Post War Issues 1919-1921

1. Post War Issues 1919-1921

2. From Victory to Reconversion • How will America Adjust to the massive changes of the post-war world?

3. Overview of Key Topics • Post WWI Issues • Politics and the Economy • The Business of America, Postwar Prosperity and Its Price • Changing Manners and Morals • Resistance to Modernity • The New Shared Mass Culture • Achievements in a Changing Culture/Postponed Promises

4. Essential Questions • What was the reaction in the US to the perceived threat of communism or radical ideas? • What were the causes and effects of the quota system? • What were some postwar conflicts between labor and management? Why did they occur?

5. Post War Situation • US Exhausted After WWI • US Divided over the League of Nations Issue ( 1920 Election) • Progressive Era brought major changes to American life • Economic Adjustments, Returning Soldiers, and Strikes • Cost of Living Doubled, Inflation • Decline in Farm/Factory Orders

6. The Election of 1920Republicans • Warren G. Harding (R) President Calvin Coolidge (R) Vice - President

7. The Election of 1920 * Should America join the newly form League of Nations? *Was making the world safe of democracy worth it? *Did the US need the idealism and post-war vision of President Wilson? *Were the disappointments of the post-war period what Americans expected?

9. “America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality.” …”My best judgment of America's needs is to steady down, to get squarely on our feet, to make sure of the right path. Let's get out of the fevered delirium of war, with the hallucination that all the money in the world is to be made in the madness of war and the wildness of its aftermath. Let us stop to consider that tranquillity at home is more precious than peace abroad, and that both our good fortune and our eminence are dependent on the normal forward stride of all the American people.”

10. The Election of 1920Democrats • James M. Cox (D) – President • Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) - VP

12. Election Results

13. Postwar Trends • American response to stress and post-war struggles: Fear! • Nativism – A prejudice against foreign-born people," You could not be 100% American!” • Isolationism – a policy of pulling away from involvement in world affairs.

14. Communist Fears • Communism – an economic and political system based on single party government ruled by a dictatorship. Gov. owns all property. Lenin, USSR 1917

15. The Red Scare in the US • The Panic began in 1919 after Lenin’s Bolsheviks over threw the Czar and the Provisional Gov. and created the USSR • 70,000 joined the Communist party of the US, some from the IWW or “Wobblies” • Mail bombs were mailed to gov. and business leaders, including Att.Gen.A. Mitchell Palmer

16. Palmer and J. Edgar Hoover

17. The Palmer Raids • Att. Gen. Mitchell A. Palmer appointed J.Edgar Hoover as a special assistant to hunt down suspected Communists, Socialists, Anarchists and Radicals. • They trampled civil rights, invaded homes, halls, and offices offered no legal counsel and deported hundreds. (SS Buford) “Soviet Ark” • No Conspiracy was found. Palmer was discredited.

18. Sacco and Vanzetti • Famous Victims of the Nativist Attitude in the US

19. Sacco and Vanzetti • Sacco was a shoemaker, Vanzetti a fish peddler • Both were Italian immigrants and anarchists • Both evaded the draft during WWI • In May 1920 both were arrested and charged with robbery and murder in Mass. The evidence was circumstantial. • Both were sentenced to death, Protests began • Both were electrocuted on Aug. 1927

21. Nativism and the KKK • Red Scare, Anti-immigrant feelings, and anti-communism gave bigots an excuse to harass anyone different from themselves • By 1924 membership in the KKK reached 4.5 million who claimed to be 100% American • They harassed Blacks, Catholics, Jews, and Immigrants

23. The Quota System • From 1919 – 1921 the number of immigrants had grown from 141,000 to 805,000 people. • The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 set up the quota system • It set a maximum number that could enter the US by country • It discriminated against Eastern and Southern Europeans, mainly Catholics and Jews

24. A Time Of Labor Unrest • In 1919 there were some 3,000 strikes in which 4 million workers walked off the job. • Striking Workers were labeled as Communists or radicals • Inflation was high yet employers wanted to keep wages down • Major Strikes caught Americans attention

25. The Boston Police Strike • Boston Police were given no raise and could not unionize • The police went on strike looting occurred, Gov. Calvin Coolidge called out the National Guard • New Police were hired, and Coolidge gained recognition • Should Public Services industries go on strike?

27. Governor Coolidge

28. The Steel Mill Strike • In Sept. 1919 Steel Workers wanted shorter hours, higher wages, union recognition and the right to collectively bargain. • 300,000 steel workers walked off the job • Strikers were beaten by police, federal troop and state militias. • An 8- Hour workday was granted, but no Union recognition.

29. Steel Strike 1919

30. The Coal Miners Strike • In 1919 the United Mine Workers (AFL) protested long work days and low wages • Union Leader John L. Lewis defined a court order to keep the strike going • Arbitration yielded a 27% pay increase for the miners, yet their workday remained the same. • 18 Strikers Killed

31. The Seattle Strike 1919 • In February 1919, a strike by city ship yard workers escalated into a city wide strike. • General Strike – Workers strike in may industries at the same time grinding the city to a halt. • 60,000 workers were out, Seattle was shut down • Strikers were denounced as communist, and radicals • US Troops went in, Work resumed