The Roaring Twenties
Post War America
» WWI – 1914 – 1918
» After the war many Americans wanted to
return to what President Warren G.
Harding described as “Normalcy”
» Three trends exist in post-war America
» Isolationism
» Resurgence of Nativism
» Political Conservatism
The Russian Revolution
» 1917 – conditions in Russia had become desperate
» WWI had devastated Russia mainly because of the
great loss of population and resources
» March 15, 1917 – Czar Nicholas II abdicated his
throne
» This new communist party-led by Vladimir Leninvows to overthrow capitalism around the world
» Communism – one party system in which the state owns
all property and most of business; there is no political
freedom in communism
The Red Scare
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70,000 radicals joined the newly formed
Communist Party in the US
1/10 1% the population
yet, communism frightened America
The US panics that the “Reds” would take
over America
Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer
decided he was going to combat this “Red
Scare”
Palmer Raids
» August 1919 – Palmer appointed J. Edgar Hoover to head
a new division of the Justice Department, The Federal
Bureau of Investigation
» Palmer sent government officials to hunt down
communists, socialists, and anarchists
» These agents began to infringe on America’s civil rights
» They invaded private homes, meeting halls, and offices
without search warrants-jailed suspects without letting
them see a lawyer
» The US deported hundreds of foreign born radicals
without trying them in a court
» Palmer predicted there would be an attempt for
communists to take over the US; It never happened
Sacco and Vanzetti
» The Red-Scare ruined many
immigrants lives
» Most famous was Nicola Sacco and
Bartalameo Vanzetti
» Both were Italian immigrants &
they were also known anarchists
who evaded the draft of WWI
Nativism or Murder?
» April 1920 – South
Braintree, Mass.
» Two men shot and killed
a factory paymaster and
his guard. They stole
$15,000 and made a
getaway
» Witnesses said that the
suspects appeared to be
Italian
» 3 weeks later police
arrested Sacco and
Vanzetti
All evidence in this case
was circumstantial,
and the accused
provided alibis
» The judge was
prejudice making
remarks throughout
the trial
» A jury sentenced them
to death
» On August 23, 1927
both men died in the
electric chair
The resurgence of the KKK
» anti-immigrant feelings gave rise to hate groups in
America
» By 1924 the KKK had 4.5 million members
» They believed that African Americans should not be
allowed to seek equality
» They opposed saloons, Catholics, Jews, foreign born
citizens
» Members started to dress in hoods and robes
» Used violence to voice their opinions
» 1923 – Rosewood, Florida
» 1923 – 60,000 Klan members marched on
Washington D. C.
Returning to Normalcy
» 1920 – summer in Chicago Republican nominate
their presidential candidate
» American public was tired of the Progressive
Movement
» Warren G. Harding of Ohio
» “looked like a president ought to look.”
» Harding runs with Governor of Mass. Calvin
Coolidge
» They easily defeat James Cox and running mate
Franklin D. Roosevelt
» Harding’s Campaign slogan Return to Normalcy –
Promote simpler days prior to progressives
Foreign Policy of Harding
» Kellogg – Briand Act
» - Harding supported the disarmament of
large military countries
» - convinces 64 nations to renounce war as
an instrument of National Policy
» - No way to enforce this act
» - Harding supported isolationism
» - Harding was having a hard time retrieving
the $10 billion loaned to Britain and France
during WWI
Fordney-McCumber Tariff
» raised taxes on imports to highest level ever – 60 %
» - this hoped to protect American Businesses
» - Britain and France could not sell goods to US because
of this tax
» - therefore they could not raise money to payoff loans
» - France and Britain force Germany to pay its war
reparations
» - Germany is unable to pay
» Dawes Plan - America loans Germany money to pay
England and France then they would have money to pay
the US
» - this was highly criticized
Limiting Immigration
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Nativism running wild in the US
- anarchists, communists, labor disputes
- job demand decreases after WWI
- Nativists want fewer immigrants in the US
1919 – 141,000 immigrants in the US
1921 – 805,000 immigrants in the US
Emergency Quota System – limits the number of
immigrants from each foreign nation
» - 2% of foreign nationals living here
» - excludes Japan
» - Western Hemisphere not affected
Scandal in the White House
» Harding opposed government intervention
in business
» - disapproved of social reforms
» - Harding’s cabinet contained the Ohio
Gang?
» Included: Attorney General Harry
Dougherty and Albert Fall
» - Harding’s Friends from Ohio
Teapot Dome Scandal
» Teapot Dome, Wyoming and Elk Hills, Ca
» - Oil rich lands set aside during the progressive
movement
» - Albert B. Fall Sec. of the Interior
» - secretly leased the land to private oil companies
» - Fall becomes very rich gaining about $325,000 in
bonds and cash
» - claimed it was in the best interest of the US
» Aug. 2, 1923 Harding dies
» - Calvin Coolidge becomes President
» - Elected in 1924