Oregon Voices: At War over the Espionage Act in Portland: Dueling Perspectives from Kathleen O'Brennan and Agent William Bryon

Abstract

OREGON VOICES At War Over the Espionage Act in Portland Dueling Perspectives from Kathleen O'Brennan andAgentWilliam Bryon by Adam J. Hodges IN SEPTEMBER 1918, THE U.S. attorney for Portland, Bert Haney, wrote a report to the attorney gen eral on Kathleen O'Brennan, an Irish nationalist on tour fromDublin who had recently arrived in the city. She was "engaged in spreading Irishpropa ganda," he reported, and was "the daily consort of I. W.W. [IndustrialWorkers of the World] leaders and speakers in this city."1 Haney may have intended tobelittle herwith theword "consort," but O'Brennan was an able speaker and had been in high demand since she had arrived that summer. She was also living and having an affairwith Marie Equi, an anti-capitalist radical and lesbian who Haney referred to as "themost dangerous person at large in Oregon."2 Haney warned the attorney general that O'Brennan had already com plained to members ofCongress about harassment by Military Intelligence and the Bureau of Investigation and that she "claims to have the personal acquaintance and the cordial support of Senator Phelan ofCalifornia."3 Equi and O'Brennan both had powerful connections to bourgeois politicians and professionals, a resource unavail able to most radicals. Equi was amedi cal doctor who had been a Progressive activist, while O'Brennan was part of a nationalist movement that had prominent supporters in theUnited States. O'Brennan and Equi were also widely respected by both American Federation of Labor unionists and IWW radicals. Itwas the specter of a coalition of individuals and organiza tions that stretched to both poles of social class and opinion on thewar thatmade these twowomen "danger ous" to federal and local officials. The Espionage Act of June 1917 outlawed speech and actions that interfered with mobilization of the 474 OHQ vol. 108, no. 3 ? 2007 Oregon Historical Society Mane Egwzwas briefly jailed duringpublic protestson behalf of an IndustrialWorkers of the World (IWW) cannery strikein 1913, galvanizing her radical careerand gaining her close ties with the organization. The IWW, the most prominent revolutionary union in thePacificNorthwest at the time,organizedmainly itinerant loggingand agriculturalworkers. armed forces, and expansion of the law inMay 1918 criminalized criti cism of government. This revision gave sweeping power to officialswho wished to silence their critics.4 That same month, police arrested Equi while she was making a purportedly anti-war speech at thePortland IWW hall. Haney indicted her in late June, but shewas not held in jail. Ironically, Equi's trialdid not begin untilNovem ber, themonth thewar ended.5 O'Brennan managed the public campaign for Equi's appeal, and Hodges, AtWar Over theEspionage Act inPortland 475 Portland's union workers participated actively. Even before she arrived in Portland and met Equi, O'Brennan had spoken to labor groups and FBI agents had filed reports on her at the request ofBritish authorities. InAugust 1918, an agent in Portland observing an O'Brennan lecture reported that he "heard nothing, either from the platform or the audience, which could be construed as seditious." In fact,he claimed O'Brennan was heavily criti cized by some in the audience fornot being strongly anti-capitalist, for sup porting theCatholic Church, and for praising IrishAmericans fighting in the war.6Her association with Equi proved tobe a politically transformative expe rience. By October, Margaret Lowell Paul, the Bureau of Investigation spy who had befriended both women, reported that O'Brennan's approach had changed: "Miss O'Brennan further toldme the thing thathad firstardently interestedher in the labor question was the great abuse thatDr. Equi had been subject to at the time of her impris onment." Although these kinds of reports are often suspect, since a spy's continued employment depended on witnessing incriminating admissions, O'Brennan's relationship with Equi did seem to be influencing her ideol ogy. Now, the spy said, she believed thewar was precipitating revolution in America and Britain and discoursed on thematter at length.A speech she gave inBoston in June1920,a Bureau of Investigation agent reported, differed markedly from her Portland address twoyears earlier in itsemphasis on "the emancipation of the Working Class in Europe and inAmerica."7 O'Brennan's radicalization made her a prime...