Palmer Raids & Election of 1920Olivia Herrera Tom SchumacherCorey Sautner Josh Grunden

Setting the Scene Bolshevik revolution in Russia – 1917 Rise of communist party Created suspicion in America of socialist thinkers

What’s the dealio in America? strikes over steelworkers, prohibition, women’s suffrage, and

other current issues Many suspected anarchists in strikes to be emulating the

Russian revolutionaries

Attorney General Palmer Alexander Mitchell Palmer (May 4, 1872 - May 11, 1936) Upset with Wilson’s non-violent stance on socialists Actively wrote and spoke out against Bolshevik intentions

and American strikers “The blaze of revolution was sweeping over every American

institution of law and order…eating its way into the homes of the American workman, its sharp tongues of revolutionary heat…licking at the altars of churches, leaping into the belfry of school bell, crawling into the sacred corners of American homes…burning up the foundations of society.”

Palmer Raids Overall, Palmer orchestrated the arrests and deportations of

thousands of Americans he suspected as a blight to society Provoked after an anarchist bomb destroyed half of Palmer’s

Washington D.C. home Most of these were presumed socialists/communists December 1919: deported 249 people on the Buford ship to

Russia, enticing them by calling it “Workman’s Heaven” By January of 1920, arrested 4,000 people and deported 500 He also ordered police and federal marshalls to raid

suspects’ homes and destroy socialist institutions

Election of 1920 Palmer tried to gain Democratic nomination, but failed in

primary due to his ultra-American views James M. Cox of Ohio won nomination, and ran with FDR

against Warren G. Harding, who ran with Calvin Coolidge

Main Issues Harding wanted to return to a normal state, after Wilson’s

turbulent final term Republicans favored entry into League of Nations, while

Democrats opposed it Cox focused more on slander than on the real issues at hand

Election Results Harding won the electoral vote 404 to 127 and the popular

vote 16,144,093 to 9,139, 661 Harding not fit to be president due to his equivocation on

important issues and corrupt appointed officials Died in office, allowed Coolidge to take helm