Investigations soon established that Germany had developed an extensive espionage and sabotage network in the U.S. Moreover, various German ethnic organizations in America actively collaborated with the German government in those activities and in covert propaganda against the Allies.
So confident was the German ambassador in his country's hold on the loyalties of German Americans that he famously warned the American Secretary of State that if America declared war on Germany, a million German Americans would rise in rebellion against the government. The Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, replied that would not deter the government because we had a million and one lamp posts available.
After World War I, America remained on edge due to massive immigration and the growing prominence of anarchism and radical socialist ideologies, and of labor and political disputes and the murders and bombings they spawned. Wall Street itself was bombed on September 16, 1920, at lunch hour, resulting in dozens of deaths and hundreds wounded. Italian anarchists were suspected, but no one was charged.
America's domestic politics was deeply unsettled by those and many similar events. Critics of the Red Scare and the Palmer Raids ought not to ignore the genuine and well-founded concerns that prompted them.
Yes, yes and more yes. I’m am fascinated by the early labor movement in this country which has, of course, led me into anarchist & communist history in this country. Your perspective on German infiltration is interesting as well. We had many reasons to kick out a lot of people in those days.
I’ve actually seen film footage of Emma Goldman heading towards the famous ship that took her and others back to Europe (and then on to Russia where she discovered the commies don’t play nice).
“...So confident was the German ambassador in his country’s hold on the loyalties of German Americans that he famously warned the American Secretary of State that if America declared war on Germany, a million German Americans would rise in rebellion against the government. The Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, replied that would not deter the government because we had a million and one lamp posts available...” [Rockingham, post 20]
Your numbers, dates, contexts, and names/titles of officials are incorrect.
Arthur Zimmermann was Deputy State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the Imperial German government during the aftermath of the sinking of RMS Lusitania (May 1915); that was when he warned James W Gerard (US ambassador to Imperial Germany) that “the United States does not dare do anything against Germany because we have five hundred thousand German reservists in America who will rise against your government if it should dare to take any action against Germany.” Gerard replied “that we have five hundred and one thousand lamp posts in America and that is where the German reservists would find themselves hanging if they tried any uprising.”
Zimmermann had been elevated to State Secretary for Foreign Affairs before the United States declared war in spring 1917.
President T Woodrow Wilson’s address to Congress made it clear that his request for a declaration of war was based on the German intent - stated publicly on 31 January 1917 - to wage unrestricted submarine warfare not only against Allied shipping, but against any neutral merchant traffic approaching the British Isles or other Allied destinations, and deemed by submarine crews to be of doubtful provenance. U-boats of the Kaiserliche Marine did just that in the ensuing weeks.
The remark about making the world “safe for democracy” was an afterthought and contained nothing sneaky.
Whether American attitudes about warfare at that point in time were realistic is another argument. Geostrategic realities in 1917 precluded anything like “balanced trade” with all belligerents, because of the Allied blockade of the Central Powers.
The quotes can be found on page 711 of the hardbound edition of Robert K Massie’s _Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea_ (New York: Random House, 2003. ISBN 0-679-45671-6)