Examples Of Dissenters During Ww1

During the World War I, the U.S government added social pressure to citizens by using patriotic persuasion and legal intimidation. The government used techniques on people so the nation would have more efficient war efforts. Hysteria of War inflamed terror between the Americans. There were people calling for neutrality and people supporting the war. Aggressive campaign was also used for limiting anti-war dissenters. There was also a Sedition Act, which basically tried to quite down the dissenters. As the nation moved farther away from isolationism, it also moved farther away from democracy by using propaganda and social pressures against isolationists, anti-war dissenters, and immigrants. The Sedition Act of 1918 affected lots of

Whoever shows a disloyal behavior to the country will be put in prison for twenty years or punished by 10,000 fine, or both. The War hysteria provided the nativists the chances to judge the "disloyal" dissenters. The nativists used social pressures, propagandas, and the laws to prejudice the people who against the war or against the draft. These pressures and the Sedition Act of 1918 forced a lot of dissenters to cease. Journalist George Creel's propagandas persuaded Americans to do their best for the war and watch for Germany spies. The mass of war propagandas, which created by Creel, contained pamphlets, speeches, films and posters. Americans were called as traitors or spies when they disagree about the propagandas. If a woman didn't want her son to become a solider and opposed the draft, she would be recognized as traitor. If a men didn't want to leave his house for war, he might be considered as traitors. If a teacher refused to teach his students to support the war, he might be fired because of treason. Reaction toward the propagandas and the aggressive campaigns was serious, not all the dissenters ceased their "fire". Eugene Debs, a socialist leader, was put to prison for ten years by criticizing the war.

Six senators and fifty House representatives were getting abuses and invectives by opposing the declaration of war. The malicious falsehood and recklessly libelous attacks eventually led to the name of treason. Anti-communist hysteria lead to the first Red Scare. Attroney General A. Mitchell Palmer arrested vast amount of socialist, labor unions, and anarchists. 6000 people were arrested without strong and accurate evidences. However, Palmer was losing his credibility by keep warnings of riots, which never took place. Also regarding to the concern of civil liberties, the hysteria finally ended. Posters "Spies Are Listening" and
"Destroy this Mad Brute" increased more terrors between the immigrants and the non-immigrants. Sometimes Immigrants would be accused as spies without evidences and forced into prison without trials. German
Americans, who lived in America for centuries, were easy to get persecution during the World War 1. As American government wanted to spread their democracy to the rest of the world, they themselves were doing the controversy. Arresting innocent immigrants, imprisoning innocent anti-war dissenters,