100 years ago in The Record
Wednesday, Nov. 14, 1917
An attempt to form a Troy branch of the anti-war People’s Council of America gets a hostile reception from The Record, which calls tonight’s meeting at Socialists’ Hall on River Street “an excursion in practical disloyalty.”
The main speaker is Elisabeth Freeman, the PCA’s organizing secretary. The prominent New York suffragist is ominously identified as an “alien,” but she’s a native of Great Britain, one of America’s allies in the war against Germany.
Speaking to an audience of 48 people, with Detective Bernard J. Farrell “present in his official capacity,” Freeman’s remarks “were for the most part confined to the aims of the People’s Council.” Under questioning from Socialists in the audience, she expresses more “radical views.”
Asked what the PCA would do if this country were invaded, Freeman answers, “That question is so far-fetched that I do not see any need of making a statement regarding it. It is next to impossible for this country to be invaded. We are invaders. We have invaded Europe for war.”
Freeman describes U.S. intervention in the European war as part of “what looks to be a movement to organize capital internationally.”
Does the PCA have a realistic chance of stopping the war? Freeman herself might not, but “the one sure, quick way to stop it is to have the soldiers in the trenches stand up on their haunches and refuse to fight.”
That’s enough to persuade our editorial writer that “This organization has as its object the end of the war on terms favorable to Germany, although it tries to veil its desire by verbal camouflage.” According to his logic, “As Germany is fighting on allied territory [in France and Belgium],
“for soldiers to stop fighting “would mean a Teuton [i.e. German] victory, and the leaders of the People’s Council are not only aware of this, but are desirous of gaining that end.”
While “thus far no evidence has been made public” of German funding, “the objects it seeks are the identical with the societies organized under the affectionate, but silent, patronage of the Teuton spy who called himself German ambassador to the United States. The idea of all these traitorous organizations is to end the war now, before Germany gets beaten.”
The Record claims that “Any man or woman who will enter into the organization and activities of such a body as this is mentally awry or patriotically efficient.” Echoing a warning from an anonymous audience member, our editor writes that “The police will do their share to curb this offensive movement; the people can be counted on to finish the job.”