scientious objectors were targeted in the Red Scare after the war. They were condemned as cowards, pro-German socialists, although that was not everything. They were also accused of spreading propaganda throughout the United States. Very few conscientious objectors stood up for themselves. Roderick Siedenberg, who was a conscientious objector, wrote that "to steal, rape, or murder" are standard peacetime causes for imprisonment, but in time of war "too firm a belief in the words of Christ", and "too ardent a faith in the brotherhood of man" are more acceptable. Some organizations such as the National Civil Liberties Bureau, which would later be renamed the American Civil Liberties Union, took up the task of standing up for the rights of conscientious objectors. Before the war, the NCLB-ACLU opposed American involvement, and afterward defended the rights of the objectors. Later, the ACLU would gain a reputation for helping people with liberal cases who were too poor to pay for their own representation in court. After the real war ended in 1918, the ideological war, which was gaining speed at home, turned against conscientious objectors and other radical minorities such as Wobblies, who were members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and Socialists as well. These Wobblies and Socialists were damned as being subversives who were trying to overthrow the United States government. Wobblies, in particular, were persecuted against for speaking out against the capitalist system. Although most of what they said was only to attract attention to their cause, their rhetoric was taken seriously by the government and its officials. From the very beginning of the Red Scare, the Wobblies were the subject of attack by the government, because they were a symbol of radicalism. The government put in place legislation, not only against the Wobblies, but also against Socialists and Communists, due ...
