US 425 10.9

HARVARD

O COLLEGE

MAR 1 1921
LIBRARY

Bright ofund
(III)

Copyright, 1921

BY JOHN D. LAWSON
:

TO

SIR EDMUND WALKER,
LL.D., D.C.L., C.V.O., ETC., ETC.

PRESIDENT OF CANADA'S GREAT FINANCIAL IN-
STITUTION; GOVERNING HEAD OF ITS SPLENDID
UNIVERSITY; EMINENT WRITER ON MONEY AND
BANKING; PATRON OF ART AND LETTERS, AND
ONE OF THE BUILDERS OF THE DOMINION, I
DEDICATE THIS VOLUME IN MEMORY OF OUR
BOYHOOD DAYS IN THAT TOWN ON LAKE ON-
TARIO, NOW ONE OF THE MANUFACTURING AND
COMMERCIAL CITIES OF THE CONTINENT.

PREFACE TO VOLUME THIRTEEN

Much more reprehensible than the German-American treasons in the great war and absolutely without a shadow of excuse, was that class of American citizens, not even of German descent, who, born under the Constitution of the United States, but members of Socialistic and kindred organizations, sought to overthrow our Constitution and substitute a government of a class. Though they advocated force and violence to attain their ends, they tried, in our struggle against the Hun, to check and obstruct in every way possible the military operations of the government, under the pretext that their consciences would not permit them to take the lives of their fellowmen, even in war. The destruction of life and property had no horrors when directed against the United States but the use of force in the defense of our country, they declared they conscientiously objected to.1

1 The report of the Attorney-General of the United States for 1918 and 1919 gives a summary of the prosecutions and convictions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts.

The Espionage Act contains a variety of provisions such as protection of neutrality, of ships in harbor, spy activities, unlawful military expeditions, etc. The cases below, under the third section of the act, are aimed at disloyal and dangerous propaganda, to interfere with recruiting and enlistment and with the operation and success of the military and naval forces. Although the Espionage Act proved an effective instrumentality against deliberate or organized disloyal propaganda, it did not reach the individual casual or impulsive disloyal utterances which occurred with considerable frequency throughout the country, irritating and angering the communities in which they occurred, resulting in violence and lawlessness and everywhere in dissatisfaction with the inadequacy of the Federal law to reach such cases. Consequently Congress enacted the Sedition Act.

U. S. v. J. A. Miller, Colo. This was a typical attack on the war