Rethinking the Red Scare: the Lusk Committee and New York State's Fight Against Adicalism,R 1919--1923
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W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2001 Rethinking the Red Scare: The Lusk Committee and New York State's fight against adicalism,r 1919--1923 Todd J. Pfannestiel College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the Political Science Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Pfannestiel, Todd J., "Rethinking the Red Scare: The Lusk Committee and New York State's fight against radicalism, 1919--1923" (2001). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539623388. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-xgk0-2q70 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Reproduced with with permission permission of the of copyright the copyright owner. owner.Further reproductionFurther reproduction prohibited without prohibited permission. without permission. RETHINKING THE RED SCARE: THE LUSK COMMITTEE AND NEW YORK STATE'S FIGHT AGAINST RADICALISM, 1919-1923 A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Todd J. Pfannestiel 2001 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3026411 Copyright 2001 by Pfannestiel, Todd Joseph All rights reserved. UMI__ ® UMI Microform 3026411 Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPROVAL SHEET This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Todd J. Pfannestiel U__ Philip J./Funigi^lo XMelvyi T. Urofsky /) Virginia Commonwealth Univ^fsity ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv LIST OF FIGURES v ABSTRACT vi INTRODUCTION 2 CHAPTER I. THE UNDERLYING CAUSES OF THE RED SCARE 16 CHAPTER II. THE FORMATION OF THE LUSK COMMITTEE 51 CHAPTER III. THE ORIGINS AND OPERATIONS OF THE 8 9 SOVIET BUREAU CHAPTER IV. REACTIONS FROM BUSINESSMEN AND THE 125 LUSK COMMITTEE CHAPTER V. THE RAND SCHOOL VS. THE LUSK COMMITTEE 172 CHAPTER VI. FROM THE COURTROOM TO THE LEGISLATURE 223 CONCLUSION 28 0 APPENDICES 301 BIBLIOGRAPHY 333 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLE DGEMENTS The author wishes to express his appreciation to Mr. William S. Evans and the administration and staff of the New York State Archives and Records Administration for their assistance in accessing numerous records groups located in that agency. He also thanks Mr. Robert Gardner of New Canaan High School in New Canaan, Connecticut, who helped to uncover a cache of long-forgotten personal papers stored in a closet at the school. He is further indebted to Professors Leisa Meyer, Gilbert McArthur, and Melvin Urofsky for their careful reading and comments on the manuscript. Finally the author offers his sincere gratitude to Professor Philip Funigiello for his patience, constructive criticism, and guidance without which this project could not have succeeded. iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Reproduction of "Examination for High Schools on the Great War" 47 2. Editorial cartoons depicting the radical threat after World War I 77 3. Map of the fourth floor of the Rand School as prepared by a Lusk Committee agent 186 v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT This study re-examines the Great Red Scare that followed the First World War in an effort to more accurately determine its origins, tactics, duration, and conclusion. Specifically, it analyzes the efforts of the Lusk Committee, New York State's joint legislative committee to combat radicalism, between 1919 and 1923. Prior studies agree that the Red Scare was intense and brief in duration. Physical raids upon Socialist Party, Communist Party, and Industrial Workers of the World offices dominated the episode, culminating with Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer's infamous national raids in January, 1920. His heavy-handed tactics, which failed to uncover any serious revolutionary threat, awoke many Americans to the ridiculous nature of the hysteria. Tired of years of reform, war, and government witch hunts, the public turned a deaf ear to Palmer's warnings and embarked upon the carefree Jazz Age of the 1920s. Recent evidence suggests that the Red Scare did not truly end in January, 1920, though. The Lusk Committee in New York State continued to investigate and antagonize radicals until 1923, and in the process introduced new tactics and targets that established precedents for future waves of political repression in America. Following moderately successful raids upon the Soviet Bureau, the Rand School of Social Science, and communist and socialist meeting rooms and publishing facilities, the Lusk Committee adopted new tactics to combat the radical threat, specifically courtroom proceedings and subsequently legislation. The committee also shifted its focus entirely to education, urging and attaining the passage of laws requiring loyalty oaths from public school teachers and state licensing for private schools. Eventually, as New Yorkers came to understand the threat that such laws posed to fundamental civil liberties such as free speech, the popularity of the Lusk Committee began to fade. When Governor Alfred Smith signed the repeal measures, the Red Scare truly came to a close. However, subsequent episodes of political repression standardized the new tactics and focus introduced by the Lusk Committee, indicating the importance of their endeavors. vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. RETHINKING THE RED SCARE: THE LUSK COMMITTEE AND NEW YORK STATE'S FIGHT AGAINST RADICALISM, 1919-1923 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION Benjamin Glassberg's day began like any other. After dressing, eating an early breakfast, and perusing the daily newspaper for the latest information on world and national events, he scurried off to Commercial High School where he taught history and government to the wide-eyed youth of Brooklyn. However, when he entered the classroom that morning of January 14, 1919, Glassberg was unaware of the turmoil that he, as well as the state and nation, would soon experience. "Why is Bolshevism attacked with such hatred in the American press?" asked Edgar Grimmel, a fifteen-year-old student of Glassberg's. "The American people are being misled," his teacher replied. "Government officials are suppressing true reports from American Red Cross observers regarding the Russian Bolsheviki." Glassberg went on to denounce specific news accounts, published in what he labeled "the capitalistic New York press," of Bolsheviks murdering women and children in Russia. Another student, Reginald Bud, interjected, "Are Lenin and Trotzky really German agents?" "Of course not," 2 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 Glassberg answered. "Neither could be German agents because it was their propaganda which brought about the German revolution and ended the war." "What about the ongoing debate concerning the red flag laws?" asked George Mack, the oldest student in the class. "Is Algernon Lee, the socialist alderman, correct when he claims the red flag can be displayed above the American flag?" Mack's teacher pondered the question for a moment, then slowly replied "Yes . in a sense."1 Such pronouncements apparently had a significant impact upon Glassberg's pupils. One student, Martin Carrol, later admitted that the statements "changed my mind from the United States to Russia, and gave me the opinion that the Bolsheviki were a good thing." When Calvin Kemble, an English teacher at the same school, began criticizing the Russian government the next day, he discovered several students defending the movement. Upon ascertaining the source of their information, he encouraged twelve of the boys to meet with school administrators and sign a statement charging Glassberg with uttering seditious statements. Two days later, on January 17, 1919, the principal of Commercial High School suspended him indefinitely, pending a termination hearing by the Board of 'New York Times, 19 January 1919; New York Tribune, 5April, 3 May 1919. The dialogue is recreated from testimony originally provided by the students and Glassberg at a school board hearing concerning the teacher’s dismissal, as reported by the New YorkTimes. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 Education