Mosinee, Wisconsin, (Pop. 1,400) Occupied by “Reds” in Mock Communist Takeover
The little town of Mosinee, Wisconsin, on this day was “occupied’ by “Reds” in a mock Communist take-over.
In the morning, a group of American Legion volunteers acting as Communists staged the take-over, and in about four hours “succeeded” in seizing the town. Both the mayor and the police chief, who were in on event, were “seized” and detained. To demonstrate what communist rule would be like, the pretend communists blocked all roads and stopped people on the street, demanding to see their identification papers and ration cards. A large sign was erected in the center of town reading “the state must be supreme over the individual.” By 10:15 a.m. the town had completely surrendered.
By evening, the mock take-over was ended and an “Americanism” rally was held. A major problem occurred, however, when Mayor Ralph Kronenwetter, who was in on the scheme, became so excited that he suffered a major heart attack. He was given last rights, but survived the night.
The mock take-over designed to demonstrate the evils of life under Communism was planned in part by Benjamin Gitlow, a famous former leader of the Communist Party who was now a semi-professional anti-communist. Gitlow is most famous as the plaintiff in the landmark 1925 Supreme Court case of Gitlow v. New York, in which the Supreme Court held for the first time that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporated the free speech clause of the First Amendment, making it applicable to the states.
The entire Mosinee incident was a good example of the wild, paranoid extremism of the anti-communist movement.
Learn more about the Cold War: Ellen Schrecker, Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America (1998)
Learn more: Larry Ceplair, Anti-Communism in the Twentieth Century America: A Critical History (2011)