The patriotic impact of World War I on the Texas Posten, a Swedish-language newspaper

Abstract

The Texas Posten, Austin's weekly Swedish-language newspaper, was in its 18th year when world war erupted in Europe. Like many Americans around the country, Texas Swedes heeded President Wilson's words of neutrality and later his encouragement of the Allied cause. When the United States entered the war in April 1917, the federal government kept a watchful eye on foreign-language publications. Censorship legislation was passed, including the Espionage and Trading-with-the-Enemy acts, and the Committee on Public Information was established to blanket America - and the world - with patriotic propaganda. This study examined nine years (468 issues) of the Texas Posten to determine how the paper responded to the First World War - particularly the propaganda movement and censorship regulations enacted by the federal government. The importance of the study rested in the fact that the Posten was one of the few foreign-language newspapers to successfully comply with the wishes of the federal government and thrive during an era when the majority of similar publications met their deaths. The geographic location, religious views, political opinions and integration into the established community of Texas Swedes allowed them to consider World War I more patriotically than Swedes in many other areas of the country.