Linn A.E. Gale, 1892 - 1940

Linn A.E. Gale Resigns as Oxford Correspondent of Norwich Sun

Utica Saturdaly Globe, September 1912

 

Linn A.E. Gale

1892 - 1940

Norwich [Chenango Co., NY]:  Linn A.E. Gale, of Oxford [Chenango Co., NY], who has been connected with the reportial staff of the Norwich Sun for the past five years, during most of the time as correspondent at Oxford, has severed his connection with that paper and on Monday next goes to Oneonta where he has accepted a position on the staff of the Oneonta Star.  Mr. Gale was educated at the Oxford High School, and was the debating champion of that school for several years, having won first prize in declamation there in 1909.  In 1911 he declaimed at a Star contest at Hobart College, ranking sixth in order of ability out of 27 contestants.  For the past three years he has spent his summers in this village on the local staff of the Sun and during that time has handled many important local events in a highly creditable manner.  He has also written for other papers in the county and several outside, including those in Syracuse, Utica and Binghamton.  He also contributes to magazine to some extend and in 1909 published an illustrated history of the Gale family.  During his work in Norwich, Mr. Gale has shown much ability and aptitude for newspaper work and has made many friends here, who wish him abundant success in his chosen field.

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Linn  A.E. Gale Located

Draft Evader Writes from Mexico City Where He Has Established New Cult

Chenango Union, September 26, 1918

 

Linn A.E. Gale, formerly of this county [Chenango Co., NY] and later editor of Gale's Magazine which migrated from Albany to Worcester to Binghamton to New York City and other places, and who is wanted in Albany county for evading the draft, is located in Mexico city.  An article written by Gale himself and sent to the Norwich Sun with a request for publication, says:

 

Mexico City, Sept 10--Linn A.E. Gale of Albany, N.Y., and New York City, editor and publisher of Gale's Magazine, and well known in the Untied States for his brilliant journalism and his fiery political career, recently located in this city.

 

Editor Gale has organized here the "Church of the New Civilization," of which he is the head, and gives lectures every Sunday morning and every Wednesday evening.  The "Church of the New Civilization" teaches the "New Thought" philosophy and Socialism.  Mr. Gale also conducts private classes of instruction in mental science, psychic development and sociology.

 

Editor Gale became a socialist before leaving the United States.  he left New York State last April and spent several months in southern and western states in Socialist propaganda work, then coming to Mexico.

 

Gale's Magazine is being re-established in this city and will be permanently published here.  It will be devoted to New Thought and Socialism.  Mr. Gale states:  "Gale's Magazine will be international in scope, influence and circulation.  It will eventually reach every part of the known world.  It will be the great herald of the Coming Age of Cooperation, Brotherhood, and internationalism, when capitalism competition, private profit and war shall end forever.  It is fitting that such a magazine, with such a mission should be published in Mexico, a great Republic which is at peace with all the world, and whose undeveloped resources are rich and vast almost beyond the power of imagination to conceive."

 

It will be noted that Gale makes no mention of the fact that he is an evader of the draft nor of his other escapades shortly before he disappeared form New York State.

 

Gale's last appearance in Norwich was during the license campaign last spring when he addressed a public meeting in the interests of the "wets" although it was denied by the "wet" campaign committee that he was employed for that purpose.

 

Gale began his newspaper career in Norwich.  Later he was connected with the Edmeston Local.  In 1912 he was in Albany and later was employed on the Albany Times Union.  For a time after leaving the Times Union he was editor of a newspaper at Amsterdam.  His present address is Calle de Madrid, No. 64, Mexico City, D.F.

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Obituaries

Daily Sentinel, Rome, NY, August 16, 1940

 

Linn A.E. Gale, 48, former Chenango County, Amsterdam and Albany newspaper man who served three years in Leavenworth Penitentiary for pacifist writing and draft evasion during the World War, died Wednesday in Washington, D.C., where he had been working as secretary of the Islands for War Debts Committee.  Gale's court martial for draft evasion and the publication of articles attacking Woodrow Wilson occurred in 1921, and although funds were raised in his behalf, he was convicted following a long trial and sentenced to seven years in Leavenworth.  A group of U.S. senators interceded and he was released after serving three years of the term.  Gale and his wife, who were married in Utica, fled to Mexico when war was declared, the couple making the trip in freight cars.  he was forced to return to the United States in 1921, when Mexico deported him because of alleged radical activities.  While in high school, Gale was correspondent for the Norwich Sun, and after his graduation from Oxford Academy, joined the Oneonta Star editorial staff.  he then went to Albany as a reporter for the Albany Times-Union.  He also worked in Amsterdam and Rensselaer, and served as clerk in the Assembly and later in the Senate while in Albany.

 

The Morning Herald, Gloversville/Johnstown, NY, August 17, 1940

 

Mingled emotions were aroused in various Albany area residents Thursday when they learned of the death in Washington of Linn A.E. Gale, 48.  He was buried Thursday.  Gale was the stormy petrel of Pre-World War newspaper history in Albany and vicinity just as he became a thorn in the side of the military authorities of the United States after Uncle Sam entered the war and tried to get Gale into a uniform.  Member of a prominent and respected Chenango County family, Gale burst upon the local horizon about 1915 when he became editor of the now defunct Amsterdam Sentinel and began pillorying everybody, high and low, who strayed from the straight and narrow path in Amsterdam and elsewhere in this vicinity.  For a time, Amsterdam and Montgomery County officialdom awaited each issue of the Sentinel with bated breath and there was universal relief in that quarter when Gale moved to Albany and became identified with the Times-Union staff under the regime of the late Martin Glynn.  His tenure was brief at Beaver and Green street, whereupon he began promoting the sale of stock in "The Jefferson democrat" among politicians of the area.  It was not until the draft for World War army service began that Gale became nationally famous as an elusive dodger of military duty.  To escape, he fled to Mexico where he conducted a clearing house for radical propaganda. When he was captured at Laredo, Texas by Federal agents, he claimed to have been kidnapped in Mexico City and brought across the border by political enemies.  Eventually, in 1921, Gale was convicted in a military court and served three years of a seven-year sentence in Federal prison.  For sometime recently, Gale has been secretary of the committee at Washington promoting the transfer of Western Hemisphere Islands owned by England and France to the United States in reparation for World War debts. At one time he conducted a book shop in Washington.