Degrees of Allegiance

Chapter 6: Superpatriotism in Action

133 s i x p Superpatriotism in Action Osage County during World War I During the late evening hours of July 7, 1918, several young men in Chamois, Osage County, forced Erwin Walz, the son of a German preacher, to salute and kiss the American flag because he had made derogatory remarks about the local Home Guard unit and stated “God damn the Flag, to hell with it!” The incident soon turned into a serious brawl as supporters for Walz appeared in the streets willing to defend his honor. The group of nationalistic citizens grew as well and began to force several Walz supporters to kiss the flag. Some of the pro-Germans then ran to get guns. Richard Garstang, the captain of the local Home Guard unit, received frantic phone calls urging him to step in and maintain law and order. But he could not act without the authorization of the mayor, who happened to be out of town at the time. In desperation, he gathered a few guardsmen, approached the mob in civilian clothing and persuaded the crowd to disperse, thus avoiding a serious riot.1 Why did this event occur in Chamois and not elsewhere in Osage County? German immigrants had established tightly knit ethnic communities in Osage County between 1830 and 1910 along the alluvial bottomlands of the Maries and Osage rivers in Jackson, Washington, and Linn townships, where they and their American-born children represented the majority of the population 134 p Degrees of Allegiance and controlled the local economy and politics. However, by the turn of the century, the American-born children of German parents moved into northern Osage County, particularly Benton Township, including the town of Chamois, where they challenged the dominance of old-stock Americans from Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. Here, competition over valuable riverbottom land, for business, and for elective office increased tensions between those of German descent and those of other heritage prior to the war. In northern Osage County the definition of patriotism during the war also took on a more dramatic meaning than in the southern parts of the county through widespread volunteerism and service to country. Here, local circumstances created a climate in which disloyal expressions contributed to mistrust and spawned animosity as well as superpatriotic activity. The beginning of the Great War in Europe in 1914 was not a divisive issue, and residents of Osage County freely expressed their opinions. Two Englishlanguage newspapers, the Unterrified Democrat and the Osage County Republican published in Linn, the county seat, as well as the German-language newspaper, the Osage County Volksblatt published in Westphalia, greeted the arrival of the war without banner headlines. Although heralding Allied battle victories on occasion, these three papers in general favored the German side in the conflict. Articles argued, for example, that the kaiser’s leadership and so-called German traits, such as organization and thoroughness, explained Germany’s early success .2 The Volksblatt, in particular, defended the Central Powers. The editor, Henry Castrop, supported the actions Austria and Germany took in response to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand as justified even though they resulted in war. Through a poem titled Militarismus (Militarism), the Volksblatt argued that Great Britain, not Germany, was the most militaristic nation in the world because it had beheaded Scotland’s Mary, used force in India, and annihilated the American Indian. The paper also defended the actions of German soldiers accused of having committed atrocities in Belgium arguing that Belgians had had a secret alliance with France and, by not allowing Germany free travel through Belgium, invited some military action.3 These three papers also criticized Britain’s control and censorship of information from Europe and its scathing anti-German propaganda. The editor of the Volksblatt, again, was the most outspoken. He believed that England’s Hetze (England’s smear campaign) directed against Germany had only one purpose and that was to pull the United States into the war and to again dominate America as a tyrant and to turn its citizens into vassals. As late as April 5, 1917, the day before the declaration of war, the Volksblatt stood steadfast in its belief that Germany had to win the war. Although resigned to the inevitability Superpatriotism in Action: Osage County p 135 of America’s entry, the editor argued that only a German victory would finally end British control over the press and loosen the grip...