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Civil Liberties in the Time of Influenza

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Civil Liberties in the Time of Influenza 76 Articles 77 Traces: Te UNC-Chapel Hill Journal of History of the Spanish Flu and remains infuential due to its exhaustive statistical analyses and Civil Liberties in the Time of Infuenza Denton Ong thorough research from numerous localities. It remains the authoritative text on the Spanish Infuenza in the United States, focusing on the efects, scale, and spread of the Te Spanish Infuenza pandemic of 1918-1919 was one disease. Te statistics provided on mortality rates, infection rates and the disease’s spread of the deadliest outbreaks in the history of mankind, killing are still some of the most expansive in the literature. John Barry’s Te Great Infuenza over 50 million people worldwide and as many as 675,000 in (2004) compares the disease to the threat of avian fu in the twenty-frst century and 1 the United States in less than two years. Overall, the dis- covers the role of wartime censorship on the epidemic. However, Barry primarily wants ease’s mortality rate was approximately 2,500% greater than to paint a rough narrative history of the disease and the important individuals involved. 2 the average mortality rate for normal infuenza. In total, By taking a broad view of the infuenza epidemic in the United States, Te Great Infuen- the fu aficted over a quarter of all Americans and dropped za loses some of its punch, as it fnds itself trying to be several diferent kinds of histories 3 the average life expectancy in the US by 12 years. Despite all at once. the US government’s best eforts to assure the public that In Flu: A Social History of Infuenza (2008), Tom Quinn covers the efects infuenza there was no reason to panic, panic set in around the coun- outbreaks have had on society throughout history, so he only focuses on the 1918-19 try. Schools and businesses closed, churches shut down, and global pandemic briefy. However, what he does write on the 1918-19 pandemic is fairly streets lay empty. Some blamed the infuenza epidemic on uncontroversial and supported by other secondary sources. Infuenza 1918 (1999) by immigrants, while others accused the Germans. Regardless Lynette Iezzoni takes a more personal look at the Spanish Flu epidemic in the United of the origin of the disease, the virulence and lethality of the States, focusing on the personal stories and the scale of the disease. Iezzoni does not Spanish Infuenza shook American society to its core. make an original argument about the Spanish Flu, but instead describes how the infu- Although virologists and biologists have published ex- enza impacted people’s lives. Tis is why her book is full of individual stories, rather than tensive scholarship on the Spanish Flu 1918, historians have explorations of policy or death rates. Of all the books on the 1918 infuenza epidemic, 4 given it much less attention. Only recently has there been Nancy Bristow’s American Pandemic (2012) is notable because it focuses on how social a resurgence of historical work on the epidemic, yet only a and cultural identity impacted the pandemic in the United States, as well as on the fraction of it focuses on the United States. Alfred Crosby’s American public’s frustration with government ineptitude. No other work places such Epidemic and Peace, 1918 (1976) was the frst intensive study an emphasis on the social and cultural aspects of the disease. Perhaps Bristow’s most interesting contribution to the literature was on how male physicians’ failure to “cure” the 1 According to the CDC, an epidemic is an increase in the incidences of a disease within a particular area, such as country or city, well above its baseline level of occurrence. A infuenza was emasculating, while patients valued female nurses considerably more for pandemic refers to an epidemic which has spread across multiple countries. Tis paper will 5 refer to the 1918 fu in a global context as a pandemic, but in local and national contexts the comfort and tending they provided. as an epidemic. See: https://www.cdc.gov/ophss/csels/dsepd/ss1978/lesson1/section11. html. For statistics on mortality, see Alfred W. Crosby, Epidemic and Peace, 1918 (Westport: Tis essay ofers a new approach to the history of the Spanish Infuenza epidemic Greenwood Press, 1976) pg. 206. 2 Taubenberger, Jefery et al., “Initial Genetic Characterization of the 1918 “Spanish” in the United States through a study of the political and legal complications surround- Infuenza Virus,” Science 1997, 275: 1793-96 3 “Te Deadly Virus: Te Infuenza Epidemic of 1918,” U.S. National Archives, Accessed ing civil liberties, which arose as a result of the epidemic. In doing so, it will analyze December 3, 2016. https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/infuenza-epidemic/. 4 For scientifc studies of the pandemic, see Jefery K. Taubenberger and David M. the infuenza in the context of early twentieth-century American politics. Te Spanish Morens, “1918 Infuenza: the mother of all pandemics,” Emerging Infectious Diseases 12, no. Infuenza pandemic of 1918-1919 triggered a repression of civil liberties within the 1 (2006): 15. Gina Bari Kolata, Flu: Te Story of the Great Infuenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus Tat Caused It, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005). Ann H. Reid, 5 Nancy K. Bristow, American Pandemic: Te Lost Worlds of the 1918 Infuenza Epidemic (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012). Tomas G. Fanning, Johan V. Hultin, and Jefery K. Taubenberger, “Origin and evolution of Tom Quinn, Flu: A Social History of Infuenza (London: New Holland, 2008). Crosby, Epidemic and Peace, 1918. Lynette Iezzoni, In- the 1918 “Spanish” infuenza virus hemagglutinin gene,” Proceedings of the National Academy fuenza 1918: Te Worst Epidemic in American History (New York: TV Books, 1999). John M. Barry, Te Great Infuenza: Te Epic Story of Sciences 96, no. 4 (1999): 1651-1656. of the Deadliest Plague in History (New York: Penguin Books, 2005). 78 Articles 79 Traces: Te UNC-Chapel Hill Journal of History United States due to measures, crafted by medical experts, which were intended to halt Spanish fu and the subsequent public reaction were a component of this broader con- the spread of the disease and bolster the war efort. Tis analysis therefore corroborates temporaneous debate. the broader literature on the restrictions of civil liberties during the First World War Several events during and immediately after the First World War reveal a govern- and its aftermath, when lawmakers expanded government power for the sake of national ment limiting civil liberties, typically on the grounds of national security. Te Committee 6 security. In addition to such federal restrictions on civil liberties, however, the Spanish on Public Information, headed by George Creel and is often considered an apparatus Flu also caused municipal governments to take restrictive measures, demonstrating that for censorship and propaganda, sought to maintain public enthusiasm for the war efort progressive era encroachments on civil liberties were not a uniquely federal phenome- and disrupt anti-war movements. Te Espionage Act of 1917 prohibited interfering with non. Furthermor, infuenza led to public conscription eforts or spying and banned statements that might impede the American disillusionment with scientifc public war machine. Te Sedition Act of 1918 banned statements against the U.S. government. policy and raised questions regarding the Widespread labor confict and the persecution of the Industrial Workers of the World efcacy of laws requiring the sacrifce of (IWW) in the 1910s reveal a general restriction of civil liberties for the sake of security.8 civil liberties. Tis article argues progres- Tis trend of aggressive government action continued into the mid-1920s, as seen in sive municipal anti-fu measures, based the trials of Italian anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Venzetti, the 1921 Palmer on faulty scientifc principles, amounted Raids, the First Red Scare, and the Wall Street bombing of 1921. In these moments and to a signifcant breach of civil liberties, others, the US government led a campaign against terrorism and political radicalism.9 but unlike contemporary subversion of As Paul Murphy has argued, the restrictions on civil liberties during the First World civil liberties, occurred on a municipal War led to their formal emergence as a legal and political concept. For example, the war Te Spanish Infuenza pandemic of 1918-1919 rather than federal level. inspired the creation of civil liberties groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union infected 500 million worldwide. Te frst outbreaks in the United States occurred in military camps, Flu, War, Terrorism and Freedom (ACLU), which developed to assist conscientious objectors. Murphy argues the Progres- including Camp Furston (pictured). (Photo courtesy of To understand the policies imposed sive movement created a centralized, paternalistic federal government rationally com- Wikimedia.) by federal and municipal governments batting the evils of industrial society, even at the cost of individual liberties. Although to restrict the 1918 Infuenza pandemic progressive organizations and fgures never explicitly sought to curtail civil liberties prior and how these policies encroached upon civil liberties, the Infuenza pandemic must be to the First World War, the Wilson administration’s approach to the war efort did just placed within the context of civil liberties . During the First World War and immedi- that through progressive policies that disproportionately targeted radical and subversive ately afterwards, federaland municipal governments repressed citizens’ civil liberties. Te groups and individuals.10 modern form of civil liberty as a concept has its roots in 1902, when Teodore Schroeder American governmental power expanded beyond the use of police power to deter founded the Free Speech League as the frst organization dedicated to civil liberties. armies and radicals, however. Indeed, the expansion of governmental authority and the When Zechariah Chafee Jr.
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