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America in 1919
by Don Keko
Central Michigan University
In the year 1919, all hell broke loose. That year, the nation faced a series of
crises which ripped the country to its core. The flu pandemic continued,
terrorist bombings and race riots rocked the nation, government oppression
hit historic levels, the president became an invalid, and the White Sox threw
the World Series. The turmoil of 1919 changed the zeitgeist from the
optimism of the Progressive Era and jubilation at the end of World War I into
one of cynicism and apathy.
Luigi Galleani hoped to foment revolution in the United States through
violence. From April-June 1919, a series of leftist bombings shook the nation.
The anarchists felt corporations oppressed the people and held too much
power. They advocated class warfare and targeted a number of high profile
individuals including John D. Rockefeller and Attorney General A. Mitchell
Palmer. Eventually, the government broke Galleani’s organization and
deported the anarchist leader to Italy.
The series of bombings created a red scare. Government officials and ordinary
citizens alike began worrying about revolutionary activities. Russia fell to the
communists and people feared their progressive allies in America might
attempt to follow the Bolshevik example. The Galleani attacks combined with
a series of union strikes reaffirmed this view. The labor movement fell under
suspicion.
In response to the Red Scare and leftist bombings, Attorney General Palmer
launched a series of raids with President Woodrow Wilson’s blessing. The
country cracked down on civil liberties and limited free speech during World
War I. The Palmer Raids extended the assault by limiting due process and
allowing warrantless searches, arrests, and deportations. The raids took place
from November 1919 through December 1920. The government identified
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over 10,000 progressives, leading to thousands of arrests and over 500
deportations. In June 1920, a district court judge released 17 individuals
wrongly detained and admonished the Justice Department. The decision
helped end the raids. However, the raids combined with popular suspicion
discredited the left for the next dozen years.
Americans feared more than liberals in 1919. During “Red Summer”, race riots
broke out throughout the nation. Most occurred in the south where whites
feared the return of black soldiers. White southerners lynched uniformed
soldiers fresh from France. The whites worried the soldiers might demand
rights and moved to preempt a revolution and reassert white supremacy.
However, the worst of the riots occurred in Chicago where the Great
Migration created tensions between the immigrants from the south, native
northern blacks, and whites. When the dust settled, at least 34 riots broke out
nationally.
As the nation experienced mass violence, the president collapsed from the
stress. Wilson returned from France hoping to reorganize the world order.
However, he struggled to pass his vision in congress. The president could
have passed the Treaty of Versailles and League of Nations with minor
modifications. However, he refused to compromise and toured the nation to
garner support for an unchanged treaty. He collapsed on September 25 and
suffered a major stroke one week later. The stroke incapacitated the president
and killed the treaty. His wife controlled access and he remained in office.
Wilson should have been removed. He worked minimally during the
remainder of his term, but did approve the Palmer Raids. Essentially, the
country ran without a president for nearly 18 months. The public turned on
Wilson over the assault on civil liberties, World War I, and the events of 1919.
The Democrats suffered a humiliating rebuke in the 1920 election.
While a stroke turned Wilson into an invalid, the Spanish Flu killed millions.
The pandemic began in June 1918 and lasted until the end of 1920. The
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disease spread easily in the unsanitary trenches of World War I, infected 1/3
of the planet and killed around 5% of the world's total population. The
human immune system overreacted to infection and shifted into overdrive.
This resulted in a cytokine storm which killed. As a result, people with
stronger immune systems were disproportionately affected. The disease
ravaged the young while older people survived.
People gravitate toward sports during times of extreme stress. Red Summer
and the flu pandemic ruined lives and killed millions. By 1919, baseball
emerged as the “national pastime.” However, the gamblers infiltrated the
sport and fixed an occasional game. Players did not make much money, so
many accepted the occasional payoff to strikeout in a key spot or drop an
easy pop fly. In 1919, several White Sox players took money from Chicago
gangsters to throw the World Series. After news of the fix broke, baseball
owners installed a commissioner to clean up the game. Although a trial
acquitted the “Black Sox”, Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis banned
eight White Sox players from baseball. They have never been reinstated. The
scandal shook fans’ faith in the game, but Landis and Babe Ruth helped
reinvigorate the game in the 1920s.
People wanted to forget the Wilson years and Babe Ruth helped them with
an amazing power display. Twenty years earlier, Americans hoped progressive
government actions could solve many problems. Voters grew disillusioned
during the Wilson years. Many felt Wilson and the Progressives went too far
and the terrorist bombings further alienated people from the government.
World War I did more to feed this zeitgeist as citizens questioned the reasons
and results of the conflict. The events of 1919 compounded this feeling. In
1920, America elected Warren Harding with over 60% of the vote to James
Cox's 34%. The Progressive Democratic candidate suffered for Wilson's sins
and the events from 1919.
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1919 rivals 1968 as the worst year in twentieth century American history.
Everything went wrong. Terrorist bombings led to the Red Scare and Palmer
Raids. This fed into a series of Race Riots. Meanwhile, people worried about
catching the Spanish Flu while President Wilson became an invalid. The
zeitgeist extended to the World Series. Events in 1919 helped feed peoples’
desire for a “return to normalcy” in the 1920s.