American Life in the “Roaring Twenties” 1920-1929 America's present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration; not surgery but serenity, Waraen G. Harowc, 1920 Pvt ‘Zhe we and disillusioned by the Peace, Americans turned inward in the 1920s. Shunning diplomatic commitments to foreign coun- trles, they also denounced “radical” foreign ideas, con- demned “un-American” lifestyles, and clanged shut the immigration gates against foreign peoples, They partly sealed off the domestic economy from the rest. of the world and plunged headlong into a dizzying decade of homegrown prosperity. ‘The boom of the golden twenties showered gen- uuine benefits on Americans, as incomes and living standards rose for many. But there seemed to be some thing incredible about it all, even as people sang, ‘My sister she works in the laundry, My father sells bootlegger gin, My mother she takes in the washing, My God! how the money rolls in! New technologies, new consumer products, and new forms of leisure and entertainment made the ‘twenties roar. Yet just beneath the surface lurked widespread anxieties about the future and fears that America was losing sight of its traditional ways. Seeing Red is Hysterical fears of red Russia continued to color American thinking for several years after the Communists came to power in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, which spawned a tiny Communist party in America, ‘Ten- sions were heightened by an epidemic of strikes that convulsed the Republic at war's end, many of them the 692 result of high prices and frustrated union-org drives. Upstanding Americans jumped to the clusion that labor troubles were fomented by b and-whisker Bolsheviks. A general strike in Sea 1919, though modest in its demands and orderly i methods, prompted a call from the mayor for troops to head off “the anarchy of Russia.” Fite brimstone evangelist Billy Sunday struck a resp chord when he described a Bolshevik as “a guy a face like a porcupine and a breath that would @ pole cat....1f [had my way, Vd fill the jails so them that their feet would stick out the window." ‘The big red’ scare of 1919-1920 resulted i nationwide crusade against left-wingers whose canism was suspect. Attorney General A. Mit Palmer, who “saw red" too easily, earned the title of “Fighting Quaker” by his excess of zeal in rounding suspects. They ultimately totaled about six thou This drive to root out radicals was redoubled in. 1919, when a bomb shattered both the nerves and Washington home of Palmer. The “Fighting Qual Was thereupon dubbed the “Quaking Fighter. Other events highlighted the red scare. December 1919, a shipload of 249 alleged alien radi An author soldier (Arthur Guy Empey, 1883-1963) applauded the “deportation jum" when he wrote, 44\ believe we should place them [the reds} all a ship of stone, with sails of lead, and that the first stopping place should be hell. 7?ported on the Buford (the “Soviet Ark") to the kers’ paradise” of Russia, One zealot cried, “My for the Reds is $.0.S.—ship or shoot.” Hysteria temporarily revived in September 1920 when a junexplained bomb blast on Wall Street killed gy-eight people and wounded more than a hun- jothers. jious states joined the pack in the outcry against Js. In 1919-1920 a number of legislatures, reflect- ‘the anxiety of “solid” citizens, passed criminal adicalism laws. These anti-red statutes, some of were born of the war, made unlawful the mere fuwcacy of violence to secure social change. Critics ested that mere words were not criminal deeds, ‘there was a great gulf between throwing fits and hiowing bombs, and that “free screech” was for the sty. as well as the nice. Violence was done to tradi- || American concepts of free speech as [WW mem: and other radicals were vigorously prosecuted, hysteria went so far that in 1920 five members New York legislature, all lawfully elected, were d their seats simply because they were Socialists. ‘The red scare was a godsend to conservative busi- speople, who used it to break the backs of the gling unions. Labor's call for the “closed,” or all- shop was denounced as “Sovietism in disguise.” fimployers, in turn, hailed their own antiunion cam- gn for the “open” shop as the American plan. TheRed Scare ~ 693 Anti-edism and antiforeignism were retlected in a notorious case regarded by liberals as a “judicial lynching.” Nicola Sacco, a shoe-factory worker, and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, a fish peddler, were convicted in 1921 of the murder of a Massachusetts paymaster and. his guard. The jury and judge were prejudiced in some degree against the defendants because they were Ital- ians, atheists, anarchists, and draft dodgers. Liberals and radicals the world over rallied to the defense of the two aliens doomed to die. The case dragged on for six years until 1927, when the condemned men were electrocuted. Communists and other radicals, ‘were thus presented with two martyrs in the “class strug- gle” while many American liberals hung their heads. The evidence against the accused, though damaging, betrayed serious weaknesses, If the trial had been held in an atmosphere less charged with anti-redism, the out ‘come might well have been only a prison term. * A new Ku Klux Klan, spawned by the postwar reac- tion, mushroomed fearsomely in the early 1920s. Despite the familiar sheets and hoods, it more closely resembled the antiforeign “mativist” movements of the 1850s than the antiblack nightriders of the 1860s. It was antiforeign, anti-Catholic, antiblack, Bomb Blast on Wall Street, Septamiber 1920 The target ofthis, tertorist attack seemed to be the offices fof the haughty financier J.P. Morgan, ‘but no perton or group claimed responsibilty for the blast, and the victims were random financial district ‘employees not the moguls of Wall ‘Street. The bombing fed the anti- radical, anti-immigrant mood of the day. Federal Hall, where George ‘Washington was inaugurated, can be seenat therightHiram Wesley Evans (1881-1966), imperial wizard ofthe Ku Kiux Klan, in 1926 poignantly described the cultural grievances that fueled the Klan and lay behind much of the Fundamentalist revolt against “modernism”: 44 Nordic Americans for the last generation have found themselves increasingly uncomfortable and finaly deeply distressed... One by one all our tradi- tional moral standards went by the boards, or were so disregarded that they ceased to be binding. The sacredness of our Sabbath, of our homes, of chas- tity, and finally even of our right to teach our own children in our own schools fundamental facts and truths were torn away from us. Those who main- tained the old standards did so only in the face of constant ridicule.... We found our great cities and the control of much of our industry and commerce taken over by strangers. ... We are a movement of the plain people, very weak in the matter of culture, intellectual support, and trained leadership... This is undoubtedly a weakness. It lays us open to the charge of being ‘hicks’ and ‘rubes' and ‘drivers of second-hand Fords.’ 7? 694 Kfsnswomen on Parada, 1928 Founded in the Reconstruction era, the Ku Klux Klan enjoyed a remarkable resurgence in the 1920s. Here women members, unmasked and unapologetic, march down Pennsylvania Avenue under the shadow of the Capitol dome. cdowmn Renny ania Sue nce eee ea PS SS | antiJJewish, antipacifist, anti-Communist, internationalist, anti-evolutionist, antiboote antigambling, antiadultery, and anti-birth conte) was also pro-Anglo-Saxon, pro-“native” America and pro-Protestant. In short, the besheeted Kl betokened an extremist, ultraconservative upti against many of the forces of diversity and moder nity that were transforming American culture. As reconstituted, the Klan spread with astonish rapidity, especially among some white Protestants i the Midwest and South. At its peak in the mid-19205 it claimed about 5 million dues-paying members and wielded potent political influence. It capitalized the typically American love of on-the-edge a¥ ture and in-group camaraderie, to say nothing 9 adolescent ardor for secret ritual. The “Knights of tf Invisible Empire” included among their officials rial Wizards, Grand Goblins, King Kleagles, and horrendous “kreatures.” The most impressive were “konclaves” and huge flag-waving parades. chief warning was the blazing cross. The principal ‘weapon was the bloodied lash, supplemented by ff and feathers. Rallying songs were "The Fiery Cross 0M High,” “One Hundred Percent American,” and ku Klux Klan and the Pope" (against kissing the POPE toe). One brutal slogan was “Kill the Kikes, Koons Katholics.” 1