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 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 & Vanzetti  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’ 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 Appeal  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 Unions  Joined unions such as:  Mine workers’  Longshoremen’s  Railroad porters  A. Philip Randolph founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car unions (1925)