Central Historical Question
Based on the interpretation of the primary and secondary source content below, answer the central question. Can you elaborate on whether dissenters in World War I were anti-American? Does war justify limitations on civil rights?
Reminder: Use SOAPSTone to analyze primary sources.
Primary Source Document 1 - The Canton Ohio Antiwar Speech by Eugene Debs
Comrades, friends and fellow-workers, thank you for this very cordial greeting, this very hearty reception. Three of our most loyal comrades are paying the penalty for their devotion to the cause of the working class. They have come to realize, as many of us have, that it is extremely dangerous to exercise the constitutional right of free speech in a country fighting to make democracy safe in the world.
Every one of these Wall Street conspirators and would-be murderers claims to be an arch-patriot; every one of them insists that the war is being waged to make the world safe for democracy. What humbug! What rot! What false pretense! These autocrats, these tyrants, these red-handed robbers and murderers, the “patriots,” while the men who have the courage to stand face to face with them, speak the truth, and fight for their exploited victims—they are t
I suggest that we stop a moment to think about the term “landlord.” “LANDLORD!” Lord of the Land! The lord of the land is indeed a superpatriot…who owns the earth and tells you that we are fighting this war to make the world safe for democracy—he who profiteers at the expense of the people who have been slain [killed in the war]…It is he, this patriot who is in fact the archenemy of the people; it is he that you need to wipe from power. It is he who is a far greater menace to your liberty and your wellbeing than the Prussian Junkers [Germans] on the other side of the Atlantic ocean.
Yes, in good time we are going to destroy all enslaving and degrading capitalist institutions and re-create them as free and humanizing institutions. The world is daily changing before our eyes. The sun of capitalism is setting; the sun of socialism is rising.
Source: Eugene Debs' Speech in June 1918
Every one of these Wall Street conspirators and would-be murderers claims to be an arch-patriot; every one of them insists that the war is being waged to make the world safe for democracy. What humbug! What rot! What false pretense! These autocrats, these tyrants, these red-handed robbers and murderers, the “patriots,” while the men who have the courage to stand face to face with them, speak the truth, and fight for their exploited victims—they are t
I suggest that we stop a moment to think about the term “landlord.” “LANDLORD!” Lord of the Land! The lord of the land is indeed a superpatriot…who owns the earth and tells you that we are fighting this war to make the world safe for democracy—he who profiteers at the expense of the people who have been slain [killed in the war]…It is he, this patriot who is in fact the archenemy of the people; it is he that you need to wipe from power. It is he who is a far greater menace to your liberty and your wellbeing than the Prussian Junkers [Germans] on the other side of the Atlantic ocean.
Yes, in good time we are going to destroy all enslaving and degrading capitalist institutions and re-create them as free and humanizing institutions. The world is daily changing before our eyes. The sun of capitalism is setting; the sun of socialism is rising.
Source: Eugene Debs' Speech in June 1918
Eugene Debs
Debs was a leading champion of the American worker. A year after becoming president of the American Railway Union in 1893, Debs led a strike against the Great Northern Railway. In 1894, Debs gained greater renown when he went to jail for his role in leading the Chicago Pullman Palace Car Company strike. He was the Socialist party's presidential candidate in 1900,1908, 1912 and 1920. The 1918 Canton Speech reprinted below led to Debs' conviction for violating the Espionage Act. He spent the war in an Atlanta penitentiary where he won almost a million votes as the Socialist presidential candidate in 1920. http://www.biography.com/people/eugene-v-debs-9269253 |
Primary Source Document 2 - Schenk Pamphlet by Charles Schenk
The Socialist Party says that any officers of the law entrusted with the administration of conscription regulations violate the provisions of the United States Constitution when they refuse to recognize your right to assert your opposition to the draft.
No power was delegated to send our citizens away to foreign shores to shoot up the people of other lands, no matter what may be their internal or international disputes. To draw this country into the horrors of the present war in Europe, to force the youth of our land into the shambles and bloody trenches of war crazy nations, would be a crime the magnitude of which defies description. Words could not express the condemnation such cold-blooded ruthlessness
deserves.
No specious or plausible pleas about a "war for democracy" can cloud the issue. Democracy can not be shot into a nation. It must come spontaneously and purely from within.
To advocate the persecution of other peoples through the fighting of a war is an insult to every good and wholesome American tradition.You are responsible. You must do your share to maintain, support, and uphold the rights of the people of this country. In this world crisis where do you stand? Are you with the forces of liberty
and light or war and darkness?
Source: Charles Schenk Pamphlet
Schenk v. U.S. (1919)
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote the decision for the unanimous Supreme Court which upheld Schenck's conviction, saying that his First Amendment rights were not violated. Freedom of speech depended on the circumstances. Justice Holmes admitted that "in many places and in ordinary times" Schenck would have had a right to say everything that he said in his pamphlets. "The most stringent protection of free speech," he said, "would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic...When a nation is at war," he said, "many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight and that no Court could regard them as protected by any constitutional right." During war, he argued, the government has the power to prevent obstructions to recruitment. Therefore, it also has the power to punish someone who uses words that are proven to cause such obstructions. "The question in every case," said Holmes, "is whether the words are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent."
source: http://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/initiatives_awards/students_in_action/schenck.html
Charles Schneck
He was against the war. He mailed thousands of pamphlets to men who had been drafted into the armed forces. These pamphlets said that the government had no right to send American citizens to other countries to kill people. Soon after the war, the Supreme Court sustained Schenk's conviction under the Espionage and Sedition Acts. |
Secondary Sources:
More Dissent
ACLU
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a New York City based non-profit organization which aims to protect people in the United States from civil rights violations. The organization is involved in over 6,000 cases each year, often defending controversial or unpopular views. The ACLU believes that protecting Constitutional rights is paramount, it maintains a permanent staff of 300 in all 50 states. The ACLU originated in 1915 when the American Union Against Militarism was founded. In 1917, the organization started the American Civil Liberties Bureau to protect conscientious objectors to the First World War. Roger Nash Baldwin led the organization, which split from its parent due to concerns about potentially illegal activities. Baldwin was hounded by the government, which used the Espionage Act to attempt to restrict his free speech rights. In 1920, the Bureau was formally reorganized into the ACLU. |
source: http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/unitarians/
baldwin.html Roger Nash Baldwin Baldwin was a seminal figure in the development of the human rights movement during the twentieth century. He promoted civil rights in America as well as international human rights. He was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union, serving as its executive director until 1950. He also founded the International League for the Rights of Man, now known as the International League for Human Rights. A Massachusetts liberal, Baldwin considered W.E.B. DuBois and Louis Brandeis friends. In St. Louis, Baldwin worked in neighborhood settlements, founded and taught in the sociology department at Washington University, and co-authoring with Bernard Flexner Juvenile Courts and Probation, long a standard in sociology and helped establish Baldwin’s reputation nationally. He formed a friendship with anarchist Emma Goldman and took part in radical political and social movements. A pre-Stalin Soviet sympathizer, Baldwin later refused to seat Communists as board members of the ACLU during the Cold War. During the Russian Revolution, Baldwin was demonized for saying: "I am for socialism, disarmament and ultimately for abolishing the state itself as an instrument of violence and compulsion. I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class and sole control by those who produce wealth. Communism is, of course, the goal." source: http://www.nndb.com/people/829/000178295/ During WWI, Baldwin was among a group of 20,000 conscientious objectors inducted in the army under the Selective Service Act. The government hoped these men would renounce their objections and offer loyal service to the war effort. Baldwin led a group of "absolutists" who refused to do anything, even answer roll call. In late 1918, Baldwin was found guilty of violating the Selective Service Act and served one year in prison. sources: Kennedy, David M., Over Here: The First World War and American Society (Oxford University Press, 1980) 163-164. http://debs.indstate.edu/i39i5_1918.pdf |
Primary Sources
World War I Songs Sung by American Doughboys:
Read the lyrics and/or access the songs below, then analyze the sentiment of sorrow in the lyrics. Can they be considered patriotic or sources to inspire dissent?
Keep the Home Fires Burning
Music by Ivor Novello and words by Lena Ford. They were summoned from the hillside They were called in from the glen, And the country found them ready At the stirring call for men. Let no tears add to their hardships As the soldiers pass along, And although your heart is breaking Make it sing this cheery song: Keep the Home Fires Burning, While your hearts are yearning, Though your lads are far away They dream of home. There's a silver lining Through the dark clouds shining, Turn the dark cloud inside out 'Til the boys come home. Overseas there came a pleading, "Help a nation in distress." And we gave our glorious laddies Honour bade us do no less, For no gallant son of freedom To a tyrant's yoke should bend, And a noble heart must answer To the sacred call of "Friend." Keep the Home Fires Burning, While your hearts are yearning, Though your lads are far away They dream of home. There's a silver lining Through the dark clouds shining, Turn the dark cloud inside out 'Til the boys come home. http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/keepthehomefiresburning.htm |
Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Written by written by Harry Carlton and Joe Tunbridge. Performed by Jack Charman in 1915 Mademoiselle from Armentieres, Parley-voo? Mademoiselle from Armentieres, Parley-voo? Mademoiselle from Armentieres, She hasn't been kissed in forty years, Hinky, dinky, parley-voo. Mademoiselle from Armentieres, Parley-voo? Mademoiselle from Armentieres, Parley-voo? She had the form like the back of a hack, When she cried the tears ran down her back, Hinky, dinky, parley-voo. Mademoiselle from Armentieres, Parley-voo? Mademoiselle from Armentieres, Parley-voo? She never could hold the love of man 'Cause she took her baths in a talcum can, Hinky, dinky, parley-voo. Mademoiselle from Armentieres, Parley-voo? Mademoiselle from Armentieres, Parley-voo? She had four chins, her knees would knock, And her face would stop a cuckoo clock, Hinky, dinky, parley-voo. Mademoiselle from Armentieres, Parley-voo? Mademoiselle from Armentieres, Parley-voo? She could beg a franc, a drink, a meal, But it wasn't because of sex appeal, Hinky, dinky, parley-voo. Mademoiselle from Armentieres, Parley-voo? Mademoiselle from Armentieres, Parley-voo? She could guzzle a barrel of sour wine, And eat a hog without peeling the rind, Hinky, dinky, parley-voo. The MPS think they won the war, Parley-voo. The MPS think they won the war, Parley-voo. The MPS think they won the war, Standing guard at the café door, Hinky, dinky, parley-voo. The officers get the pie and cake, Parley-voo. The officers get the pie and cake, Parley-voo. The officers get the pie and cake, And all we get is the bellyache, Hinky, dinky, parley-voo. The sergeant ought to take a bath, Parley-voo. The sergeant ought to take a bath, Parley-voo. If he changes his underwear The frogs will give him the Croix-de-Guerre, Hinky-dinky, parley-voo. You might forget the gas and shells, Parley-voo. You might forget the gas and shells, Parley-voo. You might forget the groans and yells But you'll never forget the mademoiselles, Hinky, dinky, parley-voo. Mademoiselle from Armentieres, Parley-voo? Mademoiselle from Armentieres, Parley-voo? Just blow your nose, and dry your tears, We'll all be back in a few short years, Hinky, dinky, parley-voo. http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/mademoisellefromarmentieres.htm |