Darkest Before Dawn: Sedition and Free Speech in the American West

ISBN-13: 9780826337931 / Angielski / Miękka / 2006 / 328 str.

Clemens P. Work

Opis

Two weeks after the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, the town of Lewistown, Montana, held a patriotic parade. Less than a year later, a mob of 500 Lewistown residents burned German textbooks in Main Street while singing "The Star Spangled Banner." In Lewistowns nationalistic fervor, a man was accused of being pro-German because he didnt buy Liberty Bonds; he was subsequently found guilty of sedition. Montanas former congressman Tom Stout was quoted in the towns newspaper, "The Democrat-News, "With our sacred honor and our liberties at stake, there can be but two classes of American citizens, patriots and traitors!

"Darkest Before Dawn" takes to task Montanas 1918 sedition law that shut down freedom of speech. The sedition law carried fines of up to $20,000 and imprisonment for as many as twenty years. It became a model for the federal sedition act passed in 1918. Clemens Work explores the assault on civil rights during times of war when dissent is perceived as unpatriotic. The themes of this cautionary tale clearly resonate in the events of the early twenty-first century.

This is history at its exciting, human best. Clemens Work tells the little-known story of how Americans were punished for what they said during World War I: imprisoned, brutalized, lynched. It is a crucial part of the American struggle for freedom of speech.Anthony Lewis, columnist for the "New York Times" and author of "Gideons Trumpet" and "Make No Law"

Clem Work has written a colorful and engaging account of a rough-and-tumble era when exercising your right of free speech could get you tossed into jail, or worse. Works description of the frenzied and often irrational reaction to dissent duringwartime is truly timeless, disturbingly reminiscent of our own world, post-9/11/01. This book reminds us just how fragile Americans allegiance to the First Amendment can be.Jane E. Kirtley, Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law, University of Minnesota

Work offers a new way of thinking about a broader topicseditionand one in which new insights are provided. That, in my mind, is the essence of scholarship.--Charles N. Davis, executive director of The National Freedom of Information Center at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and associate professor of journalism

""Darkest Before Dawn" makes an important contribution to the literature of the history of free speech in America. No future study of sedition laws could hope to be complete without drawing on this well researched and well written work. Clem Work has made his mark--and what a marvelous mark it is!"--Ronald K. L. Collins, scholar, The First Amendment Center

Book Details Montana's Attack on Dissent in World War I Era (article by Charles S. Johnson, chief of the Lee Newspapers State Bureau in Helena, Montana):

"As U.S. troops fight in Iraq, Montanans heatedly debate whether we should be engaged in that war. This robust discussion is exactly as it should be in a country that has enshrined the right to free speech in its Constitution's Bill of Rights.

"But the ability to comment candidly, in speech and writing, on this country's policies should never be taken for granted. Clemens P. Work's excellent new book, "Darkest before Dawn: Sedition and Free Speech in the American West," describes in absorbing detail one of the darkest eras in Montana history in which dissenting voices were stifled.

"During World War I, some Montanans opposing U.S. involvement in the war and those immigrants expressing pro-German, anti-American sentiments in beer halls found themselves arrested. Seventy-four Montanans all but one of them men-were convicted of sedition. Forty of these men and the one lone woman served sentences of up to 20 years at Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge and faced fines of up to $20,000.

"Montana's frightening Sedition Act, enacted by a special legislative session and becoming law Feb. 22, 1918, became a model for the Federal Sedition Act, which was enacted May 16, 1918. The language defining sedition in the federal law is identical to the Montana law except for three words.

"It is a shameful, frightening yet fascinating story. Yet it's one many Montanans know nothing about. It should be taught in our schools at all levels so we dont repeat the mistakes of our past.

"The book, published this fall, is a well-written, fully documented history of the period. It sets the stage for what happened here, describes the terrifying events and puts the Montana era in a national context. Work, director of graduate studies at the University of Montana School of Journalism, weaves a compelling story about what led to the dissenting voices.

"Western Montana's two major industries then were mining and timber, which faced an insurgent labor movement upset over unsafe working conditions and low wages. The radical labor group, the Industrial Workers of the World, or Wobblies, helped stir the pot. Miners walked off the job at the Anaconda Copper Mining Co.'s Speculator Mine in 1917 after a fire killed 168 workers and exposed dangerous, illegal working conditions.

"The powerful Anaconda Copper MiningCo. dominated Montana economically and politically as few corporations ever have nationally. Its copper was a critical product in the war effort. The Company had the ears, if not the souls, of most of the state's leading politicians. It also either owned, or had in its pocket, most of Montana's major daily newspapers.

"The United States entered the war in 1917. By no means did all Montanans embrace the idea. Many German immigrants saw no reason for the United States to fight against their homeland, nor did all Irish immigrants support this country bailing out Great Britain.

"Dissent was not tolerated in Montana as a wave of super-patriotism spread. Besides passing the Sedition Act, a special legislative session emboldened the Montana Council of Defense, previously a minor group urging people to grow gardens and buy bonds. The Legislature granted the council the extraordinary power to pass virtual statewide laws.

"The council soon banned German books and forbade the use of the German language here, even in the pulpit, driving Mennonites into Canada. The council encouraged neighbor spying on neighbor, with the full encouragement of spineless politicians, with a few exceptions such as U.S. Attorney and later Sen. Burton K. Wheeler and U.S. District Judge George M. Bourquin.

"The Montana press followed the council in lockstep, with a few courageous exceptions such as William F. Dunn, fiery editor of the "Butte Bulletin," a labor paper.

Work said most sedition convictions in Montana were based on "offhand outburst, often in saloons," usually by blue-collar workers, many of them immigrants, often using foul language.

"As part of his research, Work created the Montana SeditionProject (Web site: http: //www.seditionproject.net/), and, with students' help, has tracked down relatives of some of those convicted and seeks to learn more about others. As Work wrote on the Web site, 'Those caught in Montana's sedition net were hardly heroes, but they should not have been scapegoats either.'

"Among those reading Work's book with keen interest is Gov. Brian Schweitzer, whose grandparents were German-Russian farmers who immigrated to Montana nearly a century ago.

"'What made this country great is the melting pot because we accept a lot of different nationalities, ' Schweitzer said. 'They came here because they wanted to be here. Most were like my grandparents. They came here because they had nowhere else to go.'"Asked if he might issue posthumous pardons to some Montanans convicted of sedition nearly 90 years ago, Schweitzer said he hadn't thought of it. Then he said, 'Why not? I will look into pardons. This was a time of some pretty mass hysteria. Why not clear the names of some of the people?'"

For more information go to www.seditionproject.net/