In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

The intellectual, social and aesthetic engagement of Village residents in the early 1910s prompted an unprecedented level of creative and political endeavor, exemplified by the dedication and productivity of the first years of the Players’ activities . But the outbreak of global violence and the suppression of free expression in the United States prompted a new kind of commitment from Glaspell and her colleagues. They took action to confront the very real threats to themselves and their livelihoods posed by governmental edicts to curb dissent. When declarations of war spread across Europe in August 1914, President Woodrow Wilson had officially proclaimed United States neutrality. But by early 1917 a proposed alliance between Germany and Mexico directly threatened the U.S. border, and Wilson decided that the country had to enter the conflict (“World Wars” 961–77). Later that spring, four years before Inheritors was staged, President Wilson signed into law a series of executive orders that became the Espionage Act on 15 June 1917. This legislation, aimed primarily at the press, in effect censored their ability to circulate any views in opposition to the official war effort. The key provisions, found in Title I, section 3, stated: Whoever, when the United States is at war, . . . shall wilfully cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or shall wilfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, to the injury of the service or of the United States, shall be punished by a fine of not more the $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both. (Qtd. in Mock 49–50) Title III of that act prohibited the mailing of any materials that would fall under the restriction of Title I, which essentially prevented the circulation of any periodical with views critical of the government, such as the Masses. According to historian James Mock, this “was the first bit of legislation in more than one hundred years that gave officials the statutory opportunity to restrict freedom of speech and the press” (50). 112 ✧✧✧✧✧✧✧ Inheritors Mock further explains, however, that, “by January 1918, the restrictions upon our liberties already provided were not considered sufficiently stringent to deal with the situation” (53), as they did not cover other forms of public address and oppositional activity. Thus, the Sedition Act was created as an amendment to the Espionage Act: Offenses under it included the willful writing, utterance, or publication of any “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States, or the flag of the United States, or the uniform of the army or navy of the United States, or any language intended to bring the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the flag of the United States, or the uniform of the army or navy of the United States into contempt, scorn, contumely, or disrepute.” (Mock 53) The Censorship Board, established by the president (Mock 51), enjoyed full authority to enforce these measures; the leniency or strictness with which they were to carry out their provisions was left undetermined (Mock 54). Although historian Zechariah Chafee dates their repeal to March 1921 (41), a month before Inheritors went into production, Kenneth Macgowan’s review of the play in Vogue indicates enforcement must still have been in practice: The night I attended “Inheritors,” the United States Marshal of New York and an assistant had come to the play to see if the stories of its“un-Americanism ” were true enough to justify its suppression or amendment. Macgowan uses the marshal’s departure from the theater as an opportunity to make a snide remark about the play, but his quip cannot mask the serious threat the official presence posed to the production and to Glaspell herself: The marshal went away after the tedious business of sitting through the first act. . . . Had he stayed for the remaining two acts, I wonder what his emotions and action might have been. (“Seen on the Stage” 86) Thus, at the premiere of Inheritors the power of these acts would still have been fresh in the minds of the Greenwich Village audience, many of whom themselves might have faced fines or imprisonment. The questions prompted by the war and its aftermath, particularly questions about national identity and the country’s...

Share