The Red Scare of the early 1920s was fueled by labor strikes, anarchist bombings, and fears that communism from the new Soviet Union would spread to the United States. Attorney General Palmer ordered raids in 1920 that arrested thousands of suspected radicals, mostly immigrants, without evidence to try to root out communist influence. Major labor strikes in 1919 were a result of high costs of living and poor working conditions after World War 1. Under Republican presidents Harding and Coolidge, the 1920s saw tax cuts, high tariffs, laissez-faire policies toward business, and restrictions on immigration. Cultural issues like Prohibition, Catholicism, and urban vs rural divides influenced the election of 1928.

1. A Republican Decade
Ch. 14.1

2. Key Questions:
• #1) What events fueled the Red Scare?
• #2) What caused the Palmer Raids?/Why did Palmer arrest
thousands?
• #3) What conflicts led to major labor strikes in 1919?
• #4) How did Republican leadership (Harding & Coolidge)
shape the 1920s?
• #5) What issues influenced the election of 1928?

3. Election 1920

4. President Harding
• From Ohio
• Wins election of 1920 in a
landslide
• Defeated James Cox/FDR
• Promises a return to “normalcy”
• Dies of a heart attack in San
Francisco in 1923
• Replaced by Calvin Coolidge

5. Russian Revolution
• Starts in 1917
• Csar Nicholas II loses power
• Russia in shambles
• Led by Lenin
• He promised “peace, land &
bread”
• He made peace w/ Germany
& then civil war broke out
• Reds vs. Whites
• U.S., Britain, France, Japan—
all backed the Whites
• Reds triumphed in 1920

6. Russian Revolution
• The USSR
• Openly hostile to American beliefs
• Hoped to spread communism to other countries
• Tried to overthrow German gov’t
• Came to power in Hungary
• Communism—
• 1.Gov’t owned all land & property
• 2. A single party controlled gov’t
• 3. Needs of country outweighed those of the individual

7. Red Scare
• What was it?
• What events fueled it?

8. The Red Scare
• Americans feared Communism & revolution would
spread to the U.S.
• Thousands went on strike in Seattle in 1919
• Mayor called them “revolutionists”
• Also in 1919, bombs in the mail addressed to gov’t
officials, including Seattle’s mayor
• One injured a GA Senator’s housekeeper
• Newspapers whipped up sensational stories

9. Schenck v. U.S. (1919)
• SC Case
• War opponent, Charles Schenck, mailed letters to men
who were drafted telling them not to report to duty
• Convicted of breaking Espionage Act, a wartime law
• Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. said the gov’t is
justified in silencing free speech when there is a “clear
and present danger”
• Some used ruling as justification for jailing radicals

10. Palmer Raids
• June 1919—Bombs exploded in
several U.S. cities
• Including one at the home of A.
Mitchell Palmer, the Attorney
General

11. Palmer Raids
• Palmer was convinced that radicals were trying to
overthrow the gov’t
• He went on a campaign to root out anyone that
posed a threat to the U.S.
• Targets included Communists, Socialists, &
anarchists
• “Any movement, however, cloaked or dissembled,
designed to undermine the gov’t, will be met w/
unflinching, persistent, aggressive warfare.”

12. Palmer Raids
• Jan. 2, 1920—Agents in 33 cities arrested thousands
of suspected radicals w/o evidence
• Most were immigrants
• Many were completely innocent
• 500+ were deported
• Americans, including Palmer, expected the worst on
May 1, 1920 (an annual Socialist holiday), but
nothing happened & the press turned on Palmer

13. Sacco & Vanzetti
• http://www.travelchannel.com/video/sacco-and-vanzetti-inn
• **See opposing opinions on p. 483

14. Labor Strikes
• Increased over the course of 1919
• Up to 370 in August alone
• Blamed on Communists
• Cost of living soared; due to drop in economy after
WWI (postwar recession)
• **See “Work Stoppages” chart on p. 485

15. Boston Police Strike (1919)
• Wanted pay raise
• Created union
• 19 officer fired
• STRIKE & then RIOTS
• Lawlessness
• State Guard called in to
restore order by Governor
Coolidge

16. Steel/Coal Strikes
• 350K workers walk off job at U.S. Steel Corporation
(1919)
• Worked 65 hrs/week on average; wanted 8-hr day
• Blamed on Communists
• Private police force killed 18 strikers & injured hundreds
• African American workers brought in to break strike
• Strikers give up after 10 weeks

17. Strikes Decline
• Most Americans opposed strikes
• Seen as un-American & likely to violence
• Distrust of labor unions
• Linked to radicalism and communism
• Union membership peaked in 1920, then dropped
• 5 million workers in 1919-1920 (height of Red Scare)
• Economy improved over course of 1920s
• Higher wages

18. Harding Presidency
• Hoped to secure international peace & stability
• Isolationism-
• Avoided “entangling alliances”
• Disarmament-
• Program in which nations would voluntarily give up their weapons
• Promoted expansion of trade
• New tariff; rates on imports at all time high
• Dawes Plan for Germany’s reparations
• Set a payment schedule, & approved a loan to Germany

19. Domestic Issues
• Increasing nativism
• Patriotism
• Anti-Catholicism; Anti-Semitism
• Fear of losing jobs
• Red Scare & radicalism

20. Domestic Issues
• 1921 quota set on immigrants
• Annual numerical limit equaled 3 percent of that
group’s total U.S. population according to 1910 census
• National Origins Act in 1924
• Reduced # to 2% & resorted to 1890 census
• Both Chinese & Japanese were ineligible for citizenship
• Cure for radicalism
• *See chart on p. 487

21. Teapot Dome Scandal
• During Harding’s presidency & in his Cabinet, but
he was not directly connected
• Teapot Dome Scandal-Sec. of Interior, Albert B.
Fall, gave oil-drilling rights on gov’t oil fields in CA
& WY to private oil companies
• In return, Fall received $300K & other gifts disguised
as loans

22. Coolidge Presidency
• Took over after Harding’s death on August 3, 1923
• Coolidge= Former Governor of Massachusetts
• Won election of 1924
• “Keep Cool with Coolidge”
• Man of few words, “Silent Cal”
• Laissez faire, leave business alone
• “The chief business of the American people is
business”

23. Coolidge Presidency
• Lowered taxes
• Approved higher tariff rates
• Refused to regulate buying of stocks on easy credit
• Offered little help to Mississippi River flood victims

24. Kellogg-Briand Pact
• Kellogg-Briand Pact--60+ nations eventually joined;
promised to not engage in war w/ one another
• Named after Sec. of State, Frank B. Kellogg &
French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand
• Unrealistic & unworkable pact

25. Election of 1928
• Coolidge did not run again

26. Election of 1928
• Coolidge, “I do not choose to run for President in 1928”
• Republicans nominated Herbert Hoover
• Democrats nominated Alfred E. Smith, governor of NY
• Smith was Catholic & opposed Prohibition
• Smith did well in cities, Hoover did well in rural areas
• Americans hoped “Coolidge prosperity” would
continue

27. Key Questions:
• #1) What events fueled the Red Scare?
• #2) What caused the Palmer Raids?/Why did Palmer arrest
thousands?
• #3) What conflicts led to major labor strikes in 1919?
• #4) How did Republican leadership (Harding & Coolidge)
shape the 1920s?
• #5) What issues influenced the election of 1928?