Enforcing Patriotism

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Enforcing Patriotism

• How the Wilson Administration Suppressed
  Opposition to WWI

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The Problem

• Drum up support for a war many Americans opposed
• Recruiting numbers very low
• Draft needed
• In order to conduct the war, Wilson needs to
  shape public opinion

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Committee on Public Information

• George Creel
• Veteran newspaperman
• Speakers sent around country
• Filtered news
• Censorship about losses
• Propaganda

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Suppression of Opinion

• Espionage Act, June 1917
• Made it illegal to willfully cause or attempt to
  cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or
  refusal of duty
• Made it a crime to speak out against the war
• Over 2,000 prosecuted

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Eugene Debs

• Speech in 1918
• Wars throughout history have been waged for
  conquest and plunderAnd that is war in a
  nutshell. The master class has always declared
  the wars the subject class has always fought the
  battles
• Debs was arrested for violating the Espionage Act
• Sentenced to 10 years in prison at age 63

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Vigilante Squads

• American Defense Society
• To put an end to seditious street oratory
• American Protective League
• Neighbors snooping on neighbors
• Claimed to have found 3 million cases of
  disloyalty

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Press Feeds Paranoia

• It is the duty of every good citizen to
  communicate to the proper authorities any
  evidence of sedition that comes to his notice -
  New York Times
• Clip and send us any editorial utterances that
  seem seditious or treasonable. - Literary Digest

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Crackdown on IWW

• Socialists persecuted
• Socialist party gaining ground in local elections
• Emma Goldman deported
• Bill Haywood, head of IWW, flees to Russia

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Two Worlds

• Mainstream public perception
• Large support for war
• Do your bit
• Dissent
• Suppressed, not always reported
• Seething underneath
• Next decade marked by this dual nature