ABSTRACT
DOWN, BUT NOT OUT, ATTORNEY GENERAL NEWTON CONTINUED TO attack the Rand School in the press throughout August and September as he prepared to re-file legal papers to close the institution. Most notable were his comments before a meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General on September 2, 1919. The message was a familiar one: associate the Rand School with other allegedly radical organizations that were more overt in their efforts, and then demand the school’s closure because of such affiliations. The Rand School worked “hand in hand with the Martens-Bolshevist bureau,” Newton charged; “this institution, whose charter I aim to revoke, is nothing more or less than a school of radicalism, a preparatory school for the I.W.W. and other extremely violent organizations.” However, having faced defeat in the courtroom less than two months earlier, the Attorney General consciously introduced a new element into his campaign against the school, education legislation. Where the courts failed, the state legislature could succeed, he claimed; therefore, he called upon the politicians in Albany to pass laws that guaranteed “intensive instruction in the ideals and traditions of America in the schools.” From police raids to courtroom battles, and now to the legislative chambers in Albany, the Red Scare in New York was entering its final stage.1
