Chapter 21 Section 1

A Republican Decade

What kind of leadership were American seeking in the early 1920s?

• Americans wanted strong, reassuring leaders who promised stability and prosperity.

• Normalcy

Communism• Government owns all land and

property• 1 political party• Needs of the country more

important than the needs of the individual

• Lenin sought to spread communism throughout the world

• After Lenin came Josef Stalin whose brutal policies spread communism and killed tens of millions

Free Enterprise System

• Economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of land or products

Red Scare

• A fear of communism and other radical ideas– Americans wanted

communists jailed and deported

Why did Communism seem to pose a threat to capitalist (or free enterprise) nations?

• Communism goes against everything people in a capitalist system believe in– No private property– One party government– Individual rights

A. Mitchell Palmer

• A. Mitchell Palmer-Attorney General of the U.S.

• Had bomb mailed to his home

• Became convinced that radicals were conspiring to overthrow the government

• Began a campaign to hunt down radicals

What did A. Mitchell Palmer do in response to bombings that he suspected radicals to be responsible for?

• Conducted raids and arrests against suspected subversives

• Targeted Communists, socialists, and anarchists

The Palmer Raids

• Palmer said there would be a general strike and widespread bombings on May 1, 1920

• Newspapers predicted a major crisis

• Never happened• Palmer lost influence

and credibility

Why might some consider Palmer’s actions to be controversial or unconstitutional?

• Arrested thousands, sometimes without evidence– Many of them eventually

deported

Sacco and Vanzetti

• 2 men robbed and killed 2 men working at a shoe factory in 1920

• Police arrest 2 Italian Immigrants for the crime

• Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti

• Both men were anarchists

Sacco and Venzetti

• Both men were carrying guns

• Sacco’s gun matched the one used at the crime

• Many suspected that they were only arrested because they were immigrants and their political beliefs

What was Sacco and Vanzetti’s fate and why might there be a problem with it?

• Both men found guilty• Trial may have been unfair

– Evidence circumstantial– Judge used racial slurs– Both executed

– Note: modern technology proved they committed the crime…so don’t feel too bad

Isolationism

• Avoid economic and political alliances with foreign countries

• Opposed League of Nations

How did the Red Scare contribute to America’s policy of isolationism in the 1920s?

• Many of the suspected radicals swept up in the Palmer raids were immigrants

• This contributed to the desire of Americans to adopt an isolationist stance

Disarmament

• A program in which the nations of the world would voluntarily give up their weapons– A goal of President

Harding

Nativism

• A movement favoring native born Americans over immigrants

What are 4 reasons why nativism flared up after World War I?

• Patriotism- believed foreigners could never be loyal to the U.S.

• Religion- Protestants, Catholics, and Jews could not see eye to eye

• Urban conditions- urban problems blamed on immigrants

• Jobs-immigrants were taking them

• RedScare

Quota

• A limit• 1921 law passed to

restrict immigration• Placed a quota on

immigrants representing certain ethnic groups or nations

Teapot Dome Scandal

• Harding not involved…but his people were

• Albert B. Fall (Secretary of the Interior) secretly gave oil drilling rights on government property to 2 private oil companies

• Fall received $300,000 in illegal payments and gifts in return

Kellogg-Briand Pact

• 15 nations pledged not to use the threat of force in their dealings with other nations

• 60 nations eventually joined the pact

• Basically made war illegal

• Unrealistic and unenforceable

How did the Kellogg-Briand Pact reflect Republican foreign policy in the 1920s?

• This pact reflected the republican desire to avoid foreign wars.