Socialist Party Opposes US Entry into European War – Swift Repression Folllows
The Socialist Party of America, in an emergency meeting on this day, following the U.S. Declaration of War on April 6, 1917, denounced the war and U.S. participation in it.
The statement committed the Socialist Party to “continuous, active, and public opposition to the war, through demonstrations, mass petitions, and all other means within our power.” The war issue caused a deep split within the party, as a “pro-war” minority opposed the resolution. The convention adopted the resolution by a vote of 140–31.
One of the most active leaders at the meeting was Kate Richards O’Hare, a Socialist Party member from St. Louis, who was convicted of giving an anti-war speech in North Dakota on December 14, 1917 and sentenced to five years in prison.
The anti-war resolution brought on fierce repression by the administration of President Woodrow Wilson. The party newspaper was barred from the mails on July 7, 1917, and party leader Eugene V. Debs was arrested for an anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio, on June 16, 1918; he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Victor Berger from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was elected to Congress in 1918, but was expelled by the House of Representatives on November 10, 1919. Five Socialists from New York City were elected to the New York legislature but were denied their seats (April 1, 1920).
The once-strong party, which claimed many elected officials across the country, never recovered from the repression of dissent during and soon after World War I — creating a major turning point in American history and making the issue of freedom of speech a central controversy in national politics and the law.
The Socialist Party statement (excerpts): “We brand the declaration of war by our government as a crime against the people of the United States and against the national of the world… We recommend… Continuous, active, and public opposition to the war, through demonstrations, mass petitions, and all other means within our power.”
Learn about the history of the Socialist Party of America: Jack Ross, The Socialist Party of America: A Complete History (2015)
Learn more: Paul Murphy, World War I and the Origin of Civil Liberties in the United States (1979)
Read about Kate Richards O’Hare and her role at the Socialist Party emergency meeting: Sally M. Miller, From Prairie to Prison: The of Social Activist Kart Richards O’Hare (1993)
Learn more about Debs at the Eugene V. Debs Foundation here.
Read: Nick Salvatore, Eugene V. Debs: Socialist and Citizen (1982)