Revolution Aborted; Society Sacralized:
Class War in Buffalo, 1910-1920*

By Dr. Elwin H. Powell
(Design of Discord . 1973)

TABLE 15 -Manufacturing in Buffalo, 1909-1919

...Continued from Page 2

-cial publication of the Chamber of Commerce observed: "Gargantuan as the task of subduing the arrogant autocracy has proven to be, nevertheless it appears to be progressing satisfactorially," and added as an afterthought, "The slogan 'business as usual' has been expanded to 'better business than usual'" (Live Wire, July 1917).

But as the year wore on there was a mounting and diffuse anxiety. "German spies and plotters," says Sweeny, "were thick in all sections of the country." Even before war was declared the Chamber of Commerce and the city council had urged the mayor to call up troops to guard the waterworks. The mayor refused, but he organized a volunteer police brigade "purely for the patriotic purpose of serving their city in the case of riots or uprisings . . . . After daily toil in the banks, offices and in shops (says Sweeny) the police reserve patrolled the streets . . . and many meritorious arrests were made by the members. There seemed to be an urgent need for those on the home-front to participate more directly in the war effort. The Liberty-Loan campaign and the home-defense brigades partially filled this need; in addition there was spy-hunting. "Do not wait until you catch someone putting a bomb under a factory," advised Live Wire; "Report the man who spreads pessimistic stories . . . cries for peace or belittles our efforts to win the war. Send the names f such persons . . . to the Department of Justice . . . . The fact that you made the report will not be made public. You are in contact with the enemy today, just as truly as if you faced him across No Man's Land" (Live Wire; July 1918). However, Sweeny noted that "Buffalo, happily, escaped the stain of any great amount of disloyalty among its citizens . . . [local] German propaganda took the form of interpreting the war as a capitalist war and sought to foment resistance to the draft. That was effectively and vigorously suppressed."

By an easy transmutation the "radical" replaced the "Hun" as the primary enemy. In fact, as early as September 1917, the Live Wire warned: "The I. W. W. is an element more dangerous to the peace and prosperity of the United States than is Germany and her allies." The category of radical initially included the I. W. W.s and the anarchists, and later all those who opposed the war. including pacificists and conscientious objectors. Locally, the I. W. W. had no organization and apparently the Socialists were too numerous to molest, though technically they were liable for arrest under the Espionage Act. However, for fear of alienating the radical vote the press was almost civil in its discussions of socialism. The Express made the unteard of concession that "We are all more or less socialists now days." Some of us call our socialism by the name of State Regulation or Municipal Ownership or Organized Benevolence. But it is socialism pure and simple as distinguished from the individualism of Herbert Spencer" (Express, Oct., 1917).

The year 1918 began calmly enough with the sage advice from the Chamber of Commerce that "if we could attain sanity in all things, there would be no more difficulties (Live Wire, Jan.8). However, when peace broke out, hysteria rose. On November 14, 1918, the Express carried a banner headline: BOLSHEVISM THREATENS ALL EUROPE . . . . On December 8 the headlines read: UNEMPLOYMENT GREATEST DANGER TO THE NATION NOW . . . "and it will come with attendant misery at a time when anarchistic tendencies are cantagious." These two headlines told the story of what was to come in 1919.

Despite its opposition to the war perhaps because of it the Socialist party, locally and nationally, was stronger at the beginning of 1919 than at any time before or since. The number of registered Socialists in Buffalo increased from 2000 in 1916 to 5000 in 1919, and the party could muster a vote of around 15,000 between 10 and 15 per cent of the electorate. And it was not the actual size but the potentiality for growth, both nationally and locally, which most disturbed conservative elements. Socialist rallies, speeches, even party feuds, were given good press coverage, and the Express noted that "the party's last [1918] labor day picnic had had 10,000 in attendance" (Express, Dec., 1918). Although the Express was mainly interested in fighting European Bolshevism, it was not happy about the domestic radical scene. "The idea that any body could really entertain such a project as an armed insurrection to overthrow the republic of the United States the best government on earth impresses most Americans as so absurd as to be worth only a derisive laugh. ... There is not going to be a revolution in the United States. There is not going to be a reign of terror. But there may be some forcible demands for those who do not like the United States to get out and stay out" (Express, Jan., 1919). The demands were not long in coming.

Unrest continued throughout the year and in September 1919 a nation wide steel strike (involving 365,000 workers) occurred and was billed as an attempt to Bolshevize the steel industry. Buffalo was a steel city, and in the fall of 1919 radicalism was very poignantly in the air. The Socialists held nightly street corner meetings as did the Minute Men, whose objective was to counteract Bolshevik propaganda, and even the Communists were able to get 400 votes in the primary municipal election . Buffalo was then governed by four city commissioners and a mayor, and the election of 1919 to select three commissioners was fought on the issue of socialism. To the surprise of everyone (including the Socialists) the Socialist candidate got the high vote of 47,000 followed by the Republican party candidate with 42,000 and an Independent Republican with 39,000 (Express, Nov., 1919). The election so alarmed a leading banker that he cancelled a $14,000,000 offer to buy the controlling interest in the street railway company although the press took the election with equanimity after the initial shock wore off. The Express excused its own complicity in the election of a Socialist:

The conservatives will blame the newspapers for not conducting a campaign of silence. The conservatives ought to have taken warning after the primaries, realized that Perkins [the socialist] was a dangerous opponent, and gone vigorously to work to bring out the vote against him . . . . The newspapers are potent at times but not omnipotent. In fact there are well authenticated instances of candidates with every newspaper in town against them . . . winning. You can't kill a man by ignoring him. But responsibility has cooled many a hot head. May that be true of Perkins. (Nov., 1919)

Locally, the "counter-revolution" was gathering momentum, and the concept of dangerous radicalism was expanding to include not only the anarcho-syndicalists but the Communists and Socialists and those with "tendencies" in that direction. On November. the Commercial warned: "Outraged Patriotism To Rise Up in Righteous Wrath To Crush Foul Plot against Nation." On December 30th the headquarters of the Communist Party was raided by the State Lusk Committee, and twenty men and two women were arrested. The Express thought:

...The raid will probably have considerable effect on the selfdeceived, both those who are in the Communist party and the large number who are on the outside looking in. Radicals for fun and particularly parlor Bolsheviks may examine a little more closely the actual location of the deadline which may not be overstepped with prudence by those who wish to retain a standing as American . . . . The arrest of local radicals conveys a warning which goes considerably beyond the limits of their party membership. (December 31, 1919)

Two days later the nation wide raid on the radicals by U.S. Attorney General Palmer resulted in the arrest of 136 in Buffalo. The city was not unpleased with its showing, which compared favorably with 300 each for New York and Detroit, 120 each for Philadelphia and Chicago. (The poor showing of Chicago, capital of American radicalism, was due to the fact that the county sheriff, jealous of federal authorities, made a pre-emptive raid sending the radicals into hiding.) The Justice Department issued warrants for 250 in Buffalo, but only 105 were finally served.

Sociologically, one of the more interesting features of the raid was the citizen participation which it involved. "More than 200 policemen," noted the Commercial "were aided by as many citizens, members of civic organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary and Kiwanis and other clubs" (Jan., 1920). The information for the raid was supplied:

...by a secret committee of citizens which has been working day and night since last spring . . . . Just how powerful this organization may be is shown by the fact that all of the evidence [for both the Lusk and Palmer raids] was furnished by the committee . . . . All the photographic copies of membership cards, which so astounded the alleged members of the Communist party . . . were secured by the committee . . . . For the raids on Friday, 221 names were submitted to the government by the committee . . . and of these 80 or 90 were finally brought in. It was brought out that the citizens committee had had paid investigators keep ing track of alleged radical activities here. Members of the committee and these investigators got memberships in the Communist party and got in at meetings, securing names and other information for the raid on the branch of the Union of Russian Workers here in November. How much money was contributed to the investigation is not known ...but $25,000 has been subscribed by Buffalo men for the purpose of investigating the local radical press. (Commercial, Jan., 1920)

On January 5 the Enquirer printed a list of 125 citizens who took part in the raid. By tracing out the means in various source books it was found that this group was predominantly upper class. Seventy-two per cent of the names appeared in Dau's Blue Book, which describes itself as "a compilation of the most prominent householders..' The Social Register listed 24.8 per cent of names; 52 per cent of those appearing in the Blue Book were listed as members of the Chamber of Commerce; 45 per cent were members of the leading men's club. The City Directory revealed that approximately 70 to 80 per cent of the "raiders" were officials of manufacturing corporations. Of the eight men singled out by the Express as the organizers of the raid and given special commendation by the federal authorities, one was a former president of the Chamber of Commerce and general production manager of a radiator manufacturing concern, two were officials of a forge company, two were stock brokers, another in manufacturing, and one a member of the school board and the business manager of the Commercial (Express, Jan., 1920).

Today the raids sound like an episode from the Keystone cops. "One hundred automobiles were assembled in the center of the city at 4. p.m.," writes the Enquirer, "and started on a dash of red hunting which radiated throughout Buffalo and the surrounding towns:

Drivers were supplied with copies of federal warrants and while the police officer watched the prisoner the organization member searched his home for radical literature and explosives. In one man's room was found a shotgun and other weapons . . . along with some 1914 Russian war bonds. In another apartment was found a picture of Leon Trotsky and some I. W. W. papers . . . in still another a picture of the local socialist lawyer . . . . A detective came to the station with arms filled with alleged radical literature but the publications were all in Polish and he was unable to make any translations . . . . The jail was crowded with 205 radicals greatest number of prisoners in years said the jailor The chief of police looked them over and said: "A fine looking bunch they are. It's too bad we can't line them up against the wall there and shoot them" (Composite quote from the Enquirer and the Commercial, Dec. through Jan.).

Yet the raids were deadly serious. Throughout the country some 10,000 radicals were jailed. Nation magazine called it "an unprecedented outburst of error and terrorism." While the Red Scare came to its dramatic climax between November 1919 and March 1920 it did not begin or end then. Anti radicalism became institutionalized, a kind of permanent counterrevolution built into the legal system in the form of criminal syndicalism laws, into the investigative and police apparatus of federal, state, and local governments, and into the voluntary organizations of the business class. The Red Scare terminated a decade of class conflict and ushered in a time of repression and apathy.

The period 1910-20 was a decade of conflict, the climax of a crisis germinating for thirty years. Developments analogous to those described above occurred throughout the urban world: Buffalo was only a mirror of the larger culture. Rarely had a decade of American life been so riddled with strife and dissension. Arrests for violent personal crimes in Buffalo and seemingly throughout the nation began to rise around 1906, reaching a peak in 1918, afterwards (to 1940) receding. The suicide rate for the nation reached its high point for the twentieth century in 1913. Crime and suicide are individual manifestations of a collective discord of anomie and signify an unconscious repudiation of existing society. In the political sphere the "repudiation" became articulate as an organized attack on the institutions of capitalism, an incipient class war.

In the years between 1866 and 1890 the authority of capitalism was virtually unchallenged if not unquestioned. But from the early 1890's to 1914 there was a restless agitation for some kind of limitation on the power of the capitalist class. Yet even during the epoch of trust busting the concentration of capital continued unabated. The public image of big business may have been soiled by ten years of muckraking, but its power was not seriously threatened by the reformers.

Yet by 1910 the "ruling class" or power eilte was immobilized by the inner paralysis of the capitalist system. External and legal restraint on capitalist power could be circumvented easily enough. But the business class was as powerless as anyone else when confronted with the business cycle. Big business had full access to coercive powers the police and military were available as strike-breakers, etc. But force could not create jobs, or run industry, or win elections. Coercion was useless against labor and tended to solidify rather than destroy the union movement. The elite could, for a time, inhibit, but it could not initiate action. ....CONTINUED NEXT PAGE>>

* This text was transcribed from: Powell, Elwin. H (1925. 1991). The Design of Discord, Studies of Anomie. Suicide, Urban Society, War. Oxford Universirty Press. 1970.

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