National Security League
Encyclopedia
The National Security League (NSL) was a nationalistic
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

, militaristic
Militarism
Militarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....

, and eventually quasi-fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

 nonprofit, nonpartisan
Nonpartisan
In political science, nonpartisan denotes an election, event, organization or person in which there is no formally declared association with a political party affiliation....

 organization that supported the naturalization
Naturalization
Naturalization is the acquisition of citizenship and nationality by somebody who was not a citizen of that country at the time of birth....

 and Americanization
Americanization (immigration)
Americanization is the process of an immigrant to the United States of America becoming a person who shares American values, beliefs and customs and is assimilated into American society...

 of immigrants, Americanism
American exceptionalism
American exceptionalism refers to the theory that the United States is qualitatively different from other countries. In this view, America's exceptionalism stems from its emergence from a revolution, becoming "the first new nation," and developing a uniquely American ideology, based on liberty,...

, a strong military, universal conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

, meritocracy
Meritocracy
Meritocracy, in the first, most administrative sense, is a system of government or other administration wherein appointments and responsibilities are objectively assigned to individuals based upon their "merits", namely intelligence, credentials, and education, determined through evaluations or...

 and government regulation
Regulation
Regulation is administrative legislation that constitutes or constrains rights and allocates responsibilities. It can be distinguished from primary legislation on the one hand and judge-made law on the other...

 of the economy to enhance national preparedness.

Many of the programs advocated by the NSL—such as a unified national defense agency, an interstate highway system
Interstate Highway System
The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, , is a network of limited-access roads including freeways, highways, and expressways forming part of the National Highway System of the United States of America...

, universal conscription, English as the official language, and a unified national budget—were highly influential. Although the organization did not survive past 1942, many of the ideas it promoted have become national policy in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Founding

The National Security League was founded by attorney Solomon Stanwood Menken
Solomon Stanwood Menken
Solomon Stanwood Menken was an attorney in the United States best known for having founded the National Security League.Menken was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1870 to Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Menken, who owned a dry goods store. The family moved to New York City when Menken was a boy...

 and General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....

 Leonard Wood
Leonard Wood
Leonard Wood was a physician who served as the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Military Governor of Cuba and Governor General of the Philippines. Early in his military career, he received the Medal of Honor. Wood also holds officer service #2 in the Regular Army...

 in December 1914, although the impetus for the formation of the group was Rep. Augustus P. Gardner
Augustus P. Gardner
Augustus Peabody Gardner was a Representative from Massachusetts. Gardner was the son-in-law of Henry Cabot Lodge.-Life and career:...

. For funding, Menken sought out publisher George Putnam
George Haven Putnam
George Haven Putnam, A.M., Litt.D. was an American soldier, publisher, and author. He married classical scholar Emily James Smith Putnam...

. Putnam encouraged Menken to appoint an honorary president to lend the organization prestige and give it access to respected speakers and additional funding. Menken and Putnam settled on Joseph Choate
Joseph Hodges Choate
Joseph Hodges Choate , was an American lawyer and diplomat.-Biography:He was born in Salem, Massachusetts on January 24, 1832. He was the son of physician George Choate and the brother of George C. S. Choate. His father's first cousin was Rufus Choate...

 as the first such president. Menken served as the NSL's first executive director. A national committee was formed which eventually had 47 members, counting among them university presidents, bankers, cabinet secretaries and state governors.

In August 1915, a splinter group broke off to form the American Defense Society
American Defense Society
The American Defense Society was a nationalist American political group founded in 1915. It advocated American intervention against Germany during World War I and opposition to the Bolsheviks when they came to power in Russia after the October Revolution of 1917.-Formation:Clarence Smedley Thomas,...

. This group was composed largely of Republicans
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 unhappy with the NSL's uncritical support of the administration of President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...

.

Despite the factionalism, by 1916 the NSL had more than 50,000 members in 155 chapters in 42 states.

Beliefs and program

The NSL drew members and supporters from a wide range of the political spectrum, and the policies it advocated changed dramatically over time. Progressives
Progressivism in the United States
Progressivism in the United States is a broadly based reform movement that reached its height early in the 20th century and is generally considered to be middle class and reformist in nature. It arose as a response to the vast changes brought by modernization, such as the growth of large...

, Democrats
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 and Republicans all supported the organization in its early years.

Initially, the NSL worked to indoctrinate
Indoctrination
Indoctrination is the process of inculcating ideas, attitudes, cognitive strategies or a professional methodology . It is often distinguished from education by the fact that the indoctrinated person is expected not to question or critically examine the doctrine they have learned...

 school children and the public. Under the guise of encouraging the teaching of American history, the league worked to eliminate the teaching of foreign languages (especially German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, and later Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

). It encouraged physical education in the schools as a means of "strengthening American manhood" for war. By advocating civil defense
Civil defense
Civil defense, civil defence or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state from military attack. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, or emergency evacuation, and recovery...

, the League proselytized for more defense spending and a stronger national military. But "Americanism" and universal conscription were not meant to merely strengthen the military but also to weed out "religious or political dissenters, sexual 'deviants,' those who frequented prostitutes, and people convicted of crimes who had completed their punishment..." The goal was to create an elite meritocratic class which would take decision-making away from the electorate.

The NSL reached its highest point of influence (in terms of its popular support and the adoption of its policies) during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. It whipped up anti-German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 hysteria through its Committee on Patriotism Through Education (directed by Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 professor Robert McNutt McElroy
Robert McNutt McElroy
Robert McNutt McElroy was a professor of history at Princeton University from 1898 to 1916.He was born in Perryville, Kentucky. He married Louise Booker on May 21, 1900...

), and strongly supported the Espionage Act of 1917
Espionage Act of 1917
The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law passed on June 15, 1917, shortly after the U.S. entry into World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code but is now found under Title 18, Crime...

 and the Sedition Act of 1918
Sedition Act of 1918
The Sedition Act of 1918 was an Act of the United States Congress that extended the Espionage Act of 1917 to cover a broader range of offenses, notably speech and the expression of opinion that cast the government or the war effort in a negative light or interfered with the sale of government bonds...

. With United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...

 support, the NSL began to question the patriotism and loyalty of thousands of Americans suspected of either pro-German or (later) pro-communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

 beliefs. League supporters published newspaper stories or wrote letters to the editor alleging that labor unions
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

, universities, some churches (particularly those with large German congregations), the League of Women Voters
League of Women Voters
The League of Women Voters is an American political organization founded in 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt during the last meeting of the National American Woman Suffrage Association approximately six months before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote...

, and a host of other organizations were under communist control.

Decline

The NSL lost much of its political influence after two incidents in 1918.

The first incident happened in April 1918 when McElroy accused practically every citizen in the state of Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

 of treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...

. McElroy was addressing some University of Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

 Army junior cadets in the rain on the college's campus. The acoustics made it difficult to hear him, and the wet cadets fidgeted throughout his speech. McElroy grew increasingly angry as he spoke, convinced the cadets were ignoring him. Finally McElroy—whether in exasperation or because he truly believed it—accused the students and the university's faculty of treason. But since no one could hear him, there was no response to his statement. McElroy then broadened his accusation to include the chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court
Wisconsin Supreme Court
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is the highest appellate court in the state of Wisconsin. The Supreme Court has jurisdiction over original actions, appeals from lower courts, and regulation or administration of the practice of law in Wisconsin.-Location:...

 (who was also in attendance) and the entire population of the state of disloyalty as well. To make matters worse, McElroy published these accusations in a number of newspaper articles. When word of McElroy's statements were made known, the public and press turned on the NSL and accused it of xenophobia
Xenophobia
Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...

 and fanaticism
Fanaticism
Fanaticism is a belief or behavior involving uncritical zeal, particularly for an extreme religious or political cause or in some cases sports, or with an obsessive enthusiasm for a pastime or hobby...

. Many mainstream supporters of the League, unaware of the jingoistic
Jingoism
Jingoism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy. In practice, it is a country's advocation of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests...

 tendencies of some of the more senior members of the organization's inner circle, quit in protest.

The second incident involved a massive political operation in the 1918 mid-term elections. The National Security League formed the first known political action committee
Political action committee
In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...

 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and spent more than $100,000 to defeat congressmen who opposed its positions. The NSL established a rating system to analyze a variety of congressional votes on preparedness measures it considered critical. But many of the votes seemed to have little to do with national defense, or ignored the complexities of congressional voting (which often involved parliamentary procedure
Parliamentary procedure
Parliamentary procedure is the body of rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings and other operations of clubs, organizations, legislative bodies, and other deliberative assemblies...

, up-or-down voting
Up or down vote
An up or down vote refers to a direct vote in the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate on an amendment or bill; it is sometimes referred to as a "clean vote". Members vote yea or nay on the matter rather than voting on a related procedural maneuver...

, the amendment
Bill (proposed law)
A bill is a proposed law under consideration by a legislature. A bill does not become law until it is passed by the legislature and, in most cases, approved by the executive. Once a bill has been enacted into law, it is called an act or a statute....

 process, logrolling
Logrolling
Logrolling is the trading of favors, or quid pro quo, such as vote trading by legislative members to obtain passage of actions of interest to each legislative member...

 and agenda setting
Agenda-setting theory
Agenda-Setting Theory states that the news media have a large influence on audiences, in terms of what stories to consider newsworthy and how much prominence and space to give them. Agenda-setting theory’s main postulate is salience transfer. Salience transfer is the ability of the news media to...

 strategies). Many members of Congress who were in favor of higher defense spending often scored quite low on the NSL's rating system. This did not appear to concern the NSL, which directed mass mailings and vituperative press campaigns against these members of Congress. The campaign appeared to have an effect, as a number of important members of Congress went down to defeat and the Democrats lost control of the House.

During the lame duck
Lame duck
Lame duck can refer to:*Lame duck , an elected official who is approaching the end of his or her tenure, and especially an official whose successor has already been elected....

 session of Congress which followed the election, the Democrats sought to expose the practices of the NSL. Speaker of the House
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, or Speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives...

 Champ Clark appointed a special investigative committee
Committee
A committee is a type of small deliberative assembly that is usually intended to remain subordinate to another, larger deliberative assembly—which when organized so that action on committee requires a vote by all its entitled members, is called the "Committee of the Whole"...

 to investigate the League's actions. Not surprisingly, most of the committee's members were those who had suffered the wrath of the League. The committee found that the NSL had violated the Federal Corrupt Practices Act
Federal Corrupt Practices Act
The Federal Corrupt Practices Act was a federal law of the United States enacted in 1910 and amended in 1911 and 1925. It remained the nation's primary law regulating campaign finance in federal elections until the passage of the Federal Election Campaign Act in 1971. Created by President William H...

.

Menken lost his position as executive director of the League after the House investigation.

With the close of World War I, the League became stridently anti-communist and reactionary
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...

. Honorary president Charles Lydecker, a New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 state national guard
United States National Guard
The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States. Militia members are citizen soldiers, meaning they work part time for the National...

 colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

 and the League's new executive director, began advocating an extreme form of property rights
Ownership
Ownership is the state or fact of exclusive rights and control over property, which may be an object, land/real estate or intellectual property. Ownership involves multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different parties. The concept of ownership has...

. Lydecker soon began attacking progressives and unions for being communist. Lydecker's successor, New York businessman Charles D. Orth, subsequently pushed the League to advocate a quasi-fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

 centralization of the national economy in order to further ensure the nation's security. Orth proposed even more repressive and less democratic measures, such as demanding "education campaigns" to indoctrinate Americanism into immigrants and children and a pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...

 to drive radicals out of the nation's institutions of higher education. As more long-time League supporters—such as Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers was an English-born American cigar maker who became a labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor , and served as that organization's president from 1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924...

 and Albert Bushnell Hart
Albert Bushnell Hart
Albert Bushnell Hart, Ph.D. , was an American historian, writer, and teacher. One of the first generation of professionally trained historians in the United States, a prolific author and editor of historical works, Albert Bushnell Hart became, as Samuel Eliot Morison described him, "The Grand Old...

—withdrew their support, the League sank further into extremism and irrelevancy.

Lieutenant General Robert Lee Bullard
Robert Lee Bullard
Robert Lee Bullard was a United States General.General Bullard attended the United States Military Academy and graduated in 1885...

 became the NSL's last president, taking over in 1925.

The League went bankrupt
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

 in 1939. It survived on paper until 1942, with Bullard running it out of his New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

apartment.

Bullard closed the League in 1942.

External links

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