Chapter 20

The Search for World Order, 1913-1920

I. Seeking U.S. Influence Overseas/ in Western Hemisphere.

-before the 20^th century, international relations scarcely mattered to the general public; but expansion of national power ended that isolation – by the end of the second decade of the 20^th century the US role in World Affairs, although still a debated issue, had become an important aspect of the national identity.

-neutrality was the official policy toward the waring parties – but Wilson refused to allow economic interests to be sacrificed. When they were by Germany’s submarine warfare, Wilson abandoned neutrality and opted to enter the allied camp in April 1917.

- His efforts to build a lasting peace collided with European interest and with a reluctant public at home.

-US war policy had important domestic consequences – further rationalization of business, farming, expansion of role of women, new forms of political dissent. Domestic turmoil brought about by war shaped political life for the next decade. – Arguably for much longer. – Hobsbawm, Age of Extremes: A Short History of the 20^th Century. 1914-1991.

A. Wilson administration very interested in all aspects of foreign affairs.

1. Had his secretary of state William Jennings Bryan sign treaties with more than 30 nations for the peaceful mediation of disputes.

2. Supported corporate expansion.

-to stimulate commercial business increased the number of attaches abroad

-Wilson lifted anti-trust restrictions on those corporations who were involved in international trade.

3. Lowered tariffs to support trade; facilitated overseas investments.

-between 1900-1915 US exports doubled to $3 billion.

B. Administration also willing to flex its military muscle.

-more than previous presidents he was willing to send troops into other countries – 7 times. “conflict in Latin America”; Intervention in Latin America; American Commitments in Carribean.

1. Sent Marines to Nicaragua, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba.

-to assure ‘friendly regimes’ in place

2. Purchased Danish West Indies (renamed Virgin Islands) from Denmark in 1917.

-why? because of German expansionism in the West Indies.

3. Worked to secure a U.S.-friendly regime in Mexico.

-Mexican history is complex:

-For much of late 19^th century and early 20^th ce its political life saw Mexico run by a president -Porfirio Díaz – an Indian from Oaxaca who had began his political career as an activist against reaction and privilege and ended his public life as a longtime dictator, coming full circle, he emerged a staunch defender of the very forces he had once opposed. Diaz was absolute ruler of Mexico for 35 years, he served as president from 1876-80 and from 1884-1911. (In the four year interim, the post of president was held by a Diaz puppet named Manuel González).

-Dias was deposed by a group led by Francisco Madero, the son of a wealthy landowner born in Parras, Coahuila in 1873. Madero’s family was devoted to ranching, farming and commerce. He studied commerce and economics in France and agriculture in the U.S. Saw the need to improve conditions in Mexico. Ran for president of Mexico in 1900s against Porfirio Díaz. For his effort Madero was arrested and then released, on bail, after Díaz had been declared President. He jumped bail and fled to the U.S. and in1910, he led a revolt against the Díaz administration. Madero was successful in forcing Díaz into exile in 1911. Himself elected President in 1911, many groups became disenchanted with Madero's handling of Mexico's problems and in 1913, they revolted against him. Madero was overthrown and killed.

-Mexico went through a succession of dictators who declared they held the popular support.

- Victoriano Huerta came next. Born in 1845 at Colotlán, in northern Jalisco, land of the Huichol tribe from which he derived (west coast near Mazatlan). He learned to read and write early on, his abilities were soon recognized and as a youth he served as secretary to Donato Guerra, an old-line juarista general known for his distrust of civilian authority. After graduating from the Military College, Huerta distinguished himself in campaigns against the Yaqui Indians in Sinaloa and the Maya in Yucatan.

- In the two years before Madero’s death between 1911-1913 a revolt was orchestrated, subsidized by the Chihuahua cattle barons and William Randolph Hearst (who feared Madero might seize his properties in northern Mexico). So Madero turned to Huerta, whose forces easily defeated the opposition, yet they had a falling out and Huerta began laying plans for Madero's overthrow.

This was the background to la decena trágica, the Ten Tragic Days of February 1913. During this period a murderous artillery duel was staged between Huerta's forces and those of Felix Diaz, the old dictator's nephew. Despite terrible civilian casualties, Huerta and Diaz, were actually in cahoots. Together they conspired and planned to create a state of chaos that would pave the way for the removal of Madero. Huerta would then become president and name, with Diaz's approval, a new cabinet. After serving his term, Huerta would support Diaz as his successor.

Another active conspirator in the plot against Madero was the U.S. ambassador Henry Lane Wilson. Wilson and Madero detested each other Madero tried to have him removed by president-elect Woodrow Wilson on account of his drinking.

Wilson and Huerta had Madero arrested in the National Palace in February 1913 and shot four days later under the pretext that Madero had died in a crossfire between his captors and would-be rescuers. Huerta's rule over Mexico lasted between February 1913 and July 15, 1914, when he was forced to resign and go into exile. During this entire period he was trying to fight off a rebellion in the north mounted by Venustiano Carranza, Pancho Villa and Alvaro Obregon.

_Exile for Huerta did not mean inactivity. After brief stays in Spain and England, he came to the United States in April 1915. World War I was then raging but America had not yet entered the conflict. By now Huerta was deeply involved in intrigues with German agents, chief of whom was the notorious spy and saboteur Franz von Rintelen. The plan was for the Kaiser's government to finance a movement by Huerta and his followers, including Orozco, to return to Mexico, overthrow their enemies and set up a pro-German government. Huerta and his entourage, who had occupied a mansion in Forest Hills, now moved to Texas. But U.S. authorities had got wind of his machinations. Huerta was arrested and confined to the Army post at Fort Bliss near El Paso. There Huerta's long career of alcoholic abuse finally caught up with him. On January 13, 1916, the old villain died of cirrhosis of the liver.

-*****Wilson reversed Taft’s policy of supporting Mexico’s General Victoriano Huerta, who had led a murderous rebellion even though the latter supported US business interests.

-Instead Wilson supported two rebel leaders, Venustiano Carranza and Pancho Villa.

-As Huerta lost power, Carranza seized the government and proposed policies that threatened US interests. Wilson back Villa, who was defeated in 1915 and then switched back to Carranza.

Pancho Villa

- One of the few things about Villa’s life which most historians agree to is that he was born in 1878, in the state of Durango, on the Rancho de la Coyotoda, owned by the Lopez Negrete family; had sharecropper parents who lived on this hacienda; his baptismal name was Doroteo Arango.

-The legends begin on September 22, 1894 when he was sixteen years old. According to Villa years later, as he dictated his autobiography, this is when the tragedy of my life begins. After his father died, Doroteo became the head of his family, working as a sharecropper on the Hacienda de Gogojito. Coming home from work one day he found his mother and the ranch owner arguing. The ranch owner apparently wanted Arango’s 15-year old sister. Doroteo became angry and shot Lopez Negrete in the foot. He then fled into the mountains. This is when he began his life as an outlaw and the legend was born. Since the local police was now after him, he decided to change his name to Pancho Villa.

-Pancho Villa began his new life as a thief, robbing wealthy miners and many others. His hold-ups would reap hundred of thousands of pesos for himself, his gang members and his mother. He once gave an old man money to start a tailor shop. He said he was returning to the poor, money the rich had taken from them. All of his robbing did not go unnoticed by the authorities. The police were constantly chasing Villa. He had several shootouts with them and killed many officers and civilians chasing him. Villa admitted later, he had to sometimes kill those who had betrayed him. He was 16 years old during this time period.

-Another part of Villas early legend takes a much darker turn as the tales turn more deadly. One story has him chasing a man his sister had eloped with and forcing him to dig his own grave. Villa then shot him, tossing his body into the grave. Other stories tell of how he broke into the house of a wealthy man. After the man refused to give Villa a large sum of money, his gang tortured him. Cutting off parts of his feet and then stabbing him to death.

-Other legends have Villa becoming the idol of the peasants during his outlaw period. They tell of how he and his gang would attack rich haciendas and distribute the loot to the poor peons. Other stories tell of Villa stealing cattle herds for the poor so they would have meat to feed their families. They say he recruited gang members out in the middle towns, similar to what an army general might do when trying to sign up recruits.

-Legends say they when he found a traitor in his midst, he would quickly kill him and his brothers. He would then go after his other male members of the traitor’s family until they were all exterminated. Besides fear from the peasants, it also bred much hatred and enemies against Villa, some of whom may have plotted against him in later years.

There are many other stories about Pancho Villa prior to him joining the revolutionary forces. Most of these legends are centered in the state of Chihuahua in northern Mexico where he lived for several years during his life as a bandido . How many of these stories are true or have some truth in them is very difficult to decipher, but most of them probably are a mixture.

-Pancho led incursions into the US in 1910s, Columbus, New Mexico, over a hundred thousand US gathered on the border, thousands went into the northern states to track him down,

-Stopped after the US entered the War.

Katz, Friedrich. The Life and Times of Pancho Villa. (Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, 1998).

Venustiano Carranza born in 1859 as one of fifteen children of a wealthy landowner. Well educated. Entered politics as a municipal president. Later served as a state legislator, federal deputy and state governor under Díaz. Joined with Madero in 1909 to plan an armed rebellion against Díaz. Minister of war in Madero's provisional government and later interim governor of Coahuila. Elected governor in December 1911. Assumed leadership of the rebellion against Huerta. Named First Chief of the Constitutionalists.

Elected president in 1917. Tried to install a candidate favorable to him in the 1920 presidential election. Obregon, who was a candidate for president, rebelled. Carranza tried to flee to Veracruz. On May 20. 1920, he was killed as he slept in a small wooden hut in San Antonio Tlaxcalantongo.

C. Main Storyline: Wilson and US’s Willingness to Flex muscle – Continued to support the open door in China ( – first announced in 1900, stated all nations had equal right to trade on Asian mainland.)

1. Wilson extended diplomatic recognition to new republican government in China in 1911 and withdrew support of a multinational railroad project that imperiled Chinese sovereignty.

2. China policy caused problems with Japan, which sought influence in China.

3. US forced Japan to modify its 21 demands on China. (introduced in 1915),

-Japan claimed special trading interest in Shantung and Manchuria which threatened Chinese independence and US “Open Door”

4. Later accepted Japan's "special interests" in China; Japan then accepted open door.

-Treaty signed to that effect in 1917.

II. The United States in World War I

A. Europeans went to war in summer of 1914 to uphold a system of treaty alliances.

Entente Cordiale – 1904 French British set of agreements.

Triple Alliance, – secret agreement signed 1882

between Italy, Austro-Hung, Germany

Assin Archduke

1. Allies consisted of Britain, France, and Russia.

2. Central powers were Germany and Austria-Hungary.

3. U.S. initially pursued policy of neutrality.

B. U.S. neutrality was not really "neutral," though.

1. Some Americans of German, Irish, and Jewish background supported Central powers.

-nearly 9 million German Americans, 5 million Irish Americans (distrusted British Government, 2 million Jewish immigrants did not forgive their czarist oppressors).

2. Corporate interests were pro-Allied, as were many in the administration.

3. Allied trade with U.S. had always been high; prior to the war, commercial activity with allies was four times higher than central powers, it only increased after war broke out.

4. U.S. loans to Allies strengthened the nation's ties to Britain and France.

-it was done largely out of self interest to maintain US levels of prosperity.

5. British blockade virtually ended German trade with U.S.

6. Germany countered with submarine; declared war zone around British Isles.

7. U.S. saw German plan to sink all ships in war zone as violation of neutral rights.

8. Sinking of Lusitania in May 1915 cost 128 American lives; drew protest from Wilson.

9. Germany agreed to suspend activity against passenger ships; crisis seemed defused.

9b. However, allies began arming merchant ships to attack German subs. Germany responded by torpedoing without warning hit the Sussex.

10. U.S. vowed in 1916 to break diplomatic relations if attacks resumed.

-the Sussex pledge renounced unrestricted submarine warfare, provided Britain ended its blockade of neutral shipping.

A. Attacks on U.S. neutral rights pushed the nation toward a program of national defense.

1. Administration called for $500 million military buildup.

2. Congress increased size of army and navy; extended control of National Guard; created Reserve Officers' Training Corps.

3. As 1916 elections approached, Wilson spoke of peace.

4. Wilson squeaked to reelection over Republican Charles Evans Hughes.

5. Wilson attempted unsuccessfully to mediate peace in winter of 1916.

6. Germany rebuffed peace efforts and resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in January 1917 expecting to win before the US might enter the conflict. Wilson responded by breaking off diplomatic relations with Germany.

7. U.S. seemed locked on course of war in spring of 1917.

-Wilson released the 1915 Zimmerman Telegram that had been intercepted by British Agents – It made a German promise to Mexico, if US declared War, Germany would assist Mexico in recovering lost territories in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. When this news broke the House voted to arm ships, Senate remained steadfastly non-interventionists blocked it, Wilson moved to arm by using executive order.

III. The United States Goes to War

A. Wilson concluded that U.S. entry into the war was inevitable.

1. Overthrow of czar in Russia meant all Allies were now nominally democracies.

- a provisional constitutional government was established.

2. Nation not entirely behind entry into war, but Wilson did not heed their message.

- in one day in March alone, Germans sank 3 US merchant ships.

3. Congress accepted call for war in April.

B. Administration used a variety of tactics to ensure complete support for war.

-many changes made by executive orders

1. Committee on Public Information (CPI) harnessed public backing of the administration.

-headed by George Creel. born in Layfayette County, Missouri, December, 1876. He worked as a reporter for the Kansas City World (1894-99) before starting his own newspaper, the Kansas City Independent in 1899. Creel also worked for the Denver Post (1909-10) and the Rocky Mountain News (1911-17), he organized a team of 18,000 public speakers in favour of the First World War before President Woodrow Wilson appointed him to head of the United States Committee on Public Information.

-An active member of the Democratic Party, he ran against Upton Sinclair, for the post of governor of California (lost in 1934); Creel was the author of fifteen books, including appropriately How We Advertised the War (1920) and War Criminals and Punishment (1944), he died in San Francisco in Oct. 1953.

2. Issued both informative messages and worked to censor messages it didn't like.

-had a staff of 150,000; released 75 million pieces of print information to shape public opinion; 75,000 fast talking four minute men to give speeches in theatres and local auditoriums; produced anti-German hate movies such as The Prussian Cur, other propaganda such as Our Colored Fighters, The American Indian Gets into the War Game.

-CPI motion picture “stars” such as Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks sold the war to an adoring public.

3. Spontaneous public outcry against Germans and all things German.

-hamburger became the salisbury steak

-sauerkraut – liberty cabbage

-even the German measles became liberty measles

-boycotts were organized, the governor of Iowa banned German speech

4. Espionage Act (1917) prohibited acts against military service or in aid of enemy.

-included the mailing of “treasonable material”.

-Specifically, the Espionage Act prescribed a $10,000 fine and 20 years' imprisonment for interfering with the recruiting of troops or the disclosure of information dealing with national defence. Additional penalties were included for the refusal to perform military duty. In just a few months after its passage over 900 citizens went to prison under the Espionage Act, publications such as The Masses (antiwar periodicals were banned, mailings were blocked etc), more than 1,500 would before the war’s end.

-Socialist Eugene Debs was sent to jail for ten years for giving an anti-war speech and was still in jail in 1920 when he ran for president and earned nearly a million votes.

Debs v. United States

Citation: 249 U.S. 211 (1919) Concepts: Free Speech v. Congressional War Powers

Facts

Eugene V. Debs, gave a public speech to an assembly of people in Canton, Ohio. The speech was about the growth of socialism and contained statements which were intended to interfere with recruiting and advocated insubordination, disloyalty, and mutiny in the armed forces. Debs was arrested and charged with violating the Espionage Act of 1917.

Issue

Whether the United States violated the right of freedom of speech given to Debs in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Opinion

The Supreme Court of the United States upheld the lower court’s decision in favor of the United States. The Court said that Debs had actually planned to discourage people from enlisting in the Armed Forces. The Court refused to grant him protection under the First Amendment freedom of speech clause, stating that Debs “used words [in his speech] with the purpose of obstructing the recruiting service.” Debs’ conviction under the Espionage Act would stand, because his speech represented a danger to the safety of the United States.

5. Sedition Act (1918) outlawed criticism of the U.S. government.

-came following a Montana rancher’s day in court when a judge in that state refused to convict him for saying that “Germany would whip the United States and he hoped so”

6. Supreme Court under Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes upheld wartime restrictions of civil liberties in 1919.– said it would not justify a man falsely shouting fire in a crowded theatre and causing panic.

Schenck v. United States

Citation: 249 U.S. 47 (1919) Concepts: Clear & Present Danger /Free Speech v. Congressional War Powers

Facts

Charles T. Schenck and Elizabeth Baer, charged with conspiring to print and circulate documents intended to cause insubordination within the military, were convicted of violating the Espionage Act of 1917. The act made it a crime to “willfully cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty in the military ... or to willfully obstruct the recruiting service of the United States.” Schenck appealed the conviction to the Supreme Court of the United States, claiming all his actions were protected by the First Amendment.

Issue

Whether Schenck’s and Baer’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech were violated when they were convicted of conspiring to obstruct the recruitment and enlistment of service.

Opinion

The Court unanimously upheld the conviction of Schenck, not for violation of the Espionage Act, but rather for conspiracy to violate it. The Court found that the First Amendment did not apply in this case, and that Schenck’s speech was not constitutionally protected because it posed a “clear and present danger” to the country. The nation was involved in World War I, and the Court saw Schenck’s speech and action as counter-productive to the national war effort. The Court reasoned that certain speech could be curtailed, using the example of a situation where one cannot yell “fire” in a crowded theatre.

7. American Protective League worked with government to round up draft dodgers.

-250,000 private citizens investigated and entrapped anyone they felt was suspicious; APL tapped phones, passed information to BI, intercepted mails, and in September 1918 in an unprecedented move employed the APL in a round-up of alleged draft dodgers., – netted 50,000 men, although only 16,000 appeared to have violated the law (not had their cards).

-vigilante groups were all over the country, at a copper strike in Bisbee Arizona in 1917, county officials rounded up 1,200 workers, 1/3rd Spanish speaking and shipped them to New Mexico in box cars where they were abandoned for days.

8. Renewed support for prohibition led to Eighteenth Amendment in 1919.

-Congress outlawed alcohol beverages around bases, then voted to approve the 18^th Amendment which forbade the sale of alcohol and it was ratified by the states in 1919, driving the liquor trade and nation’s saloons underground.

C. U.S. military participation in war was based on conscripted forces, not volunteers.

1. Selective Service Act of 1917 ultimately registered 10 million men.

-half a million avoided it, pockets of resistence across the country.

-quashed resistence of pacifists, and those opposed to war on religious grounds,

-most of the 20,000 who claimed conscientious objector status “changed their minds”

2. Exempted non-citizen immigrants and blacks, though many volunteered.

-they served in all-black units under white commanders in the regular army and resented second-class status.

3. First U.S. troops sailed for France in June 1917.

4. Troop sailings coincided with global influenza epidemic.

-known as “Spanish” influenza, it struck rapidly and within an hour or two a person went from healthy to total helplessness, a fever of 105 was not uncommon.

-troop movements spread the disease throughout the world, deathrates soared, ½ million US lives lost, (20 million worldwide) – 50,000 doughboys died of flu, more than fell in battle.

D. Government orders for military supplies stimulated an enormous economic boom.

1. Council of National Defense had begun readying industry for war in 1916.

2. War Industries Board (WIB) created by Wilson too, to regulate production priorities, prices, and profits.

-under leadership of financier Bernard Barauch, executives served as “dollar a year” men.

3. Food Administration created by Wilson to ensure high farm production and controlled distribution. -Head by mining engineer Herbert Hoover; its goal was to set high prices for crops to encourage production and then to purchase entire crops for domestic and foreign consumption.

4. Railroad Administration was established and coordinated operations of competing companies – to rationalize industry and overcome bottlenecks; joined by a separate Women’s Service Section to handle the problems of new women railroad workers.

5. Fuel Administration controlled distribution and occasionally ordered conservation.

-coal for war industries and civilians, could order lowering temperatures.

6. Implemented Daylight Savings Time to extend workday and save fuel.

-by extending sunshine into work time it was asserted 1.25 million tons of fuel would be saved.

-wartime efficiency also boosted interested in wrist watches “portable time at a glance”, encouraged by military issue of the novelty to all officers.

-national advertising, with tax breaks to corps as of 1917 propelled that industry.

E. War mobilization provided benefits for workers.

1. Labor shortages gave workers important advantage.

2. Able to demand higher wages, fewer hours, collective bargaining rights.

3. National War Labor Board created in 1918 backed workers' right to strike.

-but endorsed conciliation first, rather than strikes or lockouts.

-forced business and labour to negotiate and in few exceptional cases, refusal to cooperate prompted government seizure of private businesses.

-union membership doubled to 5 million by 1920, making AFL a respectable partner in industrial relations – a “business union”.

4. Demand for workers gave women of all social classes new opportunities.

5. Few women's gains lasted beyond the war's end.

F. Wartime experience stimulated change in women's political status.

1. By 1916, 9 western states had granted women suffrage.

2. Lack of success in east prompted split in women's movement.

a. National American Woman Suffrage Association took moderate approach.

-organized by Carrie Chapman Catt. – worked within the system and focussed on a state by state lobbying effort.

b. National Woman's Party was more radical.

-led by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns - demanded an amendment to the Constitution that would supersede state laws.

3. Both parties supported suffrage in 1916, but neither backed suffrage amendment.

4. War accelerated pressure for suffrage nationwide.

-daily protests at the gates of the White House in 1917 led by Paul.

5. Wilson appealed for amendment in 1918; House voted favourably but Senate blocked it: Senate approved in 1919.

6. Nineteenth Amendment granted women suffrage in 1920 when ratified by the 36 states.

G. African Americans migrated north during the war in search of better opportunities.

-Supreme court outlawed residential segregation by zoning in 1917

1. By 1918, 300,000 had moved north (10 percent of total southern black population).

2. Searched for both jobs and liberation.

-by 1920, 10 northern cities had black populations of over 30,000 including Detroit, Chicago and New York which had over 150,000.

3. Found work at low-paying, menial jobs.

4. Created lively cultural institutions, such as churches and civic organizations.

5. Experienced discrimination and racially motivated violence.

Ironically the first black soldiers sent to Europe fought under French command to avoid racial integration.

H. U.S. troops sent to Europe as the American Expeditionary Force (AEF).

1. Led by General John Pershing, the “hero” of US Mexican invasion of 1916. US hoped to make a distinctive mark in battle apart from Allies.

2. U.S. troops saw first real combat around Amiens and Armetieres in March 1918 when Germans were within 50 miles of Paris.

3. AEF became important military factor in preventing German advances.

-by the summer there were over a million AEF in France – 250,000 a month for several months, and they began pushing back German offensive – at Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood – and at Second battle of Marne.

-In September final major campaign began; it lasted 7 weeks and in a final 200 mile offensive pushed through the Argonne Forest.

4. Armistice declared on 11 November 1918.

5. U.S. losses at over 100,000, half from disease.

-for some US troops the war did not end then, they were sent to Archangel to join French, British and Japanese. US soldiers saw little action, withdrawn in 1919 and 1920.

I. Wilson hoped the war could accomplish a permanent peace.

1. Fourteen Points laid out his vision for the postwar world.

a. Stabilize politics, guarantee democracy, prevent future wars.

b. Self-determination, free trade, disarmament, open treaties, mediation.

c. He proposed a League of Nations that would protect the peace by settling national differences.

- such a grand design depended on cooperation of all waring countries and his partisan opponents at home.

2. Wilson personally headed U.S. delegation to Versailles Peace Conference.

a. Could not prevent Allies from chipping away at his principles.

-allies seized German colonies around the world and refused to give up their own imperial holdings.

b. Also couldn't stop war guilt clause that blamed Germany for war.

-stiff War reparations, 33 billion demanded, restrictions on Germany’s future military development.

c. Hoped League of Nations would overcome shortcomings of treaty.

3. U.S. Senate not happy with League covenant.

a. Irreconcilables feared it would lead U.S. into another war.

b. Henry Cabot Lodge’s group wanted to protect U.S. freedom to declare its own wars.

c. Reservationists refused to agree to collective security idea.

4. Wilson embarked on nationwide campaign to win public support.

5. Suffered debilitating stroke that left him unwilling to compromise.

6. Senate repeatedly rejected treaty.

7. Joint Congressional Resolution ended war for U.S. in 1921.

J. End of war destroyed Democratic party and left nation bitterly divided.

1. Labor unrest across the country.

-in 1919 over 3,600 strikes affected 4 million workers.

2. Government launched raids against suspected radicals in 1919.

-under Attorney General Mitchell Palmer.

-28 states adopted sedition laws.

-vigilante groups, citizen’s committees were formed.

3. Racial violence erupted in communities around the country.

IV. Returning to Normalcy

A. The election of 1920 served as a referendum on Wilson.

1. Democrats ran Ohio Governor James Cox and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

James Cox practiced a variety of trades throughout his life: high school teacher, reporter, owner and editor of several newspapers, and secretary to Congressman Paul Sorg. Cox represented Ohio in the United States House of Representatives (1909-1913), resigning after winning election as Governor of Ohio (1913-1915, and 1917-1921).

Franklin D. Roosevelt

A Harvard graduate (1904) like his distant cousin Theodore, Franklin Roosevelt began his political career as a member of the New York state Senate (1910-1913), where he made a name for himself battling "Tammany Hall," the New York City political machine. His efforts in Woodrow Wilson's 1912 presidential campaign led Wilson to appoint him Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1913-1920), a position which Roosevelt kept throughout World War I. Many thought the thirty-eight-year-old vice presidential candidate was immature; Senator Henry Cabot Lodge described him as "a well-meaning, nice young fellow, but light...."

2. Republicans ran Ohio Senator Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge.

Warren Harding, publisher and editor of the Ohio Marion Star, was active in politics throughout his life. He served as an Ohio state Senator (1900-1904), as Lieutenant Governor of Ohio (1904-1906), and as a United States Senator (1915-1921). Harding rejected the activism of Theodore Roosevelt and the idealism of Woodrow Wilson. Voters responded to his genial nature, impressive stature, and bland message.

Governor Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts first achieved national prominence during the Boston police strike of 1919, when he sent a telegram to Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, saying: "There is no right to strike against the public safety by anyone, anywhere, any time." Coolidge was a reserved, uncommunicative New Englander; writer and wit Dorothy Parker once remarked he looked as though he had been "weaned on a pickle." He succeeded to the presidency upon Harding's death in 1923, and was elected to the White House in his own right in 1924.