Lecture Notes 12/15/14
USA psot WWI/ issue
 Isolationism?
 Economy (Mass production)
 Red Scare
 Racial Unrest
 Immigration
 Re-birth of the KKK
Unrest begins in the US:
 Soldiers return, production slows
 Unemployment up and wages fall (S&D)
 Prices of good remain high
 Strikes erupt
 Anti-immigrant Backlash
 Isolationism backlash (anti-imm. And “Merchants of Death” protests
The First Red Scare
 1918-1621
 Increase in anarchist behavior
Bolshevik Revolution
 Russia 1917
 World’s first communist state created by Vladimir
 6-10 million died from war or famine….
Communism:
1. A theoretical economic system characterized by the collective ownership of property and by the organization of
labor for the common advantage of all members
2.
a. A system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often
authoritarian party olds power. Claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all gods
are equally shared by the people.
b. The Marxist- Leninist version of communist doctrine that advocates the overthrow of capitalism by the
revolution of the proletariat.
USSR (communism?):
 Gov’t owned all property
 1 political party (NO opposition)


US feared Communism:
 Anti-Capitalism
 Countered traditional Am. Values (1st Amendment)
 BUT
 WWI gave the gov’t:
o Critics were silences (E & S acts)
 Espionage and sedition acts
o Less freedom, more fear and suspicion….
Communist Party in USA:
 Communist party in Seattle WA organized a strike (1/21/ )

Communist Hysteria:
 Seattle Mayor orders local police and federal troops to stop the strike
 The time has come,” he said, “for the people in Seattle to show their Americanism… The anarchists in this
community shall not rule its affairs.”
 The national press called the general strike “Marxian” and “a revolutionary movement aimed at existing
government.” “It is only a middling step,” said the Chicago tribune, “from Petrograd (USSR) to Seattle.”
 30 bombs mailed to prominent politicians ( April 1919)
o Attorney General M. Palmer, judges, businessmen (John D. Rockefeller)
 May Day (5/1/19) – International workers say (USSR)
 8 larger bombs exploded almost simultaneously in several U.S. Cities (JUNE 1919)
o One used twenty points of dynamite, and all were wrapped or packages with heavy metal slugs designed
to act as shrapnel…
 Other strikes (coal and steel) followed by_______
Responses to the Red Scare
 Attorney General Palmer went after communists, socialists and anarchists
 Palmer Raids (Nov 1919): arresting US citizens and immigrants who were radicals
 1000’s arrested and 556 deported
Palmer Raids Undone:
 Newspapers mocked Palmer and his “hallucinations” and Clarence Darrow Called it the “May Day Scare”
 Over reacted
 Civil rights abuses: 6000 suspects imprisoned w/out chargers/lawyer
 Warren G. Harding elected President 1921 pardoned many of them
Sacco and Vanzetti (1921)
 “Judicial lynching” or a “Witch hunt?” (Italians, atheists, anarchists, and draft dodgers)?
May Day 1920
 Palmer said domestic radicals were “in direct connection and Unison” with European
Re-Birth of the KKK
 The Ku Klux Klan used anti-communism fears and antimmigrant feelings as an excuse to harass ethnic and
religious minorities
 By 1925, the Klan had 5 million member…
o Dominated some State’s politics
 March on Washington
 NAACP protests
They were Pro:
 They were anti…
o African Americans
 Anglo-Saxon
o Catholics
 “Native” Americans
o Jews
o Not the “Indians”
o Pacifist
 Men
o Communists
o Internationalists
o Evolutionists
o Bootlegging, Gambling, etc…..

Decline
o Tatics (burn crosses…
Immigration:
 1919-1921 immigration rose 600%
o (from 141,000 to 805, 000)
 Emergence Quota Act (1921): permitted only 3% of a nationality to enter
o Limiting the total number to 375,000 a year
Immigration act of 1924:
 Limited immigration from European countries to 2%
o Japanese prevented
o Canada and LA excepted
o Restricted Italians, Grees, Pols and Jews
o 1927 total number allowed reduced to 150,000