| Society and Economy in Post WWI America (1918-1921) |
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Sections:- Spanish Flu Epidemic
- Rejection of Versailles
- The Volstead Act Passes Over Wilson's Veto
- The Silent Sentinels and the 19th Amendment
- Say it Ain't So Joe: The 1919 Black Sox Scandal
- A Difficult Economic Transition
- The Great Migration
- 1919 Race riots
- The Red Scare
- The Palmer Raids, 1918-1921
- Labor Conflicts
- Schenck v. United States, 1919
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| Historical Context
The deadly Spanish Flu outbreak occurred just as The Great War began to wind down.
The epidemic infected one fifth of the world population and killed more people than WWI. The unusually virulent strain of the virus mostly killed victims in the prime of life, rather than children and the elderly.
The epidemic hit Kansas in 1918 and had a profound effect on mortality. The dramatic spike in the Census Bureau graph below illustrates the severity of the epidemic.
The port areas saw the earliest cases of influenza, which reached American shores by boat. The major cities and transportation centers were next on the path. The disease disseminated across the country as the population traveled, with a few focal areas of massive epidemic.
Attached Documents
In this 1918 photo, an Army hospital at Camp Funston in Kansas is filled with the initial victims of the influenza pandemic that eventually would kill approximately up to 40 million worldwide.
A letter from one Army physician to another in 1918 conveys the desperate state of the hospital and its staff. Also included here is a letter from a doctor describing the symptoms of the deadly flu and the staggering number of victims.
Questions to consider
1. Estimate how long it took for the Spanish Flu to spread across the United States.
2. What effect do you imagine the pandemic had on peoples' morale at the end of the Great War?
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| Historical Context
President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat and idealist, and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, a Republican and realist, remained bitter enemies throughout their prestigious political careers. After the President's party lost Congress in the 1918 elections, Lodge became both Senate Majority Leader and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, thus his support of the Treaty of Versailles and its provision for a League of Nations was crucial for it to pass.
However, rather than cooperate with Lodge and the Republican Senate, Wilson bypassed them during negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference and sometimes publicly insulted them. Lodge and his political allies advocated a more punitive settlement against Germany, rather than Wilson's conception of a "peace without victory," and added a number of amendments and "reservations" to the treaty. Wilson was unwilling to compromise and commenced a tour of the country to promote the Treaty directly to the American people. In October 1919, the President suffered a debilitating stroke while on the road. Wilson remained unwilling to negotiate with the Senate, and on November 19, 1919, it rejected a peace treaty for the first time. Congress later passed a joint resolution ending the war with Germany.
Attached Documents
This cartoon entitled "Touch Not a Single Bough" depicts President Wilson attempting to defend the treaty from a menacing-looking Senate.
In this political cartoon, the ill-fated treaty of Versailles emerges in tatters from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee escorted by Lodge.
The third cartoon, "Blowing Bubbles," shows the idealistic Wilson.
Question to consider
1. The political cartoons below can be interpreted in various ways. How do you interpret them and what story do they tell? What are some alternative interpretations?
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| Historical Context
The Temperance Movement was a force in American political and social life since before the Civil War. It appealed to many women's groups, rural Protestants, and Progressives who felt that alcohol was the root cause of a variety of social ills. The nation's entry into WWI bolstered the movement because many Americans associated temperance with patriotism due, for example, to the German ownership of breweries and necessity to conserve grain during wartime. Furthermore, the war led to the expansion of government power in a variety of arenas, which may have made people more accepting of such legislation.
The 18th Amendment was ratified in 1919 and took effect in 1920. The Volstead Act was a piece of legislation designed to clarify the new rules surrounding prohibition such as the definition of "intoxicating liquors," the punishments for violating the law, and exceptions to the law for physicians and clergy.
Though Wilson advocated temperance, he vetoed the Volstead Act on constitutional and ethical grounds. His veto was overridden by Congress and the Volstead Act took effect.
Attached Document
Included here is the text of the Volstead Act.
Questions to Consider
1. What exceptions to prohibition did the Volstead Act include?
2. What do you think Wilson's rationale for being opposed to prohibition but supportive of temperance was?
3. What kind of relationship did the President have with Congress at this time? |
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| Historical Context
Although briefly postponed due to the outbreak of WWI, the continued agitation by women determined to obtain voting rights resulted in the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which finally allowed women to represent themselves at the polls. The culmination of Progressivism's agenda came with success of the temperance and women's suffrage movements; thus, the years immediately after WWI were a prelude to the conservatism of the 1920's.
Attached Documents
The three videos below give a brief synopsis of the suffrage movement during Wilson's time. "The Silent Sentinels" (2:49 minutes) deals with picketing the White House. "The War" (1:45 minutes) discusses the impact of WWI on the suffrage movement. "Final Victory" (2:49) discusses the ratification process. All three videos form a picture of Wilson's developing attitude towards suffrage throughout his presidency.
In prominent suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt's 1917 fiery address to Congress urging action on a federal suffrage amendment, she outlines a number of reasons why suffrage is both inevitable and necessary.
In President Wilson's eloquent 1918 address to the Senate on women's suffrage, he links the cause to WWI.
Questions to Consider
1. What tactics did the suffragists use to call attention to their cause? What reactions did they encounter?
2. How did the suffragists use the war effort to strengthen their cause?
3. Summarize the nuances of Wilson's attitude toward the vote for women and the suffragists themselves.
4. Why does Carrie Chapman Catt urge congressmen to "think it over"? Why does she argue a suffrage amendment is a wise political action?
5. How does the President link enfranchisement of women to the war effort? |
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| Historical Context
The 1919 Chicago White Sox were considered one of the best baseball teams ever to play the game. They dominated the League throughout the season, but in the World Series they lost to the inferior Cincinnati Reds. Rumors began that the Reds’ victory was not legitimate. In 1921, eight of the White Sox players were indicted for throwing the 1919 World Series. Despite the confession of a prominent player, they were acquitted in a corrupt trial. Still, baseball commissioner Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis banned the eight players for life.
The White Sox were a tremendously unhappy team. White Sox owner Charles Comiskey took advantage of the economics of baseball to pay his players a fraction of what players of similar talent made on other teams. The team’s nickname “Black Sox” came not from crookedness, but from the filthy uniforms Comiskey refused to pay to have laundered. New York gambler Arnold Rothstein took advantage of this discontent, offering key players several thousand dollars each to throw the World Series.
The tragedy of the Series was illiterate superstar outfielder “Shoeless” Joe Jackson who, though he accepted money from Rothstein, did not seem to understand the arrangement, hitting a stellar .375 for the Series. Jackson was banned for life and, despite annual pleas for reinstatement, lived out the remainder of his life as an impoverished liquor store owner in South Carolina.
Question to consider
1. How do you think the 1919 World Series Scandal affected the morale of baseball fans in post-WWI America?
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| Historical Context
When the Great War ended, the American economy had a few very difficult years between 1918 and 1921 during transition back to a peacetime economy. The government did not manage the abrupt transition, so as wartime production ceased, inflation rose, and unemployment spiked as the troops returned home to find jobs in the civilian sector. Nativist sentiments were inflamed because some Americans viewed immigrants as economic competitors. The recession was short-lived, however, as industry transitioned to produce consumer goods. WWI stimulated development and investment in new technology that contributed to the business boom of the 1920's, and by 1922, the economy gradually rebounded.
Attached Documents
The poster below advertises employment services for returning soldiers.
The graph shows the dramatic increase in the cost of living between 1914 and 1919 in 3 major US cities.
In this sound clip (0:27 minutes) from a 1920 speech by presidential hopeful Warren Harding, he expresses the notion that Americans desire a "return to normalcy" and calm following the upheaval of the war years.
In Harding's 1921 Inaugural Address, he emphasizes the need America to return to stability and change from a spartan wartime economy to a prosperous and stable peacetime economy. He lists the economic strategies of the administration to restore the economy, which are indicative of the general ideological inclinations of all three Republican presidents of the 1920's.
Questions to Consider
1. According to Harding, what kind of transition does the post-WWI economy need to make?
2. What does remedies does Harding propose stabilize and strengthen the economy?
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| Historical Context
African-Americans left the South in large numbers during and after WWI. An overwhelming majority of those seeking a new life left for the industrial cities of the North. Although not highly organized, the Great Migration drew roughly a million African-Americans from the rural South to the cities in the North between 1915 and 1920. The term is generally applied to the continued movement of African Americans out of the South following the Civil War until the 1970's. The causes for the mass migration were complex and varied. Not only did African Americans escape the terrible economic situation combined with being stuck as sharecroppers and the threat of lynchings, but also they were drawn to the better pay, a higher standard of living, and improved political rights in the cities of the North. The Great Migration can be directly linked to what is regarded today as African-American culture.
Attached Document
The selection on the Negro Exodus from the Southern States by Frederick Douglass addresses the situation left by the African-Americans in the South.
Questions to Consider
1. What repercussions of the Great Migration do you think were seen immediately? What do you think the long-term effects were?
2. Why does Frederick Douglas think the Great Migration began? Does he agree with it, what does he think should be done instead? |
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| Historical Context
The summer of 1919 became known as "red summer" because over two dozen cities including Washington DC, Chicago, and Omaha, experienced violent, racially motivated uprisings. In the South, lynchings occurred frequently and in the North, whites sometimes reacted violently to African Americans arriving as the Great Migration was underway.
Attached Documents
A photo from the Chicago Race Riot, July 1919. The caption reads, "Rescuing a Negro During the Race Riots in Chicago : The Negro... pursued by a mob and ran to the mounted policeman... who kept the mob at bay until other officers arrived on the scene. This Negro was armed for defense ; the policeman at his side is shown in the act of taking a weapon from his hip pocket."
The "Treat 'em tough" cartoon appears below.
The Omaha Race Riot occurred September 28, 1919. This photo shows
rioters on the south side of Douglas County Courthouse in Omaha, Nebraska.
A photo of soldiers on guard at 24th and Lake streets in Omaha, following the riot.
A disturbing photo of the burning of Will Brown's body during the Omaha riot.
Question to consider
1. What are some economic and social factors that may have contributed to the upsurge in racial violence in 1919? |
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| Historical Context
Beginning in the years of the Great War and continuing for the decade after its conclusion, a growing climate of xenophobia, anti-radicalism, and nativism accompanied a repressive shift in the government's attitude toward dissent. During this period, "alien" residents were targeted and the first amendment rights of Americans were sometimes supplanted as the country succumbed to a kind of anti-communist hysteria.
Attached Documents
The cartoon of a "European Anarchist" stalking Lady Liberty appears below.
This 1920 article entitled, "The Most Brainiest Man" relates the story of a man who goes to jail for praising Lenin. It illustrates the sometimes ludicrous results of the Red Scare.
In this excerpt from Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer's The Case Against the "Reds", he asserts the criminal menace of Bolshevism is infiltrating every aspect of American life and vows to arrest and deport every one of the radicals.
Question to Consider
1. Do you agree or disagree with Palmer's assertion that "there could be no nice distinctions drawn between the theoretical ideals of the radicals and their actual violations of our national laws."?
2. A debate over aspects of National Security exists in contemporary America. What if this ethos were applied in America today with respect to terrorism? Would you feel safer? |
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| Historical Context
In 1919, during a period of labor disturbances and several bombing incidents linked to anarchists, the post-World War I antiradical hysteria resulted in aggressive targeting of suspected radicals by the government. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer launched a series of raids against radical and progressive organizations, often without search warrants. By early 1920, more than five thousand people were arrested. Many of the suspects were deported, some illegally.
Questions to Consider
1. What recent events in the US and the world contributed to the nativist hysteria after world war one?
2. What kind of political, social, and ethnic groups were held in suspicion and disdain?
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| Historical Context
In February 1919, the first of a number of post-WWI general labor stoppages occurred in Seattle. The Seattle General Strike began with shipyard workers who were angered because after wartime wage restrictions were lifted, an expected wage increase was not granted. Over 100 other unions joined them in a sympathy strike, and on February 6th, the city's workforce stopped all labor.
Conservative politicians and the media denounced the strike, characterizing it a threat to the social order and a possible prelude to a Bolshevik-style revolution. Seattle's mayor Ole Hanson summoned the police to arrest socialists and the staff of labor-owned press outlets. The national press dubbed Hanson "The Savior of Seattle" for his reactionary response to the labor stoppage. Although the strike lasted only a few days, the anti-radical sentiment that accompanied it endured well into the 1920's as Americans yearned for a return to calm, simplicity, "Americanism," and what President Harding later called "normalcy."
Attached Documents
The handbills below, distributed to laborers by the Industrial Workers of the World, call for workers to join the strike using language that alludes to class warfare and Marxist thought. Items like these fueled the feared of communist revolution in Seattle.
The newspaper headline announcing the strike and the video clip, "Witness to Revolution: The Story of Anna Louise Strong" (4:10 minutes) appear below.
Mayor Ole Hanson's statement on the strike was printed in newspapers across the nation. This excerpt illustrates the panic caused by the strike and the mayor's expectation of violence in the streets of Seattle.
Questions to consider
1. What reasons did the unions and labor groups give for calling a general strike?
2. Why were many citizens and politicians alarmed by the labor stoppage?
3. What does the strike and the reaction to it reveal about the national mood in the post-WWI years? |
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| Historical Context
In the post-WWI period, concerns about radical elements in the country led to several incidents of the curtailment of rights by the government. The nation was traumatized by the war, and thus more willing to exchange some of its freedom for security. In Schenck v. United States, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes unanimously concluded that speech normally protected by the First Amendment may not be acceptable during a time of war. Furthermore, the opinion stated that courts are not obligated to protect words that "create a clear and present danger" to the government and the nation.
Influential Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes served for over 30 years. His judicial philosophy was one of deference to Congress, no matter what his personal opinion of the case.
Attached Document
Included here is the case of Schenk v US from 1919.
Questions to Consider
1. Why did the Court conclude that Schenck violated the Espionage Act?
2. What did the leaflets actually say? Do you think the statements presented a "clear and present danger" to the country?
3. Do you agree or disagree with the "clear and present danger" test with regard to curtailing freedom of speech? Why or why not?
4. Do you agree or disagree with the other general conclusions of the Court with regard to the First Amendment during wartime? Why or why not? |
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