WWI Sedition in Oregon

Article

Resistance, Dissent, and Punishment in WWI Oregon
One hundred years ago on April 6, 1917 the United States joined World War I. In commemoration of the centennial of this event, the Summer 2017 issue of the Oregon Historical Quarterly will feature the perspectives of several scholars on the meaning and impact of that war. In my article I focus on how Oregon implemented the federal Espionage and Sedition Acts. Who was arrested, who was prosecuted, and what the outcome of the prosecutions? A link to the article will be posted here following publication. Several elements of my research are presented here.

Sedition arrests data

For the first time, the nearly 100 Oregonians who were arrested for sedition are identified along with the outcomes of their arrests. My primary source was the state's largest newspaper, the Oregonian. Its editors vowed to report every disloyal incident wherever it happened in the state. The Oregonian is probably the only source for reports of virtually all the arrests in the state. Take a closer look at the data - names, residences, occupations, alleged offenses, and outcomes for 99 Oregonians - by viewing the spreadsheet on Dropbox.

Oregonians arrested and imprisoned

The following mugshots and descriptions present a few of the Oregonians convicted of sedition.

Floyd Ramp

Floyd Ramp, resident of Roseburg, Oregon, was a Socialist who was convicted of espionage on February 1, 1918 and sentenced to two years at McNeill Island Federal Penitentiary. (Photo from National Archives and Record Administration, Seattle Branch)

Julius Rhuberg

Born in Germany, Julius Rhuberg was a wealthy farmer arrested in Kent, OR as an "enemy alien" who advised young enlistees to surrender if they encountered German troops. (Photo from National Archives and Record Administration, Seattle Branch)

Peter Green

An officer of the IWW union, Peter R. Green was arrested in Oregon and tried in Chicago in a mass IWW prosecution. He was convicted although the government admitted it had not provided evidence of any violation of the law. (Photo from U.S. Department of Justice)

Marie Equi

The only Oregon woman arrested, convicted, and imprisoned for sedition, Marie Equi was a physician and agitator aligned with the IWW. She tended to the working class, provided abortions, and believed the war served wealthy imperialists. (Photo Courtesy of California State Archives)

From Oregon State University Press: MARIE EQUI

Marie Equi is one of the few individuals convicted of sedition to receive a full biographical account of her life. Marie Equi: Radical Politics and Outlaw Passions, published by Oregon State University Press in 2015 is available at bookstores and online, and now available as eBook/Kindle and ePUB formats.

Video

‘Disloyal Utterances’: Oregon Prosecutes Sedition, 1917 – 1919, by Michael Helquist
On April 19, 2017 I joined historian and author Dr. Michael Kazin to talk about Dissent and World War I in the United States and Oregon at the Oregon Historical Society in Portland. Click below to view the video on YouTube. The video begins with Dr. Kazin's discussing findings from his new book War Against War"; my talk begins at the 35 minute mark.

Figure 1: Sedition Arrests in Oregon

Figure 2: Sedition Incidents Reported in 18 Oregon Counties

Figure 3: Sedition Incidents Reported in 24 Oregon Communities

Conclusions: What Does Oregon's Experience Reveal?

The Western states mounted the most vigorous enforcement of the Espionage and Sedition Acts in the nation during the WWI period. These were the states that most wanted to suppress dissent overall and squash the radical Industrial Workers of the World in particular. Badly needed wartime industries, especially lumber, were located in the West, and business and civic leaders feared radicals' ability to disrupt production and discourage federal investment.

Oregon attempted to stifle dissent to the extent that federal and state resources permitted. It was not the most aggressive in the West: Montana convicted 79 dissenters compared to Oregon's 28. But the Beaver State helped create a climate of wartime fervor and hyper-patriotism that led to an emerging surveillance state. After the war ended, Oregon adopted a state-wide sedition law that was even more harsh and restrictive than the federal Sedition Act.

For all the lives disrupted and perhaps destroyed by the sedition arrests and investigations in Oregon, organized opposition was limited. The IWW and the Socialist Party mounted protests and courtroom defenses, and a few cases triggered an outpouring of sentiment. Marie Equi, a physician and agitator, had her sentence reduced from three years to one. For the most part, the public seemed too exhausted from the war and the accompanying global influenza epidemic to re-affirm and demand the right of dissent.

Bibliography

The Montana Sedition Project, University of Montana School of Journalism, Director, Professor Clemens P. Work.
Clemens P. Work, Darkest Before Dawn: Sedition and Free Speech in the American West (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005)
Christopher Capozzola, Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen (Oxford University Press: New York, 2010)
Michael Kazin, War Against War: The American Fight for Peace 1914-1918 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017)
Stephen M. Kohn, American Political Prisoners, Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994)
Kathleen Kennedy, Disloyal Mothers and Scurrilous Citzens: Women and Subversion During World War I, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999)
Adam J. Hodges, World War I and Urban Order: The Local Class Politics of National Mobilization (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2017)
Michael J. Helquist, Marie Equi: Radical Politics and Outlaw Passions (Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press, 2015)