The Red Scare and Restriction of Immigration

The main political and social challenges facing America in 1920s

Why did immigration become such a major issue in American society?

• The Open Door• The purpose of the Open Door

policy was to make immigration as easy as possible. There was a mixture of people living in America during this period.

• The Early Immigrants• Native Americans • Black Americans• Eastern and southern Europeans• Hispanics• Asian people

•

Why did people want to come?• A combination of push and pull factors

made people immigrate to the USA. The push factors made people want to leave their own countries, and the pull factors attracted them to the USA. For example:

• escaping from poverty in their own country• escaping from political and economic

persecution• a promise of religious tolerance and a

chance to practice their faith safely• a plentiful supply of land and the hope of

owning property• creating a better life• a spirit of adventure, going to a country of

opportunity• equal opportunity

Who to blame?• Fearful middle class

Americans blamed any and all involved in potentially 'radical' activities; communist labor and socialists, unions, strikers (like those from the Industrial Workers of the World 1916-1917), newly arriving immigrants, progressives, anarchists, etc.

Why did immigration become such a major issue

in American society? People started feeling angry

towards these 'new' immigrants because:

• they were often poor• many were illiterate• many were Roman Catholics or

Jews, therefore from a different cultural and religious background

• the trauma of the First World War and the fear of Communism during the Red Scare in 1919, worried many Americans.

What was the Red Scare?

• Many Americans were frightened by the Communist Revolution that had happened in Russia in October 1917. The American Socialist Party and the American Communist Party were established during this period. Some believed that a communist revolution was going to happen in America, and the immigrants in America were under suspicion of being, perhaps, involved in plotting a revolution.

The Rise of Bolshevism

• 1917 The Bolsheviks, a Russian revolutionary group, created the world's first Communist nation after succeeding in overthrowing their previous form of government.The Revolution in Russia caused a lot of apprehension in the US, only strengthened by involvement in WWI and the influenza epidemic that followed; many Americans feared that Bolshevik and Communist sympathizers would attempt such a revolt in their country. People across the country began to become extremely paranoid about any kind of forward thinking or actions.

The first Red Scare (1919-1921)• In American history, the First Red Scare of 1919–

1920 was marked by a widespread fear of Bolshevism and anarchism. Concerns over the effects of radical political agitation in American society and alleged spread in the American Labor Movement, fueled the paranoia that defined the period.

• The First Red Scare had its origins in the hyper-nationalism of World War I. At the war's end, following the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, American authorities saw the threat of revolution in the actions of organized labor, including such disparate cases as the Seattle General Strike and the Boston Police Strike and then in the bomb campaign directed by anarchist groups at political and business leaders. Fueled by labor unrest and the anarchist bombings, and then spurred on by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer's attempt to suppress radical organizations, it was characterized by exaggerated rhetoric, illegal search and seizures, unwarranted arrests and detentions, and the deportation of several hundred suspected radicals and anarchists.

Bombings• Bombs exploded in major cities around the country, spurring

people's fear on to hysteria and xenophobia.- April 1919, the police discovered thirty-six bombs hidden in the mail, ready to be sent to prominent members of the economy and politics including: J. P. Morgan, J. D. Rockefeller, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, A. Mitchell Palmer, and a few other immigration officials.- 1919 eight bombs in eight different cities (including DC, the target Palmer) exploded simultaneously, confirming to some the suspicions that a nationwide conspiracy and communist/socialist revolution was brewing.

American Reactions• the US Congress passed three laws to restrict

immigration and each law in turn was more severe than the previous one.

• Literacy Test, 1917 – Immigrants had to pass a series of reading and writing tests. Many of the poorer immigrants, especially those from eastern Europe, had received no education and therefore failed the tests and were refused entry.

• The Emergency Quota Act, 1921 – A law which restricted the number of immigrants to 357,000 per year, and also set down a quota - only 3 per cent of the total population of any overseas group already in the USA in 1910 could come in after 1921.

• The National Origins Act, 1924 – This law reduced the maximum number of immigrants to 150,000 per year and cut the quota to 2 per cent, based on the population of the USA in 1890. The act was aimed at restricting southern and eastern Europeans immigrants. It also prohibited immigration from Asia and this angered the Chinese and Japanese communities that were already in the USA.

Source

• "[The] Red Scare [was] a nation-wide anti-radical hysteria provoked by a mounting fear and anxiety that a Bolshevik revolution... was imminent - a revolution that would change Church, home marriage, civility, and the American way of life." --historian L.B. Murray

Sacco and Vanzetti?• Happening around the same time was the

Sacco and Vanzetti Case- Sacco, Vanzetti = Italian immigrantswith anarchist beliefs- They were accused of murdering a paymaster and a security guardin South Braintree, MA- Their case is thought to have a tainted jury pool (against them), and questionable eyewitness accounts, unfair trials; many believe that merely because they were anarchists they were convicted of the crime- Both were died in the electric chair in 1927, even with multiple international attempts to secure them fair appeals- extreme example of the extreme fear people held, and how it blurred their sense of justice

A. Mitchell Palmer and the "Red Raids" (1919-1920)

• After many widespread bombings, Palmer, appointed by Wilson to be Attorney General in 1919, ordered the US Justice Department to begin the Palmer "Red Raids:"- "reds" = people suspected/arrested; named after the Russian communist flag- raids were supposed to locate and deport all radicals from the country before they could do any harm; they expected to find evidence of a mass conspiracy, but in reality they found very little supporting their theory, and only a few weapons- executed by his chief investigating officer, Edgar Hoover- took place across thirty eastern cities; six to ten thousand people were arrested on the basis of being potential radicals- arrest warrants were not issued until after those suspected were already held in jail- "due process of the law" was violated in almost all respects during this process

Who is A. Mitchell Palmer

• Palmer worked with officials from the Bureau of Immigration and used the 1918 Deportation Act to increase the number of people deported- 1918 Deportation Act authorized deportation of:1) anarchists and those opposing organized government.2) those wanting to overthrow the government by force3) members of any groups which supported or taught these views- Assistant Secretary of Labor, Louis F. Post, was one of the few at first who stood up to Palmer; he overruled numerous deportations he viewed to be unjust- controversy over Palmer's actions was widespread and very present in Congress. As time passed and no Mayday revolution was visibly occurred, people began to dismiss Palmer's credibility, and the scare calmed

Source• "My one desire is

to acquaint people like you with the real menace of evil-thinking which is the foundation of the Red movement."-- A. Mitchell Palmer