Part 2 of this series¹ ended with formation of the Communist Party U.S.A. No sooner did the Party form than Congress began investigating it. Supposedly, in response to our World War I enmity against the German Empire and others, Congress had passed the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 (actually amendments to the Espionage Act). The Sedition Act of 1918 was the first sedition law passed in the U.S. since the administration of our second President, John Adams--and that law was repealed during the administration of the very next President, Thomas Jefferson. These facts scream speak to the intent of the Framers. (Too Eighteenth Century?)

The Overman Committee, headed by Democratic Senator Lee Slater Overman, of North Carolina was a forerunner of the House Un-American Activities Committee, formed twenty years later. Overman was an ad hoc subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary (of all things).² It operated from September 1918 to June 1919. Its charge was to investigate--wait for it--"pro-German sentiments" in the American liquor industry (the Octoberfest Revolution?).