The fever last time

The New York State Assembly was under a fever cloud, a foreign infection causing panic. The alien virus was feared, passing between people unseen and could arise anywhere. We speak not of 2020’s biological coronavirus, but the even more dangerous political pathogen of 1920’s Red Scare.

A century ago, on April 1, 1920, the Assembly, the seat of New York’s democracy since our forefathers declared independence from England, the onetime home of Alexander Hamilton and Teddy Roosevelt, succumbed to the mob and committed an immeasurable wrong against representative government. A majority voted to expel five duly elected Socialist Party assemblymen.

Brooklyn’s Charles Solomon, August Claessens and Louis Waldman of Manhattan and Bronxites Samuel Orr and Samuel DeWitt were elected in November 1919. On Jan. 7, 1920, they took their oaths with their 145 colleagues. Immediately, Republican Speaker Thaddeus Sweet moved to suspend them.

The kangaroo court Judiciary Committee produced a seven to six verdict for expulsion on March 30. On April 1, the chamber voted 104 to 40 to expel, supported by majorities of both Republicans and Democrats. In the small minority were heroes like GOP Assemblyman Teddy Roosevelt Jr. and Democrat Joseph Lentol. Outside the Legislature, the great Republican Charles Evans Hughes, a former governor and U.S. Supreme Court justice, fought expulsion.

Today’s Assembly must right the historical record. Senior members agree: Joe Lentol, whose grandfather stood so tall, Dick Gottfried, the Assembly dean, and Jeff Dinowitz, judiciary chair. They represent the three boroughs that lost their members and should lead the way to a unanimous repeal.