20-1 Americans Struggle with Postwar Issues
pp. 590-595
Essential Question: What issues divided Americans after the war's end?
Subquestions:
a. What was the American reaction to the perceived threat of communism?
b. What key events or changes in other countries had a strong political/cultural impact in the US?
c. How did relations between labor and management change after the war?
d. Did tensions between security and civil liberties abate (reduce), increase, or stay the same after the war?
Starter Sources:
Class Zone ch. 20
Teacher Tube
Lots of YouTube videos are available on Sacco and Vanzetti. Some exist on the Palmer Raids, although they're not as good. Try to choose from a reputable source. Be very aware of perspective!
Cyclical rise of anti-immigrant groups, in this case the KKK
New YouTube post re: Teapot Dome 1:49 and informative on how the scandal went down
The Red Scare, or fear that Communists would take over the, invoked different reactions in Americans. After the Russian Revolution and the call for the international revolution, “70,000 radicals joined the newly formed Communist party in the United States.”(Danzer 591) Even though that was only a small part of the population, American citizens were still scared. Some reactions got so bad, explained by Senator Rusty Hills, that “some people saw Communists under their beds during the red scare.” (Quotesea.com) Because communists believed in exterminating private property, and giving all ownership rights to the government, it worried a lot of working class citizens. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer took a stance on the Scare, setting up raids to look for communist or anarchist plans. The Red Scare became a big part of society, taking over many American lives.
ReplyDeleteLink: http://www.quotesea.com/quotes/with/red-scare
Americans responded to the threat of communism with violence. Everyone accused everyone else of being a communist. See, it all started in Russia when communist speakers called for a worldwide revolution. To destroy the capitalist industry. It sparked panic in the United States. 70,000 radicals joined the newly formed Communist party in the United States. It was less than one-tenth of one percent of the American population, but it still scared the American people out of their wits. It didn’t help when several dozen bombs were mailed to government and business leaders, including the post master general and John D. Rockefeller. The nation panicked, saying that the “reds”, or communists, would take over America. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer called this the “Red Scare”. Riots broke out. People were branded as communists. All Hell broke loose. That was our lovely response to the impending threat of communism….
ReplyDeleteWhat key events or changes in other countries had a strong political/cultural impact in the US?
ReplyDeleteWhen Communisum broke out in 1917 in Russia the United States also got very shooken up by it. communisum as Donzar puts it is the economic and social system that espoused one political party and the idea that property is owned by the state. When Americans heard that President Warren G. Harding wanted "normalacy" they got scared of this and thought it was communisum. Which then lead to the Red Scare which was 70,000 radicals joined t form the Communist Party in the U.s. This scared most americans saying that they would "abolish private property and subsituting goveremtn ownership of factores." There is a picture that i cant seem to put up that says the red ice berg,having countries like china n. koria and poland in a tomb stone while uncle sam rides away in a boat like they got out of the thought of communisum. Just this picture shows that communisum was a great scare for people in america that it would take away everything that America shot for when they started. Another issue that happen from communisum is the Ku Klux Klan that says they were "100% Americanisum." and that they would put blacks "in their place" They used anticommunisum as an excuse to harras anyone unlike themselves. We would think that KKK would be gone by now but I read in the Inapolise News that the KKK put out a pamphlet in Rushville, Arlington telling black people to go away. It shows that still Communisum is influenced in America today in the smallest bit.
(sorry for long URL but here is the picture)http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://sociologysentiments.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/red-scare.jpg&imgrefurl=http://sociologysentiments.wordpress.com/2011/04/&usg=__JWO1wKTLlE5q1o4WXjVXkeollzQ=&h=735&w=510&sz=124&hl=en&start=0&sig2=wFQsCrgKKvfngtaaUePnlg&zoom=1&tbnid=1wqMcvCPwDlqzM:&tbnh=123&tbnw=85&ei=4obQTfLnNo7AgQfZ4fDADA&prev=/search%3Fq%3DThe%2Bred%2Bscare%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7TSNA%26biw%3D1095%26bih%3D562%26tbm%3Disch%26prmd%3Divns&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=653&vpy=76&dur=360&hovh=270&hovw=187&tx=129&ty=149&sqi=2&page=1&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0
The Palmer raids completely violated people's civil rights. A. Mitchell Palmer sent agents to hunt down suspected communists. These agents invaded homes, businesses and other private buildings wiht out search warrants. On page 593 Danzer added a quote by Palmer which stated addressed the danger of the communistic ideas entering the minds of Americans. Because of this security issue he believed the security of the people outweighed their civil rights. People rights had been violated more than in the war. Time magazine said the Palmer trampled on the constitution. He completely ignored people's civil in his pursuit of the "protection of those very people.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1858691_1858690_1858521,00.html
SQa: What was the American reaction to the perceived threat of communism?
ReplyDeleteEveryone got scared of the communists. They were referred to as “Reds” and the fear of them was (surprise, surprise) called the “Red Scare”. When A. Mitchell Palmer became Attorney General he “decided to take action” (Danzer, p591), taking action back then basically entailed just randomly tossing people in jail. (Yeah, I don’t get it either.) Most of these people never had proper trials. ( I imagine their logic went something like this, “Hmmm. You’re being different… Suspicious. Okay we’re throwing you in jail…”) Palmer also searched many houses for signs of a revolutionary conspiracy. His agents searched private homes, meeting halls and offices. Oh yeah, did I mention he never got search warrants for this?
Palmer warned that on May 1, 1920 the Communists would revolt. Oddly enough, nothing out of the ordinary happened on that day. The general public finally realized that this guy was crazy and pretty much ignored him after that. Then as Paul Burnett says, “The nation turned its collective attention to more leisurely pursuits.” (Is it just me or does that sound sarcastically ominous?)
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/saccov/redscare.html
How did relations between labor and management change after the war?
ReplyDeleteRelations between labor and management changed because many employees were wanting to join unions due to the fact that employers refused to raise wages even though they were making more money since before the war.
Some employees like Irving Fajans would try to spread the word of the unions even though they could lose their jobs just by being caught with pamphlets(Danzer 590). In 1919 there were over 3,000 strikes like the Boston Police(Danzer 593-595) Strike but that didn't help the unions because many Americans believed that unions supported communism and that lead to a decline in memberships after the Red Scare.
The U.S. had been growing an anti-immigrant attitude or nativist sentiment ever since the 1880's. New immigrants had been arriving from the southern and eastern parts of Europe. There feelings had been growing because people had been involved in post war disputes and were immigrant anarchists and socialists. Many Americans believed them to be radicals and Communists. The demand for unskilled labor had decreased after the war and nativists felt that there shouldn't be so many immigrants in the U.S. By 1921 the number of immigrants in the U.S. had risen to a heart stopping 805,000. COngress decided to create the quota system. This established the maximum number of immigrants allowed into the U.S. from foreign countries. In 1924 the law limited immigration from the European countries to 2% of the nationals living in the U.S. in 1890. The quota system also discriminated against Roman Catholics and Jews along with others in eastern and southern Europe. The system did not apply to the western hemisphere however and many immigrants from Canada and Mexico began crossing the border. The U.S. wanted fewer immigrants to enter into their country and the quota system ultimately achieved their goal of cutting off eastern and southern Europe almost completely.
ReplyDeleteHere is a picture of what U.S. immigration looked like in 1921 and then in 1926.
http://www.phschool.com/curriculum_support/taks/images/PWU4ques10-11.jpg