home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- subject = History
- title = Descrimination in the 1920s
-
-
-
- American History
- Imigration and Discrimination in the 1920's
-
- Beginning in the early nineteenth century there were massive waves of
-
- immigration. These "new" immigants were largely from Italy, Russia, and
-
- Ireland. There was a mixed reaction to these incomming foreigners. While
-
- they provided industries with a cheap source of labor, Americans were both
-
- afraid of, and hostile towards these new groups. They differed from the
-
- "typical American" in language, customs, and religion. Many individuals and
-
- industries alike played upon America's fears of immigration to further their
-
- own goals. Leuchtenburg follows this common theme from the beginning of
-
- World War I up untill the election of 1928.
-
- If there was one man who singlely used America's fear of immigrants to
-
- advance his own political goals it was Attorney General Palmer. The rise of
-
- Communism in Russia created a fear of its spread across Europe, and to
-
- America. Palmer tied this fear to that of immigration. He denounced labor
-
- unions, the Socialist party, and the Communist party in America, as being
-
- infultrated with radicals who sought to overturn America's political,
-
- economic, and social institutions. Palmer exasperated this fear in Americans
-
- and then presented himself as the country's savior, combatting the evils of
-
- Communism. He mainly centered his attack on Russian immigrants. During the
-
- infamous Palmer raids thousands of aliens were deported and even more were
-
-
- arrested on little or no evidence. Their civil liberties were violated,
-
- they were not told the reasons for their arrests, denied counsel, and not
-
- given fair trials. What followed was an investigation of Palmer led by Louis
-
- Post which overturned many of Palmer's actions. Palmer's cretability was
-
- shattered after in a last minute attempt to gain the 1920 presidencial
-
- nomination, he made predictions about a May Day radical uprising, the nation
-
- perpared itself, but on May 1st 1920 all was peaceful. While the raids had
-
- stopped, the hostilities towards immagrants still remained prevelent.
-
- Immigrants were used by organized industries as a source of cheap labor.
-
- But as labor unions began to form and push for better pay, shorter hours,
-
- and improved working conditions industries saw that it was not as easy to
-
- exploit these immigrants as it had been before. Like Palmer, they tied the
-
- American's hostilities towards immigrants to the newly emerging fear of
-
- radicalism. When workers struck, industry leaders turned public opinion
-
- agains them by labling the strikes as attemps at radical uprising. As a
-
- result, workers were often left with no other choice than to accept the
-
- terms of industry management.
-
- The fight for prohabition was aided by America's antagonism for immigrants.
-
- Protestants and "old-stock" Americans attempted to link alchol with
-
- Catholic-Irish and Italian immigrants. They were viewed as immoral and
-
- corrupt for their vice. Prohabition was a means of counterattacking the
-
- evils of the urban cities and their immigrant dwellers. In addition, the
-
- rise of the KKK was a direct result of the hostilities harbored towards the
-
- immigrant population. Started by native born, white, Protestants, the KKK
-
- was afraid of "the encroachment of foreigners," expecially those who
-
- answered to a foreign Pope as their religious authority. Playing upon these
-
- fears, the KKK gained support and was it's members were able to politically
-
- control parts of Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, and much of Indiana.
-
-
-
-
-