Glens Falls in 1919 — Socialism and First Amendment

The Glens Falls Socialist Party added 26 members, bringing its enrollment to 82, in 1919, a year in which the group’s First Amendment rights were tested.

A planned lecture by national Socialist youth leader William F. Kruse of Chicago on the topic “Political Prisoners in America” was abruptly cancelled on Thanksgiving, the evening before the event, after the Glens Falls American Legion post pressured managers of M. and F. Hall not to rent the hall to the Socialists a day earlier.

“The members of the Socialist Local were astonished at the action of the American Legion in trying to prevent Mr. Kruse from addressing a perfectly lawful meeting of Glens Falls citizens,” S. Garlek, local Socialist secretary, wrote in a statement. “The mere fact that a man has spoken against a war does not make him a traitor to his country.”

The American Legion Post held an emergency meeting the evening before Thanksgiving to stop the event.

“A (American Legion) committee immediately called on Patrick Moynihan, proprietor of the hall, and presented the facts to him,” The Post-Star reported. “As soon as Mr. Moynihan learned for what purpose the hall was to be used, he volunteered to send back the check which he had received in payment.”

It was the second hall to back out of hosting the speech.

The American Legion and city officials had previously pressured the Knights of Pythias to cancel a rental contract with the Socialists.

American Legion members and city officials were outraged that Kruse and four other Socialist leaders had been convicted in January 1919 for violating the espionage act and sentenced to 20 years in prison, in relation to anti-war activism during World War I.

The verdict, which later was overturned due to judicial bias, was under appeal at the time, and Kruse was free to travel the country making speeches.

Glens Falls Acting Mayor Julius Jacobson said that “ a person convicted of opposing the government in the world war should not be given an opportunity to address a public gathering.”

After conferring with the city attorney and police chief, it was concluded the city could not legally prohibit Kruse from speaking, even though other cities such as Syracuse and Schenectady had done so.

A Post-Star editorial defended Kruse’s First Amendment right, with somewhat of a caveat.

“At first thought, every person with American blood in his veins agrees that under no circumstances should he be allowed to appear in Glens Falls. … But real Americans, law abiding Americans … realize that they have no legal right to prevent Kruse from speaking, so long as he does not preach violence or sedition,” the editorial stated. “If a person can be denied the right of speaking merely on supposition that he will make disloyal remarks, then any other person can be prohibited from speaking on some other supposition.”

“So if Kruse comes to Glens Falls he must be allowed to speak under the law. To forbid him is illegal,” the editorial concluded. “But there should be a shorthand writer there. Officers should be there, and the minute he or any other person at that meeting utters anything with even the faintest tinge of sedition, he should be promptly snaked from the platform and made to pay the full penalty under the law.”

The Glens Falls Trades Council, a labor coalition, passed a resolution “condemning the attitude of the city officials.”

Garlek, the local Socialist secretary, said opponents were misinformed about the nature of Kruse’s activism during the war.

“We resent your characterization of Mr. Kruse as an enemy of the country,” he wrote. “We believe that his conviction was an outgrowth of the war-hysteria, and that when his appeal is decided by the appellate court, that it will result in a reversal of the decision by the lower court (which, in fact, was the case).”

Garlek pledged to schedule another lecture, with different speakers, on the same topic of “Political Prisoners in America “.

That lecture took place on Dec. 11 at the M. and F. Hall, the same hall where Kruse was prohibited from speaking.

Speakers were Walter M. Cook of Albany, state secretary of the Socialist Party, and state Assemblyman Charles Solomon, a Socialist from Brooklyn.

Sources: The Post-Star Nov. 22, 24, 25, 26, 28, Dec. 3, 11, 1919.