Never Again

"They're seizing the power plant and the telephone building now," boomed the voice over the public-address system. "Henceforth, they will be the property of the state. A boy has been arrested for waving an American flag. He will be dealt with severely." Hartley, Iowa (pop. 1,650) was staging a demonstration of Communism for a day.

The idea came to Ingwer Hansen one day last spring when he was listening to an American Legion radio program in which Communists seized the Government. Hansen, who carries the town's mail, is also the local Legion commander and secretary of the Chamber of Commerce. He got his fellow Legionnaires interested. In store windows, posters proclaimed the overthrow of the "capitalistic government" and the establishment of the United Soviet Republics of America. James F. Green, chairman of the Legion's National Americanism Commission, came up from Omaha to help out.

But Hansen could muster only about a dozen Hartley men to serve as "guerrillas," plus a few individual Guardsmen from neighboring towns. As the raiders rolled into town in a drizzling rain, the streets were almost deserted. The chief of police was arrested, and "executed" out behind Foley's furniture store. Sheriff Ed Lemkull was playfully roughed up (see cut). Red flags were hung all over the main street and road blocks established. One oldster complained bitterly about standing in line for a permit to buy each glass of beer. "That's the severity of it, Al," explained the ration clerk.

But Hartley's thrifty German citizens just didn't like it. They knew it was only make-believe but it kind of scared them anyway. "They know Communism is bad," explained a town official. "They feel that when you play around with something that is bad, somebody's going to get hurt." Some remembered that when Mosinee, Wis. had a Communist Day, the mayor had suffered a fatal heart attack. Then the program said that houses would be searched. "They won't have no pants if they come to our place," said one housewife. "We'll sick the dog on them." Others just locked their doors and stayed inside. Raiders at the road blocks were warned: "We've got to be careful--some of these people feel pretty strongly. They might want to run you down."

When the whole thing ended with a big Flag Day Americanism meeting, even Ingwer Hansen was relieved. "I'll never try anything like that again," said Hansen. "It was a risky deal."

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