ships in harbor, spy activities, unlawful military expeditions, etc. Most of the cases which have arisen, however, presenting the most complex problems, have been under the third section of Title I of this act, which is aimed at disloyal and dangerous propaganda.
This section 3 was amended by a law which became effective May 18, 1918, commonly called the Sedition Act, which greatly broadened the scope of the original act and brought under its prohibitions many new types of disloyal utterance. The use which our enemies have made of propaganda as a method of warfare is especially dangerous in any country governed by public opinion. During the first three years of the war, the period of our neutrality, the German Government and its sympathizers expended here a vast amount of money in carrying on different types of propaganda, and these activities are a matter of public knowledge. During our participation in the war, section 3 and its later amendment have been the only weapons available to this Government for the suppression of insidious propaganda, and it is obvious that no more difficult task has been placed upon our system of law than the endeavor to distinguish between the legitimate expression of opinion and those types of expression necessarily or deliberately in aid of the enemy. The number of complaints under this law presented to the Department of Justice has been incredibly large.
Such, then, was the ultimate machinery of our national
laws when, late, but with such speed as a willing Congress
could give after the gauntlet was flung and the issue joined,
we began to face in dead earnest the peril of the times. We
now had at last a full set of laws with teeth in them. But
it was a tremendous burden that the older institutions of
our administrative machinery had to carry. In sooth, the
load was too much. The machinery buckled under it. We
could not do the work we had to get done.
That work was more than ever had been asked of any nation of the world. We had a mixed population of wholly unknown disposition. Some said we delayed going to war for so long because we were not sure our people would back the Government. That, surely, could be the only reason for the delay. All the races of the world were seething in rage and jealousy. We had racial war within our borders. We could not count on our own friends. We could not predict as to what percent of men would be loyal to our flag. We had two million men of German blood inside our borders,
