Espionage Act of 1917

[Savannahmann]

Many people assume that the Espionage Act is merely designed to fill a blank between stealing national secrets, spying, and treason. But very few people have any idea where the act originally came from, and why. I've been considering this topic for days, and wondering if I could do it justice.

Most people know that the straw that broke the camels back so to speak, was the Zimmerman Telegram that got us into World War One. There were other incidents, but this last one was so egregious that a peace lover and dedicated Neutral like Wilson could be swayed by it for some reason. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimmermann_Telegram

Those other incidents included attempting to ferment civil war in Mexico, hoping to get the United States embroiled in the conflict. Trying to start war between the United States and Japan, the Kaiser was the originator of the phrase Yellow Peril to describe the dangers in the Far East.

But none of these were so affronting to Wilson that he felt that War was the only choice. When his Ambassadors would report that none of the Warring Nations were in the least interested in Negotiating a peace without victory, Wilson would rage that they were not doing their jobs, and would refuse to listen to their reports. Wilson didn't like people who didn't agree with him, and when his Ambassadors reported faithfully the results of negotiations, and discussions, Wilson dismissed the reports that inevitably laid out the Belligerents views, concerns, and goals. Wilson failed to understand that no nation could walk away, because it was literally victory, or death of the Governments of those nations.

So after the sinking of several ships, the deaths of hundreds, even thousands of Americans, the fact that the Americans were shipping over and volunteering to fight with the Entente (British and French forces) why would one telegram so enrage Wilson that he would break off diplomatic relations, and then declare War on Germany and Austria?

Wilson distrusted his own Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, and adored a sycophant Edward M. House. Known as Colonel House, he was handling the negotiations with the British, the Germans, and the French on the side. Colonel House was such a fan of Jaw Jaw, the conversations that were diplomatic mechanisms, that he seemed to forget the strategic goal he was negotiating for. He would handle back channel negotiations with the President, and the Governments of the Belligerent nations.

I know dear reader, that all of this seems silly, when my subject is Espionage, but have faith, I'm about to sew it up into a nice neat quilt for you to see the entire picture.

Britain had cut German communication paths. Germany had transmitters that could send encrypted messages out of Berlin, but the German Ambassador had no way of responding. Wilson trusted the German Ambassador Bernstorff to represent his views to the German Kaiser. So Wilson violated the international law regarding the duties of Neutrals. Neutrals could carry messages for a Belligerent but only if it concerned humanitarian, or diplomatic information instead of war plans. Neutrals must transmit the messages in their own code, not the code of the belligerent. Wilson at the request of Colonel House ordered the Secretary of State, Robert Lansing to transmit the messages to and from Berlin over the State Department Cable.

This was one of three means of getting messages between Berlin and Washington, and was the fastest.

Zimmerman when it was decided to go to war with the United States if that was a result from the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, sent the famed Telegram via the three methods mentioned above. He sent it via the Swedish Legation, a South American channel, and through the State Department's own cable. The Secretary of State Robert Lansing objected to a message of this length, and insisted it be decrypted in the presence of the State Department to make sure that it was not a violation of the duty of Neutral Nations. Wilson himself ordered Lansing to give the message in it's original German code, to the Germans, after Colonel House reported this most recent message was again held up by Secretary of State Lansing.

Later, a copy of the message, in the original code was procured to check the decryption against the British claims. It was obviously an uncomfortable moment when Secretary Lansing reminded President Wilson that the message in question was in the State Department files because it had been transmitted over the Official US Government Cable.

Wilson was furious. He had been played as a fool, and if it got out that he had unwittingly assisted a foreign Government in conspiring to attack the United States, it would harm any hopes he had of a peace treaty among equals. He would likely be Impeached. So the story never got out while he was alive, and by the time it did get out, it was long after most of the players were dead.

So my belief is that the Espionage Act was to keep anyone from learning that Wilson betrayed his own nation while seeking to coerce the European Nations then warring to the table and then to accept his peace without victory plan.

Is this a law we want now? Is this a thing we need to seriously demand be enforced to the letter? A law that was written and signed to save the President embarrassment?

Would you have wanted to know this information at the time had you been alive? Should Robert Lansing have informed the Press that Wilson was abusing the duty under international law of Neutrals in his desire to educate the world in how to live in peace?

But now that you do know the story, how the Espionage Act was passed after we declared war, and how Wilson was changed from a peace loving man determined to keep the United States out of the war, to a man determined to win the war. From what I can see, we are still using the act the way it was conceived, and deployed originally. We use it to keep from embarrassing ourselves by making sure that the truth never comes out.

I know this was very long, and I apologize. There were a lot of people to mention, people vital to the story, and just saying the Espionage Act of 1917 didn't say nearly enough. For those who managed to read it all, thank you. For those who skipped, there was a lot of information there, and in essence I condensed about four good sized books far more than I feel comfortable doing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espionage_Act_of_1917

[DreamGypsy]

1. Very interesting. Thanks for the post.

I'll do a bit more reading later.

[KoKo]

2. Recommend.

[hobbit709]

3. It also used to squash dissent among other things.

Much of the Act's enforcement was left to the discretion of local United States Attorneys, so enforcement varied widely. For example, Socialist Kate Richards O'Hare gave the same speech in several states, but was convicted and sentenced to a prison term of five years for delivering her speech in North Dakota. Most enforcement activity occurred in the Western states where the Industrial Workers of the World was active.[25] Finally Gregory, a few weeks before the end of the war, instructed the U.S. Attorneys not to act without his approval.

A year after the Act's passage, Eugene V. Debs, Socialist Party presidential candidate in 1904, 1908, and 1912 was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison for making a speech that "obstructed recruiting". He ran for president again in 1920 from prison. President Warren G. Harding commuted his sentence in December 1921 when he had served nearly five years.[26]

In United States v. Motion Picture Film (1917), a federal court upheld the government's seizure of a film called The Spirit of '76 on the grounds that its depiction of cruelty on the part of British soldiers during the American Revolution would undermine support for America's wartime ally. The producer, Robert Goldstein, a Jew of German origins, was prosecuted under Title XI of the Act, and received a ten-year sentence plus a fine of $5000. The sentence was commuted on appeal to three years.[27]

[Savannahmann]

5. I can not imagine how long the post would have been if I had included use/abuse of the act.

The fact that it was created to keep a secret of the President's error was more than long enough to lose about half the readers.

[Hydra]

4. Great little background

On how an innocuous sounding law can be a simply tool of CYA.

Funny to be seeing it used as intended by a (D) President to cover for the original acts of a (R) President and their continuation.

[Savannahmann]

6. It was intended to cover the Government's ass

Both Democrats and Republicans have used it to do just that.

[hack89]

7. Wilson first asked for the legislation in 1915.

two years before the Zimmerman affair.

Wilson wanted the act to repress anti-war activities. Those provisions were later found unconstitutional and are not part of today's Espionage Act.