On the morning of January 2, 1920 hundreds of Federal agents and Detroit police raided twenty-three union, activist, newspaper, social, schools, and national social hall throughout the city, and forcefully rounded up over seven hundred people, many activists, many entirely innocent, to deport them or charge them under sedition and syndicalism laws. One of the largest of the Palmer Raids, a particular target of law and order for vandalism and violence was the House of the Masses, long the center of Detroit radicalism.

‘Detroit’s Red Raids’ from The Butte Daily Bulletin. Vol. 2 No. 146. February 6, 1920.

In the recent raids on “Reds” in Detroit carried on by the department of justice, the agents of the “justice department” of “our” government displayed a brutality and “efficiency” as man-hunters which compares quite favorably with the vandalism of the horrible Hun.

Promptly at nine in the evening of Jan. 2, these “agents” together with several hundred police, descended upon 23 different halls in the city, where meetings, dances and socials were being held. Men of every nationality and creed, and of all shades of political opinion, were thrown into waiting patrol wagons and herded into the various jails and “bull-pens.” On the top floor of the Federal building 700 men were kept for days without food or water, and without toilet facilities or other facilities essential to health. They had to sleep on stone floors, without blankets or bedding of any sort–and this in zero weather. The department of justice boasted that they had deliberately planned this raid for months, but when it was carried out they had made no provision for the care of their unsuspecting victims.

Like a panic-stricken army on its last legs, the “agents” seized everything and everybody. In the House of the Masses raid even the cooks and waiters in the cafeteria were taken, and a professor of engineering from the University of Michigan, who had come, to the city that day to consult with a group of students concerning a course of lectures on mechanical engineering, spent the night in the “bull pen.” In the dance hall Finzel’s orchestra was playing, “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles,” when the raiders arrived. The musicians shared the same fate as the professor and the cook.

After these men had been kept in jail for days without sufficient food, fresh air, or refreshing sleep, they were subjected to the “third degree.” Weakened and dazed by the brutal treatment they had received and reduced to a condition of physical breakdown through lack of food and sleep, these men were forced to sign incriminating statements furnishing “evidence” against themselves by subscribing to doctrines of violence and destruction in which they did not believe and had never supported. In one case a man who had for years been prominent in labor circles was grilled for hours and brutally beaten in an effort to compel him to sign one of these statements.

Wives and children, brothers and fathers tried for days to locate the arrested relatives but no information could be obtained. The prisoners were being held strictly incommunicado and it was many days before attorneys succeeded breaking in through the wall of secrecy that was maintained as to their whereabouts and the nature of the charges on which they were being held. As no provision was being made for feeding the prisoners, friends and relatives made arrangements to supply food. Knowing the conditions existing, some of the women sent a supply of soap and towels and other toilet articles. Included with other comforts were safety razors. The authorities, in their mad search for “evidence” immediately saw in this an attempt to arm the prisoners, and a statement was given to the press that a plot to arm the “Reds” had been frustrated. Seven hundred men, confined in the Federal building and surrounded by armed guards are accused of plotting to overthrow constituted government in these United States, with a half-dozen safety razors!

At first the authorities stated that they were holding the prisoners on “presidential warrants,” although such things are unknown in America. The letters de cachet of Louis XV have been introduced into America, although the divine right of kings is supposed to be abolished.

After habeas corpus proceedings had been started and it appeared that all would be released by court order, the Department of Justice operatives condescended to accept bail for the release of the prisoners. Many have now been released on security ranging from $1.000 to $10. 000. Real estate security, such as is usually accepted in case of criminals was refused. The department decided that it would accept only Liberty bonds. Everything has been done to make it difficult to secure the release of the prisoners. People who might be inclined to assist these men have been intimidated by the brutal and high-handed methods of the agents of the government, who seem to have unlimited power. It is considered dangerous to lift a finger or say a word which would indicate that you are in sympathy with these men who hold political ideas and opinions which fail to meet the approval of Attorney General Palmer, the uncrowned king at Washington. Many American citizens who were caught in the “drag-net” were interrogated as to their Americanism by foreign-born agents of the department of justice. It is said that a large number of these “agents” have been recruited from the former Russian secret police who found themselves without employment after the collapse of the imperial Russian government. These men have wormed their way into the organizations under investigation and are to a large extent responsible for the alleged “criminal anarchy” and “criminal syndicalism.” It is an old trick this, the agent provocateur cleverly leads his victim into acts or statements in violation of the law, and then conducts the raid and appears as the accusing witness against his victims.

Following the raids the prisons of the city were so over-crowded that men were packed together like sardines in a box. Cells 4×10 feet were occupied by as many as 12 men. There was just room to stand up, and many remained in this condition for days. Finally the local health authorities demanded that the men be removed to more sanitary quarters, fearing that an epidemic would result. This fear became so great that the employes of the municipal building threatened to strike unless the hundreds of prisoners crowded together in the “black hole” in the basement were removed and sanitary conditions maintained.

Professor Wood of the sociological department of the University of Michigan has vigorously protested against the brutality of the raids and the menace of persecuting and deporting men who happen to have advanced ideas.

Among the dangerous characters taken in the raids and held are John Keracher, well known as a lecturer and writer; he is charged with being a criminal anarchist and is held on $10,000 bail for deportation. Albert Renner, who is widely known through his activities in the socialist party and in educational organizations is charged with violation of the Michigan criminal syndicalist law and has been released on $5,000 bail. John Kolik was caught in the raids and is held for deportation. Kelik saw service in France and has not yet been discharged from the United States army. His activities consist nothing more dangerous than working for the Ford Motor company Both of these men have back soldiers’ pay coming to them from the government. George Possukow, another soldier, not yet discharged from the army, is also held for deportation. Peter Mosseka when arrested had in his possession pass ports just granted which would enable him to return to his native village in Poland. His passports have been taken from him and he too is held for deportation. William Krispenz, who had previously been arrested as a dangerous alien and released on $10,000 cash bail, was rearrested and held for 11 days and then released. The charge against him is that he is “a dangerous alien anarchist,” all of which he most emphatically denies.

The raiders strove to emulate the example of Attila and his hordes of barbarians. They preferred to open doors with an ax in preference to using keys, desks were jimmied open in true burglar fashion, they seized everything that was not nailed down, including postage stamps of the usual red variety, rubber bands and paper clips and dangerous looking pens. One officer was, after some difficulty, convinced that what he thought was an infernal machine was in reality an entirely harmless Corona typewriter.

Large quantities of books were taken and these the authorities have refused to return. Among the “revolutionary literature” seized are such works as Darwin’s “Descent of Man” and “Origin of Species,” Spencer’: “First Principles, Data of Ethics,” Smith’s “Wealth of Nations,” Marx’s “Capital,” and other classical works on economics, history, sociology and kindred sciences. It may be that the agents of the department of justice wish to implicate Herbert Spencer and Darwin and Marx in the communist party or indict them under the criminal syndicalist laws.

The attorneys for the prisoner held for deportation have asked the gods of the immigration department to issue passports for the men held and their families, thus saving much inconvenience and delay. These men have all expressed their willingness to return to their native lands, many of them have applied for passports which have been refused. As it is they are confined in unsanitary jails and barracks. Many of then have families dependent upon them for support. If the government is sincere and has no ulterior motive in the matter, there can be no good reason for denying these men passports, and allow them to leave the country at their own expense.

The communists are attacked because it is alleged that their program advocates direct action and the destruction of the government. They are being raided and hunted not because they have committed any actual criminal act, but because they hold certain unpopular political opinions. We frankly admit that we do not agree with their contentions, but even though they are ai that has been charged against them, the fact still remains that there is no justification in the present persecutions. Let their political opinions be what they may, they are entitled at least to a fair, and open trial in the courts of the land. As it stands now, the agents of the department of justice have assumed the duties of accuser and judge and jury. If this sort of thing is permitted to continue, no man who does not agree with Mr. Palmer’s department is safe. These men are told to use the peaceful means guaranteed to them by the constitution. But this means of political expression is denied as shown by the refusal of congress to seat a regularly elected congressman from Wisconsin. In New York state the legislature refused to seat several men elected by socialists. A former judge of the supreme court Charles E. Hughes, in a letter to the speaker of the New York assembly called attention to this and well said that if such methods were pursued, then the people would have no recourse by peaceful means and would be compelled to resort to violence We can agree with him when he says that those who foster such action are the real enemies of the government. Politicians who are intoxicated with usurped power represent the foremost lawless element in this country today.

PDF of full issue: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045085/1920-02-06/ed-1/seq-4/