Today, anti-war sentiments are high as protesters like Cindy Sheehan are outspoken about the war in Iraq. Wars like Vietnam continually come up as comparisons, but few ever consider World War One or World War Two as “unpopular wars.” On this day in 1920, however, Kate Richards O’Hare was pardoned from her five year sentence in the federal penitentiary for her outspoken opposition to World War One.

On April 14, 1919, O’Hare was convicted in Bismarck for an anti-war speech she gave in Bowman. In her speech there, she compared mothers who allowed their sons to become soldiers to “brood sows.” At her trial, she was condemned for her “seditious statements” not only in Bowman, but all over the state.

One year later, Governor Lynn Frazier supported the National Socialist Party in requesting that O’Hare be released. In a letter to President Woodrow Wilson, Frazier wrote:
Dear Mr. President:

I am somewhat familiar with the circumstances in this case and am very confident that politics and spite work played the major part in the prosecution of this woman. Any action that might be taken…would be greatly appreciated by a large number of people who feel that an injustice has been done.

The American War Mothers and the American Legion headed a petition that protested O’Hare’s liberation from jail. In their letter to President Wilson, they wrote: “Her crime was near treason…Her influence was positively vicious. Her punishment was merited and her release is a stimulant to the disloyal and disheartens the patriotic. All former service men and war workers and loyal citizens of this community, without reference to political affiliations are unanimous in their condemnation of the act.”

O’Hare’s release also stirred the entire state as they feared North Dakota would become a place of socialist teachings of radicalism and revolution. The publisher of the Grand Forks Herald said, “Red-blooded Americans of the Northwest strenuously resent your action in pardoning [O’Hare]. Must we expect the release of [other socialist leaders]? Our soldier boys were a great factor in winning the war and should have better treatment than the turning loose of red flaggers…to continue undermining the constitution of our forefathers.”

Frazier was criticized by many for his support of O’Hare and his own opposition to the war. He was especially criticized for his reference to the soldiers who died on Flanders Fields as “fertilizer.” The Bismarck Tribune wrote on North Dakota’s gubernatorial elections on June 30. “The issues of this campaign are more than political. Unless the voters protect our institutions by their ballots June 30, they will witness more arrogant displays of un-Americanism…It will take a long time to recover if we allow the fiber of American citizenship to decay and permit radicalism of the red card socialist to blot out our best traditions and to nullify the benefits of the supreme sacrifices of the great World War…Whether socialism or Americanism is mightier in this state will be shown June 30.”

By Tessa Sandstrom

Sources:
“Campaign Issues; Frazier’s insult to state service men,” Bismarck Tribune. June 5, 1920: 1.
“Wilson frees Kate O’Hare,” Bismarck Tribune. May 29, 1920: 1.
“War mothers of Bismarck lead city-wide protest condemning pardon of Kate Richards O’Hare,” Bismarck Tribune. June 2, 1920: 1.

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