclusion, how­ of class, race, and ethnicity." The metaplior is ever, is less ironic than equivocal: despite all inexact: the product is both a broader cover­ the chipping away at class, race, and ethnicity age of events and a shallower analysis of recent since 1938, their influence endures. Buy why? class, racial, and ethnic distinctions than the Surely even a book on the last four decades subtitle suggests. might well devote the same searching analysis On the one hand, the highly readable chap­ to the base rock, which presumably embodies ters on successive episodes—domestic policy the uneasy but perdurable American obses­ during the Second World War and the Cold sion with personal liberty and communal War, suburbanization, the anti-poverty and equality, as it does to suburban privatism, civil rights campaigns, Vietnam, ana Wa­ "maximum feasible participation" by the pov­ tergate—are incisive and mature. Any reader erty-striken, and other transitory sparrow- for whom the whole era is still current events pecks at it. rather than history will be struck by many of Polenberg's assessments: for instance, that the ROWLAND BERTHOFF administration's own policy review in early Washington University 13: WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982

Brandeis of Boston. By ALLON GAL. (Harvard while the dream of Palestine—small, experi­ University Press, Cambridge, 1980. Pp. xi, mental, and far away—entered his conscious­ 271. Bibliography, notes, index, $16.50.) ness and replaced the city as inspiration for his special democratic goals. Boston's anti-Semitic This study of the way Louis Brandeis dis­ contribution to blocking him from Woodrow covered in reform the meaning of his Jewish- Wilson's cabinet confirmed what Gal calls the ness is an impressive probe along the frontier "Zionization of Brandeis." between social history and biography. Gal's re­ Historians will still go elsewhere for a fully- search has enabled him to re-create the dense dimensioned portrait of Brandeis the per­ mesh of personal, professional, and political son—for of course much more went into shap­ relationships through which Brandeis moved ing his choices than the calculus of social during his thirty-five years in metropolitan pressures he moved through—and for close Boston. Access to the files of the Brandeis law analysis of his major political battles, most of firm seems to have been crucial to the project. which are treated here summarily. As bio­ They help to illuminate the reformer's jour­ graphical narrative. Gal's study is fragmented ney from nineteenth-to twentieth-century lib­ and incomplete. But as a close-focused look at eralism, and the growth of his Jewish self- the sociology of reform at work on one great identity from a family fact to a fervent man, it is superb. missionary Zionism. That the political journey and the cultural growth were interlocked ana GEOFFREY BLODGETT mutually sustaining is the burden of Gal's ar­ Oberlin College gument, and it is persuasive. Boston affected Brandeis is profound and contradictory ways. The particulars of that influence are precisely tracked, from the rela­ tively benign and open-minded Mugwump Twilight of Progressivism: The Western Republican cosmopolitanism of Charles Eliot's Harvard to Senators and the New Deal. By RONALD L. FEIN the chilly Yankee mores of suburban Dedham MAN. (John Hopkins University Press, Balti­ and the subtle ethnic channels of the city's le­ more, 1981. Pp. xiv, 262. Notes, bibliography, gal and commercial life. From Harvard and index. $18.50.) the Mugwumps, Brandeis absorbed a venera­ tion for New England traditions of Puritan Although he identified closely with them, virtue. From Dedham he learned the tight be­ Rexford Tugwell once complained about his havioral boundaries of that virtue. From the progressive friends, "I thinK it can be fairly city he learned that the tradition itself was in said that they cannot lead, they will not follow, danger of subversion and disappearance. and they refuse to cooperate." From the other Brandeis's gradual emergence as the city's end ofthe political spectrum. Senator George Progressive point-man placed him at ever H. Moses of New Hampshire expressed his sharper odds with powerful Yankee bankers, disdain for his progressive colleagues by coin­ railroaders, and textile titans. Simultaneously ing for them the epithet, "Sons of the Wild his reform concerns allied him with social Jackass." The intransigence and indepen­ workers, labor reformers, and friends of dence that proved so exasperating to some of "good government," many of whom sprang their contemporaries must seem more attrac­ from Boston's maturing Jewish professional tive to biographers and historians, who have community. The latter, with counterparts in lavished attention upon the progressives who other cities, nurtured in him a glowing sense were able to continue their activities on into of social justice as Jewish mission. For years he the New Deal period. Most previous studies kept a low profile as a Jew, warding off con­ have focused upon particular individuals or stant appeals for speeches, affiliations and states, but now we have Ronald A. Mulder's commitments to Jewish organizations. But 1979 volume on The Insurgent Progressives in the from 1905 on, as his reformist forays brought United States Senate and the New Deal, him ever wider national prominence among 1933-1939 and Ronald L. Feinman's new Progressives, each major episode in his career book, which carries the story of the progres­ served to shift the ethno-cultural sive Republican senators through the war configuration of his friends and enemies, and years. to redefine for him the well springs of his so­ Feinman's three criteria for inclusion in his cial faith. By 1912 or thereabout he concluded study are that the person was identified by that the Yankee Boston he once revered had journalists or historians as a progressive or deserted its own best local traditions. Mean­ that he identified himself as one. By stadng

136 BOOK REVIEWS this clearly at the outset he can deflect criticism phasis on the decline ofthe progressive move­ from readers who might question the progres­ ment is not misplaced and whether he should sive credentials of the dozen senators that he not rather underscore their exceptional suc­ treats: William E. Borah, George W. Norris, cess and influence during the 1930's. In plac­ Hiram W. Johnson, Charles L. McNary, Ar­ ing most of the blame on the progressives thur Capper, Peter Norbeck, James Couzens, themselves for their decline, Feinman under­ Lynn J. Frazier, Henrik Shipstead, Robert M. estimates the stubborn realities of the context La Follette, Jr., Gerald P. Nye, and Bronson in which they operated and also downplays the M. Cutting. possibility that the progressives were right and "Between 1930 and 1945," the author con­ the "public mood" was out of kilter. During tends, "the progressive Republican Senate the bitter debate over foreign policy before bloc plummeted from a position as the fore­ Pearl Harbor, liberal internationalists runner of the New Deal to one of repudiated smeared the isolationists with the same kinds reactionaries in the public mood." In clear and of guilt-by-association techniques that were readable prose he shows how this occurred, later turned against them by the McCarthy- describing progressive responses to New Deal ites. But Feinman is certainly correct in con­ initiatives, political interaction between the cluding that by 1945 American politics had two, and eventual disillusionment and mutual undergone a transformation and that New rejection. Several bloc members died, some Deal Democrats had supplemented progres­ grew disenchanted with the policies and cen­ sive Republicans as the vanguard of liberal re­ tralization of power in the administration, and form. Future students of that transformation others were not very progressive to start with. will have to reckon with this valuable book. Roosevelt's Court packing plan in 1937 consti­ tuted the crucial turning point in the relation­ JOHN E. MILLER ship between Roosevelt and the progressive South Dakota State University Republicans. The growing salience of foreign policy issues gave added stimulus to their op­ position. By 1938 only George Norris re­ mained a loyal defender of the Roosevelt ad­ ministration, although Bob La Follette, Jr., Soldiers of Light and Love: Northern Teachers and did continue to provide support on some is­ Georgia Blacks, 1865—1873. By Jacqueline sues and came out for a third term in 1940. Jones. (University of North Carolina Press, The book's major contribution lies in its de­ Chapel Hill, 1980. pp. xiii, 273. Appendices, tailed analysis of the activities of the entire notes, bibliography, index. $17.50.) Senate progressive bloc. Now we can under­ stand more fully the complex and often con­ This fascinating study of the problems, tradictory responses of the progressive Re­ perils, and pitfalls encountered by northern publicans during the thirties, and we are able teachers of freedmen in Georgia during Re­ netter to see how their isolationism reinforced construction is based on the author's disserta­ their disaffection on domestic issues. Feinman tion, completed in 1976 at the University of effectively utilizes newspapers, periodicals. Wisconsin—Madison. In the introduction, The Congressional Record, and personal inter­ Jones clearly indicates her indebtedness to the views and sensitively draws upon material in writings of James M. McPherson and declares more than two dozen manuscript collections. that her volume "complements and expands Inevitably detail and nuance are sometimes on McPherson's." Jones, using the case-study sacrificed to the pursuit of greater compre­ method, has concentrated on 368 teachers, hensiveness. For example, the formation of most on the elementary level, who taught the Wisconsin Progressive party in 1934 is former slaves in Georgia between 1865 and viewed as a result of the La Follettes' decision 1873. She has compiled an amazing amount of to craft "a vehicle for their political ambi­ biographical data about these instructors, all tions." It would be more accurate to say that of which appears in a series of appendices fol­ Congressman Tom Amlie and radical farm lowing the text. No one should read this book and labor groups in the state ffjrced the La without examining these appendices and the Follettes' hand and deserve major credit for excellent and informative notes, the latter establishing the new party. grouped together after the appendices. From After reading the author's description of this data, the reader learns, among other the progressives' role in legislating the TVA, things, that: 80 percent of the 368 teachers the CCC, public works. Social Security, and were sponsored by the American Missionary the Wagner Act, one can wonder if his em­ Association (AMA), unofficial auxiliary ofthe

137 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982

Congregational Church; 80 percent ofthe 368 studies on urban water supply problems, the were women; 56 percent came from New En­ development of wastewater technology, the gland; and, 58 percent came from towns of smoke problem in post-Civil War America, the 5,000 population or less. introduction of new forms of refuse disposal, Although this reviewer does not intend to and the anti-noise campaign of the first dec­ malign the superior research and at times ade of the century form the heart of the book. fluent writing of this volume, the reader might All deal with efforts to understand difficult do better to concentrate on the appendices new environmental problems and to define and notes rather than attempt to follow the politically and technologically acceptable solu­ tortuous, repetitious, and disorganized nar­ tions. Taken as a whole, the case studies rative which so especially characterizes the present interesting and heretofore neglected early chapters. Another problem lies in the in­ chapters in urban nistory, and they should be troduction of certain intriguing subtopics, useful to a variety of scholars. e.g., the intense rivalry and competition for As the introductory essay by Martin Melosi students between the AMA and other benevo­ suggests, the lack of a well-developed histori­ lent societies, to which numerous allusions are cal literature on pollution control in the early made throughout the book. Unfortunately, twentieth century handicaps the individual re­ some of these topics are frequently not given searcher in search of a broad context for the topics are frequently not given an indepth dis­ study of a specific city or a particular form of cussion or resolution and remain undevel­ pollution. Taken as a whole, the essays in this oped beyond the introductory stage. In addi­ volume contribute to the development of such tion, the influence of political events upon the a context by exhibiting the strength of the re­ educational process is ignored until the "epi­ search already in progress and suggesting po­ logue," and the treatment of curriculum in the tentially fruitful directions for future re­ freedmen's schools is cursory. search. One shared strength of most of the The most interesting phase of Jones's nar­ essays is the creative treatment of traditional rative deals with the teachers' personal rela­ sources such as local newspapers, technical pe­ tions with their pupils, their frequent clashes riodicals, and descriptive government reports. with a nearly all-male administration and the Other common characteristics reflect both the tensions among themselves over age-old ques­ promise and the limitations of these selections. tions such as relationships with the opposite With the notable exception of the description sex. In all, Jones has made a significant contri­ of wastewater technology by Joel Tarr, James bution to the historiography of Reconstruc­ McCurley, and Terry Yosie, they focus on the tion, black history and women's studies. Some political process, not the process of technolog­ readers will need to overcome the disorganiza­ ical change. In analyzing political reforms, tion of the first half of the book, however, to most of the contributions tend to reflect the appreciate her efforts fully. values ofthe reformers, and most also concen­ trate on the political bargaining process as op­ WILLIAM PRESTON VAUGHN posed to the various administrative agencies North Texas State University involved in pollution control. Indeed, the ab­ sence of systematic descriptions ofthe institu­ tional arrangements within which pollution Pollution and Reform in American Cities, problems were addressed is perhaps the most 1870-1930. Edited by MARTIN V. MELOSI. significant shared weakness of the individual (University of Texas Press, Austin, 1980. Pp. essays. This no doubt accurately reflects the xii, 212. Notes, bibliography. $15.00.) emphasis of reformers, past and present, on identifying abuses and passing laws to correct The environmental movement of the them rather than on designing durable, 1960's and 1970's has encouraged a growing effective institutions capable of on-going ad­ interest in historical efforts to control pollu­ justments of both continuing and new prob­ tion. Pollution and Reform in American Cities lems. makes available in one volume a variety of es­ Pollution and Reform in American Cities in­ says about reforms aimed at controlling nu­ cludes reform efforts during the years from merous sources of pollution in United States 1870 and 1930, when pollution control was cities around the turn of the twentieth cen­ seldom at the top of the list of political priori­ tury. An overview essay introduces five case ties in a rapidly growing nation. The case studies of efforts to deal with specific sources studies generally suggest that environmental of pollution, and two selections on the general reformers of this era had difficulty in gaining process of reform conclude the book. Tne case and holding the attention of politicians and

138 BOOK REVIEWS

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Chicago youngsters worked at the Harrison Street Community Garden to help feed a nation at war, about 1917. the voting pubhc amid a variety of more press­ run view on the causes and the cures for ing issues and interests. Some ofthe lessons of pollution that belies the increasingly prevalent this seemingly distant past may take on added attitude that pollution problems largely have significance in the 1980's, when pollution con­ been solved. By collecting a number of good trol will perhaps once again be moved nearer essays on early pollution control efforts and the bottom of the list of the nation's political presenting an extensive bibliography on the priorities. The historian need not risk the subject. Pollution and Reform in American Cities charge of "present-mindedness" to enter cur­ informs us of the historical background of rent debates on pollution policy. He need only many still pressing problems while providing a remind the polity ofthe long and costly histor­ point of departure for further research and ical process involved in coming to grips with teaching. the complex pollution problems that have ac­ companied industrialization and urbaniza­ JOSEPH A. PRATT tion. Historical perspective encourages a long- University of California—B erkeley 139 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982

Prophets of Prosperity: America's First Political century will find much in this book of interest. Economists. By Paul K. Conkin. (Indiana Uni­ A substantial amount of the now emerging versity Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 1980. current economic orthodoxy can be found in Pp. xii, 333. Notes, index. $25.00.) the author's descriptions. What is of greatest interest is the author's discussion of Henry Ca­ Professor Conkin presents a review of the rey. Carey, who was described by Karl Marx ideas of some twenty early-nineteenth- as, "the only American economist of note," century American political economists. The should be remembered. His system, however individuals covered, with several notable ex­ confused, is the first attempt to do away with ceptions, are barely remembered at all, and the Ricardian theory of rent so basic to both those who are not reversed as economists, save capitalist and Marxist thought. Here one can Henry Charles Carey. The question that arises argue that two chapters are not enough. is why write a book that deals with decidedly This book fills a void now that fewer and second-or-third-rate, derivative economic fewer students of history take the time to read, thinkers? or even consult Joseph Dorfman's magisterial The answer (or defense) of this book is two­ The Economic Mind in American Civilization. fold. Although they were, as a group, not great or original economists, they played a ma­ IRA COHEN jor role in shaping or at least explaining Illinois State University America's economic policy in the nineteenth century as well as directly affecting legislation. Secondly, America's economic policy, then as now, has rarely conformed to the best eco­ Minnesota's Boundary with Canada: Its Evolution nomic thought; rather, it has conformed to Since 1873. By WILLIAM E. LASS. (Minnesota popular perceptions of economics. The au­ Historical Society Press, St. Paul, 1980. Pp. thor presents political economy in this period 141. Photos, maps, notes, bibliography, index. as a calling primarily followed by nonaca- $16.50; cloth; $8.85, paper.) demics. The book covers a wide range of thinkers, from the anti-industrial perceptions The 5,525 mile border between Canada of John Taylor through the intellectual com­ and the United States is fixed today by geo­ plexities of Henry Carey. graphical coordinates, clearly marked on the What makes the book most worthwhile is its ground and maintained by a joint boundary organization. The author introduces the commission. It has taken over 200 years of reader to the ideas ofthe founders of modern warfare, diplomatic negotiations, and joint laissez-faire economic thought: Adam Smith, surveys and commissions to reach this amica­ David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus, and Jean ble status. William Lass focuses on the history Baptiste Say. He describes their ideas briefly ofthe Minnesota portion of that border and in but does not in his brief descriptions do as it reveals a broader experience. much damage to them as their current inter­ The U.S.-Canadian border can be con­ preters. He then gives a brief description of ceived as having two distinct parts, each the economy in the aftermath of the War of weighed by its own history and defined by a 1812. Only after this does he discuss his politi­ different geographical premise. From the At­ cal economists. All of the major American lantic to Lake ofthe Woods in central Minne­ writers on political economy prior to the Civil sota, the border follows a course first estab­ War are discussed with the exception of Mat­ lished by the Paris Treaty of 1783 and defined thew Carey. This omission is defended, or largely by natural features: lakes, rivers, con­ rather apologized for, in the chapters on necting portages, and headlands. From Lake Matthew's son, Henry. The author devotes in­ of the Woods westward to the Strait of Geor­ dividual chapters to the earliest thinkers— gia, it is fixed by the straight and arbitrary line John Taylor and Daniel Raymond— of the forty-ninth parallel, set down by the categorizes most of the others dealt with into Louisiana Purchase and extended by the Ore­ Technicians, Southerners, and political advo­ gon Treaty in 1846. Minnesota's northern bor­ cates, and finally ends up with two chapters on der includes portions of both these sections. Henry Carey. The theme that runs through all This central location of the state is critical to of the book is the response of the various ac­ the success of Lass's account. While relating tors to classical economic thought—in particu­ the Minnesota experience, Lass is able to draw lar Ricardian thought. in the history of the entire border. This ap­ The contemporary reader who is unaware proach is both broadening and liberating, ofthe economic arguments ofthe nineteenth placing this regional study in a larger context 140 BOOK REVIEWS and freeing it from the parochialism which Americans defined them. The historical litera­ limits many local histories. To be sure. Lass's ture on which Lutz relies so heavily is chock rimary emphasis is on Minnesota's particular full of controversy. One must, therefore, ad­ Corder problems and especially on its own ge­ mire the skill with which he bas charted his ographical anomaly, the Northwest Angle. way through such hoary historiographical bat­ But even this feature is placed in the context of tlegrounds as the ratification of the federal related negotiations over the Neebish Chan­ Constitution. nels at Sault St. Marie or King William's arbi­ Lutz's main thesis is that the triumph of tration award in Maine. federalism, that is, the theory that informed Though much of the book is concerned the federal Constitution, marked a significant with the details of surveys and negotiations, defeat for what he terms Whig theory, which several interesting figures emerge from the he distinguishes from federalism by its attach­ story. Peter Porter, the American warhawk ment to direct forms of consent and to local­ and boundary commissioner, seems to have ism. Lutz contends that Whigs designed state preferred to execute his commission from the constitutions on the assumption that relatively comfort of his Buffalo home. His counterpart, homogeneous social orders at the state level the British commissioner Anthony Barclay, would produce public officials and public poli­ was a former loyalist who continued to live in cies that promoted the common good. Feder­ the United States. Best developed is Donald alists, however, believed that social divisions Cameron, a Canadian patronage appointee to were inevitable, that they generated compet­ the boundary commission, whose unskilled ing notions of the public good, and conse­ pronouncements on technical matters exas- quently, they sought constitutional mecha­ erated the engineers and astronomers on nisms to control the dangers of both tyrannical Coth sides. majorities and tyrannical minorities. Overall, the book is a carefully researched Unfortunately Lutz imposes greater coher­ addition to the history of our northern bor­ ence on these contrasting political currents der. The inclusion of historical maps in the than the evidence, including his own, may text is an important aid, but additional well- warrant. Federalists did not discover the inevi­ placed and detailed contemporary maps tability of faction. The early state constitutions would have helped the reader as well. Al­ and tbe Articles of Confederation—"Whig" though Lass does include events which tran­ documents in Lutz's schema—rested on the as­ scend the scope of his title, we still await the sumption that faction was unavoidable but single comprehensive study which will relate could best be contained through decentraliza­ the history ofthe entire border. tion and direct forms of consent and represen­ tation. Experience in the war and postwar per­ MICHAEL J. Fox iods convinced most people that a stronger State Historical Society of Wisconsin central government was desirable, if not es­ sential. Federalists found the theory of an ex­ tended republic in which a multiplicity of frag­ mented interest groups competed in a national arena, checking one another, a theo­ Popular Consent and Popular Control: Whig Polit­ retical solution to the problem of how to create ical Theory in the Early State Constitutions. By strong government tbat was not prey to the DONALD S. LUTZ. (Louisiana State University mischiefs of faction. Lutz knows all tbis. Had Press, Baton Rouge, 1980. Pp. xvi. 258. Bibli­ he made greater use of the work of Douglas ography, index. $21.50.) Adair and Cecilia Kenyon on the conflicts over the federal Constitution and emphasized This study of eighteenth-century American more the distinctive problems of designing re- political and constitutional thought during the ublican government at the national level, and Revolutionary period breaks no new ground. Ead he paid more heed to his discovery that Lutz, drawing heavily on the work of Bernard political theory and constitutional thought Bailyn and Gordon S. Wood and others syn­ evolved in a haphazard, confused, and messy thesizes in a readable, clear, and intelligent way, this book would have been less elegant, way a large body of hisujrical literature pro­ less coherent perhaps, but truer to the experi­ duced in the past two decades. Political scien­ ence it analyzes. tists and others will find this a useful introduc­ This study, finaOy would have profited by tion. Lutz is particularly skillful in defining extending the analysis into the l790's. Lutz's key concepts, such as republicanism and con­ Whigs, for all their majoritarian biases, did not sent, and describing tbe contrasting ways appreciate the importance and complexity of

141 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982 the problem of mass mobilization in a large re­ American Indian Leaders: Studies in Diversity. public such as the United States. The emer­ Edited by R. DAVID EDMUNDS. (University of gence of quasi-modern political parties in the Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1980. Pp. xiv, 257. Il­ 1790's, though almost universally decried for lustrations, maps. Notes, index. $19.50, cloth; more than a generation, was not even $5.95, paper.) glimpsed in the 1770's and 1780's. Whereas the early state and federal constitutions Diversity is the unifying theme of this an­ reflected elaborate theoretical discussion, the thology, for it focuses on tbe "varieties of In­ early parties evolved out of immediate needs, dian political leadership within the realm of in tbe face of hostile theory that condemned Indian-White Relations." Eleven authors "self-created societies." This development, write essays on twelve leaders. This format al­ wholly unexpected by the founding fathers, lows the reader to compare the political goals, hallowed for proverbial prescience, suggests personal style, and quality and type of political how formalistic much of the debate between skills as each leader endeavored to protect the Whigs and Federalists actually was, a formal­ possessions and culture of his people against ism Lutz might have taken less at face Anglo encroachment. value had he pursued his storv a bit further to The twelve leaders studied in this volume see how political theory met the test of practi­ confront disparate problems arising from cal politics. white contact with varied solutions. Old Briton of the Miami and Sitting Bull died violent deaths for their efforts. Chief Red Bird, a PAUL GOODMAN Winnebago, and Satanta, a Kiowa chief, died University of California, Davis in the white man's prisons, the latter commit-

Black River Falls area Winnebagos posed for a studio portrait by Charles Van Schaick at the turn ofthe century.

Jackson Count\ Histoiitd! Society WHi(X3) 3546

\ Si BOOK REVIEWS

ting suicide to escape his bondage. Joseph the substance or style of the others. Happily Brant of the Iroqois and Quanah Parker (tbe this is not the case with American Indian Leaders. son of captive Cynthia Anne Parker and a Co­ The quality is even throughout. Each author, manche war chiel) retained much of their tra­ within the constraints of length, has succinctly ditional cultures while adopting many surface developed the tribal and political situation accoutrements of the Anglos. Brant and confronting each leader, and then gauged Parker also helped themselves while helping that individual's political response. The editor their people. should be commended for the inclusion of Three essays—those profiling Alexander maps that portray each locale. American Indian McGillivray, a Creek, Jobn Ross and Dennis Leaders is a readable and very useful introduc­ Bushyhead, both Cherokee—point to the tion to a neglected field of study, the political complex role ofthe mixed-bloods in tribal pol­ dimension of Native American leadership. itics. McGillivray, Ross, and Bushyhead used business and legal skills learned from the JOSEPH C. PORTER whites to protect tribal interests. Also, these Center for Western Studies three essays note how other historical issues, Joslyn Art Museum—Omaha i.e., international intrigue and rivalry in Span­ ish Florida, the American Civil War, and large-scale business and economic growth during the Gilded Age, created serious new The Radical Persuasion, 1890—1917: Aspects of problems for the chiefs. A Shoshone tradition- the Intellectual History and the Historiography of ahst. Chief Washakie, successfully turned to Three American Radical Organizations. By the United States government, not out of any AILEEN S. KRADITOR. (Louisiana State Univer­ fondness or illusion, but because it was the sity Press, Baton Rouge, 1981. Pp. vih, 381. only available ally against the Dakota, Chey­ Notes, index. $37.50.) enne, and Arapabo, all formidable Shoshone enemies. This remarkable revision of early- Two essays look at Indian leadership in the twentieth-century American radicalism is or­ twentieth century, properly reminding ganized around a deceptively simple question: readers that Native American history did not how accurately did tbe radical community cease with the end of the Indian Wars. These perceive the needs and concerns ofthe Ameri­ two essays outline the issues facing Native can working class? Given a setting in which Americans in this century. Carlos Monte­ conditions for radical success were propi­ zuma, a Yavapai, was a physician and newspa­ tious—an increasingly unequal distribution of per editor who devoted his life to abolition of wealth and power, a sizeable working class, la­ the Indian Bureau. His career touched var­ bor unrest, the existence of alternative theo­ ious Indian reform movements during the ries, and the movements to advocate them— Progressive Era. The final chapter deals with what is most remarkable about the period Peter MacDonald. A fusion of traditional 1890-1917 is the lack of success shared by Navajo values, the goal of economic self- such radical groups as the Industrial Workers determination and self-sufficiency, and tribal of the World, the Socialist party, and the So­ mastery of twentieth-century bureaucratic cialist Labor party. These organizations, en­ and legal expertise provide the basis for compassing tbe left, center, and right of the MacDonald's controversial tenure as Navajo radical movement, all "failed miserably" in tribal chairman. their attempts to convert workers to a revolu­ The usefulness of this anthology comes tionary tradition. This failure, Aileen Kradi­ from its wide chronological, regional, and tor contends, stemmed from commonly held tribal span. The volume will be most useful in misperceptions about "John Q. Worker" survey courses of American or Native Ameri­ whose individual humanity never emerged can history. Specialists in one field of Indian from the abstractions of the radicals' own history should enjoy the essays from other re­ propaganda. In short, America's radicals were gions or time periods. The reader sees Indian completely out of touch with the men and leaders compelled to deal with the French, the women they were trying to reach. British, the Spanish in Florida, and the Ameri­ Kraditor argues that worker alienation cans. This reviewer wishes that a chapter from contemporary radicals accounts for the about Indian leadership on the Spanish fron­ failure of the left. How many self-proclaimed tier in the Southwest had been included. leaders, she asks, ever really knew or cared to When it comes to anthologies, reviewers know what the workers were thinking? Even must often note that one or more essays lack Eugene V. Debs's much acclaimed humanism

143 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982 and empathy for the working class, long a tellectual history evokes memories of autobio­ standard for measuring radicalsensitivity, be­ graphical exposes by ex-Communists in the comes suspect. What chance did leaders such early 1950's. Readers, however, will not mis­ as Debs bave of meeting workers with take this provocative monograph for Red Mas­ different views? How mucb understanding querade or Out of Bondage. The Radical Persua­ could one obtain from speaking before admir­ sion is an often brilliant, if partially ffawed ing audiences of true believers and converts? analysis of early-twentieth-century American Even when appealing to whattiiey perceived radicalism. Its passionate arguments will inject as workers' needs, radicals betrayed an unerr­ a healthy vitality into what is destined to be a ing penchant for elitism and condescension. spirited debate among recent American histo­ John Q. Worker was consistently portrayed in rians. socialist publications in terms of his backward­ ness, helplessness, and lack of consciousness. EUGENE M. TOBIN These are all symbols, as Kraditor reminds us, Hamilton College of passive, dependent behavior, for few radi­ cals recognized the existence of a distinct working-class culture apart from a capitalist or revolutionary ideology. Borrowing heavily Semper Fidelis: The History of the United States upon recent research in social and labor his­ Marine Corps. By ALLAN R. MILLETT. (Macmil­ tory, however, Kraditor emphasizes the exist­ lan Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 1980. Pp. ence of a vibrant worker culture revolving xvii, 782. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliogra­ around ethnic, religious, and neighborhood phy, index. $29.95.) institutions. If The Radical Persuasion has one overriding The United States Marine Corps, in the 205 theme, it is the left's incredible capacity for years since its founding in the War of Inde­ self-delusion. Unwilling or unable to explain pendence, has grown from a ragtag aggrega­ working-class indifference to their proposals, tion of 2,000 sbips' guards and fighting-top radicals assumed that the capitalist system's op­ sharpshooters into an amphibious force-in- pression was so absolute that the workers did readmess of almost 200,000 men and women not realize their enslavement. "In reality," possessing its own air arm. In the course of this writes Kraditor, [John Q. Worker] "was not development, as author Allan R. Millett notes, alienated and not having [the system's] dis­ the Marine Corps has acquired many missions ease, he did not need the [radical's] medicine." and never surrendered one. Had Kraditor stopped here, her book Millett's volume, part of the Macmillan would still be a major scholarly achievement, Wars ofthe United States series, traces the his­ but notably less controversial tban it is bound tory of the Marine Corps from its beginnings to become. For The Radical Persuasion is much to the aftermath of Vietnam. In contrast to more than a study of early-twentieth-century previous such histories, which emphasize American radicalism; it is, in fact, a pointed, battlefield heroics and pro-Marine partisan­ often caustic attack by "an alumna of the Old ship, Millett's account concentrates on the de­ Left" upon radical historians, whom she ac­ velopment of the Corps as an institution and cuses, to paraphrase Carl Becker, of writing places as much emphasis on peacetime reor­ history without fear and without research. ganization and budget fights as on wartime Her own research methods, however, may be combat. cause for concern. Though richly docu­ The author, who teaches history at Ohio mented and extensively detailed, Kraditor's State University and directs the Mershon Cen­ sources are drawn primarily from the pub­ ter Program in International Security and Mil­ lished speeches and writings of leading radi­ itary Affairs, applies social-science concepts of cals on the assumption that "public rhetoric organization to Marine Corps history, re­ . . . best reveals both the images that the [radi­ counting the evolution of the Corps from sim­ cals] wanted to project to the public and the plicity toward complexity. Each of the four images that they did project." Such evidence parts of his book centers on a particular mis­ strongly supports her view of how the radicals sion and period of Marine Corps develop­ perceived the workers but tells us much less ment: nineteenth-century service as ship de­ about John Q. Worker's view ofthe radicals. tachments and naval landing parties, Perbaps because of Kraditor's combative campaigning as "colonial infantry" in the prose style with its explicit insider's attacks Asian and Caribbean "Big Stick" interventions upon both the radicals and their academic de­ ofthe early 1900's, creating modern amphib­ fenders, this otherwise impeccably crafted in­ ious assault tactics during the 1930's and ap-

144 BOOK REVIEWS plying them victoriously in the Pacific in The Long Journey of Noah Webster. By RICHARD World War II, and functioning as a Cold War M. ROLLINS. (University of Pennsylvania "force in readiness." Rightly devoting about Press, Philadelphia, 1980. Pp. ix, 195. Notes, three-quarters of his pages to the twentieth bibliography, index. $16.00.) century, Millett succinctly summarizes Marine combat operations and places them in the con­ Rolhn's book is an excellent intellectual bi­ text of tbe Marines' evolving missions, their ography of Noah Webster (1758-1843) which relations with other services, the Congress, reviews Webster's life and accomplishments, and the public, and their emerging reputation reveals Webster as more than only a word- as an elite body of fighting men. smith, spellingmaster, or compiler of a dictio­ This book is a model of what the history of nary, traces the many changes in Webster's an armed service should be. It is lively and ideas and emotions, and most essentially, readable in style; it evokes the mystique and.es- presents a new interpretation of Webster as a prit de corps tbat make Marines what they are symbol of American culture in the early dec­ (the author, in his alter ego, is a Marine Re­ ades of our national history. serve lieutenant colonel); yet it is objective and As a source of detailed information about balanced, presenting Marine failures and mis­ Webster's life and work, Rollin's book has an takes as well as triumphs. Millett's research is almost encyclopedic quality. Rollins has obvi­ thorough and impressive. He has examined ously mastered the recent major scholarly and synthesized a vast body of primary and work on the early national period and other secondary material, including the many publi­ related topics. (Such an abundance of detail cations and wide-ranging oral history and and so rapid a survey of a long life also exact a manuscript collections of the Marine Corps price however: they sometimes make sus­ History and Museums Division. For the many tained reading difficult.) aspects of Marine history on which there is no The vivid portrait of Noah Webster which monographic literature, Millett has done ex­ emerges is that of a troubled, even unstable tensive archival research, more than is usual man who went though periodic psychological for a general history of this kind. His treat­ and emotional crises. He experienced re­ ments of the Marine role in the defense reor­ peated failures in a succession of enterprises, ganization fights ofthe late 1940's represent suffered constant financial pressures, and of­ original research, as does his account of the ten (and increasingly) felt out of touch with impact of Vietnam on the Marines. people and events around him. Webster had a A reviewer must search to find points to facihty for offending friends and found a criticize. The book is overwritten in places; the measure of contentment only in his domestic combat narratives in the Caribbean interven­ life. All in all, he appears as a rather disagree­ tion and World War II chapters, in particular, able man whose life is the story of progressive are excessively long and detailed for what is disillusionment and growing fear. rimarily an institutional rather than a battle The greatest strength of Rollins's study is Eistory. From the standpoint of interpreta­ his portrayal of the development of Webster's tion, the author might have addressed more "inner life"—the presentation of startlingly directly the question why the Marine Corps so dramatic shifts in Webster's ideas, attitudes, regularly succeeded in its many political fights and emotions which took place especially be­ for survival and expansion. Were these victo­ tween the 1770's and the first years of the ries the results simply of aggressive bureau­ 1800's. Rollins superbly sets fortb the succes­ cratic and congressional politicking backed by sive stages of Webster's changing outlook; he well-publicized battlefield heroics, or did they shows Webster moving from a position of rev­ stem from the fact that American diplomacy olutionary, republican buoyancy and expec­ and military strategy simply required a force tation to one of hysterical suspicion of demo­ like the Marines? Tbese, bowever, are but mi­ cratic pressures, and finally to one which nor reservations. Millett's history must be con­ Rollins labels the "Quiet Christian," a position sidered the starting point for further investi­ of pessimism about human capacities and in­ gation of the Marine past, and it sets a new sistence on submission and deference toward standard against which all subsequent general traditional values and authorities. histories ofthe Corps will be measured. It is Among weaknesses which might be men­ recommended reading for anyone interested tioned is a very tentative psycho-bistorical ex­ in American military and foreign policy. ploration of Webster's early life; the effort, an inconclusive foray, is not one of the stronger GRAHAM A. COSMAS portions of the book. More significantly, Rol­ U.S. Army Center of Military History lins' remarkably clear descriptions ofthe shifts

145 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982 in Webster's thinking and feeling are not al­ "long journey" of Webster. ways matched by equally lucid explanations. Not only does Rollins establish the tempo­ Wby did Webster so dramatically shift his ral dimensions of Webster's outlook, but he opinions, attitudes and purposes? Rollins also demonstrates that Webster's contribu­ cites external events and also notes various in­ tions to American culture have been widely ternal tensions. But these explanations, misunderstood and his significance as a sym­ though suggestive, could be developed more bol commonly misread. Webster in his most fully and more persuasively. productive years was an emblem not of Ameri­ Despite these weaknesses, Rollins's work can optimism and nationalism, but of a fearful succeeds very well. The outstanding quality is search for instruments of control, order, and Rollins's emphasis on the temporal dimension authority. By the late 1790's Webster believed ofthe opinions and beliefs of a significant his­ that the new nation was headed for social, po­ torical figure. Rollins is sensitive to the devel­ litical and moral disaster. Rollins's volume is a opment over time of an individual's ideas and valuable, craftsmanlike book which should outlook. He is therefore able to challenge the change the standard interpretation of Noah conventional interpretation of Webster which Webster and his work. assumes a rigid intellectual consistency and a fixed system of beliefs. Rollins concerns himself JAMES T. SCHLEIFER with ideas in process, with what he calls the College of New Roche lie

This Dane County barn-raising ofthe 1870's captures the .spirit of frontier cooperation and plain-spoken craftsmanship. 146 BOOK REVIEWS

Land of Savagery, Land of Promise: The European nineteenth-century which coldly viewed Nat­ Image of the American Frontier. By RAY ALLAN ure as a repository of resources essential to the BiLLiNGTON. (W. W. Norton & Co., New York, Industrial Revolution. The heroes of these 1981. Pp. XV, 364. Illustrations, maps, notes, novels, then, were those who tamed the Wild bibliography, index. $18.95.) West. The land of Promise disappeared as a liter­ Ray Allen BiUington offers a new and fasci­ ary theme when the frontier was 'closed' and nating perspective on the image ofthe Ameri­ European immigrants ffowed to urban, not can frontier—that is the frontier as seen rural, America. As a result, the European im- from the European point of view. He has ex­ agemakers increasingly bathed their fictional amined an overwhelming number of Euro­ frontier in exaggerated violence, painting a pean novels, guidebooks, "American letters," picture of America as a "ruthless predator," a and promotional tracts to determine how the nation that savagely destroyed the Indians. Old World viewed the New, and how and why BiUington argues that this perception has en­ the images changed over time. In the end, dured and is partly responsible for the wide­ BiUington concludes that the often distorted spread contemporary European belief that picture the Europeans had of America's west­ tbis is a brutal land, one where the rights of mi­ ward expansion nas helped shape their con­ norities are crushed. BiUington assumes not temporary ideas about this country. only that the western novel is the only source In fourteen chapters of graceful prose, Bil- of information on America in Europe, but also lington finds that two basic themes have domi­ that the European perspective is an inaccurate nated the European vision ofthe frontier: this one (a moot point). The conclusion, however, continent has been seen consistently as one of hardly detracts from what is a complex, enter­ either Promise or of Savagery. In an introduc­ taining and provocative book. tory chapter the author analyzes these themes as they emerged during the Pre-Colonial and CHAR MILLER Colonial eras. His discussion of the various Trinity University twists and turns in this perspective, from Nat­ ure Glorified to Nature Degraded, is, how­ ever, a fairly standard account. But the major­ ity of the book, which is devoted to a close Civil War Iowa and the Copperhead Movement. By study ofthe nineteenth-century European im­ HUBERT H. WUBBEN. (Iowa State University age, is hardly standard fare. Here the twin Press, Ames, 1980. Pp. xi, 280. Illustrations, themes of Promise and Savagery are fully de­ notes, bibliographical essay, index. $15.95.) veloped. The former, BiUington finds, re­ ferred only partly to the proverbial belief that One ancestor of this book is the author's America offered prosperity to the huddled Ph.D. dissertation, "Copperheads and Union­ masses. The meaning of 'promise' was more ists: The Trial of Iowa Democracy, complex than that, and was determined by the 1860-1865," completed at the University of social status, sex, or nationality of the Euro­ Iowa in 1963. But Hubert H. Wubben, now pean reader or author. Former peasants rev­ professor of history at Oregon State Univer­ eled in their release from a rigid class struc­ sity, Corvallis, has continued his research and ture. Women found freedom (the status of has refocused his study, as suggested by the American women was seen as a vast improve­ change in title. ment over that of their European sisters). The book under review is a close study of Eastern European writers used American cul­ the Copperhead movement in its Iowa setting. ture as a counterpoint to the inequities present Ofthe twelve chapters, nine are periodized to in their own nations. Indeed, tbe compelling relate the rise and decline of the Copperhead vision of American freedoms was perbaps a movement to the course ofthe Civil War. The stimulus to European social reform. other three are a scene-setting opener, This sanguine view of America was coun­ "1850s: A Decade of Transition," a compact terbalanced by one of savagery, a theme chapter entitled "Iowa Vote in Wartime" stressed by the "Blood and Thunder" novelists (which no serious student of midwestern polit­ who filled their novels with deadly snakes, ical behavior should ignore), and a final crazed buffalos and other creatures (real and "Aftermath and Conclusion." imagined). More savage than these frontier What made some people Copperhead beasts was the dreaded Indian and the unsa­ Democrats and others War Democrats? Wub­ vory squatter. Any Nature so endowed had to ben offers no pat answers to this question, but go, a victim of the utilitarian spirit of the late does present tbe hypothesis that "Copperhead

147 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982 leadership came largely from the Buchanan brothers. John was a real human being. His wing of tbe party as opposed to the Douglas enthusiasm for the war may have waned early wing." It was the misfortune ofthe Iowa Cop­ in 1863, but he and the other Minklers who perheads, he concludes, "to be located in one enlisted from Delaware County were not of the most loyal of the loyal states. . . . The slackers. Before 1863 was out, John was trans­ Copperhead albatross was a most disabling ferred to an invalid corps. By the close of burden in the Hawkeye state. It was hardly less 1864, Edward had been severely wounded, so to Iowa Democrats who had never been taken prisoner, and he had finally died. Cyrus Copperheads." Wubben follows Iowa's Cop­ was discharged for disability June 20, 1865. perheads and leading Democrats through tbe Only George seems to have come home from war years and beyond. Among them are the war unscathed. Wubben did not go far George Wallace Jones (a friend of Jefferson enough in his research before writing page 98. Davis and a former U.S. Senator) and Dennis Generally, Wubben seems aware of^the slip- A. Mahony (a fiery Dubuque editor and cham­ periness of^ the sources he must use in tbe pion of civil liberties)—both of whom sat out study of this difficult subject. He does not shy part of the war in prison. Also included are away from such hard questions as what consti­ Henry Clay Dean of Mt. Pleasant, Lysander tutes loyalty during wartime. Professor Wub­ Babbit of Council Bluffs, Charles Negus of ben has likely said what can be said about Iowa Fairfield, Charles Mason of Burlington, and Copperheadism until two large boxes of Ma­ others. Wubben's net was even fine enough to son family papers at the State Historical Soci­ catch the spunky Bella schoolgirl who refused ety of Iowa are opened in 1995. to remove a Copperhead pin from her dress and fought off with a poker her assailants who PETER T. HARSTAD tried to do so. Bethany Lutheran College After sifting a great quantity of historical evidence, including files of over seventy news­ papers, Wubben categorizes the Copperhead Democrats as "the cranky radical conserva­ "No Cheap Padding": Seventy-five Years ofthe In­ tives ofthe Civil War period" who had "some­ diana Magazine of History, 1904—1979. Com­ thing worth saying about the perils of increas­ piled by LORNA LUTES SYLVESTER. (Indiana ingly centralized government and about the Historical Bureau, Indianapolis, 1980. Pp. violation of civil liberties." They said it and xix, 558. Illustrations, maps, notes. $14.50.) paid the consequences, but "it was well into the twentieth century before many old stock lo- The title pretty well describes this interest­ wans could acknowledge that a really respect­ ing volume, and to reinforce the intent, the able person might also be a Democrat." editor carefully points out that the articles Copperheadism, loyalty, and disloyalty will printed are not the "best" from the magazine. test the craftsmanship of the best of historians Instead, the editor has chosen twenty-eight ar­ for along time to come. I scrutinized a portion ticles or edited documents that are representa­ of page 98 where Wubben evaluates a letter by tive of this seventy-fifth anniversary of the a "Sgt. J. R. Menkler of Company F of the magazine. Twenty-Seventh Iowa" which found its way The volume opens with "Our Reasons for into the columns of Dennis Mahony's Dubu­ Being" by George S. Cottman, the first editor. que Herald, a peace newspaper. Disgruntled Works are also included by such well-known about fighting about "emancipation, about scholars and regional historians as Dorothy blacks, about officers, and about short ra­ Riker, Paul Wallace Gates, Reginald Hors- tions," this soldier asserted: " 'If it was not for man, R. Carlyle Buley, and Francis Paul the sake of a few hungry officers who haven't Prucha. got their haversacks quite full yet, the war It is impossible to criticize such a publica­ might have been closed a long time ago.' " Cit­ tion, especially after the explanation of merely ing as his authority an article in a rival Repub­ being "representative." Tbis the articles are. lican newspaper, the 'DuhucjueTimes, Wubben From the early issues of this century we have concludes: "The only trouble was that there such typical pieces as "Recollections of Early was no such trooper as J. R. Menkler in the Brookville," "The Pioneer Aristocracy," and company." I found the name "Minkler, John "The Indiana Centennial, 1916." Several ar­ R." among the men of Company F listed in ticles, such as Gates's "Land Policy and Ten­ Roster and Record of Iowa Soldiers in the War ofthe ancy in the Prairie Counties of Indiana," are Rebellion{Vo\.in,T)esMoines, 1910), p. 1188, decent examples of solid research and inter­ alongside three younger Minklers, likely his pretation that have stofid the test of time.

148 BOOK REVIEWS

I was most pleased to see that one of the ar­ Sylvester's brief but important introduction ticles chosen for reprinting here was Donald helps us to understand the magazine's evolu­ F. Carmony's edited version ofthe fascinating tion over the years, and several of the articles account of the last century, "Flatboat Building treat of the magazine, the Indiana Historical on Little Raccoon Creek, Parke County, Indi­ Bureau, and the various relationships among ana." Carmony, who edited the Magazine for the agencies and Indiana University. Fhe two decades, insisted on publishing lengthy magazine survives and is today one of the primary documents, at a time when most Midwest's better portrayers of regional heri­ other historical editors opted fcjr the schol- tage. arly-interpredve article. He may have been right. For me, the great value in this publication is DONALD CHAPUT the explanation for the magazine's existence. Natural History Museum, Los Angeles

Book Reviews

Anderson, Bibliography of Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations on Milwaukee Topics, 191I-I977, reviewed by William Clausen 134 BiUington, Land of Savagery, Land of Promise: The European Image of the American Frontier, reviewed by Char Miller 147 Cz^hm-in, Prohibition: The Lie of the Land, reviewed by Richard C. Haney 132 Conkin, Prophets of Prosperity: America's First Political Economists, reviewed by Ira Cohen 140 Edmunds, ed., American Indian Leaders: Studies in Diversity, rex'icwed by Joseph C. Porter 142 Fein, Twilight of Progressivism: 'The Western Republican Senators and the New Deal, re­ viewed by John E. Miller 136 Foner, Women and the American Labor Movement: From World War I to the Present, reviewed by Mari Jo Buhle 131 Gal, Brandeis of Boston, reviewed by Geoffrey Blodgett 136 Jones, Soldiers of Light and Love: Northern Teachers and Georgia Blacks, 1865—1873, reviewed by William Preston Vaughn 137 Kraditor, The Radical Persuasion, 1890-1917: A.spects ofthe Inlellectued History and the Historiography of Three American Radical Organizations, reviewed by Eugene M. Tobin 143 Lass, Minnesota's Boundary with Canada: Its Evolution Since 1873, reviewed by Mi­ chael J. Fox '. 140 Lutz, Popular Consent and Popular Control: Whig Political Theory in the Early State Con­ stitutions, reviewed by Paul Goodman 141 Melosi, ed.. Pollution and Reform in American (Aties, 1870-1930, reviewed by Joseph A. Pratt 13« Messinger, A Closer Look at Beaver Darn: A Guide to Historic Architecture, reviewed by John O. Holzhueter 130 Millet, Semper Fidelis: 'The History ofthe United Stales .Marine Corps, reviewed by Gra­ ham A. Cosmas 144 Polenberg, One Nation Divisible: Class, Race, and Ethnicity in the United States Since 1938, reviewed by Rowland Berthoff 135 Rollins, T/i*-Longjournf)! o/A'oa/( Wefeter, reviewed by James T. Schleifer ... .145 Silverman, Law and Urban Growth: Civil Litigation in the Boston Trial (Courts, 1880-1900, reviewed by Donald W. Rogers 133 Sylvester, comp., 'Wo Cheap Padding": Seventy-five Years of the Indiana Magazine of History, 1904-1979, reviewed by Donald Chaput 148 Wubben, (AVU War Iowa and the (Copperhead Movement, reviewed by Peter 1'. Har­ stad 147 149 Wisconsin History Fenton, Erna P. History of the Shawano City- County Library, 1874-1979. (Shawano, Wis­ Checklist consin, cl980. Pp. 60. Illus. No price listed. Available from Shawano City-County Li­ Recently published and currently available brary, 128 South Sawyer Street, Shawano, Wisconsiana added to the Society's Librarv are listed below. The compilers, (ierald R. Eggleston, Wisconsin 54166.) Acquisiticms Librarian, and Susan Dorst, Order Librarian, are interested in obtaining informa­ Granton Community Memories, 1856—1976. tion about (or copies of) items that are not widely (Granton?, Wisconsin, 1976? Pp. 186. Illus. advertised, such as publications of local historical societies, family histories and genealogies, pri­ $5.00 plus $1.00 postage and handling. vately printed works, and histories of churches, Available from Marcia Crothers, Route 1, institutions, or organizations. Authors and pub­ Granton, Wisconsin 54436.) lishers wishing to reach a wider audience and also to perform a valuable bibliographic service are urged to inform the compilers of their publica­ Kahlert, John M. Pioneer Cemeteries, Door tions, including the following information: au­ County, Wisconsin. (Baileys Harbor, Wiscon­ thor, title, location and name of publisher, price, sin, cl981. Pp. 204. Illus. $12.50 plus $1.50 pagination, and address of supplier. Write Susan postage and handling. Available from Dorst, ./Vcquisitions Section. Meadow Lane Publishers, Box 188, Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin 54202.) In addition to the history of twenty cemeteries, biogra­ phies of pioneer community leaders are also included. Annual House Tour: Yesterday's Homes for Today's Living. (Janesville, Wisconsin, 1981. Pp. 32. Illus. No charge. Available from Rock Kinyon, Wallace V. Descendants of Laverno County Historical Society, Box 896, Janes­ Virgil and Bessie Maria Kinyon. (Tomah?, ville, Wisconsin 53545.) Photographs and Wisconsin, 1981. Pp. [282]. Illus. $17.50. descriptions of the homes of the 1981 tour. Available from author, 1112 Kilbourn Ave­ nue, Tomah, Wisconsin 54660.) Bethany United Methodist Church. (Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, 1980. 9 leaves. No price listed. Marsden, Kenneth G. The Samuel Marsden Available from Bethany United Methodist Family, 1795-1980. (West Bend, Wisconsin, Church, 7265 West Center Street, Wauwa­ cl981. Pp. 442. $16.50. Available from au­ tosa, Wisconsin 53213.) History written to thor, P.O. Box 27, West Bend, Wisconsin commemorate the Church's fiftieth anni­ 53095.) versary. Messerschmidt, Bernice. The Messerschmidt Biwer, Terry. Family History in Waukesha Family History. (La Crosse, Wisconsin, 1980. County. 3rd ed. (Waukesba, Wisconsin, 23, [1] leaves. Illus. Available from author, 1981. Research Guide No. 2. Pp. 11. No 514 V2 Ferry Street, La Crosse, Wisconsin price listed. Available from Waukesha 54601.) County Museum, 101 West Main Street, Waukesha, Wisconsin 53186.) A guide to Messinger, Jean Goodwin. A Closer Look at Bea­ resources for genealogical research. ver Dam: Guide to Historic Architecture. (Colo­ rado Springs, Colorado, Cottonwood Press, Burns, Robert K. A Lucky Person Has Only to be cl981. Pp.'84. Illus. $8.95. Available from Born. (Kimberly, Wisconsin, cl980. Pp. Jeanne Wells, Curator, Dodge County His­ 134. Illus. $10.00. Available from author, torical Museum, South Spring Street, Bea­ P.O. Box 68, Kimberly, Wisconsin 54136.) ver Dam, Wisconsin 53916.) Memoirs of a Kimberly dentist. Morken, Lucinda Oakland. A Brief History of The Centennial History of the York Center United Galesville University, Gale College and Mary- Methodist Church, 1880-1980 and the Town of nook. (Ettrick?, Wisconsin, 1981. Pp. 25. York, 1837-1980.{Granton?, Wisconsin, Illus. $2.50. Avilable from author. Rural 1980. Pp. 101. Illus. $6.00 plus $1.00 post­ Route 1, Box 65, Ettrick, Wisconsin 54627.) age and handling. Available from Marcia This institution, which over the years has Crothers, Route 1, Granton, Wisconsin borne three different names, is located in 54436.) Galesville.

150 WISCONSIN HISTORY CHECKLIST

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church: St. peared as a series of articles in the Post- Mary's Congregation, St. Mary's Ridge, Wis­ Crescent. consin, 125th Anniversary, 1856—1981. (Cashton?, Wisconsin, 1981. Pp. 95, [50]. Shuman, Herman. Highlights and Heartaches of Illus. $6.00 plus $1.00 postage and han­ Brethren Pioneers: North Dakota, Minnesota, dling. Available from St. Mary's Ridge Wisconsin. (Pendleton, Indiana, 1981. Pp. Church, Route 1, Cashton, Wisconsin 122. Illus. $5.00. Available from author. 54619.) Rural Route 4, Box 301, Pendleton, Indi­ ana 46064.) History of the Old German Newcomer, Lee. A Four County Guide to the Na­ Baptist Brethren. tional Register of Historic Places. (Oshkosh?, Wisconsin, 1981. Pp. 51. Illus. $1.94. Avail­ able from the author, 1149 Algoma Boule­ Welker, Mary Margarette. What Happened to vard, Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901.) 'fhe that Johnson Line? (Racine?,Wisconsin, counties included in the guide are Fond du 1981. [71, 8] leaves. $7.50. Available from Lac, Winnebago, Outagamie, and author, 2110 Clarence Avenue, Racine, Waupaca. Wisconsin 53405.)

Noble, Richard G. Edwin and Martha: Pioneer Welniak, Marie Karen. 100 Year History of Forebears of an American Family. (Union Town of Richfield, Wood County, Wisconsin. Grove?, Wisconsin, cl981. Pp. 183. Illus. (Marshfield, Wisconsin, cl981. Pp. [8], 112. $5.00. Available from Dorothy J. Noble, Illus. $6.00. Available from author, RED 5, 1784 Milldrum Street, Union Grove, Wis­ Marshfield, Wisconsin 54449.) consin 53182.) A genealogy ofthe Bottom- ley family. Winn, Lela Potter. The Marsh: A Century of Cranberries. (Smithtown, New York, Exposi­ Rediscovering the Fox. (Appleton, Wisconsin, tion Press, cl981. Pp. v, 128. $7.50. Availa­ 1981? Pp. [23]. Illus. $1.50. Available from ble from Exposition Press, 325 Kings High­ the Post-Crescent Promotion Department, way, Smitbtown, New York 1178/.) 306 West Washington Street, Appleton, Narrative ofthe lives ofthe author's grand­ Wisconsin 54911.) Vignettes about the his­ father and father in nineteenth-century ru­ tory of the Fox River which originally ap­ ral Wisconsin.

151 Papers, 1965—1971, of Paul Cowan, a free­ lance writer who worked with the Peace Corps Accessions in Ecuador; including writings, reviews of his book indicting the Peace Corps, letters from Services for microfilming, xeroxing, and photo­ several prominent individuals, and brief sub­ stating all but certain restricted items in its manu­ script collections are provided by the Society. For ject files; presented by Paul and Rachel details write Dr. Josephine L. Harper, Manuscripts Cowan, New York, N.Y. (juralor. Records, 1948-1973, of the Dane County Social Planning Agency and its predecessor, the Community Welfare Council, a federation Manuscripts of public and private social agencies, including General Collections. Papers, 1957—1979, of financial records, committee papers, minutes, Frank Adams (1934 ), Southern author, correspondence, reference files on other so­ journalist, educator, and community orga­ cial service agencies, and other records; pre­ nizer; including correspondence, files from sented by June Spencer, Madison. his biography of James Dombrowski and his Correspondence and private papers, book on the Highlander Center, clipped news 1918-1979, of James Dombrowski (1897 ), reports, and subject files on many topics; pre­ an activist in social causes and executive di­ sented by Frank Adams, Gatesville, North rector of the Southern Conference Educa­ Carolina. (Restricted.) tional Fund from 1948 to 1966; including Papers, 1967-1974, of Pamela P. Allen primarily personal correspondence and other (1943 ), a founder ofthe radical women's records, largely dating after his 1966 retire­ liberation movement; including correspon­ ment; presented by Mr. Dombrowski, New dence, outlines for classes which she taught, Orleans, Louisiana. drafts of books and articles, files on demon­ Papers, 1928-1968, documenting the mili­ strations, conferences, and other activities, an tary career of Madison attorney Carl A. Flom interview with Simone de Beauvoir, and other (1906—1976); including correspondence on papers; presented by Ms. Allen, Sausalito, Cal­ his service in the Army Reserve, scrapbooks ifornia. on his experiences at Camp Wheeler, Georgia Major additions to the papers, 1888—1966, (1940—1946), research noteson the war crimes of liberal Congressman Tbomas R. Amlie trial in Japan of General Tomoyuki (1897—1973), including correspondence, ar­ Yamashita, and speeches; presented by Mrs. ticles and speeches, clippings, family papers, Flom, Madison. and files on several liberal organizations and Papers, 1921-1951, of Horace S. Fries third party movements; presented by Thomas (1902—1951), a Wisconsin philosophy and psy­ R. Amlie and by Gehrta Amlie, Madison. chology professor who was a proponent ofthe Records, 1954-1970, of the Bricklayers, ideas of John Dewey and interested in social Masons, and Plasterers' International Union planning and the relations of science and of America including general correspondence values; including correspondence, writings, of the union's primary officers, correspon­ speeches and lectures, a file on a government dence with Wisconsin locals, and monthly re­ service apprenticeship program, and a file on ports from Wisconsin locals, 1954-1955; with Vanguard, an experiment in "naturalistic" re­ emphasis on jurisdictional disputes with other ligion; presented by Mrs. Horace Fries, Madi­ unions and on work with employers to pro­ son. mote the construction industry and solve Papers, 1969-1977, collected by Michele problems; presented by the International. Gibault in the course of her research on the GI Papers, 1963—1978, of author and filmma­ anti-Vietnam War resistance movement in the ker Robert Carl Cohen (1930 ), largely re­ United States and in Europe; loaned for copy­ lating to his unauthorized biography of Ro­ ing by Michele Gibault, Paris, France. (Parti­ bert Franklin Williams, the first black ally restricted.) American to advocate armed self-defense; in­ Papers, 1909-1979, of Wm. J. Grede cluding correspondence, recorded interviews, (189*7 ), Milwaukee industrialist and and other papers; presented by Mr. Cohen, spokesman for political conservatism, includ­ Los Angeles, California. ing correspondence, financial records, min- 152 ACCESSIONS

Utes, reports, and other papers documenting by B'nai B'rith in 1924; including extensive re­ his activity in Grede Foundries, the J. I. Case cords on the Building Fund (1943-1958); Company, the John Birch Society, the Na­ publicity scrapbooks (1956-1965); publica­ tional Association of Manufacturers, and the tions; subject files; minute books of two other YMCA, and his longtime resistance to labor student organizations, the Wisconsin Meno- unions; presented by Wm. J. Grede, Milwau­ rah Society and the Palestine Builders' Society, kee. (Restricted.) and other items; presented by Daniel Piser, Records, 1946—1979, ofthe Green Lantern Madison, and by Rabbi Alan Lettofsky, Madi­ Eating Cooperative, a Madison cooperative son. and site of meedngs and acdvities of the stu­ Papers, 1946-1977, of Anna Holden dent political left; including minutes, financial (1928? ), a sociologist who did extensive records, correspondence, and subject files on research into school desegregation in selected the cooperative movement, anti-Vietnam War communities and who was very active in the activity, and other matters; presented by the Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Washington, D.C, Cooperative. chapters of the Congress of Racial Equality, Papers, 1917-1918, including numerous especially in fair housing activities; including reports, tables and charts, and notes concern­ personal papers, CORE files, and files on ing agricultural production, prepared and school desegregation in Clinton, Tennessee, collected by Wilder H. Haines, an employee of Charlottesville, Virginia, Providence, Rhode the United States Food Administradon, plus Island, and Sacramento, California; pre­ minutes of meetings ofthe Agricultural Advi­ sented by Anna Holden, Detroit, Michigan. sory Committee; source unknown. Records, 1961-1968, of the New York Papers, 1963-1965, of Charles A. Haynie, office of the International Confederation of field director of a voter registration project of Free Trade Unions, an association concerned The Original Fayette County Civic and Wel­ with encouraging noncommunist trade un­ fare League in Tennessee, and of his wife ions in third-world countries, including corre­ Roena L. Haynie, an organizer and teacher of spondence, staff activity reports, papers on hygiene and family planning; including pro­ tbe group's consuldng work for the United ject reports and otber writings, correspon­ Nations, and other records; presented by the dence, files on balloting irregularities in 1964 Confederation, New York, N.Y. elections, newsclippings, tape-recorded inter­ Records, 1956-1973, of the Leadership views with local residents, and other papers; Conference on Civil Rights, a federadon of re­ presented by Mr. Haynie, Lancaster, Pennsyl­ ligious, labor, and ethnic organizations inter­ vania. ested in racial civil rights; including printed Papers, 1940-1946, of Beaver Dam news­ memoranda, enforcement reports, state­ paper editor and civic leader Joseph Helfert ments, and other items; presented by Roy (1894-1973) consisting primarily of letters Wilkins, Washington, D.C. and transferred from Beaver Dam men serving in World War from the Social Action Vertical File. II and of information on newspaper regula­ Records, 1970-1976, ofthe Madison Ten­ tions and coverage during the war; presented ant Union, a representative of renters in nego­ by Mrs. Helfert, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. tiations with landlords; including building in­ Additional papers, 1936—1978, document­ spection forms and photographs, research ing the activities of the Highlander Research material on specific landlords, printed matter and Education Center, primarily between on a rent strike, materials on a proposed fair 1966 and 1971; including minutes, reports, housing ordinance, and other records; pre­ correspondence, financial materials, work­ sented by David Heller, Madison. shop materials, clippings, tape recordings, Papers, 1941-1970, of Amzie Moore and other records; presented by Highlander (1912 ), a black civil rights leader in Cleve­ Center, Susan Thompson, Berkeley, Califor­ land, Mississippi; including correspondence, nia, and WiUiam Ray Turner, Tracy City, records of organizations with which he Tennessee. (Pardally restricted.) worked as local director of several federal Records, 1911-1979, ofthe Hillel Founda­ anti-poverty programs, subject files, and tion, a Jewish student organization founded at financial records, plus tape recordings of in­ the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus terviews with local black residents and civil 153 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1981-1982

lems emphasized in the civil disorder of the late 1960s—housing, economic development, equal opportunities, health, education, and law and government reform; consisting pri­ marily of records of the Coalition's predeces­ sors who were concerned with various aspects of urban problems, development, and plan­ ning. The predecessors include the American Planning and Civic Association, ACTION, Inc., States Urban Action Center, Urban America, Inc., and the Urban Coalition; pre­ sented by the Coalition, Washington, D.C. Records, 1968-1972, ofthe New University Conference, a New Left national organization of graduate students and faculty involved in organizing radical professional caucuses, in anti-war activity, and in research; including correspondence and subject files on national and regional activities, local chapters, the women's caucus, and various policy commit­ tees; presented by Tom Hecht and Richard Rothstein, Chicago, Illinois. Papers, 1960—1980, of sociologist John R. Salter, Jr. (1934 ) concerning his civil rights and community organizing activities; including documents on tbe Jackson, Missis­ sippi, boycott of white businesses, civil rights work in North Carolina for SCEf, and work with poor people and Indians in Rochester, New York, and Chicago; presented and

WHi (X3) 36635 loaned for copying by Mr. Salter, Tsaile, Ar­ izona. Papers, 1921-1963, of Alfred Senn Protesting substandard housing in Atlanta, Georgia, 1966. (1899—1978), an internationally known scholar in German, Baltic, and Slavic philol­ rights workers, of gospel music, and of 1958 ogy and linguistics; including a few manu­ Arkansas legislative hearings on Communist scripts and extensive correspondence from activity in that state; presented by Mr. Moore, friends and colleagues in Europe and the Cleveland, Mississippi. United States with information on Swiss- Records, 1952-1980, ofthe National Com­ American cultural affairs, scholars' problems mittee Against Repressive Legislation, an or­ with the Nazi regime, displaced persons in ganization originally named the National postwar Germany, and other personal and Committee to Abolish the House Un-American professional topics; presented by Alfred E. Activities Committee, dedicated to the de­ Senn, Madison. fense of civil liberties; including correspon­ Records, 1970-1980, of Somerset HiUs dence, financial records, legal files, research PEACE, Bernardsville, New Jersey, a small files, hearing files, mailings, and other records; women's organization founded to oppose the presented by Frank Wilkinson, Los Angeles, War in Vietnam and which continued to work California, Mike Honey, Washington, D.C, for peace-related issues after the war; includ­ and Clarence Kaihn, Madison, Wisconsin. ing literature distributed by the group and (Partially restricted.) press releases and letters to editors and elected Records, 1908-1909, 1920-1971, of the officials written by Eleanor M. Kleinhans, National Urban Coalition, an organization head of educational publicity; presented by formed in 1970 to combat major urban prob­ Eleanor M. Kleinhans, Bernardsville, N.J.

154 ACCESSIONS

Records, 1966—1976, of the Teaching As­ stitutional Rights via Joan L. Washington, sistants Association—American Federation NewYork, N.Y. of Teachers, Local 3220, a labor union repre­ Records, 1967—1979, of Vietnam Veterans senting graduate teaching and research assist­ Against the War, Inc., a national veterans' or­ ants at the University of Wisconsin's Madison ganization concerned with promoting U.S. campus; including historical sketches, a con­ military withdrawal from Vietnam, with plac­ stitution, minutes, correspondence, bargain­ ing the responsibility for war crimes above the ing files, and other records; presented by the individual soldier, and with improving serv­ TAA, John Fleckner, and Ed Berg. ices and benefits for veterans; including corre­ Records, 1977-1981, of a Madison gay spondence, minutes, membership materials, rights group. The United; consisting largely publications, records from programs such as of clippings plus some minutes, correspon­ the Winter Soldier Investigation, and other dence, and press releases; concerning at­ materials; presented by Michael D. McCain, tempts to remove homosexuals from the scope Chicago, Illinois; Rusty Lindley, Washington, of tbe city's equal opportunities ordinance, re­ D.C; and loaned for copying by Jan Barry, actions to the movies Cruising and Windows, Montclair, N.J.. and gay rights in general; presented via Keven Records, 1963-1970, of the West End Polleys, Madison. Community Council, an organization active in Records, 1966-1976, ofthe United Meth­ political, social, and cultural activities among odist Office for the United Nations, including the racially mixed West End neighborhoods of some correspondence but consisting primarily Louisville, Kentucky; including correspon­ of anti-war, draft resistance, and student pro­ dence, financial records, administrative pa­ test reference files containing reports, press pers, and other records concerning desegre­ releases, leaflets, clippings, and other printed gation of schools and housing, urban renewal, material; presented by the Office via Doug welfare rights, and other areas of community Hostetter, New York, N.Y. concern, presented by the Council via James Mimeographed transcripts from United M. Kiphart, Charles B. Tachau, and Anne and States of America vs. David T. Dellinger, et al., Carl Braden. the 1969—1970 conspiracy trial of "Chicago Papers, 1962-1980, of Allen Young Seven" defendants Jerry Rubin, Abbie (1941 ), a New Left journalist and promi­ Hoffman, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Ren- nent gay liberation writer and activist; consist­ nie Davis, John Froines, and Lee Weiner, ar­ ing primarily of incoming correspondence rested in connection with demonstrations dur­ with information on the activities of the New ing the 1968 Democratic National Convention Left, growth of the underground press, and in Chicago; the trial resulted in contempt of the gay liberation movement; plus notes on court charges against the Seven and their at­ Latin American politics, 1962—1965, and writ­ torneys, William Kunstler and Leonard ings; presented by Allen Young, Orange, Mas­ Weinglass; presented by the Center for Con­ sachusetts. (Restricted.)

155 Contributors

CHARLES E. QUIRK, a native of Milwaukee, is J. George Senty—live in Waterloo, Iowa, and an associate professorof history in the Univer­ are the parents of four sons. sity of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls. After graduating from Carroll College at Waukesha he attended Harvard Divinity School, McCor- GEORGE C BROWN, a doctoral candidate in his­ mick Theological Seminary (B.D., 1958), and tory at the University of Wisconsin, is studying the University of Iowa, where he attained his the committee system in the United States Ph.D. in 1967. His major research interests are House of Representatives, 1849—1861, for his in twentieth-century religious and urban his­ dissertation. He formerly served as book re­ tory. Professor Quirk has published articles in view editor for the Wisconsin Magazine of His­ the Journal of Presbyterian History. He is cur­ tory. The first two parts of his edition of the rently completing an oral history project deal­ William G. Rice correspondence were pub­ ing with the United Presbyterian Church and lished in the Summer and Autumn issues of race. He and his wife Gale—the daughter of a the Magazine, and other biographical details well-known Wisconsin Presbyterian minister. appear on page 336 ofthe former.

Documentary Editing Institute

The eleventh annual Institute for Historical Editing will take place June 13-25, 1982, in Madison, Wisconsin. Jointly sponsored by the Na­ tional Historical Publications and Records Commission, the University of Wisconsin—Madison, and the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, the insdtute will provide detailed theoretical and practical instruction in documentary editing. (Two major NHPRC documentary projects are currently published in Madison: ihe First Federal Elections by the University of Wisconsin, and the Documentary History of the Ratification oj the Constitution by the State Historical Society.) Applicants should hold a master's degree in history or American civilization. A limited number of full and partial study grants are available. For information and ap­ plication forms, write to NHRPC, National Archives, Washington, DC 20408. Application deadline: February 15, 1982.

156 THE BOARD OF CURATORS

LEE SHERMAN DREYFUS, Governor ofthe State ROBERT M. O'NEIL, President ofthe University

VEL PHILLIPS, Secretary of State MRS. JOHN ERSKINE, President of the Auxiliary

CHARLES P. SMITH, State Treasurer ROBERT B. L. MVRPHY, President, Wisconsin History Foundation

MRS. SONDRA ROCKENBACH, Chairman, Wisconsin Council for Local History

THOMAS H. BARLAND, Eau Claire MRS. EDWARD C.JONES, Fort Atkinson E. DAVID CRONON, Madison WILLIAM C. KIDD, Racine

MRS. L. PRENTICE EAGER, JR., Evansville MRS. HERBERT V. KOHLER, JR., Kohler

MRS. WILLIAM B. GAGE, Williams Bay HOWARD W. MEAD, Madison

PAUL C. GARTZKE, Madison George H. Miller, Ripon

JOHN C. GEILFUSS, Milwaukee NEWELL (i. MEYER, Milwaukee

MRS. HUGH F. GWIN, Hudson JOHN M. MURRY, Milwaukee

JOHN T. HARRINGTON, Milwaukee FREDERICK I. OLSON, Wauwatosa MRS. R. L. HARTZELL, Grantsburg JOHN A. SCHONEMAN, Wausau PAUL E. HASSETT, Madison DR. LOUIS C.. SMITH, Cassville

MRS. WILLIAM E. HAYES, De Pere MRS. WILLIA.M H. L. SMYTHE, Milwaukee

MRS. R. GOERES HAYSSEN, Racine WILLIAM F. STARK, Nashotah

NATHAN S. HEFFERNAN, Madison MILO K. SWANTON, Madison

MRS. JEAN M. HELLIESEN, La Crosse WILSON B. THIEDE, Madison

MRS. FANNIE HICKLIN, Madison CHARLES TWINING, Ashland WILLIAM HUFFMAN, Wisconsin Rapids EDWARDJ. VIRNIG, New Berlin MRS. PETER D. HUMLEKER, JR., Fond du Lac CLARK WILKINSON, Baraboo

ROBERT H. IRRMANN, Beloit

The Women's Auxiliary

MRS. JOHN ERSKINE, Racine, President MRS. E. DAVID CRONON, Madison, Secretary MRS. WILLIAM B.JONES, Fort Atkinson, MRS. GEORGE STROTHER, Madison, Treasurer Vice President MRS. A. PAUL JENSEN, Madison, Ex Officio

Fellows

VERNON CARSTENSEN MERLE CURTI ALICE E. SMITH THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY SHALL promote a wider appreciation of the American heritage with particular emphasis on the collection, advancement and dissemination of knowledge of the history of Wisconsin and of the West. —Wisconsin Statutes, Chapter 44

WHi {X3) 37651 Singing in an early Christ Presbyterian choir were (left to right): Daniel S. Durrie, who was librarian at the State Historical Society; Sarah Turner or Mrs. C. P. Chapman; John Griffith; Mrs. Edwin Dicey; and Professor Shaughnessy.

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''OF WISC