The more things change

This is a quote from Norman Thomas’s Is Conscience a Crime?, a book about conscientious objection during WWI from the wizened vantage point of 1923.  Thomas was a six time socialist candidate for President; Secretary Baker, referred to here, was the Secretary of War under Woodrow Wilson.

Mr. Baker was not the contemptible weakling depicted in the Encyclopedia Britannica.  He had some ability and more cleverness.  But he was not a man of real strength.  He was an adept at evading issues he was not strong enough to meet.  And he found security within the law.  His essential weakness was apparent in the magnitude of the war frauds he failed to detect or prevent.  His cleverness proved useful in persuading himself and some others that because he had been a liberal what he did was liberal.

[…] [T]he Secretary decided that the guilty officers should be dishonorably discharged, but owing to pressure brought by their friends he changed their punishment to an honorable discharge and never published the official findings in the case.  In consequence those discharged for brutality, with the help of members of the American Legion, who only heard one side of the case, were left free to spread about the country an apocryphal story of the injustice done to them.  If the Secretary had taken a firmer course he could hardly have been more savagely attacked by the men whom he discharged. His procedure denied him the support of Americans not in favor of brutality. This fear of adopting a definite line of conduct toward the military was one factor in making a man celebrated as a leader among American liberals officially responsible for a policy which in its final working out was discriminatory, vindictive and often brutal.

p. 252-254