p.

412-418

AMERICANS STRUGGLE WITH POSTWAR ISSUES

Objectives
Summarize the reaction in the United States to the perceived threat
of communism
Analyze the causes and effects of the quota system in the United
States
Describe some of the postwar conflicts between labor and
management

POSTWAR TRENDS
Nativism
Prejudice against foreign-born people

Isolationism
A policy of pulling away from
involvement in world affairs

FEAR OF COMMUNISM
The Red Scare

Communism
An economic government ruled by a
dictatorship
Karl Marxs version of extreme socialism
No private property
Government owns all factors of production

Lenins Bolsheviks established themselves

in the post revolution Russia

Communist Party in the United States

70,000 strong

A number of bombs were

mailed to government
and business leaders

Americans began to fear

a Communist take over

FEAR OF COMMUNISM
The Palmer Raids

A. Mitchell Palmer
U.S. Attorney General

J. Edgar Hoover
Appointed by Palmer as special assistant
Started to hunt down suspected
Communists
Socialists
Anarchists
People who opposed any form of government

Homes & offices invaded

Civil
Rights
Trampled Suspects jailed without legal council
100s of foreign-born radicals were deported

Palmers No evidence of revolutionary conspiracy

Raids Fail
Many thought Palmer has aims at the White House
and was using the raids as a jumping off point

FEAR OF COMMUNISM
May 1920 arrested and charged with murder of a factory paymaster and
guard in Massachusetts

Sacco and Vanzetti

Witnesses said the criminals appeared to Italian

Bartolomeo
Vanzetti

Nicola Sacco
Shoe maker

Both proclaimed their innocence and had alibis

Fish peddler

Avoided the
draft

Evidence was circumstantial - pointing indirectly toward someone's guilt

but not conclusively proving it.
Judge maid prejudicial remarks - harmful to someone or something

Anarchists

Found guilty and sentenced to death

LIMITING IMMIGRATION
Keep America for Americans
New
Immigrants

Southern and Eastern Europe

Willing to work for low wages in tough jobs

After WWI fewer unskilled workers were needed

Immigrants were seen as taking these jobs from
Americans
Postwar labor disputes were often immigrant anarchists
and socialist secret communists

LIMITING IMMIGRATION
The Klan Rises Again

Ku Klux Klan

Devoted to 100% Americanism

1924 4.5 million
Keep African-American in their place
Destroying saloons
Breaking up unions
Driving out
Catholics
Jews
Foreign born people

LIMITING IMMIGRATION
The Quota System
1919-1921

Immigration had grown 600%

140,000-805,000

Emergency Quota Act of 1921

Quota
System

Established a maximum number of people who

could enter the United States from each foreign
country

LIMITING IMMIGRATION
The Quota System (cont.)
Each European country was limited to 2% of the number of its
nationals living in the United States in 1890
Later was shifted to 1920
Law limited the total number of persons admitted to 150,000
The quota system did not effect the Western Hemisphere
500,000 Mexicans and Canadians came to America

A TIME OF LABOR UNREST

The Boston Police Strike
Had not had a raise since the start of the war

Could not unionize

Those reps who asked for a raise were fired
Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge called out the Nation
Guard
Strike ends and new policemen are hired

The Steel Mill Strike

U.S. Steel Corporation
Shorter working hours
Union recognition
Collective bargaining
is a process of negotiations between employers and a group of employees aimed at reaching
agreements to regulate working conditions.

300,000 workers walk off the job

Strikebreakers are brought in
Propaganda is used against union

Exposing of harsh working conditions finally helps the steel companies to an

eight-hour day

A TIME OF LABOR UNREST

The Coal Miners Strike
United Mine
Workers of America

John L.
Lewis

Organized since 1890

Leader of United Mine Workers of America

Organized a strike in 1919 to protest low wages and long hours

Attorney General Palmer has court order send workers back

Mines stayed closed another month

President Wilson appoints and

arbitrator
an independent person or body officially
appointed to settle a dispute

Coal miners receive 27% pay increase

Lewis becomes a national hero

A TIME OF LABOR UNREST

Labor Movement Loses Appeal

Sharp drop off in union membership

5 million - 3.5 million

Several reasons why

Immigrant work force

Organization problems
Individualism
Exclusion of African-Americans

Only 82,000 African-Americans were apart of a union

in 1929
1% of the African-American population
3% of the white population were in unions

A. Phillip Randolph
Founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porter
Helped gain fair wages for African-Americans

1. Why did Americans move towards isolationism?

2. How did Americans react to the perceived threat of Communism?
3. Why did the United States limit immigration?
4 How did anti-immigration sentiment strengthen the Ku Klux Klans attack on

minorities?
5. What was the quota system?

6. Why did conflict between labor and management increase after WWI?
7. Why did labor membership decline in the 1920s?