Post War TrendsPost War Trends

Nativism: Prejudice against foreign-born people

Isolationism: a policy of pulling away from involvement in world affairs

Economy in a difficult state of adjustment Returning soldiers faced unemployment Took their old jobs away from women and

minorities Cost of living doubled Wartime orders diminished

Fear of CommunismFear of Communism

Communism: an economic and political system based on a single-party government ruled by a dictatorship Want to equalize wealth and power

Ended to private property Government ownership of factories, railroads,

and other business

Red ScareRed Scare

Red Scare: name given to the panic in the United States began in 1919, after revolutionaries in Russia overthrew the czarist regime Communists cried out for a worldwide revolution that

would abolish capitalism everywhere

A Communist Party in the A Communist Party in the U.S.?U.S.?

70,000 radicals joined and some of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

Several dozen bombs were mailed to government and business leaders

Palmer RaidsPalmer Raids

August 1919, U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and J. Edgar Hoover with the help of their agents would hunt down suspected Communists, Socialists, and anarchists Anarchists: people who oppose any form of

government These raids trampled people’s civil rights, invaded

private homes and offices, and jailed suspects without allowing legal counsel

Palmer RaidsPalmer Raids

Hundreds of foreign-born radicals were deported without trials

Palmer raids failed to turn up evidence of a revolutionary conspiracy

Palmer Raids caused a problem in Hollywood Actors or Actresses became Black listed

Sacco & VanzettiSacco & Vanzetti

Red Scare fed people’s suspicions of foreigners and immigrants

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, a shoemaker and a fish peddler Both were Italian immigrants and anarchists Both evaded the draft during W.W.I. May 1920 Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested and

charged with murder/robbery of a factory paymaster and his guard in Braintree, Massachusetts

Sacco & Sacco & VanzettiVanzetti

Witnesses said criminals appeared Italian

Sacco and Vanzetti provided alibis and asserted their innocence

Evidence against was circumstantial

Judge made prejudice remarks

Found guilt sentenced to death

Died in the Electric chair August 23, 1927

Limiting ImmigrationLimiting Immigration

“Keep America for Americans”

Many new immigrants were willing to work for lower wages in coal mines, steel mills, and textiles

After W.W.I. unskilled labor decreased in U.S. so fewer immigrants should be allowed in the U.S.

Quota SystemQuota System

Congress, in response to nativist pressure and decided to limit immigration from certain countries, especially southern and eastern Europe

Emergency Quota Act of 1921 set up the quota system System established the maximum number of people

who could enter the United States from each foreign country

The goal was to cut sharply European immigration to the United States

Quota SystemQuota System

Amended in 1924 Law limited immigration from each European

nation to 2% of the number of its nationals living in the United States in 1890 Provision discriminated against mostly Roman

Catholics and Jews who did not start coming over to the U.S. in large numbers until after 1890

Base year was later shifted to 1920 Law also reduced the total number of people

allowed to be admitted in any one year to 150,000

Quota SystemQuota System

Law prohibited Japanese immigration Caused ill will between Japan and the U.S.

The national origins quota system did not apply to immigrants from the Western Hemisphere

Ku Klux KlanKu Klux Klan

The Red Scare and Anti-Immigrant feelings used anti-communism as an excuse to harass any group unlike themselves By 1924, membership reached 4.5 million Believed in keeping blacks “in their place”

Destroying saloons Opposing unions Driving Roman Catholics, Jews and foreign-born

people out of the country The Klan dominated state politics in many states By late 1920s its criminal activity led to a decrease

in power

Labor UnrestLabor Unrest

Severe postwar conflict formed between labor and management

During the war, were there any strikes?

Labor UnrestLabor Unrest

During the war, government wouldn’t allow workers to strike because nothing could interfere with the war effort

American Federation of Labor (AFL) pledged to avoid strikes

Employers didn’t want to give raises nor did they want employees to join unions

Employers labeled striking workers as Communists

Boston Police StrikeBoston Police Strike

Boston police did not get a raise since the start of W.W.I.

Among their grievances was they were not allowed the right to unionize Representatives asked for a raise and were fired

The rest of the force decided to strike Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge called the

National Guard out Strike ended and the police were fired and new

policemen were hired

Steel Mill StrikeSteel Mill Strike

Workers wanted the right to negotiate for shorter working hours and a living wage

Wanted Union recognition and collective bargaining rights

U.S. Steel Corporation refused to meet with union reps

Steel companies hired strike breakers and used force Strike breakers: employees who agreed to work

during the strike

Steel Mill StrikeSteel Mill Strike

Striking workers were beaten by police, federal troops, and state militias

Propaganda campaign labeling striking workers as communists

Strike ended January 1920

1923 conditions were exposed and companies agreed to an 8 hour day but workers remained without a union

Coal Miners’ StrikeCoal Miners’ Strike

Unionism were more successful in the coalfields

1919 United Mine Workers of America got a new leader, John L. Lewis

Protested low wages and long workdays

Union member strike

Attorney General Palmer got a court order to send miners back to work

Despite order, coal mines stayed closed

Coal miners received a pay raise but not a shorter day until 1930s

Labor Movement Loses Labor Movement Loses AppealAppeal

Union Membership declined Work force consisted of immigrants willing to

work in poor conditions Immigrants spoke a multitude of languages

making it hard to organize them Farmers had migrated to cities and were used

to relying on themselves Most unions excluded African Americans

African American Labor African American Labor UnionsUnions

Joined unions such as: Mine workers’ Longshoremen’s Railroad porters

A. Philip Randolph founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car unions (1925)