9.4 The War’s Impact

I. An Economy in Turmoil

A. With inflation increasing the cost of living, workers demanded higher wages

1. Business leaders refused, leading to an increase in strikes (1919)

I. An Economy in Turmoil…2. Workers in Seattle organized a

general strike, and police officers in Boston went on strike

Boston Police Strike The cost of living from 1913 until May 1919 rose by 76%, in contrast with an average increase of 18% in police wages. Police officers worked long 10 hour shifts and often slept over at the station without pay in case they were needed. Officers were not paid for court appearances and there were also complaints about the conditions of police stations, including the lack of sanitation, baths, beds and toilets.

President Woodrow Wilson denounced the Boston Police Strike as "a crime against civilization."

I. An Economy in Turmoil…

B. Strikes were portrayed as anti-American actions that threatened the govt.

I. An Economy in Turmoil…

C. Economic turmoil also led to widespread racial unrest (1919)

*23 blacks and 15 whites were killed

*538 were injured

*over 1,000 black families were left homeless

II. The Red Scare

A. The strikes of 1919 fueled fears that communists were trying to start a revolution

1. This led to a nationwide panic called the Red Scare

THE RUSSIAN BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION IN 1917 LED TO WIDE SCALE FEAR IN THE U.S. THAT COMMUNISTS WOULD

TRY TO TAKE OVER THE COUNTRY

II. The Red Scare…

B. Concerned about a nationwide conspiracy, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer took action

“My information showed that communism in this country was an organization of thousands of aliens who were direct allies of Trotzky. Aliens of the same misshapen caste of mind and indecencies of character, and it showed that they were making the same glittering promises of lawlessness, of criminal autocracy to Americans, that they had made to the Russian peasants.”

-From Palmer’s 1920 Essay

II. The Red Scare…

1. He established the Federal Bureau of Investigation, led by J. Edgar Hoover

II. The Red Scare…

2. Palmer Raids involved arresting suspicious people & deporting Russians

3. Failed to find any evidence of revolutionary conspiracy