0.3 Great war (part ii)

Curbing Dissent at Home

The Spirit of ’76 was envisioned as another patriotic movie. Set during the American Revolution, the idea behind the movie was that the colonists were unprepared to battle let alone win in a war against the largest, best military in the world. In the end, Americans were victorious and thus the message of the movie was that we were unprepared before yet we did what was necessary to win and we are unprepared now yet we will again do what is necessary to beat down the proud. The director of the movie, Robert Goldstein (a Jewish American of German descent) portrayed the British as not only the enemy (which they were) but unfortunately for him also decided to portray British acts of brutality (which there were many). It was an ill-fated decision for Goldstein because when the movie came out (1917) the British were our allies and thus portraying our allies in unfavorable light brought not only ridicule upon Goldstein, but also his arrest and imprisonment. He was arrested for and found guilt of breaking the 1918 Sedition Act by showing the two war-time allies (Great Britain and the US) fighting against one another. Wilson will cut short his ten-year sentence with a presidential pardon after serving 18 months in prison.

One of the first victims of nearly every US war is the First Amendment. Luckily, it is a resilient piece of work and thus will bounce back. The Alien Act (1917) and the Sedition Act temporarily trumped American’s rights to religious freedom, speak freely, publish freely, or to freely petition the government. The Espionage Act made it a crime to pass information with the intent of harming the success of American armed forces. Eugene Debs (labor leader, Socialist, perennial presidential candidate) was arrested for making an anti-American speech. He was tried and found guilty under the Espionage Act, even thought the Act did not specifically prohibit speaking against the government. Thus, to shore up the Espionage Act, Congress passed the Sedition Act which expressly prohibited speaking, writing, publishing or allowing to speak, write or publish anything against the federal government, the US war effort, or its allies or “incite insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States” to include interfering with recruitment operations.

The Attorney General, Thomas Gregory, instructed the Postmaster General, Albert Burleson, to censure and if necessary discontinue delivering any anti-American or pro-German mail (letters, magazines, and newspapers). Gregory supported the work of the American Protective League’s (APL). The APL curbed dissent at home by compelling German-Americans to sign a pledge of allegiance. The APL also conducted extra-governmental surveillance on pro-German activities and organizations (such as unions).