Lusk Committee

[1] Within days, the New York State Legislature established the Joint Legislative Committee to Investigate Seditious Activities by Concurrent Resolution on March 26, 1919.

[5] On June 12, the police and private detectives working for the Committee raided the Russian Soviet Bureau, an agency headed by Ludwig Martens, that sought American recognition of the new Bolshevik government.

Some of those arrested were immediately interrogated by the Committee about Soviet propaganda in the U.S. and other witnesses quoted from seized documents to demonstrate that the Russian Bureau aimed at the violent overthrow of the government.

[8] [9] The committee's agents raided 73 branches of the newly organized Communist party on November 8, a Saturday evening when the radicals would be celebrating the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.

The report, published as Revolutionary Radicalism: Its History, Purpose and Tactics with an Exposition and Discussion of the Steps being Taken and Required to Curb It, ran to more than 4,000 pages.

De facto editor of the report was Archibald E. Stevenson, Assistant Counsel of the committee, whom critics asserted "directed its activities from the start.

The committee's work led to the conviction on charges of criminal anarchy of two anarchist editors, who were sentenced to years in prison and other radical immigrants were deported.

Another required public school teachers take loyalty oaths[13] Governor Al Smith vetoed the legislation,[14] objecting in particular to government power over instruction.