"Sentenced To Be Shot." So read the headline in a special morning edition of The Scranton Times on May 1, 1914. Beneath the enormous black letters, a smaller headline: "Dr. Ryan, of Scranton, Held as American Spy."
The headline must have shocked the newspaper's readership, who knew this man for his humanitarian efforts the world over. At the time of his arrest, Dr. Ryan was head of the Red Cross movement in Mexico. The news of his arrest came to The Scranton Times as a special copyrighted dispatch from The New York World. The story explained that "a rumor, not fully confirmed," had reached Vera Cruz, Mexico, that Dr. Ryan had been found, in Zacatecas, Mexico, to have in his possession confidential codes from the State Department. He refused to translate the codes for Mexican officials. His refusal left him "under imminent peril of death as a spy."
"It has been generally understood," the story said, "that Dr. Ryan, while ostensibly engaged in Red Cross work, has been in reality serving the State Department as a gatherer of information under special commission from Secretary of State Bryan, who is his close personal friend." The report that secret codes were found among his papers seemed to confirm "what was merely suspected."
But to some, Dr. Ryan had a reputation as a strong-minded man who did what he thought needed to be done, regardless of the orders of his superiors. John A. Gade, the first U.S. commissioner to the Baltic States, wrote in his 1942 memoir "All My Born Days," that Dr. Ryan was "constantly getting himself into hot water and me into a state of exasperation, doing things which I highly disapproved, even going to Moscow despite my having forbidden it."
The year before his arrest, Dr. Ryan "sprang into prominence" during a revolt in Mexico City, where his work among the injured attracted attention, as it had in other countries. In appreciation, the State Department honored him with a watch. Dr. Ryan did not limit his role in Mexico to his work as a physician, however. He was a known supporter of presidential hopeful Felix Diaz. Boaz Long of the Latin American division of the State Department and a personal friend of Dr. Ryan, "was shaken out of his diplomatic reserve" when he heard the news of Dr. Ryan's arrest.
"I told Ryan he would get into trouble if he kept on," he said.
A correspondent for The New York World brought the news of the arrest to the State Department. Officials acknowledged that Dr. Ryan had been invaluable to the U.S. government in caring for Americans in Mexico during two revolutions. They vehemently denied he acted as a spy. But they also immediately pressed Mexican officials for a fair trial for the doctor.
President Woodrow Wilson and Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan put pressure on Mexico to release Dr. Ryan. Just what they said is not clear, but one thing is: the pressure they brought to bear on Mexico led to a quick release.
Some time after his release, Dr. Ryan returned to the Scranton area. He stayed for a while in Jessup with his sister, Mrs. Henry Lawler. Then he left to continue the humanitarian work that earned him the love and respect of so many throughout the world.
Dr. Ryan continued making headlines for his work caring for wounded soldiers, fighting epidemics and feeding women and children in war-torn countries. He served as an Army lieutenant colonel in charge of the American Red Cross commission to Western Russia and the Baltic States. To most of the world, he was a hero. Serbia named him both commander of the White Eagle and commander of the Order of St. Sava and awarded him the Charity Cross and the Red Cross. Estonia named him Officer First Class of the Order of Liberty. France, Russia, Greece, and a host of others bestowed similar honors upon him.
CHERYL A. KASHUBA is a freelance writer specializing in local history. Visit her at scrantonhistory.com. Contact the writer: localhistory@ timesshamrock.com