Americans Struggle with Postwar Issues

1
Americans Struggle with Postwar Issues

• Not everything is rosy even though we won

2
Goals

• Summarize the reaction in the United States to
  the perceived threat of Communism.
• Analyze the causes and effects of the quota
  system in the US.
• Describe some of the postwar conflicts between
  labor and managements.

3
Postwar Trends

• Problems in the postwar era included
• 1. exhausted from war effort
• 2. divided over League of Nations
• 3. lives changed by Progressives

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Postwar Trends

• 4. cost of living had doubled
• 5. workers lost jobs as war orders stopped
• How did Americans respond?

5
Postwar Trends

• Developed a fear of outsiders
• 1. nativism was revived prejudice against foreign
  born people
• 2. isolationism- believed US needed to pull away
  from World Affairs

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Communism

• Big worry was the threat of communism
• Communism was anti-capitalism and democracy
• 1. single party dictatorship

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Communism

• 2. ended private property
• 3. gave government ownership of large industries
• GOAL to equalize wealth and power

8
The Red Scare

• USSR formed in 1919, Communist party in US 70,000
  people joined
• Bombs were mailed to government offices and
  business leaders
• US Attorney General Palmer took control

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Palmer Raids

• What did Palmer do to combat the red scare?
• 1. appointed J. Edgar Hoover his special
  assistant
• 2. hunted down socialists, anarchists, and
  communists

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Palmer Raids

• 3. hunted down anyone who disagreed with the
  government
• 4. raided houses, took away civil liberties, and
  jailed people without lawyers
• 5. hundreds were deported without trials

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Palmer Raids

• Palmer claimed there was a revolutionary
  conspiracy
• As time went on no evidence led to public to
  ignore him

12
Sacco and Vanzetti

• Nativism reared its head in antiimmigrant acts
• Sacco and Vanzetti were Italians who dodged the
  draft
• May 1920 arrested and charged with murder of a
  paymaster at a factory

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Sacco and Vanzetti

• Evidence was bad, judge was prejudiced but they
  were convicted
• Protests broke out across the US felt they were
  picked on for being immigrants or radical beliefs
• Both died in electric chair August 23, 1923

14
Nativism

• Nativist wanted to keep America or the Americans
  and limit immigration
• The economy did not need unskilled workers
• Believed socialists, communists, and anarchist
  were the cause of labor disputes

15
Nativism

• Also believed some groups were inferior
• Some scientists backed this belief like Madison
  Grant

16
KKK

• A nativist group believed in 100 Americans,
  white male native born citizens
• Believed in keeping blacks, Catholics, and Jews
  in their place
• Destroyed saloons, opposed unions, and drove
  groups out of the country

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KKK

• Paid members to recruit into world of ritual and
  racial violence
• Controlled politics in many southern states (
  Indiana also)
• By the end of the 20s criminal activity led to
  decrease in power

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Quota system

• Natvist began to pressure congress to limit
  immigration
• 1919 to 1921 had grown 600 percent
• Congress gave in and setup a quota system

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Quota system

• Limited immigrants from certain areas mostly
  south and eastern Europe
• Emergency Quota Act 1921 set limits for each
  country
• Amended in 1924 but discriminated against some
  groups like

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Quota system

• Roman Catholics and Jews
• By 1927 only 150,00 people were allowed to enter
  the US each year
• Law also stopped all Japanese immigration, Japan
  was upset

21
Quota System

• Did not apply to western hemisphere in 20s over
  500,000 from Mexico, 1 million Canadians

22
Labor Unrest

• During the war labor and business worked together
  for the war effort
• In 1919 there were 3,000 strikes, 4 million
  workers walked off the job
• Employers labeled the worker communist, did not
  want to raise wages

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Labor Unrest

• 3 big strikes caught the attention of the public
• 1. Boston Police Strike-
• No raise since start of WWI
• Could not unionize
• Some asked for raise and were fired

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Labor Unrest

• MA governor Calvin Coolidge called the national
  guard
• The strike was broken, all were fired, new police
  took their jobs
• Coolidge won acclaim and became VP in 1920

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Labor Unrest

• 2. Steel Mill strike
• Wanted to negotiate for shorted hours and a
  living wage
• Management refused to meet
• 300,000 walked off their jobs
• Violence erupted after scabs were hired

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Labor Unrest

• Ended in January 1920 after Wilson plead
• 1923 report on conditions was leaked and Steel
  companies allowed 8 hour day
• Still no union

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Labor Unrest

• 3. Coal Miners strike
• 1919 United Mine workers leader John Lewis called
  a strike
• Low wages and long hours
• Defied a court order to return to work
• Given a 27 percent raise

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Labor fades

• Unions in the 1920s declined for several
  reasons
• 1. workers were poor immigrants and willing to
  work
• 2. immigrants hard to organize due to language
  issues

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Labor Fades

• 3. farmers who migrated to cities were used to
  self reliance
• 4. most unions excluded AAs
• Membership dropped from 5 m to 3.5 m