1920’s Society – POLITICS
- Republicans hold the presidency (Harding,
Coolidge & Hoover)
- Red Scare (Lenin “reds” vs. “whites” = former
land owners, government officials, army leaders, Britain, France, the
USA – whose investments had been seized by the Bolsheviks)
1) Government owned all land & property
2) Single political party
3) Individuals had no rights that the government
was bound to respect
4) Spread communism all over the world!
- Soviets were openly hostile to American
beliefs
- USA had an intense fear of communism –
Americans called for Communists to be jailed or driven out
- Another source for the Red Scare was labor
strikes – Americans were convinced the Communists were behind the
strikes and labor unrest (actual cause of labor unrest was that the
cost of living had doubled since before WW1)
- Republicans led by Harding held to an
isolationist foreign policy – avoided political or economic alliances –
though they did support disarmament & limited immigration through
quotas
1) People from foreign countries could never be
fully loyal to USA
2) Protestants who still disliked Catholics or
Jews (or Orthodox Christians)
3) Problems of the urban life were blamed on
immigrants – slums & corruption
4) Immigrants would take away their jobs
5) Immigrants may hold or adopt dangerous
political ideas
Coolidge was in favor of Laissez Faire
policies – by making government smaller