So Long, Civil Liberties
Speaker addresses influence of Minnesota Commission for Public Safety
NEW ULM — The influence of business interests on Minnesotan political interests during the Great War was highlighted during a WWI speaker series event.
Historian Mary Wingerd presented “So Long, Civil Liberties: World War I and the Rule of the Minnesota Commission for Public Safety” Thursday night.
On its face, the commission was intended to stamp out pro-German and seditious activity. But Wingerd argued it had entirely different motives.
“It is my contention that this was primarily a smokescreen to provide cover for what were the commission’s real targets: groups that in fact posed a genuine danger to the commissioners and their backers, if not to the state and the nation,” said Wingerd.
The commission was formed in the spring of 1917 by the Minnesota Legislature on the eve of what was probably one of the most unpopular wars ever declared, Wingerd said.
However, probably in part due to
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