Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

5-1922

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

History

Subject

United States. Army--History; Federal aid to law enforcement agencies--United States; Riots--United States

Abstract

The function of the army of the United States is to protect the country against all enemies foreign and domestic. Everyone is cognizant of the accomplishments of the American forces against its foreign enemies; but there is another work, of equal importance, fraught with as great a danger, which is too often overlooked that is, the use of the army as an auxiliary force to strengthen the arm of municipal authority, in the suppression of riots and disturbances; and to maintain order, where for some reason or other, the municipal authority has been unable to cope with the situation. Wars against foreign enemies are usually of very short duration, but the war against the disturbers of the peace within the continental limits of the United States has gone on from day to day. The Armistice was signed November 11, 1918 but hardly a day has passed since then but that somewhere in this country regular troops were in some capacity or other helping in the maintenance of law and order. In the year July 1919-20, for instance regulars were on duty practically every day of the year. It is important to note the variety of occasions which called for troops and the universality of the appeal for their use. There were strikes, I.W.W. activities, race riots and floods that called for regular troops; and to name but a few of the states whence the appeal came – there was Pennsylvania, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Indiana, Washington, Montana and Georgia. The whole history of the work of the regular army in the United States shows that although these last few years have been rather troublesome and have called for more than a due show of force the army has been doing such work since the earliest times.

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