The United States of America is currently considered as one of the countries where freedom and diplomacy are massively exercised. The constitution entails various human rights laws implemented to ensure freedom prevails to both citizens and non-citizen. However, this was quite the opposite during the World War I Era. Freedom, especially on speech against the government, was non-existing. Democracy was manipulated by politicians to suit their goals in controlling and running the country. This paper profoundly evaluates the issue of freedom during the First World War era.
President Woodrow Wilson was famously known and reelected in 1916 by the public because of ensuring America was not in war with any country. The President had earlier emphasized peace and even harbored non-citizen such as the Germans. However, in 1915, Woodrow declared war with the Germans, as it formed alliances with countries such as the United Kingdom. This was the transitional point, where freedom in America was hardly in existence. Most of the people were against the war. Therefore fewer individuals volunteered to join the army. Some of the immigrants from German were sympathetic to their motherland, whereas socialists criticized the war claiming it was based on capitalist greed. These events limited volunteering of the public for the war, which angered the President.
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To deal with the socialist, the Espionage Act was passed in June 1917 (Franke & Pallin, 2016). This act had laws which limited the Americans from criticizing, government war, and disloyalty incite and encouragement of people to resist in joining the military. In other words, freedom of speech against the government acts, was denied to the public. After a year, the Sedition Act was passed to reinforce the Espionage Act. The Sedition act was more restrictive whereby, nobody was allowed to use abusive language against the armed forces uniform, the constitution, and the flag
In order to maintain and eradicate objection from the public, harsh penalties were incorporated into the system. Those found to violate the act were given hefty fines and prolonged jail sentence up to twenty years. Some were court-martialed and taken to military prisons where they were mistreated. It was an intense moment in America, especially for immigrants. A network of the spy was deployed to watch the American radicals and the German immigrants. Hundreds of the two groups were arrested, because of anti-war speeches and private remarks. Eugine Debs was among the people arrested for addressing against government speech during his presidential rally in 1918.
The Espionage Act protected the U.S postmaster general by the name Albert S. Burleson in controlling the publishing of newspapers and magazines. Every publishing runs through the office for approval, where lots censoring was done. The Trading-With- the Enemy Act of 1917, added more powers to Burleson in controlling America's foreign-language press. Denial of speech freedom was further witnessed in the sanctioning of the deportation of non-citizens suspected to be in the revolutionary group; where their plea or hearing was out ruled (Newton-Matza, 2017).
In summary, current America can be stated to enjoy more freedom because of the World War I era. World War I era exposed the Americans to the non-freedom environment where the influential individuals dictated the fate of the public. From this exposure, the founding fathers found it necessary to amend and create better laws that would bring peace and reunite the country for positive growth of the nation. Therefore, regardless of the World War I freedom issues being critical and harsh, they played a crucial role in facilitating the current freedom enjoyed by Americans.
References
Franke, U., & Pallin, C. V. (2016). Freedom of the Press. Washington, DC: Freedom House. Retrieved from Available at 〈 http://www. Freedom House. org/report-types/freedom-press.
Newton-Matza, M. (2017). The Espionage and Sedition Acts: World War I and the Image of Civil Liberties. Routledge.
