When speaking out was a crime: freedom of speech during wartime has long been the subject of debate. During World War I, 79 people were convicted under Montana's sedition laws. It's taken 88 years to clear their names.

BACKGROUND

Americans vaLue their right to criticize the government, but freedom of speech during wartime has long been the subject of debate. In Montana during World War I, dozens of people were jailed for criticizing the government and the war. Only this year were they posthumously pardoned.

When Steve Milch, an attorney in Billings, Mont., learned that his great-grandfather, an immigrant from Germany, had been convicted of sedition in Montana during World War I, he was taken aback. No one in his family had ever mentioned it.

For the past 88 years, similar secrets have been kept in many Montana families, especially those of German descent, about a flurry of wartime prosecutions in 1918, when public sentiment against Germans was at a fever pitch.

Seventy-nine Montanans were convicted under the state's sedition law for speaking out in ways deemed critical of the U.S. government. Forty-one of them went to prison on sentences from 1 to 20 years and paid fines from $200 to $20,000.

Those convictions were finally overturned on May 3, when Governor Brian Schweitzer, a descendant of German immigrants, posthumously pardoned 75 men and three women. (One man was pardoned shortly after the war.)

"I'm going to say what Governor Sam Stewart should have said," Schweitzer declared, referring to the man who signed the sedition legislation in 1918. "I'm sorry, forgive me, and God bless America, because we can criticize our government."

'DISLOYAL' SPEECH

Freedom of speech during wartime has long been a contentious issue in the U.S. In 1798, when the country was on the verge of war with France, President John Adams sought to squelch political dissent. At his urging, Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it a crime for anyone to "write, print, utter, or publish ... any false, scandalous, and malicious writing or writings against the government." Several newspapers critical of the government folded, and their editors were imprisoned. The law expired in 1801, and President Thomas Jefferson pardoned all those convicted under the Act.

The Espionage Act of 1917, passed by Congress just after the U.S. entered World War I, was the first federal law since the Sedition Act to suppress speech criticizing the government.

In Montana, the first case tried under the Espionage Act was against Ves Hall, a rancher accused of saying that he hoped Germany would "whip the United States." A federal judge acquitted Hall, ruling that the Espionage Act was not intended to suppress statements of opinion.

TWENTY-SEVEN STATES

Montana's Governor, Sam V. Stewart, was so outraged at the acquittal that he called an emergency session of the state legislature, which unanimously passed the state's sedition law in February 1918. It became a crime to say or publish anything "disloyal, profane, violent, scurrilous, contemptuous or abusive" about the U.S. government, soldiers, or the flag.

Milch's great-grandfather, John Milch, was turned in by an undercover agent who went into a German beer hall and got people to talk about the war. His testimony was used against John Milch; his brother, Joseph; and six other men. All were convicted.

Twenty-seven states had sedition laws during World War I. Montana's law was the model for the federal Sedition Act of 1918, which added to the restrictions on speech outlined in the Espionage Act. These laws expired or were rescinded after the war.

The pardons came about due to the efforts of two faculty members at the University of Montana. Clemens P. Work, a journalism professor, wrote a book entitled Darkest Before Dawn: Sedition and Free Speech in the American West. Jeffrey Renz, a law professor, read Work's book and was inspired to assign his criminal-law class to research the cases. This led to a petition for pardons being sent to Governor Schweitzer.

Dozens of relatives of the convicted seditionists gathered at Montana's State Capitol in May to witness the pardons. Among them was Marie Van Middlesworth, now 90, who was one of 12 children put up for adoption after her father, Fay Rumsey, was imprisoned.

Work believes the Montana law was influenced by the powerful Anaconda Copper Mining Company, which saw it as a way to control labor unrest and immigrant workers. But he adds that Governor Stewart was also at fault.

"In the last 100 days of his term, he commuted 50 sentences, including 13 murderers and 7 rapists," he says, "but not a single seditionist."

BEFORE READING

* Write "Politics stops at the water's edge" on the board. Tell students that this old saying refers to an unwritten rule that foreign policy--especially wars--should be bipartisan. Does that mean criticism should be internal only, something like a family spat? Do students agree with this policy?

CRITICAL THINKING/DISCUSSION

* Discuss the pros and cons of Limiting speech during wartime. (Pros might include ensuring troops are supported back home; cons could include the weakening of free speech rights.)

* Do you know anyone who has spoken out either for or against the Iraq war? If so, were there any consequences?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

* Do you think the pardoning of the citizens of Montana was a just ending of the case? Do descendents of those convicted and later pardoned deserve something besides a posthumous pardon? If so, what might that be?

* Ask students why they think it took so many years before those convicted in Montana were pardoned.

WRITING PROMPT

* Have students study the First Amendment. Then assign them to write an addendum to the Amendment. Their job is to address what kinds of speech is protected and under what circumstances, if any, free speech should be curtailed.

WEB WATCH

www.u-s-history.com/ pages/h1345.html A copy of the 1918 U.S. Sedition Act; short and easy to read.

www.constitution.org/rf /sedition_1798.htm Abstract and text of the 1798 Sedition Act; short and easy to read.

By Jim Robbins in Helena, Mont.

Jim Robbins is a frequent contributor to The New York Times from the West; additional reporting by Suzanne Bilyeu.