This Day in World War 1 History: JUNE 15, 1917 : U.S. CONGRESS PASSES ESPIONAGE ACT

On this day in 1917, some two months after America’s formal entrance into World War I against Germany, the United States Congress passes the Espionage Act.

Enforced largely by A. Mitchell Palmer, the United States attorney general under President Woodrow Wilson, the Espionage Act essentially made it a crime for any person to convey information intended to interfere with the U.S. armed forces prosecution of the war effort or to promote the success of the country’s enemies. Anyone found guilty of such acts would be subject to a fine of $10,000 and a prison sentence of 20 years.

The Espionage Act was reinforced by the Sedition Act of the following year, which imposed similarly harsh penalties on anyone found guilty of making false statements that interfered with the prosecution of the war; insulting or abusing the U.S. government, the flag, the Constitution or the military; agitating against the production of necessary war materials; or advocating, teaching or defending any of these acts. Both pieces of legislation were aimed at socialists, pacifists and other anti-war activists during World War I and were used to punishing effect in the years immediately following the war, during a period characterized by the fear of communist influence and communist infiltration into American society that became known as the first Red Scare (a second would occur later, during the 1940s and 1950s, associated largely with Senator Joseph McCarthy). Palmer–a former pacifist whose views on civil rights radically changed once he assumed the attorney general’s office during the Red Scare–and his right-hand man, J. Edgar Hoover, liberally employed the Espionage and Sedition Acts to persecute left-wing political figures.

One of the most famous activists arrested during this period, labor leader Eugene V. Debs, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a speech he made in 1918 in Canton, Ohio, criticizing the Espionage Act. Debs appealed the decision, and the case eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where the court upheld his conviction. Though Debs’ sentence was commuted in 1921 when the Sedition Act was repealed by Congress, major portions of the Espionage Act remain part of United States law to the present day.

Article Details:

June 15, 1917 : U.S. Congress passes Espionage Act

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  June 15, 1917 : U.S. Congress passes Espionage Act

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/u-s-congress-passes-espionage-act

• Access Date

  June 15, 2015

• Publisher

  A+E Networks

This Day in World War 1 History: JUNE 10, 1917 : ITALIANS RENEW BATTLE ON MOUNTAIN-TOPS IN TRENTINO

On June 10, 1917, Italian troops launch a renewed assault on Austro-Hungarian positions in the mountains of the Trentino region in northern Italy, on the border with Austria.

The formidable nature of the northern Italian terrain—four-fifths of the 600-kilometer-long border with Austria was lined with mountains, with several peaks rising above 3,000 meters—made the Italian, of all the fronts during World War I, the least well-suited for battle. Nevertheless, upon their entrance into the war in May 1915 on the side of the Allies, the Italians immediately took the offensive against Austria in the Trentino, with little success. By the end of 1915, after four battles fought on the Isonzo River, in the eastern section of the Italian front, Italy had made no substantial progress and had suffered 235,000 casualties, including 54,000 killed.

The Tenth Battle of the Isonzo—by the end of the war there would be 12—in May 1917 had met with a similar lack of success for the Italians. A major Austro-Hungarian counter-offensive launched on June 3 reclaimed virtually all of the ground Italy had gained; Italian Commander-in-Chief Luigi Cadorna shut down the attacks on June 8.

Two days later, the increasingly frustrated Italians renewed the battle, attacking six mountain peaks in the Trentino. Italian deserters had revealed details of the assault to the Austrians, however, and they were able to counterattack successfully and hold their positions. 

The Italians did manage to capture one mountain peak, however—the nearly 7,000-foot-high Mount Ortigaro—and take some 1,000 Austrian prisoners. Two weeks later, the Austrians seized control of Ortigaro again, taking 2,000 Italian prisoners. By the end of June, after three weeks of heated battle on the mountain peaks and passes, the lines of territory had barely changed, at the cost of 23,000 Italian and nearly 9,500 Austrian casualties.

Article Details:

June 10, 1917 : Italians renew battle on mountain-tops in Trentino

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  June 10, 1917 : Italians renew battle on mountain-tops in Trentino

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/italians-renew-battle-on-mountain-tops-in-trentino

• Access Date

  June 10, 2015

• Publisher

  A+E Networks

This Day in World War 1 History: JUNE 03, 1916 : U.S. PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON SIGNS NATIONAL DEFENSE ACT

On June 3, 1916, United States President Woodrow Wilson signs into law the National Defense Act, which expanded the size and scope of the National Guard—the network of states’ militias that had been developing steadily since colonial times—and guaranteed its status as the nation’s permanent reserve force.

Though Theodore Roosevelt and other Republicans were pushing for U.S. intervention in World War I, Wilson, elected in 1912, maintained a position of neutrality throughout the first several years of the war. In the first half of 1916, however, with forces from the regular U.S. Army as well as the National Guard called out to face Mexican rebel leader Pancho Villa during his raids on states in the American Southwest, Wilson and Congress saw the need to reinforce the nation’s armed forces and increase U.S. military preparedness. The National Defense Act, ratified by Congress in May 1916 and signed by Wilson on June 3, brought the states’ militias more under federal control and gave the president authority, in case of war or national emergency, to mobilize the National Guard for the duration of the emergency.

The National Defense Act mandated that the term National Guard be used to refer to the combined network of states’ militias that became the primary reserve force for the U.S. Army. The term had first been adopted by New York’s militia in the years before the Civil War in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, a French hero of the American Revolution who commanded the Garde Nationale during the early days of the French Revolution in 1789. The National Defense Act also set qualifications for National Guard officers, allowing them to attend Army schools; all National Guard units would now be organized according to the standards of regular Army units. For the first time, National Guardsmen would receive payment from the federal government not only for their annual training—which was increased from 5 to 15 days—but also for their drills, which were also increased, from 24 per year to 48. Finally, the National Defense Act formally established the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) to train and prepare high school and college students for Army service.

Also in June 1916, Wilson secured passage of the Naval Appropriations Act, which set out to create a U.S. Navy equal to the most powerful in the world—Britain’s—by 1925. That November, Wilson was re-elected with the campaign slogan He kept us out of the war. His success was due less to his neutrality, however, than to his record on domestic policy, as U.S. public opinion—as well as the president’s own—had begun to move closer in line with those who favored intervention. By the following spring, Wilson had moved his country to the brink of war after continued German attacks on American interests at sea. On April 2, 1917, he would go before Congress to ask for a declaration of war. Four days later, the U.S. formally entered World War I.

Article Details:

June 03, 1916 : U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signs National Defense Act

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  June 03, 1916 : U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signs National Defense Act

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/u-s-president-woodrow-wilson-signs-national-defense-act

• Access Date

  June 03, 2015

• Publisher

  A+E Networks