The 1918 Sedition Act

The United States' entry into World War I triggered a wave of frenzied patriotism across the country. However, as Danny Bird reveals, this hysteria set the nation on a collision course with its most cherished principles

- Danny Bird

WHAT WAS THE 1918 SEDITION ACT?

On 16 May 1918, President Woodrow Wilson of the United States signed a piece of federal legislation into law. In fact, this 'Sedition Act' was an amendment to the Espionage Act passed by the US Congress 11 months earlier. Despite years of efforts to maintain the country's neutrality while World War I consumed Europe, America had finally entered the conflict in April 1917. Within weeks, any outlet that cast the US war effort in a negative light, and anything that undermined the government's sale of 'liberty bonds' - debt securities used to fund the Allied cause was criminalised.

The subsequent Sedition Act expressly persecuted "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" directed against the government, the national flag and mass conscription (the draft) during wartime. Throughout its enforcement, more than 2,000 Americans were arrested, with some fined upwards of $10,000 and others sentenced to 20 years in prison. Wilson's administration, conscious of the public appetite for keeping America out of the war, as well as political opposition from pacifists, anarchists and socialists, fast-tracked the legislation amid a climate of hysteria.

WHY WAS IT PASSED? 

To rally the public behind the war effort, Wilson established the Committee on Public Information (CPI) and appointed a public relations guru, George Creel, to head it up. Finding the word 'propaganda' distasteful, Creel instead regarded his brief as akin to advertising - selling a positive angle on the conflict to Americans. Meanwhile, the government, in collaboration with legislators on Capitol Hill and the era's leading newspaper magnates, mounted a concerted effort to get the Sedition Act passed by Congress.