ing the form of government of the United States into contempt, (3) usage of the language intended to incite, provoke and encourage resistance to the United States in said war, (4) “the defendants conspired when the United States was at war with the Imperial German Government... unlawfully and willfully, by utterance, writing, printing and publication to urge, incite and advocate curtailment of production of things and products, to wit, ordnance and ammunition, necessary and essential to the prosecution of the war.” All five defendants were born in Russia, on the average they lived from five to ten years in America and still didn’t apply for naturalization. All of them were intelligent and had a good amount of schooling. Four of them testified as witnesses on their own behalf, and all but one denied that they were rebels, they said that they had nothing against the government of the United States, while there was one who said that he was a Socialist and didn’t believe into the capitalistic government of the United States.It was admitted during the trial that the defendants printed and distributed around 5,000 pamphlets on August 22, 1918. And that they did all of their work at night in the basement that Jacob Abrams has rented in New York City. The circulars were distributed by throwing them of the buildings and others were distributed secretly. One of the articles on the pamphlets said: “The Russian Revolution cries: Workers of the World! Awake! Rise! Put down your enemy and mine! Yes! Friends, there is only one enemy of the workers of the world and that is CAPITALISM.” Another article urged all to throw away their confidence in the United States government and to “ spit in the face the false, hypocritic, military propaganda which has fooled you so relentlessly, calling forth your sympathy, your help, to the prosecution of war.” It also called for a general strike of workers.The...
