UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE RADICAL REACTIONS: THE FIRST RED SCARE IN THE GREAT PLAINS AND THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDERLANDS, 1918-1920 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By MICHAEL MOLINA Norman, Oklahoma 2017 © Copyright by MICHAEL MOLINA 2017 All Rights Reserved. Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge my committee, namely, chair Dr. Sterling Evans, Dr. Elyssa Faison, Dr. Ben Keppel, and Dr. David Wrobel for providing support and guidance through this long process. I would also like to thank my loving and amazingly supportive wife, Kayla Griffis Molina, whose faith and encouragement made everything infinitely more doable. Without her steadfast support, and grueling enforcement of studying, I would have never passed comps and gotten this far. I love you sweety! Similarly, I wish to thank my faithful research buddy and seminar comrade, Matt Corpolongo. His keen insight and political commentaries helped shape my perceptions and gave me a unique perspective. Lastly, I would like to thank my family. To my dad, Arnie Molina, who provided invaluable assistance in Austin and made a great research partner. To my mom, Cherye Molina, whose constant love and prayers made all the difference. To my brother, Matthew Molina, whose encouragement and dry humor made thing bearable. And finally, to my grandma, Georgia Maria Hale, whose unwavering faith and daily prayer helped more than she will ever know. I stand on the shoulders of giants, and without the love, faith, and support from my advisors, friends, and family, none of this would have been possible. To them I dedicate this work, and look forward to making them proud as I begin the next chapter of my life. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………..……iv Abstract…………………………………………………………………………....……vi Chapter 1: Frontiers of Fear……………………………………………………..………1 Chapter 2: Kansas: Progressivism and Fear in the Central Plains………………...……30 Chapter 3: Oklahoma: Overreaction on the Southern Plains………………….…..……95 Chapter 4: New Mexico: Fear and Patriotism on the Border……………………...….164 Chapter 5: Texas: On the Borders of Hysteria…………………………………..……212 Chapter 6: Conclusion………………………………………………..……….………258 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………..………271 v Abstract This dissertation will focus on the First Red Scare in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. The First Red Scare was a wave of mass panic and hysteria directed against suspected radicals, leftists, anarchist, and Communist groups that swept across the United States from roughly1919-1920. Following World War I, and the rapid spread of Soviet Bolshevism in Russia, many in the U.S. government, media, and populace feared a hostile Communist takeover. The ensuing event resulted in deportations, mass deprivations of civil liberties, race riots, and exacerbated racial and ethnic hatred. State governments, media, and populations in the Great Plains, notably from Kansas and Oklahoma, and from the Borderlands, including New Mexico and Texas, contributed to the hysteria. Through the actions of these groups, the U.S. came close to a war with Mexico over suspected radical elements, and the nation experimented with repressive labor laws as a cure for left-wing radicalism. The Great Plains and U.S.-Mexico Borderlands became a key center of focus during the First Red Scare, and helped shape the national narrative. While several historians have written directly about the First Red Scare in the U.S., they have generally focused on the east and west coasts. Few have analyzed the event in the Great Plains and U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. This dissertation restores these regions to their rightful place in the historiography, and shows how they became influential in driving policy decisions during the event, leaving a lasting legacy of repression, fear, and hatred. vi Chapter 1. Frontiers of Fear Historically, the Great Plains region was the frontier of America, where Euro- Americans pushed to expand national boundaries and subjugate and assimilate Native populations. Similarly, the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands acted as a frontier, where cultures clashed and empires vied for dominance over each other in a conflict that has spanned generations. From 1918 to 1920, the United States faced a different frontier, one of fear that engulfed the entire country. This fear also spread across the Great Plains and the Borderlands, and involved the states of Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. While parts of each state geographically belong to the Great Plains, they can also be identified as two sections within that region: one distinctly Plains, and one distinctly Borderlands, each with their own unique culture, politics, and history. While divided by sub-region, these states were united by fear. Fear in the face of radical labor movements, fear in the face of racial and ethnic hatred, and fear in the face of a Communist threat that purported to take over the world. This dissertation will cover these states’ reactions to this fear, known as the First Red Scare. Following the end of World War I, the United States entered a period of demobilization, increased costs of living, labor strikes, and a general fear of Communist conspirators. From 1919 to 1920, the First Red Scare bore witness to returning veterans seeking employment, disgruntled workers dissatisfied with frozen wages, and a creeping xenophobia that included racism and anti-Communist sentiment. Strikes occurred across the country, paralyzing many sectors of the nation’s economy. Disturbances occurred in Boston, Seattle, and major metropolitan areas on the East and West coasts. Similarly, a nationwide coal strike begun in November 1919 would have 1 catastrophic effects for the nation, with many suspecting Bolshevist influences. Confronting this violent maelstrom, President Woodrow Wilson’s Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer, conducted a series of raids against suspected radicals in events that came to be known as the Palmer Raids. Rounding up thousands of radicals across the country for deportation, these raids marked a startling violation of civil rights for many American citizens. As rhetoric against foreign elements increased, other sections of the country not limited to the major urban centers of the East or West coasts became affected. This dissertation explores the First Red Scare in the Great Plains and U.S.- Mexico Borderlands, specifically Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas, and examines how this region, united by fear against radicalism, played a significant and heretofore unexplored role in shaping the national narrative. Through oppressive labor laws, unsound use of martial law, and overreactions to a number of strikes, governors, the media, and populations of these states brought national attention to their region and profoundly shaped the Red Scare narrative. Fear, hysteria, and repression became the order of the day, and many states across the country looked to these four states with horror and alarm. Countless strikes there appeared as Bolshevist conspiracies attempting to overthrow the U.S. government. Other states sought to adopt some of the region’s ideas to combat their own radical labor issues. The region also became the prime mover in drumming up support for a full-scale invasion of Mexico. Whatever the issue, these four states became thrust into national headlines for better or worse, and helped drive the nation further off the cliffs of reason. 2 Throughout these events, race and ethnicity played a key factor. Race riots occurred across the country, with lynchings and mob rule becoming everyday occurrences in the region. Fleeing racial violence in Texas and Arkansas, some African- Americans sought shelter in Kansas, whose governor had a notably tolerant reaction towards those facing such injustices. Across the region, African Americans, Hispanics, Italians, Germans, Russians, and others fell under intense pressure from local and government forces, becoming prime suspects in the rampant radicalism and terrorism that splashed across newspaper headlines every day. As Bolshevik forces marched to victory in Russia, and announced their plans for global expansion, many eyes fell on the diverse minority populations in the United States as being easily susceptible to Communist propaganda. State governments and local populations made no distinction between race and ethnicity, and conflated the two into a single Bolshevist menace. Violence and discrimination would rule the day for much of Great Plains and U.S.- Mexico Borderlands, with many citizens urging their lawmakers to round up entire immigrant communities for mass deportation. Attorney General Palmer would follow this advice, and deport thousands nationwide without due process, violating numerous civil liberties along the way. Governors of these Plains states kept in contact with the attorney general, providing him information on potential targets in their own states. Applying themselves to Palmer’s crusade like fearful sycophants, these lawmakers and politicians integrated the regiom into the national conversation, becoming just as much a factor in the hyperbole and xenophobic fear of the First Red Scare as metropolitan states on the East and West coasts. 3 Historians have continued to ignore these events, choosing instead to focus on individual strikes or race riots in places such as Boston, Seattle, and Chicago. Some historians have done work on labor and agriculture in the Great Plains and U.S.-Mexico Borderlands,