We wage a constant battle centering on deciding right from wrong, truth from rumor, fact from fiction. Even with due diligence we get sucked into believing rumors from time to time. If we’re lucky we might discover the error of our ways and make course corrections.
The State Historical Society of North Dakota publishes a great magazine “North Dakota History.” The recent issue carries a thought-provoking article, “Free Speech on Trial” which discusses the Espionage Act of 1917. Now that seems like ancient history but it will fit into a larger framework we’ll try to build here.
The act was passed when the United States entered World War I to fight with her European allies against Germany and her allies. Prior to this, the U.S. had been the destination for large numbers of German immigrants and now we were fighting their old home country. Could those immigrants be trusted to behave themselves in our borders or were they a threat? To deal with the potential threats, Congress passed the Espionage Act of 1917.
To quote the recent article, “Although vital to national security, the Espionage Act severely threatened citizens’ right to free speech due to its vague and sweeping language.” Judge C. F. Amidon was kept busy during this time adjudicating cases brought to him. A familiar name of John H. Wishek suffered through accusations and a trial for being in violation of the espionage act. One of the charges against him was that he opposed the sale of Liberty Loan bonds used to support the military effort. Rumors made him out to be a German sympathizer, but in reality the banks he controlled had purchased over $70,000 worth of bonds. Wishek’s case was just one of many during this period. People were quick to make accusations.
This paper, The Enderlin Independent, printed an article in 1918 headlined “Pro-German Hanged.” The story came from New England, ND alleging that a businessman of the. city refused to hang a picture of an enlisted man of the U.S. army and that he stated that no soldier’s picture would be hung in his place. Rumors must have swirled and grown because “a mob of angry citizens escorted Arnold to the railroad bridge, placed a rope about his neck and hanged him until he was black in the face. The man was then lowered to the ground and made to retract his statement.”
My wife recently bought a novel titled “Red Letter Days,” by Sarah-Jane Stratford which has me chomping at the bit to read myself. The story evokes memories of the witch-hunts and the Hollywood blacklists conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the 1950s. She states, “It is staggering to think that the United States, emerging victorious and a superpower at the end of World War II, should have been so afraid of the spread of Communism that it would start persecuting its own citizens.”
The HUAC subpoenaed Tom McGrath, the poet raised and schooled in Sheldon, to testify. He favored left-wing politics, and even signed up to fight with the International Brigade for Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Because that war ended, he never made it over there, but soon joined the U.S. Army during WWII and was stationed in the Aleutian Islands. Next he attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, after which taking employment as a college teacher in California.
During testimony he quoted Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, “This system of spying and surveillance with its accompanying reports and trials cannot go hand in hand with academic freedom. It produces standardized thought, not the pursuit of truth.” McGrath then went on to invoke the 5th Amendment, but was blacklisted and lost his job at the college. Even so, he kept on writing his poetry and did teach again, including NDSU and Moorhead State.
The U. S. Senate had their version of investigation. Remember the U. S. senator Joe McCarthy. He saw himself as a watchdog and rose to national fame in 1950 after asserting that he had a list of members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring. He created quite a stir, and finally because of his bullying, recklessness, and dishonesty, the Senate saw fit to censure him for his behavior.
Rumors come and go, and I recently heard of this one. President Biden’s environmental policies will eliminate beef in our diets. Some commentators glommed onto that rumor for the shock value to stir their body of readers and listeners. I thought something was amiss when I heard it. A huge economy surrounds the cattle industry and any changes made will come very slowly, if at all. It even caused me to write a limerick:
Here's a rumor to repeat.
It's almost set in concrete.
It's about Biden
And how he'll widen
The road to banning meat.
The rumor was traced to a British scandal magazine called The Daily Mail.
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