“Trends in the Post War Era”

Question to Ponder

What are some issues facing America in the Post-WWI era?

Issues in Post-War America• New American Foreign policy = Isolationism• Nativism rises & prejudice against immigrants• Many returning soldiers face unemployment• Women, African-Americans, and Immigrants lose their jobs• Cost of living doubled• Farming & Factory production slows due to lack of wartime orders

Design this in your notebookCommunism Immigration Labor Movement

Problem and/or

Issue

Events

Outcomes/Effects

CommunismProblem:•Communism seen as a threat to American way of life

Events:•The Red Scare- American public fears the spread of communism•The Palmer Raids- A. Mitchell Palmer (U.S. Attorney General) along with J. Edgar Hoover (Division of Intelligence) hunt down & deported suspected communists•Sacco and Vanzetti- (Italian immigrants & anarchists) May 1920 were arrested & charged with murder, found guilty under & executed

Outcomes:•Communism will continue to be a threat for decades to come in America

ImmigrationIssue:•Nativists belief = “Keep America for Americans”•immigrants willing to work for lower jobs

Events:•need for unskilled labor decreased = less need for immigrants•The Quota System

1. Emergency Quota Act of 1921 established a maximum number of people allowed in from each foreign country (N/A to Western Hemisphere)Effects:•Canadian and Mexican immigration increases

Labor MovementProblem:•During WWI workers not allowed to “strike”•1919 = more than 3,000 strikes take place

Events: •The Boston Police Strike- union reps. demand raise & were fired leading to strike, Gov. Calvin Coolidge calls in National Guard to end strike•The Steel Mill Strike- U.S. Steel Corp. refuses union reps. demands, workers strike & beaten, strikebreakers hired, President Wilson intervenes; strike ends 1920 •The Coal Miners Strike- United Mine Workers of America strike for demands, court order forces workers back to work, secretly keeps going, President Wilson appoints judge to end dispute

Outcomes:•Union membership decreases = Labor movement slows