World War I

1
World War I

• Civil Liberties

2
World War I Civil Liberties

• Anti-Immigrant Attitudes
• Germans, Austrians, Hungarians were attacked,
  especially the 2 million German-born people in
  the U.S.
• Native-born German-Americans were also
  victimized.

3
World War I Civil Liberties

• Anti-Immigrant Attitudes
• People with German-sounding last names often lost
  their jobs.

4
World War I Civil Liberties

• Anti-Immigrant Attitudes
• Orchestras stopped playing Austrian German
  music.

5
World War I Civil Liberties

• Anti-Immigrant Attitudes
• Orchestras stopped playing Mozart.

6
World War I Civil Liberties

• Anti-Immigrant Attitudes
• Orchestras stopped playing Bach.

7
World War I Civil Liberties

• Anti-Immigrant Attitudes
• Orchestras stopped playing Beethoven.

8
World War I Civil Liberties

• Anti-Immigrant Attitudes
• Orchestras stopped playing Brahms.

9
World War I Civil Liberties

• Anti-Immigrant Attitudes
• Many American towns with German names changed
  their names.
• Berlin, New Hampshire decided to keep the town
  name, but it did this after a 933 to 566 vote
  from its citizens.

10
World War I Civil Liberties

• Anti-Immigrant Attitudes
• Schools stopped teaching German.

11
World War I Civil Liberties

• Anti-Immigrant Attitudes
• Librarians removed books with German Austrian
  authors from the shelves.

12
World War I Civil Liberties

• Anti-Immigrant Attitudes
• Some German Americans were flogged.

13
World War I Civil Liberties

• Anti-Immigrant Attitudes
• Some German Americans were tarred feathered.

14
World War I Civil Liberties

• Anti-Immigrant Attitudes
• In Collinsville, IL, a mob wrapped Robert
  Prager, a German-born miner, in a German flag and
  lynched him.
• When the case went to trial, the jury acquitted
  the mob of any crime.

15
World War I Civil Liberties

• Anti-Immigrant Attitudes
• German measles became liberty measles.

16
World War I Civil Liberties

• Anti-Immigrant Attitudes
• Hamburgers (named from Hamburg, Germany) became
  known as Salisbury Steaks or Liberty Sandwiches.

17
World War I Civil Liberties

• Anti-Immigrant Attitudes
• Sauerkraut became known as Liberty Cabbage.

18
World War I Civil Liberties

• Anti-Immigrant Attitudes
• Dachshunds became known as Liberty Pups.

19
World War I Civil Liberties

• Espionage Sedition Acts
• The Espionage Act was passed in June of 1917.
• The Sedition Act was passed in May of 1918.
• It was illegal to,
• interfere with the draft, obstruct the sale of
  government bonds, or saying anything disloyal,
  profane, or abusive about the government or the
  war effort.

20
World War I Civil Liberties

• Espionage Sedition Acts
• It clearly violated the spirit of the First
  Amendment.
• It bore similarity to the Alien Sedition Acts
  that were passed in 1789 during the Adams
  administration.

21
World War I Civil Liberties

• Espionage Sedition Acts
• 6,000 arrests were made for actions interpreted
  as anti-war activities.
• 1,500 people were convicted for violating some
  part of these acts.

22
World War I Civil Liberties

• Espionage Sedition Acts
• Abrams v. United States
• Five Russian immigrants were accused of
  distributing leaflets protesting President Wilson
  sending 7,000 troops into Russia during the
  summer of 1918.
• Angry local Manhattan residents tipped off the
  authorities of this protest.
• Police arrested these five Russian anarchist
  immigrants.

23
World War I Civil Liberties

• Espionage Sedition Acts
• Abrams v. United States
• Five Russian immigrants were accused of
  distributing leaflets protesting President Wilson
  sending 7,000 troops into Russia during the
  summer of 1918.
• Angry local Manhattan residents tipped off the
  authorities of this protest.
• Police arrested these five Russian anarchist
  immigrants for violating the Sedition Act.

24
World War I Civil Liberties

• Espionage Sedition Acts
• Abrams v. United States
• Jacob Abrams, Hyman Lachowski, Samuel Lipman,
  Mollie Steimer, Jacob Schwartz went to jail for
  using disloyal, profane, scurrilous or abusive
  language to characterize government leaders or
  institutions.
• Jacob Schwartz died in jail while awaiting trial.
• Schwartzs death may have been caused by a police
  beating.

25
World War I Civil Liberties

• Espionage Sedition Acts
• Abrams v. United States
• The four surviving defendants were found guilty
  were sentenced to 15 to 20 years in prison.
• Abrams, Lachowski, Lipman, Steimer appealed the
  conviction all the way to the Supreme Court.

26
World War I Civil Liberties

• Espionage Sedition Acts
• Abrams v. United States
• The Supreme Court upheld the ruling in a 7-2
  decision
• Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. shared his
  dissenting opinion.

27
World War I Civil Liberties

• Espionage Sedition Acts
• Abrams v. United States
• Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. wrote,
• In this case sentences of twenty years
  imprisonment have been imposed for publishing
  leaflets that I believe the defendants have as
  much right to publish as the Government has to
  publish the Constitution...

28
World War I Civil Liberties

• Espionage Sedition Acts
• Abrams v. United States
• Abrams, Lachowsky, Lipman, Steimer never served
  their 15-20 sentence.
• They were all deported to Russia in 1921.

29
World War I Civil Liberties

• Espionage Sedition Acts
• Walter Mathey went to prison for attending an
  anti-war meeting donating 25 cents.

30
World War I Civil Liberties

• Espionage Sedition Acts
• Reverend Clarence Waldron was sentenced to 15
  years for preaching that Christians should not
  participate in war.

31
World War I Civil Liberties

• Espionage Sedition Acts
• Newspapers magazines who printed anti-war views
  or Allied criticisms lost their mailing
  privileges.
• In 1918, the government temporarily revoked the
  mailing privileges of mainstream periodicals like
  the New York Times The Saturday Evening Post.

32
World War I Civil Liberties

• Espionage Sedition Acts
• The U.S. House of Representatives did not allow
  the socialist Wisconsin Representative, Victor
  Berger, to take his seat in the House due to his
  anit-war views.

33
World War I Civil Liberties

• Espionage Sedition Acts
• Columbia University terminated a distinguished
  psychology professor because of his anti-war
  views.
• A fellow Columbia University faculty member, who
  was a war supporter, resigned in protest.
• He said,
• If we have to suppress everything we dont like
  to hear, this country is resting on a pretty
  wobbly basis.

34
World War I Civil Liberties

• Espionage Sedition Acts
• Socialist labor leader,Eugene V. Debs was
  sentenced to a 10 year prison term for giving a
  speech on the economic motivations for war.
• President Warren G. Harding pardoned Debs after
  serving 3 years.

35
World War I Civil Liberties

• Espionage Sedition Acts
• Red Emma Goldman, an anarchist, was sentenced
  to two years was fined 10,000 for organizing
  the No Conscription League.
• She was deported to Russia after serving her two
  year sentence.

36
World War I Civil Liberties

• Espionage Sedition Acts
• Big Bill Haywood, labor leader of the
  Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) or
  Wobblies, was sentenced to 30 years in prison
  for encouraging workers to strike for better
  labor conditions better pay.
• Prosecutors argued that encouraging labor strikes
  during a time of war interfered with the war
  effort.