The Red Scare
How anarchism, industrial unrest and antiimmigrant sentiment led to a crackdown
against “radicals”
Post World War I
 End of war brings end of labor shortage
and end of government contracts
 Corporations need fewer workers
 Returning soldiers need jobs
 Gains made by unions during war begin to
erode
 Immigrant labor needed during war now
seen as undesirable
1919-20: General Strikes
 Large strikes in Seattle, Boston, Pittsburgh
and other places cripple manufacturers
 Huge numbers of workers on strike
concern business owners, but not enough
for reform
 Many resent unions for strikes and begin to
blame union activism on “radicals” in the
IWW and other organizations
Anarchist Bomb Plots
 In 1919, several failed bombings are
directed at government officials and
business tycoons
 One attack is on the house of US Attorney
General A. Mitchell Palmer
 Although only bomber is killed, Palmer’s house
is destroyed and several people injured
A. Mitchell Palmer
 Presidential ambitions
 Wanted to use “Red
Hunting” to propel him
to White House
 As Attorney General,
created the General
Intelligence Division
to apprehend and
deport radicals
 Headed by J. Edgar
Hoover
Palmer Raids
 December 1919, 250 suspected radicals
rounded up and deported
 Including Emma Goldman
 January 2, 1920, over 4,000 arrests made
across the nation
 Most are IWW members
 Many held in secret locations and deported
without trial
Other Forms of Red Hunting
 Vigilantism
 American Legion formed in 1919
 “To uphold and defend the Constitution of the
United States of America; to maintain law and
order; to foster and perpetuate a one hundred
percent Americanism”
 State and local assemblies enacted
seditions laws making it illegal to say
anything “anti-American”
Sacco & Vanzetti
 Two Italian immigrant
anarchists tried for
murder during
botched robbery
 Trial a sham
(although Sacco, at
least, probably guilty)
 Became a cause for
anarchists
 Executed in 1927
Bartolomeo Vanzetti
Nicola Sacco
Wall Street Bombing
 September 16, 1920
 Horse & Buggy dynamite
bomb
 Over 30 killed, hundreds
wounded
 Note: “Remember we will
not tolerate any longer.
Free the political
prisoners or it will be sure
death for all of you.”
 Crime never solved
Red Scare Fizzles Out
 Palmer predicts attempted Communist
revolution on May 1, 1920 - never happens
 Many critical of “excesses” of raids
 Attacks on socialists viewed as
unwarranted - even by Palmer
 Unions are mostly cowed
 Americans want to think about other things