Changes
/* World War I */ better
'''Debate: Was it discriminatory not to include girls and women in this draft?'''
Congress declared war in April 1917, and fighting lasted until 1918. American Americans suffered many tragic losses in life, but because of our late entry our overall losses were much less than that suffered by the European countries.
Obviously not everyone agreed with the war or the draft. But Congress passed laws to censor dissent. It passed the Espionage Act in 1917, which imposed fines of $10,000 and jail time of 20 years for any person thought to be aiding the enemy, and authorized the U.S. Postal Service to ban any material found to be treasonable. The Sedition Act, passed in May 1918, made it illegal to speak out to discourage the purchase of war bonds.
When citizens challenged these limitations on the right of free speech, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Congress and against the First Amendment. In ''Schenck v. U.S.'' (1919), the Court upheld the prosecution for any speech that created a "clear and present danger" to the national interest of enlisting soldiers. In ''Abrams v. U.S.'' (1919), the Court sustained convictions under the Espionage Act for leafletting against American opposition to the communist revolution in Russia. Finally, in ''Debs v. U.S.'' (1919) the Court upheld an indictment (criminal charges) against someone for speaking out against military recruitment of soldiers. Today strong supporters The Supreme Court's interpretation of the right to free speech decry all of these rulingsunder the First Amendment is stronger today than it was in 1919.
'''Debate: Was it wrong for Congress and the Supreme Court to limit free speech during World War I?'''
Congress limited economic freedoms in the name of war also. The Lever Act of 1917, for example, authorized the president to set the price of wheat. This was used later by Hoover to combat the Great Depression. Congress also passed the Trading with the Enemy Act in 1917, which gave the president the power to stop financial transactions in wartime. It is now used to restrict travel and trade with Cuba.
Hoarding was a crimeduring the war. One story in the New York Times announced how a couple had been arrested and charged with the "crime" of having $1000-worth of extra food in their home. Congress did not want people to buy more than they needed.
Labor disputes in the United States during the war were handled by the National War Labor Board, which President Wilson established in April 1918. He placed former President Taft and also Frank P. Walsh in charge of this important commission, with the goal of settling labor conflicts. The Overman Act, also passed in 1918, gave the President extraordinary powers to coordinate government agencies in wartime.
In October 1917, near the end of World War I, there was the communist (Bolshevik) revolution in Russia. This would cause the United States and the world many problems later in the 20th century, and is still a problem today in some countries like Venezuela, Cuba, China and North Korea.
An armistice (an agreement to stop the fighting) with Germany to end World War I did not come until late 1918, and the peace treaty was not signed until 1919, but it was clear by January 1918 that the end was drawing near. A joint session of Congress convened then for an address by President Wilson, in which he outlined his "Fourteen Points" for peace and for the future of the world. His address, which contained ideas known as Wilson idealism, took the progressive movement's principles of democracy, self-determination and free trade and proposed imposing that on the world. He also urged against any more secret agreements by nations that started World War I. Specifically, Wilson's "Fourteen Points" included a guarantee freedom on the high seas, facilitation of international trade with few or no tariffs, a reduction in military arms, an end to colonialism, a ban on secret treaties, restoration to Russia of territory taken during the war, and a return to France of the Alsace-Lorraine territory taken by Germany.
Most of all, President Wilson proposed a "League of Nations" to govern the world in the future. The Senate refused to join the League of Nations, but later the United Nations replaced it and the United States did join that.
