Discrimination of Immigrants in 1920's America

Discrimination of Immigrants in 1920's America

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