Page 127 - Dragon Flood

majority of Americans have come to equate Socialism with Communism, Debs was not a
communist supporter, and was very critical of the actions of the Communist Party in Russia
th
which utilized violent and destructive methods to secure their aims. On June 12 , 1918,
Debs gave a speech in Canton, Ohio, after which he was arrested and charged with violating
the Espionage Act. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. Following is the speech he gave.
Debs clearly understood that there was an American aristocracy of the moneyed classes who
exploited the poor by fomenting wars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuGp-0G1p4M

One website provides the following information on the suppression of free speech in
America by the government through use of the Espionage Act.

A teenage girl was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment for criticizing the war. A
Californian was sentenced to jail for laughing at rookies drilling on San Francisco's
Presidio. A New Yorker received ninety days for spitting on the sidewalk near some
Italian officers. Numerous ministers and college professors were dismissed because of
their opposition to American entrance into the war. Frederick C. Howe, Commissioner of
Immigration at the Port of New York, related how thousands of Germans, Austrians, and
Hungarians were taken without trial from their homes and brought to Ellis Island. When
he tried to secure decent treatment for the aliens, he was branded as pro-German...

Besides the congressional actions which curbed civil rights, A. R. Burleson, the Postmaster
General, instituted a censorship which denied mailing privileges to "subversive"
publications. A magazine The Masses was denied mailing privileges on the grounds that
it contained treasonable passages. But when the publisher offered to delete the passages,
Burleson refused to identify them. Judge Learned Hand of the federal court overruled
Burleson whereupon the Postmaster General banned the magazine on the grounds that
because it had missed an issue during the dispute, it was no longer eligible for second class
mailing privileges.
[Source: http://home.comcast.net/~mruland/APUS/UnitNotes/unit10/CivilLiberties.htm]

In these actions we see evidence of the unseen hand that guides the government. The
citizens of the nation are ruled by an elite that seeks to remain hidden, and to use the
powers of the government to accomplish their desires. By controlling the media, and
limiting speech, they found a means to move the masses in the direction they desired.

Shaping the minds of the American populace rose to new and staggering heights during
World War I. In 1917 President Wilson created the Committee on Public Information. The
CPI was created to mold the opinions of American citizens who were opposed to entry to
World War I.