Overman Committee
The committee was authorized by Senate Resolution 307 on September 19, 1918, to investigate charges against the United States Brewers Association (USBA) and allied interests.
[5][6] The committee interpreted this mission to mean a general probe into German propaganda and pro-German activities in the United States.
[6] "We do not want to make this proceeding a mere sewer or conduit into which may be dumped all the accusations and charges and libelous statements, or suspicions, of various persons throughout the United States."
[21] One meeting in particular, held at the Poli Theater in Washington, D.C., was widely controversial because of a speech given by Albert Rhys Williams, a popular Congregationalist minister,[23] who allegedly said, "America sooner or later is going to accept the Soviet Government.
"[24] Archibald E. Stevenson, a New York attorney with ties to the Justice Department, likely a "volunteer spy",[25] testified on January 22, 1919, during the German phase of the subcommittee's work.
"[26] The United States' wartime enemy, though defeated, had exported an ideology that ruled Russia and threatened America anew.
[29] The final catalyst for the expansion of the investigation was the Seattle General Strike, which began the day before the Senate passed Resolution 439.
[24] This confluence of events led members of Congress to believe that the alleged German-Bolshevist link and Bolshevist threat to the United States were real.
[37] Stevenson declared universities to be breeding grounds of sedition, and that institutions of higher learning were "festering masses of pure atheism" and "the grossest kind of materialism".
[41] However, after criticism from Jewish organizations,[42] Senator Overman clarified that the committee was discussing "apostate" Jews only, defined by witness George Simons as "one who has given up the faith of his fathers or forefathers.
[46] After one witness read a Soviet decree saying that Russian women had the "right to choose from among men",[47] Senator Sterling threw up his hands and declared that this was a negation of "free love".
"[48] The senators were particularly interested in how Bolshevism had united many disparate elements on the left, including anarchists and socialists of many types,[49] "providing a common platform for all these radical groups to stand on.
[34] In its analysis of what would happen if capitalism were overthrown and replaced by communism,[54] it warned of widespread misery and hunger, the confiscation of and nationalization of all property, and the beginning of "a program of terror, fear, extermination, and destruction.
The United States Brewers Association, the National German-American Alliance, and the Hamburg-American steamship line were investigated.
The final report concluded that these organizations, through financial support, bribes, boycotts, and coercion, sought to control the press, elections, and public opinion.
[56] It concluded that instituting Marxism–Leninism in the United States would result in "the destruction of life and property", the deprivation "of the right to participate in affairs of government", and the "further suppress[ion]" of a "substantial rural portion of the population."
[52] It would result in the "seizure and confiscation of the 22,896 newspapers and periodicals in the United States" and "complete control of all banking institutions and their assets".
[57] The press reveled in the investigation and the final report, referring to the Russians as "assassins and madmen," "human scum," "crime mad," and "beasts.
[62] Critics denounced the committee as a "propaganda apparatus" to stoke anti-German and anti-Soviet fears, feeding the Red Scare[63] and spreading misinformation about Soviet Russia.
[32] The committee attracted criticism from the public for its perceived overreach, and especially for publishing the names of those accused of association with communist organizations.
One woman from Kentucky wrote to Senator Overman on behalf of her sister, who had been accused by Archibald Stevenson, criticizing the committee for its "brutal as well as stupid misuse of power" and "gross and cruel injustice to men and women the full peer in intellect, character and patriotism of any member of the United States Senate".
A political cartoon drawn by Daniel R. Fitzpatrick published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch , February 6, 1919, satirizing the Senate's expansion of the Overman Committee's authority two days earlier [ 17 ]
