The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1919-03-11
uEBS CONVICTION
UPHELD BY COURT
Loses Appea! to /. 5. Su-
preme Tribunal
Get TEk-YEAR SENTENCE.
The Socialist Leaders Conviction Un.

! The Socialist Leaders Conviction Un-
! Ger the Esp;o~ace Act For Ohio
Speec., is Upheld.
| Washington, March 1.-The SUI
| 7rcme court sustained unanimously
| the conviction of Eugene V. lNe|,, So
: c:alist leader.
He was found guilty a. vio" ing
! the espionage act in (, speech al Cam
ton. Ohio, last June.
He was sentenced to ten years i'm
sonment
The court, in effect, upheld II" con-
stitutionality OF the so-callcd enlist
rent section of the espionage act of
| 1917.
As in the espionage cases decided
hast Monday, the supreme cour; made
no specific ruling on the constitution
aliy of the espionage act. The court
based its opinion largely upon that
part of the Indictment charging OBJ
struction of recruiting service. This
! was unanimously affirmed.
drastic of the measure 1t not only
makes 1t a misdemeanOr to circulate
false reports for the purpose of inter
fering with military and naval opera
tons and enlistments, but prohibits
| the utterance or writing of d!Sloyal
| language about the American form
| of government, military forces, flag or
uniforms.
Debs, four times candidate for
| president of the United States, began
| life as a locomotive fireman on the
| Terre Haute and Indianapolis rail-
road He was born in Terre Haute
| sixty-four years ago.
For several years he was leader
| of the Firemen's Brotherhood, taking
an active part in several big strikes.
In 1885 he was a member of the In
! diana legislature. In 1900 he ran for
| president on the Social Democratic
| ticket. He was the candidate of the
Socialist party in 1904, 1908 and 1912
! The Indictment on which DebS vas
convicted charged him with tttampt-
ing to incite "insuhor1nation. SOY
atty, mutiny and refilSaI of duty in
| the military and naval forces" at
| tempting to obstruct recruiting and
enlistments, and with uttering and
! publishing language intended to pro-
woke and encourage resistance TO the
| United States as we'll as tn promote
the enemy's cause.
| When placed on trial Debs called n"
| witnesses in defense. He made the
! only argument in his own behalf In
! appealing to the supreme court he at
: tackled the admission in evidence bv
, the lower court Of the ST. Louis So
! cialist platform, which he had "nd"rs.
! ed and records from the trial of Rose
: Pastor Stokes. He alleges Ne had been
tried on his "state of mind" Validity
! Of the espionage act also was attack
ed
Debs alleged the act violated rhe
right OF free speech.
In opposing the appeal the govern
ment denied the act was unconstitu-
! tutional, but admitted it was not con-
vinced the facts charged in the indict
ment alleging the utterance of lam
guage designed to encourage resist
| ance to the United States and to pro-
mote the enemy's causes were suffi-
cent to warrant conviction on thar
| count
The court also upheld the conviction
under the espionage act Of Jacob Froh-
work. Kansas City. He was prose
cuted because Of articles appearing in
! the Missouri Stats Zeitung of which
he was editor. They criticised Ameri-
can participation in the war. He is
Under sentence of ten years impriSon-
! nent.
Conviction of John Rudolph, Brook
Ign, on charges of violating federal
statutes by selling liquor to sailors
was sustained in effect. The court
refused to review the case. Rudolph
was sentenced to three months i'm
oris0nment and fined $100