What conditions led to such a law?
Could we ever see such a law again?
University
of
Montana
School of
Journalism
The Montana Sedition Project
Forty men and one woman went to prison for sedition in Montana
CLICK on photo for a thumbnail sketch
(Photos organized by county. See Table.)
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
On April 15, 1918, at Peterson's store in Moorhead, Burling said that if he had $10,000 he would not buy a Liberty Bond because the Liberty Bonds were nothing but a damn graft, and further that no matter what happened he would not eat corn bread. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
On March 15, 1918, Wyman said to divers persons...in speaking of the atrocities reported to be committed by the German soldiers, that our soldiers would act in the same way and commit the same atrocities...and that soldiers of the U.S. Army are no better than the German soldiers. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
On April 26, 1918, Diedtman said "This damn Country is not worth a damn and as soon as Germany gets over here me for the old Country. Then they can all go to hell. I always wonder why the Germans in this Country don't wake up and use their brains... Sentence: 10-20 years |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
On April 19, 1918, Johnson said in Missoula that the United States Liberty Bonds were no good. That government would not back them up. That the man that bought them would never get his money back. That he would lose it. That the U.S. government was no good. Sentence: 2-5 years |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
In March 1918, a third-degree committee in Forsyth grilled Starr about Liberty Bonds and forced him to kiss the flag. "What is this thing anyway?" he asked. "Nothing but a piece of cotton with a little paint on it, and some other marks in the corner there. I will not kiss that thing. It might be covered with microbes." Sentence: 10-20 years |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
On April 13, 1918, Bausch told a county committee, "I won't do anything voluntarily to aid this war; I don't care who wins this war; I would rather see Germany win than England or France; I am not prepared to say whether Germany is in the right; We should never have entered this war... Sentence: 4-8 years |
 |
On Registration Day at Lone Ridge School House near Poplar, Klippstine told the registrar: "It is a wonder that our goddamned Government didn't send us some papers before we got in war so we could have had something to say about it and then we wouldn't have had war." Sentence: 4-10 years |
All photos from Montana State Prison Collection, Montana Historical Society, Helena.
A project of the University of Montana School of Journalism
Project Director: Professor Clemens P. Work