LOYALTY LEAGUE POLITICS SCORED
Frear, James A.
Loyalty League Politics Scored Wisconsin Congressman in Speech Says Security League Has Sent Insolent Letter To Representatives--Declares Only Rhode Island Is Given Perfect Loyalty Record By...
...In tins effort they brought into the campaign all of the KM) percent personal enemies of my colleagues from Wisconsin, rsenforced by all the old machine-gun politicians, profiteering patriots, and a fine line of ambitious, fhock-proof candidates, all attacking under a "loyalty" camouflage...
...for a question...
...they do not measure up with patriots Root and Parker...
...I will not discuss undenied public reports that one of its sponsors hired a substitute during the Civil War and his Americanism may bo measured by the price paid for that aervicev Mr...
...Company C, of Hudson, which I organized many years ago in my little home city, also entered the battle with a full company and is reported to have come out with 80 men in charge of a mess sergeant...
...THESE are the official figures given to the * press of the country, to our allies, and to the Kaiser by the Wall Street profiteering patriots...
...and Whereas said "league" has been publicly 1WOULD conclude these remarks with this brief account of a battle of bullets, wherein the arrogant Hun has been driven back by Wisconsin and Michigan boys, but a further word is necessary regarding arrogant enemies of our States and country who masquerade as "loyalists," "patriots," and "security" leaguers, and cover up their real aims by working upon the fears and prejudices of the public at large...
...Against the Supreme Court it would mean criminal contempt proceedings...
...both Hulls of Tennessee and Iowa...
...Applause...
...The next league fight was against Lenroot in the Wisconsin senatorial election...
...In the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Wisconsin regiment 760 casualties were reported or about 1 in 3 of those engaged, while in the One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Wisconsin Regiment casualties reached 1,445 out of 2,400 men including 76 per cent of its officers killed, wounded oi missing...
...Nevada is 50-50 American because of Representative Roberts, and Texas is 66.67 £er cent, or almost exactly two-thirds, bad...
...hard-bitting Huddleston, Langley, Meeker, Decker, Dyer, Rodenberg, and Reavis, all patriotic orators and statesmen...
...PLATT...
...After the war is over the greatest legislative problems that have confronted the country for a half century must be decided...
...Adjt...
...There is no disloyalty in the charge of the Security League...
...Another sponsor for this libellous league was snowed under in a popular election a few days ago by over two and one-half million voters because of his alleged subserviency to Wall street...
...This is no time for recrimination, but the days are too critical for a selfish, war-profiteering league to denounce as "disloyal" practically 90 per cent of the membership of this House who have been praised by the President in repeated messages for their patriotism and to traduce 47 of the 48 states...
...These figures were given me personally in Washington by two different men, both present at the battle, but results gained are sometimes aa Index, and the Thirty-second Division of "Les Terribles," from Wisconsin and Michigan, gain* ed its laurels through seven days of constant fighting midst rain and mud, charging across the open and through woods against machine guns and artillery, occasionally yielding to superior force, but without faltering, driving on and on until the shock troops of the Thirtieth Prussian Guard were forced back a dozen miles across the Vesle, and our boys gained all their objectives and held them...
...The title of "Les Terribles" has been bestowed on this division by the French...
...In Wisconsin Primaries...
...Wyoming is wrong per eent, according to these tin cross patriots, because in their opinion, Mondell, the vhole delegation, is three-fourths imperfect...
...Laughter...
...and Wisconsin is 70 per cent under par...
...Of that battle Etiwin L. James, New York Times war correspondent, says: "One village changed hands nine times in the bitter contest between these boys from Wisconsin and Michigan and the German Jaegers and Prussian Guards...
...Their sturdy fathers and mothers in Wisconsin and Michigan are stoutly vindicated in the resolve for liberty, and they may justly take pride in the distinction that their sons are 'Les Terribles.'" It does not detract from the recognized brav-*ry of other American soldiers or from the exploits of the French, the British or other allies House Should Resent League Charges THIS is no time for recrimination, but the days are too critical for a selfish, war-profiteering league to denounce as "disloyal" practically 90 per cent of the membership of this House who have been praised by the President in repeated messages for their patriotism and to traduce 47 of the 48 states...
...Holway, of Wisconsin, sayi that 10 per cent of Wisconsin's troops i-i that battle were of German parentage, and adds that while others were of Scandinavian, Irish, Polish, and New England blood they were all true American boys first, last and alwavs...
...Loyalty to our country is universal with men on both sides of the aisle in this House, and some of the kindest words of encouragement that have come to me since the Wisconsin primary are from Democratic friends...
...The sons and grandsons, the soldiers of this day and age have maintained the record of their sires for a company of the Sixty-fourth Brigade from Eau Claire, in my own district, went into action with 178 men on July 30 and came out with 74, while 5 of its 6 lieutenants were killed, wounded or missing...
...and Garrett, Saunders, Stafford, Sims, Towner, Temple and Esch, parliamentarians and efficient legislators of r»» cognized fame, with 300 other Representative* In Congress all fall by the wayside in their Americanism...
...The battle of bullets at Chateau-Thierry finds its political counterpart in the battle of ballots just waged in Wisconsin...
...The country repudiated the infamous charge of disloyalty, but such libelous charges can not be made without corresponding responsibilities...
...Its letterhead carries the name of Elihu Root and Alton B. Parker to giva Character...
...INDIVIDUAL heroism that equaled the finest achievements of the Civil War were repeated again and again in that irresistible advance of t Thirty-second Division, described by French officers and German prisoners as the most desperate fighting they had seen during the war, Verdun and Somme not excepted...
...Three-cornered fights were variously interpreted, but where thousands of Democrats were urged by insecurity leagues at home and abroad to help defeat my colleagues in Republican primaries, the result is easily explained...
...The service will make them good soldiers and better citizens and give them an understanding of the great debt of gratitude we owe our American boys in France...
...In Mr...
...What is in a name when Good is in bad, Doolittle does too much, Wise belies his name, Sterling is spurious, Rubey is off color and Greene, Browne, White and Black are termed yellow by the Root-Parker Wall Street patriots...
...The purpose of the resolution introduced, primarily, is to ascertain whether charges made by the league, that would be criminal if made against the President, and grounds of impeachment if made against the Supreme Court, are not equally grounds of impeachment when made against a coordinate branch of the Government by an ex-United States Republican Senator and a disappointed Democratic politician whose own past records would be of service in determining purity of intentions...
...Sons of Wisconsin and sons of Michigan who had never faced a gun but were inspired by loyal devotion to their country—these boys are entitled to an honorable place in history side by side with the veteran Wisconsin Iron Brigade that turned the tide of battle at Gettysburg during the dark days of the Civil War...
...Colorado, the home of Keating, is 78.12 below loyalty freezing point (Laughter...
...Moon is under a cloud, Church can not get across, and Crosser gets nowhere...
...That charge against the President would lodge slanderers in Leavenworth...
...In other words between 49 and 50 per cent of the voters in three Wisconsin districts, whose boys were yet fighting near Chateau-Thierry, gave their support to my colleagues-Cooper, Nelson and Cary—but the Root and Parker poison was enough to deceive and defeat them...
...the State of Presidents Hayes, Garfield and McKinley, and of Gen...
...Even Clark Fails...
...Campbell of Kansas, Ferris and Fess, our national chairmen, art both unpatriotic according to Wall Street profiteers, who include also in the proscribed list Kitchin and Kahn and Kent, and Kinkaid, and Kettner and Keating and Knutson and King and Kinshelpe...
...Sherwood, Gard and Longworth, is plastered over by the Root-Parker league with 55.67 per cent disloyalty mud...
...According to the Root-Parker Insecurity League, of Wall Street, the only state with a perfect loyalty record is Rhode Island, the smallest...
...Let no man engage in cowardly insinuations clout the loyalty or bravery of Wisconsin's men, young or old, at any time or place...
...1WOULD conclude these remarks with this brief account of a battle of bullets, wherein the arrogant Hun has been driven back by Wisconsin and Michigan boys, but a further word is necessary regarding arrogant enemies of our States and country who masquerade as "loyalists," "patriots," and "security" leaguers, and cover up their real aims by working upon the fears and prejudices of the public at large...
...ACCORDING to one of the participants in the battle, who told me personally of the fact, a captured German captain who had been in the war since its beginning declared he could not understand how advance was made in the face of the fire the Germans were directing, but the Thirty-second Division, as its men fell, closed up the ranks and drove on until their flag was carried to the river, and the finest shock troops of the enemy, broken and bewildered, had been captured or driven to the other side...
...New York's batting average in Washington when removed from Root and Parker's patriotic influence, is fixed at only 15.11 per cent disloyal...
...FREAR...
...They have achieved the courage of the new found republic, these soldiers, most of whom are the sons of German parents...
...Cooper, has presented for your inspection a sample of cowardly slanders put forth against him...
...It is fateful that men one generation removed from the baleful influence of junkerism should wield the sword that is to play such an-important part in suppressing it...
...In the state primary the Wall Street profiteering patriots of New York, linked with others of the same brand in Wisconsin, assumed their announced ta?k of preserving the Nation's patriotism...
...The "Security League" flag waved by Eliha Root and acting patriot Alton Parker, of Wall Street, carries a political skull and croSsponeS ostensibly over eight barred votes in CongM4£ of which six are prior to the war, and becow* the "Security" League's test of loyalty...
...Directed against a coordinate branch of the Government a part of the greatest legislative body in the world, during these hours of national stress and peril, it invites active prosecutions by the Attorney General's department...
...and Ohio...
...My colleague, Mr...
...That charge against the President would lodge the slanderers in Leavenworth...
...Nothing is too sacred and no measures too cowardly to employ when advancing their own selfish interests...
...We are united in the effort to win the war, and all are supporting the President in that resolve...
...Directed against a coordinate branch of the Government, a part of the greatest legislative bodjr in the world, during these hours of national stress and peril, it invites active prosecutions by the Attorney General's department...
...and Stephens of Mississippi...
...ABRIEF word regarding the harvests of hate fostered and garnered by the political and business patriots who thus seek to determine the loyalty and Americanism of Congress and of the country, measured by their own yardsticks...
...Although aided by the Democratic administration the verdict went to Lenroot by a people who are as patriotic as any in the country...
...and Sballeaberger and Stephens of Nebraska...
...Masquerade as Loyalists...
...In Illinois all of the representatives proscribed by the Wall Street tin-cross decorators won renominations...
...and Whereas charges have been publicly made that this "league" has expended large sums of money, reaching $1,000,000 or more, in carrying on its propaganda, and in its active efforts to defeat Members of Congress under a cloak of "loyalty" and that such expenditures are made contrary to the Federal corrupt-practices act...
...The people will register their will in November based upon the political, economic, and constructive records of men and of parties, and they know that a united Congress and country will support the war to a victorious conclusion, for in that purpose there can be no division...
...PLATT...
...Changed Nine Times...
...The character and effect of these votes it brazenly misrepresents...
...Censorship prevents giving details that some day will be a glorious page in a chapter filled with heroic deeds...
...Our soldiers abroad are winning the plaudits of both friend and foe for upholding the flag o£ their country during this war, as their fathers and their father's fathers did before them, and they send word back to us across the water rthey have no time for political or lip patriots...
...Will the gentleman yield...
...NO ONE charge since the beginning of the war has given more aid and comfort to the enemy than the infamous libel that this House individually or collectively is 90 per cent disloyal for voting its convictions, under its oath of office, either prior to or since the declaration of war...
...When they figure up the percentage of loyalty and Americanism there is a distinct charge of disloyalty, and New York is one of the worst, measured by the result of Hylan's election when he snowed under the Root-Parker League...
...Against the Supreme Court it would mean criminal contempt proceedings...
...charged with being composed of and financed by war profiteers living in New York and elsewhere and inspired by corrupt purposes unrelated to loyalty, Resolved, That the Judiciary Committee of the House be empowered and instructed to bring before it the officers and directors of the National Security League and such, members and witnesses as may have knowledge of its activities and ascertain what efforts have been made to improperly influence the election or defeat of Representatives in Congress, the persons contributing to such funds, the amount of such contributions, and purposes for which contributed and expended, together with all violations of the corrupt practices act affecting election expenditures and all other proper information...
...The people will register their will in November based upon the political, economic, and constructive records of men and of parties, and they know that a united Congress and country will support the war to a victorious conclusion, for in that purpose there can be no division...
...A congressional investigation of membership of the "Root-Parker league," its contributors, contributions, and expenditures will disclose the truth or falsity of an oft-repeated statement that the league is financed by war-profiteers, including especially munition makers, and that object of attacks is not related to patriotism...
...Speaker, an insolent letter received by, Representatives in Congress from the "Security" league of New York, with an impudent question-aire, comes from an organization that has prostituted the name "Americanism" in its efforts to defeat Congressmen...
...Loyalty League Politics Scored Wisconsin Congressman in Speech Says Security League Has Sent Insolent Letter To Representatives--Declares Only Rhode Island Is Given Perfect Loyalty Record By Organization By JAMES A. FREAR, Representative from Wisconsin THE pages of history are rich with the record of heroism of American troops, but in this hour of national sacrifice I ask the House to pause for a moment to pay tribute to the heroie living and dead of the gallant Thirty-second Division, American Army now fighting in Europe, a division that has won its place in history...
...Lip patriots and poison-gas leagues have no place in politics at this time...
...Harvest of Hate...
...Laughter and Applause...
...Briefly stated, the Thirty-second division, composed of the Sixty-third Michigan and Sixty-fourth Wisconsin Brigades of National Guardsmen, was formed at Waco, Texas, and recruited with men from various States until, when landed in France, in February, 1918, it reached approximately 20,000 men The division was stationed at various places in France and Alsace until the second battle of the Marne, when it was moved near Chateau Thierry on the firing line to a point where the . marines had fought the enemy to a standstill...
...That is the spirit of the American soldier from every state, and that spirit will win the war...
...Efforts to revive the Kaiser bugaboo will mislead no one, because at the present moment the Kaiser is kept busy with other pressing matters over there and can not be worked overtime over here for the coming elections...
...In the entire division the casualties reached 4,100 or nearly 1 in 4 of those engaged...
...The jurisdiction of the House as to its own membership is supreme and in order that the election activities of this league may be-reached I have offered a resolution of inquiry which I send to the Clerk's desk to have read: Whereas the National Security League, a 1 self-constituted political body, has given to the press of the conitry an infamous screed wherein practically 90 per cent of the Representatives of tha...
...With headquarters in New York city they were whipped out of their boots while trying to defeat Hylan in a Democratic scrap on the "loyalty" issue...
...two Republicans Davis and Knutson, won out ov.rwhelmingly against their "loyalty" opponents by a combined plurality of 18,000...
...Judges Crisp, Byrns and Byrnes and Burnett are roasted to a turn, while Candler, of tha Tombigbee...
...What is the name of that man...
...Under the caption of "Les Terribles," the Tribune says: "There was something more than gallantry to be credited to the Thirty-second Division 'Les Terribles,' as these Wisconsin and Michigan fighters have been dubbed by their astonished French comrades...
...New York, the home of the only Root and only Parker and only "Security" League is 150,000 per cent bad and hopeless, because that figure represents Hylan's enormous majority in the "loyalty" fight against which he won out over the Root-Parker League...
...ONE OF the regiments of the old Wisconsin Iron Brigade which included other State regiments, lost one-half of its effective strength at Gettysburg, and that Brigade has been glorified in song and story—it defeated a brave, whipped foe...
...Only 47 members of Congress out of over 400 members are strictly pure men, fit to stand with Root and Parker, and of the 47 perfect patriots only 4 are Democrats...
...House are publicly branded before tl ' disloyal men...
...Let those political patriots within my State who have declared Wisconsin sought to thwart the military program of the Nation and those who demanded military courts-martial for Wisconsin take heed, for such persistent poison-gas patriots who seek to divide our people will be scorned and scourged by honest men...
...Recalls Iron Brigade...
...Laughter...
...Neither can the league's tin cross be tied on Leaders Kitchin nor Mann, nor Lenroot, nor Moore, nor Dent, nor Dies nor Ford-ney, nor Fitzgerald, nor Foster...
...FREAR...
...Laughter...
...sational press...
...V UR honored Speaker, Champ Clark, can not wear the cross carried by the Root-Parker Wall Street patriots because he and all the rest of the Missouri delegation fail in the "acid test" which has been published far and wide by a sen...
...FREA R. I will not discuss that now...
...Mr...
...The only one who failed was a solitary Member the insecurity league approved...
...Iowa returned every man who was opposed on the "loyalty" issue excepting one who patriotically stuck to the job at Washington and gave his detractors a clear field...
...Words of praise come from many writers, but one other comment, editorially, from the Chicago Tribune, alone is noted...
...Let youthful lip patriots who have joined in the same hue and cry now waive exemptions, shoulder their guns, and take the place of Wisconsin's gallant sons who fell at Chateau Thierry...
...Illinois hits the cellar stairs with all of its 27 representatives excepting Foss, but including Cannon, Madden and Mann, and assays 39.81 per cent disloyal...
...He won out by 150,000 majority although $2,000,000 was spent to defeat him and practically every New York paper opposed him...
...to praise the living and dead of the Thirty-second division, because that is their due...
...Other companies of the division were led by noncommissioned officers at the close of the final drive with their line officers killed, wounded, or missing...
...and the fourth member was defeated in a many^orner-ed fight...
...Advance Under Fire...
...I have made no effort to present a list of those who have been renominated over the dishonest and wickedly false issue which attracted political profiteers in many districts, but it is safe to say that 90 per cent of the proscribed members are renominated...
...and Whereas "* I Security League has caused ^. J published a statement of self-determs»jed percentages of patriotism computed under its authority, wherein 47 States of the Union are rated disloyal, based on such votes and computations...
...The League's activities were felt in the recent Wisconsin primaries where three of my colleagues received the double cross from the league instead of the tin article, and less than 200 votes out of approximately 20,000 votes cast in each of the three districts spelt defeat in each case...
...Relieving the Third Division of Regulars on this sector, from July 30 to August 5, during seven days of continuous fighting the Thirty-second Division forced back the enemy until, on August 5, the German lines broke and never re-formed until they had fled across the Vesle River, and thi city of Fismes was occupied by our boys in the onward march to victory...
...Those who do so have their own, miserable, selfish interests first at heart, and are as false and dangerous to the welfare of this country and of its people as are recognized traitors who receive deserved punishment...
...North Carolina with Webb, Small, and Kitchin, is found to be 56.25 per cent unpatriotic, and Iowa, that gave to her country many of the famous Rainbow Division, is precisely 64.77 per cent disloyal...
...In the Minnesota primaries four Members were marked for defeat, but when returns came in it was discovered Van Dyke, a Democrat had been unopposed...
...League Does Damage...
...By careful computation they have ascertained only 47 Congressmen are fit company for a league that indicts the House of Representatives and all the States excepting the Province of Rhode Island...
...For am-munit en they used carlonds of misrepresentation, poison-gas slanders, and alternate appeals to prejudice and patriotism that found lodgment in the minds of men who had neither time nor inclination to know the truth...
...That the committee is authorized and empowered to issue subpoenas, swear and examine witnesses, and to procure all documents bearing upon the matters referred to, and to employ needed stenographers and clerks in the prosecution of such inquiry...
...The Wall Street published blacklist includes Rainey and Doremus, official bellwethers;,, and Sison LIP patriots and poison-gas leagues have no place in politics at this time...
...Hi* name is known to the country...
...Missouri, the home of our distinguished Speaker, is rated 50-50 per cent disloyal by Root and Parker, and Pennsylvania is mathematically 31.94 per cent un-American...
...The battle of bullets at Chateau Thierry finds its political counterpart in the battle of ballots just waged in Wisconsin...
...Nftb.mr is too sacred and no measures too cowardly to employ when advancing their own selfish interests...
...After the war is ov^r the greatest legislative problems that have confronted the country for a half a century must be decided...
...In Nebraska with a 75 per cent disloyal insecurity league estimate no opposition could be aroused and all Members were returned, so far as the "loyalty" issue was concerned...
...California, the home of Kahn, gets the bad rating of 43.86 per cent...
...Lever and Haugen get the hook...
...North Dakota is rated 79.16 per cent hopeless, while Indiana, the migratory home of Marshall, Vice President and patriotic exemplar, is knocked down as a cheap patriotic substitute at 52.88 per cent of the real thing...
...All of the remaining 370 members of Congress, or more are subjected to poisoned gas attacks frqm this "league" through the public presss...
...AH the remaining 47 states are "disloyal" according to this asinine league...
...Nelson's district and in others not 10 per cent of the Democratic vote was saved with which to qualify the Democratic candidate, because all participated in Republican primaries...
...In Wisconsin three Members were unopposed, three were renominated over three security league perfect patriots, and three were defeated by close votes running from 79 to 180, or less than one-half of 1 per cent of the vote cast...
Vol. 10 • October 1918 • No. 10
