Does the Espionage Act pose any threats to the rights and liberties of American citizens?
In June 1918, with the war in its final months, the great American labor leader, Socialist and pacifist Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926) addressed the Ohio state meeting of the Socialist Party. In this speech that led to his arrest under the Sedition Act, Debs sounded familiar refrains of the anti-war cause and enjoined his audience to continue speaking out as a matter of patriotic duty and conscience, despite the repressed wartime atmosphere. Debs was arguably the most famous of the many radicals who opposed America’s participation in World War I. Unlike European socialists, who generally supported their government’s entry into the war, Debs argued that the war was waged by capitalists for their own gain, pitting workers of one country against workers of another. Read an excerpt from the Espionage Act itself and watch the short excerpt of Debs 1918 speech. Then answer the three questions below within the framework of the rubric.
1. Excerpt of the Espionage Act 1918
Section 3: “Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces of the United States or to promote the success of its enemies and whoever when the United States is at war, shall willfully cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or shall willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, to the injury of the services or of the United States, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both.”
1. Does the Espionage Act pose any threats to the rights and liberties of American citizens? How or why?
2. What about the character of Debs and his historical presence would lead him to be made an example of by the state?
3. Why during times of war are civil liberties circumvented in the interest of national security? Is this something that you as a person living now are willing to give up during times of war and do you agree or disagree with the sentiment being made by Debs?