ISSN 0043-6534

!-»- f< ^A WISCONSIN |V MAGAZINE OF .-.djl^'^^ h.rj\ c\''K <*. HISTORY sf^'s "•'"

The State Historical Society of Wisconsin • Vol. 62, No. 3 • Spring, 1979

t" • 1^ ^ •

•. (fff .. . l4 •"ft.""--'-' . .-^.'«m, JT W^; 'jf*^ BranH

••#! j•v_#.^^ HP-'H- . '

••.... :x , ^

''•;•.. • { S^^^^^^B^u^ > dwn. ^iWHb^

> •^"s^ .' • 1.2 7i ?• " .ii-—:'* ra^ ii t "• \, 1 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN RICHARD A. ERNEY, Director Officers WILLIAM HUFFMAN, President F. HARWOOD ORBISON, Treasurer JOHN C. GEILFUSS, First Vice-President RICHARD .\. ERNEV, Secretary ROGER E. AXTELL, 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 chartered in 1853, it is the oldest American historical society to receive continuous public funding. By statute, it is charged with collecting, advancing, and dissemi­ nating knowledge of Wisconsin and of the trans-Mississippi West. The Society serves as the archive of the State of Wisconsin; it collects all manner of books, periodicals, maps, manuscripts, relics, newspapers, and aural and graphic ma­ terials as they relate to North America; it maintains a museum, library, and re­ search facility in Madison as well as a statewide system of historic sites, school services, area research centers, and affiliated local societies; and it publishes a wide variety of historical materials, both scholarly and popular.

MEMBERSHIP in the Society is open to the public. 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. Contribu­ ting 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 Uni­ versity of Wisconsin, and the President of the Society's Auxiliary. 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, Madison, 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 262-3421 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 library materials and Museum exhibits and services 262-2704 artifacts 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 262-9613 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 Historic sites 262-3271 Speakers bureau 262-3266

ON THE COVER: Members of the Czech Legion aboard their armored train on the Trans-Siberian Railway, 1918-1920. This issue contains a number of heretofore unpublished documents and photographs by Wisconsin participants in the Russian revolution and civil war. [National Archives photo lll-SC-75877] Volume 62, Number 3 / Spring, 1979

^^NrEHlSTQ^ f'sbsS WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF > OF WlS'^ 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 member­ ship, .|15, or $12.50 for those over 65 or members of affiliated Railways and Politics: societies; family membership, The Russian Diary of George Gibbs, 1917 179 $20, or $15 for those over 65 or members of affiliated societies; Edited by Joe Michael Feist contributing, $50; supporting, $100; sustaining, $200-500; patron, Steadying Efforts: $500 or more.) Single The "War at Archangel, 1918-1919 200 numbers from Volume 57 forward are $2. Microfilmed By Richard Goldhurst copies available through University Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, A Wisconsin Man in the Russian Railway Service Michigan 48106; reprints of Corps: Letters of Fayette W. Keeler, 1918-1919 217 Volumes 1 through 20 and most issues of Volumes 21 through Edited by Joe Michael Feist 56 are available from Kraus Reprint Company, Route 100, Millwood, New York 10546. 245 Communications should be Book Reviews addressed to the editor. The Society does not assume Book Review Index 258 responsibility for statements made by contributors. Second- Wisconsin History Checklist 259 class postage paid at Madison, Wisconsin, and at Accessions 261 additional mailing offices. rosTMASTER: Send address 264 changes to Wisconsin Magazine Contributors of History, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Copyright © 1979 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Paid for in part by the Maria L. and Simeon Mills Editorial Fund and by the George B. Burrows Fund.

PAUL H. HASS EDITOR WILLIAM C. MARTEN ASSOCIATE EDITOR

JOHN O. HOLZHUETER ASSISTANT EDITOR A

'«#-_'

Novosti from Sovfoto 155301 Restricted These Russian soldiers, unwilling to fight any longer for the czarist regime, simply turned their backs on Ihe war and went home in the spring of 1917•

178 Railways and Politics: The Russian Diary of George Gibbs, 1917

Edited by Joe Michael Feist

INTRODUCTION further weakened by the destructive influence of the Siberian monk Rasputin on the royal family, and by the widely believed rumors HEN the United States en­ that Empress Alexandra (who came from a W;tere d World War I early in German principality) was a German agent. 1917, practically every quarter of American When bread riots and strikes broke out in society surged with enthusiasm and a fervent Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg) in March, desire to do away with the German menace. 1917, government troops sent to quell the up­ But for one of our Allies, crippled and ex­ rising instead joined the demonstrators. With hausted Russia, the general attitude was much no base of support, Nicholas abdicated and the opposite. Since the outbreak of hostilities the Romanov dynasty melted away with hard­ in 1914, the Russian people, not unwilling ly a whimper. to fight in the beginning, had been a suffer­ The creation of the new "democratic" Rus­ ing partner with the czarist government in an sian Provisional government delighted Presi­ ineffectual prosecution of the war. The Rus­ dent Woodrow Wilson. Now, said Wilson, sian soldier was thrust into battle with little the United States had a "fit partner for a or no training, obsolete weapons, and few league of honor."' From the beginning, how­ supplies. By the early months of 1917, about ever, the Provisional government operated fifteen million Russians had been mobilized with the authority to govern Russia, but not to fight the war; of these, two million had the power. The power (but not the authori­ been killed and another four million wounded. ty) rested, if anywhere, in the Petrograd So­ Besides these staggering casualties, the Rus­ viet (Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Depu­ sian war aims were neither understood nor ties), an extralegal body through which the appreciated by the average Russian. Drained Bolsheviks eventually gained control. Russia, materially, physically, and emotionally, the therefore, was in the midst of a titanic up­ Russian people simply wished to fight no heaval when the United States entered the longer. Great War. Although Czar Nicholas II, the Russian The deep-seated conditions which led to emperor, was a weak man, he represented the downfall of Nicholas, and which were still and carried on the tyrannical excesses of three brewing in Russia, were simply not grasped centuries of Romanov rule. As more Rus­ by the American government. The Wilson ad- sians were killed and maimed, as food became more scarce, as destruction continued un­ * U.S., Department of State, Papers Relating to Ihe checked, the czar lost the confidence and re­ Foreign Relations of the United States, Russia, 1918 spect of his people. The czar's position was (Washington, 1931), I: 17.

Copyright @ 1979 by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin All rights of reproduction in any form reserved 179 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1979

to Russia to survey the situation and to dem­ onstrate American support of the Provisional government. After receiving the reluctant approval of the Russians (who accepted the commission only in the hope of gaining equip­ ment) and the acquiescence of President Wil­ son, Daniel Willard, a railroad man and chairman of the Advisory Commission on National Defense, was requested to name five railway experts to compose the commission. One of these men was George Gibbs.

ORN April 19, 1861, to Francis S. B'an: d Eliza Hosmer Gibbs, George Gibbs was the scion of an old and distinguished New England family. His earliest American an­ cestors had arrived from England in the mid- seventeenth century and, through the years, the family was engaged in shipping and mer­ chant concerns. Oliver Wolcott, Gibbs's great- great-grandfather, was a signer of the Declara­ tion of Independence. His grandfather, WHi (X3) 34310 George Gibbs III, was a noted mineralogist George Gibbs, from his passport photograph, and horticulturist. Francis Sarason Gibbs, 1917. his father, was involved in shipping and grain exporting both in the United States and the ministration's primary, perhaps exclusive, Orient. "Inherited qualities determined the concern was Russia's continued participation direction of my career in early life," George in the struggle against Germany. Thus, every Gibbs wrote. "Several generations of Gibbs effort was directed toward that end. had been fond of the natural sciences—chemis­ One area of utmost significance was Russia's try and mineralogy; these leanings in my case transportation difficulties, particularly the took the form of a fondness for engineer­ appalling condition of the Trans-Siberian ing . . . ."2 Railway. This superb engineering achieve­ Gibbs was graduated in 1882 from the Stev­ ment, extending almost 5,000 miles from ens Institute of Technology, where he had European Russia to the Pacific port of Vlad­ been trained in mechanical engineering. To ivostok, was the sole means of moving goods his extreme good fortune, his first work was manufactured in the United States and Japan as laboratory assistant to Thomas Alva Edi­ westward to Russian forces. In 1917, how­ son, where his duties were chiefly in the elec­ ever, the Trans-Siberian was hampered by trical and chemical fields. The knowledge a mournful lack of equipment and inefficient gained with Edison would serve him the rest operation. of his life. After a series of positions, Gibbs This disturbing condition was brought to traveled west to Milwaukee and became chief the attention of the American government by testing engineer for the Chicago, Milwaukee, Major Stanley Washburn, a correspondent for St. Paul k Pacific Railroad Company, and later the Eondon Times who had covered many mechanical engineer for the line. battles on the Russian front. To a meeting of In 1897 Gibbs's friendship with two singu­ the Council of National Defense, Washburn lar Americans, George Westinghouse and Sam- emphasized the military need of keeping the nel Vauclain (of the Baldwin Locomotive Trans-Siberian in good working order and of keeping Russia in the war. He advocated dis­ ^ George Gibbs, The Gibbs Family of Rhode Island patching a group of American railway experts and Some Related Families (New York, 1933), 45.

180 FEIST: GEORGE GIBBS DIARY

Works), led to Gibbs's becoming consulting The entire George Gibbs Collection is engineer for the various Westinghouse com­ housed in the State Historical Society of Wis­ panies and the Baldwin Works. In the next consin at Madison. As Gibbs was a bache­ few years Gibbs was the guiding light behind lor, the collection was acquired by Mrs. Mc­ several important railway engineering proj­ Grath upon Gibbs's death in 1940 and de­ ects. He was chief engineer for the design posited with the Society in 1948. The collec­ and construction of the electrical work of tion was donated to the Society by Mrs. Mc­ Pennsylvania Station in New York. He de­ Grath in 1978. signed the first all-steel passenger car. He The journal was altered only as indicated. was a true pioneer in the development of elec­ Ellipses are used to denote cuts. Finally, it tric traction concepts, and his engineering ex­ should be noted that the Russian calendar pertise was responsible for much of the heavy in 1917 was thirteen days behind the calendar electric traction installations on American used in the West. For example, June 1 ac­ railways. By 1917, therefore, George Gibbs cording to the Russian calendar was June 13 was a natural choice for the Railroad Mission elsewhere. All dates in the journal follow the to Russia. New Style, or Western, calendar. The historical importance of the Gibbs jour­ J.M.F. nal lies in the fact that it is immensely re­ vealing of America's perception about revolu­ tionary Russia. Gibbs understood the evils January, 1918 of the czarist regime but could not compre­ 'HE following are notes jotted hend the legacy of the Romanovs. That is, down during my journey to Rus­ he could not fathom the Russian desire for sia in the summer of 1917 and preserved in peace in the face of what he perceived to be this form for my own amusement and to re­ the obvious threat to mankind posed by Im­ call the incidents of an unusual trip. . . . perial Germany. This clamoring for an end My connection with the mission was an un­ to the war he attributed to "political schem­ sought for honor; the men probably respon­ ers." He could not comprehend the age-old sible for the suggestion were old friends- hope of the Russian peasant to secure land, Daniel Willard, . . . Mr. Samuel Rea, Presi­ and his abiding distrust and hatred of harsh dent of the Pennsylvania Railroad and Samuel landowners. Above all, he did not under­ Vauclain. . . . The invitation came suddenly stand that politically, Russia was an explor­ and I was urged by these gentlemen to accept. ing, searching child. Naively, he thought that Probably the fact that I had made two visits a public relations campaign could solve Rus­ to Russia in the past influenced them in select­ sia's monumental problems. To the sensible, ing me. . . . well-educated, and practical Gibbs, the situa­ tion was unnerving and baffling. He wished The trip turned out to be a trying one from that the Russians would simply get on with many points of view, but its compensation is the business at hand. Like other Americans of found in the fact that we accomplished some­ his generation and background, he was con­ thing which was important to our country sumed by his assignment: in his case, getting and that I have many interesting experiences the railroads working efficiently. The fact to look back upon. that vastly larger events were evolving around The Commission, officially known as "The him did not seem to deter his intention of Advisory Railroad Commission to Russia," carrying out his mission. "He was very much appointed by Secretary of State [Robert] a Victorian," remarked his niece, Mrs. Joseph Lansing on May 4th, 1917, consisted of: (Ann) McGrath, "with a firm sense of right John F. Stevens, and wrong and duty."^ To be sure, his views Chairman* General on Russia were simplistic—but by no means W. L. Darling .... Maintenance of Way unique. * John F. Stevens was well known for his work in the construction of the Panama Canal and in locating ' Telephone interview with Mrs. Joseph McGrath, the Great Northern Railroad across the Rocky and May 20, 1978. Cascade mountains.

181 National Archives photo 165-WW-133E-2 The Advisory Railroad Commission to Russia, 1918. Left to right: W. L. Darling, Henry Miller, John F. Stevens, John P. Greiner, and George Gibbs.

John Greiner Bridges and Structures and the Canadian Pacific Railway to the Henry Miller Transportation Pacific coast. We arrived at Vancouver on George Gibbs Equipment the morning of the 14th and immediately We were accredited to the Russian Govern­ boarded the steamer Empress of Asia. . . . ment as officers pro tem of the U. S. State There was a full passenger list, mostly com­ Department and carried Diplomatic passports. mercial men bound for the East. . . . Count Our staff comprised: Ilya Tolstoy (son of the famous Tolstoy) was E. P. Shannon Secretary on board. He is a scatter-brained individual, Franklin Reading ..Disbursing Officer but amusing. Major Stanley We arrived at Yokohama early on Friday Washburn^ Military Attache the 25th and were received with much for­ Gene Stevens mality by a Japanese delegation of railroad (son of the men. . . . [On May 26] we went to Toyko by Chairman) Assistant an electric train and lunched at the Russian Two Stenographers [C. A. Decker and Embassy. Mr. Krupinsky, the Ambassador, Leslie Fellows] is an agreeable and highly educated man. . . . Interpreters [Professor F. A. Colder and He is, of course, of the old regime and is much Eugene Prince] The Commission left Chicago in a special •* Upon arriving in Petrograd, Washburn was reas­ car on May 8th, traveling over the Soo Line signed to the Root Commission. See footnote 7. 182 FEIST: GEORGE GIBBS DIARY

saddened by present conditions and uncer­ "Golden Horn." This inlet has its entrance tain of his tenure of office. . . .^ guarded by a large island on which there are May 29th. Arrived at Tsuruga at 8:00 A.M. strong fortifications. . . . The city is on the A beautiful warm day. We took a long jinriki- west side of the Horn . . . and presents a pic­ sha ride around the neighborhood. ... At turesque appearance with its many domed 6:00 P.M. we left by the "Russian Volunteer churches. . . . Since the loss of Port Arthur and Fleet" steamer Penza. ... It was very crowded Dalny to Japan after the peace treaty in 1905, —we slept two in a stateroom. . . . [Tjhere Vladivostok is the only Russian port on the were also a number of Russo-American anar­ Pacific, and its importance has also rapidly chists [on board]—the fluent-talking, self- grown since the completion of the Trans- seeking kind, going home to stir up trouble Siberian Railway in 1896. . . . and to grasp what they can from the rich. As there are very poor hotel accommoda­ Their way home is paid by the new Govern­ tions, we went immediately to our special ment. A good riddance for America, but bad train and made it our headquarters during for the "New Russia." our stay. This train consisted of seven blue May 31st. Arrived Vladivostok (500 miles) cars (the regular equipment color is brown). at 8:00 A.M.; weather cold and rainy. Numer­ The "Imperial" train, which is similar but ous delegations met us at the dock. These more elaborate, was reserved for the Root were headed by the local representative of the party,'' which is expected soon. . . . "Council of Workmens' and Soldiers' Depu­ Prof. A. Mitinsky, the Chief of the Test­ ties"; he was . . . stocky, dressed in a frock ing Department of the Central [Ways and coat, with a scarlet band around one arm; he Communications] Bureau at Petrograd, is in looked like a second-hand clothing dealer on charge and a very efficient, useful, and inde­ the lower east side of New York. Humbly fol­ fatigable chief he is. . . . Others whom we met lowing in his wake were the Military Governor in Vladivostok were: Lt. Francis Riggs, Mili­ of the Ussuri Province, the Mayor of Vladi­ tary Attache of the Petrograd Embassy, [and] vostok, and an Army General, all looking J. K. Caldwell, American Consul [at Vladi­ cowed and mortified at their part in the per­ vostok]. . . . formance. Speeches were made and inter­ Lt. Riggs gave us the first detailed account preted. We appear to be welcome. of the status of our mission to the Russian An amusing incident occurred in connection Government; he said it had been arranged with the bunch of anarchists we had brought that we should take over complete charge of over. . . . They appeared to imagine that the this port, as regards transportation, but was reception which greeted us was intended for of the opinion that our advice was not wanted them, and they were considerably crestfallen as to the Trans-Siberian or other Russian rail­ when the delegation passed them by, and more ways. It seems to be thought in Petrograd that so when told they would have to remain on the whole trouble with the Trans-Siberian board for an indefinite time. We heard after­ Line is at Vladivostok and that a mix-up there wards that they were given the choice of im­ is responsible for the non-shipment of goods mediately enlisting in the army to be sent to from that port into Russia. We were, of the front, or of going to work on the roads and course, adverse to the idea of assuming any the railway; this was not the "freedom" they administrative duties—at least I was; I did not expected. It seems that these men have been believe that, whatever the condition of af­ flocking home for weeks. . . . fairs, it would be possible for us to take con­ trol of matters in a foreign territory effec­ tively; we would be certain to antagonize someone. ... LADIVOSTOK is located on the V;hill s which surround a deep- ' Former Secretary of State and War Elihu Root water inlet of the sea, called from its shape the was heading a commission to the Provisional govern­ ment, the purpose ot which was simply to express " B. H. Krupinsky, Russian ambassador to Japan. American support ot the new government. The arrival Krupinsky was saddened by the downfall of Czar ot the two commissions in Petrograd only a day Nicholas the previous March. apart, however, tended to contuse the situation.

183 National Archives photo lll-SC-75666 Supplies and war materiel, icebound on barges in Vladivostok harbor, 1918.

May 31st. Vladivostok. After getting our June 1st. We went this morning to see the bearings on shore we started out on a special extensive car-erecting plant at "First River," trip around the harbor in a Government which is over the hills to the north of the launch. . . . The question of freight conges­ city. ... In the afternoon we visited a pro­ tion was especially studied and an appalling posed location for a locomotive-erecting plant, situation disclosed. Vast quantities of goods at the north end of the Horn, and made a thor­ of every kind are on hand. . . . Baled cotton ough inspection of the dock and railway facili­ is piled in various open spaces on the hills for ties, which we found good. . . . miles around; chemicals and explosives are June 2nd. I again went with the Russian stored in enormous special warehouses erect­ officials to the First River plant, to discuss ed at various points; motor cars, machinery, details of extensions. ... In the evening an­ household goods, etc. are on hand in thou­ other conference was had in our car with sands of weather-stained boxes, on the docks, representatives of the lumber interests. There in the yards and in any old place. . . . [T]he appears to be some "deal" on regarding the whole situation shows an entire lack of fore­ use of Russian lumber, as the plan, which thought and co-ordination on the part of the involves building saw-mills and planing mills, Government, and it is sad to see that so much is not a good way to expedite the assembly effort has been expended without accomplish­ of cars in wartime. I labored to convince the ing needed help to the country; in fact, it Railway officials that the move was an un­ is a crime. . . . wise one but without much success.

184 FEIST: GEORGE GIBBS DIARY

June 3rd. A fine, clear, warm day. Our ing the herds. Section hands are also Chi­ Special left at 7:30 A.M. The U.S. cruiser nese. . . . The railway was well kept and rides Buffalo with the Root party arrived during well, but the ballast is sandy and very dusty. the night and is in the harbor. The Root train is only three hours ahead of ... At Nikolsk, seventy miles north of us, in spite of the delays caused by our nu­ Vladivostok, the railway divides. [T]he Us­ merous stops for inspection, we are doing suri railway main line [continues] north to some fast running. Harbarovsk, where it connects with the newly June 7th. During the night we crossed the completed Amur River Railway around the Divide between the Pacific and the Arctic northern boundary of Manchuria, and an­ oceans. . . .^ We have climbed out of the other line turning west, constituting the be­ valley of the Ingoda River . . . and have de­ ginning of the Trans-Siberian. . . . [The scended into the valley of the Selenga, which commission took the latter route.] flows into Lake Baikal, one of the largest June 4th. At Harbin. . . . This morning bodies of fresh water (after our Great Lakes) we made a thorough inspection of the large in the world. . . . The water is cold and re­ railway repair shops. Later an elaborate lun­ markably clear. We passed the Root train in cheon was given in our honor by General this section and proceeded around the lower Horvath,^ the Military Governor—a fine old end of the lake at Missovia ... to Irkutsk. . . . gentleman. . . . Later the Root Commission's ... At this point in our journey we first special train arrived. . . . They left at 6:50 P.M. encountered a really Russian population; . . . We followed at 11:00 P.M. . . . we met with crowds of soldiers at all stations. June 5th. En route; a clear, hot day. . . . These men seem to be coming and going and . . . Manchuria Station, eight hundred and their movement greatly congests the railway. eighty versts [a verst is 0.6629 miles] east of They are considerable of a nuisance. . . . Harbin, is the western frontier point of the . . . The Root train pulled in before we left, province of that name. . . . The railway lay­ but we got out first. Mitinsky was extremely out is particularly good, but we noticed evi­ anxious to get to Petrograd ahead of them dence of considerable car congestion; about and, in spite of our remonstrances, he arranged five hundred loaded cars were laid up. . . . to keep ahead by running like mad to make This was the first evidence seen of the hold­ up time lost at inspection points. . . . up of traffic to points west; the accumulation Seven versts west of Irkutsk, at Innokent- here was due to the point being the terminal skia, we reached the terminal of the Trans- of the Chinese Eastern and the beginning of Baikal Railway and the beginning of the the Trans-Baikal Railway. . . . Tomsk. . . . The railway throughout this sec­ June 6th. We stopped at Chita for an in­ tion is very crooked and appears unnecessarily spection of the locomotive and car repair so, with about a one per cent ruling gradi­ shops and then proceeded. We also inspected ent. . . . the coal mines a few miles west; quality About one hundred miles west of Irkutsk poor. . . . we passed Cherimkova, where there is a large The population, strange to say, is still deposit of very good coal. The workings are chiefly Mongolian, consisting of Nomads tend- mostly underground, but we noticed one large open-pit mine near the railway. Coal was ' General Dmitri Horvath, or Horvat, was the Rus­ being loaded here ... at the rate of three sian general manager ot the Chinese Eastern Railway, hundred cars per day; this fact is largely re­ a Russian-controlled line across northern Manchuria, sponsible for the congestion of the Trans- which represented a part of the Trans-Siberian. The railway was built by arrangement with the Chinese in Siberian line, requiring all the cars and motive order to save hundreds ot miles on the route to Vladi­ power available. . . . vostok. This, in effect, gave Russia virtual control June 8th. . . . We reached Krasnoyarsk over this area. The Amur line, which follows the at noon. Large division shops are located Siberian-Manchurian border, was not built until World War I was imminent. Still, in 1917, the Chinese East­ ern was the most efficient and quickest route from ' The geographical point south of which rivers flov* Vladivostok to the beginning ot the regular Trans- toward the Pacific and north of which rivers flow Siberian inside Russian territory. toward the Arctic.

185 -•f. [ Sea of Japan o

there; these we spent time in inspecting. . . , Bohemia and are said to have deserted from Early in the morning [of June 9th] we the Austrian army by the thousands.i" passed the town of Taiga, where a branch June 11th. ... I visited our baggage car, railway leads north sixty miles to the city of to get into my trunk; found the car piled high Tomsk. ... At Taiga is found the best coal yet with bags of sugar and flour, crocks of butter, developed in Siberia; it was not being active­ etc. These are provisions which the train ly mined . . . because of labor and other trou­ hands have been accumulating along the route bles. . . . for sale in Petrograd. I am told there is a June 10th. We arrived at Omsk during great scarcity of these articles in the Capital the morning. This is a large but unattractive and that enormous profits will be realized. city located in the center of the developed agricultural district of western Asia. . . . The railway divides here and the double E arrived at Petrograd at 6:00 track ends. The southernmost line, which is wP.M . on June 12th, 1917. Were part of the original Trans-Siberian route, pro­ ceeds almost due west ... to Moscow; the oth­ " Possibly as many as eight hundred thousand pris­ er line west by north through Ekaterinburg oners were in Siberia at the time ot Gibbs's visit. and Viatka to Petrograd. We took the lat­ These were mostly Slovaks and Hungarians. There ter. . . . were tew Germans. The prisoners were not confined to POW camps and were allowed to hold jobs. Their ... I neglected to say that, since leaving existence along the Trans-Siberian caused great alarm Irkutsk we saw many Austrian "prisoners" among the Allies after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk at the stations and along the tracks. These pulled Russia out ot the war. It was mistakenly feared men seem to be practically free and walk that the prisoners were armed and would lead a Ger­ man takeover ot Siberia. Most simply wanted to go about and mix with the natives without re­ home, but the issue was skillfully exploited by anti- straint. They are mostly Czecho-Slovaks from Bolshevik leaders.

186 FEIST: GEORGE GIBBS DIARY met at the station by a delegation of railway of­ This is the season of the "white nights," ficials, also by Ambassador Francis'^ and his and longest days of the year. . . . The sun set staff, who accompanied us to our hotel. This about 10 P.M. and a very long twilight fol­ was a large new structure built around a court­ lowed. At midnight the red glow in the west yard and known as the "Select," but the selec­ gradually died out and, turning to the east, tion I found to be inferior; in fact, I would we saw the sunrise glow begin. It was a most not risk my reputation in a similar "joint" strange and impressive sight. . . . in my own country. . . . Francis apologized June 15th. Our daily sessions with the for the character of the place, saying that it Railway Ministry and staff began. This or­ had been intended to put us up at the Win­ ganization consists of an immense centralized ter Palace, but that the Root Commission's bureau from which the Government railways [impending] arrival had prevented [it]. . . . are directed. It is housed in a number of June 13th. A beautiful cool day. Went to large buildings . . . along the Fontanka canal. the American Embassy and had a long con­ Our conferences were with the head officials ference with Gov. Francis; afterwards lunched and engineers of the various "railways," and with him. Charles R. Crane came in; he was our work was divided between Miller, Dar­ awaiting the arrival of the Root party, of ling, Greiner and myself to collect data and which he is a member. This Commission ar­ discuss matters relating to our various spe­ rived today. cialties. Stevens did not attend these meetings June 14th. Luncheon at the Embassy to during the first month; in fact, he was ill for meet [Nikolai] Nekrasov, Minister of Ways the entire time and in the hospital for three and Communications in the Provisional Gov­ weeks. These sessions were laborious and ernment. Nekrasov is a fine looking man of trying because of the difficulty of carrying on about forty; originally from Tomsk, a civil a conversation through an interpreter; also engineer and at one time a professor in the because the Russian is the greatest talker on Tomsk University. ... Is a socialist of the earth and prefers to conduct even the simplest moderate type and evidently now more in­ inquiry in committee. ... It is not surprising, terested in politics than the railway business. consequently, that most matters get talked As he is the head of the Department with to death, rather than acted upon. . . . which we were to have our principal deal­ June 17th. A fine warm Sunday. Attended ings, we had subsequently many conferences service at St. Isaac's Cathedral and in P.M. with him and found him always most consid­ visited the Hermitage. . . . There is no evi­ erate, but long on promises and short in per­ dence that any public property has been dis­ formance. In fact, he had little time for any­ turbed since the revolution, but probably the thing except Ministry meetings and schemes very valuable articles of precious metal and for his political advancement. Our arrival, stone have been boxed and specially guard­ as it later transpired, came in the nick of ed time to enable him to hold his job. June 21st. ... We dined at the Donon res­ This evening after dinner we motored out taurant with General Poole^^ and Major with Gov. Francis to the islands on the north- Banting of the "British Military Equipment bank of the Neva. . . . The fine residences of Section in Russia"; also with Capt. Riggs. the City are in this section. . . . Many of . . . The Englishmen are keenly interested in the "palaces" are unoccupied since the Revo­ our mission and were especially anxious that lution, and I was told any one of them could we should bring pressure to bear upon the be had rent free provided the tenant [kept] Railway Ministry to hurry the completion of a sufficient number of servants to guard the the Murman (Kola) line. They were very premises. much discouraged over the general situation in Russia, believing it useless for the Allies to furnish more munitions, etc. unless the " David R. Francis, U.S. ambassador to Russia. movement from ports could be expedited. I Francis was a businessman and former governor of Missouri. For the ambassador's account of these days, see David R. Francis, Russia From the American Em­ ^^ Major General F. C. Poole, future commander of bassy (New York, 1970). Allied forces in the North Russian intervention.

187 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1979 afterwards met the English officers at various lution the only police has been a volunteer times, and also met those of the French Mili­ organization of citizens, few in number and tary Section. Both had been manfully strug­ seldom in evidence. Aside from these abnor­ gling for months with the supply question mal conditions, life in Petrograd is not un­ and they were about ready to throw up their pleasant this summer for a sojourner who hands. ... I gathered that England and France has money to spend and who is not burdened had contributed the major part of the mili­ with a house or apartment. In the case of the tary supplies of the country . . . under the latter class, living is very difficult, as servants most discouraging circumstances; the port of are scarce and inefficient. . . . The native, Archangel was the only accessible way to however, takes matters cheerfully; his favor­ reach the country (until the Kola line) and ite motto is nichevo: "What does it matter?" this port had very poor unloading facilities; No oppression of anyone has as yet resulted outrageous delays in shipping constantly oc­ from the Revolution; the nobility have, it is curred and they claimed it was impossible true, fled, but they are mostly living quietly to get the Russians to be forehanded in fur­ on their estates and, I think, are not badly nishing men for unloading steamships. . . . treated. A general confiscation of landed I fancy the English were lacking both in tact property is on the program of the Govern­ and patience in dealing with the situation, ment, so that the future is a dark one for the and this resulted in their being cordially dis­ proprietors, but the evil day has not yet ar­ liked by the Russians. Still, we must give rived. . . . them credit for . . . [keeping] Russia in the . . . Food and commodity "lines" are seen game up to this time. everywhere. . . . [M]any [shops] open for June 22nd. Dined at the American Embas­ only two or three hours each day. Some, such sy to meet Nekrasov on the matter of the coal as shoe shops, advertise "openings" in ad­ situation. . . . He promised to take measures vance and tickets are distributed to would-be at once to remedy the deadlock at the Taiga purchasers. Men, women and children stand mines. We had spent ten days at the rotten hours in line waiting for a cigarette shop to "Select-Hotel," and while I had spoken to open. Sweets are unobtainable except at rare Gov. Francis about the necessity of making intervals, when the shop which manages to a change in our headquarters, ... he had get a supply is mobbed. Vodka and other done nothing. I, therefore, . . . [requested alcoholic liquors are unobtainable, since the Nekrasov] to intercede for us at the "Europe." Imperial edict early in the war. This prohibi­ He was very decent about it and said he would tion was certainly a blessing during the revo­ order rooms vacated there for us at once. . . . lution and accounts largely for its "peaceful" character. . . . June 24th. Comfortably established in the "Europe." We are now in the center of busi­ ness and official Petrograd and it is possible to reach the Ministry by a pleasant walk. . . . WORD as to our reception by I had not been in Petrograd for ten years A the Russians. The arrival of the but found it outwardly unchanged; the same two Commissions had evidently been looked city of broad avenues, fine public buildings forward to in official circles as promising and immense distances. . . . An enormous timely help, in various directions. We were, number of refugees from Poland and the Bal­ consequently, welcome. The Provisional Gov­ tic provinces recently flocked here, so there ernment had been in office long enough to dis­ are now probably 2,500,000 people in the city. pel the first glamour of the supreme power In spite, however, of the resulting congestion, it had obtained to dictate the affairs of the and the consequent difficulties of living, the country, and had begun to realize the colossal high prices, scarcity of food and the large problem ahead, both in stabilizing the gov­ numbers of people dependent on charity, the ernment of a vast country and in conducting city is one of the most orderly in the world; a war against an extremely powerful enemy. and all this in face of the fact that there is ... It was no wonder, therefore, . . . that now no regular police force. Since the Revo­ great things were expected from American ali* i ^--g

Missouri Historical Society U.S. Ambassador David R. Francis (in bow tie and boater) his Ford automobile, probably in Petrograd.

Missions. . . . Our coming had not been ad­ sion could, I think, have taken on this pro­ vertised, however, and our advent was ac­ gram to advantage; we had other important companied by no popular demonstrations; duties to perform and could not give the time we were received informally by the officials to propaganda work.^^ and got down to work without a ripple of While speaking of this matter, I may here popular excitement. This was unfortunate outline my impressions of the trend of inter­ and militated greatly against the fullest suc­ nal affairs. . . . The first widely advertised cess of our Mission. . . . aim of the March, 1917, Revolution was "free­ The Root Commission had a similar ex­ dom," which to the ignorant, easy-going Rus­ perience, although Mr. Root's Ambassadorial sian peasants was taken to mean a release function gave his Commission a certain spe­ from obligation to perform any work or duty; cial standing which required the exchange of the distribution of the land and money of the courtesies with the various Government of­ rich was shortly to so alter conditions that [in ficials. In fact, other than this the Root Com­ the] meantime it was superfluous to labor to mission had no routine work to perform. I produce anything. This happy state of affairs believe that it acquitted itself well. . . . was accordingly discussed in work hours and out—especially in. It became general for each Our Commission came more into contact workshop to suspend operations for meetings with the minor officials and with the public. once or oftener per day. . . . New demands . . . For instance, while on our trip through were repeatedly made upon employers, the Southern Russia [July 5-11] we met many working time was shortened . . . until the delegations of the local Soviet, and exchanged output per man became reduced one-third to speeches of welcome; American and the one-half. . . . The whole summer was one Amerikantsky were cheered, our help was grand loafing time for the producer. asked and our aims were, in a way, appreciat­ ed. .. . When I arrived in Petrograd the thing which most impressed and worried me was These back-platform speeches I believe could have been made a most effective means 1^ Root did recommend such a public relations cam­ of countering the growing disorganization of paign upon his return to the United States but the workers and soldiers. . . . The Root Mis­ events were moving much too rapidly.

189 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1979 the horde of idle soldiery . . . and the syste­ nessed an amusing incident. The procession matic attempt which was being made by the had stopped by a blockade; suddenly, there street-corner orators to engage their attention. was a grand scurrying for the side streets; in I inquired what was being said by these men a moment no one was left in the Nevsky ex­ and was told that the uselessness of continu­ cept the band, who could not run with their ing the war was the principal topic. The sol­ heavy instruments. In a few moments the diers were told that the war was wholly for people began to come cautiously back and the benefit of the capitalists, that to fight the procession re-formed. We afterwards heard longer would endanger free Russia; "why go that someone had called out "the Cossacks to the front and be killed to perpetuate a sys­ are coming." . . . No Cossacks came and the tem in which the people had no interest; scare was consequently short-lived. better go home and get your share of the land We later went to the Kazan Cathedral which is to be distributed—and go soon, other­ where a special service in honor of the two wise you will not have a fair chance, etc." commissions was held. It was partly in En­ The speeches were listened to quietly. . . . glish (for the first time, we are told, in the I was, frankly, alarmed, and had several history of the Church). . . . talks with our Ambassador and the members July 2nd. Nekrasov accepts our recommen­ of the Root Commission, urging that we try dations as to obtaining new railway equipment to organize a publicity campaign in favor of from America, and we cabled home advising the war. . . . All agreed as to the desirability that we had arranged to send Russia 30,000 of immediate action but none of the Allied cars and 2,500 locomotives, 1,500 of the lat­ Governments woke up sufficiently to do ter for use on the Trans-Siberian Railway. anything. I understood later that Francis July 4th. . . . Reception at our Embassy. had secured permission to spend |30,000 up­ In going there I was blocked for one-half hour on "publicity" and that H. W. Smith," of the by a procession of about 20,000 old and in­ Associated Press, then in Peking, would have valided soldiers. They passed along silently, charge of the campaign. He did come to no music, and no cheering or other signs of Petrograd, but when he heard of the ridicu­ interest on the part of the bystanders. They lously small amount of money available, he carried a few banners on which were printed would not take hold of the job. Therefore, in rude characters the legend, "We want to the deadly work of cranks, political schemers go home to harvest the crops." It was a pa­ and German agents went on all summer. . . . thetic sight. The Intelligentsia and Bourgeoisie were July 5th. Left Petrograd this A.M. by spe­ apathetic to an astonishing degree. . . . This cial train for a trip to the South. . . . Stevens in part is, doubtless, due to national charac­ was still in the hospital and not able to go teristics. . . . Barring the advent of a strong with us. . . . The first day was over the famous and masterful mind, I do not regard it prob­ Nikolaevsk Railway to Moscow—400 miles. . . . able that the country can soon be brought Moscow, July 6th. A cool, cloudy day. Vis­ to its senses. In fact, I believe that some con­ ited . . . local railway officials [and] the structive help from the outside is essential. . . . shops of the Kazan (private) Railway. These are located in an inconvenient position . . . Sunday, July 1st. ... A Bolshevik proces­ and they are old and cramped. However, the sion passed down the Nevsky this morning. buildings contain the best equipment [and] It had been repeatedly postponed by order machine tools we have yet seen and the shop of the authorities, but was finally allowed, management is good and progressive—in provided no arms were carried. Many bands marked contrast to the shiftless methods of and banners were carried, the latter calling the Government-controlled shops. . . . for the suspension of the war. . . . We watched July 7th. A fine, cool day, devoted to sight­ the show from our hotel windows and wit- seeing. ... [Ljeft Moscow at seven P.M. for the south over the Kursk Railway. . . . " Gibbs was probably referring to Charles Stevenson July 8th. Arrived at Harkov; a large and Smith, Associated Press correspondent in Peking and later Petrograd. Smith accompanied the Root Mis­ prosperous manufacturing city in center of sion to Petrograd. rich farming country. . . . Women were work-

190 Sovfoto 346811 Restricted Demonstration in Petrograd, July 1, 1918. ing in the fields and, as section hands, on ward for some hours and then took a new the railway; few men anywhere. . . . north and south line along the war front. . . . July 9tli. A very hot day. We are now in the great Donetz iron and coal region. . . . We . . . visited the shops of the Catherine RRIVED [next day] at Mogi­ (Ekaterin) Railway; these are the largest we A lev, the stafka or general army have seen and are working to full capacity. headquarters. . . . We found that Stevens had They are well arranged but equipped with pulled himself together and had arrived from antiquated tools. . . . Petrograd the previous evening. We were met En route in the afternoon we passed nu­ by a large delegation of army officials and merous Red Cross trains packed with sick escorted in motor cars to the headquarters of and wounded soldiers; most of these were General [Alexis] Brusilov, Commander-in- from the Roumanian front. We passed sev­ Chief. . . . He was in the midst of the conduct eral trains going to the front. . . . The men of a successful local offensive and therefore cheered us loudly and seemed . . . contented very busy, but he kept us waiting a short with their lot. . . . time only. He is a wiry and determined little July lOtli. . . . We arrived at Kiev at nine man with a fine head and delicate features. o'clock and at once visited the railway shops. He spoke in French and was most courteous. These are extensive but old and badly ar­ He . . . asked that we confer with his staff ranged. . . . Leaving Kiev, we proceeded west­ regarding the urgent needs of improved trans- 191 PETROGRAD portation . . . for his army. ... In the after­ At 5 P.M. our "special" left for the north. noon he made a return call upon us at our During the early evening we arrived at Vi­ train. . . . We were handed maps showing the tebsk. ... I noticed a movement in the crowd portions of the front which they wished to toward our train, following a small party. rehabilitate at once and a list of equipment Two or three men boarded one of the forward and supplies needed. The list was rather an cars (Mr. Graftio's).'^ . . . Colder, our inter­ [appalling] one; it included practically every­ preter, came with the news that Miliukov,!^ thing needed to build and equip many hun­ the Ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs, was going dreds of miles of railway. They also wished to ride with us to Petrograd, upon the invita­ our good offices in getting prompt attention tion of Mr. Graftio. After consultation we de­ paid to their necessities in the way of military cided that it would be unwise for us to meet supplies; they showed us lists they had requi­ such a well-known political figure . . . but sitioned and which included everything from that if Graftio wanted him to ride in his car medical supplies up to cannon. We said these it was none of our affair. It seems that after matters were beyond our province, but we Miliukov had retired into the car, his pri­ agreed to give the railway list our first at­ vate secretary proceeded to make a political tention. . . . speech in favor of the Cadet party;" when [Tjhere is another national characteristic Graftio heard of this, however, he immediate- which has frequently struck me: the Russian . . . confuses present necessities with future " H. Graftio, Chief ot the Electrical Department of desirables. His plans are, therefore, too elabo­ the Ministry ot Ways and Communications. " Paul N. Miliukov was a dominant figure in the rate and their object is often defeated. . . . Provisional government before he resigned as foreign It is rather staggering to have your offer of minister on May 15. Miliukov was extremely vocal help met with such hearty acceptance that about the prosecution of the war to a victorious con­ responsibility for furnishing everything is clusion, a view not shared by all others in the govern­ ment. dumped upon you, and the Russian stands " The Constitutional Democrats ^party, known as by like a child waiting to be fed. . . . Kadets or Cadets, was led by Miliukov. 192 FEIST: GEORGE GIBBS DIARY ly Stopped the speech and became apprehen­ ing of expectancy. We mingled with the sive of the possible result of having harbored crowds all evening, however, without harm a man who is at outs with the existing Gov­ or hindrance. As I was tired and found the ernment officials. . . . streets uncomfortable, I left Mrs. B. and As the evening went on Graftio and the Reading at 11 P.M. and turned in. other Railway officials became panic-stricken at the thought of losing their jobs if the news of what they had done leaked out, and they decided to put Miliukov off at a town we were was no sooner in bed than shoot­ due to reach about midnight. We suggested I ing of rifles directly under my that . . . Miliukov should not be subjected windows began; this was soon followed by to indignity and discomfort. However, they the sput-sput of machine guns, apparently insisted and did put him off. . . . close by. ... I debated, as I lay in bed, what July 12th. Back again in Petrograd. ... I I should do; the situation interested, but, called upon Gov. Francis, to get any late somehow, did not alarm me. I finally decided news. Local matters are floundering along as to do nothing unless bullets should begin to usual and the Root party is on its way home, strike my windows, in which case, if things via Siberia. . . . became too "hot," I could seek shelter in the July 16th. The weather has become quite bath tub. This idea was comforting and I warm and things political are getting mixed; soon fell asleep. . . . the Cadet members of the Ministry resigned July 18th. All quiet apparently this morn­ today on account of pressure from the radical ing. No cars running but the streets are elements in the Council of Soldiers' and Work­ crowded with pedestrians. We could get no ingmen's Deputies. They are demanding a reliable news regarding last night's affairs. majority representation in the Provisional It was rumored that many hundreds were Government. Kerenskyi* is resisting. . . . killed; others said that there were few casual­ July 17th. Beginning of rioting in the ties. It is somewhat difficult to see how the streets.^^ This is the long-expected attempt crowds escaped; unless the rioters and others of the Bolsheviki to get control of the gov­ fired in the air. This was evidently done to ernment. Armored motor cars are dashing a considerable extent, as buildings along the up and down, heavy trucks among the num­ Nevsky . . . show many bullet marks and ber, filled with armed soldiers. In many cases broken windows. . . . Mrs. Bass and Reading the trucks carry machine guns and they look were out in it for part of the night, and once wicked. We went about our business, how­ had to lie down in the gutter to escape bul­ ever, during the day, as, apparently, did every­ lets. When a fusillade occurred the crowd one else; it was difficult to get any clear would flock back to see the fun. This sort [idea] of what was happening. I had asked of performance appears to be typical of Mrs. Bass and Reading^" to dine with me at Petrograd crowds and I have found difficulty the Donon. Afterwards we walked along the in regarding these street disturbances serious- Catherine canal to the Nevsky and found the ly. . . . latter filled with great crowds of people, gath­ In the A.M. I walked to the Ministry as usual, ered in excited knots at each street corner but found everyone upset there, so I returned and in heated discussion. The tram-cars had at one o'clock; shortly after this shooting be­ stopped running and one had a curious feel- gan again. . . . July 19th. Hard rain during the night and much local fighting and disturbance; the Li- " Alexander Kerensky, prime minister of the Pro­ visional government. tainie was the center of the worst. ... It was " Gibbs was witnessing the "July Days" uprising, a lucky I did not go [to the Embassy], as a vio­ somewhat spontaneous demonstration begun by Petro­ lent skirmish occurred during the evening grad troops who favored a takeover by the Soviet. between the rioters and the Cossacks. . . . " Mrs. John Bass was an acquaintance ot Gibbs's who had come to Petrograd to await the arrival of her The [Fortress of Peter and Paul], held by husband. Franklin Reading was disbursing officer of the Soviet party, capitulated to-day and the the commission. Government troops marched in. The bridges

193 •it^. I*' 4

«3N«B(«iW^i#

t t !

Tass from Sovtnto 13(i4a9A Restiittcd Demonstrators in Petrograd under fire from Kerensky police and soldiers, July, 1918.

over the Neva are also open again. All of this menace to his control of affairs, but will he? is the result of loyal troops arriving from the It is rumored that Nekrasov will remain in front. . . . The Government now has matters the new Ministry as head of the Department well in hand and it is reported that Lenin has of Justice. He appears to have as many lives been arrested. . . .^i as a cat. . . .^^ July 20th. Last night there was more fight­ July 21st. . . . Discouraging news begins to ing in and around the Winter Palace square. come in from the southwest front; insubordi­ . . . However, the city is returning to its nor­ nation among certain of the Russian units mal aspect. . . . has allowed the Austro-Germans to gain some ... I feel that the coming winter is going important ground. Kerensky has gone again to be a very hard one in Petrograd; it is even to the front. He is certainly doing his best possible that the Germans will come in. . . . to hold the army together. . . . I have no confidence that the Russian army July 23rd. A conference at the Railway will hold if the Germans really make up their Ministry. . . . All sorts of objections were minds to attack. The Ministry is in a muddle raised to our report, but after a long confer­ as the result of the late trouble. Now is the ence they finally agreed to introduce our new time for Kerensky to shake off the Soviet operating method on one division of each

^ More effective than the troops in putting down ^'' Nekrasov became finance minister. This man of the revolt was a government-inspired rumor that Lenin nine lives later co-operated with the Soviet govern­ was a German agent. Lenin "was not arrested but fled ment. In 1930, however, he was tried and convicted to Finland. of sabotage. 194 FEIST: GEORGE GIBBS DIARY railway making up the Trans-Siberian system, member of the Commission to go at once to if we sent from America superintendents, America to straighten out matters with the train despatchers, etc. to instruct them. . . . Department. . . . Stevens agrees that it would July 28th. . . . No answers have been re­ be wise to do so and suggests that I go. . . . ceived to letters or cables sent from Vladi­ August 9th. . . . The American Red Cross vostok last June regarding the locomotive- delegation, about forty Colonels, Majors, Cap­ erecting plant; last week we had one cable . . . tains and Lieutenants, arrived yesterday. It saying that our recommendations for addi­ is headed by Colonel (Doctor) Billings^* of tional cars and locomotives would be taken Chicago, and includes Colonel William B. under advisement. We have already promised Thompson and many doctors and civilians, all the Russians, by direct authority conferred with military titles; we dubbed the outfit upon us before we left home, to do certain the "Haytian Army" because there were no things for them. ... [T]his places us in privates. They have come to fill no clearly a most awkward position and I, for one, must defined mission, as far as I can find out; in decline to make any more promises. . . . fact Gov. Francis told me some time ago that August 2nd. . . . We spent last evening . . . he had urged they be not allowed to come, as at the Railway Headquarters in Conference there were already too many missions from over our report; all matters are now agreed the various allies in Russia. Apparently this upon, but the Committee must put its re­ Commission imagined there was urgent call port up to the Provisional Government. . . . for doctors and nurses in Russia; as a mat­ This is not likely to expedite matters. . . . ter of fact there is at present a surplus. . . . August 3rd. Luncheon at the Embassy. The They do need supplies, however, and the two Ambassador complained to me about Stevens' carloads which the Commission brought will habit of sending cipher telegrams to Washing­ be useful. ton over his (Francis') signature; he did not This evening we were guests of Colonel propose to allow this to continue. Some of Thompson at dinner at the Hotel de France. Stevens' cablegrams were rather hot ones and The Colonel is a very fat and yet energetic I think the Ambassador has had a protest person and full of enthusiasm. He had a from Washington regarding their tone. . . .^^ good dinner topped off by some excellent August 5th-8th. I have been laid up in bed cigars which he had brought from the United and Doctor in attendance. ... At last a new States. He must have a large wad of money, Ministry has been formed by Kerensky. . . . as he told me he had subscribed to a half a The new cabinet has four Cadets (Constitu­ million roubles of the new Russian "Victory" tional Democrats); three (with Kerensky) So­ loan. . . . cial Revolutionists; two (with Nekrasov) Radi­ Through Governor Francis I have today cal Democrats; and three Social Democrats. arranged for a special car for Greiner and ... A belief is expressed in certain quarters myself on the Trans-Siberian express which that this hodge-podge Ministry will not out­ leaves next Tuesday the 14tli. . . . There is last a week; we shall see. considerable doubt of our getting out of the . . . Between working hours, I walk about country without trouble. . . . Tereschenko^^ the City and sit in the park. I have been said, however, he would arrange for a spe­ amused in watching the "Death Battalion" cial safe-conduct for us. . . . or women's regiment, drilling on the grounds of the Academy of Engineering. They take the performance quite seriously. This organi­ zation, headed by the husky peasant woman N August 10th we called upon Botchkarova, was started to show the Russian 0 Kerensky by appointment to dis­ soldier how to fight. . . . [T]he fact is that cuss railway matters. The meeting was in they have really behaved well in a small way at the front. Can't say I like the idea, how­ ^ Stevens and Francis apparently had a personality ever. . . . clash and did not get along well. '^ Dr. Frank Billings. Members of the American Red August 8tli. I have had several talks lately Cross delegation held simulated rank. with Stevens about the necessity of having a ^ Michael I. Tereschenko, foreign minister.

195 '- i' #

-f "^ V*-

WHi (X3) 21516 Women's battalion of the Red Army in front of the Winter Palace fust prior lo its surrender to the Bolsheviks, October, 1917. the Winter Palace, where he now lives and are fine, but shifty and his nose well pro­ has his official headquarters. He occupies the portioned, but his mouth and chin are weak. czar's apartment in the northwest wing and He was dressed in a perfectly plain khaki our interview took place in the private study, uniform, without insignia or decorations of or library, of the czar. This is a moderate any kind, and wore tan-colored high boots. size, beautiful and homelike room, lined on This is the simple costume I have always all sides to the ceiling with bookshelves and seen him wear. He has a resonant and pleas­ comfortably but not elaborately furnished. ing voice and I should judge would be an The handsomest piece of furniture is a grand effective public speaker. Francis had come piano with a superb marquetry and carved along with us, as he told me he was unwilling French walnut case. I examined the collec­ to let Stevens be the spokesman and he, there­ tion of books with interest; it is a gentleman's fore, began by stating our errand and that we library. . . . were much concerned by the continued delays Kerensky soon entered in a quick, nervous in getting our program for railway relief and manner and without formality began the in­ other help from America put into force. Ke­ terview, through our interpreter. He speaks rensky was evidently more or less familiar no English and little French. He appears to with our recommendations, which, he said, had be a very active, neurotic, but tired man of his approval and that all authority had been about thirty-six; is tall and has a high and given to his cabinet to have all things asked fine forehead surmounted by a growth of for by us carried into an immediate and full coarse black hair, a la pompadour. His eyes effect. . . . 196 FEIST: GEORGE GIBBS DIARY

In the P.M. we went to the Fontanka bu­ reau and had a special audience with the new Minister [of Ways and Communications— P. P. Yureneff ]. He too spoke of the good work we had done. . . . Later Greiner and I strolled around the Jewish market, which is nearby. It is an interesting place, crowded with soldiers and vendors of all sorts of arti­ cles. The soldiers were in many cases selling their uniforms, guns, etc.—a sight not calcu­ lated to inspire confidence in general condi­ tions. . . . August 14th. . . . Greiner, Colder and I left Petrograd at 7:50 P.M. in our private car No. 443, attached to the through Trans-Si­ berian express. . . . August 17th. En route; we have been los­ ing time on the schedule since the first day and we hear that the reason is the ex-Czar is being conveyed to Siberia on a special train ahead of us and is making very poor time. . . .^^ August 18th. . . . Last evening our train was allowed to pass the ex-Czar's special—a long train bristling with guard troops. He goes only as far as Tinmen where he must disembark on a steamer on the Irtish river for Tobolsk. . . .^'' August 20th. Arrived at Krasnoyarsk this morning. An amusing sequel to the ex-Czar episode occurred here. We found the sta­ tion crowded, and a moment after the train stopped a delegation of three men entered our car. A wide-eyed and excited man ap­ proached me and said in fairly good English, "You have Nicholas, the ex-Czar, with you; we have come for him." I was rather taken aback and stammered, "What do you mean?" He replied that they had been informed Nich­ olas was with the "American Mission" which was taking him out of the country, a move which they intended to prevent. I, of course, denied any intention of the kind and they hur­ riedly proceeded to search the car. After this interesting formality was over . . . the spokes­ man returned, with a disappointing expres­ sion of countenance, and demanded our pass­ ports. My . . . credentials seemed to satisfy

* Fearing tor the safety of Czar Nicholas and his family, Kerensky had arranged for the move to Tobolsk, in western Siberia. The Czar's train left Petrograd early on the morning of August 14, hours before Gibbs's departure. Underwood & Underwood photo •" In fact, the river was the Tura. Alexander Kerensky, 1917.

197 National Archives photo lll-SC-75678 Easternmost terminal of the Tr Aailway, Vladivostok, 1918. and impress him. As he was leaving us, I August 23rd. . . . Arrived at Manchuria Sta­ said I could perhaps throw some light upon tion at 8:00 A.M. about twenty-four hours the matter by telling him that we had passed late. Stayed a couple of hours for customs a special train, shortly after crossing the examination. ... I got into a conversation Ural Mountain.s, which we were informed was with one of [the customs officials]. He said carrying the ex-Czar to Tobolsk. To confirm they searched particularly for opium and gen­ this I handed him a copy of a Russian paper erally found some concealed behind the car which Colder had bought before leaving panels. Did not search our car, as he thought Petrograd and which contained an announce­ it unnecessary because our provodnik [porter] ment of the departure. . . . This was real was too old and stupid for such trade. . . . news and was immediately read aloud to the I felt a curious sense of relief in being at great crowd on the station platform. This last out of Russia; we are now in Manchuria ended the incident, as far as we were con­ and home seems almost in sightl cerned, except that we noticed men carrying August 24th. Arrived at Harbin at 9:00 bags of bombs stationed at the bridge east of A.M.—a very hot day. Colder woke me, say­ the town; they evidently intended using them ing that our provodnik was either drunk or in case our train should pass without stop­ drugged. . . . We . . . found that during the ping. . . . night the panels under the windows in the

198 FEIST: GEORGE GIBBS DIARY observation car had been unscrewed and put began the process of pulling Russia out of back again very clumsily; our old man is the war, a move which the Railroad Commis­ not as dumb as the [customs official] thought; sion had sought to prevent. The exhaustive I more than suspect that we have been carry­ recommendations of the mission were largely ing a cargo of contraband opium with us; passed by in the subsequent chaos of the however, I shall ask no questions. . . . Russian civil war and the Soviet experiment. [I]t was arranged that our car should be However, the American railway operators, attached to the afternoon "local" for Chang which the commission and the Provisional Chun. . . . We also got some definite news government had requested, were sent to Rus­ of steamer sailings from Japan. It appears sia. Known as the Russian Railway Service that we have just missed a good boat and shall Corps, these men were a dedicated lot who have to wait three or four weeks for an­ did their best under trying circumstances.^s other. . . . And the "constructive help from the outside" September 2nd. Peking. We have spent which Gibbs advocated did come about in six delightful days full of interesting inci­ the form of Allied intervention in Russia.^^ dents, in one of the world's most curious and But the result of intervention which Gibbs un­ beautiful cities. It was really the period of doubtedly hoped for—a return to the sensible this summer's trip which I can look back days of pre-Bolshevik Russia—did not tran­ upon as one of unalloyed pleasure. . . . spire. September 19th. [Yokohama.] Beautiful George Gibbs returned to New York and day. We sailed on the Shinyo Maru ... at again took up his role as president of Gibbs 5 P.M. . . . and Hill Engineering Consultants, a firm October 5th. . . . We arrive at San Francis­ established in 1911. His creativity continued co. .. . Had no trouble at all at the Custom in full force, evidenced by his being awarded House; our diplomatic passports took care the Wellington Prize in 1930 from the Ameri­ of us. . . . can Society of Civil Engineers for a paper October 9th. Am still in San Francisco. on rail electrification. A respected, admired, Had intended leaving with Mr. and Mrs. and patriotic American, he died in New York Greiner three days ago, but I was suddenly on May 19, 1940, and was buried in the family laid up with a fever. . . . Now O.K. again and plot in Newport, Rhode Island. left this P.M. by the "Overland Limited". . . . Spent one night en route with the family in ^ Called by one historian the "forerunner ot inter­ Milwaukee and arrived in New York on the vention" in Siberia, the RRSC had a fascinating his­ 15th and thence to Washington next day to tory. For the story ot its veterans' struggle to obtain military discharges, see Joe Michael Feist, "Theirs make my report to the Government. Not to Reason Why: The Case ot the Russian Rail­ way Service Corps," in Military Affairs, 42: 1-6 (Feb­ ruary, 1978). See also Judson Grenier, "A Minnesota Railroad Man in the Far East, 1917-18," in Minnesota History, 38: 310-325 (September, 1963), and the vari­ IBBS'S mission to Russia was ous w'orks on the Siberian intervention. Gove r and so, to an extent, was a ^ See George F. Kennan, The Decision lo Intervene chapter of American foreign relations. A (Princeton, New Jersey, 1958); Betty M. Unterberger, America's Siberian Expedition, 1918-1920 (Durham, month after Gibbs returned, the Bolsheviks North Carolina, 1956); and Leonid I. Strakhovsky, In­ seized power in Petrograd and immediately tervention at Archangel (Princeton, New Jersey, 1944).

199 Steadying Efforts: The War at Archangel, 1918-1919

By Richard Goldhurst

'wo months before World War I surprising that it produced desperate initia­ ended with an armistice on the tives. One of these was a plan for the Allies Western Front, Woodrow Wilson sent 5,000 to intervene in Russia to rally pro-Allied Rus­ American soldiers to the north Russian port sians and lead them back to their positions on of Archangel on the White Sea. He sent an­ the deserted Eastern Front. other 8,000 troops to Vladivostok on the Bay This plan was born out of the deliberations of the Golden Horn at the eastern tip of Si­ of the Permanent Military Representatives, an beria. Long after their buddies in France had auxiliary committee of the Supreme Allied gone home, these soldiers continued to fight a War Council. From the moment the Allies savage, now-forgotten war. broached the idea. President Wilson felt that Wilson's purpose in sending these troops an intervention in Russia was a perilous un­ was born on March 3, 1918, when a Bolshevik dertaking. But the Allies eventually persuad­ delegation, headed by Leon Trotsky, left Brest- ed him. Wilson was in some respects persuad­ Litovsk, a rail center in Byelorussia, with a ed because he thought of this intervention as peace treaty that would presently end the a lever to manipulate Britain and France at fighting on the Eastern Front. Bolshevik Rus­ the peace table. In the fourteen months the sia had left the war, and by leaving had freed United States had been at war, Wilson had a million German soldiers for all-out attack built up considerable friction between Ameri­ on the trenches in France. On March 21 a ca and the Allies. He had refused to bind him­ tremendous German offensive opened along a self to the ends the Allies wanted to realize in fifty-mile front, threatening within a few days victory; he had refused to integrate Yanks in to unhinge the Allied line at the juncture of decimated Allied divisions; and there was the French and British armies. By the end every chance that he would offer magnani­ of the month the Germans had advanced al­ mous terms to the defeated Central Powers. most forty miles in places, and to within a United States intervention in Russia became dozen miles of the vital rail center of Amiens. a quid pro quo. If Wilson sanctioned it, the For a time in the spring of 1918 the Allies Allied statesmen could hardly deny him later. thought they must lose the war. He reached the decision to send a regiment It was a desperate situation, and it is not to Archangel and two regiments to Siberia on July 6, 1918. He set forth his reasons in an EDITOR'S NOTE: For the full story ot this American ad­ aide-memoire circulated secretly among the venture in Russia, the reader is directed to Richard Allies before the State Department published Goldhurst, The Midnight War: The American Inter­ it in August. Wilson said he was sending vention in Russia, 1918-1920 (New York, 1978), and Ernest Milton Halliday, The Ignorant Armies (New troops to guard military supplies and "to York, 1961). steady any efforts at self-government or self- 200 Copyright @ 1979 by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin All rights of reproduction in any form reserved GOLDHURST: ARCHANGEL

defense in which the Russians themselves may mous socialist who pledged his support to the be willing to accept assistance."' Allied intervention. There were many reasons why the dough­ Poole immediately pushed the French Co­ boys went to Archangel in the early fall of lonial Battalion down the Archangel-Moscow 1918. There was only one reason why they Railway. He sent the Royal Scots south along stayed after the Armistice of November 11: the Dvina River (which liberally translates as they stayed to intervene in a civil war to see the "Big Muddy"). His object was twofold: who would govern Russia, the largest country to take the cities of Vdogda, 400 miles due in the world. But to believe that a few thou­ south of Archangel on the rail line, and Kot­ sand soldiers could make a difference in a las, 500 miles southeast of Archangel on the country where vast distances are the one pro­ Dvina. found reality was a lunatic plan. The Arch­ The French battalion advanced twenty miles angel Province alone was as large as the com­ down the rail line before coming upon the Bol­ bined territories of France and Germany, shevik defenses. Veterans of four years of where millions of men in arms had failed to trench warfare, the poilus were duly cautious reach a conclusion. However, the spring and about charging machine gun emplacements. summer of 1918 were lunatic times, and luna­ They began the advance first by circling the tic things kept happening. Bolshevik left flank, then by circling the right flank, then waiting for the center to drop back. This was a time-consuming process where speed was essential. Moreover, when 'HE intervention got under way the Bolsheviks did drop back, they dropped on the night of July 30, when into well-prepared defensive positions. the HMS Tay and Tyne, subchasers which Two weeks after they had started up the usually escorted armed trawlers; the HMS Dvina (the rivers in Archangel flow north), Nairana, a cruiser with a seaplane launch; the the Royal Scots took Bereznik, a town that HMS Attentive, a light cruiser; the French commanded the junction between the Vaga ship Amiral Aube; and the American Olym- and the Dvina; but here Red resistance stif­ pia (Admiral George Dewey's flagship at Ma­ fened. Though ill-trained and badly orga­ nila Bay) left Murmansk conveying four troop nized, the Bolos, as the British called the transports to Archangel. Aboard the trans­ Bolsheviks, turned on their pursuers, aware ports were 1,500 Allied troops which included that no expanding invasion threatened. Poole an infantry brigade of Royal Scots, the French needed no extraordinary intelligence to rea­ 21st Colonial Battalion, a brigade of Canadian lize that his lines of communication were artillery, a company of Serbian infantry, and drawn taut. He had put his force on the two fifty-one sailors and three officers from the blades of a scissors, and the wider the scissors Olympia, chosen for their marksmanship. The opened, the farther apart the two forces de­ expedition was under the command of Major ployed. One force could not support the oth­ General Frederick C. Poole, one of His Ma­ er. He did not have the reserves or the ar­ jesty's most experienced soldiers. tillery to dislodge the Bolsheviks from either On August 1, when the fleet approached of these two fronts. He needed reinforce­ Archangel, a cadre of White Russian officers ments. He tried to muster these from the attacked the Bolshevik garrison. This bold White Russian government, which was futile. stroke panicked the Reds, who abandoned Poole had to await the arrival of the Yanks. Archangel without a fight. By the time Poole put his troops ashore on August 2, he was John J. Pershing had selected the 339th greeted by the new government of the Archan­ Infantry for North Russian duty principally gel Province, the Supreme Administration of because its commanding officer. Colonel the Northern Region, headed by Nikolai K. George Evans Stewart, had served in Arctic Chaikovsky, a sixty-seven-year-old world-fa- Alaska. A second reason was that the regi­ ment, newly arrived in England as part of the 85th Division, was conveniently encamped 1 Stanley S. Jados, Documents on Russian-American Relations: Washington to Eisenhower (Washington, along the London-Aldershot Canal in Surrey. D.C, 1965), 43. The 339th was made up of Poles from Ham-

201 umG -I L tramck, woodsmen from Wisconsin, and the nation. Washington informed Downing Street scions of millionaires from Grosse Point. Per­ that if the British did not leave the Russians shing cast with them one battalion of the to their own devices, the commander-in-chief 310th Engineers, the 337th Field Hospital, and would withdraw the American contingent. In the 337th Ambulance Company—in all, 5,500 October, the British replaced Poole with Gen­ officers and men, a hundred of whom died of eral William Edmund Ironside, later Baron of influenza on the sea journey from the Alder- Archangel, Viceroy of India, and Chief of the shot Canal to Archangel. Imperial General Staff. Ironside saw that the position staked out by the Allies was precarious. He resolved to HE Yanks landed on September dig in until spring rather than try to advance T 4. Poole sent one battalion by on Vologda, which threatened Moscow, or rail to relieve the French on the railroad front, toward Kotlas, which threatened rail centers. another by the Dvina to reinforce the Royal But he had a front of more than 500 miles in Scots. He held the third battalion as a float­ a semicircle which ran from Onega, on Onega ing reserve. Bay, to Pinega in the east on the Pinega Riv­ Poole was an overreacher. On the day the er, an Arctic stream. This was a longer line Yanks landed, he let czarist officers stage a than that in France which was manned by coup against the Socialist government, hop­ several million Britons, French, and Yanks. ing these reactionaries would then muster the Ironside held the front throughout the win­ additional men he needed for what was now ter, even when the Bolsheviks mounted three a war along a wide front. The coup outraged serious and devastating offensives against it. American Ambassador David R. Francis who, The one anomaly about the war in Archangel recently repaired to Archangel, undid it on was that the weather for the only time in his­ the spot and cabled Washington of his indig- tory favored the enemy rather than the Rus-

202 GOLDHUR.ST: ARCHANGEL

sians. One of the goals of the Bolsheviks' of­ evacuation in late May. By August, Richard­ fensives became the desperately needed shel­ son and his headquarters had steamed down ter. The Allies defended it tenaciously, and the Dvina headed for Brest. As these trans­ when forced to retreat, they torched the shelter ports moved toward the White Sea, a perva­ in classic scorched-earth fashion. The Yanks sive melancholy settled on many of the men. and the British burned as many towns in north Much of Russia is a sad place, a brooding, Russia as later GI's burned in Vietnam. mysterious plain where in most seasons the The allied positions were fortified by block­ noon sky is the color of dirty snow. And it is houses built by the 310th Engineers. The En­ always sad saying goodbye to a place where gineers erected over 300 of these blockhouses good friends have lost their lives. —log cabins, really—of post-and-beam con­ While they had been in combat, the men of struction with sally ports and machine gun the 339th had kept their morale relatively slits. They were strategically placed so that high, though the American command constant­ one blockhouse was able to support another ly worried that it would slip. The French under attack. Nothing demolished these posi­ were openly contumacious and the British tions except a direct hit, although in one of were notoriously drunk; but the Americans, their spring campaigns the Bolsheviks set fire though unhappy about their physical sur­ to the fields to drive the Yanks and Royal roundings and bewildered about the cause for Scots away. which they fought, did not become demoral­ Outside the dugouts and blockhouses was ized. The men fought in small, disparate the cold—bitter cold, as merciless as the clamp­ units, and soldiers will always stick longer ing paw of a polar bear. In the Arctic, there for the love of their buddies than they will for are at best two hours of light each day from the glory of their regiment or the honor of the late fall until the spring. Dentistry was their country. The Americans also fought almost impossible. Medical treatment was from defensive positions, which let them give severely inhibited along the front lines. Mu­ more than they took. Their rifle power and tiny broke out among the White Russians, the automatic weapons were always adequate for French, and even a British relief regiment. the killing task. As a measure of their morale, The Americans grumbled. the record shows that the 339tli suffered only In January, the Bolsheviks launched a well- a few self-inflicted wounds and only one sui­ co-ordinated attack along the Vaga River and cide (which was not included in the casualty drove the American and Canadian units back reports). to the Dvina with serious casualties. Wood- During the Archangel engagement 109 row Wilson, who had been attending the Americans were killed in action, thirty-five Paris Peace Conference, learned of these losses died of wounds received in action, 100 died on the night before he was to return to Ameri­ in drownings or from accidental causes, 305 ca aboard the George Washington. From were wounded, and many were hospitalized shipboard he called off the intervention, ca­ with influenza. Though the 339th had dis­ bling Secretary of War Newton D. Baker to proportionately fewer casualties than the inform Congress of his decision. Unfortunate­ American units on the Western Front, where ly, by January the Arctic weather had frozen 83,000 were kihed in action and 250,000 were the Allies in their place. Neither relief nor wounded and hospitalized, it fought for a evacuation was possible until the ice broke up longer and more continuous time than any in the late spring. So the Yanks of the 339th division in France. and the Canadians and the British and the French fought on, weathering another Bolo campaign in March that almost drove them ' HE pictures which follow were under the ice at the harbor itself. selected from among 255 original glass plate negatives in two separate lots in the Iconographic Collection of the State Historical NDER the command of Briga­ Society of Wisconsin. These photographs U:die r Wilds P. Richardson, an­ were taken by Lieutenant Robert Colton other Alaskan veteran, the Yanks began their Johnson, adjutant and chief photographer for

203 a lively career as an engineer and public ser­ vant. He worked in Fond du Lac in the 1920's and 1930's for a construction firm, was state di­ rector of the Civil Works Administration from November, 1933, through January, 1934, and was with the state office of the National Re­ covery Administration from 1936 to 1938. He joined the civil engineer corps of the U.S. Navy Reserves in 1936, and in 1940 was called to active duty. He rose rapidly in the navy, supervising construction on the Virgin Islands, Iwo Jima, and in Occupied Japan—achieve­ ments which were rewarded with promotions to rear admiral in 1953 and vice-admiral in 1957. After World War II he again returned to Wisconsin, participating in the postwar construction boom as president of the Seisel WHi (U621) 65 Construction Company of Milwaukee from Robert Colton Johnson. 1949 to 1961. He retired in 1963 and became a construction consultant. In addition to his the Engineer Corps serving in Archangel, and professional career, Johnson contributed his donated by him to the Society in 1957. Needle- time and knowledge to the Milwaukee com­ sharp and handsomely composed, they convey munity. He was a member of the Milwaukee a sense of the hardship and strangeness of the expressway commission from its founding in "midnight war" fought sixty years ago in 1953, and was its chairman from 1962 until Russia. 1969. He also served as a building consultant This photographic and engineering assign­ for the Milwaukee Performing Arts Center, ment was one of Robert Johnson's first under­ and was active for thirty-five years on the Wis­ takings after graduation in 1918 from the Uni­ consin Board of Architects and Professional versity of Wisconsin engineering college, of Engineers. Much honored by his colleagues in which his father, John Butler Johnson, had his later years for his professional and civic been the first dean. Robert, the youngest of achievements, he died in Milwaukee on May five children, had been born September 21, 26, 1969. 1894, in St. Louis. He came to Madison with Despite his crowded professional life, John­ his family in 1899. Dean Johnson was killed son maintained a keen interest in Russian in a wagon mishap when Robert was only affairs, no doubt kindled by his Archangel ex­ eight, and the family remained in Madison. periences. He was not alone in his family as Young Johnson attended Madison High a Russophile. His sister, Marjorie Daw John­ School, and took part in hockey, long-distance son of Madison, in 1927 wangled a journey running, and theatricals at the University. there despite the absence of formal diplomatic His post-college year followed a familiar war­ relations between the United States and the time pattern: marriage (to Dorothy Dexter, new Soviet Union. The quid pro quo de­ also of Madison), and then enlistment. He was manded by Russia was unusual: ten pedi­ joined in his Archangel engineering company greed chickens for use in improving its poul­ by a college friend, Malcolm K. Whyte, who try stock. Miss Johnson, not unlike her broth­ also left a bride behind. (Whyte's wife, Ber­ er, met this challenge and conquered both tha Kitchell Whyte, eventually wrote two American and Soviet bureaucracies. Her ac­ books about Wisconsin crafts and craftsmen, count of her career as a chicken courier to while Whyte himself became a successful Mil­ Russia appears in the June-July, 1978, issue waukee attorney.) of American Heritage. Back from the war and blessed with abun­ dant energy, Robert Johnson embarked upon R. G.

204 WHi (U622) 41 Above: Solombola, a working-class district in the northern part of Archan­ gel—"where the noon sky is the color of dirty snow." Below: American troops parading through Archangel in early September, 1918. When a coup disrupted city services, the Yanks also ran the trolley cars.

WHi (U621) 155 205 WHi (U621) 112 Colonel George Evans Stewart's staff mapping strategy in their Archangel headquarters.

WHi (U621) 97 Barracks of the U.S. 3I0th Engineers, Archangel. \\H. (U621) 126 Russian children lining up for leftovers at the U.S. engineers' mess. Archangel.

WHi (U621) 188 Log cabins were indigenous to Scandinavia and North Russia. This building in Archangel was sandbagged by Allied troops to reinforce it against artillery fire. WHi (U621I 143 Sopwith Camel in British markings. Archangel. On one occasion, an Allied plane bombed an American position, killing three Yanks.

WHi (U621) 63 Motorized transport of the 310th Engineers, Archangel. A bridge on the Archangel-Moscow Railroad. Both sides in the conflict were supplied by rail; Yank engineers repaired bridges as fast as the Bolsheviks burned them.

WHi (U622) 43 Sleighs, pulled by reindeer or Arctic ponies, supplied the troops at the fronts and in one instance served to evacuate American wounded. Artillery observation tower, probably on the "railroad front" along the Archangel- Moscow line.

"^'yf^

WHi (U621) 202

WHi (U622) 3 Artillery blockhouse along the Dvina River, manned by Russians. WHi (U621) 38 One of the many blockhouses constructed by the 310th Engineers. It is aproned with barbed wire and supported by another blockhouse al the right.

WHi (U621) 162 Several Russian detachtnents were recruited by the Allies, including a Slavo- British regiment and a battalion of the French Foreign Legion. Probably these two soldiers are Russians, pictured in their mortar emplacement. 211 WHi (U621) 142 Captured "Bolo" prisoners. As the war at Archangel wore on, more and more such prisoners came from military units.

WHi (U621) 85 Troitsky Prospekt, the main street of Archangel. The city look the shape of a crescent moon, horns pointing east. WHi (U621) 158 Yanks resting and recuperating at the Red Eye Saloon, Archangel, during the early days of the fighting.

WHi (U622) 32 YMCA headquarters. Archangel. One of the "Y" staff members, Ralph Al- bertson, wrote a firsthand account of the North Russian expedition. Fighting Without a War (New York, 1920). WHi (U621) 13 The market. Archangel.

WHi (U621) 59 Washday on the Dvina River.

214 llflJS iiiS

WHi (U621) 111 A church in Archangel Province. Every WHi (US21) 4 town in North Russia boasted at least one, and Yanks pushing up the Dvina Troitsky Cathedral in Archangel, built by Peter swore they had seen the same church the Great, is one of the most beautiful churches three days running. in the world.

WHi (U621) 103 Winter hearse, Archangel.

215 WHi (U622) 77 Troitsky Prospekt, Archangel, showing the city hall at right and a statue of Peter the Great (center).

WHi (U621) 150 British troops arriving in Archangel to relieve the U.S. 339th Infantry in the late spring of 1919. The Americans were irked by Ihe size and prominence of the Union Jack (upper left). A Wisconsin Man in the Russian Railway Service Corps: Letters of Fayette W. Keeler, 1918-1919

Edited by Joe Michael Feist

INTRODUCTION The Railway Commission, composed of John F. Stevens, George Gibbs, John Greiner, Henry Miller, and W. L. Darling, all distin­ guished railroad men, arrived at Vladivostok HARGED with examining and on May 31. Traveling in a special train pro­ Coffering recommendations for the vided by the Russian government, the com­ improvement of Russia's Trans-Siberian Rail­ mission embarked on an examination of the way, the United States Advisory Railroad entire Trans-Siberian. Once in Petrograd, the Commission departed for Russia in May, 1917. capital, numerous recommendations were The United States, a new ally with Russia made to the Provisional government's Minis­ in the First World War, recognized the mili­ try of Ways and Communication. One sugges­ tary importance of the Trans-Siberian in the tion, to which the Russians agreed, was for a fight against Germany, and resolved to assist contingent of American railway operators to the Russians in correcting any faulty methods instruct the Russians in American methods of of operation. The Trans-Siberian was a vital running a railroad. Chairman John F. Ste­ link in transporting war goods westward to vens requested the State Department to or­ Russian forces at the front. By the middle ganize the group as a military unit for their of 1917, however, the line had all but col­ service in Siberia.' While the other members lapsed, leaving tons of materiel piled up at of the commission returned to the United Vladivostok, its eastern terminus. Moreover, States, Stevens remained as an advisor to the the U.S. government felt that the commission Ministry of Ways with the task of carrying would demonstrate solid American support out commission recommendations. for the new Russian Provisional government, Back in the United States, Samuel M. Fel- the czar having been deposed in March, 1917. ton, director general of Military Railways, It was no secret that Russia's will to proceed was given the job of raising the outfit that in the war effort was faltering, and the ad­ would be known as the Russian Railway Ser­ ministration of Woodrow Wilson hoped that vice Corps (RRSC). Felton looked to the a betterment of the country's transportation Great Northern Railroad and chose its gen­ system would prolong her participation in the eral manager, George H. Emerson, to head war. the corps. Since it was deemed necessary to

EDITOR'S NOTE: I should like to thank Roy Gesley of Palo Alto, California, and Susanne Fleckner of Silver Springs, Maryland, for their assistance in the prepara­ 1 Stevens to Willard (July 30, 1917), in U.S., Depart­ tion ot this article. My thanks also to Mrs. Louise ment ot State, Papers Relating to the Foreign Rela­ Keeler Keller and Mrs. Helen Keeler, daughters of tions of the United States, Russia, 1918 (Washington, Lafayette W. Keeler, tor providing me with photo­ 1931), III: 194. Hereinafter cited as FRUS, Russia, graphs and information relating to their father. J.M.F. 1918.

Copyright @ 1979 by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin All rights of reproduction in any form reserved 217 WHi (X3) 34802 Vladivostok harbor, 1918. secure men accustomed to cold weather, Emer­ Keeler was descended from Ralph Keeler, son called on the presidents of several north­ who in 1635 was one of the first members of western railroads and procured their help in the Massachusetts Bay Colony to leave it and recruitment. Letters and notices were posted, settle in the vicinity of Hartford, Connecti­ and, in a short while, many railroad men from cut. After Connecticut was granted a charter Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and surround­ by the crown, Ralph Keeler and others were ing states had volunteered for military rail­ the first proprietors of Ridgefield, Connecti­ road service in Siberia. In general, these no­ cut. Another ancestor, Jeremiah Keeler, tices stated that all the men would be com­ fought in the Revolutionary War and, at one missioned as officers in the U.S. Army.^ point, served as orderly sergeant for General Lafayette. (Many subsequent Keelers there­ fore bore the name Lafayette or Fayette.) |NE of those who came forward Fayette W. Keeler was born in Hokah, Min­ 0; a thirty-eight-year-old dis­ nesota, on July 26, 1879, the son of William patcher on the Great Northern from Superior, Harvey Keeler and Minerva Bacon Keeler. Wisconsin. His name was Fayette W. Keeler. From his parents young Keeler inherited a He was married and the father of two young keen sense of humor and an unquenchable girls. His motives for joining, as with so many curiosity about his world. Though his for­ of the others, were a deep patriotism and an mal education ended after the ninth grade, adventurous spirit—the same spirit which had he never stopped challenging his mind. His animated his ancestors. interest in astronomy led him to grind his own telescopic mirror and lenses and to erect " See, for example, Exhibit A, in U.S., Senate, Com­ an axis-traction device so he could follow the mittee on Military Affairs, Russian Railway Service course of stars for hours. In mathematics, he Corps, S. Rept. 1764, 75th Congress, 3rd Session, 1938, p. 24. Serial Set 10230. added his own computations to the book of

218 FEIST: FAYETTE W. KEELER LETTERS

logarithms. Once he reached the Far East, he men. Notwithstanding the change in govern­ quickly learned both Russian and Japanese. ment, however, the American ambassador to He was an expert in both the operation and Russia, David R. Francis, expressed the view the mechanics of telegraphy and wireless radio. that the RRSC should not be turned back And when the chance arose for service to his and would be useful to whatever faction was country that promised stimulating travel, in power.* Keeler embraced the opportunity. The Thomas therefore steamed into a tick­ The railroad men who responded to the lish situation at Vladivostok on December 14. call applied to the Chief of Engineers of the There were no accommodations for the corps, United States Army and were issued commis­ and very little food. The entire city buzzed sions by the War Department. Keeler was with the excitement of the revolution. More­ commissioned a second lieutenant. The corps over, the Bolsheviks held the only ice breaker, was also outfitted with uniforms of standard and the Thomas was in danger of being iced army color. Despite all this, however, the War in. Stevens, who was in Vladivostok to meet Department never intended that the RRSC the corps, agreed with the American consul, operate as a military unit, since the Russian John Caldwell, that work was impossible for Provisional government had agreed to pay the moment. Consequently, Keeler and the the men's salaries. By law, no foreign gov­ RRSC immediately sailed for Nagasaki, Jap­ ernment can pay members of the U.S. mili­ an, to await further developments. tary. But an incredible series of blunders on the part of the American government led the men to believe that they were, in fact, in the Army; and only after some time in the Far 'HE letters of Fayette W. Keeler East did they learn the War Department's paint a significant portrait of life conception of their status. After their return, in the Far East during this most chaotic time. the men sought congressional action to se­ The situation into which Keeler and the cure honorable discharges and a declaration RRSC were thrust—a Russian civil war, Jap­ that they had served in the military. Between anese expansion, and, finally. Allied interven­ 1918 and 1961 twenty-five bills to that effect tion—was enormously complex. But Keeler were introduced in Congress—and all were de­ was not afraid to reduce the myriad aspects of feated. The controversy was not resolved the Siberian reality into a set of understand­ until 1973, when a United States Court of able and practical observations and conclu­ Appeals ruled in favor of the surviving vet­ sions. As he saw it, his role in helping defeat erans of the RRSC.3 the Germans was to make the railroads "hum." The men gathered in St. Paul, Minnesota, Those who interfered, such as the Japanese, in October, 1917, and subsequently traveled were obstructionists or worse. The Russians, to San Francisco. On November 19, the Rus­ Keeler thought, were an unpatriotic, flashy sian Railway Service Corps boarded the U.S. lot; the Bolsheviks were nothing more than Army transport Thomas, bound for Vladi­ scoundrels and German agents. To be sure, vostok. Corpsmen were accompanied by about the letters also reveal Keeler's predictable but seventy-five employees of the Baldwin Loco­ colorful reactions to the cultures and customs motive Works who were journeying to Vladi­ of China, Japan, and Russia. vostok to build locomotives and cars for the These are not the letters of a diplomat or Trans-Siberian. political scientist—and therein lies their value. Even before the corps left St. Paul, the Bol­ Keeler was simply a common American view­ shevik Revolution toppled Kerensky's Pro­ ing a rather uncommon turmoil. His words visional government, which had requested the show the logic, the philosophy, the analytical qualities of an early-twentieth-century Ameri­ ^ See Joe Michael Feist, "Theirs Not to Reason Why: can. As Henry Steele Commager has noted, The Case ot the Russian Railway Service Corps," in "No philosophy that got much beyond com- Military Affairs, 42: 1-6 (February, 1978). Much ot the personal information is taken from personal communi­ cation with Fayette Keeler's daughter, Mrs. Helen K. * Francis to State Department (November 1,?, 1917), Smith. See footnote 32. FRUS, Russia, 1918, III: 208.

219 ASTERN SIBERIA Sea of Oktiotsk

mon sense commanded [the American's] in­ elusive notes to Martin, Keeler would at times terest. . . ."5 The letters of Fayette Keeler write one letter and send copies to all his tend to bear him out. relatives. The letters Keeler wrote are now in the Most of these letters were typewritten, and possession of the State Historical Society of some of the obvious typographical errors have Wisconsin as part of the Roy L. Martin Papers, been corrected. The punctuation and para­ which were given by Martin to the Society graphing have been altered slightly in the in­ in 1954. The two men were cousins (their terest of clarity and readability. Ellipses de­ mothers were sisters), and all of the letters note deletions; brackets denote changes in published here were written to Roy Martin, spelling or wording by the editor. The com­ who was also a railroad man and who wrote plimentary close of each letter has been de­ a history of the Wisconsin Central Railway leted. Company. While some of the letters are ex- J.M.F. ° Henry Steele Commager, The American Mind (Yale University Press, 1950), 8. 220 FEIST: FAYETTE W. KEELER LETTERS

Nagasaki, January 31, 1918 are getting along fine. . . . We hold our classes Dear Cousins— at the YMCA and that gives us good exercise, I do not remember when I wrote you last as it is about a twenty-minute walk there. but think it was before we landed here, so I saw a Japanese wedding reception the will try to give you an account of our doings other day coming home from class. It was since then. headed by a brass band, then a bunch of old As you know, we arrived Nagasaki on Dec. men carrying banners, with some kind of in­ 19tli and lay in the harbor awaiting instruc­ scriptions, then about twenty rickshaws filled tions until Sunday Jan. 13 when we were or­ with the guests. The bride, who appeared to be dered to land. The last man was off the boat a Chinese lady, was in the last one and was all at 7:15 A.M. and the old Thomas steamed out dolled up to beat the band. The procession at 7:45 A.M. bound for good old U.S.A. We wound up with another band. They were rather hated to see her go, as we ate and slept moving along at a slow pace and a bunch of on board for fifty-three days. us overtook them, and just as we came upon Quarters were made for us at the various the rear band, the leader gurgled something in hotels about town, and the Baldwin Loco. Japanese to his men and they struck up Works contingent had to go to Obama, about "We'll Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys," evident­ forty miles north. There are about seventy- ly a mark of respect for us. It seemed odd to five men in that bunch. hear that tune played at a wedding reception. We are put from four to six in a room in . . . We have physical exercises daily at 7:45 this hotel [Nagasaki Hotel], and the rooms A.M. and I am just getting over from soreness are nice and large and airy and have a dandy of the muscles from it. We have to get up at fireplace, English style, so we are very well 7:15 A.M. now instead of 8:15, which works situated. When we landed we had to go out a great hardship on us. It amuses the Japs to in the yard where the carpenters were making see us go through our contortions. our beds, wash stands, and p-pot boxes, and Was over to visit a Jap passenger boat Sun­ grab them off as soon as they were finished, day, and on our way back the sampan man but as there was a large gang of men working asked one of our men for an inhale from his it did not take long. Our beds have no springs pipe. He was smoking Peerless in an old but that don't prevent us from sleeping well. strong pipe. So he took a few good puffs to There are four in our room, all roundhouse make it good and handed it over to the sam­ foremen but I, and all of us are [MJasons. pan man who took, or tried to take, a big One is J. R. Jones, who used to live at N. inhale and darned nearly tumbled out of the Fond du Lac and says he knows you. He is sampan. I managed to recover his oar with all tattooed and is a chunky fellow, and an the boat hook, and it was about ten minutes Englishman. . . . He came from the [Chicago, before order was finally restored. Mr. Jap Rock Island and Pacific Railroad] at Valley sat down in the stern, losing all interest in the [Junction, Iowa]. C. M. Winter is also along proceedings and moaning "Jiama, jiama" for with this outfit.^ We are very well fed and a long time. I don't know what jiama means, have no kick coming, although it is rather but presume is equivalent to "My God." . . . irksome to be here when we are all anxious We were all up to the YMCA to listen to to be in Russia. Prospects seem much better a talk by G. Sherwood Eddy, a great man in now about going in, and we all expect to be the YMCA work.* He was on his way to on the move before many more moons. France and told of his experience over there We are taking Russian lessons now after a vacation of over a month and are teaching ' The Russian interpreters were not tired tor reasons of economy but rather because, as Stevens noted, they ourselves. We had some Russian refugees who were "mischievous political agitators." See Stevens to were engaged to teach us but we had to cut Lansing (December 15, 1917), FRUS, Russia, 1918, III: them out for economical reasons.'' But we 211. ' Sherwood Eddy, Yale-educated, worked for many years tor the YMCA among students throughout Asia, " Major C. M. Winter, former superintendent with especially India. He was an observer of the European the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Rail­ war from 1915-1917 as YMCA secretary with the Bri­ road. tish army.

221 a pastime. Came across a couple of young draftsmen from the shipyards here who are crazy to extend their limited knowledge of English. So I am teaching them English and they are teaching me Japanese. They were so overjoyed at this good fortune that they invited me to sit with them for a foto, which I did. When I heard one of them trying to describe a baldheaded major as "having no moustache on the top of his head," I decided his knowledge of our classic language could be expanded. Our chambermaid, Oaki Saku, has quit us and is now making kimonos. She invited me and my only roommate left, Dick Jones, . . . to have tea at her house Saturday, which we did, and had a most enjoyable hour. She wanted our fotos and as we had none, we sug­ gested she accompany us to the studio and we WHi (X3) 34392 would all three be in it. We did. Dick and I Nagasaki, Japan, 1918. Left to right: /. R. were dressed in kimonos, holding a fan and Jones, Fayette W. Keeler, Oaki Saku. wearing sandals, and Saku sat on a cushion at my feet, with a tray full of tea-things in previous to this time. It was a good one and I front of her. Such scandal! By the way, her would not have missed it for anything. He name, Saku, means cherry-blossoms in Jap­ was over all the battle fields and saw several anese. . . . battles and gave us a lot of pathetic incidents. Oh, dear, I wish we were on the move some­ ... I could hear a lot of our men blowing where, Russia, Mesopotamia, Berlin or home, noses. . . . I don't care which, just as long as we move. Please write me as often as possible. You The insignia of this corps ought to be a circle, can't understand how welcome letters are to as it signifies going nowhere. . . . a guy 8,000 miles from home. . . . Throughout February of 1918, John F. Ste­ While the weeks dragged on the corps re­ vens had been negotiating with General Dmi­ mained in Nagasaki waiting for the Siberian tri Horvat, the anti-Bolshevik general man­ situation to stabilize. The Bolsheviks were ager of the Chinese Eastern Railway. Al­ creating disturbances across Siberia and north­ though entirely in Chinese territory, the Chi­ ern Manchuria. The men of the RRSC, anx­ nese Eastern was actually a part of the Trans- ious to be at work, obviously shared the view Siberian system. It was built by the Russians of John F. Stevens. The determined Stevens, in the 1890's with the consent of the Chinese, angered by the Bolshevik interference in his in order to save hundreds of miles on the plans, wired Washington, "We should all go route to Vladivostok. Russian laws were ob­ back shortly with man-of-ivar and 5,000 troops. served all along the Chinese Eastern, and Rus­ Time is coming to put [the] fear of God into sian influence dominated. By the end of these people."^ February, Stevens and Horvat had agreed to the placement of the corps along the Chinese Eastern, Only about half the corps had left Nagasaki, March 4, 1918 Japan for Harbin, however, when the State My Dear Roy and Sadie— Department ordered Stevens to hold the re­ . . . We have dropped our Russian lessons mainder of his men in Nagasaki because of a now and cannot say if we will ever take them supposed threat from German and Austrian up again. I am studying Japanese now for prisoners of war.^'^ It was rumored that the

"Stevens to Willard (December 20, 1917), FRUS, ™ See, tor example, Morris to Lansing (March 1, Russia, 1918, III: 213-214. 1918), FRUS, Russia, 1918, III: 223. 222 FEIST: FAYETTE W. KEELER LETTERS prisoners were escaping in large numbers and Left Nagasaki at 11 A.M. and arrived Moji, were armed. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk— where we [took] the ferry to the main island the separate peace between Germany and Bol­ at 6 P.M. and had an awful time getting our shevik Russia—further alarmed the State De­ baggage through the customs as the officials partment with regard to the prisoners. Al­ did not want to examine it on Sunday, but though the prisoners posed no menace, caution after a lot of arguing we finally got them to prevailed, and half the corps remained in Nagasaki until July, 1918. Keeler and a few pass on it and we caught the ferry to Shimo- others, however, went to Harbin in April. nesiki . . . where we got the boat to Korea. . . . We had to answer a lot of questions by the police and immediately went to bed, so as not Nagasaki, March 30, 1918 to be seasick, for the Korean [Straits] are My Dear Roy and Sadie— almost always very rough. We had a sea like . . . [On] Washington's Birthday we re­ glass all the way over, and when we woke up ceived the joyful news we were to go to Har­ we were sliding into the harbor at Pusan, with bin Manchuria within a week, and we were to the water like a mirror and the air nice and go in bunches of fifty per day. Two bunches crisp and fresh. Korea, translated, means went and then they got orders to hold the bal­ "The Land of the Morning Calm," and if this ance here, much to our bitter disappointment. morning was a sample of the weather there And here we have been ever since doing noth­ the man who christened it certainly knew his ing. The boys at Harbin all write about it business. . . . being such a nice town that it makes us sore We did not have much time to look around to think we are compelled to stay here. We Pusan as we had twenty-three pieces of bag­ are getting rather tired of lying around doing gage to look after. . . . [We also] had a large nothing. grip with 175,000 rubles and 10,000 yen in Since I last wrote you I have had a trip to paper money, amounting to about $23,000 in see a volcano and had a dandy time, putting gold, and one of us had to stand watch over up at Japanese hotels and eating Japanese this. . . . We took the Manchurian Southern food. We had a guide with us and traveled Ry. from Pusan, and you could not tell the 450 miles and the whole trip, including our difference between that train and one in the meals, only cost us |4.25 each. How is that United States. The whole thing was made in for economical . . . touring? America and it seemed quite a treat to see The cherry blossoms are out now and plum one of them again. blossoms and wisteria also, and dirty old Naga­ The engineer surely handled the train easi­ saki is beginning to put on new clothes and ly. We arrived at Seoul about 8 P.M. and look a little decent. . . . stopped there for about thirty minutes and got a chance to see the Great South Gate, Harbin, Manchuria, May 24, 1918 whatever that was.^' The stationmaster in­ My Dear Cousins— sisted on us going out to see it. . . . The Your joint letter of March 26th was re­ Koreans are a queer lot. They all dress in ceived on April 30, with great rejoicing on white and the men wear dinky plug hats, my part. . . . Have been here since the 17 th made out of horse hair, and are not ornamen­ of last month. . . . About one hundred of our tal or useful. The women generally go bare­ outfit had gone on before us, and you can headed, and if they do have anything on their take it from me, there was a disappointed heads it is a tub or pail of something. They bunch of Bolsheviks that was left behind. looked odd, as we could see them all over the Was there [Nagasaki] six weeks longer when fields working, and dressed in white. It might we received a telegram from Harbin to send give you a scare to meet one of them in the me and five others up here, but giving no dark. . . . reasons. This raised another row among those The next morning we arrived at Shingishu who were left, but there was no help for it. on the east bank of the Yalu River, and were ... I was wanted to work the wireless between here and Vladivostok and the others were " Seoul's Great South Gate, a beautiful arched monu­ used in the shops. ment, dates from the city's founding in the 130O's. 223 WHi (X3) 34796 Koreans, near Vladivostok. out of Japanese territory; and after we crossed will have to give the Japanese credit for doing a bridge about a mile long we came to Antung, things well. You can see their influence all Manchuria, where our baggage was again put along through Korea, and when you go thru the customs, but not opened. It was here through Manchuria there is a decided differ­ that I saw the finest specimen of Chinese man­ ence in the wagon roads and the towns, but hood I ever saw or ever expect to see. He the stations are always kept up in fine shape. was the customs officer and had on a dandy Had a dandy supper at Mukden, and next new uniform and his features were actually morning we woke up coming into Chang handsome. I believe if I were a woman I Chun, where we had to change cars for the would have fallen in love with him on the Chinese Eastern Railroad, or, as the Rus­ spot. He talked excellent English and as he sians call it, the "Keetaiskaya Vostochnaya passed us in the car I remarked to our boys Zhelyeznaya Doroga." We met some of our to that effect and he surprised me by saying: boys stationed there and had a dandy time "I ought to. I lived in Chicago ten years and until 2 P.M. when we took the K.V. for Harbin. am a Yankee myself." Although we were in We had a special car with a porter and had Chinese territory, all the stations were policed a very good time all the way up. It took us by the Japanese soldiers to Chang Chun. nine hours to come 150 miles, and as soon as We arrived [at] Mukden about dusk and we got here we got out and had some tea and I managed to get a ride in a rickshaw for half cakes, and tried to sleep in the car, but it was an hour. The town is quite large, but there almost out of the question, as all the switch are no street cars there. The hotel and sta­ engines use the whistle when they want a tion are fine pieces of architecture, and you track lined up for them and they give a toot 224 FEIST: FAYETTE W. KEELER LETTERS

for each digit in the number. They seemed Harbin, Manchuria, June 2, 1918 to have a mania for wanting to go in on No. My Dear Cousins— 17 for [they] did nothing else ... all night ... I have not yet started work in the wire­ but whistle. ... It was not very soothing, and less station ... as my hours have been changed as soon as it got light enough I got up and so they do not correspond with the Brooklyn, rolled a pill and went over to the station. . . . but we expect things to be straightened out Pretty soon we met some of our boys who took shortly. . . . When I do get things working I us to our dining cars where we had breakfast, will be the main guy here as I will be able then later [we] came over to our barracks to get the press news from Cavite or some and got located. There are two buildings here Japanese station, or else the Brooklyn. We that were formerly occupied by the Bolshe­ get very little news here in the newspapers. viks [who] were driven out. The building . . . Did I ever tell you about these [Jap­ I am in has eighteen beds and both buildings anese] baths? You go in and get in a tub are made of concrete and steel and are elec­ and pretty soon a girl comes in and pours tric lighted. The water system is not very good water over you at about 211 degrees above as it is worked by hand pumps. . . . But the Fahrenheit, then proceeds to soap you all over, place is nice and clean. We have Chink ser­ and when you are well lathered, she takes a vants to take care of it. small soft fibre brush and gives you a good I cannot say that I am stuck on Harbin. scrubbing. I have been to them on a few We have terrible dust storms here and dust occasions when the water system at the Naga­ and pulverized horse manure sweep over the saki Hotel was out of order. It is comical to town in a dense cloud. I have been caught in hear the guys yell and holler when she scrubs several of these "horse-manure blizzards," as you on some sensitive spot, such as under the our boys call them, and it is no fun, I can arms, soles of your feet, etc., etc. Old Bill assure you. [Bill Straeck of York, Pennsylvania] was nev­ . . . They have a magnificent Railway Club er known to take a bath all the way from here and there is something doing there almost Trisco to Nagasaki (via Vladivostok), but all the time—dances, theatres, lectures, etc. when he got hep to these bath houses, if clean­ Shortly after I arrived here I attended a dance liness is next to godliness, then Bill was some given for the benefit of Orloff's men,'^ and god. . . . the price was just what you wished to pay. We are going to install the "ABC" system It was not considered good form to ask for of running trains with the staff system shortly, any change, and the result [was] I shot 100 and then things on the Keetaiskaya Vostoch­ rubles in a short time. There was something naya Zhelyeznaya Doroga will hum, no mat­ to pay for every time you turned around, but ter how much handicapped by the name.'* it was for a good cause, and all of us Ameri­ If this political business keeps up we are going cans wanted to make a hit with the Russians, to handle a lot of cars. . . . so we did not care. Anyway, a ruble was worth only six cents then. In the following letter, Keeler gives his im­ I guess I will close for this time. ... I have pressions of the famed Czech Legion. During just returned from Vladivostok where I met World War I the Russian army contained a Admiral Knight on the Brooklyn to arrange unit, known as the Druzhina, led by Russian for a schedule for working the wireless. officers, which was manned by Czechs and Slovaks from the Czech colonies inside Russia. Things have not shaped themselves so we Thousands of their brothers, of course, were can communicate yet, but we expect to do fighting against them in the Austro-Hungarian so shortly. . . .^^ army as German allies. These Czechs, how­ ever, owed no allegiance to Austria, the very

^ General Orlov was a White Russian, or anti-Bol­ shevik, leader later associated with the government of " A method of regulating rail traffic by dividing the Admiral Alexander Kolchak. route into stretches ot track several miles long (blocks). " The Brooklyn was the flagship of Admiral Austin The blocks are assigned to one train at a time, and M. Knight, commander ot the United States Asiatic the entry and exit ot trains within each block are Fleet. controlled by automatic signals.

225 1

»-*m

WHi (X3) 34797 In Ihe best tradition of tourists everywhere, Keeler (left) and his friend J. R. Jones shook hands across Die border betiueen Siberia and Manchuria. nation they considered their oppressor. Dur­ Powers in the Russian Ukraine. The only ing the war, therefore, thousands of Czechs in way for the Czechs to resume the fight, it was the Austrian army either surrendered or were reasoned, was lo retreat eastward across Si­ taken prisoner by the Russians, often in the beria lo Vladivostok and thence around the hope of joining the Druzhina. Before the world lo France. The Soihet government downfall of the czar this was impossible. After agreed to such a move in March, 1918. the March revolution, hotvever, the Druzhina The movement east had scarcely begun was expanded into an entire corps through the when trouble arose. The Soviets feared that, addition of these former Austro-Hungarian among other things, the Czechs might join soldiers. some Allied poiuer in a full-scale intervention Throughout 1917, ivhile the Russian army into Russian affairs. All sorts of confusing lost all semblance of a fighting unit, the Czech announcements were issued by Soviet officials, corps retained its morale and discipline. Once Czech commanders, and Allied governments. the Bolsheviks gained 'power in November, By May, 1918, the situation xoas extremely the Czechs declared themselves a neutral par­ tense. The Czechs, spread all across Siberia, ty in the Russian civil war. The following realized they were in a precarious position and month the Allied governments recognized the determined to fight their ivay to Vladivostok. Czechs as a regular Allied unit under nomi­ Whether or not their view was justified is a nal French command. The Czechs, however, debuted historical question. In any event, faced tfie overwhelming forces of the Central clashes beliceen the Czechs and Bolsheviks

226 FEIST: FAYETTE W. KEELER LETTERS

erupted all along the Trans-Siberian and con­ night. We entertained a large bunch of Czeks, tinued for several months.^^ or Czechs. . . and I wish you all had been here. What Keeler did not mention in this letter ... I will try to describe it with the fond hope was the arrival of American soldiers in Vladi­ that )Mr. Censor possesses an average heart vostok in August, 1918. President Wilson, and will not delete any of it. Anyway, by the finally succumbing to the tremendous pres­ time this readies you the Czechs will have left sure of the Allied governments, had dispatched a force of some 7,000 under General William here and be fighting the Bolsheviks. Graves. While historians differ in their inter­ At 6:00 P.M. a large number of them as­ pretation of Wilson's move, the main ex­ sembled on our drill-ground and lined up, we pressed reason in .sending the troops was to doing the same opposite them. Then both aid the Czech Legion in reuniting.^^ National Anthems were played and I never heard such fine music in all my life. The Harbin, Manchuria, August 22, 1918 Czech band was of about thirty pieces, and My Dear Martha, every man surely knew how to play. After the My Dear Mother, introduction of our commanding officer and My Dear Sister, the officer in charge of the Czechs (which, by My Dear Cousin— the way, had all the solemnities of the meet­ The address might look a little strange but ing of the Q. of S. and K. Solomon), we all I am writing to each one of the addressees, got busy and mixed in with them. There are the last one being Sadie. I got a letter from a few who speak English, and soon we were all of you yesterday and thought I might as having a good time. Our corps bought 3,500 well kill four "birds" with one stone. cigarettes and goodness knows how many bot­ According to the calendar today is Ma's tles of lemonade and other soft drinks [and] birthday, but today is August 21st there, and all kinds of cookies. Hornbecki'^ and I were I do not know just how to observe it. Guess among those who acted as booze-clerks and my the only way is to be good two days, then re­ arms have not yet got the soreness out of sume my natural inclinations. This makes them on account of pulling corks. The moon me think of Willie Shields, of Elma, [Iowa], was very bright and it was almost as light as one of my playmates, about eight years old. day on the grounds. Their band played about He would never chew tobacco on his ma's fifteen numbers, and I wish you could have birthday, no matter if I did have a nice five- heard it. . . . We gave them a cinematagraph cent plug of Spear Head on me. Them was show in the YMCA building and everyone the happy days! had the best time imaginable. Well! I rather guess we had some time last You all probably know the story of these men. For the benefit of the ignorant, I will say that they come from the northwestern part ^°For more information on the Czech Legion, see Henry Baerlein, Marcli of the Seventy Thousand (Lon­ of Austria and are connected with the Rus­ don, 1926), and chapter six of George F. Kennan, sians by ties of blood, being of Slavic origin Soviet-American Relations, 1917-1920: The Decision themselves. At the beginning of the war the to Intervene (Princeton, 1958). Russians tried to enter Austria and connect "President Wilson's rationale for ordering American with the Czechs but they got hung up at the troops to Siberia, his aide-memoire, is quoted in full in Kennan's Decision to Intervene, 482-485. A scholar­ Masurian Lakes by von Hindenburg. The ly examination ot the entire American venture in Czechs, at the outbreak of hostilities, were Siberia is Betty M. Unterberger's America's Siberian put under the command of German officers, Expedition, 1918-1920 (Durham, North Carolina, 1956). and when they were sent to the Galician front Unterberger takes the position that Wilson's true aim they were put in the first lines with the Aus- in Siberia was to inhibit Japanese expansionist policies and maintain the "open door." A differing view can trians and Germans held back for use as re­ be found in Robert J. Maddox, The Unknown War serves. At the first opportunity the Czechs With Russia: Wilson's Siberian Intervention (San surrendered to their cousins, the Russians, by Rafael, California, 1977). Maddox contends that Wil­ the thousands. After the Russian Revolution son's primary motive was the destruction of the Soviet government. See also Richard Goldhurst, The Midnight War: American Intervention in Russia, 1918-1920 ^' C. E. Hornbeck, former chief dispatcher on the (New York, 1978). Great Northern, also from Superior, Wisconsin.

227 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1979 they were liberated and helped fight the com­ the Czechs over again, and they gave us an­ mon enemy, but after the fall of Kerensky other band concert and some very fine physi­ they were opposed by the Bolsheviks and have cal exercise stunts. There were a great many now fought their way east, with the intention in it and one of the features was a human py­ of going to France, but they have changed ramid. They formed one three men high and their plans now and are taken in by the Al­ when the topmost man got his position he lies and are doing fine work. I wish I could pulled Old Glory from his clothes and waved tell you of all the things that are going on it around. Say! . . . around this part of the world, but it would The Czechs have a little boy with them not be policy, and besides, the censor, unless that they brought all the way from Western he [was] blind, would not let it get by him. Russia. His father and mother were killed by Anyway, will risk saying that things are look­ the Germans so they took him with them. ing brighter for the old R.R.S. Corps and we He is only twelve years old and is wounded are coming to life, and every man Jack will in the leg. Our boys have adopted him and soon have something to do. This is a relief some of them took him down and rigged him to think of it, after being inactive for nine out with two miniature R.R.S. uniforms and months. some clothes, and now he is perfectly satisfied. I wish you could see the Czechs. When they He performed a signal service to the Czechs went through their maneuvers ... it was once, when the Bolsheviks surprised them. enough to make the angels weep with envy. He saw them and turned a machine gun on We would surely make a very poor showing them and held them back until the Czechs against them that way. Most of them have could get a formation and defeat them. He is families back home. . . . They are men, m-e-n, an expert with this weapon and it is here that MEN, all the way through. It fairly makes my he got his wound. The bullet is still there blood boil to see these good-for-nothing Rus­ but we are going to have him operated on for sians parading up and down the parks with its removal. their gaudy uniforms and swords clanking Guess I will close for this time and add some and dragging in the dirt, indifferent to the personal notes. ... I do not want you to en­ fate of their country, and perfectly willing tertain any fears for my safety, for I am as safe that some one else fight their battles. I have as the Crown Prince. Everything is going on a hunch that the Czechs are going to disarm smoothly but rapidly here and I would not them, and make them do something or vacate be surprised to find that this part of the coun­ the crockery via the firing squad. They have try will occupy parts of the front pages shortly. done that very same thing all along their way, and I would be tickled to death to see them Meeleeya Moiy Sadee—Ya booel rahd sluschat fertilize some of the ground here with them. eez vooee. Which means, in plain English, "I I guess it is a good thing that we are not fluent was glad to hear from you." I want to air my talkers, for I honestly believe that if we could profound knowledge of Russian so I thought talk the language well enough, there would I would try it out on you. . . . be several dead R.R.Sers and Russians around here. . . . It has been extremely hot most of the time. . . . One would perspire quite freely in the . . . The chief electrician from the Suffolk sun, but once get in the shade it is quite cool. (a British cruiser) is still here with me to line I have been enjoying it because I have not up the wireless, as I think the Czechs are going been really thawed out for the past ten years. to take it from the Russians, then I will prob­ . . . Have to change underwear each day and ably be working hand in hand with the uniforms twice a week to smell anyways re­ Czechs and British, unless our troops come spectable. . . . The flies are very thick but it here with a signal corps. . . . is no wonder when you consider the filth that Sunday, August 24th. Clear, bright and abounds here. The Chinese are very dirty warm, and the Russian church bells booming and consequently the flies are numerous. The out with a very deep sound, which makes it Russians are too lazy to make any effort to sound kinda peaceful like. Last night we had clean up the town, so there you are. . . .

228 WHi (X3) 34783 The Czech Legion, lined up in Harbin to greet an arriving Japanese military contingent.

Harbin, Manchuria, August 31, 1918 had to work then so missed it. He was held My Dear Folks- captive for fifty-five days with another man.'^ Things are moving rapidly around Harbin I am afraid this letter will be somewhat but not as far as we are concerned, although short as I do not know much to tell you. . . . we all hope that something turns up for the I have to be out at the station at 3:00 P.M. R.R.S. to do. It is understood by everyone and 11:00 P.M., and with our morning drills that our original mission has gone up the of about an hour's duration, I manage to get spout and we are waiting to see what will be about three hours and a half of good healthful done with us. exercise. Generally get home somewhere around 1:00 A.M. and have to get breakfast Saw two of the Nagasaki boys yesterday that antl drill by 8:00 A.M. SO you see I do not get came up from Vladivostok, and they are quar­ too much sleep. tered in a schoolhouse there and sleeping on We heard last night that Chita was captured mattresses. Some of them have been given by the Czechs and I am going to try to raise squads of German and Turkish prisoners to Chita on the wireless tonight to see if it is guard while repairing the roads in that vi­ so. . . .19 cinity. I wish I had a chance to guard some of them. . . . ^^ CJeorge A. Kyle and E. J. Pursell, employees of You have probably read of the American the Siems-Carey Railway, were robbed and kidnapped Engineer Kyle who was captured and held for by Chinese bandits in the province of Honan in March, ransom by some Chinese bandits a few months 1918. They were later released unharmed. 1° Chita had indeed been captured by the Czechs. ago. He was up to our barracks yesterday and By this time, Bolshevik power had been overthrown was telling some of the men about it, but I in all of eastern Siberia.

229 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1979

In the next letter Keeler mentions the re­ three months. We are all going to turn out turn of Colonel Emerson after having been to meet him in grand style. "lost for three months." This was not quite There is a strike on the [Chinese Eastern the case. Railway], all the engineers and machinists. In the March of 1918, Soviet Commissar . . . This looks like a boneheaded move on Leon Trotsky had requested that a group their part, as the railroad will be tied up and of American railway operators be sent to Euro­ pean Russia to aid the Soviets in revitalizing the Japanese will in all probability glom on Russia's railroads. American Ambassador to to it as a "military necessity," and once they Russia David R. Francis relayed this request get their lunch hooks on this doroga it is to the State Department. Despite some ini­ going to be a long, long time before they will tial misgivings, as well as the opposition of let loose of it. They have been wanting it a John Stevens, Emerson and his party left Vla­ long time and now is their chance. These divostok on May 19, 1918, intending to con­ fool Russians will have no more jobs than a fer with Ambassador Francis on the Soviet jackrabbit and I would like to see this very proposal. thing turn out that way, so it will teach them Upon arriving in Krasnoyarsk, however, a lesson. When the Russian people will wake Emerson was informed that the Czech uprising up and quit drinking tea and promenading would prevent his further movement. Emer­ son thus became an eyewitness to the Czech- around the parks, things will look brighter for Bolshevik clash, and even offered himself as the whole outfit. a mediator at Marinsk, west of Krasnoyarsk. I had to laugh the other night at the supper- He succeeded in gaining a partial armistice table. We were talking about the Russian of­ there, enabling him to continue his westward ficers . . . when someone mentioned having journey. In the following days he repeated seen one with a monocle. Up spoke a second his role as a mediator at various points, tra­ lieutenant (a roundhouse foreman), bristling veling as far as Omsk before conditions made with indignation: "Yes, and the #$!(g^9 wears it clear that he could not reach Francis. He then began the slow journey back to eastern it in one eye, too." . . . Siberia and Manchuria.^'^ Today the telegraphers have gone out on strike and the whole road is tied up. Looks Harbin, Manchuria, September 4, 1918 more than ever now as though the Japanese My Dear Folks— [will] take the road...... That night [August 2] we entertained We are still having our drills every morn­ the Japanese troops in the YMCA building ing and it will not be long before we are regu­ and everyone had a good time. . . . They put lar soldiers. I am getting so I like it now, but on a movie show for them and had tea, cakes, it was a little disagreeable at first. We have and cigarettes. The Japanese seemed much a few men who have been in the regular army delighted at the reception. We were sorry and know something about the drilling. We we could not give them anything better, as should have a regular army man with us to we owe them something that will be hard to teach us all the movements but it does not repay. I refer to all the courtesies shown us look as though we [will] get one. . . . while in Nagasaki. September 5tli. Cold, windy and rainy. Yesterday the Czechs gave a big parade over Col. Emerson and his party got in shortly after town, all in marching order. They were eight midnight this morning and they have some abreast and it took the column twenty-five weird tales to tell. . . . The party included the minutes to pass us. ... It surely was a grand sight. . . . They were being reviewed by Gen­ ^^The Druzhina, the forerunner ot the Czech Le­ eral Dietrichs.21 gion, was commanded by Russian officers, one ot whom Colonel Emerson and party is expected to was General Dietrichs. When the Soviets agreed to the arrive here tonight after having been lost for Czech movement toward ^'ladivostok, Dietrichs was one of the tew Russians to accompany the Czechs. Of the 70,000 Czechs who made their way eastward to \'ladivostok, 57,459 were evacuated in the spring ot ^ Emerson's lengthy report on his Siberian excursion 1920, together with another 12,000 wives, children, is to be found in the National .\rchivcs, in U.S., De­ and officials. Some 13,000 members of the Czech partment of State, 1917-1922, File No. 861.77/,')41. Legion died in Russia. 230 . .-ff-*

WHi (X3) 34780 American-made Baldwin locomotive, photographed by Keeler alor the Chinese Eastern line in Manchuria.

Assistant Chief Lineman of the [Great North­ medicine, you Hun sons of bitches! Edith ern Railway], George Haynes by name. . . . Cavell did not whimper when she was before Sept. 7th. ... I was talking with one of the the same game you now are!" He was "sharp­ men that was with Col. Emerson and he told ly" reprimanded by one of the colonels.^^ me a few of the things they saw while they When the Bolsheviks managed to take any were out in the wilds of Siberia with the Czech prisoners, they would cut off their ears, Czechs. When the Czechs captured prisoners gouge out their eyes, cut off hands and feet, they did not take them with them, if they hap­ and otherwise unmentionably mutilate them. pened to be Austrians, Germans, or Magyars They do not take any Czech prisoners now. and bore arms. They held court-martials and When it is necessary for the Czechs to retreat shot them shortly afterwards. He had the and leave their wounded on the field, they nerve to see about twenty disposed of in this always see that those wounded men have at manner, with a few Bolsheviks in with them. least one hand grenade each, and when it is He said when the Bolsheviks, or Russians, certain they are about to be captured they take would march up to face the firing squad, they the grenade, strike it on the ground beside would take their medicine like men, without them, and bingo! No live Czech falls into a murmur or flinch. One Russian requested the hands of the Bolsheviks. . . . the favor of being allowed to tie his handker­ chief over his eyes, and as he was about to do As 1918 wore on, the men of the Russian so, thought better of it, threw it away, looked Railway Service Corps grew more and more his executioners squarely in the eye and said angry over the political situation in Manchuria "Yah gotov" (I am ready) and took what was and the resulting interference in their work. coming to him. He said it was absolutely dis­ Ever since the corps had arrived in the Far gusting to see the Huns preparing for their East the Japanese government had kept a close dope. They would fall on their knees and whine and beg for mercy, some of them being '^ Edith Cavell was an English nurse in Brussels dur­ literally dragged into place. [Emerson's man] ing the German occupation. She was executed by the Germans in 1915 for aiding the escape of .Allied pris­ could not help but shout out: "Take your oners.

231 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1979 watch on developments and, in Stevens' opin­ for beating the Chink. They are supposed to ion, had made every effort to gain control go where you want them to go. of the railways themselves. Stevens implored The striking railway men have gone back that the railroads be taken under joint military to work under the stimulating effects of a control and operated by the RRSC.^^ The proclamation by Gen. Guida, the Czech com­ Japanese, of course, objected to this plan. mander. In his proclamation he gave the While negotiations continued throughout the latter half of 1918, the Japanese poured some men . . . just twelve hours to get busy, and 72,000 troops into Manchuria and, for all those who still refused to work would be taken practical purposes, became the masters of the out on the prairie and shot. They worked. . . . Chinese Eastern Railway. A lot of us men are getting some regular army overcoats from the commissary at Vladi­ Harbin, Manchuria, September 14, 1918 vostok for 112.50. They are the same weight My Dear Folks- and material as our heavy winter coats but Eleven months ago today I severed my con­ are not sheepskin lined. . . . nections with the Big G. [Great Northern] Sept. 22. The weather has been the same and entered the service of my Uncle Samuel. [much rain and cold] ever since I started this This is the longest vacation I have ever had letter and if it does not change for the better since I started to battle with the cruel world f will be having flying-mice in my bell-house, to keep bread in the mouths of my wife and which is Russian for "bats in my belfry." . . . babes. . . . Regarding those overcoats. We now hear Our Colonel [Emerson] has gone to Vladi­ we will be unable to get them until we have vostok to attend some kind of conference, the authority from Washington. Am afraid by outcome of which will decide the fate of the the time we get this it will be next summer, corps. We have been "fed up" so much on and we will not have need of them. . . . this kind of bunk that we do not pay any at­ tention to it any more. The only way we will Harbin, Manchuria, September 30, 1918 be convinced of a change is to see ourselves My Dear Folks— on the train going somewhere. . . . I have a new job now: that of telegraphing, the wireless having been abandoned for the Harbin, Manchuria, September 19, 1918 time being. Started in on first trick a few My Dear Folks— days ago, but am now on third trick, the ... I have been going to the dentist for force being changed around every week to three days to have a couple of cavities filled give all the men a chance to work the day and my teeth cleaned. . . . The dentist is the shift. Russian wife of an American here. . . . She Might as well describe the dispatchers' of­ has a knack of alleviating your pain when she fice and let you know what we have to con­ is working on your teeth by the simple ex­ tend with. It is about 10 by 14 and most of pedient of putting her left arm around your the room is taken up by the tables. There head and putting your head on her ample are two Russian dispatchers, one interpreter, bosom which rises and falls gently as she one American instructor, and one operator, works the treadle of the drill, and, to quote O. making five in all, but as a rule there are Khayyam, late member of the Khayyam Tent about ten people in the room most of the & Awning Co., "O, wilderness were Paradise time, all talking at once. The one window is now!" . . . kept closed a great portion of the time, for I saw a Russian beat the tar out of a Chi­ one thing the Russian cannot stand is fresh nese droshky driver last night, just because air. . . . The Russians dearly love to talk on the Chink refused to go to one of the sub­ the least provocation, and it is one continual urbs with him and his wife. . . . The Chink noise here. Trains are run on the staff system, was game, though, and stuck by him through each train being delivered a staff-card issued it all. You cannot blame the Russian, tho. by the dispatcher. . . . The Russians can read by sound but they usually use the tape ma­ ^Stevens to Lansing (August 26, 1918), FRUS, Rus­ chines and it keeps them busy reeling it up, sia, 1918, III: 239. and sometimes it gets all over. . . .

232 WHi (X3) 34789 Keeler (center, arrow) and fellow members of the Russian Railway Service Corps enjoying a bit of physical training prior to their departure for Vladivostok.

I am learning the Russian telegraph code We did not mix in very much with the now, and believe me, it is a lulu. It has to be French as only one or two of us could talk copied in the Russian script which makes it their language, and very few of them could rather hard. I can copy about eight or nine parlevous with us. Several of us, however, words a minute, but this is equivalent to managed to get along with them fine through about fifteen English words. It is funny to the medium of their "vin blanc," or white hear them send a word of about twenty let­ wine, so dear to their heart, and of which there ters; it seems as if the guy would never get happened to be a large supply here. It is al­ through. I will be glad when I can copy the most like vinegar, but as far as 1 could see, it is stuff as fast as it is sent. . . . not as intoxicating as beer. Maybe it was of inferior quality, but if it was, the Frenchies Harbin, Manchuria, October 6th, 1918 were too polite to make any mention of it. . . . My Dear Folks— We have discontinued our daily morning . . . We have been having quite a social drill. The boys did not take to it very kindly week . . . entertaining the "Tommies" and and the Major who did the drilling was not "Poilus" who have been passing through. We very popular with us, and we had him going had a large crowd of the English over at the up in the air all the time.^* He used to delight YMCA the earlier part of the week. . . . in drilling us before a lot of Czechs, who must All of them had seen service in France and have been in agony to control their mirth at Belgium and had a great many stories to re­ seeing such a pitiful spectacle. [The Major] late. What struck me as rather odd was the gave us a farewell address that made Wash­ number of American songs they sang—"Oh! ington's Farewell Address to his Army Johnny," "Over There," "They Grow Wild, sound like a comic sketch of the slap­ Simply Wild, Over Me," "There's a Long, stick, seltzer-bottle, "who-was-that-woman-I- Long Trail," and several others. One of their own, "Blighty Is the Place for Me" was rather ^ Major C. T. Spear, former freight agent with the catchy, and you should have heard them all Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway sing it! . . . Company. 233 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1979 saw-with-you-on-tlie-street-this-morning" kind. I thought the Czechs were a fine bunch of He regretted very much that we did not em­ soldiers, but I am now convinced that our own brace the golden opportunity afforded us by "doughboys" have everything backed off the these drills, etc. etc. etc. Anyway, the drill died earth. I was following a few of them on my a natural death. Every one is elated in conse­ way to work this noon, and you ought to see quence. We are wondering what they are the Chinks and Russkies stop and rubber at going to spring on us next. . . . them after they passed. They were carrying their guns and packs and had on their over­ Harbin, Manchuria, October 12, 1918 coats and were walking at a good gait, sturdy, My Dear Folks- substantial, and strong, great big fellows...... On the night of the tenth we received So far I have seen American, British, Czech, a bulletin from Vladivostok giving a copy of Russian, and French troops, and expect to the German note asking for an armistice, also see some Italians before long. I forgot to the note in reply. I would surely like to see count the Chinese and Japanese. the editorials of the leading papers back home. I am learning to use the Russian typewriter ... I presume that this note from Germany has now. ... I think that in a couple of weeks I some kind of a string to it and is made to trick will be able to copy the Russian stuff on a the people. . . P' machine about as well as I copy the American Hinton just came in and said there would code. . . . We have a lot of code messages to be a trainload of German and Austrian pri­ send here and they are all written in capital soners in soon, and I guess I will go down and letters, and we have found that we are getting make faces at them.^^ There are also eight them wrong on account of subconsciously more cars of refugees in from Samara. . . . [transposing] the Russian characters. When Some say we are going to be here all winter we come across a H, we send it as an N, and a and some say we are not, so you can take your P as an R As I was telling Pa once, their choice. I have passed the stage when I take N is like our B, only you pronounce it like a any stock in the rumors floating about. About V. The first 100 years are always the hardest a month ago we were told we would know our in learning tjie alphabet. . . . fate in ten days. . . . The Colonel made the Oct. 16th. This morning the Ambassador boast at that time that "he was either going to to Japan, Mr. Morris, gave all the boys a do something or get off the crockery." Maybe dandy talk in the barracks, and told them we he has an acute case of dysentery, eh? Perhaps did not know what an important factor the someone, just for a joke, put some adhesive R.R.S. had been for the last nine months. . . . around the rim, something like Aunt Jemima's The yellow boys are getting rather chesty plaster: "The more you try to get it off, the around here and it will not be long before more it sticks the faster." . . . they will be told where to head in. . . . The Russians wanted them to run the railroad Harbin, Manchuria, October 15, 1918 in preference to us, and now that they have My Dear Folks- a foothold here, they are giving the Russkies . . . Last night we were all down to the sta­ just all they need. ... If [the Russians] wish tion to receive [Roland Morris, U.S. Ambas­ to work for the Js. instead of working with sador to Japan], on his way to China on some us, why, let them hop to it. They will wake business or other. He was accompanied by up yet. But guess Uncle Sam is watching this twenty-five picked privates as a guard, and it situation as closely as anything else. . . . surely did our eyes good to see them. . . . I forgot to say that Ambassador Morris told the boys that we were going to do what we started out to do and not to forget it. It might ® By the first days of October, 1918, the German be we will be here after peace is declared. The military leaders had concluded that victory was im­ bulletins are getting more favorable every possible. They therefore appealed directly to Presi­ day and it does not look as though it would be dent Wilson for a peace based on his Fourteen Points. a great while before Kaiser Bill will have to ™ First Lieutenant G. P. Hinton, former train dis­ patcher with the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault give in. We will probably, in any event, be Ste. Marie Railway Company. here all winter, for they have repaired a leak 234 WHi (X3) 34801 These American soldiers served as bodyguards to Roland Morris, U.S. am­ bassador to Japan. in the urinal and put in a handful of fresh NOTHING BUT DEATH DETAIN us! Brirrr! From mothballs. This must mean something. . . . the secrecy that was kept at that time one Oct. 17th. The Italian troop train arrived would imagine we were a bunch of the Blue this morning and the men are a fine looking Devils, or the Ladies from Hell, about to "go bunch, with greyish-green uniforms and soft over the top." . . .^^ felt hats, with a sassy looking feather stuck in The boys have come to the conclusion that the side, evidently plucked from some fowl if peace is declared soon, and we are to re­ enroute. They are a clean, prosperous-look­ main here for any length of time, the only ing company. . . . thing that will induce them to stay is a noise It is raining tonight and all the boys are like a lot of stove lids rattling together—mean­ getting out the old settlers' sign, and talking ing, of course, more money. over old times back in the States. Some of Sunday, Oct. 20. We got some of our cloth­ them are regaling themselves with reminis­ ing supplies yesterday. I got a serge shirt, a cences of the time when this organization was pair of pants and an overcoat. My pants are being formed. They have now arrived at the all right around the waist but they are too time we left St. Paul and are talking about darned long and large around the hips. . . . Major S. T. Cantrell who used to be a super­ The majority of the boys got all kinds of fits, intendent somewhere out west, and nicknamed ranging from perfect fits to epileptic fits. The "Little Napoleon" from his bodily and facial overcoats are the regulation army coats. . . . resemblance to that celebrity. The day we left he called the whole outfit together in the [Northern Pacific] building, and guards post­ ^ The Blue Devils were the .American 88th Division; the Ladies from Hell were the British Highland regi­ ed at the elevator shafts, and told us we were ments, so called by the Germans they fought against to leave that night at seven thirty, and to LET in France. 235 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1979

Harbin, Manchuria, October 26, 1918 My Dear Folks— . . . We had quite a snow storm the other day. ... It reminded me of our first night when we arrived at Vladivostok, which was in a blizzard. You see the Russian woman at her best in cold weather. Their cheeks are as rosy as apples and they are as healthy as young steers. Presume this is largely on account of wearing no corsets. You might say that I am susceptible to their charms, but if I am, the whole corps is. They all dress sensibly and neatly. They tell us that we will thoroughly enjoy ourselves here this winter as there are sleigh-rides, dances, parties and skating. I am going to mix in with the rest and have a good time. If any one . . . thinks I am run­ ning around the streets here with a hymn book and a harp in my hands, he is mistaken. He is also mistaken if he thinks I am also running around with a vodka bottle and a list of the red-light districts in my pockets. . . .

The following letter mentions Serbian refu­ gees. Strange as it may seem, hundreds of Ser­ bian refugees turned up in Siberia and Man­ churia in October of 1918. According to Carl Ackerman's account in the New York Times, 1,055 Serbians and Montenegrins were dis­ covered living in box cars in the Harbin freight yards. Driven from their homes by the war, they traveled to the Russian city of Odessa and boarded trains on February 19. Although they were promised land by the Russian Pro­ visional government, the Serbians soon became WHi (X3) 34388 victims of bureaucratic red tape and were shunted from one town to the next. By the Young Russian woman wearing the uniform of time they reached Harbin, 190 had died of the Russian Railway Service Corps, Manchuria, starvation and exposure.^^ 1919.

Harbin, October 28, 1918 he saw it. Presume you will see some of their My Dear Folks— articles in the Post after a while. I do not . . . Shortly after I sat down to work, in blew know how long they are going to be in this two men, in leather coats and tortoise rimmed part of the world. Am going to try to have glasses and handed me a lot of press dope to a talk with them regarding what they saw in be sent to Vladi and cabled to the New York Belgium and France. Ackerman is a very or- Herald and World from there. You can imagine my surprise to have them introduce ^ Carl W. Ackerman was a noted reporter and later themselves as Carl W. Ackerman and Herman dean ot the Columbia University School of Journalism. In 1917-1918 he was a special writer tor the Saturday Bernstein, both writers for the Sat. Eve. Post.^^ Evening Post in Mexico, Spain, France, and Switzerland. They had a lot of sob-stuff about the Serbian He covered the Siberian intervention for the New refugees that would make the Kaiser weep if York Times. His interesting account ot these days is Trailing the Bolsheviki (New York, 1919). Herman Bernstein, founder of the national Jewish daily The ^New York Times, October 30, 1918. Day, was war correspondent tor the New York Herald.

236 FEIST: FAYETTE W. KEELER LETTERS dinary-looking young fellow. Bernstein, I . . . Was down to the passenger station should imagine, is of Hebrew extraction, from watching the crowds getting on and off trains the name and features. Both are dandy fel­ and came across a Korean who had been in lows. Chicago for fifteen years. . . . We got into Well, sir, the Russians are rapidly absorb­ conversation and he invited me down to see ing our methods of railroading. There is a a Korean geisha dance. We took a droshky Russian conductor in here now, giving the and went to this place and had to wait a while Russian dispatcher h—1 for delaying him twen­ until the girls had their performance before ty minutes up the line. They are both yelling other guests, and in the meantime, he ordered their heads off and cussing each other some­ a supper for us. We were in a spare room thing scandalous. The interpreter says so. where two little Korean girls were sleeping, Two months ago they would have thought as all the other rooms were occupied. In nothing of a two-hour delay. A favorite cuss about half an hour they brought us in a reg­ word, or phrase, is "chort sdve," meaning, ular Korean dinner, and it sure was good. literally, "devils about two." When a man The main thing was a metal dish with a flue says that, you know he is just about out of through the center, filled with burning char­ patience. The French has "A thousand thun­ coal. Around the flue was the container it­ ders," but the Russian contents himself with self, filled with a bubbling mass of vegetables, about two devils. . . . meats, nuts, eggs, and mushrooms. . . . We had just got comfortably settled at eat­ Somewhere in Siberia, November, 1918 ing when two geisha girls came in. One car­ [Keeler was stationed in Harbin until ried a large drum resembling an hourglass, the end of November] with two ends over which skin was stretched, My Dear Folks— and she beat one end with her hand and the . . . Our friend Ackerman has gone on west other with a small reed, and made a dickens and is sending in all kinds of sob stuff about of a racket, and the other one sang. It was the Serbian refugees. Got a press message from fierce, and I wondered why it did not wake him the other day from Manchuria Station up the kids in the bed, but I guess they were saying he saw girls with their eyes gouged out, used to it. I do not think the dance is as pret­ and tongues cut out; women with arms broken ty as the Japanese, but anyway, it was enter­ in two and three places; men and women with taining. The dress is rather odd, making them big scars across necks and faces caused by be­ look like little grandmothers. They did not ing lashed—all done by the Bolsheviks. All wear many ornaments and were plainly, of them are ragged, dirty, and nearly starved, though richly, dressed. . . . but the Red Cross got them pretty well fed up and clothed now. They are on their way Refugees are coming in almost daily and to Vladivostok but it is not yet decided where some of them are in a pitiable shape. The Red their final destination is. One woman, he Cross is grabbing them as soon as they show says, had her face burned, and, upon question­ up and are doing what they can for them. ing her as to the reason, she claimed that the Winter is coming on and it will be all the Bolsheviks had thrown her baby in the fire harder. Tonight's bulletin has an item about and she got her face burned trying to rescue some commission in the States forming for it, and was pulled away by her friends. I the purpose of helping out the Russians. Per­ guess Kaiser Bill will have a whole lot to an­ haps it is not my place to say so, but if it swer for in the hereafter. . . . were left to me, I would let the Russians fight it out themselves. In Ukrainia, where there Somewhere in Siberia, November 10, 1918 was a scanty grain supply, we hear that they My Dear Folks- used two-thirds of it for the manufacture of Here it is a year, lacking a day, that we Vodka. I think this winter will do the whole left St. Paul for Russia, filled with high hopes damned outfit a world of good, even if thou­ and great ambitions. Today we are practically sands are starved and frozen to death. If they as far advanced in our work as we were a year are like any of the bunch we see around here ago. they will certainly not get much sympathy

237 WHi (X3) 34788 Serbian refugees disembarking from their train, photographed by Keeler at a railroad siding in Harbin, Manchuria. from us. They seem to be about the least majors will stick, for they have a dandy job, patriotic people I have ever seen. . . . Give §5,000 per year and nothing to do. We are them enough to fill their guts, and vodka to all looking forward to the time when we will make them smell like a distillery, and the get instructions to get ready to go home, and whole country can go to the devil, or what is are hoping to get there in the spring. It seems worse, to the Germans, for all they care. . . . rather odd, but most of us would rather spend the winter here and get home "when the Although the war ended on November 11, spring is in the air." . . . 1918, the Armistice had no effect on the Si­ berian situation. The American government Somewhere in Siberia, November 26, 1918 xvas not disposed to pull her forces out of the Far East and leave the Japanese in control of [Actually, Keeler was in Chang Chun, the area. American troops and the RRSC re­ Manchuria] mained ivhile negotiations among the Allies My Dear Folks— on the question erf railroad operations contin­ ... I have lost my happy home at the place ued. I have been stationed for the last seven months, and have been transferred 150 miles Somewhere in Siberia, November 18, 1918 further south, permanently. I was down here My Dear Folks— a few days ago to relieve some of the boys, in . . . We had a big dance at the barracks to order that they might go to Harbin and get celebrate the licking of the Huns. The Colo­ measured for their new uniforms. . . . nel spread himself by putting on a big show, On my first trip down here I rode in Mr. and at midnight they had a dandy dinner. . . . Stevens' private car with his interpreter. . . . Everyone is conjecturing when we will be It is very well furnished and at one time be­ sent home. Some think that it will be before longed to the Minister of Ways and Com­ spring. There is also an opinion that we will munications at Petrograd before the revolu­ be requested to stay here and continue the tion. Many notables have travelled in this work we started out to do, but from the looks car, among them being Kerensky himself. of things, there will be very few that will stay Being of a rather sentimental turn of mind here, because "grapenuts." Undoubtedly the at the time, I went and lay down on all the

238 FEIST: FAYETTE W. KEELER LETTERS

beds, saying: "I have slept in the same bed Saw a couple of Chinks fighting today just that Kerensky did." I went to the toilet and because one of them said "Ee-mow!" to the thought: "Kerensky himself has sat on this other. They do most of their fighting with very seat, his hand has taken the toilet paper their feet, and, as they wear slippers, no dam­ off this very same hook, and pulled the same age is done. I learned later that "Ee-mow" is chain that I am now pulling." I was still in a choice Chinese cuss-word and is used only this same frame of mind as I went out, so I on special occasions. ... It has something softly closed the door on those hallowed pre­ to do with a deadly insult to your ancestors. cincts. . . . Coming down here the last time, I met a [Upon arriving] I met one of our men little girl twelve years old on the train and here who took me to our house. You under­ asked for her name and address so I could stand we have a dandy little brick house, with send her a Christmas card. She seemed tickled four bedrooms, a dining room, a kitchen and to death and we had quite a chat before she a sleeping room for the Chinese servants. . . . got to her home town. Told her I had a little We have a dandy Chinese cook, a servant, girl about her age and then another, and she and a coolie to take care of our wants, and asked me if I were not lonesome for them, their wages are twenty-eight dollars gold per and you bet I told her I was. . . . month for all three. I hardly know whether to think I am better off here than at Harbin Somewhere in Siberia, December 1, 1918 or not, but am inclined to think I am. My Dear Folks— That afternoon the two of us walked over . . . Yesterday I went over to Chang Chun to Chang Chun, about a mile, and took a let­ with another of our men and visited China ter of introduction to the Japanese consul, town. We called on a tailor who speaks En­ who gave us an invitation to attend a "victory glish and who promised to take us to a Chi­ banquet" at the Yamato Hotel that night. . . . nese theatre soon. ... It was quite an interest­ ing walk through the Chinese section. It is Referring to my notes I came across the a large business street with nothing in sight following notation: Describe the shrew at except Chinese stores, peddlers, and beggars. the telegraph office. Horosho. She is the tele­ I saw all kinds of Chinese tobacco piled up phone clerk there and her business is to col­ in sheaves in front of the stores. ... I saw a lect toll for the use of the line between here few beggars and they are about the most re­ and Harbin. The Chinks use it the most and pulsive specimens of humanity I have ever they call up to get the Harbin rate of ex­ seen. They run after you, wringing their hands change on yen and rubles. She sits at a table and whining like a little kid. We came across and lets them in to the fone one at a time and one lying in front of a store, about ready to never gives them a civil answer, but when one die, and they shoved him from one door to of them comes inside to await his turn, she another, for it is the law that if anyone dies always slaps them and kicks them, and when in front of your house you have to bury him. they stick their heads through the little win­ Naturally, no one wants to go to that expense, dow in the door she amuses herself and the so they kick him on to the next door. Pre­ rest of the bunch inside by dipping her pen sume the game gets rather exciting when the in the ink and snapping ink in their faces. She beggar commences to breathe his last, and that is in perpetual ill-humor, and the only time bets are sometimes made as to who will be I have seen her smile once is today, when she "it." . . . caught a Chink taking a drink out of a water pitcher near her table. I do not mean to say that she smiled at the time, but when she Somewhere in Siberia, December 6, 1918 jerked it away from him and threw all the My Dear Cousin Roy— water in his face and heard his cussing, THEN . . . You made mention in your letter of she smiled. She carries a face that Heinz, the "hardships and sacrifices." Oh, boy! If you pickle man, would be glad to buy, for he could could see some of the hardships and sacrifices use [her face] to look at the pickles and no you would weep with envy. About the only vinegar would be necessary. hardship we have to contend with is figuring

239 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1979 out what to do next. Etaw prahvda, as the take us around. . . . He decided we should be­ Russians say. gin at the bottom and work up the scale, so Since coming to this place I have been a he took us to a "No. 3" house, meaning a third- little lonely, for there is absolutely nothing class house. We wound in and out of dark doing here in the shape of excitement, and if alleys, nearly suffocated from soft-coal smoke, we want to have a change we walk over to for it was very cold . . . and each room had a Chang Chun . . . and sit around the lobby of stove going full blast with the stovepipe pro­ the Yamato Hotel and listen to the tales of jecting out in the alley just above the win­ the commercial men who have been in the dows. . . . Finally we came to a No. 3 house. Far East for several years. It is surely amus­ We walked into a large open court where ing to listen to some of the stuff they spill. . . . there were a lot of customers waiting and five or six employees of the place yelling to beat Our work is practically nothing. There are the band. They were "paging" the party wait­ three of us and we are supposed to work three ing, and one could have heard them a mile. shifts of eight hours each, but there is abso­ There were six of us in the party and we were lutely no reason for that, for we receive only finally admitted to a room about as large as one or two telegrams per day and send about our kitchen where there were chairs and a that number. . . . Arduous as hell, I'll tell table. We sat down and presently a Chinese the whole world. woman, an old one, brought us some dandy We have named our house boy Doctor Ying. tea and a little dish of sunflower seeds for He waits on the table and he will always ask each of us. The tailor asked to have the girls us if we want any of the "white medicine," come in, so she had three come in, very nice­ referring to the Russian national drink. So ly dressed, washed, and combed, and the ages we all make believe we are very sick, and hold were nine, ten, and thirteen. I thought at our hands to our stomachs and groan dis­ first they were only kids that lived there, but mally, which tickles him to death, and he gets they were the bread, or I should say, the rice- out the "white medicine" for us. Now, do winners for that particular section of the not throw up your mitts in holy horror at house. The tailor said they were sold to the the idea of me having vodka with my meals. house and made to work it out. We sat around In fact, that is the only way to drink it, and a little while, put a couple of yen on the it does one good in this part of the world. table, and walked out. Of course, if you wish to make a hog of your­ self and swill it down, it will get you sooner We then went a couple of blocks and came or later. Tlie only time I ever touch it is when to a "No. 2" house. It was much on the same I eat. It is as clear as crystal and hath a slight­ [order], with the exception that the rooms ly bitter taste at first, but after one absorbs were better furnished, there were more girls, two or three it tastes rather sweet. I am not and the place was much cleaner. We went in saying that the stuff is non-intoxicating, for the room and a Chink called the girls who one can get "numb" on it, but be all right filed past the door, looked in, and, if they the next morning and not have a "hangover" saw no sign of being wanted, passed on. The like when stewed on whiskey. . . . The Rus­ bunch finally called in three singing girls, sians claim it aids digestion and I am not able the eldest being thirteen, so we sat down and to prove to the contrary. . . . had tea and seeds and cigarettes, and present­ ly a musician came outside the door and start­ Somewhere in Siberia, December 12, 1918 ed his fiddle and the girls sang. Of all the My Dear Folks- caterwauling I ever heard, this was the worst. It is a bright, snappy morning, just zero by The fiddler sawed away for dear life and the our thermometer. . . . Might as well tell you girls screamed at the top of their voices. It about the trip we took to Chinatown last made one think of a ward for the violently night to give the Chinese red-light district insane. We stuck around for about ten min­ tlie [once over]. utes then started for home, leaving the tailor . . . There is a tailor in Chinatown [who] at his shop. After we got into Japanese terri­ speaks pretty good English so we got him to tory again we went to a Korean house. There 240 M

'i o fj r y Q J) fl

-^^C'SWJ^^^f'"

WHi (X3) 34799 /4i /eait four nationalities—American, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese—are represented in Keeler's snapshot of a teahouse in Harbin, Manchuria. were about a dozen girls there, dressed in Chinese Eastern Railway after January first. their native costumes and one spoke very Negotiations have been [in progress] ever good English. since we landed at Nagasaki and we all hope I forgot to say that we did not visit a "No. they will come to an end, one way or another. 1" house on account of it being filled up, and We are getting tired of idling away our time we were in a hurry to get back home to meet for apparently nothing. the ten o'clock passenger. . . . We may have accomplished one thing, and that was to keep the yellow boys from grab­ Keeler's opinion in the following letter that bing anything. Everyone around here loves negotiations were about to end was a bit pre­ mature. The Inter-Allied Railroad Agree­ them about as much as the devil loves holy ment was not reached until March, 1919. water. I was talking to a British Sergeant Major the other day and he said he saw with Somewhere in Siberia, December 22, 1918 his own eyes the following incident. He hap­ My Dear Folks— pened to go into the freight room of the ... It looks now as though negotiations South Manchuria Railway for something and [are] about to close and that we will run the he saw a crowd of Japanese employees and

241 ,,s! % ^m

WHi (X3) 34782 Japanese soldiers on the railroad station platform, Harbin, Manchuria. someone in civilian clothes gathered around ming some day and I hope they will get it a Chinese coolie, near a stove. They had the from the country they think they have bluffed. coolie tied down and one of them had a pair You can bet your last kopek that China is of tongs and was holding live coals on the looking to Uncle Sam for help in many ways. coolie's face, which seemed to tickle the Jap­ The Russians hate the Japanese, as the fol­ anese a great deal. When they saw the British lowing incident will show. Coming back officer they immediately stopped their amuse­ from the dance at Yaomin we could not get ment and took the coolie to another room anything better than a third-class car which where the [Englishman] was not allowed to was filled with Japanese soldiers . . . and enter. Yet the yellow sons of bitches call several of us managed to get a part of a seat themselves civilized. on which a Japanese soldier was sleeping. I Don't ever let any one tell you that the sat down next to the aisle and a Russian girl Japanese are in the war for humanity's sake. sat between me and the "makahka." She was I have heard of a great many instances of ex­ pretty tired so she made a pillow out of some­ treme cruelty practiced on the poor Chinese thing she was carrying, put it on the Jap's until sometimes I wish I were on the scene shoulder and settled for a nap. I asked her with my .45. Presume it is a good thing I do not carry it around with me, for I am liable why she preferred a Japanese to sleep on to to come upon something some time where my an American, and she said that all the Japan­ temper woidd get tlie better of my discretion. ese were good for were to be used as a door­ . . . God help the poor Chinks if Japan ever mat or pillow. I finally convinced her it was gets a good grip on the celestial kingdom. . . . poor taste to show her dislike in that manner, [The Japanese] are due for a good trim- so she switched over to me. . . .

242 FEIST: FAYETTE W. KEELER LETTERS

Somewhere in Siberia, January 5, 1919 would become president of the Technical My Dear Folks— Board, able to issue orders lo the heads of the . . . Was up to Harbin for Christmas and various railroads. Under this arrangement, had a dandy time. Got there about 11 P.M. the RRSC worked for the Technical Board of on Christmas Eve and there was a big dance the Inter-Allied Committee. As the historian Betty Unterberger remarks, on when I got to the barracks. . . . Everyone "The primary concern of the American mili­ had on their new uniforms with standing col­ tary forces now became the restoration and lars and their new shoes and it made me feel protection of the railways" and, in effect, like a tramp, but after having a couple of "served to aid the anti-Bolshevik cause." The punches I felt as though I were equal to any RRSC and the American military, therefore, one there. . . . We had breakfast at nine o'clock "became active participants in the Russian and the real dinner at four. . . . After dinner civil war."^" the Colonel gave us a little speech, then we all adjourned to the ball room and everyone Somewhere in Siberia, March 1, 1919 that could, and some that could not, sang My Dear Cousins— songs for about an hour. ... I came back . . . We have had another death in our next day wishing I were located there perma­ corps at Harbin, making two so far. "Flu" nently, but this wore off in a day or two. . . . and pneumonia. Just got over a slight attack I do not know much to write about as there of the "flu" myself. Was in bed three days is absolutely no news. Hereafter you can look but am all right now. It came on me in thirty only for short letters, and if anything of inter­ minutes and was too sick to go to Harbin to est occurs, I will write long ones. One might the hospital, so broke it up with hot vodkas as well be out in the Gobi Desert and try to and cold towels. Was "out of my head" two write about what was going on there. . . . nights, hollering for the "League of Nations," pocket books, fountain pens, etc., etc. . . . Somewhere in Siberia, February 15, 1919 We are expecting to hear daily that we are iVIy Dear Roy- going into Siberia. The conference at Vladi Just got back last night from Harbin after is about ended and we certainly should know having been up there for a week, waiting for something soon. If we are to lie around an­ my second uniform. . . . other month I am going to put in my resigna­ The 27th Inf. Band gave all of us RRSers tion and go home as soon as possible. I have a treat there by coming up from Vladi and been over here nearly a year—since April 15. putting on a minstrel show and concert. Quite a bunch has resigned already and expect Everyone attended and was permitted to bring to leave for home soon. Expect thirty dis­ one Russian friend. I brought two on ac­ patchers, twenty-four stenogs, and some me­ count of a misunderstanding. . . . chanical men [to arrive soon]. Harbin told us today that they were hiring Well, 1 see I am nearing the end of my all the interpreters they could get and that paper, so will close. . . . it is "rumored" we will be at work very soon. D— these rumors. . . .

In March of 1919 the much discussed Inter- Allied Railway Agreement was reached for 'HIS is the last letter in the Mar­ the operation of the Trans-Siberian and Chi­ tin Papers, although Keeler prob­ nese Eastern railroads. An Inter-Allied Com­ ably continued penning notes from the Far mittee, composed of one representative from East. Soon after the Inter-Allied Railroad each of the Allied powers having troops in Si­ Agreement was reached, Keeler was trans­ beria, was charged with the general supervi­ ferred to Pogranichnaya, north of Vladivostok sion of the railways. In addition, a Technical near the Siberian-Manchurian border. Board was created to oversee the technical and economic management of the railways, But Keeler's disenchantment with his posi­ which were placed under the protection of the tion, evident throughout his letters, remained Allied military forces. Japan and the United States agreed privately that John F. Stevens "Unterberger, America's Siberian Expedition, 117.

243 WHi CX3) 34777 Fayette W. Keeler and a pair of Japanese soldiers in winter gear at Kwan Chenzi, Manchuria, 1919.

Strong. The long periods of idleness and the graphy for years at the Vocational School in difficulties of working amidst the political Superior, and guest lectured on methods of turmoil of Siberia weighed heavily on his grinding lenses at what was then the Superior mind. On May 1, 1919, Keeler's name ap­ State Teachers College. During World War peared on a list of officers requesting relief II Keeler served in the U.S. Port Security as soon as possible.^^ The following Novem­ Force of the Coast Guard. ber 16, Keeler and several other members of In 1948, after retiring from the Great North­ the RRSC sailed on the Army transport ern, Keeler moved to Mesa, Arizona, where he Thomas from Vladivostok for the United became a licensed ham radio operator, an ac­ States. The entire Russian Railway Service tivity through which he gained many friends Corps was withdrawn from Siberia in April, throughout the country. He died in Mesa on 1920, at the same time that American military October 6, 1952, and was buried in Superior. forces were called home. In the words of his daughter, Helen Keeler After his return from the Far East, Keeler Smith, he lived "a very full life of learning, rejoined the Great Northern Railway. His teaching, and developing equipment to meet fascination with radio and telegraphy con­ his needs."^2 In the process he gained the ad­ tinued for the rest of his life. He was one of miration of many. On the day of his funeral, the organizers of the first radio station in Su­ ham stations nationwide remained silent for perior (the forerunner of WEBC), taught tele- one minute in memory of "Pops" Keeler.

^ National Archives, Record Group 43, Entry 338, Box 20. ^ Helen Keeler Smith to the editor, April 19, 1978. 244 REVIEWS

The Prairie People: Continuity and Change After discussing archeological evidence for in Potawatomi Indian Culture, 1665-1965. By the origin and location of the tribe, Clifton JAMES A. CLIFTON. (The Regents Press of follows its fortunes more or less chronological­ Kansas, Lawrence, 19'77. Pp. xx, 529. Illus­ ly. Between 1668 and 1761 the French played trations, notes, bibliography, maps, appen­ a major role in Potawatomi development. Af­ dices, index. $22.50.) ter 1761, with British victory in the French and Indian War, the British and Americans func­ This study of the Potawatomi Indians begins tioned as outside forces acting upon the In­ in the dim corridors of the prehistoric past and dians. Following the Treaty of Greenville in discusses the history and social evolution of 1795, Clifton feels that Americans became the these people down to the mid-1960's. In doing most important non-Indian element in Pota­ so the author includes much that is significant watomi life. By that time the tribe occupied about the history and development of the Mid­ settlements in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, west and about American-Indian relations. and Michigan. As the United States expanded, Most books which discuss Indians do so in one tribal boundaries steadily shrank, and during of two ways. Either they focus on the ethnolo­ the decades 1837-1847, the Removal Policy gical side of things such as kinship relation­ forced all but a few scattered remnants out of ships, religious rites, and physical artifacts, or the Great Lakes region. From there they mi­ they consider the tribesmen and their dealings grated north and east into Canada or south with the European and American govern­ and west to Iowa and Kansas. ments. Clifton's book reflects this dichotomy, In explaining Potawatomi development, the but rather than using one of these approaches, author notes that the tendency to factionalism he attempts to combine them. The result is and to thinking in village rather than tribal a model of excellence for the ethnohistory of a terms explains much of the tribes' early his­ single tribe. tory. In addition, he sees few established In­ The author presents the Potawatomi at the dian leaders or chiefs at first, and traces the time they first encountered Europeans as in­ evolution of village and band leaders toward cluding fifty to sixty village-sized bands or having the kinds of power which the whites groups, each more or less independent and thought they had. From the 1760's on, Clifton showing little sense of allegiance to the tribe. sees the Metis, or partially assimilated mixed- Although their earliest recorded settlements bloods, as playing an increasingly important lay along the eastern shore of lower Michigan, role in tribal affairs, particularly in terms of the tribesmen moved frequently because of trade, warfare, and negotiations. The long- wars, economic interests, population pressure, range impact of missionaries, of Indian agents, and later a conscious policy of territorial ex­ and, in particular, of traders demonstrates the pansion. complexity of Indian-American relations. For

245 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1979 example, the conflict over whether the Indians peans attributed common "Indian" charac­ should move to western Iowa or into Kansas teristics to them. Berkhofer stresses the funda­ during the removal era resulted from the de­ mental continuity in white thought, which he mands of competing groups of traders and mis­ believes is more important than the discon­ sionaries who wanted to maintain their eco­ tinuities. He finds several "persisting funda­ nomic ties or influence within the tribe. Final­ mental images and themes" among the ly, Clifton acknowledges the long-standing thought of colonists and later white Ameri­ determination of many Potawatomi to retain cans. Whites generalized from the practices of their culture despite the best efforts of t' rh- one tribe to all Indians, analyzed the Indians ers, missionaries, or agents to turn them into in terms of their lack of white characteristics, mere copies of the whites. and made moral judgments in describing the Indians. The Indian was an ahistorical, un­ Clifton's research is wide-ranging, his biblio­ changing figure who existed in the present graphy thorough, and, except for a few lapses in the same ways as he did in the early con­ into ethnological jargon, his prose is interest­ tact period. He was often portrayed either as ing. Numerous maps clarify points in the the good Indian—free, simple, and innocent— text, while illustrations span the years 1600- or the bad Indian—licentious, brutal, and de­ 1972. Aside from a few minor typographical ceitful. These images and stereotypes ob­ errors, one item found in the notes but not the structed attempts to understand Native Amer­ bibliography, and the author's strong aversion icans as they really existed. to the "usual racial biases of historians," there is little with which to quarrel. In sum, this Berkhofer examines how these images of book gives the story of the Potawatomi people the Indian have persisted in science, art, and with accuracy, interest, and feeling. It may policy despite the political, economic, and in­ be read with anticipation by those interested tellectual changes that have occurred over the in Midwestern history and Indian affairs. last five centuries. Ranging from Christian theories on the origins of man to modern cul­ ROGER L. NICHOLS tural anthropology, Berkhofer analyzes the University of Arizona scientific image of the Indian. He also ex­ plores the continuity of white thought in lit­ erature, art, and philosophy and traces ideas about the Indian from the captivity narratives to recent motion pictures. The lengthiest sec­ tion of the book outlines white policy toward The White Man's Indian: Images of the Native Americans from colonization to the American Indian from Columbus to the Pres­ "Red Power" movement. Berkhofer works ent. By ROBERT F. BERKHOFER, JR. (Alfred hard to escape the pitfalls of "presentism" A. Knopf, New York, 1978. Pp. xvii, 261. and rightly acknowledges that even modern Illustrations, notes, index. |15.00.) social scientists, artists, and policymakers view the Indian from their own ideological Since the publication in 1968 of Winthrop perspective. Jordan's White Over Black, there has been a A book of this sort, of course, cannot claim need for a similar book dealing with white to be definitive and complete, for it has to thought about the American Indians. Robert treat briefly many complex subjects. As a F. Berkhofer, Jr., has partially filled this gap, result, as Berkhofer himself admits, he has had for in a work of less than 200 pages of text to emphasize the similarities in the thought of he has surveyed white ideas about the Indians various, differing individuals. This is the over the past 500 years. Rather than being book's major shortcoming, for in trying to a work of original research, this book is a draw a coherent picture, Berkhofer glosses thoughtful, extended essay that synthesizes the over some genuine differences among whites secondary literature on the subject—an am­ and the practical implications of those dif­ bitious task in itself given the voluminous writ­ ferences. In a way, to speak of the beliefs, at­ ings about Native Americans. titudes, and actions of "whites" is very much Berkhofer focuses on the invention and use like characterizing all "Indians" as being of the idea of the "Indian," a term which alike. The different desires and needs of vari­ Europeans created to characterize all the na­ ous whites as well as their different degrees of tive inhabitants of the Americas. Instead of contact with Native Americans affected their seeing Native Americans as individuals with thought. These variations are also an im­ differing beliefs, values, and practices, Euro­ portant part of the story of European and 246 BOOK REVIEWS

American thought about the Indians, and need the departure of the sloop Restauration, which to be examined. carried the first Norwegian emigrants to In the more than fifty pages of notes, Berk­ America. It is intended to appeal to a wide hofer supplies a useful bibliography on the audience. It does not attempt to provide a subject of white images of the Indian, but it complete account of all that happened, nor is difficult to use. The exigencies of printing does it fully relate the migration to the broader costs perhaps dictated the placement of the themes in Scandinavian and American history notes at the end of the book, but they would of which it was a part. Such aims are dis­ have been easier to use if running heads in­ claimed in the preface. The purpose of the dicating which pages they referred to had been book is to illuminate the most important provided. The book also contains eleven il­ themes and to provide a basic understanding lustrations which were selected with care to of the migration. In this it succeeds admira­ reinforce Berkhofer's argument rather than be­ bly. ing merely decorative. Taken as a whole, the book could be called Berkhofer has written an important book a narrative account, but when viewed more that ought to be read by anyone interested in closely it becomes a series of essays that iden­ American history, not only specialists. He tifies and enlarges upon important themes. In­ ought to be commended for trying to make dependent treatment is given to such things sense out of a large and difficult subject which as the early slooper migrations, the personali­ is so vitally tied to the mainstream of Ameri­ ties that organized the first migrations, the can history as a whole. The book does not rigors of the journey, the image of America, close the subject, but will provoke further the character of the later mass migrations, the thought and discussion on the question of adaptation to American conditions, and the white attitudes toward Native Americans. relationship between the emigrants and their homeland. To a certain extent each of the MICHAEL E. STEVENS chapters can stand alone. South Carolina The basic strength of the book is its ability Department of Archives and History to synthesize the diverse scholarship that has been undertaken in this field. The migra­ tions have been studied by people represent­ ing a wide range of disciplines in the social Norway to America: A History of the Migra­ sciences and the humanities on both sides of tion. By INGRID SEMMINGSEN. Translated by the Atlantic. Semmingsen believes that an un­ EINAR HAUGEN. (University of Minnesota derstanding of history depends upon assimi­ Press, Minneapolis, 1978. Pp. vii, 213. Illus­ lating the work of others, and she does it ef­ trations, maps, notes, selected bibliography, in­ fectively here. A look at the notes that apply dex. $12.95.) to each chapter gives an indication of the broadness of the literature incorporated, yet This is certainly not the first book to give an the text moves along smoothly, tying the many account of Norwegian migration to America, ideas to the themes around which the book is but it is a rather special book because it is constructed. The weakness of the book is its written by someone who has devoted a career brevity. If one is especially interested in a to the study of the subject. Ingrid Semming­ particular topic, one will get only a taste, sen, professor of history at the University of which is unfortunate but necessary given the Oslo, is one of the most respected authorities scope of the book. on nineteenth-century Norwegian emigration Norway to America is one of a growing col­ and settlement in America. Her two-volume lection of books on Scandinavia and Scandi­ work, Veien mot vest: Utvandringen fra navian settlement in America published by Norge til Amerika (The Way West: Emigra­ the University of Minnesota Press. It is an tion from Norway to America) is one of the important series, and this is a welcome addi­ earlier and most comprehensive treatments of tion. The book is an introduction to the sub­ the subject. In addition, she has written nu­ ject that will be of use to both the uninitiated merous articles and has been an important as well as to those who have read a great deal influence in the recent migration research that in this area. It is, in spite of its limited objec­ has taken place in Scandinavia. tives, both interesting and scholarly. This book is the English version of a short account of the migrations written in 1975 ROBERT C. OSTERGREN for the sesquicentennial commemoration of University of Wisconsin-Madison 247 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1979

The Finn Factor in American Labor, Culture The reason for migration, the economic and and Society. By CARL ROSS. (Parta Printers, social character of the group, the emergence Inc., New York Mills, Minnesota, 1977. Pp. of socialism, temperance, and co-operation are xi, 220. Illustrations, notes. $7.50.) clearly told. The coverage of the Old World background does not speak, however, to the The appearance of Carl Ross's new work significant assertion of Hoglund that two- on Finnish Americans brings to mind the ear­ thirds of all arrivals came from just three prov­ lier, standard, general history of the group by inces. Thus the question of regionalism among A. William Hoglund, Finnish Immigrants in the incoming wave, based upon the geogra­ America, 1880-1920 (1960). While a compari­ phy of the homeland, is neglected. son may be unfair, as Ross is not a professional For these reasons The Finn Factor does not historian and Hoglund is, considering the two replace Hoglund's work; but it still makes a studies together does highlight the value of substantial contribution to Finnish immigra­ both. The titles and the stated intentions may tion history because of its concentration on the seem to duplicate one another as comprehen­ internal politics of the group. Successfully sive surveys, but in fact the two are really avoiding the dangers of filiopietism, current­ complementary. Essentially the differences ly so evident among non-professional ethnic and the significance of the volumes come from history, the work is a well-balanced delinea­ the backgrounds of the authors and the times tion of the formation of and relationship be­ in which they wrote. Hoglund's remains after tween the group's major institutional move­ twenty years the major introduction to the ments: the church, temperance, and particu­ group, wide-ranging and restrained, while, larly socialism. Ross skillfully reveals how having been personally involved in Finnish this essentially working-class but highly literate American economic and social development, group, in part as a result of the early presence Ross writes informatively and dispassionately of women and the encouragement of Norwe­ from his experience in left-wing and business gians in the 1880's, fashioned an ethnic com­ group activities. Ross concentrates dramatical­ munity and culture through the successive ly on the polarities within Finnish America, construction of churches, temperance socie­ utilizing the scholarly methods of a profes­ ties, and fraternal lodges. While weak at the sional historian. start, all of these organizations enabled later While Ross does attempt to give his work arrivals to better adjust to the new land. the scope of the Hoglund volume, he does The richest section of the work traces the not attend to recent concerns of some acade­ emergence of Finnish American left-wing or­ micians. "New" social historians looking for ganizations which led to an extraordinary seg­ an explanation of how the Finnish family mentation of the group after 1900. This high­ modernized in America, whether the rank and ly distended society resulted from the dissatis­ file were socially mobile, or any extended dis­ faction of abused mineworkers, the violent cussion of assimilation or pluralism will be strikes, the growth of the Finnish Socialist disappointed as the information on these topics Federation, the role of the Duluth Work Col­ is fragmentary. The references to women, lege, and the divisive issues in World War I: however, are suggestive, as this review will the relationship with the newly independent show. homeland, the loyalty issue, and the Finnish The organizational structure of the work attraction to the radicalism of the IWW. By is somewhat loose because some chapters, al­ the early 1920's the Finnish American com­ though containing important detail, are not munity was rent with hostilities—from clerics well integrated. The work begins with the and businessmen on the right to underground earliest Finnish arrivals among the Swedes, Communists on the left. The complete de­ and although he asserts the flowering of eth­ velopment and growth of group polarities nic identity after the English takeover, the and internal disagreements are well drawn. author does not develop this provocative ref­ A final stated goal of the book is to chal­ erence or make any further comment on the lenge the theories of assimilation and "melt­ importance of Finns in colonial America. In ing," which the author attempts in the last addition, while it is essential for Ross to cover chapter dealing with the post-1920 era. But the European political background in the shifting to the first person and admitting that chapter labelled the "Suomi Heritage," the his views on ethnic change are personal and section is misplaced in the work—being within impressionistic, Ross is least successful here. rather than preceding the discussion of Fin­ The very active co-operative movement, whose nish American development. growth in the 1920's and 1930's he describes,

248 BOOK REVIEWS

apparently had little effect on maintaining subject.) Thus the appearance of the books ethnic identity. reviewed here is an important event in the de­ On the whole, however, despite weaknesses velopment of ethnic history study, in that in dealing with the group in general or in both are initial efforts to synthesize and in­ applying or refining assimilation theory. The terpret the historic experience of the Polish Finn Factor remains a probing analysis of the people in America in a way that is meaningful forces which constituted Finnish America in to non-Polish and Polish American audiences its lively immigrant era—a topic particularly alike. attractive to Upper Midwestern readers. It is Both authors correctly stress that very little regrettable that such a fine work, with its of the Polish ethnic experience is known to charming, hand-drawn illustrations, did not Americans. The exploits of heroic Poles who have better editorial review or an index. helped explore and develop the continent and who fought for American independence are usually ignored, or at most relegated to brief VICTOR R. GREENE comments in school textbooks. So, too, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee massive saga of Polish and East European im­ migrants, their building of new lives in their adopted land, and their achievements—intel­ lectual and economic—has long escaped the My Name is Million: An Illustrated History notice of "mainstream" American historians. of the Poles in America. By W. S. KUNICZAK. Americans of all backgrounds are impover­ (Doubleday and Company, Inc., Garden City, ished as long as they are left ignorant of the New York, 1978. Pp. 181. Illustrations. many ethnic contributions to American life, $12.95.) just as previous generations suffered because subjects like the black experience and the Behold! The Polish-Americans. By JOSEPH A. labor movement were not given the attention WYTRWAL. (Endurance Press, Detroit, 1977. they deserved by earlier historians. Pp. xi, 667. Bibliography, index. $15.00.) W. S. Kuniczak, a novelist whose previous work includes the well-received Thousand The 1963 publication of Glazer and Moyni- Hour Day, has produced an engrossing short han's Beyond the Melting Pot is generally re­ study for the general audience. Profusely il­ garded as having heralded an era of new lustrated, the book's main strength is a series scholarly interest in ethnic groups in which of short biographical sketches about America's they were viewed as enduring subcultures with­ early heroes from Poland. The best of these in American society, rather than as mere sur­ deal with the Polish settlers in Jamestown, vivals doomed to be rapidly absorbed into the Virginia, between 1608 and 1620, the trio of national life. Since then, many studies, popu­ American revolutionary warriors—Kosciuszko, lar and academic, have appeared which docu­ Pulaski, and Haym Salomon—and the little- ment the histories, cultures, and social experi­ known frontiersmen belonging to the Sadow- ences of the many immigrant peoples and their ski family. This section deserves the attention descendants in America. Such studies, under­ of any high school teacher interested in stimu­ standably, have usually been devoted to spe­ lating his students' curiosity about our coun­ cific organizations and localities, and they have try's early history. drawn attention to the contributions made by Joseph Wytrwal's work contrasts with that little-known ethnic personalities. Many spe­ by Kuniczak, although in some respects it is cific "case studies" of the Polish ethnic his­ complementary. Massive in size and more am­ torical experience, for example, have been bitious in subject matter, the study assumes a published in Polish American Studies, a jour­ greater sophistication and familiarity with the nal appearing semi-annually since 1944. Polish experience, which is itself dealt with in Although numbering an estimated twelve an almost encyclopedic fashion. One of its to fourteen million members (about 5 per best features is a synopsis of Poland's thou­ cent of the population), the Polish Americans' sand-year history, whose purpose is to fit the collective historical experience has not pre­ Polish American past into the larger frame­ viously been seriously treated. (Two impor­ work of the national experience of the ances­ tant works published in 1976, Lopata's The tral homeland. Ethnic consciousness, the au­ Polish Americans and the special bicentennial thor implies, is based upon one's identifica­ issue of the journal The Polish Review, were tion with this tradition. Other contributions heavily sociological in their approach to the worth noting are forceful chapters on Polish-

249 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1979

Jewish relations, Poles in the American labor Wytrwal's sense of hurt is deeper than Ku- movement, and the wartime service and sacri­ niczak's; it shows most in his criticism of the fices made by Polish Americans on behalf of American Roman Catholic hierarchy for its our country. Wytrwal's earlier work dealt chronic failure to raise qualified Polish clergy­ with the rise of the Polish fraternal insurance men to positions of rank in the church. These societies, the most important secular organiza­ charges are true enough, but in this case the tions ever established within the Polish Ameri­ author's bitterness seems excessive. In the end, can community (or Polonia), yet among the the reader is left wondering what Wytrwal un­ least appreciated or studied. In this work, derstands to be the purpose of membership in he sums up his earlier findings on the fra- any church. Is it fame ancl prestige along with ternals, about which Kuniczak has little to the temporal power of bishops? say. Both authors identify all persons of Polish There are gaps in Wytrwal's compendium. heritage as automatic members of the group, For example, he makes no effort to present sys­ and Kuniczak, in particular, implies that a co­ tematically the history of Polish immigrant hesive national Polish American community settlement in America, and nowhere does he indeed exists. Both these assumptions are du­ describe the development of the major popu­ bious, and one wonders why neither author lation centers of Polonia located in Chicago, devoted even a bit of space to some theoreti­ Detroit, Buffalo, Milwaukee, western Penn­ cal treatment of the literature on these sub­ sylvania, Connecticut, central Wisconsin, and jects. Kuniczak might also have done a better New Jersey, to name the most important ones. job in relating the experience of the mass mi­ Nor does the reader learn anything about the gration of the Polish "millions" to America institutional, intellectual, or political devel­ between the 1880's and the First World War. opment of these various communities and A post-World War II emigre himself, Kuni­ their leaders, religious and secular. Thus, for czak shows surprisingly little sympathy for example, Wisconsin readers of either volume their great saga and devotes only seventeen will have to search elsewhere for much infor­ sketchy pages to them. Strongest in penning mation about the historically significant Po­ the stories of individuals, he is less impressive lish communities in the state. when handling a subject that requires a more There are other lapses. The reader inter­ sociological perspective is interpreting the ex­ ested in the "whole story" will not find an periences of masses of people. overview of Polish American contributions in One final complaint: Neither author gives the arts, sciences or invention, nor any enu­ the recognition that is due to previous schol­ meration of Polish American "successes" in ars whose extensive research on Polish Ameri­ business and the professions. Wytrwal views can life has made their studies possible. Ku­ the Polish Americans as a homogeneous, pro­ niczak does not cite a single source—to this re­ letarian people, a perspective which may be in viewer an unpardonable slight of all those fashion today, given the popularity of the "new whose work he has so evidently benefitted ethnicity," but which nonetheless is inaccu­ from. The omission also limits the book's rate. Polish Americans, like other ethnic utility for readers who might view My Name groups, are widely heterogeneous in educa­ is Million as a stepping-stone to further study tional, professional, and economic attain­ about Polish ethnic history. Wytrwal's book ments, in cultural and political views. (In does include a bibliography, but one that is the same vein, both authors make extensive woefully incomplete. mention of instances where Poles historically In this review, much, perhaps too much, em­ showed concern for the blacks and the native phasis has been placed on these books' limita­ Americans. Years ago, such topics were ig­ tions. Such observations should not obscure nored, with emphasis placed upon document­ their great significance in contributing to fu­ ing Polish ethnic upward mobility. Stressing ture studies of American ethnicity. Both books Polish concern for the downtrodden is an ob­ deserve to be read because they engender pride vious response to the stereotype of the Polish in the Polish American past, and at the same American as racist, and is highly in order. In­ time present serious yet highly readable over­ deed, the little known story of Thaddeus Ko- views of the history of a fascinating yet long- sciuszko's decision to will his entire Ameri­ neglected population. Both books are highly can estate for the purchase and freeing of recommended. slaves and the establishment of their own school is itself worth relating to any class in DONALD E. PIENKOS social studies.) University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 250 .^^ USDA—Soil Conservation Service photo Edwin W. Cole made this aerial photograph of St. Mary's ridge in Jefferson Township, Monroe County, in July, 1957.

The American Farm: A Photographic His­ and Richard Conrat set out to produce a pho­ tory. By MAISIE and RICHARD CONRAT. (Cali­ tographic essay documenting the history of fornia Historical Society, San Francisco, and the American farm "in all its diverse aspects." Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1977. Their ambitious task, sponsored by the Cali­ Pp. 256. Illustrations, notes, picture credits. fornia Historical Society, began to take shape §9.95.) after the team sifted through more than a mil­ lion photographs and culled about four thou­ ". . . For amber waves of gra-a-a-in. . . ," in­ sand from over one hundred collections (in­ tones a meticulously groomed youthful tenor. cluding the State Historical Society of Wis­ It is the opera house finale at a Middle West­ consin's fine collection) for further examina­ ern theme park set amongst suburban hous­ tion. The result of this laborious process is ing tracts, power transmission lines, and a The American Farm, consisting of 165 pic­ super-highway sprawled across land which tures of yeoman, tenant, hired hand, and cor­ little more than yesterday was among the na­ porate agriculturist, together with images of tion's richest agricultural acreage. the environments in which they produced food As the reality of citified rural America con­ and fiber for themselves, their neighbors, and flicts increasingly with the image of the rip­ buyers in far-off markets. pling golden grains that Katherine Lee Bates The book's eight chapters include the work included in America the Beautiful, Maisie of eighty photographers: some, such as Doro-

251 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1979 thea Lange, chroniclers of the recent past, and late 1950's (selected by the U. S. Soil Conserva­ others, like Andrew Larsen Dahl, a photogra­ tion Service to represent the state of Wiscon­ pher of southern Wisconsin farms in the last sin in the SCS "America the Beautiful" pic­ century. The uniformly sharp black-and-white ture series). Cole's camera probed carefully prints in The American Farm are superbly and exquisitely beyond the spire of St. Mary's laid out, some complemented by quotations, church, sweeping gently in a southeasterly di­ others allowed to stand alone. The accom­ rection across the meticulously contoured plow panying text is adequate, and decidedly biased lines and carefully strip-cropped fields full against "market-directed and capitalistic" ag­ of alfalfa and ripened grain. Cole captured riculture. perfectly the ideal of a balanced relationship Modern industrial agriculture ("agribusi­ between God, Land, and Man—generations of ness"), the Conrats point out, has radically al­ Weibels, Schmitzes, Brueggens, and Mullen- tered or completely eroded many of the eco­ bergs, in the case of St. Mary's ridge. Even nomic, social, and cultural institutions of rural there, however, it is questionable how long America. Particularly in the last two chap­ today's responsible steward can withstand the ters ("Someone Else's Land" and "Survival of intense economic pressures to adopt even new­ the Fit"), and despite their intention to build er agricultural practices that, in the words of a book around photographers rather than re­ environmental writer Wendell Berry, increas­ gions or representative types of photographs, ingly substitute energy for knowledge, method­ the Conrats illustrate time and again, with an ology for care, and technology for morality. over-reliance on California farm images, how The Conrats' appeal notwithstanding, it the excesses of modern agriculture have damp­ seems highly improbable that a well-mani­ ened the spirit of man and despoiled the beau­ cured tenor will ever mount a stage on top of ty of rural America. While few would argue St. Mary's ridge to warble nostalgically about with the authors that many California agri­ amber grains—and Holsteins—long since re­ cultural scenes are anything but attractive, the placed by "necessities" of greater importance. Golden State is hardly unique in that respect. Or does it? The eye and other senses are treated no more kindly by Illinois soybean farms, Florida dairy DALE E. TRELEVEN empires, Wisconsin vegetable fields, or Geor­ State Historical Society of Wisconsin gia peanut ranches. This photographic history occasionally goes beyond "the many faces of the American farm," as the Conrats allow themselves to stray from barnyard and fence line to market­ ing and service centers. Unfortunately, the From Private Vice to Public Virtue: The Birth attempt is unsatisfactory. Such centers were Control Movement and American Society necessary extensions of a highly localized farm Since 1830. By JAMES REED. (Basic Books, Inc., economy, but the authors failed to exploit New York, 1978. Pp. v, 456. Photographs, fully the opportunity to show and explain the notes, bibliographical essay, index. SI'7.95.) relationship between a rapidly changing ag­ riculture and disintegrating rural economic From Private Vice io Public Virtue could and social structures. The emergence of twen­ be subtitled: "Everything you wanted to know tieth-century transportation and communica­ about the birth control movement, but were tions systems, linking producers to more dis­ afraid to ask." James Reed tells us every­ tant markets, meant an end for many rural thing he knows about the birth control move­ neighborhood centers, which in an earlier era ment from 1830 to 1975—which is perhaps were of critical importance for exchanging more than we want to know. With this ex­ goods and services, to say nothing of trading haustive study, whose primary use will likely news and gossip. be as reference. Reed makes it doubtful wheth­ In contrast to pictures supporting the Con­ er anyone else will feel a compelling need to rats' contention that the reality of modern ag­ tackle this subject in the near future. riculture is uniformly stark, The American Reed argues that birth control is mainly a Farm contains many exceptionally beautiful question of "social values and human mo­ photographs. Among the most striking is Er­ tives." The emergence of birth control from a win W. Cole's classic aerial shot of St. Mary's private vice practiced by the selfish to a moral ridge in Monroe County, Wisconsin, in the imperative in a crowded world was due more 252 BOOK REVIEWS

to the changing social context and new sexual tion control programs are a means of perpetu­ norms that evolved as a result of pressures ating the economic hegemony of the West. generated by economic and social development This volume is tedious in places, and the than to advances in contraceptive technology chapters vary in length and in quality. A short or varying strategies of change. but excellent chapter on the Progressive era Reed analyzes the efforts and motives of the argues that the secularization of society and three key leaders who provided the impetus the acceptance of human sexuality as a means for the emergence of the birth control mov- of individual self-expression divorced from ment in the 1920's and 1930's: Margaret Sang­ any larger social necessity or religious purpose er, a feminist and erstwhile anarchist who provided an impetus for the adoption of birth established birth control clinics and the fore­ control by socially ambitious Americans. The runners of the Planned Parenthood Federation biographical chapters, however, are too long, of America, and believed that contraception and detract from the more analytical chap­ fostered autonomy for women; Robert Dickin­ ters. Unlike many historians. Reed is more son, an Ob-Gyn practitioner turned sex re­ adept at writing analysis than description. searcher who convinced organized medicine Reed succeeds where Linda Gordon does that contraception should be a recognized not in Woman's Body, Woman's Right (1976), medical service, and believed that birth con­ the only other major work on the birth control trol facilitated marital sex adjustment and movement. Gordon's book is highly polemical strengthened family life; and Clarence Gam­ and is therefore less useful than Reed's bal­ ble, heir to the Ivory soap (Proctor and Gam­ anced and impartial study. As one of the ble) fortune, a philanthropist/medical re­ first to examine an important and neglected searcher who funded, tested, and organized topic, James Reed is to be commended for his mass distribution of contraceptives, and be­ thorough, though overly long, study of the lieved that birth control was a means of re­ evolution of the birth control movement. ducing the differential fertility between class­ es. These three leaders brought birth control JANET E. HEININGER out of the closet. The population explosion University of Wisconsin-Madison turned birth control into a public virtue and provided new justification for its use.

Without denigrating the efforts of birth Shattered Peace: The Origins of the Cold War control advocates, the success of the movement and the National Security State. By DANIEL in the West was almost inevitable. The fear YERGIN. (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, of overcrowding and the recognition of the 1977. Pp. xi, 526. Notes, bibliography, index. world's resources as finite coalesced to make $15.00.) birth control an urgent necessity for everyone rather than a luxury for the wealthy. What The reader facing another big book on the has not been accomplished, however, is the im­ origins of the Cold War deserves to be re­ plementation of effective birth control pro­ warded with some new data, fresh insights, grams in the overpopulated nations of the and perhaps even an illuminating conceptual Third World. Reed devotes an entire section framework. Daniel Yergin delivers in all three to the efforts of Americans to aid the develop­ respects. He erects his structure on a founda­ ment of effective population control programs tion of two polar American perceptions of the in Asia. Their failures stimulated contracep­ Soviet Union. The term "Riga axioms" is his tive research that led to the development of plastic intra-uterine devices. shorthand for the hard-line interpretation of Soviet intentions, formed between the wars But Reed skirts the problem posed by these and shared by professional diplomats at the programs: that they were motivated by the listening post in Latvia and by key officials in quasi-eugenicist desire to reduce the fertility the State Department. According to this view, of the "have-nots." The birth control move­ Soviet leadership was intransigent, bent on ment will not be a true success until Third revolutionizing the world, and therefore in­ World nations decide that it is in their best capable of orthodox diplomatic give and take. interests to reduce their fertility. It is not im­ Representing the opposite view, the "Yalta possible; witness the decline in China's birth axioms" epitomized President Franklin D. rate since 1949. What is required is the alter­ Roosevelt's faith in the Soviet leaders' willing­ ing of economic relations between the indus­ ness to bargain diplomatically and to sacrifice trialized West and the less-developed countries ideological purity for the higher goal of ad­ to dispel the belief (and reality) that popula­ vancing Russian national interests.

253 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1979

In his step-by-step tracing of the erosion of fit neatly into either of those stereotyped cate­ the Yalta euphoria, Yergin stresses the pre­ gories. He can legitimately be described as a ponderance of influence on President Harry revisionist if one interprets the term to signify Truman from supporters of the Riga axioms. those who argue that unjustified American in­ What the author labels "the distinctive Com­ citements forced the Soviets into limited de­ manding Ideas of American Cold War foreign fensive countermoves. But he frequently spells policy" began to crystallize in 1946 with the out his differences with leading "revisionists," triumph of the hard-line view in high official notably Gabriel and Joyce Kolko. Their places. To the Riga axioms, policymakers open-door explanation, particularly in its joined the developing doctrine of national economic dimensions, is much too narrow for security. During 1947, American statecraft him. abandoned diplomacy after having lost faith in its efficacy as an instrument for composing Yergin's book is not "the definitive work on differences with the Soviet Union. Washing­ the Cold War" as proclaimed in the hyperbole ton translated the new doctrine of national of the dust jacket, but it does promise to rank security into policies of intervention and con­ among the select few studies which scholars tainment, in effect redefining America's rela­ concerned with the middle 1940's cannot tion to the rest of the world. The climax ignore. Following five years after John Gad­ of this process came in the spring of 1948 after dis' The United States and the Origins of the the Soviet coup in Czechoslovakia. There Cold War, Yergin gained access to additional quickly followed Truman's successes in per­ manuscript collections, diaries, oral histories, suading Congress to appropriate funds for the and official archives, both in the United States Marshall Plan and to reinstate the draft, his and England. Although his truly impressive endorsement of the Brussels Pact, the initial research allows him to introduce important planning for NATO, and the Soviet response new information, he does not supersede Gad­ with the Berlin blockade. Thus, by mid-1948, dis. One striking contrast in their approaches American policymakers, believing "that the is Yergin's treatment of American policymak­ USSR presented an immediate military threat ing as the province of a self-contained policy to the United States," had expanded their con­ elite, while Gaddis discerns greater interplay ception of American security needs. As mili­ among Congress, the wider public, and execu­ tary force became a central concern, Washing­ tive officers. (Yergin's method, it should be ton rebuilt its arsenal and meshed it with a added, gives him the opportunity to include permanent military economy to achieve a con­ some wonderful personality sketches of public dition of permanent preparedness with the men.) United States heading an anticommunist al­ liance. Another difference is Yergin's extension of his account to mid-1948. Perhaps his most Yergin introduces substantial evidence to original contribution comes in chapter thir­ support his claim that American leaders mis­ teen, wherein he documents his thesis that the read Soviet intentions and capabilities. Less aforementioned spring crisis of 1948 served as persuasive is his dogmatic and categorical the forge for rebuilding the American arsenal faulting of American leaders: he judges them and rounding out both the mind set and the rigid and uncompromising, whereas he finds institutional arrangements for the national the Soviets only responding defensively to security state. The "perhaps" in the previous American provocations. It is difficult to square sentence cloaks a lingering suspicion that Yer­ Yergin's certainty about Soviet behavior with gin's conception of the national security state his caveat that so long as no Western scholar may be, at bottom, a striking verbal formu­ has access to Soviet archives, we will be unsure lation of deterrence theory and practice, which about how "Soviet leaders among themselves has long attracted scholarly analysis. And one interpreted and misinterpreted American in­ might argue, further, that Yergin's national tentions and capabilities." While he imputes security state of 1948 was not a culmination so benign international intentions to Soviet lead­ much as a prelude to the doctrine outlined ers, he does criticize their behavior within nearly two years later in NSC-68, the guide to their own sphere; Americans, in their Greek post-Korean War globalism. Criticisms not­ intervention, he writes, "observed restraints withstanding, this is an informative, interest­ on violence that the Russians ignored" in ing, and important study. Eastern Europe. Yergin will prove slippery for those who classify historians of the Cold War JOHN A. DENOVO as revisionist or orthodox, for his views do not University of Wisconsin-Madison

254 BOOK REVIEWS

The Work Ethic in Industrial America, 1850- everyday work of men that made sense by and 1920. By DANIEL T. RODGERS. (University of large in the North of 1850," Rodgers argues. Chicago Press, Chicago, 1978. Pp. xv, 300. "Work was an outlet for self expression, a Notes^ index. $15.00.) way to impress something of oneself on the material world. Work was a means to inde­ "What new can one say about the work pendence and self advancement." But the ethic?" That is the question I asked as I factories and industrialism undermined this picked up this slender (and expensive) vol­ sense of work. "As jobs were divided, simpli­ ume; but it did not take me long to become fied, and routinized in the quest for efficiency, engrossed and fascinated by the interesting as outlets for individuality narrowed and skills essays which make up this book. Rodgers has disappeared, a wedge was driven between art indeed found some new things to say about ancl work, creativity and labor, self and job." the work ethic, and even when he uses old To some extent values changed to keep pace stories and familiar material (as he often with the change in work, but Rodgers argues does) his insights are refreshing and provoca­ that there was also a persistence of the old tive. values amid the change. "The outer husk of This is not so much a book about work as it the work ethic" survived as an abstract ideal is a study of ideas about work. More specific­ independent of work itself. He traces this ally it is about the ideas that some selected survival and persistence in a variety of ways northern, middle-class writers and intellec­ and with a variety of sources, including boy's tuals had about work. Yet Rodger's book is fiction and the pronouncements of Charles not a narrow monograph, but a broad and W. Eliot of Harvard. sweeping intellectual history. The book is Perhaps the most interesting chapter in the based on the reading of a great many secon­ book is on the industrial worker, for here the dary works and on contemporary periodical author tries to deal with the working-class re­ articles, tracts, and books with occasional action to the work ethic as he does nowhere imaginative use of fiction. There is much that else in the book. The work ethic, as he makes is familiar: the industrial efficiency studies clear, was essentially a middle-class affair en­ of Frederick Taylor; Carrol D. Wright's de­ forced on the worker by the owners and man­ fense of the factory system; Jane Addams' la­ agers. In a passage typical of the insights that bor museum; Charlotte Perkins Oilman's crop up in this book, he sees the very architec­ scheme for reorganizing housework; S. Weir ture of the mills as reflecting the work ethic of Mitchell's treatment of neurasthenic women; the mill owners. The bell towers rose in Henry Ward Beecher, alternating between splendor above the utilitarian mills. "Where preaching the gospel of work and urging the clocks and watches remained rare, factory bells need for leisure; and Horatio Alger's tales of served the essential, utilitarian function of luck and pluck. There is also much that is ringing the labor force out of bed, into work, not so familiar: Elbert Hubbard's attempt to and home again at the day's end. ... In their follow the lead of William Morris and preserve great clock faces and clanging bells, the towers handicrafts in America; Elwood Worcester's broadcast the mechanization of work and time, Emmanual Clinic, which promised to cure the the narrowing and tightening of the injunc­ ill and emotionally distressed through repose, tion to diligence that was at the heart of the prayer, and a little faith healing; William T. industrial transformation of work." But the Adams, who wrote under the pen name of workers did not give in easily. "By reporting Oliver Optic and was one of the most prolific irregularly for work, moving restlessly from and successful authors of boys' books. And job to job, or engaging in slowdowns and work there is much more, including chapters on restrictions, industrial laborers stubbornly re­ leisure and the feminine version of the work sisted the new work discipline. . . ." How ethic. much did the worker really resist and how The book can be read as a series of interest­ much was he also motivated by a desire to ing and well-written vignettes about work in work hard in order to get ahead? With great industrial America, but the book is more im­ skill and sensitivity Rodgers examines some portant than that, for Rodgers' framework is of the contradictory and admittedly incom­ informed by a major question which he asks plete evidence. "Crisscrossed by deep lines of in different ways throughout the book: "What ethnicity, industry and region, there is nothing happened to work values when work itself was uniform about the workforce in industrial radically remade?" "The work ethic had rest­ America and the evidence about their work ed on a set of premises about the common, behavior is incomplete, often inextricably

255 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1979 mired in prejudice and frequently contradic­ "state-of-the-covenant address," became a ma­ tory." Some workers casually stayed home or jor rhetorical mode by which Puritanism has went on frequent holidays, others drifted from shaped the American identity down to our one job to another; the turnover rate was very own time. Departing from Perry Miller's view high in some industries, especially in the nine­ of the jeremiad as essentially a lamentation teenth century. There was vigorous resistance over America's backsliding and declension, in many factories in the early twentieth cen­ Bercovitch argues that the jeremiad's con­ tury to the attempts to increase production ventional litany of sins and failures is, in through efficiency and time studies. At the American rhetoric, only "part of a strategy de­ same time, most immigrants brought with signed to revitalize the errand" of the Puritan them "some measure of faith in toil itself." Fathers. Even the American labor movement adopted The European jeremiad had been merely a portion of the work ethic and praised the lamentation at the ills of a corrupt world; it dignity of labor and "the worth of those who was not devised to heal the traditional Chris­ did the world's real" work. Labor leaders tian world/spirit dichotomy, salvation being and workers alike were often caught in a di­ relegated wholly to the realm of the sacred. lemma; they talked about pride in work at The first-generation American Puritans, how­ the same time they were increasingly alienated ever, proclaimed a radical "fusion of secular from it. They fought scientific schemes which and sacred history." New England was a "city reduced men to "mere machines but they de­ upon a hill" (like the biblical Jerusalem), not fended a fair day's work and they often sought metaphorically but literally. Moreover, per­ meaning through their work." Their own am­ sonal and corporate salvation became inex­ bivalence about work, Rodgers argues, pro­ tricably linked: the theocracy's growth was de­ vided a wedge which the managers and owners picted in the imagery of conversion; in turn, exploited. the individual saint's preparation for salva­ There are flaws in this book. Only in one tion was seen as "representative" of the desti­ chapter is Rodgers really concerned with the ny of New England. actual interaction between the ideas about The American jeremiad, as Bercovitch bril­ work and the workers themselves. Often he liantly demonstrates, evolved into a vehicle of depends on a symbolic figure or writer to "socialization" recalling saint and colony alike speak for a large group. To use Harriet Beech­ to their special purpose. The American Puri­ er Stowe and Charlotte Perkins Gilman as a tans saw themselves, prefigured by the Israel­ way of defining feminist versions of the work ites, as the latest stage in the unfolding of ethic is to distort a very complex story. He God's redemptive history. And as heir to scrip­ is really not successful when he tries to create tural promises. New England could explain and define a group of "moralists" who pro­ away adversity as ephemeral. Had not God moted and defended the work ethic. These chastened the Israelites with "troubles" and problems aside, this is an exciting book. It is exile only to remind them that His commit­ a book that deals sensitively and sanely with ment to their nation was irrevocable, that they an important subject. Rodgers almost always were still His people? It is in this context of takes into account the complexity, ambiguity, cosmic certainty that Bercovitch locates an and contradictions; but he is not afraid to "unshakable optimism" beneath the surface make judgments. It is refreshing to find a gloom and doom of the American jeremiad. broad-based intellectual history such as this Strife and tribulation became merely signs to go along side the growing shelf of useful that God's plan was still at work in New En­ but narrow social histories of work. gland. The Puritans could comprehend the controversy surrounding the Halfway Cove­ ALLEN F. DAVIS nant (1662) and the threat of King Philip's Temple University War (1674) as steps in the "apocalyptic his­ tory of America." Confidence in the immut­ able plan of that history led to a vision of progress that granted each generation its pur­ The American Jeremiad. By SACVAN BERCO- pose within divine history. And the jeremiad viTCH. (University of Wisconsin Press, Madi­ proved remarkably adaptable to change. Suc­ son, 1978. Pp. xvi, 210. Notes, index. $15.00.) ceeding generations were exhorted not simply to worship the Fathers but to improve upon In The American Jeremiad, Sacvan Berco- them as America pressed on to its inevitable vitch shows how the "political sermon," or destiny. Even as the Puritan theocracy died. 256 BOOK REVIEWS

Cotton Mather "internalized" the rhetoric of values, most are, in the tradition of Cotton the jeremiad, defining the inspired individual Mather, "American Jeremiahs, simultaneous­ as the keeper of the Puritan dream. Mean­ ly lamenting a declension and celebrating a while, "the prosaic, industrious eighteenth- national dream." Even our most despairing century Yankees" found inspiration and jus­ twentieth-century writers, he briefly hints, at­ tification in "the popular, historical force of tack the possibility of any value precisely be­ the Puritan vision." cause they feel so betrayed by America's spe­ Although America became increasingly sec­ cial promises. Even in this century, however, ular and diverse, the rhetoric of the jeremiad the American jeremiad remains a force both continued to support America's millennial ex­ for reform and control. Martin Luther King, pectations. Jonathan Edwards retained a char­ Jr., as Bercovitch mentions, drew on this rhet­ acteristic American "provincialism" even as he oric to demand not a frontal assault on the widened the gates of the covenant to include American system, but access for blacks to the hitherto excluded types during the Great American dream. And the Inaugural Address Awakening. Released from European cycli­ from Roosevelt to Carter is squarely in the cal views of history, Revolutionary leaders tradition of the jeremiad. A self-enclosed, self- yoked Puritan rhetoric (progress and contin­ defining rhetoric, the American jeremiad is uity assured by communal suffering and test­ the source of both our arrogance and our ing) to announce the dawning of a new age of idealism, enabling America to adapt to change liberty for mankind. The Puritan Fathers even as the culture absorbs its critics. themselves replaced biblical heroes in the Tough going for the lay reader. The Ameri­ American imagination, as a secular, political can Jeremiad cannot be overlooked by stu­ America—the redeemer nation—was invested dents of American literature, history, theology, with the figural significance of a "city upon or rhetoric. With Bercovitch's recent The a hill." Puritan Origins of the American Self (Yale, What Bercovitch calls a "ritual of consen­ 1975), it constitutes the most original and ex­ sus" steered the new nation between courses of citing assessment of American Puritanism since "anarchy" and "despotism." The Revolution the work of Perry Miller. and its heroes became deified, and America's millennial role became "continuing revolu­ WESLEY T. MOTT tion." But that revolution—celebrated end­ University of Wisconsin-Madison lessly in the newest form of jeremiad, the July Fourth oration—was held in check by the old Puritan stricture that the "true individual" is "representative" of the chosen community. In this light, the American jeremiad pro­ The Trans-Appalachian Frontier: People, So­ moted progressiveness and vitality even as it cieties, and Institutions, 1775-1850. By MAL­ fostered conformity. It could justify secular COLM J. ROHRBOUGH. (Oxford University Manifest Destiny and what Tocqueville called Press, New York, 1978. Pp. xv, 444. Maps, the "tyranny of the majority," even as it fired notes, bibliography, index. $17.50.) the rhetoric of nineteenth-century transcen­ dentalism, abolitionism, and feminism. In "This is a book about the first American both cases, the impetus was to fulfill the frontier," states Malcolm J. Rohrbough. "Spe­ "meaning of America." As Bercovitch ex­ cifically, it is about the experiences of people, plains, the "rhetoric of the jeremiad not only the rise of societies, and the development of allowed for but actually elicited social criti­ institutions on the trans-Appalachian frontier cism." But because the banner of "the Ameri­ from 1775 to 1850." Thus "the first American can dream" became so inclusive, the rhetoric frontier" here means the first after the begin­ of the jeremiad also precluded the need for ning of independence, and the book deals with truly radical options in America. American the successive waves of settlement: 1775-1795, rhetoric typically "transform [s] what might 1795-1815, 1815-1830, and 1830-1850. The have been a search for moral or social alter­ book concentrates mainly on institutional de­ natives into a call for cultural revitalization." velopment, as the titles of some of the chap­ In a provocative epilogue Bercovitch sug­ ters indicate: "The Struggle for Security," gests that, while our major writers from the "The Search for Stability," "Diversity in Eco­ American Renaissance on have often ap­ nomic Development," "Government and Law peared isolated and alienated from American on the New Frontier," "Many Societies from

257 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1979

Similar Institutions," "The Urban Dimen­ he had found farther west, along the edge of sion," and "The Changing Political Experi­ the Great Plains. "The institutions related ence." Geographically, the book embraces to quality of life, cultural matters, and educa­ somewhat more than the transmontane coun­ tion," Rohrbough observes, "changed less over try; it includes a chapter on Florida. It gives seventy-five years than any other, except per­ only a few pages to Wisconsin, which, of haps for the basic structure of government un­ course, enters the story rather late. Wisconsin der the county and the Ordinance of 1787." shares with Illinois and Iowa a chapter on He contrasts the trans-Appalachian West with "The Last Frontier of tlie Old Northwest." the trans-Mississippi West by saying the for­ The book derives from a wide range of rec­ mer was a "frontier of abundance" and "of re­ ords and studies in state and local history. It peated successes" but on the latter "failures makes use of state documents, manuscripts in equalled successes." the Lyman C. Draper Collection and other To add vividness to his account, the author state collections, and a large number of news­ inserts occasional vignettes of individual fron­ papers, including obscure and ephemeral ones. tiersmen and frontierswomen whose experi­ It also depends quite heavily on articles in ences illustrate general themes. Still, much of state historical journals and on unpublished the book is rather hard to read. It contains theses and dissertations. too many sentences like the following (with In his generalizations drawn from these punctuation as in the original): "Statehood, varied sources the author emphasizes the com­ and the diplomatic triumphs and greater se­ munity aspects of pioneering. The typical curity from the Indians achieved by 1795 frontiersman was no Daniel Boone, he points changed the nature of the political process and, out: ". . . from the beginnings of settlement in a sense wrote an end to the early political . . . life took on an interlocking character . . . style on the trans-Appalachian frontier." that belied the simple picture of the individual against the wilderness." The author also stresses the continuity of institutions on the RICHARD N. CURRENT frontier; he discovers no such cultural fault The University of North Carolina line as Walter Prescott Webb once thought at Greensboro

BOOK REVIEWS

Bercovitch, The American Jeremiad, reviewed by Wesley T. Mott 256 Berkhofer, The White Man's Indian: Images of the American Indian from Columbus to the Present, reviewed by Michael E. Stevens 246 Clifton, The Prairie People: Continuity and Change in Potawatomi Indian Culture, 1665-1965, reviewed by Roger L. Nichols 245 Conrat and Conrat, The American Farm: A Photographic History, reviewed by Dale E. Treleven 251 Kuniczak, My Name is Million: An Illustrated History. of the Poles in America, reviewed by Donald E. Pienkos 249 Reed, From Private Vice to Public Virtue: The Birth Control Movement and American Society Since 1830, reviewed by Janet E. Heininger 252 Rodgers, The Work Ethic in Industrial America, 1850-1920, reviewed by Allen F. Davis 255 Rohrbough, The Trans-Appalachian Frontier: People, Societies, and In­ stitutions, 1775-1850, reviewed by Richard N. Current 257 Ross, The Finn Factor in American Labor, Culture and Society, reviewed by Victor R. Greene 248 Semmingsen, Norway to America: A History of the Migration, reviewed by Robert C. Ostergren 247 Wytrwal, Be/ioW.' The Polish-Americans, reviewed by Donald E. Pienkos ••.. 249 Yergin, Shattered Peace: The Origins of the Cold War and the National Security State, reviewed by John A. DeNovo 253

258 Hundred Years of Grace. The church is in Wisconsin History Springfield Township, Marquette County. Checklist History of St. John the Baptist Catholic Recently published and currently avail­ Church. (Norwalk?, Wisconsin, 1978. Pp. able Wisconsiana added to the Society's Libra­ ry are listed below. The compilers, Gerald R. 59, [39]. Illus. No price listed. Available Eggleston, Acquisitions Librarian, and Su­ from St. John's Parish-Summit, Norwalk, san Dorst, Order Librarian, are interested in Wisconsin 54648.) In addition to the obtaining information about (or copies of) church history, brief family histories of the items that are not widely advertised, such as parish members are included. publications of local historical societies, family histories and genealogies, privately printed works, and histories ot churches, institutions, The History of St. John's Parish, 1847-1978. or organizations. Authors and publishers wish­ (Byron?, Wisconsin, 1978. Pp. [20]. Illus. ing to reach a wider audience and also to $2.00. Available from St. John's Catholic perform a valuable bibliographic service are Church, Byron, R.R. #2, Fond du Lac, Wis­ urged to inform the compilers ot their pub­ consin 54938.) Cover title is St. John's lications, including the following information: Church, Byron, Wis. 131st Anniversary, author, title, location and name of publisher, 1847-1978. price, pagination, and address of supplier. Write Susan Dorst, Acquisitions Section. Hutchison, Howard. Joe McCarthy: Right or Wrong. (Cincinnati, Ohio, ci978. Pp. Bloss, Judith Hribar. The Hribar Family His­ 66. $2.50. Available from Pamphlet Publi- tory. (Caledonia?, Wisconsin, 1978. 52 cadons, Div. RMA, Box 41372A, Cincin- leaves. Illus. No price listed. Available nau, Ohio 45241.) from the author, 1501 Waukesha Road, Caledonia, Wisconsin 53108.) Jefferson Centennial, 1878-1978. (Jefferson?, Wisconsin, 1978. Pp. 135. Illus. No price Culver, Edith Dodd. 610 Ellis and the Hospi­ listed. Available from Ray Adler, Jefferson, tal Children. (Ashland, Wisconsin, cl978. Wisconsin 53549.) Pp. 205. Illus. $9.61. Available from Brow- zer's Books and Art Shop, 201 Second Street Kuhn, Eleanor G. The Town Rhine Monu­ East, Ashland, Wisconsin 54806.) Remi­ ment to Civil War Dead. (Elkhart Lake?, niscences of the author's early life in Ash­ Wisconsin, 1976. Pp. [12]. Illus. No price land. A portion of this book appeared in listed. Available from Otto Rub, Clerk of the Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 60, Town Rhine, Route 2, Elkhart Lake, Wis­ no. 2 (Winter, 1976-1977). consin 53020.) Cover title is Town of Rhine, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, Civil Dresselhaus, Donald E. / Never Flew Alone. War Memorial Monument. (Beloit?, Wisconsin, 1978. Pp. 316. Illus. No price listed. Available from the author, Lingard, Harold. The Lingjerdes From Sogn, 1953 Prairie Avenue, Beloit, Wisconsin Norway: a Brief History of the Lingard 53511.) Autobiography of a Beloit pilot. Family. (Arlington?, Virginia, 1978? Pp. [12]. $1.00. Available from the author, Graber, Kathleen Neumann. The Neumanns: 5821 Fifth Road South, Arlington, Virginia Wisconsin Pioneers, 1848-1978. (Oshkosh, 22204.) Newly enlarged edition of the ge­ Wisconsin, 1978. Pp. 147. Illus. $7.50. nealogy of a Dane County family. Available from the author, 683 Hazel Street, Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901.) Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin: Index to Volumes I ir II. (Monroe?, Wis­ History of Immanuel Lutheran Church, 1878- consin, 1978. Pp. 67. No price listed. Avail­ 1978: One Hundred Years of Grace. (West- able from Wisconsin State Genealogical So­ field?, Wisconsin, 1978. Pp. 11. Illus. No ciety, Inc., Mrs. John M. Irvin, Treasurer, charge. Available from Rev. L. E. Thalack- 2109 Twentieth Avenue, Monroe, Wiscon­ er, Route 1, Box 243, Westfield, Wisconsin sin 53566.) Index by Mrs. Sturges W. Bailey 53964.) Cover title is Centennial of Im­ to the 1909 volume edited by Lieutenant manuel Lutheran Church, 1878-1978: One Colonel Jerome A. Watrous. 259 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1979

Montfort: 150 Years, 1827-1977. (Montfort?, The Storm . . . July 4, 1977. (Phillips, Wis­ Wisconsin, 1977? Pp. 36. Illus. $5.00. consin, 1978? Pp. 79. Illus. No price listed. Available from Jim Christiansen, Montfort, Available from IJarney Slowey, Phillips High Wisconsin 53569.) School, Phillips, Wisconsin 54555.) Con­ tains pictures and personal interviews about a severe thunderstorm which struck the Morton, W. Markham; Ammann, Thelma Phillips area. It was compiled by the com­ (Morton); and Kryder, Ruth (Morton). De­ munity involvement class of Phillips High scendants of Francis 6- Ruth (Powell) Mor­ School. ton from Georgia to Wisconsin (1776-1976). (Portland?, Oregon, 1976? Pp. 284. Illus. Throckmorton, Elizabeth Ann Shepherd. $12.00. Available from W. Markham Mor­ Ekleberry and Milum Families: Wyandot ton, 3020 East Main Street, F-119, Mesa, County, Ohio, Richland County, Wisconsin. Arizona 85203.) This is vol. 8, no. 2, of (Stevens Point, Wisconsin, 1978. Pp. 117. Mort's Relations. $8.00. Available from the author, 3101 Jef­ ferson Street, Stevens Point, Wisconsin 54481.) Simon, Roger D. The City-Building Process: Housing and Services in New Milwaukee Wisconsin. State Historical Society. Guide to Neighborhoods, 1880-1910. (Philadelphia, Labor Papers in the State Historical Society Pennsylvania, 1978. Pp. 64. Illus. $8.00. of Wisconsin, compiled by F. Gerald Ham •Available from The American Philosophi­ and Margaret Hedstrom. (Madison, Wis­ cal Society, 104 South Fifth Street, Philadel­ consin, cl978. Pp. 138. Illus. $5.00. Avail­ phia, Pennsylvania 19106.) The publication able from Publication Orders, State Histori­ is vol. 68, part 5, of the Transactions of the cal Society of Wisconsin, 816 State Street, American Philosophical Society. Madison, Wisconsin 53706.)

260 Records, 1871-1931, of Marion Presbyterian Accessions Church, Boscobel, including the confession of Services for microfilming. Xeroxing, and faith, constitution, minutes, and lists of offer­ photostating all but certain restricted items in ings, members, baptisms, marriages, and fu­ its manuscript collections are provided by the nerals; purchased by the University of Wis- Society. For details write Dr. Josephine L. consin-Platteville from the Presbyterian Semi­ Harper, Manuscripts Curator. nary, University of Dubuque. Blue books, 1955-1960, published annually Manuscript Accessions on a subscription basis by Media Records, Inc., detailing the amount and type of advertise­ Microfilm. Journals, 1836-1856, of Benja­ ments that appeared in newspapers in selected min King (1801-?), a Methodist minister in cities throughout the United States; presented Massachusetts, containing sermons and entries by the National Broadcasting Company, New documenting his travels to prayer meetings York, New York. and visits with fellow clergymen, and another Papers, 1960-1966, of the Milwaukee Citi­ journal, 1856-1867, of his son Benjamin G. zens for Equal Opportunity, a membership (1841-1866), containing notes on personal and organization which worked for racial equal political events including comments on an opportunity, including correspondence, min­ 1860 Lynn, Massachusetts, shoemaker strike, utes, newsletters, and other materials concern­ the Civil War and the effects of the Northern ing their support of civil rights groups in the victory, and Lincoln's election and subsequent South, activities for open housing and against assassination; loaned for copying by Winifred school segregation in Milwaukee, and backing Woodmansee, Milwaukee. of state fair-housing legislation; loaned for Papers, 1833-1903, of soldier, editor, diplo­ copying by Helen Barnhill, Milwaukee. mat Rufus King (1814-1876) and his son Four reports, 1921-1923, 1931, of the Mon­ Charles (1844-1933), soldier and novelist, in­ treal Mining Company, an iron ore mining cluding scattered political correspondence and company operating in Wisconsin and Michi­ military and financial records of Rufus, cor­ gan, concerning housing provided by the com­ respondence, diaries, clippings, and miscel­ pany for employees, including maps, photo­ laneous items of Charles, and several docu­ graphs, street plans, floor plans, and discus­ ments concerning other family members; sions of financing and construction details; loaned for copying by Carroll College. loaned for copying by Gail Hunton, Madison. Papers, 1890-1963, 1968, 1974, primarily Records, 1893-1974, including a dedication concerning a home for needy, elderly women pamphlet, minutes, 1913-1923, and account operated by the Ladies Benevolent Society of books, 1913-1923, 1930-1955, of the conserva­ Oshkosh, including financial records, inmate tive Jewish Moses Montefiore Congregation, records, minutes, annual reports, and other Appleton; minutes, 1893-1931, 1940-1948, and records; loaned for copying by the society. a centennial program, 1974, of the Fox River Records, 1945-1976, of the Lake to Lake Lodge No. 209, International Order of B'nai Dairy Cooperative, active in eight east-central B'rith, Appleton; and various records, 1936- Wisconsin counties, including a brief history, 1962, of the Appleton chapter of Hadassah; minutes, advertising scrapbooks, and scrap- loaned for copying by the Congregation. books of clippings and magazine articles on Ministerial books, 1854-1960, written in general affairs of the cooperative including in­ Norwegian and recording baptisms, confirma­ formation on pollution of the Neshota River tions, marriages, burials, communion statis­ and on a dispute with the National Farmers tics, and brief summaries of the services at Organization on milk withholding actions; Mt. Morris Holden Lutheran Church, Wau­ loaned for copying by the co-operative, Mani­ shara County; loaned for copying by the towoc. church, Wautoma. Minutes, annual reports, and financial state­ Papers, 1881-1955 and 1966, of black his­ ments, 1940-1969, of the Madison Jewish Com­ torian and bibliographer Daniel Murray munity Council, Inc. (formerly the Madison (1852-1925), consisting primarily of drafts and Jewish Welfare Council and the Madison Jew­ other materials pertaining to his proposed six- ish Welfare Fund), sponsors of counselling volume "Historical and Biographical Ency­ services, recreational activities, concerts and clopedia of the Colored Race . . . ," plus cor­ lectures, and social welfare services helping respondence, family papers, and other ma­ Jewish aged, transients, and immigrants; terial; presented by Harold Baldwin Murray, loaned for copying by the council. Mexico. 261 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1979

Records, 1834-1961, of the Oulu Evangeli­ Jacobi Roberts, a Milwaukee pacifist and cal Lutheran Church, Bayfield County, writ­ woman's rights activist, including diaries from ten in Finnish and English, including account trips to Russia, Germany, and Austria in 1934, books, 1905-1953, registers of baptisms, con­ articles about her activities, correspondence firmations, marriages, reception of members, with family and friends, and an ancestral chart and deaths, 1834-1956, and minutebooks, of the Jacobi family; loaned for copying by 1903-1961; loaned for copying by the church. Mrs. Roberts. Records, (1866-1963)-1976, of Our Savior's Papers, 1960-1963, 1967, of Thomas St. An- United Church of Christ, Ripon (formerly the gelo (1889-1967), Republican state assembly­ First Evangelical Lutheran Church), consist­ man from Barron County, including a few ing of registers of baptisms, confirmations, campaign documents, an obituary, and con­ marriages, deaths, communion totals, engage­ stituent correspondence; loaned for copying ments, and special offerings; early entries are by Mrs. Gloria Saunders and Donald St. An- in German; loaned for copying by the church. gelo, Richfield, Minnesota. Scattered papers, 1829-1925, concerning Records, 1913-1937, of Salem Evangelical John E. Perkins (1811-1862), Civil War cap­ Church, Berlin, consisting of registers of bap­ tain of Company C, Eighth Regiment Wiscon­ tisms, confirmations, marriages, deaths, com­ sin Volunteer Infantry, including information munion totals, names of members and pastors, on the school population in Massena, New and special offerings; also including the con­ York, in 1829, 1836 correspondence on Perkins' gregation's constitution and narratives writ­ canal work in Virginia, Civil War materials on ten by each pastor at the end of his service; Company C and Old Abe, its eagle mascot, and early entries are in German; loaned for copy­ later letters and clippings on Perkins and Old ing by Our Savior's United Church of Christ, Abe; loaned for copying by Fred Dinkel, Chip­ Ripon. pewa Falls. Scrapbook of historical essays, clippings, Records, 1856-1959, of the Perry Lutheran photographs, and other items, dated ca. 1913- Church, Daleyville, including a minutebook, ca. 1966, on the history of Sun Prairie, pri­ 1872-1912, and records of deaths, confirma­ marily compiled in 1935 by members of The tions, baptisms, marriages, communicants, Twentieth Century Club, affiliated with the membership, and activities; all entries are in Wisconsin State Federation of Women's Clubs; Norwegian; loaned for copying by the church. loaned for copying by the Sun Prairie Public Papers, 1940-(1947-1973), of the non-stock Library. corporation which publishes The Progressive Additions to the records, 1928-1970, of the magazine, consisting primarily of correspon­ Socialist Workers Party, including minutes, dence of editor Morris H. Rubin and others printed circulating correspondence and posi­ with contributors and readers including many tion papers, reports, bulletins to the mem­ prominent people, plus a small quantity of bership, branch circulars, and a substantial reorganizational, promotional, and circulation amount of material produced by other Trot- materials; presented by Morris H. Rubin, skyist groups including the Fieldites, Weis- Madison. bordites, Oehlerites, the Johnson-Forest Ten­ Letters, 1862-1863, from Private Wilhelm dency, the Workers Party, and others; loaned Ramthun (ca. 1838-1863), Company K, Second for copying by the party and others. Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, to Three letterpress copybooks, 1856-1870, of his brother in Kewaskum; plus an 1861 baptis­ James G. Soulard, Galena, Illinois, containing mal certificate. Included are the original let­ lists of names and addresses, of notes given ters written in German Gothic script plus and interest paid, and of mineral lands owned typed transcriptions and English translations in Washington, Franklin, and Crawford coun­ prepared by Paul Rood. Loaned for copying ties, and business and personal correspondence by Marilyn Reinhardt, Kewaskum. including orders for seed and fruit cuttings, Letters, 1801-1807, providing news for pub­ letters concerning donations to educational in­ lication by Samuel Relf, Philadelphia, editor stitutions, and letters to family and friends, of the National Gazette, written by his father- several of whom lived in France; loaned tor in-law, William Poyntell, a Philadelphia mer­ copying by the Galena Public Library. chant traveling in Europe, and by William Letterpress copybook, 1909-1910, of W. F. Taylor, a London businessman; loaned for Strasser, superintendent of the Wisconsin Zinc copying by Mrs. C. B. Jackson, Nashotah. Mining Company which operated a mill and Papers, 1934-1937, 1966-1977, of Annette a mine at Hazel Green, consisting of almost

262 ACCESSIONS daily reports to Daniel M. Mohr, Chicago, brief summaries of the services at West Holden and other business correspondence; loaned for Lutheran Church, Waushara County; loaned copying by the Galena Public Library. for copying by Mt. Morris Holden Lutheran Records, 1939-1977, of Temple Beth El, Church, Wautoma. Madison, a Reform Jewish synagogue, includ­ Radio scripts, 1972-1977, from a series ing minutes, correspondence, bulletins, scrap- broadcast over WHA and the Wisconsin Edu­ books, membership directories, and other ma­ cational Network by Gerald Bartell of the terials; loaned for copying by Rabbi Kenneth Wisconsin Arts Council, including interviews D. Roseman. and essays promoting arts of all kinds; loaned Records, 1943, 1962-1976, of Temple Sho- for copying by Mr. Bartell, Madison. lom, Eau Claire, a synagogue which serves Re­ Records, 1943-1977, of the Wisconsin Co­ form, Conservative, and Orthodox Jews in the operative Tobacco Growers Association, Edger­ Chippewa Valley, consisting of records of the ton, consisting of annual reports, audit reports, Temple itself, the women's B'nai B'rith, and and minute books, with information on tobac­ the men's B'nai B'rith, including information co marketing, grading, taxes, and research on on the controversy over the men's 1972 decision soil and burning grades of various tobacco to drop their "male only" membership restric­ types; loaned for copying by the association. tion; loaned for copying by Morton Sipress, Scrapbook of newsclippings, 1961-1966, from Eau Claire. several Wisconsin papers, concerning open Registers, 1841-1943, of the United Metho­ housing and other aspects of the civil rights dist Church, Platteville, recording baptisms, movement as it relates to housing; collected marriages, and membership, and containing and presented by the Wisconsin Realtors As­ brief histories of the church; loaned for copy­ sociation. ing by the church. Additions to the records of the Wisconsin Records, 1953-1975, of United Steelworkers Surgical Society, consisting of a minute book, of America, Local 1533, Beloit, representative 1957-1966, including minutes, reports from of Fairbanks, Morse Engine Division em­ the Committee on Ethical Practice, programs ployees, including by-laws, minutes, contracts, of annual meetings, financial reports, and form letters from labor affiliates, other cor membership records; loaned for copying by respondence and memoranda, publications, the society. and other documents; loaned for copying by Local 1533. Ministerial book, 1860-1866, of York Evan­ gelical Lutheran Church, Green County, writ­ Minutes, 1932-1942, of the Utopia Club, a ten in Norwegian and English, recording bap­ black women's social and civic organization tisms, confirmations, marriages, deaths, mem­ in Madison; also including membership rec­ bership, and church activities; loaned for ords and committee reports; loaned for copy­ copying by the Blanchardville Lutheran ing by Harry Allison, Madison. Church. Papers, 1923-1969, of Albert L. Warner (1903-1971), newspaper and radio reporter, Ministerial book, 1882-1955, of York Me­ head of the War Department's Bureau of Pub­ morial Evangelical Lutheran Church, Green lic Relation's War Intelligence Division dur­ County, written in Norwegian, recording bap­ ing World War II, and later an associate edi­ tisms, confirmations, marriages, deaths, com­ tor of U.S. News and World Report, including municants, membership, and church activities; correspondence, scripts, clipping scrapbooks, loaned for copying by the Blanchardville story ideas for U.S. News, and otlier materials; Lutheran Church. presented by Mr. and Mrs. Albert Warner, Tape Recordings. Speeches given by Frank McLean, Virginia. Lloyd Wright (1) at a testimonial dinner, Feb­ Minutes, 1912-1966, of the Wausau Cham­ ruary 10, 1955, organized to help pay Taliesin's ber of Commerce, of several divisions of the Iowa County property taxes, including remarks chamber, and of two predecessor organizations, on the need for personal architecture, on the Wausau Advancement Association and the American architecture, and on the architect as Wausau Merchants and Manufacturers Asso­ a visionary in society; presented anonymously; ciation; loaned for copying by the chamber. and (2) at the Merchandise Mart, Chicago, on Ministerial book, 1899-1969, written in Nor­ September 14, 1955, on the inauguration of wegian, recording baptisms, confirmations, the Frank Lloyd Wright furniture line; pre­ marriages, burials, communion statistics, and sented by Robert Twombly, New York City.

263 Contributors

JOE MICHAEL FEIST works in public relations RICHARD GOLDHURST, a 1950 graduate of Ken­ and as a free-lance historical author in the yon College, holds an advanced degree from New York University (1955). He is the author Corpus Christi, Texas, area. He received his of nine published works, several of which deal masters degree in history from Texas A8cM with American military history. His last three University in 1976. In addition to the docu­ books are Many Are the Hearts: The Agony and Triumph of Ulysses S. Grant; Pipe Clay mentary articles in this issue of the Wisconsin and Drill: John J. Pershing and the American Magazine of History, he is the author of Military Mind; and The Midnight War: "Theirs Not to Reason Why: The Case of American Intervention in Russia, 1918-1920 (published by McGraw-Hill in 1978). He is a the Russian Railway Service Corps," in Mili­ member of the graduate faculty of Fairfield tary Affairs, vol. 42 (February, 1978). Another University, a Jesuit institution in Fairfield, article, "Bats of War: The Adams Plan," will Connecticut, where he is working on a book about American grief. Goldhurst is the son appear in a forthcoming issue of American of the celebrated writer-humorist Harry Gold­ Heritage. He lives with his wife and infant en, and for twelve years was the associate edi­ daughter in Portland, Texas. tor of the Carolina Israelite.

Alice E. Smith Fellowship

The State Historical Society of Wisconsin has awarded the Alice E. Smith Fellowship for 1978-1979 to Lois J. Kalloway, a grad­ uate student in the University of Michigan. Ms. Kalloway is writing a doctoral dissertation on Polish-American women in Midwestern cities, 1880-1920, a study which will show how par­ ticular urban centers, including Milwaukee, shaped the political, economic, and social roles of women within ethnic enclaves.

The Alice E. Smith Fellowship, which carries an outright grant of $600, is awarded annually to a woman doing research in American history, with preference given applicants who are doing research in the history of Wisconsin or of the Middle West. The deadline for applications is July 15 of each year. Letters of application, describing in some detail the current research of the applicant, should be addressed to: Director of Research, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706.

264 THE BOARD OF CURATORS

LEE SHERMAN DREYFUS, Governor of the Stale EDWIN YOUNG, President of Ihe University VEL PHILLIPS, Secretary of Slate MRS. WADE MOSBY, President of CHARLES P. SMITH, State Treasurer Ihe Auxiliary

JOHN ANDERSON, Cable WILLIAM KIDD, Racine

THOMAS H. BARLAND, Eau Claire MRS. HERBERT \'. KOHLER, JR., Kohler

E. DAVID CRONON, Madison MRS. RAY.MOND J. KOLTES, Madison

JOHN T. HARRINGTON, Milwaukee CHARLES R. MC CAELUM, Hubertus MRS. R. L. HARTZELL, Grantsburg HOWARD W. MEAD, Madison

PAUL E. HASSETT, Madison NEWELL MEYER, Milwaukee ROBERT B. L. MURPHY, Madison MRS. WILLIAM E. HAYES, De Pere FREDERICK I. OLSON, Wauwatosa MRS. R. GOERES HAYSSEN, Racine F. HARWOOD ORBISON, .Appleton NATHAN S. HEFFERNAN, Madison JOHN R. PIKE, Madison MRS. JEAN M. HELLIESEN, La Crosse DR. Louis C. S.viiTH, Cassville MRS. FANNIE HICKLIN, Madison MRS. WILLIAM H. L. SMYTHE, Milwaukee E. E. HOMSTAD, Black River Falls WILLIAM F. STARK, Nashotah WILLIAM HUFFMAN, Wisconsin Rapids CLIFFORD D. SWANSON, Stevens Point

MRS. PETER D. HUMLEKER, JR., Fond du Lac MILO K. SWANTON, Madison ROBERT H. IRRMANN, Beloit CEDRIC ,\. \IG, Rhinelander

MRS. EDWARD C. JONES, Fort Atkinson CLARK WILKINSON, Baraboo

The Women's Auxiliary MRS. WADE MOSBY, Milwaukee, President MRS. JAMES NOYES, Madison, Treasurer MRS. DONALD R. KORST, Madison, Vice-President MRS. L. PRENTICE EA(.ER, JR., Evansville, Ex Officio MRS. JOHN C. WILSON, JR., Milwaukee, Secretary

Fellows \'ERNON 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 (U621) 29 Robert Collon Johnson of Madison photographed this winsome Russian sleigh driver near Archangel in 1918-1919, during his lour of duly with the Allied force sent lo intervene in the Russian civil war.

fsbsS 8CO|