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Reinventing the First Amendment in Wartime Philadelphia
| As America entered World War I in April 1917 "to keep the world safe for democracy," the Wilson administration began a campaign to crush political dissent at home. The targets were leftist groups and individuals, such as the Socialist Party of America, anarchists, labor radicals (Wobblies), antidraft pacifists, and foreign-language newspapers. These had been the administration's most outspoken antiwar critics, so it was no surprise when federal Justice Department agents used newly acquired war powers to investigate and jail war opponents and virtually shut down the opposition press. For many conservative, middle-class Americans, already feeling threatened by the many immigrants pouring into the country, political movements such as socialism, anarchism, and labor radicalism seemed un-American and even dangerous, dominated by foreigners, with alien, Marxist ideologies that could threaten republican values. |
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While such fears of foreign influence may have been exaggerated, the Wilson administration was well aware that the country's vast immigrant populations could pose a problem as America prepared for war. Many came from homelands such as Germany and territories controlled by the Central Powers and would naturally feel sympathy and affection for their land of origin. The administration fretted that immigrants employed in munitions industries or drafted into the American military would be disloyal. Wilson would not tolerate dissent from recent immigrants or any other Americans who opposed the war for whatever reason, fearing that domestic opposition could hurt morale, weaken the nation's resolve, and cause disaffection among members of the military.1 |
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The fears that gripped a nation played out in Philadelphia during the war years. Justice Department agents payed visits to the office of the Philadelphia Tageblatt, a Socialist, German-language newspaper, which was running articles considered to be too pro-German at a time when America was at war with that country.2 Agents came to suspect the newspaper office, at 107 North Sixth Street, was the nerve center of a nationwide conspiracy to publish pro-German propaganda, undermining the American war effort. There was even a report of a German agent in Mexico funneling "regular money contributions" to the paper to support the propaganda outlet.3 Meanwhile, the Philadelphia chapter of the Socialist Party of America conducted an aggressive leaflet campaign protesting wartime conscription. In keeping with the official position of the national party, the Philadelphia Socialists opposed the draft, opposed the war, and opposed Wilson. After war was declared, they stepped up their antidraft campaign, sending opposition leaflets to men who had just been inducted into the army.4 For federal agents posted in Philadelphia, the Tageblatt and the Socialists had gone too far. To rein in Socialists and members of other dissident groups nationwide, federal authorities used the new tools embodied in the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918. Before the war was over the government prosecuted more than two thousand persons under the acts, resulting in the conviction of more than one thousand.5 |
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