The Year Free Speech Died (The Sedition Act Of 1918)

Описание: From 1918 to 1921 citizens in the United States no longer had the right to criticize the government. In this episode we explain how this happened. Before it was finished over a thousand American citizens would go to prison for speaking against the government.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:47 The Great War
04:32 Resistance
06:23 The Espionage Act Of 1917
09:17 Prosecution And Imprisonment
13:22 Repealed
14:43 Conclusion


The episode begins with a brief exploration of Woodrow Wilson's first term. As he became President in 1913, Wilson began ordering interventions into Latin America. United States troops occupied Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. They also intervened in Cuba, Haiti, Honduras, and Panama.

Early in 1914 to US Navy sailors accidentally landed in Tampico, Mexico. They were arrested. Wilson responded by sending the US Navy to occupy the city of Veracruz. Before Woodrow Wilson could become engaged in a war with Mexico political circumstances forced him to withdraw. Even as war began raging in Europe the people of the United States were not ready unnecessary conflict.

In 1916 Wilson ran for re-election under the campaign "He Has Kept Us Out Of War". In 1917 Arthur Zimmerman sent a coded telegram to Mexico promising them Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona if the allied with Germany. Wilson broke his promise to keep the nation out of war. Congress declared war on Germany on on April 6, 1917.

One of the first things Congress did was pass the Selective Service Act Of 1917. Then they began drafting millions of young men. The tax rate was raised as high as 77%. And those who earned too much paid an additional profit tax. Additionally a lot of people didn't want to go to war in Europe, most notably European immigrants. They began speaking against Wilson, as did anarchists, socialists, and feminists.

Wilson and Congress worked together to pass the Espionage Act of 1917. This made it a crime to say anything that hurt the military in a time of war. But Wilson wanted more power. The following year, in 1918, the Sedition Act provision was added to the bill. It made nearly any criticism of the United States government a crime.

Eugene Victor Debs was a socialist who ran for President five times. He was also a political opponent of Woodrow Wilson. In 1918 Eugene gave a speech asking people to resist the draft. He was charged with sedition and sentenced to ten years in prison. A movie producer who made a film about the Revolutionary War was put in prison because he made a US ally look bad. And Jehova's witnesses were put in jail for preaching pacifism instead of trying to help the military.

After World War One ended the restrictive speech laws did not. The government began seeing more protests and complains from citizens. On March 3rd 1921 the Sedition Act provisions were finally repealed. The rest of the Espionage Act is still in effect.

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