First, briefly explain the point of this World War I poster. Then explain how the CPI had a negative impact on civil liberties in America that lasted into the 1920s. Cite specific examples.
The poster shows a diverse group of men marching in line and being transformed into soldiers. The caption, "Step into your place," suggests that it is the patriotic duty of American men to enlist. This also has a more subtle message: all sorts of immigrants are blended into a homogenous group of "loyal" Americans, and to oppose the draft is implicitly unpatriotic. This poster illustrates the public relations campaign waged by the Committee on Public Information (CPI), set up by President Wilson in 1917. Ever since the war broke out in 1914, there had been strong public opposition to U.S. entry. Headed by George Creel, the CPI was responsible for generating public support for the war through a massive propaganda campaign.
Unfortunately, appeals to national unity eventually turned into accusations of disloyalty. Striking workers, many of whom were immigrants, were accused of undermining the war effort; draft resisters were labeled traitors. German Americans were victimized by the most severe repression in the name of "100 percent Americanism." Schools stopped teaching German, sauerkraut was renamed liberty cabbage, hamburger became Salisbury steak, even German measles were called liberty measles. Mobs beat and lynched German immigrants, burned their businesses and homes, and likewise attacked other "enemies." Citizens groups and the government targeted members of the Socialist Party and the International Workers of the World (IWW) union. Socialist Party leader Eugene Debs was given a 10-year prison term for speaking out against the war; and the head of the IWW fled the country.
After the war, the persecution of "radical foreigners" continued under the direction of Attorney-General Palmer and his chief investigator, J. Edgar Hoover. The Red Scare (1919-20), triggered by Palmer's overreaction to the threat of communists, anarchists, socialists, and other radicals, resulted in the baseless arrest of several thousand suspected "subversives" without due process of law and the deportation of several hundred aliens. In the case of two Italian anarchists named Sacco and Vanzetti, public intolerance of alien radicals probably had more to do with their arrest, conviction, and execution than evidence presented in their trial.