America After the
Great War
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The Red Scare and the Palmer Raids
Russians drop out of WWI in 1917. Why?
REVOLUTION
Bolshevik Group promises to get Russia out of war
Russian people starving, suffering heavy casualties, and suffer from low morale
Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky led the Revolution
(The book Animal Farm is based on the Russian Revolution)
Their political philosophies are based off of the theories of Karl Mark
For a description of Communism
and Socialism click the site below
http://www.diffen.com/difference/Communism_vs_Socialism
The Russian Revolution
Why are
Americans
threatened
by the
Russian
Revolution?

Leader of the Russian Revolution
Vladimir Lenin…
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In 1919
Lenin calls
for a world
revolution.
Meanwhile in the United States…STRIKES!
In 1919 one-fifth of the nations workers would go on strike
Boston Police Strike
Governor Coolidge hired an entirely new police force, gave them better wages
and improved working conditions. Not a single officer that went on strike was
hired back.
Seattle General Strike
Stores and business were forced to shut down as over 55,000
employees walked out in America’s first general strike
The Great Steel Strike of 1919
At its peak, more then 365,000 workers went on strike
Many believed communist spies and sympathizers had infiltrated American
Business
Espionage Act
Act that was intended to prohibit interference with military operations or
recruitment, to prevent insubordination in the military, and to prevent the
support of U.S. enemies during wartime.
Sedition Act
It forbade the use of "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United
States government, its flag, or its armed forces or that caused others to view the
American government or its institutions with contempt. Those convicted under the act
generally received sentences of imprisonment for 5 to 20 years.
Eugene V Debs
Leader of the Socialist Party in America
Arrested under the Sedition Act and sentenced to 10 years in prison
The Bombings of 1919
A number of letter bombs were sent through the mail to influential
businessmen and politicians.
J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller both had bombs sent to their homes
Attorney General Palmer’s home in
Washington D.C. was bombed…
Attorney General Palmer’s home in
Washington D.C. was bombed…
“…one in a series of coordinated attacks that day on judges,
politicians, law enforcement officials, and others in eight
cities nationwide. About a month earlier, radicals had also
mailed bombs to the mayor of Seattle and a U.S. Senator,
blowing the hands off the senator’s domestic worker. The
next day, a postal worker in New York City intercepted 16
more packages addressed to political and business leaders,
including John D. Rockefeller.”
Attorney General Mitchell Palmer…
“…revolution was sweeping over
every American institution of law
and order…eating its way into
the homes of the American
workman, its sharp tongues of
revolutionary heat…licking the
altars of the churches leaping
into the belfry of the schools
bell, crawling into the sacred
corners of American homes…
burning up the foundations of
society.”
Palmer (Hoover) Raids
(J. Edgar Hoover was the future leader of the FBI)
Palmer used the sedition acts to conduct raids on anarchists groups in more than thirty
cities across America
Thousands of immigrants were arrested
1919: The Red Scare
The Palmer Raids or Red
Raids
Goal: Hunt down suspected
Communists, socialists &
anarchists
- 6,300 arrested
- 850 deported …U.S.S. Buford
USS Buford - “The Soviet Ark”
In order to demonstrate your understanding of the events
surrounding the post-WWI Red Scare, you are going to write a
leader to the editor. Imagine the date is January 24, 1920, and you
are an editorialist for the New York Times. The Red Scare is at its
height. The nation is filled with the fear that “alien” subversives are
plotting against the United States government and every day
Attorney General Palmer is arresting people he suspects of planning
a violent revolution against the government. Some Americans,
however, have begun to argue that arresting people who have done
nothing more than simply criticize the government is
unconstitutional and dangerous. How would you respond? ON a
separate piece of paper, explain why you support or oppose the
Actions of Attorney General Palmer.