Warm up

• What were three changes the United States made to prepare for WWI?

Transforming the Economy for War• WWI leads to Big

Government– New programs and agencies to

help run the war

• Liberty Bonds– People encouraged to buy

“bonds” to fund the war

• National War Labor Board– Prevents strikes in wartime

• U.S. Food Administration– “Food will win the war”– Meatless Mondays and

Wheatless Wednesdays to conserve

Good Morning!!

1. NVC

2. The Sedition Act and Charles Schenck

Essential Question: Were critics of WWI patriotic or un-American? Homework: TEST ON FRIDAY!

New Opportunities

• Draft sends America’s young men overseas to fight– Leads to new job

opportunities for women and blacks

– Great Migration: mass movement of blacks from South to work in factories in the North

Speaking Out Against the War

• Socialists and Wobblies (Unions) against the war– See it as war for the rich for

more wealth and power

• Government cracks down on dissent– Espionage Act (1917):

crime to spy or “obstruct the war effort”

– Sedition Act (1918): crime to say anything “disloyal or abusive”

• Were critics of WWI patriotic or un-American?

• When done with Doc A/B: If you were a supreme court judge and had to rule on this case, what would you decide? Can and should Schenck go to jail for this?

Schenck v. United States“The character of every action depends upon the circumstances in which it is done. The most stringent (toughest, strongest) protection of free speech still would not allow a man to falsely shout “Fire!” in a theatre and cause a panic.

The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and in such a way that they create a clear and present danger and will bring about substantive (actual, real) evils that Congress has a right to prevent.

When a nation is at war many things that might be said in time of peace become such a hindrance (obstacle) to the war effort that their utterance (speaking them) should not be allowed as long as American men fight, and because of this no Court should regard these things as protected by any constitutional right.

End of Freedom of Speech

• Schenck vs. United States– Supreme court decision

confirms government power to take away freedom of speech

Today: The Patriot Act

• “If the events of September 11, 2001, have proven anything, it's that the terrorists can attack us, but they can't take away what makes us American -- our freedom, our liberty, our civil rights. No, only Attorney General John Ashcroft can do that.” --Jon Stewart