The Correspondence of American Doughboys and American Censorship During the Great War 1917-1918 Doctors of Letters Dissertation By
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LETTERS FROM THE WESTERN FRONT: THE CORRESPONDENCE OF AMERICAN DOUGHBOYS AND AMERICAN CENSORSHIP DURING THE GREAT WAR 1917-1918 A dissertation submitted to the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies Drew University in partial fulfillment of The requirements for the degree, Doctor of Letters Scott L. Kent Drew University Madison, New Jersey April 2021 Copyright © 2021 by Scott L. Kent All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT Letters from the Western Front: The Correspondence of American Doughboys and American Censorship during the Great War 1917-1918 Doctors of Letters Dissertation by Scott L. Kent The Caspersen School of Graduate Studies Drew University April 2021 Censorship has always been viewed by the American military as an essential weapon of warfare. The amounts, and types, of censorship deployed have varied from conflict to conflict. Censorship would reach a peak during America’s involvement in the First World War. The American military feared that any information could be of possible use to the German war machine, and it was determined to prevent any valuable information from falling into their hands. The result would be an unprecedented level of censorship that had no antecedent in American history. The censorship of the First World War came from three main directions, official censorship by the American government, by the American military, and the self- censorship of American soldiers themselves. Military censorship during the Great War was thorough and invasive. It began at the training camps and only intensified as the doughboys moved to their ports of embarkation, and then to the Western Front. Private letters were opened, read, censored, and even destroyed. The doughboys themselves greatly aided the military by self-censoring their own writing. Few letters were ever discovered that contained information of a truly military nature. Censorship on the homefront also reached unprecedented levels. President Wilson’s Committee on Public Information waged a war against anything that it determined not to be “100% American.” This new organization attempted to censor out of the public discourse any item that might be seen as pro-German. German: literature, philosophy, books, music, newspapers, words, dog breeds, foods, and flags were all to be wiped from the nation. The C.P.I. enlisted an army of untrained volunteer foot soldiers, the American Protective League, to do its bidding. The APL wreaked havoc across the nation trampling the civil rights of any group that got in its way. The censorship of wartime was then extended into peacetime, with devastating consequences. The Spanish Flu had begun to spread during the war, and the news of its very existence was determined to be a threat to the war effort. It was feared that news of the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans would embolden the Germans to keep on fighting, so President Wilson said nothing of it. Panic spread across the land. Over 675,000 Americans would die. DEDICATION PAGE I dedicate this project to the memory of my great-uncle Clayton C. Moore who fought and died on the Western Front and whose letters home to his family inspired this work. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: I feel that I have so many people to thank for helping me complete this project. First and foremost, to my committee chair, Professor William Rogers, who not only guided me through this entire process, but who has become my mentor, master teacher, and amazing tour guide during my winter intersession semester in Ireland. I must also thank my committee members, Dr. Neil Maher, who was also a mentor during my days at Rutgers-Newark and who gave me the chance to teach here at NJIT, he has been so instrumental to my success. Additionally, Dr. Alison Lefkovitz, the current chair of the Federated History Department at NJIT, who has been a longtime supporter and a trusted colleague at the university. I am also so fortunate to work with a wonderful group of scholars all of whom have assisted me along the way. Dr. Karl Schweizer, who personally escorted me to the Monmouth County Historical Society to get me started doing my primary source research. Professors Steven Pemberton, Kyle Riismandel, Rosanna Dent, Elizabeth Petrick, Debbie Morrison-Santana, Richard Sher, Maureen O’Rourke, and Elektra Kostopoulou who were always more than willing to answer my endless questions. At Drew University, I must also thank professor Liana Piehler, who’s Joy of Scholarly Writing Class got me off to such a fine start on this project. Additionally here at NJIT, I must thank Carla Guerriero for offering to help me proofread and deal with all those pesky commas and Dr. Darshan Desai for his unwavering technical assistance. Outside of the university, I must thank my Great-Aunt Velma Anderson, who so wisely saved her older brothers’ army trunk and those precious letters contained within. vi My Uncle, Clayton Waddington (Clayton Moore’s namesake) and my Aunt Sandy for also keeping safeguard over the trunk after Aunt Velma’s passing. Personal interviewees Mrs. Mable Waddington, Clayton’s younger sister and my beloved grandmother, and Mr. Paul Ray for their contributions. I should also like to thank the following institutions/ organizations: the American Philatelic Society, the Library of Congress, the Monmouth County Historical Society, the Newark Public Library, the New Jersey Historical Society, and the United States Army War College for providing me with undocumented primary source information, some while even under lockdown during the current Covid-19 pandemic (Greg Guderian at the Newark Public Library and James Amemasor at the New Jersey Historical Society.) Lastly, to Steven for threatening me if I didn’t finish, and to the gang at the Kilkenny Alehouse in Newark, you have been cheering me on the entire time. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii DEDICATION .....................................................................................................................v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................. viii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................1 CHAPTER TWO: AMERICAN CENSORSHIP AND THE GREAT WAR ...................23 CHAPTER THREE: AMERICAN ARMY CENSORSHIP DURING THE GREAT WAR ..................................................................................................................................65 CHAPTER FOUR: CLAYTON C. MOORE ..................................................................106 CHAPTER FIVE: AMERICAN CENSORSHIP POST THE GREAT WAR ................135 CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION ....................................................................................165 APPENDIX ......................................................................................................................171 BIBLOGRAPHY .............................................................................................................173 VITA ..............................................................................................................................190 viii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION “A fellow can’t write much or they will censor it and there won’t be much of a letter left.”1 The words of Clayton Moore, an American doughboy in France, who following his training, actively engaged in the self-censorship of his own writing. Two things make the level of censorship during World War One unique in America’s history. The vast and intrusive nature of said censorship, and the expansion of this censorship into peacetime America. The Great War ended just over 100 years ago and a vast number of histories of World War One have been written. However, it would be an incorrect assumption to think that there are not still many stories of the Great War that yet wait to be told. The great battles, the new military technologies, leading political figures, heroes and even villains have been written about extensively but the voices of the millions of average men who fought and died in the “war to make the world safe for democracy” still wait to be heard. 2 Their stories are the ones that speak of the true sacrifices made to ensure victory 1 Clayton C. Moore to Folks, 6 July 1918, in authors’ possession. 2 On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson went before a joint session of Congress to seek a Declaration of War against Germany in order that the world “be made safe for democracy.” Four days later, Congress voted to declare war, with six senators and fifty House members dissenting. Robert H. Ferrell, Woodrow Wilson and World War I 1917-1921 (Harper & Row Publishers, New York, NY 1985), 202. 1 2 for the United States and her Allies in Europe, and most of their stories still wait to be told. Herein lies a problem, how do we tell these stories, what sources can be used to tell the story of the average soldier in the battlefield? Personal letters written by and to a soldier are most helpful but it turns out that they do not reveal the whole story. In fact, they can twist the truth and paint a picture that almost totally glosses over the true horrors of the First World War. Why would this be? In a simple word, censorship. In the case of American soldiers who fought in the Great War, this censorship came from three main directions: official censorship by both