The nation’s entry into World War I had been accompanied by the passage of a portentous series of bills: the 1917 and 1919 Espionage Acts and the 1918 Sedition Act. Together they essentially made it illegal to publicly criticize the government, the military, the draft, or the flag itself, and law enforcement took the opportunity to ramp up its long-running war on anti-capitalist, pro-worker organizing.
