1917: Censorship and the Supression of Anti-War Feeling
In 1917 the United States' military endeavors abroad created a political climate at home that was exceedingly hostile toward radicals like Emma Goldman. This antagonism was largely due to an organized government effort to create support for the war in Europe. Wilson had won reelection in 1916 on a platform of continued neutrality, with critical support from the isolationist electorate. Therefore, as U.S. entry into the war appeared increasingly inevitable, it became necessary to redirect the tide of public opinion. With this goal in mind, Wilson created the Committee on Public Information (CPI) only one week after signing the declaration of war. George Creel, the committeešs chairman, worked to create a new "national ideology" that was vehemently pro-war. The CPI's aggressively negative campaign against all things foreign elevated the art of wartime propaganda to unprecedented heights. Clearly, the nation was undergoing a rapid transition away from relatively liberal and progressive attitudes as it became directly involved in World War I. This shift would prove fatal to the cause of civil liberties.
It was politically impossible for radicals to survive in the atmosphere of WWI America. The CPI had the nation convinced that the war was being fought not only on the battlefields of Europe, but on a domestic battlefield as well. The enemy's secret agents were supposedly at work in every key city and industry, undermining the U.S. war effort. Suddenly, every immigrant became a suspect in the minds of right-thinking Americans, especially if he or she was involved in a labor organization or left-wing political association. More and more, overzealous patriots began to generalize foreign-born liberals as seditious plotters. Soon the restriction of civil liberties seemed absolutely necessary to fight the war on the homefront. Even the most liberal members of Wilson's Administration began to push for the suppression of constitutional rights in response to this "national emergency."
In May and June of 1917, the government issued a series of war measures designed to suppress all opposition to the U.S. military effort. The Espionage Act outlawed all willful attempts to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal to serve. This legislation was solidified by the subsequent Sedition Act, which made it a crime to speak any opinion contrary to the purpose of the United States. These laws represented the most powerful restrictions of free speech and press in over a century, and yet the people greeted them with enthusiasm. The New York Times praised "punishment for the disloyal" and urged Congress to put aside all squeamishness about inflicting the death penalty. Clearly, the American people had no qualms about taking drastic measures to ensure security within the nation's borders.
The international and domestic politics of the war made Emma Goldman more vulnerable than ever before. The repressive force of the Espionage and Sedition Acts was felt mostly by pacifists, socialists, anarchists, and labor organizers. The war measures became a convenient mechanism for striking out against these radical groups, who dared to resist the patriotic frenzy. Justice Department officials, newly endowed with broad and sweeping authority, confiscated files and arrested 877 citizens between June 1917 and June 1919. Ironically, not one of these individuals was a genuine spy whose actions were proved to have injured the military service. Goldman's political partner Ben Reitman put it best when he said: "In 1917 it was an extremely dangerous thing for a man to be an anarchist and an anti-militarist, an active member of the I.W.W., or to be associated with an anarchist group." He continued, "it was evident to all of us at the Mother Earth group that jail and maybe the gallows stood before us." Given this hostile climate, in addition to the government's particular aversion to Red Emma, it would probably have been best for Goldman to lay low during the war. However, it was never her style to keep a low profile, and before long Goldman was as deeply embroiled in the anti-war movement as any other cause to which she had devoted her incendiary passions.
(Photograph of Ben Reitman, Goldman's lover and political ally, from "The Emma Goldman Papers" http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Exhibition/freespeech.html)
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The international and domestic politics of the war made Emma Goldman more vulnerable than ever before. The repressive force of the Espionage and Sedition Acts was felt mostly by pacifists, socialists, anarchists, and labor organizers. The war measures became a convenient mechanism for striking out against these radical groups, who dared to resist the patriotic frenzy. Justice Department officials, newly endowed with broad and sweeping authority, confiscated files and arrested 877 citizens between June 1917 and June 1919. Ironically, not one of these individuals was a genuine spy whose actions were proved to have injured the military service. Goldman's political partner Ben Reitman put it best when he said: "In 1917 it was an extremely dangerous thing for a man to be an anarchist and an anti-militarist, an active member of the I.W.W., or to be associated with an anarchist group." He continued, "it was evident to all of us at the Mother Earth group that jail and maybe the gallows stood before us." Given this hostile climate, in addition to the government's particular aversion to Red Emma, it would probably have been best for Goldman to lay low during the war. However, it was never her style to keep a low profile, and before long Goldman was as deeply embroiled in the anti-war movement as any other cause to which she had devoted her incendiary passions.