The United States by 1920: the impact of the First World War

Question 1

Introduction:

Answer 1

American intervention in the First World War fundamentally changed the course of the conflict. What had been an unbreakable deadlock at the end of 1916 - a war nobody knew how to win but nobody knew how to stop - was transformed into a decisive Allied victory by November 1918. The war also changed the United States, both at home and abroad. A huge army was enlisted by conscription. Often referred to by Americans as ‘the draft’, it was introduced for the first time in the United States by the Selective Service Act of 191. For the first time, American troops fought overseas as part of an alliance with other powers. The war caused, or sped up, significant social change

Question 2

The world economic power:

Answer 2

American intervention not only produced a decisive outcome to the war, but it also led to a fundamental change in the entire world economy. In the late nineteenth century the United States had been a debtor nation, borrowing from Europe to finance US economic growth. But from 1917 the United States became a creditor nation, making loans worth billions of dollars to other countries, to fight the war and to repair the massive losses caused by it. The new world economy was based on a web of debt that was totally dependent upon American financial resources

Question 3

The American economy at war:

Answer 3

Between 1914 and 1917, US neutrality had beneficial effects on the American economy. The dislocation of European food supplies meant that American agriculture boomed; farmers could get high prices for everything they produced. The huge demands of modern industrialised warfare meant that Britain and France depended heavily on the United States for war supplies, as well as loans to pay for them. The United States was an important economic force in a rather one-sided form of neutrality. When the United States entered the war, however, the economy struggled to cope. There was a lot of confusion and inefficiency before the war economy was fully established

A massive infrastructure was needed for the bases where the new mass army would be housed, trained, and equipped. The federal government had to establish new organisations to regulate the war economy: Liberty Loans to raise funds; a War Industries Board to coordinate war production; a Food and Fuel Act to set up a Food Administration and a Fuel Administration to regulate and ration resources; and a War Revenue Act for increased federal spending. Nationalisation of the railroads was required to control transportation

This process was slow and uncertain at first, but it produced a formidable war machine and stimulated economic growth. Exports rose, the steel industry boomed, and there was full employment. When the war ended, however, there was a painful adjustment back to peacetime conditions. The process of demobilisation did not go smoothly. The slowdown of the economy due to the halting of war production led to intense social and ethnic divisions in 1919-20. There was a brief economic recession that persisted into 1921

But the war greatly strengthened American economic dominance. The First World War had destroyed the Russian, German and Ottoman empires, and had pushed Britain and France to the edge of bankruptcy. The United States was the world’s new economic giant

Question 4

Organising America’s War Effort (chronology)

Answer 4

Question 5

The United States and the post-war peace:

Answer 5

Economic dominance was not the only reason the United States was destined to take the lead in shaping the post-war world. The prestige of American democracy had been enhanced by the war. This prestige was symbolised by the image and ideals of President Woodrow Wilson, who was the dominant personality of the Peace Conference that opened in Paris in January 1919. All over Europe and around the world, people believed that ‘Wilsonian idealism’ would make a better world after the ‘war to end all wars’

There were strong reasons for the high hopes the world placed on Wilson in 1919. America seemed a shining example of Republican democracy. It was free of any guilt for starting the war. Its new economic and military potential put the US first among the great powers. Its anti-colonial history emphasised the idea of ‘clean hands’ and moral superiority. Addressing Congress in July 1919, Wilson announced: ‘The stage is set, our destiny is revealed. This destiny has come about by no plan of our own conceiving but by the hand of God’

Question 6

The post-war Peace Conference:

Answer 6

The Peace Conference that opened in Paris in 1919 set out to establish a post-war peace settlement based on the ‘Fourteen Points’ that Wilson had proposed in January 1918. It was not easy for Wilson to convert these ideals into reality and there were many complex issues. There were clashes of opinion with the other members of the ‘Big Four’ peace-makers: Clemenceau (France), Lloyd George (Britain) and Orlando (Italy), who had different priorities from Wilson. It was difficult to put self-determination into practice. Wilson had promised, for example, to support full independence for the Armenian and Kurdish peoples, but neither promise could be fulfilled because of opposition from other powers

Yet Wilson and the peace-makers did not fail completely. Five treaties were signed with Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey. New nations were founded, new borders were mapped out, and the League of Nations was established. But there was widespread disillusionment, among both winners and losers

Wilson also faced growing political difficulties at home. There were social divisions and economic problems. Almost 50,000 American soldiers had been killed in action. Even more had been killed by the terrible ‘Spanish flu’ pandemic of 1918-19. American casualties were small compared with other nations, but they were enough to sway public and political opinion against ‘Europe’s war’. When Wilson came home from Paris he faced a difficult task in ‘selling’ the treaty, and the League of Nations, to the American people

Question 7

Wilsonian idealism:

Answer 7

Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points were an expression of ‘Wilsonian idealism’. The post-war peace was to be based on self-determination, allowing peoples and nations to decide their own destinies outside the control of the old empires, and on collective security, with peace protected by international agreements instead of national armies and wars. One of Wilson’s key proposals was for a League of Nations to make collective security effective

Question 8

Social and ethnic divisions:

Answer 8

Outwardly, the United States came together in patriotic unity to fight the First World War. Newspapers, popular music, and public meetings expressed mass support for ‘our boys’ fighting ‘over there’. The shared experiences of war, both for the troops and for people at home, brought people together and increased national self-confidence. But the war also put stresses and strains on American society, and existing social divisions were intensified

A new hostility to ‘unreliable foreign elements’ emerged. There was fear of revolution and a backlash against socialism. The ‘culture war’ between Wets and Drys came to a head. The war changed and improved the position of African-Americans but also revealed the extent of prejudice and discrimination. The years of victory from 1918 to 1920 were also years of uncertainty and social upheavals

Question 9

The enemy within:

Answer 9

The outbreak of war in 1914 interrupted the flow of immigrants coming to America from Europe and began a period of social consolidation. When the United States entered the war, questions were raised about the loyalties of the diverse nationalities of recent immigrant communities. The ideas of ‘nativist’ American citizens became more prominent: one example of this was the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan from 1915

After the United States entered the war there was a surge of patriotism, often deliberately encouraged by the government. There were demands to test the loyalty of new citizens, to root out ‘aliens’, to guard against the dangers from spies and the ‘enemy within’. Wilson demanded new powers to keep the nation safe from subversion. In June 1917 the Espionage Act was passed. Wilson’s postmaster-general, Albert Burleson, instructed all postmasters to keep a close watch on suspicious mail

In May 1918, the Espionage Act was extended by the Sedition Act. More than 1,500 prosecutions were carried out, two-thirds of them resulting in convictions. One of those jailed under the Espionage Act was the socialist leader, Eugene Debs. Another high-profile individual regarded with suspicion was the radical feminist, anarchist, and pacifist, Emma Goldman, who was one of 249 Russian ‘subversives’ deported to Russia on USS Buford, known to the popular press as the ‘Red Ark’ in December 1919. An approving cartoon at the time depicted the departing ship with the caption: “it is better to give than to receive”. A disapproving cartoon showed the Statue of Liberty being deported as an enemy alien

Many Americans protested against the erosion of civil liberties, but the tide of opinion was running strongly in favour of patriotic nationalism and anti-immigrant feeling. In October 1918 a new Immigration Act was passed, strengthening the existing controls against ‘undesirable’ immigrants, especially those suspected of being anarchists. The changed mood against immigrants had lasting effects. In 1921 the Emergency Quota Act placed drastic limits on the numbers of immigrants allowed to enter the United States. This act was revised and extended by a new Immigration Act in 1924

Question 10

Emma Goldman (1869-1940):

Answer 10

Emma Goldman was born into a Jewish family in Lithuania (then in the Russian Empire) that emigrated to New York. She joined the anarchist movement in 1889 and was imprisoned several times. Her lover, Alexander Berkman, was jailed for 22 years for attempted murder. In 1917, Goldman was jailed for urging men to refuse being drafted into the army. She was deported after her release and went into exile

Question 11

Socialism and ‘Red Scares’:

Answer 11

American entry into the war coincided with the Russian Revolution, which overthrew the autocratic rule (complete control) of the Tsars. This led to a democratic Provisional Government in Russia and made the alliance between Britain, France, Russia, and the United States a ‘fight for democracy’. But then, in October-November 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia and proclaimed the beginning of the Communist world revolution. In 1918-19 Communist revolutions broke out in Berlin, Munich, and Hungary. Fear of Communism being spread by immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe aroused deep suspicions in the United States. This led to the Red Scare, an intense backlash against all kinds of ‘socialism’ and revolution

The ‘Red Scare’ of 1918-20 was the storm of public and political opinion demanding action to root out Communists and ‘subversives’; the symbols of Communism were the Red Flag and the Red Star, and Communists were often referred to as ‘Reds’

Question 12

Opposition to the norm in America:

Answer 12

Fear of revolution in America encompassed many other forms of opposition: anarchists who carried out acts of terrorism; pacifists opposed to war on moral grounds; people who joined the American Communist Party; and militant trade unions, especially the International Workers of the World (IWW). There was particular suspicion of German Americans (suspected of supporting the enemy) and recent immigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe (suspected of being anarchists or ‘subversives’)

Question 13

Strike action:

Answer 13

The First World War led to widespread industrial unrest and social upheaval. There was high inflation. The rapid demobilisation of the armed forces caused serious problems in the jobs market and a rise in trade union militancy. During 1919 there was a wave of strikes involving more than 4 million workers. In Seattle, 60,000 workers joined the general strike led by the IWW in February 1919. In the Boston Police Strike in September 1919, 75% of the police officers, mostly Irish Americans, went on strike; one of their demands was the right to join a trade union, the American Federation of Labor (AFL). In Pittsburgh and Chicago, a ‘Great Steel Strike’ against US Steel began in September 1919 and lasted three months

Efforts by business and government to counter the strikes frequently led to major outbreaks of violence. US Steel cracked down hard on the Great Steel Strike and almost destroyed the AFL. Six strikers were killed in a ‘massacre’ at Centralia in Washington State. The alarm caused by industrial unrest was intensified by disturbances caused by racial tensions. There were more than 20 race riots during 1919, the worst of them in Chicago

Public opinion mostly supported the authorities. The Massachusetts state governor, Calvin Coolidge, became wildly popular for breaking the Boston Police Strike; this helped him to become the Republican vice-presidential candidate in 1920. Mayor Ole Hanson of Seattle became a national hero for his tough stance against the General Strike. Most prominent of all those who fought against the ‘Red threat’ was the US Attorney General, Mitchell Palmer

Palmer saw that taking tough action against the ‘Red Scare’ could help his political career, but he was also genuinely convinced that the threat from socialism and anarchists was real. These fears were heightened by a wave of bombings in April and May 1919. 36 bombs were sent in packages to many public figures, including Mayor Hanson in Seattle. A bomb exploded at Palmer’s house, killing the man who planted the bomb. There was a public outcry. Then the big strikes in the autumn of 1919 prompted the Palmer Raids

Question 14

A. Mitchell Palmer (1872-1936):

Answer 14

Sometimes known as the ‘Fighting Quaker, Palmer was a Progressive Democrat with political ambitions. He was a Congressman from 1909 to 1915. He had sought the presidential nomination in 1912 and fancied his chances of succeeding Wilson as president in 1920. Wilson made him Attorney General in March 1919. He retired from politics in 1921

Question 15

The Palmer raids:

Answer 15

In November 1919, agents under the orders of Palmer’s Justice Department raided the offices of ‘radical organisations’ in 12 cities across America.
Documents were seized and suspects were arrested. In December, 249 ‘radicals’ were deported back to Europe. The Palmer raids continued in January 1920, with action in 33 cities to close down all known communist party offices. The raids were coordinated by the youthful Assistant Director of the Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover. The raids led to similar actions at state and local level. Many cities passed ‘red flag’ laws to ban left-wing insignia. Vigilante gangs operated against union activists in Washington State and California

However, the Red Scare lost momentum during 1920. There were protests against the violation of peoples rights. The Supreme Court ruled that evidence collected during the Palmer raids was illegal and could not be used in prosecutions. The Governor of New York, Al Smith, mounted a campaign to reverse the expulsion of socialists from the state legislature. When Mitchell Palmer tried to revive the Red Scare by predicting that communist revolution would break out across America on May Day 1920, no such revolution happened. Palmer lost credibility and the Red Scare blew itself out

Question 16

Wets and Drys: the fight for Prohibition (and women’s voting rights)

Answer 16

Campaigners for Prohibition were already winning the battle for hearts and minds before the First World War. By 1917 there was a two-thirds majority of Drys (those campaigning against the social and moral evils caused by drink) in both the House and the Senate. Prohibition would almost certainly have been enacted eventually, war or no war. Even so, the war had a significant impact on the long-running fight for Prohibition. The arguments of the Drys were greatly strengthened by the sense of discipline and responsibility that the national war effort required. Anti-German propaganda fitted in well with the Anti-Saloon Leagues campaign against drink. The fact that President Wilson and many of his political supporters were Progressives helped Prohibitionists to win backers in Congress

The timing of victory in the war was perfect for the Eighteenth Amendment, which prohibited the production, transportation or sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States. It was ratified in January 1919 and came into legal effect in January 1920. At the same time, the Volstead Act was passed by Congress to legislate methods of enforcing Prohibition. There appeared to be mass political and public support for Prohibition, but there were also strong currents of opposition running against it. The ‘culture wars’ between Drys and Wets were far from over, as would be seen throughout the 1920s

Almost in parallel to the victory of the Prohibition campaign was the consolidation of voting rights for women. The prominent role of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in the temperance campaign (prohibition) had been very influential in raising activism and awareness in respect of wider women’s rights, including the suffragist movement. It was not coincidental that the Volstead Act, introducing Prohibition, came into effect in 1920, the same year as the Nineteenth Amendment (often known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment) confirmed the right to vote for all female US citizens. Two great Progressive causes, Prohibition and women’s voting rights, were achieved together

Question 17

The war and African-Americans:

Answer 17

The First World War had a major impact on the position of African-Americans in society, but there was no smooth path towards integration and equality, despite the high hopes expressed at the beginning of US involvement. However, there was a heightened sense of black identity and pride, and there was also an increase in social mobility. Encouraged by the patriotic rhetoric about a ‘war for democracy’, many African-Americans volunteered to serve in the armed forces. The economic shifts caused by the war stimulated a significant northward migration: there was a flow of 330,000 Southern black people to Northern cities such as New York and Chicago

The war did bring about a new black consciousness. Black soldiers came home from Europe with widened horizons, hardened by war, and with greater political awareness. There was a huge expansion in the membership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), especially in the South. Assertive black leaders like W.E.B. Du Bois gained wide support for challenging the old ways. But there were still big obstacles to overcome. African-American soldiers experienced hostility from white segregationists in the armed forces. There were harsh, unfounded, and unfair accusations that the black soldiers had fought badly and that their black officers were cowardly. Black workers in Northern cities also suffered discrimination

Many of the advances made by African-Americans were pushed back after the war, especially in the ‘Red Summer’ of 1919. During the war many black workers had found work in the North, filling the gap created by conscription and by the halting of mass immigration since 1914. Trade union leaders had some success enrolling black workers and showing solidarity with them. This solidarity was dissipated in the strikes and unrest of 1919. Racial tensions exploded, with a ‘race war’ in St Louis in July 1919 and massive anti-black rioting in Chicago a few weeks later. Race riots spread to Omaha and other cities

Question 18

Warren G. Harding and the 1920 election: political reaction and renewed isolationism

Answer 18

During 1919 and 1920, it seemed as if there was a sea change in American politics. The national mood swung away from Progressivism and idealism towards political reaction. The nation rejected internationalism, and the legacy of President Wilson, in favour of renewed isolationism. In the 1920 elections, Republicans won sweeping victories in Congress and regained the presidency

Question 19

Political reaction: the promise of ‘normalcy’

Answer 19

This political reaction in the immediate post-war years appeared dramatic at the time but there were many powerful forces behind it. The anti-immigrant feeling evoked by the war, the industrial unrest that followed, and the repressive measures taken to deal with the Red Scare all contributed to a sense that America was turning in on itself, preoccupied with domestic concerns

The Republican candidates chosen to fight the 1920 presidential election reflected the search for stability and reassurance. Warren G. Harding, an amiable political fixer from Ohio, presented an image of calm reasonableness. His running mate, Calvin Coolidge, was a sternly respectable politician from Massachusetts, who had achieved fame and popularity by breaking the 1919 Boston Police Strike and was known to be a friend of big business. One effective Republican campaign poster in 1920 showed Coolidge next to the slogan ‘Law and Order’, side by side with Harding and the slogan ‘America First’

Question 20

Warren G. Harding (1865-1923):

Answer 20

Warren G. Harding was a Republican politician from Ohio whose main interests in life were said to be ‘golf, drink and other men’s wives’. From 1912 he was US Senator. In 1920, the Republican Party chose him as an inoffensive compromise candidate for the presidency. Harding won the election, campaigning on the promise to restore ‘normalcy’. Harding was an effective president but his reputation was tainted by scandals over his personal morality and political corruption. He died in 1923

Question 21

Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933):

Answer 21

Calvin Coolidge rose through local and state politics in Massachusetts, firstly as state senator, then mayor of Northampton, then Governor of Massachusetts from 1918. He became nationally famous when dealing with the Boston Police Strike of 1919. Originally a Progressive, Coolidge became a pro-business conservative. Elected vice-president as Harding’s running mate in 1920, he became president in August 1923

Question 22

Renewed isolationism and the rejection of Wilsonism:

Answer 22

When Wilson returned from Paris in the summer of 1919, he found a changed national mood. He campaigned hard for American acceptance of the League of Nations but ran into entrenched opposition. The longer ratification of the treaty was delayed, the less likely it was to happen at all

There were several different strands of opposition to ‘Wilsonism’. There was war-weariness, made worse by the long months of diplomatic wrangling in Paris. Domestic political concerns occupied people’s minds. Some of the opposition came from committed isolationists such as Senator William Borah of Idaho, a key member of the group opposing Wilson known as the ‘Irreconcilables’. Borah’s speech to the Senate in November 1919 played an important part in deciding the vote against ratification of the League of Nations

Key personalities influenced the debate, especially Henry Cabot Lodge, Senator for Massachusetts, the most prominent of the ‘Irreconcilables’. Senator Lodge was not an isolationist - for years he had wanted the US to act like a world power. But he was not willing to see American power merged into a supranational (higher authority than national states) organisation outside national control. ‘The United States is the world’s best hope’ he said in 1919, ‘but if you chain her to the interests and quarrels of other nations, you will destroy her power to do good and you will endanger her very existence’. Lodge was also a Republican; his clash of wills with a Democrat president was about party politics as well as ideals and personalities

Wilson’s own stubborn unwillingness to make political compromises weakened his chances of getting ratification through Congress. His unbending approach was also made worse by illness due to stress and exhaustion. Many contemporary observers commented on his obstinacy and how he was alienating potential political allies

Wilson went from stress, to illness, to tragedy. He insisted on making a lengthy tour of the country to make a direct appeal to the people over the heads of the politicians in Washington. In September 1919, after a speech in Pueblo, Colorado, Wilson suffered a serious stroke and collapsed. After this, he was paralysed on his left side and blind in his left eye. His chances of winning support, for ratification, or of going on to win a third term as president in 1920, were badly hit

Question 23

Senator William Borah (1865-1940):

Answer 23

Senator William Borah was a Progressive Republican who entered the Senate in 1907. An anti-imperialist, he gave a famous speech in the Senate in 1919 which swayed political opinion against the Versailles Treaty and the League of Nations. During the 1920s and 1930s he spoke in favour of compromise with the Soviet Union and with Hitler’s Germany. He ran for the presidency, as a protest candidate, in 1936

Question 24

The 1920 election:

Answer 24

The 1920 presidential election is too often portrayed as a surprising change of course, perhaps because Woodrow Wilson held such international prestige in
1919. In reality, the political tide was already running towards a Republican victory, even before Wilson’s troubles with the ratification of Versailles, and his ill-health, weakened his position

From 1896 there was a sustained period of Republican political domination that lasted until 1932, when Hoover lost power because of the Great Depression. Woodrow Wilson’s years in the White House were exceptional, largely made possible by the splits in the Republican Party in 1912. Although Wilson did manage to hold on to the presidency in 1916, the election was close-run; if a few thousand votes had gone the other way in California, the Republican candidate, Charles Evans Hughes, would have won

In the 1918 mid-term elections, the Republicans gained many seats in the House and the Senate. The political arithmetic indicated that the Democrats would struggle in 1920, whoever the candidates were. In the event, Warren Harding paid little attention to his direct opponent, James Cox. Harding directed all his attacks against Woodrow Wilson. In other circumstances, the ‘Democratic ticket’ would have been a strong team but, in the circumstances of 1920, they had no chance of establishing a credible political position

Strangely, Woodrow Wilson remained unshakably convinced that Cox would win, but hardly anyone else shared his opinion. The Harding-Coolidge team won decisively. Cox and Roosevelt won few states outside the ‘Solid South’. Republican political dominance was restored

Question 25

The Democratic ticket, 1920

Answer 25

James Cox, the Democratic presidential candidate, was Governor of Ohio (the same state as his Republican opponent, Harding). Cox was a Progressive and an internationalist who supported Wilsonism. His vice-presidential running mate was the Assistant Secretary of the navy (and future president), Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Question 26

The United States in 1920: the end of Progressivism?

Answer 26

Wilson’s ideals were decisively rejected in 1920. Despite all his campaigning, the ratification of the League of Nations was finally voted down by Congress. The Democratic Party suffered a catastrophic defeat in the presidential election. The Republicans dominated both the House and the Senate. The new president, Warren G. Harding, had little interest in foreign affairs. He promised the American people ‘normalcy’, avoiding excessive government intervention at home and giving international complications low priority. Harding’s vice-president, Calvin Coolidge, was also little interested in world affairs. He was fond of saying ‘America’s business is business’

By the end of 1920, it seemed the United States had decisively rejected the role of a world power, and that the nation had also turned decisively away from Progressivism. Under the Republican Theodore Roosevelt and the Democrat Woodrow Wilson, Progressivism had seemed to be a dominant influence in society and politics. Now it faded into the background as ‘normalcy’ reigned. One campaigner for Progressivism, Herbert Croly, sadly declared: ‘The chief distinguishing feature of the presidential campaign of 1920 is the eclipse of liberalism or Progressivism as an effective force in American politics’

Yet Progressivism did not die away altogether. In 1924, the veteran Progressive Robert La Follette of Wisconsin ran for the presidency and received five million votes. But Progressive causes were losing momentum. Not until the Great Depression and Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal would they be revived as a national force

Question 27

Summary:

Answer 27

The First World War changed America. The war had a huge impact on the economy, on the fabric of society, on politics and the presidency, and, perhaps above all, on the United States as an international power. Yet this impact was not as sudden as it appeared; many of the changes were the culmination of long-term trends. Nor were the changes always permanent or complete; it would be 25 years later, after another world war, that the United States would became a fully-formed economic and military superpower