| National
Minnesota
Clay County
Works Cited |
Not all Americans
were enthusiastic about the United States’ entrance into the war so
President Wilson tried to promote organizations and spread propaganda in
support of the war. However, Minnesota or at least some of its citizens
needed no encouragement from the President.
Information about
the Commission, including its powers, and duties:
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The Minnesota
Commission of Public Safety was created a few days after the United
States declared war on Germany.
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It was the
first such state agency in the country and it last until the end of
December in 1918.
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It was a
seven-person interim agency designed to take action “toward
suppressing disloyal outbreaks and possible disturbances of order in
communities where the German element was predominant.”
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Given the power
to execute “all act and things necessary or proper so that the
military, civil and industrial resources of the state maybe most
efficiently applied toward maintenance of the state and nation, and
toward the successful prosecution of such war.”
The Minnesota
Commission of Public Safety was given nearly unlimited powers.
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Ability to
seize and condemn property
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Ability to
require people to stand before it or any of its representatives
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Ability to make
district courts issue subpoenas
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It could
observe public officials and their behavior
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Finally, it had
the muscle to advise the governor of what actions should be taken
against offending officials.
Many people
believed then and now that these powers (and others) were unconstitutional
in practice. The Commission stuck its fingers into many areas and issued
over 59 specific orders dealing with war-related topics such as food
production, iron-ore output, the welfare of soldiers, conservation, and
even the cost of milk. The Commission of Public Safety even had its own
army to fight off German sympathizers.
However, it's the
the Commission’s foray in education that we want to focus on.
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The Commission
focused on the use of the German language in school because it was the
actual language rather than the ethnic identity that gave rise to
mistrust. A goal of the Commission of Public Safety was to form “One
country, One Flag, and One Speech.”
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The Commission felt it had a right to fear Germanism, because
one-quarter of the two million people living in Minnesota during this
time were either German born or of German-Austrian descent and because
German was the most widely used non-English language in Minnesota
schools.
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By
September 12, 1917 the Commission had recommended the creation of an
eight-person committee to study the teaching of German in public
schools, and in particular the textbooks used to teach the
language.
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The Commission
received information from 350 sources about the various textbooks in
use. The committee then probed the textbooks trying to figure out if
the books were at all “prejudicial to the interests of the United
States, or contrary to those ideals of democracy which every
liberty-loving nation wished to inculcate in the hearts of the
young.”
The Commission used
five categories to evaluate the German language books:
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Any pictures of
the military, the royal family, or its insignia
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Literature that
uses the “might makes right” philosophy
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German
propaganda or anything that could be perceived as such
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Literary works
that demonstrate an appreciation for the German lifestyle
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Any German
patriotic poems
If the books
violated any of these categories the Minnesota Committee on Public Safety
recommended that it be removed from use in the school curriculum.
Click
next to read more about Anti-Germanism in Minnesota
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