Download The 1920s: The Jazz Age The Red Scare and the Palmer Raids

The 1920s: The Jazz Age
The Red Scare and the Palmer Raids
Name: ____________________________
MAIN IDEA: The fear of a communist revolution (e.g. Russia) caused a nationwide panic.
* ORIGINS: The Red Scare had its origins in the hyper-nationalism of World War I… At the war's end, following the Bolshevik
Revolution in Russia, American authorities saw the threat of revolution in the actions of organized labor, including such
disparate cases as the Seattle General Strike and the Boston Police Strike and then in the bomb campaign directed by
anarchist groups at political and business leaders.
* In 1917, President Wilson established the Committee on Public Information to circulate and distribute anti-German and proAllied propaganda and other news. To add to the effectiveness of the Committee, the Bureau of Investigation (the name for
the Federal Bureau of Investigation until 1935) disrupted the work of German-American, union, and leftist organizations
through the use of raids, arrests, agent’s provocateurs, and legal prosecution…
* Revolutionary and pacifist groups, such as the Socialist Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World, strongly
opposed the war. Many leaders of these groups, most notably Eugene V. Debs, were prosecuted for giving speeches urging
resistance to the draft…
* The effort was also helped by the United States Congress; with the passing of the Espionage Act in 1917 and its sister act the
Sedition Act of 1918. The Espionage Act made it a crime to interfere with the operation or success of the military, and the
Sedition Act forbade Americans to use "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United States
government, flag, or armed forces of the United States during war.
* Many Americans viewed Russian/Bolshevik revolution and actions at the end of World War I as betrayal… Hostility increased
towards communists and Russians as communism became associated with disloyalty, treachery and obviously anti-capitalist.
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* Seattle General Strike of 1919 was a five-day general work stoppage by over 65,000 workers in the city of Seattle,
Washington, which lasted from February 6th to February 11th of that year. Dissatisfied workers in several unions began the
strike to gain higher wages after two years of World War I wage controls. Most labor unions, including members of the
American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), joined the walkout… Although the strike
was non-violent and lasted less than a week, government officials, the press, and much of the public viewed the strike as a
radical attempt to subvert U.S. institutions.
* Some commentators raised alarm by calling it the work of Bolsheviks and other radicals inspired by "un-American"
ideologies, making it the first concentrated eruption of the anti-Red hysteria that characterized the Red Scare of 1919 and
1920.
* In these years, more workers in the city were organized in unions than ever before. There was a 400% increase in union
membership from 1915 to 1918. At the time, workers in the United States were becoming increasingly radicalized, with many
in the rank and file supportive of the recent revolution in Russia and working toward a similar revolution in the United States…
In the fall of 1919, for instance, Seattle longshoremen refused to load arms destined for the anti-Bolshevik White Army in
Russia and attacked those who attempted to load them.
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* Boston Police Strike, the Boston police rank and file went out on strike on September 9th, 1919, in order to achieve
recognition for their trade union and improvements in wages and working conditions… During the strike, Boston experienced
several nights of lawlessness, although property damage was not extensive. Several thousand members of the State Guard,
supported by volunteers, restored order in the city. Press reaction both locally and nationally described the strike as Bolshevikinspired and directed at the destruction of civil society. The strikers were called "deserters" and "agents of Lenin."
* In the years following World War I, inflation dramatically eroded the value of a police officer's salary. From 1913 to May
1919, the cost of living rose by 76%, while police wages rose just 18%. Police officers worked long ten-hour shifts and often
slept over at the station without pay in case they were needed. Officers were not paid for court appearances. They
complained about the poor conditions of most police stations, including the lack of sanitation, baths, beds and toilets. They
typically worked between 75 and 90 hours per week…
* After repeated requests from local police organizations, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) began accepting police
organizations into their membership in June 1919… In Boston, firefighters threatened mass resignations in August 1918 and
won salary raises. Police officers had their own association called the Boston Social Club, founded by the Police Department in
1906 and operating under its sponsorship… In 1918, the Police Commissioner made it clear to the rank and file that they were
not entitled to form their own union. The next year, their new Police Commissioner, Edwin Upton Curtis, refused to deal with
the Social Club and set up his own grievance committee to handle management-employee disputes…
* The police determined to organize under an AFL charter in order to gain support from other unions in their negotiations with
the Commissioner and, if it came to it, a potential strike. On August 9th the Boston Social Club requested a charter from the
AFL. On August 11th, Curtis issued a General Order forbidding police officers to join any "organization, club or body outside the
department…"
* On August 15th, the police received their AFL charter. On August 17th, the Central Labor Union of Boston welcomed the police
union and denounced Curtis for his assertions that the police had no right to unionize. Curtis refused to meet with the eight
members of the police union's committee. He suspended them and 11 others who held various union offices, and scheduled
trials to determine if they had violated his General Order.
* Commissioner Curtis announced on September 13th that he planned to recruit a new force. He fired roughly 1,100 and hired
1,574 replacement police officers from a pool of unemployed World War I veterans. Members of the United Garment Workers
refused to sew uniforms for the new hires that had to report for work in civilian clothing…
* The new officers hired in the wake of the strike received higher salaries, more vacation days and city-provided uniforms, just
as the original strikers had sought. They enjoyed a starting salary of $1,400 along with a pension plan, and the department
covered the cost of their uniforms and equipment. The population of Boston raised $472,000 to help pay for the State Guards
until new police officers could be recruited!
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* April 1919 Mail Bombs… In late April 1919, approximately 36 booby trap bombs were mailed to prominent politicians,
including the Attorney General of the United States, judges, businessmen (including John D. Rockefeller), and more tellingly, a
lowly Bureau of Investigation field agent, R.W. Finch…
* The bombs were mailed in identical packages and were timed to arrive on May Day, the day of celebration of organized
labor and the working class. A few of the packages went undelivered because they lacked sufficient postage. One bomb
intended for Seattle Mayor Ole Hanson, who had opposed the Seattle General Strike, arrived early and failed to explode as
intended. Seattle police in turn notified the Post Office and other police agencies. On April 29th, a package sent to U.S. Senator
Thomas W. Hardwick of Georgia, a sponsor of the Anarchist Exclusion Act, exploded injuring his wife and housekeeper. On
April 30th, a post office employee in New York City recognized 16 packages by their wrapping and interrupted their delivery.
Another twelve bombs were recovered before reaching their targets.
* June 1919 Mail Bombs… In June 1919, eight bombs, far larger than those mailed in April, exploded almost simultaneously
in several U.S. cities. These new bombs were believed to contain up to twenty-five pounds of dynamite, and all were wrapped
or packaged with heavy metal slugs designed to act as shrapnel. All of the intended targets had participated in some way with
the investigation of or the opposition to anarchist radicals. Along with Attorney General Palmer, who was targeted a second
time, the intended victims included a Massachusetts state representative and a New Jersey silk manufacturer.
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* Palmer Raids were attempts by the United States Department of Justice to arrest and deport radical leftists, especially
anarchists, from the United States. The raids and arrests occurred in November 1919 and January 1920 under the leadership
of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. Though more than 500 foreign citizens were deported, including a number of
prominent leftist leaders, Palmer's efforts were largely frustrated by officials at the U.S. Department of Labor who had
responsibility for deportations and who objected to Palmer's methods…
* Despite two attempts on his life in April and June 1919, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer moved slowly to find a way to
attack the source of the violence. An initial raid in July 1919 against a small anarchist group in Buffalo failed when a federal
judge tossed out his case… In August, he organized the General Intelligence Unit within the Department of Justice and
recruited J. Edgar Hoover, a recent law school graduate, to head it. Hoover pored over arrest records, subscription records of
radical newspapers, and party membership records to compile lists of resident aliens for deportation proceedings.
* Palmer launched his campaign against radicalism with two sets of police actions known as the Palmer Raids in November
1919 and January 1920. Federal agents supported by local police rounded up large groups of suspected radicals, often based
on membership in a political group rather than any action taken. Undercover informants and warrantless wiretaps (authorized
under the Sedition Act) helped to identify several thousand suspected leftists and radicals to be arrested…
* Fearful of extremist violence and revolution, the American public initially supported the raids. Civil libertarians, the radical
left and legal scholars raised protests. Officials at the Department of Labor, especially Post, asserted the rule of law in
opposition to Palmer's anti-radical campaign.
* On December 21, the Buford, a ship the press nicknamed the "Soviet Ark," left New York harbor with 249 deportees. Of
those, 199 had been detained in the November Palmer Raids, with 184 of them deported because of their membership in the
Union of Russian Workers, an anarchist group that was a primary target of the November raids…
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* Socialist Expulsion… On January 7, 1920, at the first session of the New York State Assembly, Assembly Speaker Thaddeus
C. Sweet attacked the Assembly's five Socialist members, declaring they had been "elected on a platform that is absolutely
inimical to the best interests of the state of New York and the United States." The Socialist Party, Sweet said, was "not truly a
political party," but was rather "a membership organization admitting within its ranks aliens, enemy aliens, and minors." It had
supported the revolutionaries in Germany, Austria, and Hungary, he continued, and consorted with international Socialist
parties close to the Communist International. The Assembly suspended the five by a vote of 140 to 6, with just one Democrat
supporting the Socialists. A trial in the Assembly, lasting from January 20 to March 11, resulted in a recommendation that the
five be expelled and the Assembly voted overwhelmingly for expulsion on April 1, 1920.
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* May Day 1920… Within Attorney General Palmer's Justice Department, the General Intelligence Division (GID) headed by J.
Edgar Hoover had become a storehouse of information about radicals in America. It had infiltrated many organizations and,
following the raids of November 1919 and January 1920, it had interrogated thousands of those arrested and read through
boxes of publications and records seized. Though agents in the GID knew there was a gap between what the radicals promised
in their rhetoric and what they were capable of accomplishing, they nevertheless told Palmer they had evidence of plans for
an attempted overthrow of the U.S. government on May Day 1920…
* With Palmer's backing, Hoover warned the nation to expect the worst: assassinations, bombings, and general strikes. Palmer
issued his own warning on April 29, 1920, claiming to have a "list of marked men" and said domestic radicals were "in direct
connection and unison" with European counterparts with disruptions planned for the same day there. Newspapers headlined
his words: "Terror Reign by Radicals, says Palmer" and "Nation-wide Uprising on Saturday." Localities prepared their police
forces and some states mobilized their militias. New York City's 11,000-man police force worked for 32 hours straight. Boston
police mounted machine guns on automobiles and positioned them around the city… The date came and went without
incident.
The 1920s: The Jazz Age
The Red Scare and the Palmer Raids
Name: ____________________________
MAIN IDEA: The fear of a communist revolution (e.g. Russia) caused a nationwide panic.
I. Origins of the Red Scare
A. Committee on Public Information, Bureau of Investigation (WWI)
B. Espionage and Sedition Act
II. Seattle General Strike of February 1919
A. The AFL and the IWW, Reasons for the Strike
III. Anarchist Mail Bombs of Spring/Summer 1919
A. Attorney General and Targets
IV. Boston Police Strike of September 1919
A. The AFL, Boston Social Club and Reasons for the Strike
V. “Palmer Raids” of November 1919
A. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, the D.O.J. and the General Intelligence Unit
VI. Socialist Expulsion in New York
A. New York State Legislature
VII. “The May Day Scare” of 1920
A. DOJ and GIU Failure and end of the Red Scare