Chapter 21 Section 1
A Republican Decade
What kind of leadership were
American seeking in the early 1920s?
• Americans wanted
strong, reassuring
leaders who promised
stability and prosperity.
• Normalcy
Communism
• Government owns all land
and property
• 1 political party
• Needs of the country more
important than the needs of
the individual
• Lenin sought to spread
communism throughout the
world
• After Lenin came Josef
Stalin whose brutal policies
spread communism and
killed tens of millions
Free Enterprise System
• Economic system
characterized by private
or corporate ownership
of land or products
Red Scare
• A fear of communism
and other radical ideas
– Americans wanted
communists jailed and
deported
Why did Communism seem to pose a threat to
capitalist (or free enterprise) nations?
• Communism goes
against everything
people in a capitalist
system believe in
– No private property
– One party government
– Individual rights
A. Mitchell Palmer
• A. Mitchell PalmerAttorney General of the
U.S.
• Had bomb mailed to his
home
• Became convinced that
radicals were conspiring
to overthrow the
government
• Began a campaign to hunt
down radicals
What did A. Mitchell Palmer do in response to bombings
that he suspected radicals to be responsible for?
• Conducted raids and
arrests against
suspected subversives
• Targeted Communists,
socialists, and
anarchists
The Palmer Raids
• Palmer said there would
be a general strike and
widespread bombings
on May 1, 1920
• Newspapers predicted a
major crisis
• Never happened
• Palmer lost influence
and credibility
Why might some consider Palmer’s actions
to be controversial or unconstitutional?
• Arrested thousands,
sometimes without
evidence
– Many of them eventually
deported
Sacco and Vanzetti
• 2 men robbed and killed
2 men working at a
shoe factory in 1920
• Police arrest 2 Italian
Immigrants for the
crime
• Nicola Sacco and
Bartolomeo Vanzetti
• Both men were
anarchists
Sacco and Venzetti
• Both men were carrying
guns
• Sacco’s gun matched
the one used at the
crime
• Many suspected that
they were only arrested
because they were
immigrants and their
political beliefs
What was Sacco and Vanzetti’s fate and
why might there be a problem with it?
• Both men found guilty
• Trial may have been
unfair
– Evidence circumstantial
– Judge used racial slurs
– Both executed
– Note: modern technology
proved they committed the
crime…so don’t feel too
bad
Isolationism
• Avoid economic and
political alliances with
foreign countries
• Opposed League of
Nations
How did the Red Scare contribute to America’s
policy of isolationism in the 1920s?
• Many of the suspected
radicals swept up in the
Palmer raids were
immigrants
• This contributed to the
desire of Americans to
adopt an isolationist
stance
Disarmament
• A program in which the
nations of the world
would voluntarily give
up their weapons
– A goal of President
Harding
Nativism
• A movement favoring
native born Americans
over immigrants
What are 4 reasons why nativism
flared up after World War I?
• Patriotism- believed
foreigners could never
be loyal to the U.S.
• Religion- Protestants,
Catholics, and Jews
could not see eye to eye
• Urban conditionsurban problems blamed
on immigrants
• Jobs-immigrants were
taking them
• RedScare
Quota
• A limit
• 1921 law passed to
restrict immigration
• Placed a quota on
immigrants
representing certain
ethnic groups or nations
Teapot Dome Scandal
• Harding not
involved…but his
people were
• Albert B. Fall (Secretary
of the Interior) secretly
gave oil drilling rights on
government property to
2 private oil companies
• Fall received $300,000
in illegal payments and
gifts in return
Kellogg-Briand Pact
• 15 nations pledged not
to use the threat of
force in their dealings
with other nations
• 60 nations eventually
joined the pact
• Basically made war
illegal
• Unrealistic and
unenforceable
How did the Kellogg-Briand Pact reflect
Republican foreign policy in the 1920s?
• This pact reflected the
republican desire to
avoid foreign wars.