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thedrifter
12-28-05, 11:11 AM
JAILED FOR THEIR WORDS
A law passed during World War I pitched Montanans into prison for critical remarks; law students are seeking clemency for them
By Maurice Possley
Tribune staff reporter
Published December 28, 2005

On April 23, 1918, with the U.S. in the depths of World War I, Fred Rodewald, a German immigrant homesteader who had settled with his family on 320 acres in eastern Montana, uttered a sentence that forever changed his life.

He suggested that Americans "would have hard times" if Germany's kaiser "didn't get over here and rule this country."

That remark earned him 2 years in prison for violating Montana's Sedition Act. When he went off to the penitentiary in Deer Lodge, the 42-year-old Rodewald left behind a pregnant wife and eight children. An armistice ended the war less than a month later.

Now, nearly 90 years later, law students at the University of Montana have begun a quest and are prowling dusty archives and musty courthouse storage rooms across the state to clear Rodewald and 73 other Montanans convicted of sedition.

The project provides a contrast between the waning days of World War I, when a farmer could be jailed for suggesting that it was "a rich man's war," and today, when citizens can criticize the war in Iraq without fear of prosecution, if not without fear of government surveillance.

Sparked by "Darkest Before Dawn: Sedition and Free Speech in the American West," a new book by Clemens Work, a University of Montana journalism professor, seven law students have begun reinvestigating the cases to prepare clemency petitions that they intend to present to Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer this spring.

When first notified of the possibility of a pardon, Rodewald's granddaughter Phyllis Rolf, of Minnesota, wept.

"I will be very, very happy if they can clear not only my grandfather, but all of them," Rolf said.

Today, with criticism of the government's conduct of the war shouted in the streets, heard in the halls of Congress and read on Weblogs, Rodewald's remark about the kaiser seems rather innocuous.

"If [Montana's sedition] law was around now, I probably would be in jail myself--relating to Iraq," said one of the law students, Jason Lazark, 28, of Sebastopol, Calif. "The modern context interests me because free speech is such an important thing--to be able to speak about the war and not to be thrown into jail."

Schweitzer, a plainspoken man whose German-Russian grandparents emigrated to the U.S. and settled in Montana, said in a recent interview that he had just finished reading Work's book. And although the governor made no promises, he appeared favorably disposed to granting clemency if petitions are presented.

Governor defends free speech

"I would be interested," Schweitzer said. "There was a time when 40 percent of the people in Montana spoke German, and there was a law that prohibited anyone from speaking German from the pulpit.

"If we locked people up today for calling politicians liars, we would have to build a lot more jails," he said. "I will defend our right to call a politician a son-of-a-***** at any time, even when they are calling me a son-of-a-*****."

After Montana enacted its Sedition Act in 1918, an array of ranchers, farmers, loggers, butchers, cooks, and bartenders--people scratching out a living in fierce winters and scorching summers of the rugged West--was convicted of making anti-government statements. Some of the remarks were little more than profanity-laced tirades uttered in saloons.

For example, Work unearthed the case of Adam Steck, a 53-year-old German immigrant bartender in the Trocadero Saloon in Helena who was sent to prison for calling the American flag a "dirty rag" and saying that "this damned country is bankrupt already and do they expect to lick Germany? No, they never did and they never will."

America's first law against sedition, the Sedition Act of 1798, was enacted to silence opposition to what was then a growing fear of war with France. The law expired in 1801.

There were no further federal legislative actions against disloyal expression until after the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, when Congress passed the Espionage Act.

Unkind words for Wilson

The first case in Montana that came to trial under the Espionage Act was against Ves Hall, a rancher who lived near the junction of Otter Creek and the Tongue River in the southeastern part of the state. Hall was accused of speaking against the draft, saying that Germany would win the war, and that President Woodrow Wilson was "the crookedest son-of-a-***** that ever sat in the president's chair," according to Work.

But after a three-day trial in Helena, U.S. District Judge George Bourquin acquitted Hall, ruling that the Espionage Act was "not intended to suppress criticism or denunciation . . . of the president ... but only false facts, willfully put forward as true."

It was a time, Work wrote in the book, of "hyper-patriotism" in Montana and the acquittal so outraged the state's politicians that the legislature went into special session. Twenty-eight days after Hall's acquittal, the state sedition law was signed.

"Montana's law was the broadest, most repressive anti-speech law passed by a state in the history of the country," Work said. Three months later, Congress passed a national sedition law, "largely due to the influence of Montana politicians and legislative leaders," he said.

Except for three words, the federal law was a copy of Montana's law. About 2,000 men and women would be convicted under the national Espionage and Sedition Acts, including Eugene V. Debs, who organized the American Railway Union, the nation's first industrial union, in Chicago.

Work, an attorney and former deputy director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington, D.C., said he began researching the Montana sedition cases as an outgrowth of a media law class he teaches at the University of Montana. A former reporter for U.S. News & World Report, Work said he was intrigued particularly because of the post-Sept. 11 sentiments of "Are you with us or against us?"

"There are some parallels in the sense that the [USA] Patriot Act represents some retrenchment of our civil liberties and free speech," Work said. "It is not as raw and blatant as the Sedition Act, but it represents an effort by government and the Congress to bolster security at the price of liberty--not just the Patriot Act, but the language and rhetoric and debate over who is more patriotic."

Author tells his dream

Earlier this year, during a reading at a bookstore in Missoula where he lives, Work said he was asked what he hoped to accomplish with his research.

"I said that in my box of dreams, I hoped that some day they would be exonerated," Work said.

Jeff Renz, director of the criminal defense clinic at the university's law school was at the store that day and a short time later contacted Work and suggested that his law students prepare clemency petitions.

"At first, I wasn't sure it was important to exonerate these people," said Katie Olson, 26, of Great Falls, Mont., who is one of Renz's students. "But the more I thought about it, I realized that in the context of today's world, it's important to reaffirm the foundation of free speech."

Work said he is hopeful that the students will be able to locate more relatives and hoped relatives would come forward after hearing about the clemency project. A Web site, www.seditionproject.net, contains personal details of the convicted individuals.

Rolf, 60, of Atwater, Minn., said that until Work found her while working on his book, she had been unaware of her grandfather's past.

"It was a complete surprise to me," she said. "It blew me off my chair. Now that I know about it, I hope the conviction will be written off the books."

Freely spoken, punishable by jail

During World War I, more than 70 people in Montana were jailed for comments deemed seditious. Here are examples.

Ed Horn: "The heads of the government at the White House ought to be killed and then the war would stop."

Leo Reno: "These damn fools still think they can lick Germany, but all they get is a good licking in France every day."

Pete Ervik: "I would sooner fight for the Kaiser than I would for the United States."

Frank Waara: "Americans are no good, and I hope that Germany will win."

Albert Brooks: "Let those who own the country do the fighting! Put the wealthiest in the front ranks; the middle class next; follow these with judges, lawyers, preachers and politicians."

Frank McVey: "I do not see why we should be fighting the Kaiser, and I don't see why people should go crazy over patriotism. The Kaiser and his government is better than the U.S.A."

Janet Smith: Witnesses said she declared the Red Cross a "fake," and that "while she didn't mind helping the Belgians with the relief work, the trouble was that the damned soldiers would get it."

Herbert Mansolf: "There will be a damn German flag flying over the United States inside of a year. The Americans never did amount to nothing and they will amount to a whole lot less when the war is over."

mpossley@tribune.com

Maurice Possley was the T. Anthony Pollner visiting professor of journalism at the University of Montana in 2003 and provided editing assistance for a few chapters of Clemens Work's book, which was then in progress.

Ellie