01-04-2025
When sedition came to Montana …
A montage created by the Montana Historical Society of people arrested and convicted of seditious speech during the World War I era. This photo is by no means exhaustive. Seventy-two Montanans were charged, tried and convicted for running afoul of the Montana Sedition Act.
Early on the morning of April 13, 1918, a group of Billings residents surrounded the house of Herman Bausch, which happens to be right across the street from where I live now. Bausch was a German immigrant who had moved to Billings a few years earlier and started farming just outside of town. He was highly respected in Billings for being a bit of an innovator, one of the first locals to plant an orchard.
But that morning, he was confronted by a mob because he had been included on a list of Billings residents that had not purchased Liberty bonds to help support America's entry into World War I. Bausch had stated: 'I am opposed to war…all war that is aggressive and oppressive. But if Wall Street plutocrats insist on further bloodshed, let them finance it. Voluntarily, I will not contribute financially to this world calamity.'
The mob pressed Bausch to change his mind and buy some Liberty bonds, and when he refused, they threatened to string him up in one of the apple trees in his yard. But instead they dragged him off to the local Elks Club, where a group of more than 50 people had gathered. This crowd spent several hours grilling Bausch, trying again to convince him to buy bonds, but he would not budge. So he was charged under the Montana Sedition Act, and sentenced to four years in prison.
Teddy Roosevelt once said that patriotism means standing with one's country, not standing with the president. But America has a checkered past when it comes to using patriotism as a cudgel to keep people from expressing themselves, and one of the most egregious examples of that started right here in Montana.
When war broke out in Europe in 1914, Americans were almost universally opposed to becoming involved in the conflict. The overall sentiment was that the conflict was none of our business, but there was also a general feeling that it wouldn't last long. But as the war dragged on, the allies—which included Great Britain, France, Russia, and China—pressed President Woodrow Wilson to change his mind. The longer it lasted, the more concerned they were about having the resources necessary to fight off the Axis, which consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.
Two major events played a huge role in swaying public sentiment. First, German U-boats sank the Lusitania, a British ocean liner, in 1915. The incident killed 1198 people, and 128 of them were American.
The second event was the revelation in January 1917 that German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmerman had carried out a secret diplomatic correspondence with the German Ambassador to Mexico, proposing that if Mexico joined forces with the Germans, Germany would help them regain control of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico.
Although Wilson won reelection in 1916 on a platform of keeping Americans out of the war, it was just a few months after his inauguration that he declared war on Germany, and it was as if a switch had been flipped. A country that had been so firmly neutral suddenly developed a rabid form of nationalism.
Wilson established the Committee on Public Information, which distributed books and pamphlets, sent out speakers, and even made films, spreading strong opinions about German immigrants, and calling on everyone to buy Liberty bonds to support the war effort. In Montana, Gov. Sam Stewart got so caught up in this nationalist fervor that he called a special session of the Legislature just a few weeks after Wilson declared war, and convinced them to pass The Montana Sedition Act, which was an expansion of a previous bill called the Espionage Act. The Espionage Act was designed to pressure anyone who published works that undermined the war effort, but the Sedition Act took that sentiment one step further, encouraging local law enforcement to seek out people who simply spoke out against the war, or failed to show their support. During the next two years, 78 Montanans were convicted under the Sedition Act, most of whom were sentenced to 20 years. These people were not activists or troublemakers. They were farmers and salesman, and even housewives.
One man, rancher Faye Rumsey, was sentenced to 20 years after a mob confronted him for not buying Liberty bonds, insisting that he kiss the American flag to show his loyalty. Another was convicted after saying that he wished the Kaiser would come over and straighten things out in his own county.
Once the war ended, people came to their senses, and the Montana Sedition Act was repealed in 1921. The people serving sentences were released. But not before Herman Bausch lost his 2-year-old son and wasn't allowed to travel from Deer Lodge to Billings for the funeral. And not before Faye Rumsey's wife lost their ranch and had to give up all 12 of their children to the state. Many of these siblings never saw each other again.
In 2006, Gov. Brian Schweitzer issued a pardon to everyone who had been convicted under the Sedition Act, and it was at that ceremony that several of Faye Rumsey's grandchildren met for the first time.
Herman Bausch was able to return to the house across the street from where I live and continue to farm, having more children. But extreme nationalism left its mark on his life, as it did on many innocent Montanans. As Bausch said when he was arrested, 'If what I did was a crime, then there are thousands of other people in this country who are just as guilty as I am.'
