*,.,'''"' -~'^' •' 'j .''"•""•"i" '^5-S^i, Wisconsin Magazine of History

Wucott.nn: A Natural Laboratory for North /Imcrican Indian Studies NANCY OESTREICH LURIE

General lidward S. I^rat/g in Mexico KKNNl<:TtI J. CKIKB

The Wiscon.nn Loyalty Legion, 1917-1918 LORIN LEE CARY

Procecdincj.s of the 125th Annual Bnsine.^.s Meeting

Published by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin / Vol. 53, No. 1 / Autumn, 1969 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN RICHARD A. ERNEY, Acting Director

Officers THOMAS H. BARLAND, President GEORGE BANTA, JR., Honorary Vice-President JOHN C. GEILFUSS, First Vice-President E. E. HOMSTAD, Treasurer CLIFFORD D. SWANSON, Second Vice-President RICHARD A. ERNEY, Acting Secretary

Board of Curators Ex-Officio WARREN P. KNOWLES, Governor of the State HAROLD W. CLEMENS, State Treasurer ROBERT C. ZIMMERMAN, Secretary of State FRED H. HARRINGTON, President of the University MRS. EDWARD H. RIKKERS, President of the Women's Auxiliary Terrti Expires, 1970 THOMAS H. BARLAND MRS. EDWARD C. JONES HOWARD W. MEAD DONALD C. SLIGHTER Eau Claire Fort Atkinson Madison Milwaukee JIM DAN HILL MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES FREDERICK L OLSON DR. LOUIS C. SMITH Middleton Madison Wauwatosa Lancaster E. E. HOMSTAD CHARLES R. MCCALLUM F. HARWOOD ORBISON ROBERT S. ZIGMAN Black River Falls Hubertus Appleton Milwaukee Term Expires, 1971 ROGER E. AXTELL KENNETH W. HAAGENSEN MOWRY SMITH MILO K. SWANTON Janesville Oconomowoc Neenah Madison MRS. HENRY BALDWIN ROBERT B. L. MURPHY MRS. WM. H. L. SMYTHE CEDRIC A. VIG Wisconsin Rapids Madison Milwaukee Rhinelander H. M. BENSTEAD FREDERIC E. RISSER WILLIAM F. STARK CLARK WILKINSON Racine Madison Nashotah Baraboo

Term Expires, 1972 E. DAVID CRONON MRS. ROBERT E. FRIEND MRS. HOWARD T. GREENE WAYNE J. HOOD Madison Hartland Genesee Depot La Crosse SCOTT M. CUTLIP ROBERT A. GEHRKE BEN GUTHRIE J. WARD RECTOR Madison Ripon Lac du Flambeau Milwaukee W. NORMAN FITZGERALD JOHN C. GEILFUSS MRS. R. L. HARTZELL CLIFFORD D. SWANSON Milwaukee Milwaukee GRANTSBURG Stevens Point

Honorary Honorary Life Members WILLIAM ASHBY MCCLOY, New London, Connecticut PRESTON E. MCNALL, Clearwater, Florida MRS. LITTA BASCOM, Berkeley, California JOHN C. JACQUES, Madison DOROTHY L. PARK, Madison BENTON H. WILCOX, Madison Fellows VERNON CARSTENSEN MERLE CURTI ALICE E. SMITH

The Women's Auxiliary Officers MRS. EDWARD H. RIKKERS, Madison, President MRS. GEORGE SWART, Fort Atkinson, Vice-President MRS. WILLIAM F. STARK, Nashotah, Treasurer MRS. CONRAD A. ELVEHJEM, Madison, Secretary MRS. WILLIAM H. L. SMYTHE, Milwaukee Ex-Officio VOLUME 53, NUMBER 1 / AUTUMN, 1969 nsm

|%#r^| |p|p^% l^m'm ^m g^ istorv

WILLIAM CONVERSE HAYGOOD, Editor WILLIAM C. MAKTEN. Associate Editor

Wisconsin: A Natural Laboratory for North American Indian Studies NANCY OESTREICH LURIE 3

A Badger General's Foray into Diplomacy: General Edward S. Bragg in Mexico 21 KENNETH J. GRIEB

The Wisconsin Loyalty Legion, 1917-1918 33

LORIN LEE CARY

Book Reviews 51

Proceedings of the One Hundred and Twenty-third Annual Business Meeting of the State Historical Society 68 Contributors 80

Published Quarterly by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin

THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY is published by contributors. Second-class postage paid at Madison, quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Wis. Copyright 1969 by the State Historical Society of 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Distributed Wisconsin. Paid for in part by the Maria L. and Simeon to members as part of their dues (Annual membership, Mills Editorial Fund and by the George B. Burrows Fund. $5.00; Family membership, $7,00; Contributing, $10; Busi­ Wisconsin newspapers may reprint any article appearing in ness and Professional, $25; Sustaining, $100 or more an­ the WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY providing the nually; Patron, $1000 or more annually). Single numbers, story carries the following credit line; Reprinted from the $1.25. Microfilmed copies available through University State Historical Society's Wisconsin Magazine of History Microfilms, 313 North First Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan. for [insert the season and year which appear on the Maga­ Communications should be addressed to the editor. The zine], Society does not assume responsibility for statements made •^y^ onographic Collect Coo-nu-gah (First Boy) and Big Bear, one in. the series of remarkable photo­ graphs of Winnebago Indians taken by H. H. Bennett of Wisconsin Dells around the turn of the century. WISCONSIN: A Natural Laboratory for North American Indian Studies

By NANCY OESTREICH LURIE

T? ROM treaty to termination the boundaries There are three formal intertribal organiza­ -*- of the state of Wisconsin encompass an tions in the city, one of which is over thirty astonishingly representative illustration of the years old, and a number of informal tribal total development of federal Indian policy and associations providing social activities, ma­ Indian adaptation and resistance to it. The terial assistance, and useful information to In­ Wisconsin Indian population today—at least dian people. Although most of the urban In­ 15,000 people—is the third largest east of the dians come from northern Wisconsin, the city Mississippi River. North Carolina and New also attracts Indians from all over the country. York have more Indians, but Wisconsin in­ Similarly, Wisconsin Indian people can be cludes a greater variety of tribal and linguistic found in all the other major urban Indian com­ proveniences and administrative complications. munities: Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Many western states, of course, have much Francisco, Dallas, Detroit, Cleveland, and New larger Indian populations than Wisconsin but York. only a few—notably Oklahoma, Arizona, New Generally lost to view in the cities, Indians Mexico, and California—offer more diversity are often deemed by the public at large and than Wisconsin's three major linguistic stocks, even the Indian Bureau as assimilated and no six broad tribal affiliations, and twelve sepa­ longer part of the so-called "Indian problem." rately identifiable Indian societies covering the Although a certain percentage of Indians do range of experiments in Indian policy from the assimilate, city Indians for the most part must founding of the republic to the present day. still be counted as Indians. They are travelers, In Wisconsin, as elsewhere, a quarter to a visitors, and communters exploiting urban, in­ half or more of the Indian population resides in dustrial opportunities without the same com­ cities. The intertribal population of Milwaukee mitment of other Americans, white and black, alone is in the neighborhood of 4,000 people.^ whose historic traditions define migration to the city as a radical, irreversible change in life style. EDITOR'S NOTE: In slightly different form this We tend to forget that at the time of Euro­ paper was presented at the 123rd annual meeting of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin at Lawrence pean contact and right up through the early University, Appleton, June 19-21, 1969. treaty period which created the reservations. ^ Statistics on Indian population can only be ap­ proximate. I have interpolated from 1960 census data, North American Indians were hunters and the Erdman Handbook cited in the bibliography, and gatherers or, in the perspective of the world­ some observations. Even the definition of Indian is wide diffusion of agriculture, they were but equivocal. There are people who do not qualify to be counted by the usual one-fourth Indian ancestry recent food producers. Gardeners rather than required for tribal rolls but who are sociologically farmers, they were still dependent on the hunt more Indian in behavior, identity, and attitude than some "full-bloods" who have cast off Indian identity for animal protein and used many natural re­ in their way of life. sources for a variety of purposes. Individual WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

County are fair-sized areas according to the boundaries shown on standard maps, ranging from 125,000 acres for Bad River and 70,000 for the other two. Yet close inspection reveals a checkerboard within the boundaries of as much or more white-owned property, taxed by the state, as there is federally protected Indian land. Furthermore, title to the Indian land is held in some cases by individuals and in others by the tribe. The Chippewa reservations of Red Cliff in Bayfield County and Mole Lake in For­ est County are tiny, under 10,000 and 2,000 acres, respectively. All of Mole Lake is tribally held land, but a third of Red Cliif is held under

Society's Iconogijphic CollcLtiun individual Indian title. The St. Croix reserva­ tion, also tribal land and embracing about the An unidentified family of Wisconsin Indians in their birchbark canoe. same acreage as Mole Lake, is scattered in five small parcels across Burnett, Polk, and Barron counties. Each Chippewa reservation is sepa­ mobility, resourcefulness, and adaptability, rately administered with its own locally elected coupled with a strong sense of responsibility to tribal governing organization. the community were necessary to survive. Eco­ nomics ol family life were centripetal in con­ Other Chippewa communities are scattered trast to the centrifugal nature of the agrarian from the St. Lawrence River in Canada, across household. Individuals and task groups in northern Michigan and Minnesota, North Da­ North America moved out frequently and for kota, Montana, and Saskatchewan. The distri­ varying lengths of time from the settled village bution reflects a westerly expansion of Chip­ or semipermanent camp to exploit the environ­ pewa, largely in historic times, to find new fur- ment in diverse ways and to bring the results trapping resources. of their efforts back to the home place. Archeo­ Near the Mole Lake Chippewa reservation in logical and ethnohistorical evidence make clear Forest County there are Potawatomi Indians that there was also widespread travel for pur­ who also have tribally held and federally pro­ poses of trade. tected land, but the Indian residences are dis­ Although increasing numbers of Indian peo­ persed over some twenty miles, with white ple now spend more time in the cities this is not neighbors in between them. It thus difEers from a new phenomenon but rather a function ol In­ the discontinuous St. Croix reservation of five dian population growth exceeding the more little settlement holdings. These Potawatomi localized community resources, necessitating have their own tribal organization like that of foraging on a wider scale. Thus, there are often the Chippewa, and the situation is best de­ enormous discrepancies between the number of scribed as a quasi-reservation. Southwest of people listed on the tribal roll and those actu­ these Potawatomi, in Wood County, there are ally resident in the tribal settlement at any one a few families of Potawatomi who live on time. Yet, to understand fully the Indian scene rented or purchased property like their white and its historical antecedents a close account neighbors. They are, nevertheless, federally must be taken of the tribal communities as recognized Indians and though resident in Wis­ fundamental social and cultural foci of Indian consin for several generations they continue to life. be enrolled at the Potawatomi reservation at Mayetta, Kansas. Potawatomi communities are A CROSS THE northern part of the state also found in Canada, Upper and Lower Michi­ -^*-there are six Chippewa (Ojibwa) reserva­ gan, and Oklahoma. The Potawatomi expanded tions. Bad River in Ashland County, Lac du along both the eastern and western shores of Flambeau largely in Vilas but partly in Iron Lake Michigan, partly in response to the fur County, and Lac Court Oreilles in Sawyer trade of the seventeenth and eighteenth centu- LURIE: WISCONSIN INDIANS

ries. They gradually replaced the Ottawa as northeastern tribes by the British colonists in middlemen in the trade between other tribes the latter half of the seventeenth century. In and Europeans. However, having moved south their trek westward, which was a voluntary they acquired a dependence on gardening and effort to find a new homeland, they were joined an emphasis on settled villages, with consequent by a band of Delaware, the Munsee, in Indiana. increasing complexity of tribal organization. Another small, eastern Algonkian group, the Legend connects Potawatomi, Chippewa, and Brothertown, moved west with the Stockbridge, Ottawa as the "Three Fires" springing from a but they opted for citizenship over a century common origin, but this has been questioned ago and have assimilated into the Stockbridge- in view of both linguistic diversity and social Munsee and white populations. For all that, organizational patterns which distinguish the there are still a few individuals in Wisconsin Potawatomi sharply from Ottawa and Chip­ who claim Indian identity as Brothertown. pewa. Potawatomi located west of the Missis­ The Stockbridge reservation is similar to the sippi River were removed there by the govern­ three large Chippewa reservations insofar as ment during the treaty period. the marked boundaries encompass the same In the east-central part of Wisconsin is lo­ kind of checkerboard of Indian and white cated Menominee County, formerly the reser­ lands. What Indian land remains, about 15,000 vation of the Menomini people. Officially, as far acres of an original 65,000, is administered as as the federal government is concerned, the tribal land by the Indian Bureau. A curious and Menomini are no longer Indians because fed­ troublesome complication for the Stockbridge eral responsibility over their lands was termi­ is that title to about 13,000 of their tribal acres nated in 1961. A tribal corporation administers is held by the Department of Agriculture. The some of the land, but much of it is being devel­ equivocal title makes planning in the commu­ oped by white capital which is doing, literally, nity interest difficult for the tribal government. a land-office business selling vacation property Close to Green Bay in Brown and Outagamie to whites and establishing tourist attractions to counties is the Oneida reservation, twelve make Menominee County a white man's sum­ square miles around the boundaries with only mer playground. Full-page color advertisements a little over 2,500 acres within actually being in urban newspapers tout the woodsy romance Oneida land. Most of this Indian land is under of living in Indian country and how pleased tribal title. The Oneida are a member-tribe of the Menomini are to welcome the white man. the historic League of the Iroquois. The other The Menomini look pretty glum about it all. five tribes, Seneca, Cayuga, Mohawk, Onon­ The Menomini are the oldest known Indian daga, and Tuscarora are found in their home­ residents of Wisconsin and remain an exclu­ lands in New York and Canada, with outlier sively Wisconsin tribe, still living in a portion communities of Seneca and Cayuga in Okla­ of their original homeland. homa, having moved there during the treaty Fitting roughly into a jog in the corner of period. Many Oneida live and work in Green Menominee County, but actually in Shawano Bay but take an active interest in reservation County, is the Stockbridge-Munsee reservation. affairs and in plans by the tribal governing Like the Chippewa, Menomini, and Potawato­ body to develop local employment opportuni­ mi, the Stockbridge-Munsee are of Algonkian ties. The Oneida language, still spoken by older linguistic background, but unlike the others people, is Iroquoian, a major language stock they have long been entirely English-speaking. entirely distinct from the varied but related The people will tell you that they take their Algonkian languages of the other tribes de­ name from Stockbridge, Massachusetts, from scribed so far. whence they originally came. Local legend re­ A third distinct language stock, Siouan, is fers to them as truly the last of the Mohegans, represented by the Winnebago who probably but as a matter of fact they are basically Mahi- have more bilinguals, including the very young, can, once neighbors and close relatives of the than any other Indian group in the state. The Mohegans and Pequots of the Connecticut-New Winnebago will tell you that they are not reser­ York-Massachusetts region. Their settlement at vation people, that they are descendants of those Stockbridge developed after the defeat of the Winnebago who refused to leave Wisconsin for WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

doned in prehistoric times, is another example of an intrusive Mississippian group, presuma­ bly also Siouan-speaking. Besides a distinctive language, the Winnebago possessed an aborigi­ nal culture quite different from the surrounding Algonkians in sophistication of religious cos­ mology, dual chieftainship which divided civil and police functions, and especially strong com­ mitment to gardens and large villages. They became increasingly Algonkianized in cultural traits as the result of catastrophes, war, and some kind of epidemic disease, at about the time of European contact in Wisconsin. Both the influence of intermarriage with surround­ ing Algonkians and the economics of the fur trade encouraged dispersal and expansion of the tribe into smaller village units. They gradu­ Society's Iconographic Collection ally withdrew from their first location along the Green Bay-Lake Winnebago area to fill the Chief Yellow Thunder, from a series of stereographs entitled "Among the Winnebago Indians," taken by lands vacated during the eighteenth century by H. H. Bennett between 1900 and 1905. the Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo.

a western reservation. Their tribal governing organization is separate from that of the reser­ fyWO STRIKING FACTS emerge from the vation Winnebago in Nebraska, but people in •*• contemporary Wisconsin Indian scene. the two areas visit each other frequently and First, it appears that no matter what the govern­ even intermarry, enrolling their children in one ment tried and no matter which tribe was in­ group or the other as seems feasible. Officially volved, the result is dismal uniformity and nonreservation Indians, the Wisconsin Winne­ shockingly prevalent low standards of living. bago nevertheless are recognized as Indians by Second, although the various kinds of Indian the Indian Bureau. Furthermore, they have in­ settlements look very much alike to the out­ dividually and tribally held land. Scattered in sider, the perceptive observer notes that there communities and isolated households across is something definably and distinctively Indian some ten counties with major settlements at about these generally poor communities and Wittenberg, Wisconsin Rapids, Black River that each community has its own local distinc­ Falls, and the Tomah-La Crosse and Wisconsin tiveness. Dells areas, their situation partakes of aspects In terms of general conditions, most Wiscon­ of the St. Croix Chippewa, the Forest County sin Indian children now attend public schools and Wood County Potawatomi, with additional in or near Indian communities. There is a high complications of their own—old Indian home­ drop-out rate. Few mission schools remain and stead land. the last government boarding school at Tomah A few Winnebago families are located on was converted to a veterans' hospital at the time homesteads in Minnesota, just across the Mis­ of World War I. Law and order are under state sissippi. Old residents of Wisconsin, the Winne­ jurisdiction. All the federally recognized tribes bago represent a thrust of Siouan-speakersfrom have elected officers but there is little real com­ the lower Mississippi valley who entered Wis­ munity self-determination. Tribal officers spend consin a few centuries before European contact. much of their effort manipulating the Indian The historic Iowa, also Siouan-speaking, were Bureau, getting what they can with the least also part of this migration but were moving damage to the community interest. Recently, west out of Wisconsin by the seventeenth cen­ the same process has developed with the Office tury. Others classified as Sioux lingered in Wis­ of Economic Opportunity as well. The commu­ consin until somewhat after the end of the nities are seldom able to plan and carry out eighteenth century. The site of Aztalan, aban­ programs representing real local consensus LURIE: WISCONSIN INDIANS

either because they lack capital or their capital is increasingly important. A few people in all is managed according to rigid Bureau or OEO the Indian groups still do a little trapping, and formats. People fall out among themselves in many families depend on the deer season to trying to find ways to manage under such cir­ supply the larder with substantial quantities cumstances. The situation is not much diiferent of meat. City relatives are very likely to get for the terminated Menomini whose tribal cor­ home for deer season. A constant controversy poration and county affairs are dominated by goes on with the fish and game authorities, who white directors and financial interests. Tribal feel Indians should abide by state game seasons politics tends to degenerate into alternations of and limits, and the Indians who believe their the various factions holding office. treaties entitle them to hunt, trap, and fish on A recent spate of housing projects brightens their own land. This is an especially sensitive up the Indian settlements a bit at present, but issue to the terminated Menomini. A recent like many such low-cost units built at earlier United States Supreme Court decision favored dates they are arranged and constructed with the Menominis' contention, but the rapid loss little consultation with the people who will live of Menomini land makes the decision rather in them. They will soon deteriorate.^ Indian meaningless. problems have come to public attention as a Some of the Winnebago, Oneida, Potawato­ national scandal. This happens periodically. mi, and Menomini raise small garden patches, Help is extended frantically to solve the In­ particularly Indian corn. Prepared in tradi­ dians' most immediate and pressing problems tional ways it is symbolically important as a with the expectation that this will do for all special Indian food, but hardly a staple crop. time. What appears to the outsider as a crisis Wild rice figures similarly among the Chip­ requiring emergency measures is an old, chron­ pewa, and the fall ricing season brings many ic condition for the Indians and can only be city Indians home to enjoy the harvest activities changed by understanding and listening care­ and take back a supply of wild rice to the city. fully to Indian advice before taking action. In bumper years the Chippewa make a little For all the local Indian groups various forms extra money selling surplus wild rice. of public relief are necessary to maintain life. A few tribes have timber resources, but because Tribal enterprises which Indian people would of the broken nature of their land holdings really like to develop to create more employ­ these cannot be effectively utilized. Some tribes ment close to home are tried here and there, derive income for local welfare from leasing but the results are disappointing even if the land to whites, but the amount of money is not efforts do not fail completely. A few small great. assembly plants are owned and controlled by Guiding, performing Indian dances at tourist whites under contract through the Indian Bu­ centers, and selling handcraft as well as various reau. They are not really Indian enterprises. kinds of wage work contribute in varying pro­ Offered such opportunities without the chance portions to Indian family incomes from time for adequate discussion or choice of alterna­ to time and place to place. Wage work is usually tives, the Indian groups who accept them do so crop harvesting, timbering, and road mainte­ without much enthusiasm and the low pay nance. Sporadic or regular urban employment scales do little to stimulate commitment to steady work. It is silly to stick with a job just ° Tragic confirmation of this prediction was sup­ because it is steady if some other more inter­ plied shortly after this paper was originally prepared. esting and rewarding, albeit probably tempo­ Although the housing project for the Winnebago at Wisconsin Dells was made possible by dint of the rary, opportunity appears. Indians know that tribe's own effort to obtain the required land, the they have survived this long by a philosophy tribe was unable to exercise any choice in the design of the houses. They complained about the materials which values flexibility, adaptability, and being and high windows among other things. On July 15, able to recognize and use the main chance 1969, one of houses caught fire, whether due to rather than a philosophy which values work for a defective stove or the insulation under it or to children playing with matches is as yet undeter­ its own sake, deferment of rewards, and the mined. The structure went up like tinder. Five small keeping of schedules as a religious virtue good children were overcome and burned to death, and only the two larger children in the house were able for the soul. Lacking a peasant tradition of up- to escape. and-to-bed-with-the-chickens, Indians really are WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

4i .^ U-

• - 'J^- .ai... Society's Iconographic Collection Winnebago family groups photographed between 1900 and the 1920's by Charles J. Van Schaick in his Black River Falls studio. Note how (beginning at top left) the men are less prone than the women to cling to tribal dress. In the picture at lower left, taken about 1917, the younger man is wearing World War I army wrap-around puttees. In the final picture (lower right) the three young women standing have abandoned tribal costume altogether, in favor of the fashions and marcelled coiffures of the 1920's.

8 LURIE: WISCONSIN INDIANS

remarkably well adapted to industrial work. In regard to religion, Wisconsin Indians Indians will work the unpopular shifts and holi­ have been converted to Roman Catholicism and days, if this pays more, in order to make the various protestant denominations, usually man­ necessary income in the least amount of time. aging to make their local churches distinctively This is important when jobs and home are so Indian, community institutions. However, with far apart. the exception of the Oneida and Stockbridge One tribal enterprise in Wisconsin should be who were long Christianized in the East, all the singled out. Several years ago the University of other major tribal groups in Wisconsin have Wisconsin Extension approached various In­ active factions of traditionalists who hold their dian groups with the idea of a handcraft indus­ ancient rites in quiet but deep defiance of the try. The offer was accepted by the Stockbridge white man's religions. Furthermore, there are who, unlike all the other tribes, had absolutely congregations of both the Drum or Dream no crafts of their own and the project appealed Dance religion found among the Potawatomi, to them as validating Indianness in an area in Chippewa, and Menomini, and the peyote re­ which they were embarrassingly deficient. ligion, chartered as the Native American Loom weaving and block printing were devel­ Church, which is strongest among the Winne­ oped with an effort to resurrect anything that bago but has diffused to the Algonkian-speaking might conceivably be Stockbridge by way of tribes, with the exception of the Stockbridge. design. It is the kind of work that can be sand­ These major pan-Indian revitalization or nati- wiched in between other job opportunities, vistic movements originated farther west dur­ child care, and deer hunting. ing the nineteenth century as self-help efforts to unite and uplift Indians spiritually and morally Unfortunately, the project has not been of in a time of crisis and despair. They are still substantial economic value to the community gaining converts. because the white people most directly involved with the Indians were artists. They at least appreciated the need for flexibility about sched­ 'T'HE QUESTION ARISES: How did all this ules, but concerned with techniques of produc­ -'- come about? American policy towards In­ tion, quality, and creativity, they gave little dians derives directly from British colonial thought to systematic marketing. The Stock- precedents, including treaties, reservations, and bridge items are lovely but costly. Indians long superintendents. Originally Indian affairs were experienced in handcraft know that what officially a concern of the crown and not of the might be junk from an esthetic point of view colonies or individual colonists. Similarly, In­ is apt to sell best. They reserve their artistry dian affairs became a federal responsibility for producing powwow and ritual finery of under the third article of the United States value to themselves and good craft items for Constitution. Although intended primarily to the few discriminating tourists. But it is the control trade with the Indians, the government tin-can tom-toms and garish wooden spears and actually concerned itself with making treaties tomahawks that put the fry bread on the table. to buy land, containing tribes on reservations, However, the Stockbridge project comes the and administering their affairs. To deal with closest to the few projects which have been the mounting volume of Indian business a spe­ successful outside Wisconsin where Indians cial Indian Office was created in the Depart­ managed to get started on their own. Light ment of War in 1824. Gradually enlarged and manufacturing with an assured market where renamed the Bureau of Indian Affairs, it was management and labor are the same people and transferred to the newly created Department of the factory is run on Indian time holds real the Interior in 1849. Even though the average hope for improving Indian life. Likewise, a few price paid for Indian land in the treaty period tribes have managed to keep control of tourist was only about ten cents an acre, the Indians enterprises as tribally owned and managed were supposed to be paid for any land they businesses and avoided the exploitation of In­ gave up. Contrary to the common impression, dians and their ethnicity by white entrepre­ the defeat, buying off, removal, and contain­ neurs such as occurs at the Dells and elsewhere ment of Indians was no orderly progression as in Wisconsin. the frontier moved west. Indians resisted, not WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

just by overt hostilities, but also by endless bar­ Oneida, and even the Stockbridge were true gaining and an ineffable talent for obfuscation. tribes with an overall sense of loyalty and unity Few tribes sold all their land at once, but under and more or less well-developed concepts of pressure they relinquished parcels, endeavoring chieftainship. The Ottawa and Chippewa were to hold out on reduced land bases until fre­ band societies, collectivities of virtually autono­ quently there was no alternative but to move mous local groups. Acknowledging a common out completely and accept new land elsewhere. ancestry only, bands broke off to form new Although the treaties contained imagery that independent communities as population ex­ appealed to Indians — "As long as the rivers ceeded local resources. Thus, when a few bands run"—the government obviously did not expect of Ottawa and Chippewa had wandered south to be held to account eternally or even for very and established friendly relations with the Pota­ long on such poetic grounds. By the nineteenth watomi, living as their neighbors, they were century Indians were dying off faster than they included in the treaties, but their behavior had were reproducing, and they had become de­ no bearing on the activities of other Chippewa pendent on a wide array of white-manufactured or Ottawa bands. A similar situation occurred goods. What the treaty makers did not antici­ near Green Bay in 1827 when a band of Chip­ pate was that by 1900 the demographic trend pewa signed a treaty along with Menomini— would change and the Indian population would actually the regular residents in the area—and begin making a comeback. Furthermore, con­ the Winnebago, whose prior occupancy and fident of their cultural superiority, few whites interest were still honored by the Menomini. noticed that Indians acquired new items in the The component village communities of the old spirit of hunter adaptability. They picked real tribal groups felt a common concern in any and chose what they could rework to make treaties entered into—villagers outside a cession peculiarly their own. Tribes had always used being as much involved as those living in a trade items they could not produce themselves, ceded area. It was often difficult to get consen­ as witness shells from the Gulf of Mexico found sus among the various villages in regard to land by archeologists as far north as Minnesota and sales, so that treaty makers often settled for Lake Superior copper found in the Ohio Valley. what seemed to them a majority of signatures Indian people had discovered new resources of important men in the tribe. Dissatisfaction and adapted to new conditions ever since they with treaties or even particular terms of treaties crossed Bering Strait as Arctic and Sub-Arctic led to dissident factions who simply withdrew hunters, spreading out to survive and increase their co-operation, expecting to work with the in temperate and tropical zones. whole as a tribe on future occasions when con­ The period in which the United States entered sensus might be reached. Removal of the fac­ into treaties with Indians lasted from the found­ tion abiding by a treaty often resulted in a ing of the Republic to 1871. In Wisconsin, as breakdown of communication with the dissi­ had happened farther east and was to happen dents who were obliged to look out for them­ later in the West, lands one tribe agreed to selves. Eventually they might be treated as a vacate by treaty were sometimes effectively separate entity by the government on the order used and occupied by another tribe before of the treatment accorded band-organized white settlement could take over. Thus, land in groups. southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, duly Although the government began entering into bought by treaty from the Sauk and Fox in treaties in the Wisconsin-Illinois region before 1804, had to be repurchased in smaller parcels the War of 1812 and immediately thereafter to between 1816 and 1833 from the Winnebago win Indian allies away from the British, the and Potawatomi, Ottawa and Chippewa. Some treaty period heralding significant land loss of the Sauk had been in no hurry to move out leading to the present situation really began for and only the bloody hostilities of the Black Wisconsin Indians in 1825. A great intertribal Hawk War of 1832 saw their final retreat from council was called at Prairie du Chien to gel Wisconsin. Indians to agree on their boundaries among It should be noted that the Potawatomi and themselves as a preliminary to negotiations Winnebago, like the Sauk, Fox, Menomini, with the specific tribes for their lands.

10 1804 If Chippewa Ottawa e Potawcitam

hro/cen A'nes: ]?0-^ 3 a. uk

(Map 1) INDIAN LAND SALES IN WISCONSIN *(a) Land ceded by Chippewa, Menomini and Winnebago in 1827 for use of the New York Indians but because of irregularities in the treaty, the Menomini who were actually resident in the area in 1827 repudiated any claim of the New York Indians. In 1831, the area designated (b) was ceded by the Menomini for the use of the New York Indians and the present Oneida reservation was granted in the southeastern end of this tract in 1838. Meanwhile, in 1831, the Stockbridge-Munsee and Brotliertown were granted areas (d) and (e). In 1839 they ceded the eastern half (f) of their total holdings and in 1848 they ceded the western half (g). At that time the Brothertown opted for citizen­ ship but the Stockbridge-Munsee chose to remain under federal jurisdiction. Like a number of other Wisconsin tribes they were supposed to move to a reservation in Minnesota but this plan was not carried out, and in 1856 the Stockbridge received their present reservation. The dates of cession are those when treaties were signed; ratification by the Senate was in some cases delayed for a year or more.

Prior to the treaty of Prairie du Chien the and 1823. These eastern Indians tried to re­ Winnebago and Menomini had a glimpse of locate themselves as white pressures for their things to come as negotiations were opened homelands mounted. with them unofficially by representatives of the Map 1 notes actual cessions and their dates, New York Indians and the Stockbridge in 1822 but there were also many unsuccessful negotia-

11 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

rty's Iconographic Collection Fair being held on the Oneida Indian Reservation, September, 1899.

tions for the different tribes' lands.^ The major loss allowed the Winnebago to remain under losses began with the Potawatomi and some of federal jurisdiction. In 1881 the government the Ottawa and Chippewa, as already noted, made a separate roll of the Wisconsin people, and with the Menomini and Winnebago. Ceding and these dissidents became, in effect, a tribe their southern areas, the Winnebago were separate from the people in Nebraska. A simi­ granted additional land on the west bank of the lar provision, but largely in terms of tribal land Mississippi River in Iowa. Overrun by lead rather than homesteads, was made in 1913 for miners and settlers, the villagers in this area the Forest County Potawatomi—dissidents in of southwestern Wisconsin and northwestern regard to the Treaty of Chicago of 1833. The Illinois had no recourse but to move west, since Wood County Potawatomi never broke their the remaining land to the north could not sup­ official tie with the Kansas reservation when port them. Ultimately they sought sanctuary they began drifting back east. among the Omaha, where they were allowed to At the time of the controversial Winnebago take up their present reservation after succes­ treaty of 1837, the government negotiated suc­ sive treaties and four removals through Minne­ cessfully with the Santee Sioux to relinquish sota and South Dakota between 1846 and 1863. all claim to any Wisconsin land just north of The entire tribe was agreed that the cession of the Winnebago. By then the Sioux had pretty 1837 was invalid since unauthorized Winne­ well decamped anyway and Winnebago and bago had been pressured into signing it, and Chippewa were regularly hunting in their area. those Winnebago resident in the region simply The Chippewa also gave up land in western refused to move. Gathered up by soldiers on Wisconsin in 1837. four occasions, they always came back to their By 1848 all Indian land in Wisconsin had old haunts. After the last removal of 1874 they been ceded by treaty except for the Oneida were able to avail themselves of the provisions reservation established ten years before. How­ of the Indian Homestead Act of 1875 (amend­ ever, in the northern areas the Indians were not ed, 1881) in order to remain in Wisconsin. The under great pressure to leave as there were not idea of the act was to scatter Indians generally yet many white settlers, although the intent was among white neighbors and hasten their assimi­ to move them west. Biding for time, the Me­ lation, but provisions to protect them from land nomini and the Chippewa bands at Flambeau, Bad River, Court Oreilles, and Red Cliff, as well as the Stockbridge were able to sign ^ The accompanying maps are based on Royce and Thomas, Kappler, and Erdman. treaties between 1854 and 1856 assigning them

12 LURIE: WISCONSIN INDIANS

reservations in Wisconsin which, except for ment, was dusted off with a new but never Stockbridge, were parts of their old homelands. legally established meaning. Bureau superin­ This development reflected a change in policy tendents and other personnel came to interpret due to events across the Mississippi. Although their role increasingly as actual guardians han­ the eastern Indians were effectively pacified, dling all the affairs and making all the decisions they were still disgruntled, and the long strug­ for individual minor children who were both gle to defeat the Plains tribes was just getting recalcitrant and slow to learn. As Indian people under way. Settling all the tribes in one great struggled to get on their feet as communities, western Indian Territory posed dangers, as the Bureau worked just as hard to de-Indianize they might unite in common cause. Earlier and disperse them as individualized farm fami­ alliances under Pontiac and Tecumseh, though lies. When it became ever more obvious that defeated, were proof of the possibility. The new Indians were not phasing out according to policy sought to settle tribes safely separated schedule, efforts to assimilate them were stepped from one another, even in their own homelands up. Children were hauled off summarily to dis­ if feasible, as it was costly to move them west. tant boarding schools where they were severely However, there were some administrative loose punished for speaking their own languages. ends in Wisconsin, as elsewhere. The St. Croix Tribal language barriers were crossed by learn­ Chippewa had been left out of the negotiations ing English in the boarding schools, and the in 1854 and, characteristically, none of the former students became the intellectual nucleus other Chippewa bands could negotiate for them. of pan-Indian and intertribal resistance to They simply remained in the state as landless white policy.* Indians. The Sakaogon band (Mole Lake) By 1871 the government decided unilaterally Chippewa were also neglected in 1854, but a that no more treaties would be entered into treaty with them in 1855 promised a reserva­ with Indians. Most Indian land had been ac­ tion of twelve square miles of land. For some quired anyway, and the Indians had been reason the government never got around to located on reservations. The key to dealing setting up this reservation, and the Mole Lake with Indians was to be vigorous repression of people also remained a landless band eking out things Indian, including customary religion, a living as best they could. leadership, and even hair and clothing styles. The consequent sullen apathy, irresponsibility, r^VER THE YEARS the reservation system drinking, and delinquency on reservations were ^-^ became firmly structured with regional superintendents and local agencies on the larger * At first, widespread intertribal ties were main­ reservations. The Great Lakes Superintendency tained by visits after leaving boarding school and is at Ashland. It is under the jurisdiction of exchanges of letters. By the time of the Second World War, educated Indian people developed formal the Minneapolis Area Office, one of a half dozen organizations such as the National Congress of Amer­ such offices set up across the country in the ican Indians to act as a clearing house of informa­ 1950's. Until reforms were instituted at the tion useful to Indians, to unify them, and to bring political pressures to bear in the Indian interest. close of the century, putting the Bureau under Added to this was the development of nationwide civil service, appointments were a matter of intertribal powwows in which Indian people have been gathering since the nineteenth century for a political patronage. The work did not pay well, few days to a week or more at a time. Ostensibly but it was not hard and there were always only social affairs, the powwows have been an im­ opportunities to manipulate Indian funds. There portant medium for the creation and diffusion of an Indian political ideology and growing sense of were, however, many dedicated people in the unity of purpose. In recent years, Indian people have Indian service, but they could accomplish little also sought resources beyond the BIA, other federal agencies and religious denominations with mission given the uncertainty of their tenure and a dis­ programs to forward their interests. By far the most tant Congress, indifferent to the critical needs sensitive and co-operative response has come from of people who were expected to vanish soon. institutions of higher learning. Wisconsin has been typical of these developments in the holding of con­ In the 1860's the unfortunate term "ward," ferences and workshops requested by Indian people at several of the more northerly State Universities, first used in 1831 by Chief Justice John Mar­ and the active interest of the University of Wisconsin- shall in a vague analogy defining the relation­ Milwaukee in the problems and goals of Indian ship between tribes and the federal govern­ people in the city.

13 ( .iciiiun Victory celebration held at Reserve, Wisconsin, July 19, 1919, by the Chippewa to honor tribal members who had served in World War I. The man in the foreground is the Chippewa interpreter, Ira 0. Isham. attributed by reformers to denial of individual The scheme had built-in shortcomings. The freedom of enterprise. How, they asked, could Indian problem was to be solved with small, Indians succeed as farmers when their land self-sufficient, diversified family farming at the was held tribally: The Indian Homestead Act very time that large-scale, mechanized, single- was useful only to members of landless tribes crop agriculture was becoming the order of the or individuals who had already learned to man­ day. Experienced white farmers were already age as farmers. The final solution to the Indian being squeezed out economically and migrating problem was to be (but did not become) the to the city factories. Futhermore, by 1900 In­ Dawes or Allotment Act of 1887, based on an dians began increasing so that the remaining act which had been devised specifically for the Indian allotments were divided among ever Omaha five years before. It planned for divi­ more heirs with people inheriting small pieces sion of reservations into individual holdings of different allotments, widely separated from which would be inalienable and tax free for a each other. The poem by Lew Sarett, "Little generation, by which time Indians were ex­ Caribou Makes Big Talk," is recited every sum­ pected to have broken the tribal tie and turned mer night as a dramatic reading at the Dells into ordinary white farmers. After everyone Indian Ceremonial. Little Caribou, a querulous got his allotment, totaling about 180 acres per old man, complains in amusing broken English nuclear family, the rest of the land would be about his land being scattered, "Lak leaves thrown open to public sale and the proceeds she's blow by wind." The bitter irony of the used to buy the necessities for Indians to get humor is probably lost on most of the white started as farmers. That some Indians might audience who do not know that Little Caribou need more or even less than a generation was is talking about the effects of the Allotment Act recognized, and later provisions required that of 1887. Map 2 shows the effects of allotment the Indian be declared competent, no matter in statistical terms at Bad River, Flambeau, how long the time since he got his allotment, Court Oreilles, and even tiny Red Cliff which before he received his fee patent. The great did not suffer land loss, but the tribal holding Indian land grab was on as the competency was broken and inefficiently redistributed by provision was regularly abused by land-hungry heirship, Oneida and Stockbridge. whites, sometimes in connivance with unscru­ When the United States entered the First pulous superintendents—or land could be ac­ World War Indians under federal jurisdiction quired quite honestly from the public sales of for the most part were not eligible to be drafted, unallotted land. but they volunteered in large numbers and

14 Red Cliff C hippeuja ^'Treaty ISS^ C^ J3ad River J^ T,3SI acres Chippeipa. Treaty IB5-¥ 1969 ca. 3arr>e, - 72^332 acre^. igG9. 43.200, 3'OOCi inbcLl. 35,000tdbalLSOO altoted. rest allotted.

Lac du Flambeau Tre a ty I i54 \ I Ch ipp e tua. 70,000 acrP}\_^ I9d3,29.500} IGJOOtnbal. , "^ I-or est County li loO allotted. Votaataiomi Lac Court 0reilh5 Landk5stol9l3 C hippeuja..Treaty Mole. Lake / Luhen Qfoniecl IS5JI, 70,000 acres. Chippewa.1^5^* 14439 acres. , , 1969, 36,ooo, mosl/y promised I?, sq. l969.-IUd0triba.l allotted. miles. 1934,1,750 640 allotted ' Landhs:, acres granted. until preyent 1,750 acres ^ , Menomini \Me.no- aranted in 195^ Treaiyl$54 ?7f,4S0acres[^ll Since 197,1 Stockhridi, 'ge- innebaoi MunsQe ^ . , d X ^ Treaty 1^56(from /> Oneida .Setilenc/ents'-''') arid , Menomini Res. ^'^T;—Treatyy IS3Sic of I g54') 44,000 Sco-ttai-ed hauseholas acres. Almoit 65,000 acres Vurinc. ISlO's-SOd ecLch By 192* less land less by tinan fOOO familyndian horvestead*-look up 40 acre.1909 i930's Luloen left ujhen less iha.n4.00Oacres' •sranted i$;3Z0 o ran ted land. \le,ft of In on? PS Lead land. Acres.Ca.Zt^O 1969,ZS9Z Since,l96Z,tribe has yc tnhqiiiit e to acresi^.OSS acquired ca. 250 acres rest held by. 0-5. tribal,534 of tribal land. S3ai Pept.ofA'^nc. allotted. Idi SCO nsin J)& lis rest at lilack f. "^

(Map 2) RESERVATIONS AND OTHER INDIAN SETTLEMENTS, SHOWING PAST AND PRESENT FEDERALLY PROTECTED LAND Land loss from time of treaty to present day is due to the effects of allotment, except for Winnebago and Menomini. Winnebago homesteads were reduced through sales much on the order of the results of allotment. The Menomini lost their entire reservation by termination in 1961, and though some land is held corporately by the tribe it is not under federal protection but taxed by the state of Wisconsin. achieved a remarkable record of heroism. Their ough and reached some surprising conclusions deeds and the fact of dreadful conditions on the and recommendations. The report pointed out reservations made the headlines, and an aroused that as bad as conditions were, the only reason public prompted Congress to grant all Indians they were not worse was that Indian people full citizenship, with particular stress on the somehow managed some semblance of commu­ right to vote. Some traditional Indians are still nity cohesion to give meaning and direction to pretty damn mad about it. Of course they vol­ life. The continuous loss of land through pro­ unteered ; they were allies to the United States visions of the Allotment Act was singled out as by treaty. The new fiat of 1924 undercut their a primary cause of Indian despair, demoraliza­ special status as Indians even more. tion, and inability to progress materially. More to the point, as a result of the publicity Harsh policies of stamping out everything In­ after the war, was a major investigation of In­ dian were criticized since adequate substitutes dian problems undertaken at government ex­ were not provided and—a radical suggestion— pense by a private, impartial research organiza­ not everything Indian was necessarily bad. tion, the Brookings Institution. The Brookings The election of Franklin Roosevelt also saw Report, published in 1928, was ruthlessly thor­ a "New Deal" for Indians with the appointment

15 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

by meticulous managing of all the Indians' affairs. Collier threatened the very nature of their universe, and they often came down with a heavy hand at the local level, stifling innova­ tions and having no patience with Indian meth­ ods of reaching decisions by long discussion and consensus. Collier's good faith was clear to Indians, however, when he brought to a grinding halt the rapid loss of their land. More important, he restored tribally held land as noted for Wis­ consin on the aforementioned map (map 2). The Mole Lake Chippewa received a reserva­ tion of 1,750 acres—far short of the twelve

Society's Iconi ^ square miles promised in 1855, but the first attempt to honor their treaty in nearly a cen­ Chippewa family outside their wigwam near Lac du Flambeau about 1905. Note that the men are holding tury. The so-called "Lost Band" of St. Croix woven baskets and miniature canoes for future sale. Chippewa also received a reservation of the same size but in scattered parcels because the Collier administration had to take up land of John Collier, Sr., as Commissioner of Indian where available (see also Stockbridge and Affairs. Guided by the Brookings Report and Oneida) .* his own extensive familiarity with Indian prob­ All the Wisconsin tribes but the Winnebago lems. Collier did an unprecedented thing for opted for tribal constitutions permitting them a commissioner. He went out and talked to In­ to elect their own officers. An abiding suspi­ dians to get their opinions on policy. The result ciousness and problems of neglect rather than was the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, overadministration made IRA less attractive to whereby Indian tribes could organize under them than to other tribes. Most important, they their own constitutions and charters and enter did not want to commit themselves to any plan into contracts as self-determining communities. which might be charged against them and pre­ Collier was criticized both for trying to turn the vent their ever collecting unpaid treaty money. clock backward and for imposing too many As early as the 1920's they had tried to get a white bureaucratic concepts on Indian commu­ settlement, but without success, through the nities rather than letting them develop their Court of Claims. own formats for political and economic action. Theirs was not an unique grievance as the That the Indian Reorganization Act worked at Brookings Report noted, along with a recom­ all and as well as it did and inspired such opti­ mendation that the many unsettled Indian mism among the deeply disenchanted and sus­ claims be handled by some more expeditious picious Indians is all the more amazing, con­ means than the cumbersome and costly pro­ sidering that it was in real effect for only seven cedures of the Court of Claims. In 1946 the years—1934 to the outbreak of war in 1941. Indian Claims Commission was finally estab­ The major shortcoming was that final veto lished whereby tribes could file claims until power was still held by the local Bureau super­ 1951. Some 850 were registered and hearings intendents who were supposed to act as watch­ are still being held. The Indian Claims Com­ dogs of the Indian interest against unscrupu­ mission can be looked upon as the last legis­ lous whites. But Collier had to work with an lation of the pro-Indian, Collier era, or the inherited bureaucracy which, while honest first overt evidence of the Indian policy which thanks to Civil Service, was committed without question for the most part to the ancient objec­ tive of de-Indianization and assimilation. On " Administrative terminology has been generalized the other hand, Bureau personnel had also be­ in the interests of clarity and brevity. There are gun to make sure they would not work them­ subclassifications in types of reservations, individual and tribal lands under federal protection, and bureau­ selves out of jobs and justified their existence cratic organization.

16 LURIE: WISCONSIN INDIANS was to characterize the 1950's. Although the ICC Act of 1946 contains the broadest grounds for suit of any American legislation, it has been construed as narrowly as possible. The govern­ ment has worked slowly—claims average well over ten years from filing to appropriation of money — and the smallest amounts possible have been allowed.

HEN the United States entered the Second W World War in 1941 the Bureau of Indian Affairs, like other offices, had to cut back while a large proportion of the federal budget went into the war effort. But more was involved as Congress turned a deaf ear to Collier's pleas to keep alive programs and prepare for the prob­ lems of Indians in peacetime. However, with so many Indians in the armed services or in the cities working in defense industries and send­ ing money home, problems of Indian poverty were temporarily alleviated. Congress consid­ Milwaukee Journal ered the Indians' problems permanently solved. Two elaborately caparisoned Indians in Milwaukee But, as Collier knew would be the case, when show a boy how to use a bird call whistle. the war was over the Indians came back home. There had also been an Indian baby boom. and which they wanted to develop as a basis of Already limited and undeveloped reservation healthy community life. No one denied the resources were now totally inadequate. But the Indians the vote. Quite the contrary! Indians war had been a mass educational experience experienced little racial prejudice. They had and Indians returned with widespread under­ always been free as individuals to be dropped standing of what could be done on the reserva­ from the tribal rolls by their own choice. tions and how to do it through the mechanism Collier was finally forced to resign in 1946 of IRA. All that was needed was adequate and by 1950 a total change had occurred in funding to get started. Indian policy, based on the pre-CoUier philoso­ It gave Congress pause that Indians were phy. Two major endeavors were mounted as the obviously worse off than ever and that vast final solution (again!) to the Indian problem: amounts of money would be needed to get com­ termination of the reservations and relocation munities on their feet and regain ground lost of Indians in cities. Wisconsin, as usual, was a during the war when nascent programs were primary laboratory to tinker around in. allowed to atrophy without funds. Congress Noting that Indians went to the cities and conveniently blamed John Collier for the crisis adapted well to industrial work although they in Indian affairs because he had turned aside kept returning home and maintaining tribal from the time-honored principle of assimilating ties, the Voluntary Relocation Program (dubbed the Indians. The cry was on to "desegregate" "Operation Relocation" by the Indians) pro­ and even "free" the Indians and "get the gov­ vided fare to cities, preferably as far from the ernment out of the Indian business." Ironically, Indian's home community as possible, as well as the Black Movement for civil rights gained as a first job and housing. Little screening was momentum, the words of new hope for black done and with the slight recession of the mid- people were a chilling threat to Indians. The 1950's many Indians were left in destitute con­ reservations were not segregated ghettos— dition, unable to get local public relief because allowed to deteriorate by indifferent landlords of residence requirements, no longer a respon­ —but Indian property they had struggled to sibility of the relocation offices, and unable to protect from illegal appropriation by whites get back home. Old intertribal organizations in

17 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

termination proceedings in the 1950's was to destroy tribal entities. Although they had mis­ givings, the Menomini actually voted for ter­ mination, understanding that it would be along lines intended in the Brookings Report and also because they were deceived into believing that payment of their per capitas depended on termination. When the true nature of the situation be­ came apparent, they played for time, getting the date for termination moved from 1958 to 1961. Co-operation by the state in designating the reservation a new county also helped to maintain community identity. But the state was less experienced than even the Bureau in deal­ ing with Indian communities and brought in Madison Capital Times private industry, even less informed about In­ Governor Gaylord Nelson surrounded by tribal offi­ dians, to help the Menomini make the transition cials and others as he signs the bill creating Menomi­ to terminated status. It is not possible to cite nee County, July 31, 1959. here all the legal and social complications, and it must also be said that at least some of the cities were swamped with hardship cases and misguided efforts by outsiders, ostensibly in many new Indian centers were established with behalf of the Menomini, were not done vicious­ church and other private funding, and in some ly. But the worst abuses arising out of the cases with help from local universities. Gradu­ Allotment Act and resulting in land loss, Indian ally, many people drifted back home. Fortu­ impoverishment, and personal and social de­ nately, Indian resistance to the termination spair and demoralization pale in comparison program meant that for most tribes there still to what is happening to the Menomini—the was a home community where they could get oldest continuously resident tribe in the state. help. However, the government was determined to push termination wherever possible, and it By the time of the presidential campaign of happened that in 1928 the Menomini in Wis­ 1960, both major parties recognized that In­ consin, as well as the Klamath in Oregon, were dian affairs were in a terrible mess and re­ singled out as soon ready to manage their own quired study and new direction. When John affairs without federal supervision. Developed Kennedy was elected, he appointed a task force lumbering enterprises had forestalled allotment to meet and talk with Indians as a basis for as inappropriate to these reservations. In 1951 future policy. Philleo Nash, who headed the the Menomini had won a judgment of task force, was subsequently appointed Com­ $8,500,000 on proof of mismanagement of missioner of Indian Affairs. Nash, an anthro­ their forests by the government. They voted to pologist, inspired real hope as a new Collier. invest a good part in community development Moving cautiously at first in the face of con­ and reserved part to divide into per capita tinuing assimilationist sentiment in Congress, payments, about $1,500 per person. Organized Nash nevertheless operated on the principle under the Indian Reorganization Act, the Me­ that Indians were here to stay. He stressed com­ nomini were just beginning to grasp the princi­ munity development and humanized the reloca­ ples and potentialities of real self-government, tion program for Indians who desired to avail but despite the Brookings Report recommenda­ themselves of it. Nash understood that Indians tion, the Bureau had made no effort to train were interested in raising the general commu­ Menomini in business management or gradu­ nity level and needed to explore opportunities ally turn tribal affairs fully over to the Me­ to reach consensus on plans. But he was deemed nomini people. The Brookings Report had en­ too slow by his superiors, who saw Indian com­ visioned a self-sustaining tribal community munity development in terms of cheap labor free of federal interference, but the objective of pools for white capital. Nash's tenure lasted

18 LURIE: WISCONSIN INDIANS

just half as long as Collier's. His successor, tion also benefited the Oneida, who in the mid- Robert L. Bennett, a mixed-blood Oneida, was 1960's began procedures whereby a share of committed to the Indian interest in his public an old allotment, just under thirty acres, was statements but could do little to forward it, transferred from individual Indian land to given the powerful forces which had succeeded tribal trust status. Located in the Green Bay in ousting Nash. With the change in party ad­ area, it is valuable property and the tribe is ministration, Bennett, too, was obliged to re­ drawing up plans for an industrial enterprise. sign, leaving the situation very unstructured. The 1960's saw another important develop­ There was a long delay in choosing a new Com­ ment in Wisconsin, typical of what is happen­ missioner of Indian Affairs, and during a six- ing across the country where there are concen­ month period half a dozen candidates promoted trations of different tribal groups. In 1961, the by such organizations as the National Congress Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council was formed of American Indians were rejected. On August by the governing bodies of the various tribes in 8, 1969, it was announced that Louis R. Bruce, the state. Fearful of the Menomini experience a New York Mohawk, had been appointed. Mr. they desired to retain their federal ties, but Bruce, a Republican, has lived and worked in hoped that through intertribal unity they could Manhattan as an advertising executive with lit­ develop their own community programs, seek tle active involvement in national Indian affairs. outside funds, and gain some real leverage in dealing with the Indian Bureau. While still in IVT^SH'S brief tenure had a profound effect its formative stage and handicapped by the fact -L ^ for at least one Wisconsin tribe. In 1961 that its component governing bodies did not the Winnebago developed an acting business always command the confidence of their local committee out of a claims committee which constituents to carry out promises of commu­ had been established by election at the time the nity development, GLIT responded to the re­ tribal claim was filed in 1949. Seeing the ad­ quest of OEO to act as the central agency for vantages of formal organization, they became work among Wisconsin Indians. The present the first tribe in the entire country since the question is whether OEO will control the Wis­ early 1940's to apply for and be granted the consin Indians on an intertribal level as the right to organize under the Indian Reorganiza­ Bureau has done for so many years on the local tion Act. Permission to organize was delayed level. OEO's record in Indian work across the because they were not a reservation tribe, but country is spotty and in Wisconsin seems to be the discovery that an individual homestead had proving even less enlightened than the Bureau reverted to tribal trust land status because the has been in recent years in delegating decision­ owner died without heirs qualified them with making power to the Indian communities and a forty-acre "reservation." opportunities to take real and direct responsi­ bility in program planning and fiscal matters. This curious technicality inspired the new One of the most promising recent developments Wisconsin Winnebago Business Committee to is the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council's efforts acquire land in order to avail themselves of to obtain its own funding from foundations and housing programs undertaken on the reserva­ other private sources for projects geared spe­ tions in co-operation between the BIA and PHA cifically to the needs of local tribes. during the 1960's. Their efforts included peti­ tioning for a change of title of federal land In addition to providing a natural laboratory which the Winnebago had been given the use of for testing theories in history, anthropology, for a WPA housing project during Collier's sociology, political science, and economics in administration, soliciting donations of land, regard to the American Indian scene in general, and raising money to buy land. The Nash ad­ Wisconsin offers an unique opportunity for all ministration was agreeable to having the acre­ its citizens to benefit from the presence of a age declared tribal trust land. Thus, a year wide range of recently tribal people in our after termination had become a fact for the midst. As Collier suggested over thirty years Menomini, the Winnebago were in a process of ago, Indians do not need do-gooders or people extending federal responsibility over new In­ to tell them how to manage their lives so as to dian land. The attitude of the Nash administra­ become just like the rest of us, but they do need

19 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

I' yh

:. ^:;

Society Museum Collection Great Lakes Indian Agency grade and high school, Lac du Flambeau. friends who will trust their judgment and sup­ survival, so that when the environment becomes port them politically and financially to make threatening there are variant forms fortuitously their own experiments in community life. adapted to meet new challenges to perpetuate Choosing, innovating, and adapting in regard life. It can do no harm and might do us all a to the modern technological world, Indian lot of good to hearken to what Indian people groups can develop formats which would never may have to tell us. Despite more than a century occur to those of us who have evolved gradually of pressure to cease being identifiable Indians, from a peasant to an industrial tradition. Our Indians are still very much with us, as exempli­ own adaptations are perhaps too narrow and fied in the case of Wisconsin. Such persistence specialized, as our way of life is admittedly suggests that they have something going for fraught with many problems. them that they find worth maintaining, while A cardinal premise of evolution, biological readily availing themselves of modern tech­ or cultural, is that variation is necessary to nology.

Bibliography Brookings Institution. Institute for Government Research, The Prob­ lem of Indian Administration (Baltimore, 1928). Joyce Erdman, Handbook on Wisconsin Indians (Madison, 1961). Charles J. Kappler (comp. and ed.), Indian Laws and Treaties (2 vols., Washington, 1904.) : vol. 2, Indian Treaties. Nancy Oestreich Lurie, "Historical Background," in Stuart Levine and Nancy Oestreich Lurie (eds.), The American Indian Today (De- land, Florida, 1968), 25-45. This volume provides a more exhaus­ tive bibliography on the development of federal Indian policy. It will be available as a Penguin paperback by the fall of 1969. Charles C. Royce and Cyrus Thomas, "Indian Land Cessions in the United States," in Bureau of American Ethnology, Annual Report (Washington, 1896-1897), vol. 18, pt. 2. In addition to citing all cessions, giving tribes, dates, and descriptions of metes and bounds, this volume has excellent reference maps keyed to the text. Lew Sarett, "Little Caribou Makes Big Talk," in Collected Poems of Lew Sarett (New York, 1941), 200-202.

20 A BADGER GENERAL'S FORAY INTO DIPLOMACY:

General Edward S. Bragg in Mexico

By KENNETH J. GRIEB

ENERAL EDWARD STUYVESANT stated, "Ed Bragg has the most fertile imagina­ G BRAGG is primarily known for his exploits tion in the state of Wisconsin—he can find or upon the battle grounds of the Civil War, but manufacture expedients to meet any emergency his many faceted career spanned several fields, that an opponent can present."^ The World including a brief diplomatic stint in Mexico. described his attributes somewhat more blunt­ A short, squat, barrel-chested man with a ram­ ly: "Bragg is more of a fighter than a diplomat, rod straight bearing that mirrored his military and he is hardly happy when out of a quarrel career, Bragg's hard, clear eyes peered out over He has few equals in the power of acrimonious a full beard. Bushy hair, combed forward, retort and invective."* These traits served him created the appearance of a ship's prow atop well in the courtroom, on the political scene, his forehead. His formal poses suggest those of in the halls of Congress, and on the battlefield. General Ulysses S. Grant. In the words of the Following his wartime military service, he de­ New York World Bragg had the air of "a Bad voted himself increasingly to politics, serving Man from Bitter Creek, who could lick any in the Wisconsin state senate and the United blanked man in the town." Yet his appearance States House of Representatives, becoming one belied his abilities, for, as the World noted, he of the most prominent Democrats in the state.^ was also "a man of brains."^ As an attorney Although his manner was extremely blunt, with offices in Fond du Lac, Bragg enjoyed an Bragg's oratorical abilities enabled him to score excellent reputation throughout Wisconsin. In electoral triumphs and to prove an effective part this reflected his combative spirit and ten­ legislator in a day when oratory was popular dency to attack tenaciously. He was known for and respected. handling witnesses "with consummate skill," Bragg's mission to Mexico resulted from his and "his jury arguments were models for his contacts with President Grover Cleveland and day." He was also considered knowledgeable in his prominence in Wisconsin Democratic cir­ legal precedents, but whenever these proved in­ cles. The Badger Congressman delivered a stir­ sufficient, he could always rely on his persua­ ring speech seconding Cleveland's nomination siveness.^ A prominent Milwaukee attorney at the 1884 Democratic Convention and subse-

"New York World, January 15, 1888. ' Statement of Jonathan E. Arnold, Fond du Lac ' George R. Farnum, "Edward S. Bragg: Soldier, Daily Commonwealth, February 18, 1888. Lawyer and Diplomat," in the American Bar Asso­ * New York World, January 15, 1888. ciation Journal, XXX:21-22 (January, 1944). = Farnum, "Edward S. Bragg," 21^22, 55.

21 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969 quently became an associate of the President.'' Cleveland offered Bragg several posts, but the general rejected appointments as United States Attorney for his home district and District Attorney in Washington, D.C, as well as a fed­ eral judgeship in the capital.' Secretary of the ,^' Interior William F. Vilas, a former political foe, helped secure Bragg's appointment to the diplomatic post. The general's efforts to obtain -^^ the position won broad support in Wisconsin, % with numerous attorneys and Democratic party officials endorsing petitions in his behalf.** This effort temporarily united the myriad feuding wings within the state party, and these domestic considerations were the primary factors respon­ sible for his appointment. The state Democratic organization was split into several mutually suspicious factions, one of which was loyal to Vilas, another to Bragg. Vilas' efforts in behalf of Bragg represented an effort to secure control of the party apparatus in Wisconsin, rather than payment of a political debt. Vilas cautious­ ly obtained an advance commitment from Bragg Society's Iconographic Collection that he would accept the post, if tendered, and Edward Stuyvesant Bragg, the Civil War hero who consequently the general advised the President became minister to Mexico and later served as consul on November 18, 1887: general in Havana and Hong Kong. You have done me the honor in times past to suggest that it would be agreeable to you to have me officially connected with your ad­ Bragg conferred with Cleveland for forty min­ ministration. If such should still be your utes shortly thereafter, and the Milwaukee Sen­ feeling toward me ... I should be pleased to tinel reported: receive the appointment to the vacancy on the Ministership at Mexico. It is understood that the president and General Bragg had some plain talk about the I think my capacity fully sufficient to sus­ next Wisconsin delegation in the national tain the credit of the nation at the Mexican Court. . . .^ convention and that it was a good deal more than intimated that if Gen. Bragg goes to Mexico it is with the understanding that Col. "Ibid. Vilas is to control the next state convention.-"' ' For the offer of United States Attorney in Wis­ consin, see Bragg to Grover Cleveland, November A prominent member of a third faction in the 9, 1886, in the Edward S. Bragg Papers, State His­ state party, A. K. Delaney, had already received torical Society of Wisconsin; regarding the judge- .ship, Bragg to Mrs. Bragg, December, 1886 (no day), a federal appointment, and the Sentinel ob­ in the Bragg Papers; and regarding the final offer served, "Delaney is now in Alaska and when of the District Attorneyship in Washington, Mil­ waukee Sentinel, January 4, 1888. Bragg is in Mexico, the Democrats . . . hope 'Vilas, who had served as Postmaster General there will be peace again."'^ before transfering to the Department of Interior in 1888, was one of the most influential members of the administration in matters of patronage. See Horace Samuel Merrill, Bourbon Leader: Grover " Bragg to Cleveland, November 18, 1887, in the Cleveland and the Democratic Party (Boston, 1957), Grover Cleveland Papers, Manuscript Division, Li­ 92, 96. For reports of the petitions and the efforts brary of Congress, Series 2. of Wisconsin Democrats to support Bragg's nomina­ " Milwaukee Sentinel, January 7, 1888. tion, see Milwaukee Journal, January 12, 1888, and " Milwaukee Sentinel, January 4, 1888. The Mil­ Milwaukee Sentinel, January 4, 1888, the latter re­ waukee Journal also commented on the unifying porting that Charles Felker, editor of the Oshkosh tendency of the appointment within the state party, Times was pivotal in the campaign, along with Vilas. January 13,

22 GRIEB: BRAGG IN MEXICO

In January, 1888, while embarking upon the development by attracting foreign investment, final year of his term, President Cleveland an­ befriending the United States, and maintaining nounced Bragg's nomination as Minister to cordial relations with European nations were Mexico. The Senate promptly confirmed the already in evidence, these incipient efforts had selection of the sixty-year-old war hero, even not yet attracted attention abroad. Mexican foregoing the customary referral to the Foreign financial standing was improving slowly, but Relations Committee.^^ The New York World investors were still wary, remembering the out­ opined, "If he can curb his fierce temper he breaks of the past. Numerous unsettled claims may do some good as our Mexican Minister."^^ remained, and incidents continued as local The Fond du Lac Daily Commonwealth ob­ banditry had not yet been entirely suppressed. served, "He admits that he was not cut out by Bragg had absolutely no familiarity with nature for a diplomatist, but will do the best either Mexico or diplomacy, but the Mexican he can." His hometown paper said of its most post was not considered particularly important prominent local citizen, "He now assumes the at the time. The Milwaukee Sentinel comment­ ponderous title of 'Minister Plenipotentiary ed : "Besides having a nice, fat salary of $12,000 and Envoy Extraordinary to the Republic of attached, it is considered desirable, because of Mexico,' on a salary of $12,000 a year and fun the climatic conditions in the land of the Monte- thrown in." The editor noted that the compen­ zumas and the small labor involved in the per­ sation considerably exceeded that of a Con­ formance of the duties of the Mexican minister gressman ($5,000), and in addition brought [sic]. It is well known that Gen. Bragg has been a travel allowance while avoiding the expenses anxious to secure the appointment, in order to of an electoral campaign.^* rest. .. ."'^ The low priority allotted to relations with Mexico was evident in Bragg's report on March 31,1888, stating that the Legation's tele­ IVrEXICO, under the presidency of General graph bill for the previous quarter amounted to -'-"-'• Porfirio Diaz, was entering a period of a mere $6.82.'^^ This abysmally minuscule stabilization after the turmoil of a prolonged amount of telegraph communication indicated civil war and the French intervention. The a striking absence of pressing issues. The aver­ political scene was torn by acrimonious ex­ age American was wary of business transac­ changes between Conservatives and Liberals, tions in Mexico, which were considered ex­ who still retained the vehemence of the recent tremely risky, and Bragg undoubtedly shared battlefield confrontation. The 1880's consti­ the attitude of his hometown newspaper, which tuted the formative period of what was to be­ commented shortly before his nomination: come the Era of Porfirio Diaz, but while Don "The Mexican government expects to make a Porfirio was to retain power for two decades, loan of $52,000,000 from Germany. That's aU during 1888 the foundations of the dictator­ right provided good, strong security is given ship were still being established. Eight years so that it will get its pay, for generally Mexicans earlier, Diaz had relinquished the presidency pay only when the [sic] have to."^'' Such views after completing his first term, in accordance were typical of the day, and the skepticism was with the Constitution. He had returned to office not entirely unjustified in view of the earlier in 1884, and was preparing, in 1888, to arrange his re-election. The dictator was still consoli­ dating his position, and while he was gradually strengthening his hold on the nation he was not " Milwaukee Sentinel, January 4, 1888. "Bragg to Thomas F. Bayard, March 31, 1888, No. yet in firm enough control to impose political 17 United States State Department Papers, National calm. Although Diaz' policies of promoting Archives, RG 59, Dispatches from United States Ministers to Mexico, 1823-1906, hereinafter cited only as State Department Papers. For another indi­ cation of the low priority assigned to Mexico at this time, see Lester B. Shippee, Thomas Francis Bayard: "New York Times, January 13, 1888; Milwaukee 1885-89 (Samuel Flagg Bemis (ed.), The American Journal, January 12, 1888; and for his confirmation, Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy, vol. VIII, Fond du Lac Daily Commonwealth, January 17, 1888. New York, 1958), 89. ^' New York World, January 15, 1888. " Fond du Lac Daily Commonwealth, January 11, " Fond du Lac Daily Commonwealth, January 14, 1888. For a more objective and fuller report see 17, 1888. New York Times, January 7, 1888.

23 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969 political turmoil. Bragg's correspondence indi­ I shall be so fortunate as to be able to contrib­ cates that he approached his mission with simi­ ute toward securing the ends so desired, I shall lar ideas and no more knowledge of the country feel assured of the hearty approval of my Chief than that possessed by the average American— and the great body of the American people." which is to say that he knew nothing about In his reply, Diaz expressed "great pleasure" Mexico. Although his selection was based pure­ at hearing these "friendly sentiments," which ly on domestic political factors, it occurred in were "perfectly reciprocated on our part."'** an age when political appointees, especially Although the session was purely formal, Bragg's Civil War generals, abounded in the diplomatic discourse was favorably received in both Mexi­ service. Bragg's efforts to consult with a former co and the United States. The Secretary of State United States minister to Mexico proved abor­ informed him that his address was "read with tive, since the latter was not in Washington satisfaction," and that "it augurs well for your during Bragg's stay in the capital.'* The gen­ usefulness as a representative of the Govern­ eral's conversations with the President centered ment of the United States."^" Bragg's status as on domestic political arrangements in his home an army officer also appealed to the Mexican state, and consequently, his knowledge of Mexi­ president in view of his own military career, co came exclusively from his discussions with and thus Bragg's presentation of credentials in Secretary of State Thomas F. Bayard, and full uniform as a brigadier general pleased whatever State Department briefings could have General Diaz. been provided during the few days while he Inevitably, the new minister's initial months awaited Senate confirmation of his appoint­ at his post were crowded with ceremonial ap­ ment. Department records do not indicate any pearances, and his oratorical ability enabled extensive briefings. him to seize this opportunity to establish his Bragg launched his diplomatic career auspi­ standing in the Mexican capital. The American ciously when he presented his credentials to colony tendered the new envoy a banquet on President Diaz on March 4, 1888. Despite his March 22. In what the New York Times charac­ lack of diplomatic experience, his oratorical terized as "a significant speech, which was well abilities served him well, and the address he received," Bragg began by attempting to delivered upon handing his letters of credence assuage a Mexican sore point, stressing that the to the President at high noon amid the pomp United States had no further territorial ambi­ and ceremony that characterize such occasions tions. Carefully appealing to the Diaz regime, proved extremely effective. After the customary the envoy emphasized American desire for a allusions to his country's "high esteem" for "continuation" of Liberal rule in Mexico, add­ Mexico and the solicitations of his chief execu­ ing that the Northern Colossus would view any tive for the health of the Mexican president, attempt to overthrow free institutions in its Bragg stressed "the sincere desire" of President southern neighbor gravely. This hint that the Cleveland and the American people: United States would oppose foreign interven­ tion or domestic revolution in Mexico naturally That the bonds of amity between the two pleased government officials in the audience, as republics may not only continue but be con­ Bragg even implied that friendship was assured stantly strengthened by strict preservation of so long as the Liberal party retained power. national faith, the mutual extension by each republic to the other of those friendly offices which inspire confidence and trust, as well as by enlarged intercourse, social and com­ ^° The texts of the addresses were printed in the mercial, between the people of the two re­ English language newspaper of Mexico City, The publics. Two Republics, March 4, 1888. See also New York Times, March 4, 1888. The general concluded, "For myself. Sir, if in ""Bayard to Bragg, March 7, 1888, in the Bragg Papers. Bayard's comment would appear to indicate the execution of the high trust reposed in me. that Bragg's address was not prepared in the De­ partment prior to his departure, thus suggesting that Bragg acted on his own, rather than on detailed in­ structions. It also suggests that the State Department "John W. Foster to Bragg, January 26, 1888, provided the new envoy with only general instruc­ the Bragg Papers. tions before his departure for Mexico.

24 GRIEB: BRAGG IN MEXICO

Noting that the address had created "a pro­ dignity requires one to trample upon his own found impression," the Times observed, "No country, betray her, be ashamed of her, and recent utterance of the United States represen­ with foreign armies, if occasion offers, tread tative here has attracted such widespread atten­ out all possible resistance." Noting Bragg's dis­ tion, and Liberal politicians say that Gen. claimer of any American intention to acquire Bragg's discourse has certainly the merit of further Mexican territory, El Partido Liberal candor."^' The envoy's address was a clear ap­ commented, "traffickers of Mexican territory peal to the government, and as such constituted are not now in power . . . [and] even if they a significant step in cementing Mexican-Ameri­ did attain power, they would not certainly sell can friendship. land to the Yankees . . . but would hand it over The bluntness of the discourse, which was bodily to the first European monarch who typical of Bragg, inevitably embroiled him in would take it." The government organ sarcasti­ domestic politics. Conservatives resented the cally continued: recent American stand in compelling the with­ It was also the height of imprudence, upon drawal of French troops from Mexico in 1867, Gen. Bragg's part, to threaten us that the an action which terminated the monarchy. Con­ United States would not permit the invasion sequently, they found Bragg's indication that of the Americas by a foreign nation, nor the Colossus of the North would be willing to consent to the violation of Liberal institu­ act similarly in the future alarming. The organ tions. How does the American diplomat dare of the clerical party, La Voz de Mexico, which to destroy the most pleasing hopes of our was considered the personal mouthpiece of the clergy? . . . Archbishop, devoted four full columns to a Above all the idea of coming to our coun­ scathing commentary on the minister's oration. try with the intentions of destroying the Viewing the portions of his address directed at hopes of a particular party so patriotic and so esteemed as is the Romish clergy, and at the Americans in the audience critically, the the same time trying to deceive European paper invoked Latin dignity, construing his nations whose kind aid is pledged to the expression of pride in being an American as an clerical party in the event that the latter insult to Mexico. Condemning the references to should decide to take Mexico and assume the preserving the Liberal party in power as inter­ sacrifice of dominating us! Really such im­ vention in Mexican internal affairs, the clerical prudence is incomprehensible! organ characterized the envoy's pledge to pre­ The Liberal party organ concluded that as a vent European intervention as a threat to Mexi­ result of the address "Liberty, Democracy, and co, contending that it was intended to provide the Republic are in luck."^^ a justification for a future Yankee invasion.^^ El Partido Liberal, organ of the official govern­ ment party, immediately came to Bragg's de­ nPHUS IN A SINGLE STROKE, Bragg had fense. Citing the attack on the envoy's national­ -'- executed a formidable diplomatic coup. By istic pride, the government organ commented openly supporting the government party, he satirically, "General Bragg should learn that made a virtue of necessity, ingratiating himself with the regime. This was a shrewd maneuver constituting a recognition of reality since close relations with Diaz and the Liberal party were ^New York Times, March 23, 1888. essential if Mexican-American friendship was ^ La Voz de Mexico, as quoted in El Partido Lib­ to be cemented. While Bragg's discourse was an eral, March 29, 1888. The New York Times com­ excessively blunt and consequently a somewhat mented on August 28, 1888, that La Voz de Mexico constantly attacked the United States and observed risky statement of American support for the that this reflected the clerical resentment for the administration, this very extreme placed him United States' role in ousting the French troops and in a favorable position. The vitriolic nature of thereby aiding the collapse of the monarchy of Arch­ duke Maximilian. For accounts of the United States' the clerical attacks elicited by his stance com- diplomatic and military activities in compelling the French withdrawal see Dexter Perkins, A History of the Monroe Doctrine (Boston, 1963), 129-138, and Samuel Flagg Bemis, The Latin-American Policy of the United States (New York, 1967), 111-112. "^El Partido Liberal, March 29, 1888.

25 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969 peUed the Liberal organs to reply. Thus the government press found itself defending the American minister. This was an astounding turn of events, and constituted a formidable accomplishment. Bragg was now closely associ­ ated with the government in the public mind, and this would render it awkward for the ad­ ministration to criticize him in the event of a subsequent disagreement. The general had deft­ ly employed his oratorical skills to form a tacit alliance with the Diaz regime which would serve to create a climate conducive to cordial negotiations. The new minister also carefully utilized cere­ monial appearances to further ingratiate him­ self with the Mexican government and establish .#ifc'''. his standing in the capital. On Memorial Day he traveled to the American cemetery on the ^'t^s^^w -I. . .« outskirts of the city to place wreaths on the graves of American soldiers who gave their lives during the Mexican-American conffict.^'' While this gesture scarcely met with the ap­ proval of Mexicans, it did win resounding ac­ claim from the American colony, with whom good relations were also essential. Previous envoys had neglected to perform similar acts. Mexican officials, for their part, were tolerant .\iJ,.\^ a.l c,^.... Poitino Dia of such a gesture by an old soldier. At the Porfirio Diaz, President of Mexico during Bragg's Legation's traditional Fourth of July reception ministry. Bragg carefully displayed a portrait of Benito Juarez, the Mexican Liberal hero, next to that ington had never heard of Juarez, and even the of Abraham Lincoln, and on the anniversary of Department of State was unaware of the floral the death of Juarez, a Mexican national holi­ tribute until Bragg reported it, but the homage day, Bragg ordered the Legation flag flown at was warmly received by the throngs of Mexi­ half-mast. These gestures could not fail to strike cans at the celebration, which included all the a warm response in Mexican hearts. The gen­ leading government officials. Bragg's foresight eral also sent a large floral piece to the cere­ was evident a few months later, when the gov­ monies at the Juarez grave, inscribed in both ernment announced that the city of El Paso del English and Spanish: "The children of Wash­ Norte had been renamed in honor of Mexico's ington join in tribute to the memory of the national hero, and would henceforth be known Mexican soldier and patriot statesman, Benito as Ciudad Juarez.^^ Thus Bragg ingeniously Juarez." This obeisance was dispatched at seized every opportunity to promote good will Braggs' own initiative.-" The children of Wash- and demonstrated considerable acumen in ap­ pealing to Mexican patriotism. His subtle use of minor gestures proved extremely effective ^' Fond du Lac Daily Commonwealth, June 11, 1888. and improved the Mexican image of the United ^ For the reception at the Legation, Fond du Lac Daily Commonwealth, July 14, 1888; regarding States by indicating a feeling for Mexicans and Bragg's actions on the anniversary of Juarez' death, their sensibilities. The general scarcely seemed Bragg to Bayard, July 18, 1838, Papers Relating to the type of individual who possessed sufficient the Foreign Relations of the United Slates, 1888 (Washington, 1839), 1216-1217, and Bayard to Bragg, July 31, 1838, ibid., 1220. Hercinafler the Foreign Relations volumes are cited as Foreign Re­ lations, 1888. 'New York Times, September 18, 1888.

26 GRIEB: BRAGG IN MEXICO

sensitivity for this kind of endeavor, but his wealth concluded, "Gen. Bragg has evidently actions belied his domestic reputation, and he fallen in love with his $12,000 billet in the apparently considered attention to such details land of pulque and bright-eyed senoritas. . ."^^ part of the transformation incumbent upon him Bragg devoted considerable attention to de­ in embarking on a diplomatic career. tail, and this lawyer's trait was evident in his handling of Legation affairs. Soon after his arrival, he set about securing new quarters ASA RESULT of these efforts, Bragg en- for the mission, as he found the edifice rented •^^'joyed excellent personal relations with by his predecessor "damp and unhealthy and members ol the Diaz government. This proved too far removed from the business center." extremely useful in expediting settlement of After a two-month search, Bragg leased more the various questions that arose between the spacious premises in the business district, two nations. Bragg was careful to cultivate the which provided both Legation offices and Mexican president personally, missing no op­ and the Minister's official residence.'^ The gen­ portunity to offer commendations for govern­ eral also made a meticulous inventory of the ment actions.^'^ Such gestures were well re­ Legation library, sending the State Depart­ ceived, enabling the envoy to approach Diaz ment a catalogue of its contents and a list of directly on some questions—and in Porfirian volumes he desired to add. His diligence in re­ Mexico, this was the only effective means of peated inventories and persistence in request­ obtaining satisfaction. ing additional titles indicated his dedication to Bragg's activities won praise from all quar­ employing precedents in his arguments. He al­ ters. When one of the American residents. so judiciously distributed the duplicate vol­ General James B. Frisbie, visiting the United umes to various prominent Mexican citizens States, was asked the community's opinion of and cabinet officers and presented several the new Minister, he replied, "General Bragg items to the National Library.^^ Bragg con­ pleases us."^* United States government offi­ stantly badgered the Department for increased cials reacted similarly. Secretary of Interior secretarial allocations, providing meticulous Vilas informed Bragg: "It is a sincere pleasure assessments of the assistance needed and the to learn from many sources ... of the appar­ desirable compensation.^* The envoy dis­ ent gratification with which you have met and patched elaborate listings of the furniture re­ have been met by Mexico and Mexicans." Vi­ quired for the Legation, stipulating the style las subsequently advised the envoy: "I have of wood desirable for the desks, as well as the taken much gratification out of the apparent type of locks, number of drawers, size of satisfaction with which Mr. Bayard regards pigeonholes, etc. He even specified the appro­ your services."^* On his part, Bragg was priate number of cuspidors.^^ Little escaped thoroughly enamoured with the Mexican post. his scrutiny. He informed the Secretary of He informed a friend: "I am well satisfied with State that in perusing the Legation records he my position here. The climate is good, my encountered "Some allusion to 'Confidential health is improving, my family is satisfied and Archives,' but find none, nor any place pro­ I would be foolish to pack up and return to the vided for the keeping of any."^^ Some months maelstrom such as one must enter into who later he advised Bayard that, "Should an exi­ seeks a seat in congress from the Wisconsin gency arise, when it might be deemed expedi­ district."^" The Fond du Lac Daily Common­ ent to resort to the use of Sealed Pouches for

" For example, the moment the results of the elec­ =^ Ibid. tion which continued Diaz in office were announced, ""Bragg to Bayard, May 30, 1888, in the Bragg Bragg hastened to the Palace to offer "unofficially" Papers. his "personal" congratulations to the Mexican presi­ •" Bragg to Bayard, March 14, July 12, 14, 30, 1888, dent, Bragg to Bayard, July 18, 1888, Foreign Rela­ in the Bragg Papers. tions, 1888, 1216-1217. "Bragg to Bayard, March 14, May 30, June 15, ^ Fond du Lac Daily Commonwealth, June 29, 1888. 1888, in the Bragg Papers. ® Vilas to Bragg, April 24, June 25, 1888, in the '"'Bragg to Bayard, March 14, 1888, in the Bragg Bragg Papers. Papers. °° Fond du Lac Daily Commonwealth, May 23, 1888. "" Ibid.

27 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969 the transmission of dispatches . . . this Lega­ I have been at this post representing the tion has never been supplied either with mail United States for four months, and have Locks or Keys or with pouches for the pur­ made the study of this People my constant pose." The minister informed the Department occupation; and I give it to you, as my can­ did opinion, that the Consul-General, with that he sent such reports "merely as a precau­ his present salary, may as well have the full tionary measure, lest this Legation may be powers of Minister conferred upon him, and found some-time without 'its lamps trimmed the Minister be withdrawn, as to have con­ and burning' which I do not desire to have tinued merely a Second Class Mission. happen while it is in the charge of your obedi­ The Interests of the American Govern­ ent servant."^'' Stressing that he found requests ment require, I think, in order to advance for increased appropriations distasteful, Bragg and protect them, that this shall be made a explained: First Class Mission. . . . We have large interests at stake here, and The nature and quantity of work required they are increasing at a rapid rate. to be done here, entitles this mission to be made first class. . . . The ex-Congressman appealed to his former The maintenance of such a standing as is colleagues to provide the wherewithal to en­ necessary to make headway toward control able the advancement of American interests by of the commerce and trade of Mexico, re­ proper entertainment, as well as the personnel quires suave manners, sweet words and to permit more extensive activities. Stressing Machiavelian tactics; but here as elsewhere, that the returns would justify the expense, he if I am not mistaken, the stomach is the emphasized the importance of Mexican trade avenue through which the heart and head may be reached when other means have and commerce to the United States, and noted: failed. . . ."38 "England, France and Germany are active. They dine and wine, which in itself is but little, Raising the status of the Legation to "first but 'in vino Veritas' is as true now as when class" became one of Bragg's major preoccupa­ first written, and our heart is never so full of tions, and to this end he embarked on some good will toward his fellows as after a good "personal diplomacy" on the home front. The dinner, with his blood warmed with generous general was shocked at the inadequency of fa­ wine.^''' Bragg's efforts proved futile, however, cilities and paucity of funds. Recalling his for Congress had already enacted the appro­ years in Washington, he perceived that the priations bill, and even the plea of a former perspective from the Legation in Mexico City colleague failed to convince the committee to varied sharply from that of the halls of Con­ request special legislation. Bayard was some­ gress. Consequently he dispatched an appeal what taken aback by Bragg's action and in­ to the House Foreign Relations Committee re­ formed the general that "It would be more questing further appropriations for the Mexi­ regular to make communications on such sub­ can post. Speaking as a former member of Con­ jects directly to the Department, and let me gress he cautiously treaded the line between communicate it to the Committees." Although the exigencies of the diplomatic service and criticizing Bragg's methods, the secretary en­ the proclivities of economy-minded representa­ dorsed his objective, adding: "I fully agree tives. Opening his missive with some carefully with you, as to the importance of the Mexican chosen rhetoric recalling his own service in the Mission—which, all things considered, is House, Bragg noted that he had always "been scarcely second to any in interest to the in favor of the most rigid economy" in gov­ United States."^ ernment, but added, "I have never hesitated to draw the line between parsimony and econo­ my." He explained:

"' Bragg to Committee on Foreign Relations, House " Bragg to Bayard, June 16, 1888, in the Bragg of Representatives, June 26, 1888; Bragg to Bayard, Papers. June 26, 1888, in the Bragg Papers. "•'Bragg to Bayard, March 14, 1888, in the Bragg "Bayard to Bragg, July 11, 1888, in the Bragg Papers. Papers.

28 GRIEB: BRAGG IN MEXICO

representations. When normal correspondence with the appropriate ministers proved futile, .4"-' he did not hesitate to resort to a personal ap­ peal to the president, though he was always -"'W^ careful to approach the chief executive in an "unofficial" capacity.*^ He perceived the im­ portance of the proposed Grand Canal to drain the Valley of Mexico, which was to become 4^ one of the major projects of the Diaz admin­ istration. The general strongly, though futiley, seconded the efforts of an American firm to secure the contract.*^ While sparing no effort to support American businessmen in Mexico Bragg cautiously avoided direct involvement in the terms of agreements, confining his role to providing contacts between interested parties and the government. He informed one correspondent: "I am in no sense an agent or representative of any syndicate. . . . Nor am I willing to act as the medium through which any negotiations . . . shall be conducted."** Given his bluntness Society's Iconographic Collection and sense of moral rectitude, the general fre­ Thomas F. Bayard, Secretary of State during Cleve­ quently dismissed what he considered out­ land's first administration. rageous requests with words of warning. In one instance he wrote, "I should be glad to be of service to you in any way consistent with T~\ESPITE Bragg's determination to win the proprieties—but such a letter to these gentle­ -"-^ hearts, and hence the trade, of the Mexi­ men as you desire, would in my judgement cans and his "constant occupation" with the transcend the rules of propriety and subject me study of the people, he rarely left the environs to criticism—in which I think the word 'im­ of the capital. Like most American envoys in prudence' might find an appropriate place."*^ Latin America Bragg had no facility with the Bragg also had little patience with the numer- Spanish language and this factor precluded ac­ tivity outside the Legation. Only during the waning days of his tour, when his recall was " The United States withheld recognition when certain, did he venture into the countryside, Diaz conducted a successful coup in 1876, employing and then his visits were clearly pleasure trips this as a means of pressuring the Mexican govern­ ment for favorable settlement of outstanding ques­ to resort areas. tions. Recognition was not extended until May, 1878, As could be expected from his conviction and in the meantime European investors enjoyed an advantage over their American competitors. For a that Mexican trade was vital to American eco­ fuller explanation see Daniel Cosio Villegas (Trans, nomic expansion, Bragg proved himself an ar­ by Nattie Lee Benson), The United States versus dent supporter of American business interests Porfirio Diaz, (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1963). in Mexico. His vigorous activities in behalf of *^ For example, see Bragg to General Ignacio Mar- iscal (Mexican Minister of Foreign Relations), April American entrepreneurs desiring to enter that 16, 1889; Bragg to Diaz, May 18, 1889; Bragg to country were largely responsible for his popu­ John H. Hahck, July 25, 1888; Bragg to Mariscal, July 23, 1888; Diaz to Bragg, July 27, 1888, May 10, larity with the American colony. This field re­ 1889; Bragg to Diaz, May 13, 1839, all in the Bragg quired attention, for European interests had Papers. gained substantial trade advantages during the •"Bragg to Diaz, March 17, 1888, in the Bragg Papers. earlier Diaz administration, when the United "Bragg to Louis Moan [? Last name is illegiblel, States had withheld recognition.*' Whether July 2, 1888. See also Bragg to B. Escnga, January seeking new concessions or payment of out­ 29, 1889, both in the Bragg Papers. •= Bragg to Freeman W. Schley, March 4, 1889, standing claims, Bragg proved tenacious in his in the Bragg Papers.

29 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969 ous requests for personal favors. He angrily in­ and his great law offices—while my previous formed one such correspondent: "A moment's experiences with Coahuila justice, had not im­ reflection will convince you that a Minister at pressed me favorably."** a Foreign Government is hardly the proper The general occasionally became exasper­ person to take upon himself the office of auto­ ated with the delays and maneuvering of the graph collector. . . ."*^ Mexican government. While always correct in The activity which absorbed most of Bragg's his official exchanges with Mexican officials, attention was the settlement of various claims he gave vent to his anger in private correspond­ by American citizens against Mexico. These ence, or complained to the Secretary of State. necessarily time-consuming endeavors were In transmitting one note from the Mexican routine in character, but due to the legal Foreign Secretary in May, 1888, Bragg in­ aspects involved Bragg found the work inter­ formed Bayard: "This note is a sample of the esting. The envoy displayed considerable skill very perfection of Mexican Diplomacy—the in dealing with Mexican officials regarding writer has not a fact to stand upon, and so he such matters, alternating ffattery with expres­ blows up a bubble of doubt on Territorial sions of personal disappointment. He frequent­ Boundary, and getting into his bubble sails ly employed the ruse of attributing the diffi­ away, filling the Mexican hearts full of proud culty to local authorities, thereby shrewdly admiration at the ingenuity, with which the utilizing the suspicion existing between the Gringos have been foiled and defeated by the federal and state governments. This enabled Mexican Daniel."*^ Responding to an inquiry Bragg to ffatter the national officials he was regarding the collection of a claim, he cau­ compelled to deal with, while still presenting a tioned: "The Minister of Finance never pays firm case. It also allowed him to suggest a a debt—unless compelled to by the President method of saving face, while simultaneously and then he haggles over amounts, as if . . . blunting the standard Mexican strategy, for the payment was to be from his private re­ officials frequently sought to side-step claims sources."'" Advising prudence in investments by placing the blame on state authorities. he informed a correspondent: "Mexico has im­ Bragg's presentations contain numerous dis­ mense supplies of ore in its border—More per­ patches skillfully employing this technique. In haps than any country in the world—But it a note to the Foreign Minister in May, 1888, has a wide extent of territory and can furnish the envoy referred to what he characterized as places to sink all the wealth of the U.S. in— "a subterfuge" by a local justice, who "refused without finding paying ore." After providing to permit the evidence taken to be seen, and specific advice regarding legal aspects, he gave as his justification that he had orders added, "I would send you a copy of the mining from the Federal Government to that effect." laws—but there have been so many curious Bragg solemnly informed the Minister: "I rulings under them—that they might lead you know that a knowledge of this fact will not into trouble."^' only shock the high moral sense of Your Ex­ Yet if the minister was impatient with the cellency, but will awaken your just indigna­ government, he was equally blunt in calling tion at one who should resort to so base a Americans to task for exaggerating their calumny."*^ In another case Bragg informed claims. He queried one such writer: "There is the Minister of Justice that the deeds of dis­ a discrepancy—between your computations puted property had been submitted to Presi­ and the bond that I wish to understand—You dent Diaz for certification by the Ministry, "be­ compute interest from 1841-2 while the bond cause I had the highest confidence in the in­ tegrity of the sense of Justice of His Excellency

"^ Bragg to Minister of Justice, April 12, 1889, in the Bragg Papers. "Bragg to Bayard, May 30, 1888, in the Bragg Papers. '" Bragg to J. T. Dennis, January 31, 1889, in the '"Bragg to "My dear Sir" (addressee unknown), Bragg Papers. July 15, 1888, in the Bragg Papers. "Bragg to Mariscal, May 1, 1888, No. 34, State =" Bragg to J. N. Porter, July 25, 1888, in the Department Papers. Bragg Papers.

30 GRIEB: BRAGG IN MEXICO

I have was issued in 1844 and the decrees un­ violation of orders.'^ Lengthy diplomatic cor­ der which the bond was issued are 1843-44!"'^ respondence was still necessary, however, to The minister informed another would-be settle the resulting claims and prevent reoccur­ claimant: "Your letter is a little too impudent rences. During March, 1888, the negotiations for me to take any further action."'^ The gen­ were complicated by yet another incident. In eral was quick to recognize that claims and this case a United States Marshal's posse pur­ counterclaims involved exaggeration on both sued a band of train robbers across the line, sides. After the initial exchange of notes re­ thereby reversing the situation, as an armed garding one case, he requested further in­ party of Americans had now violated Mexican structions, informing the Secretary of State: territory. The posse claimed that it acted only "The statement of the Governor of Coahuila in in hot pursuit, but the fact that it was several its material parts is a fabrication—or the hundred miles inside the frontier when arrested American claim is a fraud."'* Thus Bragg was by Mexican troops created an awkward situa­ guided by his sense of propriety and his legal tion, as the Americans were pressing their experience, despite his dedication to advancing claims for the Mexican violations.'* Eventually American commercial interests. all the incidents were settled amicably, due to Border incidents also occupied a consider­ the good will that prevailed on both sides, and able portion of Bragg's time. Since Diaz had Bragg's efforts contributed significantly to the not yet brought the entire country under firm agreements.'* control, outlying districts such as the border area were still subject to various disturbances. "DRAGG'S tour as Minister to Mexico thus Two incidents whose negotiations were pri­ •"-^ proved quite successful. Although his so­ marily conducted by Bragg involved crossings journ was brief, he did further American in­ by squads of Mexican soldiers attempting to terests in that country, and established a rap­ capture Mexican army deserters on American port with both Mexican officials and the Amer­ territory. These episodes occurred at Nogales ican colony. His legal and oratorical talents in 1887 and at Eagle Pass in March, 1888. In proved highly effective, especially when the latter case a United States Deputy Sheriff coupled with an attention to detail that en­ was shot while attempting to prevent the Mexi­ abled him to detect opportunities to employ can detachment from taking their prisoner minor gestures to promote good will. If his ac­ across the frontier. One of the Mexicans was tivities do not constitute a particularly spec­ killed and another wounded in the skirmish tacular page in the diplomatic history of the with the sheriff's posse.'' Naturally such two nations, this does not diminish the signifi- clashes aroused considerable feeling among Americans residing along the line. In both instances Mexican federal authorities arrested the soldiers and officers involved even before '•^ Bayard to Bragg, March 22, 1888, Foreign Rela­ tions, 1888, 1176-1178; Bragg to Bayard, April 14, receiving the American protest.'^ Diaz went to 1888, No. 23, State Department Papers. considerable lengths to satisfy the Americans •^New York Times, March 11, 13, 16, 29,_ 1888. that the men were local troops who acted in ^° Bragg successfully concluded negotiations for the payment of compensation in both incidents. The Mexican officers involved were tried by Mexican military courts and sentenced to death, but the sen­ tence was commuted at the request of the United States and reduced to a prison term, Bragg to Bayard, """Bragg to "My dear Sir," (addressee unknown), April 21, 1888, No. 28, State Department Papers; July 15, 1888, in the Bragg Papers. Bragg to Bayard, April 24, and 27, 1888, Foreign °"Bragg to Mr. Lawrence (no first name given), Relations, 1888, 1187-1188; Bayard to Bragg, May 7, September 1, 1888, in the Bragg Papers. 1888, ibid., 1191-1192; New York Times, April 22, •^ Bragg to Bayard, May 21, 1888, No. 40, State 1888. The heavy sentences represented efforts by Department Papers. the Diaz government to impress the United States "Bayard to Bragg, March 22, 1888, Foreign Re­ with its sincerity in attempting to avert future inci­ lations, 1888, 1176-1178, and Bragg to Bayard, March dents and also to impress troops stationed along the 28, 1888, No. 12, State Department Papers, for the border to obey orders to refrain from crossing the initial exchange of notes, and New York Times, May frontier. Despite the commutation of the sentences, 5, 6, 1888, for the details of the incidents at Eagle the Diaz government issued orders mandating the death sentence in all future unauthorized crossings "New York Times, March 10, 1888. of the border. New York Times, May 12, 1888.

31 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969 cance of his endeavors, for the essence of diplo­ tives, and Bragg's contribution lay precisely in macy requires inconspicuous action on the this realm. When Bragg was recalled by the part of the envoy. Bragg proved effective in new administration in March of 1889, the handling the type of questions which then American newspaper in Mexico City praised characterized Mexican-American relations, his activities: and he employed some techniques which were imaginative for their day. One suspects that General Bragg has been signally success­ history would rank his contribution higher if ful in winning the respect and regard of the Mexican government and in inspiring his Cleveland had won re-election in 1888, but the countrymen with confidence in his ability defeat of the Democratic party limited Bragg's and patriotism. He has discharged his duty tenure to approximately one year.^" Consider­ with zeal, jealously watching the interests of ing the brevity of his sojourn in Mexico, his his government and the people and at the accomplishments were considerable. Yet in an­ same time has steadily increased the esteem other sense it can be contended that he merely in which he has from his arrival here been entered the scene at a propitious moment and held by the officers of the Mexican govern­ that the successful settlement of the various ment with whom he has been brought in con­ questions primarily reflected the Diaz govern­ tact. He can return home with the satisfaction ment's desire for American friendship. While of having performed a difficult task most ad­ mirably.^^ there is some truth in this view it does Bragg an injustice, for however willing the parties, Thus Edward S. Bragg, general, lawyer, and the settlement of disputes requires an effective political statesman, added the title of diplomat working relationship between the representa­ to his formidable string of accomplishments.

°° Bragg was formally notified of his recall March "TAe Two Republics (Mexico City), March 30, 28, 1889, James G. Blaine to Bragg, in the Bragg 1889. Papers, but did not leave until May.

Magazine Index Available The annual index for Volume 52 (Autumn, 1968 through Summer, 1969) is being distributed. Curators, exchanges, schools, and libraries automatically receive copies. All other subscribers receive copies only on request. Indexes are mailed without charge; some are still available for previous volumes. Address: Magazine Index State Historical Society of Wisconsin 816 State Street Madison, Wisconsin 53706

32 THE WISCONSIN LOYALTY LEGION, I9I7'I9I8

By LoRiN LEE GARY

HILE AMERICAN SOLDIERS fought These potentially electric ingredients did W abroad in 1917 and 1918 to make the not acquire real potency until confronted world safe for democracy, President Wood- with the pressure for rigid national unity in row Wilson's administration led a campaign early 1917, for until then a neutrality con­ at home to mold total commitment to the sensus prevailed in Wisconsin. Although not Allied effort. The hysteria and repressive all citizens agreed with Governor Emanuel L. transgression of civil liberties which flowed Philipp, Senator La Follette, and Socialist from this search for conformity are a famil­ Victor Berger of Milwaukee that the war was iar story. Less is known about the local patri­ the result of commercial rivalries, most otic societies which arose to preach — and shared a conviction that the United States in many instances enforce — the gospel of had no real stake in the European conflict. loyalty. Patriotic groups flourished in every Theodore Roosevelt's militant brand of pre­ section of the country during the war. paredness, which assumed United States en­ Though sometimes used by businessmen and try into the war, won little support. Those conservatives to strike at their traditional who backed preparedness saw it as a means political enemies, as often as not these orga­ of preventing involvement, a position under­ nizations attracted men and women who were lined when the Wisconsin Congressional dele­ convinced of the necessity to mobilize em­ gation in 1916 voted unanimously for the phatic and outward displays of patriotism. McLemore Resolution, which warned Amer­ Such was the case in Wisconsin, a state pe­ ican citizens against traveling on vessels en­ culiarly sensitive to charges of pro-German­ tering the war zone.^ In the fall elections that ism. Once noted for leadership in the Pro­ year sentiment for neutrality contributed to gressive movement, Wisconsin in 1917 wit­ the re-election of Governor Philipp and Sen­ nessed the formation of a Loyalty Legion ator La Follette. Campaigning on the slogan whose purpose was to stifle dissent and gen­ "He Kept Us Out of War," President Wilson erate conformance to an inflexible and irra­ made deep inroads into the normally Repub­ tional standard of loyalty. lican electorate.^ A unique combination of conditions etched the contours of patriotism in Wisconsin. Sen­ ator Robert M. La FoUette's well-known anti­ war position, the fact that a majority of the state's eleven Congressmen adhered to a strict ^Robert S. Maxwell, Emanuel L. Philipp: Wiscon­ neutrality policy, a strong Socialist party ma­ sin Stalwart (Madison, 1959), 111-117; James Ear­ chine in Milwaukee, and a high concentra­ nest Jackson, "Wisconsin's Attitude toward American tion of German-Americans increasingly as­ Foreign Policy since 1910" (Ph.D. Dissertation, Uni­ versity of Wisconsin, 1934), 15-26, 28; Congressional sumed a symbolic significance which made Record, 64 Cong., 1 sess., 3720. In the fall of 1915 the attempt to prove Wisconsin's patriotism the New York-based National Security League, one of an imperative of almost hysterical propor­ the strongest preparedness pressure groups, organized chapters in Milwaukee and Madison. See Milwaukee tions. Journal, November 10, 1915; John P. Finnegan, "The

33 Which of the Men You know is a German Agent? Illustration from a full-page ad in the Milwaukee Journal, announcing the serialization of Ambassador James W. Gerard's inflammatory book. Face to Face with Kaiserism.

Continued aversion to war colored reac­ Milwaukee bore the brunt of many castiga- tions to Wilson's January, 1917 call for a tions since it seemed a hotbed of antiwar "peace without victory" and a "league to en­ feeling. In addition to a population nearly 25 force peace," but as relations with Germany per cent of which had been born in Germany deteriorated Wisconsin's neutrality consensus or Austria, the city boasted a Socialist mayor crumbled. Germany's resumption of subma­ and two Congressmen who consistently op­ rine warfare on January 31 led to severance posed Wilson's hardening policy toward Ger­ of diplomatic relations three days later. By many. This combination intensified reactions late February, when La Follette led opposi­ to the crisis in foreign relations and spawned tion to Wilson's armed ships program, many Wisconsinites, following a national trend, had decided that the United States should no "Maxwell, Philipp, 124-128; Herbert Felix Mar­ longer submit to the whims of German for­ gulies, "Issues and Politics of Wisconsin Progressiv­ eign policy.^ As pressure mounted for na­ ism, 1906-1920" (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1955), 301, 311-312. tional unity, critics of the President's policies ' See, for example. Green Bay Press-Gazette, Jan­ came under ever sharper attack and, in­ uary 23, February 3, 27, 1917; Ashland Daily Press, January 24, February 5, 1917; Wausau Record creasingly. La FoUette's actions became an Herald, January 4, 23, February 3, March 1, 1917. object of embarrassment. "Whenever he * Eau Claire Leader, March 16, 1917. Of course, speaks in the Senate," lamented the Eau La Follette and other war critics did receive con­ siderable support. See Congressional Record, 64 Claire Leader, "Wisconsin groans and hides Cong., 2 sess., 2662, 3054-3057, for letters to La Fol­ her face."* In early March La Follette sup­ lette, and the Papers of Congressmen Henry Allen porters staved off passage of a censure reso­ Cooper and John J. Esch. The Milwaukee Free Press, March 2 and 5, 1917, and the Socialist Milwaukee lution in the state senate, but many national­ Leader, March 23, 1917, both praised La FoUette's ist progressives nonetheless disassociated role in the armed ships filibuster, but most other Wisconsin papers condemned it. themselves from their chief.' Defectors also 'Milwaukee Journal, March 5, 8, 22, 26, 1917; thinned the ranks of Victor Berger's Social- D. B. Worthington to Henry Allen Cooper, March Democratic party and though Wisconsin's 6, 1917, in the Cooper Papers; C. H. Thompson to State Council of Defense, August 17, 1917, in the strong German-American Alliance still advo­ State Council of Defense Papers; Richard T. Ely cated strict neutrality, hundreds of German- to Albert Shaw, September 3, 1917, in the Ely Papers; and Austrian-borns defensively rushed to Margulies, "Issues and Politics," 325; Charles August Nelson, "Progressivism and Loyalty in Wisconsin take out citizenship papers.^ Politics, 1912-1918" (M.A. Thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1961), 105. ° On the Socialist party see Milwaukee Journal, Preparedness Movement in Wisconsin, 1914^1917" March 4, 5, May 24, June 2, 1917; Milwaukee Leader, (M.A. Thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1961), 42, 47. March 24, 1917; John Spargo to Algie M. Simons, The Papers of Carl Russell Fish, University of Wis­ April 12, 1917, in the Simons Papers; Frederick T. consin history professor, in the State Historical So­ Olson, "The Milwaukee Socialists, 1897-1941" (Ph.D. ciety of Wisconsin, contain some references to Madi­ Dissertation, Harvard University, 1952), 357, 360- son's NSL branch. Wisconsin's NSL functioned into 361. For German-American attitudes see Milwaukee 1918 but never numbered more than 3,000 members, Sentinel, February 9, 10, 13, 1917; Oconto County 95 per cent of whom were in Milwaukee. Hearings Reporter, February 8, 1917; Appleton Crescent, Before a Special Committee of the House of Repre­ March 14, 1917; Milwaukee Journal, March 21, 1917; sentatives (To Investigate the National Security John A. Lacher, The German Element in Wisconsin League), 65 Cong., 3 sess. (Washington, D.C, 1919), (Milwaukee, 1925), 44; Carl Wittke, German-Ameri­ 1488, 1533-1536. All manuscript collections cited cans and the World War (With Special Emphasis hereinafter are in the Archives-Manuscripts Division on Ohio's German Language Press) (Columbus, Ohio, of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. 1936), 21, 128-129, 180.

34 CARY: WISCONSIN LOYALTY LEGION

a patriotic movement which ultimately spread throughout the state. Those who backed Wil­ son's pro-Allied neutrality stance chafed at the erroneous and widespread notion that Milwaukee was a province of Germany.'' On February 27, the day after Wilson re­ quested congressional authority to arm mer­ chant ships, a group of Milwaukee lawyers, businessmen, and bankers created a Citizens' Committee to back the President and thus "clarify" the city's position in the developing crisis. All Committee members shared a long standing aversion to Victor Berger's strong Socialist machine. Many of the businessmen involved believed that Socialist-led opposition to Wilsonian policies damaged their economic interests. Others, such as industrialist Au­ gust Vogel, had been members of the Na­ tional Security League, a New York-based organization, since 1915 and their advocacy of a pro-Allied preparedness stance led them logically into the movement. To chair the Committee, members elected Wheeler P. Bloodgood, a Bull Mooser in 1912 and a prominent attorney in the anti-Socialist Na­ tional Civic Federation.* "You are on the right track," wrote an Ox­ Society's Iconographic Collection ford, Wisconsin, man. "Wisconsin has been Paul Oscar Adolph Husting, Wisconsin's first Senator misrepresented long enough." Encouraged by to be elected by a direct vote of the people. this kind of reaction and by the support of Democratic Senator Paul 0. Husting and the city's German-American population, propon­ super patriotic Milwaukee Journal, Commit­ ents of consensus laid the basis for such an tee leaders decided to set up a statewide or­ organization at an enthusiastic rally in mid- ganization. They reasoned that indignation March and on March 24 formally organized against La Follette was not limited to Mil­ the Wisconsin Defense League.^ waukee and that other areas had reason to be "embarrassed," either because of large num­ 4 S THE POSSIBILITY of United States bers of German-Americans or because their -^~*- entrance into the war became clearer, Congressmen voted against the armed ships the loyalty issue attracted men of widely bill. Despite caustic comment by Victor diverse and even diametrically opposed Berger's Milwaukee Leader and the Sheboy­ views. The April 6 declaration of war has­ gan Press, which voiced the skepticism of that tened this process. Pro-war Socialists such as Algie Simons united with the anti-Socialist, pro-British, and predominantly Stalwart Re- ''Milwaukee Journal, February 21, 26, 1917; Mil­ waukee Evening Wisconsin, March 20, 1917; Karen Falk, "Public Opinion in Wisconsin During World " Milwaukee Journal, February 28, March 1, 2, 3, War I," in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, 25: 4, 5, 18, 1917; "The Wisconsin Defense League," 391, 407 (June, 1942). undated pamphlet in the Wisconsin Defense League ''Milwaukee Journal, February 21, 27, 28, 1917. Papers. Hereinafter cited as WDL Papers. For rep­ Biographical information on Defense League leaders resentative favorable reactions to the idea of a is scanty, but see "Wheeler Peckham Bloodgood," statewide organization see Oshkosh Northwestern, in the Bloodgood Papers; Milwaukee Journal, March March 12, 1917; Eau Claire Leader, March 14, 1917; 12, 1917; Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, June 21, for attacks, see Milwaukee Leader, March 19, 1917; July 3, 1917. Sheboygan Press, March 19, 1917.

35 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN. 1969 publican group which had originally spear­ headed the movement. La Follette men who broke with the Senator over his opposition to the war joined hands with such traditional enemies as meat packer John Cudahy and motorcycle manufacturer Walter Davidson. And Democrats like Husting agreed with Irvine L. Lenroot, La Follette protege, in publicly backing the purposes of the League.'" Forged by war, this strange coalition sought to support Wilson and by opposing La Follette and Socialist critics of the war to dispell criticism of Wisconsin. Warning that antiwar sentiment bordered on treason, the League organized a series of patriotic rallies across the state and undertook a program of education to convert dissenters and sway doubters. This effort included a widely publi­ cized movie, The Slacker, produced by League secretary Joseph Moriarity, a Mil­ waukee public relations man. The League also utilized more direct means, relying on Society's Iconograpliic Collection the American Protective League, a semi­ John Cudahy, Milwaukee businessman, who later be­ official arm of the Department of Justice, to came Franklin D. Roosevelt's ambassador to Poland. investigate rumors of disloyalty and draft evasion. The indictment and fining of Jacob Best, who dared to say "To Hell with Liberty few members. The chief difficulty was that Bonds!," typified what the League's link Governor Emanuel Philipp's creation of a with the APL achieved.'^ State Council of Defense, the first in the na­ By late April the League boasted 5,000 tion, weakened the League's appeal. The SCD members and branches in all seventy-one duplicated a number of the programs the counties, though in private Simons and League had started, such as co-ordinating as­ Moriarity admitted to a less complete cover­ sistance to military recruiters and the Red age of the state.'^ Patriotic meetings drew Cross.'^ People began to confuse the two De­ enthusiastic crowds but garnered relatively fense organizations and to assume that the state-sponsored one was the more important. Under the circumstances, the League's mem­ bership drive faltered and the financial sup­ " David A. Shannon, The Socialist Party of Ameri­ port at first so generously given by large com­ ca (New York, 1955), 83-85, 92; Robert Stuart panies began to evaporate. League officials Huston, "A. M. Simons and the American Socialist Movement" (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Wis­ tried to retain a leading role in the state's consin, 1965), 316-317; Milwaukee Evening Wiscon­ support-the-war movement by establishing sin, Milwaukee Sentinel, March 18, 19, 1917; "The formal ties with the SCD, but Governor Wisconsin Defense League," undated pamphlet, in the WDL Papers. Philipp quashed this attempt because of his ^^ Milwaukee Leader, April 20, 1917; Milwaukee aversion to the emotionalism which, he felt, Sentinel, April 28, 1917; Milwaukee Journal, May 4, distorted League thinking. By July, Defense June 7, 16, 1917; Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, July 8, 1917; Rough Cash Statement, May 16, 1917; League membership had fallen drastically, lo- Bloodgood to Joseph Moriarity, July 5, 1917, in the WDL Papers. On the APL see Emerson Hough, The Web (Chicago, 1919), 404-407; Harold M. Hyman, To Try Men's Souls: Loyalty Tests in American ^"^ Appleton Crescent, March 26, 31, 1917; Madison History (Berkeley, 1959), 271-297. Democrat, March 31, 1917; Kenosha Evening News, ^ Milwaukee Journal, April 22, 1917; Algie Simons March 28, 1917; Milwaukee Journal, April 9, 27, 28, to William N. Fuller, May 1, 1917; Moriarity to 29, 1917; Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, May 2, 5, Bloodgood, May 8, 1917, in the WDL Papers. 26, 1917.

36 CARY: WISCONSIN LOYALTY LEGION cal League leaders were complaining that consin would be known as "the traitor state" they had little to do, and Joseph Moriarity by the war's end. And a Philadelphian con­ confided that the League was "in urgent need firmed this attitude by writing that easterners of funds."'* thought of Wisconsin "as either too yellow With its fortunes on the decline, the De­ to fight, or as sold out to German inffuences. fense League was passing out of existence. "16 Yet fertile fields for watchful patriots still To Defense League leaders it seemed ap­ existed and prevented Moriarity's gloomy re­ parent that the slurs hurled against Wiscon­ port on WDL finances from serving as the sin could be disproven only by a vigorous obituary for the state's patriotic movement. show of patriotism. League patriots were Not only had nine of eleven Wisconsin Con­ scarcely satisfied with Governor Philipp's gressmen joined Senator La Follette in vot­ public statements regarding the state's con­ ing against the war, but the poor image of tribution to the war effort, nor were they the state's loyalty was further tarnished when happy with his mild support of the Selective its citizens subscribed only $34,000,000 of a Service Act, which he had originally opposed. requested $44,000,000 in the first Liberty The Governor had even icily rejected Wheeler Bond drive that summer. On all sides, more­ P. Bloodgood's urgent plea that a company of over, there seemed signs of intensified anti­ militia be sent to Milwaukee to "keep order" war activity. Socialists stumped the state, the on the day registration for the draft began. North Dakota-based Nonpartisan League By early August League supporters were con­ made plans to organize Wisconsin, rumors of vinced that Philipp would do nothing to re­ Industrial Workers of the World influence deem Wisconsin's honor. Thus, as their con­ spread, and in Milwaukee dissenters founded cern lor Wisconsin's reputation heightened, a branch of the People's Council for Peace it seemed increasingly clear to the state's ex­ and Democracy." To make matters worse, treme patriots that although the State Coun­ these signs of disloyalty, as the self-conscious cil of Defense had usurped some of the patriots interpreted them, did not pass un­ League's original functions, the need for a noticed outside the state. The Louisville strong patriotic center still existed.^'^ Courier Journal, for example, expressed a It was this conviction which motivated widely held view when it speculated that Wis- League officials to form a new organization. Bloodgood set the stage by warning promi­ nent citizens throughout the state that be­ cause Wisconsin had recently been organized by the "agents of Germany and the friends of " Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, March 29, May autocracy" the time had come for "loyal citi­ 29, 30, 1917; Milwaukee Journal, April 5, 17, 29, 1917; A. T. Van Scoy to Magnus Swenson, May 18, zens to unite, and make their influence felt." 1917, in the Swenson Papers; minutes of SCD Two weeks later the Defense League proposed meeting with Governor Philipp, June 12, 1917; Re­ port of the Executive Secretary on Activity of the a "much more comprehensive organization State Council of Defense, April 16-August 20, 1917, ... a solid phalanx to preach the message of in the SCD Papers; Joseph Moriarity to Bloodgood, May 8, 1917; Rough Cash Statement, May 16, 1917; Report of Committee on Recruiting and Patriotic Societies to State Council of Defense, May 23, 1917; Moriarity to A. M. Kellogg, July 24, 1917, in the WDL Papers; General Charles King, "Memories " Louisville Courier-Journal, quoted in the Eau of a Busy Life," in the Wisconsin Magazine of Claire Leader, July 17, 1917; Milwaukee Journal, History, 6:184-188 (December, 1922) ; Huston, "Si­ August 19, 1917. The Courier-Journal article pro­ mons and the American Socialist Movement," 322. voked widespread concern in Wisconsin. For typical ^ Maxwell, Philipp, 148-149; Rusk County Journal, comments see Sheboygan Herald, July 27, 1917; June 1, 191'7; Eau Claire Telegram, June 21, 1917; Rusk County Journal, August 10, 1917 Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, July 13, 1917; Stanley "H. N. Laflin to Emanuel L. Philipp, April 11, Republican, August 3, 1917, for example. The papers 1917, in the Philipp Papers; P. W. GuUord to Merlin of the State Council of Defense contain numerous Hull, July 19, 1917, in the Hull Papers; Milwaukee references to alleged IWW activity in July and Evening Wisconsin, May 29, 30, 1917; Wisconsin August, while the papers of Milwaukeean Edwin State Journal, June 9, 1917; Milwaukee Journal, June J. Gross include material on the formation of the 25, July 18, August 2, 5, 6, 1917; General Charles Milwaukee People's Council. Gross was its first King, "Memories of a Busy Life," in the Wisconsin president. Magazine of History, 6:184-188 (December, 1922).

37 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

Society's iconograpnic Collection Liberty parade, Racine, April 13, 1918.

Americanism in Wisconsin." These initial that the Loyalty Legion continued the defen­ feelers elicited favorable responses, even from sive and parochial tone which had character­ areas where there was no apparent threat of ized Wisconsin's patriotic movement from the organized antiwar activity. C. G. Wilcox, the first. What had changed was the mood of the mayor of De Pere in Brown County, for ex­ state's superpatriots. Intolerance throughout ample, thought that although the local Amer­ the country had mushroomed after entrance ican Protective League branch he worked into the war, and in late June Congress insti­ with had "not been able to locate [even] a tutionalized this hysteria by enacting the single 'slacker,'" the idea was sound. Forti­ Espionage Act. Increasingly, dissent met fied by such assurances of support, the strongly organized opposition. In New York League held a mass meeting in mid-August City, for example, the National Security which paved the way for officially founding League called on German-Americans to the Wisconsin Loyalty Legion in Septem- "stand up and be counted" and the militant ber.18 American Defense Society dispatched "flying Though the new organization's name had squadrons" to break up antiwar meetings.^^ been carefully chosen to eliminate the con­ fusion which had developed over the Defense fTiHE LOYALTY LEGION members proved League and the State Council of Defense, -•- themselves to be as enthusiastically in­ with few exceptions leadership remained tolerant as citizens in other states. They de­ with those who had headed the Defense fined their primary goal as "a broad and League. The similarity between the League vigorous American patriotism" which would and the Legion could also be seen in the fact be developed through "patriotic education." Beneath the verbiage about "patriotic educa­ tion," however, there existed an angry and "Bloodgood to "Dear Sir," August 1, 1917; Wis­ emotional response to dissent, reflected in the consin Defense League to John B. Winslow, August pledge required of new members to "hold up 13, 1917; A. W. Sanborn to Bloodgood, August 13, 1917; John M. Olin to Bloodgood, August 13, 1917; slackers to public contempt" and to "seek out Roy P. Wilcox to Bloodgood, August 14, 1917; C. G. Wilcox to Bloodgood, August 15, 1917; Minutes of Meetings, August 15, 22, 28, 1917, in the WDL Papers. " New York Times, July 15, August 6, 1917.

38 CARY: WISCONSIN LOYALTY LEGION

and bring traitors to punishment." Legion where he would listen to nothing else you spokesmen underlined this emphasis by have to say." And Walter Goodland, though pledging that they would "attack disloyalty sharing the enthusiasm of most nationalist to the utmost wherever found." In this view, progressives for denouncing opponents of so typical of World War I emotionalism, war, tried in vain to terminate the Legion's there were no shades of gray, only "two ties to the fiery American Protective League. classes, those who are right and those who When Goodland resigned his post as first ex­ are wrong, those who are loyal and those ecutive secretary in protest, the executive who are either secretly or openly trying to committee simply named Appleton news­ aid the enemy."^^ paperman George Kull to the $300 a month Legion executive secretary Walter Good- job.^^ To the satisfaction of Legion officials land, editor of the Racine Times Call and a Kull, a patriot more amenable to the domi­ former La Follette man, reflected this temper nant sentiment of the committee, continued in his statement that every effort would be with no apparent qualms to report instances made "to separate the loyal from the dis­ of alleged disloyalty to the APL. The cases of loyal." He warned patriotic German-Ameri­ Morton and Goodland demonstrated that cans to disassociate themselves from those there was little room for dissent even among "citizens of German blood who are disloyal top Legion men,^ in their words and actions" by "openly and To some extent Wisconsin patriots merely emphatically" aligning themselves with the followed a national trend, being swept into Loyalty Legion. Most Legion officials agreed the whirlwind spun out of the heightened de­ with Guy D. Goff, who proselytized for the mand for conformity. But the slurs hurled at Legion on Federal Government stationery, Wisconsin because of its delegation's behav­ that this was "no time to take chances ... to ior in Congress made the state's patriots par­ permit any element of our population to ticularly sensitive. This sensitivity was evi­ traffic in our liberties." Those who opposed denced by the Legion's first activity — circu­ the war had to be taught "to recognize the lation of a petition to be signed by "grieved clear difference between liberty and license." and humiliated Wisconsinites." "You know the To Milwaukeean Herman A. Wagner, presi­ impression has gone out over the Country that dent of the Wisconsin Bridge and Iron Works Wisconsin is disloyal," Goodland wrote a pros­ and chairman of the Milwaukee Loyalty pective signer. All good citizens, he prompted, Legion, Goff's sentiments were translated into would "wish to efface this stain from the fair action as he rallied to the cause of liberty and name of Wisconsin." Aimed at La Follette and became a leading exponent for suppression other war opponents in the congressional dele­ of dissent.^^ gation, the petition sought to "repudiate, in To be sure, not all Legion officials ap­ the name of Wisconsin, every disloyal word proached the issue of free speech with such and deed calculated to misrepresent her and blunt zealotry. Some questioned a patriotic her people. . . ." The Legion circulated the education which defined any dissent as trea­ petition widely in the fall of 1917, received son and subject to suppression. Milwaukee the endorsement of the State Council of De­ lawyer George E. Morton cautioned at the fense, and claimed 150,000 signers by the end Legion's August 28 meeting that "to call a man a traitor is to put yourself in a position

^Minutes of Meeting, August 28, 1917, in the WDL Papers; Walter Goodland to John Stover, November 13, 1917, in the WLL Papers. Goodland ^ "To the Members of the Executive Committee believed the Legion should eschew "punitive ac­ of the Wisconsin Loyalty Legion," August 28, 1917; tivities" since fanatics might gain control of such Minutes of Meeting, September 21, 1917, in the work. Instead, the Legion should "bring light" to Loyalty Legion Papers; George F. Kull, "Wisconsin potential traitors. See Racine Times Call, December Loyalty Legion," in the Wisconsin Blue Book, 1919, 8, 1917. 416. Legion Papers hereinafter cited as WLL Papers. '^ George Kull to A. L. Kreutzer, November 28, ^Milwaukee Journal, September 9, 20, 1917; Guy 1917; Kull to William H. Deuney, December 14, D. Goff to W. E. Titus, September 7, 1917, in the 1917; Kull to Edgar Caspari, December 18, 1917; WLL Papers. Kull to John Stover, May 4, 1918, in the WLL Papers.

39 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969 of the year.^* Like the loyalty petitions spon­ sored by the Defense League prior to Ameri­ ca's entrance into the war, this effort to quell attacks on Wisconsin proved to be of doubtful value.^° The Legion confidently pushed on with its program of "patriotic education," however, and coupled its petition campaign with a mas­ sive propaganda drive. In this work the Legion utilized material provided gratis by the Uni­ versal Military Training League, the National Security League, the YMCA, and the Red Cross.^^ More important, through Senator Husting and Algie Simons' old college friend, Guy D. Stanton, an official in the Wilson ad­ ministration's Committee on Public Informa­ tion, the Legion became the official dissemina­ tor of CPI literature in Wisconsin.^'^ Even before securing this source of propaganda, which carried with it the privilege of franked envelopes, the Legion moved to "expunge Wis­ consin's name from the list of disloyal states" and "promote team work in spreading the gospel of loyalty" by organizing a Patriotic Press Association. Goodland served as tem­ porary chairman and then turned the job over Society's Iconographic Collection to Algie Simons, director of the Legion's Thomas J. Mahon, head of the Legion's speakers' literature bureau, with the admonition that he bureau. should "get every paper [to] enroll, or else know the reason why."^* Govern, the Legion's speakers' bureau enlisted Legion officials backed up dissemination of the services of priests and ministers, lawyers, literature with speaking tours and mass meet­ university and college faculty members, re­ ings. Under the direction of Thomas J. Mahon, porters, and physicians. Among the more il­ a protege of former Governor Francis E. Mc- lustrious to engage in this work were the bud­ ding young politician Alexander Wiley and professors Carl Russell Fish, Richard T. Ely, ^ Bloodgood and Executive Committee to Chair­ and John R. Commons of the University of men County Councils of Defense, August 30, 1917, Wisconsin.^^ in the WDL Papers; Goodland to Chauncey W. Yockey, September 12, 1917; Goodland to "Mr. The organizational sophistication with Postmaster," October 15, 1917; Magnus Swenson which the Legion approached its task reflected to Goodland, October 26, 1917, in the WLL Papers; Milwaukee Journal, January 25, 1918. a conscious effort to avoid the weaknesses ^ Boston Sunday Herald, Chicago Tribune, New which had beset the Defense League. Legion York Times, and Washington Star, quoted in Mil­ leaders tried to broaden participation by cre­ waukee Journal, September 27, October 23, 25, ating an executive committee of eleven mem­ December 7, 1917, respectively, for example. ""Bloodgood to H. H. Gross, September 13, 1917; bers, one from each of the state's congres­ Goodland to Otto H, Kahn, November 8, 1917, in sional districts. When this arrangement proved the WLL Papers; Waushara Argus, October 10, 1917. cumbersome, however, the top policy body •" Paul 0. Husting to Goodland, September 18, 1917; Guy D. Stanton to Goodland, September 20, 1917, in the WLL papers. ^ Goodland et al. to "Dear Fellow Editor," August 29, 1917; Goodland to Simons, October 23, 1917, =° "Speakers," ca. October, 1917, in the WDL in the WLL Papers. See also J. E. McConnell to Papers; Margaret Conway to Alexander Wiley, June Merlin Hull, August 31, 1917, in the Hull Papers; 6, 1918; Conway to Roy P. Wilcox, June 7, 1918, in Milwaukee Journal, September 3, 1917. the WLL Papers.

40 CARY: WISCONSIN LOYALTY LEGION

was reduced to four Milwaukeeans. The origi­ ucts out of state.^^ The Legion based this ar­ nal executive committee became a general gument on fear, not fact. When it tried to council which met infrequently and ratified track down incidents of Wisconsin firms losing decisions by mail. Still, the Legion did seek to business it did not have much success. None­ attract elements the Defense League had ig­ theless, many businessmen accepted the nored. Utilizing renegade Socialist Winfield Legion's role as defender of their interests Gaylord, it made inroads into the Milwaukee and generously supported its work. In some labor movement and worked closely with Sam­ areas, indeed, it was primarily the local busi­ uel Gompers' pro-war American Alliance for nessman who joined the Legion. The Legion Labor and Democracy.^" lived up to its part of the bargain. On one Intent upon organizing the state thoroughly, occasion it solemnly assured an inquisitive the Legion hoped to bolster membership by police commissioner in Kansas City that the lowering dues to twenty-five cents. A vigorous owners and officers of the Joseph Schlitz Brew­ recruiting drive begun in mid-November drew ery were all loyal.^^ With considerable busi­ a broadly diverse group into the Legion. In­ ness support the Loyalty Legion never faced cluded among the members were the "city the financial difficulties of its predecessor. geneter" of Berlin, a twenty-one-year-old Mil­ To improve further on the record of the waukee "banker," an artist from Two Rivers, Defense League, the Legion made a concerted a farmer in Jennings with a fourth "graid" effort to better relations with the State Council education, a merchant who described his edu­ of Defense but achieved no lasting alliance. cation as "American and sufficient," laborers, The SCD remained suspicious of Legion mo­ insurance men, doctors, clergymen, and a sur­ tives because of its ties to the Democratic Wil­ prisingly large number of bartenders. Over son administration through the Committee on 70,000 Wisconsin citizens ultimately joined Public Information and because of the fre­ the Legion, roughly 10 per cent of them under quent attacks made on Stalwart Republican twenty-one. Most who enrolled paid the mini­ Governor Philipp.^* Though Philipp dropped mum membership fee, making it necessary for his opposition to Wilson's foreign policy when the Legion to turn elsewhere for the $100,000 the country entered the war, leading members it estimated would be necessary to carry out of the Legion continued to lump him together its program.^' with Socialists, La Follette, and other critics. Under the cautious direction of Milwaukee They decried his initial opposition to con­ investment broker Morris F. Fox, chairman of scription, claimed he catered to the German- the finance committee, the Legion systematized American vote, attacked his appointment of its approach to potential contributors and ag­ Victor Berger's wife Meta to the state board gressively sought large sums from Wisconsin of education, and argued that he was soft on businessmen and those with financial stakes in La Follette. The Governor's critics glossed Wisconsin firms. To stimulate business dona­ over his record in support of the war, and his tions it claimed that suspicion of Wisconsin's regard for civil liberties won him only con­ loyalty hindered the sale of Wisconsin prod­ tempt from superpatriots. State Council of De-

" Minutes of Meetings, August 22, 28, 1917, in the ^^ Report of the Finance Committee, August 28, WDL Papers; Minutes of Meeting, October 5, 1917; 1917; Fox to Bloodgood, September 5, 1917; Fox to Gaylord to Samuel Gompers, September 17, 21, L. K. Baker, September 18, 1917; Fox to Walter 1917; "Report of W. R. Gaylord ... on meeting Davidson, November 17, 1917, in the WLL Papers. of the National Executive Committee of the American '^ Frank Smith to Appleton Commercial Club, Alliance for Labor and Democracy. . . ." undated; January 23, 1918; George Kull to F. E. Burrall, Goodland to Frank J. Weber, September 28, 1917, in February 20, 1918; Burrall to Kull, February 27, the WLL Papers. See also Thomas W. Gavett, De­ 1918; H. H. Seamen to Fox, April 23, 1918; Fox to velopment of the Labor Movement in Milwaukee Seamen, May 2, 1918; Kull to John Ranson, May 2, (Madison, 1965), 128-129. 1918, in the WLL Papers; Waupaca County Post, "•^ Minutes of Meeting, August 22, 1917, in the January 24, 1918; Milwaukee Journal, January 27, WLL Papers; Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, No­ 1918. vember 7, 1917. Data on membership based on ** Bloodgood to Magnus Swenson, September 6, random sample of Loyalty Legion membership card 1917; Gaylord to Swenson, September 24, October files. 3, November 10, 1917, in the WLL Papers.

41 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

fense chairman Magnus Swenson had good When Governor Philipp announced that he reason to question Legion motives and wonder personally planned to appoint a successor he whether or not the organization had been cre­ loosed a barrage of insult. The Governor main­ ated for the purpose of overthrowing Philipp.^' tained that a special election would make the state a center of political strife. Superpatriots, on the other hand, were convinced that a non­ T EGION OFFICIALS did not publicly pro- partisan formula could be devised. Stalwart -•-^ claim politics as their central preoccupation. Republican John M. Whitehead, for example, Individual members, however, were more can­ insisted that the Loyalty Legion, "or some other did. Within weeks after the Legion's founding, loyal body," should name a candidate and work Morris Fox expected it would ultimately evolve for his election on a platform of patriotism.^^ into "a political body" to eliminate "such men The Legion responded to such suggestions as La Follette and Berger from public life," and readily. On November 1, despite the reluctance Simons and Gaylord boasted that already the of at least one Philipp man, the Patriotic Press Legion had forced the dissolution of the "Phil- Association endorsed the idea of nominating a ipp-Berger-La Follette pro-German alliance." loyalty candidate. When the Legion's general Unaware of Fox's expectations and apparently council met the same day and backed the plan, skeptical of the distorted claims made by the Otto A. LaBudde and Walter Goodland, chair­ two pro-war Socialists, the Milivaukee Journal man of the Democratic and progressive Repub­ in October, 1917, prodded the Legion to take lican state central committees, respectively, more interest in politics. Loyalty petitions agreed that prospects of uniting behind one might help to improve the state's reputation, man were good. To pressure the Governor to it argued, but the real cancer remained the call a special election the Legion planned a mass congressional delegation and plans had to be meeting in Madison and shaped proposals for made to ensure the nomination of "men whose altering the election laws to permit fusion of loyalty cannot be questioned. . . ."^^ the major political parties.^^ Kull and other Actually, the Legion fully intended to par­ Legion men also sounded out Democratic and ticipate in the 1918 congressional elections. Republican leaders on the possibilities of back­ Still concerned with ironing out organization ing a single candidate, but this strategy proved plans it did not expect to enter politics for some futile. Philipp and the Stalwart Republicans, time, but the accidental death of Democratic who controlled the party's state machinery, in­ Senator Paul 0. Husting on October 21 plunged sisted on party integrity and warned ominously the Legion into politics immediately. Wisconsin that if the Legion overstepped "its bounds" and loyalists determined to fill the Senate vacancy organized as a political party it would be treated by a special election with a man "of the Husting as such. Nonetheless, the Legion did contribute stamp," one who would continue to counteract to the swell of opinion within the state which the undesirable publicity La Follette gave the ultimately led Governor Philipp to call a special state. "We have all of us been declaring that session of the legislature for February 16, 1918, Wisconsin is a loyal state," explained the Ash­ land Daily Press. "Now we can prove it."^^

'^ Herbert N. Laflin to Philipp, April 11, 1917, in the Philipp Papers; Milwaukee Journal, April 12, 13, 16, June 20, 26, August 7, 9, September 27, 1917; ^Ashland Daily Press, October 26, 1917; La Crosse Wisconsin State Journal, June 9, 1917; Racine Times Tribune, October 26, 1917; Milwaukee Journal, Oc­ Call, September 10, 1917; Swenson to George F. tober 27, November 5, 1917; Baraboo Weekly News, Porter, December 8, 1917; Swenson to Dan Boucher, November 1, 1917. April 2, 1918, in the SCD Papers. ^Minutes of General Council, November 1, 1917; ""Fox to Winifred Merrill, September 4, 1917; Kuff to "Dear Sir," November 5, 1917; Goodland to Fox to C. S. Dickinson, September 7, 1917, in the Members of the Patriotic Press Association, No­ WLL Papers; Milwaukee Journal, September 10, vember 5, 1917; Kull to Otis M. Johnson, November October 9, 1917. 30, 1917, in the WLL Papers. J. L. Sturtevant op­ " "The Wisconsin Loyalty Legion," undated, in posed a special election as impractical and likely the WLL Papers; Milwaukee Journal, October 24, to unite antiwar forces. See Wausau Record Herald, 1917; Ashland Daily Press, October 29, 1917. November 6, 1917.

42 CARY: WISCONSIN LOYALTY LEGION to consider the means of choosing Husting's successor.'*" Despite Philipp's charge that the entire cam­ paign for fusion was a "Democratic plot" to destroy Wisconsin's Republican party, both houses of the Republican-controlled legislature refused to support the Governor's plea for ap­ pointive power. Also, since there were Stalwart Republicans who favored the idea of a special election and fusion, Philipp's reference to a "Democratic plot" was neither credible nor effective. Backed into a corner Philipp grudg­ ingly called a special election for April 2, with a primary on March 19. Hurling a parting blow at the Loyalty Legion and the Milwaukee Jour­ nal, he warned that the responsibility for the election rested "upon the political propagan­ dists who have carried on a campaign for it."*"^ Preparations for the coming election reflected the political turbulence within the state. Though the Legion as an organization stood apart from the selection of primary candidates, many of its most prominent members figured importantly in the factional squabbles. Indeed, Legion par­ tisans put to a severe test the image of non- partisanship assiduously cultivated by Kull and Society's Iconographic Collection Legion president Judson Rosebush. Nationalist A youthful Joseph E. Davies strikes a matinee idol progressives such as Walter Goodland lined up pose. Like John Cudahy, he later became an FDR ambassador, first to the USSR, then to Belgium. behind Republican harmony candidate Irvine Lenroot and urged that the Legion endorse him since he faced La Follette Republican James action was shaped by Victor Berger's startling Thompson in the primary. The Democratic 38,564 votes, just over 18 per cent of the total Milwaukee Journal speculated that it might vote. Many editors pondered the meaning of comply with this pressure, but the Legion with­ the vote and feared that Thompson supporters held support. Kull and Rosebush maintained would swing to Berger in the April 2 election. that the Legion would become active only if the "We have the enemy scared stiff already," April 2 race narrowed to a contest between a chortled the plump Socialist as he surveyed loyalist and a "candidate pledged to obstruc­ press opinion, and he was right.*^ tion, anti-Americanism, or antagonism to the Legion leaders shared this fear and at the government."*^ organization's state conference decided to "take This noncommittal position, however, was short-lived. Though undoubtedly pleased that "'Milwaukee Journal, February 9, 18, 20, 23-28, loyalist candidates Lenroot and Democrat March 1-3, 5, 11, 1918; Racine Times Call, February Joseph E. Davies had won nomination. Legion 25, 28, March 5, 8, 1918; Willet M. Spooner et al. to Walter Goodland, February 27, 1918, in the Good- land Papers; Spooner to Kull, March 13, 1918; Kull to Spooner, March 15, 1918, in the WLL Papers. " Berger was unchallenged for the Socialist nomi­ nation. In the Republican contest Lenroot received '" Report of Loyalty Legion Committee, November 73,186 to Thompson's 70,772. Davies polled 57,282 9, 1917; Kull to A. J. Benjamin, December 29, 1917, in the Democratic race, compared to McCarthy's in the WLL Papers; Milwaukee Journal, December 13,784. Milwaukee Leader, March 21, 1918; Mil­ 1, 18, 28, 1917, January 3, 16, 1918. waukee Journal, March 26, 1918. For illustrative '^Milwaukee Journal, February 16, 19, 21, 23, 25, comment on the Berger vote see Oshkosh Daily 28, 1918; Racine Times Call, February 25, 28, 1918; Northwestern, Kenosha Evening News, March 20, Maxwell, Philipp, 152-156. 1918; LaCrosse Tribune, March 21, 1918.

43 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969 steps to combine the loyal votes of all citizens at the election ... on one of the loyal candi­ dates." A Legion committee arranged a meeting between Davies and Lenroot, but veteran politi­ cal observers doubted that anything would come of this since by now neither party was interested in anything but electoral victory. The pessimists proved prophetic. Lenroot seized on a change of dates and declared that his cam­ paign would "now proceed to the election." Lamely the Legion withdrew from the field. "The appointment of the committee was made at so late a time and the campaigns of the re­ spective candidates had made such progress," WIN THE WAR it explained, "that it was found impracticable to do anything looking toward a union of par­ WITH ties or the elimination of either candidate.'"'* Following a hectic campaign in which Len­ root and Davies each claimed to be the more loyal, Lenroot emerged the victor on April 2 LENROOT by a 15,267 vote plurality. As in the primary, Socialist Berger placed third, this time garner­ ing fully 26 per cent of the votes.*' Clearly, the Legion had performed dismally as a pressure LOYALTY group in the special election. A loyalty candi­ date had been elected, but this could hardly be attributed to the work of the Legion. Tradi­ THE ISSUE J{-*- + + 4-+ + + + +++ + + 4"l"»"f + +++ + + + + 4-f4"f+ + + + + 4- + +++ + + + + +++ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + *+ + + + +++ ++++** + + + ** + + + + 4- + + + ++++++ + + + x tional party loyalties had failed to fall before the loyalty issue, even within the highest eche­ STUDENT LENROOT CLUB lons of the Legion. And Berger's surprisingly high vote reflected both the intensity ol latent A contemporary Lenroot poster in the Society's Icono­ opposition to the war and the failure of the graphic Collection. Legion's program of patriotic education. In­ deed, some thought that the Legion was in part gloated, "proved our loyalty by a three-to-one responsible for the outcome. Charles McCar­ vote." To ensure that outsiders viewed the com­ thy, for one, believed that the Berger vote was bined Davies and Lenroot vote in the same light "a disgruntled, sullen German reaction to being the Legion requested more than one hundred hammered by the Loyalty Legion. . . . "'*^ papers across the country to recognize this fact The Legion did not consider the election a and thereby correct the impression that Wis­ failure. "Our senatorial election," George Kull consin was a "traitor state." Many papers com­ plied and printed the prepared material sup­ plied by the eager Kull. Among those which "V. P. Kaub to Kull, March 17, 1918; Minutes did not was the Christian Science Monitor, of Meeting, March 22, 23, 1918, in the WLL Papers; Nils P. Haugen to John Benson, March 22, 1918, whose editor, J. L. Stevens, advised that such in the Haugen Papers; Milwaukee Journal, March publicity would not have been necessary had 23—25 1918 loyal citizens "forgotten party lines and united "°Resuks were: Lenroot, 163,980; Davies, 148,713; Berger, 110,487. Milwaukee Journal, April 10, 1918. in a common effort. . . ."*^ "Charles McCarthy to Thomas Brahany, May 24, 1918, in the McCarthy Papers. See also Milwaukee Free Press, April 19, 1918. The one exception to " Kull memorandum, April 10, 1918; 0. L. Stevens partisanship in the Legion's leadership was execu­ to Kull, April 15, 1918, in the WLL Papers; Milwau­ tive committee chairman W. A. Hayes, a Republican kee Journal, April 9, May 16, 1918. See also John who endorsed Davies one day before the election. M. Whitehead to John P. Sanborn, April 5, 1918, Milwaukee Journal, April 2, 1918. in the Whitehead Papers.

44 CARY: WISCONSIN LOYALTY LEGION

candidates in the fall congressional elections. In preparation it instructed members to boost voter turnout and work for the nomination of "loyal" men, but beyond these general plans did not outline specific tactics. Following con­ ferences with officers of the National Security League and the League for National Unity in New York and Washington, Kull said only that "something should be done to eliminate con­ tests between loyal candidates. . . ."*^ Privately he thought the Legion would turn the problem over to local chapters and have them pressure Democrats and Republicans to reach "a gentle­ man's agreement." Walter Goodland and the Milwaukee Sentinel, organ of the Stalwart Re­ publicans, favored a similar plan but Milwau­ Society's Icono^rapiiic Collection kee's militant patriots demanded a more for­ A Loyalty Day parade in Madison, March 31, 1917. malized unity on the loyalty issue. Led by Wheeler Bloodgood they advocated that the Legion again try to alter the primary laws to permit fusion. In early June the executive com­ Another jolt followed shortly thereafter. mittee bowed to this view and appointed a Speaking in Madison to an audience of student committee to sound out Governor Philipp on cadets who had marched in bone-chilling rain. the prospects of calling a special meeting of the Professor Robert McNutt McElroy of the Na­ legislature. This effort died quickly. Philipp re­ tional Security League grated at signs of rest­ mained obdurate; glued to the ascendant Re­ lessness near the end of his three-hour speech. publican philosophy of the period he looked Annoyed, he huffed that the students were forward to a triumph at the polls in November. "damned Prussians." This jibe jarred the sensi­ When even Legion officers could not agree upon tive nerves of Wisconsin's superpatriots and a concrete plan, they finally scrapped the idea sparked an angry wave of condemnations of legalizing fusion.^" against the New York patriotic organization. A Security League apology ultimately quieted Twice rebuffed in attempts to channel poli­ the affair, but passions had been aroused and ticians, the Legion also suffered a setback in these gave impetus to the determination to another part of its scheme for the election. In prove Wisconsin's loyalty once and for all in hopes of reducing the Socialist vote the Legion the fall elections. Lenroot's victory in April had requested its chapters to send in lists of did not seem to have done that.** loyal German-Americans so that they could be mailed propaganda. One local official's objec­ tions singled out a weakness in this plan. J. L. TILL CONVINCED of the need to root out Sturtevant argued that Berger had done well in S symbols of disloyalty, the Legion in late April announced it would oppose "doubtful"

•"> Minutes of the General Council, April 29, 1918, in the WLL Papers; Milwaukee Journal, April 30, May 16, 20, 1918. "Milwaukee Sentinel, May 13, June 4, 12,17, 1918; ='°Kull to J. V. Kaub, May 17, 1918; Minutes of Madison Capital Times, May 13, 1918; Peterson the General Council, May 29, 1918; Minutes of the and File, Opponents of War, 107-108. The Charles Executive Committee, June 12, 1918; Kull to Gover­ McCarthy Papers contain many references to the nor Philipp, June 14, 18, 1918, in the WLL Papers; incident. For dissatisfaction with the results of the Milwaukee Sentinel, May 25, 1918; Milwaukee Jour­ election, see McCarthy to John Winslow, April 24, nal, June 13, 14, 18, 1918; Madison Capital Times, 1918, in the McCarthy Papers; and, for example. June 13, 14, 1918. See also Howard Scott Greenlee, La Crosse Tribune, April 3, 1917; Baraboo Weekly "The Republican Party in Division and Reunion, News, April 4, 1918; Waupaca County Post, April 1913-1920" (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Chi­ 4, 1918. cago, 1950), 225-228.

45 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

April partly because German-Americans natu­ The Legion fared even more poorly in other rally resented "the assumption on the part of areas, particularly those with high concentra­ certain newspapers and public speakers that tions of German-Americans. No chapters suc­ every man who bore a German name was neces­ ceeded in either Sheboygan or Washington sarily disloyal." Sturtevant feared that the Le­ counties. The Legion was at least partially re­ gion might compound the reaction. He esti­ sponsible for these results. Despite its professed mated that there were over 7,000 voters of belief that not all German-Americans were dis­ German extraction in Marathon County; com­ loyal, too often Legion spokesmen talked, and piling a list of them would be difficult, judging the Legion acted as if they were. Just prior to their loyalty, impossible. KuU's reply suggested the special election, for instance, Kull had ad­ the Legion's insensitivity to German-American vised a Legion official in heavily German feelings and provided a clue to the ultimate Shawano County that although many "alien failure of the Legion's plans. The decision to enemies" were loyal they should not be allowed compile such a list, Kull wrote, had been taken to join the Legion. "This is not calculated to after considerable discussion and the propa­ in any way reflect upon that man," Kull ex­ ganda to be sent out would alienate no one since plained, "it is simply a matter of expediency." it would be written by German-Americans. In Quite naturally this attitude and the Legion's truth, Sturtevant was one of the few to question effort to bar the teaching of German in all pub­ the Legion's approach. Most branches supplied lic schools could not but alienate German- the requested list.°^ Americans.^^ Sturtevant, though, had accurately assessed German-Americans, however, were not the German-American feelings toward the Legion. only ones to poke holes in Legion plans. In This became clearer when the Legion launched early August the Legion decided to procure the a drive to beef up its membership, particularly records "relative to Americanism" of all candi­ in areas where there were no branches or where dates for Congress. When Kull requested this Berger had done well in April. While the mem­ information from chapter presidents he en­ bership drive did generate considerable excite­ closed material on all incumbents which used ment, it hardly amassed the numbers the Legion the war vote as a key indicator of loyalty. Two had hoped for. In Milwaukee, where Berger had responses revealed that this symbol of disloy­ rolled up more than a third of his votes, minis­ alty focused on so persistently by the Legion ters preached the loyalty gospel. Legion ads was losing its force and that, as the special sonfronted movie goers, Boy Scouts faithfully election had already demonstrated, partisan toted propaganda from door to door, and in­ sentiments were more important. Banker R. 0. dustrialists organized chapters in their facto­ Bestul of Scandinavia and Waupaca County ries. And though at least one chapter urged its Post editor E. E. Payne both protested the organizers not to "prevail unduly" upon those assumption that those who had voted against who opposed the Legion's work, there were war were necessarily disloyal. The two pointed signs that German-Americans withheld their out that their own Congressman, Progressive backing. By September the Milwaukee Legion Republican Edward E. Browne of the Eighth totaled roughly 20,000; the anticipated 50,000 District, had backed the war effort fully despite new members had not materialized.^^ his initial opposition. Kull dismissed this argu­ ment. Browne had "voted wrong" on "eight of the most important measures before Congress just prior to and after the time America for­ " Minutes of the Executive Committee, May 16, mally declared war. . . ." Kull's emphasis on 1918; Sturtevant to Kull, May 23, 1918; Kull to Stur­ tevant, May 28, 1918, in the WLL Papers. voting records for this period as criteria for °^ Kull to Presidents of Loyalty Legion Chapters, June 8, 1918; Kull to M. J. Biggs, June 15, 1918; "Points and Suggestions to Workers in Membership Drive," ca. June, 1918; Kull to Wagner, September ^^ Sheboygan and Washington county files, passim; 11, 1918; Legion Chapter Lists and Legion Member­ Kull to A. L. Rollins, April 1, 1918; Minutes of the ship Card Files, 2148-2182, in the WLL Papers; General Council, May 29, 1918; Kull to Presidents Milwaukee Journal, May 30, 1918; Milwaukee Sen­ of Loyalty Legion Chapters, June 8, 1918; Kull to tinel, June 16, 22, 25, 1918; Wisconsin Blue Book, M. J. Biggs, August 21, 1918; Kull to E. G. Saunder- 1919, 46. son, September 5, 1918, in the WLL Papers.

46 CARY: WISCONSIN LOYALTY LEGION

judging loyalty convinced neither man. Indeed, with the exception of the Wautoma chapter, it seemed that in the Eighth District partisan rather than nonpartisan loyalties would pre- vail.5* Legion tacticians ignored these indications that their program contained serious flaws. A large portion of the state's press boosted loyalty as the central issue ®^ and opposition to incum­ bents in several districts also made Legion leaders confident before the primary.^^ What they misunderstood was that most people, in­ cluding many who spearheaded opposition to incumbents, were motivated less by the loyalty issue per se than by partisan concerns. As one La Follette man had remarked earlier in the year, many politicians adopted " 'super loyalty' largely for the purpose of personal gain."^^ The loyalty issue was further muddied because all Society's Iconographic Collection candidates save the Socialists claimed to be John C. Kleczka, the Legion's choice for Republican loyal! Wrapped up in their own logic, the Le­ candidate. gion's leaders failed to see also that much of the enthusiasm generated over the loyalty issue emanated from Legion men themselves. Legion based on widespread and deep-seated commit­ expectations for the primary, in short, were not ments to the Legion's views. Mesmerized by its own rhetoric the Legion mistook its own en­ thusiasm for general sentiment.

" Minutes of the General Council, August 9, 1918; r\H SEPTEMBER 3,1918, Wisconsin voters R. 0. Bestul to Kull, August 19, 28, 1918; E. E. Payne to Kull, August 20, 1918; Kull to Bestul, ^-^ exposed the weaknesses in Legion logic. August 22, 1918; Wautoma Chapter President to Incumbents met defeat in the First, Third, and Kull, August 23, 1918, in the WLL Papers; Waupaca County Post, August 22, 29, September 5, 1918. Fourth districts, but elsewhere easily won re­ The National Security League provided the material nomination. Since Socialists in the Milwaukee the Legion used to judge a candidate's loyalty. contests also polled sizable votes, the results left Among the measures cited by Kull to demonstrate Browne's "disloyalty" were: his support of the loyalists apprehensive about the general elec­ 1916 McLemore Resolution, his vote against war, tion in November.^^ Until now the Legion had and his opposition to a plan to put the volunteer reserve under federal control. been content to use front organizations such as "See Milwaukee Journal, June 16, 1918; Shawano the Patriotic Congressional League in Milwau­ County Advocate, July 2, 1918; Stevens Point Gazette, kee and to rely upon the well-organized efforts July 24, 1918, for typical comments. See also Walter of its leading members in the First and Third Goodland to George D. Whitesides, September 18, 1918, in the WLL Papers. districts. The primary vote suggested the need ""For campaigns in the First and Third districts for a stronger policy in certain areas, if the see A. Jamieson to Magnus Swenson, January 11, Legion planned to display the state's patriotism 1918, in the SCD Papers; Nils P. Haugen to John Benson, August 21, in the Haugen Papers; Max G. by defeating all Congressmen who had voted Booth to Loyalty Legion, August 20, 1918, in the against the war. But the Legion was slow to act. WLL Papers; and, the John Sweet Donald Papers. The campaign in the Fourth and Fifth districts was Not until late October did the Legion endorse led by a Patriotic Congressional League. The Loyal­ PCL candidates Joseph Carney, a Democrat, ty Legion did not endorse the PCL, but Milwaukee and John Kleczka, a Republican. Fear of being Legion officials controlled it. See William Rubin to John C. Karel, July 6, 1918, in the Rubin Papers; tagged partisan also influenced Legion re- Minutes of the Advisory Board, July 24, 1918, in the WLL Papers; Milwaukee Journal, June 15, July 9, 27, 1918. '*' Charles D. Rosa to James Thompson, May 6, ^ Milwaukee Journal, September 4, 1918; Wis- 1918, in the Thompson Papers. consin State Journal, September 5, 1918.

47 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN. I960 spouses to developments in the Eighth and Sec­ ond districts. Loyalists in the Eighth District, including dissident Republicans, began to line up behind Democrat John W. Brown soon after the primary and demanded that the Legion en­ dorse him. The Legion did aid Brown's sup­ porters in setting up a Congressional Patriotic League but much to the disgust of some Eighth District leaders limited its public support to a circular, issued in late October, opposing in­ cumbent Edward E. Browne. The pattern of Legion involvement in the Second District was similar. Despite pressure from loyalists and KuU's promise that a campaign committee would be set up, no strong organization arose to oppose the incumbent, German-born Pro­ gressive Republican Edward Voigt, and the Legion did not cultivate one. The Legion con­ Society's Iconographic Collection tented itself with issuing a circular similar to German-born Edward Voight, who served four terms the one sent out in the Eighth District; like the in Congress as a Progressive Republican. one against Browne, the anti-Voigt circular emphasized votes prior to and shortly after plied, six favored such a stance and two opposed United States entrance into the war. In fact, it it. On October 21 the Legion issued its anti- mentioned no votes after June 23,1917.^" Thus, Philipp circular.^" in the three districts of most concern to loyal­ In a sense Legion tactics fitted the abnormal ists the Legion acted overtly in only one, the circumstances of the 1918 Congressional elec­ Fifth. In the Second it took only minimal action tions. The Fourth Liberty Loan drive in Octo­ and in the Eighth it worked behind the scenes ber and an influenza epidemic immobilized to set up an anti-Browne machine but refused campaigns throughout the country and necessi­ to endorse his opponent. tated heavy reliance on printed material. At the The Legion did concern itself with one other same time they distracted voters from the elec­ race, the gubernatorial election. In the Republi­ tion, as did Allied military successes in the late can primary Governor Philipp had beaten loy­ summer and early fall. "There is very little poli­ alty-challenger Roy P. Wilcox by a slim 540 tics being discussed," La Follette Republican votes. Ever hostile to Philipp, Milwaukee Le­ James Thompson wrote a friend, "and one gion members presuaded Kull to send general would be inclined to think that the interest must council members a lengthy anti-Philipp diatribe be lacking." Politicians across the state echoed prepared by Wheeler Bloodgood and to vote on his sentiments and low turnouts on election day whether or not the Legion should oppose his re­ confirmed these suspicions. In every district election. Of the nine council members who re- fewer people voted than in 1914, the previous nonpresidential election year.^^

" John W. Brown to Judson Rosebush, September 12, 1918; Minutes of Meeting, September 24, 1918 °° Undated, untitled report written by Wheeler P. Kull to Charles E. Williams, September 27, 1918 Bloodgood; Kull to members of the General Council, J. L. Sturtevant to Kull, October 3, 11, 22, 1918 October 9, 1918; Minutes of Meetings, October 18, Minutes of the Advisory Board, October 18, 24, 1918 24, 1918, in the WLL Papers. See also R. L. Jones Kull to John Brown, October 22, 1918; Kull to E. E. to James A. Stone, October 15, 1918, in the Stone Browne, October 26, 1918; Leaflets addressed to Papers. Loyalty Legion Members in the Second, Fourth, Fifth, "' Emanuel Philipp to Cyrus Philipp, October 5, and Eighth congressional districts, ca. October 26, 1918, in the Philipp Papers; Milwaukee Sentinel, 1918, in the WLL Papers; Waupaca County Post, September 20, 27, October 11, 20, 1918; Sehg Adler, September 5, 1918; Stevens Point Gazette, October "The Congressional Election of 1918," in the South 2, 1918; Wood County Reporter, October 3, 1918; Atlantic Quarterly, 36:454, 459 (October, 1937) ; Shawano County Advocate, October 8, 1918; Mil­ James Thompson to D. W. Welch, October 28, 1918, waukee Sentinel, November 3, 1918. in the Thompson Papers; James A. Stone to J. W.

48 CARY: WISCONSIN LOYALTY LEGION

Loyalty candidates gained election in the gains in this period were significant. Berger's First, Third, and Fourth districts but elsewhere 4,470 plurality over Carney resulted, in part, incumbents won. The Loyalty Legion had from a three-cornered race. Berger, however, focused special attention on Milwaukee. In the viewed his victory as the result of protest votes Fourth District John Kleczka easily defeated and most historians concur. Not all of the Socialist Edmund T. Melms, but in the Fifth 17,920 Milwaukeeans who voted for Berger District, Victor Berger triumphed over both were Socialists. Many undoubtedly used their incumbent William H. Stafford and loyalty can­ ballot to strike back against the drive for con­ didate Carney, winning nearly 44 per cent of formity of opinion led by the Loyalty Legion the total vote. Nor did the Legion find solace in and the Milwaukee Journal and against the returns from the Second and Eighth districts; pressure tactics used in Liberty Bond drives. Voigt and Brown outpolled their challengers The Socialist vote in the Filth District rose handily.'^ scarcely more than 2,000 votes above the 1916 Loyalty candidates in the Second, Fifth, and level, but in the Second District it leaped from Eighth districts were Democrats and bucking 1,136 to 6,936 and in the Eighth District from traditional party loyalties proved a serious 1,041 to 5,904, an astonishing increase for a hindrance to Legion tacticians. In addition, nonpresidential election year.^* Since Loyalty there were a number of reasons not to vote Legion pressure concentrated in precisely these Democratic. Wilson's interference in the special areas, this growth in Socialist strength appears election, his clumsy October call for the election to have been due to an outright repudiation of of a Democratic Congress, and his administra­ loyalist efforts. tion's oppressive handling of war opponents The Loyalty Legion made no official analysis soured many voters. Equally important, state of the election but it could hardly have been Democrats followed Wilson's lead and focused elated by the results. The year-long effort to almost exclusively on the loyalty issue, while clear the state's name had ended far short of Republicans campaigned on a fairly compre­ Legion expectations. The elections of 1918, in­ hensive platform touching on such matters as deed, pointed to the waning of the Legion's taxation and postwar problems. At this point voters were more interested in these than in the loyalty issue. Yet some voters, apparently, were 4 T ITS PEAK the Legion claimed 70,346 influenced enough by the loyalty issue to vote -^~*-members, most of whom joined in response Democratic. In the three districts where the to concentrated organizing drives and social Legion focused attention the general decline in pressure. Various individuals utilized the Le­ voter turnout cut most deeply into the Republi­ gion, as they had its precursor the Defense can column.^^ League, to strike at traditional enemies, or Legion activity in these same districts, how­ joined because they feared the economic effect ever, also produced a countermovement. Ger­ of the state's poor reputation upon their own man-Americans in the Lake counties generally businesses. But on the whole those who enlisted voted Democratic, yet in this election many and those who led the Legion shared a sincere flocked to the Socialist banner. Though Social­ conviction that Wisconsin's sullied name had ists elected only Victor Berger, any Socialist to be cleansed by emphatic and outward dis­ plays of patriotism. This defensive response to the intense pres­ Frenz, October 29, 1918, in the Stone Papers; Adol- sures of World War I was not atypical, although phus Nelson to George West, October 30, 1918, in the Nelson Papers; Wisconsin Blue Book, 1915, in Wisconsin its manifestations were exagger- 266-269; Wisconsin Blue Book, 1919, 154-157. Not surprisingly, the total vote was also lower than it had been in 1916. See Wisconsin Blue Book, 1917, 289-291. "" Wisconsin Blue Book, 1919, 154-157. " Wisconsin Blue Book, 1917, 288, 290; Wisconsin "= Herbert F. Marguhes, "The Election of 1920 Blue Book, 1919, 154-156. On the extent of pres­ in Wisconsin: The Return to 'Normalcy' Reap­ sure used on citizens during the war see Charles D. praised," in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, Stewart, "Prussianizing Wisconsin," in the Atlantic 41:15-17 (Autumn, 1957) ; Wisconsin Blue Book, Monthly, 123:99-105 (January, 1919), and numer­ 1917, 289, 290; Wisconsin Blue Book 1919, 155, 156. ous letters on the subject in the Stewart Papers.

49 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

ated because of the numerous symbols of "dis­ loyalty." The material for an ardent patriotic cause existed in the votes against war, in the large numbers of German-Americans of seem­ ingly doubtful patriotism who threatened na­ tional unity, and in the Socialists who though strongest in Milwaukee seemed to threaten the whole state with their antiwar propaganda. But what was most disturbing to those who orga­ nized the Legion was the public and national scope of these signs of disloyalty. The attempt to clear Wisconsin's name in the eyes of the union was, therefore, a provincial one in many respects. So intent were the leaders of the Legion upon improving Wisconsin's reputation that their thinking about means and tactics was distorted. Most important, the Legion consistently exag­ gerated the extent of superpatriotism. It mis­ ,\~$L.^ Lt sic iino^.;r.i{ liic Coin took support of the war for war fervor and Algie M. Simons, Milwaukee Socialist (far left), as acceptance of Legion goals. And often it re­ a member of the American Socialist and Labor Mis­ sponded to its own enthusiasm. The black-and- sion to Paris in 1918. The dapper gentleman leaning white psychology of superpatriotism com­ on his cane is Alexander Kerensky. pounded the miscalculation, for those who dis­ agreed with the Legion could be disregarded as either misinformed or traitorous. On the other politicians were simply bent upon winning po­ hand, any encouragement for militant patrio­ litical office. Legion leaders never utilized barn tism — from Milwaukee Journal editorials to burnings or physical attacks upon antiwar the fervent praise of a Madison man — was speakers, as did some other patriotic groups eagerly seized upon as evidence that the Legion elsewhere, but their barrage of propaganda, was on the right track.^^ and the assumptions upon which it was based, This kind of support sustained the Legion in generated a sizable opposition group which its effort to enter the state's political arena and vented its protest in the privacy ol the voting in its campaign of "patriotic education," but it booth. also perpetuated the Legion's illusions about Though the war did have a profound impact the dimensions of war fervor. This showed on the thinking of many citizens in Wisconsin, most clearly in the Legion's efforts to influence the principles upon which the Loyalty Legion the special election of April, 1918, and the fall rested did not outlive the war in the Badger congressional elections of that year. In both state. Once the United States entered the con­ campaigns Legion chiefs overestimated the ex­ flict a majority supported the war effort, but tent to which their own criteria would sway even during the war patriots of the Loyalty voters. Thus they clumsily hammered at a man's Legion brand remained a minority. The results vote against war as a symbol of disloyalty, in of the 1918 congressional elections indicated spite of the fact that many who had voted the limits of Legion influence. Interest in the against war later supported the war effort with Legion sagged sharply after the elections and as much fervor as any Legion official. They also the Armistice of November, 1918, terminated misjudged politicians' commitment to the loy­ its active life. Within less than a year the Wis­ alty issue and failed to see that in most cases consin Loyalty Legion faded from the scene.

'"'T. C. Richmond to Bloodgood, August 14, 1917, in the WDL Papers.

50 IvE V I E W d

Planning Urban America: An Essay Review

BY STANLEY MALLACH

Our cities are a mess. So many people have evolution of the physical structure of American intoned these words so often lately that many cities. Historians have done a better job of people have come to believe them true. And in showing the intellectual and social bases of to­ large measure they are true—our cities are a day's urban problems, but these subjects too mess. Part of the problem is that the physical need much more study. What historians have structure of cities and the means being used to demonstrated certainly is that every generation "improve" it are out of joint with contempo­ of American urbanites has tried to build and rary ideals and urban needs. The thinking of rebuild its cities according to its peculiar needs, many practicing planners and city officials has capabilities, and dreams. been too hopelessly antediluvian to comprehend The study of the evolution of the physical these increasingly perilous facts. Thus far his­ structure of cities may be called city planning torians have done little to bare the background history. It includes description and analysis of of the physical aspects of our "urban crisis," the design, location, and use of such physical because they have only scantily studied the characteristics of cities as street patterns, docks and harbors, open spaces and recreation areas, the transportation network, and residential and nonresidential building. These things are influ­ enced by and influence the state of technology, Town Planning in Frontier America. By JOHN demographic patterns, politics, the economy of W. REPS. (Princeton University Press, Prince­ cities, urban law, and the ideas and ideals of ton, 1969. Pp. 473. Illustrations, notes, bibli­ planners and those who live in and build and ography, index. $13.50.) rule cities. City planning history deals with this vast Monumental Washington: The Planning and range of interrelated problems mainly within Development of the Capital Center. By JOHN W. the context of three activities: the initial physi­ REPS. (Princeton University Press, Princeton, cal development of cities, the redevelopment of 1969. Pp. XV, 221. niustrations, notes, bibh- old sections, and the creation of new ones. All ography, index. $12.50.) three may be performed under public or pri-

51 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969 vate direction or some combination of the two. and that time can be the crudest enemy of even All three may be performed fitfully and hap­ the best laid-out cities. One of the great plans hazardly or according to some grand design to of the colonial era, the original gridiron plat be fulfilled over a stretch of years. Together of the city of brotherly love contained spacious these three activities shape the physical city, lots, an abundance of open space, provisions what we experience as we wander over side­ for the expansion of the city, and capacious walks and through parks and journey to out­ streets laid out in a pattern well suited to the lying areas, as we try to go about our daily topography of the area and the needs of the business and leisure. The exhilarating power of community. As time passed and the city grew midtown Manhattan, the battered charm of the and its needs changed, people who were not so Lower East Side, the eerie thrill of a first trip brotherly took over its planning. They built on over the web of Los Angeles freeways, and the the open spaces, they cut streets through the crushing monotony of countless thousands of spacious blocks, which created squalid alleys suburbs. These, and more, are the complex en­ where the poor lived, and they expanded the vironments which make up cities and which city chaotically and expensively rather than in city planning history must account for. an orderly manner. Time served the original The study of the physical structure of Ameri­ plan even worse outside Philadelphia. Perhaps can cities has never been a flourishing enter­ the greatest misfortune of the plan is that it was prise. There are scattered surveys and a few copied throughout the country by innocents monographs, many of the latter written by soci­ and vulgarians who understood neither the plan ologists, geographers, and land economists. of Penn's Great Town nor indeed any princi­ John W. Reps is the most recent and in many ples of sound planning. They platted cities in a ways the best adventurer in city planning his­ rigid rectangular pattern on topography ill- tory. His major work, The Making of Urban suited to such plans and in the process wantonly America, appeared in 1965. An abridgement of wrecked the American landscape and imposed parts of this book. Town Planning in Frontier upon countless cities, large and small, long- America, and a monograph on the planning of lasting social, land use, economic, and aesthetic the nation's capital. Monumental Washington, problems. have now been published. And it is likely that The staples of city planning history. Reps other books are in the works. shows, appeared early: shortsightedness, greed, Professor Reps is a city planner. His books land speculation, and politics. Cities like Chi­ are a planner's history of planning. He writes cago were built as much for real estate specu­ mainly about the central concerns of compre­ lation as to live in. The endless right-angled hensive planning: the design and location of streets were laid out not so much for the con­ streets, open spaces, and private, semipublic, venience of the community as to permit fast and public buildings. He is interested in how settlement and to allow a few people to squeeze these things came into being and changed over as many bucks as possible out of the land. The time in a great variety of kinds of cities. In results were ugliness, inconvenience, obstacles Town Planning in Frontier America he writes to the orderly expansion of the city, and social briefly about the founding and planning of problems which a great fire and planners, pub­ French and Spanish "cities" (they were hardly lic and private, have in this century tried to more than villages) in North America and at remedy. great length about "cities" built by the first Reps' story of the development of Washing­ English settlers and their descendants along the ton is really only the story of the founding of eastern seaboard and on the first American the city and the making of the L'Enfant plan frontiers across the Allegheny and Appalachian and the death and resurrection of the plan's mountains and in the areas along the shores of most important part: the design of the area the Great Lakes. There are also chapters on the around the Capitol and the White House. The founding and planning of a number of Utopian bulk of the book deals with the planning, poli­ communities and of the District of Columbia. tics, and the development during the 1890's, Monumental Washington elaborates this last and after, of one of the most magnificent urban story and deals with the redevelopment of the spaces in the United States — the Mall which "capital center" around the Capitol and the stretches out majestically in front of the Capi­ White House from the end of the nineteenth tol and adjacent areas. Especiaffy important in century up to today. Monumental Washington is the last chapter Reps shows that, as today, city planning in where Reps draws some "lessons" from the the past produced both good and had results, planning experience of the nation's capital. He

52 BOOK REVIEWS emphasizes that the successful development of definable physical structure, and the physical the Mall and adjacent areas occurred because structure does play a part in urban life. Urban there was a "bold and inspiring" plan which politics has always dealt with providing serv­ over a span of years held the allegiance of men ices, such as cutting new streets and providing powerful enough to carry it out. And because sanitation facilities and water. Urban econo­ Congress has always governed Washington, the mies rely heavily on transportation for the plan never had to run the gauntlet of conflicting movement of goods and on subdivision of new local interests where in other cities beautiful areas to accommodate a labor force which is and functional plans have been clubbed into also a market. The quality of life depends on ugliness and inconvenience. In a hortatory the accessibility of services and the population finale Reps charges contemporary planners to density and physical condition of neighbor­ learn from the Washington experience: that hoods. All these problems are part of the his­ beauty and utility need not be mutually exclu­ tory of city planning—how people have shaped sive. their physical environment and how their phys­ In both Town Planning in Frontier America ical environment has shaped them. and Monumental Washington Reps' most con­ (The reviewer is a graduate student in vincing writing is on design. His discussions of American history at the University of political and social variables in planning are Wisconsin.) weaker, and for the most part he ignores eco­ nomic and legal problems. Also, he discusses in detail the way social and political patterns affected planning, but he never deals with the ways plans affected the development of com­ STATE AND REGIONAL munities. For example, in Town Planning he writes perceptively about land distribution in seventeenth-century New England towns and the relationship of people's dwellings to the fields and commons where they worked. He Factories in the Valley: Neenah-Menasha, points out that these towns were attractive and 1870-1915. By CHARLES N. GLAAB and LAW­ highly functional, except that they did not pro­ RENCE H. LARSEN. (The State Historical Society vide for much expansion. They were unable to of Wisconsin, Madison, 1969. Pp. ix, 293. Illus­ accommodate new immigrants and the second trations, notes, map, essay on sources, appen­ generation. Therefore, Puritans pushed into dix, index. $6.00.) other areas and built new towns. What Reps does not discuss is the impact of the spreading In May, 1873, the editor of the Menasha out of the Puritans over New England and Long Press gazed into his journalistic crystal ball Island on the Puritan dream of a city on a hill. and predicted, with the incautious optimism Insofar as the power of churches over people typical of that tumultuous period, that his fast- depended on keeping them in the community, growing little community of not quite 3,000 the physical structure of the towns, with their souls would, within 100 years, be "a metropolis lack of land for all, helped break the power of of 110,000 people, with 600 manufacturing the churches. Not only was there the lure of establishments, including four cotton mills, six abundant land impelling people to spread out woolen factories and assorted steel mills, pail from the first towns, but the first towns virtu­ factories and wagonworks." Together, he de­ ally forced them to leave. Thus, along with clared, these thriving factories would represent other causes, the physical structure of the New a capital investment of some $180,000,000, and England towns dashed the dreams of some of "would manufacture products worth $500,- the most influential founders. 000,000 annually." Steamships "from St. Petersburg and Buenos Aires" would be arriv­ Professor Reps should not be taxed too heav­ ing regularly at Menasha's docks, "via a St. ily for his shortcomings, for what he has done, Lawrence canal," and the city's buildings he has done well. Best of all, he has called atten­ would be "larger and more pretentious than tion to the possibilities of city planning history. those in Milwaukee." What remains to be done is to broaden Reps' scope. Urban history is certainly more than The editor was not alone in his confidence just the history of the physical structure of that industrial greatness lay in store for the cities. But the principal characteristic of cities Fox River Valley. Land agents and entrepre­ is that they are geographic locations with a neurs, politicians and promoters from Fond du

53 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

Lac on the south to Green Bay on the north, tions) labor relations. But the steel mills and all were equally certain that their particular the wagonmaking shops, the great buildings site along the swift-flowing Fox would shortly and the vessels from St. Petersburg and Buenos develop into the nucleus of a factory complex Aires—these were not to be seen, either in to rival Lowell in Massachusetts or Birming­ Neenah or Menasha. Nor, one suspected, would ham in England. Had not the railroad arrived they ever become a part of the local landscape. at last, with the promise of transportation for Precisely why the once-promising industrial Fox Valley products to the markets of the community of Neenah-Menasha failed to world? And did not the twin rapids of the Fox achieve the prominence predicted for it, and at Neenah and Menasha offer an abundance of instead leveled off at a respectable but far from cheap power and pure water for whatever in­ lofty plateau of achievement, is the subject of dustrial enterprises might be set up along its this well-researched and thoroughly absorbing banks? It was surely but a matter of time—and volume, published as a companion piece to of persuading certain Eastern capitalists that Alice E. Smith's earlier (and equally useful) the Fox Valley (and Neenah-Menasha in par­ study. Millstone and Saw: The Origins of Nee­ ticular) warranted their investments—before nah-Menasha (The State Historical Society of a new Manchester or Philadelphia would rise Wisconsin, 1967). Conceiving their project as along the twin communities' vaunted "water "a case study in the dynamics of urbanization power." and industrialization in small cities in a Mid­ It was not, alas, to be. Between 1870 and western setting," the authors have produced a 1915, the period of transition and adjustment book that is not only informative but readable covered by Professors Glaab and Larsen in this —one that can be enjoyed as social history (it volume, second in a series on Neenah-Menasha cleared up some family relationships that had produced by the Urban History Section of the puzzled the reviewer, a native of the Twin State Historical Society of Wisconsin, the for­ Cities, for most of his life), as economic his­ merly ebullient promoters of the Twin Cities tory (its descriptions of the development of found it expedient to lower their sights and Kimberly-Clark Corp. and the Menasha Wood­ revise their expectations of what the community en Ware Co. are particularly fascinating), as might become. Instead of a brawling, dynamic labor history (perhaps the most difficult field Pittsburgh, Neenah and Menasha—two munici­ of research, since labor "difficulties" were not pal entities separated politically but united so­ always reported in the local press) and as an cially and economically—developed into a illustration of the enormous power of the eco­ closely interlocked pair of "mature industrial nomic theories, myths and illusions that sus­ towns," prosperous, sedate and influential out tained the nineteenth-century entrepreneurs of all proportion to their size, primarily be­ and their emulators. cause investment decisions made by the Neenah- The authors have attempted to reach no final Menasha factory owners affected the entire decision on the relative importance of geo­ valley, of which the Twin Cities had become the graphic and economic circumstances versus the industrial, if not the commercial, hub. impact of specific entrepreneurial decisions. Success had come, it was true, but it was a But they do offer a series of engaging and, on limited success, one determined in large meas­ occasion, revealing portraits of the determined ure by the aims and imagination of resident men who built Neenah-Menasha's industrial capitalists and their practical analysis of the plant. . . the Clarks, the Smiths, the Babcocks, area's long-term economic potential. A predic­ the Kimberlys, the Shattucks, the Lawsons. tion made by that astute editor, G. A. Cunning­ They pull no punches is constructing a picture ham, writing in his History of Neenah (first of this tightly organized social and industrial published in 1878), had been largely fulfilled. oligarchy, and of the influence—at once benefi­ Instead of expanding into a Boston or even a cent and curiously inhibiting—that the "first Milwaukee, Neenah, despite its promising lo­ families" of the two cities had upon the life cation between Lakes Butte des Morts and Win­ and growth of the community they controlled. nebago, had become a "city noted for its great Glaab and Larsen are careful to delineate the wealth, its beautiful location, and its aristo­ lines of communication that were maintained cratic social standing, rather than for its in­ between the relatively few persons who exer­ creased growth or added industry." Like its cised power in Neenah-Menasha—socially, sister city immediately to the north, Neenah through the Yacht Club, elite organizations could boast of paper and woodworking mills, and private parties; professionally, through a small but fairly successful retail district and trade associations and, sometimes, "pools" that a history of smooth (with occasional excep­ permitted hard-pressed manufacturers to fix

54 BOOK REVIEWS prices and set marketing policies. Glaab and stance, W. Z. Stuart (on page 264) or W. J. Larsen are particularly successful in recreating Stuart (page 267) ? Such minor ffaws do not, the flavor of life in the Neenah-Menasha of the however, detract from the basic value of this late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, meticulously researched contribution to the and quote with considerable relish the "wind­ literature of Neenah-Menasha, and one suspects blown" rhetoric of the period, as revealed in that, because of its generalized approach to the speeches, letters and newspaper articles of the development of the twin communities, it will day. In their hands the characters of John A. be of considerable interest to readers well be­ Kimberly, Charles B. Clark, Publius V. Law- yond the boundaries of the Fox River Valley son, Jr., George A. Whiting, and the Smiths, and, indeed, of Wisconsin. Elisha D. and his son, Charles, emerge full­ blown and just a bit larger than life. JAMES M. AUER Some of the points made by the authors will Neenah not be enjoyed by admirers and descendants of the founders of Neenah-Menasha industry. The writers imply that some large manufacturers, serving regional rather than local markets, were more concerned with the success of their busi­ ness enterprises than with the growth of the Kansas Populism: Ideas and Men. By 0. GENE community in which they operated. They note CLANTON. (University Press of Kansas, Law­ a general lack of enthusiasm for further compe­ rence, 1969. Pp. xiii, 330. Illustrations, appen­ tition for the rather limited available labor dices, notes, bibliography, index. $8.50.) pool, and observe in passing that Neenah- Menasha's municipal services lagged far be­ A quarter of a century ago students of Popu­ hind those of cities of comparable size during lism were in general agreement that the late the initial years of major industrial develop­ nineteenth-century movement was a progressive ment. political response to legitimate economic griev­ At the same time the authors acknowledge ances arising from the farmer's changing posi­ that paternalism, practiced systematically in an tion in an industrializing society. The political environment of relatively full employment and and intellectual currents of the 1950's, how­ sustained economic growth, gave Neenah- ever, encouraged the formation of a new inter­ Menasha not only labor peace, but a kind of pretation, depicting Populism as retrogressive, community esprit that is evident even today, in neurotic, nativistic, and even as a protofascistic the general conservatism of the area. They forerunner of such unsavory later developments credit the cities' relative freedom from residen­ as McCarthyism. This view, so clearly over­ tial segregation based on lines of class and drawn and unbalanced, inspired a historical ethnic background (with the possible exception counterreformation which, as this book testi­ of the Poles) with having kept alive the consid­ fies, still continues. erable rapport that seems to have existed be­ Believing that Kansas was "the center of tween the working man, happily ensconced in Midwestern Populism" and that an investiga­ his "balloon-frame" house on a pleasant, tree- tion of the movement there would answer "some lined street, and his employer, who occupied an of the questions" recently posed, Professor imposing "gingerbread Victorian" mansion on Clanton undertook this study of the leadership, so-called "Piety Row." ideology, and political history of Kansas Popu­ The authors note in passing that, because of lism. The brevity of the text (243 pages), how­ family control of local industry, the rise of the ever, precluded a full consideration of any of hired professional manager was delayed in the three. Apart from good portrayals of such most Twin City concerns until well into the well-known leaders as the erratic Mrs. Lease, tween the working man, happily ensconced in the shrewd Jerry Simpson, or the brilliant reasons behind the decline of the once-promis­ Judge Doster, the leadership discussion often ing milling industry and its replacement as a reads like a telephone directory with a bio­ major factor in the Valley's economic life by graphical appendix, and is marred by such the nascent paper industry in the last quarter major misconceptions as that regarding Popu­ of the nineteenth century. list Senator W. A. Peffer during the 1880's. Factories in the Valley is an attractively- The examination of Populist ideology is more produced book with few typographical errors. balanced than in other recent studies, but sev­ Those that did slip through, it might be ob­ eral of the ideas raised are insufficiently devel­ served, are somewhat irritating. Is it, for in­ oped, leaving only the outlines of concepts.

55 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

The vital ideological dispute over a competitive On the whole, Professor Clanton's study is a versus a co-operative economic system, for ex­ welcome synthesis of what is known about ample, receives limited treatment and the argu­ Kansas Populism and represents the irregular ment of Clanton's only Populist spokesman for beginning of an advancement into its as yet competition (pp. 71-72) has already been unknown aspects. As such, students of Populism quoted in another discussion (pp. 46-47). Sim­ will accept it readily, but it is far from a defini­ ilarly, a quotation of W. D. Vincent's views on tive work. Social Darwinism appears twice (pp. 34, 68). The account of the political history of the peri­ PETER H. ARGERSINGER od provides little new information, too often The University of Wisconsin ignores the effect of national factors on state politics, and even makes minor factual errors. Nevertheless, a clear picture of Populism emerges from Clanton's work: a progressive, generally realistic movement, led for the most part by sensitive, sincere men of varying ability and personality, who attempted to come to An Atlas of Wisconsin. By CHARLES W. COL­ LINS. (College Printing and Typing Co., Inc., grips with the new industrial society of late nineteenth-century America. While objectively Madison, Wisconsin, 1968. Pp. vii, 191. Maps, revealing Populism's less appealing side, Clan­ tables, bibliography, index. $15.00.) ton provides a correction of many of the dis­ tortions of those historians of the 1950's who An examination of this work reveals two took Populism on their own rather than its dominant functions which it will probably terms. assume among the geographical literature per­ taining to Wisconsin. First, the work will prob­ The annoying aspect of the interpretive ably be a useful index to the whereabouts of struggle over the character of Populism is that mappable information about the state; and its evolving resolution is leaving historians with secondly, it may well serve as an excellent ex­ little more real knowledge of Populists than ample of how most of this information should they knew at its beginning. It has become a not be presented. stale debate over the wrong issues while even The first function—that of an index to source basic questions about the movement remain material—relies heavily on the useful section unanswered. The sad irony of Clanton's study by Ruth Stoveken at the end of the volume. is that it recognizes this problem, yet fails to The rest of the atlas is compiled from a small resolve it. His quantitative examination of Pop­ number of sources which are mostly readily ulist leadership, potentially the greatest contri­ available and often inexpensive. For example, bution of the book, is unfortunately too limited forty-four out of the 127 pages of maps and in scope and technique, thereby restricting diagrams in the Collins Atlas can be found in legitimate generalized statements about Popu­ Robert W. Finley's Geography of Wisconsin lists to little more than occupational character­ ($7.50), and eleven more pages of maps are istics (rural-oriented middle class). Moreover, reproduced from the booklet. Natural Resources Clanton fails to recognize the inherent bias in of Wisconsin, obtainable from the State Depart­ his data, or to gauge the significance of missing ment of Administration at fifty cents. Indeed, data to his conclusions. His subjective inclusion the Collins Atlas illustrates that a combination criterion (which omitted congressional candi­ of these two sources, plus a brief trip to the dates L. C. Clark and A. F. Allen yet included Department of Natural Resources and other some decidedly minor figures) further reveals state departments, might well produce a pre­ the absence of any rigorous statistical approach. sentable "Do-It-Yourself Atlas" at a consider­ Even so, a number of methodological tools able saving. would have permitted the exploitation of avail­ The second function of the atlas may be as able data to a more rewarding extent. an example of a "How-not-to-do-it" book. Re­ Occasional lapses in style, and a photographic garding content, there is much that is superflu­ confusion of Jerry Simpson and W. A. Harris, ous in the atlas, and much that could be given detract little from an essentially readable book. greater emphasis. For example, in an atlas of The research is impressive and the notes are so "America's Dairyland," a map illustrating the splendid that the annotation may prove as valu­ location of cheese production might be appro­ able as the text itself. A sketch of the surviving priate. To make room, perhaps the pictorial Populists in the 1900's is new and engaging. feature on "Vanished Animals" could vanish?

56 BOOK REVIEWS

Space, however, is not really at a premium lost; and the traditional explanations given by in the atlas. The reviewer has noticed at least local residents must often he classified as folk­ four maps which supply information found on lore or folk-etymology. There is nothing wrong other maps, and has calculated that the work with coffecting such material, but it should be could be shortened by at least twenty-five pages used with caution and not presented as fact, by reproducing maps at a size consistent with unless verified by other means. the amount of information shown on them. The We are informed that Ladoga is an Indian use of a full page to present a map containing name; in fact it is the name of a lake on what six isarithms, each almost an eighth of an inch was the Russo-Finnish border until 1941. Ca- thick, is hardly justified, especially when a vour is said to be named for a railroad time­ more detailed map of exactly the same infor­ keeper called "Count Cavour." Could it be the mation appears two pages later at a third the Sardinian statesman instead? Kossuth is said size (pp. 21, 23). to be named for a hero of the "Revolutionary Cartographically speaking, the atlas leaves War." He was a leader of the Hungarian rebel­ much to be desired. The use of color is largely lion of 1848. Neva is said to be the name of a thoughtless, the solid primary colors adding Chippewa chief; it is in fact the name of a little to the maps on which they appear in their Russian river. "Run" is said to be a New Eng­ lurid, eye-catching way. Yet there are maps land term for a small stream. It is Southern, which would be greatly enhanced by the intelli­ however; New Englanders say "brook." We are gent addition of but a single color. Other severe also presented with a new claim on the origin problems include the lack of a graded color- of Wisconsin; this time a Polish settler named sequence to invoke at a glance the correct rela­ Wiscont provides the eponym. (The authors tive intensity of the mapped data in the mind do not buy the story, however.) of the reader. Historical errors are rampant: Washington In conclusion, the Collins Atlas will fulfill Island (Door County) is said to have become both the functions reviewed here: (1) an index American territory after the War of 1812; in to mappable source material relating to Wis­ fact it was American soil since the Treaty of consin; and (2) an example of how not to pre­ Paris in 1783. Allouez did Kot set foot in Wis­ sent most of it. Had it concentrated on the first consin until a quarter century after the date function, even considering its limitations of given (1650). Wabasha (Bashaw, p. 8) was time and budget, it could have become an ex­ not a Chippewa chief, but a well-known Sioux, tremely useful compilation costing no more whose village was on the Minnesota side of the than $7.50. Is it not unreasonable to expect its Mississippi. The Oneida Indians did not mi­ prospective buyers to pay an extra $7.50 for grate to Wisconsin because of "the Iroquois the second function? wars in the East." They began their migration in 1823, urged by a missionary, fully forty years after the end of the Revolutionary War, DAVID WOODWARD which was the last time the Iroquois fought. University of Wisconsin Cooper did not write of "Horicon" Indians, though he gave that name to Lake George. Explanations of the meaning of Wisconsin and Milwaukee are attributed to Hennepin, though he never wrote a word on the significance of either name. The Romance of Wisconsin Place Names. By There are mistakes in rendering well-known ROBERT E. GARD and L. G. SORDEN. (October personal names: it is Perrot, not Perriot; Von House, Inc., New York, 1968. Pp. xiii, 144. (not Van) Humboldt; Chrysostom (not Chrys- $10.00.) tom) Verwyst; Father Zenobe Membre (not simply Zenobe). The data in this book, we are told, was ob­ There are contradictions: the explanations tained mainly from local informants, recruited of Big Suamico are inconsistent with those for with the aid of county agricultural agents. Little Suamico. On page 18 the Winnebago Their names in fine type fill more than three tribe is called Algonquian, while it is called pages. I can think of no more certain way to Siouan (correctly) on page 78. On page 73 we fill a book with error; and that is the result are told that the Winnebagos had a village at here. The origin and meaning of many place Madison called Dejop, meaning "four lakes," names, and especially Indian names—even if but on page 78 their "Four Lake village" on adopted scarcely a century ago—are frequently Lake Mendota is called Tay-cho-pe-ra. On page

57 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

74 Manawa is a Winnebago bowman; on page They could have done it all in this volume if 81 it is a Chippewa word for "suck-hole," and they had not wasted pages reproducing old a supposed ancestor of Milwaukee. Both are news clippings dealing with irrelevant histori­ wrong. cal details of many small places like Fifield and Space will permit listing only a few of the Omro (over three columns each) and many manifold errors concerning Indian names in more. Also, 144 pages is short for a book. If this book. There is no evidence of any original they try again, they better try harder. This over­ research whatsoever, or of the use of any Indian priced volume probably contains some useful dictionary. All previous guesswork and error material, but it is so intermixed with nonsense are simply repeated monotonously with no that the unwary reader will never be able to evaluation, liberally sprinkled with "or" and separate one from the other. "perhaps." Example: "Grand Rapids . . . The Indian name was Ah-da-wa-gon, 'on the other VIRGIL J. VOGEL side,' or 'across a river or lake,' or 'two-sided Chicago City College rapids'." (The name actually means a store, a trading place.) Those superfluous hyphens in­ dicate no acquaintance with Indian vocabu­ laries; we do not chop up our words like that; NEW DEAL HISTORY why do it with theirs? We are told that Island Park was the site of a Winnebago village called Pe-she after the warrior Pesheu, or Wild Cat. It means that, The New Deal and the States: Federalism in but in Algonquian, not Winnebago. Waupun is Transition. By JAMES T. PATTERSON. (Prince­ not a mistake for Waubun (dawn or East) "due ton University Press, Princeton, 1969. Pp. viii, to a mistake in spelling, writing, or poor eye­ 226. Notes, bibliographical essay, index. $6.50.) sight." We are dealing with unwritten lan­ guages, and the sounds of b and p are inter­ For some time New Deal historians have changeable in this case (Potawatomi or Ojib­ suggested the profitability of turning away from wa). Weyauwega is said to mean "here we the more glamorous Washington scene to take rest." This one is popular with civic promoters; a closer look at the rest of the country. James T. it has also been given for Alabama and Iowa. Patterson is one of those scholars who has All are myths. Algoma and Tuscola, in these taken his own advice. While not abandoning forms, are not really aboriginal, but inventions national figures for the less sweeping state of the early ethnologist Henry R. Schoolcraft, study, he does take the first step in defining who added Latin endings to Indian root words the federal-state context in which New Dealers to form dozens of place names, especially in had to work. Michigan. Many of these w-ere borrowed by After a brief discussion of the demise of other states. federal and state "progressivism" in the 1920's There are seven explanations given for Wau­ and the inability of the states and the federal paca (all wrong), seven for Wauwatosa (one government to combat the Depression, Patter­ right: firefly), and nine for Pewaukee, which son considers three aspects of federal-state re­ must remain in doubt until old maps or ac­ lations during the Roosevelt administration; counts reveal the missing original syllable. relief and welfare, co-ordination of agencies, Eleven etymologies are given for Milwaukee, and politics. The problems of the Federal Emer­ which is one of the simplest to determine: good gency Relief Administration, the Works Prog­ land. ress Administration, and the Social Security There is not a footnote in the entire book, Administration exemplified those likely to arise nor is there a bibliography. However, a com­ when the federal government and the states parison with Dr. H. W. Kuhm's "Indian Place- shared the responsibility for an agency. The Names of Wisconsin" [Wisconsin Archeologist, WPA, unlike the FERA, was a "primarily March & June, 1952), reveals that this is the national operation" which avoided the FERA's principal source of the material used on Indian difficulties with "money and appointments." names. Kuhm likewise quoted many dubious On the other hand,both were faced by a "linger­ secondary sources but never evaluated them or ing laissez-faire ideology" that precluded the offered his own conclusions. availability of sufficient funds. The Social Se­ curity Administration assumed the responsi­ The authors say that for lack of space they bility for unemployables from the FERA in could not include all Wisconsin names, but they 1935 and continued to rely heavily upon state promise to complete the job in a later volume.

58 BOOK REVIEWS co-operation. This "tended to magnify varia­ There are a few technical faults in the book, tions in state welfare spending and to induce one of which is a tendency to misquote Gover­ distortion in state budgets." Although both of nor Eugene Talmadge. Allen Henson, Tal- the newer agencies promoted structural changes madge's biographer, did not say that the gover­ at the state level that insured continued welfare nor called the Georgia Relief Administrator a programs, they also encouraged states "to adopt "crabbed old maid." Neither was Talmadge regressive taxes in paying their bills." quoted as having stated that he did not want The multitude of often overlapping agencies to see the unemployed. begged for some sort of effective inter- and Despite these shortcomings, the book is a intrastate co-ordination, but none was ever de­ signpost for further New Deal study, and Pat­ vised. The National Emergency Council, estab­ terson's excellent bibliographical essay pro­ lished for this purpose, failed miserably be­ vides a good entrance to basic materials. In cause state NEC directors had no authority excusing Roosevelt for many of the New Deal's over those in other agencies. The inability of failures, he implies that the states had a more the National Recovery Administration to se­ important role than is customarily assigned to cure passage of "Little NRA's" and labor legis­ them—a conclusion supported by state studies lation demonstrated the consequences when co­ done thus far. Patterson has indeed shown us ordination was lacking. the correct path to take out of Washington in The records of various agencies could be exploring the New Deal. measured by the amount of authority granted the states and the political climate therein. The M1CH.4.EL S. HOLMES most important persons to agencies requiring University of Wisconsin at Parkside maximum state co-operation were the gover­ nors who, during the 1930's, ranged from lib­ eral to conservative with the majority being "nobodies." State legislators played the most important supporting roles, and their relations Demagogues in the Depression: American Rad­ with the governors contributed in determining icals and the Union Party, 1932-1936. By DA­ the amount of co-operation Roosevelt might VID H. BENNETT. (Rutgers University Press, expect. New Brunswick, 1969. Pp. 341. Illustrations, Through state elections Washington could notes, bibliography, index. $10.00.) gain support, but voters were more often influ­ enced by internal affairs than by the candi­ Demagogues in the Depression, by David H. dates' stands on the New Deal. This made it Bennett of the history department of Syracuse particularly difficult for Roosevelt to exert pres­ University, is a study of the ill-fated attempt sure, either through patronage or direct politi­ by a coalition of political and economic mal­ cal action. Consequently, the President could contents joined together in the Union party to not insure the election of those friendly to the capture the presidency from Franklin D. Roose­ New Deal. velt in 1936. Although primarily concerned Patterson feels that the results of the New with tracing the formation and the collapse of Deal were uneven because of differences within the Union party, Mr. Bennett also provides the state borders. This was inherent in the pattern reader with a portrait of each of the four major of "federalism" emerging in the 1930's. While architects of the party: Detroit's cleric of the valuable, this conclusion is far from definitive. airways and monetary theorist for the deprived, State studies will determine just what forces Catholic priest Charles E. Coughlin; the South­ were present and what effect they had on the ern-style evangelist and rabble-rouser, Gerald achievements of each agency. This requires L. K. Smith; California's apostle to the aged, types of information with which Patterson does Dr. Francis E. Townsend; and William E. not deal. He does not define the division of Lemke, the party's presidential standard-bearer power in each agency, nor does he consider and longtime spokesman for the aggrieved fully the intrastate relation of the agencies and agrarians of the Northern Plains. Bennett's the state governments. Often co-operation was book opens with a detailed description of the more important at this level than between the two conventions held at Cleveland's lakefront federal and state governments. Finally, although stadium in the summer of 1936—Townsend's he suggests the importance of a state's citizens Old Age Pensioners and Coughlin's National as voters, he does not view them in relation to Union for Social Justice—that nominated Lem­ the programs themselves, a situation which was ke as the presidential candidate for the Union more frequent. party. Succeeding chapters provide biographi-

59 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

cal sketches of the Union party's quartet of an end to his lucrative and antidemocratic ac­ leaders, how they rose to prominence, their tivities. activities in the campaign of 1936, the party's Untainted by any desire for financial gain— defeat, and its final disintegration several years or, for that matter, by any degree of organiza­ later. A closing chapter, entitled "Epilogue," tional astuteness—was William Lemke, Con­ attempts to draw some parallels between the gressman from North Dakota and heir to a aims of the Unionists and today's "new left" tradition of farm protest running through the and to explore the deeper meaning of this dema­ Grange and the Greenback movements, Popu­ gogues' crusade within the broader context of lism, and the twentieth-century Nonpartisan the American historical experience. League. By 1934 Lemke had broken with the The Union party brought together four lead­ New Deal for two reasons: he felt himself un­ justifiably excluded from Roosevelt's circle of ers representing widely disparate segments of farm policy advisers and, in 1933 and 1934, the nation; only the hysteria produced by the the Democratic leadership in Congress opposed Great Depression and the varying degrees of a number of measures introduced by Lemke to opportunism in each of the party's leaders can help the bankrupt farmers of the nation. The explain the alliance forged at Cleveland in 1936. Union party's platform contained Lemke'sfarm The most cynical of the lot was undoubtedly proposals as well as a potpourri of other notions Gerald L. K. Smith, a crossroads spellbinder of drawn from the programs advanced in the little personal or political morality. (Some 1930's by Townsend, Smith, and Coughlin. years ago I was told on good authority that Despite the severity of the Depression, the Smith, a purveyor of crude anti-Semitism, Union party failed to attract any appreciable offered his services to the Anti-Defamation number of voters. Less than one million voters, League to defend the Jewish community against under two per cent of the electorate, voted for the anti-Semitic diatribes of Coughlin.) An Lemke and the Union party's "something-for- agitator always on the make. Smith tried to everybody" platform. In part, the failure of the capture Huey Long's "Share-the-Wealth" or­ Union party can be traced to the political in­ ganization after the Kingfish's assassination. eptitude of its leadership and the attractiveness As part of their settlement with the leadership of F.D.R. and his New Deal program. More of the national Democratic party. Long's politi­ significantly, however, and it is this that dis­ cal heirs destroyed the "Share-the-Wealth" tinguishes the climate of the 1930's from that organization and virtually banished Smith from of the 1960's, the failure of the Union party the state. Having become a demagogue in reflected the unshakable faith of the American search of an organization. Smith served for a people in the essential soundness of our politi­ time as a bridge between the elderly devotees cal and economic system. The failure of the of Townsend's $200-per-month pension plan Union party in the Depression Decade or, for and Coughlin's more broadly based Social Jus­ that matter, the collapse of the Socialist party tice movement. and the lack of success of the Communists, dis­ Monetary analyst, quasi-Fascist and blatant proves a cliche of the liberal mind: that eco­ anti-Semite, Coughlin is the most complex and nomic deprivation will lead to political radi­ interesting figure of the lot. Driven by a yearn­ calism. (How many billions of dollars in for­ ing for power, money, and the adulation of the eign aid we have expended since 1945 based on crowd, Coughlin used his weekly radio talks to this premise!) The thirties, in contrast to the condemn Jewish bankers, British imperialists, prosperous sixties, were relatively unmarked and the foreign policy of F.D.R. For many by violence on the campus, rioting and looting years these talks—in conjunction with his So­ in the cities, and the other excesses of our own cial Justice organization and magazine— day. It is this which leads me to question the brought millions of adherents to his side and historical continuities and parallels Mr. Ben­ many more millions of dollars into his organi­ nett is constantly emphasizing throughout his zation's treasury. Financially and organization­ book. While, for example, both Coughlin and ally more secure than Smith, Townsend, or the Populists railed against a monetary con­ Lemke, Coughlin survived and even flourished spiracy and sought an inflationary currency to after the defeat of the Union party in 1936. cure the economic problems of the nation, the Only a combination of factors—the end of the differences between them outweigh the com­ Depression after 1940, his own intemperate monalities. All in all, given the capitalistic pro-Nazi statements during the early years of assumptions of our nation, currency manipu­ World War II, and the actions to silence him lation is one of the few instruments left to an taken by his superiors in the church—brought aggrieved class or region. Despite this pro-

60 BOOK REVIEWS clivity—a tendency to draw unnecessary paral­ "Rule A for a newspaperman is that 'leaks' lels between periods and movements and a are the food of the trade; and over the years I somewhat pendantic style (no doubt a result have found that, as with the best drinks, the of having first written his book as a doctoral leak always fizzes from the top." dissertation)—this reviewer found Mr. Ben­ With this ground rule for scripture he feels nett's book informative and judicious, well- entitled to paint his vignettes of the great men conceived, ably researched, and lucidly written. and women of our time, and the amazing list ranges from Harry Truman to Marshal Tito, JULIUS WEINBERG from Count Sforz to Wisconsin's Joe Davies. Cleveland State University He handles his admiration and contempt with economy and restraint: "There is no doubt in my mind that the man I most admired among those I met was Winston Churchill. Churchill had the qualities of a poet and a pirate; I can ask no better mixture. Among public figures, de Gaulle alone had equal courtesy of manner." Telling the difficulties of honest reporting he confides: ". . . Contemplating my own diary, I GENERAL HISTORY remember how inaccurate diaries can be. Once I played cards with Eisenhower, Harriman, Gruenther and Dan Kimball . . . while all dis­ cussed the memoirs of James Forrestal, first Secretary of Defense. They had attended a A Long Row of Candles. By C. L. SULZBERGER. meeting referred to in the book and each agreed (The Macmillan Company, New York, 1969. that Forrestal's account was wrong. But when I Pp. xvi, 1,027. Index. $12.50.) asked what, then, was the true version, all promptly disagreed among themselves." An honest publisher will admit that if he This Row of Candles covers the author's knew the qualities required to qualify his books memoirs and diaries from 1934 through 1954. for the best-sellers' list, he'd be rich. Reading Surely he will sometime bring it to date in Sulzberger's new volume, I kept asking myself another volume, because he still is an important what had helped it win the sales popularity figure in reporting foreign affairs for an Ameri­ contests so many weeks since its early summer can audience. He shunned employment with the publication. great New York Times, of which his uncle was Perhaps quality is a factor after all. Cer­ publisher. His family were the poor Sulzber- tainly quality is present in this book in many gers. After Harvard and Phi Beta Kappa he interesting, and often exciting, forms. It is both worked for Scripps-Howard in Pittsburgh, and easy and difficult to read. The words flow easily later for the United Press in a variety of places. and pleasantly, often in almost poetic form; His European career started as a free-lancer. yet paragraph after paragraph is so tightly Only after he had successfully made it "on his packed with such exciting personal and histori­ own" did he listen to the blandishments of his cal facts that the reader is compelled to slow uncle and join the Times where he organized down and digest it word by word. This is good its foreign service. for long and leisurely absorption, but creates His early years in Europe found him special­ difficulties for a critic trying to do justice to izing in the Balkans, especially Greece. In this, more than 1,000 pages and still meet a deadline. even-now little understood world, he became It is an important book. It will be on library an expert. He got to know the leaders of all its shelves, and in historical footnotes for many many factions. He learned to get along in its years. Sulzberger is one of the best reporters languages. When the time came to bargain with of our time. His instinct told him where history his uncle for a job with the New York Times was being made, his craft and courage told him he reports: "Finally there were no other avail­ how to get there and record it. His charm and able reporters in the Balkans; I had acquired common touch made him the confidant of kings, fairly extensive experience, spoke French and prime ministers, and butlers. His gift of lan­ German and had learned to burble in Serbian, guages made it easy to talk to most of them in Albanian and Bulgarian as well as two personal his own tongue. He had trained himself well demotic tongues that I call 'foreign' and are all in the basics of his craft both by education and that remain now that my linguist's lobes have experience. atrophied. In Latin Foreign I can still, with the

61 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969 aid of gestures, find my way from Cadiz to to compromise with the South, and who con­ Constanza and, in Slavic Foreign, from Susak tinued to fight for emancipation and racial jus­ to Samarkand." tice after the war began. On other issues they These are the superficials. To comment on were badly divided. the meat, the vital and the more interesting of In keeping with recent historiography this the trivial, would require a review almost as book defends the practicality of antebellum long as the 1,000-plus pages of the book itself. radical politicians against revisionist criticism. There was his night in the Vienna morgue Stressing the co-operation and mutual depend­ when he was able to document the Nazi horror; ence between the radicals and Lincoln, Tre­ his firsthand view of Hitler's switch in sides fousse comes very close to David Donald's view and the attack on Russia; his recording of of this relationship by emphasizing Lincoln's FDR's trade with Churchill for British influ­ superior political astuteness. (Predictably, he ence in the Balkans—an area which our War is highly critical of T. Harry Williams—espe­ President did not understand and in which he cially when indicating that the radicals were was not interested—for American uncondition­ not "wild revolutionaries.") But unlike Don­ al surrender terms; and the conditions those ald, Trefousse finds a unique place for the radi­ terms created in the conduct of the entire war. cals among the Republicans by denying that These were some of the many theaters in which there was party consensus on the race issue. Sulzberger sat as a learned observer and re­ His most crucial difference from Donald is his cording historian. argument for the primacy of moral principles Despite its size and depth, A Long Row of for the radicals; neither psychological motives Candles is not heavy going. Amidst its tears nor the need to win elections were central. The and frustrations are a multitude of laughs, congressional radicals, according to Trefousse, touches of bawdy humor, a great personal mod­ were moved by genuine idealism, not by per­ esty that makes it excellent midnight or rainy- sonal anxiety or pressures exerted by their day reading. I commend it to you. electorate. He notes that advocating racial jus­ tice "often hindered rather than helped their DON ANDERSON careers." Too frequently, however, the actions Madison of both Lincoln and the radicals are isolated (The reviewer is the emeritus publisher of by Trefousse from the force of events. the Wisconsin State Journal.) A result of insulating Lincoln and the radi­ cals from events and people is the slighting of abolitionists and postwar agitators for racial justice, men outside government who sought to shape public opinion. While Trefousse cor­ The Radical Republicans: Lincoln's Vanguard rectly argues that radical politicians put back­ for Racial Justice. By HANS L. TREFOUSSE. (Al­ bone into Lincoln's fight for Negro rights, he fred A. Knopf, New York, 1968. Pp. 492. gives too little weight to the influence of those $10.00.) who were often too radical to support even the major radical politicians. The Radical Republi­ As a biographer of Benjamin Butler and cans minimizes the distance between the radi­ Benjamin Wade, Hans Trefousse is eminently cals and the abolitionists by declaring that qualified for the difficult task of writing a his­ differences were merely over means, not ends. tory of the radical Republicans. Most recent And yet when Trefousse assures us that radical Civil War historians have described either the politicians had an "innate faith in the perfecti­ events leading to the war, the war itself, or bility of the American government," one recalls Reconstruction. Trefousse has had the tenacity the enormous differences before the war be­ and good sense to give equal attention to radi­ tween politicians and those Garrisonians who cal politics on the race issue for the entire era. refused to vote or those militant abolitionists The Radical Republicans is a major synthesis who preached and practiced violence. Trefousse of national politics based upon essential histori­ also labors to show a consensus during the war cal monographs and bountiful primary sources. between agitators and Lincoln: he does this by Trefousse's central premise is Allan Nevins' virtually ignoring James M. McPherson's work view that slavery and the complementary prob­ on the abolitionists' opposition to Lincoln's lem of race adjustment were the main roots Negro colonization schemes and the grave of the Civil War. Radicals, then, were those doubts they had about the President's other Congressmen who before the war opposed the racial policies. Only with excessive hindsight extension of slavery into the territories, refused can a historian write that all men seeking racial

62 BOOK REVIEWS justice should have recognized Lincoln's relia­ In addition to the antiradical prejudices that bility on the Negro issue. The limits of the warped the administration of justice for Sacco Emancipation Proclamation and Lincoln's plan and Vanzetti, there were in the Scottsboro cases for compensated gradual emancipation (by the further elements of racial, religious, and 1900) were among many sound reasons for sectional biases. Though the guilt or innocence opposing him. of Sacco and Vanzetti are still debated, there Despite such objections to The Radical Re­ was never any reasonable doubt that the Scotts­ publicans it can be firmly recommended as the boro Boys were innocent. Furthermore, the most important scholarly volume covering the lives of the Scottsboro Boys were saved, though entire Civil War era since Donald's revision in their existences were grotesquely misshapen by 1961 of J. G. Randall's The Civil War and their ordeal. Reconstruction. Its focus, by design, is more The legal battle to save what would remain specifically political but its scope remains no of their lives was fought through five new trials less courageous. and two significant Supreme Court reviews be­ fore reaching an apparent and curious settle­ TiLDEN G. EDELSTEIN ment in 1939 with the conviction of four of the Rutgers University Boys for rape, the conviction of a fifth for an assault that occurred while in prison awaiting trial, and the release of the other four defend­ ants whom the state decided not to prosecute. Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South. To climax the series of degradations of justice, By DAN T. CARTER. (Louisiana State University the governor of Alabama refused to honor the Press, Baton Rouge, 1969. Pp. xiii, 431. Iflus- state's agreement to pardon and release the five trations, notes, bibliography, index. $10.00.) convicted Boys. The last Scottsboro Boy did not leave prison until 1950 after spending nine­ On March 25, 1931, a group of young white teen years in jail, a living sacrifice to the cult men, set adrift by the Depression, complained of Southern white womanhood. to a north Alabama sheriff that they had been In his book, Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the attacked and thrown from a slow freight train American South, Dan T. Carter has at last by a gang of Negroes. A hurriedly assembled provided a full account of the entire affair. It posse took nine black "boys," ranging in age is an excellent book, even though it does not from twelve to twenty, from the train and alter existing understandings of this particular placed them in the Jackson County jail at case or ol the nature of race relations in Scottsboro. Among the other hoboes detained America. Through lively writing and the de­ by the posse were Victoria Price, a tough-talk­ tailed reporting of exhaustive research the ing, snuff-dipping, poor-white mill hand of book does manage to convey something of the easy virtue and salacious imagination, and horror and moral predicaments bound up in Ruby Bates, her seventeen-year-old cohort. Ap­ the Southern system of racial subordination. parently to forestall their own arrest, the girls Indeed, this dramatic impact may have been invented a story of gang rape perpetrated by achieved at the price of not pursuing implica­ the black youths and embellished it with lurid tions and interpretations to the extent they details that became more graphic and self- deserve. The reader is told, for instance, that contradictory as the months went by—a story Powell V. Alabama broadened the constitution­ that was later repudiated by Ruby Bates with­ al rights of indigent defendants, but the author out any noticeable effect on the course of does not pause to connect Powell to the Slaugh­ events. After having been saved by the Na­ ter House Cases on the one hand or with tional Guard from the inevitable lynch mob, Gideon v. Wainwright on the other. Similarly, the nine young men were convicted and sen­ one of the fascinating but unpursued problems tenced to death in a hasty, slipshod trial. posed by the Scottsboro case and by countless Up to this point in the story, nothing unusual more recent civil rights cases is whether a law­ had occurred. The exceptional thing was that yer should make the best deal possible for his the incident caught the attention of the Com­ client or whether he should subordinate his munist party, the NAACP, and public opinion client's immediate welfare to an effort to re­ outside the South, and the Scottsboro Boys form the system. Of lawyers facing this dilem­ quickly became the cause celebre of the thirties ma Mark de W. Howe has written that, "If he just as Sacco and Vanzetti had been in the is to be true to his profession he must, perhaps, twenties. But there were significant differences. see himself as engaged not by a client but by

63 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969 a cause—as one committed by every obligation Reconstructing the Union: Theory and Policy of professional honor to break the tyranny of During the Civil War. By HERMAN BELZ. (Cor­ insolence." nell University Press, Ithaca, 1969. Pp. ix, 336. This conflict between the tactical and the Notes, bibliographical essay, index. $8.50.) strategic has heretofore been dramatized by the struggle between the Communist-affiliated Rigid periodization is the bane and curse of International Labor Defense and the NAACP historical writing. In his zeal to make sense out for control of the Scottsboro case. Despite Car­ of the chaos of human experience, the historian ter's own distaste for Communist ideology and often tailors labels to arbitrary time arrange­ for the nature of the propaganda that sprang ments. Thus, almost inevitably, the revisionist from it, there is not enough evidence to convict historian is required to reorder temporal, as the Communists of pursuing tactics that con­ well as spatial, considerations. We know, for sciously jeopardized the lives or freedom of the example, that the Cold War cannot be dated Boys in order to "accelerate the dialectic." As from the end of military conflict in 1945 or Carter's account makes clear, any group that from the Paris conference of the following year. takes up causes is going to have interests other Policy makers on both sides harbored lingering than the well-being of the people immediately suspicions throughout the wartime alliance and involved, and this is true of the NAACP no less developed goals inevitably designed to chal­ than of the Communist party. One must even lenge and confront the ambitions of the other. doubt that the behavior of the ILD made it any The typical period outline of Reconstruction more unacceptable in a Southern courtroom is a prime example of historical oversimplifica­ than was the NAACP or a Jewish lawyer from tion. Usually, texts and specialized works begin New York. with Lee's surrender at Appomatox, focus on Nor is there any reason to believe that differ­ the clash between Andrew Johnson and the ent tactics on the part of the defense would "Radicals," and end the standard scenario with have achieved better results. One of the lessons the Compromise of 1876. Most accounts recog­ of the Scottsboro tragedy is that, given the pres­ nize the vague beginning of the period some­ ent nature of Southern justice, only by esca­ time in 1864 when Abraham Lincoln's plans for lating their cause to the national level and to bringing the seceded states back into their universalistic standards can Negroes hope to proper relationship clashed with divergent con­ win. Conversely, the lesson for Southern whites gressional aims. The President was challenged, is that only by providing true and impartial as is familiarly known, by a jealous Congress justice can they hope to prevent the intrusion bent on vindictiveness or mindful of its pre­ of outside forces. rogatives and proper role( select one, both, or none). The legislators laid down the gauntlet There are other lessons in the tragedy. We first, with the Wade-Davis Bill, which the Presi­ learn again that Southern white liberals are dent pocket vetoed, and then with the Wade- overly timid, that Southern blacks frequently Davis Manifesto, asserting congressional pri­ shun heroic roles, that politicians will act politi­ macy over Reconstruction. But aside from these cally even if it means unwarranted human suf­ events, there has been altogether too little rec­ fering, that Southern judges can be malicious, ognition of Reconstruction as a pre-Appomatox that Southern juries are often prejudiced. Even phenomenon. That failure arises, perhaps, from the Scottsboro Boys, innocent victims though the traditional insistence upon viewing the they were, are an unattractive lot. If there are Civil War and Reconstruction as distinct, suc­ any heroic figures in the story they are Judge cessive events. James E. Horton who lost his seat on the bench because he insisted on fair trials, Dr. R. R. But as historians have overhauled older, Bridges who gave honest testimony (a rare standard accounts of "Radical Reconstruction," event during the trials), and Samuel Liebowitz with their unrelieved tales of Republican and who defended the Boys brilliantly and without Negro villainy, corruption, and incompetence, fee through long years of frustration and Alice- they have recognized the complexity of the in-Wonderland justice. The full absurdity of problem and, more important, that it was a their story could only be captured by a Kafka, subject of paramount debate almost from the but they have at least found an Acton. outset of the war. In Reconstructing the Union, Herman Belz offers us what should be the de­ finitive account of presidential and congres­ SHELDON HACKNEY sional plans, agreements, and disagreements Princeton University concerning the restoration of the seceded states

64 BOOK REVIEWS prior to 1865. Belz takes us back to the seces­ dealing with seceded states and "restoring" the sion of the first states in late 1860 and the first Union. The Southern secession in 1861 reawak­ meeting of Congress after Sumter, in July, ened a national consciousness; in turn, national 1861, to illustrate that from the start Recon­ considerations forced new conceptions, and struction was a problem of large magnitude then uses, of national power. Witness, for ex­ and prime importance to the President, Con­ ample, the new uses and forms of federal taxa­ gressmen, and the North at large. Throughout tion for revenue and regulation, the re-emer­ the war, figures and ideas familiar to post-1865 gence of national banking, national efforts in Reconstruction events appeared amidst similar public education, and the veritable revolution conflicts and embroilments over Southern pol­ in federal jurisdiction and the powers of the icy. Specifically, the congressional Republicans federal judiciary, to name only a few. divided between themselves and, ol course, with Belz has dealt with the basis of Reconstruc­ the obtuse, obstructionist Democrats over the tion history — that is, the vigorous assertion merits of various Renconstruction plans involv­ and expansion of national primacy — and he ing principles of the indestructibility and in­ has done so very well. The research is thorough, violate character of the states on the one hand, the organization is clear, and the interpreta­ and territorialization of the seceded areas on tions are shrewd and imaginative. The manu­ the other. We usually assume that "Radical" script was awarded the Beveridge Prize of the dominance of Congress peaked with the Wade- American Historical Association in 1966, and Davis Bill in 1864, and again, during Andrew deservedly so. Belz has given us historical re­ Johnson's presidency from 1865 to 1868. As visionism at its best — destructive of biased, Belz demonstrates, however. Republican Con­ unfounded generalizations, and positive in gressmen favored some sort of territorial directing us toward a more substantial, mean­ scheme in 1862 and 1863, but then retreated to ingful synthesis of one of the most crucial a more moderate position which respected the events in American history. existing state forms. President Lincoln, mean­ while, steadily drifted away from his initial STANLEY I. KUTLER solution of simply restoring the Union as it The University of Wisconsin was, and accepted the widely held Republican assumptions regarding federal intervention in the traditional affairs of the states. While Belz dutifully chronicles the conflicts between Lincoln and Congress, in both their Open Horizons. By SiGURD F. OLSON. (Alfred interinstitutional and ideological contexts, he A. Knopf, Inc., New York, 1969. Pp. xv, 227. astutely recognizes that the scope of disagree­ $5.95.) ment was only incidental to the most important fact of Reconstruction policy prior to 1865— The siren song of wilderness is the golden and not unimportantly, the basic difference strand woven inextricably through this auto- with Reconstruction events after Appomatox. biography-in-nature of Sigurd F. Olson, foster "Throughout the war," Belz writes, "the Presi­ son of Wisconsin and one of America's most dent and Congress were one in extending na­ beloved naturalists. Always searching for new tional power into areas of policy traditionally horizons, eventually he became a sower of the reserved for the states." In this sense, discus­ seeds of wilderness understanding, a preacher sions of such matters as "Lincoln's plan of Re­ for its importance to the souls of men, a poet construction" (which one? when?), "Radical" singing its praises and a crusader for its preser­ duplicity, or Republican internecine struggles vation. The book itself has an "outdoors atmos­ are somewhat beside the point in understand­ phere" enhanced by chapter headpieces by ing the essential and total meaning of Recon­ Leslie C. Kouba. struction. What was involved was a complete Privileged as few in succeeding generations transformation of national power, in concep­ will be to absorb a love of nature during forma­ tion and execution, at least for a decade. How­ tive years, Olson grew up in northwestern Wis­ ever ephemeral were the Republicans' policies consin and makes his present home at Ely, toward and in the South, their thoughts and Minnesota. In vacation periods he had worked actions between 1861 and 1868 resulted in a on a neighboring farm, "one of the final rem­ reordering of constitutional thinking, and spe­ nants open for homesteading in the midwest." cifically, with regard to the relative powers of Choosing teaching as a profession, he trained the national and state governments. Recon­ at the University of Wisconsin. When begin­ structing the Union involved much more than ning his career at a small Minnesota mining

65 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969 town, he used every excuse for field trips to ciety and National Parks Association, holds increase his knowledge of man's environment. offices in several other such national organiza­ After graduate study at the University of Illi­ tions, and is consultant to the Secretary of the nois he headed the biology department at the Interior. One of his favorite titles is the "Bour­ new Ely Junior College. During summer vaca­ geois," a term used by voyageurs for their tions he guided canoe parties in the Quetico- trusted leaders. His concluding essay, "Land­ Superior area. While he does not try to evaluate scape of the Universe," is an eloquent summary the importance of that experience, he looks at of his beliefs. He declares that "No one knows wilderness now "with profound respect, know­ what a glimpse of wilderness means, for such ing it must be preserved as a retreat for harried treasures belong to values that uplift the hearts mankind in a world hurtling toward what seems of mankind. Not only have they molded us, but to be complete divorce from the past." if we are wise enough to preserve them, they His familiarity with that northern roadless will be a stabilizing influence in a rapidly area heightened his emotional attachment to it, changing world. Should the time ever come and when the slogan "A Road to Every Lake" when we allow our engrossment with comfort became popular in the 1920's, he read an­ and technological progress to erase our long­ nouncements and editorials with unbelief. Then ings to the point where we no longer dream of began the long "Battle for a Wilderness" which an unspoiled world, then I fear for America." culminated in victory but also taught a lesson Fortunately, through his writings, Sig Olson that understanding and appreciation, plus eter­ will be with us for many years into the future. nal vigilance, are required for preservation of wilderness. Deep involvement in the Quetico- MR. AND MRS. WALTER E. SCOTT Superior effort resulted in further work else­ Madisi where in the country, and he became one of the foremost spokesmen for conservationists. He quotes a Spaniard of long ago as saying, "There is only one cause a man must fight for and that The Eastern Establishment and the Western is his home." Then he adds, "Conservationists Experience: The West of Frederic Remington, fight not only for their individual homes, but Theodore Roosevelt, and Owen Wister. By G. for those of the whole human race, the total EDWARD WHITE. (Yale University Press, New surroundings of man." Haven, 1968. Pp. x, 202. Notes, bibliography, This book recounts how the silences, the sense index. $6.75.) of timelessness and space of the wilderness in- ffuenced his thinking and his goals. As he This is a first-rate book, one of several recent matured and read more widely, becoming fa­ studies that demonstrate the increasing sophis­ miliar with the poets and philosophers, his tication of western history. Using an interdisci­ sense of values and goals changed. It is well for plinary approach. White focuses on the "west­ us that his ambition of becoming a first-class ern experience" of three leading members of guide was realized early and that untapped the "eastern establishment" in the 1880's and resources of this eloquent man were then 1890's — Theodore Roosevelt, Frederic Rem­ directed toward distant horizons such as in­ ington, and Owen Wister. The main contention stilling in untold thousands a love for wilder­ of the book is that the autobiographical and ness they might never see. Admittedly, physical fictional writings of these men shaped the popu­ enjoyment was paramount during his youthful lar American image of the West as a place of experiences, though "subtle influences" pene­ hardy, virile men, living constantly with dan­ trated and colored his reactions and gradually ger, hunting, shooting, riding, and struggling developed in him a consciousness of beauty. for survival. He believes that much present-day discontent The first chapters of the book deal with the stems from our inability to "sever our spiritual formation of an eastern establishment, the roots,"despite our urbanity. Our greatest chal­ backgrounds of Remington, Roosevelt, and lenge is preservation of the natural environ­ Wister, and the pattern of their adolescent ment and development of a philosophy which anxieties. Later chapters analyze their reac­ considers ancient codes of ethics. Unless prob­ tions to the frontier and their writings about lems of our ecologic crisis are solved, there the West. The three men. White argues, re­ will be "no paradise to regain." sponded to their western environment in simi­ For years now the study of wilderness and lar ways. They experienced strong feelings of its preservation have claimed his full attention. masculinity and a sense of freedom from the He served as president of the Wilderness So­ constraints of urban, industrial civilization.

66 BOOK REVIEWS

Returning to the East, they rose to the top of examining the counterpoint between the two. their professions and in their writings conveyed White writes effectively, although he occa­ an image of western life that was exceptionally sionally gets bogged down in abstractions. The appealing to their fellow easterners. Theirs was book is well organized and fast paced. It is the conception of the "Wild West" that persists based on thorough research in the published in popular American culture to the present day. materials and on considerable digging in un­ The book ends with a discussion of the Rough published correspondence collections. One may Riders, the conservation movement, and the complain that White oversimplifies the Roose- mood of the nation during the first decade of velt-Pinchot conservation policies in order to the twentieth century—all of which are tied to fit them into his interpretive framework. The the attitudes of the eastern establishment about absence of any substantive treatment of Rem­ the West. ington's visual images of the West is regrettable The major themes of the book are fresh and and disappointing. Some historians, especially persuasive. Literary criticism is harmonized those who prefer conventional methodology, with social psychological theory. Changing may be suspicious of the heavy reliance on popular attitudes toward wilderness and the social psychological techniques. In one or two "Wild West" are explained against the back­ places, the interpretation is faintly reminiscent ground of eastern urban culture. The rise of of Roderick Nash's Wilderness and the Ameri­ the cowboy, a legendary and romanticized fig­ can Mind. In sum, however, White's book is a ure in American folklore, is tied to the mythol­ notable success. Broadly conceived and imag­ ogy of the frontier but also to the psychology inative, it contributes significantly to our of a rapidly urbanizing and industrializing knowledge of American culture in the late nine­ nation. The conservation movement is inter­ teenth century and to our understanding of the preted as an antidote to materialism and as an enduring symbolic importance of the American attempt to strike a balance between the tradi­ West. tional America and the pressures of a modern, technological society. The author's goal is to DONALD C. SWAIN illuminate eastern and western attitudes by University of California, Davis

BOOK REVIEWS

Belz, Reconstructing the Union: Theory and Policy Olson, Open Horizons, reviewed by Mr. and Mrs. During the Civil War, reviewed by Stanley I. Walter E. Scott 65 Kutler 64 Patterson, The New Deal and the States: Federal­ Bennett, Demagogues in the Depression: American ism in Transition, reviewed by Michael S. Radicals and the Union Party, 1932—1936, re­ Holmes 58 viewed by Julius Weinberg 59 Reps, Monumental Washington: The Planning and Development of the Capital Center, reviewed Carter, Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American by Stanley Mallach 51 South, reviewed by Sheldon Hackney 63 Reps, Town Planning in America, reviewed by Clanton, Kansas Populism: Ideas and Men, re­ Stanley Mallach 51 viewed by Peter H. Argersinger 55 Sulzberger, A Long Row of Candles, reviewed by Don Anderson 61 Collins, An Atlas of Wisconsin, reviewed by David Woodward 56 Trefousse, The Radical Republicans: Lincoln's Vanguard for Racial Justice, reviewed by Tilden Gard and Sorden, The Romance of Wisconsin G. Edelstein 62 Place Names, reviewed by Virgil J. Vogel .. 57 White, The Eastern Establishment and the West­ Glaab and Larsen, Factories in the Valley: Nee­ ern Experience: The West of Frederic Reming­ nah-Menasha, 1870—1915, reviewed by James ton, Theodore Roosevelt, and Owen Wister, re­ M. Auer 53 viewed by Donald C. Swain 66

67 Proceedings of the One Hundred and Twenty-third Annual Business Meeting of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin

Director's Report 1968-1969

In the year just ended, two events which collections will be well and adequately housed will influence the Society's development for for the first time since they came into exist­ years to come stand out: the resignation of the ence, and we will have specially designed fa­ director, and the remodeling and moderniza­ cilities for using the tape and disc recordings tion of the Society's sixty-nine-year-old central and motion pictures which constitute an im­ building. portant and growing research resource. It will be a magnificient base for improved service to In August 1968 the Society's seventh direc­ all our constituents. tor, Dr. Leslie H. Fishel, Jr., announced Despite corridors choked with building ma­ his acceptance of the presidency of Heidelberg terials and the noise and confusion of destruc­ College at Tiffin, Ohio, effective July 1, 1970. tion and construction throughout the building, The decade he had served as chief executive the Society's active program continued, even of the Society were years of solid growth and accelerated, during the year. For three weeks development on many fronts, and in that time, in August we were host to twenty promising members of the Board of Curators and of the beginning professionals in historical agency staff found him to be not only a dynamic and work. The seminar, sponsored by the Ameri­ imaginative leader but also a staunch and can Association for State and Local History understanding friend as well. Regardless of and financed by funds provided by the Na­ who the new director may be, the Society will tional Endowment for the Humanities, was a be different, for its directorship is a highly challenging and inspiring experience for our personal and individual responsibility. staff — many of whom served as seminar lead­ By the time Les left the Society, the entire ers — and we hope equally so for the students building was an eloquent, if construction- themselves. littered, monument to his efforts. Following Early in July 1968 the carriage museum at closely on the heels of opening a major new Old Wade House was formally dedicated and addition, a complete remodeling of the original opened to the public. The museum features portions of the building began in December. Mr. Wesley W. Jung's outstanding collection Upon completion in late winter or spring of of hand and horse-drawn vehicles and adds a 1970, the Society building will be air-condi­ significant educational dimension to the Wade tioned throughout. In addition, it will have a House complex. In June 1969, the Madeline modern microfilm laboratory and an extensive, Island Historical Museum opened for its first specially designed underground vault for the year of operation under Society administra­ storage of our growing film collections. The li­ tion. It was the gift of Mr. and Mrs. Leo Cap­ brary will gain much-needed work space and ser, who devoted many years to developing its an improved rare book stack. The museum collections and exhibits on the early fur trade, will have additional storage space and im­ missionary activity, and early settlement of proved exhibit galleries. The iconographic the area.

68 PROCEEDINGS: 1968-1969

The Society's staff spends most of its time no columns to record bills paid. Board minutes and effort on relatively undramatic tasks, and prepared, membership passes issued, personnel a report which chronicles only the major hired, payrolls processed, cars serviced and events of the year does something of an in­ scheduled, insurance claims processed, and all justice to those staff members who quietly but the other chores necessary to support the work effectively do the daily work. The tabular ma­ in the operating divisions. terial which follows this narrative cannot, by Thus, although the statistics given below its very nature, reveal the very significant pro­ clearly indicate an increase in the level of our gress on the multi-volume History of Wiscon­ services to the state and to its citizens, they sin project which has absorbed the Research are, as are all statistics, quantitative rather Division almost exclusively in these last twelve than qualitative. Each impersonal number rep­ months. It now appears that at least one, and resents a person served, a book withdrawn, a perhaps two, of the six volumes which will scholar bending over a sheaf of yellowed let­ constitute the completed work will be pub­ ters, a student turning the knob of a microfilm lished by the end of 1970. Nor can we tabulate reader, a group of fifth-graders studying a the complimentary reviews and comments museum exhibit, a family learning state history received by the Editorial Division for the con­ firsthand at a historic site. These are the in­ tinued high quality of the Society's scholarly tangibles that transcend the figures and which, publications. The fact that the Field Services taken all together, help to maintain our herit­ Division recorded 985 acquisitions for the age as a living presence. year may even obscure the very difficult task of reorganization this division has undertaken to enable it to conduct more effectively the Respectfully submitted, Society's nationwide search for materials to RICHARD A. ERNEY, add to its collections. And, of course, there are Acting Director

Statistical Appendix

LIBRARY

Acquisitions 1962-63 1963-64 1964-65 1965-66 1966-67 1967-68 1968-69 Bound Volumes 4,178 5,078 5,976 5,001 5,641 6,820 6,904 Pamphlets 1,808 1,689 1,806 2,346 1,469 4,002 4,636 Government Documents (items) 8,704" 11,280 Reels of Microfilm 1,806 2,508 3,837 4,172 5,421 7,772 7,055 Sheet Microformats 14,760 12,126 14,451 16,398 18,257 16,856 17,409 'Counted previously under "Bound Volumes" and "Pamphlets."

Persons Served Stack and carrel admissions 38,130 40,468 37,265 38,583 41,442 40,396 36,676 Reading room service 16,129 14,714 15,674 13,736 15,285 10,948 8,056 Microforms reading room 9,147' 11,168 Borrowed for home use 17,609 19,253 19,790 20,053 18,452 19,649 21,649 Gorrespondence 1,347 1,513 1,522 1,670 1,699 1,770 1,791 Total 73,215 75,948 74,251 74,042 76,878 81,910 79,340 'Counted previously under "Reading Room."

Circulation Statistics—Books and Reels of Microfilm Reading room use 37,686 37,182 39,554 35,840 37,779 55,974 68,176 Home use 33,180 36,436 37,147 38,986 36,191 42,034 43,273 Total 70,866 73,618 76,701 74,826 73,970 98,008 111,449

69 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

MUSEUM Historymobile 1966-67' 967-68' 1968-693 Cities visited ....- - 74 73 94 No. operating days 236 233 200 No. hours open _ _ 2,054 1,923 1,742 Mileage traveled - 2,312 2,071 2,531 Attendance: Adults 36,153 59,027 30,698 Children 111,313 115,965 77,201 'Eastern third of Wisconsin ^Central third Western third.

ARCHIVES AND MANUSCRIPTS

Total Manuscript Collections—Processed 1966-67 1967-68 1968-69 Unbound pieces 8,022,600 11,064,200' 11,476,200 Volumes 11,947 14,034" 14,587 'Reflects the incorporation of the McCormick Collection, estimated at 2,000,000 unbound pieces and 2,000 bound volumes.

Patronage: Annual Registration by Locality Wisconsin 824 985 1,008 Other States 286 257 284 Foreign _ 13 23 9 Total - 1,123 1,265 1,301

Patronage: Persons Served Manuscripts 3,138 3,167 3,192 Maps 523 625 427 Archives 762 748 552 Correspondence (Manuscripts) 972 1,036 1,130

Archives—Reference Requests By Types 1965-66 1966-67 1967-68 1968-69 Administrative 339 202 346 316 Scholarly Research 309 492 342 367 Legal Research 49 50 69 33 Genealogy 197 306 170 172 Miscellaneous 23 5 15 19 Total 917 1,055 942 907

HISTORIC SITES

Attendance 1966 1967 1968 Stonefield 30,874 28,989 38,397 Old Wade House 31,646 30,772 45,798' Villa Louis 49,054 45,227 50,115 'Carriage Museum opened to public on July 5, 1968.

70 PROCEEDINGS: 1968-1969

Digest of Board Action

At Sheboygan and Greenbush, instruct the Society's administrative staff to October 25-26,1968 proceed with the acquisition of land, the rais­ ing of funds, and the acquisition of struc­ • Approved the appointment of Colonel Wil­ tures for the site; liam H. Applegate as Assistant Director, • Adopted a report of the Endowment Com­ effective January 1, 1969; mittee recommending a change of name to • Accepted gifts and grants totaling $35,450.81 the "Development Committee," and outlin­ received from January 1 to June 30, 1968; ing its purposes and procedures; • Declined the bequest of Miss Marguerite Da­ • Approved the revised articles of incorpora­ vis, giving to the Society her home in Racine tion for the Mazomanie Historical Society; with the proviso that it be opened and oper­ • Adopted a resolution of appreciation to Les­ ated as a historical museum; lie H. Fishel, Jr., on the occasion of his resig­ • Approved recommendations of the Awards nation as Society Director to assume the Committee for the following awards to be presidency of Heidelberg College, Tiffin, Ohio. presented at the Annual Institute for Local History: The Reuben Gold Thwaites Trophy At Madison, January 25,1969 to the Beloit Historical Society; Certificates of Commendation to the Marathon County • Approved in principle co-operation with Pro­ Historical Society and the Manitowoc Coun­ fessor Walker Wyman of River Falls State ty Historical Society; and a Local History University to extend the Area Research Cen­ Award of Merit to Mr. Albert Kracht, Lake ter concept in connection with a request for Mills; a federal grant; « Ratified the President's appointments to the • Approved the 1969 lease and management Selection Committee and authorized the com­ agreement with the Historic Sites Foundation mittee to select a qualified candidate for the for the continued operation of the Circus position of director; World Museum in Baraboo; • Adopted a resolution memorializing Herbert • Accepted gifts and grants totaling $60,528.46 V. Kohler, Sr., Honorary Vice-President of for the period July 1 to December 31, 1968; the Society; • Approved recommendations of the Historic • Designated the prehistoric Indian site at Az­ Sites Committee for official state markers for talan State Park as a historic site; the following: First Rural Zoning in the • Voted to request the Building Commission to United States,Oneida County; Stone Cottage aUocate additional funds in the amount of (Mitchell-Rountree House), Platteville; 4-H $486,926 for the Society building's basic re­ Club Movement, Walworth County; and Wis­ modeling project, plus the construction of a consin Circus History, Baraboo; film vault and fumigator—a request necessi­ • Adopted recommendations of the Historic tated by the fact that the bids exceeded the Sites Committee as follows: increased adult estimates; admission fee at Old Wade House to $1.50, » Adopted a resolution of the Old World Wis­ to include either or both of the units of the consin Committee to accept the master plan site — Wade House and the Carriage Mu­ of the site for study, to express its apprecia­ seum; designated the Washburn State Bank tion of the excellent work done on the plan as the official depository of income from the by the University's department of landscape Madeline Island Museum and set admission architecture, to affirm the Board's previous rates at 50^ for adults and 25^ for children; approval to proceed with the project, and to voted to purchase property on Fisher Street

71 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

iu Prairie du Chien for $1,000; and approved gine given to the Society for the Circus the historic sites budgets for 1969; World Museum; • Approved a draft of a proposed statutory Approved the forms to be used by local soci­ r.jvision pertaining to the Society's parking eties for articles of incorporation and l(;t, recommended by the Legislative Com­ restated articles of incorporation, as recom­ mittee ; mended by the Local History Policy Com­ • Approved the restated articles of incorpora­ mittee ; tion for the Wild Rose Historical Society, Approved restated articles of incorporation Inc.; for the following: Brillion Historical Society; • Approved the applications for affiliation for Brown County Historical Society; Grant the Brillion Historical Society and the May- County Historical Society; Juneau County ville Historical Society, Inc.; Historical Society; Kenosha County Histori­ • Approved a contract with the Greenwood cal Society; Lake Mills-Aztalan Historical P'ublications to photograph and publish the Society; Lincoln County Historical Society; Society's card catalog. McFarland Historical Society; Manitowoc Historical Society; Marquette County His­ torical Society; Mineral Point Historical So­ At Appleton, June 19-20, 1969 ciety; Oak Creek Historical Society; Outa­ gamie County Historical Society; Sauk • Authorized any two of the following officers County Historical Society; Shawano County - -President, Vice-President, and Treasurer Historical Society; and the Wisconsin State —to purchase and/or sell stocks, bonds, or Genealogical Society; other securities standing in the name of the Approved applications for affiliation for the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and to following: Manitowoc Submarine Memorial execute the instruments to effect such pur­ Association, Inc.; Door County Maritime chases and/or transfers; Museum, Inc.; Kewaunee County Historical • Accepted the Harry Steenbock bequest of Society, Inc.; and Two Rivers Historical So­ $55,650; ciety ; • Voted to accept as a gift or to purchase from Accepted the interim report of the Long- the Circus World Museum, Inc., the thirteen- Range Sites Planning Committee and author­ acre carshops property in Baraboo, subject ized the officers to transmit copies of the to approval of financing through the Board report to the Governor; of Government Operations or the State Build­ Designated Richard A. Erney, Associate Di­ ing Commission; rector, to serve as Acting Director until a • Adopted the report of the Awards Committee new director is appointed and assumes office; recommending Awards of Merit to be pre­ Voted that Sustaining Members be entitled to sented at the June meeting to the following: receive all of the benefits accorded holders of Robert H. Wells for his adult book. Fire at Family Memberships. Peshtigo; to Joseph P. Donnelly, S.J., for his adult book, Jacques Marquette, S.J.; to Mar­ ion Fuller Archer for her j uvenile, Nine Lives of Moses; and to Marion Lawson for her juvenile, Proud Warrior; • Authorized the staff to decide on the purpose and use of the Historymobile after assessing returns from a survey of school systems, and, if agreeable to the schools, to charge a daily rate for its appearance; • Authorized a survey of the Aztalan site as an alternative to the Eagle site for the proposed Old World Wisconsin outdoor museum; • Authorized the purchase through the Wis­ consin History Foundation of several lots in

Prairie du Chien included in the 1967 agree­ . ^W|yM& ment with Mr. Ben Schaub, now deceased; • Approved the lease agreement between the Justin M. Schmiedeke Society and the Mid-Continent Railway His­ A kindergarten group taking a "guided" tour of torical Society for storage of a railroad en­ the Museum.

72 PROCEEDINGS: 1968-1969

Minutes of the Annual Meeting

HE annual business meeting was held at ard A. Erney, Associate Director, would serve T Lawrence University, Appleton, June 20, as Acting Director until a new director is ap­ 1969. Approximately 145 members and guests pointed. In conclusion he noted that the Acting were present. The meeting was called to order Director's report would, as is customary, be at 1:45 P.M. by President Thomas H. Barland. published in the autumn issue of the Wisconsin Mr. Homstad presented the treasurer's report Magazine of History. which was accepted and ordered filed. Mr. Bar- Mr. Homstad, chairman of the Nominating land began his report to the membership by Committee, noted the resignation from the stating that the past year had been one of great Board of Mr. Warren D. Leary and presented trial to the Society, a year of searching for a the following slate of nominees for the Board new director to succeed Leslie H. Fishel, Jr., of Curators: who after a ten-year tenure was leaving to ac­ cept the presidency of Heidelberg College, For re-election for a three-year term Tiffin, Ohio. Mr. Barland also said that there e tiding in 1972: was considerable uncertainty surrounding the E. David Cronon, Madison Society's 1969-1971 budget, although the Board Scott M. Cutlip, Madison and the staff had been spending a great deal of W. Norman FitzGerald, Milwaukee time in committee meetings and in work with Mrs. Robert E. Friend, Hartland the Legislature in this connection. The Long- Robert A. Gehrke, Ripon Range Sites Planning Committee, he said, was John C. Geilfuss, Milwaukee re-evaluating and reassessing the historic sites Mrs. Howard T. Greene, Genesee Depot now operated by the Society and those which Ben Guthrie, Lac du Flambeau might be acquired in the future. An interim Wayne J. Hood, La Crosse report had been presented to the Board of Cura­ J. Ward Rector, Milwaukee tors at its morning meeting and would be sent Clifford D. Swanson, Stevens Point to Governor Knowles at his own request. The committee hopes to present a final report at the For election for a three-year term January meeting, with recommendations relat­ ending in 1972: ing to the historic sites. Membership, he pointed Mrs. Richard L. Hartzell, Grantsburg out, continues to grow at a steady pace and the Society now has 7,538 members, an increase of There being no further nominations from the 1,000 during the year. He also reported that the floor, Mr. Homstad moved and Mr. Slichter Society had been fortunate in securing a great seconded that the requirements for a written deal of support from the State Building Com­ ballot be waived and that the secretary be in­ mission and the Legislature. The Commission structed to cast a unanimous ballot for the slate last year approved sufficient funds to remodel as presented. The motion was accepted and the the old portion of the building in Madison and President declared the slate elected. to construct the film storage vault to be con­ Since there was no further business to be structed under the terrace on the east side of the brought before the membership, the meeting building facing the mall. It was hoped that the was adjourned at 2:00 P.M. remodeling could be completed by December of 1969. Mr. Barland then paid tribute to the Respectfully submitted, devoted efforts of the staff and especially to RICHARD A. ERNEY Director Fishel. He then announced that Rich­ Acting Director

73 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

The Staff*

Office of the Director RICHARD A. ERNEY, Acting Director WILLIAM H. APPLEGATE, Assistant Director BERNADETTE WILHELM, Administrative Assistant

Division of Administrative Services M. JAMES SEVERA, Administrative Services JUSTIN M. SCHMIEDEKE, Public Information Officer

Business Office Maintenance LEONARD W. BEHNKE, Comptroller ANTHONY' W. SHAEFFER, Supervisor Lois I. ELSENER, Assistant to Comptroller RICHARD C. ANDERSON MONICA J. STAEDTLER, Purchasing Agent DWIGHT M. BAUMGARTNER VERNE BHUMM Clerical Section MARVIN W. CLARK FLORENCE J. COLLETTI MARY MCCANN, Sales Supervisor JAMES A. CULVER KATHLEEN A. BOTHUM GEORGE DOCKERY MARGIE A. BEAN JOHN FOUST RUTH E. HAYES GREGORY A. GMEINDER JANICE RAE HEISZ^ LUIE J. HALLER ELDEEN MAYNE STEPHEN H. KEMPEN MARY E. PALTZ JOSEPH STETSON* ROBERT F. SYVRUD LOREN J. STUCKEY JAMES B. TSCHUDY MILO SWENSON IONE VAN SCHOYCK WILLIE JO WALKER ROY T. WINCH Secretaries DELORES C. PROSSER, Supervisor Receptionists DIANE DAMBACH ANN M. HOCHSTETTERS ALICE DOHERTY' ELIZABETH J. S. LORING JANE E. DYMOND JANEAL QUINNELL^ RUTH ANN JOHNSON PATRICIA A. VARDIN ANNETTE M. RANDL^

Division of Archives and Manuscripts F. GERALD HAM, State Archivist

Archives Section Archives-Manuscripts Search Room JACK K. JALLINGS, AssiHant State Archivist JOSEPHINE L. HARPER, Manuscripts Curator DAvro J. DELGADO KATHERINE S. THOMPSON FRANCIS A. DELOUGHERY Manuscripts Section Iconographic Collections MARGARET R. HAFSTAD, Manuscripts Curator PAUL VANDERBILT, Curator KAREN J. BAUMANN JUDITH A. TOPAZ CHERI R. BRILL PATRICK M. QUINN National Historical Publications CLAIRE CONE ROBERTSON Commission Microfilm Project CAROLE SUE WARMBRODT, Assistant Editor

*As of June 30, 1969. This listing includes only 2Resigned October 31, 1968. full-time, permanent staff members and does not ^Resigned September 27, 1968. include research assistants, part-time student assist­ ^Resigned October 18, 1968. ants, guides, etc. ^Resigned November 1, 1968. iResigned August 19, 1968, ^Resigned July 11, 1968.

74 PROCEEDINGS: 1968-1969

Research Division WILLIAM FLETCHER THOMPSON, JR., Director ALICE E. SMITH^

Museum Division THURMAN O. FOX, Director KAREN S. BREMER, Receptionist

Exhibits and Research General Collections DAVID W. MCNAMARA Supervisor JAMES S. WATSON, Curator ROBERT W. DEWITT JOAN L. SEVERA, Curator, Decorative Arts RICHARD A. HORN CHARLES H. KNOX RONALD D. LOFMAN Education WALTER W. WHITNEY DORIS H. PLATT, Supervisor ANDREA H. DINOLT Anthropology HOWARD W. KANETZKE MARY K. WELTER JOAN E. FREEMAN, Curator JOSEPH B. BRANDON^ Historymobile Office of Local History IVAN L. KAUKL WILLIAM J. SCHERECK, Supervisor MARGARET M. KAUKL

Library Division CHARLES W. SHETLER, Librarian

Acquisitions Section Catalog Section GERALD R. EGGLESTON Acquisitions Librarian HERBERT J. TEPPER, Catalog Librarian NANCY ANDERSON DONNA K. FENSTERMAKERI' ETHEL M. FOSS^ MARY L. HESS PHYLLIS L. YOUNG

Reference Section Circulation Section MARGARET GLEASON, Reference Librarian ELLEN BURKE, Service Librarian KARREN A. AKEY Documents-Serials Section CONSTANCE M. SPRING SUSAN E. SWAN'^ JOHN A. PETERS, Documents-Serials Librarian ALICE M. ALDERMAN Photoduplication Section JUDITH A. FABER VERONA A. FRITSCHEI" W. ROBERT AUSTIN, Supervisor JUNE E. JOHNSON DWIGHT E. KELSEY BIAGINO M. MARONE SHARON R. REED JEANNETTE M. REDDICK NONA J. SEHGALI^ GERTRUDE V. WAGENER EDWIN D. SWANSONI*

Division of Field Services BARBARA J. KAISER, Director

CHARLES C. BOWDEN Mass Communications History Center JANICE L. O'CONNELL DIANE M. SMITH BARBARA J. KAISER, Director JACK W. WINN JANICE L. O'CONNELL

^Emeritus. iiResigned February 25, 1969. ^Resigned June 1, 1969. i2Resigned June 6, 1969. ^Resigned April 13, 1969. iSResigned June 27, 1969. ifResigned April 11, 1969. IiResigned June 4, 1969.

75 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

Editorial Division WILLIAM C. HAYGOOD, Director GRACE ARGALL, Administrative Assistant

Society Press Wisconsin Magazine of History PAUL H. HASS, Editor WILLIAM C. HAYGOOD, Editor WILLIAM C. MARTEN, Assistant Editor WILLIAM C. MARTEN, Associate Editor

Publications Office BONNIE A. MITCHELL, Supervisor SHEILA S. NELSONI^ JOHN L. CHLADEK, Graphic Artist^''

Division of Sites and Markers RAYMOND S. SIVESIND, Director DONALD N. ANDERSON

Villa Louis Stonefield Wade House ROBERT K. SEARLES, Curator EDWARD D. CARPENTER, Curator FAY S. DOOLEY, Curator I. EDWARD PUGH^^ MELVIN L. HOUGHTON EDITH I. WEBB GEORGE ADNEY, Custodian LYLE C. KIENITZ, Custodian R.ALPH BENDER, Custodian^^ HARRY E. HAMANN HOPE A. LOVELAND iSResigned August 16, 1968. "Resigned December 31, 1968. iSResigned March 22, 1969. iSResigned November 1, 1968.

PRIVATE FUNDS (20.245—132. Trust Funds) Endovraient Funds—July 1, 1968 to June 30, 1969

PRINCIPAL INCOME Bafance Balance FUNDS 7-1-68 Income Expenditures 6-30-69 Mary Adams Art Fund $ 14,000.00 $ 6,370.30 $ 1,122.94 $ 420.76 $ 7,072.48 Burrows Fund 374,784.83 764.66 31,614.13 23,825.91 8,552.88 Draper Fund 18,745.00 (—4,707.21) 1,752.54 6,901.35 (—9,856.02) Mary Stuart Foster Fund 128,883.39 10,039.85 10,337.74 9,311.26 11,066.33 Miscellaneous Funds 119,846.34 3,232.05 9,696.03 2,456.79 10,471.29 Holhster Pharm. Lib. Fund 52,397.68' 25,793.69 2,094.41 10.57 27,877.53 Emily House Bequest 1,200.00 1,220.44 96.25 .24 1,316.45 Maud L. Hurson Bequest 23,594.69 1,929.77 1,892.53 341.99 3,480.31 Besse D. Koen Bequest 31,194.95 581.14 1,604.20 346.76 1,838.58 The John Thomas Lee Fund 20,000.00 798.39 1,604.20 1,304.87 1,097.72 Madehne Island Hist. Museum .. 31,320.68 1,203.15 1,203.15 Miffs Editorial Fund 29,428.00 1,792.73 2,360.42 1,506.36 2,646.79 E. B. Rowfes Bequest 800.00 47.77 64.17 12.67 99.27 Anna R. Shefdon Mem. Fund .- 2,700.00 483.13 216.57 43.64 656.06 Steenboclc Fund 55,650.00 743.95 743.95 R. G. Thwaites Bequest 15,100.00 1,474.47 1,211.17 144.29 2,541.35 $919,645.56 $49,821.18 $67,614.40^ $46,627.46 $70,808.12

' Increased by $2,094.41 (ii net income for year) 2 Includes Int. & Div. $32,488.87; Capital Gains $34,736.94

76 PROCEEDINGS: 1968-1969

PRIVATE FUNDS (20.245—132 & 141. Trust Funds) Special Projects—July 1, 1968 to June 30, 1969

Balance Bafance FUNDS 7-1-68 Income Expenditures 6-30-69

Athenaean Fund $ 395.13 $ $ $ 395.13 Aztafan Fund (-2,268.28) 8,300.00 6,031.72 Howard K. Beale Mem. Fund 697.09 37.25 659.84 Bibfiographic Project 1,000.00 1,000.00 Chas. E. Brown Mem. Fund 245.60 245.60 Building Addition Fund 10.00 10.00 Bush Award 8.87 8.87 Carriage Museum — Wade House Parle 12,642.45 5,248.64 7,393.81 Circus Museum 81.66 90.00 171.66 Cut-Over Country Fund 310.00 148.22 161.78 Data Recovery Project 3,889.08 (-3,889.08) Desmond Colfection 200.00 . 200.00 Director's Fund 7,259.68 4,000.00 9,467.76 1,791.92 Equipment & Furnishings 5.00 5.00 MartinA.Fladoes Mem. Fund 95.00 95.00 Fort Winnebago (- 87.79) (- 87.79) George I. Haight Fund 518.23 518.23 C. L. Harrington Mem. Fund 768.50 768.50 Hasleell of Gettysburg 3,180.47 3,180.47 Highway Salvage (-6,108.26) 10,248.62 9,569.56 (-5,429.20) Historic Sites Survey 1,892.43 527.53 1,364.90 History of Wisconsin (-14,774.84) 29,060.50 31,428.71 (-17,143.05) Jaclcson Bequest 500.00 253.94 246.06 Kaltenborn Fund 5,000.00 886.99 4,113.01 Map Fund 33.80 33.80 Mass Communications History Center 129.23 109.39 19.84 McCormiclcCollection (- 690.84) 690.84 2.38 (- 2.38) McCormiclc Fund — Boolcs 1,101.64 118.00 983.64 Microfilming Project 3,673.42 15,140.00 12,181.41 6,632.01 Miscellaneous Unrestricted Funds 207.31 4,736.15 7,394.50 (-2,451.04) Arthur H. Muenlc Bequest 2,500.00 1,008.00 1,492.00 Museum Funds 4,268.20 681.37 15.00 4,934.57 National Endowment for Humanities 3,611.19 10,013.05 (-6,401.86) National Science Fdn. Grant 518.01 518.01 ORAP 200 Fund 42.00 42.00 Painting Restoration 5.96 5.96 Christina B. Phefps Fund 500.00 500.00 Doris H. Pfatt Educ. Fund 821.38 293.68 18.54 1,096.52 Riire Boolcs 130.75 100.00 75.00 155.75 RE —K (- 376.62) 13.72 (- 390.34) Research Fund 10.00 10.00 Waldo E. Rosebush Mem. Fund 100.00 100.00 School Services 171.33 50.00 184.62 36.71 School Services Awards Fund 18.95 18.95 Schwarztrauber Biography Fund 3,500.00 3,500.00 LeiaB. Stephens Fund 25.00 25.00 Stonefield Development Fund — 531.77 1,000.00 84.71 1,447.06 Bank 365.15 82.84 282.31 Blacksmith 35.00 35.00 Creamery 4,798.58 1,225.00 6,023.58 Dewey House 126.85 200.00 326.85 Honey House 378.90 20.00 398.90 R. R. Depot 250.00 41.40 208.60 Uhrig Fund $ 2,828.70 $ 842.98 $ $ 3,671.68 Vilfa Louis 25.00 25.00 Wade House 45.00 45.00 Wis. Society for Jewish Learning 365.15 365.15 $32,791.13 $85,509.76 $98,856.96 $19,443.93

77 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

REVOLVING FUNDS (20.245—131. Non-Trust) Historic Sites Funds—July 1, 1968 to June 30, 1969 Historic Sites Fund (Detaii)

Balance Balance 7-1-68 Income Expenditures 6-30-69

Circus Museum—Reserve (2)^%) $ 3,342.71 5,470.49 8,813.20 Historic Sites Devel. & Reserve Fd 15,215.75 10,969.42 1,822.52 24,362.65 Stonefield—Operations (—27,214.79) 52,666.28 61,191.16 (—35,739.67) Villa Louis—Operations (—17,834.33) 48,720.23 47,136.02 (—16,250.12) Wade House—Operations (—16,833.77) 42,903.97 57,496.46 (—31,426.26) Madeline Island—Operations 490.55 767.22 ( —276.67) $(—43,324.43) $161,220.94 $177,226.58 $(—59,330.07)

REVOLVING FUNDS (20.245—131. Non-Trust) July 1, 1968 to June 30, 1969

Balance Balance FUNDS 7-1-68 Income Expenditures 6-30-69 Contingency Fund $ 4,211.12 $ 100.00 $ $ 4,311.12 League of Women Voters Building 624.69 600.00 337.36 887.33 Life Membership Fund 5,338.00 5,338.00 Miscellaneous Funds 39,954.75 101,560.13 87,760.63 53,754.25 Monches 2,203.94 1,800.00 472.02 3,531.92 Publication Fund 72,170.70 109,469.56 114,519.72 67,120.54' Travel Fund 566.78 5.00 571.78 Visual Aids Fund 2,813.42 448.08 3,261.50 Historic Sites Fund (- ^3,324.43) 161,220.94 177,226.58 ( —59,330.07) $84,558.97 $375,203.71 $380,316.31 $79,446.37

' $7,748.54 represents income from books published for the Civil War Centennial Commission.

PUBLIC FUNDS STATEMENT July 1, 1968 to June 30, 1969

Statute Legislative Balance APPROPRIATION Number Appropriation Expenditures 6-30-69 General Program Operations 20.245—101 $1,143,680.00' $1,086,566.02 $57,113.98^ Printing Archeofogieal Society Quarterfy .... 20.245 — 102 800.00 800.00 Heat (Sum-Sufficient) 20.245—103 8,519.89 8,519.89 Fringe Benefits (Sum-Sufficient) 20.245—198 121,664.67 121,664.67 $1,274,664.56 $1,217,550.58 $57,113.98

' Prior Year Continuing Balances $ 5,880.00 2 Lapsed to State General Fund $51,747.98 Pay Plan Adjustments & Continuing Balances $ 5,366.00 Night DiflFerenHal $46,800.00

78 PROCEEDINGS: 1968-1969

Sustaining Members 1968-1969

Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company, Jackson County Bank, Black River Falls Milwaukee Mrs. Edward Cole Jones, Fort Atkinson Ambrosia Chocolate Company, Milwaukee Kearney & Trecker Corporation, Milwaukee American Can Company, Neenah Kohler Company, Kohler American Exchange Bank, Madison The Leyhe Foundation, Incorporated, Oshkosh American Family Mutual Insurance Company, Mr. Alfred Lunt, Genesee Depot Madison Mr. and Mrs. Charles McCallum, Hubertus Appleton Coated Paper Company, Appleton The Marine Foundation, Incorporated, Appleton Mills Foundation, Appleton Milwaukee Appleton Wire Works, Appleton Oscar Mayer and Company, Madison Applied Power Industries, Milwaukee Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee Badger Northland, Incorporated, Kaukauna Milwaukee Journal, Milwaukee Mr. H. M. Benstead, Racine Modine Manufacturing Company, Racine Bergstrom Paper Company, Neenah Murphy Products Company Foundation, Brandenburg Foundation, Madison Burlington Brotz Family Foundation, Sheboygan Nelson Muffler Corporation, Stoughton Bucyrus-Erie Foundation, Incorporated, Nordberg Manufacturing Company, Milwaukee South Milwaukee Parker Pen Company, Janesville Mr. and Mrs. Walter R. Buell, Sturgeon Bay Mrs. Robert Pierce, Menomonie Capital Times, Madison Rahr Foundation, Manitowoc Cleaver-Brooks Company, Milwaukee Red Arrow Sales Corporation, Madison Consolidated's Civic Foundation, Incorporated, Saint Regis Paper Company, Rhinelander Wisconsin Rapids Schlitz Foundation, Incorporated, Milwaukee Sentry Insurance Company, Stevens Point Employers Insurance of Wausau, Mr. and Mrs. S. F. Shattuck, Neenah Wausau Mr. and Mrs. Donald C. Slichter, Milwaukee Evinrude Motors, Milwaukee A. 0. Smith Corporation, Milwaukee The Falk Corporation, Milwaukee Charles R. Smith Foundation of Menasha First National Bank of Appleton, Appleton Corporation, Neenah First Wisconsin Foundation, Incorporated, Sta-Rite Products, Incorporated, Delavan Milwaukee Thilmany Pulp and Paper Company, Kaukauna First Wisconsin Trust Company, Milwaukee Twin Disc, Incorporated, Racine Mr. and Mrs. Norman FitzGerald, Milwaukee Voight Charitable Foundation, Racine Mrs. Robert Friend, Hartland The Vollrath Company, Sheboygan Fromm Brothers, Incorporated, Hamburg Wausau Paper Mills Company, Brokaw Gateway Transportation Company, La Crosse Webcrafters Foundation, Incorporated, Mr. and Mrs. John C. Geilfuss, Milwaukee Madison General Telephone Company of Wisconsin, West Bend Company, West Bend Madison Western Publishing Company, Incorporated, Gilbert Paper Company, Menasha Racine Gisholt John A. Johnson Foundation, Madison Wisconsin Electric Power Company, Glen Manufacturing, Incorporated, Milwaukee Milivaukee Hamilton Memorial Foundation, Two Rivers The Wisconsin Life Insurance Company, The Heil Company, Milwaukee Madison Mrs. Frank P. Hixon, Lake Forest, Illinois Wisconsin Power and Light Company, Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Hoard, Jr., Fort Atkinson Madison Mr. W. J. Hood, La Crosse Wisconsin State Journal, Madison Inland-Ryerson Construction Prod. Company Wisconsin Telephone Company, Milwaukee Milwaukee Mr. Robert S. Zigman, Milwaukee International Harvester Company, Chicago Zigman-Joseph Associates, Milwaukee

79 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969

KENNETH J. GRIEB received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Buffalo and his Ph.D. from Indiana Uni- Contributors l^Bil. versity (1966), specializing in • iiiimill^r^jBfcj Latin American history. He is jmi gyfH currently assistant professor of history and Co-ordinator of NANCY OESTREICH LURIE is a Latin American Studies at Wisconsin State professor and chairman of the University-Oshkosh. His field of interest cen­ Department of Anthropology ters on Mexico, Central America, and the of the University of Wiscon­ Caribbean, and particularly on U.S. policy in sin—Milwaukee. A native Wis- those areas. His researches have taken him to consinite, she is well known for Mexico on several visits, including a year's stay scholarly studies of the Ameri­ on a Doherty Foundation Fellowship. Mr. can Indian and for her work Grieb has published articles in numerous jour­ as an action anthropologist in the efforts of nals, including The Americas, Caribbean Stud­ contemporary American Indian people to ies, The Journal of Inter-American Studies, achieve respect and support for their endeavors The Midwest Quarterly, The Inter-American to maintain and adapt their own heritage to the Review of Bibliography, and the California opportunities of the larger society. The Ameri­ Historical Society Quarterly, as well as numer­ can Indian Today (Edwards/Everett, Inc., De- ous reviews in similar publications. His book, land, Florida), which Mrs. Lurie edited with The United States and Huerta, was published Stuart Levine and to which she contributed the by the University of Nebraska Press in October, introductory chapter and other materials, re­ 1969. He is active in various professional orga­ cently won the Saturday Review's Annisfield- nizations, and particularly in promoting the Wolf Award for the best scholarly book on study of Latin America in Wisconsin. At pres­ intergroup relations for 1968. Mrs. Lurie has ent he is vice-president of the Wisconsin Coun­ done extensive field work with a number of cil of Latin Americanists which he served pre­ American Indian groups, among them the viously as program chairman and secretary- Winnebago Indians ol Wisconsin, treasurer.

LoRiN LEE GARY was born in Despite inflationary pressures the Society has North Carolina in 1939. He re­ held its membership rates constant for the ceived his B.A. from Antioch past eleven years. However, the rising costs of College in 1962 and his M.A. services, especially of printing, has forced the y . and Ph.D. from the University Board of Curators reluctantly to authorize an J^^ of Wisconsin in 1965 and 1968, increase in membership fees, effective Febru­ HHk ilk respectively. While pursuing ary 1, 1970. After that date an individual his graduate studies he held membership (which includes subscriptions to part-time positions in the Society's Icono­ graphic Section and in the Archives-Manu­ the Wisconsin Magazine of History and Wis­ scripts Division. Now an assistant professor at consin Then and Now) will be $7.50; family the University of Toledo where he teaches memberships (which include a subscription courses in Labor and Black History, Mr. Cary to Badger History as well as the aforemen­ is currently working on a study of Adolph Ger- tioned publications) will be $10.00. Until mer, a trade unionist who from 1894 until 1955 February 1, 1970, membership rates will con­ was active successively in the United Mine tinue at their present level. Workers, the Socialist party, and the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

80 The 1970 Wisconsin Calendar has twice the color plus new features for $1.25. Write The State Historical Society of Wisconsin 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 —Photo by Charles A. Barnes, Eau Claire

7<^ 'Pen^ect ^Anl^t^pta^ (^i^ tut~'.j:.H

To promote a wider appreciation of the American heritage The Purpose with particular emphasis on the collection, advancement, of this and dissemination of knowledge of the history of Wisconsin Society shall be and of the Middle West.

State Historical Society of Wisconsin 81 C> State Street Madison. Wisconsin 5}70C> Secondclass postage paid at Madison. Wisconsin, and at Return Requested acktitional mailing offices.