History repeats itself and Montana’s leaders should know better

When armed conflict erupts, the urge to scapegoat runs high.

The current Israel-Hamas war has increased both Anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents in the United States, most notably the brutal murder of six-year-old Illinois resident Wadea al-Fayoume. 

Enough already. As the adage goes, an eye for an eye leaves the world blind.

Sadly, Montana’s Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Ryan Zinke have succumbed to this blindness by introducing legislation to block Palestinian people from entering the United States. They should know better. Much has gone wrong in America when an ethnic group is targeted and Montana history holds one egregious examples.

When the U.S. Entered World War I in April 1917, hyper-nationalistic fervor and anti-German sentiment broke out.  Congress passed the Espionage Act, which restricted many civil liberties, but Montana went even farther.  

The prequel to Montana’s darkest historic period is closely tied to the Anaconda Company and labor turmoil.  Unions had been choked by the infamous “copper collar” of corporate monopoly, and workers had few rights. Then on June 8, 1917, 168 men died in the Speculator Mine Disaster. Ten days later, a union organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World,  Frank Little, arrived in Butte to organize and lead a miners’ strike.  In the process, Little also spoke out against U.S. involvement in World War I.

“The Company” viewed Little and the IWW as an economic and political threat, and on Aug. 1, 1917 Little was lynched just outside Butte and the perpetrators were never identified. Even after Little’s death, antiwar dissent continued to dovetail with labor unrest.

Next, Gov. Samuel Stewart called a special session of the Montana Legislature, and in February 1918 they went on an 11-day bender of paranoia. They approved the Criminal Syndicalism Act and the Sedition Act, providing up to a 20-year prison term and a $20,000 fine for anyone who “shall utter, print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, violent, scurrilous, contemptuous, slurring or abusive language” related to the United States. 

Not stopping there, the Legislature attacked the judiciary, impeaching  Judge Charles Crum of Forsyth for making antiwar comments. After a 63-0 House vote, Crum had a nervous breakdown and resigned, but the Senate tried him anyway to ensure that he was disqualified to hold any future office. Conviction was unanimous. The special session also tried unsuccessfully to force the resignation of federal Judge George Bourquin, another who refused to follow the mob.

The special session capped its work by granting official sanction to a quasi-legal group created by governor Stewart called the Montana Council of Defense.  Unleashed by the legislature to investigate “traitors and anarchists,” the council censored books and periodicals and banned the German language in schools and churches. They investigated countless Montanans, sometimes for things as simple as a drunken utterance at a bar.

Meanwhile, conspiracy theories abounded. People in Ravalli County swore they saw German airships overhead. A Helena paper insisted that poisoned beans were being imported in a “diabolical plot to murder Americans.”  The Missoulian reported that German agents were going to destroy Montana’s wheat crop with toxic bee pollen.

Ultimately, at least 200 people were arrested, with 76 men and 3 women convicted of violating Montana’s Sedition Act. Of these, 41 served time in the state prison at Deer Lodge. More than half were born in Europe, many in Germany or Austria. The Federal Sedition Act, passed later in 1918 (and repealed in 1920) was almost a word-for-word copy of the Montana legislation. 

Judge Bourquin commented, “Patriotism, like religion, is a virtue so exalted that its excesses pass with little censure. But when as here it descends to fanaticism, it is of the reprehensible quality… that incited the …tortures of the Inquisition and is equally cruel and murderous.” U.S. Attorney (later U.S. Senator) Burton K. Wheeler who refused to prosecute individuals accused of assorted unpatriotic acts, said, “I was shocked that the American people could be so carried away and lose their sense of right and justice at so critical a time.”

Finally, in 2006, Gov. Brian Schweitzer issued a Proclamation of Clemency that posthumously exonerated 78 of those wrongly convicted (one man had been pardoned in 1921). 

Elected leaders like Daines and Zinke should not forget the history of the state they purport to represent. There is no excuse—in 1918 nor now—for scapegoating an entire group of people for the perceived wrongs of a few.

Montanans — and especially those who represent us—should never forget our darkest years.

Brenda Wahler is a Helena-based attorney and historian. Her most recent book, Marcus Daly’s Road to Montana, is published by The History Press.