Though, mind you, at the start of Wilson's Red Scare there was something real to fear. Did you know that German Imperial agents actually carried out terrorist acts to sabotage American arms production destined for the Western Allies before America's declaration of war? And that they did recruit agents from among the locals to execute these attacks, including American Irish IRA sympathizers, and pro-German German-Americans? So it was not objectionable that Wilson took actions to prevent enemy infiltration -- in fact, such was his Constitutional duty as President.
What was more than a little crazy -- and oppressive -- was the way in which Wilson defined the "enemy" (anyone who opposed the war for whatever reason), the unconstitutional and successful attempts at prosecuting mere "sedition," and (most directly relevant to the lynching of Prager) the deputization of thousands of unqualified people to search out treason, and the tolerance of private illegal acts against persons suspected of treason.
If Prager really HAD been a German spy, the last thing that the US Government should have wanted would have been to lynch him, as spies often have useful information. Of course, Prager wasn't.
Wilson may have been prejudiced in favor of lynchings in the first place, given his political sympathies regarding the Ku Klux Klan, and the importance of the Southern Democracy in the national party of the time. That's also part of the context.
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Date: 2009-10-31 08:22 pm (UTC)What was more than a little crazy -- and oppressive -- was the way in which Wilson defined the "enemy" (anyone who opposed the war for whatever reason), the unconstitutional and successful attempts at prosecuting mere "sedition," and (most directly relevant to the lynching of Prager) the deputization of thousands of unqualified people to search out treason, and the tolerance of private illegal acts against persons suspected of treason.
If Prager really HAD been a German spy, the last thing that the US Government should have wanted would have been to lynch him, as spies often have useful information. Of course, Prager wasn't.
Wilson may have been prejudiced in favor of lynchings in the first place, given his political sympathies regarding the Ku Klux Klan, and the importance of the Southern Democracy in the national party of the time. That's also part of the context.