WISCONSIN 1 MAGAZINE OF 1 HISTORY 1

The State Historical Society of Wisconsin • Vol. 59, No. 1 • Autumn, 1975 H

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I THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN JAMES MORTON SMITH, Director Officers HOWARD W. MEAD, President GEORGE BANTA, JR., Honorary Vice-President JOHN C. GEILFUSS, First Vice-President F. HARWOOD ORBISON, Treasurer ROGER E. AXTELL, Second Vice-President JAMES MORTON SMITH, Secretary

Board of Curators Ex Officio PATRICK J. LUCEV, Governor of the State JOHN C. WEAVER, President of the University DOUGLAS J. LAFOLLETTE, Secretary of State MRS. DAVID S. FRANK, President of the CHARLES P. SMITH, State Treasurer Women's Auxiliary

Term Expires, 1976

THOMAS H. BARLAND MRS. EDWARD C. JONES HOWARD W. MEAD DONALD C. SLIGHTER Eau Claire Fort Atkinson Madison Milwaukee NATHAN S. HEFFERNAN MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES FREDERICK I. OLSON DR. Louts C. SMITH Madison Madison Wauwatosa Lancaster E. E. HOMSTAD CHARLES R. MCCALLUM F. HARWOOD ORBISON ROBERT S. ZIGMAN Black River Falls Hubertus Appleton Milwaukee Term Expires, 1977

ROGER E. AXTELL PAUL E. HASSETT ROBERT B. L. MURPHY MILO K. SWANTON Janesville Madison Madison Madison HORACE M. BENSTEAD WILLIAM HUFFMAN MRS. WM. H. L. SMYTHE CEDRIC A. VIG Racine Wisconsin Rapids Milwaukee Rhinelander REED COLEMAN WARREN P. KNOWLES WILLIAM F. STARK CLARK WILKINSON Madison Milwaukee Nashotah Baraboo Term Expires, 1978

E. DAVID CRONON BEN GUTHRIE LLOYD HORNBOSTEL, JR. FRANCIS PAUL PRUCHA, S.J, Madison Lac du Flambeau Beloit Milwaukee ROBERT A. GEHRKE MRS. R. L. HARTZELL ROBERT H. IRRMANN J. WARD RECTOR Ripon Grantsburg Beloit Milwaukee JOHN C. GEILFUSS MRS. WILLIAM E. HAYES JOHN R. PIKE CLIFFORD D. SWANSON Milwaukee De Pere Madison Stevens Point

Fellows VERNON CARSTENSEN MERLE CURTI ALICE E. SMITH

The Women's Auxiliary MRS. DAVID S. FRANK, Madison, President MRS. DONALD F. REINOEHL, Darlington, Treasurer MRS. DONALD R. STROUD, Madison, Vice-President MRS. GORDON R. WALKER, Racine, Ex Officio MRS. WADE H. MOSBY, Milwaukee, Secretary

ON THE COVER: Daguerreotype portrait of Lydia Chadwick Remsen Draper, wife of the secretary of the Slate Historical Society of Wisconsin, and her daughter Helen. Helen Draper's death in 1864 at the age of sixteen, and her apparent visitations from "the spirit world," helped to convert Lyman C. Ihaper from Baptism to Spiritualism. Volume 59, Number 1 / Autumn, 1975 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Published quarterly by the State Historical Society of Spiritualism in Wisconsin in the Nineteenth Century 3 Wisconsin, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Mary Farrell Bednarowski Distributed to members as part o£ their dues. (Annual member­ ship, ,$7.50, or $5 for those Truman and the Historians: over 65 or members of affiliated The Reconstruction of Postwar American History 20 societies; family membership, $10, or 17 for those over 65 or Robert Griffith members ot affiliated societies; contributing, $25; business and professional, $50; sustaining, Allied Relations in Iran, 1941-1947: |100 or more annually; patron, The Origins of a Cold War Crisis 51 $500 or more annually.) Single numbers $1.75. Microfilmed Eduard M. Mark copies available through University Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Book Reviews 64 Michigan 48106; reprint volumes available from Kraus Book Review Index Reprint Company, Route 100, 77 Millwood, New York 10546. Communications should be Wisconsin History Checklist 78 addressed to the editor. The Society does not assume Accessions 82 responsibility for statements made by contributors. Second- Contributors class postage paid at Madison and Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Copyright © 1975 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 ^ ^ vk- ^ J^ "t\ I^^IMJ'''^.^' Society's Iconograptiic Collection Lake Mills village green in the mid-1870's, a time when this small Jefferson County community was a regional center for Spirituali.sl activity. The photograpli xoas made by Andreas L. Dahl of De Forest. Spiritualism in Wisconsin in the Nineteenth Century

By Mary Farrell Bednarowski

T IS customary to designate 1859, ditional explanation for the origin of lan­ I the publication year of Charles guages—that they arose upon the destruction Darwin's Origin of Species, as the starting date of the Tower of Babel. The study of com­ of the religion-science conflict of the nine­ parative religions indicated that some of the teenth century. But the battle between the truths most basic to Christian tradition—the churches and science over the theories and im­ Creation, the Deluge, a Messiah of divine plications of evolution was merely a contin­ origin, the Resurrection—had foundations in uation of a struggle for autliority that had ancient pagan myths of pre-Christian times. been in existence, off and on, for centuries. And geological findings about the age of the Long before 1859—at the end of the eight­ earth caused doubt about the Creation ac­ eenth and in the beginning of the nineteenth count in Genesis. centuries—science had begun divesting the The result of all this scholarship was reli­ universe of its supernatural qualities and gious skepticism in nineteeth-century culture, calling into question the teachings of orthodox a gradual inability to believe in either the religion. Scholarship in such areas as arche­ divine origins of the universe or in the ef­ ology, anthropology, philology, comparative ficacy of adhering to organized religion. The religions, and geology led to doubts about possibility that science could render religion some of the truths of Christianity that be­ obsolete had a liberating effect on some per­ lievers had always taken for granted: the sons. Convinced that religion was based on creation of the world by a benevolent, omni­ superstition, and confident that, as Auguste potent God; the divinity of Christ; the sur­ Comte had predicted, religion would fade vival of the soul after death. away as a necessary human institution, there Higher Criticism—Biblical criticism based were those who happily accepted their place upon scientific methods—was undermining the in a materialist universe. But for many, what Bible, describing it as a collection of pious appeared to be the supplanting of religion writings, human in origin. Anthropological by science brought only suffering. Torn be­ and archeological studies revealed that man tween the desire to believe in a Supreme had lived on earth thousands of years previous Being and the equally strong need to probe to 6000-4000 B.C., the approximate date of and to analyze with the tools of science, many creation generally accepted in the Christian persons of the nineteenth century found them­ world. Studies in comparative literature ex­ selves in an agonizing intellectual dilemma. posed the Song of Solomon as an Oriental love It was their misfortune to live, as an English poem, and a fairly typical one at that. Ad­ historian put it, in one of those "trying per­ vances in philology cast suspicion on the tra­ iods of human history when devotion and

3 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975 intelligence appear to be opposed."' The old sister Leah Fish. As news of the rappings beliefs were crumbling, and there was nothing spread throughout the Middle Atlantic states with which to replace them except a horrible and New England, spirit circles^ began to suspicion that man was abandoned in an in­ spring up in great numbers. Hundreds of different universe, that "the grave appears people discovered that they, too, possessed to be the end of all, human goodness nothing the power to communicate with spirits, and but a name, and the sky above this universe the spirit manifestations began to increase in a dead expanse, black with the void from sophistication. The spirits not only rapped; which God himself has disappeared."^ they also moved furniture, played musical It was during the middle of the nineteenth instruments, and poked and pinched living century, in this climate of doubt and anxiety, members of the spirit circles. that American Spiritualism originated in For many the spirit manifestations bespoke 1848.5 In March of that year Margaret and nothing more than a novelty, a sensational Kate Fox, the young daughters of farmer kind of parlor entertainment. But as bizarre John Fox of Hydesville, in western New York, as the spirit phenomena may seem, they heard rappings and taps which came to be nevertheless came to be interpreted by thou­ interpreted as evidence that the spirits of sands as evidence that the spirits of the dead the dead were trying to contact the world of were trying to communicate with the world the living. Within months of the first rap­ of the living in order to reveal indisputably pings, Margaret and Kate were in Rochester, that life exists beyond the grave. The spirit New York, developing their spirit-contacting manifestations provided believers with the powers under the tutelage of their married physical, laboratory evidence whereby religion would be put on the same footing as science. ^ From James Anthony Froude, History of England Through the spirit messages, believers became from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish convinced that life went on beyond the grave Armada, as quoted in Walter E. Houghton, The Vic­ much as it did on earth and that the spirit torian Frame of Mind (New Haven, Connecticut, 1957), world, like the material world, was governed 106. by natural laws which mankind could come ^Stopford Brooke, Life and Letters of Frederic W. Robertson, quoted ibid., 86. to comprehend. This conviction led the ^ Certainly there was evidence of the belief in human Spiritualists to claim that theirs was a reli­ communication with spirits long before 1848, par­ gion "separate in all respects from any exist­ ticularly among the Shakers and the followers of Eman­ ing sects, because it bases all its affirmations uel Swedenborg. But the Spiritualists themselves date purely upon the demonstration of fact, sci­ the beginning of modern Spiritualism from 1848. There are several histories of Spiritualism available, ence, and natural law, a law which applies to although none is definitive. An older work is Frank the natural and to the supernatural worlds Podmore's Modern Spiritualism: A History and a alike."^ As a religion based on knowledge, Criticism (London, 1902); a more recent volume is then, rather than belief. Spiritualism provided Slater Brown's The Heyday of Spiritualism (New York, an alternative to the unquestioning faith de­ 1970), a clear, though nonscholarly and occasionally sen­ sationalist account of the history and background of manded by traditional religions as well as to nineteenth-century Spiritualism. Geoffrey Nelson treats the belief in a totally materialistic world British and American Spiritualism from a sociologi­ which was seemingly demanded by science. cal perspective in Spiritualism and Society (New York, 1969); Howard Hastings Kerr analyzes the influence There were only three tenets that were es- of Spiritualism on nineteenth-century American litera­ ture in Mediums and Spirit-Rappers and Roaring Radi­ cals (Chicago, 1972); the author's unpublished dis­ * Spirit circles were informal groups consisting of sertation interprets Spiritualism as an attempt to re­ a medium, or one who professed to have highly de­ solve the religion-science conflict of the nineteenth veloped psychic powers, and several followers, usually century. See Mary F. Bednarowski, "Nineteenth Cen­ not more than ten or twelve. Spiritualist periodicals tury American Spiritualism: An Attempt at a Scienti­ during the second half of the nineteenth century fic Religion" (Ph.D. disseration, University ot Min­ abounded with advice on the best physical and mental nesota, 1973). Another discussion of the connection conditions for harmonious spirit circles. between Spiritualism and science appears in R. Lau­ "Emma Hardinge Britten, Modern American Spir­ rence Moore, "Spiritualism and Science: Reflections itualism: A Twenty Years' Record of the Communion on the First Decade of the Spirit Rappings," in the Between Earth and the World of Spirits (New York, American Quarterly, 24: 474-500 (October, 1972). 1870), 17. .i'.. i < x.>. =^,-

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sential to Spiritualism: "First, that man has itualism had spread across the country, and a spirit; Second, that this spirit lives after there were spirit circles in every state of the death; Third, that -it can hold intercourse Union and in many of the territories as well. with human beings on earth."^ But from these basic beliefs there evolved a body of religious doctrine that offered its adherents ISCONSIN proved fertile a solution to the dilemma posed by the need w ground for nurturing of Spir­ to believe in an afterlife coupled with their itualism. Within twenty years of the Hydes- inability to accept the existence of life after death on the basis of faith alone. ' E. Branch Douglas estimates the number of Spir­ Because Spiritualism was always a loosely itualists at the height of the movement at one million, organized movement, the number of followers including all those who merely believed that the has never been determined exactly.'' Within spirit manifestations were genuine. See The Senti­ mental Years (New York, 1934), 366-379. In The several years of its beginnings, however, Spir- Burned-over District (Ithaca, New York, 1950), 349, Whitney Cross sets the count at one and a half mil­ « Nathaniel P. Tallmadge to the Editor of the Spir­ lion. In Modern American Spiritualism, Emma Har­ itual Telegraph, January 22, 1859, in the Nathaniel dinge Britten, a Spiritualist herself, states that there P. Tallmadge Papers (microfilm edition, 1973), State were eleven million Spiritualists in the United States Historical Society of Wisconsin. in 1867, but that number seems highly optimistic. WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975 ville rappings, spirit circles had sprung up mond, began her career as a child healer in in most cities of any size as well as in rural Lake Mills. Robert Schilling of Milwaukee, areas. There were regional organizations such German-American labor reformer and editor, as the Northwestern Wisconsin Spiritualists' became a Spiritualist in his later years, and Conference which held conventions in such Peter Houston of Cambria, inventor of many places as River Falls and Oshkosh and con­ of the attachments for the Eastman-Kodak ducted summer camps at Omro similar to camera, was a Spiritualist.^ Ella Wheeler the famous resort meetings at Lilydale in Wilcox was a Spiritualist during part of her western New York. Spiritualists held regu­ life, as is evidenced by much of her poetry. larly scheduled church services in Milwaukee, Assessing accurately the number of Spir­ Madison, Janesville, Fond du Lac, and Ap­ itualists in Wisconsin in the nineteenth cen­ pleton. A newspaper, the Spiritualist, was tury is difficult for several reasons. First, published for almost a year during 1868 in there is a dearth of objective information Appleton and Janesville. The only Spiritu­ about the movement. Newspapers frequently alist college in the nation, the Morris Pratt give information about the more sensational Institute, was built in Whitewater in 1888, side of Spiritualism—news about the perform­ flourishing there, and later in Milwaukee, ances of various mediums, discoveries of well into the twentieth century. Until 1972, frauds, and other scandals connected with when the organization moved to Cassadaga, Spiritualism. They also published routine Florida, the National Spiritualist Association notices of Spiritualist church services and of of Churches had its headquarters in Milwau­ meetings and conventions in various parts of kee. And to this day Spiritualists gather in the state. the summer for lectures, seances, and healings However, popular newspapers generally in the small town of Wonewoc in Juneau adopted a hostile attitude toward Spiritualism, County.* and the Milwaukee Sentinel especially took The state boasts famous and respected cit­ an editorial stance that regarded Spiritualism izens who espoused the new belief. Ex- as at best ridiculous and at worst dangerous governor Nathaniel P. Tallmadge was an to mental, physical, and spiritual health. The ardent believer in and defender of Spiritu­ Sentinel noted the advent of the movement alism, as were Warren Chase, founder of in Milwaukee in 1851 at the home of a Mr. Ceresco, the Fourierist community at Ripon, Loomis, probably John M. Loomis of the and Lyman C. Draper of the State Historical Clarke and Loomis lumber firm. In the same Society of Wisconsin. One of Spiritualism's issue a Milwaukee liquor firm. True and Hoyt, most famous trance speakers, Cora L. V. Rich- took advantage of this news to key an adver­ tisement to puns on "spirits," who, "by their continual knockings . . . have succeeded in ' There is no general history ot Spiritualism in Wis­ knocking out the bung of a cask of Brandy, consin, but, perhaps due to the interests and influence and we are informed by its spirit to be the of Lyman C. Draper, the State Historical Society of Wisconsin has an extensive collection of material on best in the State." Two weeks later the Spiritualism. In addition to numerous books, its hold­ Sentinel scoffed at a report of rappings in ings include folders of pamphlets; files of the Shekinah, Plymouth Congregational Church of which Spirit Messenger, Tiffany's Monthly, and other Spir­ John J. Miter was minister. And on July 12, itualist periodicals; the annual proceedings ot the National Conference of Spiritualists; relevant manu­ 1851, it prematurely predicted that "the script collections such as the Tallmadge Papers, the 'Knocking' humbug seems to be at its last Draper Correspondence, the James C. Howard Papers, gasp."^" the John S. Williams Papers, the Ada L. James Papers, the Joseph Sprague Correspondence, the Simon Sherman Reminiscences, and letters from George White ' Myfanwy Morgan Archer, "Wisconsin Man Inven­ to Richard Stoughton and from Konrad Meidenbauer tor of Folding Film Roll Kodak Features," in the to his brother. In addition, the Milwaukee Sentinel, Wisconsin Magazine of History, 16: 237 (March, 1933). unlike virtually all other Wisconsin newspapers, has Archer adds that Houston used to make frequent been indexed for much of the nineteenth century visits to John Muir's Hickory Hill Farm, where the two (1837 to 1879), and the index may be consulted at men would fall into "heated wrangling" about the the Milwaukee Public Library for references to Spir­ tenets of Spiritualism. itualist activities throughout the state. ^"Milwaukee Sentinel, January 3, January 14, July BEDNAROWSKI: SPIRITUALISM IN WISCONSIN

Letters, diaries, periodicals, articles, ser­ manifestations gave promise of revealing in­ mons, biographies, and autobiographies writ­ disputable knowledge about the existence of ten by the Spiritualists themselves reveal the life after death and that they thus could put motivations of those who espoused the new an end to the religious skepticism and despair belief and the degree and nature of their in­ of the period. Among the first to see the volvement with it. With puch sources as these, religious significance of the spirit phenomena of course, it is necessary to go cautiously in was Judge John Worth Edmonds of the State order to gain objective evidence from ardent Supreme Court of New York, a convert to believers. Spiritualism who was influential in the de­ The statistical evidence is difficult to deal velopment of many Wisconsin Spiritualists, with also. In 1859 the Sentinel quoted the particularly Nathaniel P. Tallmadge,'^ who Spiritual Register's state-by-state membership became convinced of the truth of Spiritualism statistics. The Register lists 70,000 Spiritu­ when he attended seances in Washington, alists in Wisconsin in 1859 and 80,000 in D.C, conducted by Margaret and Kate Fox. 1860.11 Since the population of Wisconsin Edmonds had been drawn to seances while was 775,881 in 1860, 80,000 behevers, more attempting to deal with his overwhelming than 10 per cent, seems excessive. Coupled grief after the death of his wife. Edmonds to this is the fact that Spiritualists notoriously needed to believe in a life hereafter, but overestimated the number of their followers could not do so through faith alone. From and often included those who merely believed his point of view Spiritualism offered the only the spirit phenomena to be genuine but who consolation in a world which demanded a did not engage in Spiritualist activities. On choice between the certain knowledge offered the other hand, the census of 1890, the first in by science and the consolations of religion: which denominations reported membership, shows that there were 354 Spiritualists in Wis­ If it [Spiritualism] had, as it seemed to have, a most intimate connection with our consin. This number seems quite low in view religious faith, it was worth while to in­ of the fact that in 1895 there were four Spir­ quire what effect it was to have in that itualist organizations, including one German- respect, and whether it was addressed most speaking group, in Milwaukee alone.^^ to those who already professed some reli­ gious sect, or to that still greater number who made no such professions and had no T just about the time that the such connection. My intercourse with the A Milwaukee Sentinel was proph­ world had taught me that most of the edu­ esying the end of Spiritualism in 1851, it cated and intelligent among the people be­ began to be apparent to some that the spirit longed to the latter class, and I found that many, very many, secretly felt as I did. They had heard and read so many contra­ 12, 1851. Along with its news articles the Sentinel dictory statements, that they hardly knew frequently included editorial remarks. Even the re­ porting of a simple announcement occasioned a snide 12 Wisconsin Blue Book, 1864, pp. 192-193; Com­ comment: the Sentinel reported that the Spiritualists pendium of the nth Census: 1890, p. 305; Milwaukee would have a "Pic-Nic" in Elm Grove and added, City Directory, 1895, p. 54. "However prone they may be to commune with the " Tallmadge made public his belief in Spiritualism soul, we presume they will go in a body," August 14, when he defended Judge Edmonds from a published 1862. anonymous attack. He was a frequent visitor to Judge '^^ Milwaukee Sentinel, February 7, February 9, 1860. Edmonds' home in New York City, where he attended The February 7, 1859, issue also includes the com­ seances ot the judge's spirit circle, the Circle ot Hope. ment, "If the Register will now tell us in blazing Tallmadge also wrote an appendix to Judge Edmonds' numerals, how many wretches have lost their reason- two-volume work, Spiritimlism, in which he recounted how many have been hurried into eternity by suicide his own experiences. Tallmadge's wife and children and murderous hands—how many families havC been espoused Spiritualism also, and two ot his daughters separated—how many wives sent adrift upon the developed powers as psychics; according to Emma streams of infamy—how many husbands wrecked, men­ Hardinge Britten, they knew of the death of John tally and morally, and how many are now eking out, Macy, a prominent Fond du Lac businessman who a life in our humane institutions—all through the drowned when the Niagara burned off Port Washing­ agency of Spiritualism—we shall look upon the sta­ ton in 1856, a day before the news reached Fond du tistics as ot infinitely greater importance." Lac. WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975

what to believe on that most momentous vidual after death. This failure of other of all subjects, the life after death.^^ religions led Mason to pursue Spiritualism. This dual hope—that the spirits might pro­ In 1869 Mason explained his views to Lyman vide certainty about the existence of God and Copeland Draper, secretary of the State His­ of a life after death—is a constant theme in the torical Society. Draper had become attracted writings of Wisconsin Spiritualists in the nine­ to Spiritualism in 1868 because of the death teenth century. It became especially prevalent of loved ones and because he hoped to unravel during the Civil War era, when premature historical mysteries by coinmunicating with deaths touched the lives of thousands, and deceased principals in notable events. Mason the problems of coping with being widowed wrote Draper: "I began my investigation of or orphaned or rendered childless attracted this subject more than ten years ago mostly many to Spiritualism. At the very beginning for the reason that the dogmatic teachings of the decade, John Dean of Portage City of the modern church were so notoriously in wrote about his experiences—experiences that collision with the . . . doctrines of the indi­ were to become familiar throughout the state vidual sciences that I found myself adrift during the rest of the 1860's. He answered and gradually sinking into a hopeless ma­ an inquiry put to him by his father-in-law, terialism. I was glad to fall upon the founda­ James Corydon Howard of Milwaukee. Dean tions of a positive faith—a faith supported had attended several seances in the fall of by reason—that faith I recognize in Spiritu­ 1860, and he claimed that he was "as ignorant alism." In spite of his feelings about organized as any novice can well be; and yet I now, as religion. Mason cautioned Draper not to be ever since last fall, feel so much interest in hasty about severing his ties with his church the subject, that I still wish to enquire if (in Draper's case the Baptist church in which there is anything in sound reason and philos­ he was a deacon). He stated that if he were ophy upon which to found such a system." Draper, "I should insist on my right to look Dean mentions that he did not believe that into these things and not until I felt as a manifestation he saw at a neighbor's was though the Church was unduly restraining my genuine because the room in which it occur­ liberty would I take myself out of an organ­ red was dark. But he strikes the familiar note ization which I found heretofore so profit­ that religion is useless because one cannot able."^"^ Perhaps this kind of social awareness know for certain if its truths are real: "The led to Mason's being supported for the presi­ human mind, (or spirit) supposed to be a dency of the Wisconsin Spiritualists, for which part of the Great Father of Spirits, is so con­ he was favored because of his "good standing stituted, or constructed, that it may be said in the community."*'' to be impossible to prove, or disprove anything The poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox, who sought of a spiritual or religious nature, except by answers in Spiritualism, Theosophy, and New faith alone. We say we believe, or we do not Thought, felt dismay as a child that her family believe, yet we prove, nor disprove nothing, expressed no great interest in the things of merely because we have no tangible evi- the spirit: "I heard the grown-ups talking dence."^^ For John Dean the spirits repre­ in an agnostic manner about things spiritual. sented at least the possibility of obtaining I recollect just how crude and limited their this tangible evidence. R. T. Mason, a prominent Appleton Spir­ " R. T. Mason to Lyman C. Draper, January 17, itualist, echoed the conviction that religion 1869, in Box 17 of the Draper Correspondence, Ar­ chives-Manuscripts Division, State Historical Society had failed to provide humanity with any cer­ of Wisconsin. Draper did not take Mason's advice; tain answer about what becomes of the indi- he began to stay away from church services and "de­ clined telling" the minister his reason. Finally Draper wrote a letter to the First Baptist Church explaining "John Worth Edmonds and George Dexter, M.D., his views and withdrawing from the congregation. (eds.), Spiritualism (4th ed., New York, 1853), 1: 7-8. The Baptists waited two months, hoping that Draper "James Corydon Howard from John Dean, April 28, would change his mind, before they expelled him. 1861, in the James Corydon Howard Papers, Box 3, " H. S. Brown, M.D., to Lyman C. Draper, May Archives-Manuscripts Division, State Historical Society 22, May 26, August 2, 1869, in the Draper Correspond- of Wisconsin, BEDNAROWSKI: SPIRITUALISM IN WISCONSIN

minds seemed to me and in my heart was such a soft wonderful feeling of faith and KNOWLEDGE of worlds beyoud this world." As she grew older the poet concluded that her family was not "atheistical," but rather "too advanced intellectually to accept the old eternal brimstone idea of hell and the eternal psalm-singing idea of heaven; it refused to accept the story of the recent formation of the earth, knowing science had proof of its vast antiquity; ... so the Wheeler family was regarded as heretical by church people."'** Ella Wheeler Wilcox considered her family typical of those whose progressive minds had outgrown the dictates of traditional re­ ligion and could not accept evidence of the existence of the spiritual world without scientific proof. Even those who did not espouse Spiritu­ alism or believe that spirit phenomena were genuine sympathized with the dilemma which the New Revelation was attempting to solve. As a young teacher in 1876 and 1877, Charles Van Hise boarded with a Spiritualist family at Union, Wisconsin, in Rock County. In a letter to a friend he recounted some of the Spiritualists' beliefs, particularly those that opposed organized religion, and went on to say, "It is hard to tell what to believe when one says, 'believe thus and so' or you will suffer everlasting tortures, another that you will live and be happy in the hereafter, and another that this world is the last of life. They are all sure that theirs is the true doc- tine, and great men are among each. ... I have been thinking of this for 2 or 3 years, and I am no nearer to a solution of the mystery than I was at first."'^

HE great antipathy on the part T of Spiritualists toward organized religion, combined with their desire to uphold certain religious beliefs—chiefly that the soul and personality of the individual survived Society's Iconographic Collection the death of the body and could return to Ella Wheeler Wilcox. earth to communicate with the living—re-

" Ella Wheeler Wilcox, The Worlds and I (New York, 1918), 66. " "Letters of Charles Richard Van Hise," in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, 24: 191 (December, 1940). WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMNj 1975 suited in a body of religious tenets that can accurately be called radical in contrast to contemporary prevailing beliefs. The Spir­ itualists claimed that the mainstream religions had gone astray for a variety of reasons: their insistence on a vengeful, punishing God; a corrupt, hypocritical clergy who terrorized their flocks into belief with threats of eternal damnation; blind acceptance of the Bible as the only source of divine revelation; hypoc­ risy and lack of Christian love on the part of church members for their fellow persons. Warren Chase, founder of Ceresco, the Fourier community at Ripon, and a champion of radical causes all his life, was a particularly harsh critic of organized religion. Chase traveled extensively in Wisconsin, Illinois, and the eastern states during the 1850's and 1860's giving lectures on "Phrenology, Phys­ iology, Geology, Temperance, Land Reform, and other subjects." He claimed that he did not accept pay until "the autumn of '52, when most other business was dispensed with, and the dispensation of our new gospel [Spir­ itualism] absorbed his time, and he entered the field as a lecturer, mainly on spirit life and intercourse, and the philosophy of that life and our intercourse with it.''^" Like many others who experimented with spirit circles in the early 1850's, Chase and his friends in Fond du Lac and Ripon did not immediately succeed in establishing con­ Society's Iconographic Collection tact with the spirit world. In fact, it was six Warren Chase, Spiritualist and founder of the Fourier- months before the members of Chase's circle ite community at Ceresco. were able to produce raps, and then only through the mediumship of a young Presby­ suffered a great deal of ridicule from the terian woman.^' Chase reported that at this Christians of the area for persisting in at­ meeting he felt raps all over his body dealt tempts to contact spirits. But Chase spoke by the spirits of his two dead sons. Accord­ out just as strongly, making it clear that the ing to Chase, he and his fellow Spiritualists Christians were the misguided ones: "Fools! what do you go weekly for years to the church '^ Warren Chase, The Life-Line of the Lone One or for, and never find God, nor any sign that Autobiography of the World's Child (Boston, 1857), there is God, except those that the infidel 170. Chase refers to himself in the third person has in common with you, in nature?"^^ Chase throughout the book, frequently as the Lone One. loathed the claim of supremacy by adherents In addition to his interest in Spiritualism, Chase was of particular religions or philosophies, and he a vegetarian, a teetotaler, and an advocate ot women's rights. He was the Free Soil candidate for governor could not tolerate it even in those whose views of Wisconsin in 1850 and served in the Wisconsin were similar to his. He criticized even fellow legislature and as a member of both Wisconsin con­ Spiritualists: "It must be amusing to minds stitutional conventions. whose development has carried them far out­ '^ Ibid., 174. The young lady was convinced by her side any of us, to watch each author of a family and her religious superiors that the spirit phenomena were produced by the Devil, and she abandoned her activities as a medium. '•^ Idem. 10 BEDNAROWSKI: SPIRITUALISM IN WISCONSIN system of creation, as he gathers around him for its truths by reason and science and history, a little class of kindred minds, and teaches and these will utterly ruin its claim to them that his is the great Divine law of crea­ authenticity."2^ tion by which God has unfolded power in An even more vehement critic of the Bible a universe. . . ."^^ In connection with Chase's than Chase was Robert Schilling, an acquaint­ criticism of traditional Christianity, he was ance of Chase who converted to Spiritualism convinced that the institution of marriage in his later years. Like Chase, Schilling was greatly needed reform and that women suf­ interested in a variety of reforms. He pub­ fered most from the institution.^^ Chase re­ lished the National Reformer, a Greenback counted the story of Mrs. P. of Milwaukee, German-language paper in Milwaukee, and "one of nature's noble women," who divorced he also ran a nursing dairy. Schilling wrote her husband, to whom she had been unhap­ a tract denouncing the Bible and the Spir­ pily married, after he deserted her and their itualists who believed in it. He quoted three children. Mrs. P. remarried, but her Leviticus: "A man or also a woman that second husband died within a few weeks. "Of hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, course," wrote Chase, "it was not the duty shall surely be put to death." And he ex­ of any Christian to aid or comfort her, for claimed in amazement, "There are Spiritu­ she had broken their sacred tie of legal mar­ alists who want to pray to a being that riage; and they not only let her suffer, but issues such orders!" Schilling also made fun heaped slander on her with their scorn, . . . of another line from the Bible: "Thy king­ and thus she had all against her except the dom come. Thy will be done, on earth as few Spiritualists who alone respected, appre­ it is in heaven." Schilling insisted that "if ciated, and sympathized with her. . . ." Be­ God cannot establish his kingdom (whatever cause of his stand on marriage, Warren Chase, that may mean), or have his will done on like many other Spiritualists, was accused of earth after being asked to do so every day advocating free love; but he claimed about by his Christian followers for 1900 years, I marriage that he "never did advocate its am sorry for him. He certainly cannot claim abolition, nor did he even believe it could to be omnipotent."^'^ For both Schilling and be dispensed with; but he advocated those Chase, the Bible symbolized the servitude of changes already alluded to [chiefly divorce], the established churches to corruption and with a release of all the sufferers, without superstition—a servitude fostered by the public scorn, as a consequence of freedom, clergy. as it now is, for women."^^ In order to emphasize their distaste for Chase criticized further what he considered organized religion. Spiritualists sometimes in­ the idolatrous devotion to the Bible by or­ terrupted church services. On one occasion ganized Christian churches. He claimed that in 1851 the Sunday service at the Spring this blind acceptance of Biblical teachings kept the human mind bound by the chains * Warren Chase, Forty Years on the Spiritual Ros­ of superstition, and that "there can be little trum (Boston, 1888), 45. progress in a human mind till this idol is ^ "Spiritualism and the Bible," in the Schilling given up to reason and criticism, and tried Papers, ,4rchives-Manuscripts Division, State Histori­ cal Society of Wisconsin. Although most Spiritualists opposed institutional religion, they were not all anti- Christian or anti-Bible. Charles Beecher, tor example, '^ Warren Chase, "What and Where Are We?" in son of Henry Ward Beecher, was convinced that one Shekinah, 3: 65-67 (1853). could in good conscience be a Christian Spiritualist. '^ Almost from the beginning of their movement, See Spiritual Manifestations (Boston, 1879). John Spiritualists were accused of loose living because of Shoebridge Williams, an Ohio Spiritualist (the State their stand on marriage and divorce. An excellent Historical Society ot Wisconsin has box after box of explanation ot the Spiritualist idea ot "free love" and his writings), claimed that the "exact sciences" were marriage appears in a pamphlet by Lizzie Doten, a to direct man in relation to the needs ot the body Spiritualist poet and trance speaker, who distinguishes and that the Bible was "to give him equal certainty between "tree love" and "free lust." See "Free Love in relation to his mental developments, involving his and Affinity: A Discourse Delivered Under Spirit eternal progress and everlasting happiness. . . ." See Influence at the Melodean" (Boston, 1867). Spiritual Manifestations: Creations, Subversions, Re­ '^ Chase, Life-Line of the Lone One, 192, 194. demptions and Harmonies (Boston, 1854), 1: 1.

11 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN^ 1975

Street Congregational Church in Milwaukee most part, opposed Spiritualism and accused was disrupted by a woman who walked to the new sect of fostering fraud and mental the pulpit while the minister was leading the instability. The clergy was inclined, if it final hymn. The pastor, J. G. Wilson, asked gave the spirit phenomena any credence at the woman to leave, and she walked away all, to attribute them to the workings of the "with her lips mumbling some unknown Devil. In 1899 the Reverend A. H. Barring- tongue." The story appeared in the Milwau­ ton of Janesville put forth his views on Spir­ kee Sentinel, and the reporter added to it a itualism, and also on Christian Science and rumor that the woman intended to pay sim­ Theosophy, in a book called Anti-Christian ilar visits to all the churches in Milwaukee. Cults. The book had an introduction by The woman's husband, J. D. Spaulding, de­ Isaac Lea Nicholson, who was then Episcopal nied this, however, claiming in a letter to bishop of Milwaukee. Nicholson called the the editor that his wife had been under spirit book an attempt to prevent the widespread influence when she visited the Spring Street delusion of the public "by the many talkers, church and that she had no further plans for the magicians of every degree—great and disrupting services.^^ small—male and female—who ... do most Debates between Spiritualists and clergy egregiously fool the people, lead many weak frequently occurred in the battle between the and unstable Christian folk away from the new and old revelations. Reports of them old faith, aside from the rough and narrow appeared fairly often in The Spiritualist, the path." Barrington called Spiritualism "noth­ newspaper published in Appleton and Janes­ ing but useless and profitless imposition, ville during 1868. Joseph Baker, editor of deceit, and trickery, accompanied by most The Spiritualist, criticized George M. Steele, mercenary motives." He chastised Spiritual­ president of Lawrence College, for refusing ists for trying to look into the unknown and to take part in just such a debate. Steele ap­ admonislied his readers to "walk by faith parently had criticized Spiritualism in a bac­ through life." Barrington was convinced that calaureate sermon, claiming that all the good Spiritualism, like the other trappings of the in the world had been accomplished by reli­ occult—oracles, amulets, charms, potions, rel­ gion and that Spiritualism had yet to dem­ ics, etc.—was part of the Devil's plan to bring onstrate its effectiveness. Baker countered humanity under his power: "If there can with a criticism of his own: "You admit the be anything supernormal in Spiritualism . . . importance of this subject or you wouldn't it is due not to communication with the have mentioned us. Having thus attacked you spirits of our ble.s.sed dead, but to evil spirits, cannot now resort to the usual dodge of silence to demons who are evidently lying in wait without virtually admitting that you dare to deceive."^" not or cannot meet the Spiritualists in a fair Not all clergy, however, totally opposed discussion." The Spiritualist engaged in on­ Spiritualism. The Reverend John James going criticism of Lawrence College, denying Elmendorf, a professor of theology at Racine that the institution had any right to call it­ College, sympathized with the Spiritualists' self "liberal." In a related incident The request that science investigate spirit phe­ Spiritualist offered to print the commence­ nomena to learn what laws govern their ex­ ment address of a young man who was pre­ istence. In an article in the Transactions of vented from graduating because lie refused the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and to alter the address, called by Baker "an ora­ Letters, Elmendorf proceeded very cautiously, tion of high order," according to the wishes insisting that he was not introducing the­ of the college president.^^ ological discussions into the concerns of the Academy. But he stated that science should not ignore the investigation of obviously OT surprisingly, the established sensible phenomena just because they seemed N clergy in Wisconsin, for the contrary to existing laws. He added that "the

'^Milwaukee Sentinel, January 31, February 6, 1851. " A. H. Barrington, Anti-Christian Culls (Milwau­ '^The Spiritualist, November 9, June 11, 1868. kee, 1899), 3-4, 20-58.

12 BEDNAROWSKI: SPIRITUALISM IN WISCONSIN facts related in connection with what is called make temporary laws for a certain age of the 'spiritualism,' if they were duly attested," world and discontinue these throughout suc­ might furnish "a very striking example" of ceeding generations."^^ a law of nature which has_ not yet been in­ It is ironic that, although Spiritualism is vestigated or discovered. Like the Spiritual­ typically classified as an occult religion, the ists, Elmendorf speculated about the connec­ Spiritualists themselves vehemently denied tion between "force" and "spirit," and, in that this was true. Theirs was a scientific re­ contrast to the unbending attitude of most ligion, totally dissociated from the mysterious of his clerical colleagues, claimed that as re­ or the hidden. But it Spiritualists denied an gards the existence of spirit beings, "I have association with what people generally be­ the right to employ it as a hypothesis."^"^ lieved to the be the occult, nonetheless many Despite the continuing battle between Spir­ Spiritualists engaged in occult activities: itualism and the churches. Spiritualists never­ trance speaking, automatic writing, healing, theless were able to perceive progress in the various kinds of character analysis such as development of religion. Warren Chase com­ phrenology and psychometry, and predictions mented that Protestants overcame the "super­ about the future. To the Spiritualist, of stition, folly and idolatry" of Catholicism; course, these were not occult, but rather sci­ Methodists threw out the "pompous cere­ entific activities, based on natural laws and monies" of the Church of England; and Uni- forces as yet unknown. But such activities, versalists preached the foolishness of teaching and the publicity which attended them, were love of a God who damned his children. no doubt responsible for the general public Chase believed that the next step in the opinion of Spiritualism in both the nineteenth evolution of religion would be to de-super- and twentieth centuries—that it was and is naturalize it completely, to make religion a a cultish religion, if indeed a religion at all, non-institution, free of dogma, clergy, and perpetrated by the fraudulent and embraced hierarchy. The spirit phenomena would make by the gullible. And it was these more sen­ this possible through their revelation of par­ sational activities which accounted for Spir­ allel sets of natural laws which governed both itualism's obscurity as a religion. the material and the spiritual worlds. If nat­ One of the best known of the Spiritualist ural law were universal, governing both heav­ activities, the seance, played a two-edged role en and earth, then there could be no talk of in Spiritualism. Seances provided the theo­ "miracles" or of supernatural occurrences that logical basis for Spiritualism, but with their remained forever unexplainable to lay per­ dubious and sometimes admittedly fraudulent sons—and left them at the mercy of a clergy goings-on, seances produced much of the that arrogated to itself the power to under­ damaging publicity afforded Spiritualism. A stand or to interpret such things. The com­ good example of the more spectacular and munitarian reformer Robert Dale Owen, who, theatrically oriented seance occurred during like others, turned to Spiritualism in his later the 1861 visit to Milwaukee of the Daven­ years, was convinced that the world eventual­ port brothers, two nationally known mediums ly would reject the supernatural in favor of whose career was managed by their father. the natural, the explainable, the scientific. As customary, the senior Davenport invited Owen wrote in 1872 that he expected to see reporters to a preview of his sons' perform­ a "change from belief in the exceptional and ance. During this display, the brothers were the miraculous to a settled conviction that "controlled" by the spirit of the pirate Henry it does not enter into God's economy, as man­ Morgan and his accompanying band of twenty ifested in His works, to operate here except spirits. One of these spirits hovered over the mediately, through the instrumentality of natural laws; or to suspend or change these laws on special occasions; or, as men do, to ^ Robert Dale Owen, The Debatable Land Between This World and the Next (New York, 1872), 175. For an excellent discussion ot Robert Dale Owen as a '^John James Elmendorf, S.T.D., "Nature and the Spiritualist, see Richard William Leopold, Robert Supernatural," Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy Dale Owen: A Biography (Cambridge, Massachusetts, of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, 5: 66-70 (1877). 1940).

13 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975

Brown, The Heyday of Spiritualism Milwaukee journalists expressed doubt that the Davenport Brothers were freed from their bonds and cabinet by spirits. spirit cabinet, a kind of box in which the generally unfavorable. There followed an ex­ boys were placed, tightly bound. The news­ change of letters to the editor concerning the papermen were invited to inspect the box validity of the Davenports' performance. A and to help tie up the brothers, which they Milwaukee bookkeeper, Albert Morton, who did. After a suitable length of time had frequently defended Spiritualism under the elapsed, the Davenports emerged from the pen name "Justice," responded to the cri­ cabinet, supposedly set loose by the spiiits. ticism of the musical selection: "... I should Accompanying the performance were spirit- prefer converting people to a rational belief played renditions of "Yankee Doodle" and in a future life even by the 'dulcet strains "Pop Goes the Weasel." One of the reporters of "Yankee Doodle,'" than to force them into commented that the performance was "amus­ a belief in my doctrine by holding before them ing" and "inexplicable," but hardly proof of a threat of unutterable torment."^'' spiritual agency. Skeptically, he expressed his wish to apply a red-hot pincers to the "spirit" which materialized above the cabi­ EALING after the fashion of net.^ H Franz Anton Mesmer, the dis­ While the reporters attending the Daven­ coverer of animal magnetism, was another ports' seances were less critical than usual typical Spiritualist activity that invited criti­ about Spiritualist activities, the Milwaukee cism, or at least scorn. Among the more fa­ Sentinel still printed critiques which were mous of the Spiritualist healers was Cora L.

^Milwaukee Sentinel, December 9, 1861. '•^Ibid., January 18, 1862. 14 BEDNAROWSKI: SPIRITUALISM IN WISCONSIN

V. Scott (known at various times by the names of her three husbands: Hatch, Tappan, and Richmond). In 1851 Cora Scott began her healing career at the age of eleven. Her parents were acquainted with Spiritualism and had lived for a time in Adin Ballou's Hope- •^^^^^y- dale community in Massachusetts. In 1850 they moved to a farm near Lake Mills, in r-. western Jefferson County, Wisconsin, an area that was soon to become notable for a var­ iety of Spiritualist activities. Cora Scott's Image suppressed first spirit experience occurred when spirits completed a school composition for her by pending copyright means of automatic writing. Soon after, Cora clearance developed the ability to diagnose illnesses while in trance under the control of the spirit of a German doctor. Apparently she was suc­ cessful, for (it was claimed) she "aroused the antagonism of the regular physicians and clergymen in the neighborhood. The former were without patients and the latter lacked audiences. . . . That village in Wisconsin soon became the center of a spiritual circle that had greater power than all the professionals taken together."^^ xhis assertion is difficult Britten, Modern American Spiritualism to prove or disprove, since primary docu­ Cora L. V. Scott, whose long career in Spiritualism ments about Cora Scott's career are rare and began during her childhood in Lake Mills. no newspapers published in or near Lake tation from the Holy Spirit, or the Power, Mills during her childhood are known to have as she called it, on a night when she had re­ survived. Cora Scott remained a Spiritualist fused to go with some of her family to one throughout her life, but she pursued her of Cora Scott's "test-meetings." On this eve­ career, for the most part, in New York, Chi­ ning Mrs. Hayes Chynoweth was brought to cago, and San Francisco until her death in her knees in the kitchen by an unknown force, 1923. and she began speaking in tongues. She was Because she left Wisconsin as a child, it then lifted off her feet and inspired to open was not Cora Scott but rather her grammar the Bible and point to certain passages. She school teacher, Mary Hayes Chynoweth, who claimed that she knew very little about the assumed the leadership of Spiritualist activi­ Bible: "The way everybody quoted Scripture, ties in the Lake Mills-Whitewater-Madison and then put different constructions to suit area. Mary Hayes Chynoweth was Cora Scott's themselves, prejudiced me so that I discon­ teacher at the time of Cora's first spirit visita­ tinued reading it; dogmas always repelled me." tion. Her first reaction to the news was dis­ Nevertheless Mrs. Hayes Chynoweth was in­ approval; she was suspicious of Spiritualism spired to point to the account of Pentecost and was afraid that Cora Scott had been pos­ and the list of the gifts given by the Holy sessed by a devil. She received her first visi- Spirit to the Apostles. Her father asked, "Do you mean it was appointed that my daughter ""^ Harrison D. Barrett, Life Work of Mrs. Cora L. do all this?" The answer was yes.^^ V. Richmond (Chicago, 1895), 8-9. For an informative discussion of Cora L. V. Scott's lite as a medium, see " Louisa Johnson Clay, The Spirit Dominant: A R. Laurence Moore, "The Spiritualist Medium: A Life of Mary Hayes Chynoweth (San Jose, California, Study of Female Professionalism in Victorian America," n.d.), 47-48. Louisa Johnson Clay wrote the biography in the American Quarterly, 27: 200-221 (May, 1975). in thanksgiving tor the cure of her mother by Mary Moore mentions a man named Daniels as another of Hayes Chynoweth, a factor which no doubt influenced Cora Scott's husbands. her viewpoint.

15 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975

This first visitation resulted in a career that tract of land in Bayfield County and not to spanned the rest of Mary Hayes Chynoweth's sell until they couM get $5,000 for it. Next, life, from the early 1850's until her death the Power instructed the Hayes brothers to in California in 1905. She preached and look for iron ore. They found it in abun­ healed and held seances; and she used her dance, and, along with their mother, became spirit powers to give personal as well as the owners and operators of the Hayes Min­ financial advice to her relatives and followers. ing Company, the Harmony Iron Company, She seems to have been a Christian Spiritu­ and the Hayes-Chynoweth Company. The alist, though, as she said, dogma repelled her. basis of the family success was the Germania Unlike most Spiritualists, she claimed that her Mine, one of the deepest on the Gogebic power was derived from the Holy Spirit rather Range. The Ashland Daily Press Annual for than from the spirits of the dead. But, on 1891-1892 claimed that "it was very largely the other hand, her letters and writings re­ due to the unflinching faith and energy of veal that she believed that spirits did com­ Mrs. Hayes Chynoweth and her sons" that municate with the living. In a letter to Mr. the lower levels of the mine were opened up. and Mrs. Lyman Draper she claimed that Whether this "unflinching faith" was based she was never alone, "and it is lively comfort on instructions from the spirit Power, or to know our spirit friends are with us— What whether the mining successes were due to the a life of unhappiness and misery this must be business acumen and good luck of the Hayes to those who have no confidence in our spir­ brothers, there is insufficient evidence to itual philosophy."^'' prove.^' Whatever the exact nature of her theolog­ By 1887 Mary Hayes Chynoweth and her ical beliefs, Mary Hayes Chynoweth fol­ sons had taken up residence in California, lowed her preaching mission throughout where they had lived for several years in the south-central Wisconsin, to "East and West early 1870's. They built an estate at Eden Troy, Columbus, Muckwanago, Milton Junc­ Vale near San Jose, where Mrs. Hayes Chy­ tion, Whitewater, Jefferson, and other places," noweth founded the True Life Church, of all of them convenient to Lake Mills and Wa­ which her son Everis Anson was a lay min­ terloo, where her two sons were born in 1855 ister until his death in 1942. The church and 1857. By the time the two sons, Everis seems to have been Spiritualist in nature with Anson and Jay O. Hayes, were completing emphasis on healing; but, according to Clara law school at the University of Wisconsin, Lyon Hayes, her mother-in-law "had invented Mary Hayes Chynoweth was firmly established no new doctrine or theory of religion, she as a healer and a clairvoyant, and she was had simply lived and expounded the prin­ well known in the Madison area. There she ciples of truth that have been from everlast­ engaged in seances with judges, doctors, law­ ing."^' Mary Hayes Chynoweth continued to yers, and university professors, among them be the spiritual leader of many of her Madi­ Lyman Draper, William Penn Lyon of the son followers until her death in 1905. Both Wisconsin State Supreme Court (whose daugh­ Judge Lyon and Lyman C. Draper spent time ter was married to Jay Hayes), and John at Eden Vale seeking the healing powers as Favil, a Harvard-educated physician whose well as the spiritual advice of Mary Hayes family had come to Lake Mills from western Chynoweth. New York. By the time her sons had practiced law for several years, Mary Hayes Chynoweth was RAPER maintained a close con­ using her spiritual powers for financial ben­ D nection with Mary Hayes Chy­ efit. Acting on the advice of the Power, she noweth and her family, whom he had met urged her sons, who by this time were prac­ ticing law in Ashland, to invest $850 in a '^ "Ashland and Its Iron Mines," in The Ashland Daily Press Annual (1891-1892), 60-61. '' Mary Hayes (Chynoweth) to Mr. and Mrs. Lyman " Clara Lyon Hayes, "William Penn Lyon: Activities Draper, January 13, 1883, in the Draper Correspond­ in Retirement," in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, ence. 9: 411 (1925-1926).

16 BEDNAROWSKI: SPIRITUALISM IN WISCONSIN through mutual friends, from the late 1860's until his death in 1891. This association in­ cluded a common interest in Spiritualism and various financial dealings as well.*" But it was not through Mary Hayes Chynoweth that Draper experienced his initial contact with the spirits, for he first encountered a medium during a research trip in Kentucky. While interviewing Sylvester P. Morgan, a farmer with pioneer ancestors. Draper became ac­ "fi^w 'I^^T quainted with Morgan's daughter, Mrs. Jo­ sephine Keigwin. Draper attended seances at the Keigwin home near Jeffersonville, as well as in Louisville. He communicated with the spirit of his dead daughter Helen, who assured him that she often visited Draper and his wife in spirit form. As happy as he was to have contact with his dead loved ones. Draper was also very excited at the prospect of speak­ ing with the spirits of dead pioneers and In­ dian fighters.**^ After Mary Hayes Chynoweth moved to California, Draper consulted the spirits about his personal life through the agency of clair­ voyants. One of these was Mrs. Julia Sever­ ance of Whitewater and Milwaukee, who was famous throughout the state as a Spir­ Society's Iconographic Collection itualist and social reformer.*^ Draper sent Mary Hayes Chynoweth, spiritual adviser to Lyman C. Mrs. Severance a lock of his hair and asked Draper and other notable figures in the Madison her to analyze his personality through psy­ community. chometric evaluation (whereby the clairvoyant assesses a person by physical contact with an more youthful magnetic element." Mrs. object belonging to that person). Mrs. Sever­ Severance infortned Draper that he was at­ ance advised him by letter on everything from tended by "a very advanced class of spirits," his diet to his social life. She suggested un­ and that if he followed her directions he leavened graham bread, baked potatoes, and would "be able to perfect yourself in this life hot baths; she mentioned that Draper might so that when you arrive in Spirit life you do well to associate with younger members of will be in condition to move right along har­ the opposite sex, "in a commonplace social moniously with your work in 'the hereafter.'"*^ way, so that you can receive from them the Draper died a Spiritualist in August, 1891. Seven years before his death, he had learned in a vision that he would die on August 27, "The Draper Correspondence with the Hayes fam­ but he did not know what year until the on­ ily indicates that Lyman Draper helped Anson Everis Hayes, the first husband of Mary Hayes Chynoweth, set of his last illness. His death occurred late to sell apples. He also invested money in the Ger­ in the evening of August 26, 1891, a few hours mania Mine and, on occasion, borrowed money from short of the date he had predicted.** the Hayes brothers. Morris Pratt of Whitewater was another '^William B. Hesseltine, Pioneer's Mission: The Story of Lyman C. Draper (Madison, 1954), 229, 230. beneficiary of the financial talents of Mary *^ Mrs. Severance's interest in social reform earned her a reputation as a radical. The Milwaukee Sentinel '^ Mrs. A. B. Severance to Lyman C. Draper, Sep­ described her as taking "the extreme radical ground" tember 25, 1888, in "Scrap-Book of Material on the in her attempts at reform, "going if possible beyond Lite, Career and Death ot Lyman C. Draper," in the the notions of Victoria C. Woodhull," January 13, State Historical Society ot Wisconsin. 1874. " Hesseltine, Pioneer's Mission, 316.

17 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975

Hayes Chynoweth's spirit Power. Mrs. Chy­ from the standpoint of science; evolution; noweth overheard a pledge made by Pratt spiritualism of the Bible,, explaining the so- that if he became wealthy he would devote called miracles and manifestations of super­ most of his money to Spiritualism. She ad­ natural power in the Bible on natural vised Pratt to invest his money in "wild lands" grounds."*^ The Institute continued its opera­ in northern Wisconsin and Michigan. He did tions well into the twentieth century and so, and became rich from the discovery of eventually moved to MiiVaukee. iron ore. Pratt used his money to build a In Wisconsin Spiritualism three prominent Spiritualist college in Whitewater, the Morris groups emerge: that which revolved around Pratt Institute. Completed in 1888, the large Mary Hayes Chynoweth in the Lake Mills- building had classrooms, offices, reception Whitewater-Madison area, that which encom­ rooms, and space sufficient to board fifty passed much of the Fox River valley, in­ students. According to rumor, the third floor cluding Ripon, Omro, Appleton, Oshkosh, was the seance room and furnished completely and Fond du Lac, among whose prominent in white. Only full-fledged members of the members were Warren Chase, Nathaniel P. Spiritualist faith, dressed in white, were per­ Tallmadge, and R. T. Mason; and that which mitted to enter.*5 was centered in Milwaukee and was led by The curriculum of the Morris Pratt Insti­ Mrs. Julia Severance and Dr. H. S. Brown. tute was ordinary in some respects, offering The members of all three groups, many of such subjects as grammar and rhetoric, English whom were acquainted with each other, had composition, and history. But many of the in common a liberal spirit in regard to poli­ courses were typically Spiritualist, reflecting tics, religion, and social relationships, and the Spiritualist belief that the perfect reli­ a conviction that Spiritualism, as a radical gion would have to be scientific in outlook. belief untainted by the fears and superstitions The course offerings consisted of "psychic fostered by traditional religions, could pro­ research (a study of the relation which exists vide humanity with certain knowledge not between this world and that beyond the only of the natural laws of this world, but grave); comparative religion (a study of the of the next as well. Many of these Spiritu­ great religions of the world—both of the so- alists, including Warren Chase, Nathaniel called miracles and manifestations of science Tallmadge, Cora Scott, Lyman Draper, Wil­ with theology—a study of each branch of sci­ liam Penn Lyon, Mary Hayes Chynoweth, and ence, or the war which the Christian church John Favil, had in common also a birthplace waged against it through the centuries); higher in western New York, the "burnt-over dis­ criticism, which is the study of the Bible trict," where Spiritualism had begun. It is interesting to speculate whether a youth spent in the "burnt-over district" might not be con­ •° Fred L. Holmes, "Prospecting with the Spirits," in ducive to the espousal of radical religious be­ Badger Saints and Sinners (Milwaukee, 1939), 365- liefs later in life. 378. Although Holmes is in many cases a teller of fables, his account ot the Morris Pratt Institute seems Underneath the more sensational aspects of to coincide with other information available, par­ Spiritualism, such as the seances, the trance ticularly in Whitewater newspapers. Pratt's belief in speaking, the financial predictions, and the Spiritualism does not seem to have affected his social standing in the community as is indicated by a sketch automatic writing—those aspects of Spiritual­ that appeared in the Portrait and Biographical Record ism which received the most publicity—lay of Walworth and Jefferson Counties, Wisconsin (Chi­ the basic belief that spirit manifestations were cago, 1894), 464-465, although it does sound rather as intended to reassure humanity that each per­ though the author of the sketch felt a need to justify son would survive the death of the body, Pratt's belief: "Mr. and Mrs. Pratt are Spiritualists in religious belief, and are kind, charitable and benev­ that the individual personality would endure olent people, devoted to the best interests of human­ ity. The honesty of purpose and strict integrity of Mr. Pratt are above question, and a well-spent lite ""Morris Pratt Institute," in Walworth County has won for him the confidence and respect of all." Trade Review: A Business Trade Review of Towns The Portrait and Biographical Record refers to the and Villages in Walworth County, Wisconsin (March, Morris Pratt Institute as a "sanitarium and science 1917.) Excerpt available in Whitewater Public Li­ hall." brary. 18 BEDNAROWSKI: SPIRITUALISM IN WISCONSIN in the spirit world and would dwell with These latter movements unanimously con­ loved ones in a Swedenborgian heaven where demned Spiritualism as essentially materialis­ life went on in a familiar manner, much as tic for bringing the spirits of the dead to it did on earth. the earthly plane rather tjian elevating the It is tempting to ridicule s'ome of the more human soul to a higher spiritual conscious­ bizarre aspects of Spiritualism, and it would ness. be foolish to deny that Spiritualism attracted Perhaps, in the end, it was the Spiritualists' more than its share of cranks, hoaxers, and insistence on the spirits of the dead as the gulls, who sought money or entertainment or agents of the New Revelation that resulted notoriety from contact with the spirits. But in the decline of the movement. By the end it is difficult not to sympathize with the Spir­ of the nineteenth century, its popularity had itualists' longing for certainty about that most diminished, and although the movement ex­ vital of questions: does humankind survive perienced another upsurge during and im­ the death of the body?*"^ In an age when mediately after World War I, as it had during scientific discoveries, modernism, and mater­ the Civil War, Spiritualism never again ialism threatened old religious beliefs and achieved the prestige or the widespread ap­ values, the Spiritualists believed that they peal that characterized it during the second had found a scientific religion, one based on half of the nineteenth century. For it was the physical phenomena supplied by the the paradox of Spiritualism that it, too, was spirits. Only a century's hindsight enables founded on faith, a faith in the genuine na­ us to adjudge the Spiritualists as overly op­ ture of the spirit phenomena. And for more timistic in their belief that science and scienti­ and more people this faith became difficult fic method could make known to humanity to sustain. After forty years of psychic re­ the mysteries of life and death. search and a definite will to believe in their genuine nature, the novelist Hamlin Garland, himself a Wisconsin-born son of the Middle PIRITUALISM stood in the con­ Border, was still unable to accept the mani­ s text of nineteenth-century at­ festations he had witnessed as real: tempts to reconcile science and religion, to urge that science, rather than bringing about When in the quiet of my study I converse the obsolescence of religion, might instead with invisibles who claim to be my dis- free it from the strictures of dogma and au­ carnate friends and relatives, occupying some other dimension, I am almost per­ thoritarianism. The result of this reconcilia­ suaded of their reality. For the moment I tion would be a spiritual science, a body of concede the possibility of their persistence, doctrine that would disclose the existence of especially when their voices carry, movingly, "realms interpenetrating our visible and characteristic tones and their messages are coarser world" without necessitating a rejec­ startlingly intimate. . . . But after they tion of reason and logic. jiave ceased to whisper and I recall the The principal concern of Spiritualism was illimitable vistas of the stars, these phan­ to prove the existence of life after death and tasms of my dead, like all other human the survival of the human personality. Later beings, barbaric or civilized, are as grains of dust in a cosmic whirlwind. attempts at reconciling science and religion, such a Christian Science, Theosophy, An- Nor could Garland ever persuade himself throposophy, and New Thought, were broader tltat humanity might succeed in exploring in their outlooks and emphasized the proving that "undiscovered country," the life beyond of such concepts as the existence of soul, rein­ the grave: "We know a little now, we shall carnation, and a divine plan for the universe. know a little more a century hence—but death will still be the ultimate insoluble mystery."*^

" A particularly poignant expression ot this longing appears in a poem, "You Promised Me," written by *' Hamlin Garland, Forty Years of Psychic Research: Ella Wheeler Wilcox to the spirit of her dead hus­ A Plain Narrative of Fact (New York, 1936), 391-392, band, The Worlds and I, 346-347. 394.

19 Truman and the Historians: The Reconstruction of Postwar American History

By Robert Griffith

N the late winter of 1951, as Presi­ Truman in The American Presidency, first I dent Harry S. Truman neared the published in 1956. Rossiter admired Truman end of his second term, his popularity drop­ as a strong and purposeful chief executive, ped to an all-time low. According to a na­ and he approved of most of Truman's policy tional public-opinion survey, only 23 per coramittnents. "Not one of his grave steps cent of the American people approved of his in foreign and military affairs has yet been conduct of the presidency. Indeed, Truman's proved wrong, stupid, or contrary to the best presidential career ended on a note of popu­ judgment and interests of the American lar repudiation reminiscent of the last years people," he contended. When Truman left of the Herbert Hoover adminstration. office in January, 1953, "we stood before the Curiously exempt from this popular reac­ world a free, prosperous, liberty-loving people tion, however, were those historians and other with no more wounds and neuroses than we social scientists who, during the following probably deserved." Rossiter acknowledged decade, wrote the first scholarly assessments that the American public did not share his of the Truman presidency. These liberal high opinion of Truman, but he concluded scholars found in Truman a "man of the with "the prickly suspicion that history, after middle" whose programs had considerable all, is wiser than the people."^ resonance with their own political philoso­ Historians, for their part, generally seemed phies. As Clinton Rossiter wrote, in what was to agree with Rossiter. In 1962 seventy-five perhaps a moment of unintended autobi­ distinguished historians, responding to a poll ography, "History is written, if not always by Arthur M. Schlesinger, placed Truman made, by men of moderate views."^ among the "near great" Presidents—just be­ Rossiter himself made one of the earliest low such "great" Presidents as Lincoln, Wash­ and most widely publicized judgments of ington, Franklin Roosevelt, Wilson, and Jefferson; and alongside Jackson, Theodore AUTHOR'S NOTE: I should like to thank William C. Roosevelt, Polk, John Adams, and Cleveland. Berman, Barton J. Bernstein, Alonzo L. Hamby, Rich­ Harry S. Truman, wrote the elder Schlesinger, ard S. Kirkendall, Thomas C. Paterson, and Athan had "discharged impressively the awesome G. Theoharis tor their comments on an earlier draft obligations devolving on the United States ot this paper, which was read at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians (Washing­ as the leader of the free world upon the ton, D.C, 1972). Some of the work on this article advent of the cold war with Soviet imperial­ was made possible by grants from the National En­ ism. The Truman Doctrine for the protection dowment for the Humanities and the American Philo­ of Greece and Turkey, the Marshall Plan sophical Society. ^Clinton Rossiter, The American Presidency (rev. ed., New York, 1960), 47. •'Ibid., 148, 172. 20 Society's Iconographic Collection Truman and the historians: the former President and the board of directors of the Harry S. Truman Library Institute, Independence, 19^9. From left: Herman Kahn, Franklin D. Murphy, James V. Jones, Francis H. Heller, Richard M. Drake, W. D. Aeschbacher, Pete Kyle McCarter, Andrew J. Eaton, Tom L. Evans, David D. Lloyd, Harry S. Truman, Elmer Ellis, Philip C. Brooks, Wayne C. Grover, Theodore C. Blegen, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Thomas C. Blaisdell, Earl J. McGrath, Merle Curti, James L. Sellers, Rufus Burris. for the restoration of Western Europe, the stantial contributions to the general welfare Berlin airlift, the Point Four program for of the nation in the Fair Deal program." backward countries, NATO (our first peace­ According to Arthur S. Link, Truman grew time military alliance) and the intervention in stature while in office and left as his most in Korea in support of the United Nations- important legacies "a far sighted foreign policy all these constituted landmarks in an assump­ in Europe" and a reform agenda that "opened tion of global responsibilities undreamed of new vistas for progressives and provided a only a few years before."^ program for the future." Henry Steele Com- Other historians were equally enthusiastic. mager predicted that historians a half-century Truman was "a strong and in many ways a hence would look back upon the Truman successful Chief Executive," wrote John A. administration as "one of almost unparalleled Garraty. "Like Jackson, Wilson, and the two success," while Forrest McDonald concluded Roosevelts, he effectively epitomized the na­ that "it well may be that the first five years tional will and projected a sense of dedication of his presidency were . . . America's 'finest and purposefulness in his management of hour.'"* national affairs." The partisan attack on his administration during the early 1950's was so * This textbook image of the Truman Presidency is intense, declared Frank Freidel, that "it was drawn from John A. Garraty, The American Nation: easy to overlook his monumental achievements A History of the United States (New York, 1966), 806; Frank Freidel, America in the Twentieth Century (2nd in the realm of foreign policy and his sub- ed., New York, 1965), 503; Aurthur S. Link, American Epoch: A History of the United States Since the ' Arthur M. Schlesinger, Paths to the Present (rev. 1890's (3rd ed., New York, 1967), 667-668; Forrest ed., Boston, 1964), 105-106. McDonald, The Torch Is Passed: The United States

21 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975

In the late 1960's, however, a younger gen­ War as a simple melodrama pitting American eration of historians, disillusioned by a decade virtue against Soviet malevolence. Authors of war and civil disorder, began to challenge such as Herbert Feis believe that the Russians this textbook consensus of the Truman pres­ under Stalin's leadership "were trying not idency. Skeptical of the wisdom of American only to extend their boundaries and their diplomacy and the achievements of domestic controls over neighboring states but also be­ reform, these "revisionists" sought to recon­ ginning to revert to their revolutionary effort struct the American past. Although they dif­ throughout the world. Within the next few fer widely among themselves, and although years," he concluded, "this was to break the the reconstruction they seek is neither com­ [wartime] coalition and, along with the plete nor widely accepted, they have already spread of nationalist passion in hitherto pas­ contributed to a critical reassessment of the sive parts of the world, create the turbulence Truman years.^ in which we are all now living." American dreams for a postwar peace were rudely shat­ tered when, in Thomas Bailey's words, "the ENTRAL to the new reconstruc­ Kremlin brutally slapped aside the outstretch­ c tion has been an attack upon ed American hand." If the Truman admin­ orthodox interpretations of American foreign istration were deficient at all, it was because policy and, especially, of the Cold War. it did not grasp quickly enough the true Traditionally, historians have treated the Cold dimensions of the communist menace, and thus allowed to develop what Winston Chur­ chill would later call "a deadly hiatus . . . be­ in the 20th Century (Reading, Massachusetts, 1968), tween the fading of President Roosevelt's 327. Henry Steele Commager is quoted in Louis W. Koenig (ed.), The Truman Administration: Its Prin­ strength and the growth of President Tru­ ciples and Practice (New York, 1956), 8. man's grip of the whole vast problem."^ ^ Following current usage, I have employed the term Once this period of indecision was over— "revisionist" somewhat loosely to describe a very broad and it ended according to most accounts with and diverse group of scholars, many of whom disa­ gree with one another quite as vehemently as they the Greek crisis of 1947—the Truman admin­ do with more orthodox historians. Although the dis­ istration responded "with fortitude and de­ tinctions among revisionists are not unimportant, tor termination" as "international communism the purpose of this essay what is significant is how, probed for weaknesses in the free world along collectively, the revisionists have contributed to a new a perimeter stretching from Western Europe and more critical appraisal of the Truman era. Ironically, Truman's popular standing has never been through Greece and Turkey to East Asia." higher, as reflected by the current outpouring of re­ The administration's response, which includ­ cordings, plays, and memoirs. Editorial reaction to ed the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, his death in 1972 would seem to indicate that the new NATO, and Point Four, represented a golden and more critical perspective on the Truman presi­ age for American diplomacy, an era compar­ dency is still largely confined to a rather thin stratum of academics, and I have not yet heard any ot them able, in Dean Acheson's view, to that de­ claim that history is wiser than the people. These scribed in the first chapter of Genesis. As differences may be more apparent than real, how­ John Spanier has concluded, "History had ever, and may be informed by a similar moral per­ once more shown that when a great and dem­ spective. Thus I believe that people in general are responding to Truman as a person and particularly ocratic people is given decisive and courageous to what they preceive as the sharp contrast between leadership, the people will respond quickly his personality and style and that ot Richard Nixon and wisely." Truman's bold policies rescued and Gerald Ford. "There was not," writes Merle Mil­ Europe from the communist menace and in­ ler in his "oral biography" ot Truman, Plain Speaking, augurated a new era of peace and prosperity. "a duplicitous bone in his body." Scholars, on the other hand, especially the younger "revisionists," have focused on the continuity between the policies of the Truman administration and those ot the Vietnam " Herbert Feis, Churchill-Roosevelt-Stalin: The War era, on the Cold War origins ot our own time ot They Waged and the Peace They Sought (Princeton, troubles. These two viewpoints are not at all ex­ 1957), 655; Thomas A. Bailey, A Diplomatic History clusive, of course, though they do infuse any attempt of the American People (8th ed.. New York, 1969), to assess Truman and his era with ambiguity and 778; Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy paradox. (Boston, 1953), 455. 22 GRIFFITH: TRUMAN AND THE HISTORIANS

Although the administration lacked the power Soviet foreign minister; to which Truman and public support to prevent the fall of "Free replied, "Carry out your agreements and you China" to the communists, it nevertheless re­ won't get talked to like that"), the abrupt sponded firmly and resolutely to "stem the cancellation of lend-lease, the retreat from surge of Russian power" represented by the Roosevelt's implied promise that German rep­ North Korean invasion of South Korea in arations would be set at |20 billion, the halt­ June, 1950. By promptly intervening in Korea, ing of United Nations Relief and Recovery Truman avoided the tragedy of another Administration (UNRRA) relief shipments to Munich and called a halt, at least temporarily, Eastern Europe, and the attempt to force the "to Soviet aggression throughout the world." Russians to make critical concessions in return Thus, in Asia as in Europe, Truman's bold for a large reconstruction loan—all were part and courageous leadership contributed to of a diplomatic offensive aimed at reducing world peace and stability.'' Soviet influence in Eastern Europe and open­ In the 1960's this Cold War consensus began ing up the region to American penetration.^ to disintegrate. The Indochina war, with all Even the decision to use the atomic bomb its pain and numbing horror, opened the way may have been influenced by these considera­ for a searching re-examination of United States tions, according to Gar Alperovitz, who sug­ foreign policy. One result of this re-examina­ gests that the Truman administration believed tion has been a large and rapidly expanding that the bomb was necessary not only to end body of historical scholarship which is highly the war before the Soviets gained control of critical of the Truman administration's con­ Manchuria, but also "to convince the Rus­ duct of Cold War diplomacy.^ sians to accept the American plan for a stable The revisionists argue, contrary to tradi­ peace."'" The Cold War began, then, not tional interpretations, that the United States bears a large measure of the responsibility for precipitating the Cold War. The United "LaFeber, America, Russia, and the Cold War, IS­ States, they contend, was unwilling to accept IS; Alperovitz, Atomic Diplomacy, 19-40; Kolko, Ttie Politics of War, 499-502; Gardner, Architects of Il­ Soviet demands for the creation of a sphere lusion, 55-83; Clemmens, Yalta, 270; Bernstein, "Amer­ of exclusive Soviet influence in Eastern Eur­ ican Foreign Policy and the Origins ot the Cold War," ope, a region which the Russians had fought in Bernstein (ed.). Politics and Policies of the Truman for at great sacrifice and which they consid­ Administration, 24—31. George Herring has argued ered vital to their national security. Instead, that, contrary to revisionist charges, "there is no evidence whatever that the May 11 decision [to cancel the Truman administration sought to force lend-lease] was designed to drive the Russians from the Russians out of the area by means of Eastern Europe," and that, even had Roosevelt's lend- tough diplomatic talk, crude economic induce­ lease policy been continued, there is no evidence that ments, and perhaps even atomic diplomacy. it "ivould have made any substantial difference in In this view, Truman's famous April con­ the course of Soviet-American relations." See George C. Herring, Jr., "Lend-Lease to Russia and the Ori­ frontation with Molotov ("I've never been gins ot the Cold War, 1944-1945," in the Journal of talked to like that in my life," declared the American History, 56: 93-114 (June, 1969). Thomas Paterson, on the other hand, suggests that the Truman administration's crude use of the Russian loan in an ' The foregoing textbook portrait ot the Cold War unsuccesstid attempt to loosen the Soviet hold on is drawn from Richard W. Leopold, The Growth of Eastern Europe needlessly embittered U.S.-Soviet rela­ American Foreign Policy: A History (New York, 1962), tions and contributed to the growing mistrust which 634-648, 690; Bailey, A Diplomatic History, 778-796, increasingly characterized the postwar era. Thomas 827; Samuel Flagg Bemis, A Diplomatic History of the G. Paterson, "The Abortive American Loan to Russia United States (4th ed.. New York, 1955), 904-923; and the Origins ot the Cold War, 1943-1946," ibid., Robert H. Ferrell, American Diplomacy: A History 70-92. For a fuller discussion of these and other re­ (rev. ed., New York, 1969), 681-690; Julius Pratt, A lated questions, see Herring, Aid to Russia, and Pater­ History of United States Foreign Policy (Englewood son, Soviet-American Confrontation. Cliffs, New Jersey, 1955), 710^728; John W. Spanier, ™ Alperovitz, Atomic Diplomacy, 240; Alperovitz, American Foreign Policy Since World War II (rev. Cold War Essays, 51-73. For a thoughtful critique ed.. New York, 1962), 14-98. of Alperovitz, see Martin J. Sherwin, "The Atomic *The bibliographical note at the conclusion of Bomb as History: An Essay Review," in the Wis­ this article discusses specific studies and gives full consin Magazine of History, 53; 128-134 (Winter, citations. 1969-1970). Among the revisionists, both Gabriel Kolko 23 AUTUMN^ 1975

critical period, Truman emerges not as the victim of a bitter peace, but as the principal architect of an emerging Cold War.

LTHOUGH control of Eastern A- Europe was one of the earliest sources of antagonism between the United States and the Soviet Union, the German question was far more bitterly divisive. Even today barbed wire and stone walls stand as mute testimony to the peacemakers' failure. Traditionally, American historians have blam­ ed the Soviet Union for the great powers' inability to reach a negotiated settlement and for the consequent creation of two German states. If American policy erred, they argue, it was through an excess of innocence. Recent studies contend, however, that the United States, far from simply responding to Soviet initiatives, acted deliberately and with con­ siderable sophistication in advancing Ameri­ can interests. American policymakers, writes John Gimbel in The American Occupation of Germany, were interested not only in pro­ grams to denazify and democratize Germany, but also "in seeing to their own continued security, bringing about the economic rehabil­ itation of Germany and Europe, and guar­ anteeing the continuance of Free Enterprise. They wanted to frustrate socialism, to fore­ stall communism, to spare American taxpayers' money, to counteract French plans to dis­ member Germany, and to contain the Soviet Union in Central Europe." Bruce Kuklick, in American Policy and the Division of Ger­ many, goes even further. A student of Gabriel Society's Iconographic Collection Kolko, Kuklick argues that American policy in Germany was primarily motivated by the Nuclear test. Yucca Flats, Nevada. desire to establish American economic suprem- in 1946 or 1947, but in 1945 or even earlier. and Lloyd Gardner have criticized the Alperovitz thesis. The major issue was not the specter of the Kolko, Politics of War, 566; Gardner, Architects of imminent communization of Western Europe, Illusion, 305-306. In The Atomic Bomb and the End but rather an attempt by the United States of World War II (Princeton, 1966), Herbert Feis to reduce Soviet influence in Eastern Europe. modifies some of his earlier judgments, conceding that "it is likely that Churchill, and probably also Not only were these American initiatives un­ Truman, conceived that besides bringing the war to successful, according to revisionists, but they a quick end, it [the bomb] would improve the chances may well have contributed to the tightening of arranging a satisfactory peace both in Europe and of Soviet controls in the area, leaving as their in the Far East" (p. 194). But he continues to insist only legacy a fertile ground of suspicion and that the primary reason was to end the war and to spare lives and that, therefore, "the decision to drop mutual mistrust out of which further con­ the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ought not to flicts would grow. As President during this be censured" (p. 200). 24 GRIFFITH: TRUMAN AND THE HISTORIANS acy and that the United States caused Ger­ tions insured instead an atomic arms race many "to be partitioned in the hostile way which would imperil future generations.'^ it was."'' The Greek crisis of 1947 and the President's According to revisionists, the Truman ad­ proclamation of the Truman Doctrine have ministration also helped to undermine inter­ long been viewed as marking a watershed in national co-operation by capturing interna­ the evolution of Cold War foreign policy. tional agencies and turning them into instru­ Most traditional accounts have followed close­ ments of American policy, as in the case of ly the published reasoning of Truman himself the International Bank for Reconstruction and in depicting Greece as a "barrier to the direct Development and the International Monetary and immediate extension of Soviet power and Fund; or, when this was not possible, by influence into the Mediterranean, North Af­ circumventing the United Nations, as in the rica, and South Asia." The Greek conflict was case of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall not a civil war, but was rather what Truman Plan.'^ They also contend that the United speech writer Joseph Jones would later call States failed to seek a realistic program for an "armed intervention of an indirect sort." the control of atomic weapons. Truman, they Should Greece, in Thomas Bailey's words, point out, rejected the advice of Henry "fall like a ripe pear into Communist hands Stimson that the United States approach the . . . the impact on the free world would be Russians privately, offering to share atomic catastrophic." If Greece fell, then Turkey; if secrets in return for a Soviet commitment on Turkey, then Western Europe; if Western the problem of controls. Instead, the Presi­ Europe . . . ? In brief, according to John dent sided with James Forrestal and other Spanier, "what was at stake in Greece was hard-line advisers who sought to prolong the America's survival itself." Truman's coura­ American monopoly. When the United States geous response was a decisive and historical did offer a program for atomic control—the commitment from which there could be no Baruch plan—it was drafted in such a way retreat—"the survival of freedom was now de­ as to virtually guarantee rejection by the pendent solely upon the United States."'* Soviets. Hailed at the time as an example By contrast, revisionists minimize the role of Western selflessness, the Baruch proposal of the Soviet Union in the Greek struggle. in fact required extensive unilateral conces­ Stalin, they argue, adhered scrupulously to sions from the Russians. Thus the revisionists the 1944 bargain which had placed Greece conclude that although the United States pro­ within the Anglo-American sphere of influ­ claimed its dedication to world peace, its ac- ence. They emphasize instead the indigenous nature of the civil war, the reactionary char­ "John Gimbel, The American Occupation of Ger­ acter of the Greek government, and the way many (Stanford, 1968), xiii; Bruce Kuklick, American Policy and the Division of Germany: The Clash with Russia over Reparations (Ithaca, 1972). See also Lloyd "Bernstein, "American Foreign Policy and the Cold Gardner, "America and the German Problem," in War," 43-49; Gardner, Architects of Illusion, 171- Bernstein (ed.), Politics and Policies of the Truman 201; LaFeber, America, Russia, and the Cold War, Administration, 113-148; and Gardner, Architects of 21-22, 34-36. Two recent articles, which criticize Illusion, 232-269. For John Gimbel's sharp criticism Truman's nuclear diplomacy but which also stress the of both Gardner and Kuklick, see Gimbel, "Cold War: continuity between the Roosevelt and Truman admin­ German Front," in The Maryland Historian (Spring, istrations, are Barton J. Bernstein, "The Quest for 1971), and "On the Implementation of the Potsdam Security: American Foreign Policy and International Agreement: An Essay on U.S. Postwar German Policy," Control of Atomic Energy, 1942-1946," in the Journal in Political Science Qimrterly, 87: 242-269 (June, 1972). of American History, 60: 1003-1044 (March, 1974), '^Paterson, Soviet-American Confrontation, especially and Martin J. Sherwin, "The Atomic Bomb and the chapters 4 and 7. According to Paterson, one of the Origins of the Cold War: U.S. Atomic-Energy Policy earliest casualties ot the Truman administration's em­ and Diplomacy, 1941-1945," in the American His­ phasis on economic aid as a diplomatic weapon was torical Review, 78: 945-968 (October, 1973). the United Nations Relief and Recovery Administra­ "Joseph Jones, The Fifteen Weeks (New York, 1955), tion (UNRRA), which was replaced by unilateral re­ 46; Thomas Bailey, A Diplomatic History, 796; Spanier, lief programs after 1946. On the role of the U.S. in American Foreign Policy, 31, 33. Also see Leopold, the United Nations, see also Thomas M. Campbell, The Growth of American Foreign Policy, 651; Fer­ Masquerade Peace: America's UN Policy, 1944-1945 rell, American Diplomacy, 690; Bemis, A Diplomatic (Gainesville, Florida, 1973). History, 923.

25 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975 in which the Truman administration defined for Greek-Turkish aid in the rhetoric of mil­ the Greek crisis as part of a worldwide ideo­ itant globalism in order to arouse the Amer­ logical conflict. Truman's sweeping promise ican public and to overcome the resistance to defend "free peoples who are resisting at­ of nationalistic but fiscally conservative con­ tempted subjugation by armed minorities or gressmen. This strident rhetoric, some revi­ by outside pressures," they argue, would soon sionists argue, helped in turn to create a lead to a policy of global counterrevolution. new political climate which narrowed the are­ Subsequent developments, the revisionists con­ na of legitimate political debate and sharply tinue, only confirmed the conservative content reduced the flexibility of American foreign of American policy. Although Truman orig­ policy. In this view the Truman administra­ inally had stressed the importance of econom­ tion became, ultimately, a victim of forces ic assistance in strengthening the sagging which it had helped to set in motion; for by Greek economy, by late 1947 the emphasis of 1950, following the success of the Chinese American aid had shifted from economic re­ revolution, the explosion of a Soviet A-bomb, construction to counterinsurgency. Even road and the exposure of Russian espionage in and port construction was subordinated to America, conservatives began to accuse the military considerations. Although basic eco­ Truman administration of "softness" toward nomic problems remained unsolved, the communism, of failing, in effect, to act in Greek government was able, with the aid of accordance with its own prescriptions. The American artillery, dive bombers, and napalm, attack of these conservative partisans, a major to crush all opposition. The result, Richard element in what came to be called "McCar­ Barnet argues, was "a victory which has be­ thyism," added to the already considerable come a model for U.S. relations toward civil pressure for further expanding America's in­ wars and insurgencies."'^ ternational commitments and to the forging of a rigid and narrow foreign-policy con­ sensus."" Revisionists are also critical of the Marshall MONG some recent scholars Plan, long a favorite icon of Cold War his­ A there has been a tendency to torians and widely praised even by those who discount the idea that the Truman Doctrine have felt somewhat uncomfortable with the constituted a dramatic turning point in crusading zeal of the Truman Doctrine. The American foreign policy. They argue that Marshall Plan, traditional scholars have ar­ Truman's speech of March 13 was the expres­ gued, was not only a splendid example of sion of a consensus which had been reached American humanitarianism but also a shrewd within the administration at least a year ear­ exercise in enlightened self-interest. An "ep­ lier, that its specific policy recommendations ochal step" in American foreign policy, it were the logical outgrowth of U.S. policies served "to stiffen overseas democracies against in the Mediterranean from 1945 onward, and the Soviet menace" and to halt "the westward that, in any case, the global implications of surge of communism." As air enthusiastic the doctrine would not be realized until after Truman aide later wrote, misappropriating 1950.'" The Truman Doctrine was, neverthe­ a quotation from Winston Churchill, it was less, an important political act with profound consequences for American policy at home and abroad. Truman rationalized his request

" See, for example, John Gaddis, "Was the Truman Doctrine a Real Turning Point?" in Foreign Affairs, '"Barnet, Intervention and Revolution, 97-131; Horo­ 52: 386-402 (January, 1974); and Paterson, Soviet- witz, Free World Colossus, 65-68; Stephen E. Am­ Atnerican Confrontation, 174-206. brose, Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy, "Athan Theoharis, "The Rhetoric ot Politics," in 19^8-1970 (Baltimore, 1971), 64-66, 145-152; LaFeber, Bernstein (ed.). Politics and Policies of the Truman America, Russia, and the Cold War, 43-47; Todd Administration, 196-241; Theoharis, Seeds of Repres­ Gitlin, "Counter-Insurgency: Myth and Reality in sion, 20-67, 191-192; Richard M. Freeland, The Tru­ Greece," in Horowitz (ed.). Containment and Revolu­ man Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism, 3-12, tion, 140-181. 319-360.

26 GRIFFITH: TRUMAN AND THE HISTORIANS

"the most unsordid act in history." By con­ sion of Europe, to the strengthening of Soviet trast, revisionists stress the anti-Soviet char­ hegemony over Eastern Europe, and to the acter of the plan. It was, after all, the second acrimony which increasingly characterized half of Mr. Truman's walnut. Although the U.S.-Soviet relations. Even the communist Russians were invited to participate, the in­ coup in Czechoslovakia and the Berlin block­ vitation was hedged with conditions that they ade, they suggest, were triggered in part by were sure to find unacceptable—the integra­ the Marshall Plan.'^ tion of the economies of Eastern Europe into Similarly, revisionists argue that Point Four those of the West (which would involve, pre­ was not the "bold" humanitarian program sumably, a return to the prewar pattern in President Truman called for in his inaugural which the East served as an agricultural colony address in 1949, but rather a small, under­ of the more highly industrialized West), the financed operation whose total resources were opening of Eastern Europe to American pen­ never more than a small percentage of the etration, and the disclosure of Soviet economic foreign-aid budget. As with the Marshall Plan, records. Some revisionists, moreover, empha­ its intent was liberal—to forestall revolution size the importance of economic motives in through economic development. As Thomas shaping the content of American aid policy, Bailey summarized it, "Truman preferred to arguing that both anticommunism and the spend millions to prevent people from becom­ desire for overseas markets were merged into a ing Communists rather than spend billions to single, though perhaps contradictory, quest shoot them after they became Communists." for peace and prosperity.'* Point Four was a failure, however, even on The revisionists concede that the Marshall its own terms, a victim of State Department Plan succeeded in terms of the objectives jealousy, of congressional parsimony, of the which the Truman administration set for it. increasing emphasis on military as opposed The war-shattered economies of Western Eur­ to economic aid, and of debilitating conces­ ope were rejuvenated and negotiations begun sions made to protect the interests of Amer­ which would shortly lead to the creation of ican business.2" the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. But In spite (or perhaps because) of such pro­ the plan's success was narrowly limited, revi­ grams, the revisionists argue, the basic rela­ sionists argue, and its collateral costs very, tionship between the United States and most very high. There was little equity in the underdeveloped countries remained exploita­ distribution of the new prosperity. The rich tive in character. In Latin America, for ex- generally became richer while the poor re­ mained poor. The plan itself, moreover, was " Paterson, Soviet-American Confrontation, 234, 259; soon subordinated to the increasingly mili­ LaFeber, America, Russia, and the Cold War, 60-69. taristic priorities of American foreign policy. The revisionists argue, in essence, that the policies of As in Greece, policy makers sacrificed eco­ the Truman administration resembled a self-fulfilling prophecy. Stated crudely, the administration assumed, nomic objectives for military ones, so that falsely, a high degree of militance and agressiveness by 1952 four-fifths of all American aid to on the part ot the Soviet Union and created a strategy Western Europe was military in character and based upon that perception. In responding to these the remaining one-fifth defense-related. More seemingly hostile policies, the Soviets acted in such importantly, according to revisionists, Amer­ a ivay as to confirm the role American policy makers assigned to them. On this point, also see Paul Ham­ ican policy contributed to the growing divi- mond, The Cold War Years, 56-57. Hammond, of course, is not a revisionist, and he argues that "it is unlikely that a change in American behavior could " For traditional accounts ot the Marshall Plan, see have done much to modify Soviet behavior." Bailey, A Diplomatic History, 801; Bemis, A Diplo­ ^ Point Four, according to Bailey, was a success matic History, 923; Jones, The Fifteen Weeks, 256; which "ranks in significance with the Truman Doc­ Cabel Phillips, The Truman Presidency, 176-194. For trine and the Marshall Plan." Bailey, A Diplomatic revisionist accounts, see Ambrose, Rise to Globalism, History, 804. For critical accounts, see Atnbrose, Rise 152-166; Gardner, Architects of Illusion, 135-138; to Globalism, 175; LaFeber, America, Russia, and Horowitz, Free World Colossus, 75-83; LaFeber, Amer­ the Cold War, 73-74; and Thomas G. Paterson, "For­ ica, Russia, and the Cold War, 47-53. The best study eign Aid Under Wraps: The Point Four Program," in ot postwar economic diplomacy is Thomas G. Pater­ the Wisconsin Magazine of History, 56: 119-126 (Win­ son, Soviet-American Confrontation. ter, 1972-1973).

27 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975 ample, the American contribution to economic in the wake of the Chinese revolution and development was luinimal. Most U.S. invest­ the Korean War the United States rapidly ments were concentrated in oil and other ex­ extended its commitments throughout Asia. tractive industries, not in agriculture or man­ In Indochina, for example, the United States, ufacturing. The rates of profit and repatria­ having earlier acquiesced in the French at­ tion of funds deriving from American invest­ tempt to reimpose colonial control in the ments were so high, moreover, that between region, now made the French cause its own. 1946 and 1951 nearly 20 per cent more work­ As early as July, 1949, Secretary of State Dean ing capital left than entered Latin America. Acheson declared that it was "a fundamental At the same time the Truman administration decision of American policy that the United extended military aid to Latin American gov­ States does not intend to permit further ex­ ernments in order to bind their foreign and tension of communist domination on the military policies to those of the United States. continent of Asia or in the southeast Asia Thus while the Truman administration failed area." The United States recognized the to help solve the hemisphere's economic and French-created state of Vietnam in early 1950 social problems, it actually contributed the and in May signed an agreement to provide military means by which unpopular and un­ aid to the French in their attempt to crush democratic governments could remain in pow­ the Vietminh. American assistance was vastly er. When popular unrest did arise, more­ increased following the beginning of the over, the United States defined it as subver­ Korean War, so much so that by 1951 the sive and threatening to "free world" security.^' United States was paying for 40 per cent of the French war effort. By 1954 the figure was nearly 80 per cent. Thus began, revi­ EVISIONISTS have also attacked sionists conclude, the grim continuity which R the process through which the led from Truman's 1947 promise to defend United States extended the doctrine of con­ "free peoples" from "armed minorities" to tainment to Asia, thus truly globalizing Amer­ the attempt, in the 1960's, to sustain a New ican policy. In the case of China, the United Frontier on the Mekong.^'' States, unable to disengage itself from Chiang Revisionists are also sharply critical of the Kai-shek and unwilling to come to terms with increasing military character of American Mao Tse-tung, never developed a coherent foreign policy during the Truman years. Tra- or effective policy. From 1945 to 1947 the U.S. sought to mediate between Chiang and ^ Kolko and Kolko, The Limits of Power, 534-562; Mao, though at the same time it was providing .Vmbrose, Rise to Globalism, 192-216. Among the vic­ nearly $3 billion in military and economic tims of the Cold War were many Asia scholars and aid to the Nationalist regime. After 1948 the public officials who dissented from American China administration finally sought to wash its hands policy at the time and whose views have only re­ cently found a receptive audience. See especially of Chiang, but continued to denounce the Joseph W. Esherick (ed.). Lost Chance in China: The Chinese communists, who Dean Acheson and World War II Dispatches of John S. Service (New others publicly charged were subservient to York, 1974), and John Paton Davies, Jr., Dragon by the Soviet Union. Finally, following the out­ the Tail: American, British, Japanese, and Russian break of war in Korea, the United States re- Encounters with China and One Another (New York, 1972). For a broad though selective introduction to embraced Chiang and further hardened its the post-Vietnam, radical scholarship on Asia, see position toward the People's Republic of Edward Friedman and Mark Selden (eds.), America's China, a policy which would not be altered Asia: Dissenting Essays in Asian-American Relations until the 1970's.22 (New York, 1971). For a thoughtful analysis of Amer­ ica's policies toward Asia ^vhich stresses the role ot Elsewhere, according to revisionists, the "Cold War perceptions" in undermining the "Yalta consequences were even more disastrous, for system" in the Pacific, see Akira Iriye, The Cold War in Asia (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1974). '•^^ Barnet, Intervention and Revolution, 181-187; -'David Green, The Containment of Latin America George T. Kahin and John W. Lewis, The United (Chicago, 1971); Green, "The Cold War Comes to States in Vietnam (rev. ed,. New York, 1969), 30-35. Latin America," in Bernstein (ed.), Politics and Poli­ Dean Acheson is quoted in Kolko and Kolko, Limits cies of the Truman Administration, 149-195. of Power, 554. 28 GRIFFITH: TRUMAN AND THE HISTORIANS ditional studies of the Cold War stress the fense budgets during the late 1940's as a mat­ importance of the Soviet A-bomb, the fall of ter of practical necessity, and as a consequence China, and especially the Korean War in there was a sharp disparity between the broad forcing the United States to build up its foreign-policy objectives announced in the military establishment. While conceding that Truman Doctrine and existing American mil­ external events had a considerable impact on itary capacity.^^ the administration, many revisionists never­ This did not mean that the late 1940's theless stress the underlying continuity of were a period of inactivity, however, for dur­ American policy during the late 1940's. They ing those years the Truman administration point out that as early as January, 1946, Tru­ was able to win congressional support to man, in a letter which he would later describe create the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), as marking a new "point of departure" for to unify the armed services under a single American policy, declared that "unless Rus­ Department of Defense, and to establish the sia is faced with an iron fist and strong lan­ National Security Council (NSC) and the guage, another war is in the making. Only Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Designed one language do they understand—how many to centralize and expedite presidential com­ divisions have you?"^* Administration offi­ mand, these new institutions enshrouded ex­ cials rejected as absurd the idea that Soviet ecutive decision making in secrecy and effec­ foreign policy sprang from the Russians' pre­ tively foreclosed participation by either Con­ occupation with their national security and gress or the public, a development increasingly warned that it would be "highly dangerous" criticized by scholars in the era of Vietnam for the administration to seek international and Watergate.^'' peace through accommodation. The United States "should entertain no proposal for dis­ armament or limitation of armaments as long as the possibility of Soviet aggression exists," N 1949, moreover, following the declared Clark Clifford in a 1946 memoran­ I triumph of the Chinese revolution dum summarizing the thinking of high ad­ and the explosion of the Soviet A-bomb, the ministration officials. Instead, the United Truman administration began a major trans­ States "must be prepared to wage atomic and formation of U.S. military policy, a transfor­ biological warfare" in order to stem the ex­ mation led, somewhat ironically, by Dean pansion of Soviet influence into areas con­ Acheson and the State Department and re­ sidered vital to American security.^^ sisted by Louis Johnson, who as Secretary of Defense continued seeking to economize on Although the Truman administration seems defense expenditures. The transformation to have accepted the general assumptions out­ lined in the Clifford memorandum, and al­ though some military leaders were anxious to ^ "We are playing with fire while we have nothing with which to put it out," complained Secretary ot expand American military capabilities quickly, State George C. Marshall in early 1948. See Walter the administration did not immediately pro­ Millis (ed.). The Forrestal Diaries (New York, 1951), ceed as Clifford recommended. America's 373. The standard, nonrevisionist work on Cold War nuclear monopoly, which would continue until defense policy is Samuel Huntington, The Common Defense (New York, 1961). Also see Warner R. Schil­ 1949, made such a program appear somewhat ling et al.. Strategy, Politics, and Defense Budgets (New less urgent to many, especially in Congress York, 1962). Revisionist historians have not examined where cost-conscious legislators were resisting Cold War military policies as carefully as they have any major expansion of the military budget. studied Cold War foreign policies, possibly because Truman himself accepted relatively small de- much of the archival material remains closed. "" See especially Richard F. Haynes, The Awesome Power: Harry S. Truman as Commander in Chief ^' Truman's January 5, 1946, letter to Secretary of (Baton Rouge, 1973). Richard Barnet, in Roots of State James F. Byrnes is quoted in Truman's Memoirs War: The Men and Institutions Behind U.S. Foreign (2 vols.. Garden City, New York, 1955-1956), 1: 551- Policy (New York, 1972), stresses the importance ot 552. World War II in transforming national security in­ ^° Clark Clifford's September, 1946, memorandum, stitutions. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., in The Imperial "American Relations with the Soviet Union," is printed Presidency (Boston, 1973), emphasizes the importance in Arthur Krock, Memoirs (New York, 1968), 422-482. of the Korean War.

29 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975

Society's Iconographic Collection Lawrence Welk (center) welcomes John Fisher, Jr., and Carl Ystesund into the United States Army at a Sheboygan recruiting station, 1948. began in mid-1949, proceeded through the which would be to revise the international spring of 1950, and culminated following the system in America's favor. The real stress, of outbreak of the Korean War.^s One of the course, was not on negotiation at all, but on first signs of this dramatic transformation expanding the American military establish­ was the decision, finally reached in January, ment. A third, related product of this policy 1950, to proceed with the crash development reversal, revisionists argue, was N.S.C.-68, a of the hydrogen bomb. A second was Dean position paper drafted by a joint State-De­ Acheson's "situations of strength" speech of fense study group for the National Security February 16, 1950, in which the Secretary re­ Council. N.S.C.-68, they assert, represented jected the defensive posture sometimes asso­ in military terms the logical extension of the ciated witli containment and called instead for Truman Doctrine. Its premise was that the "negotiations from strength," the purpose of United States and the USSR were locked in an inescapable conflict of competing ideol­ ^See Coral Bell, Negotiations from Strength (New ogies. Stressing the military threat posed by York, 1963), 1-30. On other levels the shift was re­ the Soviet Union and rejecting the possibility flected in the growing campaign to rearm Germany of negotiation, N.S.C.-68 called for "an im­ and in the replacement of George Kennan by Paul Nitze as head ot the State Department's policy-plan­ mediate and large-scale build-up in our mil­ ning division. itary and general strength with the intention

30 GRIFFITH: TRUMAN AND THE HISTORIANS of righting the power balance and in the hope channels for nearly two decades. Traditional that through means other than all-out war accounts look upon the North Korean inva­ we could induce a change in the nature of sion as final proof that the Soviets were bent the Soviet system." Arguing that no distinc­ on world domination. "It seems a cruel twist tion should be made between national and of fate," writes John Spanier, "that the very global security, and assuming that the United success of American foreign policy in Europe States could spend as much as 20 per cent of should have brought about a shift of Com­ its gross national product on military appro­ munist pressure from Europe to Asia. . . ." priations, the authors of N.S.C.-68 believed The Kremlin, declares Samuel Flagg Bemis, that the defense budget should be increased had "pulled the strings that controlled the from its then current level of $13.5 billion puppet 'People's Republic' of North Korea."^" to $35 or even $50 billion. Thus, as Walter By contrast, revisionists are less certain Millis later noted, between the autumn of about Soviet motivation and more critical of 1949 and the spring of 1950 the Truman American policy. David Horowitz, relying administration had "secretly made or prepared heavily on the earlier writings of D. F. Flem- drastic changes in its military and foreign ming and I. F. Stone, questions "the basic policies." Revisionists thus conclude that the Western thesis that the North Korean inva­ Korean War did not cause the militarization sion was directed by the Kremlin as part of of U.S. foreign policy, but rather provided a general plan of remorseless expansion" and the Truman administration with a convenient implies that the North Korean attack was rationale for implementing a policy already provoked. Walter LaFeber assumes that the decided upon.^^ Russians supported the invasion, but suggests During the Korean War the transformation that they were reacting to American efforts to was completed. Indeed the war and the do­ create an encircling Pacific alliance with Japan mestic debates which accompanied it were to and attempting to outflank the Chinese Com­ lock American policy into narrow and rigid munists, whose status had risen rapidly in the eyes of Asian revolutionaries. Finally, * Ambrose, Rise to Globalism, 167-191; Horowitz, Stephen Ambrose argues, as have Flemming Free World Colossus, 258-262; LaFeber, America, Rus­ and Stone, that the United States anticipated sia, and the Cold War, 90-91. Walter Millis, no re­ the invasion and used it to justify a more visionist, is quoted from Arms and the State (New militaristic foreign policy.^' York, 1958), 256. There is considerable confusion about the precise status ot N.S.C.-68 during the months Anticipated or not, the Korean War, in the preceding the Korean War. Walter LaFeber's treat­ revisionist view, provided a timely justifica­ ment is somewhat misleading, relying as it does on tion for the extension of the Truman Doctrine Cabell Phillips, The Truman Presidency, 305-308. throughout the world. In the months that Phillips does not present, as LaFeber states, a "partial followed, the United States committed itself text" ot N.S.C.-68, but rather a somewhat inaccurate summary of Paul Hammond's description of the paper- not only to Syngman Rhee and the South in essence, a summary of a summary. Phillips and Koreans, but to Chiang Kai-shek, to the LaFeber both assert that Truman "approved" the French in Indochina, and to the Philippine document. Paul Hammond, however, who is the source government in its campaign against the Huks. of Phillips' information, argues just the opposite: that Truman did not approve or implement the paper, Congress approved a huge military budget, but only took it under consideration. See Paul Y. made Selective Service permanent, and ratified Hammond, "NSC-68: Prologue To Rearmament," in a peace treaty with Japan which secured Amer­ Warner R. Schilling, Paul Y. Hammond, and Glenn ican air bases in the Far East. The U.S. H. Snyder, Strategy, Politics and Defense Budgets (New sent two new divisions to Europe, rearmed York, 1962), 330-331, 345. In his memoirs. Dean Acheson has written that on April 25, 1950, Truman Germany, began the process of adding Greece took up N.S.C.-68 with the National Security Council and Turkey to NAITO, and initiated talks and that it "became national policy." Acheson, Present At the Creation: My Years in the State Department *'Spanier, American Foreign Policy, 67; Bemis, A (New York, 1969), 374. In any case, N.S.C.-68 clearly Diplomatic History, 931. represented the intent ot U.S. policy planners, and ^'Horowitz, Free World Colossus, 114-122; LaFeber, only the fear of congressional and public resistance America, Russia, and the Cold War, 95-122; Ambrose, delayed its implementation. This resistance was, ot Rise to Globalism, 192-216; Barnet, Intervention and course, swept aside by the Korean War. Revolution, 66-68.

31 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN^ 1975 with Franco. When President Truman left man's domestic policies, and the issues sepa­ the White House, concludes Stephen Ambrose, rating historians are not always clear or con­ he left "an American presence on every sistent.^^ Nonrevisionists, though sometimes continent of the world, an enormously ex­ critical of Truman, underscore the many dif­ panded armament industry, American corpora­ ficulties that he faced when he assumed the tions in Europe and Latin America on a presidency. Franklin Roosevelt left as his scale surpassing Herbert Hoover's wildest legacy, they argue, a Democratic party which dreams, and an end to all but verbal com­ was badly divided by conflicting interests and mitment to the one-third of the nation philosophies, and a Congress in which con­ Franklin Roosevelt had characterized as 'ill- servative Democrats frequently joined Repub­ fed, ill-clothed, and ill-housed.'"^^ licans in opposing liberal programs. Military expenditures and the inflation which accom­ panied them intensified the disunity of the EVISIONISTS also have sought Democratic coalition. As Samuel Lubell ob­ R to reconstruct a new and more served in early 1952, "What has divided the critical history of domestic reform, a history Democratic elements has been their common not of successive triumphs but of stunted vi­ struggle to preserve their gains since the Great sions, lost opportunities, and meager accom­ Depression. This struggle naturally sharpens plishments. Here, too, the present has become as mounting costs of defense and foreign aid parent to the past. The heightened expecta­ leave less at home and make demands for tions raised by the Kennedy and early John- more, on the part of any one element, a years have dissolved in the face of civil dis­ threat to the gains of the other elements in orders, while the problems of poverty and the coalition."^* discrimination have proved unamenable to But it was not only a question of money. traditional liberal solutions. Just as the war in At another, related level the administration's Indochina has compelled historians to chal­ priorities prevented President Truman from lenge traditional explanations of United States exercising broad and continuous leadership in foreign policy, so have the apparent failures domestic reform. As Richard Neustadt wrote of domestic reform forced them to re-examine shortly after Truman left office, "there was the record of American liberalism. One result no time, from 1945 to 1952, when Truman's of this re-examination has been a more severely Administration—given its foreign policy and critical appraisal of Harry S. Truman and his the international situation from year to year- Fair Deal. could afford to trade a major objective in the Postwar domestic politics, of course, were foreign field for some advantage in the do­ less dramatic and discontinuous than foreign mestic. Consistently it was, and had to be, the affairs. Far less has been written about Tru- other way around."^^ Truman, then, was a sincere champion of liberal reform who was ^ Ambrose, Rise to Globalism, 216. There is con­ siderable disagreement over the impact ot the Korean War on both U.S. military and foreign policies. For ••" For a review of recent literature on the Truman example, Ambrose places great stress on the Truman presidency, see Richard S. Kirkendall (ed.) The Tru­ Doctrine and N.S.C.-68, and argues that the war pro­ man Period as a Research Field (Columbia, Missouri, vided a timely justification to implement policies al­ 1967) and The Truman Period as a Research Field: ready chosen by the Truman administration "to extend A Reappraisal, 1972 (Columbia, Missouri, 1974). Also containment to Asia, to shore up Chiang's position see J. Joseph Huthmacher (ed.). The Truman Years on Formosa, to retain American bases in Japan, and (Hinsdale, Illinois, 1972), and Alonzo L. Hamby (ed.), most of all to rearm America and NATO." See ibid., Harry S. Truman and the Fair Deal (Lexington, Mas­ 192. John Gaddis, on the other hand, discounting sachusetts, 1974). See the bibliographical note at the the rhetoric of the Truman Doctrine and stressing conclusion ot this article tor a further discussion of the limits ot American policies between 1947 and specific studies. 1950, concludes that "historians in search of turning ^'Samuel Lubell, The Future of American Politics points in American diplomatic history might more (3rd ed., New York, 1965), 237. profitably concentrate their attention on the single '•" Richard E. Neustadt, "Congress and the Fair Deal: week ot June 24-30, 1950, than on the famous fifteen A Legislative Balance Sheet," in Carl Friedrich and weeks of 1947." See "Was the Truman Doctrine a John Galbraith (eds.), Public Policy (Cambridge, Mas­ Real Turning Point?" 402. sachusetts, 1954), 5: 354. 32 GRIFFITH: TRUMAN AND THE HISTORIANS

thwarted by a conservative Congress and by "defective liberal analysis, which suggested the deinands of an activist foreign policy. that poverty was disappearing and that welfare Revisionist historians, while acknowledging (and some reform) programs would greatly the difficulties which limited Truman's free­ assist the marginal people who were assumed dom of action, argue that the President com­ to be few."^' pounded these problems through poor leader­ ship and a lack of commitment to domestic reform. It was not just that his power was EVISIONISTS and nonrevision­ limited, they suggest, but that those limits R ists alike, however, have con­ were frequently untested. Unlike Roosevelt, tributed in recent years to a more critical who at least entertained (how seriously is de­ assessment of domestic politics during the batable) the idea of a political realignment late 1940's and early 1950's. Truman emerges along conservative-liberal lines, Truman was from their studies as a "reluctant liberal," a regular who accepted the existing party sys­ weakly committed to domestic reform, politi­ tem and sought accommodation with its lead­ cally inept, and anxious to substitute bold ers. He attempted initially to mollify con­ words for concrete actions. Barton Bernstein, gressional critics of the New Deal by appoint­ for one, has sharply criticized Truman's un­ ing to office conservative administrators whom successful attempts during 1945 and 1946 to he hoped would find favor on the Hill. And master "the politics of inflation." Although although he committed himself publicly to conceding that even the most skillful of the New Deal revival, he declined to press for leaders would have had difficulty surmount­ reforms which might offend congressional ing the clash of rival interests occasioned by sensibilities. Even later, after he had shifted reconversion, Bernstein argues that White from Fabian to Napoleonic tactics, he still House factionalism, poor advice, and presi­ sought to avoid acerbating party divisions. dential incompetence all compounded an al­ Thus in February, 1948, he delivered a sweep­ ready bad situation. To stem inflation it was ing and widely hailed civil-rights message, but necessary that the administration rebuff the then declined to submit draft legislation to demands made upon it by various interest Congress. "When I was in Congress," he ex­ groups. Instead, the administration surren­ plained disingenuously to reporters, "it was dered, encouraging first one, then another customary for Congress to write its own bill. group to attack the stabilization program. As If they request suggestions from me, I will a result, the administration's anti-inflation be glad to make them."^^ program was soon in shambles and prices were sharply on the rise.^s Because they are skeptical of the wisdom and necessity of Truman's foreign policies, re­ Bernstein and Allen J. Matusow are especial­ visionists are also more likely to challenge the ly critical of the administration's early farm President's priorities and to question whether policies and of Clinton Anderson, Truman's they constituted sufficient justification for first secretary of agriculture. Under Ander­ the abandonment of domestic reform. Indeed son's leadership, they argue, the Department some revisionist historians have argued that the adoption of containment and its ration­ '' Theoharis, Seeds of Repression, vii-ix, 28-67, 191- alization by means of crusading anticom­ 192; Freeland, The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism, 3-12, 115-150, 187-245, 307-318; Bern­ munist rhetoric helped create a conservative stein, "Economic Policies," in Kirkendall, The Truman political climate which made the achievement Period as a Research Field, 123. of domestic reform all but impossible. Fin­ ^ Bernstein, "Clash of Interests: The Postwar Battle ally, revisionists are willing to question not Between the Office of Price Administration and the only Truman's ability and dedication as a Department of Agriculture," in Agricultural History, 61: 47-57 (January, 1967); Bernstein, "The Truman leader of reform, but also the midcentury Administration and the Steel Strike ot 1946," in the liberalism for which he spoke. Truman, writes Journal of American History, 52: 791-803 (March, Barton J. Bernstein, was the victim of a 1966); Bernstein, "The Truman Administration and Its Reconversion Wage Policy," in Labor History, 6: 214-231 (Fall, 1965); Bernstein, "The Truman Ad­ ^ Quoted in William C. Berman, The Politics of ministration and the Politics ot Inflation" (doctoral Civil Rights, 95. dissertation. Harvard University, 1963), 339-348.

33 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN^ 1975 of Agriculture not only helped to undermine wanted. At the same time, the rapid removal the administration's price-stabilization pro­ of production controls aided big businesses gram, but also contributed to a near-catas­ which saw in decontrol an opportunity to trophic famine in Europe by permitting the purchase goods in short supply through the diversion of large quantities of wheat for the exercise of their superior market power.*^ The fattening of cattle destined for the home mar­ removal of production controls not only in­ ket. Anderson belatedly recognized the im­ creased oligopolistic trends in the economy, pending tragedy and reversed his policies, but also badly distorted consumer markets. though in the process it became necessary to Thus the housing boom which followed de­ sacrifice price controls in order to save lives.^^ control resulted not in homes for middle- Not only was Truman politically inept dur­ or lower-income groups but instead, in the ing these early years, but his dedication to words of one government official, in "a rash reform was tenuous. While he pledged him­ of race tracks, mansions, summer resorts, bowl­ self to Roosevelt's reform agenda in his Sep­ ing alleys, stores and cocktail bars."*^ Elim­ tember, 1945, address to Congress, there was ination of production controls, moreover, left a wide discrepancy between the new Chief the Office of Price Administration as the last Executive's words and his actions. His first bastion against inflation, and the OPA, which appointments were given, for the most part, Truman supported only intermittently, soon to inconspicuous conservatives, who were re­ succumbed to the pressures of organized in­ markable more for their personal and poli­ terests, cautious administrators, and congres­ tical loyalty to Truman than for their com­ sional conservatives.'** mand of the affairs of state.*" His rhetorical The only major domestic achievement of commitment to reform, moreover, was not Truman's early presidency was the Full Em­ matched by a congressional strategy of support ployment Act of 1946. Originally designed for liberal issues. Truman was excessively to write Keynesian fiscal policy into federal deferential toward Congress, supported liberal law, the bill received only sporadic support bills infrequently, and allowed conservative from the White House and was drastically advisers such as John Snyder and George Allen weakened by congressional amendment. to undermine progressive programs.*' Though it institutionalized a new source of The content of Truman's policies during economic advice for the President through the these years was also generally conservative— creation of the Council of Economic Advisors, in result if not always in intent. The admin­ the act itself amounted to little more than istration's tax policies, for example, closely "a pious hope that the nation could achieve conformed to what the business community substantial employment."*5

^ Allen J. Matusow, Farm Policies and Politics in '" Bernstein, "Charting a Course Between Inflation the Truman Years (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1967), and Depression: Secretary ot the Treasury Fred Vinson 1-37; Bernstein, "Clash ot Interests," ib-bT, Bernstein, and the Truman Administration's Tax Bill," in The "The Politics of Inflation," 185-219; Bernstein, "The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, 66: 53-64 Postwar Famine and Price Control, 1946," in Agri­ (January, 1968); Bernstein, "The Removal of War cultural History, 38: 235-240 (October, 1964). Production Controls on Business, 1944-1946," in Bus­ " Bernstein, "The Presidency Under Truman," 8; iness History Review, 39: 243-260 (Summer, 1965); Mary H. Hinchey, "The Frustration of the New Deal Bernstein, "The Politics ot Inflation," 60-64. Revival" (doctoral dissertation. University ot Missouri, " Bernstein, "Reluctance and Resistance: Wilson 1965), 91, 203-206, 226-227. Truman's appointments, Wyatt and Veterans' Housing in the Truman Admin­ argues Bernstein, reflected "the larger failure of a istration," in The Register of the Kentucky Historical whole Administration without leaders; tor by choosing Society, 65: 47-66 (January, 1967); Richard O. Davies, incompetent advisers, Truman had constructed a gov­ Housing Reform During the Truman Administration, ernment which was drifting from crisis to disaster." 40-58. See Bernstein, "The Politics of Inflation," 187. " Bernstein, "The Removal of War Production Con­ " Hinchey, "The Frustration of the New Deal Re­ trols on Business," 243-260; Bernstein, "Economic Pol­ vival," 143-190. Although sympathetic with the stated icies," 100-105; Bernstein, "The Politics of Inflation." goals ot Truman's program and mindful ot the dif­ *' Bernstein, "Economic Policies," 98-99; Bernstein, ficulties the President faced, Hinchey's study is never­ "Charting a Course Between Inflation and Depression," theless highly critical ot Truman's competence as a 53-64; Bernstein and Allen J, Matusow (eds.). The legislative leader. Truman Administration: A Documentary History 34 C^^'^^n^'

Society's Iconographic Collection President Harry S. Truman on his way to the Democratic national convention, Philadelphia, 1948.

Unable to harness the postwar inflation, relieved him of the necessity of implementing Truman ultimately lost the support of every a legislative strategy and permitted him "the major economic interest group. He also luxury of creating a record of liberal demands alienated liberals—without, however, winning without responsibility" for their enactment.*^ compensatory support from conservatives. By As the 1948 election drew near, Truman 1946 Republican politicians were asking voters adopted a posture of militant liberalism, a if they had "Haci Enough?" of Truman and pose which was to contribute substantially to the Democrats. The Republican triumph that his victory, as well as to subsequent evalua­ November seemed to underscore Truman's tions of his presidency. Accepting at face value failure as a leader. But the election of a the rhetoric of 1948, orthodox historians have Republican Congress also aided Truman. It pictured Truman as a fearless liberal engaged in mortal combat with the Neanderthal men of Republican reaction. But recent studies (New York, 1966), 47. For a contrary view, see Ed­ ward S. Flash, Jr., Economic Advice and Presidential Leadership (New York, 1965), 9-11. " Bernstein, "The Presidency Under Truman," 9.

35 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975 suggest that the rhetoric of 1948 exaggerated Frustrated by his inability to prevent strikes both the threat to the New Deal posed by the and angry at the defiant mood of labor, the Republican Eightieth Congress and the depth President lashed out at union leaders. On of Truman's coinmitment to liberal reform. one occasion, during the rail crisis of 1946, As Susan Hartmann has concluded in her re­ Truman personally drafted an angry message cent study of the Eightieth Congress, the Re­ intended for broadcast to a nationwide radio publican attack on the New Deal, though audience. In this undelivered speech the conducted with a great deal of impassioned President called for war veterans to join him oratory, was very limited when it came to in a campaign to "eliminate the [John L.] specifics. Most Republicans, it appears, ac­ Lewises, the [A. F.] Whitneys and the [Al- cepted the fact—if not the idea—of the New vanley] Johnstons; the communist [Harry] Deal; and a few such as the "conservative" Bridges and the Russian Senators and Repre­ Robert A. Taft actually proposed to increase sentatives and really make this a government federal programs in such areas as housing and of, by and for the people. . . . Let's give the education.*'' The President's rhetoric, more­ country back to the people. . . . Let's put over, masked a campaign strategy designed to transportation and production back to work, create liberal issues, not to secure enactment hang a few traitors and make our own coun­ of liberal programs. The administration, try safe for democracy."*^ Although Charles wrote Clark Clifford in his famous memor­ Ross and Clark Clifford persuaded Truman andum of November, 1947, "can assume it to temper these remarks, the President's at­ will get no major part of its own program tack on the railway unions and his proposal, approved. Its tactics must, therefore, be en­ the following day, to draft striking workers tirely different than if there were any real into the armed forces nevertheless served, in point to bargaining and compromise."*^ the words of one critical historian, to inflame "a Congress and a nation already angry with labor.''^" I N a few issues, of course, the anti- Although Truman always maintained that 0 New Deal drive was real and the Taft-Hartley bill went too far, it con­ intense. In 1947 congressional conservatives, tained many provisions which the President capitalizing on popular reaction to the rash himself had called for.^' Ancl although he of postwar strikes, secured passage of the Taft- ultimately vetoed the measure, he provided Hartley labor-relations act. By vetoing this little leadership to the minority of legislators Republican-sponsored measure, and by ignor­ struggling against its passage. Taft-Hartley ing the large number of Democratic votes cast was probably more valuable to the President in favor of its passage, Truman was able to as a law, passed over his veto, than as a bill win the endorsement of organized labor and which had died in Congress or which had create an important issue for the 1948 cam­ been weakened through compromise. As Clark paign. But revisionists argue that the Presi­ Clifford concluded a little later, "the strategy dent also contiibuted to antilabor sentiment on the Taft-Hartley bill—refusal to bargain through his inept handling of labor-manage­ ment relations during reconversion and be­ cause of his blistering attacks on John L. '" Quoted in Cabell Phillips, The Truman Presi­ Lewis and other prominent labor leaders. dency, 116. "Bernstein, "The Politics ot Inflation," 255-275. Bernstein argues that Truman already knew that a settlement was near when he appeared before Congress " Susan M. Hartrnann, Truman and the 80th Con­ to ask for antistrike legislation. Truman's speech, he gress, 2, 213-214; Richard O. Davies, "'Mr. Republican' contends, was "a contrived theatrical performance" Turns 'Socialist': Robert A. Taft and Public Housing," which needlessly excited antilabor sentiment. When in Ohio History, 73; 136-143 (Summer, 1964). Attorney General Tom C. Clark questioned the con­ "Clark Clifford, "Memorandum tor the President," stitutionality of the proposed law, Truman replied 19, in the Harry S. Truman Library. On the residts brusquely: "We'll draft 'em first and think about the ot this strategy, see Berman, The Politics of Civil law later." See Phillips, The Truman Presidency, 115. Rights, 82-95; Hartmann, Truman and the 80lh Con­ "^ Arthur F. McClure, The Truman Administration gress, 115-116, 133; Bernstein, "Economic Policies," and the Problems of Postwar Labor, 1945-1948 (Ruth­ 106. erford, New Jersey, 1969), 242-243. 36 GRIFFITH: TRUMAN AND THE HISTORIANS

with the Republicans and to accept any com­ gress," the former Truman aide wrote, "that promises—paid big political dividends." In enacted the comprehensive housing program," spite of his veto, and in spite of his election- providing year attacks on the measure, Truman invoked generously for slum clearance, urban rede­ the law seven times in 1948 alone, more times velopment and public housing; the Congress than Eisenhower during his eight years in that put through the major revision of social office.^2 security. . . . This was the Congress that Truman's victory in 1948, moreover, was reformed the Displaced Persons Act, in­ not simply a magnificent personal triumph, creased the minimum wage, doubled the as a legion of enthusiastic journalists have hospital construction program, authorized depicted it. Instead, as Richard Kirkendall the National Science Foundation and the has argued, it was a victory of party, a tri­ rural telephone program, suspended the umph of the New Deal coalition fashioned "sliding scale" on price supports, extended during the 1930's. Although Truman suc­ the soil conservation program, provided ceeded in rallying the traditional elements of new grants for planning state and local public works and plugged the long-stand­ this coalition and in ensuring his election ing merger loophole in the Clayton Act. for another term, his margin was far nar­ And it was principally this Congress that rower than Franklin Roosevelt's and he financed Truman's last expansions of flood trailed congressional Democrats in many control, rural electrification, reclamation, states.^^ The 1948 election had other, though public power and transmission lines.^s perhaps unintended, consequences. In par­ ticular the administration's savage attack on Yet recent studies—again, by both revisionists Henry Wallace and the Progressives narrowed and nonrevisionists—suggest that Truman's the arena of permissible debate over foreign accomplishments, even at the height of the policy, strengthened conservative, antireform Fair Deal, were far more modest than Neu- forces, and legitimized the red-baiting tactics stadt's enthusiastic and occasionally inaccurate which would subsequently become identified catalog would seem to suggest. with McCarthyism.^* Following the election Truman, now Presi­ OUSING, for example was in­ dent in his own right, called upon the newly H deed one of the Truman's high­ elected Democratic Congress to enact a series est domestic priorities. But his program was of proposals which he now called the Fair neither generous nor comprehensive, only Deal. Although many of his requests were painfully inadequate. The administration's subsequently blocked by congressional con­ initial housing program had been sacrificed servatives, the record of substantive achieve­ to the conservative, decontrol philosophy of ment made the Eighty-first Congress, accord­ John Snyder, John Small, and George Allen. ing to Richard Neustadt, "the most liberal Wilson Wyatt, the liberal housing expediter Congress" since 1938. "This was the Con- whom Truman brought into the government in late 1945 with "the complete and unquali­ ^^ Hartmann, Truman and the 80th Congress, 81- fied support of the Administration," resigned 82; Seymour T. Mann, "Policy Formation in the Ex­ ecutive Branch: The Taft-Hartley Experience," in the in frustration within a year. Even Clark Western Political Quarterly, 13: 598, 606-607 (Sep­ Clifford noted in November, 1947, that "the tember, 1960); Clark Clifford, "Memorandum for the Administration itself is vulnerable on Hous- President," 19; Congressional Quarterly Service, Con­ gress and the Nation (Washington, 1965), 629. See also R. Alton Lee, Truman and Taft-Hartley: A Ques­ As the 1948 election drew near, Truman tion of Mandate (Lexington, Kentucky, 1966). became a vigorous champion of housing re­ =» Richard S. Kirkendall, "Election of 1948," in Ar­ form, both to win liberal votes and to out- thur M. Schlesinger, Jr., et al. (eds.). History of Amer­ ican Presidential Elections, 1780-1968 (New York, 1971), 4: 3137-3145. =*' Neustadt, "Congress and the Fair Deal," 366-367. " See especially Allen Yarnell, Democrats and Pro­ " Clifford, "Memorandum for the President," 35; gressives, and Robert A. Divine, Foreign Policy and Bernstein, "Wilson Wyatt and Veterans' Housing," U.S. Presidential Elections (New York, 1974), 1: chap­ 47-66; Davies, Housing Reform During the Truman ters 5-7. Administration, 40-58. 37 Society's Iconographic Collection Students at North High School, Sheboygan, engaged in campaign drollery prior to mock political convention, 1948. flank Robert Taft and other Republican sup­ hospitals, and libraries. The third and most porters of public housing. The following successful section of the housing act was the year the administration won passage of the expansion of the FHA mortage-insurance pro­ Housing Act of 1949, subsequently hailed as gram, the practical effect of which was to Truman's greatest legislative triumph. But subsidize middle-class housing. FHA expan­ the measure's perfonuance never approached sion, of course, was warmly endorsed by most its pious promise of "a decent home . . . for real-estate groups.^'' every American family." The act's most con­ The disparity between the administration's troversial title authorized the construction of rhetoric and its actions has led Richard O. 810,000 units of public housing. While few Davies, generally a sympathetic critic of Tru­ housing experts believed that this was suf­ man's housing policies, to write that while ficient, most agreed that it represented a be­ the President "gave every appearance of ginning. Unhappily, most of the units au­ staunch liberalism in his housing policies, . . . thorized by the bill were not constructed. As in the day-to-day conduct of his housing a result of bureaucratic timidity, a lack ol agency he closely adhered to the real estate presidential leadership, the Korean War, and lobby's position." The Truman administra­ the vigorous opposition of real-estate interests, tion, he concludes, "met all the demands of only 60,000 units were actually built during the Truman administration. By 1964, fifteen ^~ Ibid., 116-142; Bernstein, "America in War and years later, the figure stood at only 365,000— Peace," 302, 317. On urban renewal see especially Herbert J. Gans, "The Failure ot Urban Renewal: still less than half the original authorization. A Critique and Some Proposals," in Commentary, Slum clearance, also authorized by the act, 39: 29-37 (April, 1965). There is a striking incon­ proceeded slowly and often with disastrous sistency in the Davies book between the author's results, as slum dwellers were dispossessed to enthusiastic description of the Housing Act of 1949 make room for luxury apartments and shop­ as a "milestone" and the "the high point of the Fair Deal" and his subsequent conclusion that it proved ping centers and for the expansion of colleges. to be "a hollow victory." GRIFFITH: TRUMAN AND THE HISTORIANS

the housing industry by enacting such pro­ did it substantially change the structure of grams as yield insurance and expansion of an industry. The administration's greatest the activities of the Federal Housing Admin­ success was with the aluminum industry where, istration; it differed with the industry only through surplus disposal, the government was on the matter of public housing."^* able to end the monopoly long enjoyed by The Truman administration did improve the Aluminum Company of America, replac­ the Social Security system by expanding cov­ ing it instead with an oligopoly which in­ erage to include large numbers of persons pre­ cluded Kaiser-Frazer, Reynolds, and two small­ viously excluded, by easing eligibility require­ er companies which were subsequently ac­ ments, and by increasing benefits.^^ Truman quired by Anaconda and Olin Chemical, re- also coaxed a reluctant Congress into raising spectively.^2 the minimum wage from forty cents to seventy- The administration succeeded in amending five cents an hour, but he failed to win ex­ the Clayton Act in an attempt to inhibit cor­ pansion of the act's coverage. Instead, the porate mergers, but the new law was invoked Democratic Eighty-first Congress actually ex­ only once by the Justice Department, and cluded a half-million workers previously even this came to trial well after Truman covered by the law.^" had left office.^^ And although the Justice Truman also succeeded in liberalizing the Department's antitrust division filed a sub­ highly discriminatory and restrictive Displaced stantial number of antitrust actions, it was Persons Act. This small triumph was soon always handicapped by a shortage of funds. overshadowed, however, by the passage, over Truman called for money for antimonopoly his veto, of the McCarran-Walter Act, a high­ activity during and immediately following the ly restrictive measure which perpetuated many 1948 campaign, but these appeals ceased after of the discriminatory features of the National the recession of 1949 and especially after the Origins Act of 1924. Although Truman op­ outbreak of the Korean War. As one student posed the bill, the leadership offered by his of Truman's antitrust program has concluded, administration was fitful and divided. The "Never during the Truman Administration Justice Department and the State Department, did the traditional antimonopoly agencies re­ for example, supported the measure almost ceive enough money to fulfill adequately the from the very beginning; and although Tru­ terms of the antitrust laws."^* man vetoed the bill, he apparently did so with Unable and probably unwilling to launch no firm expectation that his veto would be an attack upon industrial concentration, the sustained.^' administration preferred instead to subsidize Truman also paid lip service to the virtues small businesses through fair-trade legislation of small business and the free marketplace. and through the creation of what would later His support for antimonopoly efforts, how­ be called the Small Business Administration.^^ ever, was usually confined to generalities, and Thus the antitrust program of the Truman the accomplishments of his administration in administration, like that of the New Deal this area were quite limited. Following the before it, was ambivalent, characterized both end of World War II, for example, the ad­ by the desire to return to the imagined ben­ ministration sought to dispose of government- efits of a competitive economy and by accom- built plants in such a way as to encourage competition. The program was generally un­ successful, however, and in only a few instances '^ Robert L. Branyon, "Anti-Monopoly Activities Dur­ ing the Truman Administration" (doctoral dissertation, University of Oklahoma, 1961), 44-64; Bernstein, "Ec­ "^ Davies, Housing Reform During the Truman Ad­ onomic Policies," 124-127. ministration, 135. "Yield insurance" was designed to •^ Branyon, "Anti-Monopoly Activities During the insure a minimum annual profit tor builders of large Truman Administration," 113-115, 123-133. rental apartments. '*Ibid., 237. '''> Congress and the Nation, 1243-1246. <^Ibid., 133-146, 185-208, 219-233. Truman unsuc­ '"Ibid., 639. cessfully opposed a bill to exempt railroad rate bureaus " M. Albert Dimmitt, Sr., "The Enactment of the from the antitrust laws. He did block, however, an McCarran-Walter Act ot 1952" (doctoral dissertation. effort to overturn the Supreme Court's invalidation University of Kansas, 1970), 169-170, 191, 257. of the "basing point" system.

39 Powerhouse interior, Pickwick Da)u, Tennessee Valley Authority.

modation to the realities of industrial capi­ the construction of steam-generating plants talism. and transmission lines which would extend the scope of federal activity into new regions; and they were highly successful in this opposition. As a result, federal power projects were com­ Y contrast, the administration's pelled to enter into so-called "wheeling ar­ B public power program appears rangements" whereby private utilities would at first glance to have been a major triumph purchase all federally produced power at the for the Fair Deal. During the Truman years dam and distribute it over their own lines. nearly 5 million kilowatts were added to the Thus, as a recent student of Truman's power federal generating capacity and nearly 13,000 policies has concluded, "the administration miles of transmission lines were constructed. that made the greatest contribution to the Yet the administration's triumph was more federal power plant also created the device apparent than real. By the late 1940's private that could prevent federal power from domi­ utilities no longer opposed the increase of nating any additional areas of the nation."^^ federal generating power or, for that matter, the construction of transmission lines in areas ""John R. Waltrip, "Public Power During the Tru­ of uncontested federal supremacy such as the man Administration" (doctoral dissertation, University Tennessee valley. What they did oppose was ot Missouri, 1965), 1-3, 64-68, 122-124, 134. Waltrip

40 GRIFFITH: TRUMAN AND THE HISTORIANS

Although Truman publicly endorsed the agenda for the future. But revisionists have New Deal concept of regional valley authori­ challenged both Truman's commitment to ties modeled on TVA, his leadership was these reforms and, in the case of the Brannan neither clear nor consistent. In the case of plan, the liberalism of the program itself. the Missouri River valley, for example, he For example, while Truman was the first supported the decentralized and highly inef­ President to call for a national health-insur­ ficient Pick-Sloan Plan, which he had helped ance program, he never provided health re­ develop while in the Senate. And while he formers with continuous or energetic leader­ repeatedly called for a Columbia Valley Au­ ship. Even his public advocacy of health care thority (CVA), he was unable to overcome was sporadic; he talked about it on the hust­ the opposition of private interests and their ings, but fell "strangely silent" when Congress congressional spokesmen. Although the Tru­ was in session. Indeed, one student of Tru­ man administration did win support for fed­ man's presidential leadership has concluded eral allocations for flood control and recla­ that his handling of health care was "the mation, it was forced to sacrifice centralized domestic policy issue which best exemplifies control and to abandon the New Deal goal Truman's weakness as a political leader.""^ of regional planning and development."'' By contrast, the administration vigorously More generally, the Truman administration supported the Brannan plan, a bold and am­ proved unable to escape the complex and of­ bitious scheme designed to maintain high ten contradictory legacy of the New Deal and farm income while at the same time reducing unable to master the clash of economic and food prices to consumers. Thus, the Demo­ bureaucratic interests in which natural re­ crats reasoned (and the Republicans feared) source policy was enmeshed. Nor, for that an alliance of mutual need and benefit would matter, was the Eisenhower administration. be forged between farmers and workers. The The debates of those years, though fiercely Brannan plan may have marked the high- conducted, did not greatly influence either water mark of Fair Deal liberalism, but, as federal policy or public attitudes. As a result, Allen Matusow has shown, it was also badly as one scholar has recently concluded, when defective. Most of its benefits would have ac­ Americans were confronted a decade later with crued to the nation's middle-sized, family a total ecological crisis, "they had nothing farmers. Sharecroppers, tenants, and migrants more to draw upon to cope with that threat would have benefited little if at all from the than the economic materialism, the bureau­ cratic inertia, and the political gamesmanship practiced by the men of the Truman-Eisen­ ™ Elmo Richardson, Dams, Parks and Politics: Re­ hower era.""* source Development and Preservation in the Truman- Truman's reputation as a leader of liberal Eisenhower Era (Lexington, Kentucky, 1973), 201. reform rests, however, not only upon his ac­ ""Monte Mac Poen, "The Truman Administration and National Health Insurance" (doctoral disserta­ complishments, but also upon those programs tion, University of Missouri, 1967), 176-177, 229-239. which he championed unsuccessfully—national Elmer E. Cornwell, Jr., Presidential Leadership of health care, civil rights, the Brannan plan. Public Opinion (Bloomington, Indiana, 1965), 177. In If Truman failed to establish a record of his memoirs Truman writes that the failure of national substantive achievement, traditionalists argue, health care was a "bitter disappointment." See Mem­ oirs, 2: 23. By contrast, Richard Neustadt argues that he nevertheless left as his legacy a reform the administration had never had any real hope for passage, but rather saw it "as a stick with which to beat the Congress into passing other major aspects argues that Truman's failures are attributable to his of the health program." Neustadt, "Congress and the lack of a ^vorking majority in Congress. He also be­ Fair Deal," 367-368. If this was Truman's strategy, it lieves that the "wheeling arrangements" represented backfired, as Neustadt notes, carrying down with it a realistic compromise, though he admits that such much of Truman's health program. Monte Poen's un­ a deal "could not have come from a department under published study of Truman's health policies is highly the direction of Harold Ickes." critical ot the President for his failure to provide onbid., 30-36, 57-59, 124-219; John R. Ferrell, "Wa­ leadership to health reformers. Poen also argues that ter in the Missouri: The Inter-Agency Concept at Truman missed an opportunity to win congressional Mid-Century," in the Journal of the West, 7: 96-105 approval of a more modest compromise program in (January, 1968). 1949-1950.

41 WISCONSIN MAGAZINK OF HISTORY AUTUMNj 1975

There is only one sure way to do away with discrimina­ tion m the Armed Forces— Tiiere is only one way to make sure that the sacrifices i.>f the Negro soldier, seaman, pilot, and marine shall not be in vain. That way runs through the re-election of President A WORD RcxjsGveit, and by supporting him with a progressive Congress, ABOUT TRUMAN

Well, not one word, but a few in praise of the record of Senator Harry S. Truman, His voting record is good. He con­ sistently supported the President and the New Deal. As Chairman of the Truman Committee in Congress, he served the best interests of the Nation. He voted for cloture on the anti-poll tax bili—He voted for a Federal Soldier's Vote Bill—He voted to continue the National Youth Administration- He supported the President's veto of the vicious anti- labor Smith-Connally Act. He Is our friend.

Portion of The Negro in 1944, a pamphlet issued by the National Political Action Committee of the CIO in support of the Roosevelt-Truman ticket. plan."^^ Once again the liberalism which Sitkoff argue that political expediency, not emerged from the New and Fair Deals paid "democratic idealism," motivated Truman court to organized interests, and seldom to and his advisers. These revisionists are skep­ the poor, the powerless, or the dispossessed. tical of the President's personal commitment to civil rights and critical of the administra­ tion's accomplishments. Truman dealt with EVISIONISTS are also critical of civil rights, they suggest, as he dealt with so R Truman administration's record many other reform programs: by combining in civil rights. In the past, most historians bold rhetoric with circumspect deeds.''^ have argued that the Truman years repre­ sented "a turning point in the history of '" Matusow, Farm Policies and Politics in the Tru­ civil rights." This is the domestic issue upon man Years, 199-200, 204. which Clinton Rossiter rests his high apprais­ '^Rossiter, The American Presidency, 152-153; John al of Truman. The President, according to Hope Franklin, "Civil Rights and the Truman Ad­ most historians, was "basically sympathetic" ministration," in Donald R. McCoy et al. (eds.). Con­ ference of Scholars on the Truman Administration and to black aspirations and, unlike Franklin Civil Rights (Independence, Missouri, 1968), 133-144; Roosevelt, was consistently willing to support Richard Dalfiume, Desegregation of the U.S. Armed civil-rights legislation. As Richard Dalfiume Forces, 137-147. has written, the programs of the Truman ad­ ^^ Berman, The Politics of Civil Rights in the Tru­ ministration represented "a ftision of practical man Administration, 237-240; Bernstein, "The Ain- biguous Legacy: The Truman Administration and politics and democratic idealism."''^ But Wil­ Civil Rights," in Bernstein (ed.), Politics and Policies liam Berman, Barton Bernstein, and Harvard of the Truman Administration, 269-314; Harvard Sit-

42 GRIFFITH: TRUMAN AND THE HISTORIANS

From 1945 through 1947, they argue, Tru­ the Strong support he received from black man sought to placate civil-rights advocates voters was a crucial element in his narrow vic­ with token gestures while avoiding commit­ tory in November. ment to any substantive changes which might The people whose expectations had been offend the sensibilities of white Southern Dem­ aroused by this election, however, were soon ocrats. The political exigencies of 1948, how­ disappointed. The administration introduced ever, forced Truman to act in order to stem its civil-rights program in early 1949 and the defection of black voters to the Repub­ struggled briefly with Southern senators in licans and to minimize the threat posed by an unsuccessful attempt to amend Rule 22 Henry Wallace and the Progressives. At first on cloture. But the administration was in­ he sought to deal with this problem by es­ creasingly preoccupied with other problems. calating his rhetoric; he sent Congress a civil- As Richard Kirkendall has pointed out, after rights message in early February, but declined 1948 the President sought to reunite his party in the face of conservative opposition to sub­ and smooth over the divisions created by the mit draft legislation. "The strategy," White campaign.''* As a consequence of this he sub­ House aide Philleo Nash later explained, "was ordinated civil rights to the strategy of wooing to start with a bold measure and then tem­ Southern conservatives back onto the reserva­ porize to pick up the rightwing forces. Simply tion. stated, backtrack after the bang." But by the The administration proceeded somewhat summer of 1948 the President's options had more vigorously through executive channels. narrowed. The administration had failed to Tlie Justice Department played an increasing­ win convention endorsement of a civil-rights ly important role in civil rights through the plank acceptable to white Southerners and stibmission of amicus curiae briefs in selected the threatened bolt of states' rights Democrats cases, while the Defense Department under­ had become a reality. The possibility that took to desegregate the armed forces. Yet even defections to Dewey and Wallace might cost here the administration acted slowly and with Truman the large industrial states of the great caution. As Ruth Morgan has written, North remained the greater danger, however; Truman's original order "offered loopholes and it was against this background that the for those who might seek them." The army President issued his famous executive orders was especially reltictant to obey the order, calling for "equality of treatment and oppor­ and as late as January, 1950, Secretary Gor­ tunity" in the armed services and banning don Gray told Congress that "there is no discrimination in federal employment.''^ In policy of elimination of segregation in the late October Truman became the first Amer­ Army at the present time.'"'''' Indeed, it took ican President to campaign in Harlem, and " Berman, The Politics of Civil Rights in the Tru­ man Administration, 137-156. Kirkendall is quoted koff, "Harry Trmnan and the Electioir of 1948: The in Conference of Scholars on the Truman Administra­ Coming of Age of Civil Rights in American Politics," tion and Civil Rights, 33. in the Journal of Southern History, 37: 597-616 (No­ ~° Ruth P. Morgan, The President and Civil Rights: vember, 1971). See also Donald R. McCoy and Richard Policy-Making by Executive Order (New York, 1970), T. Reutten, Quest and Response: Minority Rights and 21, 23, Desegregation, of cour.se, was sharply limited. the Truman Administration (Lawrence, Kansas, 1973). Off-base housing, schools, and the National Guard McCoy and Reutten are sympathetic to Truman, who all remained highly restricted. It was ironic, more­ they argue had a genuine if limited commitment to over, that black Americans should find a measure of civil rights, though they are also mindful of the failures equality only in the most conservative and authori­ of his administration. "The record of the Truman tarian institution in American life—and doubly ironic years showed the strength of the American system in that the Truman administration should justify de­ that progress was made," they write, "but it also re­ segregation of the armed services to white Southerners vealed society's weakness in its inability, in a whirl­ on the grounds that it would reduce the casualties pool ot conflicting interests and pressures, to move suffered by white soldiers. By 1965, desegregation was forward either rapidly or wisely enough." See Quest apparently working, for black soldiers, who made up and Response, 352. over 12 per cent of all American troops, accounted '^ Berman, The Politics of Civil Rights in the Tru­ for nearly 20 per cent of all American casualties. See man Administration, 79-120; Bernstein, "Ambiguous Thomas A. Johnson, "Negroes in 'The Nam,"' and Legacy," 269-314; Sitkoff, "Harry Truman and the L. Deckle McLean, "The Black Man and the Draft," Election of 1948," 612. both in Ebony, 23 (August, 1968).

43 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975 five years and a war before the army was Richard Freeland argue in recent studies that finally integrated. McCarthyism, with all its attendant implica­ Thus revisionists argue that Truman was tions for foreign policy and civil liberties, a "reluctant champion" of civil rights who was not simply or exclusively "the logical ex­ left to his successors an "ambiguous legacy." tension of traditional conservative politics," They concede that the Truman years repre­ but was also a function of the Cold War and sented a watershed in the emergence of the the rhetoric used to sustain it. Truman was civil-rights movement. As William Berman not simply a victim of McCarthyism, they has summarized it, during these years black suggest; he was also one of its principal Americans won "a place at the table where architects. The success of McCarthy and the Madisonian realists play the game of interest Republican right, they contend, was made politics in the traditional American way: possible only by a radical shift in political those who have are heard. "'^ He might have sensibilities between 1945 and 1950, a shift added that while this development did mark which they maintain was primarily a product the entry of American Negroes into national of the Truman administration. By using ap­ Democratic politics, it also limited and cir­ peals to anticommunism in order to marshal cumscribed their influence in the years that support for its foreign policy, the administra­ followed. Thus when the stride toward free­ tion helped create the conservative political dom began in the early 1960's its most power­ climate in which McCarthyism would develop. ful thrust came from forces working outside The Truman administration also legitimized the system of 1948. red-baiting at home, they argue, by institu­ After 1950, reform gave way to reaction ting a loyalty program with the sweeping goal as the administration turned its attention to of total security, by attacking Wallace and the Korean War and to the growing red scare the Progressives on the grounds of their at home. Traditionally, historians have pic­ loyalty, by permitting the Attorney General's tured Truman as an embattled champion of list to become a widely accepted litmus test civil liberties who was innocently victimized for subversion, and by initiating the prosecu­ by the McCarthy hysteria. When his liber­ tion of Communist party leaders under the alism failed, they argue, it was because of Smith Act.'^'s the bitter partisanship of Republican poli­ The Justice Department, which Truman ticians, the cowardice of congressional leaders, seemed unable or unwilling to control, was and the intractability of the federal bureau­ especially irresponsible in supporting repres­ cracy. Truman courageously vetoed the Mc- sive legislation which the White House op­ Carran Internal Security bill, defended the posed and in contributing to the public hys­ executive branch from attacks by red-baiting teria over communism. "There are today congressmen, and vigorously attacked those many Communists in America," Attorney conservative Republicans who furnished the General J. Howard McGrath told one audi­ red scare with so much of its leadership.^^ ence. "They are everywhere—in factories, of­ fices, butcher shops, on street corners, in pri­ vate business—and each carries with him the OR revisionists, however, there germs of death for Society." At that very F was another, less admirable side moment, McGrath warned, communists were to the Truman record. Athan Theoharis and "busy at work—undermining your Govern­ ment, plotting to destroy the liberties of every citizen, and feverishly trying in whatever they " Berman, The Politics of Civil Rights in the Tru­ man Administration, 133. "The most recent "traditional" account ot the Truman administration and the domestic Cold War "Theoharis, Seeds of Repression, 28-192; Freeland, is Alan D. Harper, The Politics of Loyalty: The White The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism, House and the Communist Issue, 1946-1952 (New York, 113-360. See also Robert Griffith, The Politics of 1969). For a critical evaluation of this and other works Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate (Lexington, on the McCarthy era, see Robert Griffith, "The Poli­ Kentucky, 1970), and Griffith and Theoharis (eds.). tics of Anti-Communism," in the Wisconsin Magazine The Specter: Original Essays on the Cold War and of History, 54: 299-308 (Summer, 1971). the Origins of McCarthyism (New York, 1974). 44 f MAVBE 1 CAhT^-. LOOKS LIKE GET SOMerHir^O ] I AN ALL DAY \ CHEERFUL. ON j I DRIZZLE. i THE RADIO - - MAKSS ME {(^l LIVELY MUSIC ] FEEL CJLOOMY)-f(, ^- )r)=3 OK A GOOD / J^/^i CCMEPY J

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COMAIUNISrS ARe , ( EVEN THE BESl' vy/\TCH YOUR FRIENDS ( ALWAYS OM THE LDOKCUI 1 f CITIZENS MAY WATCH YOUR AI/\IL,' ( FOR PROMIS/Nfa > BE APPROACHEU BE ALERT.' S RS^CRLIITS I THERe 'S TR£ DooReeLL.' —..MAY BE ONE OF

Society's Iconographic Collection

can, to aid the Soviet Union."'''^ With spokes­ Beyond the New Deal is one of the most im­ men for the Truman administration calling portant studies of the Truman presidency yet for a holy war against communism, the re­ published. It is also a ringing defense of visionists argue, it was hardly surprising that Truman and of the new liberalism associated McCarthyism flourished, or that McCarthyite with the Cold War. Under Truman's leader­ congressmen attacked the administration for ship, Hamby asserts, liberals abandoned the its failure to act in accordance with its own "Utopian" assumption that it was possible to rhetoric. seek accommodation with the Soviet Union, The ultimate failure of the Truman admin­ and adopted instead the administration's view istration, revisionists contend, goes far deeper that it was necessary to contain Soviet aggres­ than the President's political ineptitude, his siveness by means of American economic and fitful support for reform, or his militant anti­ military power. They also abandoned tlie communism. Instead, they argue that his radicalism of the 1930's with its blunt calls failure was rooted in the nature of mid-century for redistributive change and seized instead liberalism itself. In the past, historians have upon the notion of economic growth as the generally praised the Fair Deal liberalism cornerstone of a new, "vital center" liberalism. with which Truman was identified, a view Liberals, argues Fair Deal economist Leon that has received strong endorsement recently Keyserling, "should concentrate not on re- from Alonzo Hamby in Beyond the New Deal: slicing the economic pie but rather on en­ Harry S. Truman and American Liberalism. larging it." Thus poverty cotild be eliminated Extensively researched and solidly written, withottt redistribution of wealth and reform achieved without social conflict. When con­ "Theoharis, Seeds of Repression, 135-136. flict over public policy did occur, the new

45 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975 liberalism stiggested, it was to be resolved pouring of praise which followed Truman's in an atmosphere of compromise and civility death surely suggests, and perhaps among by the leaders of organized interest groups academics as well. Critics argue that in their through a process euphemistically called "in­ haste to condemn liberalism, the revisionists terest group democracy." The election of have underestimated the entrenched power of 1948, writes Hamby, was a victory not only conservative and antireformist forces in Amer­ for Truman but also for the "new liberalism." ican life. In evaluating the exercise of presi­ Truman's election unified liberalism and "in­ dential power, writes Richard S. Kirkendall fused it with a new sense of purpose and de­ in a gentle remonstrance, "historians should termination. Once again, liberalism was on have realistic expectations."^^ Revisionists the offensive." By redefining liberalism as and nonrevisionists alike, moreover, have a "sort of centrism," Truman and the liberals, tended to overestimate the power of the according to Hamby, "served their nation, presidency. In this respect, revisionists are their party and their tradition better probably perhaps themselves part of the liberal con­ than they themselves realized."^" sensus that they deplore.^^ Critics are also Such a liberalism, revisionists contend, quick to note that many revisionists rest their served only to rationalize an aggressive and case against Truman's foreign policies upon militaristic foreign policy, while betraying the the implied assumption that Franklin Roose­ cause of social justice at home. It exaggerated velt would have acted differently, a premise the benefits wrought by the New Deal and which is at best speculative, at worst errone- overestimated the ability of the postwar otis. Much of the revisionist critique is also American economy to eliminate poverty. The premised, critics continue, on the equally poor, the dispossessed, the unorganized had speculative assumption that the Cold War was little or no access to power in the America not inevitable, and that clianges in behavior of the new liberalism, while the fruits of on the part of the United States could have economic growth were distributed according substantially modified Soviet actions. Finally, to that old biblical adage—"tinto every one critics argue that the revisionist view of that hath shall be given." The Fair Deal, Soviet policy is too benign, that it replaces like the New Deal before it, generally tended the older image of a malevolent conspiracy to benefit the middle sectors of American with the equally misleading portrait of a society. The "tritimph" of this liberalism, republic of virtue.^"* moreover, was accompanied by the disintegra­ tion of the American Left and by an eclipse " Bernstein, "Economic Policies," 123; Bernstein and of radicalism in American politics for more Matusow, The Truman Administration, 86; Bernstein, than a decade. For revisionists, then, the "America in War and Peace," 310-312. For a radical Truman presidency was characterized by a criticjue of both the popular-front liberalism of the failed liberalism. At best, Truman's achieve­ war years and the Cold War liberalism that followed, ments were negative: "In a conservative era see Norman Markowitz, Rise and Fall of the People's Century. For broader critiques of modern liberalism, he helped prevent repeal of the New Deal and see Theodore J. Lowi, The End of Liberalism (New preserved its vision of mild welfare capital­ York, 1969); Robert Paul Wolff, The Poverty of Lib­ ism." At worst, he failed to fulfill his own eralism (Boston, 1968); and Michael Paul Rogin, The modest promises and delayed rather than Intellectuals and McCarthy: The Radical Specter (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1967). advanced the goals of jtistice and equality.*^ •^^ Kirkendall, "Harry Truman," 255. ** Thomas E. Cronin, "The Textbook Presidency and Political Science," paper read at the annual meet­ ing of the ."Vmerican Political Science Association, HE reconstruction of postwar September, 1970, and printed in the Congressional Record (October 5, 1970), S17102-S17115. American history sought by rad­ '* See, for example, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., "Origins ical and left-liberal historians is uncompleted. of the Cold War," in Foreign Affairs, 45: 22-52 (Oc­ Their view remains a minority view, certainly tober, 1967); Adam Ulam, "On Modern History: Re­ within the larger society, as the effusive out- reading the Cold War," 51-53; Hans Morgenthau, "Arguing About the Gold War," 37-41; Charles Maier, "Revisionism and the Interpretation of Cold War Ori­ * Alonzo L. Hamby, Beyond the New Deal. gins," 313-347. 46 GRIFFITH: TRUMAN AND THE HISTORIANS

The revisionist argument is strongest when ultimately, is not simply to judge, but to directed not at Truman personally, but at explain. ideas and institutions—at, for example, the Even if these criticisms are granted, how­ "defective liberal analysis" of which Truman, ever, much of the revisionist critique remains too, was a victim. Yet at this level, historical valid. If the Truman administration did not analysis is easily confused with political ide­ "cause" the Cold War, it was nevertheless ology; and one is tempted to speculate that responsible in large measure for the way in at many points what separates revisionists which the Cold War developed. If the re­ sponsibility was not Truman's alone, it was from nonrevisionists is not disagreement over his to a very considerable extent. If the the facts of the matter, but rather the dif­ failure of the Fair Deal was to a considerable fering political values they assign to those degree beyond his control, it was not entirely facts. This is not bad in and of itself. At a so. Ultimately, the President of the United minimum the revisionist critique has forced States must assume responsibility for the rec­ Truman's defenders to articulate their own ord of his administration. As Truman himself often hidden ideological assumptions. But was fond of pointing out, "The buck stops neither is it enough. The purpose of history. here."

BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE The first major revisionist studies were D. F. Flemming, The Cold War and Its Origins, 1917-1960 (2 vols.. Garden City, New York, 1961), and William A. Williams, The Tragedy of American Diplomacy (New York, 1959). More recent revisionist studies include Gar Al­ perovitz, Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam (New York, 1965); Stephen E. Ambrose, Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy, 1938-1970 (Baltimore, 1971); Richard J. Barnet, Intervention and Revolution: America's Confrontation with Insurgent Movements Around the World (New York, 1968); Diane Shaver Clemens, Yalta (New York, 1970); John C. Donovan, The Cold Warriors (Lexington, Massachusetts, 1974); Lloyd C. Gardner, Architects of Illusion: Men and Ideas in American Foreign Policy, 1941-1949 (Chicago, 1970); Martin F. Herz, Beginnings of the Cold War (Bloomington, Indiana, 1966); David Horowitz, The Free World Colos.sus: A Critique of American Foreign Policy in the Cold War (New York, 1965); Gabriel Kolko, The Politics of War: The World and United States Foreign Policy, 1943-1945 (New York, 1968); Joyce and Gabriel Kolko, The Limits of Power: The World and United States Foreign Policy, 1945-1954 (New York, 1972); Walter LaFeber, America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-1966 (New York, 1967); Harry Magdoff, The Age of Imperialism: The Economics of U.S. Foreign Policy (New York, 1969); Carl Oglesby and Richard Schaull, Containment and Change (New York, 1967); Thomas G. Paterson, Soviet-American Confrontation: Postwar Reconstruction and the Origins of the Cold War (Baltimore, 1973); William Pfaff, Condemned to Freedom (New York, 1971); Gaddis Smith, Dean Acheson (New York, 1972); Ronald Steel, Pax Americana (New York, 1967); Athan Theoharis, The Yalta Myths: An Issue in U.S. Politics, 1945-1955 (Columbia, Missouri, 1970). Also see the essays contained in Gar Alperovitz, Cold War Essays (Garden City, New York, 1970); Barton J. Bernstein (ed.). Politics and Policies of the Truman Administration (Chicago, 19'70); David Horo­ witz (ed.). Containment and Revolution (Boston, 1967); N. D. 47 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975

Houghton (ed.). Struggle Against History (New York, 1968); Lynn Miller and Ronald Pruessen (eds.). Reflections on the Cold War (Philadelphia, 1974); and RonaM Steel, Imperialists and Other Heroes (New York, 1971). More critical assessments of Truman and his leadership in foreign affairs have been accompanied by a more sympathetic treatment of Truman's critics on both left and right. See, for example, Thomas G. Paterson (ed.). Cold War Critics: Alternatives to American For­ eign Policy in the Truman Years (Chicago, 1971); Ronald Radosh, Prophets on the Right: Conservative Critics of Americanism (New York, 1975); James T. Patterson, Mr. Republican: A Biography of Robert A. Taft (Boston, 1972); Norman Markowitz, The Rise and Fall of the People's Century: Henry A. Wallace and American Lib­ eralism, 1941-1948 (New York, 1973); John Blum (ed.). The Price of Vision: The Diary of Henry A. Wallace, 1942-1946 (Boston, 1973). Recent "traditional" accounts, some of which make important con­ cessions to revisionism, include Seymon Brown, The Faces of Power: Constancy and Change in U.S. Foreign Policy from Truman to John­ son (New York, 1968); Herbert Druks, Harry S. Truman and the Russians, 1945—1953 (New York, 1968); Herbert Feis, From Trust to Terror: The Onset of the Cold War (New York, 1970); Andre Fontaine, A History of the Cold War: From the October Revolution to the Korean War, 1917-1950 (English translation; London, 1968); John Gaddis, The United States and the Origins of the Cold War (New York, 1973); George C. Herring, Aid to Russia, 1941-1946 (New York, 1973); Louis J. Halle, The Cold War as History (New York, 1967); Paul Y. Hammond, The Cold War Years: American Foreign Policy Since 1945 (New York, 1969); Wilfred Knapp, A History of War and Peace, 1939-1965 (London, 1967); Charles O. Lerche, The Cold War . . . And After (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1965); John Lukas, A New History of the Cold War (Garden City, New York, 1968); Charles Burton Marshall, The Cold War: A Concise History (New York, 1965); Dexter Perkins, The Diplomacy of a New Age (Bloomington, Indiana, 1967); David Rees, The Age of Containment: The Cold War, 1945-1965 (London, 1967); Lisle A. Rose, After Yalta: America and the Origins of the Cold War (New York, 1973) and The Coming of the American Age (2 vols., Kent, Ohio, 1974); Simon Serfaty, The Elusive Enemy (Boston, 1974); Marshall D. Shul- man. Beyond the Cold War (New Haven, 1966); Adam B. Ulam, The Rivals: America and Russia Since World War II (New York, 1971); and John Wheeler-Bennett and Anthony Nichols, The Sem­ blance of Peace (London, 1972). For an introduction to the extensive scholarly debate over Cold War revisionism, see Thomas G. Paterson (ed.). The Origins of the Cold War (rev. ed., Lexington, Massachusetts, 1974); Richarcl H. Miller (ed.). The Evolution of the Cold War (New York, 1972); and James V. Compton, America and the Origins of the Cold War (New York, 1972). For recent critical assessments of revisionism, see Charles Maier, "Revisionism and the Interpretation of Cold War Origins," in Per­ spectives, 4: 313-347 (1970); Robert W. Tucker, The Radical Left and American Foreign Policy (Baltimore, 1971); Joseph Siracusa, New Left Histories and Historians (Port Washington, New York, 1973); and Robert J. Maddox, The New Left and the Origins of the Cold War (Princeton, 1973). The last of these is a strident little volume which charges that the works of seven prominent "new left" historians are "without exception . . . based upon pervasive mis-

48 GRIFFITH: TRUMAN .\ND THE HISTORIANS usages of the source materials." For a brief rebuttal by those at­ tacked, see New York Times Book Review (January 17, 1973), 7-10. In addition, Lloyd Gardner, Gabriel Kolko, and David Horowitz have prepared lengthy, unpublished responses which have circulated within the profession. Also see the critical reviews by Warren Kim­ ball in the American Historical Review, 79: 1119-1136 (October, 1974), and by Thomas A. Krueger in Reviews in American History, 1: 463-469 (December, 1973). Revisionist historians have been variously, if unsuccessfully, clas­ sified as non-Marxists and Marxists, as left-liberals and radicals, as realists and idealists, even as "soft" and "hard." The major fault line within revisionism seems to lie between scholars such as the Kolkos, Williams, and Gardner, who stress the primacy of economic considerations, and those who, like Barnet, Paterson, and Steel, are not unmindful of economic imperatives but also emphasize the influence of domestic politics, of the national security bureaucracy, of American misperceptions of Soviet intent, and of the contingent impact of events and personalities. But even this categorization blurs important distinctions between and among groups, and fails to ac­ count for what Warren Kimball calls the "eclecticism" of some recent scholarship. The divisions among historians of domestic politics during the Truman era are even more imprecise. Journalists and popular his­ torians continue, as in the past, to give Truman high marks, a tendency doubtless reinforced by the seeming contrast between Tru­ man and contemporary presidential incumbents and underscored by the recent publication of a daughter's loving biography. See Margaret Truman, Harry S. Truman (New York, 1973). Also see Merle Mil­ ler (ed.). Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman (New York, 1974), a memoir compiled from a series of interviews taped during the early 1960's. The standard journalistic account of the Truman administration is Cabell Phillips, The Truman Presi­ dency: The History of a Triumphant Succession (Baltimore, 1966). Most professional historians are more critical of Truman, though not uniformly so. For a generally sympathetic appraisal of Truman, see Richard Kirkendall, "Harry Truman," in Morton Borden (ed.), America's Eleven Greatest Presidents (Chicago, 1971), 255-288. For more sharply critical, "revisionist" assessments, see Barton J. Bern­ stein, "The Presidency Under Truman," in Yale Political, 4: 8-9, 24 (Fall, 1964); Bernstein, "America in War and Peace; The Test of Liberalism," in Bernstein (ed.). Towards A New Past: Dissenting Essays in American History (New York, 1968), 301-312; and Athan Theoharis, "The Truman Presidency: Trial and Error," in the Wis­ consin Magazine of History, 55: 49-58 (Autumn, 1971). The major division among Truman scholars—and it is not always a distinct one—lies between those historians who, though not un­ critical of Truman, are generally sympathetic to Fair Deal liberalism and to the programs advocated, if not always achieved, by the Truman administration, and those historians who, though not without sym­ pathy for Truman, are sharply critical both of American liberalism and of the leadership of Harry Truman. Many of the first group have been associated with Richard Kirkendall, formerly of the Uni­ versity of Missouri, and have been referred to at times as "the Missouri school." See, for example, Richard Dalfiume, Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces: Fighting on Two Fronts, 1939-1953 (Columbia, Missouri, 1969); Alonzo L. Hamby, Beyond the New Deal: Harry S. Truman and American Liberalism (New York, 1973); Susan M.

49 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975

Hartmann, Truman and the 80th Congress (Columbia, Missouri, 1971); and Richard O. Davies, Housing Reform During the Truman Administration (Columbia, Missouri, 1966). Among recent "revi­ sionist" studies are William C. Berman, The Politics of Civil Rights in the Truman Administration (Columbus, Ohio, 1970); Bert Cochran, Harry Truman and the Crisis Presidency (New York, 1973); Richard M. Freeland, The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthy­ ism: Foreign Policy, Domestic Politics and Internal Security, 1946- 1948 (New York, 1972); Norman Markowitz, The Rise and Fall of the People's Century: Henry A. Wallace and American Liberalism, 1941-1948 (New York, 1973); Athan Theoharis, Seeds of Repression: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of McCarthyism (Chicago, 1971); and Allen Yarnell, Democrats and Progressives: The 1948 Presidential Election as a Testcase of Postwar Liberalism (Berkeley, 1974).

I lilt I Society's Iconographic Collection Chief Justice Frederick M. Vinson administers the oath of office to Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 20, 1953.

50 Allied Relations in Iran, 1941-1947: The Origins of a Cold War Crisis

By Eduard M. Mark

I URING the Second World War sponses to Anglo-American initiatives, and D the oil-rich nation of Iran was there is small warrant for the belief that the scene of a unique exercise in Allied co­ Russian objectives, however severe the meth­ operation. That Middle Eastern nation was ods used in pursuit of them, comprised any jointly occupied by the U.S.S.R. and Great more than minimal guarantees against a for­ Britain, while the United States operated a eign presence that posed a potential threat to major Lend Lease supply route to Russia clearly discernible security interests. and American advisers assisted the Iranian British and Soviet forces occupied Iran in government. American policy makers came August, 1941, in order to secure a safe route to regard Iran as a testing ground for con­ for the shipment of supplies to the hard- tinued Allied co-operation and for related pressed Russians. In the treaty of January 26, objectives such as the elimination of spheres 1942, which formalized the occupation, the of influence, the encouragement of interna­ Allies pledged to respect Iranian sovereignty tional trade, and the equitable exploitation and territorial integrity and to withdraw their of natural resources. This design was not forces from Iran no later than six months realized; rather the wartime interaction of the after the end of the war against Germany and Big Three in Iran culminated in one of the her allies.1 American service troops, who earliest and most serious of the Cold War eventually numbered more than 30,000, be­ crises to rend the victorious coalition. Re­ gan to arrive in the latter part of 1942. This sponsibility for this turn of events has gen­ force, the Persian Gulf Command, did not erally been assigned to expansionistic Soviet formally participate in the occupation, for designs on Iran. A reconsideration of the it had arrived under British auspices after it diplomatic record suggests that this inter­ was decided that the United States should pretation no longer can command automatic assume primary responsibility for the supply acceptance. Iran's strategic location, her oil route through Iran.^ reserves and underdeveloped economy, as well as a variety of political factors, all combined ^Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance (Boston, to render the theoretically coherent Ameri­ 1950), 476-477, 483. The text of the treaty may be can policy (the simultaneous promotion of found in J. C. Hurewitz (ed.), Diplomacy in the Middle East: A Documentary Record, 1914-1956 (2 vols., Allied amity, Iranian independence, and Princeton, 1956), 2: 232-234. In view of later allega­ American economic interests) contradictory tions about Soviet aims it is interesting to note that and self-defeating in its implementation. the U.S.S.R. declined to take action against Iran with­ When the interaction of these factors is un­ out British participation. Churchill, The Grand Al­ derstood, the specter of Soviet expanisonism liance, 480. " T. H. Vail Motter, The United States Army in disappears. Soviet actions as a rule were re­ World War II: The Persian Corridor and Aid to Rus-

51 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975

American diplomats saw both peril and policy was continually echoed in briefing pa­ promise for the future of allied relations in pers and policy statements throughout the this situation. Their views were expressed war and beyond.* cogently in a memorandum that was circulat­ The ready adoption of Jernegan's propo­ ed through the State Department on February sals underscores the American hostility to 11, 1943, by Wallace Murray, a ranking Mid­ spheres of influence, which were deemed in­ dle Eastern specialist then serving as Adviser compatible with American economic interests on Political Relations. The document, which and world peace. Since they were identified had been drafted by John D. Jernegan, a with restrictive trading practices (such as cur­ young Foreign Service officer attached to the rency blocs and exclusive trading agreements) Division of Near Eastern Affairs, observed they aggravated prevalent American fears that Iran provided a valuable opportunity to about postwar overproduction by America's establish the "good faith of the United Na­ war-swollen industry. Competition among tions and their ability to work out among great powers for the security and economic themselves an adjustment of ambitions, rights, advantage they conferred was equally feared and interests which will be fair not only to as a cause of war.^ The United States had a the Great Powers of our coalition but also to coherent policy to deal with these problems. the small nations. . . ." Since the enfeebled Collective security would obviate the politi­ state of the Iranian government threatened cal and military reasons for spheres of in­ to provide an excuse for the continued inter­ fluence, and the Open Door would replace vention of Britain and Russia after the war traditional economic imperialism with en­ and since such a development could only lightened competition. This would open po­ aggravate the traditional rivalry of the two tential markets for the United States and serve powers in Iran, Jernegan argued that "dis­ peace by ending "the exploitative, discrimina­ interested American advisers" (whom Iran tory and restrictive trading practices that have had already requested) and economic aid could caused friction in underdeveloped areas in the "build up Iran to the point at which it will past."^ stand in need of neither British nor Russian Jernegan had admonished that the United assistance to maintain order in its own house." States should appear in Iran as a "third, dis­ Therefore, "no peace conference could even interested power." First the foreign policies consider a proposal to institute a Russian or of Iran and Great Britain, and then American British protectorate or 'recognize the predomi­ economic expansionism, made this virtually nance' of Russian or British interests."^ impossible. In 1946 George V. Allen, the American ambassador to Iran, lamented that American efforts to make the Iranians "stand N April 24, 1943, Wallace Mur­ on their own legs" were thwarted by the fact 0 ray explained to a representa­ that Iran had so long endured foreign inter­ tive of the War Department that Jernegan's vention that the "only way they can think of memorandum represented the newly formu­ to counter one interference is to invite an­ lated American policy on Iran. On August other." 16, Secretary of State Cordell Hull forwarded Iran had turned to the United States before a policy statement to President Roosevelt that was a paraphrase of the same document and informed the President that it represented the *Ibid., 362-363, 377-379; FRUS, Malta and Yalta, policy the State Department had been follow­ 340-341; FRUS, 1945, 8: 393-400; FRUS, 1946, 7: 535- ing for the past "eight or nine months." The 536. ^Walter LaFeber, America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-67 (New York, 1967), 6-7; Thomas G. Paterson, "The Quest tor Peace and Prosperity," in sia (Washington, 1952), 155ff.; George Lenczowski, Barton J. Bernstein (ed.). Politics and Policies of the Russia and the West in Iran, 1918-1948: A Study in Truman Administration (Chicago, 1972), 81-85, 88-90; Big Power Rivalry (Ithaca, 1949), 273ff. John Lewis Gaddis, The United States and the Origins " U.S., Department of State, Foreign Relations of the of the Cold War (New York, 1972), 18-20; Joseph M. United States, 1943, 4: 330-336. Hereafter cited as Jones, The Fifteen Weeks (New York, 1964), 91ft. FRUS. opRUS, 1945, 8: 34-39. 52 MARK: ALLIED RELATIONS IN IRAN, 1941-1947

World War I when an American had been engaged to reorganize its finances. In 1921 Iran had sought another adviser and offered oil concessions to American firms. Both Stan­ dard Oil and Sinclair were interested in north­ ern Iran but were frustrated by a combination of international intrigue and turmoil in Iran. An American financial expert. Dr. Arthur C. Millspaugh, who was engaged to reform Iran's finances, achieved some success until 1927. Iran again offered a concession to an Ameri­ can oil company in 1936. It was accepted by the Amiranian Oil Company, a consortium of the Seaboard Oil Company and private interests, and then abandoned in 1938 for reasons still unclear.'' In 1940 Reza Shah, the Iranian ruler, un­ successfully dispatched a trade mission to Washington, and later in the year Iran offered a concession to Standard Oil, which it de­ clined because of wartime uncertainties. The Iranian government was, as Wallace Murray remarked, "thoroughly anxious to have Ameri­ can business interests acquire a stake in Iran that would call forth a corresponding inter­ est from the United States government in the U.S. Department of State welfare and continued independence of Iran." John D. Jernegan, whose memorandum laid the The Anglo-Soviet invasion produced further groundwork for postwar U.S. policy towards Iran. instances of the same policy. Reza .Shah re­ quested that the United States use its good Iran might imperil the Lend Lease opera­ offices to restrain the invaders, and his suc­ tions, they moved with alacrity to furnish cessor informed President Roosevelt that he the advisers. Dr. Millspaugh returned to Iran, hoped Iran would benefit "on a footing of vested with broad regulatory powers over full equality" from the pledges of the Atlan­ the Iranian economy. Most of the advisers tic Charter.* In 1941 Iran asked the State who accompanied him served in a private Department for American advisers, at a time capacity, but several were officials of the Uni­ when American officials were concerned about ted States government. Major General C. S. the ability of the Iranian government to main­ Ridley headed a military mission charged with tain order in the face of economic chaos and the reorganization of the supply services of tribal unrest. Fearing that a breakdown in the Iranian army. Colonel Norman Schwartz- kopf advised the Iranian national police, the •'FRUS, 1946, 7: 495-496; George Kirk, The Middle Gendarmerie. Other Americans were em­ East in the War (London, 1952), 130ft.; Rouhollah K. ployed in a wide variety of fields. On March Ramazani, The Foreign Policy of Iran (Charlottesville, 10, 1942, Iran was declared eligible for Lend Virginia, 1966), 277-288, 303ff.; Peter Avery, Modern Lease aid, which, although furnished spar­ Iran (New York, 1965), 332-335; Lenczowski, Russia and the West in Iran, chapter 3, pp. 5, 74; Saifpour ingly, materially aided the advisory missions.^ Fatemi, Oil Diplomacy: Powderkeg in Iran (New York, 1954), 101, 104ft., 230n; Benjamin Shwadran, The 'FRUS, 1942, 4: 222, 229, 232-233, 246, 262n; Len­ Middle East, Oil, and the Great Powers, 1959 (New czowski, Russia and the West, 270tf.; Arthur M. Mills­ York, 1959), 98tf. paugh, Americans in Persia (Washington, 1946), 270- ' Avery, Modern Iran, 336£f.; State Department Deci­ 272. Of his role Millspaugh wrote: "Technically, the mal File, FW 891.6363 Standard Oil/430, National 194.3-45 Mission was a private one. Actually it was Archives; FRUS, 1941, 3: 419; FRUS, 1942, 4: 268, 273- closely associated with the Department and with the 275. Department's policies in the Near East"; "Memoran-

53 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975

ROM its very inception the ad­ from exile in Palestine under what was gen­ F-visory program was closely as­ erally believed to be British auspices. So sociated with Great Britain, Russia's ancient patently a creature of the British was Seyid- rival in Iran. The State Department first Zai that Secretary of State Hull cabled the learned of the Iranian desire for a financial Tehran legation that under no circumstances adviser from the British several months before would the United States regard him as a Iran made a formal request. The Foreign suitable leader for Iran. The vituperatively Office strongly seconded this and all other anti-Soviet Seyid-Zai became an intimate Iranian requests for aid. American policy friend of Colonel Schwartzkopf.'* makers were not the pliant surrogates of Bri­ By mid-1943 Millspaugh seemed a redoubt­ tish interests. In 1942, for example, the Uni­ able figure. Louis Dreyfus, the American ted States strongly opposed a British attempt minister in Tehran, described him as "a power to use Allied grain shipments to Iran to coerce to be reckoned with in Iran. He is gradually the Iranian government. But American and assuming control over the entire financial and British aims were to a certain extent parallel. economic structure of Iran. . . . Frankly, the The British were deeply entrenched in Iran politicians are afraid of him." He and his by virtue of extensive economic interests, espe­ subordinates repeatedly came into conflict cially the monopolistic concession of the with the Soviets. In 1943, for example, Iran Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The Soviets, who contracted to manufacture arms for the So­ after the first flush of revolutionary enthu­ viet Union, but Millspaugh used his financial siasm had contented themselves with the ex­ powers to prevent the execution of the agree­ clusion of foreign influence from northern ment. Referring to this and other episodes, Iran, were not. While the American policy the American ambassador wrote in 1944 that of strengthening Iran might curtail a further "it is rather remarkable to note the number increase in the already strong British posi­ of occasions on which the attitudes adopted tion, it might also prevent the Soviets from by the Americans [the advisers] might have gaining any foothoU at all. At a time when caused the suspicious Russians to conclude British power generally was on the wane, this that they were hostile."'^ was not an unacceptable prospect.*" The already difficult task of maintaining Millspaugh regularly conferred with the the semblance of disinterested posture was British legation about all his proposed finan­ greatly complicated when Iran, again relying cial measures, and many of his strongest on the precedents of its pro-American policy, Iranian supporters were conservative, anti- offered an oil concession to the Standard Soviet politicians. Of these the most notorious Vacuum Oil Company in February, 1943. The was Seyid-Zai-ed-Din. In 1943 he returned offer was fortuitously timed. The intensified exploitation of American oil reserves during the war had given rise to fears that they might be near exhaustion. The result was a plan dum on American Policy in Iran," in the John W. to conserve the petroleum of the western hemi­ Snyder Papers, box 20, Harry S. Truman Library, sphere through intensified exploitation of Independence, Missouri. The Iranians were quite eastern hemisphere reserves. 'To this end candid about their motives in retjuesting the ad­ visers. Their disinclination to take them seriously, the government-sponsored Petroleum Re­ as advisers, was the subject of more than one Ameri­ serves Corporation was chartered in July, can representation to Iran; FRUS, 1943, 4: 545; FRUS, 1943. The fact that Iran possessed valuable 1944, 5: 390-392. Ridley and Schwartzkopt obtained hundreds of vehicles for Iran through Lend Lease after Ridley had found the Iranian army "practically immobile" in 1942. His work perhaps made possible ^^FRUS, 1943, 4: 330, 389-390, 518; Millspaugh, the successful move into Azerbaijan in 1946; Motter, Americans in Persia, 168-169; Lenczowski, Russia and The Persian Corridor and Aid to Russia, 468ff. the West in Iran, 242-247, 269; Wallace Murray to ^"FRUS, 1942, 4: 189-191, 197-199, 215, 224-225; Leland Morris, October 23, 1944, uncataloged letter FRUS, 1943, 4: 355-359; FRUS, 1944, 5; 324, 421, 428, found in the 891.6363 section of the State Department 435; Mark H. Lytle, "American-Iranian Relations, Decimal File. 1941-1947, and the Redefinition of National Security" ^FRUS, 1943, 4: 532-535; FRUS, 1944, 5: 424-425; (Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1973), 36fL State Department Decimal File, 891.6363/12-1144. 54 MARK: ALLIED RELATIONS IN IRAN, 1941-1947 reserves of petroleum was not lost on the NDETERRED, the State Depart­ State Department. In November, when Secre­ u-ment persevered in its program tary Hull belatedly learned of Standard Vac­ for Iran through 1943 and 1944. The Persian uum's dealings with Iran, he instructed the Gulf Command was ordered to assist the ad­ Tehran legation to aid the company because visory missions. The flow of supplies to the "both from the long-range standpoint and for military missions was increased and their terms war purposes, the Department looks with extended. The Tehran Conference promul­ favor upon the development of all possible gated at American insistence (after a plea sources of petroleum. "'^ from Iran) the Declaration Regarding Iran, Faced with the prospect of officially spon­ which combined political assurances with sored oil negotiations, Dreyfus cautioned that promises of economic aid. General Patrick the new development might jeopardize Ameri­ J. Hurley, President Roosevelt's itinerant per­ can policy because it would lead the British sonal emissary, visited Iran in 1943 and glow­ and the Russians to "suspect that our attitude ingly reported to the President his impressions is not entirely disinterested." Not long after. of "this plan of nation-building which may . . . Dr. Millspaugh addressed a letter expressing become the criterion for the relations of the similar concern to President Roosevelt. These United States toward all nations which are isolated warnings were not heeded; the oil suffering from the evils of greedy minorities, negotiations were pursued, and other economic monopolies, aggressions, and imperialisms." aims were integrated into official policy. By Roosevelt was moved to write the Secretary July, 1944, American aims in Iran encompassed of State that he was "rather thrilled with the an increased share of Iran's commerce, de­ idea of using Iran as an example of what we velopment of her natural resources, commer­ could do by an unselfish American policy."^^ cial air rights, and a "strong and independent But even as the President wrote, represen­ Iran, free from internal weaknesses which tatives of the Standard Vacuum Oil Company breed foreign intervention."'* were beginning negotiations in Tehran, and Dreyfus' concern was not misplaced. Even in the spring of 1944 they were joined by rep­ before the oil negotiations raised the specter resentatives of the Sinclair Oil Company. The of long-term American involvement in Iran, Iranian government announced in May that Soviet suspicions about the increasing Ameri­ it had hired two American petroleum con­ can presence had been manifested in many sultants, A. A. Curtice and Herbert Hoover, ways. The Soviet ambassador had complained Jr., to pass on the merits of the companies' to the Iranian government that there were offers. Hoover arrived in Tehran with a letter too many American advisers—but hinting that of instructions from the State Department, Iran should employ Russians similarly—and and American diplomats actively aided the that American forces had been introduced oil companies. Both the charge d'affaires, into Iran without the prior notification of Richard Ford, and the oil attache, Colonel the U.S.S.R. At the Tehran Conference in John Leavell, complained that the companies December, 1943, Stalin alone of the Allied were dilatory in preparing their offers and leaders made a personal call on the Shah. He had sent representatives whose low rank hin­ unsuccessfully offered the Iranian ruler tanks dered negotiations. The slow pace of the ne­ and aircraft gratis, if Soviet advisers were ac­ gotiations owed nothing to the efforts of Ford cepted with them. 15 and Leavell. From the beginning the nego­ tiators used the State Department's communi­ cations network to communicate with their ^"FRUS, 1943, 4: 286-288, 625-628; FRUS, 1944, 5: companies. Leavell secured the services of 27-33; Herbert Feis, Seen from E.A.: Three Interna­ tional Episodes (New York, 1947), 93ff.; Raymond F. Mikesell and HoUis B. Chenery, Arabian Oil: Ameri­ ca's Stake in the Middle East (Chapel Hill, 1949), 90-95. ^*FRUS, 1943, 4: 625; FRUS, 1944, 5: 343-345; FRUS, ^"Motter, The Persian Corridor and Aid to Russia, Cairo and Tehran, 629-630. 457-458; FRUS, 1943, 4: 420-426; FRUS, 1944, 5: 317- ^^FRUS, 1943, 4: 338-342, 345-346, 634-635; Kirk, 318, 427, 444; FRUS, Cairo and Tehran, 648-649; Cor­ The Middle East in the War, 474; Millspaugh, Ameri­ dell Hull, The Memoirs of Cordell Hull (2 vols.. New cans in Persia, 182-187. York, 1948), 2: 1507.

55 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975 two Army officers (who had been petroleum til after the war. Leland Morris, the American geologists in civilian life) and the use of ambassador, observed that this was "too ap­ military aircraft to survey suspected oil de­ parently a desperate diplomatic lie."'^ posits within the proposed concession area.*'^ The Russian embassy watched the proceed­ ings with evident interest. In February it commentator in the authorita­ served public notice that the Soviet Union A tive Russian foreign-policy would object to an American concession in publication War and the Working Class quot­ northern Iran. While the formal negotia­ ed an Iranian editorial to summarize Soviet tions between Iran and the oil companies con­ perceptions of the event. " 'The Iranian Gov­ cerned southern Iran, in either late March or ernment was inclined to grant a concession early April Standard Vacuum's chief repre­ to the Americans, but when it heard of the sentative expressed his company's interest in Soviet proposals it modified its attitude.' " He an eventual concession in northern Iran. The noted that the Iranian government had per­ Iranian prime minister replied that his gov­ sistently sought to interest Western oil com­ ernment had no objection, but that discus­ panies in northern Iran, despite the fact such sion of the matter would have to await the action constituted a "flagrant violation" of departure of Soviet troops. Unhappily for all the Soviet-Iranian treaty of 1921 by which concerned, reports of this conversation ap­ Russian concessions in the area were retro- peared in the Iranian press in late July. The ceded to Iran on the condition they would Russian ambassador visited the American em­ not be ceded to third parties. This stipula­ bassy and expressed concern, while affirming tion had constituted a "minimum guarantee that his government had no objection to an for the safety of the southern frontiers of the American concession in southern Iran. Ford Soviet Union." The Soviets demanded that coolly denied the report of Standard Vacuum's Saed resign and sponsored demonstrations by interest in northern Iran, although he him­ the leftist Tudeh party in the streets of Teh­ self had reported the fact to the State Depart­ ran which claimed that the U.S.S.R. was en­ ment on April 3.** titled to a "security belt" in the North. Saed A month after the Soviet ambassador's ear­ resigned, but the Majlis supported his de­ nest inquiry, a Russian oil mission, led by cision by forbidding further negotiations Vice Commissar for Foreign Affairs Sergei I. about oil concessions.^*" Kavtaradze, arrived in Tehran. Kavtaradze asked for exploration rights in a 175,000- " These figures were supplied to Colonel Leavell by square-kilometer area of northern Iran for a Mr. Aram, Prime Minister Saed's personal secretary; a period of five years; thereafter the area of State Department Decimal File, 891.6363/3-245. Len­ the actual concession would be reduced to czowski, Jones, and Kirk, among others, imply that 115,000 square kilometers. He also asked for the concession Kavtaradze sought was of unusual, and ominous, size, and that there was something sinister mineral rights and the exclusion of all other in the concession being parceled throughout the north­ foreigners from the concession area. Iranian ern provinces ot Iran. The Amiranian concession ot officials professed alarm at the size of the 1937 was larger—100,000 square miles tor final ex­ Russian request (although it was smaller than ploitation—and was similarly spread throughout the the concession actually granted the Amiranian North (because of the imcertain nature ot petroleum exploration). Lenczowski, Russia and the West in Oil Company in the same area in 1937). After Iran, 217; Jones, The Fifteen Weeks, 51; Kirk, The some delay the Iranian government announced Middle East in the War, 475; Shwadran, The Middle on October 8 that the cabinet had decided East, Oil and the Great Powers, 1959, 96; Memorandum on September 2, before Kavtaradze's arrival, by Raymond A. Hare, in FRUS, 1937, 2: 744-747. that all negotiations should be postponed un- The contention that the United States instigated the postponement is incorrect; Gabriel Kolko, The Politics of War (New York, 1968), 310; FRUS, 1944, 5; 454-455; State Department Decimal File, 891.6363/12-1144. " Fatemi, Oil Diplomacy, 229; FRUS, 1944, 5: 452; ""State Department Decimal File, 891.6363/12-1144, State Department Decimal File, 891.6363/7-844, 891. 891.6363/12-2944, 761.91/12-2944; Hurewitz (ed.). Di­ 6363/8-2644, 891.6363/7-3144. plomacy in the Near and Middle East, 1: 90-94; Avery, "State Department Decimal File, 891.6363/826, 891. Modern Iran, 256-257; Shwadran, The Middle East, 6363/836, 891.6363/8-344. Oil, and the Great Powers, 98ff.; FRUS, 1940, 3: 659ff. 56 Society's Iconographic Collection Russian oil fields at Baku, on the Caspian Sea.

American diplomats at the tiiTie generally the Moscow Conference of 1945, Stalin was agreed that the Soviet Union wished to ex­ specific only about the dangers allegedly posed clude foreign influence from an area directly by Iranian saboteurs. Perhaps he was just adjacent to the strategic oil fields of the Cau­ being tactful. Ambassador Morris observed casus. George F. Kennan cabled a cogent ex­ that if one took "together the extensive opera­ planation of this view to Washington, and tions of the American advisers, the activity Leland Morris, Wallace Murray, and petro­ of American oil companies, and the active in­ leum consultants Curtice and Hoover all sup­ terest in Iran manifested by the American ported that view. The two principal oil cen­ government itself, it would not be hard for ters of the Caucasus, Baku and Batum, were the Soviet government to conclude that the within 100 miles of the Iranian border. Un­ United States aimed at securing a permanent der the Third Five Year Plan they were ex­ position in Iran which, in the Russian view, pected to account for no less than 75 per cent might someday prove disadvantageous or even of all Soviet oil production. Baku had been dangerous to the Soviet Union." An oil con­ occupied by the British during the Russian cession in particular might lead to a com­ civil war, and in 1940 the British and French manding political position. The royalties of general staffs had laid plans for the destruc­ tlie Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, for exainple, tion of the Caucasus oil centers. The plans, were the "only assured and substantial block which called for both invasion and aerial bom­ of revenue" the Iranian governinent could bardment, were captured by the Germans and cotmt on. The Russians were very much alive published in July, 1940.^1 to the political implications of the economic Speaking of possible dangers to Baku at penetration of unclerdeveloped countries.22

=^FRUS, 1945, 5: 470-471; FRUS, Malta and Yalta, 417-419; State Department Decimal File, 891.6363/11- HE traditional, expansionistic in­ 1244, 891.6363/10-1144, 891.6363/11-1744. Useful maps terpretation of Soviet policy in of oil deposits and installations in the Caucasus may be found in Robert E. Ebel, The Petroleum Industry Iran rests, basically, upon three arguments. of the Soviet Union (New York, 1961), facing p. 52; J. M. A. Gwyer, History of the Second World War, vol. 3, part 1, Grand Strategy, June, 1941-August, 1942 == State Department Decimal File, 891.6363/12-1144; (London, 1964, facing p. 208; and Brownlee Haydon, Avery, Modern Iran, 320; Thomas G. Paterson, "East­ "Soviet Oil Fields in the Caucasus," in Asia, 41: 132-133 ern Europe and the Early Cold War: The Danube (March, 1941); Kirk, The Middle East in the War, Controversy," in The Historian, 32: 237-247 (February- 446-448. March, 1971). 57 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975

The first of these is the alleged content of the referring to Iran stated: "Provided that the talks Molotov had with Hitler and von Rib- area south of Baku and Batum in the gen­ bentrop during his visit to Berlin in Novem­ eral direction of the Persian Gulf is recog­ ber, 1940. The second argument concerns the nized as the center of the aspirations of the character of the Soviet occupation of northern Soviet Union." The adjective "territorial" Iran during the war. The third, which de­ that had modified "aspirations" in the Ger­ rives much of its plausibility from the first man draft had been dropped, and the focus two, is essentially an interpretation of the de­ of concern narrowed to the area "south of mands the Soviet Union made on Iran in 1946. Baku and Batum," the oil centers so recently Historians have been fond of the first ar­ threatened by Britain and France. The ex­ gument, and in the postwar period American planation for this is perhaps to be found in statesmen and their intelligence analysts used talks held by German and Russian diplomats it to prove what they already knew.^ The rec­ in Tehran the previous summer. The Russians ords of Molotov's talks with the German lead­ assured the Germans that they had no de­ ers were found in the files of the German for­ signs on Iran's political independence, but eign office, along with the draft of a treaty only wanted, apart from certain commercial between the Soviet Union and the Axis pow­ concessions, the removal of British influence ers. The first of two secret protocols assigned or that of any other power. The defeat of spheres of influence. The article pertaining Britain, which seemingly impended, would re­ to the Soviet Union stated: "The Soviet Union move the first worry; the treaty the Germans declares that its territorial aspirations center proferred was an opportunity to win a pledge south of the national territory of the Soviet of noninterference from the only third power Union in the direction of the Indian Ocean." interested in Iran at that time. By leaving Since the document had come from the Ger­ the nature of the "aspirations" unspecified, man embassy in Moscow and bore a date of the grounds for protest against future Ger­ November 9, 1940 (before Molotov's visit to man involvement in Iran were enlarged.^^ Berlin), it has been assumed that it was drawn The subversive character of Soviet actions up in consultation with the Soviets. after the oil concession crisis of 1944 is indis­ Molotov in fact had no prior knowledge of putable. Although it has been frequently the draft treaty. The document was mentioned maintained that a policy of encouraging sep­ for the first time during the last of Molotov's aratism among Iran's many tribes began with discussions with the German leaders—with the occupation itself, available firsthand ac­ von Ribbentrop on the night of November counts from northern Iran for the period be­ 13, 1940. During this conversation von Rib­ fore 1944 do not prove it. Cordell Hull, to bentrop told Molotov that he had drawn up be sure, recalled in his Memoirs reports the a draft treaty and would now like to inform State Department received in 1941 from Ta­ Molotov of its provisions. In this, as in the briz, the capital of Azerbaijan, that the Soviets previous conversations with both Hitler and were encouraging tribal separatists. He failed von Ribbentrop, Molotov showed no interest to add that the minister in Tehran sent a spe­ as the Germans repeatedly raised the issue of cial investigator to Azerbaijan (there being Russian expansion southward to the sea. no consul there at the time) who found that When the Soviets returned their version of the the reports were untrue. In the spring of draft protocol on November 26, the article 1942 the Soviets actually encouraged the Iranian government to dispatch forces to the northern provinces to maintain order. The ^ James F. Byrnes, Speaking Frankly (New York, only scholarly study of Kurdish separatism 1947), 290; Intelligence Division, W.D.G.S., 'Indica­ tions of Soviet Plans and Intentions in German-Soviet Relations, 1939-1941," November 15, 1946, Folder 570; -* U.S., Department of State, Documents on German Loy Henderson to James F. Byrnes, January 3, 1945, Foreign Policy, 1918-1945, Series D (1937-1945), Vol­ Folder 548, both in the James F. Byrnes Papers, Clem- ume XI, The War Years, September 1, 1940-January son University; Lenczowski, Russia and the West in 51, 1941, pp. 508-510, 533-570, 714-715; U.S. Depart­ Iran, 193; Kirk, The Middle East in the War, 449; ment of State, Documents on German Foreign Policy, Avery, Modern Iran, 333; Hurewitz (ed.), Diplomacy 1918-1945, Series D (1937-1945), Volume X, The War in the Near and Middle East, 2: 228. Years, June 25, 1940-August 31, 1940, p. 95. 58 MARK: ALLIED RELATIONS IN IRAN, 1941-1947 lends no credence to charges that the Soviets attitude by greatly increasing investment in encouraged it before the end of 1944.^5 real estate.^^ In 1943 the American consul was withdrawn The oil concession crisis of 1944 was a from Tabriz after the U.S.S.R. charged him watershed for Soviet policy: the Soviet Union with making anti-Soviet statements. The con­ embarked on a policy of subversion in north­ sul countered that the Russians had trumped ern Iran only after that event. The reason up the charges in order to remove an embar­ for the change is most plausibly found in the rassing witness. Other consuls were appointed, alternatives that faced Soviet policy makers and in October, 1943, one of these, Richard as the end of the war and the deadline for Ford, reported that should the Soviets elect troop withdrawal established by the tripartite to foment revolution their task would be easy treaty of 1942 approached. The alternatives because of the substandard living conditions were the exclusion of even minimal Soviet and the oppression of the people. "Neverthe­ influence (in the form of an oil concession) less, ... no specific instances appear as yet from a strategic area (even as influence of to have come to light tending to prove or even the U.S.S.R.'s only strong potential enemy to indicate such direct Soviet meddling in the grew) or the use of stern measures to force local political affairs." Similar reports con­ recognition of the Soviet Union's definition tinued through the end of 1944. On February of its security interests. 3, 1944, Ford's successor, Samuel B. Ebling, The United States was circumspect through­ reported that "Soviet officials have frequently out the uncomfortable period that followed demonstrated that they have no desires to the de facto rejections on October 8 of the interfere in local administrative matters that Soviet request for an oil concession. On Oc­ have no direct connection with the war ef­ tober 28 the United States assured Iran of fort." They permitted free electoral activity American confidence that Iran had acted in by all parties (although they did try to help good faith and requested notification should the leftists). Ebling reported that all but two the Iranian position on negotiations about of the representatives elected to the Majlis oil concessions be changed. Although there were "aristocrats" who stood for "reactionary was considerable anxiety in Washington, the social tendencies." In the summer of 1944 sole protest to the Soviet Union was a rela­ he reported the leaderless and directionless tively mild note of November 1, which recalled state of the left-wing parties, which the So­ the assurances of the Declaration Regarding viets had permitted the local governor to re­ Iran and affirmed Iran's sovereign right to press with violence in July. On October 19 dispose of its resources as it wished. Fervid Ebling reported that the upper classes' confi­ Iranian appeals for stronger support were dence in ultimate Soviet withdrawal had nev­ received sympathetically, but with admoni­ er been greater and that they reflected their tions that Iran stand on its rights and act as its own advocate.^''

^'^ Lenczowski, in his often cited indictment, alludes to curbs on foreign newsmen, the local press, propa­ MERICAN support for Iran ganda, and model farms projects to increase local pro­ A had not been sacrificed to war- duction as evidence ot intent to communize northern Iran. These practices, however, are little different from the ordinary practices of occupation forces. By his ^FRUS, 1943, 4: 337-338, 346-348, 351; State Depart­ own account there was no land reform or economic ment Decimal File, 891.00/2063, 891.00/2071, 891.00/ expropriation. In evaluating Soviet occupation prac­ 2084, 891.00/2093, 891.00/3006, 891.00/3075, 891.00/7- tices, it should be noted that the inhabitants of Azer­ 1344, 891.00/7-1544, 891.00/7-2144, 891.00/8-1944, baijan were strongly pro-German; State Department 891.00/9-644, 891.00/10-1944. A conservative Iranian Decimal File, 891.00/3018. Lenczowski, Russia and the writer supports the reports of the American consuls West in Iran, 194-196; Kirk, The Middle East in the on the lack of Soviet political interference in Azerbai­ War, 466-468; Smith, American Diplomacy During the jan. Saifpour Fatemi, a member ot the Majlis during Second World War, 103-104; Lytle, "American-Iranian the 1944 concession crisis, reports that the members Relations," 59; Hull, Memoirs, 2: 1502; FRUS, I94I, from Azerbaijan opposed a concession for the Russians; 3: 461, 471-474; FRUS, 1942, 4: 320, 322-324, 331-332; F'atemi, Oil Diplomacy, 237, William J. Eagleton, The Kurdish Republic of 1946 =^FRUS, 1944, 5: 462-463, 354-355, 467-469; New (London, 1963), 23-24. York Times, November 7, 1944.

59 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975 time exigencies. Although the representations where economic displacement entailed stra­ to the Soviet Union had been mild, American tegic risk, at least in the absence of viable support for Iran was, as Wallace Murray put alternatives to spheres of influence, such as it, "implicit," both in the grace with which the American ideal of collective security, that the United States had accepted the cancella­ would redress the political and strategic con- tion of the concession talks and in the flow secjuences of the unimpeded flow of superior of supplies through Iran that daily reminded economic power. During the postwar Danu- the Soviets of the value of their American al­ bian controversy Soviet spokesmen rejected liance. An aide to Prime Minister Saed after­ appeals to "equality of opportunity" and other wards remarked to Colonel Leavell, the oil shibboleths of the Open Door on political attache, that Saed had, without a definite grounds when they were applied to another expression of commitment from the United economically underdeveloped but strategical­ States, been aware of American support and ly important area. sustained by it. Stronger intercession by so The State Department's professions of con­ interested a party could only have detracted cern for peace and the independence of Iran from the appeal to its rights of sovereignty that were not merely blinds for economic motives. Iran had been encouraged to make.^* As greatly as the concession was desired, there In transmitting the substance of the Ameri­ is no indication that it took precedence over can protest note of November 1 to the Moscow good relations with the Soviet Union. Only embassy. Secretary of State Edward R. Stetti- Minister Dreyfus and Dr. Millspaugh, and nius wrote: "Our policy in this case is based they tentatively and without insistence, sug­ on the American government's recognition of gested that the United States could realize one the sovereign rights of an independent na­ goal or the other in Iran but not both. There tion such as Iran, acting in a non-discrimina­ appear to have been several reasons for the tory manner, to grant or withhold conces­ failure to anticipate the Soviet response. sions. . . ."28 Given American economic power There was little or no awareness of the suspi­ and popularity among the nations of the Mid­ ciousness with which the Soviets regarded dle East, such a situation could only have American economic expansion. In the Ameri­ redounded to the advantage of the United can view, moreover, the quest for an oil con­ States. No less pertinent to American policy cession gave the Soviets no justifiable cause toward Iran was the belief that the values for offense because the United States sought Stettinius urged upon the Russians—accept­ no special or exclusive position. To all this ance of "free" and "friendly" competition the Soviets could make only a strategic objec­ and respect for the principle of national self- tion, and that was anticipated. With respect determination—would meliorate international to Eastern Europe Cordell Hull wrote, "I struggles for markets, raw materials, and stra­ could fully sympathize with Stalin's desire to tegic advantage.^" protect his western borders. . . . But I felt this The American faith in the irenic potential security could best be obtained through a of the open international order was justified strong postwar peace organization." Diplo- only to the extent that the losers in interna­ m.atic memoirs of the period uniformly recall tional economic competition believed they a sanguine overconfidence in the efficacy of could afford to abide the results. This was the contemplated postwar security organiza­ not likely to be the case in those situations tion. After the Iranian crisis of 1944, Ambas­ sador Morris, in an analysis otherwise note­ worthy for its political realism, observed with =" State Department Decimal File, 891.6363/11-2044, surprise that the "greatest significance of the 891.6363/3-245. whole affair ... is that it has brought out '^FRUS, 1944, 5: 462-463; FRUS, 1946, 7: 6-7. ^ N. Gordon Levin found that similar arguments unmistakably the fact that Nineteenth Cen­ lay at the heart of the Wilsonian animus against "ata­ tury Diplomacy is still the rule in Iran."^^ vistic imperialism"; Woodrow Wilson and World Poli­ tics (London, 1971), 1-10, 16-17, 24-26, 236-251. For the Soviet counterarguments, see V. M. Molotov, Prob­ '^ Hull, Memoirs, 2: 1170; George F. Kennan, Memoirs, lems of Foreign Policy: Speeches and Statements, April, 1925-1950 (New York, 1969), 227; Sumner Welles, 1945-November, 1948 (Moscow, 1949), 213-214. Where Are We Heading? (New York, 1946), 27-28; 60 CASPAR,ofj£oFfiie GUESTS AT TH\S DINNCK PAHTY IS A RUSSIAM. IF YOU TALKTO HIM DOIV'T Aie/VTIOM THE ATOM Borne., IR/lW, THE SPY PLOT IN CANADA OR TH^FRUS, 1945, 5: 378-379, 381-383, 425-427, 452-453; Lenczowski, Russia and the West in Iran, chapter II. 'FRUS, 1946, 7: 1-6, 486, 507-509. 61 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975 tinned through the summer between the gov­ T the time American officials ernment of Prime Minister Ahmad Qavam A professed to believe that the and the northerners, and American officials United States had by its firm stand in the were doubtful that Iran would remain inde­ United Nations deterred a Soviet attempt to pendent. In October, after a Soviet demand dominate Iran through the use of Azerbaijan that the oil agreement be ratified, Qavam an­ as a latter-day Trojan Horse. In retrospect, nounced that he would send troops into the however, it is far from apparent why the north to insure orderly conditions for the United Nations should in this case have necessary elections. He had remarked to proved so singularly effective a check on the George V. Allen, the American ambassador, actions of a great power. Perhaps because of that he believed the Soviets were more in­ the palpable improbability of this explana­ terested in oil than in the fate of Azerbaijan. tion in the light of subsequent history, a myth He now gambled that his interpretation was developed that the Soviet Union had backed correct. When the Iranian army entered Azer­ down because the United States had threatened baijan during the first days of December, the to take strong unilateral action—even, accord­ rebel regime fell after only token resistance. ing to some versions, military action. Propo­ The move north had been made with no con­ nents of this myth point to claims by Presi­ crete assurances from the United States be­ dent Truman that he sent Stalin an ultima­ yond a pledge to back Iranian appeals to the tum demanding withdrawal of Soviet troops United Nations and eventually to supply cred­ from Iran, and also to strongly worded speech­ its for the purchase of surplus American mili­ es by Secretary of State James F. Byrnes in tary equipment. (The credits were not sup­ February and March, 1946. Truman's often plied until the following summer.)^^ reiterated claim that he sent an ultimatum is There is no reason to suppose the Soviets simply untrue. As for the effect of Byrnes's regarded the Azerbaijani regime as anything speeches, only a matter of weeks after their more than a bargaining counter for an oil delivery the Soviets opened a new military agreement. The American consul in Tabriz base in Azerbaijan. Ambassador Allen be­ had reported as early as March, 1946, that lieved well into 1947 that a Russian invasion rebels had totally alienated their local support of Iran was possible.3'' and would collapse as soon as the Russians These interpretations owe their plausibility departed. This fact could hardly have been to the widespread assumption that the object less obvious to the Russians. After the inva­ of Soviet policy was nothing less than the sion of Azerbaijan, Ambassador Allen and domination of Iran. If, however, it is posited other American diplomats noted with amaze­ that the Soviets' aim was an oil concession. ment that the U.S.S.R. had furnished the rebels with very little in the way of material support, and had made them pay dearly for »'Byrnes, Speaking Frankly, 293-294; FRUS, 1946, 7: what supplies they did receive. Allen believed 564-565, 566-567; Lenczowski, Russia and the West in that the economic consequences of this were Iran, 298-299; Jones, The Fifteen Weeks, 55; John W. a primary reason for the rebels' loss of their Sanier, American Foreign Policy Since World War II initial popularity. They were also surprised (New York, 1965), 30: LaFeber, America, Russia, and that there was no formal Soviet protest, and the Cold War, 28; Fatemi, Oil Diplomacy, 306-307; Richard J. Barnet, Intervention and Revolution: The little more than silence from Soviet propa­ United States and the Third World (Cleveland, 1968), ganda organs.^^ 105; Stephen E. Ambrose, Rise to Globalism: Ameri­ can Foreign Policy, 1938-1970 (Baltimore, 1971), 131; New York Times, April 25, 1952, August 25, 1957; Harry S. Truman, Memoirs, Vol. II, Years of Trial and Hope (New York, 1965), 117-118; FRUS, 1946, 7: 399- 401; FRUS, 1947, 5: 915. The editors of the Foreign '^Ibid., 405-407, 413-415, 500-501, 510-511, 514-515, Relations series note that there is absolutely no record 520-521, 546-547, 551-552, 561-562; FRUS, 1947, 5: of such a document or message from Truman. George 916n. V. Allen, Loy Henderson, Averell Harriman, and Allen ^FRUS, 1946, 7: 332-334, 564-565, 566-567; George Dulles also have denied there was an ultimatum; FRUS, V. Allen, "Mission to Iran," 66-67, in the George V. 1946, 7: 348-349n; Allen to Professor Alexander L. Allen Papers, Harry S. Truman Library. George, June 4, 1969, in the George V. Allen Papers. 62 MARK: ALLIED RELATIONS IN IRAN, 1941-1947

and that this token presence constituted the American policies that serious conflict should limit of their aspirations for a sphere of in­ have arisen so soon in Iran, the point of most fluence in northern Iran, then the difficul­ intimate contact between the two nations and ties presented by their lack of concern for the focus of American hopes for postwar co­ their Azerbaijani proteges, their cowering be­ operation. American policy toward Iran em­ fore the otherwise feckless publicity of United bodied the primary modalities of the State Nations debate, or their fleeing before non­ Department's program for international peace existent ultimata, disappear. For in fact So­ and prosperity—the elimination of spheres of viet forces left Iran only after the oil agree­ influence and the encouragement of interna­ ment seemed reasonably secure. The agree­ tional economic relations. In Iran, however, ment, to be sure, required ratification by the they were functionally incompatible because Majlis, but there was every sign in the spring of that nation's strategic location and the vul­ of 1946—and much later—that Qavam (whom nerability of her underdeveloped economy to the Soviets regarded with singular favor) was foreign domination. pursuing a policy that required its fulfillment. Amicable Allied relations might yet have Ambassador Allen and the Shah both believed endured had Iran granted the Soviet Union a that Qavam wanted the support of the Rus­ compensatory concession in the north that sians against his domestic foes. Allen not only would have relieved Russian anxieties about believed that Qavam wanted the agreement a Western nation's approach to the Caucasus ratified, but, until at least January, 1947, he or Anglo-American domination of the Iranian was sure that Qavam had the political economy. But this would have required that strength in the Majlis to ensure ratification.^* the Iranians set aside their fear of Russia, a The Majlis, however, rejected the oil agree­ fear centuries in the making. Crisis might ment on October 22, 1947. Several factors also have been averted had there been a true appear to have contributed to the negative consensus about the system of collective se­ vote. The Soviets overplayed their hand with curity that the Americans believed should re­ crude threats, and Ambassador Allen, without place traditional spheres of influence, allow­ instructions, gave sweeping but unspecific as­ ing the free interplay of economic forces to surance of American support for Iran's sover­ the benefit of all nations with risk to none. eign rights. This speech, against the back­ But there was no such consensus. Maxim Lit- ground of the recently proclaimed Truman vinov, perhaps the sole Soviet exponent of Doctrine, seems to have given the Majlis the collective security, explained to an American courage to vote its preference.^^ (Ironically, confidant in 1946 that the U.S.S.R. would not long before Allen had informed Qavam never rely on an international organization that there would be no American interven­ in which it could be outvoted by its ideological tion in Iran, no matter what happened.) foes. Instead it would continue to rely on an "outmoded geographical concept of security." Contemporary events in Iran were the proof T is suggestive of the profoundly of his words.*" I differing values of Soviet and

^FRUS, 1947, 5: 891-893, 897-898, 922; .Allen, "Mis­ ™ Allen, "Mission to Iran," 132-139. sion to Iran," 9-10, 53-54, 58; FRUS, 1946, 7: 441-442. *«FRUS, 1946, 6: 763-765.

63 REVIEWS

Winnebago Ethnology. By JOHN ALAN JONES. script original copies and are priced at twice (Garland American Indian Ethno-history Se­ the cost of a similar volume of print. ries, Garland Publishing, Inc., New 'V'ork, Twenty-three volumes of the Garland series 1974. Pp. 490. Description of series, back­ are especially pertinent to Wisconsin and ground material, maps, subsidiary report by the Old Northwest, including two on the ALICE E. SMITH and VERNON CARSTENSEN, crucial Greenville Treaty of 1795, three on "Economic and Historical Background for the Sac-Fox-Iowa, and seven on the Chip­ the Winnebago Indian Claims," and Indian pewa. The volume with the cover title Win­ Claims Commission findings. 121.00.) nebago Indians is typical. It contains a gen­ eral introduction (which appears in each volume), two scholarly reports, the Commis­ On August 13, 1946, one of the last major sion findings on the Winnebago claim to acts in the area of Indian reform generated the area approximating the lower half of Wis­ by the New Deal created the Indian Claims consin and the upper fifth of Illinois, and Commission, a unique federal court to "hear a slipcase map of fair quality. and determine" Indian claims of unfair and The anthropologist John A. Jones has con­ dishonorable treatment. In almost thirty tributed the most usable early history of the years of complex litigation the Commission Winnebago (pp. 25-224) that we have, trac­ considered many aspects of federal-Indian re­ ing the political story of the Siouan-speaking lations, including over 370 questions of land tribe from the earliest known contact with dispossessions by the United States. The land Europeans in 1634 down to the calamitous problem led to an unusual court battle be­ decade of the 1830's when the shattered tribe tween highly qualified ethnologists, historians, ceded its remaining lands in Wisconsin. In archeologists, and anthropologists employed the mid-1600's fierce wars associated with the by the tribes and equally competent experts rise of the fur trade decimated the Win­ used by the government. Out of this issued nebago, leaving less than eighty warriors. By hundreds of reports and histories with an the next century the tribe had recovered and uncommonly high degree of accuracy. Since cast its lot with the colonial powers of France Congress had made no provision for publica­ and then Great Britain as they vied for em­ tion, this wealth of scholarly information pire in the West. Several pages are devoted remained lodged in the files of the Com­ to the Winnebago fight against the United mission. Recently two commercial companies States during the Revolution and later when began publishing some of the material. Gar­ they served as a constituent tribe in Tecum- land Publishing is issuing 40,000 pages in seh's ill-starred confederacy. 118 hardbound volumes of 250 to 500 pages The last quarter of Professor Jones's nar­ each, organized in logical groupings accord­ rative centers on the treaty period of the ing to geographical and cultural areas. On 1820's and 1830's when the Winnebago signed high-grade paper and well-bound, they are away their ancestral lands in Wisconsin. The simple photoreproductions of the good type- duplicity of the federal negotiators, confu- 64 sion among the tribal members, and pres­ sure from the white settlers are clearly de­ scribed. Professor Jones's story often tends to be a mechanical recitation of facts, and, although he uses a few manuscript sources, there is a tendency for his authorities to be published documentary sources, suggesting a less than masterful grasp of this difficult field of his­ torical inquiry. In addition, many classics of research such as C. W. Alvord's The Illinois Country were ignored. Few journal articles, and no unpublished dissertations, were con­ sulted. He has demonstrated that the his­ tory of the Winnebago is inextricably bound with a knowledge of the colonial period and cannot be studied apart from it. The essay (pp. 225-454) by the former director of research at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Alice E. Smith, and the historian Vernon Carstensen provides an ex­ cellent account of the early nineteenth-cen­ tury Wisconsin milieu which forced the re­ moval of the Winnebago. They discuss the geological and historical background of the region, characteristics of the settlers, economic, political, and cultural life, and transporta­ tion, communication, industry, agriculture, H. H. Bennett Studios and land policy. Most striking is the account A Winnebago Indian, Ma-bes-e-do-ne-gah (The Bear of the great web of water and overland routes That Digs a Hole), photographed in the late nine­ —the Erie Canal, the Great Lakes, rivers, teenth century. trails, and roads—that brought the settlers in and took their produce and products out. sands, armed and fiercely determined to stay. Two of the best chapters touch on the hopes To have resisted the encroachment would of the early white Wisconsinites for a better have been tribal suicide; to have moved into life on the Indians' land. One focuses on the the new order of life was at the time impos­ many problems faced by the small farmer sible. To do as they did—roll before the on- when pushing against land speculators, and rushing tide, cede, remove, regroup, and gain the necessity for claim associations to protect time to find a way to survive—seems to have him. been the only logical alternative the Win­ Unplanned and fundamentally unregulated, nebago could have chosen. the settlement of Wisconsin was marked by a roughness that brutalized many of the new DAVID R. WRONE settlers. It required little political thinking University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point at the federal level in order to enable the Americans to enter and take up farms and mines. What there was in the nature of the United States political form that would avoid Downriver: Orrin H. Ingram and the Empire such manifest problems as did develop is Lumber Company. By CHARLES E. TWINING. not touched upon by Smith and Carstensen. (State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Mad­ The two reports in this volume form an ison, 1975. Pp. ix, 309. Illustrations, notes, admirable and complementary picture of the bibliography, map, index. $17.50.) Winnebago in the early nineteenth century. The Winnebago were caught in forces beyond Aptly titled Downriver, this book is essen­ their ability to influence or control. The tially a study of the marketing aspects of the few white settlers on their lands increased lumbering industry in Wisconsin at the height suddenly in the 1820's and continued to spiral of its activity. In 1857 Orrin H. Ingram and upwards until 1830 when there were thou- two other Easterners (who later withdrew)

65 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975 established what was to become the Empire and 1873. A third one, beginning in 1893, Lumber Company at Eau Claire, on the Chip­ however, proved to be more serious, and in pewa River. At the age of twenty-seven, the 1898 operation at Hannibal, Missouri, which New Englander had "designed, constructed, a decade earlier had been the largest con­ remodeled, and superintended more sawmills sumer of Empire pine, was ended, and the than would most lumbermen in the course manufacture of lumber at Eau Claire, dis­ of an entire career." During the next thirty- continued. Finding investment and opera­ five years he would take a major part in tional capital was an ever-present problem. the depletion of Wisconsin's immense pine The withdrawal of the senior partner at the forests, would clash with "outsiders" in an end of five years left heavy liabilities for the attempt to exclude them from monopolizing two purchasers. The system of "advances," the Chippewa Valley pine lands, and—the ef­ whereby downriver buyers advanced funds to fort failing—would combine his enterprise millmen in the fall to help defray expenses with the powerful Frederick Weyerhaeuser was helpful, but costly. Whether or not to lumber interests. In the course of his opera­ sell on credit was discussed endlessly, and only tions he would accumulate a large fortune, gradually became an accepted practice. Where which he would invest in lumber and other best to establish outlets and on what terms enterprises centering in Eau Claire but reach­ was a constant problem. To meet changing ing into the South and the Pacific Northwest. demands and conditions, Ingram operated un­ No better place or time could have been der various arrangements, setting up partner­ found for setting up the enterprise, asserts ships, wholesale dealers with retail branches, the author. The Chippewa Valley comprised outlets working directly under orders from the largest lumbering district in Wisconsin, Eau Claire, and other combinations. Saving draining more than a third of the pinery. Its factors throughout all vicissitudes were In­ lakes, rivers, and streams formed an unequal­ gram's optimism and his flexibility, attitudes led network of waterways for floating the probably encouraged by the company's grow­ buoyant logs to mills and lumber to market. ing affluence. Eau Claire, near the southern border of the The growing demand for lumber was every­ pinery, possessed a natural storage area (Half where increasing the value of standing pine, Moon Lake) where logs could be held until creating a fierce struggle between local and needed by the sawmills. There logs were Mississippi River lumbermen who sought sawed into boards, timbers, shingles, and lath, Chippewa Valley logs for their downriver and the manufactured product was rafted mills. The struggle was highlighted by a downriver to Mississippi ports (mainly on contest for control of the Beef Slough chan­ the west bank) as far south as St. Louis. At nel at the mouth of the Chippewa, an ideal these points of transfer lumber was sold place to catch and sort logs and construct locally or loaded on cars to meet building rafts. The downriver forces won, but Ingram needs of the heavy flood of emigration into was too important to be ignored, and he led the treeless prairies. Each single activity—pro­ the Chippewa faction in concluding an agree­ curing timber land, logging, milling, rafting, ment, effective in 1881, "for the efficient pro­ selling—was important in the business of turn­ curement of Chippewa sawlogs." By its terms, ing pine logs into profits, and as one or the combined total for the Chippewa mill- another aspect became critical, Ingram was men was limited to 40 per cent; for the Mis­ forced to shift his priorities. But inevitably, sissippi interests, 60 per cent. Under the co­ each was meshed in the selling of lumber on operative arrangement, all parties prospered advantageous terms, and it is this phase of until the stands of pine in the valley were the business that the author has chosen to virtually exhausted and lumbermen turned emphasize. elsewhere in a search for unexploited forests. 'The company faced problems common to In a presentation such as this which relies every manufacturing concern. Adverse weath­ on business correspondence and record books er conditions could overturn the best-laid as its principal source, it is difficult to avoid schemes of a seasoned lumberman and wipe repetitious phrases indicating the narrow out anticipated profits. The outbreak of the range of information. Downriver escapes mo­ Civil War before the company was firmly notony through the excitement engendered in established disrupted prices and drained man­ combatting the innumerable thrusts of Nature power, but the war's end found Ingram oper­ and man against the emerging industry. Twin­ ating at a considerable margin. Similarly, the ing stirs our interest further by touching on company rode out the depressions of 1857 many facets of the lumber business, touches

66 BOOK REVIEWS which we might wish he had developed fur­ Milwaukee to the Lost Nation Indian Reserva­ ther. Where and on what terms Ingram pro­ tion (a thinly disguised Menominee) where cured his logs, the profitability of that phase he finds his ancestors' graves. He resolves to of operations, his relationship with the com­ be like his father, but," as a sidewalk Indian, munity, and attempts at regulation by state can't "find his way out of a parsnip patch." agencies come readily to mind. Yet the author Befriended by reservation leaders, he learns cannot cover the entire subject. In his pref­ some of the old ways before death makes ace he succinctly states his objective, and in him a culture hero. Readers may adjudge the succeeding pages he develops his theme from this tale that the modern Inclian is no while skillfully sustaining the narrative. Oth­ different from any other person confronted er studies have explored other phases of lum­ by wilderness. bering, as the bibliography reveals, but this Maggie Flying Bird, by Marion Lawson, examination of marketing is unique and use­ author of books on Solomon Juneau and ful. Paraphrasing the jacket blurb, we re­ Black Hawk, is the story of a Wisconsin girl affirm the publisher's assertion that Twin­ born to a white father and an Indian mother. ing writes with ease, clarity, and directness Maggie relates in 1879 her capture as a child about an aspect of the lumbering industry by Black Hawk's men and her adventures in that has received scant and belated attention avoiding recapture. As Flying Bird, she in­ from American historians. terprets for the Indians and eventually mar­ ries one of them. Happy and well-adjusted, ALICE E. SMITH she is heartbroken to be dragged home to Laguna Hills, California servitude by her white brothers. In the end Maggie and Flying Bird become one woman as she queries, "Is that not the way it should be?" The book favors the Indian way of life. Nahkom, a longer book than the others, Nahkom: The Woman of Waupaca. By was authored by Malcolm Rosholt, a frequent MALCOLM ROSHOLT. (Rosholt House, 1 River writer on local history. He takes a local in­ Drive, Rosholt, Wisconsin, 1974. Paper. Pp. cident about an Indian boy and magnifies it 255. 12.95.) with traditional sterotypes—forlorn mother, Sidewalk Indian. By MEL ELLIS. (Holt, Rine­ Indian hater, do-gooder and kindly but inade­ hart, and Winston, New York, 1974. Pp. 199. quate officials. Throughout the story, it is dif­ $5.95.) ficult to separate fact from fiction. Caspar Maggie Flying Bird. By MARION LAWSON. Partridge was lost while his frontier family col­ (Morrow, New York, 1974. Pp. 160. $5.50.) lected maple sugar west of Oshkosh in 1850. Although several hundred men searched the Human beings are curious yet indifferent area they did not find the child and decided about their neighbors' cultures. In spite of he had been kidnapped by Indians. At the educative ethnic festivals, conferences, or for­ Poygan (Menominee) paygrounds a child who eign student centers, man remains insensitive looked different from the other Indian chil­ and cruel even though he be enlightened and dren was seized as the Partridge boy. On well fed. Current interest in acculturation confrontation with the parents, the father and assimilation is reflected in William N. said, "But that's not Caspar," and the mother Fenton's review (American Historical Review, added, "But that's not our Caspar. Where 79: 1258-1260 [October, 1974]) of accounts is our boy?" Nevertheless a trial was held in by whites who, captured by Indians, preferred Oshkosh, in 1852, to determine the Indian life in Indian society. Their acclimatation boy's custody. Famous personages in Wiscon­ was more complete if they were captured sin history—Augustin Grignon, Louis Porlier, young. Even with mixed parentage, the chil­ and Chiefs Souligny, Oshkosh, and Carron— dren in Nahkom and other stories are also testified to his birth to an Indian mother and more at home in the forest. white father. Meanwhile the child was placed Mel Ellis, former outdoor editor of the in the Partridge family while Nahkom, his Milwaukee Journal and author of the popu­ terrified real mother, waited the outcome. lar Wild Goose, Brother Goose, presents a The judge found for Nahkom, but the boy modern plot which stretches credibility, as was abducted from the sheriff's office and callous TV posses relentessly track down an taken out of the state. After many episodes of innocent boy. Charley Nightwind, wrongly hope and despair, Nahkom drowned herself. accused of murder in a protest march, flees It is apparent that the Partridges were per- 67 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975 suaded to claim the child by Indian-hating the difficulty of his examinations. But on relatives and neighbors. These people said the other hand, Fred did rouse his students that savages were not citizens; yet a German with the claims that there were "no dull lawyer answered, "But dey is persons." Al­ bacteria," and that "picking up pebbles with­ though the story is written as a documentary, out vision or purpose" did not necessarily there is good detail and a compelling plot. qualify as good research. As a researcher, he What really happened to Caspar Partridge? favored team work, a trait which characterized Dr. Francis Huebschmann, Superintendent of his publications. In devotion to the Univer­ Indian Affairs at Milwaukee, learned that sity's service mission, Fred assisted Wisconsin the bones of a child, probably those of Caspar, farmers and farm-related industries with had been found in a swamp in the sugar know-how generated in the laboratory. As bush area. But this information came too one example, he and a colleague spent a late to put things right. Waupaca and Win­ dozen years probing into the mystery causing nebago county local history favors the "death supposedly normal sauerkraut sometimes to in the swamp" theory. Sally Sauer, in 1957, turn pink or perhaps brown. In the end, the interviewed old settlers, one a man of ninety- scientists were unable "to identify chemically two years, and found that white man's jus­ the essence of good sauerkraut," but they had tice was actual not legal possession. Her helped the kraut makers "gain biochemical account is published in Badger History, 5: control" of their product. 8-11 (November, 1957). A research study by William C. Haygood, former editor of the According to Johnson, it was in 1916 that Wisconsin Magazine of History, was recently "a series of committee appointments started published. Whatever the truth of Caspar Fred upon his administrative journey." But Partridge's disappearance, every man is torn she states, too, that Fred elects the year 1927 between two worlds, but the anguish is in­ when President Glenn Frank invited him to tensified when it touches children. Stories chair the University's discipline committee of white cruelty became midnight legends. and to serve on its Graduate School research Their wails haunt the generations. committee. Whichever date the reader accepts, Fred ascended the administrative ladder, serv­ ing as dean, both of the Graduate School DORIS H. PLATT and of the Agricultural College, before be­ State Historical Society of Wisconsin coming president of the University in 1945. He held that position until he retired in 1958. Edwin Broun Fred: Scientist, Administrator, Gentleman. By DIANE JOHNSON. (University Johnson shows Fred to have been a pres­ of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1974. Pp. x, ident skilled in working with the several 179. Epilogue, essay on method, notes, ap­ components of the University world. True, pendices, index. $10.00.) he might delay decisions, and if in time he did not say "yes," it meant that he was saying Boiled down to essentials, Diane Johnson's "no." Among his achievements were a sub­ study is a forthright portrayal of Edwin stantial building program (which included Broun Fred as an educator in scientific agri­ the Memorial Library) and the unifying of culture and as an administrator in the Uni­ a divided university community. A scholarly versity of Wisconsin. interest which drew Fred's increasing atten­ After discussion of Fred's family back­ tion was that more should be done to edu­ ground, Johnson traces her subject's interest cate women at advanced levels with commen­ in his chosen field, culminating with his surate employment opportunities. Gracefully earning the doctorate at Goettingen in 1911. complimenting him for those beliefs was the The turning point in Fred's professional ca­ naming of the E. B. Fred Fellowship for reer came in 1913 when, attracted by the Mature Women when the program was ini­ opportunity to conduct "free, basic research," tiated in 1963. he accepted what was initially a temporary Concerning the element of human interest, appointment at Madison. Johnson gives candid glimpses of Fred the Having got her subject on the soil of Wis­ man. She illustrates, too, how demands of consin, Johnson assesses him as a scholar his professional life affected his domestic life. whose "work was his pleasure." She records Serving as one example, Fred's annual de­ that not every student considered Fred "a partures for meetings of the Society of Amer­ good lecturer," and that some groused over ican Bacteriologists caused his young daugh- 68 BOOK REVIEWS ter to believe that "all fathers left home on The competitive market model predicts that Christmas Eve." the income tax induced higher capital costs Writing with assurance, Johnson has given with a lower rate of investment; statistical her study ample documentation and has in­ techniques permit identification of the por­ cluded an essay on her-research methods with tion of capital costs attributable to the in­ the comment that "Edwin Fred's scientific come tax. Brownlee attributes the lagging work serves as the primary focus of this biog­ Wisconsin growth to interstate tax differen­ raphy." She has used no official University tials caused by the income tax. records "of any sort" because "these have The technique and method of the study been left for a more extensive analysis of are rigorous and a contribution to historical Fred's administrative career." She has listed analysis. The strong conclusions, however, Fred's publications and the names of his are not warranted by the published findings. doctoral students with their dissertation topics. For reference year 1919, the corporate income In discussing scientific subjects, Johnson has tax explains only two of the eighteen per­ utilized explanatory charts and graphs. centage points of variance in interstate cap­ The book contains few flaws. Though cor­ ital costs. The corporate income tax does rectly given in a tabulation of University not seem to be the most important source of presidents on page 149, the name of Clarence higher Wisconsin capital costs. And for 1929 A. Dykstra appears as Charles A. Dykstra on there is no variance in capital cost between page 105 in the text and on page 173 in the Wisconsin and the Great Lakes states; but index. Some readers may question Johnson's this is dismissed with the comment that the rather generous use of contractions—"he'd" data for 1929 are less reliable. in particular. But these matters are minor Brownlee attributes the timing of the Wis­ and, viewed from a distance, do not affect consin income tax and the rate increases to the over-all usefulness of the book. the political strength of agrarian Progressives. After other lines of tax reform floundered, EDWARD NOYES a state income tax was passed by Progressives University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 1911. The agrarian animus for the income tax was redistribution and the development of an agricultural service state. Manufacturers were the main source of opposition, but be­ Progressivism and Economic Growth: The cause of belligerence and political ineptitude Wisconsin Income Tax, 1911-1929. By W. they contributed to the expansion of the in­ ELLIOT BROWNLEE, JR. (Kennikat Press Corp., come tax. Port Washington, New York, 1974. Pp. 154. Brownlee does a thorough job of research­ $10.00.) ing original sources, pinpointing strategic be­ ginnings, and identifying key individuals. An This book evolves from the author's dis­ unfortunate, damaging omission, however, sertation at the University of Wisconsin. It is his failure to distinguish the Wisconsin analyzes two questions: What effect did the corporate income tax from the Wisconsin income tax have on Wisconsin economic personal income tax. Typically, reference is growth? How did the Wisconsin income tax simply to "the income tax." Context suggests come about? the corporate income tax as the primary focus The book explores the rapid growth experi­ of study, but six brief references are made ence of the Great Lakes region between 1909 explicitly to the personal income tax. The and 1929. Wisconsin fared well from 1890 reader has to guess to which of the two taxes to 1910, but for the next twenty years, its he is referring. Nor is this a mere quibble: growth lagged the region as a whole. Brown­ the incidence, the economic effects, and the lee uses econometric methods to test the hy­ professional appraisal of the two taxes are pothesis that the Wisconsin income tax was distinctly different. responsible for Wisconsin's slower growth. Brownlee skillfully probes how the Wis- The user cost of capital is defined and cal­ con.sin income tax was a piece of misguided culated, by industry and by state, for three class legislation. But in Brownlee's judgment benchmark years (1909, 1919, and 1929). Be­ can there be a progressive personal income tween 1909 and 1919, the period of passage tax in the public interest? Economists such and expansion of the Wisconsin income tax, as Edgeworth, Pigou, and Seligman have de­ the user cost of capital increased in Wiscon­ voted muclt attention to how progressive tax­ sin relative to the other Great Lakes states. ation ought to strike a trade-off between

69 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975 equity and efficiency. According to Brown­ physical surroundings he had made little lee, the Wisconsin income tax does not fit progress in mastering himself. External nature this mode. Yet he has not fully established may have been controlled, but internal, or the case. What were the normative tax ideas human, nature remains raw and unkempt. of the Progressives that Brownlee dismisses The result is that newly discovered tech­ as romantic? Was there an effort to seek a nological capability only gives man more effi­ trade-off between equity and efficiency? Did cient ways to oppress and destroy his fellow not externalities accrue to manufacturers and man. It is the familiar gap between science urbanites from state expenditures on rural and the humanities, between power and re­ schools, agricultural research, and county straint. roads that supposedly made up the agricul­ William Leiss directs his attention to the tural service state of the farmers? What was ironies inherent in this situation. He is con­ the position of labor on the income tax? Did cerned with why man's success in dominating not the business classes also benefit from the physical nature bears no relation to, and in social justice of progressive personal taxation? fact increases the chances of, man's bringing In sum, the Wisconsin income tax did evoke his race to the point of self-extermination. class interest as Brownlee documents, but he Leiss' approach is that of the political phi­ has not established that it was a piece of losopher. His account is "heavy" and replete misguided class legislation. with references to the ideas of philosophers Our critical comments emanate as much from Hobbes to Horkheimer and Husserl. from enthusiasm as from disappointment. The over-all effect adds little to what we Brownlee's book advances our knowledge know from Twain and common sense. both of Progressivism and of tax history. The main criticism is that with the analytical RODERICK NASH tools and the scholarly effort applied, even University of California, Santa Barbara more could have been accomplished.

DOUGLAS Y. THORSON To Conquer a Peace: The War Between the Bradley University United States and Mexico. By JOHN EDWARD WEEMS. (Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1974. Pp. XXV, 500. Illustrations, notes, maps, The Domination of Nature. By WILLIAM index. $12.50.) LEISS. (George Braziller, New York, 1972. Pp. xii, 242. Notes, bibliography, index. Mr. Polk's War: American Opposition and $6.95.) Dissent, 1846-1848. By JOHN H. SCHROEDER. (University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1973. Writing in 1889, Mark Twain set forth Pp. xvi, 184. Illustrations, notes, essay on most of the issues that William Leiss treats in sources, index. $12.50.) this book. Twain and Leiss are both inter­ ested in why man's technological progress- Historians do not and cannot work in an man's capacity for dominating nature—has objective historical vacuum; their perceptions invariably produced dystopian rather than of past events are shaped by the history Utopian conditions. Why, in other words, has through which they live. The American ex­ the scientific and then the industrial revolu­ perience in Vietnam is currently influencing tion failed to free mankind from social dis­ many historians, and leading them to re-exam­ locations, oppression, injustice, and fear. The ine the causes of and opposition to earlier nightmarish world of Hobbes, it appears, per­ American wars. Both of the books reviewed sists despite the enlightening influence of below show the impact of Vietnam on histori­ Bacon, Descartes, and Newton. Mark Twain's cal perceptions of the Mexican War. While device for discussing this point was to trans­ such "presentism" can lead to distortion by port a Connecticut Yankee of the nineteenth attempting to apply present-day values to the century back to the sixth century court of past, it can also lead to fresh research and King Arthur. There Hank Morgan built a insights into old issues. Both works attempt technological supercivilization only to see it to provide such new information, but they collapse in violent social upheaval. Twain's both fall short of their goal. explanation is simple: man's dominance over Vietnam themes emerge consistently in John nature does not lead to a golden age because Edward Weems' popular history of the Mexi­ while man may have learned to master his can War, To Conquer a Peace. Abuses of 70 BOOK REVIEWS executive power, lack of understanding of an­ cans lost every battle; one is left instead with other culture, military atrocities, and anti­ an "inscrutable Mexican character" implied as war movements all highlight Weems' narra­ explanation. Contradictory and often absurd tive, but the most striking and consistent statements abound. The war was "needless analogies center around his main character. but inevitable," and had been "predestined President James K. Polk. Weems' Polk when Anglo-Saxon colonists settlecl along the emerges convincingly as an odd combination eastern coast of the North American conti­ of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon- nent and, after a time, began looking west­ proud, nationalistic to the point of chauvin­ ward." Polk, according to the author, opposed ism, determined to override any opposition, war, but two paragraphs later calculated "that overworked, highly partisan, and narrow- he could attain his goals through war if minded. His inability and refusal to under­ through no other way." , stand the Mexican viewpoint, his isolation Weems' work, in short, is a colorful, per­ in the White House, his extension of execu­ sonality-oriented, fast-paced, and fairly well- tive power as Commander-in-Chief, his civilian written narrative which may be helpful to insistence on military solutions, his view of someone with no background, but would con­ antiwar protestors as traitors, all remind the fuse and misinform as much as it enlightens; reader of our last two Presidents. Weems for the specialist it is disappointing and of highlights these similarities with quotes from little use. One would expect more from John memoirs of the participants, his major source, Schroeder's revised doctoral dissertation on as well as facts brought out in previously pub­ American opposition to the war. But while lished secondary works. this scholar is able to avoid many of Weems' Unfortunately, however. To Conquer a mistakes and write in a more concise style, Peace suffers from many of the flaws common he too is unable to get below the surface of to popular history. Weems never questions the issues. the validity of the memoirs he uses. Further­ The Vietnam theme is obvious in Schroe­ more, he glosses over important issues which der's topic and title, and the author is quite do not have forceful personalities to enliven effective in explaining the intricate political his narrative, ignores important viewpoints, maneuvering which characterized the evolu­ and over-generalizes from others. In over 100 tion of antiwar sentiment in Congress, and pages of background on the causes of the war, the relationship of that sentiment to domestic for example, he devotes only two pages to politics, ideological beliefs, and Polk's actions American factors not concerned with Polk. and statements. He is a good deal weaker, how­ The crucial Merk and Graebner theses get a ever, on dissent outside the halls of Congress, few sentences, while the Glenn Price conspir­ and never really comes to grips with why the acy thesis is not even mentioned. He states movement failed. Furthermore, his introduc­ without any qualifications that Jacksonian tory attempts to merge history and political Democracy was a "Western inspired" move­ science by creating a theoretical model for ment and that Ethan Allen "obviously" dealt domestic opposition to wars fail badly; such with the British during the Revolutionary a pattern simply does not exist. The fact that War in order to insure Vermont independence, a good number of Americans have opposed not to betray the cause; both assertions are many of the country's wars is well known to highly questionable in the light of present scholars, but to generalize historical patterns research. of opposition from this fact simply does not Weems' greatest strength lies in his ability work. If anything, Schroeder's introduction to weave a lively narrative while giving de­ and text show the uniqueness of the antiwar tailed and sometimes insightful looks into experience from 1846 to 1848. Finally, de­ both the battles and the characters. But this spite the author's excellent research into the strength is often diluted by omissions, mis­ congressional, manuscript, and newspaper takes, and inconsistencies. Only four maps are sources of the era, he adds little in 164 pages included to explain the battles, and the back­ of text to the work already done by Frederick ground map of the entire area incorrectly gives Merk on opposition to the Mexican War. the 1819 Mexican-American boundary as the Both works, in short, are disappointing. On one established by the Louisiana Purchase. both popular and scholarly levels they promise Conclusions concerning the battles and the much but deliver little. The fault, however, war as a whole are so weak as to be nonexistent, does not lie with the Vietnam vantage point. and Weems is apparently unable, despite ef­ In fact, many of the authors' best insights forts to the contrary, to explain why the Mexi­ stem from the impact of that experience on

71 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975 their research, thoughts, and writing. But For the film historian, the questions Grif­ while that experience has led them to certain fith's career raises are more precise. The facts important insights, it has not led them to of his biography have yet to be sifted from ask any new and significant questions of the the fantasies Griffith concocted about him­ Mexican War. Such questions more than self, his family, and his career. Who his ever appear to be a necessary prerequisite to father really was; what his formative years, further study of the era. spent mostly as an actor in stock companies, were like; what happened to him in his long MARK A. STOLER post-1924 decline are a few of the many his­ University of Vermont torical problems that still need sorting out. But behind these questions is the larger one: How helpful is Griffith's life to an under­ standing of his art? Hypersensitive to the D. W. Griffith: His Life and His Work. By dramatic tastes of his time, virtually depend­ ROBERT M. HENDERSON. (Oxford University ent upon best-selling novels, plays, and short Press, New York, 1972. Pp. 326. $10.95.) stories for his plots, Griffith created films enfolded by the currents of American popular According to an old Irish proverb, the taste rather than the singularities of personal worst insult to the inemory of a great man history. It may not be Griffith's biography, is to misrepresent him. Most books about D. nor yet his personality, to which we must look W. Griffith fall into this category; the latest in the first instance for explanation of his is Robert Henderson's D. W. Griffith: His espousal of film spectacle, miscegenation Life and His Work, published by Oxford Uni­ themes, or woman-centered families, but rather versity Press three years ago, but still the to the circumstance of the American film most influential and most frequently quoted trade itself. of Griffith biographies. Griffith may have The singular achievement of this biography been the patient, forceful, resourceful director is that in 326 pages, it manages to miss vir­ of young actors, "The Father of Motion Pic­ tually everything of importance in Griffith's ture Art," and all that. But his career, like life and work. The book's title notwithstand­ his work, raises thorny problems for anyone ing, Mr. Henderson states at the outset that trying to take America's popular culture se­ the films themselves will be off-limits. He riously. By any traditional, belletristic stand­ will not be interested in the movies (it is ard, his movies defy real consideration. Pre­ not clear, in fact, which ones he has seen), posterous, garish, sentimental, and brutal, only in the circumstance of their production. even his best work is saturated with the man­ This means a computer-like log of how much nerisms of nineteenth-century melodrama that each film cost, who was in each movie, what Griffith never managed to outgrow. Its his­ adventures Griffith had filming it, long quo­ toric importance aside, what claims does The tations from contemporary reviews for plot Birth of a Nation have as vital art? Do those summaries, and what, if anything, each fihn famous isolated moments the film historians earned. Throughout all this, the question always single out give it any higher status that apparently intrigues Mr. Henderson the than other competent pieces of light fiction, most is how, exactly, Griffith first met the such as Rudyard Kipling's Barrack-Room Bal­ Gish sisters. It may be worth a paragraph lads or Conan Doyle's The White Company! to describe the 1909 New York subway and Intolerance, whose stock among popular movie ferryboat route from New York to New Jersey, critics is currently soaring ("the best movie another paragraph to praise the correction ever made," according to Pauline Kael), may of a caption under Lionel Barrymore's pho­ be socially more reliable than Griffith's Civil tograph in Iris Barry's book, still another to War picture, but the questions of shallow list the cast for a play Griffith once saw, artistry are just as pertinent. Probably no and three and one-half pages to list the var­ American director so polarizes contemporary iant accounts of Griffith's first meeting with audiences, so creates such serious doubts Lillian Gish. But on that scale, an account among his own admirers; but his failings, like of Reconstruction might be expanded from his talents, always loom larger than life. It one sentence, Kentucky's role in the Civil is impossible to evaluate his work without War developed from one phrase, and that implicating American silent movies at large. expanded phrase might be given attention No American film career before Orson equal to that lavished on the 1909 subway Welles's carries such symbolic weight. and ferryboat schedule.

72 P|K

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Wisconsin Center for Theater Research Execution scene from D. W. Griffith's epic of the French Revolution, Orphans of the Storm.

But Mr. Henderson even botches the trivia. an Eagle's Nest (there's no evidence, in fact, He thinks Roy Aitken was responsible for the that Griffith ever met Porter); J. Searle Dawley extraordinary promotion campaign behind did. And so forth. Read out of context, these The Birth of a Nation (Theodore Mitchell may sound like footnote corrections, but this and J. R. McCarthy in fact designed the is the book's home ground. On the infrequent publicity); he quotes the publicity blurbs occasions when Mr. Henderson does consider which claim that Intolerance cost $1.8 million matters of importance, he gets clobbered. The when in fact the movie cost only a fraction Civil War career of Griffith's father, for in­ of that ($485,000, according to the cost sheets); stance, was a powerful influence on Griffith's neither Ruth St. Denis nor the Denishawn life and is worth taking seriously. Whether dancers ever appeared in Intolerance, nor or not "Roaring Jake" deliberately distorted for that matter did Lillian Gish help edit it. his exploits for his son, or whether the boy Edwin S. Porter didn't direct Rescued from • puffed up his family's greatest hour by him-

73 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975 self, Griffith took fierce pride in his father's For Professor Higham, assimilation repre­ career and perpetually felt himself working sents the continuity of the Enlightenment in his father's shadow. thought which he seems to define as cultural Mr. Henderson's start is not promising. He and ideological conformity, following the con­ puts Griffith's home state on the wrong side troversial analyses of Horkheimer and Adorno. of the war (Kentucky did not, Mr. Henderson By contrast, pluralism is described as a phi­ not withstanding, secede from the Union); losophy of minority rights based upon an es­ recruits Griffith for the wrong regiment; and sentially romantic outlook. While it is pos­ has him fighting in battles that never took sible to quarrel with these definitions, in Pro­ place. At war's end, he has Griffith surren­ fessor Higham's hands they lead into a broad dering with Jefferson Davis when Griffith was analysis of the problems which the immi­ 200 miles away in Bentonville, North Caro­ grants faced and how they tried to solve them. lina, fighting under Joseph Johnston. But These problems are analyzed through lit­ none of this misinformation matters much erature as well as through the ideology of anyway, because, once Mr. Henderson has important figures such as Horace Kallen. waded through the war record, he lets the Kallen's belief that ethnicity is a step towards matter drop. Its significance and its import­ universalism is, of course, hardly unique to ance for Griffith are left to the reader's imagi­ tlie American experience, but is duplicated in nation; it is simply more information—in the thought of Jews like Martin Buber and terms of page allotment less important than Gustav Landauer in central Europe. The felt the Intolerance tower crane shot, but more need to be Jewish and liberal at the same important than the black protests against The time presented a fundamental problem in all Birth of a Nation. of Jewish emancipation wherever it took place. The most discouraging part of Mr. Hender­ Perhaps a wider comparative framework son's account is that by its end we have no would have served to deepen an already fasci­ clearer picture of D. W. Griffith or his times nating analysis. than we did when we began. Dependent upon More seriously open to criticism is Professor the sentimental reminiscences of his actresses Higham's emphasis upon the primacy of power and crew, Henderson's portrait stays flat and relationships and social pressures, accom­ unconvincing, like those traditional portraits panied by his suspicion of ideology. It seems of George Washington. The real man, once doubtful that cultural memories do fade with again, has escaped. Long overdue is an ac­ time as Professor Higham holds, and that sub­ count of Griffith's life that, in Kathryn Kane's sequently social as well as political forces fine phrase, will help promote this fascinating move in in order to cement ethnicity. The director from immortality to mortality. persistence even among young American Jews of the memory of the holocaust would need RUSSELL MERRITT confronting in such an analysis. Moreover, University of Wisconsin-Madison the sentimentalizing of the ghetto experience which is not only a product of the culture in­ dustry points to persistent memories which become golden only when the miserable reality Send These to Me: Jews and Other Immi­ of ghetto life has been left long behind. Final­ grants in Urban America. By JOHN HIGHAM. ly, the cultural factor seems crucial to the (Atheneum Publishers, New York, 1975. Pp. iconography of anti-Semitism which went into ix, 259. Notes, ind'ex. Cloth, $10.00; Paper, the making of the popular stereotype. Con­ $4.95.) cepts of Jewish appearance are vital, and in­ deed it is hardly possible to grasp the nature Professor Higham's book consists of nine of prejudice without a discussion of Jews as chapters which were published between 1957 represented in painting and caricature or their and 1966, and two new chapters which were descriptions in popular literature. We know written specifically for this book. With the how important this was in English and Euro­ single exception of a chapter about the anti- pean anti-Semitism, but single-minded pre­ Catholic agitator Henry F. Bowers, which occupation with social structures and political seems to be out of place, the book does possess or economic power has meant a neglect of this unity and coherence. The often precarious basic aspect of Jewish-gentile relations in the balance between the American creed and the United States. fact of ethnic self-consciousness provides a Perhaps because of such emphases there is theme which runs throughout the book. some confusion about the nature of racism 74 BOOK REVIEWS within the book. At one time racism is said Progressivism to normalcy. May demonstrated to be applicable only to the concept of Aryans that although the war helped shape the in­ and Jews, while, at another, biological racial tellectual attitudes characteristic of the mod­ determinism is said to inform all American ern era, poets, novelists, and other cultural prejudice. A separate chapter dealing with innovators working between 1912 and 1917 racism would have been helpful in clarifying had challenged traditional concepts of mo­ Professor Higham's argument concerning spe­ rality, esthetics, and progress well before the cific American values, for his book makes the United States entered the war. Noggle, mar­ reader aware that the problems he treats were shaling together the findings of numerous in fact similar in America and Europe. more specialized studies, further refines the It is a tribute to the depth of Professor story of the war's impact by showing that Higham's analysis and its lack of provincialism while there was more drift than purpose in that such comparisons constantly spring to the journey of American society from Com- mind. The fact that an immigrant like my­ piegne to Harding, the loss of mastery was self recognized some of his own experience not simply an inevitable consequence of the and past problems in many of these pages, war's release of social forces too powerful while not strictly relevant, does indicate an for human control, but resulted in good part ability to empathize which is only too rare from weak and divided postwar national among most historians who have written about leadership. this subject. Of course many contemporary observers and subsequent historians judged that the GEORGE L. MOSSE acquisitive spirit of the victors at Versailles University of Wisconsin-Madison and the controversy over American involve­ ment in the League of Nations were more disillusioning to Americans than the war it­ self, and noted that postwar events such as the red scare and vicious race riots contributed Into the Twenties: The United States from to this disillusionment. Therefore the value Armistice to Normalcy. By BURL NOGGLE. of Noggle's study lies not in the uniqueness (University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1974. of his assertion that postwar events were im­ Pp. xii, 233. Notes, bibliography, index. portant in determining the character of the $8.50.) 1920's, but in the judiciousness he displays in his selection of pertinent events which If World War I gave birth to the disillu­ lend weight to this assertion and his success sioned Twenties, the delivery was long and in working these events into a synthesis which complicated, and had other midwives been gives them new or heightened meaning. in charge the offspring might have been quite Noggle provides the clearest and most con­ different. So Burl Noggle argues in Into the vincing presentation of his interpretation in Twenties, CL careful study of American poli­ excellent chapters on the politics of disengage­ tics and society between the signing of the ment and reconstruction. A "common mood Armistice in November, 1918, and the elec­ ... of eagerness over the future" (p. 31) at tion of Warren G. Harding two years later. the war's end dissipated in part because the Noggle calls this work a "synthesis," suggest­ federal government failed to follow a system­ ing that he has been able to fit diverse events atic plan for domestic reconstruction. Wilson, and ideas from the period under study into first obsessed with the peace negotiations, a coherent pattern revealing something about then with winning support for the treaty, their relation to each other and to past and and at the end a sick man, neither found subsequent events and ideas. The key to time to guide domestic affairs in a positive Noggle's synthesis is in the "more important­ direction nor allowed any other member of ly" clause of his claim that he describes how his administration to take the lead. If he "the legendary 'normalcy' of the Twenties" had a domestic plan of action it was to lay resulted "from America's engagement in and, waste the wartime bureaucracy before it fell more importantly, her disengagement from into the hands of ambitious businessmen or World War I" (p. viii, italics mine). Thus their political allies. Congress, divided within Noggle joins scholars such as Henry F. May and often opposed to administration propos­ in the attack on the quantum theory of Amer­ als, failed to pass any of eleven different bills ican history which portrays the war as an and resolutions calling for a committee on irresistible force which caused a leap from reconstruction.

75 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975

In his account of the government's failure into a confused blur, rendered insignificant to enact a plan for reconstruction, Noggle is by their proximity to an event of unmeasur- sensitive to nuances of political maneuvering. able duration. His discussions, more summary than synthe­ sis, of social and economic issues show a less GEORGE H. ROEDER, JR. thorough understanding. His chapter on State Historical Society of Wisconsin "American Society, 1920" reviews well-known trends and incidents of the period: demo­ graphic shifts, rural-urban and racial con­ flict, changes in manners and morals, the The Ladies of Seneca Falls: The Birth of Black Sox scandal, and developments in reli­ the Woman's Rights Movement. By MIRIAM gion and education. Noggle records the latest GuRKO. (Macmillan Company, New York, findings on these matters, but has trouble 1974. Pp. vi, 328. Illustrations, bibliography, weaving them into his synthesis, as indicated index. S7.95.) by his retreat from the strong assertions of the importance of the postwar period which This is a straightforward, clearly written, he makes earlier in the book. In his chapter usually accurate account of some participants' on "Reconstruction Proposed" he flatly states life stories and some of the events which went that "not war but the war's aftermath pro­ to make up the early woman's rights move­ duced the weariness and apathy associated ment. The subtitle is more descriptive than with normalcy" (p. 31), and in the preface the title, since the women who brought off he writes that postwar events and ideas the Seneca Falls Convention are only one part "spawned" the Twenties (p. vii). However, of the subject matter. The book does not by the end of the chapter on social history provide any of the historical context which he loses confidence in this attribution of would help explain why the movement de­ paternity, stating instead that "the Great War veloped in the second half of the nineteenth had spawned a troubled society" (p. 178). century, nor much analysis of the underlying Noggle offers some useful information on tensions which made it so controversial. The changes in institutions and policies affecting author has not documented her narrative, nor the country's economic life, especially in a offered more than an occasional new idea. chapter on the postwar fate of the U.S. Rail­ The book may serve as an introduction for road Administration and the U.S. Employ­ readers who know nothing of the subject. ment Service, but does not adequately assess Those already acquainted with the history changes in the distribution or control of ec­ of woman's rights will want much more than onomic power brought on by the war or its they find here, and the absence of documenta­ aftermath. By repeating the very misleading tion makes it useless for the scholar. The statement, popular with film historians, that epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter in 1920 "movie-making was the fifth-largest are well chosen and to the point, as are the industry in the country" (p. 172) and asserting photographs. (without discriminating among different types of farming and agricultural regions) that ANNE FIROR SCOTT farmers entered the decade of the 1920's suf­ Duke University fering from a depression which lasted through­ out the decade (p. 202), Noggle shows that his command of recent studies of the econom­ Confederate Women. By BELL IRVIN WILEY. ic history of the period does not match his (Greenwood Press, Inc., Westport, Connecti­ strength in other areas. cut, 1975. Pp. xix, 204. Illustrations, notes, Throughout Noggle uses manuscript sources bibliography, index. $10.95.) sparingly, but effectively. He has read widely in the New York Times and other contem­ Current debates on the Equal Rights porary accounts of the period. These labors Amendment have given rise to a renewed occasionally yield accounts of little-known interest in the role of women in our history, but intriguing incidents, such as the blue and there is perhaps nowhere in the American denim rebellion of 1920. story a more fertile seedbed for a study of The book serves as a reminder that the this role than the South during the Civil two years after the war were made up of 731 War. Here women participated in almost all separate days. Unless kept distinct by studies economic activities normally pursued by men. such as Into the Twenties, these days dissolve They manufactured clothing and ordnance. 76 BOOK REVIEWS

managed farms and plantations, and super­ as any of her contemporaries. She possessed vised slaves. They also nursed their sick and a quick mind and a keen sense of humor. wounded, bore children, and buried their She was forthright in speaking her views, and dead. In addition they provided remarkable when the war deprived her of wealth and moral courage and support .to their menfolk position she did not retreat into bitterness during four years of war and devastation. and despair. Each of the first three chapters is devoted Varina Howell Davis, while the youngest to a well-known woman who before the war of the three, had the longest experience with moved in the inner circles of official Wash­ Washington society before the advent of the ington society and who later dominated the Confederacy. Yet she was only thirty-five social life of the Confederate capital, where when she became the Confederacy's First their husbands served as important political Lady. Wiley concludes that she measured up functionaries. These chapters are entitled well in this role. Well-informed and possess­ "Mary Boykin Chesnut—Southern Intellec­ ing admirable social traits, she could hold tual," "Virginia Tunstall Clay—Alabama her own with the best that Richmond could Belle," and "Varina Howell Davis—First Lady, offer. She presided graciously over social Wife, and Mother." The final chapter is a functions. Sorrow and disappointment ran discussion of Confederate women of all ranks like a red thread throughout the fabric of whose life and work were devoted to the her long life. Not the least of her tragedies home front. was the loss of all four of her sons between The opening chapter is based largely on 1854 and 1878. Only one of six children the Chesnut diary, which exists in three slight­ survived her. Yet despite her many frustra­ ly differing variations; there are a few erased tions, she was never confounded lay them. portions in that part of the original diary She remained always a good manager and which has survived. Professor Wiley skillfully above all a devoted wife and mother. incorporates significant historiographical com­ This book makes it clear that neither the ments in this part of his story. He agrees that war itself nor the Confederate soldier and his the diary is a most valuable commentary on leaders in particular can be fully understood Confederate leadership and "unique as a rev­ without a complete understanding of the role elation of a woman's mind and heart." This which Confederate women played in the con­ South Carolinian may well have produced the flict. While the book may seem to possess best diary written by a woman throughout much which has already been written on the the entire range of American history. subject, it contains a healthy proportion of Virginia Tunstall Clay possessed an undue fresh material and a scholarly synthesis which concern for material things. Proud, vain, and make it a meritorious addition to the author's snobbish, she lacked the intellectual depth long list of valuable monographs on the Civil of Mary Chesnut and Varina Davis, nor did War. she have any feelings of guilt about slavery. Yet this wife of a prominent Alabama planter JAMES C. BONNER and senator was as sparkling and attractive Georgia College

BOOK REVIEWS Lawson, Maggie Flying Bird, reviewed by Doris H. Platt ' 67 Brownlee, Progressivism and Economic Growth: The Leiss, The Domination of Nature, reviewed by Roderick Wisconsin Income Tax, 1911-1929, reviewed by Nash 70 Douglas Y. Thorson 69 Noggle, Into the Twenties: The United States from Ellis, Sidewalk Indian, reviewed by Doris H. Platt .. 67 Armistice to Normalcy, reviewed by George H. Gurko, The Ladies of Seneca Falls: The Birth of the Roeder, Jr 75 Woman's Rights Movement, reviewed by Anne Firor Rosholt, Nahkom: The Woman of Waupaca, reviewed Scott 76 by Doris H. Platt 67 Henderson, JD. W. Griffith: His Life and His Work, Schroeder, Mr. Polk's War: American Opposition and reviewed by Russell Merritt 72 Dissent, 1846-1848, reviewed by Mark A. Stoler .... 70 Higham, Send These to Me: Jews and Other Immi­ Twining, Downriver: Orrin H. Ingram and the Empire grants in Urban America, reviewed by George L. Lumber Company, reviewed by Alice E. Smith .... 65 Mosse 74 Weems, To Conquer a Peace: The War Between the Johnson, Edwin Broun Fred: Scientist, Administrator, United States and Mexico, reviewed by Mark A. Gentleman, reviewed by Edward Noyes 68 Stoler 70 Jones, Winnebago Ethnology, reviewed by David R. Wiley, Confederate Women, reviewed by James C. Wrone 64 Bonner 76 77 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975

the religious thought of the A. M. E. Christian Recorder (African Methodist Episcopal) to the radical black nationalism of the Black Wisconsin History Panther. Checklist Cumberland Women's Club. Cumberland Centennial, 1874-1974: Wisconsin's Island Recently published and currently avail­ City. (Cumberland, Wisconsin, Cumber­ able Wisconsiana added to the Society's Libra­ land Centennial Committee, 1974. Pp. 140. ry is listed below. The compilers, Gerald R. Eggleston, Acquisitions Librarian, and James Illus. $3.00. Available from City Clerk, P. Danky, Order Librarian, are interested in Cumberland, WI 54829.) obtaining information on (or copies of) items that are not widely advertised, such as publi­ Located in Barron County, Cumberland cations of local historical societies, family his­ began as a center of logging and agriculture. tories and genealogies, privately printed works, Norwegians, Swedes, Germans, and Italians and histories ot churches, institutions, or or­ were among the nationality groups who de­ ganizations. Authors and publishers wishing veloped this "island" community. Sketches of to reach a wider audience and also to perform schools, churches, businesses, and public ser­ a valuable bibliographic service are urged to vices are included. inform the compilers of their publications, including the following information: author, Danky, James Philip, and McKay, Eleanor. title, location and name of publisher, price, Women's History: Resources at the State pagination, and address of supplier. Write James P. Danky, Acquisitions Section. Historical Society of Wisconsin. (Madison, Wisconsin, 1975. 2nd edition. Pp.23. $1.00 plus 25 cents postage and handling. Avail­ able from the Business Office, State His­ Bridge, Feme M. Deininger. The Schoolbell torical Society of Wisconsin, 816 State Street, Rings. (Juda, Wisconsin, 1974? Pp. [24]. Madison, WI 53706.) Illus. $1.50. Available from the author, Since its beginning in 1846 the State His­ Juda, WI 53550.) torical Society, as part of its general collect­ Bethel School, originally located in south­ ing activities, has collected books, manu­ eastern Green County, is now operated as a scripts, museum artifacts, pictures, and other museum by the Green County Historical So­ items that detail the accomplishments of ciety in Monroe. One of two buildings on women. In addition to the collections, women the historic site. Old Bethel now attempts staff members have made significant contri­ to portray education in rural Wisconsin from butions, both through service and scholarship, 1830 to 1960. to the interpretation of history at the Society. Increased interest in women (reflected in such Bryl, Susan, and Welsch, Erwin K. Black events as International Women's Year and Periodicals and Newspapers: A Union List new courses in women's history at the Uni­ of Holdings in Libraries of the University versity of Wisconsin-Madison) prompted the of Wisconsin and the Library of the State creation of this guide. Historical Society of Wisconsin. (Madison, Wisconsin, 1975. Pp. vii, 80. $3.00. Avail­ Durand, Janice. Getting the Most Out of able from Business Office, State Historical Madison: A Guide. (Madison, Wisconsin, Society of Wisconsin, 816 State Street, Madi­ 1974. Pp. ix, 180. Illus. $3.95. Available son, WI 53706.) from Puzzlebox Press, 202 Forest Street, Madison, WI 53705.) A guide to over 500 periodical and news­ paper titles relating to black Americans, this "Four noble lakes, in the center of a region work includes both contemporary and long of such unrivaled beauty, must constitute per­ ceased publications. The Society's Library fection itself," wrote G. W. Featherstonhaugh collection accounts for over three quarters in 1837 to describe Madison. Author Durand of the titles included in this survey of the has produced a current guidebook to this holdings of many Madison campus libraries. community, divided into four sections: the The scope is broad, including literary, politi­ Heart of the City (Capitol and Square, State cal, and historical journals as well as general Street, the University); Eating, Shopping, newspapers of the black community. The Living (entertainment, attractions for chil­ diverse points of view represented range from dren, recreation, out-of-town events); Other

78 Society's Iconographic Collection Circulation desk of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1948. Margaret Gleason (sealed) recently retired as Reference Librarian; June Johnson (right) continues to serve on the library staff.

Matters (early history, landmarks); and Ap­ 1852-1857; Booklet No. Two, Iowa County pendix (political information, parking). The Marriages, 1836-1852; Booklet No. Three detailed descriptions usually include an eval­ Iowa County Marriages, 1857-1862. The ar­ uation as to prices, styles, etc. Access to the rangement is alphabetical with separate entries information is improved by maps, drawings, for the bridegroom and the bride. and a subject and personal-name index. Fox, Thurman Orville. Wisconsin Indian His­ Fieldhouse, Gerald E. Iowa County Marriages. tory. (Madison, Wisconsin, 1975. Pp. 8. Iowa County Heritage Bicentennial Series. Illus. No charge. Available from the Bus­ (Dodgeville, Wisconsin, 1974. No price iness Office, State Historical Society of Wis­ listed. Available from the author, 313 Polk consin, 816 State Street, Madison, WI Street, Dodgeville, WI 53533.) 53706.)

Fieldhouse, in co-operation with the Field- A short description of Wisconsin Indians, house Foundation, Inc., and the Iowa County especially the Menominee, from the seven­ Register of Deeds, has published three book­ teenth century to the present by the museum lets in his Iowa County Heritage Bicenten­ director of the Society. nial Series. The series is scheduled to include over thirty titles covering such topics as vital Green, Marie E. [Demerath Family History records of Iowa, Grant, and Lafayette coun­ and Album.] (Winneconne, Wisconsin, ties, Wisconsin, and Jo Davies County, Il­ 1975. Pp. 42. Illus. No price listed. Avail­ linois; accounts of lead mining and smelting; able from the author, P.O. Box 2, Win­ Cornish emigration; and histories of Mineral neconne, WI 54986.) Point, Dodgeville, and other area commu­ nities. The three volumes currently available Genealogy of a German family in Wiscon­ are Booklet No. One, Iowa County Marriages, sin and allied lines such as Wilz and Sturn.

79 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975

Habelman, E. Carolyn Wildes. Genealogical Mathews, Emma Ellinger. Small Potatoes: Branches From Monroe County, Wisconsin. Vignettes From the Life of Emma Ellinger Volumes 1 and 2. (La Crosse, Wisconsin, Mathews. (Chicago, Illinois, Adams Press, Midwest Graphics, Inc., 1973-1974. [Pp. 1974. Pp. viii, 216. $3.95. Available from 31, Volume 1; pp. 84, Volume 2.] $3.00 the author, 15 First Avenue, S.W., Faribault, per volume. Available from the author. MN 55021.) Route 3, Box 177A, Black River Falls, WI 54615.) Autobiography of a teacher in Wisconsin and Minnesota, originally from Green Lake Designed as a reference guide to the early County. settlers of Monroe County, Genealogical Branches provides basic genealogical informa­ Noyes, Edward. Suggestions For Research tion such as birth, death, and marriage records. Sources in Genealogy, Brown County, Wis­ The arrangement is arbitrary (i.e., as the consin. (Oshkosh, Wisconsin?, 1973. Pp. author chronologically discovered her informa­ 26. $1.00. Available from the author. De­ tion) but there is a surname index. Volume partment of History, University of Wiscon­ 1 contains references to over 700 names; Vol­ sin-Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI 54901.) ume 2 has over 800. The paucity of vital records for Monroe County prior to 1900 A guide to genealogical resources, both forced the author to search back files of area printed and manuscript, in the collections of newspapers, cemetery, and church records in the Brown County Public Library, Brown compiling this work. County Courthouse, Green Bay City Hall, Neville Public Museum, De Pere Public Li­ Kasdorf, Bill, and Haslanger, Phil. Aggior- brary, De Pere Public Museum, and the Area namento: St. Paul's JJniversity Chapel. Research Center at the University of Wiscon­ (Madison, Wisconsin, 1974. [Pp.12.] Illus. sin-Green Bay. Included are the location and No charge. Available from the University short description of vital records, church Catholic Center, St. Paul's University records, and cemeteries for the area. Chapel, 723 State Street, Madison, WI 53703.) Owens, Lloyd V. A Century of Water Works Progress: Eau Claire, Wisconsin. (Eau St. Paul's Chapel, located at the University Claire, Wisconsin, Eagles Printing Co., 1974. of Wisconsin-Madison, was one of the first Pp. 142. Illus. $4.50. Available from the Catholic churches built on a secular campus. author, Eau Claire Municipal Water Utility, The cornerstone was laid in 1909, with ex­ City Hall, Eau Claire, WI 54701.) tensive remodeling in 1966. Lake Geneva Yacht Club. LGYC: lOOthYear, A privately owned water supply was estab­ lished for the city of Eau Claire in 1885, when 1874-1974, edited by Hal Hamlin. (Lake it was experiencing an unparalleled rate of Geneva, Wisconsin, 1974. Pp. 143. Illus. growth and was more populous than Madison. $8.00. Available from Walter Larkin, 55 The first president of the Eau Claire Water North Lake Shore Drive, Lake Geneva, Works Company was Orrin H. Ingram, the WI 53147.) subject of Charles Twining's recent biography, In the summer of 1874 yacht racing was in­ Doivnriver, published by the State Histor­ troduced to Lake Geneva. In recent years ical Society of Wisconsin. Dissatisfaction over members of the Yacht Club have continued water quality, service, and rates expressed by the tradition of sjjortsmanship with victories city officials began almost immediately, and in international sailing events, including the led to a long series of battles over ownership. 1972 Olympic gold medal won by Bud Melges, This problem was resolved in 1909 when the Bill Bentsen, and Bill Allen. Excellence in city purchased the water works. Owens, the yachting is often symbolized by famous tro­ current administrator of the Eau Claire phies. Lake Geneva has two trophies that are Municipal Water Utility, relates the history unique: the century-old Sheridan Prize (nam­ of water supply in terms of public service, ed for the Civil War general) and forty-four- various employee contributions, and techno­ year-old Wacker Trophy. This centennial logical advancements (chlorination, high-pres­ history is richly illustrated with photographs sure pumps, and sewage treatment). Bio­ and drawings. Individual chapters detail out­ graphical sketches of significant water works standing sailors, the sailing school, trophies, employees and photographs conclude the and a membership list. volume.

80 WISCONSIN HISTORY CHECKLIST

Salisbury, De Witt Clinton. Pages From the Minnesota, to the Gulf of Mexico. Less than Diaries of De Witt Clinton Salisbury, 19th a tenth of this distance forms the western Century Wisconsin Citizen, and Civil War boundary of Wisconsin but includes the con­ Soldier. (Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, 1974. Pp. fluences with two important tributaries, the 120, [3]. Illus. $3.00 plm 25 cents postage St. Croix and Wisconsin rivers. Sorden and and handling. Available from Mildred Miller relate stories about the Mississippi Hansen Osgood, 1122 Kavanaugh Place, from the early explorations of De Soto, La Wauwatosa, WI 53213.) Salle, Jolliet, and Marquette to the present- day transportation system of locks, dams, and "One of the companies have a live Eagle barges. There is also a dictionary of "River- which they will carry with them to the seat men's Lingo," containing about 600 terms, of war; he is a very majestic fellow though and a list of colorful rivermen's names. still quite young," wrote De Witt Salisbury on a visisf to Camp Randall in Madison in Waterstreet, Darlene E. Biography Index to September, 1861. The bird was probably the Wisconsin Blue Books, 1870-1973. (Mil­ "Old Abe," the famous Wisconsin mascot waukee, Wisconsin, 1974. Pp. 185. $18.00. during the Civil War. Salisbury was a student Available from Badger Infosearch, P.O. Box at the university at that time and did not 5400G, Milwaukee, WI 53211.) enlist until 1864. As a soldier he was sta­ Although the first Wisconsin Blue Book was tioned in Maryland and Virginia and did published in 1853, biographical sketches were not see much action. The extracts from Salis­ not included until 1870. The volumes pub­ bury's writings (he was a resident of Oregon, lished from 1870 to 1973 contain over 10,000 Wisconsin) encompass the years 1859 to 1914 biographical sketches of more than 5,000 dif­ but concentrate on the period 1859-1868. ferent individuals from state and federal gov­ They portray life in southern Wisconsin (stu­ ernment. Access to this source of information dent days at the university, school teaching in on Wisconsin history and biography was dif­ Dane County, and general commentary on ficult, and use of the Blue Books usually re­ agriculture, climate, and literature) in addi­ quired an outside source such as a news­ tion to his wartime experiences. paper index until the publication of this index. Waterstreet, a former reference librar­ Sorden, Leland George, and Miller, E. Louise. ian, has compiled the biography index which / Am the Mississippi. (Madison, Wiscon­ provides access through personal name, resi­ sin, 1974. Pp. xi, 127. Illus. $7.45. Avail­ dence, and birthplace. The personal-name able from Wisconsin House, Limited, 1028 index (where the fullest information is listed) East Washington Avenue, P.O. Box 2118, contains the name of the individual, political Madison, WI 53701.) party affiliation, date of the Blue Book and The Mississippi River is over 2,500 miles page number containing the biography, and in length, from its origin near Lake Itasca, office or position held.

ALICE E. SMITH FELLOWSHIP

The State Historical Society of Wisconsin has awarded the Alice E. Smith Fellowship for 1975-1976 to Margaret Thompson Echols, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow. Ms. Echols is completing a dissertation on "The Spider's Web: Congressional Lobbying in the Age of Grant." The Alice E. Smith Fellowship, an outright grant of $600, is awarded annually by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin to a woman doing research in American history, with preference given to applicants who are doing graduate research in the history of Wisconsin or 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.

81 on the American Jewish Tercentenary, 1954, including information on the Anshe Poale Accessions Zedek Congregation in Green Bay and on the formation of the Wisconsin Society for Jewish Learning, presented by Mr. Muchin, Mani­ towoc; corporate record book, 1922-1955, of Services for microfilming. Xeroxing, and photo­ stating all but certain restricted items in its the Park Drug Store, Manitowoc, including manuscript collections are provided by the Society. minutes and a list of stockholders, plus a va­ For details write Dr. Josephine L. Harper, Manu­ riety of other items placed between the pages, scripts Curator. presented by Rudolph Schwartz, Manitowoc; reminiscences, letters, and memorabilia, 1869- Manuscript Collections at the Area 1932, kept by various members of the family Research Centers of Marie Procheska, most of whom were farm­ ers near Stiles, Oconto County, including At Eau Claire: Business account book, reminiscences of Stiles by Alice Benkey Lor- 1879-1882, kept by Martin Cahill, owner of cher, letters from Joseph Durand, 1909-1910 an Eau Claire saloon, plus miscellaneous other programs from the Green Bay Theatre, and items, 1860-1882, concerning his family, pre­ other materials, presented by Mrs. Procheska, sented with records of the Eau Claire County Stiles; account book, 1808-1851, recording Court; report concerning the facilities and rents and other sums collected, tentatively operations of the Chippewa Valley Railroad, identified as belonging to C. Villiesse, possibly Light ir Power Company, prepared about a resident of Belgium, including an 1878 1913, possibly by the Wisconsin Public Service draft of a letter from Jean B. Villiesse, West Commission, with extensive appendices citing De Pere, to a priest, all in French, presented the articles of incorporation, relevant legisla­ by Norris P. Tilleman, Green Bay; papers, tion, and other documents, separated from 1965-1966, of Rodney C. Welsh, a Green Bay the State Archives' Public Service Commission, attorney, concerning his work for the Great Engineer Valuations records. Lakes Inter-Tribal Council, including incor­ At Green Bay: "History of the Harmony poration papers, drafts of constitutions and United Methodist Church," Marinette Coun­ bylaws, minutes, and correspondence, present­ ty, compiled about 1972 by Mrs. James A. Les­ ed by Mr. Welsh, Green Bay; additions, 1822- lie, presented by Mrs. Leslie, Marinette; paper 1965, to the papers of Arnold W. Zander, entitled "The Momentous Moment" written including a few letters, genealogical records, by Robert L. Lyman in 1969, describing World writings, clippings and printed matter con­ War II submarine building in Manitowoc and cerning socialism and monetary reform, some later efforts to establish a marine museum financial records, 1904-1908 minutes of the and submarine memorial there, presented by Two Rivers Social-Democratic party, and his Mr. Lyman, Manitowoc; typed copy of the father William's personal and sawmill busi­ articles of organization, 1900, of the Ansha ness ledgers, 1875-1896, presented by Berenice Palia Sadik Congregation, Manitowoc, and a Zander, Two Rivers; last will, 1931, of Joe list, 1954, of other legal documents concern­ Zelenka, owner of Homeport Farm, Town ing the Jewish congregation, presented by of Riverview, Oconto County, providing for Arden A. Muchin, Manitowoc; records, 1938- disposition and future operation of the farm 1941, of the Manitowoc Coordinating Com­ which was run as a family co-operative ven­ mittee, an organization founded to aid Jewish ture, transferred from Archives. refugees emigrating from Nazi Germany to At La Crosse: Additions to the papers, the United States, including correspondence, 1855-1929, of Alexander A. Arnold, a Gales- affidavits, financial materials, and minutes of ville livestock breeder and civic leader, his the Manitowoc committee, plus fragmentary wife and two of their sons, including busi­ minutes of the Wisconsin and the national ness and personal correspondence, diaries, rec­ co-ordinating committees, presented by Ru­ ords from his legal practice in Ohio, notes dolph Schwartz, Manitowoc; papers, 1942- from a survey of the Town of Gale, records 1956, of Jacob Muchin, a Manitowoc lawyer kept as captain of Company C, Thirtieth Wis­ employed by the federal government in vari­ consin Volunteer Infantry, farm records, and ous positions related to rent controls, includ­ materials concerning the Woman's Christian ing correspondence, clippings, and subject files Temperance Union, the woman suffrage on local, state, and national rent control mat­ movement, and ladies' club and church ac­ ters, and correspondence and other materials tivities, presented by the Arnold family and 82 ACCESSIONS by Mrs. Mary Runnestrand, Ettrick; day­ Hebrew school for Jewish children, including books, 1884, 1886-1889, kept by Dr. Johan minutes of the Parent Teacher Association K. Schreiner, Westby, recording patients' and of three school youth groups, and scat­ names, charges, and notes on services rendered, tered correspondence and applications, pre­ presented by Herbert A. Kellar; reminiscences, sented by Mrs. Harry Garfinkel, Milwaukee; written in 1956 by Alice McHenry Travnicek photostatic copy of the 1902 autobiography about her ancestors and her experiences while of Henry Stern, a Milwaukee Jewish merchant growing up and then teaching school in Ver­ who emigrated from Bavaria in 1848 and es­ non County, plus a handwritten mathematics tablished a general merchandise business in exercise book dated 1846, presented by Mrs. Milwaukee in 1850, in German with an Eng­ Herman Salzman, Colfax. lish translation, presented by Erick Stern, Milwaukee; papers of Morris Weingrod, a At Milwaukee: Papers, 1854-1873, 1963, of Milwaukee Zionist, including a 1947 memo Myrtle Baer, including a 1963 interview with from the American Zionist Emergency Coun­ her regarding her volunteer social work in Mil­ cil on "Action-for-Palestine Week," undated waukee and the Jewish community there, and minutes of a meeting of the Labor Zionist miscellaneous nineteenth-century documents Coordinating Committee, two reports on Jew­ of her parents, presented by Miss Baer, Mil­ ish education in Milwaukee, and tape-record­ waukee; letters, 1937-1954, pertaining to fam­ ed reminiscences, 1962, of Milwaukee activi­ ily matters, written to Alfred Erlebacher and ties on behalf of Zionism, presented by Mr. his wife Rosa by her mother, Lena Wertheim- Weingrod, Milwaukee; correspondence, min­ er, and her sister in Germany, both of whom utes, financial records and membership lists, later died in concentration camps, and by her 1939, 1941-1944, of the fund-raising group brothers and sisters in Palestine and South Women's League for Jewish Education, Mil­ Africa, all in German, presented by Mrs. waukee, particularly concerning their main Albert Erlebacher, Chicago, Illinois; corre­ source of income, a thrift shop that sold sec­ spondence, 1931-1941, of Max A. Freschl, ondhand items donated by members, presented concerning his philanthropic projects, includ­ by Melvin S. Zaret, Milwaukee. ing Mt. Sinai Hospital in Milwaukee, Citizens' At Oshkosh: Additions to the Martha E. Committee for Judge Aarons, other Milwau­ Gunnison diaries, consisting of a Xeroxed kee Jewish charities, and the National Jewish copy of one letter, 1868, from her mother in Hospital in Denver, plus correspondence con­ Wisconsin to her grandmother in New York, cerning the estate of his mother, presented and a biographical sketch written in 1973 by Mrs. Max A. Freschl, Milwaukee; papers, by her granddaughter, presented by Mrs. Ray­ ca. 1911-1955, of the Milwaukee family of mond Baruth, Clarendon Hills, Illinois; man­ Isadore Horwilz, publisher of the Jewish Daily uscript letter, 1849, from /. Sweet, Fond du Press and the Milwauker Wochenblatt, in­ Lac, to the Reverend Benjamin Akerly, Mil­ cluding letters written by his children, a scrap- waukee, discussing plans by Fond du Lac book of articles he wrote, and a scrapbook Episcopalians to build a church and request­ of programs, photographs, and greeting cards ing Akerly to engage architect G. W. Mygatt kept by his daughter Rita, presented by Mae to do the design, purchased. L. Horwitz and Rabbi Joseph L. Baron; At Parkside: Manuscript letter, 1849, from records, 1931-1944, 1956-1962, of the Jewish John E. Alexander, Southport (Kenosha), to Community Center of Milwaukee, including Spencer D. Lyon, Black Creek, Pennsylvania, articles of incorporation, bylaws, policy state­ including comments on social activities and ments, minutes, a 1960-1961 study of group on people going to and returning from Cali­ needs of the Jewish community, and scrap- fornia, purchased; sales ledger, 1881-1886, of books, 1931-1944, of clippings from Milwau­ the George S. Baldwin coal company, Keno­ kee newspapers and programs about Center sha, presented by the Kenosha County His­ activities, presented by the Center; fragmen­ torical Society; letter-press copy book, 1887- tary records, 1961-1973, of The Milwaukee 1890, of the real-estate and abstract office Nurses' Registry & Placement Service, Inc., of (D.B.) Benedict ir (H.H.) Tarbell, Keno­ including articles of incorporation, minutes sha, presented by the Kenosha County His­ and correspondence from its closing period, torical Society; record book, 1858-1864, of the rules, sample forms, and clippings, presented Bristol Sewing Society, Kenosha County, in­ by Esther J. Kammholz, Milwaukee; records, cluding a constitution, minutes, and finan­ 1924-1964, of the New Method Hebrew cial accounts, presented by the Kenosha School, Milwaukee, a part-time co-educational County Historical Society; financial account

83 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975 book, 1849-1850, 1862-1871, preserved by the sha County Historical Society; record book, descendants of William Goergen, a timekeeper 1847, of the Mechanics Protective Association at Bain Wagon Manufactory, Kenosha, re­ of Southport, including constitutions, mem­ cording transactions in wheat, coal, water bership lists, and minutes, and at the back lime, salt, and other items, and payments of the book, accounts from an unidentified for dockage, horse keeping, and other services, jeweler, 1841-1851, presented by the Kenosha presented by the Kenosha County Historical County Historical Society; record book con­ Society; papers, 1917-1923, 1926, of C. H. taining entries made by three different men, Goodman, president of the Independent Vot­ all engaged in farming near Kenosha, inclu­ ers' League, Kenosha, a group which pro­ ding accounts, 1838-1845, and inventories, moted a commissioner-city-management form 1838-1839, of F. W. Lyman, diary entries, of government for Kenosha which was adopt­ 1857-1859, of T. Lyman Newell, and diary ed in 1922, including correspondence, clip­ entries, 1868-1869, of Russell S. Newell, pre­ pings, and several brochures on the campaign, sented by the Kenosha County Historical So­ presented by the Kenosha County Historical ciety; "Inventory of furniture and goods to Society; miscellaneous information, 1923-1930, Pitkin and Neatly March 1853," a list of items collected by a Kenosha Civics Council commit­ from a dining room, kitchen, wash room, bed­ tee concerned with smoke pollution, includ­ rooms, pastry room, cellar, office, barn, and ing information on preventive measures taken brood house, presented by the Kenosha in Cleveland, Green Bay, and Milwaukee, pre­ County Historical Society; Xerox copy of the sented with records of the City of Kenosha script from a dramatic program outlining the Engineering Department; records, 1840-1899, history of the Temple Beth Israel Sinai Sis­ of the Kenosha County Bible Society, includ­ terhood, Racine, 1920-1964, with emphasis ing a constitution, minutes, occasional finan­ given to the accomplishments during each cial reports, reports of agents, and an 1869 club president's term, presented by Albert printed annual report of the Racine County W. Levin, Racine; daybook, 1870-1875, re­ Bible Society, presented by the Kenosha cording household expenses of the family of County Historical Society; account book, Frederick Robinson, a well-to-do Kenosha 1876-1878, for printing job work done by druggist, and a second daybook, 1880-1883, The Kenosha Union, including much work tentatively identified as kept by the same done for estates, presented by the Kenosha family, presented by the Kenosha County His­ County Historical Society; dues book, 1886- torical Society; record book, 1878-1879, of the 1889, recording dates and amounts of dues Shakespeare Society of Kenosha (later known payments for each member of Knights of La­ as the Cooperative Literary Society), a group bor Local Assembly No. 6599, Kenosha, pre­ which studied Shakespeare and presented his sented by the Kenosha County Historical So­ plays to the community, including a constitu­ ciety; minutes and accounts, 1908-1935, of tion, membership lists, minutes, and notes the Ladies Hearse Society of Wilmot (also from lectures, presented by the Kenosha known as the Ladies' Benevolent Sewing So­ County Historical Society; records, 1915-1919, ciety), a group which bought and maintain­ of a motorcycle shop owned by Henry C. ed a hearse for rental by area residents, plus Buckman and Harold M. Smith, including constitutions from 1874, the year the group a sales ledger, and scattered bills and corre­ organized, presented by the Kenosha County spondence concerning transferral of ownership Historical Society; daybook of sales, 1855- and the poor financial condition of the bus­ 1858, made at a general store tentatively iden­ iness, presented by the Kenosha County His­ tified as owned by Charles E. Leet, Pike Grove, torical Society; record book, 1897-1903, of the Kenosha County, with other miscellaneous Sorners Creamery Association, including stock­ entries of scattered dates, presented by the holders' and directors' meeting minutes, a list Kenosha County Historical Society; two auto­ of stockholders, and financial reports, plus biographical sketches, written in 1962 and accounts, 1903-1918, of the Jonas W. Rhodes 1963, by Albert W. Levin, a Russian Jew who estate, in the same volume, presented by the immigrated to Racine, one being reflections Kenosha County Historical Society; treasurer's at his seventy-fifth birthday and the other a book, 1895-1905, for the Somers Methodist description of Uzda, Russia, and his life there Episcopal Sunday School, presented by the until the age of nineteen, presented by Mr. Kenosha County Historical Society; account Levin, Racine; minutes, 1910-1913, of the book, 1857-1860, possibly belonging to Wil­ Liberty Congregational Church Ladies Aid liam Spetzman, recording daily personal ex­ Society, Trevor [ ? ], presented by the Keno­ penses such as coffee, sugar, beer, whiskey and

84 ACCESSIONS tobacco, with entries in German and English, ter, presented by Helen Bradley Hilton, Sar­ presented by the Kenosha County Historical asota, Florida; genealogical information com­ Society; secretary's book, 1874-1879, of the piled by Gladys Hubbard Cain concerning Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Keno­ the descendants and 'ancestors of Hamilton sha, including minutes, a constitution, bylaws, W. Hubbard (1820-1909), a resident of Dunn names of members and dues records, the na­ County, presented by Elwin Hubbard, Dur­ tional pledge adopted in 1877, and a national and; papers, 1881-(1896-1931), of Samuel W. commendation for organizing Young Ladies' Campbell, general store operator, minor Re­ Leagues, presented by the Kenosha County publican politician, and Indian Agent at the Historical Society; daybook, 1892-1893, re­ LaPointe Reservation, Ashland, including cor­ cording sales by druggists Woodward ir Con- respondence, financial and legal records, and ley, Kenosha, presented by the Kenosha other papers concerning his public and private County Historical Society. affairs, particularly his activities as Indian At Platteville: Record book, 1918-1927, of Agent, presented by Willis Miller, Hudson; the Richland County Sunday School Associa­ muster-in roll, 1898, April 28, and muster- tion, containing rosters of officers, minutes of out roll, 1898, October 31-1899, January 4, meetings, 1918-1922, convention statistics, of William A. Campman's Spanish-American 1921-1922, and annual statistical reports of War unit, Company A of the Third Wiscon­ Sunday schools, 1921-1923, presented by Wil­ sin Volunteers, plus a copy of a photograph liam W. Humphrey, Whitewater. of part of the regiment, presented by William At River Falls: Papers, 1967-1970, concern­ A. Campman, Neillsville; genealogical notes ing the activities of Karl Andresen, chairman about the families of Roy Cochrane and his of the Eau Claire County Democratic party, wife Mabel, River Falls, mentioning the sur­ in support of Eugene R. McCarthy's 1968 names Cochrane, Cornielison, and Northrup, candidacy for the U.S. presidency (copies of plus a brief note about the Ringling Brothers documents supplied to the McCarthy His­ circus tent fire in River Falls in the early torical Project), presented by Mr. Andresen, 1890's, presented by Mr. and Mrs. Cochrane Eau Claire; typed copies of letters, 1864-1866, through the Pierce County Historical Associa­ written by Sarah A. Andrews, Hudson, con­ tion; miscellaneous items, 1951-1972, concern­ veying family and home town news to her ing City Hospital, River Falls, including clip­ brother James A. Andrews serving with Com­ pings and legal papers concerning the hos­ pany A, Forty-fourth Regiment Wisconsin pital's 1951 refusal to serve osteopaths, an Volunteer Infantry, accompanied by photostat undated staff list, and other clippings, col­ copies of some of the letters, presented by lected and presented by Mrs. Earl Foster, Willis Miller, Hudson; "Pilgrims and Voy- River Falls, via the Pierce County Historical ageurs," a history of the Pilgrim family, resi­ Association; two letters, 1855 and n.d., writ­ dents of the St. Croix Valley, written by ten to his brothers by Joel Foster, first settler Grace Pilgrim Bloom in 1966, and "Ebenezer in the Kinnickinnick River Valley and in the Ayers, His Book," a 1963 manuscript by Mrs. city of River Falls, primarily concerning tra­ Bloom detailing the descendants of Ebenezer vels and family news, plus one clipping quot­ Ayers, a settler in Taylors Falls, Minnesota, ing Foster, presented by Mrs. Earl Foster and in 1850, and including copies of letters and the Pierce County Historical Association; documents pertaining to the Ayers family and three articles written in 1971 by Leora M. to events in Wisconsin's Polk and St. Croix Ginsbach dealing with the early history of counties, presented by Mrs. Bloom, Osceola; Elmwood, Spring Lake Township, and Pierce journal of the Boardman Co-Operative Cheese County, presented by Mrs. Ginsbach, Elm- Company, recording cheese sales, 1921-1930, wood; mimeographed leaflet, 1973, opposing milk purchases, 1928-1930, and labor, equip­ passage of an equal-rights-for-women amend­ ment, and other expenses, 1921-1925, pre­ ment, distributed by Citizens Against the sented by Lois Hatch, LaCrosse; article, 1973, E.R.A. and Happiness of Womanhood, Inc., by Mrs. Lawrence Bock, concerning early set­ in River Falls, presented by E. N. Peterson, tlers in Spring Lake Township, Pierce County, River Falls; "Travel Notes on 'The Gems of presented by the Pierce County Historical As­ Germany and Austria,'" a diary kept by sociation; financial ledgers and daybooks, Marion E. Hawkins during a trip to these 1881-1917, of William C. Bradley, a notable countries in August, 1971, presented by Mar­ St. Croix County farmer involved with first ion Hawkins, River Falls; reminiscences of wheat, then livestock production, and gen­ M. C. Holt, a Pierce County farmer from 1859 ealogical information compiled by his daugh­ on and a founder of Ono, Wisconsin, pre-

85 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1975 sented by Duane Fischer, Eau Claire; record nam War activities on the University of Wis­ books, 1926-1940, noting legal notices pub­ consin-River Falls campus, including several lished in the Hudson Star-Observer and the items produced by the Oak Street Eagles, pre­ fees charged for same, presented by Willis sented by the Department of History, U.W- H. Miller, Hudson; genealogical charts of the River Falls; centennial anniversary materials, ancestry of Addie Gwyneth Ludwig, Ottumwa, 1973, from Our Savior's Lutheran Church, Iowa, whose maternal ancestors lived in Martell Township, Pierce County, including Pierce County, presented by Mrs. Ludwig via a postcard showing the church's interior, a the Pierce County Historical Association; program from the centennial service, a clip­ clippings and notes, ca. 1895-ca. 1935, pro­ ping, and a history of the parish and the viding genealogical information on the Jack­ Ladies Aid, presented by Mrs. E. N. Peterson, son, McCardle, and related families, many of River Falls; scrapbooks and other materials, whose members lived in Pierce County, pre­ 1932-1954, concerning the River Falls Parent- sented by Hazel Jackson McCardle, Olivet; Teacher Association, including clippings, pho­ three undated articles written by Francis Mar- tographs, programs, letters, a historical sketch, son about the history of Exile, Wisconsin (in and miscellany, presented by Christine Peder- eastern Pierce County), about his father. sen, River Falls, via the Pierce County His­ Exile's blacksmith, and about Miss Flora torical Association; transcript of a 1952 radio Evens, a resident there, presented by Mr. speech to the people of Pierce County by Marson, Hudson; reminiscences of Father State Assemblyman Arthur L. Peterson in Peter Minwegen, O.M.I., concerning his ser­ which he attacks the methods of Senator Jo­ vice as a missionary in Canada, 1908-1915, seph R. McCarthy, presented by George W. his flight to the U.S. during World War I Garlid, Prescott; record book, 1885-1893, in­ to escape internment because of his German cluding minutes, treasurer's records, and mem­ citizenship, his experiences, 1915-cfl. 1925, as bership lists of the Pioneer Hook and Ladder a priest in Jim Falls and in Cornell, Wiscon­ Co. #/, River Falls, presented by the River sin, where the Ku Klux Klan was active, his Falls Public Library by librarian Edith Bar- successful use of Sebastian Kneipp's water cure tosh, via the Pierce County Historical Associa­ in various illnesses, and the efforts of the tion; letters, 1862-1864, 1881-1882, from Mi­ Oblate fathers to establish their own Midwest chael Jackson Ragsdale, a captain during the province, presented by Father Minwegen, Civil War, probably with a South Carolina Chippewa Falls; miscellaneous items concern­ regiment, and a member of the Texas House ing Anne Kohl Morrow, her family and youth of Representatives in the 1880's, plus two let­ in Clifton Hollow, Pierce County, including ters, 1863-1864, from his nephew, Joseph S. souvenir pupil lists, 1900-1905, from Clifton Ragsdale, Jr., Company F, Fifty-fourth Regi­ Hollow school, a 1959 letter from Dean S. ment North Carolina Volunteers, all written Smith discussing his ancestors in Clifton Hol­ to Michael's wife, presented by David Roberts, low, and a 1941 clipping about Mrs. Morrow's River Falls; narrative poem entitled "Cen­ father, Nicholas Kohl, presented by Mrs. Mor­ tennial of River Falls, Wisconsin, 1849-1948" row, River Falls, via the Pierce County His­ written by Ediuin T. Reed, a River Falls torical Association; Xerox copies of Civil War native, with a letter from him explaining the letters, 1862-1864, from Sergeant Augustus B. factual source of the poem, presented by Mrs. Mower, Seventh Battery, Wisconsin Light Ar­ Earl Foster and the Pierce County Historical tillery, to his parents in Wauwatosa, and one Association; history of the Rush River Lu­ 1868 letter from an unidentified writer visit­ theran Church Ladies Aid, 1889-1959, pre­ ing friends in Michigart, presented by Mrs. pared by Stella Fosmo Herum and others, A. B. Mower; "NSP [Northern States Power presented by Mrs. Herum, River Falls, via Company] Environmental Monitoring and the Pierce County Historical Association; ad­ Ecological Studies Program, 1971 Annual Re­ ditions to the David Sartori Papers consisting port for the Allen S. King Generating Plant, of letters, 1962, concerning the John Birch Oak Park Heights, Minnesota," a plant whose Society, written by Gaylord Nelson, Hubert construction was opposed by many because Humphrey, J. Edgar Hoover, Clarence Ma- of its potential for ecological and recreational nion, J. W. Fulbright, Walter Hollander, damage to the St. Croix River, plus a cover­ Robert Kastenmeier, Everett Dirksen, Robert ing letter with attachments, presented by B. DePugh, Estes Kefauver, William K. Van James L. Arts, River Falls; bulletins and Pelt, and John Birch Society leaders, and a broadsides, April-May, 1972, concerning a 1965 letter from Sartori describing his reac­ student strike of classes and other anti-Viet­ tions to working in the Pittsburgh ghetto.

86 ACCESSIONS presented by Walker D. Wyman and by Ed­ August 1972 by John Irvin Mitchell, a candi­ ward N. Peterson; copy of a letter, 1918, writ­ date for a master of arts degree in teaching ten by Mrs. Luther Spalding, River Falls, to at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, pre­ her daughter in which she describes the burn­ sented by Donald W. Davidson, Superior. ing of the River Falls Episcopal Church, pre­ At Whitewater: Personal and household sented by Mrs. Byron Spalding, Hudson; copy account books, 1871-1898, and miscellaneous of a letter, 1865, from A''. B. Tower, Fort other family items, 1857-1918, of William Wayne, Indiana, to Alfred J. Riley, Hartford, Godden, Janesville, an employee of the Chi­ Connecticut, discussing local reactions to the cago and North Western Railroad, presented surrender of Robert E. Lee's army, the draft, by Sumner Parker, Menasha; miscellaneous and family matters, presented by James T. documents, 1852-1941, collected by Kenneth King, River Falls; list of dates, places of meet­ Hammer, primarily concerning participants in ings, officers, and programs, 1947-1973, of the Spanish-American War from the White­ the Upper Midwest History Conference, an water area, including military documents of informal association of historians from cam­ Private Thomas McBride, Company C, First puses in the Minnesota-Wisconsin-Dakotas Regiment Wisconsin Infantry, one 1933 letter region, presented by James T. King, River from Rutherford R. B. Macrorie recalling Falls; items concerning the founding of the events following Company C's mustering-out, Wisconsin Political Science Association in a 1941 letter from the widow of George 1966, including a constitution and other com­ Barnaby to her father, military documents munications, presented by Robert L. Berg, and family letters, 1896-1941, of Charles A. River Falls; "My Early Memories," a remi­ H. Sprackling, Company C, miscellaneous niscence written by Nancy Weberg Younggren deeds and papers, 1852-1873, of George in 1965 of her youth on a farm near River Sprackling, and discharge papers, 1919, of Falls and her early years teaching school in George M. Sprackling, 16th Company, 161st rural Minnesota, containing much personal Depot Brigade, U.S. Army, presented by Mr. information on life in a Swedish immigrant Hammer, Fort Atkinson; account book, 1885- family, presented by Mrs. Earl Foster, River 1889, 1890, 1893, recording personal and Falls, via the Pierce County Historical Associ­ household accounts of G. S. Parker, Janesville, ation. presented by Sumner Parker, Menasha; auto­ At Stout: Financial journal, 1880-1881, biography written 1932-1934 by Allan Burdick kept by [E.P.] Bailey ir Company, Knapp, West discussing his farm boyhood in Chris­ a general store and manufacturer of lumber tiana Township, Dane County, his school- articles, presented with records of Dunn teaching career in Downsville, Reedsburg, County. Lake Mills, and Janesville, and his family, At Superior: "A Historical Survey of the travels, and other activities, including many Vegetation of Douglas County Since the photographs, presented by Mabel L. West, Seventeenth Century," a paper presented in Milton.

87 taught part-time for the past two years at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, specializ­ Contributors ing in the history of the occult and in liberal and radical American religions. Until recently a Milwaukee resident, she commutes weekly to EDUARD M. MARK received his her classes from a Minneapolis suburb, where undergraduate degree from the she and her husband and daughter now make University of Connecticut and, their home. after a number of years in the United States Army, returned to that institution for graduate H^^IHHI ROBERT GRIFFITH, a frequent work in history. He is currently working on a W ^WKM contributor to the Magazine, is dissertation under Dr. Thomas G. Paterson on . jjB^H professor of history at the Uni- the evolution of American thought about ^ ^iH versity of Massachusetts at Am- Soviet foreign policy. He is the author of sev­ M ^ herst. A native of Georgia, he eral other articles on historical subjects. Mm M. holds a B.A. degree from De Pauw University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin. His doc­ ^^^k MARY FARRELL BEDNAROWSKI, a toral dissertation, which won the Frederick HHB native of Green Bay, is a grad- Jackson Turner Award of the Organization of % ' JOB uate of St. Joseph Academy American Historians, was published by the ^"^^ there and attended St. Norbert University of Kentucky Press in 1970 as The ^^f^Kjt^ College at De Pere. She holds Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the •HHHHH a B.A. degree from Marquette Senate. With Athan Theoharis, he co-edited University, an M.A. from Duquesne in Pitts­ The Specter: Original Essays on the Cold War burgh, and a Ph.D. (1973) in American studies and the Origins of McCarthyism, published by from the University of Minnesota. She has Franklin Watts in 1974.

The annual PROCEEDINGS OF THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN, hitherto published in the Autumn issue of the Maga­ zine, will hereafter appear in the Winter issue in a somewhat abbreviated form. The State Historical Society of Wisconsin y proudly announces reissue of a Civil War clamuc. . THE IRON BRIGX^DE By Alan T. Nolan

Witti a Foreword by T. Harry Williams f^

"Tightly knit, closely written, and carefully documen|ed,.. militaty history at its scholarly best."—CIVIL WAR HISTORY

"The book has strength and integrity worthy of 0 sub|%:t."—|^ILI^M B HESSELTINE

"Combines in a most gratifying manner tlwough ,'res^ch, pVeMowing knowledge^ skillful organization, balanced Jlj|dgr%nt,|an(| good writing."—BELL I. WILEY

"A model military unit history."—AMERICAN h*rORltAL*E>|IEV\j

The iron Brigade (Pp. xviii, 394 $12.00.)

Order from: Business Office, State HAtoritaTSociety of Wisconsin, 8 jfi State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 5i70b. T^per cent discqpnt to teiihers, librarians, and members of the So|fiety. ^ ^ \ 11 The Purpose of this Society shall be

To 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 Middle West.

State Historical Society of Wisconsin Second-class postage paid at 816 State Street Madison, Wisconsin, and at Madison, Wisconsin 53706 additional mailing offices. Return Requested