Hello Everyone!

We know many of you will be attending the 2014 PSP Dallas Open on March 14-16. While I'm sure a good portion are experienced event attendees, I imagine this will be the first time for some of you. So, I have conducted a little poll around the office to discern the most often overlooked and forgotten items needed while attending a professional paintball tournament.

1. - Sunscreen.
Trust us on this one. You WILL need sunscreen. There is usually very little shade at many paintball venues. So, unless you are going to spend all day in a booth, or you happened to snag some VIP tickets, sunscreen is an often overlooked must-have item. 

Remember, there is only a minor difference in UV protection once above SPF 30. So, even if you have 100 SPF sunscreen, you will need to reapply it periodically throughout the day.


2. - Sunglasses.
Once again, this is a must-have for all day events. UV ray damage is no joke, and long periods of exposure can cause permanent eye damage if you do not take proper precautions. 

To be clear, we are not suggesting that you spring for a $100 pair of sunglasses. A cheap pair of sunglasses will be perfectly serviceable in this role as long as they meet the following criteria:

100% protection against UVA and UVB rays -  Make sure the glasses say 100% and not just "protects against UV rays", because more often than not, glasses with a vague claim of protection only block the BARE MINIMUM amount of harmful UV rays required to protect them from a lawsuit.

Shatter Resistant or Z87.1 rated - This is a higher priority for those attending paintball events. While there are nets there to catch paintballs and protect spectators, stray paintballs do make their way over the nets from time to time. It is recommended to have a pair of sunglasses that can withstand a direct hit just in case.

Comfort is key - You're going to be wearing these sunglasses all day, make sure they fit correctly and don't squeeze your head or give you headaches after extended periods of wear. Just like paintball goggles, they can't protect your eyes if you don't wear them.


3. - Cash, not Credit.
Remember, most paintball and alternative sports events aren't often held in area with easy access to the internet. If the booth you are buying something from doesn't have internet connection via cell phone service or a wifi hot spot, then they will not be able to take credit or debit cards. Therefore, at venues such as this, cash is king. 

We suggest bringing as much cash as you are comfortable spending throughout the event. This will not only be more convenient, it will help to deter impulse buys and over-spending.


4. - Camera.
These events don't happen every day. So, enjoy the moment. Snap tons of photos with friends, of the newest gear, or even pro players you happen meet without draining your phone's battery.

The type camera you bring should also fit the occasion. Preferably bring a camera that is small, light, and has a long battery life. While professional level DSLRs deliver fantastic picture quality, some venues restrict their use to those with "press passes", which can be relatively expensive. 

Another issue with the use of DSLR cameras at an all-day event is the fact that you will be carrying it ALL DAY. So, unless you have a really comfortable strap, or are used to hauling a 2-3 pound camera around for hours, go with a simple point-and-shoot style of camera.

If you opt to use your phone for photos, you can also elect to bring a battery pack to charge your phone throughout the day. These handy little batteries can often take up less space than a point-and-shoot camera, but can typically only deliver 1-2 maximum charges. So, keep this in mind if your phone is a battery hog.

5. - Water and Snacks.
Another often forgotten aspect of all day outdoor events is the need to stay hydrated, especially in the summer months. During the day, you need to replace any fluids you lose due to sweat, and keeping a bottle of water close by will prove its value. 

Some venues prohibit bringing in food and drinks in an attempt to make you buy from the concessions stands. $3 bottles of water and $6 hamburgers can eat into your spending budget pretty quickly.  My advice is to check the event website for the venue's container policy beforehand. This will let you know if you need to pack extra cash for drinks and food or if you can save money by bringing in your own.

6. - Sharpie.
Alternative sports events, paintball in particular, are very laid back atmospheres. This coupled along with paintball players generally being very open and accessible can lead to the opportunity of meeting several professional players or important figures in the sport. This is a perfect opportunity to get something autographed by your favorite athlete or team.

To give an example of this, at last year's Dallas Open I found myself standing in line for tacos right next to former world champion, Todd Martinez of Paintball Access and Raza Life Sports. You truly never know who you may bump into.


7. -  Backpack.
If you're going to an event in a sport that you are interested in, chances are you are either going to find something to buy or some booths will be giving away freebies that you'll want to hang on to. 

A small backpack, or cinch bag, can really come in handy for all day events. Carrying around items you've purchased, water bottle, camera, sunscreen, and various other items can become unwieldy without the aid of a backpack or bag of some sort. 


Well, that wraps up our staff's 7 most overlooked items to bring to the PSP Dallas Open. If you have any additional ideas or suggestions, feel free to mention them in the comments section. We hope to see you all at PSP Dallas!

Thanks for reading!
-Ben

 
Executive Summary
KEE Action Sports is the most well rounded and fundamentally sound company in the paintball industry. However, the company has failed to capitalize on current marketing and advertising trends and is failing to separate from itself from its direct competitors due to this misstep. In order to surpass the competition and increase brand awareness beyond its current reach, KEE must make use of strategic partnerships with freelance videographers, non-paintball events that share common demographics, and even other action sports that could prove useful for cross-promotional purposes.
The company must revamp its current ad design, social media approach, shead its “big business” stigma, and address its lack of a consistent brand representation in order to raise its game to the next level. This Branding Campaign is authored with the intent of guiding the company in that next crucial step forward.
Brand Purpose
The most appropriate place to begin the discussion of this campaign is with a reminder of the company’s mission statement, and what it entails. “KEE Action Sports is dedicated to business owners, enthusiasts, and athletes who thrive on adrenaline. We have over 30 years of combined experience to work, produce, and supply the widest selection of top quality products with an unwavering commitment to customer satisfaction. KEE Action Sports is dedicated to providing top quality products for every level of experience” (“About Us”, 2014). The company’s goals are simple; to create and supply a top quality paintball product that will ensure a positive experience.
KEE Action Sports, while a titan in the paintball industry, still retains the small company atmosphere with approximately 170 full-time employees (Harrington, 2014). However, this small appearance is somewhat deceiving. The company is directly represented in Canada, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, and the United States, while maintaining multiple strategic partnerships throughout the globe, spanning from Mexico to China (“Contact Us – Stay in Touch!”, 2014). So, it is fair to say that KEE Action Sports excels at maximizing efficiency from their employees and properly utilizes partnerships to supplement any areas in which the company is light, or is in need of assistance. This willingness to form partnerships will prove vital to the success of this campaign going forward.
Within the United States, KEE is headquartered in Sewell, New Jersey, and has distribution centers in California, Arkansas, Florida, and Missouri (“Contact Us – Stay in Touch!”, 2014). This network of distribution centers is aimed at severely reducing the cost of shipment to dealers, both traditional and big-box. As an example of scale, the company’s newest and least established brand “JT Splatmaster”, which is aimed at children nine years of age and older, is already represented in over 200 traditional stores, as well as 4,000 big-box doors nationwide (Loco, 2013).
KEE’s overall brand positioning is fairly easily summed up by a quick breakdown of each brand. The brands are as follows:
Empire – KEE’s High to Mid-end focused paintball brand. Empire was first established in the paintball market place by its former owner National Paintball Supply in the early 2000s. Empire remains the highest profile and most well-known brand in KEE’s stable.
JT Paintball – A legendary brand in paintball. JT Sports was at one time, among the top brands in the paintball world. However, the company came upon hard times during the recession years of 2008 and was purchased in 2010 by KEE. The brand has since been refocused on providing Low to Mid-end gear with a few offerings that could be classified as High-end. What JT does best is soft-goods. Their Proflex mask has been a staple of the paintball world since their introduction in 2003.
Spyder – Formerly owned by Kingman, the Spyder name is among the most well-known to those even slightly acquainted with the paintball world. The Spyder name holds a unique position of having a long tenure, but not the best quality record. The brand is primarily focused on Low-end, entry level markers and soft goods, and is the sport’s introductory brand to many past, present, and future players.
JT Splatmaster – The newest addition to KEE’s product line. It serves as an off-shoot of their JT brand that is focused on bringing new, younger players into the sport. The Splatmaster brand is comprised of low-cost, non-air powered markers that shoot .50 caliber projectiles instead of the traditional .68 caliber. It is aimed at allowing kids that want to try paintball, but are too young or too scared to play an avenue into the sport. JT Splatmaster is a classic example of a grassroots strategy in practice.
The company’s structure is fairly traditional, with a CEO in place reporting to a board of directors. KEE is organized under LLC and is not a publicly traded company (“Company Overview”, 2014). KEE’s culture is very much reflective of its traditional structure. The company has a very close-knit, yet business focused culture internally. However, any warmth or personality the company possesses does not spill out into the eyes of the general public very often. There are no major personalities tied to the brand outside of sponsored teams and players. This has led to many consumers feeling that KEE is the “big business” of paintball, rather than part of the community. With this being said, KEE is by far the most well rounded and structurally sound company in the industry, which is displayed by the company’s holdings, brand positioning, and intellectual properties alone.
Brand Personality
            The concept of Brand Personality is the area in which KEE Action Sports falls behind its competitors. Currently there is no true “face of the brand” or even a single notable representative from within the company. The closest thing KEE has to a traditional brand ambassador is a rotating mix of the company’s sponsored professional paintball players.
While this approach makes sense in larger sports, professional paintball players do not carry the notoriety or media coverage that other mainstream sports players do. So, unless the audience follows professional paintball, the star power of the player is nullified. Also, the fact that there is no consistent representation by a select few charismatic players, but rather an indiscriminate assortment, negates any familiarity that the audience may build with the brand spokespersons.
Since the departure of lead product designer Simon Stevens in February 2013, KEE Action Sports has been without a consistent internal personality that is active and highly visible within the general paintball community (Abernathy, 2013). This has left the company without any form of recognizable or seemingly approachable individual to distribute the company’s message on various media outlets, as well as the very popular forums or message board sites that are ubiquitous throughout the paintball landscape. If there is a widespread issue with a KEE product in the near future, there is no voice emanating from the company that is recognized or respected by the community. This can severely hinder any attempts at damage control that the company may make in order to resolve the product issue.
Brand Status
            At this juncture KEE Action Sports sits in the most complete and well-rounded position it has held to-date. The company has a fantastic portfolio of patents, products, and a good reputation for customer service. However, the direct competition still remains quite fierce. Competitors like Planet Eclipse and Dye Precision are also in historically great position, possibly only being topped by the pre-recession era of 2002-2006. During the economic recession many sports took a hit in growth, and quite a few actually began to shrink, paintball being no exception (SFIA, 2013). The sport itself is inherently expensive to play, and that does not bode well during times of tight budgets and economic downturn. However, this regression was not limited to paintball alone, baseball, basketball, football, outdoor soccer, volleyball, and even fishing saw declines in participation during the 2007-2012 years (SFIA, 2013). However, paintball as a whole is beginning to stabilize and is slowly getting back on pace for the growth it displayed before the nation-wide economic crisis of recent years.
            As for indirect competition, other extreme or action sports such as skateboarding, skating, and snowboarding are all seen as the most similar to the sport of paintball and pose as the biggest competition for paintball’s primary demographic of males ages 14-24. However, the recent economic downturn has also taken its toll on these sports. Skateboarding is down 5.8% in total participation during 2007-2012 (SFIA, 2013). Inline skating is down 9.2% during 2007-2012 (SFIA, 2013). Snowboarding is still positive during 2007-2012 with 1.6%, but has lost 5.3% over the course of 2011-2012 (SFIA, 2013). So, after examining the numbers, it is fair to say that a large number of sports have shown a decline due to a plethora of reasons, the most prominent being the economic downturn.
SWOT Analysis
Strength – KEE Action Sports has a strong core of efficient business practices, a strong product portfolio, and a strong portfolio of intellectual properties to draw from during times of general instability. It is the most well rounded company in the industry.
Weakness – KEE Action Sports lacks a differentiating factor that many of its direct competitors have. KEE is a jack-of-all-trades, but a true master of none. This hurts the company’s popularity in a target demographic that is heavily influenced by flashy presentation and personality.
Opportunity – The consolidation of the paintball industry due to economic downturn has “cut the fat” off of a lot of the industry and left the strongest companies alive to reap the benefits of a once again wide-open and non-flooded market.
Threat – Direct competition is making headway into KEE’s market share with new, innovative products and a superior approach to consumer marketing.
PEST Analysis
Political – The biggest international political issue that faces paintball is the legality of the markers themselves. Several countries have outlawed airguns as weapons or severely restricted their usage. In Germany, markers are classified as weapons, but do not require a license or permit to buy. However, their usage is restricted to those 18 years of age or older (“MPs Rush”, 2009). Many paintball parks in Germany have adopted a “No Mil-Sim” policy, which basically means that no camouflage or markers that resemble actual firearms will be allowed (“Paintball Dodges”, 2009). These obstacles greatly hinder the potential for growth in these regions and will continue to negatively impact how successful paintball can be on the international stage.
Economical – The economic climate is improving, if only slightly since the recession that impacted both American and European markets. As the western markets continue to make positive strides, the more disposable income that will be available. Currently the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Russia are the four most prominent countries for the sport of paintball. Here is a quick breakdown of their economic standing according to the CIA World Factbook.
United States. – 79th in unemployment with 7.3%, 40th in inflation with 1.5%, 14th in GDP per capita with $52,800 (CIA World Factbook, 2014).
United Kingdom. – 76th in unemployment with 7.2%, 71st in inflation with 2.0%, 34th in GDP per capita with $37,300 (CIA World Factbook, 2014).
France. – 108th in unemployment with 10.20%, 21st in inflation with 0.9%, 39th in GDP per capita with $35,700 (CIA World Factbook, 2014).
Russia. – 55th in unemployment with 5.8% , 184th in inflation with 6.8%, 77th in GDP per capita with $18,100 (CIA World Factbook, 2014).
Social – As the world, the United States in particular, becomes more health conscious, the demand for active sports that promote a healthy lifestyle are on the rise. Paintball, when played in its more active, tournament format fits quite nicely into this niche. Matches last roughly 3 to 5 minutes and are very tiring due to the physical and fast-paced nature of the game. If this trend continues to grow worldwide, paintball may have an avenue for marketing itself as a health conscious activity in the near future.
Technological – Technologically, paintball is nearly even across the board. There is not a single company that dominates a majority of the technological aspects of the sport. Some companies do things better than others, but there is no drop off from country to country in their ability to produce products that are up to par with the current level of offerings on the market. As for the hosting and execution of events, there is no discernable difference in technology that makes European events below that of their American counterparts.
Brand Campaign Objectives
            The objectives of this branding campaign are quite simple. KEE Action Sports sits in a fantastic position from a financial standpoint, but is lagging behind in terms of the consumer facing side of the company. The following objectives will help to address this issue and help grow the company and the sport as a whole.

• Establish both internal and external spokespersons for the company.
• Show the personality and culture of the company to the general public through revamped advertising and a focus on telling the “KEE Story”.
• Embrace current market trends and become more forward-looking in advertising.
• Spread brand awareness through non-paintball partnerships that service our target demographic.
• Increase brand awareness in Europe through sponsorships of European professional teams.

Branding Campaign Strategies
            The strategy for this Branding Campaign will be to rework the current ad design efforts and utilize non-paintball partnerships to spread brand awareness, as well as general sport awareness to a larger audience of the target demographic in both the United States, as well as Europe. The current target audience is composed of young adults ages 14-24, primarily males. The reason for this specific demographic is due to this age group being a traditional consistent player-base for paintball. KEE Action Sports will need to further solidify its position within the core audience before further expanding to more niche demographics.
The target audience for this Branding Campaign will be quite broad, ranging from seasoned players, to those who have only heard of paintball in passing. While the primary focus will be on attracting new players, especially in the European market, the need to further service the current player-base remains ever prevalent.
            The main issue with KEE’s current approach is that it does not appeal to the target audience on the same level as the company’s direct competition does.  The current advertising efforts come off as a bit bland and lack distinct personality or differentiation. KEE’s ads are by far the most conservative and traditional in the industry, and at times can come off quite awkward when the company tries to increase the “cool” factor. The problem with this is that paintball is not a traditional sport, and traditional advertising often does not fit well with the sport’s current culture. If KEE wishes to gain the same rabid following as its competitors, namely Planet Eclipse and HK Army, then the company will have to embrace an advertising style that is more in line with what is popular among its target audience.
In order to attract new players to the sport, KEE will need to formulate partnerships with venues, events, and possibly other alternative sports that share similar demographics in order to generate interest in both the brand, and the sport. This cross promotion, coupled with the revamped advertisements, increased involvement in the European Millennium Series, and the selection of consistent, charismatic, and approachable spokespersons will expand the company’s reach, recognition, and overall popularity.
The current trends within the industry are a much larger and more interactive social media presence, a continuous direct dialog with players and dealers via message boards, and action-packed Youtube videos showcasing the company’s products, as well as recaps of sponsored team activities. KEE has attempted to catch up on these trends, but is currently floundering in the presentation and execution. This struggle to keep up has left the company’s efforts in this arena feeling outdated and forced, which has caused a disconnect between the company’s message and the target audience.
Branding Campaign Tactics
KEE Action Sports will be repositioning itself in the minds of the target audience as a positive and active part of the close-knit community, rather than the “big business” of paintball moniker that the company wears now. The product line is fantastic, the customer service is fantastic, and the many growth oriented programs the company has in place are fantastic. The only problem is that a large part of the community doesn’t know it, and feels that the company is not truly dedicated to the sport. No sweeping changes to the logo or structure of the company will need to be made for the implementation of this campaign. The company is doing a lot of things right, the message just needs to be put in a language and setting that is better suited for the target audience.
In order to catch up with the competition, and surpass them, KEE will first and foremost select a maximum of three individuals to represent the company in the majority of ads, videos, interviews, and on the ever popular paintball message boards. The preferred mix will be one individual from inside the company and two individual sponsored players that look to be part of the KEE family for quite a while. Charisma, passion, and the ability to diffuse polarizing discussions are at a premium for this position. Since this job will be equal parts promotion, public relations, and damage control; the company would benefit from being careful and deliberate in their selections.
As for the updating of KEE’s advertising efforts, an official partnership with freelance videographers such as Alex Hodge, a New Zealand based designer, may be in the company’s best interest due to the difficulty of capturing the style of editing and cinematography that is so popular among the target audience. This falls in line with one of KEE’s historic strengths, creating beneficial strategic partnerships.
In addition to this partnership, the company’s advertising efforts going forward should focus on showing KEE as part of the paintball community and the dedication to paintball that the company clearly possesses to anyone actually looking for it. An emphasis on telling the “KEE Story”, and detailing the company’s many growth oriented programs would help tremendously with this effort. The revitalization of an older, largely underused tagline “It’s what we do” would pair nicely with telling the general public of how KEE has worked to grow the sport and impart the feeling that the company is made of players who have experienced the difficulties that many of their audience currently face.
Another area where the company can improve is their international representation. KEE Action Sports is currently a Diamond level sponsor of the Millennium Series, the most prominent and well known paintball league in Europe. However, KEE is not the main sponsor of any of the teams competing on the professional level. This is a tremendous missed opportunity for the company. A similar situation would be if Adidas was the official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup, but all of the teams competing were wearing Nike while kicking around a Puma ball. If KEE wishes to showcase their brand and the excellence of their products on the European stage, then they will need to actually get the product itself out on the field. This means the sponsorship of a prominent team in the Millennium Series. Finding the right partnership between team and company will be the biggest challenge here. However, as stated before, if there is one area where KEE excels, it is the formulation of strategic partnerships. This partnership between team and company should be no different.
Additionally, if KEE wishes to expand its consumer base and grow the sport as a whole, a few strategic cross-promotional efforts would prove their usefulness rather quickly. One example would be if KEE Action Sports partnered with the Vans Warped Tour or the well renowned X-Games. Both of these organizations share a large amount of the same target audience and could prove wildly effective in spreading interest in both the brand, as well as the sport of paintball in general. The largest hurdle in a partnership such as this will primarily be a matter of determining mutual benefit. However, as previously stated multiple times before, negotiating these types of deals falls directly into KEE’s largest historic strength.

 
References
Unknown. (2009). MPs rush new gun law but back down from paintball ban. The Local: Germany’s News in English. Retrieved from http://www.thelocal.de/20090514/19275
Unknown. (2009). Paintball dodges bullet in Germany. AFP. Retrieved from 
http://archive.today/RQHee
CIA World Factbook. (2014. Economy [Data file]. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/rankorderguide.html
Harrington, J. (2014). Paintball Company KEE Action Sports closes Clearwater plant, cutting 109 jobs. Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved from 
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/workinglife/paintball-company-KEE-action-sports-closes-clearwater-plant-cutting-109/2163899
Loco, B. (2013). Interview with John Robinson, CEO of KEE. View From The Deadbox. Retrieved from 
http://viewfromthedeadbox.blogspot.com/2013/10/interview-with-john-robinson-ceo-of-KEE.html
Abernathy, L. (2013). Simon Stevens Leaves KEE Action Sports. SocialPaintball.com. Retrieved from 
http://socialpaintball.com/2013/02/22/simon-stevens-leaves-KEE-action-sports/
Unknown. (2014). Company Overview of KEE Action Sports, LLC. Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved from 
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=8024062
KEE Action Sports, LLC. (2014). Contact Us – Stay in Touch!. KEE Action Sports.com. Retrieved from http://www.keeactionsports.com/pages/contact
KEE Action Sports, LLC. (2014). About Us. KEE Action Sports.com. Retrieved from http://www.keeactionsports.com/pages/about
SFIA. (2013). 2013 Sports, Fitness and Leisure Activities Topline Participation Report. Retrieved from http://www.espn.go.com/pdf/2013/1113/espn_otl_sportsreport.pdf

June 28th 1914, Gavrilo Princip’s assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand set in motion a chain of events that forever altered the course of history.[1]  The assassination of the Austrian Archduke is what many point to as the key event that set the world ablaze for the next four years.[2]  This great fire known as World War I forever changed the political, economic, and social landscape of the countries involved.

The sprawling impact of World War I extended far beyond the battlefield, but little did the parties involved in this conflict know, one of the many unintended consequences of this war would heavily influence the remainder of the 20th century.  The fall of Tsarist Russia led to the rise of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or USSR, and with it the rise in popularity of socialism, communism, and Marxist thought.  These philosophies were cause for growing concern in diametrically opposed capitalist governments such as the United States of America.  The initial reaction to this propagation of Marxist thought during the years of 1918 to 1920 would come to be known as the First Red Scare.  During this period The Supreme Court, Federal Government, and several state governments all participated in a collective effort to impede the spread of an intellectual revolution that emanated from recently revolutionized Russia. The United States sought to achieve this impedance by enacting numerous restrictive measures with the intent of curbing the spread of these potentially disruptive ideas.  These actions were principally fueled by remnants of post-war hyper-nationalism, uncertainty about the future of labor relations, and nationwide hysteria spread through an increasingly xenophobic media.  This anxiety resulted in a substantial overreaction to the true threat level the country was facing, and inspired actions that had less of an impact on the intended target of radical intellectual contagion than they did on the American ideals and values that these actions had originally sought to protect. 

Over the course of 1917 to 1920 the United States saw a period of serious social, economic, and political unrest.  American entrance into World War I sparked public outcry against conscription and the end of the American policy of non-intervention.  This outcry led to public protests, riots, bombings, and growth in anti-war sentiment across the nation.[3]  In order to combat these concerning trends, as well as the threat of internal espionage, the United States passed the Espionage Act of 1917 as well as the Sedition Act of 1918.[4]  In addition to implementing wartime anti-espionage measures, these acts outlawed any negative speech that was directed towards America or the country’s involvement in the war, which severely limited protest rights within the country.[5] 

While the Great War ended in 1918, the civil unrest that had already begun to boil within the country did not subside, instead it intensified.  1919 would prove to be one of the most turbulent years in American history.  America would soon experience a wave of hostility that ranged from labor strikes and race riots, to a series of terroristic bombings.  By 1920, over twenty-four states had passed their own flavor of the Sedition Act, not for fear of spies, but for the act’s restrictive qualities.[6]  Some states went so far as to pass laws that banned flags containing the color red, or any known symbol of radicalism that could prove troublesome for the establishment.[7]  Of course, obvious exclusions were granted in this case of banned flags, the United States flag was foremost among these exemptions.  In January of 1920 five voter-elected representatives in the New York Assembly were forcibly expelled for the simple fact that they were socialists.[8]  The speaker of the Assembly, Thaddeus Sweet declared the five had been “elected on a platform that is absolutely inimical to the best interest of the state of New York and the United States.”[9]  It had become clear that soon any ideology that challenged the established tenants of American life were to become the targets of the United States government, namely ideologies associated with anarchism, socialism, and communism.

The popularization of Marxist thought is paramount amongst the causes for escalation in what would have otherwise been deemed a simple period of national growing pains and civil unrest.  The fear held by many was that the growth in the popularity of radical leftist ideals within America could lead to the destruction of the country’s traditional values and change the political, social, and economic landscape of the country forever.  America over the course of its history has regarded several doctrines as near-sacred; one of the most prominent of these is the economic institution of capitalism, the very foundation for the country’s financial system. 


[1] Lonnie Johnson, “Introducing Austria: A Short History.” (Riverside, CA.: Ariadne Press, 1989) 52-54.
[2] Ruth Henig, “The Origins of the First World War” (London: Routledge, 1989) 31.
[3] “Preparedness Day bombing in San Francisco,” History.com, accessed December 1, 2014, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/preparedness-day-bombing-in-san-francisco.
[4] Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Secrecy: The American Experience (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999), 89.
[5] Geoffrey R. Stone, Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004.), 541.
[6] F.G. Franklin, “Anti-Syndicalist Legislation” American Political Science Review, no. 14 (1920): 294-296.
[7] Franklin, “Anti-Syndicalist Legislation”, 291-298.
[8] Louis Waldman, Albany:The Crisis in Government: The History of the Suspension, Trial and Expulsion from the New York State Legislature in 1920 of the Five Socialist Assemblymen by Their Political Opponents (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1920), 2-7.
[9] Waldman, The Crisis in Government, 7.