Signed by President Wilson on May 16, the amended espionage laws opens a new chapter in the work of the American Protective League. For the first time we have an inclusive law under which to operate—a law broad enough in its scope and classifications to cover and define as serious crimes a multitude of offenses which were classed as minor by our peace-time code but actually offered serious hindrances to this country’s military operations and preparations.
For the first time, too, heavy penalties have been provided for acts and speeches which before could hardly be punished at all under the law. Maximum sentences of twenty years imprisonment and $10,000 fine are not to be taken lightly either by disloyal and pacifist citizens or by unfriendly or enemy aliens who have made it their business, since war was declared, to invent and circulate discreditable stories about almost every phase of America’s war activities.
Disloyalty Now a Crime
No distinction is made between the disloyal talk or act of a citizen and the hostile speech or deed of an alien, enemy or otherwise. The act or speech is the offense and whoever commits it must pay the penalty—though the law allows a good deal of latitude to the court in determining the latter.
All this means a tremendous simplification of every member’s labors. So far-reaching and important are the provisions of the amended law—so clearly does it indicate the chief kinds of spying and of propaganda which the League must combat, that the whole catalogue of crimes may well be set down here for study and ready reference in months to come. Omitting the preliminary enacting clauses and breaking up the main section into handy paragraphs, the amended law now reads as follows:
OFFENSES:
I—False and Interfering Reports
Section 3. Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces of the United States, or to promote the success of its enemies,—
II—Obstructing Bond Sales, etc.
—whoever shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements, or say or do anything except by way of bona fide and not disloyal advice to an investor or investors, with intent to obstruct the sale by the United States of bonds or other securities of the United States or the making of loans by or to the United States,—
III—Inciting or Causing Mutiny
—whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully cause or attempt to cause or incite or attempt to incite, insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States,—
IV—Obstructing Enlistments
—whoever shall willfully obstruct or attempt to obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States,—
V—Attacks on Government, Flag, etc.
—whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States, or the flag of the United States, or the uniform of the Army or Navy of the United States, or any language intended to bring the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States, or the flag of the United States, or the uniform of the Army or Navy of the United States into contempt, scorn, contumely, or disrepute,—
VI—Encouraging Resistance
—whoever shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any language intended to incite, provoke, or encourage resistance to the United States, or to promote the cause of its enemies, or shall willfully display the flag of any enemy,—
VII—Curtailing Production
—whoever shall willfully by utterance, writing, printing, publication, or language spoken, urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of production in this country of anything or things, product or products, necessary or essential to the prosecution of the war in which the United States may be engaged, with intent by such curtailment to cripple or hinder the United States in the prosecution of the war,—
VIII—Defending or Teaching Disloyalty
—whoever shall willfully advocate, teach, defend, or suggest the doing of any of the acts or things in this section enumerated,—
IX—Supporting the Enemy
—and whoever shall by word or act support or favor the cause of any country with which the United States is at war, or by word or act oppose the cause of the United States therein,—
THE PENALTY:
—shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both.
An additional section of the amended law provides for the instant dismissal of any official or employee of the United States who commits a disloyal act or utters disloyal or unpatriotic language. This is as follows:
Any employee or official of the United States Government who commits any disloyal act or utters any unpatriotic or disloyal language, or who, in an abusive and violent manner criticizes the Army or Navy or the flag of the United States shall be at once dismissed from the service. Any such employee shall be dismissed by the head of the department in which the employee may be engaged, and any such official shall be dismissed by the authority having power to appoint a successor to the dismissed official.
No Mail For Propagandists
Plotting or propaganda by mail is made punishable by immediate withdrawal of postal privileges from any individual or firm, against whom satisfactory evidence is brought that he is violating any provision of this new law. Conviction is not necessary: evidence satisfactory to the Postmaster General is enough to close the mails to the offender. Here is the amended section:
Sec. 4. When the United States is at war, the Postmaster General may, upon evidence satisfactory to him that any person or concern is using the mails in violation of any of the provisions of this Act, instruct the postmaster at any post office at which mail is received addressed to such person or concern to return to the postmaster at the office at which they were originally mailed all letters or other matter so addressed, with the words “Mail to this address undeliverable under Espionage Act” plainly written or stamped upon the outside thereof and all such letters or other matter so returned to such postmasters shall be by them returned to the senders thereof under such regulations as the Postmaster General may prescribe.
An All-Embracing Clause
Read over the ninth clause of section 3 again: “whoever shall by word or act support or favor the cause of any country with which the United States is at war, or by word or act oppose the cause of the United States therein—.” That clause alone serves to make enemy propaganda or native-born sedition a hazardous undertaking in any community where League members are awake and on the job.
Gone is the necessity of arguing and pleading with the pro-German, the pacifist and the native-born disloyalist to speak with straight tongues. Loyal citizens retain the right to free speech and to honest and reasonable criticism of the Government’s actions and policies. But indiscriminate abuse and lying reports of what is happening here at home or overseas are going to stop. The amended law is a powerful weapon put into our hands for that very purpose.
Notice also that the word “willfully” is omitted in Clause Nine. To convict a man of disloyalty or sedition, you will not have to prove his disloyal or hostile intention. Like murder or burglary, espionage and sedition are become positive crimes. No one who commits them can plead innocent intent.