The Mysterious Mr. Maxwell and Room M-1: Clandestine Influences on American Postal Censorship during World War I

Abstract

Infrequently examined archival sources raise the possibility that British press mogul Lord Northcliffe and his country’s intelligence agents enabled America’s purging of journalistic dissent during World War I. William Maxwell—Northcliffe’s representative in the United States and a liaison with a British-funded spying ring—performed a pivotal role in suppressing America’s foreign-language press. He displayed a remarkable ability to install himself as the spearhead of the Post Office’s wartime monitoring and censorship activities in New York. The information he gathered also served the Department of Justice, the Bureau of Intelligence, the Military Intelligence Section, and the Office of Naval Intelligence. Maxwell later became a key advisor to the Post Office and lobbied to expand his responsibilities to include surveilling all of the country’s foreign-language publications.