The No Conscription League in the United States was founded by anarchist Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman in 1917 in response to the draft in World War I. It was enforced by the Selective Service Act of 1917, which granted the federal government the right to raise a national army. It was viewed as a destroyer of the freedom to ethical and political choice granted by the constitution of the United States. The members of this league strongly opposed government enforced conscription; they saw it as a violation of the liberty of American people. This oppression was justified by Woodrow Wilson's Espionage Act, which prohibited any action that interferes with the US military or government affairs. Many were prosecuted under this act, including those in the no conscription league. Those charged were fined a maximum of 10,000 dollars and were sentenced to up to 20 years of imprisonment.
Read more about No Conscription League: Manifesto, Gatherings, Government Responds
Famous quotes containing the words conscription and/or league:
“No Raven’s wing can stretch the flight so far
As the torn bandrols of Napoleon’s war.
Choose then your climate, fix your best abode,
He’ll make you deserts and he’ll bring you blood.
How could you fear a dearth? have not mankind,
Tho slain by millions, millions left behind?
Has not conscription still the power to weild
Her annual faulchion o’er the human field?
A faithful harvester!”
—Joel Barlow (1754–1812)
“Stereotypes fall in the face of humanity. You toodle along, thinking that all gay men wear leather after dark and should never, ever be permitted around a Little League field. And then one day your best friend from college, the one your kids adore, comes out to you.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)