1. Postwar Controversy

2. Journal #101
What conditions led to the steel workers strike in 1919?

3. So many strikes, so little time…
1919- more than 3000 strikes
Wages hadn’t kept up with prices
Employers didn’t want to give raises; didn’t want employees to
join unions

4. So many strikes, so little time…
Employers began associating unions with revolution.
1919 – bombs were being mailed
Summer 1919 – full of labor unrest
Major strikes on May 1, or May Day
Fall – 2 major strikes closed steel mills and mines

5. Raids!
A. Mitchell Palmer, U.S. Attorney General, led raids at offices of anarchists as well as Communist and Socialist organizations.
Violated civil rights
Conducted w/o warrants

6. Palmer Raids Held w/o speaking to lawyer
Arrested friends & family w/o proof
Mostly targeted new immigrants

7. The Steel Workers Strike
September 1919
Steelworkers put in 12 hr days
2 shifts, every 2 weeks a worker “swung” to the day shift to the night shift – meaning worked 24 hrs a day.
Strike broken in Jan. 1920
18 workers killed by US Steel security police, state militia, and federal troops.

8. Outcome of the Steel Strike
By 1923 a report was published describing the conditions inside the mill
Report shocked people, mills adopted an 8 hr. day
Steel mills still were NOT organized

9. The Coal Miners’ turn John L. Lewis took over the United Mine Workers
Called a strike 11/1/1919
Told to end strike by Palmer
Continued it

10. Miners… Wilson sent in arbitrators Miners earned a 27% wage increase
Lewis became most loved and hated man in America

11. Sacco and Vanzetti Italian immigrants Arrested for payroll robbery
Dodged the WWI draft
Anarchists
Arrested for payroll robbery
Little evidence against them
Found guilty & sentenced to death
Protests all over US and world
Electrocuted 8/23/27

12. Normalcy? Warren G. Harding elected in 1920
Not too well liked
Calvin Coolidge was his VP
Harding called for a “return to normalcy”
Simple days before the Progressive Era

13. The Cabinet Charles Evans Hughes – Secretary of State
Herbert Hoover – Secretary of Commerce
Andrew Mellon – Secretary of Treasury
“Ohio Gang” – President’s poker-playing buddies who
Harding
placed in his
cabinet

14. Five-Power Treaty All major powers invited except USSR
Led by Hughes set of concrete ideas
10 yr naval holiday - no building war ships
5 major powers reduce naval fleets
Proposals accepted
Establish balanced forces in Pacific

15. Washington Naval Conference
US, GB, Japan, & France
Respect each other’s interests in the Pacific
Held off another arms race
Failed to reduce #s of subs & small vessels

16. Issues with $$
Harding demanded full repayment from GB and France for $$ lent during the war
Fordney – McCumber Tariff Act
Highest rate to date
Keep foreign goods out of the market
Caused France and GB to be unable to pay debt

17. Dawes Plan
US lent Germany $2.5 billion; Germany paid GB and France $2 billion; GB and France paid the US $2.6 billion.

18. Immigration issues
Emergency Quota Act of 1921 = introduced a quota system based on nationality
Immigration Act of 1924 = each European nation was given a quota of 2% of the # of nationals who were living in the US since 1890
Discriminated against those from E & S Europe
Also excluded Japanese immigrants

19. Scandal! Teapot Dome Scandal – naval oil reserves
Oil reserves at Teapot Dome, WY set aside for Naval use
Sec. of Interior Albert Fall transferred it to his dept.
Leased land to 2 oil companies
Caught, fined and jailed
Harding became ill, dies 1923