U.S. History 1 The Roaring Twenties Part 1: Postwar Economic Downturn, Red Scare and the Republican Decade

Postwar Economic Downturn  Post-War –War-time jobs disappear  Less jobs meant more competition –Racial/ class tensions  Who lost their jobs as soldiers came home?

Labor Unrest  1919: 4 million workers held 3,600 strikes (wage cuts, long hours, and no overtime pay).  State/ federal troops broke strikes  Americans sympathized w/ employers –Felt strikers were subversive Communists and radicals  Most Americans felt unions threatened U.S. stability

Russian Revolution Causes Concern in the U.S.  Communist Russia, with Lenin in charge, becomes the Soviet Union  Soviet Union is openly hostile to American beliefs and values (capitalism, freedom of speech)  Lenin pledges to inspire worldwide revolution among the working class

Red Scare  Red Scare = intense fear of communism and its potential spread throughout the U.S.  Americans felt Communists were behind labor strikes

Palmer Raids  Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer’s conducted Palmer Raids on the headquarters of suspected anarchists, communists, and socialists across America  Between 4,000-10,000 suspected radicals were jailed –No formal charges made – over 600 were deported.  Goal of raids was to “purify” and restore peace to the United States

American Civil Liberties Union  ACLU, formed in 1920, protested the illegal methods and prejudices targeted at foreigners and radicals with the Palmer Raids  ACLU would represent the rights of both individuals and minorities whose rights were being violated  ACLU had no court victories by 1925

Republican Decade  1920’s –Republican Presidents –Warren G. Harding –Calvin Coolidge –Herbert Hoover  Friendly to big business  Laissiezz Faire (Hands off) policy

Warren G. Harding (Rep )  Campaign slogan = “a return to normalcy”  Isolationism = avoiding alliances with foreign nations  Pushed for stronger anti- immigration laws  Tea Pot Dome Scandal = corruption involving some of his Cabinet members’ in abuse of power and misuse of federal funds –Sec. of Interior illegally sold oil reserves

Calvin Coolidge (Rep )  “The business of the American people is business”  Government should interfere as little as possible with American businesses  Policy of isolationism continued

Herbert Hoover ( )  Most Americans expected the good times of the 1920s would continue  Stock Market reached an all-time high in 1929  Value of wages had risen by more than 40% since 1914