Getting to California general strike – a strike that involves all workers of a general location regardless of their trade. Intent is to show unity amongst

• general strike – a strike that involves all workers of a general location regardless of their trade. Intent is to show unity amongst all workers in an area.

• Red Scare – numerous strikes and the fall of Russia led many Americans to fear socialism taking over in the U.S.

• Palmer Raids – made in reaction to a bombing blamed on immigrant communists. Allowed the federal government to justify unwarranted searches and the deportation of aliens.

• Sacco and Vanzetti – two Italian immigrants that were accused of murder. Their trial was sensationalized and brought out many nativist feelings towards immigration.

• eugenics – false science of improving hereditary traits• Ku Klux Klan – secret racist society that started in the

South but appealed to Americans nationwide with their anti-immigration nativist views

• Emergency Quota Act (1921) – Placed limits on immigration to 3% of that group’s U.S. population in 1890

Ch 14 Sec 4 & Ch 15 Sec 1: Nativism

Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.

Chapter ObjectivesCh 14 Section 4: The War’s Impact• Describe the effects of the postwar recession

on the United States.

• Discuss the causes of and reaction to the Red Scare.

Ch 15 Section 1: A Clash of Values• Explain the rise in racism and nativism

in the 1920s.

An Economy In Turmoil


• After World War I ended, rapid inflation resulted when government agencies removed their controls from the American economy.

• Inflation increased the cost of living–the cost of food, clothing, shelter, and other essentials people need.

• While workers needed higher wages to keep up with the cost of living, companies wanted to lower wages due to an increase in operating costs.

(pages 471–473)(pages 471–473)

• The number of members in unions increased greatly during the war.

• Unions were better organized than before.

• Business leaders wanted to break the power of unions.

• The result of these factors was a large number of strikes.

An Economy In Turmoil (cont.)


(pages 471–473)(pages 471–473)

• General strikes–strikes that involve all workers living in a certain location–worried Americans because they were commonly used in Europe by Communists and other radicals.



(pages 471–473)(pages 471–473)

• The Seattle general strike involved more than 60,000 people and brought the city to a halt for five days.



(pages 471–473)(pages 471–473)

• In 1919, 75 percent of the police force of Boston went on strike.



(pages 471–473)(pages 471–473)

• The governor of Massachusetts, Calvin Coolidge, called in the National Guard to stop looting.

• When the police tried to return to work, Coolidge fired them, and a new police force was hired to replace them.



(pages 471–473)(pages 471–473)

• One of the largest strikes in American history took place when 350,000 steelworkers went on strike for higher pay, shorter hours, and recognition of their union.

• The failure of their strike set back the union cause in the steel industry until 1937.



(pages 471–473)(pages 471–473)

Racial Unrest


• In the summer of 1919, race riots occurred in many Northern cities.

(page 473)(page 473)

Racial Unrest


• They were caused by the return of hundreds of thousands of American soldiers who needed to find employment.


Racial Unrest


• African Americans, who moved north to work, were now competing for the same jobs as the soldiers.


• The worst violence occurred in Chicago where whites and African Americans entered each other’s neighborhoods and attacked one another.

• The violence lasted almost two weeks.

Racial Unrest (cont.)



The Red Scare


• After World War I, Americans associated communism with disloyalty and unpatriotic behavior.

• The numerous strikes in the U.S. in 1919 made Americans fear that Communists, or “reds,” might take control.

• This led to a nationwide panic known as the Red Scare.

(pages 473–475)(pages 473–475)

• The postal service intercepted 30 parcels addressed to leaders in the business and political arena that were set to explode upon opening.

• One bomb damaged the home of United States Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer.

• Although no one ever took responsibility for the packages, most people felt it was Communists or revolutionaries trying to destroy the American way of life.

The Red Scare (cont.)


(pages 473–475)(pages 473–475)

• Palmer set up a special division in the Justice Department called the General Intelligence Division, headed by J. Edgar Hoover.

• Today this is known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

• Palmer organized raids on various radical organizations, mostly rounding up immigrants who were then deported, or expelled from the country.


The Red Scare (cont.)

(pages 473–475)(pages 473–475)

An End to Progressivism


• Warren G. Harding won the election in 1920 with a campaign that called for a return to “normalcy,” or a return to the simpler days before the Progressive Era reforms.


An End to Progressivism


• Harding won the election by a landslide.• The American people liked the idea of returning to

a simpler time.


Nativism Resurges


• In the 1920s, racism and nativism increased.• Immigrants and demobilized military men and women

competed for the same jobs during a time of high unemployment and an increased cost of living.

(pages 482–484)(pages 482–484)

Nativism Resurges


• Ethnic prejudice was the basis of the Sacco and Vanzetti case, in which the two immigrant men were accused of murder and theft.

(pages 482–484)(pages 482–484)

Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.

• They were thought to be anarchists, or opposed to all forms of government.

Nativism Resurges (cont.)

(pages 482–484)(pages 482–484)


• Sacco and Vanzetti were sentenced to death, and in 1927 they were executed still proclaiming their innocence.


(pages 482–484)(pages 482–484)


• Nativists used the idea of eugenics, the false science of the improvement of hereditary traits, to give support to their arguments against immigration.


(pages 482–484)(pages 482–484)


• Nativists emphasized that human inequalities were inherited and said that inferior people should not be allowed to breed.


(pages 482–484)(pages 482–484)



(pages 482–484)(pages 482–484)


• This added to the anti-immigrant feeling of the time and further promoted the idea of strict immigrant control.

• The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) led the movement to restrict immigration.


(pages 482–484)(pages 482–484)


• This new Klan not only targeted the freed African Americans but also Catholics, Jews, immigrants, and other groups believed to have “un-American” values.


(pages 482–484)(pages 482–484)


• Because of a publicity campaign, by 1924 the Ku Klux Klan had over 4 million members and stretched beyond the South into Northern cities.

• Scandals and poor leadership led to the decline of the Klan in the late 1920s.

• Politicians supported by the Klan were voted out of office.


(pages 482–484)(pages 482–484)


Controlling Immigration• In 1921 President

Harding signed the Emergency Quota Act, limiting immigration to 3 percent of the total number of people in any ethnic group already living in the United States.



Controlling Immigration• This

discriminated heavily against southern and eastern Europeans.

• The National Origins Act of 1924 made immigrant restriction a permanent policy.


European Immigration Totals, 1890–1920


• The act lowered the quotas to 2 percent of each national group living in the U.S. in 1890.

• This further restricted immigrants from southern and eastern Europe.

Controlling Immigration (cont.)



• The act exempted immigrants from the Western Hemisphere from the quotas.

• The immigration acts of 1921 and 1924 reduced the labor pool in the United States.




• Employers needed laborers for agriculture, mining, and railroad work.

• Mexican immigrants began pouring into the United States between 1914 and the end of the 1920s.

• The immigrants fled their country in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution of 1910.



Geography and HistoryThe circle graphs below show immigration numbers in the United States in 1921 and 1925. Study the graphs and answer the questions on the following slides.

Interpreting Graphs What significant changes in immigration do the circle graphs show?

They show a dramatic increase in the percentage of immigrants form Latin America and a dramatic decrease in the percentage of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe.

Geography and History (cont.)

Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer.


Geography and History (cont.)



Applying Geography Skills Why did these changes in immigration occur between 1921 and 1925.

There were changes in immigration laws.

Documents

Getting to California general strike – a strike that involves all workers of a general location regardless of their trade. Intent is to show unity amongst