Politics of the Roaring 20 s The Roaring

Politics of the Roaring 20 s

The Roaring 20’s 1920 -29 • Post War Issues – Economy – had to adjust from making guns to making butter again • Cost of living had doubled – Labor troubles • Jobs taken away from women and African Americans – given back to returning GIs

Isolationism • Did not want to get involved in another war like WWI – pulled away from world affairs – Feelings of nativism (prejudice against foreign born people) increased

Communism • Russian revolution – Lenin’s Bolsheviks overthrew tsar – established communist government in Russia

Red Scare • Fear of Communism led to the Red Scare – Palmer Raids – suspected communists were hunted down • Rights were taken away • Not one single credible threat was found

The “Red Scare” • “Fighting Quaker” Attorney Gen. Palmer led crusade against leftists with suspect allegiance, 6000 suspects held. • Dec. 1919: 249 alien radicals deported to Russia on the ship Buford. • Sept. 1920: Hysteria heightened by bomb on Wall Street.

Government actions • 1921 -The government had in the time issued immigration quotas to stop the flow of people entering the United States. • The Red Scare had brought fear of communism coming to the U. S. and the blame the foreigners. • Palmer Raids(1919 -1921) were accusations of about 150, 00 people

• Red Scare, 1919 to 1921, was a time of great upheaval…U. S. “scared out of their wits". Attorney General Mitchell Palmer • "Reds” as they were called, "Anarchists” or "Outside Foreign-Born Radical Agitators” (Communists). • Anti-red hysteria came about after WWI and the Russian Revolution. • 6, 000 immigrants the government suspected of being Communists were arrested (Palmer Raids) and 600 were deported or expelled from the U. S. • No due process was followed

The Red Scare Palmer Raids • Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer conducted the Palmer Raids which rounded up thousands of “communists”. Some 249 communists were sent back to Russia on the “Soviet Ark”. Labor Unions were also lumped together with communism.

A. Mitchell Palmer • Attorney General – Appointed in 1919 • Convinced that he needed to protect Americans from political radicals (communists)

A. Mitchell Palmer • Sent out government agents on illegal raids to hunt down suspected radicals • Targeted Atheists, Anarchists, and Communists • 100, 000 Deported without trials • Known as the Palmer Raids • Denial of people’s Civil and Political Rights • His popularity fell when warnings of a plot to overthrow the government were proven foolish

ACLU • As a result of the aforementioned, the ACLU or American Civil Liberties Union was formed by Felix Frankfurter

Sacco and Vanzetti • Italian anarchists • Charged with robbery and murder – convicted even though evidence was circumstantial • Executed

The “Red Scare” Several states passed criminal syndicalism laws: mere advocacy of violence for social change was criminalized. 1920: 5 NY legislators denied seats because they were Socialists. Conservative business owners used “scare” against labor: “open” shop was “American plan. ” What is an “open shop? ” 1921: Many regarded the conviction of Sacco & Vanzetti as a “judicial lynching” because they were Italians, atheists, anarchists, and draft dodgers.

Nativism and the Legal System-The Sacco-Vanzetti Case • 2 men shot and killed two employees of a shoe store in Braintree Ma, Robbing it of $15, 000. • Sacco and Vanzetti two Italian immigrants were arrested, charged, and tried for the crime. • Men were anarchists (someone who opposes all forms of government) • Sacco owned a gun similar to the one used in the crime- bullets matched. • No conclusive proof to their committing of the crime. • Both were found guilty and sentenced to death – Guilty or victims of prejudice? See reading

• Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian immigrants charged with murdering a guard and robbing a shoe factory in Braintree, Mass. • The trial lasted 1920 -1927. Convicted on circumstantial evidence, many believed they had been framed for the crime because of their anarchist and pro-union activities. • In this time period, anti-foreignism was high as well. • Liberals and radicals rallied around the two men, but they would be executed.

Sacco and Vanzetti • Symbolic example of discrimination against radical beliefs during the Red Scare

Great Migration • African Americans moved north to look for better job opportunities

Ku Klux Klan • Grows over Red Scare and anti-immigrant feelings • By 1924, the Klan had 4. 5 million members

"It is like writing history with Lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true. " -- President Woodrow Wilson

• ". . . the President was entirely unaware of the nature of the play before it was presented and at no time has expressed his approbation of it. "-Letter from J. M. Tumulty, secretary to President Wilson, to the Boston branch of the NAACP, which protested against the film's blackface villains and heroic Ku Klux Klanners.

Congress Limits Immigration • nativist pressure led to decision to limit immigration from southern and eastern Europe • The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 – set up a quota system to control and restrict immigration

Labor unrest • Strikes were outlawed during WWI • 1919 there were more than 3, 000 strikes involving 4 million workers – low wages

Labor Unions • Membership began dropping • Accused of being communists African Americans were excluded from many unions

Warren G. Harding Administration – Kellogg-Briand Pact - renounced war as a means of national policy (signed by 15 nations, but difficult to enforce) – Fordney Mc. Cumber Tariff – raised taxes on U. S. imports – made it hard foreign countries to sell goods in U. S. – Dawes Plan - solved problem of post-war debt - provided loans to Germany to pay France/Britain who then paid the U. S

Political Scandal – “Ohio gang” - Harding’s poker buddies who he set up in cabinet – Many in “gang” became corrupt through use of graft ( political favors) • Some were caught illegally selling government supplies to private companies

TEAPOT DOME SCANDAL • government set aside oil-rich public land in Teapot, WY • Secretary of Interior Albert Fall secretly leased the land to two oil companies • Fall received $400, 000 from the oil companies and a felony conviction from the courts

THE BUSINESS OF AMERICA • Calvin Coolidge - probusiness • His famous quote: “The chief business of the American people is business. . . the man who builds a factory builds a temple – the man who works there worships there” President Calvin Coolidge 1924 -1928

Life in the 1920 s • Age of consumption

Automobile • altered the American landscape and society • 80% of all registered motor vehicles in the world were in the U. S. • Urban sprawl – people could live farther from work

IMPACT OF THE AUTO Among the many changes were: • Paved roads, traffic lights • Motels, billboards • Home design • Gas stations, repair shops • Shopping centers • Freedom for rural families • Independence for women and young people • Cities like Detroit, Flint, Akron grew • By 1920 80% of world’s vehicles in U. S.

AIRLINE TRANSPORT BECOMES COMMON • The airline industry began as a mail carrying service and quickly “took off” • By 1927, Pan American Airways was making the transatlantic passenger flights When commercial flights began, all flight attendants were female and white

AMERICAN STANDARD OF LIVING SOARS • The years 1920 -1929 were prosperous ones for the U. S. • Americans owned 40% of the world’s wealth • The average annual income rose 35% during the 1920 s ($522 to $705) • Discretionary income increased

MODERN ADVERTISING EMERGES • Ad agencies no longer sought to merely “inform” the public about their products • They hired psychologists to study how best to appeal to Americans’ desire for youthfulness, beauty, health and wealth • “Say it with Flowers” slogan actually doubled sales between 1912 -1924

A SUPERFICIAL PROSPERITY • Many during the 1920 s believed the prosperity would go on forever • Wages, production, GNP, and the stock market all rose significantly • But. .

PROBLEMS ON THE HORIZON? • Businesses expanded recklessly • Iron & railroad industries faded • Farms nationwide suffered losses due to overproduction • Too much was bought on credit (installment plans) including stocks