1920s Honors Homework

The Red Scare reflected the fear of Americans which they had of communists infiltrating the US government. Sacco and Vanzetti’s arrest and execution made foreigners fear America even more, especially the anarchists. This caused worldwide dispute over whether they were given

The Red scare was a series of witch hunts for suspected communist sympathetic members of congress and public office holding Citizens who were supposedly “Red” this lasted from (1919-1920) started by the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. During the first war the Red Scared was represented the widespread concern that Americans had developed over the fear of communist subversion within society. The American people went into a mass hysteric frenzy over the news and many

The First and Second Red Scare of the United States paved the way for a long standing fear of communism and proved to be one of America’s largest periods of mass hysteria. Throughout the years authors and analysts have studied and formed expository albeit argumentative books and articles in an attempt to further understand this period of time; the mindset held during this period however is shown to be completely different compared to now.

127) Fear is the most primal instinct. It causes people to do and act in certain ways in which they are not accustomed. It can turn brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, politician against politician, and country against country. Fear instigates panic. It was that panic that prompted the Palmer Raids. The Palmer Raids were started by A. Mitchel Palmer. He felt that in order to keep the American values in tact communism had to be out of the picture. Palmer believed that communism was "eating its way into the American workman". He thought it was the root of all evils in his society. Palmer felt that communism was "seeking to replace marriage vows with libertine laws, burning up the foundations of society". In December of 1919, in their most famous act, Palmer's agents seized 249 resident aliens. Those seized were placed on board a ship, the Buford, bound for the Soviet Union. Deportees included Emma Goldman the feminist, anarchist and writer who later recalled the deportation in her autobiography. Another reason for the Red Scare was the strike held by mine workers. They were thought to be making threatening moves against the Capitalist system through subversive Socialist organizations. These strikes were part of a series of events taking place in 1919. This strike,

“For much of the twentieth century, one of the nation’s deepest fears was that legions of Communist agents had infiltrated American society…” (Hillstrom 5). Throughout American history, it was not unusual for a minority group to be oppressed. “Native” American citizens were quick to make assumptions about “non-native” groups, viewing them as inferior or even threatening. In the years after World War I, when the first Red Scare began, the groups of concern were reformers, radicals, and Communists. This led to a series of raids, called the Palmer Raids, which targeted anyone who was suspected to have had these beliefs. The Palmer Raids of the early 1900s were an expression of America’s nativist attitudes, resulting in

The Red Scare is the rounding up and deportation of several hundred immigrates of radical political views by the federal government in 1919 and 1920. Certain causes that led up to this event was the fact that the United States feared the fact that certain immigrants embraced communist, socialist, and anarchist ideology. The Red Scare later led to the impact of the fear of communism. Today this event is remembered all over the world for is impact that it made on every person society.

Having previous experience dealing with aliens, Palmer took seriously to threats of communism overthrowing the country and decided to act on this, thus leading to the Palmer Raids. In his 1920 forum, “The Case against the ‘Reds’”, Palmer defends America from the communists declaring that the communists are “…preaching of anarchy and sedition…advising the defiance of law…” and encouraging the destruction of property. This primary document written by Palmer, set communists up as criminals stating that “robbery, not war, is the ideal of communism…” and that it is “…the American Government[s]…” job to prevent this . By gaining support of fellow Americans, Palmer helps further exploit the communist party and extract fear into the American minds.

In the 1950’s, Senator Joseph McCarthy turned Americans against each other by installing fear in the people regarding toward Communism. During this time, in fact, people were getting blacklisted even if they weren't communist. In an incident at the Republican Women’s Club of Wheeling, McCarthy delivered a speech. The situation involving the Senator escalated when he stated that the State Department is infested with Communist. In this point in time, due to the false allegations, people went on a decade long period of witch hunts. Sam Roberts, the author of “A Decade of Fear” stated that in fact, “...thousands of alleged Communists in the U.S. were arrested and deported during what became known as the Red Scare.”

During the 1920s, America’s economy was terrible. The culture of the 1920s played a big role in causing the stock market crash of 1929. According to the The Roaring Twenties Bubble & Stock Market Crash article, it states “The 1920s marked a decade of increasing conveniences that were made available to the middle class. By and large Americans as a whole were weary of war and looking for a way to put the horrors of the last few years behind them. New products made chores around the home easier and resulted in increased leisure time”. This means the once expensive items were now affordable for middle class because of Americans buying things on credit. This method is described as buy now and pay later. But soon, more Americans used this paying

In June 1919, several cities were bombed. Including the home of Attorney General of the United States, A. Mitchell Palmer. The raids were conducted in the following cities: Cleveland, Denver, Des Moines, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Hartford, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Louisville, Milwaukee, Newark, Omaha, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland (Mass.), Syracuse, Toledo, and Trenton. Many believed the cause of the raids were because of the “Reds” (communist) tried to take over our government. “On December 31, 1919, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer stated: Any movement, however cloaked or dissembled, designed to undermine the government will be met with unflinching, persistent, aggressive warfare” (Cayton 1). The consequences Palmer promised surely were met.

"Fully 90 percent of the Communist and Anarchist agitation is traceable to aliens." Through the use of the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 Palmer began his campaign against this threat against our government. Palmer used this legislation as justification of his actions. The best example of Palmers manipulation of the law to take normally illegal action against suspects was on January 2nd 1920. Palmer had federal agents round up thousands of suspected subversives without respecting those individuals' constitutional rights as American citizens. This was not the first time in our history that the government has backed the unnecessary persecution of a group of people based on fear that they would eventually take over the United States and change the American way of life. One event in history that has similar attributes to this period is the passing of the Chinese exclusion act. These two occurrences, although for different reasons, were very similar in the tactics that were employed to enforce and justify superfluous panic.

The United States wrongly deported and imprisoned many who did not agree with the values they believed. Foreigners were mostly affected through this, a specifc time, 1919-1920 the Palmer raids began to surface. In the document "The Case Against the "Reds", it elaborated on the views of A. Mitchell Palmer. Palmer believed that thousands of "aliens" supported communism and he would deport and imprison those who supported radical ideas. No actual evidence to support this belief just a broad statement. In the document "Emma Goldman Deportation Statement" Emma believes that the deportations were unjustified and used communism as an excuse to deport people who did not support the country.

With the power of the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 Palmer began to arrest and deport aliens based on their political beliefs because no one was allowed to speak against the government especially during times of war. Over 6,000 suspected communist were arrested due to suspected rebellious movements. This was known as the “Palmer Raids”. Mitchell Palmer accused and identified immigrants who were communist because he wanted to keep democracy safe; raids were meant to determine suspected communists to deport them. Immediately after World War 1, the first Red Scare erupted. The American public was scared that communism would enter the United States. Left-wing supporters were suspected. During the Red Scare, two Italian men Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested for murder and were suspected to be anarchists, even though there was no evidence to support this. Many struggles came along with the Palmer Raids and the Red Scare such as trying to contain communism and dealing with

Their belief that the purchase of all these wonderful new items, which they could not afford, would improve their lives resulted in a massive increase in sales. The introduction of easily accessible consumer credit and installment plans enabled these purchases and resulted in a significant increase in consumer debt, along with an equally significant decrease in consumer savings. In reality, the people were buying goods they could not afford with money that was not theirs to spend. An example of American consumerism in the 1920s was the purchase of cars. During this period over 60% of Americans purchased their cars on

Following World War I, America turned inward and began to focus on itself. Yet, coming home from war Americans were also fearful of communism due to the recent Bolshevik Revolution where Lenin and the Bolshevik party gained control of Russia and made it communist. This scare led to drastic changes within our nation’s borders as America fought to keep communist influence out of its borders. This was such an impactful event that even the Attorney General of the time, A. Mitchell Palmer, set up a section in the Justice Department to handle issues relating to radicals, this sect of the Justice Department would be very active as, “More than ten thousand people were arrested—some for membership in Communist or left-wing groups, others on no greater pretext than that they looked or sounded foreign—and then jailed and interrogated with little regard for their right to due process” (Lehman, Phelps 260). This severe response to the scare of Communism demonstrates an inward focusing of America. Similarly, in the post-World War I time period America would demonstrate its interest in nativism which it would demonstrate through multiple acts being passed on immigration primarily, the Immigration Act of 1924. During this period of nativism, “Through the whole movement, from 1921 on, for more drastic curbs on the new immigration ran an increasingly assertive racial nativism” (Higham 313). That is America had