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Mr. White’s US History 1
Main idea: Social intolerance, fear of foreigners, and
fear of anarchists led to government policies
restricting immigration, protest, and labor
organizations.
 Big questions:

How did political, economic, and social issues divide
Americans after World War I?
 How did American fears of communism lead to
government restrictions against perceived communist
threats?
 How did fear of foreigners lead to restrictions on
immigration?
 How did the issues of the day affect labor relations?

Unemployment, political issues (such as the League of
Nations), and social issues such as nativism and isolationism
divided many Americans.
 Many
problems plagued the country after
World War I



The League of Nations and whether the U.S.
should join divided the nation
The Progressive Era had created many drastic
changes that some people didn’t like
The economy had to re-adjust after the war
ended


Soldiers faced unemployment when they came home
Farmers and factories downscaled as the economy
adjusted
 In
response to everything that had happened,
many Americans began to focus inward on
the United States


Isolationism – People thought the United States
should stay out of world affairs
Nativism – People wanted to “Keep America for
Americans
 These
movements responded to and fed a
fear of outsiders and foreigners
American fears of communism encouraged many
measures against perceived communist threats.
 During
World War I, the people of Russia had
staged a revolution and had overthrown their
czar
 A provisional government tried to hold on to
power, but was overthrown by Bolsheviks –
communists
 The Bolsheviks set up a communist government


All property and means of production were held in
common by the people (or government)
Totalitarian government – the government controlled
every aspect of a person’s life
 Vladimir
Ilyich Lenin took power as the
premier of Russia
 The communist government pulled Russia out
of World War I and made a separate peace
with Germany, leaving the Allies
 The Bolshevik platform frightened many
Americans:


Encouraged revolution to overthrow capitalist
governments
Anti-religious
A
communist party began to form in the
United States, and eventually reached 70,000
members
 When a bomb plot by followers of an Italian
anarchist named Luigi Galleani was
discovered and foiled, Americans began to
fear communists and anarchists
 This would become known as the “Red
Scare.”
 In
response to these bombings, and other
suspicions, attorney general A. Mitchell
Palmer launched raids to hunt down socialists
and anarchists
 At least 10,000 people were arrested, 3,500
held for some time, and around 600 deported
from the country
 Americans at the time and since have
criticized the raids for using unconstitutional
or questionable methods
The Red Scare fed people’s nativist attitudes
 In May 1920, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti
(Italian immigrants and anarchists) were arrested
and charged with robbery and murder




Witnesses said that the murderers had appeared to be
Italian
The court evidence was circumstantial
The judge made prejudicial remarks
Nonetheless, Sacco and Vanzetti were convicted and
sentenced to death
 Historians still debate Sacco and Vanzetti’s guilt or
innocence

Nativism led to increased regulation of immigration.
 In
the 1920s, many Americans began to call
for restrictions on immigration into the
United States
 Why?



Many people did not like immigrant competition
for low-skilled jobs
Many of the people involved in labor disputes,
anarchism, or socialism (such as Sacco and
Vanzetti) were foreigners
Immigration increased rapidly after World War I –
from 1919 to 1921, almost a 600% increase
 As
a result of the anti-immigrant, anti-foreigner,
and anti-communist feelings, groups such as the
Ku Klux Klan gained membership
 By 1924, KKK membership hit 4.5 million
members



Opposed alcohol use, unions
Wanted to drive out Roman Catholics, Jews, and
foreign-born people
Also believed in maintaining the social structure in
the south – blacks on bottom, whites on top
 This
all culminated with the Emergency
Quota Act of 1921



Established maximum numbers of immigrants
that could come from certain areas
Numbers were based on how many of a certain
group were in the United States already
This act tended to discriminate against southern
and eastern Europeans, as it dramatically
decreased their numbers
 Japan
was also angered by this act, as it
went back on Teddy Roosevelt’s Gentleman’s
Agreement with Japan
Labor unrest in this time increased, but the labor
movement gradually lost membership and power
 The
postwar labor issues were shaped by the
feelings of the day



Unemployment and decreased wages after the
war
Strikes weren’t allowed during the war, so many
groups conducted strikes immediately after the
war
Many employers believed that strikes could
become communist or anarchist uprisings
 The
Boston Police Strike – Calvin Coolidge
called out the National Guard

“There is no right to strike against the public
safety by anybody, anywhere, any time.”
 The
Steel Mill Strike – Steel workers won an
eight-hour day, but couldn’t unionize
 Coal Miners’ Strike – Coal miners received a
wage increase, but kept long workdays
 In some cases, these strikes led to riots or
violent measures by authorities
 However,
as the decade went on, the union
movement lost appeal
 Why?


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Immigrant workforce eroded labor strength –
worked for less, put up with worse conditions
Unions had difficulty organizing immigrants
Farmers who moved to cities for factory jobs
avoided union membership
African Americans were excluded most of the
time

Big questions:





How did political, economic, and social issues divide
Americans after World War I?
How did American fears of communism lead to government
restrictions against perceived communist threats?
How did fear of foreigners lead to restrictions on
immigration?
How did the issues of the day affect labor relations?
In summary…




One way that ESP issues divided the country after World War I
was…
One way that the government acted to try to restrict
communism, anarchism, and socialism was…
One of the reasons that the fear of foreigners led to
restrictions by the government was…
One of the reasons that the labor movement weakened in the
early 1920s was…
Mr. White’s US History 1
 Main
idea: The Harding administration
appealed to America’s desire for calm,
peace, and “normalcy” after the war, but
resulted in scandal
 Big questions:


How did Warren G. Harding’s administration work
to encourage peace and deal with post-war
issues?
How did the scandals of Harding’s presidency
lead to a loss of credibility for Harding?
Warren G. Harding’s administration worked to
encourage peace and deal with post-war issues.
 After
the war, Warren G. Harding held the
Washington Naval Conference to discuss
naval disarmament between the great
powers
 The U.S. suggested that they, Britain, Japan,
France, and Italy decrease naval armaments
 All nations agreed to the Kellogg-Briand pact,
but there was no way built into the
agreement to enforce the treaty
 As
a result of the war, Britain and France had
debts to the U.S. – had taken out loans to
pay for the war

Britain and France planned to use German war
reparations to pay these debts
 However,
Germany was increasingly not able
to pay the war reparations
 When Germany defaulted on its loans, France
invaded the Rhineland in Germany
 To avoid further conflict, the United States
agreed to lend money to Germany, to pay
Britain and France, to pay the United States
Harding’s administration was plagued by scandals
that resulted in a loss of credibility.
 Harding
had a great deal of trouble as
president

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
He appointed political cronies and friends to his
cabinet – the “Ohio Gang.”
Many of these men got rich off government graft,
kickbacks
Harding also had a great deal of trouble
understanding the problems of his presidency –
often couldn’t make a decision
The government had set aside oil reserves at
Teapot Dome, Wyoming, for the use of the U.S.
Navy
 Albert B. Fall, secretary of the interior, had the
reserves transferred from the department of the
Navy to the department of the Interior


The reserves were leased to two private oil
companies
Fall received nearly $400,000 in loans, bonds,
and cash as “gifts”
 Fall was found guilty of bribery – this basically
destroys Harding’s credibility


Harding dies shortly thereafter and Calvin Coolidge
takes over as president
 Big


questions:
How did Warren G. Harding’s administration work
to encourage peace and deal with post-war
issues?
How did the scandals of Harding’s presidency
lead to a loss of credibility for Harding?
 So…


One way that Warren G. Harding’s administration
worked to encourage peace was…
Harding lost credibility as a president because…
Mr. White’s US History 1
 Main
Idea: Consumer goods fueled the
business boom of the 1920s as America’s
standard of living soared, though the
prosperity had weaknesses and flaws.
 Big Questions:



How did Coolidge and Hoover’s administrations
use government to foster business and industry?
What were signs of increased prosperity and a
higher standard of living in the United States?
What were signs of weakness in the economy in
the 1920s?
Coolidge and Hoover’s administrations used government
to foster business and industry, which flourished.
 Both
Calvin Coolidge and his successor,
Herbert Hoover, adopted pro-business
government policies



Used protective tariffs to foster American
business
Worked to keep taxes low
Worked to make credit available to business that
wanted to expand

The automobile industry grew in the United States at
this time


More and more people owned cars
More cars resulted in changes in society
Rural families could go into the cities for shopping and
entertainment
 Families could now travel long distances for vacations
 Women and young people found new freedoms with the
automobile
 Workers could now live further away from their jobs –
urban sprawl results


The automobile came to be a cultural symbol of
prosperity
 Henry
Ford’s innovate assembly line methods
had sped up mass production


Cars could be produced cheaper – more people
could afford them
Cars could be produced more quickly – expanding
markets
 Ford’s
Model T was a great example of using
these assembly-line methods


Parts were completely interchangeable; basically
nothing was hand-crafted
As production increased, Ford streamlined and
offered the car only in black
 The
airplane also grew as a means of
transportation
 In the United States, the plane was first used
to carry mail – first flight was a failure, but it
caught on gradually
 As the science of weather forecasting caught
on, planes began to carry radios and
navigational instruments
 In 1927, Pan American began transatlantic
flights
As industry flourished, America’s standard of living rose.
However, many signs pointed to a superficial prosperity
 Industry
had grown during World War I and
continued to be strong after the war
 The United States produced more consumer
goods as time went on
 Electricity and electrical conveniences and
appliances grew
 Advertisers, to sell their products, began to
use psychology and related methods to
encourage people to buy their products
 Even
though the U.S. seemed prosperous, many
signs pointed to weaknesses in the economy
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Consumer goods were growing; not as much growth
in heavy industries
The income gap between the rich and poor grew –
sign of a weak, small middle class
Iron and railroad industries weren’t making much
profit
Farmers weren’t making much money, either, and
many had taken out loans to meet World War I
production
 Spurred
by this consumer spending, more and
more people began to buy goods on credit,
instead of cash


An installment plan was an arrangement to buy a
product and pay over time for an interest rate
More and more people used credit to buy goods;
some went into debt that they couldn’t pay
 Some
economists pointed to this as the sign
of a weak economy, but many people felt
that the economy was strong.

Remember our big questions:
How did Coolidge and Hoover’s administrations use
government to foster business and industry?
 What were signs of increased prosperity and a higher
standard of living in the United States?
 What were signs of weakness in the economy in the 1920s?


So…
One way that Coolidge and/or Hoover fostered business or
industry was…
 One of the signs of increased prosperity and a higher
standard of living in the U.S. was…
 One of the signs of weakness in the economy in the 1920s
was…
