Continuing on with Governor Goodrich’s term, Indiana along with the rest of the nation entered World War I when Congress declared war on April 6, 1917.
Historian James Madison indicates that the momentum of the progressive cause (with which Goodrich was aligned) was blunted by American entry into World War I. Political interest was turned to campaigns for war support and “let loose a patriotic but intolerant spirit that demanded conformity and unanimity.” With respect to war support, I’ll mention that my great-grand uncle, Woodburn Masson was apparently in charge of organizing factory and big store involvement in Indianapolis “Thrift Clubs” in support of the war effort. (I was tickled to see that Woodburn had an entry in a book with some purple prose about the citizens of Indianapolis written by Jacob Piatt Dunn who received notable mention in an earlier entry as advisor to Governor Marshall with respect to passing a new Constitution.)
Before the U.S. entered the war, Hoosier opinion was divided. Neutrality was popular. Professional and business people generally supported England in the war. Farmers, Catholics, and German-Americans were more likely to favor neutrality. Opinion shifted when Germany began unrestricted submarine warfare and tried to enlist Mexico’s aid against the U.S. Indiana contributed about 130,000 troops to the cause.
Eugene Debs, the labor leader hailing from Terre Haute, was arrested on June 16, 1918 after he made a speech in Canton, Ohio, urging resistance to the draft. Charged with 10 counts of sedition, Debs was sentenced to 10 years. At his sentencing hearing, he made his famous statement:
Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
President Wilson was happy to let him sit in jail, writing, “While the flower of American youth was pouring out its blood to vindicate the cause of civilization, this man, Debs, stood behind the lines sniping, attacking, and denouncing them….This man was a traitor to his country and he will never be pardoned during my administration”
That said, after the war, Debs’ imprisonment was politically troublesome. He was the Socialist candidate for President in the 1920 campaign (receiving 900,000 votes). His speech became somewhat more radical. He linked his cause to other political prisoners. He did not ask for leniency or pardon. However, “Debs remained the stubborn, frustratingly likable radical, winning the grudging admiration of his warders and other prisoners, and slowly rebuilding substantial—but not nearly universal—public sympathy.” Debs had medical problems and the Harding administration had no desire to let him die in prison. On December 23, 1921, President Harding converted his sentence to time served, and he was released on Christmas Day. Debs never regained his health after prison, however. He died on October 20, 1926, at the age of 70.
Influenza
Brutal as World War I was, the bigger killer during this period was influenza. Indiana was not spared from the pandemic. About 350,000 people caught the disease and about 10,000 Hoosiers died from it. The first instance was reported on September 20, 1918 with an epidemic developing in Evansville. On September 27, the Public Health Service suggested to local officials that, among other things, persons with colds be excluded from public gatherings. That was not a hardship for long because on October 6, the Indiana Board of Health (led by health pioneer (and eugenicist) Dr. John Hurty) banned all public gatherings. Doctors were hard pressed to keep up. Schools were closed in Marion County. The disease ebbed and flowed through the winter and spring but began to ebb in the summer of 1919.
Prohibition
World War I gave a boost to the long active Prohibition movement. Among other things, grain used for brewing was needed for the troops, and a lot of the brewers were German. There was a lot of anti-German sentiment in the nation, generally, and in Indiana. (For example,Germany, Indiana in Fulton County was renamed “Pershing.”) Former governor Frank Hanly was active on the lecture circuit, advocating prohibition. In 1918, he railed against the brewers, saying Hoosier Brewers had “the arrogance of the Hun.”
In 1918, the State passed state-wide prohibition. And, in 1919, it ratified the Eighteenth Amendment. Said Billy Sunday, famous evangelist and former baseball player at that time based in Winona Lake, Indiana:
The reign of tears is over. The slums will soon only be a memory. We will turn our prisons into factories and our jails into storehouses and corn-cribs. Men will walk upright now; women will smile, and the children will laugh. Hell will be forever for rent.
The jails did not close down, but many of the brewers did, among them Thieme and Wagner in Lafayette, Terre Haute Brewing Company, Madison Brewing Company, Peru Brewery and Tell City Brewing. There was a lot of corruption in Indiana, as elsewhere. As Prohibition wore on, the prohibitionists would make common cause with the Ku Klux Klan who shared their conservative politics and would use the machinery of the old White Cap organization, the Horse Thief Detective Association to enforce the prohibition laws.
At the end of his term, Goodrich was apparently anxious to be finished with the job. In addition to having had a more contentious that expected relationship with his fellow party members, “in August, 1917, he was seriously ill with typhoid fever. Then, soon after his recovery, his car was struck by a truck, and Goodrich spent several more months in the hospital with fractures of the hip, skull, ribs, collarbone, and left hand.”
Harding appointed Goodrich to the Russian Relief Commission, and it appears that his work there was personally very significant to him. He was ahead of the curve in terms of realizing that Soviet Russia was a reality and the U.S. ought to recognize the government. Additionally, he was a stronger advocate of trade with the Russians than Herbert Hoover, under whom he was working in that capacity. Goodrich remained very good at amassing wealth and continued to do so in later life, making generous contributions to Wabash College. He passed away in 1940 at the age of 76.
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