Ten days after the United States entered World War I, Minnesota Governor J.A.A. Burnquist signed a law creating the Minnesota Commission of Public Safety. The goal of this watchdog group was to ensure public safety during wartime, but many of its policies targeted groups the CPS suspected of being "disloyal." Immigrants, the Nonpartisan League, and labor unions were particularly at-risk under CPS policies.

Pictured here is the seven-member committee of the CPS in 1918. The governor, Joseph Burnquist, sits at the back of the table underneath the lamp.