15 June 1917: The Espionage Act of 1917 was signed into law by President Wilson, making it a crime to oppose the war or the draft, even peacefully; those imprisoned included Eugene V. Debs, frequent Socialist Party candidate for president, & Jehovah's Witnesses organizer Joseph Rutherford; the Postmaster General liberally censored the press, impounding publications deemed to be prohibited.
Lest we forget.
Commentary: Debs, a founding member of the radical "Wobblies," the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.), was the Socialist Party of America candidate for president in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, & 1920—that last campaign being run from his prison cell, where he was still incarcerated under the Espionage Act, even after the Armistice & the Paris Peace Conference.
No comments:
Post a Comment