The Transition to Peace: 1919-1921
Economic Hardship and Labor Upheaval During the Transition to Peace
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Economic Upheaval
Demobilization proved chaotic and violent. Rather than consenting to the appointment of commission members to counter Republican gains in the Senate, Wilson favored the prompt dismantling of wartime boards and regulatory agencies. The military discharged four million soldiers with little planning or money and few benefits. A wartime bubble in farm prices burst, leaving many farmers bankrupt or deeply in debt after purchasing new land. Major strikes in the steel, coal, and meatpacking industries followed in 1919. An economic recession hit much of the world in the aftermath of World War I. In many countries, especially those in North America, growth was continual during the war as nations mobilized their economies. After the war ended, however, the global economy began to decline. In the United States, 1918–1919 included a modest economic retreat, but the next year saw a mild recovery. Yet a more severe recession hit the United States in 1920 and 1921 when the global economy as a whole fell sharply. |
Labor and Race Tensions
Rapid demobilization of the military had occurred without plans to absorb veterans, both African American and white. With the manpower mobilization of World War I and immigration from Europe cut off, the industrial cities of the American North and Midwest experienced severe labor shortages. This, along with the removal of price controls, allowed unemployment and inflation to soar. Northern manufacturers recruited throughout the South and an exodus of workers and their families ensued. By 1919, an estimated 500,000 southern African Americans emigrated to the industrial cities of the North and Midwest in the first wave of the so-called Great Migration, which continued until 1940.
Anti-Labor Union Sentiment
The organized labor force during the 1920s also suffered a great deal. The country was fearful of the spread of Communism in America, partly due to the violent overthrow of the government in Russia by Communists, and public opinion hardened against workers who attempted to disrupt the order of the working class. The public was so anti-labor union that in 1922, the Harding administration was able to procure a court injunction to destroy a railroad strike of about 400,000 workers. That same year, the government took part in ending a nationwide strike comprising about 650,000 miners. The federal and state governments had no toleration for strikes and allowed businesses to sue unions for any fiscal damages that occurred during a strike.
Rapid demobilization of the military had occurred without plans to absorb veterans, both African American and white. With the manpower mobilization of World War I and immigration from Europe cut off, the industrial cities of the American North and Midwest experienced severe labor shortages. This, along with the removal of price controls, allowed unemployment and inflation to soar. Northern manufacturers recruited throughout the South and an exodus of workers and their families ensued. By 1919, an estimated 500,000 southern African Americans emigrated to the industrial cities of the North and Midwest in the first wave of the so-called Great Migration, which continued until 1940.
Anti-Labor Union Sentiment
The organized labor force during the 1920s also suffered a great deal. The country was fearful of the spread of Communism in America, partly due to the violent overthrow of the government in Russia by Communists, and public opinion hardened against workers who attempted to disrupt the order of the working class. The public was so anti-labor union that in 1922, the Harding administration was able to procure a court injunction to destroy a railroad strike of about 400,000 workers. That same year, the government took part in ending a nationwide strike comprising about 650,000 miners. The federal and state governments had no toleration for strikes and allowed businesses to sue unions for any fiscal damages that occurred during a strike.
Red Scare
Postwar patriotism and fears of Communism after the Russian Revolution produced the Red Scare in the United States in 1919–1920. The Red Scare of 1919–1920 had its origins in the hyper-nationalism of World War I and was marked by a widespread fear of Bolshevism and anarchism. Concerns about the effects of radical political agitation in American society and its alleged spread in the U.S. labor movement fueled the paranoia that defined the period. This concern was further inflamed following an anarchist bomb plot in 1919; revolution and Bolshevism became the general explanation for all challenges to the social order and were used to excuse even such simple expressions of free speech as the display of certain flags and banners. The Red Scare and Organized Labor In 1919, American authorities saw the possibility of revolution at home in cases such as the five-day Seattle General Strike in February, during which more than 65,000 workers in several unions struck for higher wages, and the September Boston Police Strike for better wages and working conditions that resulted in several nights of lawlessness and the restoration of order by the state guard. |
Boston Police Strike, 1919
By the fall of 1919, a series of strikes had hit the United States as unions attempted to gain higher wages to adjust for wartime inflation. Collective bargaining had long been viewed with suspicion by many Americans, whose suspicions were heightened by the worker revolution in Russia and efforts to spread communism throughout the Western world.
In Boston, the largely Irish-American police force had seen its wages lag badly during the war. Efforts were made to organize in order to gain not only higher pay, but shorter hours and better working conditions. Police Commissioner Edwin U. Curtis refused to sanction a police union and suspended the leaders from the force in August,1919.
On September 9, more than 1,100 officers went out on strike, which removed three-fourths of the force from the city’s streets. Rabble-rousing Bostonians took advantage of the lack of authority and rioted. On the following day, Mayor Andrew J. Peters summoned local militia units, which managed to restore order.
In Boston, the largely Irish-American police force had seen its wages lag badly during the war. Efforts were made to organize in order to gain not only higher pay, but shorter hours and better working conditions. Police Commissioner Edwin U. Curtis refused to sanction a police union and suspended the leaders from the force in August,1919.
On September 9, more than 1,100 officers went out on strike, which removed three-fourths of the force from the city’s streets. Rabble-rousing Bostonians took advantage of the lack of authority and rioted. On the following day, Mayor Andrew J. Peters summoned local militia units, which managed to restore order.
Go to the site and listen/read: Calvin Coolidge on Law and Order
At this juncture, Governor Calvin Coolidge, elected the previous November, decided to enter the picture after having passed up an earlier opportunity to resolve the matter. Coolidge summoned the entire Massachusetts Guard — a show of force that rapidly caused the strike to collapse and earned for the governor the reputation of a strict enforcer of law and order.
The striking policemen were not allowed to recover their jobs, which went overwhelmingly to returning servicemen. The new officers were granted higher pay and additional holidays, and gained the additional benefit of free uniforms. Coolidge defended the decision not to rehire the strikers in a remark to Samuel Gompers, the head of the American Federation of Labor, proclaiming: “There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time." Coolidge’s strong action was soothing to a fearful public and led to his nomination for the vice presidency in 1920. Most of the postwar strikes in the United States were unsuccessful and ushered in a decade of declining union membership. Public fears about radicalism continued to mount however, which resulted in the so-called Red Scare of 1919-20. The Dropkick Murphys' song, "We Got the Power" tells the story of the Boston Police Strike from the perspective of the striking police officers. Listen to the song and all that is of Celtic, street-punk music. The lyrics are linked below the video. |
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Seattle General Strike, 1919
Newspapers exacerbated those political fears into xenophobia, a fear of people from other nations, because varieties of radical anarchism were perceived as answers to poverty and anarchism’s advocates often were recent European immigrants. Moreover, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) backed several labor strikes in 1916 and 1917 that the press portrayed as radical threats to American society inspired by left-wing, foreign agents provocateurs. Thus, the press in 1919 misrepresented legitimate labor strikes as, “crimes against society,” “conspiracies against the government,” and “Plots to establish Communism.”
In the wake of the Seattle General Strike, the U.S. Senate created a special five-man subcommittee from the panel whose original mandate was to investigate German subversion during World War I. Known as the “Overman Committee,” it was to study efforts to propagate Bolshevism, and in hearings during 1919, it developed an alarming image of Bolshevism as an imminent threat to the U.S. government and American values.
In the wake of the Seattle General Strike, the U.S. Senate created a special five-man subcommittee from the panel whose original mandate was to investigate German subversion during World War I. Known as the “Overman Committee,” it was to study efforts to propagate Bolshevism, and in hearings during 1919, it developed an alarming image of Bolshevism as an imminent threat to the U.S. government and American values.
The Palmer Raids
In April 1919, authorities discovered a plot to mail 36 bombs to prominent members of the U.S. political and economic establishment, including J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, and immigration officials. U.S. Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer, another target of the mail bombs, attempted to suppress radical organizations through exaggerated rhetoric, illegal search and seizures, unwarranted arrests and detentions, and the deportation of several hundred suspected radicals and anarchists. In June of that year, eight bombs simultaneously exploded in eight cities. Palmer’s home in Washington, D.C., was hit by an explosion that killed the bomber, an Italian-American radical from Philadelphia. American authorities saw the threat of revolution in the bomb campaign, and Palmer ordered the U.S. Justice Department to launch what became known as the “Palmer Raids” in November 1919 and January 1920.
The raids were intended to round up and rid the nation of radical leftists, especially anarchists. Yet fewer than 600 of Palmer’s raids were substantiated with evidence, and thousands of resident aliens were illegally arrested and deported. Initially the press praised the raids, but they were criticized as unconstitutional by 12 prominent lawyers. Defensively, Palmer warned in 1920 that a left-wing revolution aimed at government overthrow would begin on May 1, known as May Day, the International Workers’ Day. When it failed to happen, he was ridiculed and lost much of his remaining credibility. In July 1920, Palmer’s promising Democratic Party bid for the U.S. presidency failed.
Wall Street was indeed bombed on September 1, 1920, near Federal Hall and the JP Morgan Bank.While both anarchists and Communists were suspected, no one was indicted for the bombing. The Red Scare effectively ended in the middle of 1920 after Palmer’s predicted May Day uprising passed without incident.
Red Scare Legislation
The anti-immigrant, anti-anarchist Sedition Act of 1918 was approved in Congress to protect wartime morale by deporting people with undesirable politics. In 1919–20, several states enacted “criminal syndicalism” laws outlawing advocacy of violence in effecting and securing social change, which included free speech limitations. Passage of these laws provoked aggressive police investigations and unwarranted arrests and deportation of those suspected of Communist or left-wing leanings. Regardless of ideological nuances, the Red Scare did not distinguish between Communism, Socialism, or social democracy and enabled an overreach of government power while weakening civil liberties in the United States.
In April 1919, authorities discovered a plot to mail 36 bombs to prominent members of the U.S. political and economic establishment, including J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, and immigration officials. U.S. Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer, another target of the mail bombs, attempted to suppress radical organizations through exaggerated rhetoric, illegal search and seizures, unwarranted arrests and detentions, and the deportation of several hundred suspected radicals and anarchists. In June of that year, eight bombs simultaneously exploded in eight cities. Palmer’s home in Washington, D.C., was hit by an explosion that killed the bomber, an Italian-American radical from Philadelphia. American authorities saw the threat of revolution in the bomb campaign, and Palmer ordered the U.S. Justice Department to launch what became known as the “Palmer Raids” in November 1919 and January 1920.
The raids were intended to round up and rid the nation of radical leftists, especially anarchists. Yet fewer than 600 of Palmer’s raids were substantiated with evidence, and thousands of resident aliens were illegally arrested and deported. Initially the press praised the raids, but they were criticized as unconstitutional by 12 prominent lawyers. Defensively, Palmer warned in 1920 that a left-wing revolution aimed at government overthrow would begin on May 1, known as May Day, the International Workers’ Day. When it failed to happen, he was ridiculed and lost much of his remaining credibility. In July 1920, Palmer’s promising Democratic Party bid for the U.S. presidency failed.
Wall Street was indeed bombed on September 1, 1920, near Federal Hall and the JP Morgan Bank.While both anarchists and Communists were suspected, no one was indicted for the bombing. The Red Scare effectively ended in the middle of 1920 after Palmer’s predicted May Day uprising passed without incident.
Red Scare Legislation
The anti-immigrant, anti-anarchist Sedition Act of 1918 was approved in Congress to protect wartime morale by deporting people with undesirable politics. In 1919–20, several states enacted “criminal syndicalism” laws outlawing advocacy of violence in effecting and securing social change, which included free speech limitations. Passage of these laws provoked aggressive police investigations and unwarranted arrests and deportation of those suspected of Communist or left-wing leanings. Regardless of ideological nuances, the Red Scare did not distinguish between Communism, Socialism, or social democracy and enabled an overreach of government power while weakening civil liberties in the United States.
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The Spanish Flu
The Spanish flu of 1918 was a global influenza pandemic that killed millions more people than did the Great War.
In 1918, an unusually severe and deadly influenza pandemic that became known as “Spanish flu” or “Spanish influenza” spread across the globe. The majority of victims were healthy, young adults, in contrast to typical influenza outbreaks that predominantly affect infants, elderly, or already weakened patients. An estimated 50 million people died, 34 million more than the number of lives lost in World War I. The virus struck a fifth of the entire world’s population, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.
Breakout and Transmission
The Spanish flu was an H1N1 influenza virus, which is a subtype of Influenza A with strains that can appear in humans and animals. It first appeared in the late spring of 1918 and, in its first phase, was known as the “three-day fever.” It struck without any warning signs and then dissipated, with victims recovering within days and only a few deaths being reported. Yet the flu returned with a vengeance as the year progressed. Health officials were taken off guard by the swiftness and severity of its spread and did not know how to treat or control the sickness. Some patients died within hours while others held on for a few days, succumbing to suffocation after their lungs filled with fluid.
In the United States, the disease was first observed in Haskell County, Kansas, in January 1918, prompting a local doctor to warn the U.S. Public Health Service’s academic journal. On March 4, 1918, cook Albert Gitchell reported feeling sick at Fort Riley, Kansas. By noon on March 11, 1918, more than 100 soldiers were hospitalized and within days, 522 men at the camp had reported being sick. By March 11, 1918, the virus had spread to Queens, New York. Eventually more than 25 percent of the American population was stricken by the flu, causing such fear that within a single year, U.S. life expectancy figures were lowered by 12 years.
While World War I did not cause the flu, the close quarters in which soldiers were housed increased transmission of the pandemic and amplified the flu’s mutation into an increasingly deadly form. Some speculate that the immune systems of soldiers were weakened by malnourishment, while the stress of combat and chemical attacks increased their susceptibility.
Another large factor in the worldwide occurrence of the spread of the flu was increased travel. Modern transportation systems made it easier for soldiers, sailors, and civilian travelers to spread the disease, especially with the increase of troop movements during the war.
In August 1918, a more virulent strain appeared simultaneously in Brest, France; Freetown, Sierra Leone in West Africa; and Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. Allied troops came to call it the “Spanish flu,” primarily because the pandemic received greater press attention after it moved from France to Spain in November 1918. Spain was not involved in the war and had not imposed wartime censorship.
The Spanish flu of 1918 was a global influenza pandemic that killed millions more people than did the Great War.
In 1918, an unusually severe and deadly influenza pandemic that became known as “Spanish flu” or “Spanish influenza” spread across the globe. The majority of victims were healthy, young adults, in contrast to typical influenza outbreaks that predominantly affect infants, elderly, or already weakened patients. An estimated 50 million people died, 34 million more than the number of lives lost in World War I. The virus struck a fifth of the entire world’s population, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.
Breakout and Transmission
The Spanish flu was an H1N1 influenza virus, which is a subtype of Influenza A with strains that can appear in humans and animals. It first appeared in the late spring of 1918 and, in its first phase, was known as the “three-day fever.” It struck without any warning signs and then dissipated, with victims recovering within days and only a few deaths being reported. Yet the flu returned with a vengeance as the year progressed. Health officials were taken off guard by the swiftness and severity of its spread and did not know how to treat or control the sickness. Some patients died within hours while others held on for a few days, succumbing to suffocation after their lungs filled with fluid.
In the United States, the disease was first observed in Haskell County, Kansas, in January 1918, prompting a local doctor to warn the U.S. Public Health Service’s academic journal. On March 4, 1918, cook Albert Gitchell reported feeling sick at Fort Riley, Kansas. By noon on March 11, 1918, more than 100 soldiers were hospitalized and within days, 522 men at the camp had reported being sick. By March 11, 1918, the virus had spread to Queens, New York. Eventually more than 25 percent of the American population was stricken by the flu, causing such fear that within a single year, U.S. life expectancy figures were lowered by 12 years.
While World War I did not cause the flu, the close quarters in which soldiers were housed increased transmission of the pandemic and amplified the flu’s mutation into an increasingly deadly form. Some speculate that the immune systems of soldiers were weakened by malnourishment, while the stress of combat and chemical attacks increased their susceptibility.
Another large factor in the worldwide occurrence of the spread of the flu was increased travel. Modern transportation systems made it easier for soldiers, sailors, and civilian travelers to spread the disease, especially with the increase of troop movements during the war.
In August 1918, a more virulent strain appeared simultaneously in Brest, France; Freetown, Sierra Leone in West Africa; and Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. Allied troops came to call it the “Spanish flu,” primarily because the pandemic received greater press attention after it moved from France to Spain in November 1918. Spain was not involved in the war and had not imposed wartime censorship.
Deadly Second Wave
The second wave of the pandemic struck in the autumn of 1918 and was much deadlier than the first. The first wave resembled typical flu epidemics in which those most at risk are the sick and elderly, while younger, healthier people recovered easily. But in August 1918, when the second wave began in France, Sierra Leone, and the United States, the virus had mutated into a much deadlier form.
This mutation has been attributed to the circumstances of World War I. In civilian life, evolutionary pressures favor a mild strain of flu: Those who get very sick stay home, and those mildly ill continue with their lives, thereby spreading the mild strain. In the trenches, however, the evolutionary pressures were reversed: Soldiers with a mild strain remained where they were, while the severely ill were sent on packed trains to overcrowded field hospitals, spreading the deadlier virus.
The second wave began and the flu quickly spread around the world again. It was the same flu as the first wave, but it was now far more deadly. Most of those who recovered from first-wave infections were immune, but mutation caused the infection to attack adults who, like the soldiers in the trenches, were otherwise young and healthy. Consequently, during modern pandemics, health officials pay attention when a virus reaches places with social upheaval, looking for deadlier strains of the virus to develop. This effect was most dramatically illustrated in Copenhagen, Denmark, which escaped with a combined mortality rate of just 0.29 percent (0.02 percent in first wave and 0.27 percent in second wave) because of exposure to the less-lethal first wave.
End of the Pandemic
After the deadly second wave, new cases dropped abruptly to almost nothing after the flu’s original peak. In Philadelphia, 4,597 people died in the week ending October 16, but by November 11, influenza had almost disappeared from the city. One explanation for the rapid decline of the disease is that doctors simply became more knowledgeable and skilled at preventing and treating the pneumonia that developed after the victims contracted the virus.
The second wave of the pandemic struck in the autumn of 1918 and was much deadlier than the first. The first wave resembled typical flu epidemics in which those most at risk are the sick and elderly, while younger, healthier people recovered easily. But in August 1918, when the second wave began in France, Sierra Leone, and the United States, the virus had mutated into a much deadlier form.
This mutation has been attributed to the circumstances of World War I. In civilian life, evolutionary pressures favor a mild strain of flu: Those who get very sick stay home, and those mildly ill continue with their lives, thereby spreading the mild strain. In the trenches, however, the evolutionary pressures were reversed: Soldiers with a mild strain remained where they were, while the severely ill were sent on packed trains to overcrowded field hospitals, spreading the deadlier virus.
The second wave began and the flu quickly spread around the world again. It was the same flu as the first wave, but it was now far more deadly. Most of those who recovered from first-wave infections were immune, but mutation caused the infection to attack adults who, like the soldiers in the trenches, were otherwise young and healthy. Consequently, during modern pandemics, health officials pay attention when a virus reaches places with social upheaval, looking for deadlier strains of the virus to develop. This effect was most dramatically illustrated in Copenhagen, Denmark, which escaped with a combined mortality rate of just 0.29 percent (0.02 percent in first wave and 0.27 percent in second wave) because of exposure to the less-lethal first wave.
End of the Pandemic
After the deadly second wave, new cases dropped abruptly to almost nothing after the flu’s original peak. In Philadelphia, 4,597 people died in the week ending October 16, but by November 11, influenza had almost disappeared from the city. One explanation for the rapid decline of the disease is that doctors simply became more knowledgeable and skilled at preventing and treating the pneumonia that developed after the victims contracted the virus.
Influenza and Inequality: One Town's Tragic Response to the Great Epidemic of 1918
A dramatic account of the deadly spread of influenza through a Massachusetts town in 1918
The influenza epidemic of 1918 was one of the worst medical disasters in human history, taking close to thirty million lives worldwide in less than a year, including more than 500,000 in the United States. What made this pandemic even more frightening was the fact that it occurred when death rates for most common infectious diseases were diminishing. Still, an epidemic is not merely a medical crisis; it has sociological, psychological, and political dimensions as well. In Influenza and Inequality, Patricia J. Fanning examines these other dimensions and brings to life this terrible episode of epidemic disease by tracing its path through the town of Norwood, Massachusetts.
By 1918, Norwood was a small, ethnically diverse, industrialized, and stratified community. Ink, printing, and tanning factories were owned by wealthy families who lived privileged lives. These industries attracted immigrant laborers who made their homes in several ethnic neighborhoods and endured prejudice and discrimination at the hands of native residents. When the epidemic struck, the immigrant neighborhoods were most affected; a fact that played a significant role in the town’s response—with tragic results.
This close analysis of one town’s struggle illuminates how even well-intentioned elite groups may adopt and implement strategies that can exacerbate rather than relieve a medical crisis. It is a cautionary tale that demonstrates how social behavior can be a fundamental predictor of the epidemic curve, a community’s response to crisis, and the consequences of those actions.
A dramatic account of the deadly spread of influenza through a Massachusetts town in 1918
The influenza epidemic of 1918 was one of the worst medical disasters in human history, taking close to thirty million lives worldwide in less than a year, including more than 500,000 in the United States. What made this pandemic even more frightening was the fact that it occurred when death rates for most common infectious diseases were diminishing. Still, an epidemic is not merely a medical crisis; it has sociological, psychological, and political dimensions as well. In Influenza and Inequality, Patricia J. Fanning examines these other dimensions and brings to life this terrible episode of epidemic disease by tracing its path through the town of Norwood, Massachusetts.
By 1918, Norwood was a small, ethnically diverse, industrialized, and stratified community. Ink, printing, and tanning factories were owned by wealthy families who lived privileged lives. These industries attracted immigrant laborers who made their homes in several ethnic neighborhoods and endured prejudice and discrimination at the hands of native residents. When the epidemic struck, the immigrant neighborhoods were most affected; a fact that played a significant role in the town’s response—with tragic results.
This close analysis of one town’s struggle illuminates how even well-intentioned elite groups may adopt and implement strategies that can exacerbate rather than relieve a medical crisis. It is a cautionary tale that demonstrates how social behavior can be a fundamental predictor of the epidemic curve, a community’s response to crisis, and the consequences of those actions.
Nativism in America
The movement gained its name from the term “Native American,” referring not to indigenous people or American Indians, but rather to those descended from the inhabitants of the original thirteen colonies. Nativist movements included the Know-Nothing or American Party of the 1850s; the Immigration Restriction League of the 1890s; and the anti-Asian movements in the West, resulting in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the “Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907,” by which Japan’s government stopped emigration to America. Labor unions were strong supporters of limits on immigration because of fears that immigrants would lower wages and make it harder to organize unions.
From 1890 to 1920, nativists and labor unions campaigned for immigration restriction. A favorite plan was the literacy test to exclude workers who could not read or write English. Responding to these demands, opponents of the literacy test called for the establishment of an immigration commission to focus on immigration as a whole. The United States Immigration Commission, also known as the “Dillingham Commission,” was created and tasked with studying immigration and its effect on the United States. The findings of the commission further influenced immigration policy and upheld the concerns of the nativist movement.
Following World War I, nativists in the 1920s focused their attention on Catholics, Jews, and southeastern Europeans, and realigned their beliefs behind racial and religious nativism. The racial concern of the anti-immigration movement was linked closely to the eugenics movement that was sweeping the United States. Led by Madison Grant’s book, The Passing of the Great Race, nativists grew more concerned with the racial purity of the United States. In his book, Grant argued that the American racial stock was being diluted by the influx of new immigrants from the Mediterranean, the Balkans, and the Polish ghettos. The Passing of the Great Race achieved wide popularity among Americans and influenced immigration policy. A wide national consensus sharply restricted the overall inflow of immigrants, especially those from southern and eastern Europe. The second Ku Klux Klan, which flourished in the United States in the 1920s, used strong nativist rhetoric, but the Catholics led a counterattack.
After intense lobbying from the nativist movement, the U.S. Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act in 1921. This bill was the first to place numerical quotas on immigration. It capped the inflow to 357,803 immigrants arriving from outside of the Western Hemisphere. However, this bill was only temporary, as Congress began debating a more permanent bill.
The Emergency Quota Act was followed with the Immigration Act of 1924, a more permanent resolution. This law reduced the number of immigrants able to arrive from 357,803 to 164,687. Though this bill did not fully restrict immigration, it considerably curbed the flow of immigration into the United States. During the late 1920s, an average of 270,000 immigrants were allowed to arrive, mainly because of the exemption of Canada and Latin American countries.
The movement gained its name from the term “Native American,” referring not to indigenous people or American Indians, but rather to those descended from the inhabitants of the original thirteen colonies. Nativist movements included the Know-Nothing or American Party of the 1850s; the Immigration Restriction League of the 1890s; and the anti-Asian movements in the West, resulting in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the “Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907,” by which Japan’s government stopped emigration to America. Labor unions were strong supporters of limits on immigration because of fears that immigrants would lower wages and make it harder to organize unions.
From 1890 to 1920, nativists and labor unions campaigned for immigration restriction. A favorite plan was the literacy test to exclude workers who could not read or write English. Responding to these demands, opponents of the literacy test called for the establishment of an immigration commission to focus on immigration as a whole. The United States Immigration Commission, also known as the “Dillingham Commission,” was created and tasked with studying immigration and its effect on the United States. The findings of the commission further influenced immigration policy and upheld the concerns of the nativist movement.
Following World War I, nativists in the 1920s focused their attention on Catholics, Jews, and southeastern Europeans, and realigned their beliefs behind racial and religious nativism. The racial concern of the anti-immigration movement was linked closely to the eugenics movement that was sweeping the United States. Led by Madison Grant’s book, The Passing of the Great Race, nativists grew more concerned with the racial purity of the United States. In his book, Grant argued that the American racial stock was being diluted by the influx of new immigrants from the Mediterranean, the Balkans, and the Polish ghettos. The Passing of the Great Race achieved wide popularity among Americans and influenced immigration policy. A wide national consensus sharply restricted the overall inflow of immigrants, especially those from southern and eastern Europe. The second Ku Klux Klan, which flourished in the United States in the 1920s, used strong nativist rhetoric, but the Catholics led a counterattack.
After intense lobbying from the nativist movement, the U.S. Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act in 1921. This bill was the first to place numerical quotas on immigration. It capped the inflow to 357,803 immigrants arriving from outside of the Western Hemisphere. However, this bill was only temporary, as Congress began debating a more permanent bill.
The Emergency Quota Act was followed with the Immigration Act of 1924, a more permanent resolution. This law reduced the number of immigrants able to arrive from 357,803 to 164,687. Though this bill did not fully restrict immigration, it considerably curbed the flow of immigration into the United States. During the late 1920s, an average of 270,000 immigrants were allowed to arrive, mainly because of the exemption of Canada and Latin American countries.
1920 Election
In the 1920 presidential election, Republican Senator Warren G. Harding soundly defeated Democratic Governor James M. Cox.
The U.S. presidential election of 1920 was dominated by the aftermath of World War I. Along with a hostile response to certain policies of Democratic President Woodrow Wilson, there was a massive repudiation of the reformist zeal of the Progressive Era. Politicians argued over peace treaties and America’s entry into the League of Nations, which produced an isolationist reaction. While revolutions dominated overseas politics, at home, the wartime economic boom had collapsed, and 1919 was marked by major strikes in the meatpacking and steel industries, large-scale race riots, and terrorist attacks on Wall Street that produced fear of radicals.
Harding won in a landslide victory, becoming the 29th president of the United States. He took 37 states, including the three most recently ratified states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. His 26.2 percent is the largest margin of victory in the popular vote since James Monroe ran unopposed in 1820. The total number of votes cast in 1920 was approximately 26.8 million, an increase of 8 million from 1916. The Democratic Party vote total was almost exactly as in 1916, and Democrats took only 1,100 counties in the nation, but the Republican Party vote nearly doubled and nearly two-thirds of counties were carried by Republican candidates.
The election was the first since the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment on August 18, 1920, in which women gained the right to vote in all 48 contiguous states. As a result, the total popular vote increased dramatically. It was the first election in which the results were recorded by the clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, and the first of three elections to date in which a sitting U.S. senator became president (the others were John F. Kennedy in 1960 and Barack Obama in 2008.)
Despite Cox’s sound defeat, his running mate, Franklin D. Roosevelt, became a well-known political figure due to his energetic campaigning. In 1928, he was elected governor of New York, and in 1932, he became the 32nd U.S. president, holding the office until his death in April 1945.
The U.S. presidential election of 1920 was dominated by the aftermath of World War I. Along with a hostile response to certain policies of Democratic President Woodrow Wilson, there was a massive repudiation of the reformist zeal of the Progressive Era. Politicians argued over peace treaties and America’s entry into the League of Nations, which produced an isolationist reaction. While revolutions dominated overseas politics, at home, the wartime economic boom had collapsed, and 1919 was marked by major strikes in the meatpacking and steel industries, large-scale race riots, and terrorist attacks on Wall Street that produced fear of radicals.
Harding won in a landslide victory, becoming the 29th president of the United States. He took 37 states, including the three most recently ratified states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. His 26.2 percent is the largest margin of victory in the popular vote since James Monroe ran unopposed in 1820. The total number of votes cast in 1920 was approximately 26.8 million, an increase of 8 million from 1916. The Democratic Party vote total was almost exactly as in 1916, and Democrats took only 1,100 counties in the nation, but the Republican Party vote nearly doubled and nearly two-thirds of counties were carried by Republican candidates.
The election was the first since the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment on August 18, 1920, in which women gained the right to vote in all 48 contiguous states. As a result, the total popular vote increased dramatically. It was the first election in which the results were recorded by the clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, and the first of three elections to date in which a sitting U.S. senator became president (the others were John F. Kennedy in 1960 and Barack Obama in 2008.)
Despite Cox’s sound defeat, his running mate, Franklin D. Roosevelt, became a well-known political figure due to his energetic campaigning. In 1928, he was elected governor of New York, and in 1932, he became the 32nd U.S. president, holding the office until his death in April 1945.
Warren G. Harding "Return to Normalcy", 1920
-Listen to audio above |
"...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 [balance]; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality...
...If we can prove a representative popular government under which a citizen seeks what it may do for the government and country rather than what the country may do for individuals, we shall do more to make democracy safe for the world than all armed conflict ever recorded. The world needs to be reminded that all human ills are not curable by legislation, and that quantity of statutory enactment and excess of government offer no substitute for quality of citizenship... ..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 us stop to consider that tranquility at home is more precious than peace abroad..." --Warren G. Harding Boston, MA 1920
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Watch the video above about the Republican Presidents of the 1920s
Read the first section (pg#1-6) of the Post WWI/1920s New Era linked to the right.
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