Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 1 9 78 We also know how imprison- ment devastated them. After Rumsey's conviction, his wife could not hold on to the home- stead and it was foreclosed on for a few hundred dollars. Most of the children went to orphanages or were "let out" to other people. One daughter in an orphanage, operated on for an infected toenail, died of sepsis. Rumsey's descen- dants did not begin to find each other until the late 1990s. And there were grievous injuries to our national fabric. Montana's sole federal district judge, George Bourquin, who almost single-handedly prevented prosecutions under a similarly worded federal law, said in weigh- ing Starr's petition: "Patriotism, like religion, is a virtue so exalted that its excesses pass with little censure. But when as here it descends to fanati- cism, it is of the reprehensible quality of the religion that incited the ...tortures of the Inquisition and is equally cruel and murderous." How had patriotism become fanaticism? A well-meaning but misguided effort to rouse a populace indifferent to the war, after President Wilson de- clared hostilities against Germany in 1917, careened tragically out of control. A federal propaganda agency called the Committee on Public Information enlisted writers, artists, educators, speakers, journalists and every medium at its disposal to fuse the American people into "one white-hot mass," in the words of CPI director George Creel. But the government also demonized the enemy and those suspected of sympathizing with it. As a result, those who exulted in being part of the great and selfless enterprise of righteous war eagerly repressed individuals and minority groups who didn't subscribe to the same values. In the malign stress of wartime, a thousand ardent fingers wove a stifling blanket of uniform thought and opinion across America. In this atmosphere of fear and suspicion, hysterical rumors flew like bats from a cave. Residents of the Bitterroot swore they saw German airships overhead and German wireless stations deep in the forests. Poisoned beans were being imported in a "diabolical plot to murder Americans," the Helena Independent reported. German agents armed with toxic bee pollen were fixing to destroy Montana's wheat crop, the Daily Missoulian announced. As risible as these rumors were, the hysteria that spawned them also lubricated the machinations of industrial firms like the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, eager to squelch dissidents and labor activists such as the anti-capitalist I.W.W. e Wobblies were a pesky, in-your-face movement whose attacks on working conditions and low wages and instigation of strikes began to threaten the Anaconda's huge war profits. Tying troublemakers to the German enemy proved remarkably easy, despite any proof. Rumors and innuendos were enough. And thus was born Montana's sedition law, on a snowy February in 1918 in a special session of the state legislature. It ran its course in just more than a year. Hundreds were arrested; 79 were convicted. e Montana law's federal COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS In this atmosphere of fear and suspicion, hysterical rumors flew like bats from a cave. FO R T W H OO P -U P Lethbridge, Alberta A notorious story told by fort.galtmuseum.com 403.320.3777 34th AnnuAl Out tO lunch EvEry WEdnEsdAy JunE, July, & August 19th AnnuAl dOWntOWn tOnight EvEry thursdAy JunE, July, & August 27th AnnuAl gArdEn city BrEWFEst MAy 4, 2019 14th AnnuAl rivEr city rOOts FEstivAl August 23-24, 2019 ATHENA ATHENA ATHENA ExpEriEncE WhErE MissOulA's hEArt BEAts.... •Over 70 LOcaL ShOpS & BOutiqueS •Over 50 reStaurantS and cafeS •MuSeuMS, theater, & Live MuSic •WeekLy cOMMunity eventS •free parking WeekdayS after 5pM & WeekendS Make it MeMOraBLe. Make it dOWntOWn. | MiSSOuLadOWntOWn.cOM ATHENA

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