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(Excerpts from:)
Fools, Drunks, and theUnited StatesAuust !", !#$!
%arkham Sha& 'le
A apton ooks *istor Selection
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Foreword
In Plain Tales from the Hills, in the story A Germ Destroyer,
Kipling wrote,
Once in every five years, as you know, we indent for a new
iceroy! and each iceroy imports, with the rest of his
"aggage, a #rivate $ecretary, who may or may not "e the
real iceroy, %ust as &ate ordains' &ate looks after the Indian
(mpire "ecause it is so "ig and so helpless'
)hat was in *+++' &or some forty years "efore that, the remark that
God or a special #rovidence- looks after fools, drunk.ard/s,
.children,/ and the 0nited $tates had "een, in one or another form,
common currency' It had "een attri"uted to all sorts of people, from
the #ortuguese diplomat and statesman the A""1 2orrea 3os1
2orreia da $erra- to, eventually, 4ismarck'
5one of the distinguished men on whom that 6uotation has "een
fathered ever said it' 5o one knows who first did' 4ut the point is
the same as the point of this work7 that it was "elieved to
encapsulate a profound truth, uttered "y some great statesman, and
it was treated as "eing "oth well8sourced and worth repeating'
#erception, not for the first time, drove reality7 especially political
reality'
&or that reason, it furnishes, I think aptly, "oth a theme, and the
title, of this "ook'
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Theres good news tonight
August *9, *:;*, was a )uesday'
It was the feast of $t' 2lare, and, in Auschwitimilian Kol"e, was less than forty8eighthours from eternity, in the last days of his martyrdom'
?is life "efore the war had included a mission to 3apan' In
5agasaki, he had erected a monastery, on a site that was considered
"y the locals to "e geomantically inauspicious7 "ad feng shui,
fsui hsui- in 3apanese.
5one of this was in the American mind on August *9, *:;*'
On August *9, *:;*, Americans were "eing pulled slowly out of the
Great Depression' )he 5ew Dealers attri"uted this to government
programs and Keynesian economics' =en and women who had left
the ruins of Dust 4owl farms! the %erkwater, one8horse towns ofrural America in all sections and regions! the Appalachian
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mountains! and the narrow, somnolent $outh, had a shrewd
suspicion, as they went to their saving swing8shifts at the factories
that were supplying the Allies with war materials, that there might
"e another reason' 5o"ody ever got rich working for the 222! "ut
@ockheed, say, was another thing entirely'
On August *9, *:;*, ?uey #' @ong had "een in his grave for
almost si> years' )he minister whod taken his funeral, Gerald @' K'
$mith, was striving mightily to take up Governor @ongs mantle,
and was in "ed with the $ilver $hirts and any other fascists and
white supremacists he could find' ?is taste for disloyalty and
sedition had already proved too stout even for the America &irst
2ommittee'
Badio had helped make ?uey #' @ong a national figure' )he days
of the Atwater Kent radio, with its elegance and higher prices, had
passed, and the 5ew Cork tone of national radio "roadcasts had
passed with it' )he )e>as 2ompany )e>aco sponsored the
"roadcasts of the =etropolitan Opera 2ompany, certainly, and
found them pulling a surprisingly large and varied audience' 4ut
grand opera and sophisticated "ig "and %a
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physician to #riapus, Doctor 3ohn B' 4rinkley, 6uack,
demagogue, and all8around huckster, had "egun the era of the
"order "lasters, =e>ican "order radio, transmitting into the 0$
and clear to 2anada, at (BA, 2uidad AcuHa' Imitators had
followed #appy @ee ODaniel had "ecome governor of )e>as
"ased on folksiness, a career as the front man for a Eestern $wing
"and, flour8mill advertising, and the cunning use of "order radio
"ut (BA ruled the airwaves thanks to its having the 2arter &amily
as its lead act' Displaced and dispossessed Americans, lost in the
cities, uprooted, Eildwood &lowers taken from their native soil to
wither and die, could hear =other =ay"elle on the autoharp with
the turn of a dial, and go home again in memory' )o this day, the
=e>ican trumpets in Bing of &ire carry on the tradition that 3une
2arter 2ash im"i"ed as a young girl in Del Bio'
)he "ig "ands and Eestern swing Aw8haw, cried 4o" Eills,
and )ommy Duncan laid down a solo-, and country8and8western
music, were the demotic of American entertainment! and the radio
"rought to the smallest town the deeds and doings of sports heroes,
and the comedy of 4urns and Allen, 3ack 4enny, 4o" ?ope, =ilton
4erle, and deplora"ly Amos n Andy' #laces that had never seen
a vaudeville show or had a theater to host one could now hear the
old routines7 the train was now "oarding for Anaheim, A
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)he 4igs, the $how, =a%or @eague 4ase"all, ended in those
years at the =ississippi7 $t' @ouis, home to the 2ardinals and the
hapless 4rowns, was as far west and south as "ase"all went' 4eyond
$portsmans #ark there was no "ig league "all' )he #acific 2oast
@eague was all "ut the 4igs, "ut it wasnt the 4igs, and any player
in the #2@ would take a pay8cut to have a cup of coffee in the 4igs'
)hree Di=aggios did and stayed' 4ut the inter8mountain Eest and
the $outh were 2ardinals 2ountry, thanks to the powerful signal of
K=O in $t' @ouis and the acumen of 4ranch Bickey7 these were
the days when, it was said, every small town had an AF# and a
2ardinals farm clu"'
Badio had come of age' It was "roader now in its appeal! and,
too, a wary government had seen to it that its rough edges were
smoothed off' &ather 2oughlin was off the air! &DB was
"roadcasting fireside chats instead'
)here were the movies, too! the movies, the shorts =errie
=elodies and @ooney )unes and the newsreels, with @owell
)homas mellifluence in full play' 4ut it was the radio that gave you
the news, As It ?appened7 scandal from Einchell and #earson,
gravitas from =urrow in @ondon and $hirer in 4erlin, and pep and
%ollity from Ga"e ?eatter' Ehy, you could go to church with those
crystals lined up %ust right, listening to =onsignor $heen, say, or
you could hear the sounds of @ondon as 4ritain stood alone and
"attle raged in the skies of Kent, you could listen oohhhhh,
Doctor to the Dodgers tearin up the pea8patch as Bed 4ar"er
called the gameJ'
)hat was somnolent, searing August in *:;*, with the rest of the
world at war, and that war very far away and as near as the signal
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on the radio'
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(from) Play ball!August *9, *:;*, was a tense day for "ase"all, as the standings
tightened or didnt in the last stretch' @efty Grove and Ga""y
?artnett were retiring' $tan =usial was a month from "eing called
up' ?al =anders made his de"ut as a reliever in the )igers loss to
?appy =ilnar and the 2leveland Indians, ; * at 4riggs $tadium!
=anders pitched one inning and gave up one hit and no runs'
Detroit and 2leveland would end the season tied in the middle of
the %unior circuits standings, 9 games "ack'
#hillies pitcher ?ugh =ulcahy had "een an All8$tar in *:;L' ?e
wasnt pitching now7 hed "ecome the first "ig league "allplayer to
"e drafted, on =arch +, *:;*' It was a different kind of call8up than
the call from the minors to the 4igs, and in the ne>t few years, a
heck of a lot of "allplayers would find that out' )ypically, the first
American @eague player to "e drafted having appealed his ;8&
classification was ?ank Green"erg, who refused to sit out a fight'
4ostons )ed Eilliams had raised his "atting average to over
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;LL, "ack in =ay' &DBs average was dropping, as war fears and
isolationism "attled it out in the pu"lic mind'
On 3uly *M, 3oe Di=aggios hitting streak had ended at N
consecutive games' On August , the 2lippers streak of reaching
"ase safely in M; consecutive games was impro"a"ly ended "y
3ohnny 5iggeling of the Beverend 2harles hapless hometown
4rowns'
@ou Gehrig had died in 3une' )he 4a"e was dying "y inches'
4ut "ase"all went on' On August *9, *:;*, at (""ets &ield, the 5ew
Cork Giants "eat the 4rooklyn Dodgers 9 L in the second game of
a dou"leheader, having won the first game + N' 2liff =ountain
=usic =elton pitched a complete game win, giving up only three
hits7 one to the e>82ardinal Ducky =edwick and his famous "iceps,
two to scrappy 2ookie @avagetto' =ountain =usics fellow )arheel,
4urgess 0r6uhart Ehitey Ehitehead, the Giants second8sacker,
and Giants catcher Ga""y ?artnett, forty and playing his last
season, contri"uted the runs' )he Dodgers "ig hitters including
Beiser and 2amilli went hitless'
It didnt matter' Dem 4ums had lost their opener to the Giants
on April *N, too' On August *9, *:;*, the Dodgers were : : 9
at the end of play! the Giants, N* N9 9' )he Dodgers would go
on to win the pennant! the Giants would end the season 9NP games
out' #istol #ete Beiser would lead the league in "atting average,
triples, runs, slugging percentage, and total "ases, and "e tied with
2ardinal 3ohnny =i
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In Eashington D2, the "ase"all $enators were on the road, out oftown, notching a rare win against the even more woeful
#hiladelphia Athletics, "eating them : ' )he Athletics were so
hopeless that even the $t' @ouis 4rowns finished a"ove them in the
A@ standings'
)he other senators, and their counterparts in the ?ouse, were
playing at home' It was the #resident of the 0nited $tates who was
wrapping up an away series, in the Atlantic waters off 2anada,
where he was in conference with the 4ritish #rime =inister'
)he Bight ?onora"le Einston 2hurchill the 4rits perversely
spelled that funny, with a u in honoura"le haunted the dreams
of certain mem"ers of 2ongress and their constituents, the way 4o"
&eller haunted the nightmares of "atters facing the Indians'
(very"ody knew who he was, had heard that incredi"le voice over
the ether, had read a"out him since the 4oer Ear' Depending on
where you stood, he was either the shining knight of freedom, or the
cunning @imey "astard who was going to get the 0$ with )hat
=an Boosevelts happy assistance into a foreign war that would
plow8under every fourth American "oy'
)here was a lot of inside "ase"all going on in Eashington'
)he fact was, in the year and a half since the 4ritish ?ouse of
2ommons had risen up against 5eville 2ham"erlain and there
was a man who, if he were a "ase"all team, would "e the 4rowns or
the Athletics or the Eoeful #hillies #hiladelphia really didnt have
much in the way of "allclu"s, come to think of it- in the year and a
half since #arliament had torn 2ham"erlain from his seat and put
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2hurchill in charge, thered "een a right smart of oratory from the
4rits and their prime minister, and not a hell of a lot of success in
the field, so far as America could see' )he 5a
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when you got down to it, nice, honest, democratically8inclined folks
a man could work with and trust' Its the same sort of attitude that
kept them out of Eorld Ear One until Germany tried to get =e>ico
to sta" them in the "ack, and out of Eorld Ear )wo until they were
attacked themselves' )he American icon is a Quaker painting of the
#eacea"le Kingdom "y (dward ?icks, and its always "een for the
sake of that vision that Americans have gone to war' )hese are
people, after all, who named first a pistol and then a missile the
peacemaker' Eithout irony' )he American capacity for self8
deception is endless'-
)he )welfth of August, *:;*, in the &rench $tate ichy &rance
was a grave day, according to =arshal #etain' ?e addressed the
nation and announced the program for what was to "e his fifth
government since the s6ualid collapse %ust fifteen months "efore'
.J/ @ong live &ranceR )his was a funeral oration, not a re"irth' And
it was the speech of, if not the murderer, surely an accessory, over
the corpse'
.J/ )he fact was, the $econd Eorld Ear "roke out at different
times in different places for different people' )he $oviet 0nion had
"een the )hird Beichs partner in the rape and dismem"erment of
#oland' )he German war machine would not have e>isted had the
$oviets not "een hand in glove with the revanchist Germans all
through the *:9Ls, "efore ?itler came to power, and the *:Ls
afterwards' )he 5$DA# and the KD# had tactically allied in the
Beichstag to kill off the Eeimar Bepu"lic! and the secret police of
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the two totalitarian regimes had cooperated afterwards to kill off
Karl Badek, Eilli =Sn
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(from) Whoops, Mr. Moto, Im a coee pot
4y August *9, *:;*, it was a staple of the American pu"lic
imagination that cunning little 3apanese were swarming like ants
all over Asia and $outh America and the #acific 2oast, "ent upon
serving their )ennT, their (mperor, "y fair means or foul' 3ohn #'
=ar6uands royalties were proof enough of the popularity of that
conviction, and his =r' =oto was referenced even in the always
popular 3ava 3ive that so pepped up a nation of coffee drinkers'
Eell, outside the iced8tea $outh' Its too damned hot for coffee in
Di>ie'-
4y August *9, *:;*, it was likewise a staple of the American
pu"lic imagination that the 3apanese couldnt put together a toy that
didnt fall apart, let alone "uild a fighter airplane, and were all so
"lind and "espectacled they couldnt see to fly one anyway'
Beality, as might "e e>pected, was entirely different' 2io82io
$an, =adame 4utterfly, wasnt waiting for @ieutenant #inkerton0$5 in 5agasaki' As for #ooh84ah, Ko8Ko and his little list, and
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that most humane =ikado, well, the five ragged 2hinese infants of
$hanghai rendered homeless "y a 3apanese "om"ing, a haunting
photograph of whom is now in the photo archives of Cad ashem,
werent humming along with a smile'
)he (mperor ?irohito intended that his regnal name, the name
that would define his era, "e $hTwa' It meant, more or less,
enlightened peace' 4y *:;*, the $hTwa (ra, a time of war and
horror, had "rought criminal disaster to Asia and ena"led the end of
the (nlightenment in 2entral (urope J and would ena"le also the
$hoah'
(ven as the regent for his father, after his return from his Grand
)our of the =ysterious Occident, the young ?irohito had "een, in
his twenties, a modern "oy, in the model of (dward III, with a
Boaring )wenties style' )hat hadnt lasted! he was fundamentally
diffident, easily influenced, a shy fish8pesterer again like the
flaccid and inverte"rate future Duke of Eindsor, "ar the interest in
marine "iology the Duke of Eindsors intellectual interests stopped
at doing the 2harleston and lapping up deference-'
$tate $hinto and the 3apanese 2onstitution regarded ?irohito, as
his su"%ects regarded him, as a @iving God which didnt mean that
hed "e o"eyed, as there were any num"er of imperial military
officers who felt it the (mperors duty to "e a figurehead and not to
interfere in what was "eing done ostensi"ly to and for his greater
glory, as in the days of the $hogunate and its bakufu, camp
government "y the military' In one or two cases, it was very camp
government' Wakashud is nothing new in 5ippon'-
In 3apan, on August *9, *:;*, war and preparation for war and
rumors of war had "een a way of life for a decade' )hings had come
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to this pass heres a how8de8do in 3apan as they had done in
Germany' )he worst, as Ceats might have put it, were full of
passionate intensity, and the "est were spineless' )he (mperor
might not "e a @iving God, "ut he incarnated his people and their
politicians pretty closely7 unwilling to accept the wider influence
and wilder claims of the nationalists and militarists, e6ually
unwilling to risk anything "y opposing them, and deeply unwilling
to miss a chance of "acking a winner if the militarists did manage to
run the ta"le'
.J/ And then, too, there was the undou"ted fact that Americans had
a mite of trou"le getting too lathered up a"out one yellow race
"eating up on another yellow race' )he Americans of August,
*:;*, were %ust a"out as >enopho"ic and casually racist as J the
3apanese' Anyone who thinks theres a dimes worth of difference
"etween the historic attitudes of Americans, Bussians, 2hinese, and
3apanese, could do worse than ask a Korean, whose people have had
to deal with all four'- $ure, lots of Americans regarded 2hina with a
sort of 6uasi8paternal affection, mostly conceived from a missionary
position, "ut 2hina wasnt the 0$, or Guam, or the #hilippines,
after all'
And that was another thing' ery few Americans who so much
as dwelt on the #acific and Asian fighting could credit the idea that
any "elligerent, let alone the 3apanese, would "e stupid enough to
get the 0$ into a shooting war' (ven the people who suspected that
&DB was shading American neutrality pretty far towards the Allies,
realiis "est "et was to keep that neutrality in place,
and not have to face American power overtly' ?eck, werent the
Germans, said )hose In the Know in official Eashington, "usting
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their guts to keep the 0$ out of the warR And the 3apanese wouldnt
move without the Germans, would theyR .'''/
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(from) This is "ondon4y August *9, *:;*, Americans had contracted the ha"it of listening
to the war news from a"road not least in hopes of keeping it news
from abroad.
(dward B' =urrow was "roadcasting from a @ondon at war! 4ill
$hirer had, until the end of *:;L, "roadcast from 4erlin' )he war
correspondents were glamorous, they were evocative and affecting,
everyone listened in J "ut "y August *9, *:;*, the war a"road had
"ecome, almost, a gripping, long8running, "ut ultimately distant
)hrilling Badio $erial for a goodly num"er of Americans'
Americans remem"ered the Great Ear sometimes all too well'
And they remem"ered what came out of it'
And there was this, too' &or several centuries now, Americans
had "een self8selecting' Immigrants in a nation of immigrants, they
tended to "e as they had "een since Kit 5ewport landed his
irginians8to8"e in the 5ew Eorld, a people composed of those
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who, in the old country, had not "een so tied to the (sta"lishment as
to have no reason to leave, and not so feckless as not to dare to seek
and strive and find'
=ore recently, however, improvements in communications and
transport had meant that Americans could take their innocence
a"road and stay there if they liked' =any of those who, even half
a century "efore, would have provided the political center of gravity
for the pro8Allied cause, were already overseas'
$t' @ouis is where the 5orth and the $outh, the (ast and the
Eest, the settlement and the frontier, face one another, upon the
shores of =ark )wains "ig river' It was the land of the hapless
4rowns and the con6uerant 2ardinals, "ar"ecue and %a 4aer &uller, a place where the Grand @eader was a
department store, not a fuehrer! it was contradiction and conformity'
It was the "irthplace of 3osephine 4aker, who was now the toast of
#aris and committed to the Besistance! and of )' $' (liot, who was
now a 4ritish su"%ect "y choice, taking to its logical conclusion the
cultivated tourism of a ?enry 3ames'
And it was the namesake of the most famous airplane in the
world, that had "een flown from the 5ew Eorld to the Old "y the
most famous of aviators'
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(liot had gone a"road and "ecome an (nglishman' 3osephine
4aker had "ecome &rench' And 2harles A' @ind"ergh, who shed his
cele"ritys luster on America &irst, had "ecome a worshipper at the
shrine of mystic Germanness,euts!htum'
It ran in the @ind"ergh family'
)he first @ind"ergh to arrive in America had "een a mem"er of the
$wedish parliament, evading an em"e
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cover to America &irst in recasting the great struggle as one of the
Beich against 4olshevism-' Cet the American press, in newsreels
and newspapers and a"ove all in nightly "roadcasts, did not slack or
falter in "ringing home the desperate nature of the fight and the
incalcula"le importance of the stakes for which 4ritain and the
Allies were fighting'
On August *L, *:;*, the @uftwaffe had "om"ed =oscow in a
night raid, a 4lit
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(from) The #arlem Fresh$%ir Ta&icab
'ompany
On August *9, *:;*, ?uey #' @ong, the Kingfish, had "een in his
grave for almost si> years' 4ut the Kingfish that lived in the pu"lic
mind was the character on 24$ "lackface comedy, the long8
running Amos n Andy'
@a &ayette, Ala"ama, on the Georgia @ine, is the county seat of
2ham"ers 2ounty' #at Garrett, the Old Eest lawman, had "een "orn
in 2ham"ers 2ounty ninety8one years "efore' )he arch8
segregationist former $enator from Ala"ama, 2otton )om ?eflin,
claimed @a &ayette as his hometown, although hed "een "orn in
@ouina, in Bandolph 2ounty, one county to the north of 2ham"ers'
It was the actual hometown, the "irthplace, of 3oe @ouis, the 4rown
4om"er, who had done his growing8up in Detroit, in no small part
"ecause of the sort of folks who voted for 2otton )om ?eflin' @a
&ayette was also the "irthplace of 2ongressman Arthur E' =itchell,
Democrat, who represented the &irst District of Illinois' ?e was
representing Illinois rather than Ala"ama in 2ongress "ecause he,
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like 3oe @ouis, was an African8American, a term not yet really
coined and current in *:;*'
2ongressman =itchell was the second 5egro =em"er of the
?ouse of Bepresentatives to "e elected in the post8Beconstruction
era' )he first was 2ongressman Oscar De #riest, who had
represented the same district from *:9: to *:N as 2ongressman
=itchells immediate predecessor' 2ongressman De #riest had lived
to "ecome a =em"er of 2ongress had, very possi"ly, lived to
grow up and "ecome anything "ecause his family had had the
good sense to get the hell out of @auderdale 2ounty, Ala"ama, on
the )ennessee and =ississippi lines, when young Oscar had "een
a"out seven years old'
.'''/ After George ?enry Ehite, Bepu"lican of 5orth 2arolina,
left the ?ouse in *:L* as the last of the 5egro congressmen
elected in the Beconstruction (ra, it was twenty8eight years
fourteen ?ouse election cycles "efore another 4lack congressman
would serve' )hat he represented an Illinois district the @and of
@incoln was no surprise' )hat he was a mem"er of the GO# was
also no surprise7 Bepu"licans of "oth races referred with pride and
white $outherners referred with disdain- to the Bepu"lican #arty as
)he #arty of @incoln'
A depression, particularly a Great Depression, has "een known,
though, to wake folks up' 4lack Americans had "een, since their
enfranchisement, loyal to the Bepu"lican #arty7 if a 4lack man, or,
later, woman, could vote at all, that vote was an all8"ut lead pipe
cinch for the GO#' 4ut 4lack Americans werent fools' (conomic
hardship and &ranklin Boosevelts personal magic had worked on
4lack voters as well as upon whites! "ut it was more than that' Once
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the spell was "roken, and the "loody shirt no longer waved, 4lack
voters acted on something theyd long noticed and they would
have had to have "een "igger fools than even the Klan thought
them, not to have noticed namely, that "etween *++ and *:L*,
thered "een two African8American 0$ $enators and twenty8one
4lack 0$ Bepresentatives, all of them Bepu"lican and every last
one of them from a $outhern state that was "eing Beconstructed'
)he Bepu"licans in the states that had not seceded had talked "ig
during and after )he Ear and during Beconstruction J "ut theyd
elected delegations to 2ongress from their own states that were
whiter than a "owl of grits' (very' Damn' )ime'
$o when Oscar De #riest came to 2ongress representing a
district in A"e @incolns Illinois, he was the first African8American
0$ Bepresentative since Beconstruction! he was the first African8
American 0$ Bepresentative from a state that hadnt "een part of
the old 2onfederacy! there wouldnt "e another African8American
0$ Bepresentative from Di>ie until *:M! and 2ongressman De
#riest was to "e the last Bepu"lican ?ouse mem"er who wasnt lily8
white until *::*'
.'''/ On August *9, *:;*, 2ongress was a"out to decide whether or
not to e>tend the term of the military draft' 5o one on the ?ill was
a"out to decide, de"ate, or if possi"le to think a"out, the
desegregation of the military'
4lack Americans who had left a $outhland where strange fruit
hung from the trees, who had sought the warmth of other suns, were
e>pected to fight for their country' 4lack Americans who had stayed
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in the $outh were e>pected to fight for their country, also' Ehether
or not that country stood up and fought for them'
)he miracle is that they did' 4ut in August of *:;*, Eashington
was almost afraid to contemplate what might happen if they didnt,
and the slipshod intelligence services of the 0nited $tates were
waking up in a cold sweat over 5a
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3oseph, and an editor of the Washington Post, "efore moving to
Eashington $tate and "ecoming the Bepu"lican Bepresentative for
the )hird 2ongressional District' Bepresentative 3ohnson had
com"ined in his person presidency of an overtly racist eugenics
association with the 2hairmanship of the ?ouse 2ommittee on
Immigration and 5aturali
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(from) 'haplain (imIn August of *:;*, it was hardly possi"le to imagine that there could
"e, within the year, an Office of Ear Information, censoring here
and scripting there and assisting the 4lue 5etwork of 542 in
spooning out soap8opera pa"ulum for the ?ome &ront with advice
for service families from 2haplain 3im! yet there was already an
America eager for marshmallow uplift without too much of that old8
time religion'
In *:*M, most of the #rotestant mainline churches had "een
against American entry into war, at least until the Uimmerman
)elegram had %olted them into the sort of shocked and mournful
affront so common to the overly pious and 0nco Guid when they
reali
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@eonidas K' #olk, 2onfederate $tates Army, 4ishop of @ouisiana,
and of the Beverend 4rigadier General Eilliam 5elson #endleton,
2onfederate $tates Army, rector of Grace 2hurch, @e>ington,
irginia now B' (' @ee =emorial (piscopal 2hurch, otherwise $t'
4o"s-' And 4ishop #olks and the Beverend General #endletons
old communion, the #rotestant (piscopal 2hurch in the 0nited
$tates of America, was pro8Allied in *:*M and indeed from *:*;
on7 and still the blood is strong, the heart is High #hur!h, and we in
dreams remain the # of $.
4y August *9, *:;*, the mainline churches as a whole were less
important in influencing whether or not their mem"ers were pushing
America &irst or 4undling for 4ritain' 4y August *9, *:;*, the
mainline churches as a whole were less important, period or for
Anglophile Anglicans, full stop' )heological li"eralism and the
elevation of social work over, well, the (levation of the ?ost, had
had their effects' An increasing num"er of Americans were
unchurched! an increasing num"er of Americans who werent, were
finding the post8Great8Ear @aodiceanism of the general uplift,
milk8and8water, lukewarm mainline denominations, insufficient'
America is always poised "etween apostasy and revivalism, "urning
out on religion or "eing set a"la
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were going to find that Dr' $euss, &ri< &releng, and 2huck 3ones
were a little too accurate to "e funny when #rivate $nafu gets the
clap, loses all his pay, drinks himself to death, and passes
information to the A>is' All in a five minute short'
.J/ )here has never "een a port city, naval "ase, or army
encampment in human history that was not for that very reason a
center of gam"ling, whoring, and "oo
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actual shooting war on' Its another thing entirely when the troops
are overseas, with no home to slip off to, to see $ally and the
children or check on the harvest' 4ut the American peacetime
draftee, stateside, is as independent as a hog on ice' &or one thing,
he is a citias, "eing $peaker of the ?ouse and the ?onora"le
2arter Glass of irginia "eing #resident #ro )em of the $enate, now
confronted that same pro"lem'
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(from) Taint )nny, Mc*ee!On August *9, *:;*, every American citi
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eugenics, that respecta"le form of racism'
On August *9, *:;*, in the land of li"erty where every American
citi
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(from) The March TimeOn August *9, *:;*, sunrise came to Eashington D2 at 7*: A='
)he sun set at 7; #= local time in ?onolulu, ?awaiian )erritory7
*97; A=, August *, in Eashington'
On the (astern &ront, in #oland and the 0kraine, and in 4erlin,
the advance of German arms remained swift enough to create
annoyances for those engaged in cleansing the territories of $lavs
and 3ews and Boma' )hey were groping for a &inal $olution
already'
At day"reak, farmers were already rising and setting to their
August tasks from sea to shining American sea' On @ong Island,
potato farmers and spinach farmers were hard at work' In irginia,
to"acco planters were walking the fields as dawn "roke' In Georgia,
cotton and peanuts were carefully e>amined "y those whose
fortunes would "e made or "roken "y the years harvest'
)he swing shift in the factories had given way to the early day
shift'
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And in Eashington D2, clerks and "ureaucrats were shaving
and having "reakfast and preparing to head in to work'
=r' $am, the $peaker of the ?ouse, Bepresentative $am Bay"urn of
4onham, )e>as, was an early riser7 a farming "oyhood marks a
man' ?am and eggs and "iscuits with cotton8"lossom honey, and
coffee all "ut straight from the pot, set him up for the long day
ahead' ?e left his rooms at the Anchorage 4uilding on Q $treet and
headed for the 2apitol'
)he summer recess, in a Eashington not yet generally air8
conditioned, no longer lingered even in the capacious 2ongressional
memory' )he day looked to "e hot and humid! inside the ?ouse of
Bepresentatives, and in the temper of the ?ouse, it looked to "e
hotter than the fires of ?ell'
Ehen =r' $am had "een a "oy, the 2
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$elective )raining and $ervice Act of *:;L7 not "y much, "ut they
had managed to pass it, "arely, a few days "efore' 5ow it was up to
the ?ouse! which meant it was up to =r' $am'
.J/ 2ongressman 3ack U' Anderson, Bepu"lican of the (ighth
2ongressional District of 2alifornia, was one of the ma%or fruit8
growers and canners of the #acific 2oast! he would later "e one of
the firmest and fieriest advocates of 3apanese8American internment'
)he road to =anas delegation to swing
into line, and march to the sound of the guns like ?oods men at
$harps"urg' ?e felt, with less assurance, that most of the $outh was
solid' 4ut it was going to "e as close an engagement as any of those
in which the $peakers Bevolutionary great8great8grandfather,
2olonel George Ealler of the irginia militia, had fought at
Guilford 2ourthouse and then at George Eashingtons side, and
there was no assurance it would "e a victory to rank with that of
Corktown'
Draftees were still chalking O?IO in "arracks, "urning draft
notices, and, "y all accounts, inciting to riot and mutiny' )he
America &irsters and the 4undists were afoot' Isolation still gripped
many congressional districts, even where it might not grip those
districts 0$ Bepresentatives'
=r' $am cast his eye upon the ?ouse' )here was un6uestiona"ly
a 6uorum! and some of the leading doves were a"sent' It was time
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to call the roll and count the votes, "efore the opponents of
e>tending the draft reali