"The Green Corn Rebellion in Oklahoma," by Bertha Hale White [events of Aug. 3, 1917] The so-called "Green Corn Rebellion" was one of the seminal events of the socialist movement in Oklahoma, an uprising of radicalized impoverished farmers who purportedly planned to march to Washington, DC in conjunction with others around the country, eating green corn on their way for sustenance, in an effort to remove "Big Slick" Woodrow Wilson from power and establish the Cooperative Commonwealth. Or so the story goes. This 1922 article by soon-to-be Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party Bertha Hale White indicates that the motives of the farmers had been misrepresented, the specifics of the action had been grossly exaggerated, and the tale had grown with the telling as a sort of post-facto justification for the repression of the 175 individuals who were sentenced to terms ranging from 6 months in jail to 10 years in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. The "Working Class Union" behind the rebellion was a "non-political" organization of 20,000 based in Eastern Oklahoma, bringing together the region's illiterate tenant farmers for but one object -- to force down exploitative rents and usurious interest rates. Woodrow Wilson's hypocritical reversal on the question of American participation in the war had caused the WCU to abandon its anti-political stand. The WCU held secret meetings and determined to resist conscription by force: "They did not believe the people of the country would tamely submit to the violation of the pledges which had resulted in the re-election of President Wilson. And they decided they would not accept that violation. They agreed to hide their boys from the draft officers and to prevent troops from coming into the Seminole country." On Aug. 3, 1917, about 150 WCU supporters were encamped under arms on a hill near Sasakwa, OK; a posse of about 50 townsmen was formed and despite having no advantages of terrain or firepower, they bloodlessly disarmed the rebellious WCUs. "It has been asserted that the rebellion resulted in loss of life. That is not true. Not a single shot was fired by either side," White declares, noting that the event had been grossly exaggerated. "In Sasakwa, the Green Corn Rebellion is a story that provokes laughter," White remarks.

 

"Indiana Governor Incites Legion Lawlessness Toward Debs!" by Frederic Heath [Events of Jan. 11-13, 1922] On Jan. 11, 1922, Governor Warren T. McCray of Indiana briefly addressed a local post of the American Legion, in its initial phase a proto-fascist organization of former soldiers responsible for a lengthy and growing series of vigilante attacks on persons and property. He there stated with regard to recently-returned Socialist leader Eugene Debs of Terre Haute, ""I am sorry, extremely sorry, that the one arch-traitor of our country should live in the state of Indiana. I believe he will be taught a lesson by the American Legion, however." This transparent call for mob violence drew an immediate response from State Secretary Emma Henry of the Socialist Party of Indiana. In the open letter to the Governor reprinted here, Henry writes "as an American citizen and a citizen of Indiana, I feel that it is to be deplored that we have a man elected as chief executive of this state who will so far forget the high office he occupies, as to use the terms you have been reported as using, terms which tend to incite lawlessness. An official of the state who is sworn to uphold the law should be the last person to use language that will incite to unlawful acts." Henry offers to send the Governor the text of the speech made by Debs for which he was imprisoned to refute the charge that Debs was in any way a "traitor" to his country. "We Socialists stand for real Americanism, the principles for which our forefathers fought, the rights that are guaranteed to every citizen under the constitution of the United States and the state of Indiana; that is freedom of speech, press, and assemblage," Henry declares, adding that "We do not advocate the destruction of anything; we are for construction, we are for changing the system for the benefit of all."

 

"'Let Them Come; I Fear No Man,' Debs Tells Indiana Governor: Gov. McCray Admits He Counseled American Legion Affront to Debs and Urged He Be Taught a Lesson -- Law and Order Hypocrites Expose Hand." by Frederic Heath [Events of Jan. 16-17, 1922] On Jan. 16, 1922, Terre Haute Socialist Eugene Debs wrote a letter to Indiana Governor Warren T. McCray inquiring about McCray's reported quote that ""I am sorry, extremely sorry, that the arch-traitor of our country [Debs] should live in the state of Indiana. I believe he will be taught a lesson by the American Legion." Debs coyly remarks to McCray that "You will oblige me by advising if you are correctly quoted in this statement, and if so, it would seem to follow that you must also denounce the President of the United States in the same terms for releasing an arch-traitor from prison and inviting him to the White House." Debs adds that "a committee representing the miners and other workingmen of this city and vicinity have just called on me to ask you if you as Governor of the state, sworn to uphold its laws and preserve order, endorse and intend to back up the program of threat and violence against the 'arch-traitor' in question, incited by your remarks, and announced in the same report of the same meeting?" Gov. McCray responded to Debs the next day in a brief note in which he indicated that the comments made to the proto-fascist American Legion were made without notes and while "I am not sure of the language quoted in the paper which you repeat," it was "in the main it was what I said." Editor of The New Day Frederic Heath notes that this exchange puts the Governor and other "'Law and Order' hypocrites in high places" on record. He also directly quotes Debs as making the following retort to Gov. McCray's flippancy about encouraging American Legion thuggery: "Let them come! I have not the slightest objection. It will be an illuminating exhibition. Were I so inclined I could easily muster an army of a few thousand to make their reception an interesting one. But I shall do nothing of the kind. Were I to call upon my friends at all it would be to see to it that the marchers were unmolested. I do not object to being called a 'traitor' under certain circumstances for I certainly am a 'traitor' to the powers and personalities of Wall Street that are looting this nation, corrupting its government, debauching its politics, and robbing and starving the people, including the boys who went overseas at their command to 'save civilization,' for which many are now facing starvation as a reward."

 

"Motive-Patterns of Socialism," by Max Eastman [October 1939] Rather than dividing the adherents of socialism by the tactics they espouse -- revolutionary upheaval vs. the ballot box -- in this provocative essay radical publicist Max Eastman is concerned rather with the generalized motivations of the various advocates of socialism. Eastman sees three fundamental "motive-patterns." The first of these Eastman characterizes as "rebels against tyranny and oppression," who based their motivation upon the fundamental concept of "human freedom." The second motive-pattern Eastman calls the "united-brotherhood pattern," based upon a mixture of "religious mysticism" and "animal gregariousness for human solidarity." In the third motive-pattern group Eastman includes "those anxious about efficiency and intelligent organization," for whom "a cerebral anxiety capable of rising in times of crisis to a veritable passion for a plan." It is as a function of these underlying motive-patterns that the various responses by American radicals to the reality of Soviet Union emerged. "To libertarian socialists, therefore, no matter how monolithic it may become, nor how much industrial planning and solving of unemployment problems it may do, Stalin's Russia is a counterrevolutionary state," Eastman observes. On the other hand, the "human-solidarity socialists" concerned with constructing a quasi-religious movement in which the will of the individual is subjugated to the needs of the collective had come to see the USSR under Stalin as a sort of promised land. As for the third typology, those concerned with the business-like reorganization of society in the face of capitalist collapse, while not necessarily a promised land, "Russia seems at least a promising land." Eastman includes much of the American liberal intelligentsia in this latter camp and asserts that the "neo-Marxian ex-liberals are at present a greater menace than the Stalinists to the cause of freedom in America." This he holds to be true because "they not only apologize for totalitarianism in Russia, but they help to camouflage its propaganda-stratagems and pressure-plots in this country. By abandoning their faith in popular intelligence, lending their pages to the manipulation as well as the enlightenment of public opinion, condoning political immoralism, adopting an attitude of realpolitik wherever such antique concepts as the Rights of Man are in question, and in general outdoing Marx in being hard-boiled on all questions except that of proletarian power, they are, while professing themselves friends, giving aid and comfort to the enemies of democracy."

 

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