The Lusk Committee, Part 1
This will be one of several entries about the controversial Lusk Committee and its repressive role in 1920 New York politics.
One hundred years ago today … The Lusk Committee had concluded its work and presented its findings at the New York State Assembly in Albany, and the newspapers responded.
Three findings/claims/proposals of the report emerged as lead stories:
The Evening World 17 Mar. 1920. p. 2. Newspapers.com.
1. That a legal statute against “criminal anarchy” was sufficient to justify New York State’s unconstitutional investigations and other actions against political dissidents; no new laws needed creating in order for the state to, for example, aid in the Palmer Raids and the subsequent deportations.
The New York Times 18 Mar. 1920, p. 7.
2. That the state should disband the Rand School, as part of a greater crackdown on the supposed subversive influence of educators, and the imposition of loyalty oaths on teachers.
New York Tribune 18 Mar. 1920. p. 2. Newspapers.com.
3. That New York State should create a permanent office, a “State Sedition Bureau,” to fight radicalism.
There’s a lot to unpack here, especially in #3, above, and some of it will be left to later posts.
First, the Lusk Committee itself. This was “The Joint Legislative Committee Against Seditious Activities” committee of the Legislature that had been formed in early 1919 in response to fears of subversive politics, part of “The Red Scare” in the wake of World War I and the increasing appeal and viability of anti-capitalism.
Perhaps the best summary of the Lusk Committee’s actions is the preface to the New York State Archive’s Lusk collection guide, found here.
The Lusk Committee is perhaps known today for the set of “Ethnic Maps” that they, working with the Military Intelligence Division (MID) of the U.S. Army, arranged to have produced. Yes, we will get to those!
The committee was called the Lusk Committee, and the report was called the Lusk Report, and the maps are informally called the Lusk maps. However, two other men were driving forces behind the project. Captain John B. Trevor of the MID was responsible for bringing out the nativist and anti-semitic attitudes of the rank and file. (See Wallace, Greater Gotham pp. 103-31.)
And it was Archibald Ewing Stevenson who had inspired, taken over the project and done much of the dirty work. Photos of him seem rare; here is one from 1914.
Empire State Notables 1914. New York: H. Stafford, 1914. 166. Columbia University. Electronic reproduction: New York, NY, Columbia University Libraries, 2008. Images created by Innodata Isogen,
Stevenson was an unusual and restless breed of New York intellectual, having gone from NYU Professor of Geology to practicing attorney, all the while active in his real passion: children’s religious education; in 1915 he led the New York chapter of the National Vacation Bible School Association, and focused his work on the same Lower East Side neighborhoods where Lillian Wald and the Henry Street Settlement operated. (See March 16 post.) When the US entered WWI, he turned his talents to red-baiting.