USA HISTORY

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM(1890 1919)

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM

[SOURCES]
Who was given a ten year sentence for making antiwar speeches that violated the Espionage and Sedition Acts?

(A) Jeanette Rankin

(B) ** Eugene V. Debs

(C) Woodrow Wilson

(D) Herbert Hoover

EXPLANATIONS BELOW

Concept note-1: -As a leader of the ARU, Debs was convicted of federal charges for defying a court injunction against the strike and served six months in prison. In prison, Debs read various works of socialist theory and emerged six months later as a committed adherent of the international socialist movement.

Concept note-2: -Eugene Debs made his famous anti-war speech protesting World War I which was raging in Europe. The working class have never yet had a voice in declaring war. If war is right, let it be declared by the people – you, who have your lives to lose.

Concept note-3: -Source: Socialist leader Eugene Debs delivered this speech in June 1918. Charles Schenck was a Socialist who in 1917-1918 printed and distributed more than 15, 000 anti-war pamphlets, including some to drafted American men. The excerpt below comes from one of his pamphlets.

Concept note-4: -Finding Against Debs Even though it might seem like Debs’ actions were protected by the First Amendment, the Supreme Court found a ‘clear and present danger’ exception to the Amendment and that Deb’s antiwar speech fell within this exception.