Major Issues on a Red Scare Phenomenon - Essay Example

RED SCARE "Red Scare" is not just a communist scare, it is a complex phenomenon, which is composed of social, economic and political factors - as historical evidence shows, "Red Scare" was only a manifestation of tension, provoked by the First World War, the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and inadequate actions of the US government. The First World War accelerated the collapse of Tsarist Russia and its takeover by a communist-led Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. The governments of the capitalist nations feared that the "infection of Bolshevism" would spread to their own people, so, the government of the United States had its own reaction, some would say rather violent. It might be said that from the government's point of view the roots of the "Red Scare" lie in the subversive actions of foreign and leftist elements in the United States, so it decided to suppress dissent and help promote pro-war opinion in the preparation for the American entry into World War. At the heart of the Red Scare was the conscription law of 1917, which was put in place during World War I for the armed forces to be able to conscript more Americans. This law caused many problems for the conscientious objector to WWI, because for one to claim that status, one had to be a member of a "well-recognized" religious organization which forbade their members to participation in war. As a result of such legislation, 20,000 conscientious objectors were inducted into the armed forces (Feuerlicht 74). After the real war ended in 1918, the ideological war turned against conscientious objectors and other radical minorities such as Wobblies, who were members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and Socialists as well. These Wobblies and Socialists were damned as being subversives who were trying to overthrow the United States government. Wobblies, in particular, were persecuted against for speaking out against the capitalist system. Although most of what they said was only to attract attention to their cause, their rhetoric was taken seriously by the government and its officials. From the very beginning of the Red Scare, the Wobblies were the subject of attack by the government, because they were a symbol of radicalism. The government put in place legislation, not only against the Wobblies, but also against Socialists and Communists, due to the fact that the government did not distinguish one of its enemies from another. One such action taken by the government prevented Wobblies who were not yet citizens from naturalization, even if they quit their organization. In 1917, the US government made a law (Espionage Act) which gave the Secretary of Labor the power to arrest or deport any alien "advocating or teaching" destruction of property or the "overthrow of government by force." Words such as "advocating" and the vague language used in the law allowed the government to use deportation as a cure for the anti-government views of its enemies, namely the Wobblies, Communists, and Socialists. After the war formally ended in 1918, all the groups which opposed the war came under fire. They were seen as destructive to the peace and security of the American nation. The focus of the attacks was no longer on the conscientious objectors, for many of them were already jailed during the war, and were still in jail at the time; it had switched over to the Socialists and the Wobblies (Renshaw 63-65; Zinn 108). In 1917, President Wilson established a "Committee on Public Information" to create and release news favorable to the Allied cause and hostile to Germany. To enforce the efforts of the Committee, the "Bureau of Investigation" was created and disrupted the work of German-American, union, and leftist organizations through raids, arrests, and legal prosecution. The Socialist Party of America strongly opposed the war on pacifist grounds and the result was persecution and punishment under the provisions of the Espionage Act (Murray 18). This act penalized anyone who obstructed the operation of the armed forces, was insubordinate, or displayed disloyalty within the forces. Because of the law's vague language, the Justice Department convicted more than 1000 people. Among this number were a large number of Socialists and Wobblies. The Espionage Act was not the only form of legislation to discriminate against anti-war groups. In October 1918, Congress passed the Sedition Act, which gave the Secretary of Labor the power to deport "any alien who, at any time after entering the United States, is found to have been at the time of entry, or to have become thereafter a member of any anarchist organization." The extremely broad language used in this bill and the way it was interpreted gave Palmer the authority to conduct his raids, during which thousands of people were arrested and detained without actually having been charged. Many Socialists became prominent figures due to their attempts to gain release for their imprisoned comrades (Zinn 110, 111). Another reason for the Red Scare was the strike held by mine workers. They were thought to be making threatening moves against the Capitalist system through subversive Socialist organizations. These strikes were part of a series of events which took place in 1919. This strike, which occurred in February, was of 60,000 coal mine workers. In that September, steel workers struck. In general, the year of 1919 was characterized by the turn to active actions - there was registered a large number of strikes, race riots and bombings. Many Americans felt distrust toward foreigners and radicals, whom they held responsible for the war. Race riots and labor unrest added to the tension, so when a series of strikes and indiscriminate bombings began in 1919, the unrelated incidents were all assumed - incorrectly in most cases - to be communist-inspired (Feuerlicht 15-29; Murray 20-22). Communism is "a system of social and economic organization in which property is owned by the state or group, to be shared in common or to be distributed among members of the community equally or in proportion to their respective needs." In 1919, no more than one-tenth of the adult American population belonged to the newly formed Communist movement, and even this small percentage were greatly persecuted. Although American "Reds" caught most of the fury of the raids, it was not just the Communists who had stirred national panic. Emotions that had been building since the turn of the century were brought out during World War I, and then burst into a "xenophobic" repression. Nationalist Americans called for a halt to this "Bolshevik Revolution" which was taking place on American soil. As a result of this panic traveling through American society, a series of bombings occurred. The Socialists were immediately assumed to be responsible. Newspapers had a field day publicizing these bombings. The summer of 1919 is known as "The Red Summer", when 38 mail bombs were sent to prominent members in government and business. And on September 16, 1920 on Wall Street, 100 pounds of dynamite exploded kill 40 people and wounding 300. While the source of all of these bombings was not discovered, some were linked to anarchist and socialist radicals, and that discovery led to mass hysteria and a national sentiment and other radicals. Attorney General Palmer took advantage of the widespread panic of the public and media and asked Congress for fund appropriations to help avoid further danger. It was a period of "Palmer Raids", when American citizens and resident and non-resident aliens in the United States, were persecuted based on their assumed political beliefs. Late in the afternoon of January 2, 1920, agents from the Department of Justice raided a Communist headquarters and began arresting thousands of people in major American cities throughout the nation. They poured into private homes, clubs, pool halls and coffee shops, arresting citizens and aliens, Communists and non-Communists, tearing apart meeting halls and destroying property. The Agents put their victims in jail, held them without an attorney, and interrogated them. In two days, nearly five thousand people were arrested, and nearly five thousand were seized in the cleaning up that followed during the next two weeks. The arrests were carried out with total disregard for the rights of the prisoners. The government was panicking during this period that might be called a climax of the Red Scare. However, once again, one should remember that the Red Scare was a product of World War I and the anti-liberalism that ensued at home - Mr. Palmer was not really the cause of the Red Scare, he only participated in it (Burnett; Murray 134-137). Following initial panic, the non-appearance of the revolution led to criticism of Palmer over his disregard for civil rights and accusations that the entire Red Scare was designed to secure him the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. In the event, he lost the nomination (Feuerlicht 55-176). Finally, it became obvious that another communist revolution would not take place and the effect of the war on the economy was not so perilous as one could have assumed. United States did not really suffer during the war, vice versa, for most of the conflict Americans grew rich selling food, clothing, medicines, and war materials to the allied powers of Great Britain, Italy, and France, and ended the war a wealthier and more powerful company than it had entered it. What war debt it had incurred was wiped out in the inflation of the twenties, and its war casualties, compared to those of other combatants were quite few (Renshaw 66). There are some psychological views that might help to explain why the events of 1919 -1920 took place. Some Americans during this time were always on the verge of attacking. They were hostile toward minorities, extremely patriotic, and ready to rid their nation of any intruder that seemed to threaten them. The postwar effort for "one hundred percent Americanism" may have left our citizens with the desire to keep our country pure. The Russian Revolution in the fall of 1918 also contributed to America's unrest. In a violent outburst, the Communists took control of the Russian government and murdered the Tsar and his entire family along with thousands of "nonconforming" Russians. Americans wondered: if it could happen in Russia, why couldn't it happen here No plot to overthrow the government was ever uncovered. Yet, it was the paranoid fear of Communists that drove many Americans to violence. America was caught in a web of fear and conspiracy. No one could trust his neighbor or his father for fear that he was involved in the Communist movement. During the 1920's, America was extremely prejudiced toward anyone who wasn't a "pure American". The Red Scare provided Americans with a scapegoat, now that there was no longer fight with the Germans. People really believed that Communists were everywhere and were plotting to overthrow the government (Murray 179, 201). Eventually, the Red Scare died down, but didn't go away completely: with the 1920s, the scare dissipated as public interest moved on to other areas. However, the Red Scare transformed into something different, it was the so-called "nativism." In the United States, eugenicists such as Madison Grant sought to justify compulsory sterilization and immigration restriction by using scientific research to show that certain populations of people were physically or mentally inadequate. Grant advocated restricted immigration to the United States through limiting immigration from East Asia and Southern Europe. Grant provided doctored statistics for the Immigration Act of 1924 to set the quotas on immigrants from certain European countries. He also assisted in the passing and prosecution of several anti-miscegenation laws, notably the Racial Integrity Act of 1924 in the state of Virginia, where he sought to codify his particular version of the "one-drop rule" into law (Spiro 61-118). While motivated by a desire to preserve an ethnic status quo, these laws may also have been motivated partly by anti-Semitism, since during this period opposition to immigration was perceived as mainly a Jewish issue (Zinn 153). One of the most well-known scandals is connected with the name of H.Ford, whose principal secretary, Ernst Liebold used Ford's authority to start a magazine, "The Dearborn Independent", in 1919. The paper ran for eight years, during which Liebold republished "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion," which has since been discredited as a forgery. The "Dearborn Independent" also published several anti-Jewish articles which were released in the early 1920s. None of this work was actually written by Ford, though they probably had his tacit approval (Baldwin 220-221). One of the most tragic and scandalous echoes of the Red Scare was the case of two Italian anarchists, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, who were arrested, tried, and electrocuted in Massachusetts in 1927 on charges of murder of two people, and of robbery of large sum of money from the factory's payroll, although there was popular doubt regarding their guilt (Sinclair 14-197). Summing up, one could say that "Red Scare" was the label given to the actions of legislation, the race riots, the hatred and persecution of "subversives" and conscientious objectors during that period of time. Anti-war propaganda forced the government to react by issuing discriminative laws. Then, after the first strikes, riots and bombings, the government resorted to violence. However, later it became obvious that there would be no revolution. Nevertheless, common people, as well as leaders of the country could not forget its atmosphere immediately, the fact, which is manifested in the advent of "nativism", immigration restrictions etc. The phenomenon of "Red Scare" was provoked by the fear, which became the result of the World War I and Bolshevik Revolution, moreover, it was aggravated by the actions of the panicking government. One should also remember that during the period from 1948 to the mid-1950s there was the second Red Scare. Populism in the scale of the whole country could be very dangerous, so there is a hope that politics learn by their predecessors' mistakes. However, the question remains as to whether America will always remember this episode of the early 1920's, or will modern politicians simply forget it and make the same mistakes over and over again. Works Cited. 1. Baldwin, Neil. Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate. PublicAffairs, 2000. 2. Burnett, Paul. "The Red Scare." The Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti. . 3. Feuerlicht, Roberta Strauss. America's Reign of Terror: World War I, the Red Scare, and the Palmer Raids. NewYork: Random House, 1971. 4. Murray, Robert K. Red scare: a Study in National Hysteria, 1919-1920. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964. 5. Renshaw, Patrick. "The IWW and the Red Scare, 1917-1924." Journal of Contemporary History.1968 3.4: 63-72. 6. Sinclair, Upton. Boston: A Documentary Novel of the Sacco-Vanzetti Case. Cambridge, Mass.: R. Bentley, 1978. 7. Spiro, Jonathan P. Patrician Racist: The evolution of Madison Grant. Ph.D. diss., Dept. of History, Berkeley: University of California, 2000. 8. Zinn, Howard. Voices of a People's History of the United States. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2004. Read More