Espionage Act Signed: Wilson Criminalizes Antiwar Speech, Targets IWW Labor Organizers and Socialists

President Woodrow Wilson signed the Espionage Act into law, prohibiting interference with military operations or recruitment, preventing insubordination in the military, and preventing support of U.S. enemies during wartime. The Wilson administration, knowing many Americans were conflicted about U.S. entry into World War I, launched a sweeping propaganda campaign to instill hatred of the German enemy abroad and disloyalty at home. Wilson publicly stated that disloyalty to the war effort “must be crushed out” and that disloyal individuals had “sacrificed their right to civil liberties” like free speech and expression. Enforcement varied greatly, with most activity in Western states where the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) labor union was active. On September 5, 1917, federal agents raided IWW offices nationwide. On September 28, 166 people active in the IWW were accused of trying to “cause insubordination, disloyalty, and refusal of duty in the military and naval forces” in violation of the Espionage Act. One hundred and one defendants were found guilty, receiving prison sentences ranging from ten days to twenty years. Notable prosecutions included Austrian-American socialist congressman Victor L. Berger; labor leader and five-time Socialist Party candidate Eugene V. Debs; and anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. In June 1918, Debs was arrested for violating the act by undermining conscription efforts and sentenced to ten years in prison. The broadly worded law ultimately resulted in arrest and prosecution of more than 2,000 Americans, some sentenced to 20 years in prison for sedition. In March 1919, President Wilson, at Attorney General Thomas Watt Gregory’s suggestion, pardoned or commuted sentences of some 200 prisoners convicted under the Act. The law came to be viewed as one of the most egregious violations of the Constitution’s free speech protections.