Re: [Mpls] Anti-war resolution

[Shawne FitzGerald]

" . . . .Shortly after the diplomatic break with Germany, Mayor Van Lear of Minneapolis issued a statement taking sharp issue with the demand that everyone "follow the flag" and "back the president."  The flag, Van Lear declared, sometimes had been used to legitimate cruel repression, as in the 1914 labor disturbances at Ludlow, Colorado, where the mission of its bearers had been to shoot the helpless women and babies of the striking miners." Nor could Van Lear back a president who, in his opinion, had been unduly provocative in breaking relations with Germany.

"The Van Lear statement evoked an extremely hostile reaction from the Minneapolis business community.  The Minneapolis Tribune challenged the mayor's authority to speak for the city. Van Lear responded by calling a mass meeting at the Minneapolis Auditorium on February 10 [1917] to demonstrate that his antiwar position commanded overwhelming popular support. The rally may not have vindicated Van Lear's authority to "speak for Minneapolis" on issues of foreign policy, but it did prove the existence of widespread antiwar sentiment within the city - estimates of the crowd varied from five thousand to what New Times called an "immense throng of nearly 25,000. . . ."

Carl H. Chrislock
Watchdog of Loyalty : the Minnesota Commission of Public Safety during World War I

FYI,
Shawne FitzGerald
Powderhorn