1920s Politics

Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover

• Attorney General = A. Mitchell Palmer

• Palmer Raids:– J. Edgar Hoover head of antiradical division

in the Justice Dept, later FBI

– Hunts suspected Communists, socialists and anarchists

– What did the gov’t find?

– May 1, 1920, May Day = suspected Comm. Plot to overthrow the gov’t; What happened?

Russian Revolution leads to Red Scare in US

What similarities do you see of this in today’s society?

• Anthrax?

• Profiling?

• Patriot Act?

KKK• “100 percent Americanism”

• Enforce prohibition, oppose unions, and drive Catholics, Jews and foreign-born out of the country

• Kleagles kept $4 out of every $10 initiation fee for ea. Member they recruited = kleagling

• Why was there a resurgence in the KKK in the 1920s?

• Why did the Klan’s power decrease significantly by the end of the 1920s?

Klan Wedding Washington State (1926)

• Membership of the NJ branch of the KKK was +50,000 w/ thousands more sympathetic to the Klan's mission. W/ this support, they’re ready to take over Protestant control in the state. They would openly attack corrupt politicians and take on the rumrunners

1915 Hollywood

film:

“The Birth of a Nation”

Re-invigorated the KKK

Sacco and Vanzetti Trial

Labor Unrest (pg 594-595)

Strike Problems ResultsBoston Police Strike

Steel Mill Strike

Coal Miners Strike

Strike Problems Results

Boston Police Strike

1919

Not had a raise since start of WWI, 1914 cost of living x2; everyone fired/went on strike

Coolidge called National Guard, police off strike; new police hired; can’t strike against public safety

Steel Mill Strike

9/1919

12 hr days, difficult/ dangerous work; US Steel hires strikebreakers uses force, 18 killed

Broken Jan 1920; 1923 report published showing conditions in steel mills, shocking, est. 8 hr days; no union

Coal Miners Strike

United Mine Workers head Lewis protest Nov 1, 1919 long hrs, low wages; Palmer sent members back 2 work

Lewis quietly gave word to continue strike, mines closed +1 month; won 27% wage increase, Lewis gained fame

• Overall, what can you conclude about labor unions in the 1920s? Were they successful?

• Why did membership in labor unions decline in the 1920s?

Labor unions declined b/c…• Much of the work force consisted of

immigrants who had to work in poor conditions

• Immigrants spoke different languages = hard to organize/communicate unions

• Farmers who moved to cities for factory jobs hard to unionize b/c used to relying on themselves

1920 Presidential Election

• Harding and Coolidge vs. James Cox and FDR

• Harding promoted a “return to normalcy” – America before the progressive reforms

Harding’s Return to “Normalcy”

• Isolationism

• Nativism

• Political Conservatism

• New threat to all this = Communism

Domestic and Foreign Policy

• Kellogg-Briand Pact Isolationist foreign policy

• Fordney-McCumber Tariff

• Dawes Plan

• Emergency Quota Act of 1921/Quota system

Harding’s Administration and Scandal

• Secretary of State = Charles Evans Hughes

• Secretary of Commerce = Herbert Hoover

• Secretary of Treasury = Andrew Mellon (one of the wealthiest men to try and reduce debt) – fell by 1923 by 1/3

• Ohio Gang: – Interior Secretary = Albert Fall

Teapot Dome Scandal

• Oil-rich public land set aside by gov’t in Teapot Dome, Wyoming and Elks Hills, CA under US Navy

• Fall got reserves transferred to interior dept.

• Secretly leased land to 2 private oil Co.’s; Fall became wealthy

• Harding died on Aug. 2, 1923, Coolidge becomes President and is reelected in 1924