Espionage and Sedition Acts of 1918

Andrew Yule

History

2/12/18
 My National History Day topic is on the Espionage and Sedition acts of 1918. On June
15, 1917, the Espionage Act began during the time of World War 1. A year later in May 16,
1918, The Sedition Acts extended the laws that made it a federal offense to criticize the
government or constitution in any way shape or form. The laws were intended to prohibit
interference with military operations or recruitments to prevent support of American enemies.
Naturally people began to dislike the laws because their freedom of speech was being violated.
For example in the United States v. Motion Picture Film case in 1917, a federal court upheld the
government's attack on a film called, “The Spirit of '76”, which was a depiction of cruelty on the
part of British soldiers during the American Revolution would weaken support for America's
wartime ally. The producer of the film, Robert Goldstein, was prosecuted under Title XI (11) of
the Act, and received a ten-year sentence and a fine of $5,000.

I found all of my research and sources on the internet and online. My teacher, Mrs.
Strong, helped me find this topic for the project. For my primary source, I found a website that
contains the entire Espionage Act of 1917 document and an annotation giving a short
description and summary of what the act contained and how much fines costed and how long
sentences lasted.

My first secondary source is about a woman named Kate Richards O'Hare, an American
Socialist activist who gave the same speech in many states, but was convicted and sentenced
to 5 years in prison for delivering her speech in North Dakota. My second secondary source is
about Albert S. Burleson. Him and those in his department played critical roles in the
enforcement of the Espionage Act. he was close to both the President and the Attorney
General.

I ran into a few problems, the first problem I ran into was when I was looking for sources
for my project I accidentally used sources talking about the Alien and Sedition acts, which
happened in the late 1800’s. I also had trouble looking for people who were imprisoned for
breaking the laws.

This topic fits into this year’s theme because towards the end of the World War 1 the
government passed the Sedition Acts, which were laws that extended the Espionage Acts,
which were laws that made it illegal to speak against the government and/or constitution. Many
Americans argued these laws went against freedom of speech. Activists and reporters, or just
everyday people who openly disagreed with the government were sentenced for up to 10 years
and pay up to $10,000 for having opposing opinions about the government. American people
tried but failed to get the Acts repealed, but two years after it was passed, As part of a sweeping
repeal of War Time Laws, Congress finally repealed the Sedition Act on December 13, 1920.